info

For William Von Steiger, the unlikely first step toward a better life began two years ago with a burning car. Von Steiger, an Overland Park veteran who served a year as an Army paralegal specialist before his discharge in 2008, started the car fire during a particularly dark time, he said. “Coupled with drug and alcohol use and not knowing how else to deal with my emotions, it just was a really rough time,” he said. “I kind of lashed out at the world.” But with the military service (he said he was honorably discharged for medical and mental health reasons), [...]

Wichita State University launched a new system on Thursday that’s designed to collect data from across the state and store it in one place. The Kansas Data Trust can collect information like demographics and service utilization in a secure way that can be used by public agencies, researchers and nonprofit organizations. Nigel Soria, a research manager for the project, said those details will help answer difficult questions relating to issues like homelessness and education. Read more: KSN-TV

A large crowd turned out Thursday for Sedgwick County’s town hall meeting on data centers. The Sedgwick County Board of County Commissioners adopted a 90-day resolution — set to expire April 17 — to review and develop zoning regulations and pause any potential data center applications. Lori Kraus, a Colwich resident who spoke against the projects, said she wants commissioners to take constituents’ concerns seriously. “I spoke on national security,” she said. “I think it’s one topic that they did not address. Especially anyone in news, it’s very apparent that they are a soft target because the military does use these [...]

The Food Bank of Reno County celebrated the grand opening of its new facility in Hutchinson on Thursday. Lance Patterson, chairman of the food bank, said the new facility is five times larger than the previous one and is designed like a grocery store. “It’s really, really cool to see how much the community rallied around this project, how much people care about our community, and how much this looks and feels like a real grocery store,” Patterson said. Each person who visits the food bank will be given a certain number of points to spend based on the size of [...]

As data centers remain a hot topic across the state, an informational meeting in Hutchinson on Thursday aimed to calm fears over the facilities. The Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce hosted the event with state officials and energy and artificial intelligence companies. The speakers said they hoped to combat misinformation. They pushed for the positives, arguing that data centers drive economic growth by creating jobs and drawing business. The main concerns people express about data centers typically revolve around energy consumption, particularly the use of water. Read more: KSN-TV

The Sedgwick County Board of County Commissioners will pause applications for battery energy storage systems for now. During Wednesday’s meeting, commissioners voted 5-0 to halt development until the county can come up with zoning regulations. The battery systems, commonly abbreviated as BESS, are used to store power when the demand is low and save it for when people need it. The county is also in the middle of deciding regulations for data centers. Read more: KSN-TV

When Colton Glenn became Peabody fire chief at age 25, he found himself leading a department in a town where he had fire trucks race down streets as a kid. Despite seven years of firefighting experience, Glenn is one of the youngest fire chiefs leading a volunteer department in Kansas. “I never in a million years thought I’d end up becoming fire chief when I joined,” he said. Read more: Marion County RECORD

Kansas legislators’ lineup of property tax relief legislation could chip away at state and local revenue, but some see the proposals as course correction, making up for years of rising property taxes. One bill would phase out Kansans’ property taxes in favor of added sales taxes, and another would exempt seniors from paying property taxes that go toward funding school districts. But legislators, who have eagerly pursued tax relief legislation in recent years, were conflicted about the proposals. Sen. Mike Murphy, a Sylvia Republican, said Tuesday that the Legislature needs to look at property tax relief differently. Past measures haven’t made [...]

This historic Kansas prison town will allow CoreCivic to hold federal immigration detainees after a year of legal wrangling and public outcry from opponents. Four out of five city commissioners voted to grant CoreCivic’s application for a special use permit. The decision allows the company to operate its dormant 1,000-bed facility as a detention center on behalf of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The compound has sat at the center of a drawn-out legal battle — and furious criticism from opponents of Leavenworth becoming a regional hub for President Trump’s immigration agenda. Commissioners said they had amended the permit to [...]

One of Mike Dever’s regrets from his earlier terms on the City Commission is that “I went eight years without spending money on art.” Soon, he and the rest of the City Commission could take extra steps to guarantee more funding for public art and make it more visible around town. Read more: LJWorld