KS - May 6 2025

Iconic KCTV Tower Poised to Shine Again: City Advances Relighting Plan for Midtown Landmark

Trump's DOJ Seeks Dismissal of KS, MO Abortion Pill Lawsuit, Pitting Admin Against State AGs

Conservative Podcaster Doug Billings First to File for 2026 Kansas GOP Governor Nod

Staffing Shortages Force Army Corps to Close, Reduce Services at KS, OK Lakes for 2025 Season

US-China Tensions Cloud Future of C919 Airliner, Exposing Dependence on American Parts; Boeing, Wichita Watch Closely

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1. Iconic KCTV Tower Poised to Shine Again: City Advances Relighting Plan for Midtown Landmark

Kansas City is poised to re-illuminate an iconic Midtown landmark. The City Council’s finance committee forwarded a licensing agreement with Gray Local Media on Tuesday that would allow the city to install and use lighting equipment on the 1,024-foot KCTV Broadcast Tower on East 31st Street. Once bathed in the glow of over 1,000 lights, the tower would be the first city landmark to be re-lit under the city’s Illuminate KC initiative: red for the Chiefs, teal for the KC Current, and other colors to reflect various sentiments. The tower stopped glowing roughly 20 years ago, owing to rising maintenance costs and difficult logistics. With Illuminate KC, the city hopes to “shine a light” on Kansas City’s landmarks and historic buildings.

Kansas City Star

2. Trump's DOJ Seeks Dismissal of KS, MO Abortion Pill Lawsuit, Pitting Admin Against State AGs

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice wants to dismiss a legal challenge against a common abortion medication brought by Missouri and Kansas, pitting top Republican officials in the two states against the Trump administration. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, along with Idaho’s attorney general, are asking a federal court in Texas to reimpose national restrictions on mifepristone that could make it more difficult for women to use the drug. Mifepristone, when used in combination with another drug, is one of the most common methods of abortion early in pregnancy. Department of Justice lawyers on Monday evening said in a court filing that the lawsuit should be dismissed or transferred to another court. The closely-watched filing marked the first time the DOJ has weighed in on Kansas and Missouri’s challenge in a major way since Trump took office. The DOJ’s position places Kobach and Bailey, both staunch abortion opponents, in an uncomfortable position. They can either accede to the department’s request at the risk of appearing to back off a major fight over abortion, or fight the Trump administration and potentially anger the president. But the DOJ appears to be trying to find a way out for Trump and the Republican state attorneys general. While the department wants the lawsuit dismissed, it’s limiting its arguments to procedural issues and largely avoiding taking a direct stance on mifepristone. The DOJ argues the states’ challenges were filed either too late or in the wrong court.

Kansas City Star

3. Conservative Podcaster Doug Billings First to File for 2026 Kansas GOP Governor Nod

Conservative podcaster and MAGA enthusiast Doug Billings is the lone person to formally file as a candidate for the Kansas Republican Party’s nomination for governor in 2026. Billings, not a household name in Kansas politics, said in an interview Monday that he was a reluctant candidate in a GOP field that could grow substantially as Secretary of State Scott Schwab, Senate President Ty Masterson, state Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, former Gov. Jeff Colyer, former Johnson County Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara and others made decisions to join the ballot or stay on the sideline. No Democrat has officially entered the race.

Kansas Reflector

4. Staffing Shortages Force Army Corps to Close, Reduce Services at KS, OK Lakes for 2025 Season

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District, announced Tuesday that it will temporarily close or reduce services at recreation areas across Kansas and Oklahoma for the 2025 recreation season. The USACE said it does not have the staffing needed to maintain normal service levels at all of its recreation sites. Council Grove Lake in Kansas will be among the lakes significantly impacted in Kansas. USACE said three seasonal parks - Neosho Park, Kit Carson Cove and North Ritchey Cove - were set to open on May 1, but do the staffing shortage, those parks will remain closed. Boat ramps will remain open at Neosho and North Richey parks.

KWCH

5. US-China Tensions Cloud Future of C919 Airliner, Exposing Dependence on American Parts; Boeing, Wichita Watch Closely

For years, Beijing has had high hopes that Comac’s C919, China’s first domestically made airliner, could challenge the aircraft market dominance of Boeing and Airbus, showing China’s technological self-reliance and the advances made by its state-run plane maker. But as the US-China trade war escalates, analysts are warning that the C919’s heavy reliance on US suppliers for critical components could threaten plans to increase production and even hit the maintenance of passenger jets already in operation. With China’s three big state-owned airlines already flying 17 C919s and Comac expecting to build at least 30 more of the single-aisle aircraft this year, the tensions between Washington and Beijing are highlighting how Chinese companies can be heavily dependent on US companies in their supply chains. The C919, which made its maiden commercial flight in China in 2023, has 48 major suppliers from the US, 26 from Europe and 14 from China, according to Bank of America analyst Ron Epstein.

Editors note: this isn’t a “Kansas” story but affects Boeing, a major Kansas employer and its supply chain in Wichita.

Financial Times

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Sources

1. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article305844071.html#storylink=cpy
2. https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article305810881.html#storylink=cpy
3. https://kansasreflector.com/2025/05/05/kansas-podcaster-seeks-gop-gubernatorial-nomination-to-copy-trump-crusade-at-state-level/
4. https://www.kwch.com/2025/05/06/kansas-oklahoma-lakes-recreation-areas-close-temporarily-reduce-service-due-low-staffing/
5. https://www.ft.com/content/38c1f970-8a9e-4435-a468-401597e85e0f