Hays

• The Hays City Commission approved a $511,411 contract with J Corp to replace a frequently broken waterline along 23rd Street. →
• State Rep. Barbara Wasinger announced passage of House Bill 2433, securing a long-term water source for Hays and Russell. →
• Hays City Commission members and state Rep. Barbara Wasinger debated whether the state of Kansas is fully funding special education. →
• Hays Regional Airport recorded its highest number of April passenger boardings in history, according to city officials. →
• After some patchy morning fog and a slight chance of showers clears out, we'll see partly sunny skies today with a high near 82°F.

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🌾 Kansas

• Kansas legislators called a lawsuit threat from four Johnson County school districts over a special-education funding gap exceeding $200 million "premature," with the Education Funding Task Force targeting 2027 for a new formula. →

• Marshall County commissioners voted May 26 to ask state legislators and the attorney general to form a task force regulating storm chasers, after roughly 500 chasers delayed emergency response by 20 to 30 minutes during an EF-3 tornado near Blue Rapids. →

• Early voting began May 28 in a June 9 recall election targeting Morton County Sheriff Thad Earls, who faces accusations of mishandling drug evidence, falsifying time sheets and failing to pay departmental bills on time. →

• Hexcel Corporation and Wichita State University's NIAR broke ground May 28 on a $10 million composites center in Wichita intended to help scale narrow-body jet production from roughly 12 aircraft per month to as many as 70. →

• Nearly 22,000 Kansans, including 10,300 children, have lost SNAP benefits since President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a 12% drop in state enrollment driven by new work requirements and higher state cost-sharing, according to a May 28 report. →

🇺🇸 US

• Labor's share of U.S. gross domestic income fell to 51% in Q1 — the lowest since records began in 1947 — while corporate profits' share rose to 12.1%, the highest since 1950, as inflation-adjusted wages climbed 3% since 2019 compared to a 50% surge in profits. →

• Credit-card balances 90 or more days delinquent reached 13.12% in Q1, a 15-year high, as total U.S. card debt hit a record $1.25 trillion and average interest rates climbed to 21%. →

• Disney filed early renewal applications for eight ABC station licenses May 28, complying under protest with an FCC order it called unlawful, unconstitutional and an "act of coercion" targeting disfavored editorial voices. →

• A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded during a hotfire test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Thursday night, heavily damaging the company's only New Glenn launch pad and setting back its Amazon satellite launch campaign by months. →

• U.S. and Iranian negotiators announced a tentative memorandum of understanding May 28 that would extend a ceasefire 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and launch nuclear talks, pending approval from President Trump, who has not yet signed off. →

Weather

MAY 29, 1953: HILLARY AND NORGAY REACH SUMMIT OF MOUNT EVEREST

New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first known climbers to stand on Everest’s 29,035-foot summit. Their success, achieved as part of a British expedition, was hailed worldwide and heralded as a symbol of postwar optimism.

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