(LE MARS)–The latest report on Le Mars Community School students’ progress for the No Child Left Behind program shows change and challenges.
Dr. Carl Turner of the Le Mars Community School District said the good news is the district once again does not have any schools that are defined as “in need of assistance.”
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The school official explained the Middle School is off the “watch list” for special education reading because there was a 10 percent decrease in the percentage of students in the low area.
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According to the assistant superintendent, there are some changes that put some schools on the watch list for progress for the next school year.
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Turner saidschools and prinicpals will be working on those issues through professional development with staff.
Appeals court turns down the latest appeal from Boss
(LE MARS)–A Remsen man will not be freed from the Iowa State Penitentiary where he’s serving a life sentence for the death of his adopted son.
The Iowa Court of Appeals has turned down the latest appeal from 46-year-old Donald Lynn Boss Junior. A jury in Plymouth County in December of 2002 convicted Boss of first-degree murder for the death of his adopted son, Timothy.
An investigation had begun and the father was arrested shortly after a family member in Michigan had reported the boy missing. The boy’s body was found buried in the basement of a Remsen home.
The latest Iowa Appeals Court ruling involved an appeal of a Plymouth County court ruling that denied a claim by Boss that his legal counsel was ineffective, in part, because they allowed him to tell where the 10-year-old’s body was buried. The disclosure was part of a bond review hearing.
The 13-page Appeals Court ruling agreed with the judge’s ruling in Plymouth County that the legal counsel had a legitimate strategy in mind that was based on extensive experience, considered deliberation, and discussed with Boss the issue of disclosing the location.
The Appeals Court reviewed other claims by Boss of ineffective legal counsel and affirmed the decision of the judge in Plymouth County.
42-year-old Lisa Marie Boss, the woman who was married to Donald at the time of the child’s death, is serving 50 years in prison for attempted murder. She is at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women.
Beitelspachers will be Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame members
(LE MARS)–A rural Le Mars couple’s contributions to youth will be recognized at the Iowa State Fair.
Wayne and Julie Beitelspacher are being inducted into the 4-H Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame honor recognizes the Beitelspachers for outstanding service and dedication to 4-H during a ceremony at 3:30 p.m. on August 22nd at the 4-H Exhibits Building.
Goal setting and a strong work ethic are benefits Wayne Beitelspacher believes he gained from his nine years as a Grant Little Giants 4-H Club member. Their children, Kari and Luke, were active members of the same club and the Beitelspachers served as 4-H leaders for the club from 1994-2001.
A project they encouraged their club to begin continues today with the recycling of newspapers. The Grant Little Giants pick up and deliver truck loads of newspapers to be recycled from two area towns each month. The paper is for the Le Mars Community Elementary Schools’ Recycling program.
Wayne Beitelspacher is a member of the Plymouth County Fair Board. He says he loves helping 4-Hers with their livestock projects. Julie has served on the Extension Council and has been active on the Plymouth County 4-H and Youth Committee and other committees. She is a member of the Fair Royalty Committee. She previews the young people who are contestants for Fair Queen and King in interviews on KLEM Radio and works daily at the Fair bringing news of 4-H winners through interviews on KLEM.
Community Garden brings together groups to meet needs
(ORANGE CITY)–Behind the American Reformed Church in Orange City you’ll find a community project that looks beautiful and smells delicious. It’s the Orange City Community Garden. In its second year, the garden has 56, 20 by 20 plots that are cared for by individuals and community groups.
Project Leader Carolyn Yoder says three goals govern the garden.
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Community building and learning from each other has been the strongest asset as many different groups use the garden as an educational tool. Examples include : The Bridge, a transitional housing facility for women in crisis, and Hope Haven, a residential home for young people.
Yoder says that one section of the garden has connected a class of 3rd graders with 2 other groups.
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The Orange City Food Pantry, housed at American Reformed Church, is another non-profit organization that uses the garden to grow winter vegetables for those in need.
If the need arises, adjacent land is available for future expansion of the Orange City Community Garden An orchard has already been planted for next year. (News report by Angela Drake of KLEM News)
Hedge Avenue bridge has restriction
(LE MARS)–Travel is restricted on a bridge northwest of Hinton.
Plymouth County engineer Tom Rohe reports the bridge on Hedge Avenue, just north of 270th Street, has an unstable wing area in the northeast corner of the bridge.
Traffic is restricted to one lane through the bridge. Repairs will be done the week of August 16th.
Chain reaction accident kills semi driver; injures 5
(STORM LAKE)–The driver of a semi was killed in a four-vehicle collision east of Rembrandt early Wednesday afternoon.
A preliminary investigation indicates a car driven by 15-year-old Cole Moens of Albert City drove away from a stop sign at the intersection of Highway 71 and Buena Vista County Road C-25.
The report states Moen struck a semi being driven by 60-year-old Douglas Oldenkamp of Sheldon. The impact caused Moens’ car to be thrown into the path of a car driven by 69-year-old Lee Geisinger of Laurens. The semi driven by Oldenkamp continued north and collided head on with another semi traveling south on Highway 71.
The sheriff’s office reports the collision caused the death of the driver of the second semi. The name won’t be released until relatives are notified.
Moen and his passenger, 15-year-old Branden Bailey, Oldenkamp, Geisinger and his passenger, 52-year-old Alice Geisinger were reported as having serious injuries.
King completes fact-finding mission
(KIRON)–Republican Congressman Steve King has just returned from an overseas trip where he met with members of Afghan’s “Northern Alliance” — a coalition of ethnic and religious groups united by their opposition to the Taliban.
“They fought the Taliban and pushed the Taliban out of Afghanistan. Now they’ve been cut out of the power arrangement in Afghanistan by a Karzi government that is not representative of the people that are represented by the Northern Alliance,” King says.
“I think they need to be back in the mix and I’d like to see a regional representation and perhaps a new constitution emerge in Afghanistan that can better represent the people of the country.” Iran has been one of the main countries backing the Northern Alliance, which controls about five percent of Aghanistan. King says the U.S. should step up its support of these rebels who’re fighting the Taliban and tell the Afghan government not to strike a power-sharing deal with the Taliban.
“The Obama Administration has made some remarks that would indicate they are at least considering such a proposal. If that’s the way we would be trying to extricate ourselves from Afghanistan, it would be a mistake,” King says. “We should remember what the Taliban did when they were in charge in Afghanistan…They are tyrannical people — cruel and evil — and they should not be sharing power with anybody and they should not be in power. And they’re the ones also that allowed al Qaeda to operate within their sphere of influence which brought about the September 11 attacks on us.”
Great Britain has been urging the U.S. to embrace the idea of negotiating a power-sharing arrangement within Afghanistan that would include the Taliban. The meeting King and a handful of other congressmen had with the Afghans was staged in Germany, for security reasons. King and the rest of the congressional delegation also made stops in India.
“India’s an emerging country that needs to be encouraged as an ally of ours…and one that may off-set some of the other powers on the continent,” King says. The congressional delegation visited Thailand, too, going to a northern area of Thailand that’s near Burma.
“Burma is seeking to build a nuclear weapon. They mind uranium there and there’s some mounting evidence that they are starting down the path that Iran started down some years ago. They are a long ways from it, but it looks like they are seeking to develop a nuclear capability,” King says. “So all of this was strategic. It’s important to find out what’s going on in that part of the world. You just can’t get that from reading the paper or from the briefings here at the capitol.” Burma is ruled by military generals who have stomped down rebellions and refused to allow a pro-democracy group take power after it won nationwide elections in 1990. The country is the world’s number one supplier of teak, and is a primary source of rubies, sapphires and jade, but nearly all the 50 million residents of Burma are extremely poor. (News report by Radio Iowa)
Vander Plaats: Iowa justices will be ousted
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A former gubernatorial candidate who is leading an effort to remove Iowa Supreme Court justices who supported a gay marriage decision says he’ll get the financing needed to be successful.
Defeated Republican candidate Bob Vander Plaats expressed optimism at a news conference Wednesday that the effort would succeed in removing Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and justices David Baker and Michael Streit. They were part of a unanimous decision last year that legalized gay marriage in Iowa.
Vander Plaats says his group will be called Iowa for Freedom. He declined to say how much money the group hoped to raise.
Gay rights advocates say they take the effort seriously and expect an expensive and difficult campaign before the November election, when voters will choose whether to retain the justices.
Sioux Falls pumps raw sewage into river again
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether says rain expected later this week could prompt the city to ask residents to conserve even more water to forestall further sewer problems.
Heavy rain on Tuesday forced the city to resume pumping untreated wastewater into the Big Sioux River to take pressure off the sewer system.
At a Wednesday news conference, Huether said 1 to 3 inches of rain is forecast to fall in Sioux Falls Thursday afternoon into Friday. If that happens, he said, residents will likely be asked to stop running washing machines and dishwashers for at least 24 hours, take shorter showers and stop watering lawns.
The city pumped raw sewage into the river for about three days last week after a sewer line collapsed, and Gov. Mike Rounds ordered the river be closed.
Sheriff’s office identifies teen found in creek
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Searchers have identified the body of a teenage girl who died when raging floodwaters swept three cars off a road near Des Moines.
In a news release Wednesday, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office identified the teen as 16-year-old Jessica Nichole Webb of Altoona.
Divers recovered the body about 2:20 p.m. Wednesday, roughly one-tenth of a mile downstream from where her car was found.
Her car and two others were washed off the road between Altoona and Mitchellville shortly after 4 a.m. when Mud Creek surged out of its banks due to heavy rain.
Emergency crews rescued 10 of the 11 people who were in the cars. Many were found clinging to trees and hanging onto logs.
Four people were taken to hospitals. All were expected to survive.
Blown transformer causes Preston sewage discharge
PRESTON, Iowa (AP) The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says a blown transformer has caused the eastern Iowa town of Preston to discharge raw sewage from its main pumping station to South Copper Creek.
The DNR says the discharge began at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
City workers were trying to contain the sewage in the wastewater collection system, but may need to use tankers to haul sewage from the pumping station to the treatment plant. The city is trying to locate a replacement transformer.
The city also lost power to the aeration system at its wastewater treatment plant.
Preston residents are asked to conserve water until the city completes repairs to the wastewater system.
Submit your news release, confidential news tip or news idea by email klemnews@lemarscomm.net, by calling 712.546.4121 or 712.546.9672 fax.
