Abortion Ruling, Jail Space, Voting Issues | Kansas City Week in Review

While the presidential debate top national news, abortion was topping the headlines where we live. What did we learn from this week's high stakes legal drama over axing abortion from the ballot? Also this half hour, how would this work? We take a closer look at plans to ban voting machines in Missouri and have count every vote. And a shocking new report out of Kansas on how one in every 15 mail in ballots are simply not counted. This is not a bed, bath and beyond. This is a person's ballot that was legally cast, a vote that the post office basically disenfranchize those voters. Plus, rising alarm over crime now prompting the mayor to call for the immediate building of a mini jail to send a message to offenders. But will it work? And who pays for it? Those stories and the rest of the week's news straight ahead. Week in review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlese Gourley. The Courtney STurner Charitable Trust, Johnny 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 and welcome. I'm Nick Haines, and we are thrilled to be back with you as we dissect the week's most impactful and sometimes just downright head scratching local news stories onthe week in Review, Bus with us this week shes 50% of Dana and Parks on 98.1 FM, KMBC. Dana. Wright. And a little further down the dial of 89.3, you'll find Lisa Rodriguez of KCUR While news from the Kansas City Star lead political reporter Jonathan Shulman is with us and tracking the region's top political stories for KCUR’s News. Brian Ellison. Now, while the presidential debate gobbled up most of the national news, attention closer to home, it was a stunning legal saga over abortion for at least 72 hours this week, it looked like a long awaited public vote on abortion in Missouri was going to be stripped from the ballot after a judge ruled the measure violated state law because it failed to mention what other law was could be struck down if it was approved. As panic and anxiety set in among the measure's supporters, the Missouri Supreme Court steps in at the last moment and orders county election officers to put it before voters. The Supreme Court has rightfully ensured Missourians will have the opportunity to enshrine protections for reproductive freedom in our Constitution on November 5th. It is the amendment that asks citizens to guess what it will eventually cover. We're going to eventually be talking about gender affirming care. We're going to be talking about cloning IVF. We're going to be talking about anything having to do with reproduction. Now, for all the drama and headlines, many Missourians are still scratching their heads about why there was such a legal fuss in the first place. Jonathan, we all know that there are signature requirements and where they have to come from to get on the ballot. But many of us were hearing about this for the first time. Do all ballot measures, if you're going to be a constitutional amendment change, have to list all of these laws that might possibly be affected if they were to pass. Well, there is a requirement that these ballot measures have to list the laws that would be repealed. Of course, this is a constitutional amendment. It does not literally repeal any statute. And while we don't have the court's reasoning, because they issued an order and not an opinion, most of the supporters think essentially this is this has not happened before. When we have these constitutional limits, we haven't it hasn't been the case where we had to list out all of these laws that may or may not be affected. And I think what we'll find is that the court essentially agreed with that argument. You know, opponents talked about this could affect human cloning, the embryonic stem cell research ban in Missouri, everything including gender transition surgeries for minors, which is also being banned now in the state of Missouri. What attorneys for for the amendment argue is that a plain reading of the language in here should be clear enough to say that this law would allow for for abortions to happen up until fetal viability, and then that restrictions can happen after that. And so anything that anything in Missouri law that makes abortion illegal, that is what would be affected and that is the plain reading of the law, and that there shouldn't be this expectation that voters then have to extrapolate beyond all these other issues. You want to tick off the largest group of voters who have probably up to now not been paying a ton of attention that tick off the women. Everyone knows someone who has had a miscarriage and you start legislating women's health, quite frankly, with a bunch of older men in Washington. You will drive so many women, even Republican women, to the polls to say, stay out of my decisions that are for me and my doctor to decide. Put it, I love that this is going on there. Well, supporters may have been celebrating this week, though, Dana, but isn't it still possible when this is on the ballot, that many of these terms that have already been thrown around on the table like fetal viability? A little bit too vague for some people that it would end up in court anyway after this. Oh, I think there's no question that we will continue to hear about this amendment in court as well as in the legislature, where Missouri will clearly be debating laws that test the limits of that fetal viability provision and the continued just as has happened in Kansas after voters approved abortion rights there, where legislators will continue to try to rein those in. You know, I think the reality, Nick, is that the only reason this has ended up in the court at all in this past week is that the political efforts to keep it off the ballot fell short. This was the next attempt by those who oppose abortion rights in Missouri to to make sure this amendment goes down to defeat. And the writing seems to be on the wall. Polls indicate it is likely to pass. The only way to stop it at this point might have been to get it pulled off the ballot through legal means. You saw the secretary of state, Jay Ashcroft, make a last minute attempt to. Strangely enough, decertify the the signatures he had already certified to put it on the ballot. So I think I think what we're just seeing is kind of every possible avenue to prevent abortion rights from being enshrined in the Missouri Constitution. We have to remember, too, though, Jonathan, only half the country has this ability to even put issues on the ballot. Kansas is one of those 24 states and you can't even do that. And there are no plans to do that there. Right. I mean, you would be basically asking Kansas lawmakers to give up some of their power, which I think is probably a tough ask for a lot of folks. There has been efforts in the past, discussions in the past. And Kansas Governor Joan Finney, for example, supported the idea. You might. Yes. Remember her very well. But ultimately, it hasn't gone anywhere. And without the ability to put something on the ballot, it's difficult to imagine, at least in the near-term future, Kansas lawmakers doing that. I mentioned something that Dana said. Obviously, that was really getting the rage of a lot of women in this in this state. So even if this lawsuit had worked differently and this ballot measure had to list all of those measures that were going to be repealed, if there's so much support for allowing women to have reproductive rights in Missouri, wouldn't it still have passed? In theory, you could say that they could resubmit it with all of these things and it would still pass. But I think what people will say is the moment is now, We are likely to see attempts from, you know, if it weren't on the ballot from the legislature to further restrict abortion or change the Constitution to to explicitly outlaw abortion. And there's potential changes that come federally as well. So I think it's not a guarantee that that it could pass in another election term and its effect on other races right now, particularly on the Democratic side, is a reason why why proponents want it on. Now, this has the potential to drive people to the polls in November in a general election where there is a presidential presidential candidates on the ballot and all sorts of down ballot races that this could energize. I think there's also a process procedure issue, Nick, where the what what are the implications of doing this in the future if the court had required that every statute that could potentially be affected by passage of a constitutional amendment list of those on the ballot? What would that mean even for the other items on this election ballot, the sports gambling initiative? What what if it was required that other laws that reference gambling and there's many of them had to all be listed or the petition was invalid? I don't think that's reasonable. That's never how Missouri has done it. Well, the ballot language can often be very, very long, sometimes pages long. It would just get a lot longer. John. Right. I mean, there's already complaints from Republicans that the state constitution is this kind of massively overstuffed document. Folks want to make it more difficult to amend it in the future. And to Brian's point, if this had not gotten on the ballot this time, you would have for sure seen Republicans next year attempt to advance a measure to make it more difficult to change the state constitution. What didn't disappear to take time away? Because we've been going for the last two weeks, of course, with our membership drive was right. Rising anxiety over crime. The problem of car break ins escalated with the murder of a popular Irish chef right outside his restaurant in Brookside. I'm pissed off. This is a defenseless man that got gunned down in his business of which he's given everything to. It's frightening and it's escalating. I mean, none of it's acceptable, but the loss of life is absolutely horrific. In addition to gun violence, anxiety over property crimes is building. Some business owners say they're now being broken into multiple times a week. Angry, frustrated. It seems like if you have a glass door front, you're on a hit list. But is there finally a solution at hand? Mayor Quinton Lucas says the city needs to show there are consequences. He's pushing to immediately build 144 new detention spaces and these short term ones at the Kansas City Police headquarters building. That's in addition to plans to ask voters to fund a new city jail next year. This is a fascinating turnaround Earlier in his term that Lucas said we can't arrest or incarcerate our way out of the crime problem. What changed, Lisa? Well, public outcry for one. We're seeing neighborhoods all across the city calling for this and specifically calling for more people to be arrested and detained. But that said, I think the mayor's earlier statement, we can't arrest ourselves out of this can still be true if if people are arrested and detained. But there aren't other services, there aren't other supports that help deter them from this in the future, then there's not then it's not a fix. It's simply a Band-Aid. And I think with the increase, particularly in in juvenile offenders of this crime, the popularity of of social media that encourages stuff like this, those systems, those other programs are crucial because otherwise it simply is a Band-Aid. This is going to be a faster solution we're looking at. This is not going to be built until at least 2026 by the time the World Cup comes to town. Plus, you could only keep people at the police headquarters building for 72 hours. So a couple of things. I think people would be shocked to know that the space number one, doesn't exist here in its current form. And that it's a 90 minute or one hour transport once someone is arrested to get them to I think it's Vernon County or Johnson County, Missouri. And so voters are going, wait a minute, we don't have a jail space in that. What? And I talked to a buddy of mine who used to work there. Here's the other problem no one is talking about that needs to be talked about. If they, in fact, get the jail space that we need, the detention space that we need. You keep hearing this number, $17 million. I have been told that is not even in the ballpark of what it's going to cost because there are rules and regulations when it comes to detention, as it should be. Height of the ceiling of the infrastructure is crumbling, which is why they shut it down in 2015. The cost was going to be astronomical. So to your point as well, this is a multifaceted issue that you've done ticked off Brookside and Waldo. We have to have the conversation about money. Money is part of it. You have angered the rage, the horror over Sean's death, a part of the city that had been barking about this for a long time. But it's going to cost a lot of money to find the space, the appropriate space under the regulations to house the people that are arrested. To the fairness of the mayor. Lisa, I do see also he's announced this week plans to create a new fund that will provide up to $3,000 for businesses to make repairs if they've been victimized by crime, up to $5,000 for businesses to upgrade their locks and put in better security measures. How much difference would that make? I think I think that does make a difference to a lot of these business owners that are affected and a lot of people upset about this. It's interesting that people have been broken into. Storefronts have been broken into all across the city for many years. And we haven't seen a fund until now. But certainly for those who have been repeatedly broken into along the same corridors over and over again, I'm sure it makes a difference to those $230,000, though it would dry up pretty quickly. Right. And it clearly will. This is not a problem that can be solved with small payments of cash anymore than it is a problem that can be solved with 72 hour jail stays. I also have to point out, while we try to fix one problem, we still have another. We've talked about to death and nothing's ever happened. And that's 911 response times that we hear this week also is going to take 18 months to fix that. Even though what I thought we had an approach to doing that. There are people to take. It was on hold for about that long when when there was an emergency. We had a family this week in Kansas City that got in their car and drove to the fire department because it was faster as their house was burning to the ground to physically go to the fire department. We had a mother whose baby was born at home, not breathing. They could not get through to 911. We have to pay the dispatchers more. We had a listener call in the trauma that the dispatchers are thrown into for very little pay is part of the reason it's so hard to retain the staff to take your calls when there is an emergency or even to hire them in the first place. The percentages that we're getting through the training process and actually even starting the job were phenomenally low. Now, the city has said that that is improving in recent months. But but the reality is, as you say, Dana, it's a very hard job. And if the city cannot make it worth people's while, there's there's no reason for them to do it. This isn't just a matter of inconvenience. This is a matter of life and death, literally. And I think the city's liability is certainly an issue, but it's also just a matter of what what is the right thing to do. And I think to underscore what what my colleagues have already said here, this is the nine on one staffing at dispatch is the highest. It's been in years, and they're still woefully understaffed. So at a certain point, we just need to fill these positions. We just need to fill these positions. There has to be some other change that that can make more significant progress on this issue. How are you going to vote this year? There was a chilling report out of Kansas this week about the perils of voting by mail, according to the Kansas secretary of state's office. One in every 50. Mail in ballots were tossed out due to mail processing issues. At least a thousand votes. So the ballots tossed out this year. Tonight, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab says the Pony Express is faster than voting by mail. The difference is this is not a bed, bath and Beyond coupon. This is a person's ballot that was legally cast, a vote that the post office basically disenfranchize those voters. It's frustrating. Now we know our personal mail can get mixed up and sent to a neighbor's address or get lost entirely. But this seems like a huge amount of people who are not getting their votes counted at all. It is a lot and it's a lot, especially for Kansas, because Kansas, unlike Missouri, has a culture of mail in voting, even as mail ballots have become this kind of super controversial thing over the last three or four years, the nation nationally in Kansas, it really dates back, I think, to the nineties even. And so it has not traditionally been this controversial thing, but the idea that the Postal Service is not able to guarantee timely delivery has a lot of folks concerned. Is there anyone, though, of any of our local elected officials saying warning do not vote by mail? I have not heard that. I think they want everyone to vote however they can. But I think the reality is that if I if I have the choice, I'm going to think twice about it. And I think our reality, Nic, is that election security, election integrity are such hot button issues. They become political in sometimes partizan terms that if the United States Postal Service is aggravating that problem with the way it's conducting deliveries, that's going to become a real problem for politicians potentially of both parties. And in this case, some of the mail was not postmark. It wasn't just because they got there late. It doesn't have a postmark on it. It is not counted. We've just lost confidence in the system. And that is so unfortunate for for a variety of reasons. We hear from listeners all the time that say we're getting mail two days a week or, you know, every other Thursday. And in the rural areas especially, we need to figure out something to restore the confidence in the system. Now, if you live in Missouri, could some big changes to how you vote be on the way? The leading candidate for secretary of state in Missouri wants to ban electronic voting machines. Danny Hoskins, who currently serves as a state senator, wants to require all ballots to be hand counted. Now, if he wins in a few weeks, will thousands of voting machines be on the scrap heap? How would this work, Jonathan? Well, I think it would require the legislature to approve it. Now, Hoskins, if he wins the race, will have a platform to advance this policy. But it is an open question about how much support he can garner from his fellow Republicans and could he get Governor Mike Kehoe if he's elected to lieutenant governor, rather, if he's elected governor to sign a bill like that? Now, we as Americans, by and large, like fast results on election night. Would it end up being election week if we started hand counting these ballots? Very likely, yes. The we the reason that we switched to voting machines and electronic counting machines is exactly because humans error and they take time and it's slow and particularly after a long election day. So so the reason we switch to this is to make elections more secure, to make them more efficient. And now we're seeing the same arguments used the other way. Or it's interesting, it doesn't matter if they're Republican or Democrat, if they work for the election board, they're all universally saying this is a horrible idea. And I do think it would delay it by by days. And I have to say, Nick, I am kind of shocked that this has become a political. No, I'm not I'm not shocked. But but but there's no reason for this to be a partizan issue. This is about election integrity in a completely nonpartisan way. What is the best, most efficient, most accurate, cheapest way to count ballots? It's clearly not hand counting. We should note that Lieutenant Governor Kehoe has not said he would sign such a measure, even if a future secretary of State Hoskins got it through the legislature. We return closer to home now on the Country Club Plaza, where feeling the heat over crime issues, the shopping centers, new owners have announced they've quadrupled security, added 150 cameras and a license plate reader to make sure customers feel safe. It wasn't the only changes announced this week also revealed new traffic roundabouts to slow the Plaza's traffic. More pedestrianized walkways between shops, more Spanish facades, a promise to have fewer national chains and more local stores. And they've even teased a Trader Joe's. More on that in a moment. But first, what about all the security? After a spate of retailer drive by shootings earlier this year? Are visitors noticing the bigger new security presence? You know, I think some of it is smoke and mirrors, but this is a scary number that I'm about to throw out. If you look at the non fatal shootings in Kansas City that do not make the news. It's all we would cover if the nonfatal shootings made the news. We are already at 430 this year, nonfatal shootings. And this affects every entertainment district. Right. So you can throw extra security out there, extra police officers. Maybe that brings people back to the plaza. They have got to get a handle on the crime and specifically the revolving door of those committing the violent crime when they get right back out there on the street and recommit. And there's a statewide context to this, which is some of the urgency right now, is that if Kansas City is not seen or at least perceived to be getting a handle on this crime problem, state lawmakers are going to swoop in and take additional action. Mike Kehoe has made crime a central issue of his campaign. We've seen past efforts by the legislature to to take over some elements in terms of Kansas City police budgeting and require certain levels of budgeting. You could expect to see more of that if there is a perception that Kansas City is not somehow controlling this crime issue. Well, I was very fixated on the security aspects of this plaza announcement. I have to say it was the Trader Joe's component that seemed to get all of the headlines, though. And the social media posts. Why a Trader Joe's this one down the road? Are they really teasing a Trader Joe's coming to the Plaza? I think they've teased a Trader Joe's or something like a Trader Joe's. Now, certainly the Plaza area is not in a food desert. We've got a Whole Foods nearby. You've got the sun fresh in midtown. You've got two grocery stores in Brookside. However, I do think a grocery store on the Plaza would be successful because of the density around there. Not sure how that fits though, with that idea. Also of having more fuel at national chains and more local stores and restaurants there. Right. Because there's plenty of local grocery store chains who I think would be open to that possibility, I will say. It does seem like a change from the way the new plaza owners were talking when they first acquired the plaza. When we spoke to them the week after that, that purchase went through, they spoke more in terms of a bodega of a kind of a corner grocery, not a Trader Joe's model of grocery store. So we'll see if that's a response to community requests or just a change in the financial model. Also, by the way, the city announcing a big change to the plaza. Apparently, the rumors are true. The city now putting out a request for proposals to redevelop the tennis courts on the plaza. I know this is big for a lot of people. What's the plan for that, though? You know, a couple of the high schools use those courts as well. And some other day inside pickleball Courts, in fact. You know, with with all the noise that creates, I don't know what's going to go in that spot, Nick, but I am a huge proponent of the pedestrianization of the plaza. Other cities have done this and actually seen a reduction in crime. If you take out some of the parking spaces and put in green space, people would be horrified because they want to park their car right there. And if they have to move more than five steps. All right. Right down to the plaza. 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? It was the week of the big debate, but still no debates confirmed in our big local races. From the U.S. Senate in Missouri to the race for Missouri governor. They're calling it the biggest turnaround in baseball history after losing 106 games last year. Baseball stats sites now giving the royals better than 95% chance of reaching the playoffs. Former Johnson County leader Annabeth Sobel dies and that escalated fast. Lawsuit number 30 filed against the for House. Even though the Lynnwood Steakhouse is now closed and don't steal our name Mission Taco now forced to rebrand after being sued for trademark infringement. The growing Missouri chain now being called session taco. The horrifying images may be fading from our memories, but some parts of the Metro still marking the anniversary of the 911 terror attacks. It's a big milestone for one of our metro's largest homeless shelters. The union mission marking its hundredth anniversary this weekend. And prepare to be scared. Kansas City's haunted houses reopen this weekend. And there's a new kid on the block. The director of the saw horror movies is bringing Hollywood level terror effects to a remote 100 acre forest in bonus Springs. Exiled opens this weekend. So, Brian, I know you like to get scared. The haunted houses has to be your big story, right? You know, I'm a lot more anxious about how the royals are doing. And even if you hadn't included them in your list, I would have mentioned them anyway. To be playing meaningful September baseball is a top story for this region. And I think we're getting a little taste. We're remembering 2015 when you would turn on the game and every pitch mattered. And we haven't felt that way in a long time around here. I think it has political implications, too, for all the things the royals want to accomplish with a downtown stadium or somewhere else in the community. The community feeling good about the team is going to be an important part of that. Lisa, on Thursday morning, a judge upheld the conviction of Marcellus Williams as a death row inmate that prosecutors believe is innocent. So unless the US Supreme Court intervenes, Missouri will execute him on September 24th. Jonathan Kansas lawmakers have approved a series of audits into the State Department of Commerce after an ex-official turned up dead essentially in a single car crash. Last month. He made a series of allegations about the department that they have denied, but they're going to investigate some of the hiring process in terms of how he got hired and also look at some how the pandemic era grants were distributed. And Dana, Royals are playing ball, chiefs are playing ball. We have never had so many people weigh in on a man's toes as we did this last football game. But I do want to give a nod to the the 911 anniversary. And I think it's important to remember that we all remember exactly where we were. But there were grandchildren of those victims reading the names of this year, of victims they never met. And we are losing some of those stories and that history. And it's important to remind our children. And now our grandchildren what happened on that day. And on that we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Dana Wright, 2 to 6 on 98, one from KMBC and from 89.3 FM. KCUR Lisa Rodriguez from your Kansas City star Jonathan Shulman and KCUR’s Brian Ellison. And I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City. PBS. Be well, keep calm and carry on.