A video produced by a reading class at the CAM Middle School has won a $500 grant award from the Iowa Department of Education. The award presented to Mrs. Venteicher’s reading class was for the second runner-up place in the “Youth in Action Healthy Iowa” contest, created by the Iowa Dept. of Education. 

The class received a flyer in January related to the theme of healthy living, and highlights how students combine school and getting fit. Mrs. Venteicher’s class exercise 20-minutes each class period, and test at the end. As a result, scores have been going up. Students also spend 20-minutes every morning during the week of Iowa assessment testing, hoping that a raised heart rate would improve test scores. 

The CAM Middle School is sending a health message to their students this week.  With the Award Prize won in Mrs. Venteicher’s Reading class, the students are being treated to a new fruit each day, during the last period of the day.  A fitness class was also created for the current school year, by Mrs. Brown, which allowed students to learn and practice fitness activities and eat healthy snacks. 

With the help of HyVee, the students are to gather each day for a social time and a time to eat a fresh fruit that many have not had in a while. That includes watermelon, Athena Canteloupe, Fresh Pineapple, Mangos and Dragon Fruit as well as fresh strawberries.

Hy-Vee is providing the fruit at cost or slightly below cost, and is assisting in the healthy living planning process.

A pre-trial hearing for an Atlantic woman facing a serious misdemeanor charge of Invasion of Privacy-Nudity, scheduled to have taken place yesterday (Monday), has instead been continued until May 21^st. According to online court records, Judge Jeffrey Larson granted a continuance Monday, in the case of 35-year old Amanda Sedina, who is accused of taking an inappropriate picture of a bathing 78-year old female resident at the Salem Lutheran Home, in Elk Horn. The incident was reported to authorities on March 22^nd. 

Sedina, who was an employee of the nursing home at the time the alleged incident occurred, entered a written plea of Not Guilty to the charge, on April 18^th. Her trial is set to take place May 30^th, in Shelby County District Court. The woman remains free on $1,000 bond, pending her court case.

The Republican leader in the Iowa Senate is in the hospital, being treated for a partially perforated bowel — a hole in his intestine. Senator Jerry Behn, of Boone, was elected the Senate’s G-O-P leader this past November. Republican Senator Nancy Boettger, of Harlan, mentioned Behn’s condition during the senate’s opening prayer this morning (Tuesday). “Good morning, Lord…We ask that you would be with and guide, protect and health or friend and colleague Jerry Behn. Give the doctor’s wisdom in how to deal with his malady,” Behn prayed. “We just pray for total and complete healing for him.” Behn, who is 58 years old, farms near Boone. Behn served a year as a Boone County Supervisor before being elected to the state senate in 1996.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

The Atlantic Police Department says no injuries were reported after an Atlantic Community School District bus loaded with 15 8th grade students, struck a parked pickup truck Monday afternoon. Officials say the bus, driven by Clair Acker, of Atlantic, was traveling north on Plum Street at around 1:45-p.m., when it hit a legally parked 1999 Ford F-250 pickup with a trailer attached. The truck and trailer, registered to Dean Brownlee, of Atlantic, were facing northbound near the intersection with 10th Street.

When Acker approached the intersection, the bus he was driving clipped the left front corner of the pickup, causing a total of $1,650 damage. Acker was cited for Striking an Unattended Vehicle.