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Kansas City ended 45 years of contracting goals for minority- and women-owned businesses after a state lawsuit said they were discriminatory.

Why it matters: The repeal of the Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) program changes how the city awards hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts each year, and the lawsuit that prompted it isn't over.

Driving the news: The council voted 12-0 last week to end the program and create a race- and sex-neutral small business program in its place.

Catch up quick: Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway sued the city July 22, saying the program discriminated against white men.

• The suit relies on the city's 2026 disparity study, which recommended replacing the race- and sex-based program with a neutral small business version.
• The program most recently set citywide goals of awarding 14.7% of contract dollars to minority-owned businesses and 14.4% to women-owned businesses.

What's inside: The replacement certifies businesses by size and location rather than the owner's race or sex, and gives additional consideration to veteran-owned businesses.

• The smallest certified firms get some city contracts under $400,000 reserved just for them.
• Contracts in progress will have their MWBE goals removed, and existing certifications are expected to transition into the new system.

What they're saying: Mayor Quinton Lucas told KCUR the change was necessary because the city is "under attack from conservative legal interests."

• "Kansas Citians deserve a system based on fairness, merit, and equal treatment, not one that sorts people and spends taxpayer dollars based on race or sex," Hanaway said in announcing the suit.
• Her office said it's "encouraged" by the change but will continue the lawsuit and seek damages for contractors who allege the program cost them contracts.

Go deeper

Census data shows a majority-minority U.S. population is decades away, but four Kansas counties and the metro's Wyandotte County have already crossed that line.

The big picture: The shift is reshaping the state, from meatpacking towns in southwest Kansas to the metro's urban core, part of the nationwide rural trend identified in an Axios analysis.

How it works: Majority-minority means fewer than half of a place's residents identify as non-Hispanic white. The U.S. as a whole is projected to cross that line in 2046.

• The Axios analysis, which paired 2020 census data with federal rural classifications, found 403 U.S. counties already there, including 221 rural ones across 27 states.

The intrigue: Kansas' four rural counties are Seward, Ford, Finney and Grant in the state's southwest corner, home to about 102,000 people combined.

• The change came fast. Seward County was about 65% white in 2000. Today it's 73% nonwhite, a shift driven largely by immigrant families drawn to jobs in the region's meatpacking plants.
• Missouri has no rural counties on the list.

State of play: Small governments often can't afford court interpreters, bilingual election workers or translated documents.

• All four Kansas counties on the list are federally required to provide Spanish-language voting materials under the Voting Rights Act. Outside elections, federal language-access rules are looser.
• Questions about political representation have followed the demographic shift into federal court. The ACLU of Kansas and partner groups sued Dodge City, in majority-minority Ford County, arguing its citywide elections diluted the votes of the city's Latino majority.
• A federal judge ruled for the city in 2024, finding the plaintiffs hadn't proven the system usually defeats Latino voters' preferred candidates.

Zoom in: Wyandotte County crossed the threshold years ago. Just 35.2% of its residents are non-Hispanic white, per Census estimates, and about a third speak a language other than English at home.

What we're watching: White residents were still 68% of the KC metro in 2020, but people of color accounted for 92% of the region's population growth over the previous decade, per the Mid-America Regional Council.

❤️ The big heart sculpture from Fan Fest could have a second life at the intended site of the new Royals stadium, per a community impact agreement. (Kansas City Star)

🍽️ Plaza restaurant Café Trio will become Louie's Reserve, a new concept by the owners of Louie's Wine Dive in Overland Park. (Kansas City Business Journal)

🌙 A youth curfew will go into effect in Independence Aug. 1 through Labor Day after last year's SantaCaliGon Days Festival resulted in fights. (KSHB)

A Kansas City man stole the show at a Nebraska beard competition that was judged by some of competitive facial hair's biggest wigs.

The big picture: Ivan "the Squatch" Pancic dominated the Big Beautiful Badass Beard Battle last weekend with 13 inches of flowing facial locks, taking home four first-place finishes, including the Best Beard Award and Best in Show.

• The top competition was a close shave, with second and third places separated by one point.

Zoom in: The competition was part of Herostock, a veteran and first-responder festival in Ashland, Nebraska.

• Judges included Hollywood hair and makeup artist Ron Wolek, mustache champion Philip Patton, and Kevin Gouran, CEO of beard care brand Doc Goodbeard.

What they're saying: "I was really surprised when they called my name" as the winner, Pancic tells Axios. "It was just a blast" seeing the other "beard-os."

• He says he started growing out his beard during the pandemic, starting from scratch. "Every beard has a story."

How it works: Contestants are measured and placed into categories for length, beard style and natural vs. groomed.

• Judges then score based on six criteria: shape, balance, grooming, style, mustache and density.

Keep reading

🫶🏼 Abbey thanks everyone who wrote in with tips on solo travel!

🪒 Travis' beard is staying close to his face.

Thanks to Chloe for editing this newsletter.