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UI student creates Caitlin Clark portrait in 720 Rubik’s Cubes

News

April 5th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – A fourth-year dental student at the University of Iowa has carefully crafted a work of mosaic art immortalizing Hawkeye basketball star Caitlin Clark — out of more than 700 Rubik’s Cubes. Like millions of other fans, Sioux City native Brian Dang closely follows the Iowa women’s basketball team. He wanted a new project to sink his teeth into while also spotlighting the accomplished Clark, and anyone who’s seen his finished work agrees, it’s a three-point swoosh.

“I used to be an engineer, so I like all these different kinds of 3-D puzzles and I like to suffer a little bit,” Dang says, laughing. “I like to figure out the hard, difficult things, so I got into Rubik’s Cubes because I was pretty bored at home, my parents don’t have internet or anything, and then I decided I just wanted more of a challenge, like trying to make art out of it.” Dang found a bulk supplier who sold him the necessary 720 “mini” Rubik’s Cubes for around 300-dollars. He’s made a few other smaller pieces of art using the plastic cubes as his medium, but none of them were this big. Dang says the portrait took a lot of planning.

“You want to have nice contrasts and stuff because you only have so many colors you can use with a Rubik’s Cube,” Dang says. “I plan it out on a spreadsheet. It’s takes a bit. And then I kind of pixelate the picture a little bit, because all pictures are just pixels. And then once I have that all planned out, it takes maybe three days, and then I go about solving my Rubik’s Cubes to those different colors.” The work features Clark in a white Iowa jersey, with her right hand to her ear, and it’s remarkably realistic. While the Iowa City campus isn’t gigantic, the 25-year-old Dang says he’s never met Clark, nor has he bumped into her between classes, but he hopes their paths will someday cross.

Brian Dang (UI photo)

“Yeah, no, that’d be awesome. If I could get a picture with her with it, and have her autograph it, that’d be amazing,” Dang says. “But both of us probably have busy times because I’m in the clinic a lot here at the school, and then she’s busy playing in all these games, so it’s really hard to get in contact with each other, or even running into each other.” For now, the piece is on display at the U-I dental building. Dang says if the Hawks win the national championship on Sunday, he may be inspired to create another “cubist” Clark that’s even bigger and better.

Red Oak man arrested for Assault w/the intent to commit sexual abuse

News

April 5th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Red Oak Police, Thursday afternoon, arrested 26-year-old Devon Lee Smith, of Red Oak. Authorities charged Smith with Assault, with the Intent to Commit Sexual Abuse (an Aggravated Misdemeanor). He was taken into custody at around 4:30-p.m. and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where Smith’s bond was set at $2,000.

Bill would extend statute of limitations for Boy Scouts sexual abuse survivors

News

April 5th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

[via Iowa Capital Dispatch]The Iowa Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a bill that would add an exemption to the time limit on filing child sexual abuse lawsuits, allowing former Boy Scouts in the state to be a part of the national settlement against the organization. Senate File 2431, approved unanimously by the committee Thursday, would extend the statute of limitations on civil actions involving child sexual abuse — specifically for “claims against the bankruptcy state of a congressionally chartered organization.”

The exception references the 2020 Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy settlement, allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court to move forward in February, that involves more than 82,000 men who said they were sexually abused by Boy Scouts troop leaders while in the organization as children.

Survivors involved in the 2020 settlement agreement have the ability to recover funds through the Scouting Settlement Trust of $2.46 billion. But Iowans involved may not be able to receive as much compensation as victims in other states. Settlement payouts are determined using multiple factors, including both the details and length of abuse suffered by victims, as well as the state’s statute of limitations on child sexual abuse claims.

Current Iowa law requires that child sexual victims file suit by age 19, or within four years of having knowledge that the abuse resulted in injuries and suffering. Lawyers involved in the settlement said these limitations mean that Iowa has until April 19 to change the law on the statute of limitations, or Iowa victims will receive less compensation from the Boy Scouts settlement than others across the country.

Answering questions from reporters Wednesday, Reynolds said she would be “open” to consideration of the bill if it is passed by the Legislature.

Skyscan Forecast for Atlantic & the Nishna Valley: Friday, April 5th, 2024

Weather

April 5th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Today: Sunny, with a high near 60. East winds @ 5 to 10 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 35. E/SE winds 10-25 w/gusts to near 30 mph.
Tomorrow: Sunny & windy, w/a 20% chance of afternoon showers. High near 65. E/SE @ 20-40 mph. .
Tom. Night: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Low around 43. E/SE @ 20-45 mph.
Sunday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, otherwise partly sunny & windy. High near 63. Winds SE @ 15-30 mph.
Sun. Night: Breezy. A 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Low around 40.
Monday: Partly sunny & breezy, with a high near 58.

Thursday’s High in Atlantic was 59. Our Low this morning, 24. Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was 59, and the Low was 30. The All-Time Record High on April 5th in Atlantic, was 88, in 2000. The Record Low was 14, in 1920. Sunrise: 6:56. Sunset: 7:49.

Senator proposes change in panels that help select Iowa judge

News

April 5th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – A senator has a plan that would give the governor authority to appoint the majority of members on commissions that nominate Iowans to be district court judges. Republican Senator Julian Garrett would have the governor appoint six of the 11 members on each of the district court nominating panels. “The process is already politicized from my perspective,” Garrett says. “We’re trying to improve it and fix it.”

A budget bill that’s cleared initial review in the Iowa Senate includes Garrett’s proposed change for district court judicial nominating commissions. Iowa governors appoint judges from lists of nominees submitted by these commissions and Peter Hird of the Iowa A-F-L C-I-O says the change would give the governor more influence over the judicial branch. “Giving the governor the power to appoint the majority of people who are going to nominate judges definitely to me and to our organization gives us a lot of concern.”

Garrett’s proposal also removes the judges from each of the district court nominating commissions. Doug Struyk, of the Iowa State Bar Association, says the perspective of a local district judge provides valuable insight about the lawyers who’re applying to become a judge. “The judge would have interacted with these applicants, seen their temperament, seen their timeliness of filings,” Struyk says, “and I believe that, from someone who’s been in the shoes of a judge, would be particularly good information for the other members of the commission to have when they were reviewing applicants.”

In 2019, Governor Reynolds signed a law that removed the longest serving Iowa Supreme Court justice from the commission that nominates people to serve on the Iowa Court of Appeals AND the Iowa Supreme Court. For the past five years Reynolds has also had the authority to appoint a majority of the members of that STATE judicial nominating commission.

MARLENE ANN REMSBURG, 84, of Audubon (Svcs. 4/6/24)

Obituaries

April 5th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

MARLENE ANN REMSBURG, 84, of Audubon, died Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024, at the Audubon  County Memorial Hospital. Funeral services for MARLENE REMSBURG will be held 10:30-a.m. Saturday, April 4th, at the Audubon Church of Christ. Kessler Funeral Home in Audubon has the arrangements.

Friends may call at the funeral home, where the family will meet with friends on Friday, April 5th, from 5-until 7-p.m.

Burial is in the Maple Grove Cemetery, in Audubon.

Memorials may be directed to the Audubon Fire and Rescue Association, and sent to the care of Mark Remsburg (210 Broadway Street, Audubon, Iowa, 50025).

MARLENE ANN REMSBURG is survived by:

Her husband of 61 years – Randy Remsburg.

Her son – Mark (Janell) Remsburg.

Her daughters – Mindi (Richard) Kacmarynski, and Shelly (Chad) Madden.

Her brothers – Ron (Carol) Brant and Phil (Susie) Brant.

Her sister – Karen Henning .

9 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

Panorama Boys Soccer Season Preview

Sports

April 5th, 2024 by admin

The Panorama boys soccer team got their regular season underway last night in 5-4 win against East Sac County. The Panthers have 19 participants out and are coached by Matt Fron.

Coach Fron gave a brief recap on how last season went.

Coach Fron said his teams defense is going to be their shining position   this year.

Junior Panther Captain Taytum Bates indicted that playing other sports has helped him play as a team and got him prepared to play soccer.

Coach Fron says the teams main focus is to make the playoffs.

The Panthers next match will be taking on Kuemper Catholic on Friday April 5th in a non-conference match. That match will start at 7:00 p.m.

 

State-certified caregiver charged with sexual exploitation of a minor

News

April 4th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – A state-certified caregiver has been arrested and charged with sexually exploiting a minor while employed by an Iowa nursing home. Over the past 12 months, Martell Guider, a 36-year-old male certified nursing assistant, has been the subject of complaints regarding a series of alleged incidents involving sexual impropriety at three Iowa nursing homes located in Audubon, Correctionville and Kalona. The most recent case, and the only one in which criminal charges have been filed, involves Guider’s employment at the Pleasantview Home in Kalona.

According to police and prosecutors, officials at Pleasantview confronted Guider sometime in January after multiple employees raised concerns that he was being inappropriate with a minor who was present at the home but not a resident.

Martell Guider, a state-certified nursing assistant. (Photo courtesy of the Washington County Jail)

 

Police allege that after his supervisors talked to him about the complaints, Guider sent explicit photos of the minor to his employer. According to the police, Guider had threatened the minor to induce her to send him the photos via the social-messaging platform Snapchat. When asked about the photos, Guider allegedly acknowledged he had saved them for his sexual gratification.

According to the police reports, Guider’s colleagues at Pleasantview also complained that he had been making unwanted advances toward female co-workers in the nursing home. He was then barred from the care facility, according to police. Guider is now charged with sexual exploitation of a minor by causing the minor to engage in a sex act; sexual exploitation through the use of photographs; possession of material depicting a minor engaged in sex; and first-degree harassment. He has yet to enter a plea in the case. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 9.

Court records show that at the time of his arrest, Guider was employed through Shiftkey, a temp agency that provides workers for health care facilities. Prior to his arrest in the Pleasantview case, Guider was fired from two other Iowa nursing homes amid allegations of sexual impropriety.

The first of those cases dates back to April 2023, when a female caregiver at Audubon’s Friendship Home filed a complaint with the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing about Guider’s behavior. Six months later, Guider was working at Correctionville Specialty Care when he was the target of a complaint that he had raped a resident of the home.

No charges were filed in either the Correctionville case or the Audubon case. Audubon police have acknowledged they fielded at least two complaints about Guider’s conduct at Friendship Home but didn’t pursue the matter. Audubon Police Chief Coby Gust said the complainants provided text messages and photos and expressed concern that the man’s behavior could spill over into his interactions with vulnerable residents, Gust said.

According to the complainant in the Friendship Home case, officials at the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals rejected her complaint about Guider last April, allegedly telling her the issues she raised were best addressed by management at the home since they involved worker-to-worker conduct that had no actual or potential impact on residents.

When asked about that, DIAL spokeswoman Diane McCool said the agency “cannot comment on whether information was received regarding a particular individual.”

Iowa players preview UConn

Sports

April 4th, 2024 by Asa Lucas

The second ranked Iowa Hawkeye women make their second straight appearance in the Final Four on Friday night when they play UConn in Cleveland. Sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke says the team’s mindset is just like it was when they went to the Final Four last year.

Stuelke says their focus this year is wanting to do the best they can on the court.

Stuelke talks about the matchup inside with UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards

Junior guard Sydney Affolter says the whole team knows they should be ready at any time to get the ball from Caitlin Clark.

Affolter says conditioning has been a key to being able to play their up-tempo style.

For senior guard Gabbie Marshall, it’s a homecoming for her final college games. The Cincinnati native knows she’ll have a lot of people in the stands supporting her.

Marshall says Affolter has stepped in and excelled after the injury to Molly Davis.

Marshall says Affolter’s poise has been the key to her success in the starting lineup.

Iowa’s Sharon Goodman wins academic award at the Final Four

Sports

April 4th, 2024 by Asa Lucas

For the second year in a row, Iowa senior Sharon Goodman has won the Elite 90 award from the NCAA. The Elite 90 award winner in women’s basketball recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating in the Final Four. Goodman says it’s the full team and not just her making sure they focus on academics.

The health studies major from Lime Springs has decided to end her basketball career after this season instead of rejoining the team for another season.

Goodman was part of a state title winning team at Crestwood in 2018 and says she never imagined in her high school days being able to participate in two Final Fours.

Goodman currently carries a 4.0 GPA and will be graduating in May.