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GEORGE DRAKE, 76, of Bayard (Svcs 12-29-2011)

Obituaries

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

GEORGE DRAKE, 76, of Bayard, died Sun., Dec. 25th, at the Israel House, in Ames. Funeral services for GEORGE DRAKE will be held Thursday, December 29th at 10:30a.m. at the Ohde Funeral Home in Bayard.

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Burial will be in the Orange Township Cemetery south of Coon Rapids.

Friends may call on Wednesday, December 28th from 3-7pm at the funeral home.

GEORGE DRAKE is survived by:

5 Children: Pam (Roger) Williams of Slater; Raynette (Tim) Corsaut of Nevada; Bob (Mikey) Drake of Wall Lake; Randy (Michele) Drake of Ankeny; Kelly Drake and Joe Jones of Ankeny.

10 Grandchildren

3 Great-Grandchildren

WAYNE H. BETTS, 91, of Guthrie Center (Svcs 12-29-11)

Obituaries

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

WAYNE H. BETTS, 91, of Guthrie Center, died Sat., Dec. 24th, at the New Homestead in Guthrie Center. Memorial services for WAYNE BETTS will be held 11-a.m. Thu., Dec. 29th, at the 1st Christian Church in Guthrie Center. Twigg Funeral Home in Guthrie Center has the arrangements.

Visitation is from 4-8pm Wed., Dec. 28th, at the funeral home, where the family will be present from 6-8pm.

Burial will be in the Union Cemetery at 10-a.m. Thursday, prior to the Memorial service.

DARYL “CHRIS” PAULSEN, 79, of Avoca (Graveside Svcs 12-28-11)

Obituaries

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

DARYL “CHRIS” PAULSEN, 79, of Avoca, died Sat., Dec. 24th, at his home in Avoca. Graveside services for DARYL PAULSEN will be held 1-p.m. Wed., Dec. 28th, at the Graceland Cemetery in Avoca. Pauley-Jones Funeral Home in Avoca has the arrangements.

There is no public visitation.

DARYL “Chris” Paulsen is survived by:

His sons – Jeff (Lynn) Paulsen, & Mark (Nyla) Paulsen, all of Avoca, & Bruce Paulsen, of Silver City, IA.

His siblings,

4 grandchildren, 2 great-grandchildren and 2 step-grandchildren.

Cyclones land in Big Apple

Sports

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

The Iowa State football team is in New York City to continue preparations for the December 30th Pinstripe Bowl against Rutgers. ISU coach Paul Rhoads says the final few practices before leaving Ames he concentrated on the game plan. Rhoads says with the regular season stretching into December there is less of a concern about rust than there was two years ago prior to an Insight Bowl matchup against Minnesota. Rutgers has used two quarterbacks this season, sophomore Chas(chase) Dodd and freshman Gary Nova.

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano says the Scarlet Knights need to try and find a way to effectively run the ball against a Cyclone defense that is played its best at the end of the regular season. Running the ball has been a struggle for Rutgers which averages 91 yards per game and ranks 115th nationally. Schiana says another reason the Cyclones made a late season run was the play of quarterback Jared Barnett. The Cyclones are 6-6 while Rutgers finished the regular season 8-4.

Iowa and Oklahoma continue preparations for Insight.

Sports

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops says playing the Iowa Hawkeyes in Friday’s Insight Bowl gives this game a much different feeling. Stoops played on Hayden Fry’s first Big Ten championship team back in 1981 and later served on Fry’s staff. Stoops says having been a part of the Iowa program he knows the last thing his Sooners should do is take the Hawkeyes lightly. Oklahoma is a better than two touchdown favorite. Stoops expects a hard fought game. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says it was no surprise to him that Stoops led the Sooners to the national title in only his second year at the helm.

This is the second straight trip to the Insight Bowl for the Hawkeyes who beat Missouri in last year’s game. Injuries hurt the Oklahoma offense late in the season but Ferentz says Sooner quarterback Landry Jones has a bright future at the next level. Oklahoma arrived on Phoenix last night. You can hear the action from the Insight Bowl live on KJAN, Friday night.

(Radio Iowa/Ric Hanson)

Website to send bullying reports to Iowa schools

News

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some people, advocacy groups and Iowa school districts have been seeking innovative ways to battle bullying of students. A website being launched this month, http://ReportBullyingIowa.com, will take reports from students and parents and forward the reports to school districts. The website is run by the Eychaner Foundation, a Des Moines nonprofit group that says it wants to promote tolerance and nondiscrimination.

Iowa law requires school districts to report bullying cases to the Iowa Department of Education. But last year, more than half of Iowa school districts didn’t report any bullying. Foundation executive director Michael Bowser told The Des Moines Register (http://dmreg.co/tVCWsa ) there are many reasons for why reports aren’t being made, but he says the website could make it easier to report bullying.

Christmas Day fire destroys western Iowa home

News

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Friends, family, neighbors and strangers have been helping members of a western Iowa family who lost their home to a fire on Christmas Day. The family of Mary Pierson and her husband had been celebrating Sunday morning when they noticed a smoky smell. They soon found the attached garage was in flames. The family members fled the house safely. They turned to watch as flames consumed it, their possessions and their new presents inside.

Pierson told Omaha, Neb., television station KETV that she wanted someone to slap her and tell her it was a bad dream. But soon, people began stopping by with offers of money, clothing, replacement presents and other help. The fire cause is being investigated.

Book recalls history of Iowa State High School Wrestling Tournament

Sports

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

An annual event that draws thousands of spectators and athletes to Des Moines every February is the subject of a new book. “Reach for the Stars: The Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament” includes 620 pages of stories, facts and photos from the event’s 90 year history. “Reach for the Stars,” by Dan McCool Author Dan McCool says he conducted over 160 interviews for the book and one of highlights involves the story of Jack Barron, who won a state title in 1980 as a member of the Iowa School for the Deaf.

"Reach for the Stars," by Dan McCool

“This is how smart Iowa wrestling fans are – here’s a guy, deaf, wrestling for a state championship and he wins it. Obviously, he’s not going to hear (the crowd) if they applaud, so they got the idea to stand up and stomp their feet,” McCool explained. “(Barron) could feel the vibration and he must have thought the place was coming down.” The early years of the state tournament were much different than today – primarily because of a lack of strict rules and participation limits. The first tournament in 1921 included a place winner at 95 pounds who was just 11 years old.

“I found an account of a situation where Esterville was going to wrestle Fonda. They found out a couple of the guys on the Fonda team were 20, 21 or 22 (years old),” McCool said. “They were staying in school long enough to wrestle and as soon as wrestling season was over, they dropped out.” The Iowa High School Athletic Association began sanctioning the tournament in 1926 and put stricter guidelines in place. McCool became a fan of wrestling as a youngster, growing up in Clarion, when a friend won a state championship. He later covered the sport for 30 years as a writer for the Des Moines Register. McCool said he enjoys the “individual aspect” of the sport.

“You can have a terrible shooting night and still win a basketball game because the four other guys might chip in for you. You might miss some really big blocks in football, but you have 10 other guys who might be able to patch in your hole,” McCool said. “If you have a bad night in wrestling, it’s on you and everybody sees it. You can have a great night and everybody sees you pin the guy. But, if you get pinned, everybody sees it. There’s no hiding.” The championship round of the 2012 State High School Wrestling Tournament is expected to be sold out for the 25th consecutive year. McCool plans to be at the tournament, scheduled for February 16-18, to sign and sell copies of his book. The book is also available online at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)

Study: Neb., Iowa towns among most secure cities

News

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Several cities in Nebraska and Iowa made Farmers Insurance’s lists of the safer and most secure places to live in the country. The insurer ranked cities of different sizes based on crime rates, natural disaster risks, environmental hazards, car accidents, unemployment, housing depreciation and other factors. In the category for cities with at least 500,000 residents, the Omaha-Council Bluffs, Iowa, metro area ranked eighth, and Des Moines, Iowa, ranked 19th.

Among cities with between 150,000 and 500,000 residents, Lincoln, NE, ranked eighth. Among smaller cities with fewer than 150,000 people, Iowa City, Iowa, ranked 19th and Sioux City, Iowa, came in 20th.

Got the munchies? Hold on til the Girl Scout cookies come out 2 1/2 weeks!

News

December 26th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Officials with the Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa (GSGI) say persons wanting to order and receive a wide variety of Girl Scout cookies won’t have to wait much longer, especially with the advent of a new ordering system. According to the GSGI, from the very first day of the program, girls will have packages of cookies ON HAND to sell door to door, at Cookie Booths, and to family and friends. Girl scouts will exchange cookies and payments in one easy step! No more taking orders, waiting weeks, and then returning for the delivery and collecting money.  The “Cookies Now!” program condenses all that work into one simple step. The Cookie Program will run January 13th through March 4th, 2012, in both Iowa and Nebraska.

In years past, the Scouts took orders, ordered the cookies from the supplier, then handed out cookies and collected payment about three to five weeks later. Officials say since the Girl Scouts, along with their parents and troop leaders, develop their sales plans, the direct sales also allow the girls to cultivate skills they can use: goal-setting, decision-making, money management, people skills and business ethics. They will have to decide whether to go door-to-door or set up cookie booths at public locations such as grocery stores. They will have to keep track of their sales and the money collected.