Stories from Monday, February 12, 2018

February 4, 2018

On Wednesday February 7 the House passed the school aid bill for the 2018-19 school year. This bill will increase funding to our K-12 public system by $32 million. The bill was sent to the Senate where they began debate late that afternoon. The Senate has amended the bill by adding language dealing with district per pupil costs. ...

Most people know Michaela Brown as a member of The Browns musical family, a singer, violinist, as well as being talented in the kitchen. But there’s another side to Brown — the adventurous lady who loves to travel and try new things. In January, Brown, her friend Hannah Foster of Le Mars and sister, Jessica Tramell from Gadsden, Alabama, traveled to Iceland to find new adventures...

This weekly fishing report is compiled from information gathered from local bait shops, angler creel surveys and county and state parks staff. Storm Lake (including Little Storm Lake) Most ice is around 14-18 inches, but there are variable conditions near shore - some areas of shoreline had open water within the last couple weeks so use caution. ...

A Milford man was injured during a collision with a semi shortly after noon Wednesday near the intersections of Highway 86 and 71 in Milford. An officer on site confirmed 44-year-old Gabriel Toft was both alive and alert when he was transferred from the scene by ambulance...

October may seem far away, but now is the time to apply to be a part of the 15th annual Artisans Road Trip. Applications need to be postmarked by February 16, in order to be accepted. Why so early in the year? Quite simply, it takes a lot of time and behind the scenes work to make a great event like AR.T. happen. Once we have our membership finalized, then we get to work on designing the brochure, updating the website, and beginning to get the word out about all of our artists...

Kristin Boysen of Ida Grove will be at The Meeting Place in Galva on Sunday, March 4 to show the public how to use Instant Pots for preparing faster and more nutritious meals at home. The educational class will begin at 2 p.m. The Instant Pot® is the best known of the multi-cookers on the market, and the machine does a wide variety of functions...

ACCIDENTS On February 7, at approximately 6:59 p.m., at 610 W. 4th St. in Storm Lake, a vehicle driven by Tyler Prescott of Fertile, struck a parked vehicle owned by Cheryl Lustgraaf of Storm Lake. Total damages were estimated at $5500.

On the morning of Thursday, February 8, at approximately 9:09 a.m., the Storm Lake Police Department was dispatched to 115 East 12th Street in reference to a domestic disturbance in progress. Upon arrival of police met with an adult female who alleged that her boyfriend, identified as Brandon Eaton, age 37 of Storm Lake, physically assaulted her and took her phone from her when she attempted to call 911...

Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) was recognized today by Fortune magazine, for the second consecutive year, as No. 1 on the World’s Most Admired Companies list in the food production category. The annual survey, conducted by Fortune and the Hay Group division of Korn Ferry, is given to top executives, directors and financial analysts, to identify the companies that have the strongest reputations within their industries and across all industries...

Buena Vista University Professor Dr. Shawn Stone has been invited to be a part of a grant out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in which he will contribute code for the Planetary Data Archiving, Restoration, and Tools (PDART) program...

Space heaters – whether portable or stationary – accounted for two of every five or 40 percent of home heating fires and four of five or 84 percent of home heating fire deaths. (National Fire Protection Association, based on 2009-2013 annual averages.)...

The American Red Cross continues to have a winter blood donation shortage after severe winter weather in many parts of the country has now forced more than 500 blood drives to cancel, already causing about 15,000 blood and platelet donations to go uncollected through last week. Blood and platelet donors are urgently needed to give now to help restock the shelves...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Free lodging has become available to adult cancer patients who travel more than 40 miles for treatment in Omaha. An opening ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday morning at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge. There are 31 other Hope Lodges around the country, including one in Iowa City, Iowa...

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) joined a bipartisan group of senators in calling on Senate leadership to immediately reauthorize funding for community health centers. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the senators expressed their strong support for community health centers, which provide access to cost-effective primary and preventive care for families across the country...

One of Nashville’s hot young newcomers, Jimmie Allen, will headline this year’s LakeFest June 23, according to an announcement Friday. Rolling Stone magazine calls Allen “one of country music’s most exciting new voices.” Tickets go on sale on the website www.lakefestsl.com or ticket web.com starting Feb. 16, and will go on sale at the King’s Pointe resort desk March 1. Additional acts will be announced later...

ZZ Top has been announced as the headliner for Shellabration 2018 in Fort Dodge. Scheduled for Saturday, June 30 at Rogers Sports Complex, this show could be the biggest, most highly attended concert event in Fort Dodge history. The current record is 8,100 tickets for a Boston concert in 2015...

The Buena Vista County Board of Supervisors has set raises for elected officials at 2 percent, cut from the 3 percent that the Compensation Board had recommended earlier and the county had hoped to provide. “We had some major questions with the budget. We had to do some trimming to get to the point where we would have an adequate ending balance,” Supervisors Paul Merten explained after a special meeting was held Thursday...

For years, Northwest Iowa Publishing Publisher Paula Buenger has served newspaper readers in the region and recenlty, those 20-plus years of service were rewarded in front of her family and co-workers. One of the most prestigious awards presented to professionals in Iowa’s journalism industry, the Master Editor-Publisher award, was presented to Buenger, publisher of the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune, Spencer Daily Reporter and Dickinson County News. ...

The leader of the Iowa Lakes Corridor is telling local communities not to be too concerned about the drastic plummets of the Dow Jones. “The economy is doing nicely. Disregard what is happening on Wall Street,” CEO Kiley Miller said in a meeting with the Alta City Council Tuesday, the day following a record-setting 1,175 point stock-market decline...

The victims include a Bible college student in Iowa who was bicycling home from work, a 13-year-old Michigan boy riding in his older sister’s car and a Minnesota school bus driver picking up the morning newspaper in front of his home. All were killed in recent years by distracted drivers who had been texting or looking at their GPS. Yet none of the drivers responsible for those deaths spent more than a few days behind bars...

DUBUQUE - The Buena Vista men took to the road looking to snap a two-game losing skid on Saturday, but the team fell just short in a three-point shootout at Loras College, falling to the Duhawks 104-94. Both teams brought their offensive touch to the court in this one with each side shooting better than 50 percent from both downtown and the field overall while combining to make 30 baskets from long range...

DUBUQUE - Taking a one-point lead into the second quarter, the Buena Vista women’s basketball team held Loras College to just six second quarter points on Saturday afternoon, and that defensive boost helped lift the team to a big 69-56 road win over the Duhawks...

The Sioux Central Rebels were able to advance in 2A-Region 1 on Saturday night as they were able to best South O’Brien, 60-53 in Paullina. The Rebels had an eight point lead after the first quarter, 18-10, but South O’Brien cut the advantage to just two at the break, the Rebels leading 26-24. Sioux Central opened the gap back up a little bit after the third, carrying a six point lead to the fourth, 43-37...

MOVILLE - The 2017 season came to an end for the Alta-Aurelia girls on Saturday night as they fell against Woodbury Central, 71-52. The two teams battled back and forth in the opening few minutes with five lead changes and a tie, but WC was able to piece it together by taking a six point lead after the first, 19-13. Alta-Aurelia gave up a 14-0 in the second quarter that sealed their fate, down by 22 at halftime, 44-22...

MANSON - Two Alta-Aurelia wrestlers went to the 1A-District 3 meet on Saturday with the hopes of moving on to State this week. One of them did as junior Nick Gaes continues his undefeated season as he took first place at 220 to punch his ticket to Des Moines...

ALTA - The first eight minutes of the game went the way that the Alta-Aurelia Warriors prefer it to, holding their opponent, River Valley, to single digits in the scoring column. That digit, by the way, was one as the Warriors routed the Wolverines, 69-35...

STORM LAKE - The first time that the St. Mary’s and Clay Central-Everly girls teams met this season, the Panthers dropped a five point decision. They were able to learn from that first game on Saturday night to take a 47-45 decision against the Mavs to move in 1A-Region 1 tournament play...

SIOUX CITY - The Storm Lake wrestling team battled all day on Saturday against some tough competition in the 3A-District 6 wrestling tournament. At the end of the day, three Tornadoes punched their ticket to State and had two finish in third place. As a team Storm Lake took fourth. Fort Dodge claimed first and had 10 district winners, Lewis Central took second and Sioux City North third...

December 31, 1946 - February 08, 2018