DES MOINES – A northwest Iowa student is one of seven Iowa finalists for Presidential Scholar.
The Presidential Scholars program recognizes the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.
Among the students selected as a semifinalist for the U-S Department of Education Presidential Scholars program is Maxwell De Jong of Rock Rapids. De Jong is a senior at Central Lyon High School. Other students in Iowa are from schools in Ankeny, Iowa City, Fairfield, and Clear Lake.
The Commission on U-S Presidential Scholars will meet this month to review the semifinalists’ applications and select the Scholars.
(LE MARS) Three people are free on bond after their arrest when a Plymouth County Sheriff’s Deputy checked on a vehicle.
The sheriff’s office reports the vehicle was stopped along Highway Three in West Le Mars just after midnight Sunday.
The deputy reported smelling marijuana and all three people inside had plastic bags containing a green leafy substance.
Those charged with possession of a controlled substance include 20-year-old Dakota Birdhead Boettger of Akron; 19-year-old Justin Lee Jolin of Westfield; and 18-year-old Austin Dennis Dewey of Sioux Falls.
(LE MARS) The fields where the youngest Little League teams play should be dryer.
Le Mars City Administrator Scott Langel says a list of city projects proceeding includes a storm sewer extension. The work is along Ninth Avenue Southwest at the Little League Pee Wee fields. Langel says the goal is to drain the water on the playing surface more quickly.
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Langel says the fields get inundated from rainfall and the Little Leaguers can’t use the fields until they’re dry.
(SIOUX CITY) The Briar Cliff University valedictorian is from Cherokee.
Kallyn Buschkamp is a chemistry and math major who plans to attend graduate school next fall at the University of Iowa. Buschkamp is the son of Mark and Carolyn Buschkamp of Cherokee.
Commencement at Briar Cliff is May 21st at 10 in the morning at the Orpheum Theatre in Sioux City.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Part of a bridge that was being torn down in Fort Dodge has collapsed, injuring two workers.
Fort Dodge Fire Chief David Luers says the workers were beginning to remove part of the deck on the U.S. Highway 169 bridge Monday morning when the deck collapsed and fell about 20 feet.
Two people standing on the deck were hurt and taken to a local hospital.
Luers says the center portion of the bridge had already been removed and the workers were on the south end.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Gov. Terry Branstad is defending his veto of a tax break for low-income workers, saying his focus is on tax cuts that create jobs.
Branstad told reporters at a news conference Monday that he would go to Osage to welcome a new venture he says will create 89 jobs. He says the opening by chemical company Valent BioSciences Corporation shows his plans to cut business taxes help people in the long run, though he acknowledged planned cuts didn’t specifically result in this development.
Branstad says he’ll continue pushing lawmakers to cut commercial property taxes and reduce the corporate income tax.
Democrats have argued Branstad favors businesses over people and have pointed to his veto of a measure aimed at reducing taxes for lower paid workers.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) Gov. Terry Branstad is asking the Iowa Board of Regents to delay approval of a proposed public policy center honoring U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin at Iowa State University.
The regents are expected to consider approving the Harkin Institute during a meeting in Ames on Wednesday. The institute would store Harkin’s papers from his long career and study policy matters related to the Democrat’s legislative agenda such as agriculture and international development.
One Republican state senator last week questioned whether the center would give Harkin an unfair political advantage while he’s still in office.
And Branstad, a Republican, told reporters on Monday he believes the regents should delay approval of the center until three of his appointees join the board next month. Harkin’s wife, Ruth, is one of 9 current members.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The mystery town involved in a racial profiling settlement this month has been revealed after its mayor confirmed his town had struck a deal with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.
Sergeant Bluff Mayor Dale Peterson confirmed Friday that his city recently reached an agreement with the commission.
The commission announced it reached a settlement with a town of about 4,000 residents and a high Latino population that shielded its identity in exchange for policies meant to end racial profiling by police.
The commission’s executive director, Beth Townsend, said the commission was more interested in stopping profiling than identifying the city, but The Gazette in Cedar Rapids is reporting that officials in other cities say the state should have been more transparent to avoid confusion.
CLINTON, Iowa (AP) A fried chicken restaurant in Iowa founded by Flavor Flav (flayv) has abruptly closed its doors after the reality TV star and his business partner cut ties and exchanged harsh words.
Flav’s Fried Chicken in Clinton, Iowa, closed on Sunday, just four months after opening to much fanfare.
Flav told WQAD-TV that he was pulling a license that allowed restaurant manager Nick Cimino to use his name in the restaurant because he “isn’t running the business right.” Some former employees had complained they were not paid.
Cimino told the station Flav was “a fraud” who was trying to get rich off of his ideas and work.
Flav, a founder of the hip-hop group Public Enemy and later a star of VH1’s “The Surreal Life,” opened the business with Cimino in January.
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) Police say a 50-year-old man may have suffered a medical problem before the car he was driving ran into the Cedar River in Waterloo.
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier says police identified the driver as Ronald Fluhr, of Waterloo.
Police say Fluhr was using his cellphone when the accident occurred about 12:40 p.m. Sunday. The person he was talking to called authorities.
Fluhr’s car sped across several lanes of traffic and went down an embankment into the river. Police estimated the car was going 70 mph when it left the road.
The car was pulled from the river several hours later, and Fluhr’s body was found inside.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A 40-year-old man who bought a gun for a friend who used it to kill a Des Moines woman and himself is facing federal prison time.
According to Des Moines television station KCCI, William Daniels II last week pleaded guilty to lying to a gun dealer about who the gun was for.
Daniels gave the gun to 25-year-old Robert Sears. In October, Sears used the gun to kill his former girlfriend, 24-year-old Carrie Russell, and himself. Sears also wounded another woman.
Russell had taken out a protection order against Sears, which meant Sears couldn’t buy a gun.
Daniels’ sentencing is scheduled for July 22.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Federal officials say they’re concerned about rising infection rates at outpatient surgical centers, but Iowa figures are hard to come by because Iowa is among seven states that don’t license the centers.
According to The Des Moines Register, the state’s 26 Medicare-certified surgical centers are inspected once every three years, but there are an unknown number of surgical centers in Iowa that don’t take Medicare patients.
The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals has unsuccessfully proposed mandatory licensing of the centers.
Private accrediting organizations that are paid by the centers inspect many of them in Iowa.
The national Ambulatory Surgical Center Association says it has been urging the federal government to establish a uniform quality reporting system.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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