Topeka

• The City Council is debating how to allocate a $25 million unencumbered sales tax balance for major road rehabilitations, bridge repairs, and sidewalk programs through 2036. →
• Preliminary data from a laser-scan survey shows a decline in Topeka's street quality since 2022, though officials noted that a change in vendors may account for some scoring fluctuations. →
• The proposed city capital improvement 10-year plan includes an $11.3 million fire station replacement and major reconstruction of Huntoon Street, with officials debating how to fund projects without excessive interest costs. →
• The city received its first of six planned electric vehicles for the municipal fleet and is installing a charging station at City Hall to support internal sustainability goals. →
• The Public Infrastructure Committee approved a resolution to rebuild Norris Street to fix severe drainage issues that cause water to pond against nearby railroad tracks. →
• A state grant will fund 70 percent of the cost to replace camera-based traffic detectors with radar technology at intersections along Monroe and Madison avenues. →
• New state legislation automatically approving small-scale housing developments is complicating local efforts to update zoning for duplexes and quadplexes in single-family neighborhoods. →
• Topeka police are investigating after two bodies were discovered Wednesday morning in the Oakland neighborhood. Officers responded to a medical call in the 600 block of Northeast Grattan Street just before 10:20 a.m. →
• Topeka resident Dustin J. Kelley pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the 2021 death of his girlfriend’s 16-month-old child. He accepted the plea deal on April 16, just days before his trial was scheduled to begin. →
• Topeka-based food truck El Zócalo is expanding its popular birria business to Lawrence with a second truck managed by the owners' college-student daughter. →
• Expect a high of 74 today with mostly cloudy skies, gusty south winds, and off-and-on chances for showers and thunderstorms throughout the afternoon.

🌾 Kansas

• The Kansas City Royals unveiled plans for a $1.9 billion downtown ballpark at Crown Center, requiring $600 million from Kansas City taxpayers, hundreds of millions from the state, and at least $800 million from the team. →

• At least three Kansas schools were evacuated Wednesday after bomb threats, including Wichita's Southeast High School, Hutchinson's Central Christian School, and Buhler USD 313's Union Valley Elementary, with no devices found. →

• Kansas State University plant pathologist Kelsey Andersen Onofre is urging wheat growers to scout fields for stripe, leaf, and stem rust as the spring disease window opens and the crop breaks dormancy. →

• Great Bend High School revived Community Service Day Wednesday with 900 students and staff completing 36 projects across the city, resuming a tradition last held in 2019. →

• Local groups in Hays are working to install a $350,000 weather radar near the airport to fill an 80-mile gap that leaves Ellis County with limited low-altitude storm data, with $50,000 raised and two of three grants secured. →

🇺🇸 US

• A U.S. Navy destroyer is escorting an Iranian oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after Iranian forces seized two cargo vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, straining a cease-fire President Trump extended Tuesday. →

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Navy Secretary John Phelan on Wednesday after months of infighting over shipbuilding reform and attempts to bypass the chain of command. →

• Republicans fear President Trump's push last summer to redraw congressional district lines has backfired after Virginia voters approved an aggressive Democratic gerrymander and California adopted a favorable redistricting map. →

• Dem-aligned House Majority PAC reserved $272 million in television and digital advertising for November's midterms, targeting Republican-held seats from Miami to Phoenix as Democrats aim to capitalize on Trump's declining approval ratings. →

• Chinese manufacturers are moving beyond low-cost goods into advanced industries including electric vehicles, solar panels and batteries, threatening producers across developed economies with massive scale and government subsidies. →

Weather

APRIL 23, 1985: NEW COKE DEBUTS IN A MARKETING DISASTER

Coca-Cola replaced its 99-year-old formula with a sweeter “New Coke” to fend off Pepsi, but loyal customers revolted, flooding the company with thousands of angry calls and letters. Just 79 days later, the company restored the original formula as Coca-Cola Classic, and New Coke became a symbol of high-profile product flops.

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