Overland Park is pondering ways to improve the city’s lone recycling center, which attracts thousands of users each year and takes in more than a million pounds of recyclable materials. Read more: Johnson County Post

The Flint Hills Rodeo in Strong City draws competitors and spectators from all over to fill a 6,000-seat arena. Read more: KSN-TV

The Pittsburg business community is optimistic about attracting more data centers to the area, as the city has been welcoming to the existing data center and has an airport industrial park with available property. Read more: KSNF/KODE

The City of Pittsburg Police Department now provides access to the Blue Envelope Program, which bridges the communication gap for drivers with various disabilities and law enforcement. During traffic stops, if a driver shows law enforcement a blue envelope, this signals that the driver may need additional accommodation. The blue envelope was primarily created to assist drivers with autism, but can also support those with epilepsy, cerebral palsy, intellectual and developmental disabilities, Tourette's syndrome, or any other condition that might require different communication strategies. The envelope also stores important documents related to traffic stops in one place, such as the driver’s [...]

With more than 3,000 operations and 1,500 others in various stages of construction, the data center market is experiencing a large boom, rapidly growing all across the United States, including the Pittsburg and Four-State area. On Wednesday, Evergy Senior Director of External Affairs Jason Klindt addressed the concerns, benefits, and process of creating and maintaining a data center with local business and community members in the conference room of the Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce. Read more: Morning Sun

Revised plans for a park at the site of the 1950s-era fire station and city hall on Lee Boulevard moved forward Tuesday with a unanimous vote of the Leawood Planning Commission. City leaders have been debating what to do with the outdated and little used 1950s-era buildings that housed the original fire station and historic city hall building at 96th Street and Lee off and on for years before a pause during the COVID pandemic. Read more: Johnson County Post

Coming back to a previously-tabled item, the Mulvane City Council heard support for a new director of tourism development position at its May 18 meeting. Through a more coordinated and strategic approach to tourism promotion and visitor engagement, the new tourism director would help increase local tourism to positively impact the local economy. Read more: www.derbyinformer.com

USD 232 in De Soto is gearing up to consider new policies and storage solutions this summer for the state’s new bell-to-bell personal device ban. Assistant superintendent Alvie Cater presented a timeline and potential options for implementing the state’s new ban on personal electronic devices for students during the May 4 Board of Education meeting. The goal is to finalize a storage option later this summer, giving the district time to train staff and communicate the plan with families before the next school year starts in August. Read more: Johnson County Post

A coalition of federal lawmakers from Kansas introduced in the U.S. House this week a bipartisan bill that could offer interest-free loans to rural hospitals “hanging on by a thread.” U.S. Reps. Sharice Davids and Tracey Mann of Kansas and representatives from Alabama, Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, Oregon and West Virginia co-sponsored the Rural Hospital Revitalization Act. Mann and Davids said rural hospitals need resources to continue serving patients and stay open. The bill could help rural hospitals build new facilities or renovate existing ones “so rural Americans don’t have to drive hours to see a health care professional,” Mann said in [...]

The Beloid Police Department announced on its Facebook that a train car derailment in the southeast area of Beloit has prompted the closure of several streets as emergency crews and railroad personnel respond to the incident. Officials said Brooklyn, Elm and Asherville Road are currently closed to all traffic. Motorists are being asked to avoid the area and use alternate routes while crews work at the scene. There is no estimated timeline for when the roads will reopen. Read more: KCLY Radio