JCPhoenix

Paywall-free.

Four months after Jackson County voters rejected a Royals stadium proposal in Kansas City’s Crossroads District, and two months after Kansas legislation paved the potential for an alternative path, the vision of downtown baseball endures.

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Those conversations have more recently concentrated on studying the viability of a site not prominent in their last exploration: Washington Square Park, which sits just north of Crown Center and east of Union Station. More on that in a bit.

Posting the whole article, since it's so short.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - It’s not quite pumpkin spice season, but it sure felt like it on Friday. On Friday morning, the National Weather Service reported that the temperature in Kansas City, Missouri, dropped to 54 degrees. That broke the record low of 55 degrees for an Aug. 9, set in set in 1927. As of Friday afternoon at 2 p.m., Kansas City had reached a high of just 71 degrees. The record coldest high temperature for Aug. 9. is 73 degrees. That was accomplished in 1991, the NWS reported. “We may wind up setting a record low and record low high temperature for the date,” the National Weather Service stated. First Warn 5 chief meteorologist Luke Dorris said Friday’s weather is typical for Oct. 7!

Loving False Fall!

The indelible moment came from Steph Curry, who made four uber clutch 3-pointers in a two-minute second stretch of the fourth quarter to turn away a French uprising. Curry assured his first gold with a ridiculous fall away bomb, silencing the home fans with his "put them to sleep" trademark move.

That was an incredible ending. Final score was 98-87, USA.

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten breaks down the numbers around JD Vance since his announcement as Donald Trump's vice presidential pick.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former President Donald Trump chose Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate on Monday, picking a onetime critic who became a loyal ally and is now the first millennial to join a major-party ticket at a time of deep concern about the advanced age of America’s political leaders.

Non-paywalled archive.is link.

Some Kansas lawmakers want to use STAR bonds to finance new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. After Jackson County voters rejected a county sales tax for the teams in April, a Kansas proposal would authorize STAR bonds with 30-year terms to pay up to 100% of the cost of building a new stadium across the state line.

Fully financing a Chiefs stadium could mean issuing $2-3 billion in STAR bonds, and potentially $1.5 billion to $2 billion for the Royals. Never before have STAR bonds of that size been issued. As of 2020, $1.1 billion total in STAR bonds had been issued in total, according to a state audit. The Chiefs-Royals proposal could triple that.

It is far from certain whether such a massive project could pay for itself solely with sales tax revenue.

Non-payalled link here.

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday tossed the results of a 2022 vote in which Missourians overwhelmingly approved a measure forcing Kansas City to pay more for its police. The extraordinary decision found that Missouri voters were misled by statewide officials when they approved the measure, called Amendment 4. It calls for a new election to be held in November. Judge Paul C. Wilson wrote in the opinion that the financial estimates on the ballot question that voters saw in 2022 failed to “concisely and accurately advise voters” of its impact on Kansas City.

Some softball questions aimed at outgoing House members. Still kinda interesting. Especially when it comes to the Congressional salary question.

Should be an NYT Gift link, with no paywall.

Basic article from Reuters on polling and what things in results mean or don't mean. Not at all in-depth but it is interactive. Always fun to play with sliders and buttons.

Archive.ph link if paywalled.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is threatening legal action against Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas after the mayor made comments suggesting the city would benefit from immigrants seeking asylum in cities such as New York coming to work in Kansas City.

Ohio officials rejected a plan from Democrats to get President Joe Biden on the November ballot after the party scheduled its convention past a state election deadline.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose warned Ohio Democrats earlier this month that Biden is at risk of not making the Nov. 5 ballot. State law requires officials to certify the ballot 90 days before an election − which is Aug. 7 this year − but the president won't officially be nominated until the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19.

Lawmakers could pass an exemption to the 90-day deadline by May 9, as they did in 2020 when both parties scheduled their conventions too late. But the chances of that are slim: Top Democrats said they're deferring to the Biden campaign and Democratic National Committee, and Republican leaders are unlikely to lend a helping hand.

Missouri House Republicans passed a resolution Wednesday that seeks to make it harder to amend the state constitution.

Lawmakers voted 106-49 to pass the resolution, almost strictly on party lines, with Majority Floor Leader Jon Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, being the only Republican to vote no.

The resolution now goes to the Senate, which has already approved its version.

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The resolution, if passed by both chambers, would ask voters whether it should be harder to amend Missouri’s constitution through the initiative petition process.

Even though this will likely pass both chambers, it still has to go to a plebiscite.

Hopefully Missourians are smart enough to vote down this attack on our rights. Luckily, voters have been pretty good about things like this (except for the rollback of the lobbying reform "Clean Missouri" act). Still, people need to be aware of this.