Manhattan

• The Riley County Commission is considering an 8-mill property tax increase to address a projected 2027 budget shortfall. →
• The Riley County Commission expressed strong opposition to offering property tax abatements to prospective data center developers. →
• The Riley County Commission agreed to pause and review major capital projects, including a planned $35 million Judicial Center. →
• Pawnee Mental Health Services is facing $700,000 in unreimbursed costs for its mobile crisis response program in Riley County. →
• The Riley County Commission voted to freeze its member salaries at the 2024 level of $56,613.96 to address budget constraints. →
• Riley County Police Department Reports 4 Arrests on June 21 →
• We're looking at a partly sunny day with a high of 78°F, though you might want to grab the umbrella as a few rain showers become possible after 1 p.m.

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🌾 Kansas

• Digital Realty is advancing a 600-megawatt, $3.1 billion data center campus southwest of Kansas City, part of a broader surge in AI and cloud computing infrastructure that has prompted regional utility Evergy to raise its capital-spending plan 24% to $21.6 billion. →

• Emporia's Planning Commission will hold a public hearing June 23, 2026, on rezoning roughly 1,000 acres west of the city for the proposed Flint Hills Digital Campus hyperscale data center, with the earliest city commission action possible July 15. →

• Osawatomie officials set strict public-comment rules ahead of a June 25, 2026, special City Council meeting on Alcove Development's proposed $1 billion data center in Miami County, requiring written submissions by noon the prior day. →

• Kansas's winter wheat harvest reached 58% complete as of June 21, 2026 — well ahead of the five-year average — before severe thunderstorms halted cutting, with yields running below average amid drought, a spring freeze, and weak protein levels. →

• Kansas announced it would distribute $79.1 million to 39 organizations through its new Rural Health Transformation Program, one of the largest single state investments in rural medicine in recent history, with an additional $9.5 million in emerging-technology grants open through July 10, 2026. →

🇺🇸 US

• The U.S. Treasury issued a 60-day license easing Iran oil sanctions June 22 as Vice President JD Vance said initial US-Iran negotiations in Switzerland laid a "good foundation" for a deal to end hostilities within 60 days under a memorandum signed June 17. →

• A divided Sixth Circuit panel ruled 2-1 June 18 that Ohio may enforce its Social Media Parental Notification Act, reversing a lower-court block and allowing the state to require verifiable parental consent before children under 16 can create social media accounts. →

• China's Commerce Ministry announced June 22 it would ban exports of dual-use goods to 10 U.S. defense-related firms — including drone makers, Oshkosh Defense, L3Harris and rare-earth companies MP Materials and USA Rare Earth — in retaliation for the Pentagon adding Chinese tech firms to its military companies list. →

• SpaceX launched its first Starfall reentry capsule June 23 aboard a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, debuting a disk-shaped cargo vehicle designed to return up to 2,200 pounds of research materials and microgravity-manufactured goods from orbit. →

• Lionel Messi became the all-time leading scorer in men's World Cup history June 22, netting twice against Austria in Dallas to reach 18 career World Cup goals, surpassing Germany's Miroslav Klose at the 2026 tournament co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. →

Weather

JUNE 23 1868: QWERTY TYPEWRITER PATENTED, REVOLUTIONIZING WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Christopher Latham Sholes patents his QWERTY typewriter, transforming how people produce and share written text by making typing faster and more practical than handwriting. His early prototype was ingeniously assembled from an old table, a circular piece of glass, a telegraph key, and piano wire, marking a pivotal step toward modern keyboards.