GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A 20-year-old Kansas man died after falling 40 feet down an embankment into a creek in Barton County, authorities said.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A local prosecutor who was the son of one of Roger Marshall's business partners helped the future western Kansas congressman and U.S. Senate candidate reduce a misdemeanor...

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Six central Kansas residents have been arrested and police are searching for another person after an investigation into a methamphetamine ring.

HOLYROOD, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the death of a man in central Kansas as suspicious.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation announced in a news release that law enforcement...

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GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A 34-year-old convicted sex offender is jailed on $1 million bond after a Great Bend girl contacted police about an alleged sexual offense.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A civilian employee for the Barton County Sheriff's office has been charged with rape.

Barton County Attorney Levi Morris says 64-year-old Jimmy Hapes, of Great Bend, was...

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Barton County officials say a 23-year-old man has been arrested after a man was found shot to death in Great Bend.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Texas man has pleaded guilty in the deaths of a couple who were killed at a Kansas county fair after one suspect ordered the killings as part of a "carnival mafia"...

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have found the body of a Kansas parole absconder who fled from law enforcement and then waded into a river and shot himself to avoid being...

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A 26-year-old central Kansas man has been sentenced to 21 years in prison over the death of his girlfriend's toddler daughter.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Texas woman has admitted to her role in the deaths of a couple who were killed at a Kansas fair after one suspect ordered the killings as part of a "carnival mafia"...

LARNED, Kan. (AP) — A 65-year-old man has been sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for trying to kiss a Kansas psychiatric hospital staff member on the lips while he was a patient in the...

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Barton County is purchasing new voting equipment to replace its aging machines and move back to using paper ballots.

The Great Bend Tribune reports that commissioners...

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Fire officials are working to determine the cause of a fatal fire in Rice County.

The Hays Post reports fire crews were called to a home about 25 miles (40.23...

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — The father of a 5-month-old girl who died in January has been arrested in her death.

Great Bend police say Wednesday that 20-year-old Cody Lane Reed, of Great Bend, is being held the Barton County jail without bond pending formal charges.

The girl, Lettizia Reed, was hospitalized on Jan. 28 after emergency crews found her injured at an apartment. She died three days later. Preliminary autopsy results found the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Three people from Great Bend are jailed after a chase in central Kansas during which the driver rammed a deputy's cruiser.

Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir says a deputy tried to stop a truck early Thursday southeast of Great Bend. Officers later determined the truck was stolen.

Bellindir says the driver, 19-year-old Tanner Guyton, fled in the truck, beginning a 23-mile chase through rural Barton County that reached speeds in excess of 100 mph.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a man was found dead near his vehicle in western Kansas after it became stuck in a ditch in freezing temperatures.

Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir says 68-year-old Ronald Reuber, of Nickerson, apparently became lost Friday and drove onto a minimally maintained rural road that was filled with freezing water from a snowstorm that hit three weeks earlier. Reuber then slid into a ditch. His body was found Saturday.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A new prosecutor has been picked for a western Kansas county where the former prosecutor decided to step down after the sheriff was acquitted of a misdemeanor.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Great Bend police who responded to reports that a man was bitten by a venomous snake allegedly found the snake decapitated and hallucinogenic mushrooms at his home.

The department says on a Facebook post that officers went to the home of 25-year-old Ari Hooley on Tuesday after he was treated Monday for bite from a Coral Cobra, a venomous snake. It is illegal to own an exotic or venomous snake in Great Bend.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas prosecutor is planning to resign, saying the sheriff has been acting like a "bully" since he was acquitted of a misdemeanor for allegedly slapping a handcuffed man.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas jury took less than 15 minutes to find Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir not guilty of a misdemeanor for allegedly slapping a handcuffed man.

The Hutchinson News reported that the verdict Friday followed a three-day trial in a case the sheriff has called a "politically motivated witch hunt" by the county attorney's office.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A man who secretly photographed and made videos of women as they undressed at a Kansas tanning salon has been sentenced to 60 days in jail.

The Great Bend-Tribune reports that Tracy Driscoll also was ordered Friday to serve three years of probation when he's released from jail. Driscoll pleaded no contest in September in Barton County to six counts of breach of privacy.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — The Barton County Sheriff's Office says six people were arrested and an estimated $500,000 in drugs were seized after a raid in Great Bend.

Sheriff Brian Bellendir said in a news release that his department and several other agencies executed search warrants at six locations and three vehicles on Monday.

The sheriff says the months-long investigation began as a cocaine distribution case but eventually expanded into a distribution case involving several drugs.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A Kansas carnival worker posed as a member of a fictitious mafia group and ordered fellow workers to kill a couple as part of an initiation ritual, police in Arkansas alleged in filing charges related to dumping the bodies.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on arrests of three carnival workers in the deaths of a Kansas couple at a county fair. (all times local):

4 p.m.

A probable cause affidavit says a carnival worker admitted to killing a Kansas couple at a county fair.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say the bodies of a couple who recently disappeared from a Kansas fairground have been found in a shallow grave in northwest Arkansas.

Van Buren, Arkansas, police spokesman Jonathan Ware says the bodies were found early Wednesday near Natural Dam in Crawford County.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas Health System is continuing its expansion outside of the Kansas City area by buying a hospital in Great Bend.

The health system announced Wednesday it will buy the Great Bend Regional Hospital and its affiliated clinics. The details of the agreement were not released. It's expected to be final this summer.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a central Kansas police chase ended after a driver hit a stop sign and then a deer.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the chase started early Wednesday when a Barton County sheriff's deputy tried to pull over a car with a broken light near Great Bend. The sheriff's office says the car's driver lost control in the southern part of the county, where he struck a stop sign.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former high school basketball standout from New York who went on to play at Fort Hays State University in Kansas has died in a bar shooting.

The Wichita Eagle reports that 27-year-old Dwayne Brunson, of Great Bend, was shot early Sunday after an altercation at the bar in Wichita, Kansas. Police Lt. Todd Ojile says Brunson died several hours later at a hospital.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Texas man has been arrested in a hit-and-run accident that killed a man in Kansas in November.

Great Bend police say 58-year-old Rodney Campbell Jr., of Anderson County, Texas was arrested Thursday in Texas.

Bishop Miege 60, Lawrence Free State 55

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are asking the public for help investigating a deadly hit-and-run crash in Great Bend.

The Hutchinson News reports that 90-year-old Rose Younger was struck Saturday night while walking after leaving a parish center. Police were called after Younger was spotted lying in the road. She later died from her injuries.

LARNED, Kan. (AP) — More than 74 years after his death, the remains of a Kansas Marine killed in World War II have been recovered.

Jack Krieger of Larned is believed to have died on Nov. 20, 1943. The Great Bend Tribune reports that the Department of Defense's POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Thursday that Krieger's remains have been accounted for.

CROZET, Va. (AP) — Kansas Congressman Roger Marshall was among the Republican lawmakers with medical experience to put their skills to work after a train carrying dozens of them crashed into a garbage truck in rural Virginia.

One person in the truck was killed and two others in the vehicle were reported seriously hurt in the Wednesday crash.

Abilene 50, Hays-TMP-Marian 40

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A former correctional employee who claimed self-defense in a fatal western Kansas shooting might not avoid prosecution after all.

Earlier this month, the Kansas Court of Appeals reversed a Barton County judge's ruling that Freddie Alec Thomas couldn't be tried for murder in the death of 39-year-old Jeremy Alan Saldana. The case was sent back to a lower court to resolve unanswered questions.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A central Kansas sheriff who's accused of striking a handcuffed man has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor.

The Great Bend Tribune reports that Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir entered the plea last week through his attorney to the charge of mistreatment of a confined person.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a deadly hit-and-run crash in central Kansas.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A central Kansas sheriff has been ordered to appear in court over allegations that he "mistreated a confined person."

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation announced in a news release that a summons was issued Wednesday night for Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellinder. The summons says the alleged mistreatment happened Aug. 10 while the 55-year-old sheriff was serving an arrest warrant. KBI agents investigated.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a second victim has died from injuries sustained in a Kansas crash.

The Barton County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that 75-year-old Phillip Manka died Monday. The Hutchinson News reports that 48-year-old David Manka was pronounced dead at the scene of Friday's head-on crash. Both were from Pawnee Rock.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Thousands of pelicans have been spotted in a wildlife area in central Kansas.

The Wichita Eagle reports that about 9,000 pelicans were spotted Tuesday at the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area near Great Bend.

The birds are white with wingspans as large as 9-feet wide.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Washington attorney chosen to serve as President Donald Trump's special counsel to handle the White House's response to the Russia probes hails from Kansas.

The White House announced Great Bend native Ty Cobb's hiring on Saturday. The move reflects the president's growing acceptance that the Russia probes will linger over his tenure for months or even years.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — After fierce competition across the state, a new transload facility has opened in Great Bend.

A ceremony on Thursday officially opened the project, which allows trains to drop off their cargo for trucks and vice versa.

The Kansas Department of Transportation led the effort to establish two transload facilities. The state received 111 site applications and the facilities were eventually awarded to Great Bend and Garden City, which has already opened its facility.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Little damage has been reported after a storm churned up several weak, short-lived tornadoes in central Kansas.

The National Weather Service says the storm began producing tornadoes late Thursday afternoon.

The twisters were reported near Larned, Medicine Lodge, Stafford and Great Bend. None of them caused significant damage.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas high school coach has pleaded no contest to sexual exploitation of a child after a nude picture of a minor was found on his cell phone.

The Great Bend Tribune (http://bit.ly/2ngPybW ) reports that 55-year-old Todd Kaiser entered the plea Thursday in Barton County District Court. Barton County Attorney Amy Mellor says authorities obtained a search warrant in June and found the nude picture.