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Iowa mom appeals her murder conviction

News

January 1st, 2012 by Ric Hanson

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A woman sentenced to life in prison for killing her neighbor as part of a plot to frame her ex-husband is appealing her conviction. Lawyers for 45-year-old Tracy Richter filed notice of an appeal on Thursday. Richter was sentenced in December for fatally shooting 20-year-old Dustin Wehde in her Early, Iowa, home in 2001. In national television interviews after the killing, Richter claimed that Wehde and another man had broken into her home.

But jurors sided with prosecutors who believe Richter made up the attack. Prosecutors say Richter killed Wehde to keep him quiet about his role in a plot to frame her ex-husband. Richter, who lived in Omaha, Neb., before her trial maintains her innocence.

PAULINE NELLIE EDWARDS, 89, of Cumberland

Obituaries

December 31st, 2011 by admin

PAULINE NELLIE EDWARDS, 89, of Cumberland died Friday, December 30th, 2011 at Colonial Manor in Anita.  Graveside services for PAULINE EDWARDS will be held 2:30-p.m.  Tue., Jan. 3rd, at Greenwood Cemetery near Cumberland.  Hockenberry Family Care in Atlantic has the arrangements.

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Visitation will be held on Tuesday, January 3rd from 1-2pm at the funeral home. The family will greet friends at the Cumberland Community Building follwoing the committal service, for a fellowship and lunch.

Burial will be in the Greenwood Cemetery in Cumberland

Memorials will be directed to the Cumberland Volunteer Fire Department or the Cumberland Community Building.

PAULINE EDWARDS is survived by:

Stepsons: Donald (Wanda) Randolph of Kansas City, MO; Dale (Glenda) Edwards of Guthrie Center; Donald ( Linda) Edwards of Massena

Sister: Margery Bates of Underwood

Brothers: Donald Havens of Anita; Lawrence (Kathy) Havens of Wiota

CAROL J. HANSEN, 61, of Carson (Svcs Wednesday 1-4-2012)

Obituaries

December 31st, 2011 by admin

CAROL J. HANSEN, 61, of Carson, died Fri. Dec. 30th, at the Hospice House in Omaha, NE. Funeral services for CAROL J. HANSEN will be held on Wednesday, January 4th at 11:00am at the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Treynor.  Hertz Funeral Home in Carson is in charge of the arrangements.

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Visitation will be held Tuesday, January 3rd from from 4-7pm with a prayer service to be held at 6:30pm at the funeral home.

Burial will be in the Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Council Bluffs.

Memorials may be directed to establish a scholarship fund, or to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

CAROL J. HANSEN is survived by:

Father and Mother-in-law: Jim and Irene Jorgensen of Audubon

Husband: Roger Hansen of Carson

Son: Dan Hansen (Jenni) of Shenendoah

Sister: Sharon Kislingbury (Bob) of Winslow Arizona

1 Granddaughter

Several nieces, nephews and other relatives and friends.

Brother-in-law: Richard Hansen (Lyn) of Audubon

Late run fuels Missouri State past Drake 72-61

Sports

December 31st, 2011 by Ric Hanson

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Kyle Weems scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds to boost Missouri State to a 72-61 victory over Drake on Saturday. Missouri State (9-5, 2-0 Missouri Valley) also got 14 points from Jarmar Gulley and 11 points from Anthony Downing. Missouri State held a 47-46 lead with 10:53 left in the game and took control with a 15-2 run over the next 6:18. Gulley scored seven points during that span. Weems put the final stamp on the victory by converting a basket with 35 seconds to go. Drake (8-5, 1-1), which held an eight-point lead early in the game, got 16 points from Rayvonte Price, 14 from Ben Simons and 10 from Jordan Clarke.

Gingrich addresses large crowd in Atlantic, Saturday

News

December 31st, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich brought his “Newt’s Jobs and Growth” bus tour to Council Bluffs and Atlantic, Saturday. In Atlantic, he spoke before a crowd of about 100-people at the bottling plant, about the tone of the advertisements that have been run against him, and in general. He said “It will be interesting to see whether in fact the people of Iowa decide that they don’t like the people who run negative ads, because you could send a tremendous signal to the country that the era of nasty and negative 30-second campaigns is over and that sense, you could have a very, very big impact.”

Newt Gingrich and wife Callista

He says “The level of sheer dishonesty in the ads…makes him sad there weren’t a couple of more debates” to debunk the candidates and their attack ads. He said “If somebody will lie to you to get to be President, why would you expect them to tell you the truth when they’re President?” Gingrich said he’s focused on a postive campaign in many different aspects. He said what the people need to focus on instead, should be he economy. Gingrich floated his proposal to turn around the economy, which involves tax cuts or changes. He says there should be zero a Capital Gains tax, a 12.5% Corporate tax rate, and 100% write-off within one-year, for the purchase of new farm or business equipment. The purpose would be to compete with China and India, and have more value-added jobs here.

He also proposed that in the future, as a prerequisite for unemployment compensation, a person would have to sign-up for a business training program. He says “We would no longer pay people 99-weeks to do nothing,” a statement which drew a sustained applause. Gingrich would also abolish the death, or inheritance tax. As far as personal taxes are concerned, his proposal offers an optional 15% flat tax, based on a model used in Hong Kong. He would also repeal several regulations which, according to Gingrich inhibit business growth.  That would include “Obama Care,” Dodd-Frank, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002,  which is a United States federal law which set new or enhanced standards for all U.S. public company boards, management and public accounting firms. It is named after sponsors U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and U.S. Representative Michael G. Oxley (R-OH).)

Gingrich says if elected in November, he would ask Congress to repeal all three before the Presidential Inaugural in Jan. 2013. He would also sign a series of executive orders on Inauguration day, one of which will abolish all of the so-called “White House Czars.” In addition, Gingrich says he would replace the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a long-term solutions agency. During a question and answer session with the audience, 76-year old Gary Nelson, from Audubon, a third-generation farmer, asked Gingrich for a simple favor. He asked to hake Gingrich’s hand, because he’s only shaken the hands of two other Presidents who went on to win the election. Gingrich obliged him and called that “A good omen.”

Audubon area farmer Gary Nelson asks to shake Gingrich's hand

Gingrich is scheduled to be in Ames, Marshalltown and Waterloo, on Sunday. The 68-year old Harrisburg, PA., native, is an author, political consultant, and history teacher who served as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. He represented Georgia’s 6th congressional district as a Republican from 1979 until his resignation in 1999.

Iowa Upsets No. 11 Wisconsin 72-65

Sports

December 31st, 2011 by Jim Field

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Much is made — and rightly so — of Wisconsin’s defense. When the Badgers’ offense misfires, their defense suffers, too.

Freshman Aaron White scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half and fellow reserve Bryce Cartwright added 17 as the Hawkeyes stunned No. 11 Wisconsin 72-65.

The Badgers (12-3, 1-1 Big Ten) had their second-worst shooting game of the season (34.8 percent), including a dismal 3-for-28 performance on 3-pointers, on the same day their top-ranked defense allowed a season-high for points. Wisconsin hadn’t allowed more than 61 points in its first 14 games and came in leading the nation in scoring defense, yielding an average of 44.4 points.

“If you hit shots, it’s amazing how much better your defense looks,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said after his team had its six-game winning streak ended.

Sophomore Melsahn Basabe pitched in with 14 points for the Hawkeyes (9-6, 1-1), who snapped the Badgers’ 23-game home winning streak against unranked opponents — the last unranked team to beat Wisconsin at the Kohl Center was Illinois, a 63-56 winner on Feb. 9, 2010.

“Any time you win on the road in this league, there’s a celebration, there’s an incredible sense of accomplishment,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said after his team beat the Badgers for just the third time in the past 15 meetings. “(But) this is the 11th-ranked team in the country, on the road, with a fabulous winning percentage here. I think our players know and understand what they had to overcome to make this happen.”

Cartwright, a senior who came in averaging 5.9 points and has been coming off the bench as he returns from a hamstring injury, said: “We just came in with a definite mindset today to defy all the odds.”

Cartwright scored 10 points in the second half, the last two a layup with 1:55 remaining that put Iowa ahead 68-60 and sent many in the crowd of 17,230 to the exits.

Wisconsin (12-3, 1-1), though, made one last surge.

Senior Jordan Taylor hit a 3-pointer and sophomore Ben Brust had a steal and layup that pulled the Badgers within 68-65 with 47 seconds to go.

The Hawkeyes worked the shot clock on their next possession and sophomore Roy Devyn Marble hit a jumper from the right of the lane with 21 seconds remaining, and Jared Berggren missed a 3 on the other end to seal Iowa’s surprising victory.

“All we needed to do was get a stop,” said Taylor, who had 17 points to lead four players in double figures for Wisconsin. “We had them where we wanted … and Marble made a tough runner-floater right there off the right side. That was a tough shot, and he made it.”

The Badgers, meanwhile, didn’t make nearly enough shots.

“Our guys made a comeback that probably should have never happened, by all percentages. But you also say, percentages (say) we’re not going to shoot like this,” said Ryan, whose team came in shooting 46 percent. “But the percentages don’t always go that way.

“I guess the Big Ten’s going to be like this the whole year. I just think there’s so many teams that are kind of equal, and if you have a cold night, you’re not going to walk away (with a win) on the left-hand side.”

Iowa raced out to a 10-2 lead and led throughout the first half before Wisconsin used a 9-0 run spanning halftime to take a seven-point lead. White ended the Hawkeyes’ barren stretch with a 3-pointer and went on to score 11 of Iowa’s first 15 points of the second half. His output was double that of his season average and he scored his 18 points in just 20 minutes.

“He was a little bit sideways in the first half, I thought,” McCaffery said of White. “He came in and he got tired quick and he got a foul and he didn’t get a rebound when he should have. He put his head down, and that’s what freshmen do. So we just said, ‘Play through it, be ready, and you’ll get your shot in the second half.’ He’s just a really good basketball player.”

This is Your Nishna Valley 12-31-2011

Podcasts, This is Your Nishna Valley

December 31st, 2011 by admin

w/ Jim Field and Guest Host Janet Westphalen

Play

Insight Bowl Camera incident…more

Sports

December 31st, 2011 by Ric Hanson

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Flying cameras have been providing unique perspectives on everything from golf to college and professional football for more than a decade, becoming so commonplace that fans rarely notice the whizzing remote-controlled devices. At the Insight Bowl on Friday night, no one could miss the overhead camera when it came crashing down to the field late in the fourth quarter, nearly taking out one of the players. The ESPN camera narrowly missed Iowa receiver Martin McNutt Jr., who became entangled in the guide wire but wasn’t hurt.

“First, I looked: What is it that fell from the sky?'” McNutt said after Iowa’s 31-14 loss to No. 19 Oklahoma. “The next thing I know, the camera kind of scratched me a little bit. It was just pulling me and I knew I didn’t want to keep going with it.” ESPN has consistently used the cameras for football coverage, making it a staple of “Monday Night Football.” The cameras also have been used occasionally in the NBA, NHL, NASCAR, NCAA basketball, baseball and at the island-green 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass during The Players Championship.

The cameras, despite flying over the playing field, have rarely interfered with the action. In 2007, a cable camera was forced to make a controlled decent during an NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks from what was called human error. At the 2009 Las Vegas bowl between BYU and Oregon State, the overhead camera reportedly had to be taken down due to wind gusts of around 40 mph. The incident at the Insight Bowl occurred with Iowa trying to rally from a 10-point deficit in the closing minutes.

While lining up for a play near the 20-yard line at the south end of Sun Devil Stadium, two Hawkeyes had to jump out of the way when the camera fell when the wire appeared to snap with 2:22 left. McNutt dodged the camera as it fell behind him, but became entangled in the guide wire after it thudded to the ground. McNutt suffered only a minor scratch, but the game was delayed for about five minutes as crews dragged the camera off the field and made sure the wire was out of the way. McNutt was able to joke about the incident.

“I fell like somebody was trying to kill me on their (Oklahoma’s) staff,” he said. “If you are looking, I’m looking for you. No. It was lucky it didn’t hit me.”

8AM Newscast 12-31-2011

News, Podcasts

December 31st, 2011 by admin

w/ Chris Parks

Play

Skyscan Forecast 12-31-2011

Weather

December 31st, 2011 by admin

Here is the Skyscan Forecast for Saturday, December 31st of 2011:

  • Wind Advisory until 3am Sunday for SHELBY-POTTAWATTAMIE-MILLS-MONTGOMERY-FREMONT-PAGE counties.
  • High Wind Warning in effect from 6pm Saturday to 6pm Sunday for GREENE-AUDUBON-GUTHRIE-CASS-ADAIR-MADISON-ADAMS-UNION-TAYLOR-RINGGOLD-CRAWFORD-CARROLL counties.

Today: Isolated showers after 3pm. Cloudy.  S @ 15-20 then W @ 25-30 w/ gusts up to 35.  H 54.

Tonight: Rain in the evening, then a chance of snow between 9pm and Midnight.  NW @ 25-30 w/ gusts up to 50. L 27.  Less than half inch snow possible.

New Years Day: Sunny.  NW @ 20-30 w/ gusts up to 50.  H 36.

Monday: Sunny. NNW @ 15-20. H 29.

Tuesday: Sunny. H 36.