Stories from Tuesday, April 17, 2018

April 15, 2018

November 11, 1962 - April 13, 2018

If you haven’t seen your doctor lately, you’re probably unaware that you could have high blood pressure, which means your life is at risk. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), about half of American adults have high blood pressure, and most are unaware that they have it...

The construction and remodeling of Spencer Hospital’s new Warner Dialysis Center location is nearing completion. The $4.33 million project will relocate the Warner Dialysis Center, currently operating on the third floor of the Spencer Hospital, to its new location at 1721 W. 18th St...

Governor Kim Reynolds recently signed a bill that will allow the Iowa Farm Bureau to offer new individual health benefit plans administered by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield. This new law will enable insurance agents to offer a lower-cost alternative to individual coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Storm Lake...

• Storm Lake Community Blood Drive, Tuesday, May  1, from 12:30 p.m. - 6 p.m. at Buena Vista Regional Medical Center Main Entrance, 1525 West 5th St. • Alta Community Blood Drive, Thursday, May  3, from 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. at Alta Community Center, 23 N Lake. Sign up to save a life today online at lifeservebloodcenter.org or by calling 800-287-4903...

Iowa’s own band of Deadheads, Winterland, will be in concert at Byron’s in Pomeroy, Saturday, May 19. Showtime is 8 p.m. Specializing in the Grateful Dead’s catalog and sound from 1969 through the late 1970s, Winterland pulls you back in time to a place where the Dead’s rhythm and blues, folk and country roots were still deeply embedded in their music even as they explored the wild and experimental outer reaches of psychedelic rock. ...

On Saturday, April 21, at 6 p.m. at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, multi-Grammy Award-winner Bill Gaither will host a spectacular evening of music, laughter and encouragement featuring the talent of the prestigious Gaither Vocal Band. The Gaither Vocal Band will share timeless gospel classics, as well as refreshing, inspiring new favorites embraced by audiences of all ages and backgrounds. ...

Clay Walker will be performing at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Sioux City on May 6 at 8 p.m. Certain artists just seem to have an innate sense of what it takes to please an audience. Clay Walker is one of those artists. Whether on stage or in the recording studio, Walker never gives less than a hundred percent, and it’s that kind of dedicated work ethic combined with God-given talent that have made him one of the most successful country acts of the past decade...

Every song is fresh. Every scene is new. Every night is different. It’s all improvised and it’s all funny. Broadway’s Next Hit Musical is the only unscripted theatrical awards show. Master improvisers gather made up, hit song suggestions from the audience and create a spontaneous evening of music and laughter. ...

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Buena Vista Regional Medical Center participates in the Period of PURPLE Crying® program. BVRMC provides new parents with evidence-based education and resources to prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome through the Period of PURPLE Crying® program...

I see the weather service has issued a winter storm watch for our area this last weekend, but the several days of warmer temperatures this week have prompted a few more calls for adjournment. Farmers are eager to get home to their fields and machinery, and just because of the lingering winter, everyone wants to finish up here and return home...

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) Walleye - Fair: Throw twisters or fish minnows under a bobber from the state marina. Expect good walleye action along the east and north shores as water temperatures continue to climb. ...

ACCIDENTS On April 6, at approximately 8:48 p.m., on Lake Ave. in Storm Lake, a vehicle driven by Evelyn Jonathan of Storm Lake, was involved in an accident with a vehicle driven by Jared Grow of Newell. The two vehicles collided causing total damages at $2800. Jonathan was cited for Fail to Yield to Vehicle on Right.

Despite the Trump Administration’s ardent support of coal over renewable energy, the percentage of U.S. electricity from renewable sources continued its gradual rise in 2017. Wind, solar and hydroelectric energy accounted for 16 percent of power production during President Trump’s first year in office, up from 13 percent in 2016 and nearly double the level when Barack Obama became president in 2009, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council analysis...

The local Tech Trek and Tri-T organizations are planning a fundraiser garage sale, to be held May 4 and 5 at Our Place Multicultural Center. Donated items are being sought for the event, including clothing, toys, books, DVDs, CDs, furniture, tools, bikes, recreation and fitness equipment...

Quad County Corn Processors, a 12.5-million-bushel corn processing biorefinery in Galva, recently donated $250 to Cherokee County 4-H members. The donation will help defray the annual participation cost of each individual 4-H member in Cherokee County...

Buena Vista University (BVU) Professor Ben Donath has been inducted into the Order of Cumberland and Tollefson. Donath, who is the dean of BVU’s School of Science and associate professor of mathematics, started his career at BVU in 1977. The Order of Cumberland and Tollefson was established in 1994 and is named for Dr. ...

Six Storm Lake St. Mary’s students will be participating in the Iowa Choral Director’s Association 5th and 6th grade Honor Choir in Orange City Tuesday, April 17. The students learned five pieces of music with their instructor Mrs. Gayle Strom and will join over 200 other students from around northwest Iowa in an evening concert that night...

Storm Lake author Gwen Hart has a short story, “An Alarming Situation,” included in the new book, “Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Crazy Family.” Hart teaches writing at Buena Vista University. Her poetry, short fiction and essays have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies...

On the evening of Thursday, April 12, at approximately 7:36 p.m. the Storm Lake Police Department responded to the Sail Inn Motel on East Lakeshore Drive after receiving information that an adult couple may be violating a no contact order at that location. Upon arrival of police they located in a guest room Lindsey Mortensen, age 36 and Shane Meyer, age 37 both of Storm Lake allegedly in the same guest room in violation of a court order...

On the evening of Thursday, April 12, at approximately 7:52 p.m. the Storm Lake Police Department took a report in reference to an assault. Police were advised by the reporting party that on December 22, 2017 a 17 year old male of Storm Lake had allegedly grabbed the reporting party in an inappropriate fashion while at the Storm Lake High School where both are students...

Buena Vista University’s student organization, Student MOVE (Mobilizing Outreach & Volunteer Efforts), and Office of Career and Personal Development hosted the first-ever Draped in Confidence clothing drive on April 11. The event is designed to help current BVU students who are in need of professional attire...

The North Raccoon River Watershed Management Coalition is requesting proposals for watershed planning services to assist them with a project to address flooding and water quality in the North Raccoon River Watershed. The goals of the watershed, which is one of eight across the state to serve as project sites for the Iowa Watershed Approach project, are to reduce flood risk, increase flood resilience, improve water quality, engage stakeholders and improve quality of life...

Iowa Holocaust Council member and educator Brad Wilkening began his crusade to use the Holocaust as a spring board to “create a more caring society” randomly in 2009 when a flyer from the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Illinois, came across his desk at Storm Lake St. Mary’s School...

A knee-high youngster strikes an imposing pose - and immediately falls flat on his rump. He scrambles back to his feet and continues with the lesson. There is nary a smirk from the bigger others around him - they’ve fallen and learned to get back up too...

Parent of overdose girl speaks out at area summit of opioids It was the face of a young twenty-something that became a local focal point in a national epidemic becoming too familiar to many parents. Brittany Kock—once a bright, vivacious teenager “with a heart of gold” succumbed to a lethal overdose at the hands of her demon of heroin in March 2017. ...