Kansas daily brief

Kansas news for busy people - Jul 1, 2026 edition

Kansas daily brief
Members of the Emporia Planning Commission/Board of Zoning Appeals hear public testimony during the June 30, 2026, hearing on zoning for the proposed Flint Hills Digital Campus, a gigawatt-scale data center west of the city. The board recommended all three zoning measures to the City Commission. (City of Emporia/cj screenshot)

🌾 Kansas

  • Emporia Planning Commission voted to recommend zoning approvals for the proposed Flint Hills Digital Campus, a gigawatt-scale data center west of the city, sending the measures to the City Commission for a final vote expected July 15.

  • The Kansas City Chiefs projected June 30 that their planned move to Wyandotte County, Kansas, will generate $8.2 billion in total regional economic impact, including a $3 billion domed stadium set to open for the 2031 NFL season.

  • A federal grand jury in Wichita indicted Colby woman Shania Shanahan on more than 70 felony counts for allegedly embezzling over $750,000 from an agricultural cooperative where she worked as controller between 2017 and 2025.

  • Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has filed notice to appeal a Douglas County judge's May ruling that blocked key provisions of the state's ban on gender-affirming care for minors, advancing the case toward the state appellate courts.

  • The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 30 that states may bar transgender girls and women from female school sports, directly bolstering Kansas's Fairness in Women's Sports Act enacted in 2023.


🇺🇸 US

  • Democratic socialist Melat Kiros, 29, defeated 10-term Rep. Diana DeGette in a Denver congressional primary Tuesday, while Sen. Michael Bennet lost Colorado's Democratic gubernatorial race to Attorney General Phil Weiser, extending a progressive insurgency that recently swept New York.

  • The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Monday to uphold birthright citizenship, struck down Trump's executive order limiting it, upheld state transgender sports bans, and eliminated federal caps on coordinated party campaign spending in three separate decisions.

  • A sweeping federal student loan overhaul took effect July 1 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, capping graduate and Parent PLUS borrowing, eliminating Grad PLUS loans, reducing repayment options to two plans and expanding Pell Grants to short-term workforce training.

  • Alphabet is losing top AI researchers to rivals including OpenAI and Anthropic — among them transformer co-creator Noam Shazeer and Nobel laureate John Jumper — sending shares down.

  • President Trump's 2025 financial disclosure shows he earned more than $1 billion from cryptocurrency ventures, including $635 million in memecoin royalties and over $500 million from World Liberty Financial token sales, alongside at least $86.5 million in legal settlements.


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JULY 1 1984: PG-13 RATING DEBUTS FOR AMERICAN MOVIES

On July 1, 1984, the Motion Picture Association of America introduced the new PG-13 rating to signal movies with a higher level of intensity than traditional PG films. The change came amid growing concern that some content was too strong for younger children, leading studios and parents to embrace a clearer warning standard for these borderline films.