Stories from Friday, January 26, 2018

DES MOINES - On Tuesday morning, members of the Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture, a coalition of 27 state, community and national organizations, hosted a press conference on the first floor of the Iowa State Capitol rotunda in Des Moines, announcing 15 bills Iowa District 1 Sen. ...

State Senator Nate Boulton introduced two bills in the Iowa Senate to expand access to retirement savings options for Iowans across the state. He and Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald held a press conference to explain the impact of the legislation and provide further details...

TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS On the afternoon of Friday, January 19, at approximately 3 p.m., a Storm Lake Police Officer stopped a vehicle in the 200 block of West Milwaukee Avenue for a traffic violation. Upon contacting the driver, identified as Jose Nieves Rodriguez, age 28 of Storm Lake police allege it was determined he was in possession of a small amount of marijuana. Police seized the marijuana and arrested Nieves Rodriguez charging him with Possession of a Controlled Substance – Marijuana (serious misdemeanor) and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (simple misdemeanor). He was booked into the Buena Vista County Jail on a $1000 bond.

The Iowa Precinct Caucuses will commence on Monday, February 5, at 7 p.m. at 10 different locations across Buena Vista County for the Democratic and Republican parties.  The Precinct caucuses will perform the following functions: 1. Elect residents of each precinct to serve on the County Central Committee...

On the afternoon of Tuesday, January 23, at approximately 3:51 p.m., the Storm Lake Police Department was dispatched to 219 West 7th Street in reference to a domestic disturbance. Upon arrival police were advised by the victim that an Edwardo Diaz III, age 21 of Storm Lake allegedly came to the residence and physically assaulted the victim at which time he fled on foot from the scene prior to the arrival of police...

As threats of winter precipitation become more likely, so too do snowmobile enthusiasts hoping for winter fun. Both Iowa Department of Natural Resources officials and local snowmobile enthusiasts encouraged snowmobile operators to stay safe this year...

The Ridge View Speech attended the District Contest held at Storm lake High on Saturyday Jan. 20. One ratings advance to State Group Contest at Lemars High on Saturday, Feb. 3.  Every member of Speech Team has advanced to the state competition, in one or two categories...

Celebrate a love for snow during the month of February.  Enjoy a family outing on Saturday, February 17 at 1 p.m. to spend some quality time outdoors.  “We LOVE Snow!”  will include a mini-winter Olympics of fun snow activities.  If there is no snow on the ground, other fun outdoor activities will take place. We love Snow – and the great outdoors...

Jay Bickford, General Manager of Storm Lake Wal-Mart presented the Friends board with a grant for $2000 for library programming and materials. Pamela mills, Friend’s President, and Wendy Ewalt, Friend’s Treasurer, received the generous contribution on behalf of the board. Funds will go to continuing updates to the children’s and teen’s areas of the library...

Buena Vista University students visited the Louvre, the world’s largest art museum and home to Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Mona Lisa” portrait. The group is part of the Europe travel course, which was one of several destinations offered during January Interim. Throughout the three-week expedition, students had the opportunity to experience the rich culture, art, and history of several major European cities...

Friday, January 19 the Storm Lake Middle School students spent part of their day creating several projects for people not only in the community but for people around the world. The seventh graders created Sole Hope Shoes out of denim. Several students gathered old pairs of denim and traced the pattern of the shoes onto the denim. Another group of seventh graders cut the pieces out and put them into piles to be ready to ship to the organization...

A cold, but fairly mild, Saturday evening for mid-January, as downtown Cherokee is bustling with activity. The annual Cherokee Jazz And Blues Festival is well underway, and good music is filling the halls of several venues in town, as it usually does when the fest gets the sounds going. Over at the VFW, Todd Partridge, lead singer and founder of the band King Of The Tramps, is trying to fend off a cold and a horse voice resulting from it...

Four Storm Lake St. Mary’s High School speech groups will be advancing to the February 3 State Large Group Competition in LeMars. The Short Film entitled “The Club,” TV News “CNBABCNBC,” Readers’ Theater “How to Succeed in High School Without Really Trying,” and a Group Improv...

The Storm Lake Police Department reports that in connection with the arrests made as part of their recent “Operation Winter Blues” initiative which targeted the sale and distribution of illegal drugs in and around Storm Lake warrants have been issued for several additional people police allege are involved in the sale and use of illegal drugs...

Greg Barker had assembled nearly all his footage for “The Final Year,” a behind-the-scenes look at President Barack Obama’s globe-trotting foreign policy team, when something unexpected happened — so unexpected that it left its main characters literally speechless...

For nearly 20 years, Justin has been creating the soundtrack to family’s lives, crafting songs that navigate the joys and sorrows of growing up. With numerous national awards and a devoted fan base, Justin Roberts & The Not Ready For Naptime Players dish out unexpectedly intelligent and whimsically rocking music for kids and their parents...

The deadline for applications is Friday, February 16.  All disciplines and mediums are accepted – painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, jewelry, fabric, wood, photography, pottery, and more. A.R.T. is an open studio tour held every fall during the second weekend in October.  In addition to the October event, participating artists also benefit from year-round advertising with thousands of brochures distributed; a regularly updated blog; 24/7 website; plus group gallery exhibitions from Ames, to Worthington, MN.. ...

Arts On Grand in Spencer is proud to announce their upcoming Music in the Gallery featuring Robin Keith on January 27 beginning at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served by the Arts On Grand board. There will be a free will donation for admission with the donations going to the musicians...

Growers in the Buena Vista County area will now have more choices when it comes to fulfilling their hybrid corn, soybean, alfalfa, sorghum and sunflower seed needs. Bruce Glienke has partnered with NuTech Seed, LLC to provide growers a wide range of genetically diverse, high performing products...

Fresh, southern BBQ comes to Cherokee Victor Nichols grew up in Oklahoma learning the barbeque trade from his Uncle Nick and his dad, Alfonso. This week the Cherokee pit master will open the doors of his “Nichols Smokin’ BBQ” restaurant at 415 W. Main St. in the former Cherokee Lumber Company structure...

Ann-Marie “Marie” Sennett will join the Storm Lake, Iowa law office of Nick Brown P.C. as an associate in the firm, developing a general practice including but not limited to immigration law. Sennett joins Brown’s firm after 28 years as a civil rights litigator...

A Veterans Sweetheart supper will be offered on February 21 at 6 p.m. at the Alta community building. The public is welcome to attend. The cost is $10 per person. The entertainment for the evening will be Touch of Broadway starting at 7 p.m. The meal consists of ham and cheesy potatoes. Please call Don fisher at 712-200-1761...

The Alta City Council gathered Wednesday night for a budget workshop, hammering out the nuts and bolts of funding for the city’s priorities for the coming fiscal year. The proposed budget is about $2,765,000. The tax levy asking is projected at $8.96 per thousand of residential property valuation, with about 87 cents of that accounting for debt service. City officials said that is lower than most of the area communities. Like many Iowa cities, Alta is up against its maximum for levying taxes...

This pending winter snow is a prime example of why I believe that the City of Alta needs to make two very important changes in the way we operate. Presently our City Street Department doesn’t begin cleaning our city streets until the early morning hours of the day. ...

The Alta Trails Committee will meet February 28, 7 p.m. at City Hall, rescheduled from the 21st. The committee will have a conversation with superintendent of school Lynn Evans at that time about a “safe routes to school” project. The group hopes to get the park board and schools involved. Plans for a citywide trail have been put aside with a lack of backing from the city, according to committee member and former city council member Pam Henderson...

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is concerned with a loss of faith in the ability of the Justice Department and the FBI to do their jobs free from partisan political bias. The American people are rightly skeptical because of how the Department and the FBI have handled the cases on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and his associates, Grassley said this week in a statement on behalf of the Judiciary Committee on the Senate floor...

Buena Vista County Supervisor Tom Huseman has announced plans to seek another term. Three seats will be on this year’s ballot, currently occupied by board chair Dale Arends, Paul Merten, and Huseman. Huseman is completing the fourth year of his first term, and says this year’s election would likely be his last...

Average retail gasoline prices in Iowa have risen 2 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.53 earlier this week. This compares with the national average that has not moved in the last week, also at $2.53. Storm Lake prices rose somewhat last week, but have since remained steady with many stations at $2.40 for super unleaded...

The Women in Denim committee has chosen CAASA (Centers Against Abuse and Sexual Assault) as a community service project. As part of Friday afternoon conference activities participants will have the opportunity to assist in sewing toiletry rolls that will be filled with personal care items...

A Cherokee man was arrested in Galesburg, Illinois, after reportedly trying to transport five pounds of marijuana hidden inside a teddy bear, on an Amtrak train. Hunter L. Parker, 21, was arrested at the Galesburg train station last weekend, and has been charged with felony possession with intent to deliver marijuana, resisting arrest, damage of government property (a squad car), according to the Galesburg Register-Mail...

Some Storm Lake parents and fans are upset over incidents that happened at high school basketball games in Spencer last Friday. Spencer fans chanted “USA” as the ethnically diverse Storm Lake delegation visited, and local students reported some racial slurs aimed at the visitors and cases of Spencer fans jingling their keys at Storm Lake players and yelling “lock your car doors.”...

An early January arrest resulted in felony sexual abuse and incest charges for an Albert City man. Following three criminal complaints through the Spencer Police Department on Jan. 7, an arrest warrant was issued by Paul Anthony Caligiuri for 27-year-old Fabian Garcia, of Albert City. The arrest stems from an investigation into a report that Garcia sexually assaulted a juvenile family member...

With a new search firm in tow, Storm Lake Board of Education members plan to assemble five focus groups to guide them in seeking a new superintendent of schools. The board will meet Wednesday to begin work on organizing the groups in various areas: students, teachers, schools support staff, administrators, and community/parents...

With spring approaching, the City of Storm Lake is searching for an operator for the marina it runs at Casino Beach. The marina was built by the Department of Natural Resources and remains owned by the state, but based on a long-term lease agreement, is City-operated...

The old Storm Lake Honda structure was too good to go to the landfill, according to Brian Heinsohn. When the building was to be razed to make way for a new Casey’s location, the owner of local company Heinsohn Digging & Tiling stepped in to obtain the structure of the building, to disassemble, move, and rebuild for equipment storage at the growing family company’s location on Highway 3. ...

The Iowa High School Girls Athletic Union released the 1A, 2A and 3A regional basketball pairings on Thursday afternoon. All area games have a 7 p.m. start time. In 1A, St. Mary’s will be in Region 1 and will host Clay Central-Everly on February 8. The regional final will be held at the Storm Lake St. ...

EMMETSBURG - The Mustang offense couldn’t seem to find a rhythm in the first half on Tuesday night against Emmetsburg, but basketball is a game of two halves as Newell-Fonda rallied in the second half to take a 58-55 decision. The lid was on the bucket in the first eight minutes for NF as they mustered eight points to E-Burg’s 14, going to the second quarter down by six. The E-Hawks put a point to their advantage in the second as they took a 25-18 halftime score over the Mustangs...

EMMETSBURG - The opening eight minutes made it appear that the undefeated Newell-Fonda girls may have been headed for an upset. However, they were able to rally on Tuesday night against Emmetsburg to take a 53-41 victory to keep their perfect record intact...

SIOUX RAPIDS - While the roads may have been icy on Tuesday night, the Sioux Central gym was anything but as Alta-Aurelia and the Rebels went back and forth for all four quarters. In the end, the Warriors were able to escape with a 60-56 decision. Sioux Central held an eight point lead in the first quarter, but the Warriors made a small run to make it a two point game after the first quarter, 16-14. ...

SIOUX RAPIDS - It was a tale of two halves on Tuesday night as the Alta-Aurelia and Sioux Central girls went against one another. The Rebels were able to pull away with a 73-55 victory. Both Sioux Central and AA were able to exchange the lead four times in the first half and had a couple of ties. It was a tie game at the end of the first quarter, 15 all. The Warriors were able to gain some separation in the second, holding the Rebels to nine points to take a seven point lead, 31-24...

STORM LAKE - Every night in the Lakes conference can be a difficult one and it was for the Storm Lake girls on Tuesday night against the fourth best team in 3A, Cherokee. The Tornadoes held an early lead but saw it evaporate in a 86-58 defeat. Storm Lake jumped out to an early 4-0 lead a couple of minutes into the game, but the Cherokee pressure defense began to force turnovers, the Braves taking a 14 point lead after the first eight minutes, 25-11. ...

STORM LAKE - The green and white boys overcame a bit of a sluggish start on Tuesday night against the Cherokee Braves, rallying from an early hole for a 76-59 victory, their 10th on the season and fourth Lakes conference win. The Braves started quickly with a 7-0 run until a pair of free throws from junior Cham Deng put a stop to the scoreless opening few minutes for the green and white. ...

January 1, 1942 - January 24, 2018