Hays

• The Ellis County Commission approved a conditional use permit for the 175-megawatt Tallgrass Solar Development project near Hays. →
• Ellis County expects to receive $400,000 in early community grants from the Tallgrass Solar project before power production starts. →
• The Ellis County Commission reviewed the first draft of the 2027 budget, which projects $500,000 in new revenue and $700,000 in expenses. →
• The Hays City Commission will consider authorizing up to $850,000 for furnishings and equipment for the new Hays police station. →
• The Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex in Hays will host three major USSSA baseball and softball tournaments throughout the month of June. →
• Grab your umbrella just in case, because we're looking at a partly sunny Wednesday in Hays with a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms and a high near 84°F.

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🌾 Kansas

• Kansas's four U.S. House incumbents and Republican Sen. Roger Marshall will face a combined 25 challengers in the Aug. 4 primary following the June 1 filing deadline. →

• The U.S. Senate confirmed Jeffrey M. Kuhlman of Great Bend as U.S. District Judge for the District of Kansas on June 2 by a party-line vote of 52-46. →

• The Finney County Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 to approve special-use permits for Sherlock Solar LLC, a 400-megawatt facility spanning roughly 6,150 acres south of Holcomb, with construction slated to begin in spring 2027. →

• Kansas State University agronomist Romulo Lollato warned this week that Kansas wheat producers are seeing yield reductions of up to 20% due to spring drought, late freezes and disease pressure. →

• The Kansas Board of Regents plans to vote in mid-June on a proposal allowing state universities to offer bachelor's degrees requiring as few as 90 credit hours instead of the traditional 120. →

🇺🇸 US

• Tech companies have committed record capital to data center construction, but a JPMorgan analysis found more than 60% of capacity planned for 2027 completion is not yet under construction, with supply-chain backlogs, permitting disputes and power shortages driving delays. →

• President Trump signed an executive order June 2 asking AI companies including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google to voluntarily share frontier models with the federal government up to 30 days before public release for national-security review, while explicitly barring mandatory licensing or pre-clearance requirements. →

• Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass secured her spot in a November runoff but faces Republican reality TV personality Spencer Pratt as her likely opponent, making her the first incumbent LA mayor to face a runoff since 2005, while a Trump-endorsed Republican held a narrow early lead in the California governor's race. →

• A Harvard-led study of more than 5,300 adults published in the American Journal of Public Health found that those who ate the most ultraprocessed foods had a 58% higher risk of developing dementia than those who ate the least. →

• U.S. and Iranian forces exchanged strikes in the Persian Gulf after the U.S. disabled an Iranian oil tanker breaching its blockade, prompting drone attacks, ballistic missile launches at Kuwait and Bahrain, and a deadly drone strike on Kuwait's international airport, even as Central Command said the April ceasefire remained technically in effect. →

Weather

JUNE 3 1889: FIRST LONG-DISTANCE ELECTRIC POWER LINE OPENS IN OREGON

The new line carried hydroelectric power 14 miles from Willamette Falls to Portland, Oregon, proving that electricity could be transmitted efficiently over distance. This breakthrough came before most homes were wired, laying crucial groundwork for America’s future electric grid.

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