Call Center Company in Kansas City, MO

A State Senate Committee of Missouri's Legislature passed a 6-3 vote in a Special Session on Tuesday in favor of moving forward with the Kansas City Chiefs (NFL) and Royals (MLB) stadium deal.

Monday, a last-minute iteration made it more reasonable for the Fiscal Oversight Committee to pass the Senate Bill (SB) 3. This bill was one of the proposals read on Monday that pushed for both the Chiefs and Royals to stay in Missouri.

State Senator Kurtis Gregory, who represents both Marshall and Saline counties and sponsored the bill, was put on the committee on Monday. This ensured that one-fifth of the votes needed to pass the bill to the full Senate were all but guaranteed.

After Tuesday's 3-hour hearing and vote, Gregory went on to speak about the President of the State Senate, Cindy O’Laughlin of Shelby County, Missouri, and Shelbina.

“That was the President Pro Tem’s decision,” Gregory responded when asked if he joined the committee just to make sure the bill gets passed. “Her and I have talked a lot. I’ve asked questions, ‘What do we have to do to get this done?’ She called one day and [said], ‘You’re going to be on this committee.’ I said, ‘Okay, that’s great.’ I serve at the bequest of the President Pro Tem just like House members serve at the bequest of the Speaker of the House.”

Numerous people showed their support in favor of the bill, which, if passed, would let Missouri pay for up to 50% of the stadium costs for the Chiefs and Royals.

Rich AuBuchon, a lobbyist who defended the Chiefs, spoke on the idea of renovating the existing GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, which has been the home of the Chiefs since 1972 (third-oldest in the NFL). He mentioned that if the team were to stay in the state, they'd focus on renovating the stadium they already have instead of building a brand new one.

“It is a plan that costs $1.15 billion for the Chiefs as of today,” AuBuchon told the committee.

Aubuchon also went on to say that if the team stays in Missouri, they’d stay for 30 years. In April of 2024, the guarantee was only 25 years.

Inside an 86-year-old baseball stadium in a community of 70,000, a mother and father of five occupy the front row.

Mom has watched games here for literal generations — her father, brother and then youngest son on the field — but tonight is a unique experience.

Her wheelchair is sandwiched between two aisle seats and tears stream down her face. A recently diagnosed neurological disorder makes it a challenge to wipe them away.

She and her husband wear jerseys that they had custom made before the shops starting selling them — Royals tops, with a name and number stitched on the back

Cameron.

65.

They grab a bit of attention here.

“You probably don’t know me,” a woman says, initiating a conversation. “But congrats on your son’s success.”

Mom, with light-brown hair long enough to cover that name plate, smiles during these interactions, which are starting to happen a lot recently. She smiles about most anything.

Dad is a storyteller. He blends into the crowd, with a mustache and wire-framed glasses that, come to think of it, resemble the pair his son used to wear on this very mound.

That youngest son has upgraded to Oakley sunglasses now — and they passed out 100 just like them ahead of this game, offering kids a chance to mimic their new Major League Baseball idol.

Royals left-handed pitcher Noah Cameron, the youngest of the five Cameron children, is taking the big leagues by storm not many years after taking this very place by storm as a kid.

On this night, the 25-year-old Cameron and his Oakleys are stationed an hour south of St. Joe, in Kansas City, where Kauffman Stadium is playing host to the Big Slick charity softball game benefiting a local children’s hospital, an event put on by some prominent KC celebrities.

But back here at 86-year-old Paul Welch Stadium in St. Joseph, they are on hand to honor their own celebrity.

Him.

So Cameron’s family walked onto the field before a local independent-league game. Six-year-old Harper, a niece, sang the national anthem, absent the music and without missing a word. Two-year-old Logan, a nephew, intended to throw out the first pitch but apparently decided he’d prefer to keep the baseball instead.

And an announcer bellowed the four words that started to make Mom cry again.

“It’s Noah Cameron night!”

During Noah Cameron’s first college baseball weekend at Central Arkansas, mom Diane and dad Tracy drove nearly seven hours to watch him play.

Just on the off-chance they could watch him.

Cameron warmed up in the bullpen that Friday night, but the coaches opted against putting him in the game. He got loose again Saturday but didn’t make the trot to the mound then, either. He warmed up in the bullpen a third time Sunday, and, still, nothing.

A week later, undeterred, Diane and Tracy got back in the car and embarked on another 6 1/2-hour drive. In that weekend’s fourth game, the seventh of the season, Cameron finally got the ball.

He threw seven shutout innings. And his spot in the rotation became permanent immediately.

His parents have never missed a game. Literally, not one. As he has progressed through Little League, travel baseball, college, the minors and now to the majors, they’ve either attended every game in person or watched on a live stream.

After the Royals drafted Cameron in 2021, his parents traveled to see him compete in spring training the following year. The grounds-workers figured they were lost and unaware they were watching minor-league games, so they pointed them in the direction of the lower fields.

“We’re here to see Noah,” they’d reply.

They were the only people on the hill watching those inter-squad minor-league games in Arizona. For two decades, Noah has been their story to follow all across the country — oftentimes, theirs alone.

Now, his story belongs to all of us.

Cameron has started four games with the Royals, initially as an injury fill-in for Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans. But now he is taking on the look of a future mainstay for the club’s major-league pitching staff.

He’s pitched into the seventh inning in all four of his starts and has yet to allow more than one run in any of them. He’s the first MLB pitcher since 1893 to accomplish that feat, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

Those numbers aren’t transposed. It’s been 132 years since baseball has seen this kind of start to a major-league career.

That’s a win for the Royals’ scouting and pitching development operations. When KC drafted Cameron, he still wasn’t fully recovered from Tommy John surgery. Since then, he has layered new offerings into his pitching arsenal, enough that he’s mixed up his game plans from start to start.

Draft night is when Noah’s father, Tracy, had the jerseys made. Cameron got the call from the Royals, and his dad wanted the family to wear KC attire for the local newscast that evening.

A week later, Tracy took the jerseys to a local embroidery shop to have the family’s last name stitched onto the back.

And last week, some four years after the draft, Tracy returned to that shop with another request.

“It looks like,” he said, “I’m going to need the numbers on there, too.”

It’s stuck.

He’s stuck around.

For now.

Cameron is pushing the issue on those initial spot-start plans. Royals general manager J.J. Picollo told The Star his performance thus far is going to force the club to make a difficult decision — and perhaps even to re-think entirely its original plan for Cameron.

The organization is still awaiting a couple of additional data points — including the outcome of Cameron’s fifth big-league start, scheduled for Wednesday evening in St. Louis — before making that decision. But it’s coming, and soon.

As for the past?

Glad you asked.

When Noah Cameron was 4, he walked along the Kauffman Stadium outfield. His parents think it was part of a school field trip, or something similar.

His father, Tracy, was raised in Pattonsburg, Missouri, a tiny town more than an hour north of Kansas City. The Royals were part of his early DNA.

Baseball came even earlier for his youngest son.

“When he was 2, barely walking, he’d take a pebble, an apple, an orange — if it was round, it was a ball,” Tracy recalled. “He’d come up to me in the recliner, look at me, and say, ‘Ball!’ And I knew he wanted to play catch.”

It’s a relatively linear development from there — travel ball, high school ace, college showcase, college rotation and then the MLB Draft.

Except for one thing.

This kind of dream doesn’t happen here, in this tight-knit community. And that isn’t meant to be insulting, but rather factual: Cameron is the first St. Joseph native to reach the major leagues since 1981, per Baseball Reference. His uncle, Steve Mapel, made it to Triple-A in the early 1980s.

So it’s understandable that this place has taken notice.

The local Rally House keeps getting requests for No. 65 jerseys. Local bars and restaurants don’t miss a game. A bank has even plastered Noah’s picture and number on its marquee.

Mom and Dad can’t visit the grocery store without being stopped. Their son has reached the big leagues, and now the townspeople of St. Joseph feel like they have reached the big leagues, too.

St. Joe Proud, they call it.

“We used to call it ‘the bandwagon,’” Tracy said. “We’ve got 70,000 people on the bandwagon right now.”

A couple-dozen of them made the trip to see Cameron’s first major-league start in Tampa, where he flirted with a no-hitter.

The Royals flew Tracy and Diane to that game. The couple made the trip on their own to Minnesota a few weeks later, a six-hour trip.

Cameron has been unfazed by the moment. Picollo, the Royals’ GM, said you wouldn’t know that he had no previous big-league experience. He acts as though he belongs. He pitches as though he belongs.

“This is unbelievable,” Cameron said. “But we’ve been talking about this moment for a long time.”

It’s real now.

For his parents, and his mom in particular, it’s maybe a little closer to surreal.

The trip to Tampa for Noah’s MLB debut was a whirlwind — a call late Sunday, on a plane two days later, Cameron nearly throwing a no-hitter Wednesday, then back home Thursday.

After that trip, after she returned home to St. Joseph, Diane found a quiet moment and sat down to re-watch the game. And then she watched it again. And again. She must’ve watched it six times from start to finish, she estimated, and during one of those viewings she pulled out a relic from when Noah was a kid.

A scorebook.

She has stacks of them now, from Noah’s childhood games, his high school contests and games he played in college. The four games she’s tracked from the major leagues look pretty clean.

Her writing has changed over the years, though, particularly recently. She was diagnosed with “stiff-person syndrome,” a rare neurological disorder that mimics its name.

But she lives a charmed life, she says, and she attributes that to her next sentence:

“Half my life,” she says, “has been at baseball games.”

Most of them were here at this venue, Phil Welch Stadium, a community setting with the feel of a minor-league park. Billboards adorn the outfield fence and there’s enough seating for nearly 4,000 fans.

Diane began making trips here as a kid — her dad umpired games. Her brother, Steve, later played here, too. And Noah’s high school, St. Joseph Central, used this stadium as its home field.

In all, she must have seen more than a hundred games at Phil Welch Stadium.

“Maybe a thousand,” she says.

But tonight? Well, tonight is even better than the thousand before it.

“Tonight,” she says, “it’s Noah Cameron Night.”

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It's summer break for students, but that doesn't mean saving for college gets a pause.

A Kansas City-area financial advisor said savings should start early, but where exactly that money should be saved depends on the individual student.

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"I think for the generations that are coming behind, there are so many other options," said Stacia Williams, founder and wealth advisor at Williams Financial Group.

She also said students should be sure they want to use those savings on college tuition.

"Before you start paying for college, start asking your children: What do you want to do when you get older?" Williams said. "And make sure that you hear them, and make sure that you cater or build a financial plan for what their goals are."

To keep it simple, she boiled it down to three types of savings plans, starting with the popular 529 savings plan.

Earnings in a 529 plan grow tax-deferred, meaning you don’t pay taxes on the investment gains as they accumulate.

Withdrawals for qualified education expenses are federally tax-free, and in many states, state tax-free as well. In Kansas and Missouri, you can also deduct thousands from your taxes for contributing to it.

Its major limitation is that the money is fairly inflexible, as it can only be used for education expenses. So, if your grad decides to skip college after years of saving, there may be penalties for non-education withdrawals.

An important note: 529 plans can often be used for trade school tuition as well.

"I would say start as early as possible and be consistent when it comes to contributing to those college funds," Williams said.

She also mentioned two other options for putting away college money.

Using a cash value life insurance policy to save money is more flexible than a 529 when it comes to what you want to use the money for, Williams said.

Policyholders can borrow against the cash value, withdraw funds or use it as collateral. However, any outstanding loans or withdrawals will reduce the death benefit.

Withdrawals may not incur taxes if the policy has been in force long enough and is structured properly, but loans are generally repaid with interest.

Upfront costs can be high, and it takes much longer to save using it, but the money can be used for more than tuition.

Finally, Williams mentioned using brokerage accounts.

Brokerage accounts invested in different stocks and bonds can grow significantly, depending on how much risk you're willing to accept.

The greater reward comes with greater risk. Market fluctuations can impact the value of the investment, and you may have to pay capital gains taxes.

Putting money into a brokerage account doesn't tie it to education at all — the money can be used for anything.

Williams said if all this feels like a challenge to understand, don't hesitate to reach out to a finance professional like her to have them break it down for you.

The Kansas City Chiefs and Royals get a win at the Missouri Capitol.

As part of a special session of the state legislature, the Senate has passed a pitch that aims to keep the teams in Missouri. Senate Bill 3 would fund up to 50% of the costs to build or renovate stadiums for the teams.

Between the Royals planning to build a new stadium and the Chiefs considering upgrades to Arrowhead Stadium, the projects are estimated to cost a total in the realm of $3 billion. That means Missouri could kick in up to roughly $1.5 billion over 30 years.

Sen. Kurtis Gregory, R-Marshall, is the bill sponsor.

“What’s at stake if those teams go across the state line,” Gregory asked during Wednesday’s debate on Senate Bill 3. “Over $2 billion of economic activity inside the state of Missouri, over 13,000 jobs. And we just let the state of Kansas poach, you know, really the pride and joy of the western side of the state and I would say the entire state of Missouri. And then I would also say what’s next?”

He said the money generated at the stadium is what will pay for the stadium projects. Tickets to a game or jerseys purchased at the stadiums are examples of what would cover the state’s share.

“The money from Joe Burrow’s paycheck when he plays at Arrowhead Stadium, those tax dollars that are getting collected and sent to the state of Missouri is what’s being used to figure up the amount that we can bond each year to pay for this project – not the dollars that hard-working Missourians are having taken out of their paycheck,” said Gregory.

The Chiefs have said the team plans to decide this month where its future home will be located. The Royals are considering multiple sites in Missouri and Kansas.

“I also contest that the teams want to stay in Missouri because if they wanted to go to Kansas, I believe they would have already signed on the dotted line to move those teams,” said Gregory.

Kansas is offering to pay up to 70% of the costs to build stadiums for the teams. That offer expires at the end of this month.

During Senate committee hearings this week, Gregory said his bill is responsible.

“Let’s say we get 20 years in and the city of Nashville or Salt Lake City, which both I have learned over the last 24 hours, have actually made sales pitches to the Royals, makes one that they absolutely cannot turn down, and they say we’re going to move. The sports team has to pay back all the money that the state of Missouri has spent on those bond payments throughout that period of time,” he said.

The Senate proposal does not sit well with Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette.

“We knew the special session was going to happen for the Chiefs and the Royals – we knew that. But then, for it to be packaged as ‘Oh, we need to get the legislature back together because we have to help people impacted by the tornado,’ that really rubbed me the wrong way,” said McCreery.

The Missouri Legislature’s special session also includes $25 million in emergency housing aid for disaster victims, $100 million for disaster relief, and funding for several local construction projects.

“The governor was trying to package this stadium deal on the backs of people who have lost everything,” said McCreery. “That is just really offensive, quite honestly. Just be honest with what you’re trying to do. They’re trying to put together a package to help some billionaire team owners stay in the state of Missouri.”

The bills go to the Missouri House of Representatives for more work.

Posted 2:17 PM, Jun 04, 2025

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After surveying severe weather damage in Independence, the National Weather Service office in Kansas City was able to confirm an EF1 tornado moved through the area Tuesday afternoon.

The NWS said the tornado reached peak winds of 100 mph and was 3.75 miles in length, 50 yards in width.

Touching down at 2:35 p.m., the tornado was on the ground until 2:44 p.m., moving east.

Damage reports mainly included snapped and uprooted trees, as well as lost limbs.

Several nearby neighborhoods sustained damage as well.

Wednesday morning, reporter Lily O'Shea Becker found the damage the NWS said was caused by a tornado on Berry Road near Truman Road.

When the storm originally struck, the KSHB 41 team was spread out across the city.

One of the areas KSHB 41’s Isabella Ledonne found damage was Highland Avenue.

Resident Don McMillan’s house was spared, as a tree fell just feet in front of his home.

"I looked out to see what the weather was doing and that's when it all hit," McMillan said. "Just boom, the tree came down, the wind came up and the rain kept coming down."

Ledonne also went to the Truman Sports Complex, where an EFU was reported.

The smaller tornado, about 0.25 miles in length, was on the ground for two minutes.

The NWS said several light objects were blown over, but those reports don't count as "official damage indicators."

Unless additional damage reports are received, the NWS said the rating will remain an EFU.

When Ledonne was at the complex, she heard from Kauffman Stadium employees who were present for the storm.

"This is my eighth day at work here, and what an introduction," Camden Love said. "We were up on the top there on the seventh floor when the first line of wind and rain hit, and you could see it coming across the parking lot."

KSHB 41’s Fernanda Silva spoke with neighbors who live near S. Grand Avenue and E. 54th Terrace.

Many said they heard a large tree crack before a tree fell down. Luckily, the King family was not injured in the incident.

“It’s quite a surprise to get home and see that," Evan King said. "We know that many times during a storm, we see some branches here and there. But to see this, it is quite devastating."

The KSHB 41 morning team checked in Wednesday morning with the damaged areas Ledonne and Silva reported from Tuesday night.