Nick’s Picks | KC Current, State Fair and Taylor Swift As the Olympics come to a close, school begins again and election season ramps up.
Published August 12th, 2024 at 1:00 PM
Above image credit: "Kansas City Week in Review" host Nick Haines. (John McGrath | Flatland)What are you going to watch now that the Olympics is over?
According to a new survey, Missourians watched over 37 hours of Olympics coverage (Kansans, just a little less.)
1 in 4 Americans said they took time off work to watch the Paris games.
If you’re having withdrawal symptoms, here are 12 distractions to keep you occupied this week, alongside some big local storylines to keep an eye on.
Chiefs Return to Arrowhead
It’s been 7 months since the Chiefs last took the field at Arrowhead Stadium. That was the January “Wildcard” game against the Dolphins. After falling to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Chiefs make their big return on Saturday in a home preseason match-up against the Detroit Lions. Game time is 3 p.m.
KC Current Takes on the World
Kansas City plays host this week to the Women’s Cup, a global tournament pitting the best women’s soccer clubs against each other. This Wednesday, the KC Current takes on one of South Africa’s top teams, the Mamelodi Sundowns. The winner will play either Atlètico de Madrid of Spain or INAC Kobe Leonessa of Japan in the Women’s Cup Final at CPKC Stadium on Saturday. You can listen to all of the games live on our partner station The Bridge, 90.9 FM.
Back to School
It’s finally back to school this week for thousands of kids on the Kansas side of the state line. Shawnee Mission starts classes today. Blue Valley, Olathe and the KCK School District begin the new school year on Tuesday. Missouri districts don’t return until next week.
Missouri State Fair
You can still get your fill of funnel cakes, tractor pulls and potbelly pig racing if you head down the road to the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia.
Ludacris performs at the fair on Friday night. Hall-of-Fame country band Alabama tops the entertainment lineup on Saturday.
If you don’t want to drive that far…
Country music star and “American Idol” judge Luke Bryan comes to T-Mobile Center on Thursday.
The Smashing Pumpkins take the stage at Starlight on Wednesday night.
The Fair Debate Showdown
You might catch Josh Hawley if you’re headed to the Missouri State Fair this week. The state’s senior U.S. Senator challenged his Democratic opponent Lucas Kunce to a Lincoln-Douglas style debate at the fairgrounds. The State Fair committee said they can’t accommodate the political showdown, but the Missouri Farm Bureau offered to stage the debate across the street from the fair on Thursday.
We’ll see if it happens! Debates are no slam dunk this year. In the Missouri Governor’s race, Mike Kehoe won the Republican nomination without ever debating his opponents. Kehoe turned down every debate invitation.
Primary Elections in Review
Jackson County Turmoil
We are waiting for the next shoe to drop in Jackson County after a bombshell ruling from the Missouri Tax Commission.
The state agency ordered the county to roll back the property values on a whopping 75% of all homes. That’s more than 225,000 properties.
What did Jackson County do wrong?
The Tax Commission claims the county violated a state law requiring properties to be “physically inspected” if their assessed value rises above 15%. Many homeowners say their property values increased 30-40%, and several claimed triple-digit increases.
What happens now?
County Executive Frank White says complying with the new ruling would be financially ruinous. He plans to appeal the decision, which he claims is “politically motivated.”
But that doesn’t sit well with county lawmakers. Look for a vote today to block White from challenging the Tax Commission’s order. We’re also expecting another push to make the county assessor an elected position.
Will I get a refund from the County?
Don’t hold your breath. The most immediate outcome will be another round of lengthy court battles and appeals.
Big Cuts in Wyandotte County
It’s rubber-hits-the-road week in Wyandotte County.
After a vote to freeze property taxes, the Unified Government is now warning of sweeping cuts in almost every government department to make up for the lost revenue.
Elected commissioners have a Thursday deadline to identify more than $14 million in cuts.
Bus service, parks maintenance and overtime pay for police officers and firefighters are on the chopping block. Around 60 open positions will be eliminated.
Tenth Anniversary of Ferguson
A Ferguson, Missouri, police officer is fighting for his life this morning after being critically injured at a protest rally, marking the 10th anniversary of the police shooting of Michael Brown.
A decade ago this week, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon ordered National Guard troops onto the streets of Ferguson to quell days of violent protests following Brown’s death.
More than 2,000 Missouri guard troops would be called up, prompting Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver to declare that Ferguson had become “a war zone,” resembling the battle-ravaged streets “of Beirut or Baghdad.”
Anyone living in Kansas City at the time remembers the genuine fear that the unrest would spread here.
This week, Kansas City PBS marks the 10th anniversary of Ferguson by examining its impact on local policing, from the demand for mandatory police body cameras to a call for more minority officers.
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves, Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and Urban League CEO Gwen Grant join us for “The State of Policing: 10 Years after Ferguson.”
You can catch this hour-long Week in Review special on Friday at 7:30 p.m. on Kansas City PBS. You can also stream on-demand after the premier at kansascitypbs.org/weekinreview.
Migrant Hearing
If you’ve been watching the latest round of political campaign ads on TV, you’d be convinced that the biggest problem facing the state of Missouri is illegal immigrants.
While candidates with the strongest anti-migrant messaging failed to win their primary races last week, the issue hasn’t faded away.
This week, a panel of Missouri lawmakers is in Kansas City to host a public hearing on migrant crimes.
The ominously sounding “Missouri House Special Interim Committee on Illegal Immigrant Crimes” meets Tuesday at 11 a.m. at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library.
Celebrating 816 Day
There may not be a section dedicated to it at your local Hallmark greeting card store, but on Friday we celebrate 816 Day.
It’s Kansas City’s totally made-up holiday named after the city’s area code.
The biggest party starts at 5:30 p.m. on Friday at the City Market. It will feature free swag, prize giveaways and back-to-back music and dance performances.
Dozens of local restaurants are also offering $8.16 meal specials, and some of our biggest event spaces are running $8.16 ticket promotions.
To check out the full list, go to do816.com.
45th Annual Ethnic Enrichment Festival
Outside of the World Showcase at EPCOT, there are few places where you can eat your way around the globe in a single afternoon.
One exception is at the Kansas City Ethnic Enrichment Festival, which starts this weekend.
You can sample dishes and drinks from 40 different countries. You also get to see music and dance performances from Laos to Lebanon while you eat.
The 45th annual Ethnic Enrichment Festival runs Friday through Sunday in Swope Park.
Swift Spotting
Kansas Citians can now resume one of their favorite pastimes – Taylor Swift Spotting!
Swift begins the final leg of her European tour on Thursday with five back-to-back concerts at London’s Wembley Stadium. But when Swift wraps up, several published reports claim the pop phenom is headed to Kansas City for an extended break.
Swift will reportedly stay at boyfriend Travis Kelce’s Leawood mansion, as the new Chiefs season gets underway.
Swift won’t resume her concert tour until October 18, which will give her plenty of time to show up at your local coffee shop, Trader Joe’s or in the snack aisle of the Midtown or Overland Park Costco.
Nick Haines tracks the week’s most impactful local news stories on “Kansas City Week in Review,” Friday at 7:30 p.m. on Kansas City PBS.
Of course, the best way forward is to find a way to build homes and apartments for people to age gracefully in place that are relatively affordable, which is a better investment of our housing dollars, right?
Choosing the right mate is an advantage so you can care for one another hopefully
Aging in place is not as scary as this article seems to make it. While we are at it, hopefully more families who want their own homes will be able to afford them free and clear is another solution to this. If nothing else, perhaps there will be more apartments (many of which need remodeling and updating with some universal design features so that people can age gracefully there. Thanks for sharing this
Nick– even though I’m a Johnson County resident, I’m watching the incredible disfunction of the Jackson County legislature. It’s mind-boggling and I’m wondering two things: 1) how on earth they are going to fix this, and 2) when will this be covered by national media and wind up on “60 Minutes”?
And as a JoCo resident, I’m enjoying the recent primary vote where Sheriff Hayden was soundly thrashed at the polls.
Love the show and your guests, especially Dave Helling, Mike, Mahoney, and Eric Wesson.
Thanks!