🌾 Kansas

• The Kansas Senate approved a $26.8 billion multi-year state budget on a narrow 21-19 vote Wednesday after defeating amendments to add $24 million in special education funding and cut $16 million from K-12 mental health services, with the 3.4% spending reduction now heading to conference committee to reconcile differences with the House version. →

• Sedgwick County property valuations have increased more than 20% for some homeowners, drawing hundreds of calls to county offices and renewed frustration after Wichita voters rejected a sales tax proposition that had promised property tax relief. →

• Sedgwick County commissioners voted 5-0 Wednesday to extend the county's moratorium on data center development from April 17 to June 11 to draft zoning regulations and incorporate public feedback from scheduled town halls. →

• The Kansas Senate rejected amendments to remove criminal penalties for personal marijuana possession and regulate kratom, then advanced a bill to add kratom to the state's Schedule I controlled substances list. →

• The USDA approved Kansas' waiver to restrict candy and soda purchases under SNAP, making Kansas the 22nd state to implement such restrictions when the policy takes effect Feb. 15, 2027. →

🇺🇸 US

• U.S. Central Command reports Iranian ballistic missile fire rates have fallen 86 percent and drone fire has dropped 73 percent by day five of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, with approximately 300 missile launchers destroyed and 17 Iranian naval vessels sunk. →

• The Senate voted 53–47 Wednesday against a resolution requiring President Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran absent congressional authorization, with Sen. John Fetterman joining Republicans in opposition and Sen. Rand Paul the sole GOP vote in favor. →

• A U.S. Navy submarine sank the Iranian frigate Iris Dena with a torpedo in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka on Wednesday, marking the first American submarine torpedo attack on a vessel in combat since World War II. →

• Pro-American Iranian Kurdish forces based in Iraq are preparing armed units that could enter Iran and open a new ground front, according to Iraqi officials and senior Kurdish group members, though the White House denies President Trump approved a Kurdish insurgency plan. →

• China set a GDP growth target of 4.5 to 5 percent for 2026, its lowest since at least the 1990s, while unveiling a five-year plan focused on dominating artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other advanced technologies and announcing a 7 percent increase in military spending to approximately $277 billion. →

Weather

March 5 1770: The Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre intensified colonial resentment toward British rule, helping transform scattered grievances over taxation and occupation into a broad, emotionally charged resistance movement. Its victims were memorialized as martyrs, and the event’s powerful propaganda legacy—especially Paul Revere’s engraving—cemented it in American memory as a key spark on the road to revolution.

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