Kansas City's first toll road opens this weekend in Overland Park, and more on the way, a new bathroom bill becomes law in Kansas.

Another week and more twists and turns on a Royals ballpark.

I don't think we're that far away.

Plus, independence becomes the new epicenter for public pushback against data centers.

This is going to totally affect our quality of life.

I don't know who I will.

Turn down $150 million.

Worth of work.

I know Kansas will take it away to the stadium.

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

Weekend review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlys Gourley, the Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America Na Co trustees, the Francis Family Foundation through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haynes.

Glad to have you with us on our weekly journey through the most impactful, confusing and downright head scratching local news stories, hopping on board the Week in Review bus with us this week, heading up your Johnson County post.

Kyle Palmer from the world of television news, Kshb political reporter Charlie Keegan from KCUR news local government reporter Savannah Hawley-Bates and former reporter and editorial writer Dave Helling, now Kansas City's first toll road opens this weekend.

Starting Saturday, you'll pay up to $3.50 to ride the new express lanes on 69 highway through Overland Park.

There are no toll booths.

Cameras will scan your license plate on.

A bill will arrive by mail catalog users will get a discount.

Now.

We are a community that hates to be inconvenienced on the road.

So how is this project going down?

Kyle?

Three years after basically round the clock construction along that site.

For those very factors that you mentioned, I think for the most part, the reactions right now are excitement that that construction is over.

There's also maybe a little bit of befuddlement or mystery or skepticism because, as you said, this is the first project of its kind, not only in the metro but also in Kansas.

This is different from the tolled lanes in on I-70, in that that entire highway is a toll road.

This is just certain lanes on the highway on US 69 are going to be toll lanes.

So you can have the choice of whether you want to use those express lanes or stay in the regular non toll lanes.

But I think overall, a lot of drivers in that area excited that that construction project is finally coming to an end.

It is unique, as you mentioned, but are other cities looking at this and saying, you know, if overland Park can do that, we may want to get some revenue ourselves for roads by doing that.

I haven't heard much about that across the metro.

I think Kansas City, though, always does look at itself as kind of the big city, and we can do things like close to the World Cup and have big stadiums and do toll roads now as part of that.

So I think it's part of growing up, maybe is having some toll roads.

Yeah.

It's not the first road in Kansas City.

It's the first one now or the only one now.

But for decades it cost you a a dime or a quarter to cross the Broadway Bridge from North Kansas City into Kansas City, which caused enormous resentment for many, many years from Northlanders, who said, in essence, why do I have to pay to come into Kansas City?

And there was also a toll for many years on the King Street Expressway from Kansas City in the Kansas City, Kansas, people get a little bit angry about the idea that they have to somehow pay money, to either have the convenience of a new road or to enter into a part of the community that maybe they just visit on occasion.

The reality, Nick, is that we have built a system in which everyone sort of has equal access to the roads, and the idea now that you can travel faster if you're wealthy enough, will rub some people the wrong way.

Oh, so they were calling it.

Remember at the very beginning we were going to have Cadillac and Lexus lanes is what they were referring to it as.

There could also be some logistical issues.

Right.

Because people will they be confused about when they can cross over because there are two entry points going north and south that you can enter our exit and so will people.

But there's not a physical barrier.

So when people creep over and we need to do lanes when they're not supposed to, so they'll have to kind of figure those logistics out as well.

Missouri has a law that says you can't have toll, so that's why we're not seeing them there.

And is that why?

Of course, we are now seeing a mammoth expansion of I-70 from Kansas City to Saint Louis, adding a new lane in each direction, none of it coming from tolls is coming from the the regular budget.

Yeah.

I mean, that's how, highway expansions tend to occur in Missouri.

Though they've shown and data has shown that expanding highways like this does not actually decrease traffic, which is the goal of the I-70 expansion.

You add a lane or two and for a couple months, maybe a year, traffic goes down, but then it induces demand for the road.

So more drivers will come, more traffic will come.

Actually, the only way they found to limit traffic on highways is a congestion pricing toll road, like the one on 69.

But I have heard from a number of employees here at the station who used to live close to it.

Have moved since then and are very grateful now that for this weekend that they won't have to be subject to those tolls.

This.

Well, I mean, I think we'll see how the drivers react down there.

I mean, I think Dave raises a good point.

Those were concerns we heard when this project was being discussed a few years ago.

Interesting to see now what the reaction will be once these actually open.

Yeah, it's going to be you could choose to take the lane or not, you know.

And then Kansas says this should help reduce traffic crashes, with all the congestion on the morning commute.

Well, this happened fast.

Kansas Republicans overturned the governor this week to pass a bathroom bill into law, which requires transgender Kansans to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their sex at birth.

The measure also bans multi stall, unisex bathrooms in government buildings, public schools and state owned sports venues that would include the proposed new Kansas City Chiefs Stadium in Wyandotte County.

But Kyle, I see this applies to city halls, public libraries, parks, county rec facilities.

Are they going to be doing some remodeling now, or are they and they are they also on the hook for enforcing this new law?

Well, also schools too.

I know there are some Johnson County high schools that now have, I guess you would call more modern unisex bathrooms that are multi stall.

And so will those spaces be completely renovated or just relabeled.

Those schools will have to figure that out, but there is some uncertainty about how this will be enforced.

That was part of the message that Governor Laura Kelly made when she vetoed it.

Maybe some, you know, some unintentional consequences that she needed to, but, well, I just have to see how this plays out, because I think both individuals and public entities are going to have to figure out how to navigate this law, which, as you say, kind of sailed through without a lot of discussion or debate.

And we're just not kind of coming to terms with that.

Some of the provisions will mean, practically.

Speaking, if you've gone to KC airport, they have those multi stall unisex restrooms there.

That's a huge part of that infrastructure at the airport that wouldn't be allowed under this Kansas law.

Right.

It wouldn't be allowed.

And we saw some pushback a little bit about some of that when KCI opened that terminal.

But in Kansas there's the law is a little subjective, too.

It says that cities and or these entities have to make reasonable adjustments.

So I think defining what's reasonable if it's just putting a different sign on a bathroom or if it's tearing down walls and remodeling that might be not.

With the local city hall, could get a fine of up to $25,000 after a second offense if they're not complying with the.

Law.

Right.

And like Charlie said, though, this is subjective on how they how they go for it.

And also I'm interested to see how enforcement will work this.

There's not really clear in the discussion.

How are they going to choose, like if people are actually going to the bathrooms that are match their sex assigned at birth, and.

There might be a legal challenge as well, and there may be some people who try to test the law early on.

So I don't think the conversation is over.

But, it should not be a surprise that this was passed over the governor's veto.

The Republicans have been talking.

About what is a surprise to me, though, Kyle, is that we just had, you know, this passed pretty handily with large majorities of the legislature in both houses.

And yet, the number one item on the Trump administration's agenda was to do redistricting, changing the political maps in Kansas.

And they couldn't find enough votes to make that happen.

And redistricting is not going to happen in Kansas this year.

I mean, Speaker Hawkins has said that he doesn't have the votes.

I think Republicans see transgender issues as something that is winning for them.

Polls consistently show that that, Americans are relatively split on the issue.

But when you get down to fine grained policies, policies like this and their implementation and their practical impacts on individuals, that could change.

But Republicans certainly see this for them and their base as a winning issue.

Another week brings with it more breathless news coverage about a new Royals ballpark.

Speaking to reporters in surprise, Arizona as the Royals spring training is underway, Sherman claims a deal is tantalizingly close.

We're not settled yet.

Anywhere.

But, But I would tell you, it's I don't think we're that far away.

You know, we're still evaluating.

Not, Kansas.

I don't think we're that far away.

End quote.

What does that actually mean?

And does it mean he's boarding a plane, Charlie, right now to ink a deal with local officials?

I don't think it means that.

No, I think this is the fourth year maybe now that had the same quote from spring training in Arizona from John Sherman.

So I'm not getting my hopes up.

What I also find just is perplexing.

Sorry.

Oh no, I do.

I do think it is interesting though, that I mean, this has been years of this.

I don't think we should be, gullible enough to assume that something's going to happen tomorrow.

But, in the mayor's state of the city, he also t's a Royals deal coming soon and then had some interesting tweets over that week, this past weekend of from the Washington Square Park, area, from a parking lot from Union Station being like, enjoy the beautiful day, Kansas City.

And so I think they're all hoping that they're closer, though they might be saying they're closer than they actually.

But the mayor, Quinton Lucas, of course, was also the one who said, you know, all of this was, the media, you know, took too much hoopla on that.

And the Chiefs would continue to play in Kansas City.

And that didn't happen.

Exactly.

And like Charlie said, we've had four years of this where we can't really believe anything that's happened.

What was interesting about it, though, Kyle, was the fact that he said, you know, I'm still looking at Kansas now.

I thought many people thought, well, the spirit campus, they didn't want that.

That was over.

Have you heard of any sites that the Royals are actively looking at in the state of Kansas.

Like Godfather three?

It's like when I thought I was out there, pull me back in.

I we have not heard any real serious chatter about any other royals site in Overland Park or Johnson County.

They did buy the mortgage on that a serious side, that's what's so closely linked them to that particular site.

There have been rumors, pure speculation, that they might also be looking at the the brokerage area around a high for 35 and Antioch, just because it's a big space that has had some trouble getting off the ground.

But I have not heard any serious chatter about the Royals coming back to Johnson County.

You know, the Royals long ago.

Stop listening to my advice, which is fine.

I guess maybe I'm not making much sense, but the longer this goes, there was an op ed in the newspaper and the Kansas City Star today suggesting the trust, and Truman roadside, which our friend Eric Wesson has talked a little bit about near 18th and vine.

The longer these discussions go on, Nick, the more sites sort of crop up as possibilities.

And what that means is when they do pick somewhere to go, a lot of people are going to be disappointed or frustrated or angry and the longer this goes, that frustration grows.

If John Sherman and Quinton Lucas and others connected with these negotiations want to go to voters, that would presumably have to happen in August, they should move quickly so that the continuing concern about the drawn out process doesn't hurt their chances of succeeding at the polls.

And something else he said in that Spring Training quote was, you know, I heard people have decision fatigue about this.

I also have decision fatigue.

He's just like the rest of us, right?

It doesn't seem like he has enough decision fatigue to actually get a move on.

But I think I like like Dave said, this is something that they need to be cautious of because as every year goes by, as every month goes by and they keep teasing a decision that hasn't happened yet, people get more and more frustrated with the Royals overall and with the cities they're negotiating with to get something done.

Now, it wasn't the only stadium related news this week, by the way.

In a surprise op ed in the Kansas City Star, Missouri auditor Scott Fitzpatrick wrote a thank you note to Kansas for taking the Chiefs.

Why?

Well, he says the deal means, quote, Kansas City, Kansas, rather will have a hard time luring any Missouri assets across the state line for decades or implementing any new style bond projects in Wyandotte and Johnson counties, because all of that sweet Kansas sales tax is going to a state of the art Dalton Stadium for Missouri taxpayer enjoyment.

But is that really true, Dave?

Does that mean that they can't be they don't have the bandwidth any longer on the Kansas?

Well, it.

Depends.

Bigger projects.

It will depend on what the size of and the contours of of the district, the Starbound district for the stadium that will be drawn later this year by the Secretary of Commerce, because you can't have two star bond districts paying different bonds.

You can't you can't split the money into paying this bond or that bond.

And of course, the original map showed all of Wyandotte County, half of Johnson County.

And that's what the auditor is talking about, that there won't be a lot of other areas that you could, in essence, capture the the tax revenue from.

But we haven't seen the final map yet, and there may be some understanding of that.

And the border shrank because of that.

I did see in the Johnson County Post this week, you had a whole story about all of these tax incentives and how Leawood took a locked in from the country club Plaza, never mind what has been happening with the Chiefs.

And later on in, Wyandotte County, bears that are feeling there that that is it.

Or are they still looking for other big assets on the Missouri side to bring to town?

You hear officials kind of try to have it both ways, where they say, we don't want a border war, but we're sure glad that they're here in our city.

We're sure that they picked us.

And so in these two kind of big end of year moves locked in and the Chiefs, Johnson County in essence came out the winner.

But you not having a lot of officials come out and out and say we want to lure them over.

We want to actively draw them over and restart the border war.

Everyone's trying to pay lip service to the fact, to acknowledge that in the past, when the Border War was really at its height, the area was missing out on some economic growth and development.

Because of that.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas was in court this week.

What was he being charged with, you ask?

Well, no, he was testifying against the new Missouri congressional map that could squeeze out Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.

Did we get any rulings this week, Charlie?

No, I was there for opening statements on Tuesday during this hearing.

And no, the judge, you know, was going to be taking some things under advisement and a week long trial and no decisions this week.

But this is one of like 8 or 9, lawsuits challenging those maps are all still pending.

But the clock is ticking.

Next Tuesday is when candidates get to file for Congress, but they may not even know which district they're going to be in.

Savannah.

Yeah.

And some of the even, primary challengers for Cleaver in the fifth district are saying, okay, well, if the map holds, maybe I'll run in the fourth.

Like, we don't know.

The mayor keeps teasing a potential run.

I think one thing for sure is that Republicans are going to be coming out.

I'm hoping that the fifth district changes are cemented.

I know Jackson County Legislature.

Sean Smith is, getting ready to announce his run.

And so we're going to be seeing this sort of map of of people who are running and hoping either that the new map sticks or that it doesn't.

And then possibly having to scramble and change the races depending on these legal challenges.

We also see the Rick Bratton, the state senator from Harrisonville.

He's also teasing a run if this new map is put in place.

But we also hearing, David, there could be two maps.

We could end up having this new map, being for this election.

And then if the referendum takes place and that map is overturned by voters, that the next cycle we go back to the old.

And, I think we can all hope.

And there is a possibility that the Missouri Supreme Court will sort all of this out and to sort of issue a blanket order that will clarify things for people and potentially extend Nick, the sign up period for, for, office that's not set in stone.

The court could say, hey, look, this has been so confusing.

We'll give everybody another two weeks or whatever.

On the other side.

You know, and then you will have the referendum, presumably, which will keep this issue alive even once the court has ruled, the people may have a say, and then you would have some confusion.

One assumes on the other side.

This is not as confusing as the Royal Stadium decision.

And perhaps just as long now Costco is on the agenda at City Hall this week, amid growing concerns that the company is going to convert its Midtown store into a Costco business center, a move that would strip its pharmacy, food court and many customer friendly staples from clothes to toys.

Man Quinton Lucas met with Costco representatives on Wednesday, at least via phone.

Why is this such a big deal?

And why is the mayor getting so directly involved in what is sold on the aisles of a retail store?

Well, I think this is interesting in that a lot of the people in the Midtown area, or a lot of the people that come in either from Kansas to buy their alcohol or or from, you know, other parts of the metro to this Lynnwood Costco were mad about it.

And we're hearing these rumors that were circulating and demanding answers.

The mayor, of course, got involved.

City council had that resolution to instruct City Manager Mario Vasquez to try to negotiate either the Costco remain, in its current offering, or that a store of similar offerings take its place.

I think what's interesting here, though, is the reason that city officials feel it necessary to get involved beyond just the resident concerns about losing their grocery store, is that Costco and this Lynnwood shopping area are under a Tiff, a tax increment financing plan.

But it's been that 25 years and they still have that.

Yes, yes.

Because Tiff.

All right okay.

All right.

And you'll notice I sound like a broken record on this show.

They never really reap the economic benefit that they are planted for.

I didn't notice a lot of the media reports have people from Kansas who are being quoted as being horrified as that, because you can get the alcohol at the midtown Kansas City one when you count on the Kansas side.

Kirkland brand loyalty, man, you got to jump across state line for that.

But I'm not surprised by this.

We've had a couple of grocery stores close in Johnson know it's huge news.

Whenever a store like this closes or is potentially leaving, it's a it's a, you know, for better or worse, an anchor for the community and people identify with it.

And so not surprising at all.

And this really though, is not a leaving though.

It's just the changing up of the offerings.

And that's still causing such backlash and outrage.

I know, and I actually I actually got Ahold of somebody at Costco corporate and they told me that it's like 60 to 70% of the items in a business center are the same that you'd get in a regular store, maybe different sizes and things like that.

Sometimes it's the small things in life that really get you upset.

It is interesting.

Kyle brings us up what it is about grocery stores.

Nick, I think we may want to pay some attention to the fact that they are really the margins must be extraordinarily small.

I mean, they're closing all over.

Of course, we've had the, the of the, the East Side shopping, grocery store.

We've talked so much about price shoppers are closing, at 75th and Metcalf.

The margins are very close.

And so governments may have to get more involved in supporting these institutions if there's not to, to be a wholesale uprooting, if you will, of these.

And, Dave Helling actually remembers the first grocery store that opened in Kansas City in 1895, which he reported on extend by less.

Milgrom is now.

It's been a week now since people around the country started seeing this video footage of a local woman trying to burn down a rumored Ice detention center in South Kansas City.

She did nothing to hide her appearance.

Yet a week on, many of our viewers want to know why there would be no charges filed.

Did the police even make an arrest?

Charlie, I have not gotten an update of an arrest here from Kcpd.

So, no, I mean, we're all scratching our heads, you know, like looking at this footage.

Props to channel nine for being there at the right place, right time.

And, I mean, someone knows who that is.

But a week on, we couldn't have made any apprehensions.

I don't think we should think that I or the federal government has given up completely on the idea of some sort of detention center in Kansas City somewhere, and we ought to pay attention to that.

Mark offered, saying, come on down.

We'd love to have you.

Yeah.

Where were the biggest crowds in Kansas City this week?

It wasn't at your local Costco.

It was at Independence City Hall, which seems to have become the epicenter of public pushback against data centers.

Did you see the packed crowd this week protesting a $15 billion artificial intelligence center in the city?

Did you see how close it's going to be to us?

This is going to totally affect our quality of life.

We didn't move out here for that.

We moved out here because we wanted to be in the country.

I don't know who in the world turned down the $150 billion worth of work.

I know Kansas will take it later.

She stadium and the school district.

This projected to receive approximately nearly half $1 billion already.

Savannah.

I was actually surprised to see so many people that say positive things about the center.

Yeah, the people there that spoke out in support of the data center where Independent School District Superintendent Doctor Cynthia Grant, and some local trades unions, who, of course, will stand to benefit from the construction jobs, a temporary construction job site building the data center will bring a lot of the people who are against it are the residents who are either surrounding it or people who just don't want another data center in their community.

There's already more than 30 in the metro, many of them hyperscale data centers like this one.

I think people are concerned about the health effects, the water and energy usage of this data center.

And they don't feel like they're getting heard from the independent city council and people.

But we did have that man testifying.

Boy, you know, Kansas would love to have this.

They took the Chiefs.

Who wouldn't want, you know, a $15 billion project if people nearby the appropriate campus didn't want a ballpark.

What about a data center?

Data?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, I think you would see absolutely the same dynamics play out with residents nearby there.

They were dead set against the royals moving there.

Savannah mentioned the massive water usage, the electricity usage.

These these centers take up.

It's already very populated area where you mentioned around the city.

And also, I would say not next to not very accessible to a water source as well.

And so we do have data centers, one of them being proposed in DeSoto, very near the Kansas River.

And so.

By the Panasonic.

Plant.

Yeah, by the Panasonic plant.

So probably not a great sign for that.

They're also still talking about Wyandotte County as a potential location for data centers.

And there the decision making is also mixed because the centers would presumably provide a lot of money for local governments in a community that believes it is heavily overtaxed.

Now, and might provide at least some construction jobs temporarily and perhaps a few permanent jobs.

So the debate over, these centers throughout the metro is more complicated than sort of yes or no thumbs up or thumbs.

Up, but I think most of us don't actually have much of a clue as to what actually happens in them in the first place.

The people I've spoken to have said they just don't understand in what way this data center will benefit them.

What is the point here?

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

What was the big local story?

We missed two killed after a shooting spree inside a Kansas City nightclub.

K state fires Jerome Tang, a pricey legal battle now underway.

Funeral services are this week for former Royals outfielder Terrance Gore.

He died after appendix surgery.

He was 30 for 18th and vine, getting its first new hotel in 17 years, part of the $35 million expansion of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is a familiar face returning to the Chiefs, and the Missouri two year old makes global news after he gets trapped inside an arcade claw machine.

And that's only happened to Karl Palmer twice in his life.

Did you pick one of those stories?

Kyle was something completely different.

I pick something different.

So we've seen another brewing battle over housing affordability in western Lenexa.

Which which competed with independents, with the amount of people packed in there completing.

A seven hour meeting, 90 public comments that the Lenexa City Council, at 230 in the morning on Wednesday, finally approved a plan to build 50 affordable homes built by habitat for humanity west of K7, a neighboring residents have already sued the city over this plan, alleging, among other things, that the city violated open meetings laws when they were discussing this proposal over the past year.

But supporters of this are really passionate about it.

They see Habitat's, you know, solution, limited as it may be, as creative and unique to Johnson County's ever increasing, increasingly expensive housing market.

So we'll see how this plays out.

When you look at our theme here throughout this whole show.

I mean, nobody wants anything built in their backyard, do they?

I mean, that is not the case completely.

And of course, in the Lexa case, the people who are most opposed to it or the neighbors across the street who whose homes were obviously built on, vacant land at some point, in the recent past.

So there is some interesting discussion going on, but it is.

I live in Lenexa.

It is a very, very serious concern there.

And your big story, Miss Dave?

In seven weeks, a little less than seven weeks now, Kansas City voters will go to the polls to decide if they want to extend the 1% earnings tax, which we've been through before.

It turns out that there are more than a few whispers in Wyandotte County that maybe an earnings tax would be a good idea, particularly if the Chiefs go over there so that you could capture some of the revenue from all the jobs that are supposedly going to be created.

And there is Kansas legislation that would allow a vote in Wyandotte County, or any county for that matter, to impose a 1% tax that bears watching.

For me, it's that a new bus riders union is launching, to, today, the day that this airs on Friday.

And they're their first order of, action is to, appeal Kansas City to include more bus funding in their budget, which is a years long battle, much like the Royal Stadium.

Charlie, I wanted to build on the the nightclub shooting where two women died, the Kansas City, Missouri's multi plenary, Multi Disciplinary Task Force is now looking into the business and particularly in launched an investigation to decide whether to suspend or revoke the business license for that nightclub where it happened.

So I think it shows that there's.

Something they keep talking about those things all the time, and yet they still happen.

To.

Help them problem businesses continue.

And on that we will say a week has been reviewed courtesy of Casey Walsh, Savannah Hallie Bates and Kyle Palmer from the Johnson County Post from Kshb.

41 News Charlie Keegan and news icon Dave Helling now found at Kansas City Stack on Substack.

And I'm Nick Haines.

There is no show next week.

I know you're upset.

In fact, we're gone for the next three weeks.

Why?

Well, you know, money has become a little tight around here these days.

And as we've lost our federal funding and we're heading into an extended membership drive, it's what help fund this program.

But don't worry, we'll be back right afterwards.

Until then, be well, keep calm and carry on.