There will be no newsletter Monday in observance of Memorial Day 🇺🇸

🌾 Kansas

• The Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission forwarded three northeast Kansas district judges — Carl Folsom, K. Christopher Jayaram and Robert Wonnell — to Gov. Laura Kelly to fill a vacancy on the state's high court. →

• A federal jury unanimously ruled Thursday that KBI Director Tony Mattivi did not violate former Associate Director David Hutchings' constitutional rights when Hutchings departed the agency in June 2023. →

• Ellis County health officials are working to establish the county as a regional chronic disease management hub under a state-supported pilot program linking rural health departments to share data and reduce preventable hospital visits. →

• A new Exploration Place exhibit opening Friday reveals that Wichita-born oceanographer Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic in 1985 as a cover for a classified U.S. Navy mission to locate two sunken nuclear submarines. →

• Visit Wichita and KSHSAA announced Thursday that all classifications of the 2028 state basketball championships will be played within the Wichita regional footprint, the first such consolidation since 1945. →

🇺🇸 US

• Senate Republicans postponed a vote on Trump's filibuster-proof immigration funding bill Thursday, unable to overcome internal opposition to a proposed "anti-weaponization" fund that would compensate people claiming federal political persecution. →

• The Trump administration announced $2 billion in grants to nine quantum-computing companies, including $1 billion to IBM, with the U.S. government taking minority equity stakes in each firm under a restructured Commerce Department approach. →

• The DNC released a nearly 200-page draft autopsy of the 2024 campaign Thursday, blaming Biden's political operation and the Harris campaign's failure to distance itself from the incumbent for her electoral defeat, though the document carried disclaimers noting missing sourcing and unverified assertions. →

• An Israeli task force killed Hamas's Gaza military commander Friday, the latest strike in a years-long digital dragnet that has used biometric ID and persistent surveillance to eliminate hundreds tied to the Oct. 7 attack. →

• NASCAR's all-time wins leader Kyle Busch died Thursday at 41 after a brief hospitalization, leaving behind a legacy of 234 national series victories and two Cup Series championships in 2015 and 2019. →

Weather

MAY 22, 1856: SOUTHERN CONGRESSMAN SAVAGELY CANES NORTHERN SENATOR IN THE U.S. CAPITOL

In the wake of the divisive Kansas-Nebraska Act, pro-slavery Representative Preston Brooks brutally attacked abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner at his desk on the Senate floor. Sumner, trapped by his bolted desk, was beaten so severely with a cane that he could not return to the Senate for three years. The assault shocked the nation, turning Brooks into a hero in much of the South and a villain in the North, and it starkly symbolized the deepening sectional hostility that was pushing the country toward civil war.

Found a mistake? Have a news tip or feedback to share? Contact our newsroom using the button below: