Manhattan

• Riley County Police Department Reports 8 Arrests April 20-21 →
• Hayes Drive north of Levee Drive will close for three to four weeks starting Wednesday for a new sanitary sewer main installation and water well remediation. →
• Manhattan updated its land use maps with new FEMA floodplain data to better identify regulatory issues for future zoning, annexation, and municipal services. →
• Planning officials are evaluating how medium-density residential nodes in Blue Township could eventually support multimodal transportation and future bus routes. →
• Manhattan plans to acquire an economic analysis tool to calculate the long-term municipal costs of development and ensure road and utility expansions remain budget-efficient. →
• The RCPD Community Advisory Board reported concerns regarding public perception of unidentified law enforcement operations and the department's level of transparency involving ICE. →
• A department dispatcher and a police officer received recognition for their coordinated efforts and life-saving actions during an emergency response. →
• The Riley County Law Enforcement Board tabled a vote on the 2027 police budget after debating whether to approve a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment amidst concerns over local property taxes. →
• The USD 383 Board of Education recognized local educators who were recently honored with state-level teaching awards. →
• It’s going to be a beautiful sunny day with a high near 79, though you’ll want to hold onto your hat as those south winds could gust up to 30 mph.

🌾 Kansas

• Gov. Laura Kelly announced Tuesday that Kansas is awarding $18.9 million to fund 53 airport development projects across the state through the Kansas Airport Improvement Program. →

• The United Kansas Party and the Free State Party announced Tuesday they are merging to field candidates under the United Kansas name and draw support from voters dissatisfied with both major parties. →

• PBS Kansas is mourning broadcast engineer Ivy Unruh, 25, who died Monday from a gunshot wound sustained Friday outside her northeast Wichita apartment, with her estranged husband charged with first-degree murder. →

• The University of Kansas has posted mixed results in recent national and international college rankings, with continued declines in global assessments even as its standing in U.S. News & World Report improved this year. →

• Thirteen Kansas student teams won state championships at the Kansas KidWind State Finals on April 11 and will advance to the World KidWind Challenge in Madison, Wisconsin, in May. →

🇺🇸 US

• President Trump extended the U.S. cease-fire with Iran with no set end date, hours before two ships came under attack in the Strait of Hormuz. →

• The U.S. has expended at least 45 percent of key missile stockpiles during seven weeks of war with Iran, creating a near-term ammunition risk in future conflicts, according to Pentagon officials and a CSIS analysis. →

• Two U.S. embassy officials killed in a Sunday car crash in northern Mexico were CIA officers operating as part of expanded counternarcotics operations, according to two people familiar with the matter. →

• House Republicans are seeking FBI briefings on at least 10 deaths or disappearances among U.S. nuclear and aerospace scientists since 2022 to determine whether the cases pose a national security concern. →

• Private trade schools are charging tuition bills reaching tens of thousands of dollars as demand for blue-collar training surges and free community college and union apprenticeship programs fill up. →

Weather

APRIL 22, 1889: OKLAHOMA LAND RUSH BEGINS

At noon, an estimated 50,000 “Boomers” raced into formerly Indian Territory to claim 1.9 million acres the U.S. government had opened to white settlement. The chaotic rush, marred by fraud from early-arriving “Sooners,” marked a key moment in the transfer of Native-held lands into white ownership. They were called “Sooners” because they slipped into the territory sooner than the legal start time to grab prime claims—a nickname later embraced by the University of Oklahoma for its athletic teams and identity.

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