Notebook: Kansas Prepares for Season

The Rock Chalkboard

Big 12 and membership continuing to weigh weeknight games as KSHSAA objects - KU Sports
Arlington, Texas — The Kansas State High School Activities Association Twitter account is, generally, a beacon of positivity. The association is quite liberal in its use of exclamation points, exhorting its followers to “Become a high school official!” or urging “Don’t miss out!” on a coaching clinic or wishing “Good luck!” as its member schools engage in high-level competition.

KU’s Baumgartner signs with Rockies as undrafted free agent - KU Sports
Kansas right-handed pitcher Collin Baumgartner has been signed as an undrafted free agent by the Colorado Rockies after one season in Lawrence, KU announced in a press release Wednesday.

Linebacker group shows how KU can balance continuity, new ideas - KU Sports
Arlington, Texas — By any metric, Kansas football has retained one of the most similar rosters to its 2022 iteration of any Division I team in the country. The most concise way to express this fact is via the Jayhawks’ first-place position in the returning production rankings from ESPN’s Bill Connelly; according to his post-spring assessment, KU returns effectively 91% of its offense and 79% of its defense from last year.

Eraser Dust

Residents speak up over property assessments at Bozeman town hall | KECI
“The way we’re going now, it’s going to force a lot of the people that’s in homes that are on fixed incomes are going to have to sell their homes and leave,” said a Bozeman resident.

ImagineIF trustee votes for state commission to leave library association due to “Marxist leadership” | Daily Inter Lake
“I fear that many of those dominant in the library decision making process desire to participate in reshaping our society with a Marxist bent,” Ingram said. “It receives over $210 million of public funds, yet uses these funds to undermine truth and natural law, the very foundation of western civilization.”

Tranel Hones in on Montana’s ‘Purple DNA’ at Kalispell Launch Event - Flathead Beacon
On a hot July afternoon at the Northwest Montana History Museum, Monica Tranel offered a pitch to a room of Flathead Valley Democrats: “Two years ago we set out to climb a high mountain, and together we came to a fork in the road,” she said.

Jury delivers guilty verdict in Kalispell fitness center shooting trial | Daily Inter Lake
A jury found Jonathan Douglas Shaw guilty Thursday of deliberate homicide in the 2021 shooting death of a gym employee outside of Fuel Fitness in Kalispell.

Biden forgives $39 billion in student debt for some 800,000 borrowers
The Biden administration announced Friday it would automatically forgive $39 billion in student debt for 804,000 borrowers.

Taylor Swift's Economic Impact Has Caught the Eye of the Fed
"Despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city," the Fed said in its most recent Beige Book.

Twitter's Former Head of HR Is Suing for $500 Million
Twitter’s former head of HR filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the company on Wednesday, demanding Elon Musk pay out $500 million to former employees for allegedly not paying severance fees to laid-off staff. Courtney McMillan, the head of total rewards for the company’s benefits programs before she was laid off in January, claimed in the lawsuit that Twitter’s then-CEO Parag Agrawal promised employees they were entitled to their paid severance under the Merger Agreement.

IRS says it collected $38 million from more than 175 high-income tax delinquents | AP News
In one case, an individual had used money owed to the government to buy a Maserati and a Bentley, and roughly 100 high-income individuals attempted to get favorable tax treatment through Puerto Rico without meeting certain tax requirements. Many of those cases are expected to face criminal investigation.

Dr. Steve Running explains Flathead Lake level connection to climate change
“Water management is going to define the West for better or for worse because we are in an arid and semi-arid climate this whole side of the continent,” he says. “The hardest thing about Flathead Lake is there's about six different agencies that all have partial authority, but nobody has total authority. “

Burger King Thailand’s ‘Real Cheeseburger’: All Cheese, No Meat - The New York Times
The latest fast-food stunt to sweep the internet is the “Real Cheeseburger” from Burger King Thailand, 20 slices of American cheese on a bun with no sauce or meat.

Why Can’t We Stop Quitting the Grateful Dead? - The New York Times
Jerry Garcia died in 1995. The band bid fans farewell in 2015. This weekend, Dead & Company will close out its Final Tour. Why can’t we stop quitting one of rock’s beloved acts?

Opinion | A Federal Judge Asks Whether the Supreme Court Understands How Bad It Looks to the Public - The New York Times
The reported behavior of some justices is not a matter of politics or judicial philosophy. It’s about ethics.