Manhattan

• Firefighters contained a 400-acre wildfire in southeast Riley County on Thursday after a prescribed burn escaped into rugged timbered draws. No structures were damaged, and crews successfully suppressed the blaze by evening despite dry conditions that fueled the spread. →
• The City of Manhattan will host a grand opening for the new Steel and Pipe Supply Ballpark at CiCo Park on March 28, featuring free food and inaugural games. →
• Manhattan's annual Spring Cleanup Week will run from April 6 to April 10, providing residents with free curbside pickup for yard waste and tree limbs. →
• A partnership with the Kansas Department of Labor has resulted in OSHA safety certification for 100 city employees and 33 supervisors over the past year. →
• The free Flint Hills Festival will take place at Blue Earth Plaza on May 2, featuring live music, food trucks, and children's activities. →
• Registration is open for two interactive preschool programs focusing on colors and shapes throughout the month of April. →
• A recent posting for an entry-level Appraiser I position attracted a record-breaking 237 applicants, highlighting significant interest in county employment. →
• Cloudy skies over the Little Apple today with a high near 52 and a slight chance of rain. Warmer weather is on the way midweek, with highs climbing into the upper 80s by Wednesday.

🌾 Kansas

• Gov. Laura Kelly signed more than a dozen bipartisan bills Friday spanning law enforcement, child welfare, transparency, health care and local governance, including a measure requiring funeral support for officers killed in the line of duty. →

• Gov. Laura Kelly signed House Bill 2433, reaffirming the state's sole authority over water transfers and appropriations in Kansas and prohibiting counties from enacting conflicting resolutions. →

• Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar introduced the Homegrown Fertilizer Act, a bipartisan bill establishing a grant and loan program to boost domestic fertilizer production as the Strait of Hormuz blockade disrupts global urea shipments. →

• President Donald Trump demanded Congress pass the long-stalled farm bill in a March 20 Truth Social post as Kansas farmers face some of the toughest economic conditions in a generation. →

• Kansas coach Bill Self said after the Jayhawks' NCAA Tournament elimination Sunday that he has not yet decided whether he will return for a 24th season in Lawrence. →

🇺🇸 US

• President Trump instructed the Department of Defense Monday morning to postpone all military strikes against Iranian power plants for five days, citing "very good and productive conversations" with Tehran toward a "complete and total resolution" of hostilities after his 48-hour ultimatum threatening to "obliterate" Iran's electrical grid. →

• Brent crude climbed to $114 a barrel Monday while the national average gasoline price reached $3.94 a gallon, up $1.01 from a month ago, as oil prices have risen more than 50 percent since the U.S. and Israel struck Iran in late February. →

• Iran's failed missile attack Friday on Diego Garcia demonstrated a 4,000-kilometer range that puts major European capitals including London within reach, upending Western assumptions about Iranian missile capabilities. →

• Elon Musk announced Tesla and SpaceX will jointly build a semiconductor manufacturing facility called Terafab in Austin to produce chips for vehicles, humanoid robots and space-based AI satellites, a project Morgan Stanley estimates would cost over $20 billion. →

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will deploy to airports Monday to ease security bottlenecks caused by a partial government shutdown stemming from a congressional impasse over Department of Homeland Security funding. →

March 23 1857: First Commercial Elevator Installed in New York City

Vermont inventor Elisha Otis installed the first commercial, steam-powered elevator in an upscale New York City department store, traveling just 40 feet per minute. His built-in safety catch, which stopped the car if the hoisting rope failed, made vertical transportation far safer and helped pave the way for modern skyscrapers.

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