McPherson

• Commissioners questioned departmental staff-lunch purchases and a $50,968 Emergency Management software bill — flagging that it covers seven licenses for only five dispatch consoles, with 911 tax revenue expected to fall short this year — and plan to meet with Director Emily Yates about the license count before the bill is due. →
• McPherson County officials are advocating for groundwater preservation, prompting Harvey County to amend its comprehensive water plans. →
• The phased relocation of multiple departments to the new McPherson County building is proceeding on schedule, maintenance officials say. →
• The McPherson County Register of Deeds office will temporarily close the week of July 6 to relocate files to the new county building. →
• McPherson County Public Works is repairing its fuel island to delay a $1 million system replacement, requiring off-site fueling. →
• The McPherson County Sheriff's Office reported a low jail population of 43 inmates and introduced two new correctional officers. →
• Grab your umbrella and stay weather-aware today, McPherson, as we’ll see partly sunny skies with a high near 78°F and a 40% chance of showers and potentially severe thunderstorms popping up after 11 a.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.