If you were affected by the Andover tornado that hit Friday night, United Way of the Plains will be in Andover on Sunday to help, the nonprofit said over social media. Volunteers from the nonprofit set up a disaster assistance center at the Andover Community Center, 1008 E. 13th St., from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday to provide residents with water, snacks and other supplies, a news release says. The agency said hours for Monday will be announced later. Those needing assistance with shelter, basic needs or cleanup can also dial 211 to find resources. Source: Wichita KS Breaking News, Sports [...]

Volunteers who want to help in the clean-up effort after the tornado that ravaged Andover and the surrounding area can sign up starting Monday. The city of Andover said in a Facebook post Sunday that prospective volunteers can sign up and get registered at the United Methodist Church at 1429 N. Andover Road. Information about when the church will open for registration was not immediately available early Sunday afternoon. “Our hope is to start volunteers at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, May 3 to avoid upcoming severe weather,” the post reads. More severe weather is forecast for the area Monday afternoon. Source: [...]

Harold Schlechtwag has started calling Wichita “Stump City.” But he’s hoping it doesn’t stick. It came to Schlechtwag, one of the founders of a new local environmental group, when he counted the tree stumps in his neighborhood. “In a two-block area around my house, I discovered seven stumps, some of which are quite old trees,” Schlechtwag said. Some of the trees that had been chopped down were on city easements, between a curb and a sidewalk. Others had been on private land. “One of them was removed by the person who flipped a house, before he renovated that house to sell [...]

Sales Tax and Revenue Bonds — better known as STAR Bonds — are public debt issued by the city, to get public money to pay for private development projects. That bond debt has to be paid back. The loan is supposed to be paid off using sales tax money generated by the new development. But things go wrong. And when they do, it’s taxpayers who end up paying. STAR bond debt is tricky, because you can’t easily find the numbers. Let’s look at the new Wichita baseball stadium and its $42 million in STAR Bonds. Source: Wichita Eagle

Long before he ever won a national championship, before the growth spurt to become a 6-foot-7 NBA prospect, before the obscenity-laced celebrations, Christian Braun was just a scrawny hooper from Burlington, Kansas. If you’re wondering about the source of the fiery passion that Braun used to spark Kansas and help the Jayhawks overcome the largest deficit in NCAA men’s title game history for a 72-69 win over North Carolina at the Superdome on Monday, look no further than his hometown. The decision by Braun to continue listing Burlington as his hometown instead of Overland Park, where the family moved for his [...]

Could the Chiefs set up shop in Kansas? A tweet Tuesday morning from Kevin Clark, who covers the NFL for The Ringer, seemed to indicate the Chiefs are exploring the idea of building a new stadium in the Sunflower State. The idea came from Chiefs president Mark Donovan. The NFL is holding owners meetings this week in Palm Beach, Florida, and Donovan made the comment there. Source: Wichita Eagle

Andover Mayor Ronnie Price has a friend who has always said, “Andover’s just a road.” “And I couldn’t argue the point,” Price said. “We’ve always been known to be a bedroom community. The opinion was — before me — if you want to shop, you can go to Wichita.” That’s changing, in large part due to the new 110-acre Heritage development. The mixed-use development just east of Andover Road and north of Kellogg already has two housing developments in the works and this week will break ground on Heritage Square, the city’s first 5-story building that will include apartments, public parking [...]

Kansas is pushing lawmakers to fast-track legislation creating the state’s largest business incentive program ever as officials say a $4 billion factory could be on the line. Details about that project, however, are scarce. According to the Kansas Department of Commerce, the state is a finalist in what development officials call a mega project. It is anticipated to produce 4,000 jobs paying about $50,000 per year as well as temporary construction employment for 6,000. Source: Wichita Eagle

E-commerce giant Amazon is launching daily cargo services at Wichita’s Eisenhower National Airport, the city announced Thursday. Amazon Air’s inaugural flight arrived at the airport shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday. Daily flights from Fort Worth Alliance Airport will be operated by Silver Airlines. “We are proud to welcome Amazon Air to Wichita Eisenhower Airport,” said Jesse Romo, Wichita’s director of airports. “This location is uniquely positioned with convenient access to Hwy 54/400 and Interstate 235 to support Amazon’s delivers to customers in Kansas and surrounding areas.” Source: Wichita Eagle

Wesley and Ascension Via Christi hospital executives are calling for a statewide emergency declaration that would allow hospitals to house more than their licensed number of patients, as surging COVID-19 cases perpetuate dire conditions in Wichita’s overcrowded ERs. Dr. Kimberly Megow, chief regional medical officer of Wesley’s parent company, HCA, spoke about the life and death treatment decisions being made during a video conference with hospital officials from across Kansas on Wednesday morning. “We continue to run well over 100% capacity in all of our ERs. Some of them are 200 or 300% capacity,” Megow said, referring to a metric based [...]