(LE MARS)–Two Gehlen Catholic third graders are giving up birthday presents to help feed the hungry.
Dylan Oloff and Trevor Morris declined birthday presents this year and asked their friends to make a contribution to Kids Against Hunger on May 7th. Kids Against Hunger co-chairs Carolyn Bickford and Richard Seivert received $80 in birthday money from the third graders.
The co-chairs also received $129 from Stephanie Heuertz, Reanna Holton, Samantha Hunger, Amanda and Breanna Richardson. The five worked at St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in Sioux city doing yard cleanup and donated their money to Kids Against Hunger.
Recent missioners to Honduras told the student that an eight-month drought has left the people of one area not malnourished but starving. Kids Against Hunger sent one container shipment of food but that was not enough.
Students and adults in the area are invited to pack the ingredients for Kids Against Hunger meals May 7th at Gehlen Catholic. Another trailer of food can be sent to Honduras through the packing effort. The goal is to make 190-thousand meals.
Donors may sign up for a one-and-a-half hour shift on May 7th or adopt a student.
(LE MARS)–A temporary six-months appointment of Shonden Frederes as vital statistics deputy in the Plymouth
County Recorders office was approved by a 4-1 vote of the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors
Tuesday morning. Supervisor Gordon Greene voted no. The appointment will take effect on May 1st. (News report by Dave Ruden)
(SHELDON)–A record number of Spring graduates will split 2010 graduates at Northwest Iowa Community College into two ceremonies next month.
According to college president Dr. Bill Giddings, the Nursing Graduation and Pinning Ceremony is May 14th at 10:30 a-m. The student keynote speakers are Anita Schneider of Marcus and Catelyn Kirkholm of Inwood who are receiving associate degrees in nursing.
Northwestern College president Gregory Christy is the commencement speaker at the second commencement May 14th at 1:30 p-m. The Outstanding Faculty Award will also be given.
Giddings says in the spring of next year, Northwest Iowa Community College hopes to combine the graduation ceremonies back into one event in the new Lifelong Learning and Recreation Center.
(SIOUX CITY)–Education is the goal of a 40-foot long, four-foot tall “Colossal Colon” exhibit in Sioux City next week.
Mercy Medical Center is hosting the colon exhibit to educate the public about colorectal cancer. It includes examples of healthy colon tissue, several non-cancerous diseases of the colon, polyps and various stages of colorectal cancer.
The “Colossal Colon” is the creation of a colon cancer survivor who was diagnosed on her 23rd birthday–Molly McMaster.
Mercy’s “Colossal Colon” exhibit is free and open to the public May 7th from 9 a-m to 7 p-m and May 8th from 9 a-m to 5 p-m at the Sioux City Convention Center.
In addition to the two-day public display, Mercy has booked four days of tours and educational sessions for school, civic, and church groups as well as local healthcare providers next Tuesday through Friday.
(DES MOINES)–Governor Chet Culver has signed legislation that allows Mid American Energy to charge their customers extra to fund a feasibility study for a nuclear power plant. Utility officials say they want to start building a new plant in 2014 to help reduce carbon emissions. Culver says nuclear power should be part of the state’s renewable energy portfolio and says construction of a new facility will create good paying jobs.
“Our energy security is of utmost importance and I am looking forward to helping create those job opportunities across this state and this study bill will allow us to identify the very best parts of the state for a potential nuclear plant,” Culver said. Iowa currently has one nuclear power plant in the eastern Iowa town of Palo. To pay for the 15-million dollar ($15 million) study, Mid American will charge residential customers an additional four dollars ($4) a year for the next three years. Commercial customers will pay an additional 15-dollars ($15) and industrial customers just over a thousand dollars more per year. Culver says without this legislation, the company could have requested an even bigger rate increase from the Iowa Utilities Board.
“The more alternatives we have, the less dependent we are on more conventional energy options and the lower the rates are going to be,” Culver said. “I’ll put our rates in Iowa, especially related to Mid-American rates, up against any in America. In fact, over the last four years, (Iowa’s rates) have been some of the lowest in the nation.” Opponents say the bill Culver signed contradicts previous state law that requires utility companies to fund their own feasibility studies. Clean energy advocates held a small protest at the statehouse following Wednesday’s bill signing. (News report by Radio Iowa)
LAKE MILLS, Iowa (AP) Officials with the Cummins Filtration plant in Lake Mills say about 215 employees who were to be laid off next month are to continue working.
The company says the employees will keep their jobs until the end of the year. The company last summer announced plans to move 400 jobs at its Lake Mills plant to a factory in Mexico. The company now says the layoff has been delayed due to increased product demand and delays moving work to Mexico.
Cummins spokesman Mark Land says about 135 workers have been laid off and 50 workers are to be cut at the end of May. Land says the workers are to receive severance pay and out placement assistance.
BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) Burlington police say a man questioned in the death of his mother-in-law is dead.
Police say the body of Latham Painter Jr., was found inside a building in West Branch on Tuesday.
Authorities had questioned Painter about the death of Susan Overton after learning Painter and his wife, Tiffany, owned the home where Overton was found. Overton’s grandson found her body last Friday.
Overton’s death is under investigation as a homicide.
Painter was reported missing by relatives on Monday. A cause of death has not been released. An autopsy is pending.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa Ombudsman Bill Angrick is again calling for changes in the use of restraint devices in the state’s jails.
He criticized the use of restraints in a report issued last year. He renewed his call following a federal jury’s verdict against Scott County last week.
The jury ruled in favor of Lillian Slater, who was restrained for seven hours in 2006 while suffering a painful flare-up of sickle cell anemia.
The jury decided correction officers used excessive force and faulted the county for improper training. Slater’s attorney, Arthur Loevy, says the case was unusual since it held the county partly responsible.
Angrick says it was a “good verdict” because it spoke to the need for training and documentation. He says it underscores that a restraint is not for punishment.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) One of the primary lenders of a debt-ridden central Iowa water district says it will not forgive any of its debt.
Last month, the board of the Xenia Rural Water District voted to increase rates by 22 percent for its 9,400 customers in 11 counties. It’s part of a plan to sell the district and pay off $140 million it owes because of aggressive expansion for customers that never arrived.
The plan calls for its primary lenders to forgive about $45 million in debt.
In a letter, New York-based Assured Guaranty reiterated that it is not willing to reduce the principal owned by the district.
The other primary lender is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Agency. It says the proposed plan requires more study.
REINBECK, Iowa (AP) A funeral Mass will be held on Saturday in Reinbeck for an Iowa soldier who died last week in Afghanistan.
Fifty-three-year-old Command Sgt. Maj. John Laborde, of Reinbeck, was a U.S. Army Reserve soldier. He died April 22 of injuries suffered from what the military says was a noncombat related incident.
The funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m. at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Reinbeck. Burial will be at Woodlawn Cemetery in Oelwein.
Laborde was assigned to the 649th Regional Support Group in Cedar Rapids.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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