Stories from Wednesday, March 4, 2020

URBANDALE – The GK Storm & Blaze gymnastics teams competed on Saturday in the final regular season meet, the Mardi Gras Invitational. The Gold team placed fifth overall, and two GK Storm gymnast were all-around champions. GK Storm Bronze gymnast Amarie Olsen was the all-around champion in her age group scoring an impressive 38.475. Amarie was the individual champion on vault (9.550), bars (9.600) and beam (9.675) and finished second on floor (9.600...

With the conclusion of the 2019-2020 boys basketball season, the Pilot Tribune went to work figuring out which of the area athletes would find a place on the All-Area Boys team as well as picking Player and Coach of the Year. This year’s first team sees players from four different schools on it...

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — Hall of Fame third baseman Chipper Jones has joined the ESPN lineup. The former Atlanta Braves star will work as a major league analyst, primarily on weeknight and holiday games. He’ll debut on opening day when San Francisco plays at Dodger Stadium on March 26...

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) action continues on Iowa PBS. The IGHSAU and Iowa PBS have announced a contract renewal for the broadcasting rights to the Iowa Girls High School State Championships. Fans across Iowa and beyond will continue to have access to unparalleled coverage of the championships, cheering on their favorite Iowa Girl from anywhere...

TOPEKA, Kan. - The Buena Vista baseball team looked to remain perfect on the year when it took the field at the Bettis Sports Complex on Sunday morning, but the Beavers couldn’t hold onto a late lead in either contest as the Pioneers escaped with 7-6 (8 inn.) and 6-5 victories, respectively...

DECATUR, Ill. - The Buena Vista softball team bounced back on Sunday in a big way, winning a pair of games against Millikin University on Sunday to move its season record back to .500 while also giving head coach Mandie Nocita her 100th career victory...

Forty teams qualified for the State Basketball Tournament after days, weeks and months of practice. Another championship caliber team that will show its talent Friday and Saturday has practiced just a few hours. That team is the All-Iowa Honor Dance Team, which has become a tradition at the Girls’ State Basketball Tournament. After just hours of practice together, the students annually put on a show that is nationally recognized as one of the finest of its kind...

Francis P. Koch, age 94, of Storm Lake, died Sunday, March 1, at Methodist Manor Retirement Community in Storm Lake. Funeral Mass will take place Friday, March 6, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Storm Lake. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Visitation will take place Thursday, March 5, from 5-7 p.m. at the Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake with a KC Rosary at 7 p.m. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements...

Bob Sievert, “Coke man”, age 77, of Storm Lake, died February 28, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Funeral services will take place Thursday, March 5, at 10 a.m. at St. John Lutheran Church in Storm Lake. Burial will be in the Ida Grove Cemetery. Visitation will take place Wednesday, March 4, from 5 - 8 p.m. at the Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements...

On February 25th, , Ketzell Zeledon, age 28 of Storm Lake, Iowa, was sentenced in the Iowa District Court by the Honorable David Lester for the crime of Operating While Intoxicated, Third or Subsequent Offense, a class D felony. Zeledon was sentenced to a term of incarceration not to exceed five years with the Iowa Department of Corrections...

Only one day after alerting the public to cases of at least eight Spencer businesses reporting to have received counterfeit money, the Spencer Police Department arrested Jeremy Gayle, 40, of Spencer, Friday in connection with the counterfeit bills...

U.S. House Democrats tore into the Trump administration’s annual budget request for the Department of Education at a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday. The administration’s proposal to slash the department’s budget in the next fiscal year is dead on arrival and amounts to an effort to privatize public education, they said...

The Parents and Teachers of Panthers Group (PTP) of St. Mary’s School presented a $13,600 check to St. Mary’s administrators.  These funds were raised from the Dancing with the Storm Lake Stars fundraiser at KC Hall on January 25.  This donation plus a $5,000 in October was earmarked towards upgrading technology for the St. ...

All seven of the St. Mary’s Individual Speech students are advancing to State Competition in at least one of their events.  State is March 14, at Carroll Kuemper. Josh DeLira- Spontaneous Speaking and Lit Program “Names”, Arianna Ramirez Pantoja- Original Oratory “Translation”...

The Storm Lake High School Individual Speech team earned 20 division 1 ratings at district contest in Ida Grove on February 29. Those entries are headed to state competition in Carroll on March 14. The Speech Team will be hosting their annual Speaker’s Cafe on Monday, March 9 at 7 p.m. ...

Although the present town of Albert City was one of the last of the Buena Vista towns to be established (incorporated), it was the “boom town” of the county. While the others developed through a process of “settlement-to village-to incorporated town,” Albert City “sprang” up from the prairie farmland as an established incorporated town practically instantly. Here’s the story...

Spring is on the way, and in case you can’t wait, Hollywood had offered a plethora of lighthearted flicks that will put the spring in your step. There are probably some super-serious films out there set in spring, but what fun is that? The season is all about silly romance, raunchy spring break adventures and occasionally a baseball game. It’s about being young, or feeling young again. So we’ve scoured the vaults for the most smile-worthy spring stories to melt your worries away...

The Sanford Museum Association presents Sustaining the Land - What Iowa Farmers are Doing to Protect our Resources, with Joel DeJong ISU Extension Field Agronomist. DeJong will discuss practices that are being used to maintain the soil resource we are blessed with in northwest Iowa, and newer practices that might help to protect the land even better. There will be discussion on what we can do to protect the quality of our surface water, and why that is important...

Dori Patrick, a full time artist from Cedar Rapids, will be exhibiting her work at the Witter Gallery this month. A collection of her colorful abstract paintings will be on display at the gallery from March 2-27, and a meet and greet with Patrick will be held on March 21 from 1-2 p.m...

What a difference a week makes. There were floor debates every day this week. The bills we are passing now are the bills that survived last week’s first funnel. We are getting House bills every day now. They will need to go through the same process that was required for Senate bills before the first funnel. ...

MetaBank has closed the sale on the sale of its community bank division to Storm Lake-based Central Bank. The deal, announced last November, was finalized on February 29. The purchase includes bank branches in Storm Lake, Sioux Falls, Brookings, S.D., Des Moines and Urbandale...

The furor of the Iowa Caucus season added more than 27,000 net Democrat voter registrations in the state over the past month, according to a report by Iowa Starting Line political site - enough to pull Democrats ahead of Republicans in voter registration for the first time in years...

Western Iowa Congressman Steve King unloaded on Democrat presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders this week, labeling The Senator and former fellow Representative as a “Marxist.” Sanders “has a history of supporting radical Leftist regimes... He blatantly praised the Soviet Union and probably weeps in his popcorn every time Rocky beats up the mean Russian in Rocky IV,” King told supporters in an email Tuesday. “And THIS is the Democrat frontrunner? Seriously?!”...

Sioux Central middle school science instructor Craig Cadman makes no bones about sharing his love of science with not just his students, but anyone who will give him a listen. Regular Facebook posts of sightings of the International Space Station can pop up, as well as nods to NASA flights from yesteryear. ...

Old fire trucks never die, or so it seems. In November, 2018, Storm Lake Fire Department heard that the little city of Ventura had lost its lone fire truck, totaled in a crash. Storm Lake sent its retired truck there to help the community until it could round up funds to purchase a new truck...

Storm Lake Police have arrested a Buena Vista University student athlete in a sexual abuse case over nine months after an incident was reported. Officers were called to the campus Sunday, May 19, 2019 shortly before 3 a.m., and met with a 16-year-old female victim and other individuals...

Serious crime rates increased slightly in Storm Lake during 2019. The city saw increases in reports of sexual assaults, disturbances and fights, arson, robbery, theft, burglaries and vandalism. At the same time, child abuse, kidnapping, assaults and domestic violence decreased...