LEVERKUSEN, Germany – Iowa State women’s basketball alum Hannah Belanger has signed WINGS Leverkusen to begin her professional career. Belanger played one season at Iowa State following an impressive four-year career at Truman State.
Belanger played in all 33 games for the Cyclones while making 32 starts. She averaged 9.3 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while shooting nearly 39 percent from 3-point range. Belanger also finished her career with 2,189 points and 368 made triples.
“We are all excited for Hannah as she signs her professional contract. In one year, she made a huge impact on and off the court at Iowa State,” said Iowa State women’s basketball head coach Bill Fennelly. “It is exciting to see this dream of hers become a reality.”
She will make the move overseas in August while WINGS begins regular season play on September 30.
(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Friday night, arrested a man wanted on a valid warrant out of Pottawattamie County. 56-year-old Richard James Linfor, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 8:30-p.m. in the 500m block of E. Market Street, on the warrant for Escape from Custody (A Serious Misdemeanor). Richard Linfor was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held, pending transfer to the Pott. County Jail in Council Bluffs.
DES MOINES – Gov. Kim Reynolds has announced the approval of Buena Vista, Cherokee and O’Brien Counties for Individual Assistance under the previously approved Major Disaster Declaration, FEMA DR-4796-IA, for Iowa counties where significant damage was sustained from severe storms, flooding, straight-line winds, and tornadoes that started on June 16, 2024, and continuing.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Individual Assistance Program is already activated for the following counties: Clay, Emmet, Lyon, Plymouth, and Sioux Counties.
Today: Mostly sunny w/a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms late this afternoon. High near 82. SW winds around 5-10 mph.
Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms through midnight. Low around 62.New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Sunday: A 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms. High near 81. W/SW winds 5-10 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Sunday Night: A 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Low around 60. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Monday: Mostly sunny w/a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. High near 80.
Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 83.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 83.
Friday’s High in Atlantic was 81. Our Low this morning, 56. Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was 77 and the Low was 53. The All-Time Record High in Atlantic on July 6th, was 106 in 1937, and the Record Low was 47 in 1937 & 2006. Sunrise: 5:52; Sunset: 8:56.
Hawkeye 10 Conference action:
Creston 10 Denison-Schleswig 5
Creston 11 Denison-Schleswig 3
Bluegrass Conference:
Melcher-Dallas 12 Orient-Macksburg 11
Melcher-Dallas 12 Orient-Macksburg 7
Non-Conference play:
Clarinda 10 Abraham Lincoln 0
Kuemper Catholic 8 Ogden 7
ACGC 8 Treynor 2
Sergeant Bluff-Luton 5 West Lyon 0
Non-Conference
Thomas Jefferson 5 Atlantic 3
Underwood 9 MOC-Floyd Valley 3
Algona 4 Bishop Heelan Catholic 2
Sioux City North 6 Unity Christian 1
Hawkeye 1o Conference
Lewis Central 10 Clarinda 0
Creston 5 Denison-Schleswig 3
Denison-Schleswig 9 Creston 3
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A firefighter was hurt fighting a fire at what was supposed to be an empty factory building Friday morning. KCRG reports the Cedar Rapids Fire Department says it responded to the former Diamond V plant in the 500 block of G Ave NW in Cedar Rapids before 7 a.m. Friday. The plant has been vacant for several years but the department says firefighters saw people evacuating as they arrived and were told people were inside. That prompted firefighters to enter the building to search for people who may have been trapped.
During the course of that search, a firefighter fell about 30 feet. The firefighter was taken to the hospital with serious injuries but is expected to survive. Ultimately, no one was found inside the former factory. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Diamond V vacated the plant in 2020 shortly after Cargill bought out the Cedar Rapids company that makes additives for animal feed. Property records show the Cedar Rapids Development Group bought the property last year. That’s the group leading efforts to build a casino in Cedar Rapids, slated to be located just a few blocks away.
CRFD says homeless people have been known to stay inside the former factory. The city of Cedar Rapids formerly “placarded” the building on June 26th, declaring it uninhabitable and making it illegal for anyone to be inside the building.
(Creston, Iowa) -Officials with SIRWA (The Southern Iowa Rural Water Association) based in Creston, are advising certain customers of their service in parts of Union and Madison County, to use bottled water for drinking, or boil your water if you intend to drink it from the tap, until at least Wednesday, due to issues SIRWA experienced Thursday evening with their distribution system north of the Afton, Lorimor, Thayer and surrounding areas. A water main broke, draining all the water out of a tower just north of Afton in Union County.
Officials say “If your account number starts with numbers 55, 03, 63 or 64 you are included in this notice.”
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa kids on summer break may be spending less time playing outdoors and more time in front of screens, and studies find it could be hindering their social and emotional development. Jeff Reiland, a child and family therapist with Gundersen Health System, says “less is better” when it comes to screen-time, though T-Vs, tablets and cell phones are getting a lot harder to avoid.
“Back in the 1960s, the average household had one screen. It was usually a black-and-white and maybe if they were lucky, a color TV,” Reiland says. “In 2015, the average household had seven or eight screens, and a 2024 survey showed the average household has 17 screens, over twice as many as it had even 10 years ago.” Studies find kids are watching screens on average for three hours a day by three years of age, while for teens, it may be eight hours or more of screen-time every day.
“People are spending less time together interacting with each other and more time plugged in to those other things,” Reiland says, “which may make them quieter, may make them maybe better behaved, but it doesn’t necessarily help them develop social and emotional skills.” He says the latest study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, says there’s a clear correlation between a child’s screen-time and their language development.
Jeff Reiland (Gundersen photo)
“When children develop language, they’re able to problem-solve better. They’re able to turn, take and share better,” Reiland says. “We see a direct relationship between children being able to use their words — instead of their fists — when they’re angry, so we see a sharp drop in aggression between the ages of three and five as they acquire that language.” Reiland says the results of the study are a bit depressing because it’s well known that screen-time has a negative impact on many areas of a child’s life and development, yet the numbers continue to climb.
“A study shows that when kids watched that much screen-time, they’re actually missing out on opportunities for conversation,” Reiland says. “This study actually was able to measure and estimate that when children are plugged into screens, they’re missing up to 1,000-plus words that they’re hearing from adults, they’re uttering 800 fewer words.” The study also found kids are missing out on up to 100 interactions with adults, conversations that can help cement relationships between parents and kids. Delays in language development translate to a child not being able to manage their emotions well, causing ripple effects in their ability to solve problems.