Long-time MOC-Floyd Valley Band Instructor To Retire
(Orange City) — The longtime band director for a northwest Iowa high school is retiring this month and his band’s final march could set a new world’s record.
Steve Connell is in his last days as director of the Pride of the Dutchmen Marching Band at M-O-C-Floyd Valley Senior High School in Orange City. At this weekend’s tulip festival, all previous band members are being invited to return
to march and play.
After 42 years of waving the baton, Connell is retiring at month’s end, so this will be his final time leading the marching band comprised of current students and alumni.
Based on the cards, letters, emails, phone calls and social media postings, Connell says this year’s band will be like none other and will include many hundreds, perhaps thousands of his former students. He says it could set a new world’s record for pick-up marching band performances.
That song is known as “Championship” and it was originally used on the CBS-TV program “NFL Today” some four decades ago. Connell says the alumni band is a wonderful tradition that’s been enjoyed for decades.
The big band is scheduled to march down Orange City’s Central Avenue at 6:30 P-M Saturday to close out the city’s annual Tulip Festival. Although Connell is leaving the M-OC Floyd Valley High School Band, he won’t be leaving Orange City. He has agreed to help establish a marching band for Northwestern College.
Urbandale Man Sentenced To Life In Prison For Killing Two Police Officers
(Urbandale) — The man accused of killing two Des Moines-area police officers last year has admitted to the shootings.
Scott Michael Greene, at a court hearing this morning , withdrew a not guilty plea submitted back in December. The 46-year-old Greene, who is from Urbandale, then pleaded guilty to the November 2, 2016 ambush-style shooting deaths of
Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin and Des Moines Police Sergeant Tony Beminio.
A trial had been scheduled for this September in Dubuque County. Greene was sentenced today to life in prison.
Judge Signs Off On Correa-Carmenaty Charges
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A judge has signed off on the charges against a man accused of killing a sheriff’s deputy and wounding another while escaping from an Iowa jail.
The Pottawattamie County District judge on Friday also scheduled 24-year- old Wesley Correa-Carmenaty’s arraignment hearing for June 19.
Authorities say Correa-Carmenaty had just been sentenced on May 1 to 45 years in prison in an unrelated murder case when he managed to grab one of the deputies’ guns while being transferred to a Council Bluffs jail. He shot them both and used the jail van to escape.
He was recaptured after authorities say he carjacked a woman at gunpoint and forced her to drive to Omaha, Nebraska.
Correa-Carmenaty is charged with murder, attempted murder, escape, kidnapping and other counts.
Prison Reveals More Information About Drug Usage Among Inmates
FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) – Eighteen inmates were disciplined on suspicion of using or possessing synthetic drugs at the Iowa State Penitentiary during a dangerous outbreak that has been contained.
Disciplinary records show inmates who smoked powerful synthetic marijuana acted violently, vomited, screamed and hurt themselves falling. One suffered a seizure, one had to be sprayed with chemicals and several had to be transported
in wheelchairs for treatment.
Inmates used everything from batteries to razor parts as heat sources to smoke the drugs, which were concealed inside foil and latex glove fingers. One inmate made a pipe from a playing card.
The incidents happened between March 22 and May 5. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lettie Prell says the prison, which tightened its security for mail and visitors, doesn’t expect any more cases. Inmates were punished with detention and loss of earned time.
University Of Iowa Settles Lawsuit
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The University of Iowa will pay $6.5 million to settle discrimination lawsuits filed by former athletic administrator Jane Meyer and her partner, former women’s field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum.
The school agreed in settlements released Friday to pay Meyer $2.33 million, Griesbaum $1.49 million and $2.68 million to the Des Moines law firm that represented them.
Jurors this month found that school officials discriminated against Meyer based on her gender and sexual orientation, retaliated against her for speaking out and paid her less than a male counterpart. They awarded $1.45 million in damages in what advocates for women in college athletics called a landmark
verdict.
The settlement avoids a June trial in a lawsuit brought by Griesbaum, whose 2014 firing by athletic director Gary Barta was center to both cases.
