Lawrence

• The Lawrence City Commission directed staff to prepare a November ballot measure to increase the city transit sales tax from 0.2% to 0.3%. →
• The Lawrence City Commission discussed a 2027 budget proposing cuts to police services and school resource officers to fund Fire Station 6. →
• The Lawrence City Commission announced that finalists for the city manager position will visit for public and private interviews May 20-21. →
• Douglas County staff reported a projected 4 percent growth in property values, the lowest since 2021, signaling a cooling market. →
• Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical proposed a new formula to divide its $30 million operating budget between the city and county. →
• Lawrence will host the Algerian national team at Rock Chalk Park as a base camp for training during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. →
• Expect a beautiful, sunny day in Lawrence with a high near 72 and some breezy southwest winds gusting up to 25 mph.

🌾 Kansas

• Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said the KBI is investigating a wave of false school threats traced to a single overseas source using AI, with additional threats reported Wednesday at Russell Junior-Senior High School and Chanute High School. →

• Sedgwick County commissioners voted Wednesday to extend a moratorium on data center development applications 90 days to Sept. 11, as planning staff work to draft zoning regulations for large-scale server facilities. →

• President Trump is expected to announce an endorsement in the 2026 Kansas gubernatorial race within days, a move political experts say could significantly reshape the crowded nine-candidate Republican primary ahead of the Aug. 4 vote. →

• Wichita Public Schools is recommending a roughly $615 million bond proposal split across two ballot questions for a November vote, following voters' narrow 319-vote rejection of a $450 million bond in February 2025. →

• The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning for portions of northwest and west-central Kansas through Thursday morning, with temperatures forecast as low as 26 degrees threatening wheat crops already stressed by dry conditions. →

🇺🇸 US

• Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures at U.S. military bases across the Middle East since fighting began Feb. 28, a Washington Post satellite imagery analysis found, with seven service members killed and more than 400 injured. →

• Federal prosecutors charged Texas man Michael Marx, 45, with assaulting federal officers and related firearms offenses after he fired a handgun near the Washington Monument shortly after a motorcade carrying Vice President JD Vance passed Monday. →

• A federal judge rejected Fulton County, Georgia's request to recover more than 600 boxes of 2020 election ballots and voting materials seized by the FBI in January, allowing the Justice Department investigation to proceed. →

• Shares of Japan's Toto, maker of the Washlet bidet toilet, have surged more than 50% in 2026 as investors bid up companies supplying materials to the AI industry, a trend that has also spawned AI-themed rebrands from companies including Allbirds and former karaoke firm Algorhythm Holdings. →

• Ted Turner, who founded CNN and built Turner Broadcasting System into a cable television giant, died Wednesday at age 87. →

Weather

MAY 7, 2004: MARINE BIOLOGIST RICHARD THOMPSON COINS THE TERM “MICROPLASTICS”

In a landmark paper in the journal Science, Thompson reveals vast amounts of tiny plastic fragments and fibers contaminating oceans and marine habitats, and names them “microplastics.” His findings raise urgent questions about how these particles spread, what chemicals they release and how they may harm wildlife and human health.

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