Want a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer on your doorstep, next to Amazon packages or your grocery order? This scenario could potentially soon be a reality in Kansas. Lawmakers are weighing whether to allow grocery stores, restaurants and liquor stores to deliver beer, wine and spirits to a person, either on their own or via a third-party delivery service, such as DoorDash or Uber Eats. Such a move would follow in a string of efforts to modernize the state’s liquor laws, such as a COVID-19 pandemic-era move to allow to-go drink sales and expand the sale of liquor on Sundays. Over half of all states currently allow for the delivery of booze, with many of them making COVID-19 era restrictions permanent in the past two years. But following suit would be a major change for Kansas, a state that had one of the most restrictive liquor laws in the country until fairly recently.
Source: CJonline

Treasury bonds surged, pushing key two-year yields to their lowest level this year, as investors bet the collapse of three US lenders will compel policymakers to halt interest-rate increases. Swaps now show a less than one-in-two chance that the Federal Reserve will implement another quarter-point hike this cycle. Yields on two-year Treasury notes — the most sensitive to changes in policy — fell as much as 60 basis points to less than 3.99%, the lowest since October.
Source: Bloomberg

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman, Beth Warren and Henry Schmidt.

Douglas County District Court will soon transition to a new case management system, which will temporarily disrupt the processing of online payments and electronic court document filings, according to a news release from the state judicial branch. The court will begin switching over to the Kansas eCourt centralized case management system at 4 p.m. on March 29, and the new system is expected to be up and running by April 3, according to the Office of Judicial Administration’s news release on Friday. Courts will remain open during the transition, but attorneys will only be able to file documents on paper and any payments to the court must be made in cash or by paper check until the new system is operational.
Source: LJWorld

In an indicator of the closer relationship between the City of Lawrence and the Lawrence Community Shelter, the city plans to use a portion of its pandemic aid to pay additional staffing costs for the shelter to expand its capacity to 125 people. The city announced Thursday that beginning March 13, the day after the city’s winter emergency shelter at the Community Building in downtown Lawrence is set to close for the season, LCS’ capacity will be increased to 125 people. Assistant City Manager Brandon McGuire said Friday that the city would be providing staff and resources to support the increased capacity, as well as helping to fund additional staffing at the shelter. He said the exact arrangement was still being determined, but that the city would be using federal pandemic aid to support the change.
Source: LJWorld

More communities are turning away from the prospect of a dollar store opening up in their town. In a report published by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, researchers said more than 70 cities and towns have already blocked new projects from chain dollar stores and 50 cities have enacted laws to limit the discount retailers’ plans for expansion. … “In cities, it is common to find dollar stores clustered by the dozen within certain neighborhoods. In rural towns, they typically locate near the only grocery store, and often succeed in wiping it out,” the report said. “One might assume that the dollar chains are simply filling a need, providing basic retail options in cash-strapped communities. But the evidence shows something else. These stores aren’t merely a byproduct of economic distress, they are a cause of it.” Researchers said these tactics leave people without access to fresh food, further imposing hardship on residents who have to travel farther to buy food. But each store’s representatives disagree with the report.
Source: Hutch News