McPherson

• The McPherson County Planning and Zoning Board voted 5-2 to recommend a permanent ban on data centers in unincorporated areas. →
• The McPherson City Commission will review a 30-year, $22.1 million wastewater master plan to upgrade the city sewer system and plant. →
• McPherson County Jail exceeded its 54-bed capacity, sending overflow inmates to Rice and Marion counties at $15,000 per month. →
• The City of McPherson announced that the centerpiece water feature is now flowing at the Challenger Park pollinator garden. →
• The City of Canton announced that its municipal burn site is temporarily closed to burning yard waste for approximately three days. →
• McPherson USD 418 students returned to class on Tuesday as area schools and colleges marked the start of the academic year. →
• McPherson High School announced its 2026 varsity boys football schedule, opening regular season play at home Sept. 4 against Augusta. →
• The McPherson High School girls varsity golf team announced its 12-event fall 2026 schedule, hosting an invitational on Sept. 17. →
• It’s going to be a scorcher in McPherson today with bright sunshine and a blazing high near 106°F, made even hotter by breezy south winds and heat index values reaching up to 109°F.

🌾 Kansas

• The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said it will keep its existing childhood immunization schedule despite President Trump's Aug. 10 executive order revising federal vaccine policy. →

• Evergy plans to add more than 5 gigawatts of generation through 2032, including natural gas, solar and battery storage, to meet rising demand from data centers and other large customers. →

• Kansas schools began the 2026-27 year under House Bill 2534, which limits active-shooter drills by grade level, bars sensory elements mimicking real shootings and requires 24-hour parental notice with an opt-out option. →

• A Citizen Journal review found Kansas counties, including Riley, Dickinson and McPherson, are renting jail beds from neighboring governments rather than pursuing costly new jail construction bonds. →

• A Douglas County judge ordered Kansas to restore transgender Lawrence resident Jamie Miller's driver's license, finding the state likely violated her due process rights under Senate Bill 244. →

🇺🇸 US

• Jury selection began Monday in Oakland in a federal bellwether trial accusing Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram features to hook young users while concealing mental health harms. →

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection halted barrier construction inside Big Bend National Park on Monday as Commissioner Rodney Scott visits the site amid objections from Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas lawmakers. →

• The Trump administration let an appeal deadline lapse, allowing a federal court ruling that voided National Firearms Act registration requirements for silencers and short-barreled rifles to take effect in more than a dozen states. →

• Nvidia said Monday it will provide more than $105 billion in financing for an OpenAI-leased AI data center campus in Pike County, Ohio, being built by SB Energy. →

• President Trump said Sunday he ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises with South Korea. →

Weather

AUGUST 18 1991: SOVIET HARD-LINERS LAUNCH COUP AGAINST GORBACHEV

Soviet hard-liners moved to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev, placing him under house arrest in a failed coup that tried to halt his reforms of perestroika and glasnost. The uprising collapsed after mass protests led by Boris Yeltsin, hastening the breakup of the Soviet Union and reshaping the post–Cold War world order that still frames today’s conflicts over Russian power and democracy.

This article was written using our proprietary AI system, Cronkite. The final decision to publish this article was made by a human. For more info, read our AI policy.