Olpe

Cousin accidentally shoots hunter to death

A Lyon County man was killed Thursday when a gun carried by his cousin accidentally went off, shooting him in the face, police said.

Lyon County Undersheriff Richard Old said Gary G. Turner, 41, and his cousin, Charles Dean Turner, 40, both of Hartford, were deer hunting about 7:15 a.m. in southeast Lyon County when the accident happened.

Old said one of the men had fired a shot at a deer and both rushed to get into Charles Turner’s pickup. Charles Turner’s gun went off, and the slug passed through the vehicle and struck Gary Turner in the face. He later died of the injury.

Topeka

Tours at Cedar Crest temporarily suspended

Tours of the governor’s official residence will be suspended starting Dec. 24, to give Gov. Bill Graves time to move out and Gov.-elect Kathleen Sebelius time to move in.

Graves’ office made the announcement Thursday. The residence, Cedar Crest, is in west Topeka.

Visitors will able to tour Cedar Crest on the afternoons of Dec. 16 and 23. Graves’ office said Sebelius would announce when tours would resume. Sebelius is to be inaugurated Jan. 13.

MCPHERSON

College names president

An associate professor in the McPherson College business department has been hired as the school’s new top executive.

Ron Hovis, 48, a 1977 McPherson graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in business administration, was announced Tuesday as the college’s new president. He replaces Gary Dill, who left in January.

Interim President Neil Thorburn will remain until Hovis, a former member of the board of trustees, takes over March 1.

The managing director of human resources with Southwestern Bell Communications, now SBC Communications, Hovis retired in 2000 after 23 years and joined the McPherson College faculty. He was head of the business department for about a year.

Tribune

Dairy selling operations

Low milk prices and a year of drought have forced a western Kansas dairy to sell.

Ladder Creek Dairy, Greeley County’s only large-scale dairy, has completed negotiations to sell its 3,000-cow milking operation, said Kristen Yorton, wife of the dairy’s general manager Dean Yorton.

Kristen Yorton said the herd had been sold to Laurens Schilderink, who is building a dairy south of Hereford, Tex.

“You can’t operate losing money every month,” Dean Yorton said.