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SE Iowa officials ID body found in a vehicle pulled from a river

News

March 1st, 2024 by Ric Hanson

WAPELLO COUNTY, Iowa [WHO-TV] — A body pulled from the Des Moines River on Tuesday has been identified.

On Monday the Wapello County Sheriff’s Office received a report about a submerged truck in the middle of the Des Moines River near Rock Bluff Park.

The Wapello County Sheriff’s Office, Ottumwa Fire Department, and Deran’s Towing and Recovery pulled the truck from the river on Tuesday, where they found the body of an adult man. The deceased individual has been identified as 53-year-old Lee Alan Lukehart, of Ottumwa.

The sheriff’s office continues to investigate what led to Lukehart’s death.

Central Iowa student faces weapons charges for having a firearm on school grounds

News

March 1st, 2024 by Ric Hanson

A Story County high school student has been charged with a felony after school leaders found a loaded firearm in his vehicle on school grounds. The Story County Sheriff’s Office said it took 17-year-old Mason McKinney of Zearing into custody, on Wednesday.

McKinney is a student at Colo-NESCO Senior High School. School leaders were tipped off by a social media post from an account belonging to McKinney about him bringing a gun to school. McKinney is charged with carrying weapons on school grounds, a Class D felony.

According to the criminal complaint, before turning his phone over to law enforcement, Zearing sent a text to his mother saying, “Pls just say you had the gun in the car. I found it.”

Unattended campfire blamed for a Harrison County fire Thursday

News

March 1st, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Little Sioux, Iowa) – Officials with the Missouri Valley Fire Department report that at approximately 3-p.m., Thursday, crews were dispatched to provide mutual aid to the Little Sioux Fire Department, to fight a multi-structure fire. One engine and one tanker were sent northbound to the location. Authorities say crews remained on scene until around 8-p.m., Thursday. They added, “Unfortunately, all structures at the site were a total loss due to reports of an unattended campfire that sparked the blaze.”

Harrison County S/O photo

The incident is currently being handled by both the Little Sioux Fire Department and Harrison County Sheriff’s Office.

Missouri Valley FD Facebook photos

At least nine departments, along with the Monona County EMA, DNR, fire and law enforcement personnel participated in handling the incident.

High School Girl’s State Basketball Tournament Thursday Semifinal Scores

Sports

February 29th, 2024 by Asa Lucas

Class 3A

#1 Estherville Lincoln Central 45, #4 Mount Vernon 37
#3 Solon 49, #2 Des Moines Christian 25

Class 4A

#1 Clear Creek Amana 50, #5 North Polk 48
#2 Waverly-Shell Rock 41, #3 Bishop Heelan 37

Class 5A

#1 Johnston 74, #4 Waukee 33
#3 Dowling Catholic 59, #7 Cedar Falls 48

Drake women beat Illinois-Chicago

Sports

February 29th, 2024 by Asa Lucas

The Drake women are on the doorstep of a Missouri Valley Conference championship. The Bulldogs outscored Illinois-Chicago 21-11 in the second quarter and raced away to an 84-63 victory in the Knapp Center. Drake is a win away from clinching at least a share of its first Valley regular season title since 2019.

That’s Drake coach Allison Pohlman. The Bulldogs shot 58 percent for the game, inclluding nine of 20 from three point range.

Katie Dinnebier scored 18 points and Grace Berg added 17 as the Bulldogs improved to 16-1 in the Valley.

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark to enter WNBA Draft

Sports

February 29th, 2024 by Asa Lucas

Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark is entering the WNBA Draft. Todd Kimm reports.

Atlantic City Council sets a Public Hearing for proposed Property Tax Levy

News

February 29th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Atlantic, Iowa) [updated] – The City Council in Atlantic, Thursday afternoon, passed a Resolution setting April 3rd, 2024 at 5-p.m., as the date and time for a public hearing on a proposed Maximum Property Tax Levy for Fiscal Year 2025. The hearing will be held in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall.

City Administrator John Lund says the proposed maximum levy are as follows:

The Council also passed a Resolution “Approving the proposed maximum property tax levy for FY 2025.” In other business, the Atlantic City Council approved the “Homes for Iowa” Program and Housing Development Fund Budgets for the FY 2024 Revised Estimate and FY 2025 Budget. Mayor Grace Garrett said John McCurdy with SWIPCO provided her with information about Homes for Iowa, Inc., a public-private partnership with Iowa Prison Industries. The homes are built near the Newton Correctional Release Facility, south of Newton, IA.

Councilman Sean Sarsfield is familiar with the construction.

Iowa Prison Industries (IPI) builds the homes, trains the minimum-security offender crew, and sells the homes to HFI to pay for the training. HFI sells the homes to the public, manages all sales orders, coordinates moving logistics with IPI, and decides program policy. IPI contracts with a company to move the houses onto a slab or property with a basement in-place.

The City of Atlantic is on a list to acquire one of the the homes for $85,000-to $95,000. Councilperson Elaine Otte says they have a list of available lots the City owns.

Mayor Garrett said John McCurdy requested eight homes for the Counties they serve..

Previously, a private individual had to buy the home, but that was recently changed to allow a city to purchase one or more of the homes. It was noted that if the home doesn’t sell within 90-days, the City has the option to rent it out.

Atlantic Trojans Archery team gearing up for the State Archery Meet in Des Moines this weekend

Sports

February 29th, 2024 by admin

The Atlantic Trojans Archery team has been gearing themselves up for the State Archery coming up in Des Moines this weekend. The Trojan state archery team is made up of 29 high schoolers and 24 middle schoolers. The Trojan archery team participants are going to be part of the Bullseye and 3D shoot at the state archery tournament. The Bullseye and 3D shootings will get underway on Saturday March 2nd and will wrap up on Sunday March 3rd. The Trojans archery kids have been practicing really hard as of late. Their practices have been held at Achievement Center in Atlantic.

The Trojan archery team has been pretty busy this season as they have appeared in up to 16 events so far this season. Their events were held in December, January and February. Everyone in the Trojan Archery team has been competing at a high level so far this season. The Archery team is coached by Clint Roland with many other volunteers/parents who help coach the team.

Coach Roland talked about taking his 53 archery participants down to the state archery tournament and wants the team to compete at a really high level.

Coach Roland talked about what his Mental toughness of his Trojan archery team and what they have been working on heading into the state archery meet.

Trojan High School Archery participant Lily Willrich said she is really looking forward to the experience and hopefully shoot well at the state archery meet.

 

All 53 Trojan Archery participants will be competing this weekend at the state archery tournament. The Tournament will be held in the Richard O. Jacobson Exhibition Center and the 4-H Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.

 

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark Declares for WNBA Draft

Sports

February 29th, 2024 by Jim Field

Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who is on the verge of becoming the all-time NCAA scoring leader in college basketball, announced Thursday she will leave the Hawkeyes after this season and enter the WNBA draft.

Clark wrote on social media, “While this season is far from over and we have a lot more goals to achieve, it will be my last one at Iowa.”

Clark has become the focal point of women’s basketball, with her flashy play and 3-point shot, often from the on-court logo. Many players would be benched for shooting from so far out, but Clark has the green light from her coach and has delivered while also finding her teammates and hitting the boards.

The guard, with one more year of eligibility, became the all-time leading women’s scorer in major college basketball by scoring 33 points to pass Lynette Woodard and post her 17th career triple-double in a 108-60 victory over Minnesota on Wednesday night.

In her announcement, she thanked her teammates, coaches and the thousands of fans who have packed arenas across the country to watch her and the sixth-ranked Hawkeyes.

Those fans were chanting “One more year! One more year!” while Clark was being interviewed on the court Wednesday night, when she also broke the NCAA single-season record by sinking eight 3-pointers for a total of 156.

She has 3,650 career points. Woodard had 3,649 points for Kansas from 1977-81, before the NCAA sanctioned the sport. Earlier this month, Clark broke Kelsey Plum’s NCAA scoring record (3,527 points).

Next up is the overall NCAA scoring record of Pete Maravich, who is just 17 points ahead of her.

Clark is expected to be the top pick in the draft on April 15.

The Indiana Fever, who have the first pick, indicated on social media shortly after Clark’s announcement that they intend to select her.

“We’re just simply reminding you that there are only 46 days until the 2024 WNBA Draft,” the team posted after dropping a link to its game tickets and a conspicuous “No. 1.”

Clark’s final regular-season home game at Iowa is likely to bring one of the priciest tickets in women’s college basketball history.

The cheapest ticket listed Thursday on TickPick.com for the Sunday game against No. 2 Ohio State was $481.

Griswold Tigers Girls Basketball recap for 2023-2024 season

Sports

February 29th, 2024 by admin

The Griswold Tigers girls’ basketball team ended their season in 70-31 loss to the Earlham Cardinals in the first round of the class 1A-region 5 bracket. The Tigers were led in scoring in that game by senior Karly Millikan who had 9 points.

The Tigers were led in scoring on the season by junior Addison Adams, who had scored 127 points and averaged 8 points per game.

Tigers coach Ryan Lockwood said the Earlham Cardinals was a great shooting team in the first round.

Coach Lockwood was sure proud of the way his team played not just against Earlham but all season long.

Coach Lockwood talked about playing in the corner conference and mentioned Bedford joining the conference next season.

Coach Lockwood mentioned it’s going be tough to replace this year’s seniors.

Coach Lockwood encouraged his team to work outside of their team stuff over the summer.