BAXTER COUNTY, Arkansas– A Kansas man set a fishing mark that had held for nearly 33 years while making an annual trek with friends to the White River earlier this month.

According to a media release from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Mike Bowers of Abilene pulled in a cutthroat trout weighing 10 pounds, 2 ounces. The catch was certified by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s chief of fisheries October 5.

Bowers has fished the area for longer than the record had held and said he makes two or three trips to Arkansas’ northern trout streams each year. He caught the 26-inch-long trout on a No. 15 baitholder hook with salmon eggs in the Norfork Tailwater (North Fork of the White River).

He landed it in front of Gene’s Trout Fishing Resort. At first, he and his fishing partner, Jack Wickersham, thought Bowers had a brown trout on the line before pulling it in and noting the distinctive cutthroat marks. Onlookers at Gene’s sensed it was something special, and the scale on the dock indicated as much.

“Several of them said, ‘That’s a new state record.’ Those guys all started taking pictures and I didn’t know a one of them,” Bowers said. “Guys were coming down to the dock from out of their cabins or floating over there to see it.”

The previous record from the White River was 9 pounds, 9 ounces, set Oct. 6, 1985.

“To be honest, it didn’t fight real hard,” Bowers said. “It was a much older fish, the biologist said, and it was docile. We drifted downstream with it naturally, had the drag out about 70-80 percent, I’d feel the drag and I’d pull it back in.”

The trout was caught during a minimum flow period on the river, about 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29. Bowers and Wickersham docked immediately to weigh the fish and, knowing it was likely a record-breaker, headed to Mountain Home for official weigh-in with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission fisheries biologists. Christy Graham, the AGFC’s trout management program supervisor, certified the weight.

Graham says the cutthroat was confirmed to be one raised by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Norfork National Fish Hatchery and stocked in either 2008 or 2011 – she said there was no way to confirm which of those years exactly.

Bowers said he plans to have the record fish mounted by a taxidermist with a natural bed mount to resemble the bottom of the Norfork Tailwater. He said he and the 29 other friends from coast-to-coast that were making a long weekend of fishing out of Gene’s Resort for the 18th straight year pride themselves on turning most of their catch back to the river.

He hooked the fish in the mouth and said a pair of forceps could have removed the hook and it could have been released. However, the age of the fish and the stress it seemed to have endured that afternoon, Bowers said, made this one a keeper that many people can marvel at forever. “Surely that’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal,” he said. “It’s a beautiful fish.”

SEWARD COUNTY  — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged burglary.

Just before 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, police responded to a restaurant at 701 S. Kansas Avenue in Liberal, for a burglary alarm, according to Captain Patrick McClurg.  Responding officers found a damaged door at the business.  No one was located inside.

Additional officers began checking area businesses.  Officers found a two other businesses in the 800 Block of S. Kansas Avenue had both been forcibly entered.  Officers heard someone inside Carniceria El Grande and quickly set up a perimeter.

After about an hour, the 21-year-old suspect came out of Carniceria El Grande at the direction of officers.  He was taken into custody without further incident.  Officers also found marijuana during a search of the suspect.

The suspect was transported to Southwest Medical Center where he was treated and released for a wound to his hand.  He was subsequently taken to Seward County Jail.

Investigators will be submitting affidavits to the Seward County Attorney’s Office seeking charges of burglary, theft, criminal damage, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced Tuesday to 57 months in federal prison for stealing guns out of an undercover Sedgwick County sheriff’s department car, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Travis J. Keller, 38, Wichita, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing stolen firearms. In his plea, he admitted that he and co-defendant Justin W. Winger, took guns from the unmarked car, including a 9 mm handgun, a 12-guage shotgun and a 5.56 caliber rifle.

Co-defendant Arthur M. Mannie is scheduled for trial Jan. 8. Co-defendant Justin W. Winger is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 19.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Democrat Laura Kelly accused Republican Kris Kobach of not being truthful when he claimed during a televised debate Tuesday that Kansas can save $377 million a year by cutting off benefits and services to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Kobach, in turn, argued that Kelly was lying when she said that he wants to cut school spending.

The contentious exchanges came as the candidates for Kansas governor faced questions about taxes, school funding and immigration in a hotly contested race where Kelly previously accused Kobach of not supporting public education, and Kobach has tried to translate a rally with President Donald Trump into momentum in the campaign’s final weeks. The debate at television station KWCH in Wichita also included independents Greg Orman and Rick Kloos and Libertarian Jeff Caldwell.

Kelly contended the claim that the state could save millions by cutting off benefits to immigrants is untrue because people living in the U.S. illegally are not eligible for welfare benefits.

The other testy exchange occurred during questions about school funding and whether the candidates favored returning to the tax-cutting experiment of former Gov. Sam Brownback.

“When we talk about going back to the Brownback experiment, which is what Kris Kobach wants to do, we are talking about cutting our schools again — so we go back to larger class sizes, programs being cut, teachers leaving our state,” Kelly said. “We don’t want that, we can do better for our kids.”

Kobach argued the state has to be smart on how it spends money on education so more of it goes into the classroom, and he hit back on the contention he wants to cut funding.

“Ms. Kelly continues to repeat a lie over and over again … claiming I say schools are overfunded and I want to cut school spending. That is a falsehood. I have never said that,” Kobach said.

Kansas legislators have boosted spending on public schools in response to rulings in recent years by the state Supreme Court in a lawsuit filed by four local school districts. Lawmakers this year phased in a $548 million increase over five years to avoid raising taxes.

Kobach has criticized the court for its rulings and has suggested this year’s increase in spending amounted to a “ransom.” He’s also been sharply critical of how some school districts spend their dollars and argues that they wouldn’t need big increases if they spent more money in the classroom.

The Republican has said he wants to require districts to spend 75 percent of their dollars in their classrooms. The State Department of Education said they spend about 61 percent on classroom instruction alone, a figure that does not include spending on support staff such as nurses and counselors.

Kelly and Kobach have sparred over her claim in television ads that he is calling schools overfunded. Kobach said he hasn’t used those words and demanded that she change the ad. He has also been critical of how the state funds education and how school districts spend taxpayer money.

Kobach, secretary of state since 2011, is nationally known for advocating tough immigration and voter identification policies and was Trump’s most visible early supporter in Kansas. He served as vice chairman of the president’s now-disbanded election fraud commission and narrowly won the GOP primary over Gov. Jeff Colyer after Trump tweeted his endorsement the day before the election.

Kelly first won her Senate seat in her GOP-leaning Topeka area district in 2004, and she’s the top Democrat on the Senate budget committee.

Orman, a Kansas City-area businessman, received national attention as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2014 against veteran Republican incumbent Pat Roberts. Enough Democrats rallied behind him then that the Democratic nominee dropped out, though Roberts still won. Democrats now largely view Orman as a potential spoiler.

SEDGWICK, Kan. (AP) — At least one Kansas school district has canceled classes and many roads are closed as rivers and creeks overflow their banks.

The closures come as the National Weather Service issues a flood warning for a large swath of central and eastern Kansas. National Weather Service meteorologist Brad Ketcham said that the weather system is a “beast.”

Interested in seeing Niagara Falls but don’t want to go to New York? We have you covered. Come to Greenwood County. #kswx pic.twitter.com/NPDJiUBVx6

— Greenwood County Emergency Management (@gwcountyem) October 9, 2018

The Sedgwick school district near Wichita has called off classes for at least two days as a creek floods, forcing some residents to sandbag around their homes. Superintendent Larry Roth told KWCH-TV that the district wants to ensure buses are safe and that it can get students home as water rises.

Amtrak also is closing its route between Hutchinson and Topeka through Wednesday morning and rerouting passengers on buses.