Rarely does Kansas City top the nation's headlines as it has over the last few days, and all for the wrong reasons.

This enrages me.

Hey, charge does not mean just this.

We track the implications of a case now getting global attention just as the city prepares to host one of its biggest events ever.

We look at how next week's NFL draft may be affected.

Plus, no end to violence.

Three murders in 24 hours, 30 shootings in seven days.

Some questioning whether the attention on those crimes are.

This week, more protests over transgender rights as Missouri is set to enact a new rule next week.

It would be the first state in the nation to restrict transgender treatments to children and adults.

I have never felt so awful.

Every day when I wake up and come out.

And now that he's coasting to reelection, Matt Lucas proposing big changes to how you vote.

Those stories and the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of AARP Kansas City, RSM Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America NA co trustees.

The restaurant at 1900.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

Glad you could join us as we connect the dots on what has been a tumultuous week in news in Kansas City from 41 News anchor and reporter Dia Wall is with us.

It's also good to have Dave Helling back, the former veteran newsman with the Kansas City Star from the Kansas City PBS digital NEWSROOM.

Flatlands Mary Sanchez is here and the editor and publisher of the Call newspaper Eric Wesson.

Now, the NFL draft is just days away.

And there's Kansas City leaders trying to project a storyline of progress.

A flashy new airport and a city on the move.

Has that carefully crafted narrative now been badly damaged by a new story that has kept Kansas City's biggest event off the front page rather than glowing stories of Kansas City hosting one of pro football's biggest showcases, the nation's news networks are lasering in on a less flattering image of Kansas City, a place where a 16 year old black teen can be shot in the head by a white homeowner.

And just for making the mistake of ringing the wrong doorbell.

As a mother of three children, this enrages me.

We are not just angry when our babies get shot.

We are angry every day because our bodies are hurting, Our babies are hurting.

Just being black has been seen as a threat often in this country.

I can tell you there was a racial component to the case.

We seek justice.

We seek justice.

A charge does not mean justice.

We want the federal government to conduct a hate crime investigation.

Never again.

Never again.

Ralph.

All shooter appeared in court this week.

He is 84 year old Andrew Lester, a military vet and former airline mechanic who has pleaded not guilty to first degree assault and armed criminal action.

He posted bond and was released.

He will not appear in court again until June.

That means for all the talk, we now just have to sit and wait, dear.

Well, what has been the biggest impact or lesson we've learned in Kansas City from this case this week?

Oh, I think that, you know, as a black mom, we talk about it all the time.

This is the implication of systemic racism.

Let's just hit it straight on the head.

Right.

This man, Andrew Lester, in his statement to police says There's a big black man on my doorstep about six feet tall.

I was scared to death that he was going to come in and hurt me.

And I couldn't defend myself.

Right.

Grown man, military veteran.

But 84 years old.

84 years old.

That's fine.

Ralph is five foot eight, £140.

And so, again, when you see his brown face and you automatically think that he is out to get you, even when that young man by every account rang the doorbell, that is the effect of systemic racism.

And I think the reason it's touched a nerve in this country is because I have a black son, too.

And you have this fear.

When does my son go from being cute to being mistaken for being 4 to 6 inches taller, big and brawny and threatening?

And I think that that's a terrifying world.

We had the Clay County prosecutor said, yes, there is a racial component to this case.

Didn't elaborate.

We didn't hear anything more about that.

What is the evidence to to support that claim?

So he wouldn't get into that in the press conference.

But he did say, look, there was a racial element involved.

And I think when you are that far off on your assessment of a child who was at your front door, that is what we talk about all the time.

And I know people will always say, well, why does it have to be a race thing?

It's because black skin is viewed as a threat by so many, even in Kansas City.

And I think that's what we've learned.

DE has talked about the difference in weight between these two individuals, but this is an 84 year old homeowner living alone.

This was after 9:00 at night and he'd gone to bed when he heard the doorbell ring, we're told.

He said he saw a black male pulling the handle and quickly concluded he was attempting to break into the house.

He told police the shooting y'all was the last thing he wanted to do, but he was scared to death.

Dave, doesn't Missouri give why discretion for homeowners to defend themselves when they feel their lives are at risk through what we know as Stand your Ground laws right.

Missouri has a standing Stand your ground law, as do 27 other states, including Kansas.

Nick, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

And the standard is reasonableness is does this person, this suspect, did he have a reasonable expectation of danger or some sort of invasion of his home?

And that'll be a fact matter.

And by the way, he deserves a fair trial.

We should make sure everybody understands that.

But if he's going to argue or his attorneys argue that he has had a reasonable fear at the door, how do you explain the second shot?

I mean, at that point, there is no reasonable fear at all.

The young man is lying on the ground, bleeding perhaps to death and to shoot him for a second time, suggest that something else was at work here.

And my guess is the prosecutors will try and make that case as this case goes to trial.

What do you think is the biggest lesson we learned from this case this week, Dave?

Well, a couple of things.

First, people say it gives Kansas City a particular black eye.

I think it's much more about this country, says something much more about this country than it does Kansas City.

The fact of the matter is we've had mistaken shootings all over the country in the last week.

Have only we in New York and.

In Texas.

Taxes, cheerleaders, cheerleaders and somebody into the wrong driveway.

One of the things we're learning there because we have spent a decade in this country emphasizing, for whatever reason, fear, anger, division, concern of controversy, and then handed everyone a gun.

Our attention is always directed to shooting first and then settling.

Is there any evidence to suggest is there any evidence to suggest, Mary, that there are going to be changes to laws in Missouri as a result of this?

No, I don't think there will be because of how our state government is structured right now.

That's how we partially got here.

I do think this is part of the conversation that we can have that frankly does offer that sense of the press some empathy for the older gentleman situation.

84 years old, his wife was in rehab care.

He's home alone.

He's a veteran.

We don't know if he has PTSD.

He had apparently the Kansas City Star posted a great story Wednesday evening that talked about from one grandson's viewpoint that he had kind of just absorbed 24 hour news cycle of hyper right wing, telling you that you're in danger.

There's crime everywhere.

And I can see how that plays into everything else.

We don't know what his experiences were with race.

We don't know all of that.

But that's part of what we need to have a conversation about.

I would agree in large part, but I think that we can have empathy for someone.

But what I want to ask Kansas City and our country, do you think a 16 year old black male feel safe in this country?

How do you think Ralph felt?

I'm coming to somebodys door and I'm ringing the doorbell and I am met with a gun and Mr. Lester said he didn't even say anything.

Yeah.

He didn't even say anything.

And so, again, I just always go back to I can't tell you the number of times I've heard or I feared for my life.

I fear for my children's lives.

I fear for my husband's life, you know, in a way that I don't have to worry about my pal Nick or Dave.

Mm hmm.

And where is that going to enrage us all?

Enough to say, You know what?

This is the line.

Yeah.

So what?

You?

Yes.

Answer your question.

Because you ask, will that change laws if just dealing with the reality of how we think in this country, if he's found guilty?

Yes.

It'll change laws to create a loophole for him, for them to be able to shoot unarmed black man be out under the guise of I feared for my life.

That's what I think.

And one other part of the conversation, too, real quick.

The neighbors went to the first neighbor, wouldn't open the door, wouldn't help, and went to the second neighbor.

And then finally somebody opened the door to help him because he didn't have a cell phone.

And you know, back to one thing Mary said at the beginning, the very first thing that I heard from somebody was while his parents sent him out to pick up his siblings at 10:00 at night.

What does that have to do with anything?

If they sent him out at 11:00 at night, he still.

We're going to have to wait for a lot of this information again when he's not going to appear in court again until June.

Mm hmm.

A trial could take three years until we get sentencing in a case like this.

So what happens in the meantime?

What impact does this have?

Does this have impact, for instance, on the draft next week?

No.

You don't think that takes away that spoils the party?

No, I don't.

And here's the reason why Lester's been charged.

He was arrested.

He's been arraigned.

A court date is set.

I understand they're calling for a federal hate crime investigation.

We'll see what happens with that.

But two things here.

Every major event in the history of major events is going to have some form of protesters.

Right.

So if it wasn't folks who are calling for social justice and change, it would be climate protesters, etc..

The other thing I don't know if y'all have looked at the footprint.

It's got to be a ten foot fence with a full wrap around it.

Okay.

The event's going to go on.

People do have every right to protest as they see fit.

But no, I don't think this is going to impact.

You're going to see protests there when the NFL draft is in town with all of the cameras there.

Eric, I believe so.

I believe they protested the Major League Baseball All-Star Game and had it moved to another city.

And I think it will be protest, but not just for the situation.

Well, but because of the gun violence in Kansas City in and of itself.

Okay.

Well, let's talk about that, because I want to continue with this crime.

On another aspect of that.

You know, when the Kansas City launched its bid to host the NFL, the biggest concerns over this draft with a supply of hotel rooms are whether Kansas City had the transportation infrastructure to support more than 300,000 out-of-town visitors.

Now, Kansas City's biggest worry has turned to safety and security.

One of the largest sporting events in Kansas City is arriving just as Kansas City is experiencing an historic homicide wave.

Over the weekend, there were three fatal shootings in just 24 hours.

One of them within a mile of where the NFL's draft experience is going up on the grounds of Liberty Memorial.

When it comes to crime, a community is now in uncharted territory.

Not only is Kansas City outpacing last year's mode account, it's also outpacing 2020, which was the deadliest year ever recorded in the city.

And to put those numbers in perspective, when you adjust for population size, you and almost twice as likely now to be murdered in Kansas City than Chicago and eight times as likely to be murdered in Kansas City than in New York City.

This week, one of our viewers, Peter, asked, where are the protest protesters this week for those lives?

Mary?

What I would ask that viewer is where were you at all of those events?

Where they were protesting?

Those people are on the ground day in and day out dealing with some of this.

Is it enough People know because it's obviously have an impact, but it's not like nobody does anything.

Mary I love you.

Peter, Where's the camera?

Peter We're not going to do what about So that's what we're not going to do, right?

Because the issue for me with that is that's just a way for you to absolve yourself of the responsibility of caring about what happened to that boy in the Northland.

But you better believe when Sandy Hook happens, nobody said, Well, well, what about the 30 people who were killed in Boston last year?

That's nothing but an excuse to absolve yourself of the gross egregious mess that regardless of outcome and responsibility, a 16 year old boy mistakenly goes to the wrong house up the street, run an errand for his mom and gets shot.

That is the issue.

And one other thing, Nick, that you you you passed up in this when you said that 30 people have been shot.

You've had three 200 rounds of ammunition fired in a three block radius.

They had the shooting on 37th in prospect.

They went somebody went and dumped 100 rounds in somebody's house, just shot up the house, 100 rounds.

They while the police were there at the crime scene.

But nobody is talking about the violence that are taking place right now.

I want to be assured that there is a plan by the police department to deal with this violent crime.

I understand the missing person thing, but what about the violence that's taking place right now?

And I think that that is where people are kind of raising an eyebrow in the black community.

What are you doing?

I just want to add that that the thing that ties the violence and the dreadful tragic violence in Kansas City with the incident north of the river is the idea, Nick, that the way to address fear is to weaponize yourself.

It won't be too long before a mom and a dad tells their 16 year old to go pick up the siblings.

And by the way, take a gun with you because the guy on the other side of the door may have a gun.

And then we just have shootouts everywhere.

That kind of pathology in some ways may already exist in Kansas City.

And that's why that that's where I think the focus needs to be, is the gun culture that has been fostered over the last decade.

All of this is a conversation we need to have.

But I do think we need to acknowledge not to be the Pollyanna, but the outpouring of love and support that has come from Ralph and his family.

You look at his high school alone, those young people were not told you had to go march around.

All of the people who have donated to that, what, $3.3 million?

Go fund me.

No one forced them to do that.

That is the vast majority of people, I think, in this city and in this country.

And how do we work from that goodwill to change some of these more harder issues into the laws of how it really impacts and how police function?

Our criminal courts functions and how people say we.

Want to get a simple answer.

Then from day one.

All those kids who are out there register and start voting.

That's what has to happen because at the end of the day, it is overwhelmingly evident to Dave's point that Eric's point and Mary's point, a lot of the people who are running our state legislatures and running our federal government do not reflect or prioritize the interests and priorities of the community.

Just quickly, let me also say that Governor Mike Parson was particularly tone deaf when he issued a statement saying, hey, President Biden somehow politicized that this is the the focus, the acme of political issues, it's life and death.

And to suggest that somehow people should be silent about this culture that I suggest exists is just wrong.

I think the governor really stubbed his toe when he suggested somehow we shouldn't talk about this tragedy.

But he says young men and women get killed in Saint Louis and Kansas City every day, but don't receive personal correspondence from President Joe.

Biden.

First of all, Saint Louis and Kansas City are both in your state.

What have you pulled up.

By the way?

You run the police department in Kansas?

I just I always go back to that.

Like when have you pulled up, Governor Parson?

Respectfully, the doors are open.

When have you come out here and sat with grieving mothers?

Because I've done it.

Everybody on this panel has done it.

When have you come out and offered solutions?

Part two of that for me.

Few years ago you got rid of any training or licensing whatsoever.

You also hamstrung our law enforcement officers from collecting guns that were not rightfully owned, that were not legally purchased.

Legal for police departments to coordinate with the federal government on gun related crimes.

I think we just have to be transparent about what's happening here, Nick, And the challenge becomes you are actually throwing logs on the fire and then saying, is anybody going to do anything to put this out?

It's President Biden's fault.

Yeah, not today.

But just ham handed.

All righty.

Well, beyond the draft, beyond crime, there's been nonstop talk for yet another week in our state capitals about transgender, health, sports, even bathroom use.

While there have been laws proposed, some vetoed, some enacted, nothing is yet to go into effect, but that changes next week.

Missouri is just days away from becoming the first state in the nation to restrict transgender medical procedures not just on children, but about adults too.

New state Attorney General Andrew Bailey invoking an emergency rule that will require trans patients to receive 18 months of mental health counseling before they can receive puberty, blocking drugs, hormones or surgery.

Dave This will go into effect exactly on the same day the NFL draft begins in Kansas City next week.

Can we expect this to be another national storyline when pretty much every national news outlet is going to be here?

No, not to the because this is happening all over the country.

Nick, Missouri is not unique.

It may be approaching it in a unique way, but other states are involved in this effort.

And I think I expect someone to file suit against the attorney general for pursuing this, because there's a real question as to whether that office has the authority to do what it did.

So that and then, of course, the veto session in Kansas, that's coming up as well.

Again, the disassociation between the focus on this issue and the stories in Kansas City over the past week just boggles the mind.

You know, there are real problems in this community and we are dealing with something that is not largely a real problem.

Well, in the secretary of state, Ashcroft has already come out and said that he thought this was a step too far, because what Missouri did that others haven't in this whole I don't know what call it conversation about transgender rights, because they're not even getting the basic science right on it, is that he looped in adults and said that adults can't have gender affirming care without meeting all their regulations, that our attorney general in the state of Missouri is putting forth.

Even the secretary of state has said that's too far and he disagrees with it.

The attorney general would say, though, he's not banning anything.

He's only just slowing the process down to allow people to think about their decision by having those mental health counseling sessions over an 18 month period.

Eric And I was shocked because Dave and I think alike, I said the same thing last week.

Of all the things going on in the state of Missouri, this is our focus.

This is what we're seeing it.

We've talked a lot about crime on this program.

There's another story I just want to talk about very quickly before we leave the show.

It's a political story worth watching now that he has overwhelmingly beat Clay Chastain in the Kansas City mayoral primary, Quinton Lucas now wants to cut back on the number of Kansas City elections, even change when voting takes place.

Lucas announced this week that candidates like him who win their local primaries by more than 50% of the vote, shouldn't have to run in general elections.

The runoff should be canceled.

He also wants to change Election Day, so you'll decide local races at the same time you vote for your members of Congress.

That means primaries in August, in general, elections in November, in even numbered years.

So what's been the reaction to the change?

Crickets.

Amen.

So are people outraged in picking up pitchforks, condemning the mayor to such for such an authoritarian move?

Eric People want to.

People don't generally vote in primary elections because it depends.

On we had 14% in our last election, which is more than I actually thought we were going to.

Have.

Right.

So you make it through the primary, then you smooth sailing.

That's not going over too well.

People want their voices to be heard at all levels of the election process.

Quickly in Kansas City, Nick, is that a voter, an educated voter has to decide among eight different races.

Six at large is the mayor and the end district race with sometimes five, six, seven candidates.

That's 40 or 50 people to to examine and to question.

That's a recipe for a 14% turnout seems.

To be not going through.

I mean, I'm I'm.

Aware if we could have done this show in 10 seconds.

I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, that we have to spend that much time on it.

I agree that nothing is going to change.

I just think it's a bad look for the mayor to be putting this forward.

I understand he.

Doesn't have to run for reelection.

Right.

Well, and this is the way to encourage voter turnout probably isn't by limiting voting.

When you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every big story grabbing the headlines.

What was the big local story we missed?

It took a few tries, but Kansas City Southern is no more.

It's now Canadian Pacific.

Kansas City, the CEO of the newly combined company pushing back against concerns that the mega railroad merger will be bad for the Metro.

The company announcing it's expanding Kansas City Southern's old headquarters building downtown.

The Kansas City Royals getting pushback for its new beer policy that now extends alcohol service through the eighth inning.

Teams say new pitching clock changes are leading to faster games and it's costing them up to $1,000,000 in beer sales.

Remember when Independence announced it was going to a four day school week?

Not so fast.

Missouri lawmakers now voting to strip state funding from any district that doesn't require kids to be in the classroom five days a week.

And we now know the price of challenging books.

The League Summit School District says they've spent $19,000 on reviewing 52 challenge books so far this year.

It's the week we celebrate Earth Day and for 20 day acclaimed rapper Wiz Khalifa, headlining the first concert at Kansas City's new Cannabis Entertainment District, and Russell Stover, creating the world's largest chocolate box.

This week at the Kauffman Center, the Kansas City based candy company.

Now in the Guinness Book of World Records, each chocolate weighed as much as £35.

The confections will be auctioned off to raise money for Feed the Children.

All right.

Well, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

You know, the Missouri legislature has been busy.

How dare you vote to strip funding for libraries?

Libraries are a gateway.

I can't tell you how much time I spent.

I was excited when I could check out ten books as a child.

I'm not sitting here today without a strong public library that is adequately funded and they should get more money than they do.

Have you ever met a librarian you don't love?

That's the biggest story we missed.

Mary I would have to back you books.

Tape.

A couple of things.

First, that big box of chocolates is obviously aimed at everybody talking up on for $0.20.

And so, you know, you get baked, you need something to add some sweets to sort of cut the eggs.

So that's what that's about.

And also quickly, again, the four day week applies to big school districts apparently in Missouri, but it would not have for day school weeks would still be allowed in smaller rural districts where it's quite popular and a way to attract teachers.

Just quickly, what we've forgotten or a story that we and I'm this is kind of a scoop mini scoop.

One of the things the charter review Commission in Kansas City may also discusses abolition of the Kansas City Board of Parks Commissioners.

This system where you have a quasi independent group overseeing the parks, may be under some threat and the Charter Review Commission will take it.

But why should we care about that, though?

Because the parks have an ability to make decisions to keep our parks, which are one of the best parts of Kansas City in relatively good condition without city council interference.

It's not complete, but it's a it's kind of a model for what the police board could look like.

And that may be, as I say, coming to an end.

Eric.

Clean up on 18 to find that whole district for the draft.

We've got buildings that are getting painted.

We've got this big pothole has been in the street for like three weeks, maybe a month.

They finally covered it.

They had the metal plate over it, but they actually finally filled in.

And so we're getting ready.

And even Mo Dot was in town this week with extra crews to pick up the trash that everybody has complained about on the sides of our highways that look like landfills.

Hopefully that is fixed before our out of town visitors arrive next Thursday in Kansas City.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed thanks to 41 news anchor and reporter Dia Wall.

And from our newsroom, Mary Sanchez from the Call, Eric Wesson, and from the Kansas City star the former reporter Dave Helling.

And I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.