🌾 Kansas

• About 1,200 registered nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and St. Joseph hospitals in Wichita began a one-day strike Monday, with National Nurses United calling it the largest nurses' strike in Kansas history, citing unsafe staffing levels and workplace violence concerns. →

• Evergy's planned 200-megawatt solar farm at Great Plains Industrial Park in Labette County will cover roughly 2,500 acres and begin operating in 2028, while startup Deep Fission has selected the same former Army ammunition-plant site for a DOE pilot program to place a small nuclear reactor about a mile underground. →

• U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren on June 30 granted class-action status to a lawsuit by more than 1,700 homeowners in historically Black neighborhoods of northeast Wichita accusing Union Pacific Railroad of contaminating groundwater with the industrial solvent trichloroethylene. →

• A heat dome settled over the central and eastern U.S. during the Independence Day stretch, placing parts of Kansas — including the Kansas City metro and Topeka — under National Weather Service extreme-heat warnings, with heat indexes reaching 106 degrees in some areas. →

• Federal crop data show about 56% of Kansas rangeland and pastures now rated good to excellent following recent rainfall, but agricultural analysts warn the Fourth of July heat wave could quickly reverse those gains and stress both grass and livestock. →

🇺🇸 US

• Washington closed America's 250th birthday with a record-breaking fireworks display of more than 850,000 pyrotechnic effects over 40 minutes on July 4, 2026, as the city hit 102 degrees — its hottest Fourth of July on record — and approaching storms forced evacuation of the National Mall and delayed President Trump's address until nearly 11 p.m. →

• The Trump administration launched "Trump Accounts" on July 4, 2026, automatically depositing $1,000 from the Treasury into tax-advantaged investment accounts for American children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, under the 2025 tax-and-spending law. →

• Tennessee National Guard troops fatally shot 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson in downtown Memphis early July 5, 2026, after he allegedly turned toward soldiers holding a handgun during a foot chase — the first fatal shooting by Guard members since their federal deployment to the city. →

• University of Minnesota researchers announced the creation of "SpudCell," the first synthetic cell built entirely from purified chemical components that can grow, copy its DNA, divide, and pass genetic material to offspring, marking a milestone in synthetic biology. →

• The U.S. men's national team faces ninth-ranked Belgium in the World Cup round of 16 in Seattle on Monday after FIFA lifted US striker Folarin Balogun's one-game suspension following a red-card reversal that came after President Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to seek a review. →

Weather

JULY 6, 1785: CONTINENTAL CONGRESS ESTABLISHES THE DOLLAR AS OFFICIAL U.S. CURRENCY

On this day, the Continental Congress designated the dollar, modeled on the Spanish silver dollar, as the new nation’s official monetary unit. The decision helped unify the young country’s chaotic mix of colonial currencies and laid the foundation for a standardized, national financial system.