The former publishers of a Denison Newspaper who died in 2009 bequeathed more than $600,000 to seven western Iowa communities and several area organizations.  According to the Omaha World-Herald, the monies were left in a trust by the estate of Richard and Deloris Knowles, who owned the Denison Bulletin & Review, which they sold in 1998, and is now owned by the Omaha World-Herald Company.

Among the towns which received the private funds in February, was: Charter Oak…$26,389; the town of Rickets, $51,000. Other communities benefitting from the trust fund include: Manilla, Dow City, Westside, and Manning.

Several organizations also received a share of the funds, including: the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church of Denison; the Donna Reed Foundation; the Denison Community School District; the Iowa Newspaper Foundation; and, First United Methodist Church of Denison.

The match-ups for Iowa’s June primary voting have been set, but a general election show-down in a congressional race heated up over the weekend. Christie Vilsack is unopposed in her race to win the Democratic Party’s nomination in Iowa’s fourth congressional district and Steve King, the Republican Congressman she hopes to defeat in November, has challenged Vilsack to six debates. “I have a long record and it’s full of thousands of votes and probably thousands of public positions that I’ve taken over the years — no shortage of figuring out where I stand and it’s not going to change, by the way,” King said last Thursday. “This is going to be a long process to try to figure out where she stands. That’s what I expect and so there’ll be a lot of questions to ask her.” Christie Vilsack’s campaign manager says it’s “refreshing” that King “has acknowledged…that Iowans deserve a debate, something he has avoided since taking office.” King has not debated a Democratic opponent since he became a congressman in 2003.

(by O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The CAM and Elk Horn-Kimballton School Boards of Education will hold their separate, regular meetings Monday evening. In Elk Horn, the EHK Board will hold a special, closed-session at 6:30 to review or discuss student records which are required or authorized by State or Federal law, to be kept confidential. Once the board returns to open session, they will discuss and/or act on matters pertaining to student records. Their regular session begins at 7-p.m.  Action items include: Approving a budget guarantee resolution; the publishing of the 2012-2013 budget, along with the setting of the date and time for a public hearing on the budget; a Special Education agreement with the Johnston Community School District; and, approval of the 2012-2013 District Calendar.

In Anita, the CAM School Board will gather at 7-p.m., to hold public hearings on: an application to the Dept. of Education for a 2012-2013 school year early start date; and, the 2012-2013 budget. Other discussion and/or action items on their agenda include: the presentation of final plans and specifications for the Multi-Purpose Building (MPB); acting on a resolution setting the bid date and public hearing on the MPB, and, a resolution approving the contract and bonds for the bleacher project; action on approving a budget guarantee resolution; and, the 2010-2012 Anita Community School District Audit report.

 ONAWA, Iowa (AP) – A 24-year-old Wyoming man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for kidnapping and raping a 19-year-old woman at knifepoint in a rest stop bathroom near Onawa.  The Sioux City Journal reports that Mark Bitzan was sentenced Friday for his January convictions of first-degree kidnapping and second-degree sexual assault.  The Monona County Attorney says Bitzan took the victim to a bathroom stall at an Interstate 29 rest stop in 2010, threatened her with a knife and sexually assaulted her.  Bitzan was convicted in 2006 of a sexual assault in Natrona County, Wyoming.