Kansas farmers have now cut all but 20 percent of the state’s winter wheat crop, with most of the fields left to be harvested located in western Kansas.

Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday in its weekly update that the harvest was more than two weeks ahead of last year. Usually just 7 percent of the Kansas crop is cut by this time in the year.

Northwest Kansas had cut only a quarter of its wheat acreage as of Sunday, but wheat harvest across most of the state was better than 90 percent finished.

Meanwhile, the agency reported corn condition declining slightly.

About 14 percent of the crop now rated as poor to very poor, 41 percent fair, 41 percent good and 4 percent excellent.

By Brett Regan ~ Little Apple Post

Over an hour before the funeral service for the Ron and Becky Bramlage family even began, the large auditorium at Junction City Middle School was completely filled.

And as bus loads of people shuttled from Junction City High School, the main concourse watch area and the middle school gym each had hundreds more gather to mourn the loss of Ron, Becky and their four children – Brandon, Boston, Beau and Roxanne. The family of six were killed in a plane crash on June 7 in Polk County, Fla., while returning home to Junction City from a family vacation in the Bahamas.

Geary Unified School District officials estimated approximately 2,000 people including family, friends, community leaders, classmates and peers attended Monday morning’s funeral service.

“I think they {Ron and Becky} touched lives,” Superintendent Ron Walker said, “They were able to understand the needs of children because they were actively involved with their own kids.”

Ron Bramlage served as a mentor for the JCHS wrestling program and Becky was the president of the USD 475 Board of Education.

“To me, this is day one,” Walker said. “This is the first day of healing.”

An investigation into private dinner meetings between Kansas legislators and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is winding down.

A spokesman for Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor said the office has finished interviewing legislators for an investigation into whether dinners at the governor’s mansion violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that spokesman Lee McGowan says he believed investigators were currently talking to some of the governor’s staff.

Brownback hosted Republican members of 13 committees at seven dinners at his official residence during January.

The governor has said he’s confident the open meetings law wasn’t violated. The law prohibits a majority of a legislative body from discussing government business without giving the public notice or access to the meetings.

A Kansas couple and their four children who died in a plane crash will be laid to rest after a funeral that is expected to draw a large crowd.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for Monday for Ron and Becky Bramlage of Junction City and their four children.

The family died when their plane crashed June 7 in Florida while they were their way home from the Bahamas. The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the crash.

A large crowd attended a vigil Sunday at the family’s church, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church.

The funeral at Junction City Middle School is expected to draw such a large crowd that the Junction City school district is offering a shuttle service to alleviate parking problems.