UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE

  • Judge rules for newspaper in open records case

    In an open records case brought by the newspaper, a state judge ruled Friday that the City of Marion acted in “bad faith,” “failed in its duties,” and attempted to shirk responsibilities in ways that would have rendered Kansas Open Records Act “useless.” District Judge Ben Sexton granted the

HEADLINES

  • Peabody chief quits, cites 'slander'

    Peabody police chief Philip Crom abruptly resigned at a city council meeting Monday night. “The last couple of weeks have been kind of tough for me stress-wise,” Crom said. “My doctor has told me it’s time to hang up the chief’s spot and go back to something a little less stressful.

  • 'Are you done in there?'

    A 13-year-old Hillsboro boy spent about an hour Thursday locked inside a Pizza Hut bathroom until police and firefighters could free him. The lock mechanism on the heavy metal door failed, Fire Chief Ben Steketee said, and the boy was unable to open it.

  • Tampa teen beats the rap

    Robert Spohn isn’t your typical rapper, as he will be the first to admit. The Centre High School senior is soft-spoken and humble. He doesn’t smoke or drink. He is a far cry from the braggadocio, party-loving emcees who tend to top the hip-hop charts.

  • A bloomin' shame, Today's beauty is tomorrow's ecological beast

    Today’s beauty is tomorrow’s ecological beast By FINN HARTNETT Staff writer Callery pear trees, also known as Bradford pear after a popular cultivar, are in full bloom around the county.

  • Judge accepts conspiracy allegation in newspaper raid

    Rejecting dismissal motions by the city and county, a federal judge ruled Friday that the “As alleged here,” Judge Daniel D. Crabtree wrote, “defendants manufactured probable cause to procure search warrants, used those search warrants to raid the newspaper’s place of operations, and plainly violated the terms of the search warrant to seize the newspaper’s every computer, effectively shutting it down.”

OTHER NEWS

  • Ex-cop gets 60 years for child porn

    A year and a half after former Marion County deputy and Burns Police Chief Joel Justice Womochil, 39, was arrested on child pornography charges, he was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in federal prison at Petersburg, Virginia. He was ordered to serve two consecutive 30-year sentences for conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child. He pleaded guilty to the charges Oct. 9 in return for dismissal of other charges.

  • Audit shows Hillsboro with less than expected

    An independent audit Tuesday concluded that Hillsboro ended 2024 with half as much money as hoped in its general fund. The audit by the Adams Brown CPA firm did not find any problems, city administrator Matt Stiles said, but rather “primarily reflects non-recurring capital projects and expenditures.”

  • Crews work nearly 3 hours after worker stops breathing

    A Cooperative Grain and Supply employee who collapsed and stopped breathing at work Monday spent nearly three hours being worked on by paramedics and hospital staff before he was taken to Kansas Heart Hospital. Ambulance crews from both Hillsboro and Marion responded to the crop production facility at 10:52 a.m. and worked on Lowell Foth, giving him cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillating him twice before he was taken to Hillsboro Community Hospital by Hillsboro ambulance.

  • Rape is latest charge in jail's revolving door

    Arrested twice last week, a 27-year-old Marion man faces multiple charges of violence including rape and kidnaping. A complaint filed March 21 in the first of three criminal cases against Paul A. Huddleston says that on Feb. 7 he drove recklessly, refused to stop for police and drove under the influence of alcohol or drugs, without a valid license, and with improper stop or turn lamps and defective stop or tag lamps.

  • Hearing will consider changes in wind farm rules

    Proposed amendments to the county’s wind farm overlay regulations will be discussed at a public hearing May 22. Commissioner Clarke Dirks gave the amendments to commissioners and planning director Sharon Omstead March 24.

  • Planners send answers to commissioners

    County planning commission members provided answers Thursday to questions county commissioners asked them last fall to investigate. The questions came in response to reports that an expanded wind farm might be located in Menno, Liberty, East Branch, and West Branch townships.

  • New health building officially opens

    Marion County’s new health department building, featuring a laboratory, a pharmacy, a reception room with large portraits of county residents, a drive-thru garage, and a plethora of storage rooms, officially opened Monday. Roughly 40 attended a ribbon-cutting for the $1.6 million building at Main and Thorp Sts. in Marion.

DEATHS

FOR THE RECORD

OPINION

  • Opening up about closed meetings

    “You campaign in poetry but govern in prose.” Mario Cuomo’s pontification on the pretense of politics was both an indictment of promises not delivered and an explanation why details often derail them. These days, we hardly have to worry about whether national politicians are letting details derail promises. Pesky things like the Constitution and decades of legislation don’t seem to be stopping the MAGA freight train.

  • ANOTHER DAY IN THE COUNTRY:

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MARION COUNTY RECORD

Phone: +1 (620) 382-2165

Fax: +1 (620) 382-2262

Postal: 117 S. 3rd St., Marion, KS 66861-1621

Office: 117 S. 3rd St., Marion

 

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STAFF

Editor and publisher: Eric Meyer

Sales manager: Debbie Steele

Reporters: Finn Hartnett, Nicholas Kimball, Rowena Plett, Ryan Richter, Phyllis Zorn

Office manager: Cheri Bentz

Contributors: Delbert Peters, Pat Wick

 

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CORRECTIONS: The newspaper’s policy is to promptly publish any factual corrections or clarifications that might create an incorrect impression of any news story. Corrections for content appearing online only typically are acknowledged in end notes or highlighted sections of the original story text. Other corrections typically are anchored for readers’ convenience in the Opinion section of the printed and online paper. Requests for corrections or clarifications should be sent to the appropriate contacts listed above.

 

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OWNERSHIP: Marion County Record, Hillsboro Star-Journal, and Peabody Gazette-Bulletin are published weekly, every Wednesday, by Hoch Publishing, the county’s only fully accredited member of Kansas Press Association and are the only newspapers qualified to publish official notices in Marion County. Hoch Publishing has no lienholders and is 91.4% owned in trust by the editor and publisher. The remainder is owned by former employees who serve as directors. Directors are Eric Meyer, president; Donna Bernhardt, secretary; Melvin Honeyield; and Jean Stuchlik.

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