Kansas City's Ghosts & Gangsters tour takes riders into the city's shadowy past — where mobsters ruled, bullets flew, and some say the ghosts never left.

The big picture: Riders visit sites linked to some of Kansas City's darkest chapters:

• At Columbus Square Park from the 1890s to the 1920s, the Black Hand gang would threaten local merchants, once using nail-stuffed shotguns to terrorize shopkeepers.
• A visit to Union Station highlights the 1933 massacre that killed four people. Bullet holes are still visible on the building.

• At the Power & Light building, people claim to see phantom jumpers diving from the rooftop, but there's never any sign of a fall — no body, no broken glass, no trace at all.

What they're saying: "It's not about scaring you rigid. I want people to walk away loving the history of this town," tour guide Ryan Mitchell tells Axios.

• "I love ghost stories, I love gangsters, I love history, and I love Kansas City. So this was a perfect night," rider Michael Rebein says.

If you go: The 90-minute tour starts in the River Market and runs year-round on weekends, with tickets still available this Halloween.

• Tickets are $60 a person.
• Riders are encouraged to bring drinks of their choice, just not glass; water is provided.
• Expect to hop off the bus for story stops.

Fun fact: KC has more than one way to explore its haunted history, including US Ghost Adventures' Wraiths & Whiskey tour, which focuses on research-based hauntings and local legends.

💭 Abbey thought bubble: I expected jump scares, but instead learned that this city's past is wild enough without any ghosts.

The bottom line: The tour makes KC's past feel alive again — part ghost story, part crash course in how the city got its grit.

U.S. Women's National Team coach Emma Hayes spoke at a press briefing yesterday ahead of tonight's match against New Zealand at CPKC Stadium, the first stadium built for a professional women's sports team.

The big picture: She praised the KC Current's leadership and the investment behind their facilities.

"Always fantastic to see women's-only facilities, and to know players from around the world have a home. Not a shared home. We have been denied fair access to our game globally, and now we have been able to create opportunities to build. It's right to give Kansas City its flowers for what it's doing."

Go deeper: Kansas City wants to be the women's sports capital

👀 New renderings of the 2026 World Cup Fan Festival show a 65-foot-tall heart-shaped entrance, which will symbolize KC's moniker: "Heart of America." (Press release)

🏗️ The Rock Island Bridge will officially open to the public in November, per the Unified Government. Ongoing construction on one end will wrap up next year, and the bridge's entertainment components will lie dormant from December to March. (Kansas City Business Journal)

✂️ The new KCI Corridor Trail is officially complete; city leaders will host a ribbon-cutting today at 11:15am at the trailhead near Tiffany Landing. The path — which follows I-29 — links with the 152 Trail for a total of nearly 12.5 miles. (Press release)

☕️ A late-night coffee shop is coming to Overland Park, with tentative plans to stay open till midnight. Mocha Point Yemeni Coffee Co., which started in St. Louis, plans to open later this year or early 2026. (Kansas City Star)

Missouri is one of four states that have signed a redistricted map into law as a result of the Trump administration's push to gain more seats in the 2026 elections.

• All four states — Missouri, Utah, North Carolina and Texas — are controlled by Republicans.
• But Missouri is the only one with a signed map that could be subject to a public vote, pending legal challenges.

The big picture: The national fight over redistricting is ramping up, with several states taking new steps to redraw their congressional maps.

• Texas Republicans hope to gain five seats.

In Kansas: The state Senate has enough Republican signatures to call a special session on redistricting, KCUR reports, but as of yesterday, it's unclear if that holds true in the House.

• "They probably have the veto-proof margin," U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) told Axios' Hans Nichols, anticipating a likely veto from Gov. Laura Kelly of a new map.

Yes, but: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) was in Illinois on Monday to encourage Democratic lawmakers in the state to try to squeeze one more blue seat out of their already heavily gerrymandered map.

• Maryland and California have also proposed redistricted maps that favor Democrats.