McPherson

• The McPherson County Planning and Zoning office cleared four major unpermitted building violations valued at $582,250 and collected $21,000 in fees during the month of March. →
• Matt Van Der Hoeven, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and former narcotics detective, was recognized as the 2025-2026 Law Officer of the Year for the VFW Department of Kansas' 5th District. →
• The McPherson County Community Foundation highlighted nearly $430,000 in cumulative grants over 25 years, funding ADA upgrades, transit vehicles, and meal services at senior centers throughout the county. →
• The April 7 city commission meeting and study session agenda includes visitor attraction grants, a proposed $22,854 mosquito sprayer purchase, and over $24,000 in concrete project change orders. →
• The McPherson varsity boys tennis team tied for first place at the Conway Springs tournament, led by undefeated bracket titles from Cooper Bohme in singles and the duo of Hayden Siemens and Parker Riemann in doubles. →
• The McPherson girls varsity soccer team secured a 1-0 victory against Salina South in the McPherson Invitational third-place game with a second-half goal from Addison Shaft. →
• The McPherson girls varsity swim team finished seventh out of 21 teams, highlighted by state consideration times from Adyson Wiens and Ella Schrag. →
• The McPherson Opera House will hold two screenings of the 1923 classic silent film 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' starring Lon Chaney and Patsy Ruth Miller on April 9. →
• The McPherson Fireman’s Benefit will host a $5 all-you-can-eat pancake feed on April 11 at Fire Station 2. →
• Technologist and YouTube pioneer Taryn Southern will discuss AI and human creativity at the Ray and Stella Dillon Lecture Series in Hutchinson on April 21. →
• Expect a beautiful, mostly sunny day with a high near 70, though you’ll want to be ready for some breezy southeast winds gusting up to 28 mph.
• Correction: Yesterday's edition incorrectly included an item about Cheryl Lyn Higgins receiving the Kansas Health Foundation's Community Health Leadership Award as current news. The award and her distribution of the $25,000 grant to support local preschool scholarships, school supplies, and agricultural degree funds occurred in 2003, not recently.

🌾 Kansas

• Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed eight bills Monday sent by the Republican-led Legislature, including measures on immigration, private school tax credits and abortion, setting up potential override fights during the veto session scheduled for Thursday and Friday. →

• Gov. Laura Kelly signed 12 bipartisan bills into law Monday, including measures authorizing up to $10,000 bonuses to retain critical state workers and creating new legal avenues to remove squatters from residential properties. →

• Gov. Laura Kelly signed a bipartisan bill creating the Attorney Training Program for Rural Kansas Act, offering law students annual stipends of $3,000 and licensed attorneys up to $20,000 annually in loan repayment to address attorney shortages in less-populated counties. →

• Gov. Laura Kelly signed House Bill 2537, known as Caleb's Law, enhancing criminal penalties for online sexual extortion and expanding the state's legal framework to address digital threats against children. →

• NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman visited the Kansas Cosmosphere on Monday as the Artemis II crew orbited the far side of the moon, cutting the ribbon on a renovated Hall of Space Museum and touring aerospace manufacturers in Wichita. →

🇺🇸 US

• A new Goldman Sachs report finds workers displaced by technological shifts take a month longer to find jobs and earn 3% less after reemployment, as the share of Americans over 55 in the workforce falls to 37.2%, the lowest level in more than 20 years. →

• Maine is poised to become the first state to freeze construction of new data centers this spring as lawmakers in more than 10 states propose temporary bans amid a building boom driven by AI demand. →

• Americans spend more on healthcare than anyone else in the world, with family insurance premiums now approaching $27,000 a year, as the Trump administration announces it will raise payments to Medicare Advantage insurers by 2.48% for 2027. →

• Four astronauts aboard NASA's Artemis II mission swung around the far side of the moon Monday, becoming the first humans in more than half a century to slip behind the lunar surface and reaching a distance of more than 248,000 miles from Earth. →

• Negotiators are increasingly pessimistic that Iran will agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz before President Trump's 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline, which could trigger U.S. strikes on Iranian infrastructure. →

Weather

April 7 1950: Truman Signs NSC-68, Cementing America’s Cold War Containment Doctrine

NSC-68 locked in a long-term U.S. pledge to contain Soviet power through massive military buildup, nuclear dominance and far‑flung alliances, helping create a permanent national security state whose logic still shapes U.S. strategy. Then, a shattered postwar world was defined by a stark U.S.–Soviet bipolar standoff; today’s far more multipolar order—marked by overlapping U.S.–China and U.S.–Russia rivalries, assertive regional powers, and transnational threats like cyberwarfare and AI—makes any single‑adversary containment playbook incomplete.

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