Nick’s Picks | Furloughs, Fans, Fright and More …

Shutdown Gets Serious

We’re about to start week five of the federal government shutdown. With no clear end in sight, the impact is about to get even more serious.

• Starting Saturday, more than half a million Missourians who rely on federal food assistance will lose benefits. Nearly 188,000 Kansans will also lose SNAP food benefits by this weekend.
• Also on Saturday, all 17 Head Start locations in Kansas City will close if no deal is struck in Washington. Those sites serve nearly 2,300 children and families.
• Starting today, Kansas City’s Honeywell facility in south Kansas City will go into shutdown mode. About 1,600 workers are set to be furloughed as the federal money tap runs dry. The plant is under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to manufacture non-nuclear components for the nuclear stockpile.

Stadium Decision?

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has scheduled meetings this week with leaders from the Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Is a deal finally at hand to end the long-running stadium saga?

The governor’s office has declined to offer more details. And the teams aren’t saying anything either.

Early Voting on Both Sides of State Line

Early in-person voting is now underway in Kansas and Missouri ahead of the Nov. 4election.

Mayoral races top the ballot in more than a dozen cities, including in Kansas City, Kansas, which is picking a replacement for Tyrone Garner, who has decided not to seek reelection.

There are also some meaty issue questions on the ballot.

Jackson County voters are being asked to decide whether to elect its county assessor after property tax increases stirred public anger. Independence voters are being asked whether to continue with a four-day school week. And in Prairie Village, voters are being asked to toss their entire city government structure and start again.

The Future of Wyandotte

World Cup Fan Fest Reveal

Kansas City’s World Cup Committee is promising a big update this week. This one centers on the FIFA Fan Festival, the free food, soccer, and music experience that will accompany the global tournament when it arrives in June.

We know the event will happen on the south lawn of the National WWI Museum and Memorial. But few other details are known.

KC2026 will host a news conference at the museum on Tuesday morning to reveal more about what fans can expect.

No Turn on Red

The Kansas City Council is expected to vote Thursday on a new ordinance banning vehicles from making right turns on a red light when in a school zone. It comes just days after the funeral of Hazen Workman-Duffy, a third-grader at Ingles Elementary School who was biking to class on a marked crosswalk when she was struck by a van.

In a related news story … a memorial service is planned for Wednesday for 10-year-old Duke Ommert. He’s the Leawood fourth-grader who died after being struck by a car while crossing Lee Boulevard.

60^th Anniversary of Gateway Arch

St. Louis is celebrating its biggest attraction this week.

Tuesday marks the 60^th anniversary of the completion of the Gateway Arch.

At 630 feet, it is America’s highest monument and the tallest arch in the world. But the celebrations are being tempered by the federal government shutdown. It will run out of operating money this week and is expected to be closed by the weekend.

U.S Women’s National Team in KC

The U.S. Women’s soccer team is heading to Kansas City this week for an international matchup against New Zealand.

It’s the first time the national team will play at CPKC Stadium.

Gametime is Wednesday at 7 p.m.

There will be plenty of recognizable faces on the field. Four Kansas City Current players have been selected to join the U.S. Women’s squad.

In other sports news…

• The Kansas City Chiefs return to the national stage tonight for a prime-time clash against the Washington Commanders. Game time at Arrowhead is 7:15 p.m.
• The Kansas City Current’s final regular-season game is on Sunday. The match against the San Diego Wave starts at 2 p.m. at CPKC Stadium.
• And we’ll have a World Series winner by the end of the week. The Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers are tied 1–1. Game 7, if it comes to it, is on Saturday.

Seen Around Town

Whose Line is it: The current cast members of the hit TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway will be in town. They’re bringing their improv tour, ‘Whose Live Anyway?’ to the Kauffman Center on Wednesday night.

Broadway meets Kansas City: Disney’s Beauty and The Beast is touring North America for the first time in 25 years, and one of its stops is in Kansas City. The 10th-longest-running show in Broadway history starts a weeklong run at the Music Hall on Tuesday.

Getting Ghoulish

Halloween is on Friday. 

Good luck guessing the costumes of the trick-or-treaters coming to your door. According to a new Google Survey, the five top searched costumes were all characters from ‘KPop Demon Hunters.’ Do you even know what that is?

Turn Back the Clocks

There is some good news to report this week…

You get an extra hour of sleep this weekend.

Daylight Saving Time is ending. Don’t forget to turn back your clocks an hour before going to bed on Saturday night.

Nick Haines  tracks Kansas City’s most impactful, confusing, and downright head-scratching local news stories on Week in Review, Fridays at 7:30 p.m. on Kansas City PBS.