🌾 Kansas

• Kansas local governments are cutting staff and freezing positions to close budget gaps while avoiding property tax hikes ahead of the 2027 budget season, a Citizen Journal review found. →

• Deere & Company must give farmers and independent shops the same repair software as authorized dealers for a decade under a July 8 settlement with the FTC and five states, including Kansas. →

• The Kansas Health Institute launched a public dashboard July 24 tracking ACA marketplace enrollment by county and district as expiring federal subsidies threaten coverage for thousands of Kansans. →

• Kansas school districts are adopting widely differing, largely unfunded enforcement methods for the state's new bell-to-bell cellphone ban ahead of its Sept. 1 deadline. →

• A dangerous heat wave that pushed heat index values to 116 broke Tuesday, but not before eroding Kansas corn and soybean crop condition ratings amid drought. →

🇺🇸 US

• Weekly U.S. jobless claims dropped 22,000 to 187,000 in the week ended July 18, the lowest level since 1969 and well below economists' expectations. →

• Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to testify before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Wednesday under subpoena after Chairman Rand Paul released diaries showing Fauci privately doubted COVID-19's natural origin as early as January 2020. →

• New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced core groceries will be priced 30% below market at five planned city-owned stores, with the first opening by the end of 2027 in the Bronx. →

• Meta faces trillion-dollar damages claims as youth-safety lawsuits from individuals, school districts and more than 40 state attorneys general head to trial, including a federal case opening in Oakland in August. →

• President Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in back-to-back White House meetings Tuesday ahead of Sen. Lindsey Graham's funeral in Washington. →

Weather

JULY 28, 1996: “KENNEWICK MAN” DISCOVERY SPARKS DEBATE OVER ANCIENT AMERICA

Two men at a park along the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, spot a human skull in shallow water—remains that scientists later date to more than 9,000 years ago, making “Kennewick Man” one of the oldest and most complete skeletons ever found in North America. The discovery ignites a two‑decade legal and scientific battle between researchers and several Native American tribes over whether the Ancient One, as tribes call him, should be studied or reburied. After years of DNA analysis and policy fights under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the remains are finally returned to the tribes and reburied with Native rites in 2017, underscoring ongoing conflicts between Western archaeology, Indigenous sovereignty, and the right of Native nations to care for their ancestors’ remains.

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.