Discover Dairy Exhibit To Feature Virtual Reality Tours Of A Dairy Farm
(Le Mars) — As part of the “Discover Dairy” exhibit featured at the round barn is a chance for visitors of the fair to tour a dairy farm without actually having to tour a dairy farm. It’s all part of the Google Expedition by using virtual reality goggles. Shirley Schroeder is a director with the Siouxland Ag in the Classroom, and explains how the goggles work.
The program will be offered to fair visitors each evening of the fair. Schroeder says people will see all aspects of a dairy farm.
Schroeder says the program is interesting and educational, however she warns for some people they may feel some motion sickness.
The virtual reality tour of the dairy farm using the special equipped goggles can be found in the upper level of the round barn. Schroeder says Friday and Sunday evening the program will get started at around 6:00 p.m.
As for Saturday, due to some scheduling conflicts, Schroeder says they will start at 4:30 p.m. Another aspect of the “Discover Dairy” Exhibit is the live milking demonstration classroom that can be seen just south of the Kiddie Barn with demonstrations scheduled at 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., and at 7:00 p.m. each day of the fair.
Life Skills Training Center Prepares For Quilt Auction
(Le Mars) — The Plymouth County Fair serves as an important venue for the Life Skills Training Center’s annual fund raising efforts. With three separate events, including the annual quilt auction, the Bossy Cow Chip Bingo, and the Ice House, Shelly Thomson of Life Skills says the events serve an as important function for the Life Skills Training Center.
Thomson says this year’s quilt auction scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at the Century Hall will include a record number of quilts.
Chances for the Bossy Bingo are still available, and can be purchased for $5 dollars at many of the local banks.
The Bossy Cow-chip Bingo will begin on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.–south of the clock tower.
Drug King Pin To Be Executed
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The execution date for a notorious Iowa drug kingpin who killed witnesses and children in 1993 has been scheduled for Jan. 15.
Dustin Honken is among five federal death row inmates whose execution dates were announced Thursday by the Justice Department.
The announcement came as Attorney General Bill Barr directed federal capital punishment to resume for the first time in nearly two decades.
Honken was convicted at trial in 2004 of five counts of murder during a continuing criminal enterprise and numerous other counts.
The jury found that he killed two dealers who were to testify against him during a 1993 investigation, a mother and her two children. Their bodies weren’t recovered for years. Honken, a resident of Britt in northern Iowa, expanded his meth-making and distribution enterprise in the following years.
Iowa doesn’t have the death penalty, but the federal jury recommended a death sentence for the children’s murders.
Honken’s girlfriend, Angela Johnson, also was sentenced to death but her punishment was reduced to life in prison in 2014.
Couple Accused Of Neglecting Children Are Given Probation
OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa man and wife accused of neglecting and mistreating their adopted children have been given two years of probation.
Clark County District Court records say 42-year-old Kelly Fry and her 43-year-old husband, Kenny Fry, on Thursday were granted deferred judgments and were told to perform 100 hours of community service. Under deferred judgments, convictions can to be removed from court records if the convicted fulfill their probation terms.
Both Frys had pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor child endangerment. Prosecutors lowered the charges from felony counts in return.
The children were adopted from Ghana and were 8 and 9 when state authorities removed them last year from the Frys’ home in Osceola.
The children say they were required to spend most days isolated in their bedrooms and had to use plastic buckets as toilets. One of them said they were fed oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Young Girl Rescued From Water Tower
ESTHERVILLE, Iowa (AP) – City workers and firefighters have rescued a 7-year-old girl whose head became stuck between two rungs of a water tower ladder in northern Iowa.
Officials say the girl is autistic and was reported missing a little
before 10 a.m. Thursday from her home in Estherville. She soon was spotted on the tower near her home, clinging to the ladder near its top.
Firefighters deployed a ladder with a basket attached, and a city
electrical department staffer helped cut her free.
She was taken to the ground and checked by medics before being turned over to her parents. Her name hasn’t been released.
Northern Iowa Man Convicted Of Killing Wife
CRESCO, Iowa (AP) – A northern Iowa man who authorities say had vowed to kill his wife if she ever divorced him has been convicted of shooting her to death.
Howard County District Court records say 35-year-old Brian Fullhart was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder. He’ll be sentenced later to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A witness said Zoanne Fullhart took off her wedding ring one day weeks before the shooting and set it down in front of Brian. The witness said Brian told Zoanne that if she wanted a divorce, she was dead.
Court records say Fullhart shot her in the head Feb. 28 last year inside a mobile home in Cresco and later used a bow to twice fire arrows at officers who’d been sent to investigate gunshot reports. Fullhart peacefully surrendered to end a more than five-hour standoff.
