The jury in the Willis Gordon rape case took only an hour and a half Tuesday to reach a verdict.
    Guilty.
    Gordon was convicted of rape, aggravated kidnapping, attempted robbery and aggravated battery in the Feb. 2 sexual assault of a female acquaintance and an attack on her former boyfriend, Luther Foote.

Before Jewel Thoman was old enough to dance, she stood on her father's shoes, gripping his big hands as he swept her around the Moose Lodge dance floor on Saturday nights.
    Thoman's whole family loved dancing, so adults and children alike looked forward to those evenings, when local musicians played country music late into the night and farmers danced the fox trot, the polka and the two-step or waltzed their wives and daughters around the lodge.

The Kansas Board of Regents learned this morning that it has been sued by three rural community colleges claiming unequal funding for specified vocational and technical programs. 
    The lead attorneys for the colleges, David Rebein of Rebein Bangerter in Dodge City and  Jay Fowler of the Wichita law firm Foulston Siefkin, filed suit in Shawnee District Court Tuesday, after a recent vote by the Dodge City Community College board to join Pratt and Cowley Community Colleges in a lawsuit seeking a temporary injunction against an allegedly unfair regents funding system.

People at Sunflower Gardens are dreaming of apricots.
    Also pears, apples and peaches. In fact, if things work out for these gardening dreamers, a whole orchard of fruit trees will blossom right here in Dodge City.
    That's because the Sunflower Community Garden recently expanded, adding a second plot to its original acreage near Division and Wright. Half of Sunflower's new site, located on the campus of Dodge City Community College is designated for individual and family plots, just like the first garden site.

Shortly before midnight Feb. 2, Luther Foote met his former girlfriend at her motel and took her to see a vacant apartment at 800 Central Ave.
    The woman told Foote that a maintenance man was supposed to meet her at the apartment and show her around.

Organizers of the Old Dodge City 4th of July Fireworks Celebration are collecting donations for this year's event.

Two men escaped injury in a two-vehicle wreck Sunday morning on U.S. Highway 50, but a third man suffered disabling injuries.

The city's ban on fireworks will be temporarily lifted for the July 4 holiday weekend, starting July 3 and ending July 5.

Marcia Shelly leaned across the counter of her family's roadside stand Sunday afternoon, explaining the merits of various fireworks to a customer.
    "Have you seen the pop and snaps that kids do?" she asked the customer. "We've got one for adults, too. It's good."