Lawrence

• The Lawrence City Commission named five city manager finalists and scheduled a public meet-and-greet for May 20 at the Carnegie Building. →
• The Lawrence City Commission approved a $2.5 million settlement to reclaim control of a downtown Riverfront building and parking garage. →
• The Lawrence City Commission clarified it will likely use the fiscal budget instead of renovation debt to pay the $325,000 Riverfront fee. →
• The Lawrence City Commission approved $35 million in industrial revenue bonds to help Amarr Garage Doors buy its facility in East Hills. →
• The Lawrence City Commission heard a report on an Amarr and Peaslee Tech partnership to build four North Lawrence transitional homes. →
• The Lawrence City Commission advanced a KU Endowment annexation request for land in North Lawrence despite community flooding concerns. →
• Expect a beautiful sunny day with a high near 87°F, though keep an eye out for southwest wind gusts reaching up to 30 mph.

Correction: yesterday's newsletter incorrectly named two incoming principals as Jayci Roberson and Jennifer Schmitt. The district hired Meg Clark for Woodlawn and Phillip Mitchell for Liberty Memorial Central.

🌾 Kansas

• Kansas Corporation Commission approved the western half of Evergy's Buffalo Flats to Delaware transmission line but ordered the utility to reroute the eastern portion to protect the Flint Hills and avoid disrupting active oil and gas leases. →

• KDHE is monitoring three Kansas residents with high-risk exposure to Andes hantavirus following international contact with a passenger linked to an active outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship. →

• The Kansas State Board of Education began reviewing a proposal to ban digital devices through fifth grade and allow parents to opt out of one-to-one device learning in later grades. →

• The Shawnee County Planning Commission recommended zoning changes requiring conditional use permits for data centers and energy storage facilities, with a full commission vote expected June 11. →

• Wichita leaders are preparing a formal bid to become a permanent annual host of NCAA men's basketball tournament opening-round games as the tournament expands next year. →

🇺🇸 US

• April consumer prices rose 3.8% year-over-year, the largest annual increase in three years, driven by higher gas prices linked to the war with Iran and tariffs still filtering through to goods, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. →

• President Trump will arrive in Beijing tonight for his first visit to China in nearly a decade, meeting with Xi Jinping amid ongoing tensions over Taiwan, trade and the Iran war. →

• The average American defaulting on student loans is now nearly 40 years old, with more than 3.5 million people defaulting since collections resumed in 2023, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York research published Tuesday. →

• Princeton University faculty voted Monday to reinstate proctored exams, ending a 130-year-old honor code, as AI tools fuel a nationwide surge in academic cheating. →

• Arabian Desert trucking convoys have become a critical global trade workaround after U.S. and Israeli strikes disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with firms including MSC and Maersk moving cargo overland across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman. →

Weather

MAY 13, 1920: SOCIALIST PARTY NOMINATES IMPRISONED LEADER EUGENE V. DEBS FOR PRESIDENT

The Socialist Party selected Debs as its presidential nominee even though he was serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for violating wartime speech laws. Campaigning as “Convict 2253,” Debs ran from behind bars and went on to win more than 900,000 votes in the November election.

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