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The Kansas Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a long-running dispute over an amended planned unit development application by the Riley County Commission, which Prairiewood Holdings LLC has appealed. The dispute centers on whether a protest petition from neighboring landowners has met the legal threshold under state law. The county board initially ruled the protest petition did not apply because the project was only a PUD and not a rezoning. The Court of Appeals disagreed, holding that because the amendment increased building square footage by more than 1% county regulations required the same process as a rezoning, including allowing [...]

The organizer of a petition against an agreement between the Cowley County Sheriff’s Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement said this week more than 200 people had signed the petition and that she hoped to speak with Sheriff David Falletti about the issue. “That's all I want is a conversation that will hopefully lead to change,” Kaitlin Hicks said. “Sheriff Falletti has done a lot of really great things for our county and I have a lot of respect for him. Do I deeply, deeply disagree with the action the Sheriff's department has made regarding this issue? Yes. Do I think [...]

County officials say they are ready to take legal enforcement action against several property owners who have not complied with sanitation code regulations of wastewater lagoons. During the Jan. 29 County Commission meeting, Lyon County Counselor Molly Priest said that after having given notices to a number of property owners in the county, four or five had taken “little to no steps” towards compliance — mainly to do with fencing and vegetation issues — and could face Class C misdemeanor cases. Read more: www.emporiagazette.com

The Olathe City Council is set to vote on a plan to use tax pledges to repay STAR bonds for the construction of a new Kansas City Chiefs team headquarters and practice facility, estimated to cost around $300 million. Read more: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports

We could know as early as next week the exact location of a new Chiefs domed stadium in Wyandotte County. The Unified Government (UG) said a public hearing on the project will be held in the near future, but the date for that has not been set. The public hearing comes before the UG Commission must vote to approve allowing incremental sales tax growth in the stadium and surrounding district to be used to help pay off the Sales Tax and Revenue or STAR Bonds. The commission must vote by Feb. 20. Read more: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV

The only thing missing was fateful “spaghetti western” music blaring from the sky. An impromptu snowball fight broke out on Jan. 28 between kids and members of the Newton Police Department in Military Park which resulted in heavy casualties for Newton PD. According to Chief Craig Dunlavy, the kids challenged members of the police department to the frozen water war in the afternoon and the department immediately accepted. “Who can resist a good snowball fight?” Dunlavy said. “Some of us in the office just went out, ‘let’s go have a little fun,’ we haven’t had snow in a while. We underestimated [...]

All through 2025, Halstead’s new industrial park speculative building sat empty. Mayor Gary Faelber wants to get someone into it by bringing in the assistance of a realtor. He told the council he was looking for a consensus to list the building with a realtor at the council’s meeting on January 28. The council discussed that possibility and agreed to meet with a realtor at a future date. City Manager Ethan Reimer confirmed that the building had been shown and that it’s available to all realtors through the LOIS (LocationOne) system, which is specific to commercial and industrial properties. Read more: [...]

The Federal Reserve recently published its Flow of Funds for the third quarter 2025. Such statistical releases provide interesting views into the use of debt across households, financial institutions and governmental entities as well as reveal behavioral shifts from varied investor classes. I have generally relied upon this detailed data when analyzing municipal bond investor preferences and trends as well as identifying complementary source material for evaluating demographic patterns. This information can be quite useful for issuers, municipal advisors, legal counsel as well as for sell-side and buy-side stakeholders when developing role-based strategic initiatives.  Read more: Bond Buyer

The report is called the Douglas County EV Readiness Report. It was produced by the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization and the city and county sustainability departments, and its goal is to support future planning for EV infrastructure as more electric cars get on the road. Read more: LJWorld

A neighborhood squawk over chickens may be scratched — for now. The owner of eight hens and two roosters have rehomed the animals, but still faces a Valley Center Municipal Court hearing for potentially violating city ordinance. Meanwhile, others in the neighborhood around 63rd North and Sullivan on the south side of the city may have chickens or roosters that are disturbing the peace. Read more: Ark Valley News