Stories from Friday, June 29, 2018

GALVA/LAWTON/ONAWA - Tuesday was maybe the busiest day of the season for the Ridge View softball team, playing three games, two in the afternoon and one at night. They were able to walk away with two defeats and a win. Their first contest was against OA-BCIG in a 5-1 loss. Eighth grader Addison Schmidt pitched a complete game for the loss. She gave up two earned runs and seven hits. Junior Kara Richard had a double to lead the way at the plate...

HOLSTEIN/EARLY - With the recent rainouts, the Ridge View baseball team played a pair of games on Tuesday. They split the two contests, besting OA-BCIG 7-1, but fell to Westwood, 17-8. Westwood jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, but Ridge View came back to get to 7-6. However, Westwood scored 10 runs in the last two innings to pull away from the Raptors...

STORM LAKE - Both St. Mary’s and Sioux Central’s softball teams cranked out the offense on Wednesday night, combining for 17 runs, 16 hits and nearly a run every inning. When the dust cleared, Sioux Central was able to take a 10-7 decision over St. Mary’s...

FONDA - Newell-Fonda has made a living terrorizing other teams with pressure on the base paths and continued that last night against Storm Lake. In all, the Mustangs stole 15 bases to help themselves to 16 runs, taking a 16-6 decision in five innings over the Tornadoes...

FONDA - It was a quick game on Wednesday night for the Newell-Fonda Mustang ladies against the Titans of South Central Calhoun. The game was over in three innings, Newell-Fonda taking a 12-0 victory, their 21st of the 2018 season. A lead off walk got the ball rolling in the three run bottom of the first. ...

SPENCER - For a majority of Wednesday night, the Tornado girls were engaged in a low scoring affair with the Spencer Tigers, neither team really finding much in the way of scoring runs. Behind a strong pitching effort from sophomore Skylar Cole and a good sixth frame, Storm Lake was able to take a 3-1 victory over their rivals...

FONDA - The bats were quiet for the Newell-Fonda boys on Wednesday night, South Central Calhoun taking advantage of an off-night from the Mustangs. The Titans claimed a 7-0 victory against N-F in a Twin Lakes Conference showdown. SCC scored a run in the top of the second and another in the top of the fourth. Two more in both of the fifth and sixth innings made it 6-0, another run crossing the plate in the seventh...

ALTA - It was a strange time for the Alta-Aurelia Warriors to restart a suspended conference game on Wednesday. It was the middle of the afternoon when the final out was recorded, the Warriors taking a 12-1 decision against West Bend-Mallard to pick up the Twin Lakes Conference championship for the third time in four years...

SPENCER - In a game where Storm Lake committed seven errors and were down by four runs entering the top of the seventh inning, the Tornadoes showed patience at the plate and were able to use walks to get themselves back into the game, eventually taking an 8-7 victory over the Spencer Tigers...

ALTA - Alta-Aurelia softball coach noted that he has never seen a hitter this on fire like he has with senior Lily Peterson the past few games. Peterson belted her four home run in as many games on Wednesday night, aiding the Warriors to a 6-1 win over Emmetsburg to clinch at least a share of the Twin Lakes Conference title...

Alta and Aurelia's school boards are now officially combined. The Alta-Aurelia Community School District finalized their school board transition plan in a special meeting Tuesday evening, setting the course of the board's structure moving forward. With the three recent retirements of Ila Galvin, Dan Winterhof and Sue Sangwin, the soon-to-be seven-member board of directors will eventually transition to five at-large members. ...

BVU opens Sioux City site, partners with WIT Buena Vista University will continue to serve the region area by opening its newest location in Sioux City with long-time partner Western Iowa Tech Community College. To celebrate the occasion, a public open house will take place on July 10 from 10 - 11 a.m. in room A415 of the Robert H. Kiser Building on the WIT campus...

Congressman Steve King has released video of a special order speech he delivered on the floor of the House of Representatives on the subject of illegal immigration June 21. His website labeled it as King's work to defeat Speaker Paul Ryan's "sweeping amnesty legislation."...

Western Iowa Congressman Steve King, facing criticism for retweeting a post from a self-described Nazi sympathizer who had openly expressed admiration for Adolph Hitler, says he did not know of the man's politics, but also declined to delete the tweet...

A Storm Lake man who has been in prison for 17 years on a murder conviction, will get an opportunity at a new sentence August 29 after the Iowa Supreme Court decided that teenagers should not be convicted to life without chance of parole. Rene Zarate was 15 and already on probation for previous crimes in 1999 when 47-year-old Peruvian immigrant Jorge Ramos was stabbed to death in a Storm Lake trailer park...

Fake robbery report brings arrest A Storm Lake man has been arrested for making up a report that he had been robbed. Police fielded a 911 call Wednesday, and met with the reporting man, who claimed that $600 in cash had been stolen from his vehicle parked at his residence...

The Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church called on the Philippine government this week to release three foreign missionaries being held by the Republic of the Philippines, including Adam Shaw. According to social media posts, Shaw is a native of Storm Lake and the son of Rev. Tom Shaw, who served as youth pastor at Storm Lake United Methodist Church from 1986-1994...

Local experts are cautiously calling the 2018 Farm Bill a "small step forward" for water quality and conservation in Iowa. "I'm happy that this bill includes sensible reforms to the Conservation Reserve Program," said Senator Chuck Grassley. "The program has strayed from its original intent here in Iowa, where some landowners have been receiving more than $300 per acre to enroll their entire farms in CRP. ...

What started out as a Taco Tuesday night bicycle ride, turned into a weekly bike ride club in Storm Lake. Bicyclers from Storm Lake and from surrounding towns gather at Puffs every Tuesday night to exercise, enjoy the outdoors, and enjoy the social aspect of biking...