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BumRushDaShow

(163,346 posts) Tue Nov 11, 2025, 03:10 PM Tuesday

Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million over police raid on a small-town newspaper, editor says

Source: AP

Updated 2:58 PM EST, November 11, 2025

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on a small-town weekly newspaper in August 2023 that sparked an outcry over press freedom, the paper’s editor said Tuesday.

Marion County was among multiple defendants in five federal lawsuits filed by the company that publishes the Marion County Record, its publisher, the estate of his late mother Joan Meyer, the paper’s co-owner, employees of the paper and a former Marion City Council member whose home also was raided.

Eric Meyer, the paper’s editor and publisher, told The Associated Press he is hoping the size of the payment is large enough to discourage similar actions against news organizations in the future.

“The goal isn’t to get the money. The money is symbolic,” Meyer said. “The press has basically been under assault.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/kansas-newspaper-raid-press-freedom-c18f46a215908198335ca6f608c3360b

REFERENCES

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143113693
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143114203
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143137558
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143138510
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143285826
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143289664

4 replies

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Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million over police raid on a small-town newspaper, editor says (Original Post) BumRushDaShow Tuesday OP

The plaintiffs should use the money to put up billboards announcing that the county incompetents Wonder Why Tuesday #1

I just took out a moniss Tuesday #2

This media outlet had the guts that CBS News once had wolfie001 Tuesday #3

Being in KS, I've followed this story as much as possible... slightlv Tuesday #4

Wonder Why

(6,371 posts)

1. The plaintiffs should use the money to put up billboards announcing that the county incompetents

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Nov 11, 2025, 04:00 PM

Tuesday

and rights violators have cost the citizens a bundle in future insurance costs.

moniss

(8,386 posts)

2. I just took out a

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Nov 11, 2025, 04:43 PM

Tuesday

subscription inn support of them. I had read about this fight previously and I'm glad to see them vindicated. This will be a nice weekly read for me.

https://marionrecord.com/credit/subscription:MARION+COUNTY+RECORD

wolfie001

(6,524 posts)

3. This media outlet had the guts that CBS News once had

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Nov 11, 2025, 06:01 PM

Tuesday

CBS is just another part of the sell-out, corporate oligarch realm.

slightlv

(7,039 posts)

4. Being in KS, I've followed this story as much as possible...

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Nov 11, 2025, 06:19 PM

Tuesday

while I'm pleased at this ruling, I don't think enough has been done to punish those involved in the conspiracy against the paper. One thing I'd like to see done is a movie based on the whole account. It has everything that makes a movie popular today... multiple love affairs between people determined (and paranoid) about the information they are convinced will come out. The storming not only of the paper, but of the house of the owner... who died shortly thereafter due to her age, the stress, and the violence of the situation. The corruption and abuse of several political offices, both high and low. And scream in the billboards... based on a TRUE story!

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