ALERT :
- 6/18/13; West Hancock vs. Corwith Wesley Luverne Baseball will play varsity first at 5:45 p.m. No JV. :
Iowa News
RIVER DROWNING Man drowns in eastern Iowa river Sunday (Information in the following story is from: KCRG-TV, http://www.kcrg.com) MAQUOKETA, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a man drowned in an eastern Iowa river Sunday after his small boat capsized. KCRG reports the man drowned in the Wapsipinicon River about five miles south of the town of Wyoming, Iowa. The Jones County Sheriff’s office says 60-year-old Douglas Berkhoff and 52-year-old Wylie Tredway were fishing together before the accident. Neither man was wearing a life jacket. Officials say emergency responders pulled Tredway from the water shortly after they arrived but could not revive him. He died at the scene. Berkhoff was taken to a hospital in Maquoketa for treatment of injuries that aren’t expected to be life threatening.
OFFICERS ASSAULTED Iowa man hurts 3 Dubuque officers before arrest (Information in the following story is from: KCRG-TV, http://www.kcrg.com) DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) – A 26-year-old Iowa man is facing several charges after injuring three Dubuque police officers who tried to arrest him. KCRG reports the officers were injured Saturday afternoon while they responded to a report of a domestic assault. When officers Jake Sellers and Carin Tobin arrived at the home where the assault was reported, they confronted Ronald Gasaway Junior. Police say Gasaway head-butted both officers and broke their noses before fleeing. As Gasaway ran away, he ran into Lieutenant Steve Radloff and knocked him backward. Radloff suffered a concussion. Then Gasaway was apprehended. He is being held in lieu of $20,000 bond. He is suspected of domestic abuse and assaulting three police officers.
IOWA CHURCH FIRE Fire destroys unused church in south-central Iowa (Information in the following story is from: The Daily Iowegian, http://www.dailyiowegian.com) CENTERVILLE, Iowa (AP) – Investigators in south-central Iowa are trying to determine what caused a fire that destroyed an old, unused church in a rural area. The Daily Iowegian reports that the Sharon Chapel Church was destroyed Sunday morning. The church is about seven miles southeast of Centerville. The Appanoose County Sheriff’s office says a criminal investigation is being conducted into the fire that was reported shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday. Firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze for several hours. Officials say the wooden church had not been used regularly for several years. The church was built in the mid-to-late 1800s. AG EDUCATION-BUDGET CUTS Iowa group that promotes agriculture loses funding (Information in the following story is from:
KWWL-TV, http://www.kwwl.com) WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – An eastern Iowa nonprofit that promotes agricultural education and preservation has lost most of its funding because of Congressional gridlock over the budget. Waterloo television station KWWL reports that the Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area lost about three-quarters of its funding because the latest short-term budget resolution didn’t include money for the National Park Service to review the group. Organization president Don Short says he was surprised to learn his group had lost funding. Short says his group will continue operating but will have to make changes. Silos and Smokestacks helps more than one hundred eastern Iowa farms, museums, and nature areas. It also helps educate area students about farming and agriculture.
DROUGHT WORKSHOPS-VILSACK US Ag secretary attends regional drought workshops OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – The Agriculture Department is planning a series of four regional workshops in areas hard hit by the drought to make sure farmers know about resources available to help them. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack plans to attend the first workshop on Tuesday in Omaha, Nebraska. The other three workshops are being planned in Pueblo, Colorado, Pine Bluff, Arkansas and an undetermined town in Ohio. This summer’s drought has been the worst one in decades. Experts at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln say about one-fifth of the total land area in the lower 48 states remains in extreme or exceptional drought. The USDA is working with the Commerce Department, the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to plan these meetings.
SWEET SUCCESS Iowa ice cream maker wants bigger scoop of sales (Information in the following story is from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com) LE MARS, Iowa (AP) – The family that owns Wells Enterprises wants to grow the Iowa company into the nation’s largest ice cream maker by 2020. CEO Mike Wells has already seen company sales improve 24 percent to $1.175 billion during his first five years leading the Le Mars, Iowa company. Now Wells tells The Des Moines Register that the company is seeking outside investment to help it boost sales of its Blue Bunny ice cream even more. Wells is currently the nation’s third largest ice cream maker behind Switzerland-based Nestle and London, United Kingdom-based Unilever. Wells has already grown to claim almost 6 percent of the roughly $10 billion ice cream market, and Blue Bunny ice cream is available nationwide. But the company needs to boost its advertising to compete better.