TGIF, Shawnee Mission!
🌤 Today’s forecast: Partly sunny with a slight chance for rain this morning. High: 82. Low: 63.
🚨 One thing to know today
An elite amateur softball tournament featuring teams from across the United States wraps up its competition in Johnson County this weekend.
The USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championships drew 165 teams to the Kansas City metro for a six-day tournament billed as the “premier fastpitch championship” in the country.
Teams came from as far away as California, Texas and South Dakota to show off their skills.
Games have been played at multiple venues in Johnson County, including at Mid-America Sports Complex, Mid-America West Sports Complex and the Shawnee Mission School District Softball Complex, all in Shawnee, and at Blue Valley Rec in Overland Park.
The tournament’s final rounds are set to be played all day Friday and Saturday.
🗓 Weekend things to do
- “White Christmas” at Theatre in the Park, Shawnee Mission Park, Friday and Saturday [Buy tickets]
- “Beauty and the Beast,” Leawood Stage Company, Rockhurst High School, Friday through Sunday [More info]
- Mission Yoga on the Deck, Friday, Mission Family Aquatic Center [More info]
- Lenexa’s Movie in the Park showing “Marcel,” Friday, Buffalo Meadows Park [More info]
- Kids Makers Market, Saturday, Lenexa Public Market [More info]
🚀 Post’s top Thursday stories
- Olathe woman killed in head-on crash on K-7 in Lenexa
- JoCo Notes: ESPN’s Jeff Passan suffers broken back during Prairie Village storm cleanup
- Construction begins for new Popeyes in Shawnee and Lenexa
- Lenexa latest JoCo city to consider property tax rebates
- Shawnee has proposed a flat property tax rate — what does the council say?
📰 Other local news
- Rep. Davids hosts JoCo Jewish leader at Congress. Gavriela Geller, executive director of the Overland Park-based Jewish Community Relations Bureau|AJC accompanied U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids to the address this week in Congress given by visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog. [Twitter]
- Olathe woman might own largest collection of Black Barbie dolls. Just in time for the release of the new “Barbie” movie, Sonya Larson will appear on HGTV’s “Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge” to show off her 30-year old collection of Black Barbies. [Kansas City Star]
- New Jersey Mike’s opens on State Line Road in Prairie Village. The new local franchise is set to hold a grand opening celebration starting Wednesday, July 26, with some of the proceeds from the first five days of sales going to the Special Olympics. [Jersey Mike’s]
📸 A thousand words
Shawnee firefighters survey the scene at a building fire late Wednesday night near 83rd Street and Kansas Highway 7. Fortunately, nobody was injured. A cause is under investigation. Photo credit Mike Frizzell.
