(LE MARS) A Le Mars employer is being recognized for support of civilian soldiers.
Iowa Army National Guard retired Col. Jack Guenthner of Le Mars Friday honored Nor-Am Cold Storage President and CEO Greg Brandt and General Manager Dan Casey with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve plaques and lapel pins.
Guenthner said the day shift supervisor at Nor-Am, Andrew Schultz, nominated his employer. Schultz is a Staff Sergeant with the 185th Air Guard based in Sioux City who is on active duty now.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/January2011/ESGRNORAM.mp3{/audio}
Another Nor-Am employee, dock worker Jason Kinney (kin-ee), is in Afghanistan serving in the Iowa Army National Guard.
Casey communicates with Schultz through emails. Nor-Am co-workers also use Facebook to keep in contact.
This is Guenthner’s 10th year of volunteering for the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) program.
The 2011 Tulip Festivals Night Show is Godspell, auditions are being held soon
(Orange City) Auditions are being held for Orange City’s night show January 24th-27th. This years show is a departure from the standard Rogers and Hammerstien musicals you’re used to seeing at Night Show. The musical that has been selected is Godspell. Co-director Nancy Landegent says that it’s a show that people will put a song in the heads of those who see it.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/January2011/Night Show 2011 1.mp3{/audio}
In addition to the unique songs and plot, another differentiation of Godspell is that the cast is much smaller than what Night Show productions typically encompass. The 14 member cast that directors Nancy Landegent, Leanne Bonnecroy and Melody De Wit are looking for will be made up of men and women, high school age and older.
Auditions will be held Monday, January 24th, Tuesday the 25th and Thursday the 27th from 7-9pm at in the Library of Unity Christian High School in Orange City. Landegent said that those auditioning should bring a prepared solo.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/January2011/Night Show 2011 2.mp3{/audio}
An accompanist will be provided.
Godspell was last done on the Orange City Stage in 1975 for the Night Show, and was put on by Northwestern College.
New Eye Doctor in Le Mars
(Le Mars)– There’s a new optometrist in town. Dr. Cheryl Bronner joined the team at Groetken Family Eye Care this fall, and has decided to make LeMars her professional home.
Most recently Dr. Bronner owned a practice in Colorado where the focus of her work was on contacts.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/January2011/Dr. Bronner 1.mp3{/audio}
Bronner also worked on a few FDA studies while in Colorado. She is now practicing general optometry with Dr. Groetken, and her focus is still on contacts.
Cheryl Bronner is originally from Sioux Center, and it was husbands job brought her back to this area of Iowa. They have made Spencer home, but she is excited to be working in Le Mars at Groetken Family Eye Care.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/January2011/Dr. Bronner 2.mp3{/audio}
Dr. Groetken and Dr. Bronner met at optometry school in California.
The Green Hornet has roots in radio
(SIOUX CITY)–A movie premiering this weekend has its roots in a successful radio program.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/January2011/hornet1.mp3{/audio}
Larry Fuller and Don Miller of Sioux City, co-host Nostalgia Theater on our sister station, KSCJ Radio, Saturday mornings.
Fuller explains a Detroit radio station’s general manager patterned “The Green Hornet,” after the successful “Lone Ranger” radio show. Instead of chasing outlaws, the Green Hornet fought political corruption. Fuller recalls the shows had a lot of similarities.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/January2011/hornet2.mp3{/audio}
The Green Hornet’s first episode was broadcast in 1936 and the broadcasts continued until 1952. Then there were reruns.
Fuller listened while growing up.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/January2011/hornet3.mp3{/audio}
The show changed with the times.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/January2011/hornet4.mp3{/audio}
Fuller and Miller will offer a Green Hornet episode during the 10 o’clock hour of “Nostalgia Theater” on KSCJ this morning.
Culver commutes sentences of 2 inmates
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Gov. Chet Culver, in his final day in office, commuted the sentences of two prison inmates, making them eligible for parole.
Culver yesterday commuted the sentences of Sheila Mae Schertz and John Lowery.
Schertz was convicted of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree murder and second-degree theft in a killing of man and the kidnapping of another man in Davenport in 1981. She completed the sentences for murder and theft, but is serving a life sentence for kidnapping.
Lowery is serving 25 years for first-degree robbery in Polk County in 1997. He must serve 85 percent of the sentence.
Culver says his decision in Schertz’s case is based, in part, on disparities in her sentencing compared to others involved in the crime. Culver says a mandatory sentence in Lowery’s case is “overly harsh.”
Culver taps Reidel for district judgeship
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Outgoing Gov. Chet Culver appointed a Muscatine lawyer to become a district judge in eastern Iowa’s 7th Judicial District.
A news release from the governor’s office said that Tom Reidel has been practicing since 1992. He received his law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law.
The job opened up with Judge J. Hobart Darbyshire retired.
The 7th Judicial District covers Jackson, Clinton, Scott, Cedar and Muscatine counties.
Branstad vows to cut Iowa state spending, taxes
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Newly installed Gov. Terry Branstad is promising to slash state spending and reform Iowa’s education system.
In his inaugural address, Branstad argued for a smaller and better-managed government.
Speaking about schools, he said the quality of Iowa’s education system had gone down and that the state needs first-rate teachers in every classroom.
Branstad’s inauguration completed a remarkable return to politics after more than a decade away from government. He defeated Democratic Gov. Chet Culver in November and now starts his fifth term as chief executive.
Branstad served as governor from 1983 to 1999. His election follows 12 years of Democratic control of the governor’s office.
Besides electing Branstad, voters gave Republicans a House majority. Democrats still narrowly control the Senate.
No charges in white deer shooting in Iowa
AURORA, Iowa (AP) State officials say no charges will be filed against a hunter who killed a white deer in a park in northeast Iowa.
White deer are protected in Iowa, but the Department of Natural Resources says the deer was a fallow deer, which is a non-native species and not under any protection.
The deer was shot Jan. 9 in Jakway Park.
According to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, officials say the deer showed scarred tissue in an ear, indicating it had been tagged, which suggests it may have come from a game farm.
The department says there are dozens of licensed game farms across Iowa, and those animals are classified as domestic livestock under Iowa law.
Film company owner pleads guilty to theft
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) One of the owners of a Minneapolis-based film company that has been the subject of an investigation into improperly spent state tax credits has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
The Iowa attorney general’s office says 25-year-old Chase Brandau pleaded guilty yesterday to second-degree theft, which is punishable by five years in prison.
Brandau and three other people own Polynation Pictures.
Charges against Zachary LeBeau were dropped in exchange for his cooperation in the investigation into the Iowa Film Office. Matthias Saunders pleaded guilty to first-degree theft in November.
Trial for Wendy Weiner Runge is set for Feb. 7 in Polk County. She is charged with first-degree theft, three counts of fraudulent practice in the first degree and one count of ongoing criminal conduct.
Cady says he doesn’t regret gay marriage ruling
JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady says he has no regrets about the court’s decision striking down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, even though it led voters to remove three justices who joined in the unanimous decision.
Speaking on the Iowa Public Television program, “Iowa Press,” Cady argued that the removal of the justices showed the need for the court to be more outspoken and open about its mission. Cady says his appearance on the public events program was his first step in that effort.
Some have called for changing how Iowa appoints justices, but Cady says it would be wrong to force judges to campaign like politicians.
If the public understands how the court operates, Cady says he’s confident voters will support it.
Dubuque man sentenced to 50 years for shootout
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) A Dubuque man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for a robbery of a Dubuque bar and a shootout that injured a police officer.
The Telegraph Herald reports that 72-year-old Eddie Chest was sentenced Friday. He pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and entered an Alford Plea to attempted murder.
By entering an Alford plea, Chest didn’t admit guilt but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him.
Each charge carries a 25-year prison sentence.
Chest and his son, Eddie Adams, were arrested following a robbery at a saloon in December 2009.
Police Lt. Scott Baxter suffered multiple gunshot wounds in a shootout with Chest and Adams outside the bar but recovered.
Chest also was injured.
Adams is facing similar charges.
Indiana businessman agrees to $3M fraud settlement
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) An Indiana businessman has agreed to pay $3 million and never run a public company again to settle allegations by regulators that he carried out three separate fraud schemes over 5 years.
The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged yesterday that Lowell Hancher defrauded investors in a Colorado construction company, manipulated the stock price of the holding company of a classic car manufacturer, and abused his position on an Iowa company’s board to misappropriate funds.
Its complaint in federal court in Iowa says Hancher used some of the money for personal expenses, including credit card and mortgage payments.
Hancher doesn’t admit wrongdoing under the settlement, but he agreed to pay back nearly $2.4 million in proceeds, a $130,000 civil penalty, and $600,000 in interest.
His attorney didn’t immediately return a message.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
