Hays

• Western Kansas communities are celebrating the 150th anniversary of Volga German arrival with cultural events through Aug. 9. →
• The Hays Arts Council will host the 42nd annual Fall Art Walk on Aug. 28 featuring local gallery exhibits and downtown entertainment. →
• The March to Main event in Hays on Aug. 25 will connect local college students with downtown businesses, food, and music. →
• A visit from Union Pacific's Big Boy steam locomotive drew large crowds and boosted the downtown Hays economy. →
• Expect hot and mostly cloudy conditions in Hays today after a slight chance of early morning thunderstorms, with temperatures soaring to a scorching high near 104°F.

🌾 Kansas

• USDA projected Kansas' winter wheat harvest at 196 million bushels, down about 43% from 2025 and the state's smallest crop since the 1950s, as Gov. Laura Kelly placed all 105 counties under drought watch, warning or emergency. →

• Every insurer selling individual health plans on Kansas' ACA marketplace has requested an average double-digit premium increase for 2027, ranging from 10% to 35%, after enrollment fell about 20% since federal premium tax credits expired. →

• The Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball moved Kansas' U.S. Senate race from safe or solid Republican to likely Republican after the Rev. Adam Hamilton won the Aug. 4 Democratic primary to face Sen. Roger Marshall. →

• A Citizen Journal review found jail crowding pushing at least five Kansas counties to buy beds from one another or plan expansions, including Riley County's authorization of a $31.7 million expansion after averaging a record 142 inmates in its 147-bed jail. →

• Wichita reached a record 111 degrees Sunday, breaking a Dust Bowl mark from 1936, as the city opened 14 free cooling centers amid its driest July since 1888 and ongoing water restrictions. →

🇺🇸 US

• Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg gave U.S. weapons makers 21 days in an Aug. 5 memo to propose faster delivery schedules and increased production, with responses set to shape the Pentagon's fiscal 2028 budget request. →

• Amazon-owned Zoox will begin charging passengers for driverless rides in Las Vegas on Monday, marking its first commercial service after years of free testing. →

• Texas regulators paused new data center grid-connection projects on Gov. Greg Abbott's Aug. 3 order pending an audit, putting the state at odds with President Donald Trump, who called the move a mistake. →

• Yemen's Houthi movement said Sunday it struck Saudi Aramco's Jazan refinery with a drone, prompting a fire and the shutdown of the 400,000-barrel-per-day facility. →

• The Women's Pro Baseball League opened its inaugural season. 1 in Springfield, Illinois, marking the first new U.S. professional women's baseball league in nearly three decades. →

Weather

AUGUST 10, 1776: LONDON LEARNS OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

News reached London on August 10, 1776 that the American colonies had formally declared independence from Britain. The announcement signaled that what had been viewed as a colonial rebellion in Massachusetts had become a full-scale struggle to break from British rule and assert a new nation’s rights.

This article was written using our proprietary AI system, Cronkite. The final decision to publish this article was made by a human. For more info, read our AI policy.