Topeka

• The Topeka City Council approved the $53.5 million Johnson Betts Meadows housing district to create 176 affordable housing units. →
• The Topeka City Council debated the city’s reliance on borrowing through general obligation bonds to fund the 10-year infrastructure plan. →
• Topeka officials scheduled four town hall meetings in May to gather public input on proposed utility rate increases and service charges. →
• Advocates asked the Topeka City Council to place a quarter-cent sales tax on the August 2026 ballot to fund East Topeka revitalization. →
• The Topeka City Council debated moving up the design of a $18.4 million Kansas Turnpike Authority interchange at Southeast 29th Street. →
• Multiple crashes on US-24 highway in northeast Topeka forced the closure of a portion of the roadway on Tuesday afternoon. →
• Expect a beautiful, sunny day in Topeka with a high near 87 and some breezy southwest winds gusting up to 30 mph.

🌾 Kansas

• Kansas Corporation Commission approved the western half of Evergy's Buffalo Flats to Delaware transmission line but ordered the utility to reroute the eastern portion to protect the Flint Hills and avoid disrupting active oil and gas leases. →

• KDHE is monitoring three Kansas residents with high-risk exposure to Andes hantavirus following international contact with a passenger linked to an active outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship. →

• The Kansas State Board of Education began reviewing a proposal to ban digital devices through fifth grade and allow parents to opt out of one-to-one device learning in later grades. →

• The Shawnee County Planning Commission recommended zoning changes requiring conditional use permits for data centers and energy storage facilities, with a full commission vote expected June 11. →

• Wichita leaders are preparing a formal bid to become a permanent annual host of NCAA men's basketball tournament opening-round games as the tournament expands next year. →

🇺🇸 US

• April consumer prices rose 3.8% year-over-year, the largest annual increase in three years, driven by higher gas prices linked to the war with Iran and tariffs still filtering through to goods, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. →

• President Trump will arrive in Beijing tonight for his first visit to China in nearly a decade, meeting with Xi Jinping amid ongoing tensions over Taiwan, trade and the Iran war. →

• The average American defaulting on student loans is now nearly 40 years old, with more than 3.5 million people defaulting since collections resumed in 2023, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York research published Tuesday. →

• Princeton University faculty voted Monday to reinstate proctored exams, ending a 130-year-old honor code, as AI tools fuel a nationwide surge in academic cheating. →

• Arabian Desert trucking convoys have become a critical global trade workaround after U.S. and Israeli strikes disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with firms including MSC and Maersk moving cargo overland across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman. →

Weather

MAY 13, 1920: SOCIALIST PARTY NOMINATES IMPRISONED LEADER EUGENE V. DEBS FOR PRESIDENT

The Socialist Party selected Debs as its presidential nominee even though he was serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for violating wartime speech laws. Campaigning as “Convict 2253,” Debs ran from behind bars and went on to win more than 900,000 votes in the November election.

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