School Starts For Le Mars Community And Gehlen Catholic
(Le Mars) — Today marks the first day of school for both Le Mars Community and
Gehlen Catholic. At Le Mars Community High School, principal Mark Iverson says
students will see three new faces as instructors.
Iverson says his colleague Steve Shanks at the Le Mars Community Middle School
found a replacement for the former science teacher Dave Winslow, and Scott Parry
will have new faces at Kleckholn elementary school.
Meanwhile, at the Clark and Franklin schools, students will notice a new principal
greeting them. Pat Kruger has been hired to serve as principal for the two
elementary schools.
At Gehlen Catholic, there are nine new instructors, and three new staff members.
In addition to the teachers, Father Mauro Sanchez will serve as the chaplain.
Bollin Honored As “Employee Of The Month”
(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Chamber of Commerce honored its August “Employee of the
Month” today (Wednesday) during a Chamber coffee event held at Langel’s Electric.
Dennis Bollin was nominated by the employees of Lanel’s Electric. The nomination
states: Dennis has shown outstanding dedication to the company as the Service
Manager for Langel’s Electric since he joined the company in March of 2009. In
addition to his duties as Service Manager, he also oversees all of the safety
programs and handles all human resource duties for the company. Dennis strives to
provide a positive experience for every customer of Langel’s Electric, from the
time of the initial contact at the office, through the completion of the job. He
is also the “go-to” person for employees who may have questions on a wide variety
of topics related to their employment. Our congratulations go to Dennis Bollin
for being honored as the Chamber’s “Employee of the Month” for August.
SIDS Walk Scheduled For Saturday
(Le Mars) — Tom and Pam Jenery had noticed their four month old boy was no longer
breathing after they had placed the young infant in his crib for a night’s sleep.
The incident happened back in 1983. Little Steve Jenery had become one of several
thousand infants each year that fall victim to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or
simply SIDS. Since that time, the Jenery’s have become active with the SIDS
foundation, by informing others of the mysterious ailment that strikes infants
generally between two months to six months of age. The Jenery’s have also
organized events to raise money for SIDS research. Pam Jenery says usually once
infants reach one year of age, they are no longer as likely to die from SIDS.
After all these years, doctors are still uncertain as to what causes infants to
die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. However, Pam Jenery says doctors have
discovered some ways to reduce the onset of SIDS.
SIDS is not caused by suffocation, vomiting, or choking, and is not caused by
immunizations. Jenery explains what happens when an infant baby is stricken with
SIDS.
Jenery says the syndrome can strike any infant at anytime. However, for what ever
reason, infant boys are more suceptible than infant girls. According to Jenery,
statistics show that one of every one thousand infants is striken with Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome.
Jenery says upon the birth of their third child, she would do like most other
parents and constantly check to see if the baby would be breathing, often times
waking the child during the middle of the night.
There will be a SIDS awareness walk scheduled for Saturday morning with
registration at 8:30 a.m. at the Willow Creek Golf Course in Le Mars to help raise
funds and awareness. Jenery says the registration fee is $30 for adults and $12
for children, and with your registration, participants will receive a t-shirt.
Jenery says Le Mars is one of many sites across the state with a scheduled
Saturday SIDS memorial walk.
The annual SIDS memorial walk is about two miles. Walks will be held in Ankeny,
Bettendorf, Cedar Rapids, Mason City, Washington, What Cheer and Le Mars.
Missing Body Found
HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) – The body of a man who was swept beneath a Missouri River
barge near Hamburg, Iowa, has been recovered from the river just south of the
state border in Missouri.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the body of 42-year-old Jason
Grayson was recovered Wednesday downstream from Hamburg.
Grayson, of Elliot, Iowa, had been missing since Sunday, when the boat he was
in lost power and was swept under a barge moored to the bank of the Missouri
River. The operator of the boat, 47-year-old Johnnie Fields, of Shenandoah, was
able to swim beneath the barge and then was rescued by people along the riverbank.
The 16-foot aluminum fishing boat was recovered Tuesday night.
Body Recovered After Being Swept By Flash Flooding
LAWLER, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have recovered the body of a man who had called
911 to report his car being swept up in floodwaters as storms deluged northeast
Iowa.
The man’s body was found just before 1 p.m. Wednesday less than half a mile from where his car was found just north of Lawler.
The Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office says the man’s body was found on the
ground where floodwaters from the Little Turkey River had receded. The man’s name
has not been released pending notification of his family.
Officials say the driver had called 911 around 4:40 a.m. to say he had been
swept off the roadway. Authorities later found his vehicle, but could not
immediately find the driver.
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Prosecutor Wonders How Lottery Official Fixed The Game
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa prosecutor looking further into how a former
lottery computer security administrator in Iowa fixed lottery games in several
states is asking a judge for subpoenas to search telephone and bank records of two
Texas attorneys.
Assistant Iowa Attorney General Rob Sand filed documents Tuesday in the cases
of Eddie Tipton and his brother Tommy Tipton. They’re charged with conspiring to
rig and collect winnings from lottery games in Colorado, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and
Kansas worth about $2 million.
Sand seeks subpoenas for J. Thad Whisenant, a Houston lawyer and Luis
Vallejo, a criminal defense attorney in La Grange, Texas.
Whisenant and Vallejo aren’t charged with any crime. They didn’t immediately
respond to messages.
Sand cites phone calls and financial dealings related to Tommy Tipton as
justification for the subpoenas.
Des Moines Hospital Concerned About Infection For Heart Patients
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A Des Moines hospital is alerting about 2,600 people who
had open-heart surgery there from 2012 to 2015 that they might have been exposed
to a bacterial infection.
Two of the former Mercy Medical Center patients have been diagnosed with an infection with the germs, called non-tuber-cu-lous myco-bacteria.
Iowa Department of Public Health medical director Patricia Quinlisk described
the germ as “a cousin to tuberculosis, but it’s much less potent and much more
slow-growing.”
She says University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics issued a similar warning
earlier this year. Quinlisk says people who undergo the heart procedures tend to
have weak immune systems.
Mercy Medical Center says the bacteria could have spread from a heart-lung
bypass machine used in heart surgery.
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