(Stuart, Iowa) – Four teenagers face charges following a pursuit over the weekend that began in Stuart. According to reports, the incident began at around 12:30-a.m. Saturday, when a Stuart Police Officer in a marked patrol vehicle, initiated a traffic stop on 105th Street in Stuart, after observing a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed.

The suspect vehicle failed to stop when the Officer engaged their vehicle’s emergency lights and siren. The resulting pursuit was terminated about one-half hour after it began, due to the reckless manner the suspect vehicle was operating while traveling at high rate of speed. The vehicle was being driven with its headlights off, and through posted stop signs.

Authorities says a little after 1-a.m., Saturday, the same Stuart Police Officer who initiated the pursuit, came across the same suspect vehicle in a wooded area. Four juveniles were detained and later released to the custody of their parents or guardians.

Charges against the teens were pending as of the last report. Authorities did not release the names of the subjects involved in the incident, due to their age.  Stuart Police were assisted during the incident by the Guthrie and Dallas County Sheriff’s Offices. An investigation into the incident was ongoing.

POLK COUNTY, Iowa [WHO-TV] — The Saydel Community School District is the next Iowa school to switch to a four-day school week. For two years the district has been trying to switch to a four-day school week due to loosing teachers and a decline in enrollment, which has resulted in a decrease in state funding. At a meeting Monday evening those two years paid off as the Saydel School Board voted unanimously to switch from a five-day school week to a four-day week.

The plan would begin the switch to a four-day week at the start of the 2024-25 school year. School days would also be 30 minutes longer. Earlier this month, the Martensdale-St. Mary’s Community School District’s school board voted to transition to a four-day school week beginning with the 2024-25 school year.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic High School Speech & Debate has had a very busy and very successful Large Group season. High School/Middle School Spanish Instructor
Co-Head Speech/Debate Coach Trisha Niceswanger reports January 20th was the District Large Group contest held at ACGC High School. Atlantic took 6 entries varying from Ensemble Acting, Group Improvisation, Radio Broadcasting, Choral Reading and Readers Theatre. At the District level, students perform in front of a judge and receive a rating. A Division I rating is the highest, followed by Division II, III or IV. Pieces that earn a I rating will advance onto the State contest. Atlantic had two pieces move on: Ensemble Acting “Mugged”, and the Choral Reading “Nobody is Safe”.

At the State contest held at Ankeny Centennial High School on February 3rd, students performed for a panel of three judges to again receive the Division I or II ratings. The Acting group of “Mugged” performed mid-day and received straight I’s from all three judges. The Choral Reading group unfortunately was not able to go on as all individuals were abruptly evacuated from the High School. A non-credible threat had been discovered at the contest. For more information on that story and how it impacted the rest of the contest day, follow this link to the AHS Needle article written by J Molina, one of the students performing that day. https://ahsneedle.com/39379/fine-arts/atlantic-speech-team-evacuated-from-competition-after-bomb-threat/

Ensemble Acting group: Coach Troy Roach, J Molina, Nick Bennett, and Josie Handlos.

Choral Reading group: Margaret McCurdy, Megan Birge, Nissa Molgaard, Alix Nath, and Josie Handlos. (Photos courtesy Trisha Niceswanger)

Through all of the extra excitement, the Choral Reading earned straight I’s as well. The evening of Feb 6 led to the nervous refreshing of the IHSSA homepage looking for the announcement of All-State nominations. At least two of the three State judges must nominate a group to reach All-State, the collection of the best pieces in the state of Iowa. When the list dropped, the Choral Reading group was thrilled to see they had received Performing All-State honors. An extra bonus for this performance is that it is a piece written by coach Troy Roach, leading to a much more personal connection to the material. The Choral Reading students will perform their piece one more time on Saturday Feb 17 at the ISU Campus.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Zach Nunn says former President Trump’s suggestion that he might encourage Russia to attack European allies who don’t fulfill their NATO obligations is akin to President Biden’s decision to end sanctions against Iran.

“When we have a situation where we have a president, sitting or former, who doesn’t stand up to an adversary or threatens our allies, we are doing a disservice to our own national security right here at home,” Nunn says. Trump has long criticized NATO allies for relying on the U-S and failing to spend enough on their own defense. This weekend, Trump said if a big European country were delinquent in its NATO obligations, he’d encourage Russia to do whatever it wishes because the U-S would not protect a country that hadn’t paid its bills. Nunn says provoking Russia is bad behavior.

“I think anyone who would threat our allies is doing a disservice to our country,” Nunn says. “…Anyone who’s going to, you know, stash intelligence material in their garage or their compound — these are things that people need to be held accountable for. I don’t care if they’re the sitting president or the former president.”

Nunn, a Republican from Bondurant, has served 20 years in the various branches of the military and is currently in the Air Force Reserve.