Topeka

• Shawnee County Land Use & Development deemed Compass Datacenters' permit application incomplete and turned back a permit application for a proposed site near Topeka. →
• Topeka leaders scheduled a special work session with Compass Datacenters to review a proposed development south of Topeka. →
• Topeka Public Schools added nearly $250,000 to its special liability fund for legal fees regarding an ongoing federal Title IX investigation. →
• Topeka Public Schools proposed increasing its mill levy to a maximum of 51.177 mills to offset rising health insurance and staff costs. →
• The Shawnee County Board of County Commissioners seeks to trim $10 million from 2027 budget requests to keep property taxes flat. →
• The Shawnee County Board of County Commissioners approved a $400,000 budget cut by delaying hiring 10 corrections staff members. →
• The Shawnee County Board of County Commissioners approved a $103,800 emergency chiller rental for a county-owned facility. →
• Expect a slight chance of morning showers and thunderstorms before clearing up for a mostly sunny Friday with a high near 90°F.

🌾 Kansas

• Evergy reported a second-quarter profit of $215 million, driven by growing electricity demand from data centers, and reaffirmed its earnings outlook through 2030. →

• A Citizen Journal review found Kansas governments and school districts scrambling to repair aging power, water, bridge and cooling systems as equipment reaches the end of its service life. →

• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security bought CoreCivic's 1,033-bed Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth for $238.4 million, raising questions about future city tax payments and local oversight. →

• Bonner Springs-Edwardsville USD 204 deployed ZeroEyes AI gun detection software across its schools, funded through a state grant program. →

• A Citizen Journal review found Kansas communities including Salina, Hays, Emporia, Lawrence and Abilene advancing plans to convert vacant motels, schools, stores and civic buildings into housing. →

🇺🇸 US

• Initial unemployment claims rose by 1,000 to 199,000 for the week ending Aug. 1, marking a third straight week below 200,000, the longest such streak since 1969. →

• The Pentagon's deputy secretary convened an emergency meeting over weapons shortages after President Trump made an angry call, as years of arms transfers to Ukraine and use in Yemen and Iran have strained U.S. munitions stocks across multiple theaters. →

• SpaceX will build a $16.8 billion semiconductor campus in Grimes County, Texas, creating 3,000 jobs, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Aug. 6. →

• A New Mexico judge ordered Meta on Aug. 6 to pay $567 million for youth-harm remediation programs, bringing the company's total liability in the case to $942 million. →

• Ukraine struck Russian oil refineries in Bashkortostan and Yaroslavl overnight into Aug. 6, part of a deepening campaign against Russian fuel and retail infrastructure, as German investigators found a bomb-laden drone near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle Airport. →

Weather

AUGUST 7, 1998: U.S. EMBASSIES IN EAST AFRICA BOMBED

The twin embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania marked a violent escalation of Islamist militancy that had been building since the 1979 Iranian Revolution galvanized anti-American sentiment across the Muslim world. The attacks, orchestrated by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, foreshadowed the 9/11 strikes and helped lay the ideological and operational groundwork for the U.S.-led Global War on Terror.

This article was written using our proprietary AI system, Cronkite. The final decision to publish this article was made by a human. For more info, read our AI policy.