(LE MARS)–The latest crime prevention event in Le Mars is August 3rd.
Le Mars Police invite neighborhoods throughout Le Mars to join thousands of communities nationwide for the 27th annual National Night Out.
The crime and drug prevention event is from 7-10 p.m. on August third. Residents are invited to lock their doors, turn on outside lights and spend the evening outside with neighbors and police.
Many neighborhoods throughout Le Mars will host a variety of special events such as block parties, cookouts and visits from police.
The Le Mars Police Department invites residents to host a block party in their neighborhood. Authorities say they’re a way for residents to meet and get to know each other. A registration form for those hosting a block party is available at the police department. Registrations will be taken through July 30.
(LE MARS)–The top griller in the Ice Cream Days “Grill ‘n’ Chill Rib Rally Saturday knows how to win.
The judges’ choice for first place is Chris Gries of Merrill who won for the second year in a row. Gries’ recipe for success is his own.
“My own rub and my own barbeque sauce that I put on it,” Gries answers when asked what made his ribs winners.
Gries started his contest entry about 9:30 Saturday morning. “I started the ribs up at about noon, Gries recalls. “Throughout the afternoon I cooked a lot of chicken and I smoked up the ribs.”
What makes Gries a rib cooking contest competitor?
“I just love it. I really enjoy cooking. I always have,” Gries explains.
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Gries likes the Ice Cream Days “Grill ‘n’ Chill” Rib Rally because it is local. He also competes at rib contests in Sergeant Bluff, Yankton and Omaha.
Gries is a painter at Quatro Composites in Orange City.
(DOON)–Two teens were injured in a one-vehicle accident five miles east of Doon Saturday night.
According to the Lyon County sheriff’s office, 16-year-old Carissa Vink of Doon was driving on a Lyon County Road when the car dropped off the shoulder of the road. Vink tried to correct the path of travel and the car skidded out of control , hitting a cement culvert. The car came to rest in a creek bed. Vink and her passenger, 17-year-old Bryce Veldman of Hull, were taken to local hospitals for their injuries.
The sheriff’s office and Iowa State Patrol investigated the accident.
DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) Opening arguments are today in the trial of a Mexican man accused of killing a 3-year-old Nebraska girl.
Jury selection in the murder case against 30-year-old Melecio Camacho-De Jesus began last Monday and concluded Friday, with 180 potential jurors narrowed to 12.
Camacho-De Jesus is accused of killing Evelyn Verdugo Paniagua on May 23, 2009, in her South Sioux City home as her family slept. Prosecutors say he sexually assaulted the girl before suffocating her.
Camacho-De Jesus, a Mexican national, had been living in Sioux City, Iowa, when he was arrested. He pleaded not guilty in August to first-degree murder and burglary. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
His trial has been scheduled to run through the end of June.
(COPYRIGHT 2010 BY ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
SPENCER, Iowa (AP) Funeral services are set for a 29-year-old northwest Iowa soldier who died in Iraq.
A funeral Mass is planned for Thursday at Notre Dame Catholic Church in Cresco for Specialist Christopher Opat of Lime Springs. Burial is planned for Our Lady of Lourdes Cemetery in Elma.
Opat died Tuesday in Baquah, Iraq, from injuries in a noncombat incident. Military officials have launched an investigation.
Opat’s family says he went to Iowa Lakes Community College in Emmetsburg before enlisting in Spencer. Opat’s father, 58-year-old Les Opat, says his son wanted to make a career in the Army.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) Waterloo is searching for new locations for recycling sites for people to drop off paper, cardboard, plastics and cans.
Only half of the 12 sites once offered are still in operation because businesses are ordering them out of their parking lots.
Waterloo has relied on stores to allow the bins at no cost to the city. But some customers are abusing the idea by dropping off garbage, dead animals, tires and furniture. Many businesses now consider the bins a nuisance.
Mayor Buck Clark says his office has receive “a ton” of calls, e-mails and letters from residents upset about the dwindling number of recycling sites. Clark has encouraged those callers to sign up for the city’s curbside recycling and yard waste program.
MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) Squirrels get the blame for damage to the Mason City’s newly repaired band shell.
Band shell supporter Janice Easley says squirrels chewed some major holes in the new siding, hunting nuts they hid in the building before the work was done.
Workers cleared out a barrel full of walnuts and acorns from the rafters and put up mothballs, a smell that squirrels hate.
Easley says the goal is to keep the squirrels out until the repairs can be finished. It’s apparently working because the squirrels haven’t returned.
Cedar Rapids (AP) Linn County Attorney Harold Denton, who says he was the first Iowa prosecutor to try a case with cameras in the courtroom, is retiring after decades in the office.
The 62-year-old Denton became an assistant Linn County attorney in 1975. He was named interim county attorney in September 2002, and won the 2002 election two months later.
Denton, who’s leaving at the end of the month, says he has no immediate plans. He grew up in Maryville, Tenn., and came to Iowa in 1970 to attend the University of Iowa Law School.
Denton say he was the first prosecutor to try a case in 1979 with cameras in the courtroom. He says he had “misgivings” in the beginning, but says it has worked out well.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Tighter air pollution rules could force millions of dollars worth of improvements at Iowa plants.
Jim McGraw of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says a review by the Environmental Protection Agency shows pollution limits for some chemicals are too lenient to protect people from lung problems and other illnesses.
The EPA on June 3 announced a rule tightening limits on sulfur-dioxide emissions. It listed Muscatine County as the only place in Iowa likely to violate the new rule. That eventually could lead the state to order changes at major emitters such as Grain Processing Corp. and Muscatine Power and Water.
The EPA is revisiting limits on ozone and other small-particle pollution, which could affect other parts of the state.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) The Rebuild Iowa Office says residents can learn more about the flooding of 2008 and how to plan and prepare for flooding at a planned community seminar.
The seminar is set for Monday afternoon in Marion, outside Cedar Rapids. Local and state officials as well as academic experts are to attend the seminar titled “Anatomy of Iowa Floods: Preparing for the Future.”
Topics are to include trends in precipitation and run-off in Iowa, floodplain management strategies and water quality.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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