Stories from Monday, February 19, 2018

Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia. Do these names sound familiar? They’re the characters from the hit TV comedy The Golden Girls whose adventures we enjoyed 30 years ago. Well, the time for older women (and men) to share a house with roommates may be coming again, but this time in real life according to a Senior Planet article by Linda Abbit...

VANDALISM On February 10, a vandalism was reported in Storm Lake. Total damages were estimated at $211.95.

This is the first funnel week of the 2018 session. Funnel weeks were created to establish order in the legislative process. There was a deadline in late January for legislators to request individually authored bills. This first funnel requires that a bill has been approved in a policy committee in either chamber in order to remain alive for the session...

Nine Buena Vista University (BVU) business students and nine science students have been selected for the Clifford A. Rae Academic Achievement Award for the 2017 calendar year. The awards, which range up to $5,000, were created by two separate $750,000 endowments from the foundations established by Dr. Harold Walter Siebens and named after the long-time advisor and counsel to Siebens and the foundations...

According to Sheriff Kory Elston on Thursday at 7:05 a.m. the Buena Vista County Communications Center received a 911 call reporting a two-vehicle accident at the intersection of M27 and Highway 3 in Buena Vista County. The Buena Vista Regional Medical Center Ambulance along with Alta and Aurelia Fire Departments were dispatched to the scene. ...

Rep. Dan Huseman (R-Aurelia) announced that he will seek re-election to the Iowa House this fall. First elected in 1994, Huseman represents House District 3 which includes Cherokee and O’Brien counties, as well as parts of Plymouth and Sioux counties...

Storm Lake Pickle Ball Play moves to Monday and Wednesday evenings at the Storm Lake East School Gym from 5-8 p.m. Pickle ball is a fun, fast moving sport with a funny name has a growing following in Storm Lake. Local Storm Lake area pickle ball players include Ron Netten, Diane Fikkert, Mike and Michelle Osegaro, Rick and Janet Anderson, Tom McClinton, Ed Rahe, Kim Mittelstadt and Dan Anderson. ...

The heart. With each beat, it sends life-sustaining blood through vessels to every cell in the body. It’s working for you each moment. In turn, give a few minutes to learn more about how to keep the heart healthy. The “Love Your Heart” health fair on Wednesday, Feb. 28, focuses on good heart health for all ages...

(AP) — Chicken salad sold at Fareway grocery stores in five Midwest states has been pulled from stores and consumers are advised to throw it away after it made people sick in Iowa. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service on Wednesday issued a public health alert about the Fareway Chicken Salad sold in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota...

Hundreds of professionals in the emergency healthcare field will participate in the 2018 Emergency Conference on Friday, February 23rd and Saturday, February 24th. This educational event is geared toward EMRs, EMTs, AEMTs, paramedics, nurses, firefighters, police, dispatchers, educators, public safety and other healthcare professionals. The keynote speakers are Andrea Zickmund, NREMT-P/FF, and Oren Wacht, EMT-P, MHA, PH.d....

Each year in the U.S. millions of adults aged 65 and older fall. Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries. Falls can cause moderate to severe injuries, such as hip fractures and head traumas, and can increase the risk of early death. Fortunately, falls are largely preventable, and especially so if one of the precautions taken is a fall prevention class like “A Matter of Balance” or “Stepping On” offered by Elderbridge...

The Clay County Fair announced its first act, Lauren Daigle with special guest Zach Williams, performing as part of the SRG Concert Series in the grandstand at the 2018 Clay County Fair at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11. “Our Tuesday contemporary Christian grandstand concert is becoming a tradition on Family Night,” Fair CEO Jeremy Parsons said. “This will be an unbelievable night featuring two of the biggest names in Christian music right now.”...

The Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience is a rare newcomer to traditional pop, fusing a big band spirit with an inventive edge...at once more risky than Buble, more modern than Sinatra. Shaun, an Emmy award-winning crooner (and lead singer of the internationally known vocal group, Tonic Sol-fa) indelibly stamps vocal jazz and swing with a contemporary punch - to the delight of both traditionalists and newcomers - emerging as an original voice in the continuing tradition of the American singer...

The Christian rock band, Newsboys will be bringing their brand new “United” Tour to the Sioux City Orpheum Theatre on Saturday, March 3 at 6 p.m. Newsboys will be joined by special guest Zealand. Tickets start at $27.50 contact Etix at 1.800.514.ETIX to purchased tickets...

An Evening with Foreigner & The Dave Eggar Orchestra will be performing at the Orpheum Theatre, Sioux City, on Friday, March 30th at 8 p.m. With 10 multi-platinum albums and 16 Top 30 hits, Foreigner is universally hailed as one of the most popular rock acts in the world with a formidable musical arsenal that continues to propel sold-out tours and album sales, now exceeding 75 million. ...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrea “Andy” McGuire relied a story demonstrating how important education is to Iowa and her personally. “I had a 10th-grade science teacher who told me I was smart at math and science,” McGuire said. “He said he thought I should be a doctor and I had not even seen a woman doctor. It would have never occurred to me. He pushed me, motivated me, got me into classes and I am a physician because of him. That’s what teachers do. We have got to give them respect.”...

An arrest has been made as a result of an investigation of ongoing sexual abuse. On February 6, the sheriff’s office received a report of a suspected sexual abuse that occurred in Alta on numerous occasions with a minor child under the age of 16 between the fall of 2016 and the summer of 2017...

Republican lawmakers in Iowa say they’re not advancing a bill that would have reduced gun permit requirements in the state in part because of a deadly school shooting in Florida. The Senate judiciary committee agreed Thursday not to vote on a bill that would have repealed a requirement in Iowa to have a permit to acquire a weapon. ...

The National Anthem is in good hands at Storm Lake High School. After the sound system failed in a couple of attempts to crank up the music before the game Thursday, the students section broke into the song themselves. “They weren’t just muttering the words either, they really belted it out,” Activities Director Ty Seaman said. “It started with the student section and spread to the whole crowd.”...

The Le Mars Community School District is considering a departure from the Iowa Conference, with some officials there feeling the conference could fold. At a meeting this week, Le Mars board members discussed the implications of a move to the Missouri River (MRAC) conference for sports and activities. That conference has been looking for an eighth school to fill its roster...

The Alta-Aurelia school board and its teachers face a gap in negotiating salaries for the coming fiscal year. The teachers’ association requested a 4.49% increase in their initial session, and the district offered 0.67 percent  (the district is only negotiating base wages, not a total package like in the past.)...

A local youth group is rallying around a teenager who was left paralyzed in a vehicle accident last week. The youth group at United Methodist Church is holding a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for one of its members, Andrea Rodriguez, who is currently being treated at a Des Moines hospital after suffering lower-body paralysis when she was ejected in the vehicle roll-over. ...

Preservation Iowa has released its “Most Endangered” landmarks list for 2018, including one location in Buena Vista County - the Star Theater in Sioux Rapids. Preservation Iowa is part of the state’s Historic Preservation Alliance. Iowa’s Most Endangered Properties began in 1995 to show Iowans the special buildings and historic sites that are slowly and gradually slipping away, according to program leaders...

One third of surveyed youth in Buena Vista County drink alcohol, 9 percent smoke, 9 percent have poor nutrition, and 12 percent play video games habitually. Those are among the findings of the most recent Iowa Youth Survey. The study is conducted every two to three years, under sponsorship of the Iowa Department of Public Health and Iowa Department of Human Rights. ...