Manhattan

• Director Brian Peete reported that January Part 1 crimes fell 23.4 percent below the five-year average and confirmed an arrest has been made in a recent homicide. →
• DUI arrests in January rose 32.9 percent above the five-year average as the department utilized data-driven strategies to target high-accident areas. →
• The City Commission approved a resolution to support the K-State EDGE District development, which includes a multi-use project called Champions Gate and athletic facility improvements. Staff will now explore using economic tools like STAR Bonds and TIF to finance the project. →
• To avoid potential $100,000 fines, the county will post signage on restroom doors to comply with new state legislation regarding biological sex and facility entry. →
• House Bill 2745 proposes replacing the mandatory election requirement for property tax increases over 3 percent with a protest petition process. →
• Brooke Blanck, a long-time district employee who helped establish the Manhattan Virtual Academy, will retire effective July 1. →
• Casey Ewy of Susan B. Anthony Middle School was selected as a Kansas Master Teacher by Emporia State University. →
• Manhattan and Junction City split their rivalry doubleheader Friday, with each school securing a dominant 20-point victory. The Manhattan girls cruised to a 66-46 win, while the Junction City boys pulled away late to claim a 73-54 victory. →
• Expect a bright day with clear skies and a high of 41, though you'll want to bundle up for a drop down to 28 tonight.

🌾 Kansas

• The Ranger Road Fire has burned an estimated 283,283 acres across Oklahoma and Kansas, killing hundreds of cattle and forcing evacuations in Ashland and Englewood, with the blaze 55% contained as of Sunday. →

• State officials begin implementing Senate Bill 244, which requires individuals to use multi-occupancy restrooms matching their sex at birth in government buildings, though Gov. Laura Kelly's office says vague language complicates compliance before the law takes effect within two weeks. →

• Kansas has added 46 agriculture education programs since 2020, a 5% increase, but schools continue to struggle hiring qualified instructors due to demanding workloads and lower pay than industry positions. →

• Athletic directors at the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita State University are seeking state funding to offset rising Division I athletics costs driven by revenue sharing with athletes and other expenses. →

• Kansas legislators recessed until Tuesday after reaching the turnaround deadline Thursday, which marked the cutoff for non-exempt bills to be considered in their chamber of origin. →

🇺🇸 US

• The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Friday that President Trump exceeded his authority in imposing sweeping tariffs on imports from nearly every U.S. trading partner, finding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to unilaterally impose duties without congressional approval. →

• President Trump moved swiftly to replace tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court, announcing Saturday he would raise a new global tariff to 15% from 10%, effective immediately, invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. →

• U.S. Army Green Berets are retraining for Arctic warfare in northern Sweden near the Arctic Circle, where temperatures hover around minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit and the extreme cold has proved as formidable as any human adversary. →

• Months before Jesse Van Rootselaar became the suspect in a mass shooting that devastated a rural British Columbia town, OpenAI employees flagged and internally debated her ChatGPT interactions describing gun-violence scenarios, with about a dozen staffers weighing whether to alert Canadian law enforcement. →

• Mexico's special forces killed Nemesio "Mencho" Oseguera, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the country's most powerful drug kingpin, in a planned operation with supplementary intelligence from U.S. authorities, triggering an immediate and violent cartel response across the region. →

Weather

February 23, 1945: Marines Raise Flag on Iwo Jima

U.S. Marines raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima, one of World War II's bloodiest Pacific campaigns. The iconic moment was captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in what became one of the most famous war photographs in history. The battle would continue for another month, ultimately claiming nearly 7,000 American lives and more than 20,000 Japanese casualties.

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