McPherson

• Citizen Journal launched a digital coupon beta program in McPherson, beginning with a free haircut promotion at Maple Street Barbershop. →
• McPherson College launched a $16 million expansion of its automotive restoration hub and a new mechanical engineering degree program. →
• Central Christian College of Kansas inducted former McPherson Mayor Tom Brown and his wife Kathy into its Academe of Achievers. →
• The McPherson City Commission terminated an outdated water easement near Pfizer to reduce building restrictions for industrial development. →
• McPherson city administrators are urging residents to sign up for the Notify Me mobile alert system for emergency and public works updates. →
• The Lindsborg City Council authorized a $25,000 Sunflower Foundation grant for solar lighting and programming along the Valkommen Trail. →
• Stutzman's Greenhouse in McPherson is offering non-expiring Mother's Day gift certificates available for purchase in person or by phone. →
• McPherson Middle School track teams set four school records and earned several top-three finishes at the Hays Invitational on May 1. →
• McPherson Middle School boys tennis finished fourth at the Patriot League Tournament, led by Jensen Hoover winning the No. 2 singles title. →
• Expect a beautiful sunny day with a high of 76, though you'll want to watch out for those southwest wind gusts reaching up to 26 mph.

🌾 Kansas

• Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said the KBI is investigating a wave of false school threats traced to a single overseas source using AI, with additional threats reported Wednesday at Russell Junior-Senior High School and Chanute High School. →

• Sedgwick County commissioners voted Wednesday to extend a moratorium on data center development applications 90 days to Sept. 11, as planning staff work to draft zoning regulations for large-scale server facilities. →

• President Trump is expected to announce an endorsement in the 2026 Kansas gubernatorial race within days, a move political experts say could significantly reshape the crowded nine-candidate Republican primary ahead of the Aug. 4 vote. →

• Wichita Public Schools is recommending a roughly $615 million bond proposal split across two ballot questions for a November vote, following voters' narrow 319-vote rejection of a $450 million bond in February 2025. →

• The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning for portions of northwest and west-central Kansas through Thursday morning, with temperatures forecast as low as 26 degrees threatening wheat crops already stressed by dry conditions. →

🇺🇸 US

• Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures at U.S. military bases across the Middle East since fighting began Feb. 28, a Washington Post satellite imagery analysis found, with seven service members killed and more than 400 injured. →

• Federal prosecutors charged Texas man Michael Marx, 45, with assaulting federal officers and related firearms offenses after he fired a handgun near the Washington Monument shortly after a motorcade carrying Vice President JD Vance passed Monday. →

• A federal judge rejected Fulton County, Georgia's request to recover more than 600 boxes of 2020 election ballots and voting materials seized by the FBI in January, allowing the Justice Department investigation to proceed. →

• Shares of Japan's Toto, maker of the Washlet bidet toilet, have surged more than 50% in 2026 as investors bid up companies supplying materials to the AI industry, a trend that has also spawned AI-themed rebrands from companies including Allbirds and former karaoke firm Algorhythm Holdings. →

• Ted Turner, who founded CNN and built Turner Broadcasting System into a cable television giant, died Wednesday at age 87. →

Weather

MAY 7, 2004: MARINE BIOLOGIST RICHARD THOMPSON COINS THE TERM “MICROPLASTICS”

In a landmark paper in the journal Science, Thompson reveals vast amounts of tiny plastic fragments and fibers contaminating oceans and marine habitats, and names them “microplastics.” His findings raise urgent questions about how these particles spread, what chemicals they release and how they may harm wildlife and human health.

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