0:00

This podcast sucks, said no one

0:02

ever, especially not you. Sure, it's

0:04

fun and accessible, but if

0:06

you hold yourself to a

0:08

high standard of fact-checking and

0:10

have integrity in your reporting,

0:12

it's a bit of a

0:14

beast, but it's worth it.

0:16

We give you our very

0:18

best because you deserve it.

0:20

Would you meet us halfway?

0:22

Please make a donation. Visit

0:24

CaseyuR.org/Support. From

0:31

KC, you are, this is up

0:33

to date with Steve Kraske. I'm

0:35

producer Elizabeth Ruiz. Mike Kehoe

0:38

gave his first state-of-the-state

0:40

address as Missouri's governor. In

0:42

his remarks at the Capitol, the

0:44

governor laid out his plans for

0:46

a stricter budget and where his

0:49

priorities will be during his first

0:51

year leading the state leading the

0:53

state income tax and reducing crime.

0:57

Before becoming governor, I promised Missourians

0:59

I would take action on crime as

1:01

soon as my hand left the Bible

1:04

on inauguration day. And we judge just

1:06

that. Signing six executive orders that

1:08

were developed based on input

1:10

from law enforcement to launch

1:12

our safer Missouri initiative. From

1:15

organizing regional efforts to

1:17

arrest dangerous fugitives, to charging

1:19

our state troopers to work with

1:21

the Trump administration and our federal

1:23

partners on an effort to crack

1:25

down on illegal immigration. to

1:27

establishing a statewide program

1:30

that encourages communities to

1:32

support law enforcement. These executive

1:34

orders were our first

1:36

step in a comprehensive

1:38

multi-phase plan. But our work

1:40

on day one was just a start.

1:42

As I've said before, in the

1:45

coming weeks, months, and years, our

1:47

administration will be relentless in our

1:49

pursuit to make Missouri a place

1:51

where it's easier to be a

1:53

cop than a criminal. Today,

1:56

Steve is joined by the editor and chief of

1:58

the Missouri Independent. Jason Hancock to

2:00

discuss the governor's plans and

2:02

reactions from lawmakers. Let's listen.

2:04

Well Governor Quijill pretty much

2:06

came out of the gate

2:08

discussing plans to make the

2:10

state safer. Tell me a

2:12

little about about the comprehensive

2:14

and multi-phase plan the governor

2:16

laid out to try to

2:18

do just that. Well,

2:21

he said a bunch of executive

2:23

orders on his first day, you

2:25

know, sort of bolstering the Missouri

2:27

State Highway Patrol's immigration enforcement efforts,

2:29

things like that. He threw his

2:31

support in his speech last night

2:33

behind some bills that would crack

2:35

down on things like. stunt driving,

2:37

you know, nal distribution, and some

2:39

scholarships for law enforcement to try

2:41

to improve recruitment and retention for

2:43

especially metropolitan police departments in like

2:45

Kansas City and St. Louis. But

2:47

the big thing he started to

2:49

talk about and what he's been

2:51

pushing for during the campaign and

2:53

pretty much ever since he was

2:55

sworn in was a state takeover

2:57

of the St. Louis Police Department

2:59

mirroring how Kansas City's police police

3:01

is controlled by a state board.

3:03

Those are short of the big

3:05

tenants. so far in his crime

3:07

package, but it seems like he's

3:09

getting behind a lot of different

3:11

bills as the session's rolling along.

3:13

Well two things about that, what

3:15

does he say about why he

3:17

thinks taking over the St. Louis

3:19

Police Department is a good idea

3:21

when arguably it hasn't worked very

3:23

well here in Kansas City? And

3:25

that's been the pushback. You know,

3:27

the House Minority Leader actually oni

3:29

is a Kansas City Democrat. She

3:31

brought that up after the speech

3:33

last night that if the governor

3:35

has ideas about how to improve

3:37

public safety in St. Louis, he

3:39

shouldn't be looking at Kansas City

3:41

State-run police department as an example.

3:43

But he thinks that there's resources

3:45

and... strategies that could be deployed

3:47

more efficiently if the state were

3:49

in control. You know, obviously the

3:51

state did have control. The St.

3:53

Louis Police Department until about a

3:55

decade ago when voters turned it

3:57

back over to local officials. It'll

3:59

be a hard fight. Obviously, there's

4:02

a lot of apprehension at the

4:04

local level in St. Louis to

4:06

going back. but it's you know

4:08

if you want to know how

4:10

serious he takes it not only

4:12

was it a big campaign pledge

4:14

but it was a huge part

4:16

of his very first state of

4:18

the state address and it seems

4:20

like it's a cornerstone of his

4:22

of his crime prevention and public

4:24

safety package. The other thing here

4:26

none of the actions the governor

4:28

has taken so far get at

4:30

what at least Mayor Lucas would

4:32

like to see happen here in

4:34

Kansas City which are steps to

4:36

get get guns off the streets

4:38

in Kansas City nothing like that

4:40

has happened yet right? Yeah, that's

4:42

right. And that's another criticism that

4:44

he was facing last night was

4:46

the idea of he's proposing a

4:48

lot of things to deal with

4:50

crimes after they happen, but not

4:52

doing a lot of things in

4:54

critics' mind. to stop crimes from

4:56

happening in the first place and

4:58

that includes you know gun safety

5:00

measures in fact yesterday there was

5:02

a legislative hearing on the second

5:04

amendment preservation act which is a

5:06

bill that was tossed out by

5:08

the courts is unconstitutional but attempts

5:10

to basically disallow enforcement of federal

5:12

gun laws in Missouri so the

5:14

legislature is pushing in the opposite

5:16

direction of those like Mayor Lucas

5:18

who would be advocating for stricter

5:20

gun regulations. He does have his

5:22

safer Missouri plan as he calls

5:24

that just didn't discuss efforts to

5:26

crack down on criminals, but it's

5:28

a plan to support law enforcement

5:30

officers, as you've said here, Jason.

5:32

What are some of those initiatives

5:34

to get more officers into the

5:36

communities that need them? Well, you

5:38

know, it's multiple different things. You

5:40

know, he talks about as he

5:42

had in that clip, the idea

5:44

of making it easier to be

5:46

a police officer than a criminal.

5:48

But there's one that's... scholarship program

5:50

that could go to officers to

5:52

to boost bolster basic training, another

5:54

one that would access post secondary

5:56

education sort of outside of basic

5:59

training, but trying to incentivize people

6:01

to come to Missouri to be

6:03

a police officer, come to our

6:05

police, you know, police departments in

6:07

the metropolitan areas and then stick

6:09

around because obviously that's been a

6:11

big problem especially in the St.

6:13

Louis area is recruiting officers and

6:15

then retaining them and keeping them

6:17

from leaving the state. Another one

6:19

of his objectives here when it

6:21

comes to crime is to make

6:23

the state a safe place to

6:25

do business. Do you have a

6:27

sense of how much blowback he's

6:29

been getting about the high crime

6:31

rates in St. Louis and Kansas

6:33

City for that matter? I mean

6:35

that's been a huge talk, a

6:37

topic of discussion in Jefferson City

6:39

is this idea that in our

6:41

places like St. Louis and Kansas

6:43

City are the economic engines of

6:45

the state, but businesses are afraid

6:47

to locate there. The people are

6:49

moving out in droves from the

6:51

St. Louis area. and that crime

6:53

is a major factor. The local

6:55

officials are pointing to statistics showing

6:57

that crime rates, overall crime rates

6:59

drop, the murder rate is dropped,

7:01

but you know, Republicans are skeptical

7:03

of those numbers and, you know,

7:05

shootings are still up in St.

7:07

Louis, and there's just a, there's

7:09

a feeling in that community amongst

7:11

at least the Republican leadership that

7:13

are driving the train here that

7:15

crime is, is not under control

7:17

and something dramatic has to be

7:19

done because, you know, the future

7:21

and the success of St. Louis

7:23

and Kansas City will help determine

7:25

the success of the state as

7:27

a whole. I was going to

7:29

say much can be said of

7:31

Kansas City and what you just

7:33

said about St. Louis as well.

7:35

Let's turn to immigration which obviously

7:37

has consumed the headlines nationally since

7:39

President Trump took office, but it's

7:41

also received a lot of attention

7:43

here locally. On day one the

7:45

governor signed executive orders giving state

7:47

officials the ability to aid in

7:49

federal immigration enforcement efforts. What did

7:51

he say about that? during his

7:53

speech? Well, he's definitely on board

7:56

with helping the Trump administration and

7:58

however it sees fit moving forward

8:00

to crack down on illegal immigration.

8:02

You know, it's a huge campaign

8:04

issue. Obviously, it's become even more

8:06

pressing. Now, you know, President Trump's

8:08

return to office. He's trying to

8:10

put things in place basically to

8:12

be ready to to respond whenever

8:14

the federal government does start to

8:16

take actions. We haven't heard of

8:18

anything happening here in Missouri, you

8:20

know, the way we've seen in

8:22

places like Chicago. But, you know,

8:24

between the governor and Attorney General

8:26

Andrew Bailey, he has very willing

8:28

cooperation amongst our state officials in

8:30

trying to ensure that, you know,

8:32

the federal government's crackdown on undocumented

8:34

immigration is, you know, a success

8:36

here in Missouri. Do we know

8:38

about roughly how many people who

8:40

are in this country without legal

8:42

status are accused of committing violent

8:44

crimes here in Missouri? There was

8:46

an interim committee that looked at

8:48

this issue last year. It was

8:50

basically, I think it was called

8:52

like the committee to look at

8:54

illegal immigrant... crime or something along

8:56

those lines. The report didn't estimate

8:58

how many undocumented immigrants are in

9:00

Missouri or try to like, they

9:02

didn't draw any conclusions it seemed

9:04

for like, other than it didn't

9:06

seem as though there was any

9:08

higher level of crime amongst immigrants

9:10

than amongst, you know, natural citizens.

9:12

But it also found that there

9:14

was a huge amount of economic

9:16

impact to the state. You know,

9:18

the young undocumented immigrants. paid, you

9:20

know, $100 million in state taxes,

9:22

but weren't able to access the

9:24

benefits that those taxes paid for.

9:26

I think it's supported, I think

9:28

it was 150 or 60,000 jobs,

9:30

according to this report. So, you

9:32

know, it's a tricky issue, and

9:34

one that's getting a lot of

9:36

attention, but, you know, the folks

9:38

that are pushing back are pointing

9:40

to things like that, that these

9:42

are not for the most part.

9:44

criminals. There are people who came

9:46

to this country looking for a

9:48

better life and they are, you

9:50

know, they're paying taxes, they're working,

9:52

and now they're living in a

9:55

certain amount of fear that their

9:57

government's going to be kicking down

9:59

the door. Why we're talking about

10:01

immigration, I wanted to ask about

10:03

one of the bills by Missouri

10:05

State Senator near St. Louis. It's

10:07

Senate Bill 72. It would make

10:09

it a felony to trespass to

10:11

enter Missouri without legal status. If

10:13

convicted, it could result in imprisonment

10:15

without the possibility of parole or

10:17

probation. The state Senate heard hours

10:19

of testimony on this piece of

10:21

legislation earlier this week. Any read

10:23

on whether this kind of legislation

10:25

might make it to the governor's

10:27

desk? It would be really

10:29

hard to get a bill like

10:31

that through the Senate. I'm not

10:34

saying impossible, but despite the energy

10:36

behind, you know, the immigration issue

10:38

in the Republican Party, Democrats,

10:41

there was this, there was very... it

10:43

was fierce opposition to this bill and

10:45

another one that set up a bounty,

10:48

basically hiring bounty hunters to track down

10:50

undocumented immigrants. You know, these are some

10:52

of the more draconian proposals. My assumption,

10:54

and again, this would just be an

10:57

educated guess, is that there will be

10:59

some sort of immigration legislation that gets

11:01

out of the legislature this year, there's

11:03

just too much energy behind the issue

11:06

to think that they wouldn't. But I

11:08

can't imagine something that goes to that

11:10

extreme would be what gets there. I

11:13

think there's going to be some compromise

11:15

and some attempts to calm this debate

11:17

a little bit. But Democrats, I mean,

11:19

they were very dug in in opposition

11:21

to this. And I think there's going

11:24

to be quite a few Republicans that

11:26

even if they're, you know, focused on

11:28

rooting out and getting, you know,

11:31

stopping undocumented immigration, they're not going

11:33

to want to go this far. We'll

11:35

be right back with more from

11:37

Steve's conversation with Jason Hancock

11:39

in just a moment. It's

11:43

a great time of year to

11:45

kick back with a movie and

11:47

enjoy the ultimate cinema snack popcorn

11:49

If a building didn't smell like

11:52

popcorn I went in to watch

11:54

a movie. I'm questioning where I'm

11:56

at There is the sensory overload

11:58

of walking in and smell fresh

12:00

popcorn. But did you know that

12:02

it was a Kansas City woman

12:05

who helped popularize the pair? Hear

12:07

the whole story on KCOR's podcast,

12:09

A People's History of Kansas City.

12:12

You know in his speech, Jason,

12:14

the governor discussed a tighter budget,

12:16

but he also has this vision

12:18

of cutting the state income tax.

12:20

In his address did he lay

12:22

out plans to make that happen

12:24

and why is he so committed

12:27

to that idea? Well,

12:29

this is something he's talked about, you

12:31

know, again, all the way through the

12:33

campaign, this idea of eventually getting the

12:36

income tax down to zero. This is

12:38

this close to a plan as he's

12:40

managed to lay out so far. You

12:42

know, he pointed back to previous efforts

12:45

to cut the income tax where it

12:47

was sort of this step down approach

12:49

where when certain. economic indicators were hit,

12:51

the income tax would drop by a

12:54

percentage or a point to, and that's,

12:56

there's one more step in a previous

12:58

tax cut still to go. That's, that's

13:00

sort of how he described moving forward

13:03

is maybe setting up another future, you

13:05

know, step down of the income tax

13:07

to eventually get it down to zero.

13:09

But your point is taken that, you

13:12

know, there's going to be a huge

13:14

reduction potentially in the. state revenue paying

13:16

for a lot of services that you

13:19

know Missourians depend upon and so that's

13:21

going to be the push in the

13:23

pull is how do you reduce that

13:25

income tax and continue to step it

13:28

down to zero without having to you

13:30

know, go to these services and start

13:32

making pretty deep cuts that will be

13:34

required if revenue drops. Jason, just quickly

13:37

on one final issue, which is abortion,

13:39

some Republicans were upset that the governor

13:41

didn't focus more on this issue during

13:43

his state of the state address yesterday.

13:46

How much criticism did he receive? What

13:48

did he talk about? He

13:50

waited very carefully into the issue. You

13:52

know, he talked about the idea of

13:55

trying to offer women alternatives to abortion,

13:57

you know, to put more money into...

13:59

pregnancy resource centers, which are these sort

14:02

of pseudo religious organizations that will offer

14:04

women, you know, services through to carry

14:06

the pregnancy to term. You know, he

14:08

mentioned the idea of the legislature need

14:11

to work together. to tackle the issue,

14:13

but he never said exactly what he

14:15

wanted to do or what they should

14:17

do or point a specific direction. And

14:20

it did get a little bit of

14:22

criticism folks that wished he had sort

14:24

of led on that because that's become

14:27

a big problem amongst Republicans is there's

14:29

a million ideas that they want to

14:31

do to respond to Amendment 3 that

14:33

was passed in November, but no one

14:36

settled on exactly the right path. And

14:38

if they can't get on the same

14:40

page, it makes it already difficult journey

14:42

almost impossible. That was

14:45

Steve Kraske in conversation with

14:47

Jason Hancock. Up to date

14:49

is a production of KC-U-R

14:51

and this podcast was produced

14:53

by me Elizabeth Ruiz. Thanks

14:55

for listening. Join us next

14:57

time. Scientists

15:14

Kara Akabakh spends her days with reindeer

15:17

herders studying how their bodies adapt to

15:19

the cold. The population here seems to

15:21

use more fats. And when I say

15:23

use, this is not conscious. This is

15:25

what their body is doing on its

15:28

own. I'm Kate the Chemist. Learn more

15:30

on my podcast, Seeking a Scientists, made

15:32

possible by the Sowers Institute.