Stories from Friday, June 19, 2020

Iowans, including MidAmerican Energy Company customers, are reporting three separate imposter scams that threaten to disconnect potential victims’ electric service unless they pay immediately by phone with a prepaid money card. In each case, scammers pretend to represent a utility company or the Iowa Utilities Board:...

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), both members of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, along with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, are calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide assistance, through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), to turkey producers across the state...

Cristian Andrade from Security Trust & Savings Bank recently presented Kimberly Hickman from Upper Des Moines Opportunity a check from proceeds of employee fundraising, and a match by the bank, to benefit the food pantry. Instead of their usual food collections at this time of year for the food pantry, employees raised money by holding jean days and raffles. / Photo submitted...

All-Inclusive Admission: Gate admission will cover all 4-H activities, carnival and Grand Stand events Sunday, June 28th Monday, July 6th Tuesday, July 7th Wednesday, July 8th Friday, July 10th 5:00 p.m. Ag Olympics Horse Arena Monday, July 13th – DISCOUNTED DAILY ADMISSION, $5 ALL DAY...

Jill Brees Barr will be returning to InnSpiration Vines and Wines in Linn Grove for her first concert of the season, Friday, June 26. Showtime is 6:30. Jill will be jamming with special guest Dan Cline. Jill is an accomplished singer, speaker and a former Mrs. Iowa, who has performed all around northwest Iowa, including Storm Lake’s Forth of July patriotic ceremony...

Southern rock/country group The Justin Elliot Band returns to the Buena Vista County Fair, Saturday, July 11. The show begins at 8:30 p.m.

The protagonists in Judd Apatow movies don’t generally have their stuff together. They are emotionally stunted, occasionally underachieving, unmotivated to change and often even border on unlikable. But whether it’s Seth Rogen’s stoner-entrepreneur, Steve Carell’s 40-year-old virgin or Adam Sandler’s depressed movie star, there has always been at least some separation between the actor and the character...

As much as we love fireworks displays, drifting smoke can cause breathing problems for some and large crowds may pose a risk this year. COVID-19 has caused some towns to cancel fireworks displays, while others have modified their events. Whether attending a display or celebrating in your backyard, keep these four safety tips in mind...

Abbie Tillman envisioned herself playing soccer and majoring in both art and psychology when she chose to attend Buena Vista University, all the way from Durand, Mich., in 2016. “I signed to play soccer, but then I hurt my knee as a senior in high school,” Tillman says...

The Storm Lake Farmer’s Market will open Saturday, June 20 on a trial basis, although as of this week, only three vendors are registered. Manager Linda Patterson said organizers have been gathering information about the COVID-19 situation in Storm Lake and Buena Vista County, and discussing the situation with potential vendors. ...

Perhaps no graduating senior at Buena Vista University this spring knew the campus in Storm Lake as well as Allie Hartman. The Storm Lake native earned honors for giving the most student tours two years in a row. A member of BVU’s Esprit de Corps organization, she served the club as its president while consistently making time to show prospective students and their parents every nook and cranny of the gorgeous lakeside campus...

After three months, Bishop Walker Nickless has lifted the suspension on public Masses in the Diocese of Sioux City. Beginning with the weekend of June 27/28, parishes will open for Masses at the discretion of their pastors. Masses were originally suspended in an unprecedented move March 16 in response to the deadly and rapidly-spreading COVID-19 virus...

Shortly after it had reopened, the Vista 3 Theater in Storm Lake was shuttered again this week, as COVID-19 case numbers in the community continued to climb. /Pilot photo by Dana Larsen

Signs are cropping up around the community is support of the Black Lives Matter movement, including one at a Lake Avenue business. /Pilot photo by Dana Larsen

October 19, 1933 - May 11, 2020

September 6, 1925 - June 11, 2020

November 10, 1954 - June 14, 2020

November 3, 1926 - June 15, 2020

December 31, 1944 - June 14, 2020

Emma Kenkel of Storm Lake was named to the University of Sioux Falls’ Spring 2020 Dean’s List. Kenkel is majoring in Business Administration and English. Kenkel was among more than 600 students named to the Spring 2020 Dean’s List. To qualify, students must earn a GPA of 3.5 or greater on a 4.0 scale...

A traditional part of summer includes a summer reading program. Prairie Lakes AEA has partnered with MackinVia to take the summer reading adventure online with a special website that offers about 20 books for each grade level from kindergarten-fifth grade. It offers the option of checking out books, and books can also be read online without the need for check out. All of the books have extra resources created by the educators at Mackin, including a reading journal...

When the Legislature recessed on March 16th due to the covid 19 pandemic it was that time of the session when committee action on many policy bills had been completed and those bills were ready for floor debate. It was also the stage of the session when budget considerations were coming to the forefront. As we came back to session on June 3rd it was difficult to try to pick up where we had left off, especially in the budget process with the unprecedented uncertainty of Iowa’s economic outlook...

A renewed argument over Republicans’ efforts to place new restrictions on absentee voting dominated the final hours of the 2020 legislative session in the Iowa House. The Senate, which had worked all night, adjourned at 1:32 p.m. Sunday. The House adjourned minutes later, at 1:39 p.m., after taking final action on a $7.8 billion budget...

Student leaders at Iowa’s public universities are calling the Legislature’s decision to cut $8 million in spending for higher education “short-sighted and deeply disappointing.” Student representatives at the University of Northern Iowa, University of Iowa and Iowa State University say the cuts for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, coincide with protests over “deep racial inequities in our society” and “will fall hardest on students of color.”...

An online petition is demanding that the Buena Vista County Fair be canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. The petition, addressed to the fair board and hosted by the activism site change.org, was started by Owen Lenzmeier, and within its first few days had reached its original goal. About 160 people had signed by midweek...

The Iowa Department of Public Health and Buena Vista County Public Health on Tuesday confirmed outbreaks of COVID-19 at two nursing homes in the county. Three positive cases had been identified at Pleasant View Home in Albert City and three at Good Samaritan Society in Newell...

Storm Lake softball fans were targeted with taunts of “wetbacks” during a softball event this week, according to Superintendent of Schools Stacey Cole. The shouts were made from a vehicle passing the field. Cole said she and the superintendent of the host school Spirit Lake had discussed the incident shortly after it happened...

Storm Lake schools continue to make contingency plans for a fall where COVID-19 concerns may linger - hoping they don’t have to use them. Superintendent Stacey Cole said that one resource the district has been studying is the experiences of schools impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday salvaged an Obama-era program that has allowed hundreds of thousands of young, unauthorized immigrants known as “Dreamers” to remain in the country without immediate fear of deportation. In a 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s liberal wing in finding that the Trump administration broke the law in 2017 when it rescinded the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA...

Despite some concerns, ‘soft opening’ planned for June 28