Royals Stadium News Has More Questions Than Answers, Plus World Cup Nonsense Proposals in KC | 4-10-26

Here's what's next방 the day. The grift is real, baby, and it is alive and it is well 604 on a rainy Friday morning. Thanks for starting your day and ending your week with us right here on KCMO talk radio. Not even 48 hours. After polls closed in Kansas City. You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, where you were told, Hey, we don't get this money from you. The city's done. Cities finished. You got no cops. Forget putting out a fire in this town. Forget calling 911. There's no one there. Trash pickup. Come on. No one's got a car. There's no one who's got a car. There's no one who's got a car. That 1% earnings tax. So by a 75% margin, Kansas City did as it continues on, dating back to 1963. And yes, it'll be also paid by those who do not live but work in Kansas City, Missouri. And less than 48 hours after the polls close, to help the new stadium. Now, from day one, I have said what? The teams have a business to run. It is their job to get the deal and the best deal that they can. It is the politicians job to be responsible fiscally on behalf of their taxpayer and look out for their taxpayer and look out for their city. And stop picking winners and losers. And with this ordinance that was introduced yesterday or was announced yesterday by the mayor of Kansas City to help the Royals build a $1.9 billion stadium at Washington Square Park right next to Union Station and Crown Center. There's nothing that convinces me that this is a good deal for the taxpayer of Kansas City. Nothing whatsoever. And I'm going to go ahead and talk about the situation here in Kansas City. Nothing whatsoever. For a city that supposedly is running at a deficit for a city that's crying poor every single chance they can get, they magically have figured out how to fund up to $600 million on a stadium. Please make that make that makes sense because it's not making a lot of sense to me. And I know how you know we all get played. Seriously. I mean, you got the state of Missouri that's going to kick in about 50% on this deal. But I talked to a lot of people in Jeff City yesterday and they're like, uh, we don't know how the math is working. Not clear to us how this is going to work out for Kansas City. And the most telling part of yesterday was that this is not what happened in Kansas. This was not the dog and pony show of Clark Hunt and Mark Donovan and Laura Kelly and the House and Senate leadership slapping each other on the back, sipping the champagne and saying, boy, we got him and we got him good. There was no sign of John Sherman yesterday. There was no sign of anybody with the Kansas City Royals. There was a statement and the statement, even the statement by the Royals yesterday was fairly tepid. The statement from the Royals read that the team appreciates the work of our city's leadership, the mayor of the city manager and the city council as they take important steps towards continued economic development for our city. We're grateful for their engagement in the process as well as for the critical work of the state of Missouri and look forward to more detailed conversations as we consider solutions that are best for our team, our fans and our community. It's not like John Sherman was down at city hall yesterday waving the flag. He was nowhere to be found, which tells me that there are still a few hurdles left on this deal for the Kansas City Royals getting down to Washington Square Park. A lot of detail still to come, a lot of hurdles still to come, including obviously getting this ordinance passed, which interestingly enough, you have the most conservative member of the city council, Nathan Willett and the most liberal member of the city council, Jonathan Duncan, coming together and being like, yeah, not so fast there, Mr. Mayor, not so fast on this one. But the mayor obviously is convinced that he's got the votes that he needs to get this ordinance passed to redirect $600 million to build the Royals and Baseball stadium downtown. We'll see. Yesterday he talked to many different media outlets. By the way, the one time I don't ask him about the stupid stadium downtown is the day that he actually rolls out an ordinance because I'm too busy asking him about the Kansas City Star investigation or his investigation into the Kansas City Star and what was the other big topic? Shooters. Yes, that's right. The shooters, which also passed yesterday. Yeah, yeah, they got that done too yesterday. So here was the mayor talking to he talked to a bunch of people yesterday. Where was the clip I wanted, Mark? I just popped in a clip at the last minute. It was from. Yes. Oh, there it is. Okay, this is from Carrington, Harrison, I would say the best sports radio host in Kansas City that does it full time, at least Keatsman's obviously the best, but for a guy that's on traditional sports radio, he had Mayor Lucas on yesterday. He asked him, Hey, how you paying for this? $600 million and it's a lot. It's an important investment. It would come from redirections that exist in some ways today, right? Today we have two teams that play out a Truman sports complex. They generate a certain amount of tax revenue, sales taxes and beyond and our calculation is a conservative one, but is based off of what we're generating today from baseball. So that is estimate one. We will throw in infrastructure investment in connection with the state of Missouri is going to be an important partner. Okay, so he's going to redirect monies that already are somewhat being made, I guess, to then pay off the stadium. So once again, if some of those monies are already going into the coffers of Kansas City as is, then that's money that's not otherwise going to basic services for Kansas City ins, which because an earnings tax was just renewed, might give them a little more flexibility to do something like this. So when they do this whole, we're redirecting stuff. Well, in the case of the Royals, they're already a business in your city, right? So you're making money off of them. You're making money off of sales tax revenues. You're obviously making some income tax revenues. You're making an earnings tax. You're making all this money already. And when you say we're redirecting monies that already are coming in from the Royals, what that means is you're giving up that money. That's what it means. Now, is it possible that, yes, with new public and private investment, you might have a windfall of other revenue coming your way? Yeah, it's entirely possible. It is. If you do a nice job down there by Crown Center and you have some type of new ballpark ish village, it could be pretty cool. It's got potential. How much of that though is just redirecting people from power and light, from different parts of the Kansas City Metro or Kansas City itself, and it's not necessarily new money. You are taking from existing revenue. Let's be clear on the game here. That's what's going on. If you like that, that's okay. But let's at least have the conversation as to what exactly is happening here. You're taking existing revenue and you're applying it to the ballpark, which means that revenue is not being used for things it was previously being used for in Kansas City. If you think that's a good investment, once again, make the case that you're prerogative, you're allowed to feel that way. You might be a Kansas City and say, you know what, if I'm getting screwed on all these taxes, I might as well get a new baseball stadium downtown. Cool. Great. Whatever. That's totally fine. But you got to at least have the real conversation as to how the game is being played. And all I saw yesterday from Kansas City media was, I mean, pomp and circumstance on TV, roll out the red carpet, sports radio, roll out the red carpet. I mean, no one thinks about this at all from a semi-critical perspective. And my only criticism is not of the team. It's not of John Sherman. It's not of the Royals. It's the city of Kansas City saying, boy, that chief still is a raw deal. All right, let's roll out our own terrible deal while we're at it. I kind of felt like no news is news here because they could have probably said this last year, couldn't they? You think the e-tax was that big of a deal? Part of it? It's a good question. I kind of don't, but I may be missing that point. It's a good question, John. You know, that's a good question. You said this a year ago. Yeah, could they have done this? Like why? It's been two years since the tax or the failure. Here's what I think part of it was. The chiefs were the ego play. They had to figure out what to do and how to keep the chiefs first. And also a year ago, you still had Frank White as the county executive. So that was probably a hold up too, you know, to the whole thing. But here's what I will say about this deal. If you said to me, Pete, do you want 81 nights to your major league baseball? If you're going to give away economic incentive packages, or do you want eight football games a year? I'll take the baseball. The chiefs are the ego play because of how good they've been and the NFL and Arrowhead. But if you are looking at it from just a pure economic development play and building up an urban core, I will say that the Royals deal just right out of the gates is better from the standpoint of building a public private partnership and investment because you do get 81 nights a year. Now, I heard the mayor say they're going to have 300 nights a year of activity down there. I mean, what does that mean? 300 nights a year? What are you getting? A Tom Petty cover band, you know, on a Tuesday night? Like, I don't know what that means, but that seems a little excessive either way. It is a better economic development investment on baseball than it is on eight football games a year out in Arrowhead West. Ask the risk on your eight games because we want to play internationally, don't we? I know. We may lose a game. We may look at it seven games sometimes. Hey, don't worry. We're going to get a final four every other year out in Wyandotte County. Forget about that. That's what I was told, right? 913-408-7957. I want to welcome you in if you are a Kansas City and in particular, and you just renewed the earnings tax. And once again, this is not a subsidy for from the earnings tax for the stadium. That's not what's going on here. I got some people, you know, insinuating that's what I was going for in a couple of social media posts yesterday. I'm not saying that, but the timeline here is part of the story. If they rolled this out two weeks ago ahead of an e-tax, how might that have played out differently? There's a reason they waited until two days after the earnings tax got renewed for five years to roll out this plan for the Kansas City Royals. That's not by mistake. Okay? It's not. Hey, Pete, how much money is Kansas City collecting in earnings taxes per year, especially when it comes to the players with the Royals? Well, that's a very good question. I was talking to somebody about this right now, or last night I had this conversation with somebody who has been very high up in Kansas City City government. And it's not as much as you think. It's about $4 million a year in earnings taxes alone from the Royals. $4 million per year. For a city that has a $2.5 billion budget, $4 million is not really a very big number, right? I mean, just think about it. $4 million? I know it sounds like a lot. Whoa, $4 million. It's not really that much money all in. It's not. But, you know, it's $4 million more, but that money is now just going to be staying in Kansas City and potentially redirected after yesterday, the mayor of Kansas City announced an ordinance that he wants to introduce and propose to take $600 million and redirect it to pay off a $1.9 billion ballpark that the Royals would build downtown right next to Union Station and Crown Center in Washington Square Park. And the timing is very clear. It's obvious what's going on here. There will be no vote of Kansas Cityans to make this happen. This would be if it gets passed. We'll just be then basically happening because the state of Missouri will chip in about 50% of the stadium. They'll basically give the Royals back the money that they generate for the state. And Mayor Lucas is more or less saying the same thing here. A good part of what already is made for the city of Kansas City by the Royals will then get redirected to pay off the stadium with the hopes that down the road, they can generate a lot more economic development and more income elsewhere. That is part of the goal. That's part of the plan here. That's how this is going to be rolled out. Mark is first up 913-4087-957. Mark's on KCMO. Hey, Mark. Good morning. How are you this morning? I'm doing well. What's going on? I was just, I was talking to John and asking him about how much money is actually collected per year on that Kansas City earnings tax if you kind of have any, any soft number on what it is. It's in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I want to say it's three to $400 million right in there. So that's the number that I've seen. 375 is what I recall seeing on the local news on that. So 375 million. Yeah, Jen, as I, as I told him, they've actually been collecting that money since, since I was born and, and I didn't even realize it until three or four years ago that there was even a Kansas City earnings tax. So now, were you paying, were you, were you paying it all these years? Were you working in Kansas City and not living in Kansas City paying it and not realizing you were paying it? Oh, yeah, I'm sure I've been paying it for at least half of my working career. Yes. Yeah. But you were not a Kansas, yeah. Well, I feel for you, man. Living in Oak Grove, you know, we've got potholes and everything else out there, but I've got to make sure and take care of Kansas City roads. That's more important. Well, are you even taking care of them really when you think about it? You know, right? I completely understand. We definitely need to get, we definitely need to get somebody on board to start board cutting that because I think they, they're like everybody else. They need to learn to balance their books and keep their house in order just like you and I have to. Yep. Yep. But why do that? You know, they can sit there and say, Hey, it passed overwhelmingly 75%. Thank you very much there, Mark. Have a great weekend, my man. You know, why, why do that? Why do that? When the people are going to vote for it 7525 every single time? 913408 7957, Kansas City. That's where Paul is this morning. Paul, good morning. Hey, Pete, how you doing? Yeah, I was just wondering if Mayor Q called up the Platt County Sheriff and got the skin on how to move money around. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. Well, you know, it's interesting on that front yesterday, you know, with all this drama with the Platt County Sheriff, he was with Tony Luke DeMeyer, who announced he's running for a Platt County prosecutor yesterday. Tony's going to come on the show at seven o'clock this morning. I got to ask him, like, do you want to be side by side right now with a sheriff who just said, I'm keeping 300 grand that you guys accidentally gave me and not giving it back to the county and the taxpayer? Because I think that's a bad look, Paul. Oh, I do too. I do too. And this moving $600 million around. I'm seeing power and light all over again. And crowd center, you got the Irish festival on Labor Day weekend. How does that affect that? I don't know. There's a lot of questions to be asked about this. Just moving money around by these guys is just, it just doesn't look right. Something's wrong with this thing. Well, that's how it goes, you know, but don't worry. It's economic development voodoo math. It always is. Yes, thanks, Pete. I just, you know, here's the other part of it too. Is there going to be like a Tiff district like a kind of like a like what Kansas did with the Starbine district? It's not going to be that big. Kind of seem like could be. There's got to be some kind of district and we don't know what those lines are. The mayor kind of took a shot at Kansas yesterday saying, Oh, it's not going to be like multi county district. Okay, but what's it going to be? Once again, we don't know. There still are more questions than answers. And that's why the Royals just put out a statement yesterday saying, sounds good. Let's see what you got. They were not doing cartwheels and showing their faces yesterday. They got to see the Kansas City Council actually do something, which by the way, this deal with the World Cup. I have some details on empty storefronts. We'll talk about next. This headline was in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. Kansas City spends $650 million to become America's soccer capital. Noting here, Missouri City is preparing for its moment on the global stage during the World Cup when it expects visitors to outnumber residents. They note here in this article in the Wall Street Journal that the Metro with 2.2 million residents is the smallest of 16 host cities. Over the past 15 years, the region has poured $650 million in the building world class training facilities and stadiums in an effort to become America's soccer capital. The city had a budget of $165 million for the World Cup coming up this summer. Of course, there's new airport. There are buses that are going to be shuttling guests all over town. And as has been noted by people involved, they believe it will be like having six Super Bowls and they expect 650,000 visitors. Now, do with that information what you want. I think that's a very generous number. I don't know what the number is going to be, but I know this much. There are still people who are trying to get on Airbnb and figure out how much money they can make. We've heard from Airbnb hosts who have said, yeah, I mean, it's certainly ahead of a normal summer, but they're not necessarily feeling like this is an unbelievable, can't-miss opportunity. There have been different TV reports suggesting that. And then you've got this story yesterday from KCTV5. Kansas City Grant program fills empty storefronts ahead of the World Cup. Now, we told you about this grant program when it came out. You want to talk about an all-time scam and a waste of money. This is it. Kansas City has empty storefronts downtown. They are now basically paying companies to fill those empty storefronts during this summer to make it look good in parts of downtown Kansas City. The Open Doors program received 463 applications. 52 applicants shortlisted as finalists for the program. The city now has 14 active storefronts supporting 15 businesses and six more are about to open. Well, KCTV5 talked to Birdies, a lingerie boutique. Some may call it Mark's favorite spot in Kansas City. I'm just, that's what I've heard. I don't know if that's true or not. No comment. Okay. Well, Birdies was interviewed by KCTV5 and it was a little uncomfortable at times. It was a little awkward, but it also was very telling. Take a listen. Two decades in the lingerie business keep things light. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want. We want people to be feeling beautiful and decorated. Co-owners Peregrine Honig and Alexis Bergrave need more space. We've been looking to move for a long, long time. A grant through KC's Open Doors program will move them right across the street. We're really pleased to be in the neighborhood. The program's goal. Fill empty spaces. Just in time for the World Cup. There's a lot of people that I know that have gotten this grant. The city says more than 400 people metro wide applied for that program and they have 52 finalists. The city now has 14 active storefronts supporting 15 businesses with six more about to open. I guess this would be time to tell you that I applied and we have a Mundo in the morning store going up down. We're going to lease up lease with the Trump store down in Branson. There you go. Get them to come up with us. That would never be great. Oh, that's amazing, man. I love that, John. You are always one step ahead. I love that. So the Open Doors program in Kansas City is for small business grants up to $10,000 for startup costs, covering up to 80% of rent for vacant downtown storefronts to operate pop-ups during the World Cup. So this lingerie store, Birdies, has been one of the recipients of this grant. And now they're going to have a couple of bathrooms versus just one. They'll have this primetime real estate right there downtown. So they're very happy. They've got to sell a lot of lingerie, I guess, during the World Cup, though, to try to hold on to that location because here's the thing. They're going to have to eventually pay their own way. They will get this grant. They will get money from the taxpayer to move their business to a better location to make the city look better during the World Cup. But eventually, they've got to foot their own bill here. So it might work. I hope it works. I hope it works for them. But think about what's going on. The city is telling you this is going to be a windfall of revenue for small business. Yet they're also paying small business, which is what they're doing with your taxpayer money. They're paying small business to move their business to a better location to make the city look good this summer and then after that, you know what? Let's hope it works out. Let's hope you can keep paying your rent and you can keep selling lingerie. And all I keep thinking about is the Cisco thong song. It's in my head going back to 2000 or whatever that was. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, John. That's all I keep hearing in my head as I talk about the story. And I'm like, this is not good policy. It's not. It's just so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so of renew the 1% earnings tax or the cities going under. But we got money here, first off, to pay to random lingerie businesses. God bless them, it's America. I'm glad they can sell a lot of lingerie and actually make a living off of it. That's fantastic. But I'm also not sure that's the business that's gonna really pop during the World Cup. Although it could go either way. I mean, I don't know, these Europeans get a little weird. So maybe it's a great business for the World Cup. I have no clue. I don't know what to expect from these folks from the Netherlands. They might be going wild looking for lingerie stores. In which case, Birdies is gonna do a big number this summer. I'll be pulling for them. But from the standpoint of public policy and what to do with taxpayer money, man, this ain't it. No way. 913-408-7957 is the text line and the studio line right here on KCMO Talk Radio. Pete, did they say the business is basically moving across the street? Isn't that just going to leave another store vacant? Does that defeat the purpose of what the goal is here from the city of Kansas City? I don't know if they're moving just across the street. The business has operated on 18th Street since the 2000s. They're on 18th Street in downtown. They received a grant through the program and they'll use the grant to move across the street into a larger space. So yeah, that's a good point. It's a very good point. They're going, they're gonna leave another storefront empty. So what's that really worth? Oh, by the way, Surrealis is renting your old space. Yeah. Oh my goodness. It's just, if I don't laugh, I'm gonna cry at some of these stories because I just wanna bang my head against the wall sometimes. But hey, it's a Friday morning. I know it's raining, but we still got a lot to celebrate here. We got the Artemis II coming down this morning. I saw that and I was like, all right, that's kind of cool. I'll get to more on that coming up next hour. It's a good morning. We started with visual pictures of lingerie rather than other things. Yeah, that's true. I'm with, absolutely. I'm down with that. I mean, whatever you guys wanna think about this morning, I'm game. You can get a teddy in the Netherlands color. You need to make sure you've got a lot of orange down there. Absolutely, man. There's no doubt about it. You've got the master's underway as well. I've gotta do seven more hours of radio today. So I'm looking forward to it. I'll be filling in for the Vin show. I was disappointed though. I didn't get any calls from Kansas City. We got calls from Chicago, from DC. We told everybody. I know. Where are you guys? Come on, man. You gotta step up for me today, okay? Represent. Exactly right. I mean, a lot of you were texting. I checked our text line here on KCMO and a lot of you were obviously saying nice things, but we took a bunch of calls yesterday and we got basically heavy Chicago and heavy DC, but I was waiting for one of our regulars from Kansas City to go national with me yesterday and it didn't happen. So today's the day. I'm challenging you when I fill in for the Vin show today. Make sure you call up the show. Come on, Victor. You could be heard across four time zones. Exactly. I mean, you've got hundreds of radio affiliates carrying the Vin show. Today is your day to go national, all right? It's today. So don't let me down. I also found out yesterday the Vin show is carried by a station I used to work for in Northwest Oklahoma, Z92 radio in Woodward, Oklahoma. I had a couple of people texting me, hey, it's good to hear you filling in for Vince. I didn't even know that they were on down there. So you're gonna be heard by a lot of people today if you call in and they just have to weave in some Kansas City topics on a Friday. Ray Stevens was excited to hear you on WLS in Chicago. I got a text from our old boy, Ray Stevens. And he said, good to hear you on the big 89 WLS in Chicago. I was like, well, it's good to be here, Ray. Thanks very much, buddy. He's doing well. Ray used to do mid days for us here on KCMO. And now he's doing mornings on WLS in his hometown of Chicago. Artemis 2, splashdown tonight, 707 central time. It's gonna be happening. And I'm sure that Mark Levin will have something to say about it tonight during his final hour of the program. It's splashdown, Mr. Producer. There it goes. That'll be Mark Levin at 707 tonight. So you'll hear it, I'm sure, here on KCMO. But last night, you had the Artemis 2 crew talking to a bunch of members of Congress, including Jerry Moran, Kansas US Senator. And take a listen to Jerry Moran, who to his credit ties it all back to Kansas when he says this to crew member Jeremy Hansen. Take a listen. Our next question comes from Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas. Good evening to all of you. On Monday, Administrator Isaacman and I visited the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. Commander, it's the place you told me was the best space museum in the world. I've repeated that many times. I'd like to extend an invitation to each of you to come visit us in Hutchinson and be my guest. But I also want you to tell me how you can see the Artemis 2 mission, as well as the Cosmosphere, inspiring the next generation for the well-being of the world. Well, sir, I'll definitely take you up in that invitation because I have yet to see that museum and I've just heard amazing things about it. So I look forward to that opportunity. And I hope that maybe something from this mission will end up in that museum at some point in the future. As far as inspiration goes, I really think it comes down to just getting stuff done. And you can have an inspiration program. You can invest a lot of money in that or you can have a program that just goes out and gets things done, like the Artemis program is doing. And then you can spend your inspiration program dollars on just disseminating that to the masses. And that is what I see happening here right now. I think we're knocking it out of the park. You guys been out to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson? I have not. You haven't? No, not me. Wow, I figured that'd be a field trip or something. I know it's three hours away, but I figured that might make the cut for a field trip. I guess not. There's something on the other side of Topeka. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty impressive. I was reading through it after I saw Jerry Moran's video last night. And it's right there in Hutchinson, been there since 1962. And the Cosmosphere is the only Smithsonian affiliate museum in Kansas. It houses the largest collection of Russian space artifacts outside of Moscow and a collection of US space artifacts, second only to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Five venues in it, Hall of Space Museum, Justice Planetarium, Kerry Digital Dome Theater, Dr. Goddard's Lab, and Cosmo Kids. That's pretty cool. I mean, I gotta imagine it's doing all right being out there in Hutchinson, but it's not around the corner, but it may be worth getting to at some point. The only Smithsonian affiliate museum in the entire state. So Jerry Moran has the Artemis II guys committing to coming to the Cosmosphere here in Kansas. So that's pretty cool. Jerry Moran getting some love and we'll give him that much. Now yesterday, I was filling in for the Vin Show, 11 to two here on KCML. I'll be back there today. And I did a segment on how I just don't care about the Artemis II. Not that it's not cool that, you know, these guys went further out into space than anybody's ever been. It's just not something that I've really cared about. I'm not saying I'm right. I'm not saying you're wrong if you care a lot about it. I'm just sharing that I have not cared about it. And producer Jim for the Vin Show, we were talking off the air and he is like super into it. Now, remember, this is my first time doing this show. So I don't know producer Jim well. He was easy to work with, seems like a good guy. But off the air during a commercial break, he's like, you know, I'm really into it. And he grew up, he's about John's age. He grew up during the space race and things like that. He does not remember the first moon landing, but he remembers the subsequent moon landings. And he's just fascinated by the whole thing. And he's like, you know, it brings me back to being a kid. It's nostalgia. He's like, I start to think about how I'm just this little person on this big planet in this major ecosystem of the universe. And it just kind of makes me think. And I'm like, Jim, I'm just trying to get through the day, brother. All right. That's the only, I'm just trying to get through my day. I got seven hours of radio here. I'm not thinking beyond lunch and dinner. It's interesting you mentioned, have we been out to the museum? And when I thought of the space program where we're kids, it was always about pushing forward the next thing, you know, we had Mercury and that was one man flights. And Jim and I was two man flights. And Apollo was three. And we did the space lab and then the challenger, the shuttles, right? And so things move on. So it seems like visiting the past of the space program in particular is kind of antique. We're moving forward. But now that so much time has passed, we paused going to the moon and we're reestablishing. Now maybe as good a time as any to visit where, how we got to where we're at now. That's where I think that it was easy to remember when I was a kid, because I just recited it to you. But then we've had a gap. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's like, you know, when I was working in downtown Manhattan, I walked right by the 9-11 museum every single day. I walked right through the memorial, 3,000 names right there on the fountains. I never went to the museum. Now I didn't have kids when I was living there. So that's obviously a game changer. When you have little kids, you wanna teach them history. But even as an adult, I would walk right by it every single day in lower Manhattan, right past where the Twin Towers were. And I never went to the museum. And in hindsight, I regret not going. So we've got this Cosmosphere right here in Hutchinson. I know it's a three hour hike, but you know what? That's a good summer trip for the kids. Well, the staycation thing is not that far away, right? Exactly. Go make a little weekend out of it down in Wichita. Do something, because I think that's pretty cool. And Jerry Moran getting the Artemis too guys to come as well. Hey, that could be part of a big rollout. And a lot of marketing and media attention for the Cosmosphere. So I like what Jerry Moran was trying to do yesterday. And I'm not sure I'm getting the kids there this summer, but we'll get there at some point. Maybe your kids are older, make a trip out of it. Coming up next, Nathan Willett, Kansas City Councilman is gonna join me on KCMO. What's his reaction to the mayor rolling out a plan yesterday to kick in $600 million for a new Royal Stadium? That's next. Tomorrow, of course, is game day. JD Vance is going to Pakistan, and he is gonna be negotiating with the Iranians, along with Steve Whitcoff, and they are going to try to obviously figure out a way to bring an end to the war. Iran is currently seeking a toll on the Strait of Hormuz traffic. That has also been part of this breaking news so far this morning as obviously all eyes are on that part of the world and figuring out what exactly is going to happen from here on out as there's hopefully an off ramp here for everybody involved. JD Vance was just on the tarmac moments ago where he spoke to reporters very briefly, and here's part of what the vice president had to say just a few minutes ago. Look, we're looking forward to the negotiation. I think it's gonna be positive. We'll of course see. As the President of the United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they're gonna try to play us, then they're gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive. So we're gonna try to have a positive negotiation. The President has gave us some pretty clear guidelines and we're gonna see. So I hope you guys have a safe flight. We'll certainly take some questions later on, but for now let's get on the plane and hit the road. All right, that was the vice president, JD Vance. This is by far the most monumental thing that JD Vance has done in his political life. There's no doubt about it. The President is not going. The President should not be going. You could send either Marco Rubio or JD Vance. It's the right move to send the vice president. He still is the number two, even though Marco's kind of become a star, political star in recent months. It seems like he has surpassed JD in terms of how people perceive these two guys as the potential heir to President Trump in the GOP. But it's right to send the vice president there. It's obviously a huge moment for him as well, not just for his political career, but obviously more importantly for the country. And right now you've got Iran trying to toll the Strait of Hormuz. This came from Fox News this morning. Trey Yings had the report, and President Trump is warning them ahead of negotiations this weekend. Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable, some would say, of allowing oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz. This is not the agreement that we have. So it feels like the whole ceasefire is kind of a mess right now. And that's not good for anybody. Oil's kind of just fluctuating. It's just floating right around 90 bucks a barrel as things currently stand. But it's not a good situation. And yesterday when I was filling in for the Vin show, I had Roger Marshall on our Kansas US center, one of our Kansas US centers. And I asked him about the midterms and he made it very clear. I mean, listen to what Roger Marshall had to say. He was on with me yesterday and he made it very clear they all want this thing to be over in Iran. Yeah, so number one is we gotta get this Iran war wrapped up. Look, I hate war. I think Americans hate war. I do believe in peace through strength. I do believe President Trump made the right decision to go forward with this. But hopefully we can have a positive outcome out of this long term. We need to get Iran behind us, right? And then we've got to get this economy going in the right direction. And I truly did. I truly do think it was starting to turn around and then bang, we had this Iran war. And then there's no doubt that the price of gasoline, the price of oil, that always leads us into inflation and that's what brings us out of it when it starts coming down. So we have had a hiccup right here. We've got to get the economy going back in the right, in a better, stronger direction and bring these people up back into the fast lane or at least the medium lane out there, the going the speed limit, if you will. We need to bring these folks that are in the slow lane, bring them in up to bringing the speed limit. That's what we've got to be focused on. And again, it goes back to the cost of housing and healthcare, childcare. Those are the ones that I hear the most about. And remember, Roger Marshall is obviously up for re-election this year in the state of Kansas. So he's got a lot at stake here, not just from a personal perspective, but from a political perspective and for the United States Senate as well. Now this morning, we got some news. Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March. As energy prices spiked, due of course to the Iran conflict. So the consumer price index was up 0.9% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3.3% pushed by a 10.9% surge in energy costs. Both numbers came in at the expectations, but this is now the highest inflation number we've seen in nearly two years since May of 2024, when it came in at 3.3% May of 24. So almost two years exactly was the last time we saw inflation running this hot. And it's all driven by gas prices. All of it is driven by gas prices. The month over month number was 0.9%. That is an increase from 0.3% in February. So this is for the month of March. And obviously the war started at the beginning of March. So this is all driven by what's happened in the wake of the war. And then you see Roger Marshall here in Kansas saying, we gotta end this thing because we've gotta get energy prices back down to where they were. But here's the difficult part. While we appear to have set back the Iranians years as they continue to try to develop a nuclear weapon, the bad guys are still in charge. The radicals are still in charge. The hope from early on was like, hey, we're gonna get people running the country who are gonna be more like-minded to the West, not chanting death to America, and the people of Iran are gonna rise up, and this is gonna be a great situation. Let's be clear, that has not happened. Whether you like the war or not, that goal has not been achieved. We are not sitting here and talking about a different Iranian regime. Now, maybe they're a little less crazy. Maybe they're a little less radical. I don't know, I have not seen any evidence of that considering right now, they're trying to charge a toll in the Strait of Hormuz, which the President of the United States is not happy about at all, and nor should he be happy about that. But you're dealing with, in large part, the same group of crazy radicals that you were kind of dealing with a month ago, they just happened to have different names because you blew up a bunch of the old guys. That's what you're looking at right now. And that's why I think the goal posts have moved from the standpoint of what the expectations are. And that's okay, I mean, that's just part of war. The goal that you had a month ago doesn't necessarily have to be your goal today. But if we're gonna be honest about it, and sit here and talk about this on the standpoint of the United States of America, we've seen the costs go up. And if it's about our kids and grandkids being in a safer world where Iran does not possess nuclear capabilities, okay, we set them back, that's fantastic. But if we're not gonna get to that end goal without having boots on the ground and having some type of invasion of Iraq, which I don't think anybody wants right now, there's no appetite for on the left or the right, then this may be the best we can do. In which case we set them back, okay, fine, good, get out. And figure out how to get that global oil market humming again, because that obviously is what matters here as well. And that's what the president has to be focused on, because you do have a lot of Republicans who are on the ballot this fall who are not thrilled about where things are right now. And they shouldn't be thrilled about it. I mean, they shouldn't be. People are paying a lot right now at the pump. You've got the ag industry that Roger Marshall also talked to us about yesterday that's obviously getting crushed by the fertilizer cost, which then will impact Americans at the grocery store, not right now or next month, but that'll have an impact coming up here in the fall. That's when that impact will start to be felt at the grocery store potentially. So that's what also Iran knows. Iran knows that the president has his own party saying to him publicly and privately, we want out. And while Iran does not hold a lot of the cards here, they do hold that one card. And they're gonna play that card. And we'll see how it plays out tomorrow in Pakistan. Can we throw out somebody else's food at work? Is that allowed? Yeah. Seriously, Mark just walked into the studio with the old blue COVID mask, and almost fired him on the spot. I'm like, what's that thing on your face? Take the diaper off, okay? But he goes, I walked into the kitchen here and I had to go into the refrigerator and it smelled. So I put on this mask as a joke and Mark's right because I put my lunch in there. If I got a snack or something, I throw it in the fridge. And we've got two refrigerators here. And the one that I use, I can't speak to the other one. I should probably test the other one. It just stinks. He's the first one of the second one, closest. I use the further one. Further one, okay. The one on the right. That one's kinda reeking, yeah. Yeah, it is smelling like, oh. When your salad turns to Kim's sheet, I'll take care of it for you. But here's the thing, what's it say about somebody when you've got your own food in the refrigerator, you obviously haven't touched it in weeks, if not months, and it's stinking up the joint. I forgot. There's not that many, who? Who? I don't know, that's what I'm saying, yeah. I wanna find out who it is. I can confirm both fridges smell terrible. Oh, gosh. So don't try to use the left one, it might be worse. Okay, well. From our gatherings, we shove leftovers in there. I don't know if some of those have gotten. I don't think so, cause I was looking for old food. The real weird flat drawers, and I don't know if there's something in the back of those. I wanna check it out. I mean, man, I smell, I've got a two year old that I still change diapers on. Okay, I know bad smells, especially because everyone talks about like the babies having bad diapers. No, it's when they're almost potty trained, but they're still in diapers, but you know, they're really going to the bathroom more than they were when they were little. That is the worst, because now they're kinda like of that age where they're eating a lot of real food, but they're still in diapers. That's a bad smell. But I come to work and I'm like, boy, it smells better at my house. You watch those guys on NASCAR and the pit stop to learn your diaper change techniques as they get older, you can do it pretty quick. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's weird to think, but I feel like I'm in the last couple of months of changing diapers for like, you know, the last time in my life, which is a strange feeling. Yeah, I probably won't, John, you're right about that. I haven't done any in grandparenting, but I may get some. Yeah. I think my dad's done one out of the three girls, like literally one. And it must have been, I don't know, no one must have been around. We're going to go ahead. We've actually gotten to the point where we're doing pull-ups for our littlest one now. So it's, she hasn't actually number twoed in her diaper in almost two months, which is pretty crazy. Whoa! All right, round of applause. No more pooping in the pull-up. All right, big stuff happening here with the KCMO team. So that fridge really knocked me back two couple of months ago. They got a recent experience and it's still... Oh my gosh. Well, someone who might need an adult pull-up is George Conway. This guy, he's just, I really feel bad for George Conway. Worst in Carville? Yeah, I think that Conway is worse than Carville. I really do. George Conway, I guess his ex-wife now is Kelly Ann Conway, who of course helped Donald Trump win election back in 2016. And they were both big time Republican people in the party. But Conway got a severe case of Trump derangement syndrome. And it's getting worse and it's getting worse. And it's getting to the point where it's comical, but it's also really sad. So Conway goes viral on this podcast yesterday because he announced how he gave the Joe Biden 2024 victory fund almost a million dollars and he took it out of his kid's inheritance. And he's crying about it on this podcast. And take a listen. I was asked by a friend of mine who's a, who raises money for Democrats to speak at a big Democratic fundraiser for what was then the Biden victory fund. And I remember I was, I was actually driving out to my friend, John Gardner's house out in Maryland. And I was thinking about, well, how much money should I give to the Biden campaign for this thing, where I'm going to be the headline spokesperson and asking other people to give, you know? And I thought I'd give, you know, a lot of money, but a reasonable amount of money. And then I started thinking about it. And it's like, you know, I mean, this is supposed to, it's gets money that my kids would otherwise inherit. And I started thinking about that. So what am I going to give? And then I just thought about it. Well, what do I want to make kids inherit? And I literally was in tears. I pull over to the side of the road and I was in tears thinking about this. And it's like, I want my kids, it makes me miss the eye even today. I want my kids to inherit a democracy. More important than money. And that society, I'm going to give the legal maximum, which was like $929,600. And, you know, I just, it's just more important. It's just more important. And that's why I did that. And that's why, you know, I'm 62 years old, if you out in Park City skiing or something like that. And I should be really, really retired. But I, you know, I mean, I could never live myself if I didn't do everything I could to help get rid of this. You know what? And I'm sure that's one reason you decided to run for Congress. It's the reason actually, the reason. Thanks for making me cry to George, by the way. No, there's something in my eyes. There's something in my eyes. No, yeah, mine's you. Oh my gosh, I wish that was parody. That's not, that's not AI. It's not. George's kids have to be very upset today. So George Conway's missed the eye on a podcast yesterday because he admits to giving the 2024 Biden victory fund $929,000. Because in his words, what's the point in giving my kids money if they can't inherit a democracy? And Biden loses. So that's just money like down the toilet, right? Literally, yes, of course it is. I mean, just throw a million bucks down the drain. Open a Mr. Goodsense franchise dude. This would have lasted longer. And I love how he's not even upset about the million dollars. He's more upset about not handing off a democracy to his kids. George, there's gonna be an election in 2028, okay? There's going to be an election in two and a half years. I promise you, I'll bet you $929,000, George, right now. All right, I'll bet you $929,000 that you can vote for whoever you want in 2028. There will be a midterm this year, George. There will be a presidential election in 2028. How broken does your brain have to be to literally come to the conclusion? It's one thing to say, listen, I've got the cash. I've been blessed in this life. I just really like Joe Biden and I wanna give his campaign a million bucks. Like I wouldn't agree with it, but I'd respect that. Instead, he said he literally gave Joe Biden who, God bless him, by the end of his time in office, was a walking dementia patient, a million dollars to try to win reelection because he wanted his kids to inherit a democracy. Wow. Some people truly have lost it. They have absolutely lost it. But you know what? At least his kids will inherit his soiled underwear in a brown paper bag. Oh, and the hosts that were tearing up. Yeah, I thought, Jesus. They could package his tears and try to sell it on eBay for seven cents. Man, that is just unbelievable. You should have went skiing, George. Yeah. Your kids will inherit that democracy anyway. Exactly. He should be in Park City. Go touch some, well, snow, not grass out there. Although I heard it's been a bad ski season out west or it was a bad ski season out west. Man, that is, oh gosh. It makes me laugh, but it also makes me sad for the man because the guy is totally broken. And, you know, he's thrown away his marriage and he's just giving it all up to fight this made up caricature of who Donald Trump is. Like, don't like him, sure. I mean, there was plenty about Joe Biden where I was rolling my eyes or disagreeing or talking about it here on the air. But at no point was I sitting there saying to myself, well, I don't know if we're gonna have an election coming up in 24. This guy, he's something else. It never felt that way to me. But that's how this guy breaks these people. And it's really just sad and pathetic because it doesn't need to be this way. It shouldn't be this way. But it's a world that they've created in their own minds is what it is. Exactly. They deserve all the torture that their minds create for themselves, I say. Carville particularly, what in the hell happened to him? What happened? Did he fall? Somebody hitting the head with a gallon paint cans? I mean, think about this too with a guy like Carville. The guy's living off what he did 35 years ago at this point. I mean, only athletes get to live in the past like George Carville does. The guy has been, he literally is living off of something he did 35 years ago, which was it really that hard to do to get a Democrat elected president after three terms of a Republican in 1992? Mm-hmm. Like was that really all that difficult? Don't you love running into those kind of people who's fortunate luck? Yeah. They think they created it. It's like, dude, you don't get what happened all around you. Oh, that's so true. That is so true. Next roll with Vernon Davis, the transformative journeys of athletes, artists, and entrepreneurs. Ladies and gentlemen, lights out, Sean Merriven. I want to be the biggest and the best when I do. And so whatever it takes, I'll get it done in business and everything else. All I do is know how to fight and earn what I want. My man, Malik asks, what actor, comedian, what you want to collaborate with? Me, Jamie Foxley, Kevin Hart in a movie. We said it on Vernon Davis podcast then. So we'll circle back and be like, yep, it's going to clear. Next roll with Vernon Davis. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Hi, I'm Joe Saul Seahe, host of the Stacking Benjamin's podcast. You know what? A lot of us get taxes wrong. Filing your taxes is basically data entry. There's been this trend of people going, oh, it's so cool. To file my taxes in August is so awesome. Don't worry, I have an extension. It'll be fine. I like totally do it later. Stop. Do your frigging taxes now. That was a really good fashion voice. Did you like it? You do that more frequently, please? Yes, every show for now. I don't feel like that. Stacking Benjamin's. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Full Send Golf. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.