OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is joining fellow ex-nominee Bob Dole in the GOP’s efforts in Kansas to rescue U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts’ re-election.

Both Romney and Dole were joining Roberts on Monday at an Overland Park restaurant and banquet hall for a campaign rally. Kansas is a GOP-leaning state, but the race between Roberts and independent candidate Greg Orman appears to be a toss-up.

They’re appearing in Johnson County, the state’s most populous county and home to 22 percent of the state’s 1.74 million voters. It’s normally a Republican stronghold, but Orman is an Olathe businessman and expects to do well there.

Romney captured 58 percent of the vote in the county when he ran for president in 2012. Dole did, too, when he ran in 1996.

POPLAR BLUFF (AP) – Authorities have arrested several people while investigating a southwest Missouri shooting death.

The Daily American Republic reports that a break in the case came while authorities were investigating a car that was reported stolen Thursday from a Poplar Bluff dealership. Authorities attempted to stop the stolen vehicle and a pursuit ensued.

The pursuit ended with the arrest of the car’s drive and another man suspected in the shooting death of 48-year-old Salvador Ruiz Ramirez. Ramirez’s body was found Wednesday submerged at the end of the boat ramp on the Black River at the Dan River access.

The man suspected of killing Ramirez faces charges that include burglary. Others have been arrested on suspicion of hindering prosecution.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new poll suggests the Kansas governor’s race is a toss-up and the race for senate is very close.

The poll released Sunday by NBC News and Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, showed Democratic challenger Paul Davis as the choice of 45 percent of the likely voters surveyed.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback was the choice of 44 percent.

Libertarian candidate Keen Umbehr was chosen by 5 percent and 6 percent were undecided.

More of those surveyed viewed Brownback unfavorably than favorably — 50 percent to 42 percent.

Forty-three percent of those surveyed viewed Davis favorably and 34 percent viewed him unfavorably.

But 19 percent were unsure of their impressions of Davis, compared to 8 percent for Brownback.

The poll also released Sunday showed independent candidate Greg Orman as the choice of 45 percent of the likely voters surveyed.

Republican Sen. Pat Roberts was the choice of 44 percent.

Libertarian candidate Randall Batson was chosen by 4 percent and 7 percent of those surveyed were undecided.

Both polls surveyed 757 likely voters from Oct. 18 through Oct. 22. The margin of error was 3.6 percent.

More of those surveyed viewed Roberts unfavorably than favorably — 46 percent to 43 percent, with 11 percent unsure.

Forty-two percent of those surveyed viewed Orman favorably and 37 percent viewed him unfavorably. Another 18 percent were unsure.

MARSHALL (AP) – A patient in an ambulance has been killed in a nearly head-on collision with a dump truck in thick fog in Saline County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified the victim as 77-year-old Gary L. Page of Slater. He died Saturday morning when the ambulance collided with a dump truck that was stopped in traffic on Missouri 240 while the driver was waiting to turn onto Missouri 41.

The ambulance’s driver sustained moderate injuries and a 70-year-old passenger was seriously injured. Both were transported to University Hospital in Columbia.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Missouri State Highway Patrol records raise questions about the training that a trooper received before a suspect drowned while in custody.

Twenty-year-old Brandon Ellingson went into the water May 31 as Trooper Anthony Piercy was transporting him from the Lake of the Ozarks on suspicion of boating while intoxicated. Witnesses have said that Piercy placed Ellingson in a life jacket but that the suspect’s arms weren’t in the arm holes. The device came off when Ellingson went into the water.

The Missouri Water Patrol merged with the Highway Patrol in 2011. Afterward, troopers like Piercy, who primarily patrol Missouri’s roadways, began working the lake during peak boating season.

The Kansas City Star reports that they received a fraction of the water-based training they would have received before the merger.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri voters in November will decide how Republican the Legislature will be next year.

Republicans are likely to retain majorities in both chambers. But they’re pushing for another session with a two-thirds majority – the threshold needed to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.

Democrats are pouring money into campaigns in hopes of chipping away at Republican control.

Two more years of a Republican supermajority could mean a repeat of this year’s veto session. The GOP pushed through one of the country’s longest abortion waiting periods and created a special training program for teachers to carry guns in classrooms.

Even without the supermajority, retired Northwest Missouri State University political science professor Richard Fulton says Republicans likely will butt heads with Nixon as they prepare for the 2016 governor’s race.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A small group of victims’ family members are waging a campaign to remake the Kansas Supreme Court after it overturned the death sentences of two brothers convicted of notorious multiple murders.

The state Republican Party’s chairman and GOP Gov. Sam Brownback last week endorsed the efforts.

The new group is Kansans for Justice. Justices Lee Johnson and Eric Rosen are on the ballot in the Nov. 4 election, and the group is hoping voters refuse to retain them on the court.

The issue is rulings in the cases of Jonathan and Reginald Carr.

The brothers were sentenced to die over the shootings of four people in a Wichita field in December 2000. The court in July ordered new sentencing trials for them, saying their joint sentencing trial was improper.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A tree-planting catch-up effort has taken root at the University of Kansas.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the number of trees planted in recent years has fallen short of the number lost to damage, disease, construction and age. Last year alone, the university removed 71 trees and planted 52.

The tree-planting effort has been dubbed Replant Mount Oread. The initiative includes a Halloween event, called “Trick or Trees.” It will focus on the lawn between Marvin and Lindley halls, just south of the Chi Omega Fountain.

The original landscaping at the site was a gift from the class of 1949. Plans call for planting additional Bartlett pear trees, Dwarf Mugo pines, peonies and periwinkle to bring the area back closer to what it was historically.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A man is in custody after authorities say a vehicle he was driving struck a restaurant window in downtown Columbia and he fled the scene.

Columbia police Sgt. Chad Gooch says four people were taken to the university hospital with injuries Saturday night after the driver hit a window at Addison’s Grill, causing glass to fall inside. Gooch did not know the extent of their injuries.

A diner told The Columbia Daily Tribune that he saw a truck back into a window in the rear of the restaurant, then pull away.

The restaurant was evacuated and closed after the crash.