HEADLINES

  • 17 caged dogs feared dead in fire

    Residents of a Florence home barely escaped a fire that may have killed as many as 17 dogs trapped in kennels. The fire Friday afternoon destroyed the home at 223 W. 7th St. Fire officials believe the fire started in the kitchen.

  • County schools question low grades

    A nonprofit group has given Marion County schools grades ranging from “B” at Hillsboro High School and Centre School, to “D” at Peabody-Burns High School. The Kansas Policy Institute argues the state’s own assessments improperly inflate schools’ performance.

  • Patient moved after attack

    A disorderly 51-year-old male has been removed from Westview Manor in Peabody, according to county sheriffs, after two separate attacks Saturday evening and Sunday morning. One alleged attack occurred at 6:49 p.m. Saturday, according to a log of the police dispatch.

  • Fireworks sellers get a bang out of their jobs

    Randy Dallke’s first memories of fireworks were as a young kid sitting on his family’s front porch in Chanute. He had a 10-cent string of firecrackers, and he was unwinding the connecting fuses so he could light one at a time and stretch out his pleasure.

OTHER NEWS

  • 'Pins' lead Peabody on historical parade

    An array of original art celebrating Peabody history, people, and traditions rendered in the style of vintage round lapel pins has been installed on storefronts and walls across town for the Peabody Pin Parade. Sponsored by Sunflower Theatre and Peabody Township Library, the interactive community art project by Kansas artist and roadside-attraction expert Erika Nelson includes colorful imagery painted on 42 button-like metal substrates in two sizes — 18 and 28 inches.

  • Hillsboro gets pickleball grant

    Hillsboro has received a $15,000 grant for construction of five accessible pickleball courts. The grant is a part of AARP’s 2026 Community Challenge, which has awarded $8.3 million to pay for quick-action projects nationwide.

  • Council at full strength

    Jennifer Bush took the oath Monday as Peabody’s newest city council member, restoring the city council to its full five-member membership for the first time since before City Administrator Paul Leeker arrived last August. Since May, the city has rebuilt its governing body seat by seat after a series of departures that at one point left officials working simply to restore a quorum.

  • Secret land sale revealed

    County commissioners may have violated Kansas law last week by failing to disclose the offer they accepted for a piece of property owned by the county’s land bank. The According to the document, Mikael and Jan Peters offered to purchase the 8.8-acre property on Old Mill Rd., just north of the “poor farm,” for $45,000. Commissioners unanimously accepted the offer June 22. The 2026 appraised value of the land, zoned for agricultural use, is listed at $30,410. Mineral rights, water rights, and crops planted at the time of sale will pass with the land to the buyer.The Peters signed the document June 18.

  • Hospital board seat filled

    Sheriff Jeff Soyez was appointed Tuesday to fill a vacant hospital board seat left by Ryan Edmundson, president of Marion National Bank. who is taking on additional responsibilities in other communities. Deliberation took less than a minute. Soyez was unanimously appointed. He previously served on the board but lost a bid for re-election in 2025.

  • Aging equipment drives budget plans

    Replacing aging equipment before it fails dominated Marion County’s 2027 budget presentations at Monday’s commissioners’ meeting. Sheriff Jeff Soyez proposed a budget remained close to this year’s spending despite a roughly $40,000 increase for a second payment on the department’s body camera and dashboard cameras.

DEATHS

  • Irma Benda

    Mass for farm wife Irma Benda, 82, who died Saturday at St. Luke Living Center, Marion, will be 10:30 a.m. Thursday at St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church, Pilsen. Vespers and rosary will be 7 tonight at the church. Interment will be in the church cemetery.

  • Jeremy Schlehuber

    Mass for Jeremy Lane Schlehuber, 56, Hillsboro, who died June 18 at NMC Health, Newton, will be 10 a.m. Friday at St. Mark Catholic Church, Marion. Father David Lies will officiate. Vespers and rosary will be 7 p.m. Thursdayatthe church. Burial with military honors will be at Marion Cemetery.

  • Bill Thornton

    Services for William Stanley “Bill” Thornton, 78, Hillsboro, who died June 17 at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, will be 2 to 4 p.m. today at Scout House in Hillsboro Memorial Park. Born Oct. 29, 1947, in Lawrence to James Abner and Norma Elaine (Peck) Thornton, he grew up in Independence and graduated from high school there in 1965.

  • IN MEMORIAM:

    Frances Sanders

  • IN MEMORIAM:

    John Stultz

EXPLORE

  • Touring the county's springs, the largest concentration in the state

    Instead, the scientist steered into the poetic to describe the “mesmerism” of water that quietly issues from the earth. “There’s a joy of finding something that you know is afoot, but you can’t find it at first,” he said, paraphrasing a favorite line from historian and travel writer William Least Heat-Moon’s description of natural springs in “PrairyErth.”

  • Behind the scenes at fireworks

    But for more than a century now, Peabody has put on a display in pyrotechnics as part of a daylong celebration (schedule on Page B6) that people as far as 300 miles away recognize. “It’s a great tradition,” said Jay Gfeller, who has led the event for eight years. “You could be in Branson, Missouri, and meet somebody and they’ll say, ‘Where are you from?’ You say ‘Peabody,’ and they go, ‘Oh yeah, they have that fireworks show every year.’”

  • Weekly quilters sew up decades of tradition and camaraderie

    They’re “hand quilting.” It’s a slow, painstaking process that involves stitching together a quilt top with a layer of batting and a backing. Employing the most basic of technology — thimbles, needles and thread — the women baste tiny rows of even stitches through all three layers.

  • Church blessed with 17 stained-glass windows, restored pipe organ

    The church on Santa Fe and 3rd Sts. has been largely untouched since 1968, when the last major renovations moved its kitchen and office to where they are now. Made and installed around what is said to be the 1920s, stained-glass windows fill the old-timey, mostly wooden nave with shades of vibrant yellows and oranges. Anyone, regardless of religious background, can appreciate them.

FOR THE RECORD

OPINION

PEOPLE

  • New writer has reported from Mideast to Midwest

    Let’s get this out of the way first: If you see a hybrid Prius with Massachusetts plates around town, it’s me. Don’t jump to stereotypes. Yes, Boston is my home now, but I grew up partly in the South and partly in Pennsylvania, where my dad ran vocational schools and helped put on the annual Pennsylvania Farm Show.

  • Raid film to air on HBO

    Something new was added to the opening sequence of Sharon Liese’s documentary “Seized” when it was screened two weeks ago at a film festival in Washington, D.C., and this past weekend at the Free State Film Festival in Lawrence. The feature-length documentary about the now disavowed raid Aug. 11, 2023, on the

  • Science Heroes coming to Marion

    Marion’s community center will transform into a laboratory next week for an hour-long Science Heroes program at 10 a.m. July 8. The program will be free to attend for all ages. Most of the activities will be a surprise. The experiments will be about the “changing states of matter, pressure, and more,” according to information provided by the library.

  • Senior Center menus

  • MEMORIES:

    10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 110, 150 years ago

MORE…

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