HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A Reno County sheriff’s deputy driving a sports utility vehicle has suffered minor injuries after colliding with three horses.

Deputy John Hendricks was traveling Thursday evening in the department’s 2017 Ford Explorer when he ran into three horses headed the same direction on the road.

Two of the horses rolled onto the SUV’s windshield during the wreck and the third hit the front passenger side.

The police report lists one horse in critical condition and another with multiple injuries.

Capt. Steve Lutz says he doesn’t know if any of the horses were put down or died.

He says the deputy was traveling within the 55 mph speed limit at the time of the wreck.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Someone has snatched a giant, inflatable colon used to teach about the dangers of colon cancer.

The University of Kansas Cancer Center said Friday in a news release that it was stolen from a pickup bed in Brookside.

Surgical oncologist John Ashcraft says colon cancer is a tough subject for many to talk about and the giant inflatable colon is a great conversation starter.

It is 10 feet-long, weighs 150 pound and is valued at $4,000.

It is owned by the Cancer Coalition, which hosts walking and running events under a campaign called “Get Your Rear In Gear.”

The Cancer Coalition ships the inflatable colon across the country to help see in a unique way the progression of colon cancer.

One in 20 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

MCPHERSON COUNTY  — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a robbery and have two suspects in custody.

Just after 3a.m. Friday, police were dispatched to a report of an armed robbery at Holiday Inn Express Hotel, 2302 E. Kansas Avenue in McPherson, according to a media release.

The hotel clerk reported that two black males came into the hotel, with their faces covered, armed with a hand gun and demanded money.

The clerk complied and gave the suspects $171.00 cash from the cash register. One of the suspects took the Clerk into a back room, while the other suspect attempted, unsuccessfully, to break into an ATM inside the Hotel, causing damage to the ATM.

The suspects then fled from the Hotel. The Clerk told Officers, she recognized the clothing one of the suspects was wearing, a red hoodie, as that of a black male, who had been in the Hotel just prior to the robbery, and left in a red SUV. 

By STEPHEN KORANDA

The two top candidates for Kansas governor sparred in a debate over a familiar name: former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.

The two distanced themselves from Brownback, who left office earlier this year with sagging approval numbers.

Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly has tried to connect her Republican opponent, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, to Brownback throughout the campaign. She said the 2012 tax cuts, pushed by Brownback and reversed by lawmakers last year, hurt state services such as schools, health care and roads.

“It’s all been devastated by the Brownback tax experiment,” Kelly said. “Do we hand the wheel to a man who has every intention of driving us back into the ditch?”

Kobach has promised to cut taxes and balance that with a spending reduction. Kelly said that’s bad for the state.

“Kris Kobach has promised to bring back the Brownback tax experiment and cut even more,” she said.

Kobach criticized Kelly for focusing so much on the state’s former governor.

“It seems like she wants to run against Sam Brownback,” he said, “not run against me.”

Kobach went to turn the tables on Kelly, and to tie her to Brownback. He said Kelly and Brownback had both supported increases in spending and the two share a lack of appetite for fighting illegal immigration.

“Will the real Sam Brownback,” he said, “please stand up?”

The two top candidates tilled much of the same ground as in past debates, but they shared different policy plans for boosting transparency in Kansas government.

Kobach said much of the Legislature’s work is accomplished in committees, but the votes are often unrecorded voice votes. Kobach argued for recording all committee votes.

“If you want to know how your representative or senator voted on an issue, you have to be present in the room watching their lips move,” Kobach said. “That’s outrageous.”

The state should stop using no-bid contracts, Kelly argued. She said millions of dollars had been spent on contracts without a public bidding process. Kelly said she would stop the process and review the contracts already in place.

“We need to shine the sunlight on those, and make sure that they were in the best interests of Kansans,” she said. “My guess is that many of them are not.”

The two shared the stage with Independent candidate Greg Orman. He pushed back against the idea that he could simply be a spoiler in the race. Several polls have shown him in a distant third place with the support of around 10 percent of voters.

Orman said rather than a spoiler, he’s offering a true alternative in the race.

“We don’t have to choose fear and hate,” he said. “We don’t have to vote for a bad candidate just to avoid a worse one.”

Orman said after the debate that he has every intention of staying in the race.

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for KPR, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Mega Millions jackpot has soared to an estimated $1 billion, as the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. lottery history gets even bigger.

Lottery officials increased the grand prize just hours ahead of the Friday night drawing. The prize climbed from $970 million.

Although the jackpot keeps increasing, the odds of winning remain stuck at a miserable one in 302.5 million.

The prize has grown so large because no one has hit the jackpot since July 24, when a group in California won $543 million.

The $1 billion prize refers to the annuity option. Most winners opt for cash, which for Friday night’s drawing would be $565 million.

Officials say that if there isn’t a winner, the prize for Tuesday night’s drawing would be $1.6 billion, tying the largest U.S. lottery prize.

WASHINGTON —President Donald J. Trump declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Kansas and ordered Federal assistance to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, and flooding from September 1 to September 8, 2018, according to a media release Friday from the White House.

Federal funding is available to State and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storms, straight-line winds, and flooding in the counties of Barber, Clay, Kingman, Kiowa, Marshall, Pratt, Rice, and Riley.

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

Brock Long, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Paul Taylor as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected areas.

Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the State and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — Another man has been convicted in the contract killing of a Salina man whose battered body was found on a path near a popular fishing area in June 2017.

Brandon St. Clair is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 21 for multiple counts, including felony murder and aggravated kidnapping, in the death of 29-year-old Brandon Lee Shelby.

Charging documents say another man, Charles Rodgers, beat, choked and stabbed Shelby, expecting James Pavey to pay him with money or drugs. St. Clair and a fourth man, Austin Bott, were accused of helping.

Pavey and Rodgers entered no contest pleas, although Rodgers since has filed a motion to withdraw his plea. Bott has pleaded to lesser charges of kidnapping and aggravated robbery.