Lawrence

• The Lawrence City Commission reviewed the city's 2025 financial audit, which identified two material weaknesses and two deficiencies. →
• New Lawrence City Manager Majed Al-Ghafry is ordering city departments to review operations after recent audit findings. →
• A refreshed monument by artist Karl Ramberg at Pioneer Cemetery in Lawrence honors two Free State militiamen killed in Bleeding Kansas. →
• Lawrence USD 497 introduced its 2026 administrative leadership cohort, including new building principals across several district schools. →
• Lawrence Public Schools rolled out a ParentSquare feature allowing staff to call families using dedicated numbers without personal phones. →
• It's going to be a hot and mostly sunny Wednesday in Lawrence, with a high near 97°F and heat index values climbing as high as 109°F, so be sure to stay cool out there!

🌾 Kansas

• Winfield, Kansas, police say Ronald H. Williams Sr. killed a woman and four children before fatally shooting himself Aug. 11 in a murder-suicide that ranks among the deadliest single crimes in modern Kansas history. →

• The Topeka City Council on Aug. 11 expanded its data center moratorium to cover city utility service for projects outside city limits, targeting a proposed Compass Datacenters development near Southwest 77th Street and Burlingame Road. →

• Marion, Kansas, and reporter Phyllis Zorn filed a motion Aug. 11 to dismiss her federal civil rights lawsuit after the city agreed to pay her $850,000 over the 2023 police raid on the Marion County Record. →

• Former KU chemical engineering professor Feng "Franklin" Tao filed a second federal lawsuit against the university July 21, alleging discrimination and retaliation tied to his prosecution under the DOJ's China Initiative. →

• Oak Park Mall LLC has submitted plans to redevelop the 89-acre Overland Park mall property into a mixed-use district with a 260-unit apartment complex, a 120-room hotel and a theater and conference center. →

🇺🇸 US

• Investors are shifting bets in the AI power race from power plant owners like Constellation Energy and Vistra toward equipment makers such as GE Vernova and Caterpillar, whose shares have surged this year. →

• New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faces mounting political and legal setbacks, including a paused luxury home tax, even as he advances plans for city-owned grocery stores in Manhattan and the Bronx. →

• Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly defeated democratic socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary, setting up a November matchup with Trump-endorsed Rep. Tom Tiffany. →

• Intel raised $20 billion in its first public stock sale since 1971 to fund U.S. chip factories and its next-generation manufacturing process. →

• Former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White announced plans to enter the 2027 WNBA draft, challenging the league's eligibility rules amid the debate over transgender participation in women's sports. →

Weather

AUGUST 12, 2000: RUSSIAN NUCLEAR SUBMARINE KURSK SINKS, KILLING 118 CREW

The Kursk, then the world’s largest attack submarine, suffered two explosions during naval war games in the Barents Sea and plunged to the seafloor with 118 sailors aboard. Russia initially rejected foreign rescue help and later raised the sub in a $100 million recovery operation, but the destroyed front hull left the exact cause of the disaster unresolved.

This article was written using our proprietary AI system, Cronkite. The final decision to publish this article was made by a human. For more info, read our AI policy.