Manhattan

• Residents urged the Riley County Commission to reject a $31.7 million federal DOJ grant for police facilities over immigration concerns. →
• High numbers at the North Central Kansas Juvenile Detention Facility will cause Riley County to exceed its budget and face a large bill. →
• The Riley County Police Department is reallocating jail space and sending female inmates to off-site facilities to ease overcrowding. →
• A Riley County search committee met to outline hiring procedures to replace outgoing Riley County Police Department Director Brian Peete. →
• The Safe Passage program provided about 400 discounted Lyft rides to Fort Riley soldiers traveling between post, Manhattan, and Junction City. →
• Fitness trainer Shelly shared guidance on mental toughness and pursuing goals in a video released on Citizen Journal. →
• Expect a mostly sunny and hot Friday in Manhattan with breezy south winds and a high near 95°F.

🌾 Kansas

• Former Republican Gov. Bill Graves endorsed Democrat Adam Hamilton over Republican Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas' 2026 U.S. Senate race, continuing his history of cross-party endorsements. →

• Kansas Board of Regents made responsible AI use its top strategic priority and approved a fiscal 2028 funding request that included $40 million for community and technical college projects. →

• Deep Fission became the first participant in the Energy Department's Reactor Pilot Program to publicly release its Nuclear Safety Design Agreement for its underground Gravity reactor project in Parsons. →

• Metal detectors at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas, detected a gun on a student Sept. 16, leading to the student's arrest before anyone was harmed. →

• A Johnson County judge sentenced Isaiah Sadowski to 123 months for reckless second-degree murder after he fled to Mexico following a 2021 crash that killed a 75-year-old woman. →

🇺🇸 US

• Early in-person voting for the Nov. 3 midterm elections began Sept. 18 in Idaho, Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia, with Illinois and Kentucky to follow later in the calendar. →

• New York regulators opened a proceeding Sept. 17 to create an Energy Affordability Index tying utility costs to household income, while a Senate data-center billing bill stalled after Sen. Martin Heinrich blocked unanimous consent. →

• Lockheed Martin said Sept. 17 it received its first shipment of Patriot interceptor components from General Motors' defense unit as the Pentagon pushes to speed weapons production. →

• Diesel hit a record national average of about $6.40 a gallon Sept. 17, squeezing farmers as harvest season begins. →

• The Atlantic had produced no hurricanes by Sept. 17, setting a record for the longest wait for a season's first hurricane in the satellite era. →

Weather

SEPTEMBER 18, 1976: ONE MILLION MOURNERS ATTEND FUNERAL OF MAO ZEDONG

More than one million people gathered at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People and in Tiananmen Square for the funeral of Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China. During the eight-day mourning period, over a million citizens filed past his flag-draped coffin as the nation observed moments of silence and a televised state ceremony.

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.