(AKRON)–Her humor-seasoned Akron area community news was wrapped around a great recipe weekly on KLEM.
Peggy Searls, the host of KLEM Radio’s Akron News, “Bits and Wit” died Sunday at the age of 86 at the Akron Care Center. Until she moved to the Care Center this fall, Peggy Searls’ Akron News program was recorded for broadcast each Thursday morning in a phone call from the home she affectionately called “Nightmare Manor.”
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Peggy repeated this each week.
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Peggy’s time on the air is gone, but her wit and recipes will be always be remembered. Powell Broadcasting and KLEM Radio extend sympathy to Peggy’s family. Funeral arrangements for Peggy Searls of Akron are under the direction of the Carlsen Funeral Home-Schroeder Chapel in Akron.
Beef weigh-in numbers are up
(LE MARS)–Wonderful weather and greater numbers Saturday mark the start of some livestock projects for the 2011 Plymouth County Fair.
Carol Schneider is the livestock superintendent for the Plymouth County Fair and Extension Coordinator. Schneider says young people enthused about their livestock project took 100 head of market beef across the scale at the fairgrounds. According to Schneider, the market beef weigh-in number is up from previous years.
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Schneider says it was great to see young people still recognize the importance of livestock production and are going to experience it firsthand.
Some 4-Hers and F-F-A members may use the starting weights for shows beyond the 2011 Fair.
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Up to six head of market beef could be identified by each 4-H or F-F-A member.
Fleeing driver is wanted in Florida
(HAWARDEN)–An Akron man is behind bars after a pursuit in two counties early Saturday morning.
The Sioux County Sheriff’s office reports a deputy tried to stop a vehicle to investigate erratic driving two miles south of Hawarden.
The driver did not stop and a pursuit began on Highway 12 into Plymouth County. According to the report, Akron Police and the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office forced the vehicle to stop at 140th Street and Highway 12, one mile north of Akron.
Twenty-seven-year-old David Albertson IV of Akron was charged with felony eluding while intoxicated, operating while intoxicated, driving without a license, and speeding.
Albertson is being held in the Sioux County Jail pending extradition to Florida where he is charged with felony forgery.
Hawarden Police also assisted authorities.
Fire alarms triggered twice
(LE MARS)–Le Mars fire fighters found smoke at two locations where fire alarms went off in the last two days.
Le Mars Fire-Rescue chief David Schipper reported smoke was in the battery compressor room at Cloverleaf Cold Storage on 18th Street Southwest around one Sunday morning. This room is the engine room and ammonia storage area.
With help from the Cloverleaf staff, compressor motors and equipment were shut down. The roof exhaust fans were activated for ventillation.
The cause of the smoke was determined to be a compressor motor that had seized and burned. There was no other damage to the room or cold storage building.
Fire fighters were out on the call for about an hour.
This morning, a fire alarm at Good Samaritan Society-Le Mars on Highway Three was sounded at 4:30. The alarm was in the Cottage Room dining area. Light smoke was found from burnt toast.
Schipper reports Good Samaritan Society staff “did an excellent job of securing the fire and following emergency procedures.” No residents had to be evacuated.
Supreme Court decision raises questions about inconsistent verdicts
(Des Moines)–An Iowa Supreme Court decision has raised questions about the way the state’s judges will handle inconsistent jury verdicts. The high court ruled last week that a jury was inconsistent in 2008 when they convicted David Halstead of Sioux City of assault while committing a felony, but acquitted him of the underlying felony theft charge. Kevin Cmelik with the Attorney General’s office says these kinds of verdicts are not uncommon and Iowa and most other states have allowed them to stand.
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Cmelik says the ruling raises new questions for Judges.
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Cmelik says it is not clear yet whether this ruling will be applied retroactively. He says that question will undoubtedly be raised during someone else’s appeal. (News report by Radio Iowa)
Officials identify man killed in Marengo fire
MARENGO, Iowa (AP) Officials have identified the man killed in a weekend apartment fire in Marengo.
Television station KWWL reports that 43-year-old Neal Duncan died in the Sunday morning fire in downtown.
Alford Arends says she will remember her cousin as a loving person who rode all over town on a bicycle.
Arends says she feels lucky just to be alive after the fire because she and her husband were also in the building.
Seven adults who lived in the apartment complex were left homeless after the fire.
Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the fire.
Cedar Rapids police look for missing Iowa girl
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Cedar Rapids police are looking for a 5-year-old girl who has been missing since Friday morning.
Police told television station KGAN that Jasmine Gomez left home with her father Friday but wasn’t returned to her mother.
Gomez is 3-feet-tall and about 70 pounds. She may be wearing a black snowsuit, brown snow boots and carrying a pink backpack.
ISU researcher says wind turbines may help crops
AMES, Iowa (AP) An Iowa State University researcher says the wind turbines that have popped across Iowa may be good for the corn and soybean fields that surround them.
Gene Takle, a professor of geological and atmospheric science, says it appears the turbines may help moderate ground level temperatures, blow away moisture that can grow fungi, and stir up the air, exposing plants to more growth-promoting carbon dioxide.
The Des Moines Register says Takle presented his findings last week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Takle conducted his study last summer, collecting wind fluctuation, temperature change and carbon dioxide levels from fields near the turbines.
A laser also was used to determine the turbines create turbulence 250 high and a quarter-mile downwind.
Iowa auditor wants nonprofit to repay nearly $40K
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa’s auditor says a nonprofit group that helps the elderly and disabled should repay $38,607 to the state because the Central Iowa Center for Independent Living didn’t keep good records.
State Auditor David Vaudt says the group failed to fully document the work it did for Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation.
The money in question was supposed to pay for the nonprofit group to help disabled people in central Iowa between July 2008 and July 2009.
The nonprofit group does have time cards for the employees who worked on the project, but Vaudt says those records don’t have enough detail.
The nonprofit group’s director, Robert Jeppesen, told the Des Moines Register he’s worried that his 2008 criticism of the head of Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation may have prompted the records examination.
Chemical fight against shad in Iowa lake working
KEOSAUQUA, Iowa (AP) A state biologist says efforts to rid Lake Sugema of gizzard shad appears to be working.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources pumped the chemical rotenone into the Van Buren County lake last month in an attempt to kill the destructive shad. Mark Flammang told the Burlington Hawk Eye that so far, the plan is working. A final determination won’t be made until at least spring.
Officials have said a low-dose application of the chemical is supposed to create a drawn-out fish kill targeting the gizzard shad. That would spare as many game fish as possible in the southeastern Iowa lake, which contains largemouth bass, bluegill, walleye, muskie, crappies and catfish.
Flammang says some game fish have been lost, but that’s better than having to drain the lake.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Submit your news release, confidential news tip or news idea by email klemnews@lemarscomm or by calling 712.546.4121 or 712.546.9672 fax.
