Week of August 06 2024

LOCAL

FLASH Intersection of Ash and Euclid closed for Euclid extension of the Elm Street Drainage Project
1 McPherson County Hosts Mastermind Summit to Discuss Survey Results
2 Kansas Unemployment Rises to 3.1% in June, McPherson County's Unemployment Rate 2.8% 
3 Bullpups Shine in 2023-2024 Sports Year, Schedule Set for Fall
4 McPherson County Lacks Licensed Surveyor
5 Seth Graham Appointed New Deputy Fire Chief of McPherson

STATE
1 Kansas schools struggle to adapt to new open enrollment law
2 Kansas Bids Big to Lure Chiefs and Royals from Missouri
3 Boeing names new CEO

NATION
1 Bipartisan report concludes US may lose a war with China
2 Massive prisoner exchange with Russia, including jailed WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich
3 US debt exceeds $35 trillion

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LOCAL

FLASH Intersection of Ash and Euclid closed for Euclid extension of the Elm Street Drainage Project

1 McPherson County Hosts Mastermind Summit to Discuss Survey Results

Community leaders reviewed 2024 survey data, revealing trends in business, jobs, population, poverty rates, and other metrics

The 2024 Mastermind Community Summit, held on August 1st, saw the McPherson County Community Foundation host a McPherson city breakout session to discuss 2024 survey data results. The survey, which garnered 973 resident responses, provided insights into various county metrics. Business numbers are generally steady, with 897 businesses in 2021 compared to 886 in 2020 and 899 in 2015. Job numbers have declined slightly, dropping from 14,602 jobs in 2020 to 14,421 in 2021, up from 13,082 in 2015. The county's population has remained flat, with a slight increase from 30,059 in 2020 to 30,085 in 2021, up from 29,252 in 2015. The poverty rate saw a concerning rise from 4.9% in 2020 to 6.4% in 2021, up from 3.3% in 2015. Median household income has increased, reaching $71,250 in 2021 from $63,816 in 2020, up from $56,128 in 2015. The rise in median household income can be attributed primarily to inflation, which has driven up wages and costs of living without necessarily improving purchasing power. Housing units and county school enrollment have remained stable. Community members expressed satisfaction with their sense of belonging and loyalty in the qualitative survey responses.

Source: MCCF

2 Kansas Unemployment Rises to 3.1% in June, McPherson County's Unemployment Rate 2.8% 

Local businesses face labor shortages, hindering growth despite a robust job market

The Kansas unemployment rate in June was 3.1%, which is slightly below the national average of 3.6% for the same period and up from 2.6% in KS for June 2023. State non-farm payroll employment saw a boost of 7,600 jobs from May, with 5,400 of those in the government sector. Kansas Secretary of Labor Amber Schultz noted that average hourly pay also increased. Private sector workers' hourly pay rose by 5.2% over the year, reaching $30.61. The increase in total non-farm payroll employment in Kansas, particularly in the government sector, aligns with national trends where government employment also saw gains. McPherson County's unemployment rate in June was 2.8%, with neighboring counties showing similar trends.

McPherson County's low unemployment rate presents both opportunities and challenges for the local economy. On the positive side, low unemployment often indicates a robust job market, where most residents seeking work can find employment. However, very low unemployment can also pose challenges. Employers may struggle to fill open positions, leading to labor shortages that can hinder business operations and growth. Furthermore, with fewer unemployed workers available, it can be difficult for companies to expand or for new businesses to enter the market.

Source: BLS, KS Reflector

3 Bullpups Shine in 2023-2024 Sports Year, Schedule Set for Fall

McPherson High School celebrated state titles in boys basketball, golf, and cross country last year

A successful 2023-2024 sports year saw the Bullpups pull down numerous noteworthy achievements, which was highlighted by the boys basketball team earning its seventh state title in the Kurt Kinnamon era, Blaise Hoover becoming just the third state champion golfer in McPherson history and Caleb Muehler claiming McPherson’s first state title in cross country. Other top finishes for McPherson in the 2023-2024 sports year included the boys soccer team placing fourth at state, the girls tennis team finishing as runners-up at state, the volleyball team finishing as runners-up at state, the girls basketball team taking third at state, the boys golf team finishing as runners-up at state and the girls soccer team taking third at state.

McPherson High School has released its schedule for the fall

Here are the first varsity games:

Football: Friday, September 6 vs Great Bend (Home) 7:00 P.M. Kickoff

Boys Soccer: Thursday, September 5 vs Circle at 6:30 P.M. (Away)

Cross Country Varsity/JV: Thursday, September 5 at Lake Barton XC Course (9:00 A.M.).

Girls Golf: Thursday, August 29 at Hesston Golf Course (1:00 P.M.)

Girls Tennis Thursday, August 29 at Hesston (9:00 A.M.)

Girls Volleyball Saturday August 31 at McPherson 9:00 A.M.

Article Source: Joel Muhs, McPherson Sentinel Wednesday, July 31, 2024

4 McPherson County Lacks Licensed Surveyor

Absence of a licensed surveyor prompts county to consider external contracts and adjust hiring strategies to fill the position

The McPherson County Public Works department currently lacks a licensed surveyor. A resolution from 2018 had previously waived the requirement for survey reviews but the absence of a licensed surveyor has raised concerns about potential inaccuracies in legal descriptions and zoning compliance issues affecting property transactions. The county is considering contracting external licensed surveyors in the near-term before a surveyor is hired. Additionally, the search for a new surveyor will be broadened, possibly adjusting salary and benefits to attract qualified candidates.

Source: McPherson County

5 Seth Graham Appointed New Deputy Fire Chief of McPherson

McPherson's Fire Department has a new Deputy Fire Chief, Seth Graham, appointed effective August 5, 2024. The City Commission unanimously approved Graham's appointment. The Deputy Fire Chief role, recently reinstated, will oversee daily operations, manage emergency response protocols, and ensure firefighter training and safety standards are met.

Source: McPherson City

STATE

1 Kansas schools struggle to adapt to new open enrollment law

A new Kansas law lets students attend any school that has room. But Maize Unified School District 266 is one of a handful of districts across the state not accepting nonresident students this fall. Like Maize, almost all districts blocking open enrollment are in wealthier areas of the state. The average household income in Maize exceeds $100,000, and other Kansas districts that said they have no room reflect similar wealth. The U.S. Census reported statewide average household income as $94,000 in 2022. Supporters of the open enrollment law saw it as a way to give families a choice and encourage local districts to work harder to keep students. Opponents feared it would take away control from local districts and further increase the gap between rich and poor districts. After all, more students mean more state tax dollars for a local district. Kansas lawmakers revised the state’s open enrollment policy in 2022. The new law requires districts to determine how many students they can handle. If a district expects to enroll fewer students, it must open up spots to students from other districts. But there is no state-mandated formula. Each district sets its own numbers. The Maize district found, based on current enrollment and projected growth, that it didn’t have any room for out-of-town kids this year. The district forecasts an enrollment of 7,533 by 2029, up from 7,400. Open enrollment isn’t new in Kansas. The state has allowed school districts to accept students from outside their boundaries for about 30 years. But even districts that have long accepted nonresident students are worried about the new law’s effect. In past years, districts could enroll local students in July and August, then decide if or how many out-of-district kids to accept. The new law turns that on its head, requiring districts to estimate how much room they have for out-of-district kids in the spring — months before schools know how many students have signed up for classes. “Enrollment impacts everything — our funding, our staffing decisions, our facilities,” Leavenworth Superintendent Kellen Adams said. “There’s just that level of uncertainty now.”

Article Source: Kansas Beacon

2 Kansas Bids Big to Lure Chiefs and Royals from Missouri

Kansas enters high-stakes battle to attract Kansas City Chiefs and Royals with potentially record-breaking stadium subsidies.

For decades, academic research has been clear: Taxpayers almost never get their money back on subsidized sports stadiums. And yet, over and over again, U.S. cities and states find themselves locked in lopsided negotiations with beloved football, baseball and basketball teams, hoping to keep them from jumping to a new market. In the newest bidding war, Kansas aims to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to lure the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs or MLB’s Royals from their side-by-side stadiums in Missouri just a few miles away. It could be one of the most expensive stadium deals yet, according to Victor Matheson, a researcher who studies stadium subsidies.

Article Source: KS Reflector

3 Boeing names new CEO

Boeing [NYSE: BA] today announced that its Board of Directors has elected Robert K. "Kelly" Ortberg as the company's new president and chief executive officer, effective August 8, 2024. Ortberg will also serve on Boeing's Board of Directors. He will succeed Dave Calhoun, who earlier this year announced his intention to retire from the company, having served as president and CEO since January 2020, and as a member of Boeing's Board of Directors since 2009. Ortberg, 64, brings over 35 years of aerospace leadership to this position. He began his career in 1983 as an engineer at Texas Instruments, and then joined Rockwell Collins in 1987 as a program manager and held increasingly important leadership positions at the company prior to becoming its president and CEO in 2013. After five years leading Rockwell Collins, he steered the company's integration with United Technologies and RTX until his retirement from RTX in 2021. He has held a number of important leadership posts in industry, including serving on the Board of Directors of RTX. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors of Aptiv PLC, a global technology company and an industry leader in vehicle systems architecture. He is the former Chair of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) Board of Governors. Ortberg holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Iowa.


Ed note: this pick is a bit surprising given Ortberg’s age of 64, one year short of the typical mandatory retirement age of 65 in public corporations. Boeing requires a multi-year turnaround that is unlikely to be accomplished within this new CEOs tenure.

Article Source: Boeing

NATION

FLASH Harris picks MN Gov Waltz as running mate

1 Bipartisan report concludes US may lose a war with China

The U.S. military “lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat”. A Congressional panel advocateed for massive defense buildup, saying the US is unprepared for war.  A bipartisan panel reviewing U.S. defense strategy has reported that the nation’s odds of fighting a major war are the highest in 80 years, and yet the military is not prepared. For more than a year, the former lawmakers, military leaders, and policy experts on the Commission on the National Defense Strategy have studied how well the U.S. military is executing the 2022 national defense strategy. “Unclassified public wargames suggest that, in a conflict with China, the United States would largely exhaust its munitions inventories in as few as three to four weeks, with some important munitions (e.g., anti-ship missiles) lasting only a few days. Once expended, replacing these munitions would take years,” the report states. The group released their report on Monday and will present its findings to the Senate Armed Services committee on Tuesday. The nearly 100-page report criticizes the Pentagon for being too slow, Congress for being too partisan, and past administrations for complacency in addressing dangers from China, Russia, and Middle Eastern countries. The report suggests that Washington faces more international threat actors, with competitors more willing to go to war, and argues that the country has failed to grow stronger in response. Issues include small budgets, delayed spending bills, reliance on outdated weapons, and a lack of public awareness. The National Defense Strategy’s call for “integrated deterrence” was found to be unclear and uncoordinated. The panel, comprising equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, agreed on these conclusions. Of the commission’s many recommendations, most are similar to efforts the Pentagon is already undertaking, including reaching out more aggressively to the private sector, particularly new information-technology focused startups, to establish a new industrial base, and reevaluating counterproductive regulatory impediments to buying and selling defense technology.
Other recommendations for change include reassessing the Pentagon’s acquisition and innovation systems, changing buying practices to work more with innovative companies, and immediately passing a supplemental defense bill. The panel also suggests politically unpopular measures to fund these changes, such as higher taxes and reforming entitlement programs. The goal is a military capable of fighting in multiple theaters simultaneously.

Source: Defense One, Cipher Brief

2 Massive prisoner exchange with Russia, including jailed WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich

Ed. Note: Ad Astra reported this accurately ~4h before major news outlets

Signs of a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Belarus on one side and the United States, Germany and Slovenia on the other, multiplied on Thursday but there was no official confirmation of what may be the biggest swap since the Cold War. Fox News reported that jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was set to return to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange, possibly later on Thursday. Reuters could not confirm that and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about reports of a looming major prisoner exchange, said: "I'm still not making any comments on this." Paul Whelan, a former U.S. marine, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident, both jailed in Russia, have suddenly disappeared from view, their lawyers said a day earlier, after at least seven Russian dissidents were unexpectedly moved from their prisons in recent days.

Article Source: Reuters

3 US debt exceeds $35 trillion

America’s gross national debt topped $35 trillion for the first time on Monday, a reminder of the nation’s grim fiscal predicament as legislative fights over taxes and spending initiatives loom in Washington. The Treasury Department noted the milestone in its daily report detailing the nation’s balance sheet. The red ink is mounting in the United States more quickly than many economists had predicted as the costs of federal programs enacted in recent years have exceeded initial projections. The leading presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump, have said little about the nation’s deficits on the campaign trail, suggesting that the economic problem will only worsen in the coming years. Deep differences between Republicans and Democrats on policy priorities and resistance within both parties to enacting cuts to the biggest drivers of the national debt — Social Security and Medicare — have made it difficult to reduce America’s borrowing.

Article Source: NYT

Sources

3. https://www.bls.gov/lau/; https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.ks.htmhttps://kansasreflector.com/briefs/kansas-unemployment-rate-climbs-to-3-1-fourth-monthly-increase-in-2024/

5. https://www.mcphersoncountyks.us/949/Agendas-Minutes

6. https://www.facebook.com/CityOfMcPhersonLocalGovernment/videos/1536006214007880

7. https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2024/07/30/how-the-kansas-open-enrollment-law-is-playing-out-in-wichita-area-schools

8. https://kansasreflector.com/2024/08/02/kansas-v-missouri-stadium-battle-shows-how-states-are-reigniting-border-wars/

9. https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2024-07-31-Boeing-Board-Names-Kelly-Ortberg-President-and-CEO

10. https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2024/07/us-might-lose-war-china-congressional-commission-says/398418

11. https://www.reuters.com/world/lawyer-ex-us-marine-whelan-jailed-russia-says-she-cannot-confirm-his-whereabouts-2024-07-31/

12. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/us/politics/national-debt-35-trillion.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare