coming up is this the metro's strictest covid policy can't come in this building without a mask and you can't come in this building without a vaccination we will never go back if they move forward with this we'll never know johnson county voted against requiring masks now several cities going it alone it's back to school in missouri and the state attorney general filing suit to block students wearing masks i don't want to live in some futuristic biomedical security state and is this the next political divide in kansas city a backlash against the mayor as he opens the doors to afghan refugees week in review is made possible through the generous support of dave and jamie cummings bob and marlese poorly the courtney s turner charitable trust john h mize and bank of america n.a co-trustees and by viewers like you thank you welcome everyone i'm nick haines it is great to be back to dissect the week's most impactful news stories with you and we've got a whole lot to talk about together trying to make sense of the most befuddling and puzzling stories of our week here in the metro is mr up to date on kcrfm steve kraske from the coal newspaper eric wesson from the pages of your kansas city star dave helling and the news director of our kansas city npr affiliate lisa rodriguez you know we haven't seen each other for the last two weeks as we've been in the middle of our summer fundraising drive but covid still remains the biggest story on both sides of state line don't you get the feeling right now you don't know what's going to happen next as we start the show state workers in kansas are heading for home governor laura kelly ordering them back to remote work as covet cases and hospitalizations rise also this week is this the metro's strictest covet policy the kauffman center for the performing arts has announced that if you're not vaccinated you won't be able to see any shows there in future more pointedly there will be no exceptions even for kids under 12 who are currently not eligible for the shot masks must also be worn while watching performances i mean you can't come in this building without a mask and you can't come in this building without a vaccination we will never go back if they move forward with this we'll never go back quentin lovejoy of saint joseph says he bought more than a thousand dollars in kauffman center tickets for his family that was before this rule was made whether it's government or private business the net effect is still the othering of people in america that either have not received a vaccine or frankly just don't want to tell you whether they've had the vaccine now even those places that have already moved forward with mass mandates and these vaccination requirements offer some exceptions either on religious grounds or medical ones can you think of any place that has imposed such a strict policy in our metro uh lisa rodriguez it's comprehensive and i think what's especially notable is that um in other vaccine mandates we've seen across the city most of these venues are places that cater to adults we've seen concert venues we've seen bars do it but the kaufman uh center for the performing arts and all of these organizations really are uh they they have a lot of programming specifically for children so i think that that um that uh part of the mandate that it applies to peop to children under the age of 12 um does make it one of the most comprehensive but i'm not sure what other choice these performing arts organizations had are they going to i mean with the amount of quarantines we've already seen in schools in the first couple of weeks are they going to welcome hundreds of kids in to see the nutcracker sitting right next to each other in the theater i'm not i'm not sure that there was another option there we see the one guy we just heard from from st joseph a thousand dollars in tickets will never go back to the kauffman center if that's the attitude in his mind are other people cancelling their uh subscriptions to the kauffman center and the symphony in the ballet well i haven't heard a recent report but i would assume there's a little bit of that going on to be sure nick but to lisa's point i mean the kauffman center is taking something of a leap here given the popularity of that nutcracker uh program that comes you know obviously every holiday season but the folly theater i should point out took a step this week very much in line with what the kauffman center did and and what we're seeing on broadway out in new york right now nick it's an unmistakable trend right now across the country arguably it's happening slower than you might think but more and more venues are saying you've got to be vaccinated to get in here the trend is clear the question is how quickly is it going to pick up we just heard from the gentleman they're talking about the other ring that's taking place in america and i saw a new york times story eric wesson this week in fact talking about uh 70 of black new yorkers under the age of 44 have not received the vaccination so you look at seven in ten uh younger african americans who will not be allowed to go to a a concert or a movie theater or a gym or a restaurant yeah it's going to be interesting to see how that ultimately develops i think several weeks ago they had a rap concert here in kansas city with gucci mane whatever that means but he i think they said that they gave eight people vaccinations and one of the incentives was you could be eligible to come in and get a backstage pass to go take pictures with him and hang out with him but they only had eight people out of probably about seven thousand people that were at that concert so uh you know there's still a gap in getting the importance of taking the vaccine into african-american communities and getting that message across to where people actually go out and do it uh are we seeing though any other institutions it's interesting about major universities by and large are not requiring the vaccine are we seeing evidence of others now moving forward beyond these smaller restaurants and some of these arts venues well not yet but clearly that's coming as my colleague steve kraske suggests as a matter of fact nick the next big hurdle is what private businesses will do but i think the approval this week by the food and drug administration of the pfizer vaccine for the full approval of that vaccine really changes this equation and so we'll need to watch over the next several weeks to see if this broadens out into other places will it prompt some of our big sports venues to reverse course what about the chiefs as they start a new season did you see that the las vegas raiders have just announced that they will require the jab in order to attend games and the new orleans saints say they're also requiring fans to be vaccinated or show proof of a negative covid test if they want to set foot in the stadium is that going to put a squeeze on the chiefs to follow suit steve all the experts i've had on up to date uh the show that i do at kcur has been very clear nick that they think that come mid-september which is exactly when the chief's home opener is against the cleveland browns we're going to see a big uptick because of just what we're talking about here kids in schools uh unable to get vaccinated what we're going to see at the university level there's going to be a rise in numbers and what is that going to mean for major employers and major attractions like the chiefs they're traditionally a little slow to come to this place nick in terms of requiring back vaccinations we'll have to see what happens in september there was saying that an outdoor venue sporting events there's not that's not a spreader and i know everybody's waiting to see what happened after the garth brooks concert and some people are claiming that wasn't a super spreader as well and i don't know whether they're just setting the stage to say hey if these outdoor venues are safe people don't have to wear a mask and this and that but i think they're kind of kind of confusing with how they're presenting that and rolling that matter out are we also creating a false sense of security lisa i see all of these news stories now for 25 bucks you can get a fake id card you can also for a little bit more get a you know a negative covid test i'm sure that people have have created fake vaccine cards i'm not sure it's widespread enough to be a major concern here and in my own experience you know at kcur people who are a large portion of people who aren't getting vaccinated are proudly not getting vaccinated they're vocal about not getting vaccinated i don't think it's that they want want people to think that they're vaccinated when they're not and i want to before we move on from um from this topic i just want to mention that these decisions especially that concert venues and performing arts organizations are making really speak to what a brutal year it was when they did not have any in-person performances so much though that requiring vaccines is more palatable despite the pushback that they're going to get from people than going another season with a virtual performances or of just shutting down concert venues all together it was back to school week on the missouri side of our state line and every major school district ended up reversing course and requiring masks it was also back to campus for thousands of our area college students all of the major universities also requiring masks steve kraske you are back at class this week just because you say students have to wear them did they you know they are nick and i'm telling you not exaggerating a bit 100 compliance in the two classes that i've had so so far this new school year they know full well that if this thing takes off if covet spreads here on campus we're going to go back to zoom and everybody that i talk to at least wants to be back in person so there's a fairly strong incentive to keep this thing going and to stay massed up as we get into this school year could these mask mandates though be short-lived hold the front page the missouri attorney general has filed a lawsuit to block mass mandates issued by public school districts there's been no widespread widespread study to support the forced masking of our kids and i don't want to live in some futuristic biomedical security state this is eric schmidt the man who also filed suit against kansas city and jackson county over their mass policies so what are the courts doing here so often we hear of judges issuing immediate injunctions that prevent laws from going into effect until they can be fully aired out legally in court why isn't that happening on mass mandates dave helling well because at least in the cases that uh eric schmidt is involved in other than in st louis which is a different issue uh he has not sought immediate uh injunctions injunctive relief uh against mass mandates or other regulatory decisions by local governments which just means that it's going to go to trial later maybe why didn't teach october i don't know i wrote a column this week that suggests he is you know the lack of an immediate uh demand for the satisfaction suggests there's a political motive involved in this i want to underscore that point really clearly here nick let's be just straight level honest about what's going on here eric schmidt the attorney general of missouri is running in a very crowded field for the republican nomination for the u.s senate he wants to take roy blunt's place it's a tough race it's very competitive these kinds of stories where he's standing up against math mandates plays very well within uh the conservative voter community those folks turn up at primary election time next august i'm not saying he doesn't believe what he's pushing here but to say there's no political motivation behind what eric schmidt is doing and the same story over in kansas with derek schmidt two similar stories politics are definitely playing a role here but eric wesson the attorney general says this really doesn't meet the facts uh for instance he contends zero children under the age of 10 have died from covet 19 and children make up quote less than one out of every 100 000 people who are hospitalized uh in missouri tell that to the people who work at children's mercy hospital and i guess we'd have to wait for somebody to get sick or die before he says oh well there's a problem why not do something to prevent it you know and where my kids go to school last year before they shut the school down the food service workers were coming in and they were testing positive so that led to a situation where it would spread to the kids the kids take it on but you hinted at it earlier lisa because we had for instance in the shawnee mission school district even with masks tons of kids now in quarantine a lot of children and adult staffers with um kovid even though they have masks similarly in the kansas city kansas school district but imagine if there were no masks in there yes i think i have yet to see a school district in the metro area see this lawsuit filed by the attorney general and change course on masks even even in the part of the state where where governor mike parson comes from schools have remained have kept their mask mandates despite these lawsuits going on this is you know they're already seeing mass quarantines and i think the situation would be even worse i'm not sure that in school uh in-person school would be an option um were there no masks in these schools steve nick i'm still on my high horse here just to point out that other people use classrooms besides young children teachers who are sometimes elderly use them teachers aides use them janitors are in their administrators are in there sometimes parents are in their neck this is not just a simple matter of kids there's other lives on the on the line here now over in kansas johnson county voted against requiring masks in indoor places that isn't stopping some cities from going it alone and if your plans take you to prairie village today make sure to grab a mask the city's mandate begins today roland park has become the second city in johnson county to adopt a mass mandate the order covers everyone over the age of five the penalty for not wearing one would be an unclassified violation and to find not more than 25 now of course a lot of these johnson county cities are all clustered right next to each other so lisa you could literally be in one store on one side of the street and head to a bar or restaurant on the other and be forced to cover up yes but i think i think that that is no no different from any laws in any city in johnson county or even going crossing from kansas and missouri side of the state line there are different jurisdictions and different laws and different policies in effect and it's important to note that you know roland park and and prairie village have have implemented mass mandates johnson county is is large and has a higher vaccination rate than the missouri side of the state line so there i mean the situation is is complicated there are different things to consider depending on where you are in this metro but yeah this is uh something that we have to deal with in our daily lives lives now where where do i need a mask where do i not need a mask do i have my vaccine card on me this is a part of our normal lives now and it's it's not fun but it's it's it's necessary are we seeing dustups in prairie village or roland park this week steve kraske with the police being called in arresting people for not wearing masks no i'm not aware of that yet nick but uh you know i think the idea here is to get the word out and get people thinking about this going forward how about in kansas city missouri which is now a few weeks into and just extended this week its mask mandate eric i haven't heard of any cases where people have gotten arrested uh there is still some pushback but a lot of stores mandate that customers come in and they have a mass and i've only seen like one argument between somebody saying well this is state the city doesn't require it but the store owners and the stores do so i i've seen more of that than i have people not a mask i don't want to finish our conversation about mask without bringing up the continuing concerns we hear about from our own viewers dan watches us from johnson county he writes to the officer worker and professional class mask mandates are a silly inconvenience because they're generally allowed to work at their own desk without the mass they simply need to play along by putting it on as they walk out of the building to drive back home it's not a silly convenience for us in the retail sector who have to wear them every minute of the day folks like helling and lucas need to get their heads more properly aligned and nick i'm still not convinced that dave's head screwed on straight i just want to clarify that as we go forward here this week kansas city hit a grim milestone we just surpassed 100 murders in the city it actually didn't get a huge amount of attention this week is that because it's actually an improvement on last year when 128 lives had been lost at this time last year or is it because we've resigned ourselves eric weston to the fact that there's very little we can actually do about it i think people have resigned themselves to it's just business as usual there's no sensationalism uh in it anymore where people get shocked it's kind of like the norm and as of the recording of this show we're at 101 and a lot of people now they don't even mention the people's names or anything so i think we've we've just become numb to it do you have another explanation steve no i don't nick i i think uh you know covet has certainly surpassed uh the homicide count in kansas city as the story of our times you know what more can we say that we haven't said so many times here it's a big concern there is no end in sight there are no easy solutions to this problem the investment that's required uh jobs programs education you know you go down the list it's a major investment that we haven't quite gotten our arms around yet and uh meantime the count continues nick not just covid but even the defunding of the police argument dave helling seemed to get a lot more attention the actual raw numbers of murders triple digit murders in kansas city but that was actually three months ago i was checking my notes when that first blew up did it go away did a solution finally find itself with the mayor and the the police over that issue oh no no no that the the legal process continues as you know the police board is suing the city of kansas city and i believe a hearing is set for sometime in early september and we'll get a decision and appeals but nick i would say this the slight decline in homicides in kansas city maybe takes a little bit of the pressure off of this argument about the police department had and rick smith had that number been increasing then i think the calls for his resignation would be accelerating and they're not doing so don't forget mayor quinton lucas began his administration by saying his goal was to have a year under aha under 100 homicides he wanted his administration judged on that basis and here we are and the mayor though still has some time though before he has to to seek votes for reelection though lisa there is time before that next election but look at the moment we're in in kansas city right now there is so much that could happen before then you know this may be a decrease in in homicides uh you know over last year but truly every life lost a homicide just like every life lost to covet is is preventable and this is it's it's a tragic landmark either way afghanistan and the chaotic u.s withdrawal is dominating the political news pages but are we prepared for the next big political fight over accepting tens of thousands of afghan refugees kansas city congressman emanuel cleaver says his office has already worked to resettle an afghan translator in missouri the mayor of saint louis says her city is ready to welcome at least a thousand refugees and mayor lucas says he wants to open up kansas city's doors to displaced afghans but lucas is already facing pushback scores of online commenters claim the move would only worsen the city's affordable housing crisis others expressed health concerns over kovite 19 and security fears while mayor lucas wants to send a welcoming message does the mayor actually have any role to play in who comes here and how many steve not really you know other organizations from the state department on down we just talked about this on the show yesterday nick other organizations have a lot to say about what happens here a mayor can't stop these refugees from coming in in fact the city has already accepted dozens of these refugees in recent months and years and that number is only going to continue as we move ahead jewish vocational services dela lamb those organizations are set up to deal with situations like this it's a separate deal from the homeless population in our town those two shouldn't be conflated too much here although they are obviously related but we are set up to deal with these folks through these organizations and we can anticipate some of them coming if the mayor faced a lot of pushback over the police funding issue what kind of uh of a political divide does this cause in the city eric uh when you have a houseless problem that you have here already and then you're going to put some more people on top of that it would be just it would be political suicide it sounds good you know to have a sound bite saying that we're welcoming people to do this and it sounds good and it but it just would be a disaster for him if those people came in and you don't have the resources for the people that are already here let's read some of that online chatter for a moment this is from greg so you complain about not having homes for the homeless he's talking about mayor lucas and now you want thousands more are we covert testing each one background checks what about those concerns and does the mayor have a response to that lisa i i mean i haven't i haven't heard the mayor respond specifically to that but certainly the lack of affordable housing in kansas city continues to be a big issue and and it's something that has been one of his priorities early on where we've seen some movement here and there but certainly not enough to truly address this we're still having issues moving homeless camps from one location to another we've we've seen initiatives to build tiny homes for for um unhoused people kind of fizzle and stall in city council so certainly the lack of affordable housing is a valid complaint i do think that that the welcoming of afghan refugees is maybe is not quite so divisive as arguments over police or not i think that as a whole because this is a national issue and we've and we were in afghanistan for 20 years that there is a more of a general goodwill to these people who helped out the u.s government while we were there and seeing that they are relocated safely and the reason you're here not hearing quite as much political debate is there are republicans who are busy criticizing the president for the what's happening in kabul and in afghanistan and it's very hard to do that and then turn around say but we don't want them here so there is a split in the republican party some more nativist republicans want to keep the afghans out but there's a sizable majority of republicans who say no we need to welcome these folks with open arms now when you put a program like this together every week you can't hit every story grabbing the headlines what was the big local story we missed running out of space ku hospital says it's now turning down 45 bed requests a day some of those asks now coming from hospitals as far away as mississippi and new mexico missouri's new coveted liability law goes into effect this week the last thing we need to do is punish anybody for trying to help in the middle of a crisis or pandemic critics say the new law rewards bad actors is target finally heading downtown a rising population in the heart of the city prompts new interest from the big box retailer more disruption at kansas city's ford plant a third shut down this week as the computer chip shortage continues the prairie village jazz fest cancelled for a second straight year covered also appending events deeper into the fall florida georgia line cancelling their late october concert at t-mobile center 18 months after the pandemic shutdown kansas city's college basketball experience reopens and the new mahomes playground opens this weekend at the once neglected martin luther king jr park alrighty eric weston did you pick one of those stories or something totally different i picked two i picked the opening of the park martin luther king park i hope to i hope they do something about the smell down there and my second one was the kansas city public schools outside of the mass open without any incidents we didn't have any stories of kids not getting picked up on the bus stop we had no stories it was a smooth opening and that's the first time i remember that in quite a few years lisa it's easy to get tired of hearing hospitals are full emergency rooms are full but i it remains uh i think a really pressing issue here the fact that there are no beds available in kansas city hospitals imagine what what a terrible time it would be right now for me to get in a car accident or have any other health emergency that that takes me to an emergency room it may seem if you're feeling well and vaccinated it may seem abstract to hear full hospitals but i think that has real effects on people's lives steve kraske hey i agree with lisa rodriguez on ku hospital but i'll just point to the target's interest in downtown kansas city i've been to the target in downtown portland going shopping with my son a couple months ago it'll be a game changer for downtown residents if that box store shows up down there dave helling yeah the most important story we missed was in pitch magazine which wrote a long valentine to one stephen kraske and his legendary status as a reporter in the city of kansas city and at one point the article talks about kraske being the last of his generation still practicing journalism i read that with a little bit of pain in my heart but i tip my cap to my colleague and on that we will say our week has been reviewed from kcur news lisa rodriguez on call from the kansas city call eric wesson dave helling from your kansas city star and keeping you up to date weekdays at 9 on kcu rfm you can find him in the pitch steve kraske and i'm nick haines from all of us here at kansas city pbs be well keep calm and carry on