“This is not about divisive conversations about blue lives and Black lives. It’s the basic question of how government should work.”

Melissa Robinson, a Democratic Kansas City, Mo., Council member, regarding the growing local debate about who should have control over the city’s police department. As it is now, the city does not have control of the police department, the police chief or how the department spends its tax dollars because of a 1930s-era law that gives that power to a five-member board whose members are mostly appointed by the governor. The local debate is coming to a head this summer and residents will vote in November on a constitutional amendment that would give the Legislature more control over the police department. (Associated Press — July 15, 2022)