Kansas daily brief
Kansas and US news for busy people - Jan 30, 2026 edition
🌾Kansas
• Kansas House approves bill allowing federal pesticide labels to meet state standards (81-36 vote), with Democrats arguing it shields chemical companies like Bayer from liability in Roundup-like cancer lawsuits by eliminating duty-to-inform requirements.
• Kansas proposes recycling treated wastewater into drinking water by 2028 to address Ogallala Aquifer depletion, with water officials unanimously supporting the $600,000 initiative despite timeline and funding concerns.
• Kansas Democrats introduce bill requiring ICE agents to obtain warrants, complete 14-week state law enforcement training, and clearly identify themselves in response to what legislators called the agency's "violent and hostile" enforcement actions.
• Kansas bathroom bill amended to ban parents from taking children 9+ into opposite-sex public restrooms, potentially subjecting both parents and children to fines and criminal charges in government buildings.
• Dangerous cold grips Kansas with wind chills reaching -15°F Saturday morning creating frostbite risk in 30-45 minutes, though temperatures will rebound to the 40s-60s by next week.
Greg Loving
🇺🇸 US
- Senate reaches shutdown-averting deal after fatal shooting of American citizen by federal agent in Minneapolis, agreeing to fund government through fiscal year while giving DHS two weeks to negotiate immigration enforcement restrictions.
- ICE deploys mass surveillance in Minneapolis including Clearview AI facial recognition, cellphone tracking, and Palantir databases to monitor both undocumented immigrants and citizen protesters during immigration crackdown.
- Trump admin invests $1.6B in USA Rare Earth for 10% stake in Oklahoma miner, marking largest federal investment to secure domestic supplies of critical minerals for defense and technology.
- Trump reviews military strikes on Iran including raids on nuclear/missile facilities, as U.S. repositions Middle East assets and administration weighs options to force regime change.
- U.S. seeks Cuban insiders for regime change deal as oil embargo pushes economy toward collapse within weeks, with Trump threatening new tariffs on any country exporting oil to island.
- Trump picks Kevin Warsh as Fed chair, selecting the former Federal Reserve official to lead the central bank.
Greg Loving
Weather
January 30 1835: Andrew Jackson narrowly escapes assassination
Andrew Jackson became the first American president to face an assassination attempt when Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter, tried to shoot him as he left a congressional funeral, but both of Lawrence’s pistols misfired. Jackson, then 67, furiously attacked Lawrence with his cane before aides subdued the would-be assassin, leaving the president physically unharmed but deeply suspicious and paranoid afterward.