Newton

• Justin J. Farley of Pretty Prairie died in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. 50 near Newton after a dump truck failed to yield at a stop sign. →
• The Harvey County Health Department reported five confirmed non-hospitalized cases of the parasitic illness cyclospora. →
• The Harvey County Election Office added an armed sheriff's deputy escort to retrieve daily primary election ballots in Newton. →
• The Newton City Commission awarded a $786,875 contract to paint a city water tower, funded through a state revolving loan fund. →
• The Newton City Commission approved a $686,600 capital plan for maintenance and upgrades at the Newton City-County Airport. →
• Newton's mid-year financial report shows strong fiscal standing through June 30 with surpluses reported in several enterprise funds. →
• Expect partly sunny skies today with a high near 94°F, though you'll want to keep an eye out for a slight chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms.

🌾 Kansas

• Kansas school boards say the state's underfunding of special education mandates is shifting millions in costs to local property taxes, prompting some districts to consider joining a statewide funding coalition. →

• The Hutchinson USD 308 school board voted 6-1 to place a $36 million bond issue on the Nov. 3 ballot for building upgrades, a much smaller ask than the roughly $109.5 million measure voters rejected in 2025. →

• The Southwest Power Pool declared an energy emergency alert July 27 as triple-digit heat strained the grid across Kansas, prompting a federal emergency order from the U.S. Energy Department through Aug. 3. →

• Gov. Laura Kelly cast an advance ballot July 28, backing state Sen. Ethan Corson in the Democratic gubernatorial primary ahead of the Aug. 4 election. →

• Newton officials are drafting a seven-year lease agreement with Shield AI to build a 30,000-square-foot hangar at Newton City-County Airport, expanding the defense tech company's flight-test operations. →

🇺🇸 US

• The Senate voted 86–12 on July 28 to advance the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia Act, a sweeping Russia sanctions package, hours after Washington held funeral tributes for the late senator. →

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued an interim final rule on July 28 letting asylum officers skip interviews and refer up to 444,000 cases directly to immigration judges to help clear a backlog with waits exceeding 7.3 years. →

• New York Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul on July 28 released final rules under the SAFE for Kids Act, making New York the first state to enforce limits on algorithmic social media feeds for minors starting January 25, 2027. →

• Reuters reported July 28 that China has begun mass-producing domestically built immersion DUV lithography machines, threatening to undercut U.S. export controls meant to slow its advanced chipmaking. →

• Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in the Middle East on July 28, shattering a two-day pause in the war, prompting immediate U.S.-Saudi strikes on Iranian-linked sites in Iraq. →

Weather

JULY 29, 1958: NASA CREATED

The U.S. Congress establishes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a civilian agency to coordinate America’s activities in space, responding to the Soviet Union’s surprise launch of Sputnik. NASA’s creation marks the formal start of the U.S.–Soviet space race and leads to missions that reshape global communications, navigation, and humanity’s understanding of the solar system.

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.