CODY BENEFIT
Le Mars Police have organized a benefit fundraiser for one of their own.
Declynn Cody is the 5-year old daughter of Chad and Wendy Cody. She was diagnosed with stomach cancer late last year, and is undergoing a one year program of chemo and radiation treatments.
Officer Bob Rohmiller is helping organize a fundraiser to take place Saturday in Brunsville.
Police Chief Kevin Vande Vegte says they want to relieve some of the pressure on the family as they deal with Declynn’s cancer.
Chief Vande Vegte says they want to help out the family, as they make adjustments to care for their daughter.
Officer Rohmiller says the fundraiser will take place Saturday afternoon in Brunsville,
Rohmiller says the Cody family faces financial hardships while they help Declynn with her cancer treatments.
Chief Vande Vegte says they will stand by the Cody’s in their time of need.
Declynn can’t attend kindergarten or daycare because of her compromised immune system. Her father, Chad, will stay home with her through her treatments.
FIRE EQUIPMENT DONATION
A Le Mars firm has donated funds for a fire vehicle that’s essential to fighting field fires.
Total Motors presented a check for 20-thousand dollars to Le Mars Fire/Rescue.for a brush/grass fire pickup. Mitch Christoffel, General Manager of Total Motors, says they also found a late model, one-ton pickup for the department. Le Mars Fire/Rescue Chief Dave Schipper says a brush truck is an essential piece of firefighting equipment, and they decided a second brush truck was needed. Department members talked last month about obtaining a second brush truck. The need became more urgent when a field fire on Saturday, April 23, destroyed Merrill’s brush truck. It’s two occupants were able to escape the flames without injury. Le Mars Fire/Rescue started a fund-raising campaign on April 26, with a goal of 50-thousand dollars. That will pay for the truck, and for the equipment to complete it.
FOOD PRIZE WINNER
The winner of the 2022 World Food Prize is a senior research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. World Food Prize President, Barbara Stinson, made the announcement Thursday.
The Food Prize was created by Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug, and is based in Des Moines. Stinson says Rosenzweig has been involved in agriculture for several decades.
She says Rosenzweig’s work has provided the evidence used by thousands of decision-makers in more than 90 countries to both mitigate and adapt to climate change in local, national and global food systems
Rosenzweig is a New York native and her late husband got started in agriculture while living in Italy. They returned to New York and started a farm where they grew sweet corn, Indian corn and cucumbers for pickling.
Rosenzweig is the 52nd person to receive the World Food Prize. She will receive the 250-thousand-dollar prize at a ceremony at the Iowa State Capitol on October 21st.
REYNOLDS COMPROMISE
Governor Kim Reynolds is not revealing details, but Reynolds says she may agree to adjustments in her plan to provide state scholarships to some parents who enroll their child in private or religious schools. All but one Republican in the state senate has endorsed the idea of providing 10-thousand of these scholarships for private schooling, but it currently lacks the votes to pass the Republican led Iowa House.
Reynolds says she has meetings every single day as she tries round up votes.
Reynolds says as she meets with superintendents who oppose state scholarships for private schooling, she’s been expressing support for public schools AND explaining how other states are spending tax dollars on charter schools as well as private and religious schools.
A formula originally established in state law in the 1970s is used to distribute state tax dollars to public schools on a per pupil basis.
Reynolds made her comments during a brief question and answer session with reporters in her statehouse office.
CAPITOL RIOT PLEA
An Iowa man has pleaded guilty to assaulting a policeman during the riot at the U.S. Capitol last year on January 6th.
Thirty-eight-year-old Kyle Young of Redfield pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers and faces a maximum sentence of eight years in federal prison.
Court documents indicate Young aimed a strobe light at a police line and was part of a group that spearheaded the beating of D-C Metro Officer Michael Fanone on the Capitol steps. Fanone suffered a heart attack after being repeatedly shocked with his own taser.
Fanone identified Young in a line up as an attacker who threatened to kill him with his own police gun.
MARIACHI BAND
Sioux City North High School is the latest Iowa school to add a mariachi band to its extracurricular offerings and 20 students performed their first mariachi concert Thursday on Cinco de Mayo. Junior Jose Vallodalid (vee-ah-dow-LEED) is among the 20 performers and says he feels privileged to go to a school that embraces the music he hears in his home.
Hispanic and Latino students make up the majority of North High School’s student body. Band director Kamal Talukder (kah-MOL tah-LOOK-dur) says they added the musical group after seeing Denison Community School District’s band perform.
Talukder says it’s a way for these students to connect with their culture and he notes, many kids in the band grew up listening to the songs they now get to perform.
Sioux City North is part of a growing number of Iowa schools embracing the traditional Mexican music form. Schools in Storm Lake, Ottumwa, and West Liberty have all begun mariachi programs in the last five years.
IOWA ASTRONAUT RETURNS
A 44-year-old Iowan has returned to earth from the International Space Station. Splashdown off the coast of Florida was just before midnight last night. Colonel Raja Chari joined three of his fellow astronauts on yesterday’s flight home. They spent six months completing their mission on the space station. Space-X ferried them home on the nearly 24-hour flight.
