Stories from Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Celebrate LEAP day with a little silly fun from the natural world. Enjoy this family friendly program provided by the O’Brien County Conservation Board. Come to the Prairie Heritage Center on Saturday, February 29 at 2 p.m. for a “Who Hops?!?!” interactive presentation. Find out who hops, leaps, and jumps. You can even measure how well you stack up to their amazing feats...

Experience the white stuff of winter from different points of view! Enjoy a family outing on Monday, February 24 at 5:00 p.m. at Mill Creek Park, near Paullina. “SNOW Fun” is part of the “Immerse in Nature” series which encourages children, families and adults to spend more time outdoors in 2020...

Watching a majestic bald eagle soar overhead is a breathtaking sight. During our annual survey earlier in January, we spotted a record number of eagles in the valley. At the beginning of March, the resident bald eagles are mixing with other eagles traveling through the area. In addition, many other raptors are also on the move in the Little Sioux River Valley...

Storm Lake (including Little Storm Lake) Ice thickness is 8 to 15 inches, with thinner ice on the east part of the lake. Avoid open areas near the island. Anglers are catching perch, crappie, walleye and white bass. Ice thickness in west central Iowa is 8 to 16 inches. ...

For more than two years, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals has failed to meet federal standards for the timely inspection of nursing homes. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requires each state’s nursing home inspection agency to conduct a full inspection of every licensed care facility no later than every 15.9 months. It also requires those inspections to occur, on average, within 12.9 months...

Growing older is the greatest risk factor for acquiring Parkinson’s disease and many people live with symptoms for several years before being diagnosed. To provide more resources on the topic, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach will host the three-session: “A Journey Through Parkinson’s Disease” on March 4, 11 and 18 from 11:15 a.m. to noon at the Spencer Family YMCA...

Buena Vista Regional Medical Center’s Dr. John Pymm educated members of the Spanish speaking community about heart healthy habits. In addition, guests were able to learn the basics of how to help someone having a heart attack during a recent presentation titled “Be Heart Healthy!”...

State lawmakers on Tuesday began the work of trying to salvage an update to Iowa’s medical cannabidiol program after a veto last year from Gov. Kim Reynolds. The fighting issue in House Study Bill 653, and the one that led to the governor’s veto, was the cap on THC. That’s the psychoactive compound in cannabis that is also attributed to positive health effects in some patients...

The foreign-language film remake has never been the most esteemed sort of Hollywood production, but the timing of “Downhill,” a remake of Ruben Östlund’s 2014 Swedish film “Force Majeure,” hasn’t done it any favors. “Downhill” skies into theater just days after the historic Oscar victory for Bong Joon Ho’s South Korean thriller “Parasite,” which for a moment anyway, smashed what Bong called “the one-inch barrier of subtitles.” With so many international films so readily available today, the need of an English-language facsimile is more questionable than ever.. ...

STORM LAKE – The GK Storm & Blaze gymnastics teams hosted their third annual Dream of Spring Invitational home gymnastics meet last weekend (Feb. 8-9) at the Storm Lake High School gymnasium. The Bronze team placed third and the Gold team placed fifth overall, and four GK Storm gymnasts scored top-three all-around finishes...

SIOUX RAPIDS - Despite the bitter cold temperatures on Thursday night, the Sioux Central boys decided to play their last game of the regular season against Hinton. For the third time in four nights, the Rebel boys dropped a close contest, falling in a 70-68 decision...

The off-Broadway play “The American Solider” will be presented at Buena Vista University, March 6, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are free, but RSVPs are being taken in advance. The American Soldier is a solo show written and performed by Douglas Taurel. In 75 minutes, Taurel enters into the personas of 14 veterans and their family members, telling their story of courage and sacrifice...

NEWELL - It was the regular season finale for both Newell-Fonda and Ridge View on Friday night. The Mustangs were able to ward off a challenge from the Raptors to take a 66-55 decision for their 17th win of the season. “We were getting good looks but just couldn’t get our shots to fall in the first half. We ended up shooting a good percentage by the end of the game,” N-F Coach Chad Buchholz said. “We needed a game like this to show us a few things we need to work on going into districts.”...

STORM LAKE - The St. Mary’s basketball team held Senior Night on Friday night to honor their four seniors before taking on East Sac County. The Panthers were unable to slow down the Raiders’ offense in a 74-44 defeat. The Panther offense was able to keep pace with the high scoring Raiders in the first quarter and trailed by six going to the second, 21-15. East Sac began to pull away in the second period, outscoring the Panthers by 14 points to go up by 20 at halftime, 45-25...

STORM LAKE - It was a rare Saturday afternoon game for the Storm Lake Tornado boys as they played host to South Central Calhoun in a game that was originally set for Thursday night. Storm Lake’s offense came to play, but the defense struggled to contain the Titan offense in an 81-70 setback...

ALTA - The Alta-Aurelia boys were unable to hang on to a late lead on Friday night when they welcomed in River Valley for their regular season finale. The Warriors allowed an eight point lead slip away in a 46-44 defeat. “This was a tough way to end the season. We had control of the game throughout and let it slip away in the final minute,” A-A Coach Dean Lietz said. “Too many turnovers down the stretch which allowed RV to come back. We have to value the ball better to give ourselves a chance.”...

At Tuesday’s regular meeting, the Cherokee City Council set a bid letting date of Thursday, March 5, 2020, at 2 p.m. for a Water Main Improvements Project (Hillcrest Street water line that needs to be upsized and Armory water line that is a dead end and needs to be looped), and Thursday, March 5, 2020, at 3 p.m. for the bid letting of the South 1st Street Reconstruction Project (FEMA project from damage caused by sinkholes from last year’s flooding)...

MANSON - It was win or go home on Saturday night in a 2A-Region 2 contest as the Alta-Aurelia girls traveled to take on the Manson-NW Webster Cougars. The Warriors led for a majority of the night but were unable to keep ahold of the lead late and dropped a 50-48 heartbreaker to the Cougars, ending their season...

Storm Lake St. Mary’s High School TV News group has qualified for the All-State Large Group Festival in Ames on Saturday, February 22. TV News is a pre-recorded news program involving any number of students on and off the camera.  Students create a theme, write the script, develop commercials and edit the newscast. ...

SHELDON - Three Ridge View wrestlers went to a 2A-District 7 meet on Saturday with the hopes of reaching the State Tournament. The trio battled but none of them were able to get a top two finish to get to Wells Fargo Arena. Jack Henderson started off with a quick semifinal loss against Central Lyon/George-Little Rock’s Dylan Winkel, falling in 21 seconds. ...

SIOUX RAPIDS - There was only one Sioux Central wrestler competing at the 1A-District 5 meet on Saturday afternoon, but he made his effort count. Rebel Chris Ferguson is going to the 1A State meet in Des Moines this week after capturing a District Championship...

The primary focus for the fifth week of the Legislature has been our K-12 school system. Local school districts are required to certify their budgets for the 2020-2021 year by April 15, so it is incumbent upon the legislature to set Supplemental State Aid (SSA) early in the session. ...

MAPLETON - Two Alta-Aurelia wrestlers were close to getting a trip to Des Moines on Saturday afternoon in a 1A-District 3 meet. Levi Sleezer and Alex DeRoos saw their dreams ripped away after finishing third and fourth place in their respective weight classes...

Week five of the session has been hectic as we have had both committee work and floor debate. Next week is the first funnel, so sub-committees and standing committees are pushing bills forward in order to beat the deadline and threat of elimination for the session. As I mentioned, it can be hectic, but good committee produces the best legislation in the end...

The Buena Vista dance team put on a Hip-Hop dance routine during a recent halftime.

One employee was killed in the collapse of a cage system at Rembrandt Foods Friday morning. The body was recovered Saturday afternoon and the fatality was confirmed Sunday evening by BV County Emergency Management. The collapse was reported around 6:30 a.m. Friday within a company layer barn in Rembrandt. After the incident, one person was unaccounted for. An urban search and rescue team was called in from Sioux City along with Iowa Homeland Security...

The Storm Lake Hunger Dialogues is continuing to work toward solutions to food insecurity in the community, although a meeting planned for last Wednesday was called off as members were suffering from seasonal illnesses. Taylor McCombs of the Iowa Food Bank has been providing guidance for the group. Among the suggestions:...

For all their sign-waving and news conference comments, environmentalists admitted this week they have virtually no chance of getting even a hearing on their proposed moratorium on large livestock confinements in Iowa. Emma Schmit of Rockwell City was in the capital Tuesday in her role as a Food and Water Action organizer, joining Des Moines-based Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement to back a moratorium proposal that went nowhere in last year’s Legislature and hasn’t budged this year, either.. ...

FORT DODGE - In perhaps one of the toughest wrestling districts in the state, 3A-District 5, two Storm Lake wrestlers were able to push through the competition and book their tickets to the 3A State Meet on Thursday morning. Seniors Kole Wiegert and Colton Dreith will end their high school wrestling careers at Wells Fargo Arena...

For the second time in four months, a residential fire has resulted in a fatality in Spencer. The victim of Thursday morning’s fire has been withheld pending the autopsy by the state medical examiner and family notification. With temperatures at minus 15 degrees Friday morning, Spencer Fire and Rescue personnel responded to a reported fire at 528 E. First St. shortly after 8 a.m. The report included a notification regarding the possibility of a resident still in the home...

Valentine’s Day marked the one-year anniversary of Jaci Hermstad’s diagnosis with a rare, aggressive form of ALS, and the ninth anniversary of the death of her twin sister Alex at age 17 from the same disease, which then could not be diagnosed. The week also marks a trip to the University of Minnesota for Storm Lake native Jaci to receive her 11th gene therapy infusion treatment of the experimental drug the family fought so hard to obtain...