Topeka

• Two Topeka residents were bound for trial on first-degree murder charges in the death of a child following a preliminary hearing. →
• More than 1,000 Evergy customers in North Topeka lost power Tuesday morning as rainy weather moved through the area. →
• The Topeka City Council voted 8-2 to rezone 1.14 acres at 2450 SE 25th St. to allow for a proposed 14-unit townhome development. →
• KU Health System St. Francis in Topeka and Via Christi in Manhattan earned A grades in the latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety Report Card. →
• Topeka police are investigating a two-vehicle injury crash that has closed the intersection of Southeast 37th and Adams Street. →
• The Topeka Office of Inclusive Communities launched a grant-funded program to provide free tablets to income-qualified city residents. →
• It’s going to be a beautiful sunny day with a high near 74, though you'll want to watch out for those southwest wind gusts reaching up to 30 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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