🌾 Kansas

• The Rock Volunteer Fire Department in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, unanimously rejected a $250,000 donation from Google, citing loyalty to community members who have funded the department for decades amid resident concerns about a planned 827-acre data center. →

• Gov. Laura Kelly signed four bills Thursday, including measures modifying optometry scope of practice, designating Kansas as a Purple Heart state, requiring mutual waiver of consequential damages in public construction contracts and exempting certain nonprofit electric cooperative subsidiaries from State Corporation Commission jurisdiction. →

• The Kansas Senate advanced SB 515 in a 23-16 vote, allowing non-accredited private school students to participate in nonpublic school activities and placing a moratorium on certain interscholastic event rules. →

• Kansas City's World Cup preparations continue despite $59 million of nearly $80 million in federal funding for personnel and security remaining undistributed due to the partial government shutdown, with the first match scheduled for June 16. →

• Kansas earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament East Region and will face No. 13 seed Cal Baptist on March 20 in San Diego, marking the Jayhawks' 53rd all-time tournament appearance and 36th consecutive since 1990. →

🇺🇸 US

• Energy Secretary Chris Wright said US military escorts for tankers through the Strait of Hormuz are not currently possible but are "quite likely" to be in place by April as Brent crude crossed $105 per barrel. →

• President Trump announced US Central Command carried out a massive bombing raid on Kharg Island, destroying every military target while deliberately sparing oil infrastructure that handles 80% to 90% of Iran's oil exports. →

• The Trump administration plans to announce as soon as this week that multiple countries have agreed to form a coalition to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, according to US officials. →

• Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz are threatening global fertilizer supply chains as about 40% of all urea must pass through the strait and dozens of loaded vessels are currently unable to get through. →

• President Trump told the Financial Times that China should help keep the Strait of Hormuz open and said he may delay his planned Beijing summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, originally scheduled for March 31 through April 2. →

Weather

March 16 2008: Bear Stearns collapses, sold to J.P. Morgan Chase

Bear Stearns seemed to be riding high with a stock market capitalization of $20 billion in early 2007. But its increasing involvement in the hedge-fund business, particularly with risky mortgage-backed securities, paved the way for it to become one of the earliest casualties of the subprime mortgage crisis that led to the Great Recession.

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