Emporia Commission Backs Zoning for Gigawatt-Scale Data Center

Chiefs Project $8.2 Billion Impact From Move to Kansas

Grand Jury Indicts Colby Co-op Officer in $750,000 Theft

Kansas Transgender-Care Ban Heads to Appeals Court

Supreme Court Upholds Sports Bans, Bolstering Kansas Law

Emporia Commission Backs Zoning for Gigawatt-Scale Data Center

EMPORIA, Kan. — The Emporia Planning Commission on June 30 recommended all three zoning proposals tied to the proposed Flint Hills Digital Campus, a gigawatt-scale data center west of the city, sending them to the City Commission for a final vote expected July 15. Over two nights of hearings totaling more than 10 hours, the board voted 7-0 to recommend the Digital Infrastructure Overlay District's zoning text, 4-3 to rezone about 1,065 acres across 11 tracts to industrial classifications, and 6-1 to apply the overlay to that land. The campus, tied to a developer listed in filings as Kanza Park Place LLC, would house tens of thousands of servers for artificial-intelligence and cloud computing, and the overlay layers requirements such as impact studies, a development agreement, landscaped buffers and limits on backup generators on top of existing zoning. Testimony ran overwhelmingly against the project, with about 43 of roughly 50 residents who spoke opposing it and warning that the center could draw up to five million gallons of water a day, strain the city's aging system and raise electricity costs. The applicant team disclosed no water use, power demand, job counts or end-user identity, and its representative said the commission had merely enacted protections for advanced infrastructure rather than approving a data center. Planning and zoning administrator Justin Givens recommended approval of all three items, stressing that the commission was building a regulatory framework, not approving a specific project.

Emporia Planning Commission Recommends Zoning for a Gigawatt-Scale Data Center

The planning board sent all three proposals tied to the proposed Flint Hills Digital Campus to the City Commission — over the objections of nearly nine in ten residents who spoke.

citizen journalGreg Loving

Chiefs Project $8.2 Billion Impact From Move to Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Kansas City Chiefs on June 30 released updated projections estimating their planned move across the state line into Kansas will generate a total economic impact of $8.2 billion for the greater Kansas City region. The figures include a one-time construction investment of about $4.5 billion — a $3 billion domed stadium in Wyandotte County, a $300 million practice facility and headquarters in Olathe, and $1.2 billion in surrounding private real-estate development — along with more than 36,000 construction job-years and roughly $106 million in new state tax revenue. The stadium is slated to open for the 2031 NFL season, after which the team estimates about $1.5 billion in annual regional impact and 8,500 full-time-equivalent jobs. The relocation, agreed to with Gov. Laura Kelly's office in December 2025, is financed in part through STAR bonds, a Kansas tool that redirects a share of the new state and local sales taxes a project generates to help pay for it. Independent economists have long cautioned that team-commissioned projections tend to overstate public benefits, and critics including the Kansas Policy Institute call the deal poor economics.

KWCH · Chiefs · Fox4KC · Kansas Department of Commerce

Grand Jury Indicts Colby Co-op Officer in $750,000 Theft

WICHITA, Kan. — A federal grand jury in Wichita has indicted Shania A. Shanahan, 39, of Colby, on more than 70 felony counts for allegedly embezzling over $750,000 from the agricultural cooperative where she worked as controller, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced June 30. The charges include 43 counts of bank fraud, 25 counts of money laundering and five counts of aggravated identity theft, accusing Shanahan of forging 233 checks totaling about $753,575 from the co-op's account between January 2017 and November 2025 and depositing the money into her own account. Prosecutors say she used coworkers' signatures without their knowledge, which is the basis for the identity-theft charges. The cooperative, in the northwest Kansas town of Colby, provides grain and fuel services to its farmer-members. An indictment is a formal accusation, not a conviction, and Shanahan is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

KWCH · KSN · Hays Post · U.S. Department of Justice

Kansas Transgender-Care Ban Heads to Appeals Court

TOPEKA, Kan. — A legal fight over Kansas's ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors is advancing toward the state's appellate courts. In a 117-page ruling in May, Douglas County District Judge Carl Folsom found that key provisions of Senate Bill 63, known as the Help Not Harm Act, likely violate the Kansas Constitution and temporarily blocked their enforcement; the Republican-led Legislature passed the measure in early 2025 over Gov. Laura Kelly's veto, and Attorney General Kris Kobach has filed notice to appeal. The law bars doctors from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery to transgender Kansans under 18. Separately, transgender plaintiffs are resisting a proposal to consolidate their challenge to a related law restricting gender markers on driver's licenses and bathroom access in government buildings, arguing that merging the cases could unfairly prejudice their claim. The disputes turn on whether the Kansas Constitution's bill of rights protects access to such care and, more broadly, transgender residents.

Kansas Reflector · KMUW

Supreme Court Upholds Sports Bans, Bolstering Kansas Law

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas's law barring transgender girls and women from female school sports rests on solid legal ground after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 ruled 6-3 that states may enact such bans, according to Kansas public radio station KCUR. The court decided two combined cases — West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, which challenged an Idaho law — in an opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, holding that laws setting eligibility by biological sex do not violate Title IX or the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented in part, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The ruling directly strengthens Kansas's Fairness in Women's Sports Act, which the Republican-led Legislature enacted in 2023 by overriding a veto from Gov. Laura Kelly. Supporters say the laws protect competitive fairness and safety in girls' sports, while opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say they single out and harm a small number of transgender young people.

KCUR · SCOTUSblog · ACLU · U.S. Supreme Court

Sources

1. KWCH / Chiefs / Fox4KC / Kansas Department of Commerce
2. KWCH / KSN / Hays Post / U.S. Department of Justice
3. Kansas Reflector / KMUW
4. KCUR / SCOTUSblog / ACLU / U.S. Supreme Court

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