Sleeping IN in KC, Missouri Goes After the Chiefs and More KC Radio Guys Run For Congress! | 4-3-26

Nobody overslept on the show today, right? Okay, good. Let's see. John's handling the news. I've got Mark on the other side of the glass. Everyone is doing a okay. All right. We are rocking and rolling 604 on a Friday morning. Thanks for joining us on KCMO talk radio 95 seven FM. We're streaming as always on the KCMO talk radio app. Now, you know, if you sleep in or sleep through a morning radio show, there's no excuse for it, but it's more understandable than what happened yesterday here in Kansas City where Carter Jensen backup catcher for the Royals overslept, slept through his alarm. And I mean, they were calling his parents. They were like, where is this guy? He's supposed to catch today, give Salvi the day off and no one knows where the guy is. So you've got Salvador Perez at 36 years old, you know, as if you're not a baseball fan. When you're a catcher, you typically won't catch the day game after a night game because it's a lot of wear and tear on your body, your knees, your back. So Salvador Perez, never mind being 36 years old was expected to play DH. Basically, he was going to hit but not have to play in the field yesterday. But this guy Carter Jensen backup catcher didn't show up to the ball park. He just he slept through his alarm. So he got roasted. The Royals lost yesterday, but he got absolutely roasted by his teammates. Vinnie Pasquantino, I mean, he just gave it to Carter Jensen, who's a 22 year old young man. But here's what Vinnie Pasquantino had to say after the game yesterday. Yeah, I mean, you got a 36 year old catcher who's preparing to DH today and then his world gets a little rocked that an hour and a half before the game. He's not going to be not going to be DHing. So you credit the Salvi today for being ready. First and foremost, we're glad Carter was okay. Right. I mean, that was kind of the initial thought when you're trying to get a hold of his parents and everything like that. I'm just make sure it's okay. But once you find out he's okay, it's like, all right, it's a growing moment. He's really young. There are some things that cannot happen and that's one of them. So he's going to have to wear it on the chin. Same way anybody would have to. So it can't happen. That's a great answer from Vinnie Pasquantino. Great answer. The other night when Charlotte our youngest, she's been going through a phase where she's just screaming and yelling and middle of the night, hooting and hollering the whole thing, right? She just turned two. So it's just a little phase and it's made sleep difficult on and off this week. But I had some of the weirdest dreams two nights ago. I had these dreams that I slept through the show. I showed up here at about 730 and John and Mark were totally unfazed. And I'm like, what have you guys been doing for an hour and a half? And they're like, Oh, we were fine. We, we, we, we, you know, we got something on the air. I'm like, no one called me. I just slept through my alarm. At least, at least the Royals were calling up their teammate and his parents looking for the guy. I had this dream and I'm like, do you guys not care that I'm not here? I mean, what's going on? I remember feeling insulted that I slept through my alarm in this dream and John and Mark didn't bother to call me or text me. They were like, we're okay. I would have called. Thank you in real life. That's very nice of you. I appreciate that. So Carter Jensen learned a story yesterday. He learned that he needs to be setting multiple alarms, making sure you know, I don't set one alarm, maybe set 34, you know, as many as, as many as possible. So, you know, moving forward, that's, that's what I'm going to do. Remember, you don't set a million alarms, make sure I'm up. So, yeah, it stinks. So that's a good idea, Carter. Set a couple of alarms. How many alarms you guys got? You know, I only do one. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. One. What? You got, I got four. You got one. You guys each have one alarm? Yeah. I've only, I think it was the second week I worked here. I set my alarm for PM instead of AM. I don't know if you even remember that. No, but I got here, like right at six o'clock, because my brain broke, woke me up. But I let you guys know, hey, I'm coming in late. Oh, I did not know that. No, I don't remember that, Mark. So clearly we were unfazed by the whole thing. Yeah, worked out fine. Now I've got three alarms on my phone that go off. And then I have one on an Alexa device. So there's two different devices, three on one, one on the other, as a backup, just in case God forbid something happens to one of the devices. The other one will pick it up. You know, I've been doing this for a long time. And so it's actually worse was worse for me when I worked midnight to six and trying to sleep because you try to have a social life and then trying to make yourself go to sleep never works. Now I'll wake up Saturday at the time I wake up two or three, I may be not off, but I'll get up by four. Yeah. Just to enjoy not having to go to work. Oh, that's great. You know, it was interesting. A video popped up from spring training where they asked each player how many alarms they set really and Carter Jensen was the last one in the video and he said six to eight alarms. Oh, he was a lion. He's like, he's like, yeah, I don't wake up to alarms basically. Wow. Yeah, it was kind of a bad look. Oh, that's terrible, man. You don't wake up to alarm. You don't wake up to a phone either. Yeah, I have radio late stories for you if we have time. Oh my gosh, we'll have time at some point. It's a Friday morning. Let's we'll keep it light here on KCMO. That is brutal. Absolutely brutal for Carter Jensen. And let's be honest. What time did he have to be at the ballpark like nine o'clock maybe? That's what I was wondering too. It's a 110 start. I mean, come on, dude. Maybe maybe nine 30 or 10 o'clock. You slept like I get it when you're 22, you can sleep. Although that was my first time doing early morning radio. I guess I was 20 or 21 doing early morning radio interning at ESPN when I was at Villanova. And I did a morning shift and I remember being scared to death that I was going to miss it and also just waking up at I think it was five o'clock and in there by six and go. Generally, that's what happens. I think you're really uber focused. And here's the thing. If you're going to make it to the major leagues, you have to be so dialed in so focused for your entire life to sleep through the alarm when by the way, it's not like you weren't planning to play that day. That was your day. Like that's what you're supposed to shine, man. What are you doing? Unbelievable. So Carter Jensen just getting absolutely roasted. The New York Post has this, by the way, as one of its top stories. Here's the New York Post website. Third story down at the New York Post website. MLB rookie removed from starting lineup after shocking oversight. The first line of the New York Post column here, you snooze, you lose. There you go. Ripping on Carter Jensen right here in Kansas City. Oh man. The twins Twitter or X made a post last night around midnight and said, don't forget to set your alarms for tomorrow. So you brighten early because it's their home. They've been on the road the entire season. So it's their home opener. So they have like 10 alarms set. Oh, that is so good. That is so good. You know what? Have some fun with them, man. I told them it was bullying. Oh, MLB. I tagged MLB. I said, this is bullying. Mark, what do you want to be? A DEI coordinator? Come on. Stop. Have some fun with it. All right. Lighten up. Lighten up. Geez. I wonder if you'll hear about it when you go to Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park this year. Yeah, you know, he might get some. He might get some when he goes over. Oh, that's funny. That is really funny. Wow. Well, what's not funny this morning is what's continuing to happen to gas prices. We are up to 112 bucks a barrel this morning. As the numbers have been going up really since, I guess it was the speech a couple of nights ago is when they spiked from 98 bucks a barrel all the way up to $104 a barrel. And now we are up to $112 a barrel. But let me tell you something else that's bothering me here. I saw this story early this morning that airlines are now considering raising their checked bag fees. So maybe you were just coming from spring training. Maybe you were enjoying spring break. You were watching the Royals. Carter Jensen actually, you know, was showing up back then. JetBlue is raising its checked bag fees at least $4. United also is increasing its bag fees for the first time in a couple of years. And the headlines always read, airline raises checked bag fees as fuel prices soar. And you know, I see it from CNBC. I see the Hill.com same headline. JetBlue raises checked baggage fees amid soaring fuel prices. And I'm like, hold on a second here. So are you telling me that if this war in Iran ends in the next month and prices go back down, they're going to lower their check bag fees? Oh, so it's not really about oil prices. I mean, they'll say it is. But why is the media carrying the water of the oil companies? Or excuse me, of the airline companies? Why are you doing that? They're raising their baggage fees. They're using oil prices as a convenient excuse to raise their bag fees. Okay, because they're also raising ticket prices to make up for fuel costs. So don't sit here and tell me that, oh, you know, we're raising our prices because of the war. Let's just use this as something else to, you know, slap Trump around for. But the media, they want to make it all about Trump, right? Like, that's their goal in everything. So if they can put the baggage fees at the feet of Donald Trump, and the airline companies are doing it, no one full well, the media is going to play their game because they just want to, you know, make Trump look bad. That's how you end up with these headlines. The reality is they're raising their baggage fees. And now is the time they can do it to conveniently try to make more money while blaming the war. If oil goes back down to 70 bucks a barrel, do you think that JetBlue or United or any of them are going to have headlines reading, we're lowering our baggage fees because oil prices are down? No, they're not going to do that. Of course, they're not going to do that. And I'm not saying they can't raise their baggage fees, although doing anything right now to make air travel less appealing or more expensive, it seems like your timing could not be worse based on what this country has been through. I mean, you know, we used to be a decent country when it comes to air travel. Now you might as well ride the New York City subway and get peed on. You're better off doing that than you are going to an airport these days. That's how bad it's become in some cases. So there's nothing about it that's appealing. It's getting more expensive than ever before. But spare me the whole, we're raising our bag fees because of fuel prices. If that was the case, you guys would have been rising or increasing those baggage rates and fees astronomically from 2022 to 2023 into early 2024. But you chose not to do that. So just admit what's really going on here. You want to make more money. Fine. That's capitalism. But don't tell me it's about the fuel costs, please. Because when they come back down and I believe that they will, you're not lowering those baggage fees. 913-408-7957. That's how you join us on KCMO Talk Radio 957 FM. We got a lot to get to here on a Friday, including one side of our state line making a major mistake and being very petty about it. We'll tell you what that is coming up next. This is a big mistake in Missouri. I don't know why the state feels the need to be this petty about things when it comes to the chiefs and the royals. But you know, I guess for some people they just can't help themselves. That's all I keep coming back to. They just cannot help them themselves. But this feels completely unnecessary. So the Missouri House proposes cutting funding for the chiefs. But here's the problem. This would also hit the royals. The Missouri House's proposed budget, they're going through the budget process right now on both sides of the state line, proposed stripping $2 million from the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority because the chiefs have announced they're moving across the state line. The state historically has provided $3 million to the Sports Authority for maintenance of Arrowhead and Kaufman Stadiums. Local state rep Mike Steinmeier out of Sugar Creek said the reallocation would right size spending in light of the chiefs planned departure. Steinmeier says here to the Kansas City Star with the chiefs planning to leave the state by 2031. It's appropriate that our funding reflects that reality. Now the $2 million would be redirected to the Independence Fire Department for a program to coordinate responses between firefighters, mental health professionals, and social workers. So you're not even really doing this in an effort to right size the budget. You're just giving the money to somebody else. That's what you're doing. You're taking the money from the Sports Authority and you're giving it to the Independence Fire Department for some program, which, listen, support the first responders absolutely, but it's not like this is even about, hey, we got to tighten up the budget. This is all about petty politics. That's what it is. That's the name of the game here. It's petty politics. You know, and here's the reality. As much as I have been highly critical, there's nobody in the town who's been more critical of this deal with the chiefs going to Kansas than me. That being the case, you know, you agreed to a deal, you get in the bed with the sports teams, and this is part of how it goes. Okay? Missouri, from a statewide leadership level down to a local leadership level, did not do a good job during the entire process. And yesterday was the two-year anniversary of the vote that went down in flames in Jackson County. Can you believe it? Two years. Wow. And it's really not on my key hoe. I mean, Governor Parsons was totally brain dead on this whole thing. I mean, he was dragging his feet like none other. Oh, you know, I got to wait for the teams. He was totally clueless throughout the entire process. Nice man. Okay, Governor. And he was way out over his skis when it came to the sports teams. And then key hoe gets in there. He's trying to save it last minute. Phil Levota gets in there after Frank White for Jackson County. He's trying to save it last minute. I believe if key hoe and Levota were in charge earlier in the process for the state and the county, these teams or at least the chiefs would have not left the Truman sports complex. But the political incompetency and the inability of anybody to be a decent leader in the process on the political side is part of what drove the chiefs into the arms of Kansas. Along with the fact that, you know, Kansas just offered up the stupidest deal in American pro sports history. And that's just not an opinion. I mean, that's being basically believed all around the country for people who look at these deals. It's unbelievable. So now if you're Missouri, do you just kind of cut the bait? Because by the way, there is a slight chance. Like I'm talking 1%, maybe less than 1%, but you never say never to something potentially falling through on the Kansas side of the state line. We still don't know what the banks are going to make of the star bonds of this size. That's right now being analyzed by the bond guys and gals at Bank of America who are handling this. Now, what I believe is going to end up happening is if the banks come out and they say, hey, these bonds are junk, the state is going to back the bonds. That will happen. That's my prediction of what's going to happen if the banks come back and say these things are totally worthless and unreliable and you just can't justify the money here. So the state's got to back the bonds. That's what I think will end up happening next year after the election in Kansas. The politicians will just say, fine, the state will back the bonds and none of them will have to get reelected for at least a couple of years. So they're just going to do it. But there's always that slight chance. I'm not trying to give anybody hope. Okay. I'm not giving anyone false hope here. I'm just saying there's always that one in a hundred, one in 200, whatever it is, chance that maybe the whole thing falls apart. And if you're Missouri, why would you do that to save a couple, not even save a couple million dollars? Just redirect a couple million dollars. What's it really worth to you? If it was a couple billion dollars or something and it's real money, okay, fine. But this is chump change. This is a rounding error to prove to the chiefs what I'm a man at them. I'll show them with two million dollars. I mean, Clark Hunt, yeah, Guy wipes his rear end with two million dollars. Really? You think you're going to stick it to Clark Hunt? Like this? It just looks like amateur hour in Missouri. That's all it does. It looks like complete amateur hour. So the amended budget would still need to make it through the Senate and then be signed by Governor Kehoe. I don't think it's actually going to make it that far, but it looks very petty from the Missouri House. And while I don't think it's going anywhere, I do think it is just worth touching on here for a couple of minutes. 913-408-7957. And Mayor Lucas responded to this as well. He thought he, I don't even know why the mayor bothered. I mean, he knows that this thing is probably not going to go anywhere, but he felt the need to put out a statement saying the chiefs are our partners today and will be for decades to come, particularly as major events hosted wherever the chiefs may play will provide substantial benefits to Missouri and Missouri based institutions like our convention center and airport, downtown, and other commercial districts and the many hotels throughout our city. Cutting funds to spite a still Missouri based franchise and short changing altogether hurts Missouri employees, contractors, and residents. That's the right statement, but he knows as well as we do, it's probably not going anywhere. Am I like the only radio host not running for office around here? My goodness, we got more. We got more. Yeah, not only Stigall, but more, John. Yeah, I'm up for Grandview Dog Catcher. Well, you got my vote. I'll put a sign up not that I could even vote for you, but you know what? You got my vote, John. I am endorsing John Anthony for Grandview Dog Catcher. So we have Chris Stigall running up in the Northland now, Missouri's sixth congressional district against Nathan Willett, of course, a longtime host here on KCMO Talk Radio. And we had a guy named Hartzell, also known as Fartzell. He is running in Missouri's fourth congressional district against Mark Alford as a Democrat. Now he's running in the anti-Semitic lane is what you would say. He used to work at KCUR and Mark worked with them at wasn't he at one of the the Alt Rock station? Yeah, when it was 96 five, the buzz. All right. Our thing. So he worked there with you for a hot minute. You want to endorse him? Probably not this time. Okay, that's the right answer. He's nice. But yeah, he has some different ideas. I'm gonna say no, I met him at the July 4 thing down at World War One last year. He told me he was thinking about it. I mean, very nice guy. Policies are nuts, but seemed like a very nice guy. And then we just found out yesterday that former Kansas City radio host, would we call him a shock jock? Would he fall under that? Randy Miller. You know, it was fun. I worked with him back at ZZ 99 me him and Officer Gil. So we had a good time. I don't know that it was shocking. Randy's just had his boundaries are a little further out. Yeah, the people. Well, and that's when the boundaries were allowed to be further out there before the legal department's got involved and try to stamp out fun in this business. Yes. So we all have former co workers in the race because Keith's been worked with Alford. That's right. That's right. I'm like crazy. That is pretty wild. So Randy Miller, long time radio host in Kansas City announced yesterday that he had filed to run in the fourth congressional district as a Democrat against Mark Alford. But he's got to beat Hartzell first in the primary. So you have two former radio hosts in Kansas City. This guy Hartzell, who worked in public radio and at the buzz, which is now a defunct radio station versus Randy Miller for the right to go up against Mark Alford. So it's Kansas City media unites in the fourth congressional district. Randy Miller announcing yesterday in this launch video he's in. Hey, my name is Randy Miller. And as of today, I'm declaring my candidacy for the United States Congress as your representative of the fourth district of Missouri, running as a common sense Democrat. Now, I've never run for office before. And clearly, I'm not a politician. You know what I am. I've been radio all my life. I did crazy morning shows around the country. And then for the last 15 years, I've entertained the troops with the nationally syndicated weekly show called National Defense Network, which is dedicated to our active duty military, our veterans and their families. You know, you might be wondering what a common sense Democrat is. Okay, I'll give you an example. You know, it's funny when you host a morning radio show, listeners come to know you and know you so well that they feel comfortable with asking you to help. And I love to help. So we had a regular segment on the show called Neighbors in Need. Really complicated. People called in with their needs and other people called in to fill those needs. Now, the station didn't love it because it took time away from playing commercials. But I just never been too good with authority figures. I see this is getting stupid. I'm a minute in and I don't know what I don't know what Randy's doing. I'm hearing an old radio story. Well, I don't get it. Like I don't get it. I don't understand it. Tell me right away. Okay, common sense Democrat, what does that mean? I'm a minute and 20 seconds into the video. And Randy should know better as a radio guy. Get to your damn point. What is this? Like I actually think that it's great that there are people who are not crazy left-wing Democrats running in the Democrat Party. I think that's a good thing for the party. So I don't care either way that he's in. I think it's good. Frankly, it's good for me that there's more people wanting to run for office. I just don't get what this video is trying to achieve. Where are we going here with this? Randy, let's go. But I really do love helping people and I love people helping each other despite what their differences are. Listen, we raise money for the mayor's Christmas tree every year and we even gave away cars every December. We also gave away and delivered free hot pizzas. But only if you answered your door completely naked. That's a different part of the show. I'm a minute and a half in and all I know about Randy Miller is he calls himself a common sense Democrat. He hosted radio shows and he likes to give pizza to people who are nude at the front door. What? He likes giving away free stuff. Yeah. I mean, that is good for the Democrat Party. They love giving away free stuff. That's true. There's kind of a tenant of the party. But what? Like there's time for the radio stories. I get it. I get it. I know what he's going for here. But this isn't it. You know, back then people could take a joke. Come on. Remember that? Ah, the people that helped each other despite what their differences were. But somehow along the way, we lost that. We got cynical and sensitive, divisive and distant. But I believe we can get that back. I want to shake things up for my friends and neighbors in the fourth district. My wife Renee and I live on a horse ranch and we know a lot of farmers right now that are struggling. High prices on fertilizer and fuel means they're losing money on every crop this year. Talk about neighbors in need. Listen, I don't pretend to know what everybody in the fourth district needs, but I know the things they don't need. They don't need to pay $7 for a dozen eggs. They don't need to pay $4 a gallon for gas and they don't need an ICE detention center. Hey, we're in danger of losing our democracy and our dignity. Don't let it happen. Come along on this journey with me. Let me spread the word in Washington that the fourth district of Missouri will not lay down and take it anymore. And you might just win a free pizza. Hey, by the way, even though it's my favorite holiday, this is not an April Fool's joke. Just go to Randy Miller for Congress.com to find out more. Okay. All right. That's fine. Randy Miller, longtime radio host in Kansas City announcing he's running for Congress, fourth congressional district. He will have a primary and then if he wins that primary, he will go up against Mark Alford. It's nice to hear that there are common sense Democrats who want to run for office. That's great. But you know, when he's talking about, hey, come on, everyone used to be able to take a joke. He's running in a party that literally can't have a sense of humor because they're triggered and offended by everything. In many respects, Democrats killed comedy because you can't offend anybody anymore. And like he's going on about, hey, come on, let's give away some pizzas to naked people. Hey, you know, let's go. Let's take a joke. Like, okay, is this a joke? But no, it's not a joke. It's real. It's crazy. Libby's in Waldo. Hi, Libby. Good morning, Pete. I listened to the whole thing like yourself and the one point that absolutely got me laughing and thinking, oh my God, okay, buddy. He owns a horse ranch. What does that tell you? That tells me as somebody out here, the man has money raising horses and a horse. That's an expensive hobby. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he hit it in the heyday of radio. So he did very well and I'm very happy for him that he did. But yeah, listen, there's nothing wrong with being well, you know, having some money and doing what you want. I mean, let's be honest, most people who run for office, it's a hobby because they have the money to do it. You know, I would love to run as mayor in the city. I really would. I wish I had the nerve. I do have the nerve, but I don't have the money. I don't have any way of doing it, but I'd love to run as mayor in this city. I already have a great line and everything. I think it'd be kind of fun. I think I could get the votes. I think you should give it a shot there, Libby. You have a great weekend. Okay. You too. All right. See you later. Kevin, you're on KCMO. Go ahead. Hey, Pete. Yeah, it was crazy how he's all this radio stories, but he first starts out with common sense Democrats like, well, that's an oxymoron for one. And then he follows it up at the end with, talk about no ice, depictions, and there's high price of eggs and gas, all the, some of the talking points that they hit Trump on all the time. So it's like, yep, same old, same old. Well, it's weird too, because he's talking about how fertilizer and gas prices are up. And that's just been like the last two weeks. So did he decide two weeks ago that when gas prices started going up, he was going to run for office? Like that was literally a thing as of 14 days ago. Yeah, I know. That's a good question. I don't know. But yeah, it's at first it's like, no, and then all is crazy. I mean, I remember when he was on the radio and all the stuff he did, but yeah, then when he finishes up with those, you know, typical talking points, it's like, yeah, here we go again. Yeah. Well, you know, and someone might want to tell him too, the latest numbers suggest that a dozen of eggs, national average retail price about 250 not seven bucks. So, you know, it just, listen, I'm not saying prices have not gotten kind of silly, but if you were going to use the $7 for eggs, that was like totally last year. Yeah. I mean, to hit all the orange man bad crap is to, I guess, to get them the blessing from the DNC or whatever. Yeah. But the reality is, you know, Mark Alford's in a pretty safe seat. So I don't know. I don't know if people are bored or what's going on. Have a great weekend, Kev. Thanks. All right. See you man. Mike in Kansas City, go. Yeah, you can't be a common sense Democrat because look what they're doing a Federman. And what's going to happen is the puppet masters of the Democrat party will primary anybody that's not going to radical line out. You know, I mean, look at Schumer. I mean Schumer is terrified that he's going to be primary. You know, if even remotely disagrees with the, you know, the puppet masters, yeah, I mean, the Democrat party needs a reformation. Yeah, they do. And they need more. I mean, I would, I would welcome them to move to the center, but like Randy Miller can't single handedly do it. Now, and again, he's finding the establishment. What you got, what's seven people that are funding the party and it's what those seven people want is guiding everything. That's why they're so radical, but they, they what they threw three and a half billion dollars in the no Kings rally last weekend. You know, how many people you think would have gone to it if they didn't have to that three and a half billion dollars in there, you know, they got the money and they've got the will and that's what you know, money talks. Yep, it does. Thank you, Mike. Have a great weekend. 913-408-7957. So three radio guys running for Congress in Missouri, the latest one being Randy Miller joining Krista Gallup North and Hartzell Gray, also in the fourth congressional district. How about that? Go figure. We've already got things heating up in Jackson County. How about that? 704 Happy Friday. We made it. We did not sleep through our alarms here on KCMO talk radio. And like Carter Jensen, Royals backup catcher who just didn't wake up yesterday for the game. He was supposed to start in the lineup in place of Salvador Perez and he slept through his alarm. It's unbelievable. Feels like everybody sports fans at least around town today are probably setting three, four, five alarms making sure they're not missing work. Well, hopefully that starts with you, Mark. I found out that Mark and John only set one alarm each, which is crazy to me. I have four alarms. I mean, I have a baby and dogs too. So I get woken up many times during the night. Well, I understand that feeling. We're on the same page there, but still man, you can't rely on them. All right. I got the Alexa. I got three on my phone. Carter Jensen should, you know, learn from us early morning radio guys and had it not sleep in. But anyway, in Jackson County, you already have some juice in the executive race. And if you're in Lee's summit ahead of your mayor's race coming up on Tuesday, this is going to be very interesting and something that you should keep a close eye on here. So Phil LaVota is right now the interim County executive, right? And he filed that the last minute this week because the deadline was Tuesday to file to run for office in Missouri. He decided he was going to run for office in Missouri as Jackson County executive on a permanent basis. This despite the fact, when he took the job on an interim basis, he came out and he said, Hey, you know, I'm only going to do this through 2026 and then I'll be done. I will not seek the office full time. He changed his tune. Some people claim that that means he's a liar who can't be trusted. I look at it and I see a guy who is, I mean, he's not, he's not old. My point is he's lived a full life. He's lived a full career. He was retired. This is not some launching pad for Phil LaVota to be like governor of Missouri or something like that. This is a guy who helped his county out in the wake of the Frank White disaster. And you know, I think he's done a pretty darn good job at that. So now he's running for the full time position. But one of the guys he's running against is the current Lee Summit Mayor, Bill Baird. And these guys have had a war of words over the last 24 hours or so. So Phil LaVota put out a statement yesterday and he said here in part, when Bill Baird tried to make some political points and questioned my integrity and honesty, I want to share one of the reasons when I changed from not intending to run to actually filing to run. So Phil LaVota says a few weeks ago on March 11th of 2026. So, you know, three weeks ago now, which I actually bumped into Phil when was that? It was March the 6th. It was four weeks ago tonight. I bumped into him downtown. Kate and I were out and we just bumped into Phil and we had a conversation and he talked about potentially wanting to run for the position full time. And you know, I said, listen, I think you're doing a competent job. And I wouldn't worry. I mean, this is what I told him. I said, I wouldn't worry about the fact that you signed the pledge. Okay, things change, situations change. And if you're doing a good job and the people think you're doing a good job, then you know what? Let them have a chance to vote for you. And if they are offended by the fact that you signed the pledge and then announced you're going to run for the position full time, they'll let you know at the voting booth. That's that was kind of my two cents to him. I don't think I've told that story yet on the air. But anyway, on March 11th, Baird asked Phil Levoda, this is from Phil Levoda, to attend a meeting with himself and other mayors in Raytown. At the meeting, after a whiteboard presentation, Levoda says that the least summit mayor asked him, Phil Levoda, to implement a policy to raise assessments immediately and increase property taxes for Jackson County taxpayers to not issue tax credits. Levoda says in the statement, he was shocked. He adds, hereafter, I've spent the last five months lowering assessments and taxes for Jackson County. I was flabbergasted and thought that Bill Baird, the least summit mayor was joking, but he was not. He was actually advocating for me to raise taxes and assessments because when taxpayers paid lower taxes, the taxing jurisdictions got less and he actually wanted me to raise taxes on Jackson County taxpayers. I continued to say that I would not be a part of this in any fashion as the reason I was in office was to lower taxes, not raise them. After the meeting, I was still so confused, but then I realized, writes Phil Levoda, that Bill Baird has made a lucrative career in public and private life, helping developers make money at the expense of taxpayers. So it made sense. But I set it aside because I knew I would not be part of that scheme to raise taxes. It was not until I saw that Bill Baird had actually filed to run for Jackson County executive that my red flags went up. I knew he had already openly shown to me and many others that his goal was to raise your taxes. I'm running to protect taxpayers because a Bill Baird County executive has openly said he will raise your taxes, writes Phil Levoda. He advocated for me to raise them. And when I said no, he decided to run himself so he could raise your taxes. That is part of the statement from Jackson County executive Phil Levoda. Now, right now, that's kind of a he said, he said, I don't know what happened in that situation. But you also have this Lee Summit Mayor's race coming up. And Bill Baird is the current mayor. He obviously has shown his support as the two term Mayor of Lee Summit. The for a guy named Beto Lopez, who, you know, is running and was on the show earlier this week. And she is running against Cindy Raider, who was on Keatsman show a couple of weeks ago. You can find both of those interviews on this podcast or on Keatsman's podcast. If you want to listen to that, if you're a Lee Summit resident. But one of the issues in Lee Summit has been one of the issues we've dealt with around the Metro, which is tied to developers taking advantage of city councils and doing whatever they damn well please. It's a problem in Lee Summit, not as bad as Overland Park or Lathar or Lenexa, but it's it's getting worse. So what do you want and who do you want to be in charge of your city if you're out there in Lee Summit? Do you want and this is not me, you know, I have not done enough to know exactly where this race is going to go. But it's pretty clear to me in talking to Beto Lopez the other day. Seemed like a nice guy, but he seemed more open to the idea of an apartment driven Lee Summit than does Cindy Raider, who has made it clear that slowing down the apartment build is a goal of hers. So it is another example here in the Metro, even if you're not a Lee Summit resident, of at least watching to see what happens coming up on Tuesday in Lee Summit, where you're going to have another major municipality make a decision on a city leadership in part based on what has become the suburban issue of our time. And that is how many apartments are too many apartments. How does it change the neighborhood? How does it change the feel of the community? Like there's we were out there a couple of weeks ago in Lee Summit at Conrats for Keatsman shows. They were it's fantastic. The downtown is beautiful. It's quaint. It's it's got a great feel. I mean, everyone out there knows it. How much do you want that to change? Do you want to be overland park light? Maybe you do. Maybe that's what people want. But they'll have a chance to vote on Tuesday and I'll be curious to see what that turnout looks like on Tuesday as well in Lee Summit because it probably won't be on a lot of people's minds, even though it should be. All right, looking at these numbers here in real time jobs reports, jobs report just coming out here. So unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3% from 4.4%. The expectation was for 4.5%. Big time increase in private payrolls. Jobs numbers increasing 186,000 in private payrolls for the month of March. The expectations were for 73,000. So more than double what the expectations were. Non farm payrolls up 178,000 jobs in March. The expectations there were 60,000. So those are some good numbers. But like anything else, you know, they're so bad at projecting this stuff now. Labor force participation rate 61.9%. It was previously 62.0%. So listen, some good signs here. You can't take it away from the jobs report. Question is how accurate are they? Right? Are they are they readjusting these things in six months? I don't know. That's what's obviously happened far too often on these things. But just the headline news here unemployment rate ticks down, comes in below expectations 4.3%. On top of that, you also have the number that came out on private jobs pushing 200,000 when the expectation was for 78,000. So a good number there. This marks the biggest monthly job addition since March of 2025. This is a much stronger jobs report than what was expected in the middle of a war. Yeah, like those private numbers. Yeah, employment. That's fantastic. We should be getting to the end of shedding some of these public jobs. Yes. Well, you know, keep going as far as I'm concerned. Don't stop. Don't slow down. But yeah, I would imagine if nothing else, John, the pace at which they're shedding those jobs will start to slow to your point. So this is a big upside surprise. US job growth came in far stronger than expected, which signals more resilience in the labor market. Hopefully this will ease recession fears, but it also should keep some pressure on the Fed to stay cautious on rate cuts. Don't just start cutting rates because you're like, oh, we're in a war. Things are softening. We got to cut interest rates. Not yet, not necessarily. If the labor market holds up, that's a very good sign. That's a big positive. And when you have numbers come in like this, you know, that's fantastic. The question is, is there some kind of major revision? But you know, you're not going to see the market react today because, of course, it's good Friday. So the markets are closed today. So that's just something to watch. I mean, futures aren't going to really do anything right now either. At least I haven't seen them do anything. So they're just going to be sitting down and kind of hanging tight until Monday. But between now and Monday, you could have like four news cycles between now and Monday. The jobs report from this morning could mean absolutely nothing come Monday morning. The war is going to have a much bigger impact. And we just got this post on truth social 10 minutes ago from the president of the United States. He says here with a little more time, we can easily open up the Hormuz Strait, take the oil and make a fortune. It would be a gusher for the world. President Donald J Trump. So that comes a few hours after the president said we're going to start striking Iranian bridges next and then the electric power plants. So you know, once again, like I said, we're six news cycles away from Monday morning. Yeah, but there's somebody going, Yeah, I'm getting the Lambo Monday morning. I'm going out. Let's go, baby. Oh my goodness. All right. So that's where that's where things are at right now. In the wake of this jobs report that just came out this morning. I'll take a look at where exactly these jobs were from. Because that matters too, in terms of like what sectors ended up adding jobs. I like to kind of look into that and see what the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually says about where the growth is in these jobs numbers. So I try to do that. They just dropped at 7 30 this morning. Okay, here we go. I've got them right in front of me here from the BLS.gov. That's Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare adding 76,000 jobs, employment in other healthcare services rose by 54,000, reflecting an increase of 35,000 in offices of physicians as workers returned from a strike. Employment also increased in hospitals 15,000. So that's where that number came from. Employment in construction grew by 26,000 in March. Transportation and warehousing added 21,000 jobs. Social assistance up 14,000. Federal government employment continued to decline in March by 18,000. How about this? Since reaching a peak in October of 2024, right before the election, federal government employment is down by 355,000 jobs. Holy smokes. 355,000 federal government jobs have been shed since October of 2024 or just shy of 12% of the entire federal workforce. That's a monster number. Boy, who is it? Chris Matthews, who said that Obama gave him a tingle up his leg. That gives me a tingle up my leg right there. That's what I get when I see a number like that. That's outstanding. You know, if we had that many people employed with the government, I would expect our interstates and roadways to be a little clean. Yeah, well, geez. Right? And has anyone noticed any, have any of your services, if you use the federal government for something, have you noticed a decline in any of your services since we got rid of four and a half Arrowhead stadiums of employees? I didn't think so. So there you go. Okay. Those are some of the numbers as that breaking news is just from 10 minutes ago. Jobs numbers come out exceeding expectations by a wide margin. So, did you see this in St. Louis yesterday? My Mets are playing the Cardinals this week over there in St. Louis. And the Mets broadcast and crew just, I mean, they just laid it on St. Louis. You know, baseball is a very casual broadcast, right? You're kind of storytelling and just having a conversation and then like, Oh, there's a ball outside. Like that's just how a baseball broadcast goes, which is great. That's why you love the sounds of baseball, the sounds of baseball and the sounds of golf. There's just, there's nothing like them because of the pacing of these two sports. So a good baseball crew is kind of having a conversation about, you know, like when the Mets were in Kansas City last year, they're talking about going to Joe's barbecue and the great barbecue and how great Kansas City is. Well, the Mets were in St. Louis this week and they went viral for their broadcast team. Just talking about how St. Louis is a total ghost town. Take a listen. The only thing missing from that picture as is often missing from every picture we show of downtown St. Louis. No people. No people. Well, you know, they wanted to look picturesque. You could see a car driving by on the right. That's the only sign of life, but there's never anybody walking around. No, there is not. It's not very often you're right. It's like, remember the old neutron bomb that would knock down buildings, but just would eliminate all the people. It's like one of those hits St. Louis. I guess it's just a photo op. People then running high so they're not in the photo. So naturally, there were many in St. Louis who took offense to that. Now the Cardinals won the series, so they got the last laugh. But you know, some people are saying, oh, yeah, well, you know, New York's a dump too. Yeah, they're not saying it isn't. I don't think anyone, you know, you could take plenty of shots at New York right now with Mum Donnie and the setup of that city. But to me, you know, I always I'm always intrigued by how baseball broadcasters talk about another city because it's not like football or basketball or hockey where you show up for the game that night and then you leave like you typically will spend two or three days in that city, right? So you're waking up there, you're getting breakfast, you might be getting lunch before the ball game, and then you do it again the next day. So you really get a feel for the city as a baseball broadcaster. I don't perceive that as like, wow, they're really trashed in St. Louis. I mean, they are, but I think they're doing it and kind of like a boy, this is sad, you know, I mean, and the reality is, I mean, we've talked about it. St. Louis has a major problem. I think it's now the number two city in the state of Missouri with all the issues St. Louis has had its crime is worse than Kansas City. There have been multiple national pieces written about how you can buy commercial property at like a dollar a square foot in downtown St. Louis because the buildings are totally empty. It has been completely hollowed out downtown. You can't go outside a Bush Stadium. I mean, unless you stay in that ballpark village, no one's walking around there at night. We've had stories over the last couple of years, former governor Eric Reitens, when he was running for Senate was like getting in the middle of gunfights in the middle of the street at like seven o'clock at night in the summertime when it's broad daylight. We've got problems in Kansas City, but St. Louis says, hold my beer. We've got you topped, especially when it comes to downtown issues. Two weeks ago when they had the NCAA tournament down there, Mizzou was playing, right? And what happened? The mayor of St. Louis put out a curfew on those under the age of 18 for Friday, Saturday and Sunday night when the NCAA tournament was happening that weekend. And they said that they were going to be arresting anybody who was not with an adult under the age of 18 during that NCAA tournament weekend because they have such a problem when it comes to crime in that downtown hub. And that's that's sad. But don't be mad at the broadcasters just acknowledging it. They're not saying that their town doesn't have problems. They're saying, Hey, this used to be, you know, the gateway to the West. And now middle of the day, you got nobody walking around downtown and you got commercial property that they're trying to give away in St. Louis. So I don't think here in Kansas City, I'm sure, you know, most of us really care that somebody wants to rip on St. Louis. But it really is telling for the state of Missouri that it's once crown jewel is a shell of what it used to be. And that people are now noticing that's that's my only read on it there, John. I'm with you there and the problem like I remember when St. Louis would be a regional headquarters for you know, Southwestern Bell, but consolidations kind of hollowed out the downtown and stuff. And you've got to reinvent yourself, if you will. Yes, to it. I think Kansas City is doing okay, at least relatively speaking, certainly compared to them. I would totally agree. And we talked about whether or not the Royal should be downtown, how safe is that going to be? It's not even close. It's not even close. I mean, yeah, we certainly have our problems. We talk about them plenty of times. But I'll tell you right now, I'd much rather have our problems than St. Louis's problems. It's kind of like when you go to college, the professor tells you the ideal, but then there's the practical application of reality once you get out there, right? We're all in love with the idea of downtown baseball, but the practical application is on display in St. Louis. No doubt about it, man. No doubt about it. 913-408-7957. That's how you join us on KCMO Talk Radio 957 FM. We are streaming as always on the KCMO Talk Radio app. TMZ has done a really good job of highlighting some of the members of Congress who are just out galavanting, enjoying vacation. Half of them are in like Scotland hanging out at a castle. Literally, they've got three dozen, almost three dozen members of Congress who ended up at a Scotland castle during their Easter break. So it must be nice while, of course, regular people are getting totally hosed. You still have a partial shutdown of DHS. You got members of Congress overseas having a grand old time. So TMZ has took it into their own hands to go out there and expose some of this. And they've said to people, hey, if you're like around the world and you see members of Congress, just let us know. We'll expose them. Now, they're not saying bother people, but hey, if you're a public figure, let's be honest. Half of these members of Congress run because they want to be famous. All right? That's it. People who are rich want to be famous. If they're not known and the quickest way for them to be known, there's two ways to do it. One is to own a sports team, but that is now unfortunately, unfortunately, I don't much care. But you have to have many, many billions of dollars if you want to own a sports team now. So if you're not that rich, but you're still really rich and you want to be famous, the quickest way to do it is to run for political office. And that also gets you power, right? I'm not saying that these are the things that people should want in life, especially as we sit here on a good Friday, but sadly, it is. People who are wealthy are then motivated by power or fame. People who have power are then motivated by wealth or fame. And those three things, once again, not good, not healthy, but in too many cases are what drive too many people. And politics is a quick way to become kind of somebody and become somewhat famous. So if that's what they want, then you know what? You can live that paparazzi style life and TMZ is exposing you. And I don't mind them doing this. No one's getting hurt in the process. They're just saying, hey, these guys of gals, members of Congress are out there living their best life while regular people still are not getting paid. The one thing I did not like is they gave Jared Moskowitz a hard time yesterday. He is a Democrat congressman. He's from, I don't know where he's from, Florida. And they wrote a piece on Jared Moskowitz at his son's basketball game this week, as federal workers were obviously, you know, not being able to pay their bills. So they note here, the representative from Florida was the timekeeper at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Florida, as his 12 year old son played basketball against another team. Now, of all the guys that we're going to knock or gals, we're going to knock, I'm not going to put the guy who's playing timekeeper at his 12 year old son's basketball game on that list. All right, I'm not going to do that. It's a little doxing too. Well, I mean, the whole thing is doxing, which I don't mind when you're a public figure in a public space. I really don't. I mean, you're in Congress. Okay, this comes with the territory. Not saying you should hurt anybody or harass anybody, but you know, you can have your picture taken. That's part of how it goes. It's community service if you're helping the youth league. Well, yes. And it's his own kid. So, you know, if more of these members of Congress just played mom and dad, we'd all, they'd be better off. Kids would be better off. We'd all be better off. I would say keep the kids out of it if you're the media though. Well, yeah, no, no, no, there's no picture of the kid. There's no picture of the kid. That's a fair question, Mark. It's just him sitting there. Can you guys see my screen air? He's just sitting there kind of punching the clock. You know, so you can't see any. Yeah, you've got one job. He's sitting there with a little bubbly drink. He's got his keys on the table. Outdoors in Florida. You can see the scoreboard in the back. There's no kids in the picture. He's just their playing timekeeper. I don't, I don't have any issue with that whatsoever. Okay. If you're going to do something on your spare time as a member of Congress, timekeeper for your kid is nowhere close to my list of bothersome. It's almost like being in a suite at the Lakers game. Yeah, not even the or like Lindsey Graham gallivanting around Disney World. I mean, the strangest thing you'll ever see, right? Like those things are so much further up the list. You've got this other guy, Representative Robert Garcia, who's hitting up casino bars in Vegas. There were multiple members of Congress, as I noted, at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, John McGuire, David Rosier and Derek Van Orden. And you know what? That's the kind of stuff that should be exposed. You're hanging out at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland while DHS has people not getting paid while people are sleeping in their cars. You got a problem. Guys, part of his kid's basketball game. Come on. I don't need that. But speaking of TMZ, they got the Tiger Woods DUI video. You see this yesterday? Oh man. He was talking to the president. Yeah. Oh, this is take a listen to Tiger Woods. He's walking away from his car crash from last week, right? And he's walking down the street. He's got sunglasses on, hat, and the cops like, Hey, come on down here, sir. Come on down here and take a listen to what Tiger Woods says. Get you to hang out down here with us, please. I just keep you down here with us, please. Yeah, I was talking to the president. Tiger Woods on his phone says to the cop. Yeah, sorry, I was on the phone with the president. Biggest name drop ever. By the way, do you think he really was or do you think he was just trying to play it off like he was? Now he's dating Tiger Woods or Tiger's dating President Trump's ex daughter-in-law, Don Jr.'s ex-wife. So the whole thing's a little strange. But that is the greatest name drop in the history of car crashes. I'm like, dude, you're high. You're Tiger Woods. Usually people are like, sorry, I got the phone with Tiger Woods. Tiger's saying, I got off the phone with the president of the United States. Oh, that is such a good point. You're Tiger Woods and you're name dropping. And by the way, there's only like a couple of people on the planet Tiger Woods can name drop for it to matter. Right. And one of them happens to be the president of the United States, who's the ex-father-in-law of his girlfriend. Wow. Make it make sense. You need enough to make sure that you aren't in a bad financial position. Once you have that, your salary becomes moot. What matters from that point forward, upside gains, any type of ownership stake or ownership potential, that's the money. Remember, you can afford anything, just not everything. Afford anything. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Vince Collinaze is redefining news talk with The Vince Show. It is a reflection of your response to the president of the United States. It's a reflection of your response to the president of the United States. It's a reflection of your response to the president of the United States. It's a reflection of your response to the president of the United States. It's a reflection of your Vince Collinaze is redefining news talk with The Vince Show. 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