Topeka

• The California Avenue bridge over Interstate 70 in Topeka will close starting May 11 until late fall for construction work. →
• The City of Topeka faces a $15 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2027, prompting reviews of vacant positions and city fee schedules. →
• Topeka city officials are negotiating with six prospective buyers for the sale of Hotel Topeka as part of a major strategic goal. →
• The City of Topeka is partnering with Fort Riley and Washburn University to recruit transitioning service members into the local workforce. →
• The City of Topeka is encouraging residents to use the 50/50 Sidewalk Repair Program to share costs for fixing damaged neighborhood paths. →
• Topeka city crews have begun paving 29th Street and reopened Southwest Topeka Boulevard at 21st Street as part of street improvement plans. →
• It's going to be a beautiful sunny day in Topeka with a high near 82°F and light southwest winds.

🌾 Kansas

• Moody's Investors Service upgraded Kansas' credit outlook from stable to positive, citing improved governance, strong reserves and responsible tax cuts under Gov. Laura Kelly's administration. →

• Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport recorded its strongest first quarter in history, with 195,341 passengers boarding flights from January through March, a nearly 2% increase over the previous record set in 2024. →

• Boeing and WSU Tech announced a 35,000-square-foot workforce training center near WSU Tech's South Campus in Wichita, expected to be operational by end of 2026 and capable of supporting thousands of trainees annually. →

• The Wall Street Journal profiled Wichita as a city deliberately targeting middle-income earners, where median household income is about $66,000 and average monthly apartment rent of roughly $950 runs 45% below the national average. →

• Sen. Jerry Moran returned from a bipartisan congressional delegation trip to China ahead of President Trump's planned Beijing summit, saying he pressed Chinese officials to honor a November agreement to purchase at least 25 million tons of Kansas soybeans through 2028. →

🇺🇸 US

• K-12 public school enrollment has fallen in 30 states since the mid-2010s, driven primarily by a 24% drop in U.S. fertility rates since 2007, with pandemic losses exceeding one million additional students. →

• Nearly all U.S. net job growth over the past year has come from female-dominated healthcare sectors while men's employment-to-population ratio fell to 64.1% in April — far below the 1990s average of 70.9% — as industries dominated by men shed jobs. →

• Seventeen American passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius are being flown to a Nebraska quarantine facility, with one American testing positive and a French woman also confirmed infected after her repatriation flight. →

• Virginia's Supreme Court struck down a Democratic-drawn congressional map recently approved by voters, eliminating four Democratic-leaning U.S. House districts and handing Republicans a structural advantage heading into midterm elections. →

• Iran submitted a formal response to the latest U.S. war proposal that fell short of American demands, rejecting upfront commitments on its nuclear program while proposing a gradual opening of the Strait of Hormuz — prompting President Trump to call the response "totally unacceptable." →

Weather

MAY 11, 1934: DUST STORM SWEEPS GREAT PLAINS TOPSOIL ACROSS EASTERN STATES

A massive storm lifted an estimated 350 million tons of drought-loosened Great Plains topsoil and carried it as far as New York, Boston and Atlanta. The disaster, driven by years of prairie grass removal and aggressive wheat farming, coated cities in dust and highlighted the environmental costs of poor land management.

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