BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
Former Marion police chief Gideon Cody replaced his defense team Wednesday, prompting Judge Ryan Rosauer to postpone Cody’s Aug. 24 trial to allow Cody’s new attorneys time to prepare.
Ashley Repp of SRC Law Group in Kansas City entered her appearance on Cody’s behalf during the hearing. Attorney James Brun also will represent Cody but was traveling and unable to attend, Repp told the court.
Greg Wyatt and Brandon Rein each won the vote of Marion County constituents in Tuesday’s Republican primary, according to unofficial returns.
But on the strength of votes from outside the county, incumbent Greg Wilson, not Rein, will move on to face unopposed Democratic candidate Kylie Kilmer for the 70th District House of Representatives seat.
With overdue payments from City of Marion taxpayers leading the way, 2025 property tax delinquencies in Marion County set yet another record, according to a notice being published in this week’s newspaper.
Countywide, a record 620 parcels owe a record $576,070.60 in 2025 taxes. That’s up 1.2% from last year.
Braden Pagenkopf was cutting hay for a neighbor when he ran over a plastic pipe strung between two wells in the field.
“I cut it, and it sprayed everywhere. It was a mess,” said Pagenkopf, a Lost Springs custom farmer. The liquid wasn’t oil but a byproduct: toxic saltwater that comes up with oil and gas and typically is pumped back underground.
Nearly 120 employees and patients at St. Luke Hospital were caught up in a bomb scare Thursday after a voicemail prompted a multi-agency emergency response.
The response began after hospital chief executive Alex Haines reported receiving a voicemail from Justin L. Chrisjohn, 49, Marion, that Haines thought he threatened to blow up the hospital.
Lavern Stika, 84, Herington, died Wedneday after he was pinned underneath his car at a house he owned north of Pilsen on Remington Rd.
Dispatchers received a call around 1:55 p.m. from his daughter, Brenda Bernhardt, and grandson, Dane Berhardt.
A customer unhappy with how a chicken sandwich was prepared could face criminal charges after allegedly throwing it at employees at 11:48 a.m. Friday at Casey’s General Store in Hillsboro.
Police have identified a male suspect, Police Chief Jessey Hiebert said. According to Hiebert, the man returned to the store after becoming upset that his sandwich was not prepared to his liking. He argued with employees before throwing the sandwich. Two employees were struck by sandwich shrapnel.
Weeks before he is scheduled to stand trial, former Marion police chief Gideon Cody and his lawyers are arguing over how to defend him.
A hearing today will determine whether Sal Intagliata and Audra Asher of Triad Legal can withdraw from defending Cody.
Peabody’s lone police officer, Charles Walker, warned city council members last week that he could not continue handling the city’s police work alone without risking his health.
Walker said he had opened 91 cases since June 1, an average of about two a day, and made four arrests, including two felony and two misdemeanor.
Great Plains Federal Credit Union will close its Hillsboro branch Sept. 30 after determining member usage no longer justified the cost of operating the location.
The decision followed months of review, credit union president James Wileman said.
When planning and zoning commission chairman Josh Weiser pleaded for county commissioners to “come out with a collective vision” two weeks ago, they listened.
An updated comprehensive plan began taking shape Thursday with a discussion of topics ranging from housing and community growth to workforce and talent retention to partnerships and collaborative planning.
An ordinance allowing creation of a district intended to limit hospital competition was accepted Monday.
Despite opposition from the city’s planning commission, Marion City Council unanimously approved the ordinance. The zoning change is meant to prevent “carve-out services” from establishing and taking away profitable services from St. Luke Hospital.
Ryan D. Howser, 40, Wichita, was arrested at 2:46 a.m. Thurday after Hillsboro police investigated a vehicle, described as suspiciously backed into a parking space in front of Ampride.
After a drug-sniffing police dog was called in, a search uncovered 29 grams of methamphetamine, 1 gram of cocaine, a 10-milliliter vial of anabolic steroids, and paraphernalia, Police Chief Jessey Hiebert said.
A 10-year-old girl was flown to a Wichita trauma center Friday after suffering a leg injury in a bicycle accident in Hillsboro.
According to ambulance director Mickey Price, the girl appeared to have suffered a possible fractured leg and penetrating trauma after being impaled by part of the bicycle. Nothing indicated another vehicle was involved, Price said.
Mass for Mary Griffith, 79, who died Monday at Hillsboro Community Hospital, will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Mark Catholic Church, Marion.
A prayer vigil will be 6:30 p.m. Friday at the church.
Mass for LaVerne D. Stika, 84, Herington, who died July 29 in an accident outside his second home in Pilsen, was Monday at St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church, Pilsen. Burial was in the church cemetery.
Born Sept. 7, 1941, to Mike and Helen (Varva) Stika on their family’s farm near Tampa, he graduated from Tampa High School in 1959, worked on the farm and as a derrick hand for Slusser Drilling, and served in the Army National Guard.
Services for Williams Service founder and co-owner Rodney Ralph Williams, 90, who died July 27 at Kansas Christian Home in Newton, will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Florence United Methodist Church. Pastor Steve Rankin will officiate.
Visitation will be 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at Yazel-Megli Funeral Home, Marion.
IN MEMORIAM:
Katherine OtteIN MEMORIAM:
Marcella Woelk
“We were out there at sunup, horseback, gathering some cows and calves,” Peters said. “Never a better feeling than being on a horse, with my grandson, out in the Flint Hills.”
Many ranchers and farmers in Marion County don’t have a next generation to farm or ranch into the future.
Tim Land ignored constant pain in his left shoulder for as long as he could. A doctor’s visit in 2016 and four words then changed his perspective on life: stage four lung cancer.
“My oldest daughter was with me, and as she heard ‘stage four,’ she totally freaked out,” Land recalled.
Bluegrass at the Lake was, for lack of better words, a smash hit this year.
The two-day festival brought in $16,700, lake superintedent Isaac Hett said Monday. Expenses to run the event were a little over $10,000, he said, making a $6,700 profit.
Blame it on climate change. No, not the seemingly hundreds of hundred-degree days we’ve been sweating through. The change I’m talking about heats things up in a different way, making our political climate increasingly extreme.
Like El Nino sweeping in through a hole in the ozone layer, the war of MAGAts vs. Commies has created an atmosphere in which we mere humans, particularly those addicted to antisocial media, find silver linings so obscured as to never shine through ever darker clouds of sloganeering.
ANOTHER DAY IN THE COUNTRY:
The other side of the bed AMERICA AT 250:
Giving respect eases divisionsLETTERS:
Bashing deserved,
A real red scare
Danielle Bartel never imagined a career in local government.
Today, she’s responsible for helping lead the town that raised her.
While Marion City Council grapples with its 2027 budget, Marion Senior Center is trying to stay afloat.
A non-profit working on only $400 a month in income from the county, the center has had to cut spending on insurance. At Monday night’s city council meeting, it asked for $10,000 a year from the city to cover utilities and insurance
The 108th annual Hett reunion will be Sunday at Marion County Lake hall. The reunion will begin with a meal at 12:30 p.m. A business meeting will follow. Attendees are being asked to bring a covered dish. Drinks will be provided.
Marion County Democrats will welcome newly elected precinct committeemen and committeewomen at 10 a.m. Saturday at Marion Community Center, 203 N. 3rd St.
MEMORIES:
10,
20,
30,
40,
50,
60,
70,
110,
150 years ago
