McPherson

• The McPherson Convention & Visitors Bureau is collecting birthday cards from every state to celebrate the U.S. semiquincentennial and is currently just 15 states shy of its goal. →
• McPherson residents are invited to provide feedback on local water and electric services during a Board of Public Utilities meeting this Monday at 3 p.m. →
• Major interior finishings are finished at the county building, with furniture delivery and staff occupancy scheduled for mid-April. →
• Lack of running water in the channel has allowed crews to get ahead of schedule on a separate county bridge replacement project. →
• Crews discovered debris from a 1967 construction project below the channel level, which may require a minor change order for a bridge replacement project. →
• Realtor Kristi Fowler featured several affordable residential listings in McPherson, including three-bedroom homes on Prairie Road and Quail Run with prices starting at $21,500. →
• Expect a breezy and mild day with highs reaching 71 degrees under partly sunny skies, though you might want to keep an eye out for a stray shower after 5 p.m.

🌾 Kansas

• Groundwater levels in parts of the Kansas High Plains Aquifer rose an average of two and a half feet in 2025, marking the first increase in years, according to the Kansas Geological Survey. →

• Three children and two adults were killed Thursday in a two-vehicle crash on K-156 between Jetmore and Hanston in Hodgeman County, with none of the occupants wearing safety restraints. →

• U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall said he hopes the United States does not send ground troops to Iran as the conflict stretches into a second month. →

• The Unified Government of Wyandotte County, voted 9-0 Thursday to enter a public-private agreement with Santa Fe Grocers LLC to reopen the former MERC Co+op grocery store in downtown KCK, a neighborhood classified as a food desert since the co-op closed Dec. 30. →

• Lt. Gov. and Secretary of Commerce David Toland announced the launch of the Industrial Renovation for Opportunity and New Economic Development pilot program, offering $200,000 in grants to help rural Kansas communities revitalize underused industrial and manufacturing buildings. →

🇺🇸 US

• Oil tankers and container ships have been bottled up in the Persian Gulf since the U.S. and Israel launched war on Iran more than a month ago, with only a handful of vessels per day crossing the Strait of Hormuz compared to more than 100 before the conflict. →

• The U.S. military struck the B1 Bridge linking Tehran to Karaj in two separate bombing runs Thursday, killing eight people and partially destroying the structure as part of an effort to sever military resupply routes. →

• Trump signals a ground raid to seize Iran's highly enriched uranium is off the table, telling Tehran in his national address that any attempt to move the deeply buried material would trigger U.S. missile strikes instead. →

• NASA's Orion capsule completed a trans-lunar injection burn Thursday, sending four astronauts on a path around the moon for the first time since 1972. →

• President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi Thursday after months of private frustration over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, naming deputy Todd Blanche as interim replacement. →

Weather

April 3 1973: First handheld mobile phone call marks breakthrough in wireless communication

A Motorola engineer placed the first known call from a handheld cell phone using the 2.2‑pound DynaTAC prototype. Although this brick-sized device would not reach the market for another decade—and then cost about $4,000—it proved that truly portable, personal mobile communication was possible.

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