A Colorado couple, sunburned after days of cycling across Iowa, got married Tuesday afternoon during the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. Whit and Sarah Oyler, of Denver, tied the knot on the City Beach stage in Clear Lake. The couple had been on RAGBRAI together when Clear Lake was a pass-through community in 2014. “We got engaged last October and the more we thought about wedding planning, we realized we didn’t want a big, expensive, crazy wedding,” Sarah says. “That doesn’t fit us. What fits us is something simple like RAGBRAI. He came up with the idea and it probably took me five minutes to process and then I said, ‘Okay, let’s do it!'”

Sarah says she contacted RAGBRAI executive director T-J Juskiewicz about the wedding idea, who in turn contacted Clear Lake officials who helped set up the ceremony. Whit says they made everything incredibly simple for the couple.  “They couldn’t have made it any easier, the flowers, they were amazing,” he says. “They didn’t even talk to us about it, they just had them ready. They asked what her favorite color was, periwinkle, they just had them ready. Oh, my God!”    

The newlyweds say they appreciated their fellow bike riders and the folks in Clear Lake for helping them celebrate their wedding day. “I honestly couldn’t be any happier with how easy this process was, how helpful everyone’s been, how nice everyone’s been in this town,” Whit says. “We’ve only been here for an hour, maybe two hours, and everyone’s been incredibly nice.” “All the riders today, it’s been a wonderful experience,” Sarah adds. “Congratulations from everybody, it’s really been great.”

The couple met six years ago while they were going to school at Oklahoma State University.

(Radio Iowa)

A former Morningside College baseball player says he will seek the Democratic nomination for the 4th District’s seat in Congress. J.D. Scholten formally announced his bid to run against Republican incumbent Steve King for the U-S House seat in a short campaign video news release Tuesday. “I’m running to help build an economy that benefits hard-working middle class Iowans. And a health care system that makes sense for the way we live our lives in this district. And a return to decency and integrity in our politics,” Scholten says.

Scholten released an addition statement that says he is “sick and tired of how divisive politics in this country has become, and how divorced it is from people’s lives.” Scholten was born in Ames and raised in Sioux City. He played baseball for Morningside College and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he graduated with a degree in World/American History. After graduating, he pursued a baseball career that allowed him to play in seven different countries. He currently works as a freelance paralegal and technical consultant.

(Radio Iowa)

GRINNELL, Iowa (AP) – A jury has awarded $4.5 million to a former employee who sued an Iowa hospital for age bias and retaliation. The Des Moines Register reports that the jury’s decision Monday came after a 10-day trial of Grinnell Regional Medical Center and two administrators. The lawsuit brought by Gregory Hawkins said the hospital fired him in June 2015 from his post as lab director while in remission from breast cancer and hired a younger replacement.

His attorney alleged that Hawkins was targeted because he’d declined an order to retire following his initial diagnosis in November 2013. The hospital’s attorneys deny the firing and subsequent hiring of a new director had anything to do with Hawkins’ age or cancer diagnosis. A hospital spokeswoman says the hospital intends to appeal.

Creston Police report the arrest Tuesday evening of a man on an OWI charge. 41-year old Tommy Watters, of Creston, was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense at around 6:30-p.m. Watters was later released from the Union County Jail on a $1,000 bond.