May 27, 2024 – June 2, 2024

By Allison Jacobs · Saturday, May 25th, 2024 at 3:48 pm CDT
05/27/24
Betty Baker
05/27/24
Mikayla Brown
05/27/24
Jack Davis
05/27/24
Philip Wilson
05/27/24
Tom & Martha Allen *Anniversary (57 years!)
05/28/24
Robert Bensmiller
05/28/24
Jamie Schadt
05/28/24
Richard Fredona
05/28/24
Gene & Darla Messer *Anniversary
05/29/24
Charlene Stigge
05/30/24
Bryce Eaves
05/30/24
Rachel May
05/30/24
Benjamin Sourwine
05/30/24
Pru Calloway
05/30/24
Renee Davis
05/30/24
Jason & Christina Cook *Anniversary
05/30/24
Mike & Anita Hampton *Anniversary
05/31/24
Kelsey Sourwine
05/31/24
Everly Johannson *5
06/01/24
John Liechty
06/01/24
Jodi Wilson
06/02/24
Nancy Hackett
06/02/24
Jackson Duffie

Sports, May 25th

By Slaten Swords · Saturday, May 25th, 2024 at 6:30 am CDT

High School Tennis

The #4-seed Mt. Pleasant’s Jana Isanta competed in the girls’ Class 1A state singles tournament yesterday and dominated her competition. In her first round matchup, Isanta shutout Claire McCumber of Dike-New Hartford in set one and won set two 6-4. The win propelled Isanta to the quarterfinals to face off against Ballard’s Kaitlyn Zugay and she breezed to a 6-1 and 6-2 victory to advance to the semifinals. 

Isanta will take on Gabriella Fleming of Xavier today as the Panther is guaranteed at least fourth place. 

High School Golf. 

The girls’ state meet is in the books and here’s the final results. For Class 1A, New London finished in fourth place after shooting a 750 for the two days. The big exclamation mark for the meet was Taylor Phillips finishing her career as a Tiger with an individual state championship after carding a 76 on day two to finish 7-over par, two strokes above Mount Ayr’s Jaylee Shaffer. 

Sophie Malott took 21st place after finishing 42-over par for the two days as Emma Busby shot a 94 yesterday to earn 46th place.

Easton Valley finished with the team state championship after cruising in day two, finishing 29 strokes above BCLUW as Highland claimed 3rd place. 

For Class 2A, Olivia Hines of Mediapolis carded an 85 for her second day total to finish the meet with a score of 21-over par. Hines clinched 9th place individually. Chloe Bolte of Sumner-Fredericksburg claimed her second consecutive state championship, finishing the two-day tournament 6-under par. The impressive performance also helped the team win the state championship by five strokes over Roland-Story (674 vs 679). 

Gabi Robertson’s 14th place finish helped lead Mid-Prairie to a 5th place finish overall as she shot 25-over par. 

The Class 3A team championship went to Gilbert as they were able to hold off Wahlert Catholic by nearly 40 strokes. Eden Lohrbach of Gilbert finished 5-under par to claim the individual championship. 

Pleasant Valley won the team championship for Class 4A and Linn-Mar’s Morgan Rupp shot 5-under par to sneak away with the individual state championship. 

High School Baseball

Central Lee had their matchup against Hillcrest Academy last night postponed. The Hawks will take on Burlington Notre Dame on Thursday, May 30th, at 5:30 pm at home. 

Winfield-Mt. Union will take on Burlington Notre Dame on Wednesday, May 29th, at 5:30 pm at home. 

Mt. Pleasant will host Washington on Tuesday, May 28th, in a doubleheader with game one at 5:30 pm. 

New London will compete against Mediapolis on Tuesday at 5:30 pm on the road.  

Burlington Notre Dame dominated West Burlington last night, winning 11-0 as Ayden Figuereo notched the only hit for the Falcons. The Nikes will face off against Van Buren County on Tuesday at 5:30 pm at home. 

West Burlington will travel to Wapello on Wednesday for first pitch at 5:30 pm. 

High School Softball

Winfield-Mt. Union will face off against Pekin on Tuesday, May 28th, at home at 5:30 pm. 

Mt. Pleasant had the game locked at four, but surrendered twelve runs to fall to Mid-Prairie last night 16-4. Emma Starr, Tyi Alter, Kynlee White, and Saige Burchett each tabbed an RBI for the Panthers. Mt. Pleasant and West Burlington will compete in a tournament today at Louisa-Muscatine. 

Van Buren County will stay on the road to start the season to face off against Pekin on Wednesday, May 29h, at 7 pm. 

Mediapolis will compete against New London on Tuesday at home at 7:30 pm. 

Central Lee and Danville will travel to Indian Hills Community College to compete in a tournament today. 

Holy Trinity Catholic will host Danville at 5:30 pm on Tuesday.

High School Soccer

The girls’ state tournament will begin on Tuesday, May 28th, and the boys’ state tournament will start on Wednesday, May 29th. 

The Iowa High School Athletic Association will provide free video streams of the quarterfinal rounds. The semifinals and finals rights are held by the Iowa High School Sports Network and they will charge streaming viewers for the games. 

Southeastern Community College

SCC baseball will head to Oklahoma to compete in the 2024 NJCAA Division II Baseball World Series today. The Blackhawks earned the #7-seed and will face off against #10 South Arkansas Community College in the first round at 4 pm. 

This Day in Sports History

1935 – Legendary American athlete Jesse Owens equals or breaks four world records in 45 minutes at a Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan; remembered as “the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport.”

1997 – Todd and Mel Stottlemyre become the first father and son to win 100 games in Major League Baseball.

1922 – Babe Ruth is suspended one day and fined $200 for throwing dirt on an umpire.

Prep Girls’ Golf: New London’s Taylor Phillips Finishes with the Gold

By Slaten Swords · Friday, May 24th, 2024 at 11:03 pm CDT

Prep Girls’ Golf: The 2024 girls’ golf state meet is in the books and here’s the final results. For Class 1A, New London finished in fourth place after shooting a 750 for the two days. The big exclamation mark for the meet was Taylor Phillips finishing her career as a Tiger with an individual state championship after carding a 76 on day two to finish 7-over par, two strokes above Mount Ayr’s Jaylee Shaffer. 

Sophie Malott took 21st place after finishing 42-over par for the two days as Emma Busby shot a 94 yesterday to earn 46th place.

Easton Valley finished with the team state championship after cruising in day two, finishing 29 strokes above BCLUW as Highland claimed 3rd place. 

For Class 2A, Olivia Hines of Mediapolis carded an 85 for her second day total to finish the meet with a score of 21-over par. Hines clinched 9th place individually. Chloe Bolte of Sumner-Fredericksburg claimed her second consecutive state championship, finishing the two-day tournament 6-under par. The impressive performance also helped the team win the state championship by five strokes over Roland-Story (674 vs 679). 

Gabi Robertson’s 14th place finish helped lead Mid-Prairie to a 5th place finish overall as she shott 25-over par. 

The Class 3A team championship went to Gilbert as they were able to hold off Wahlert Catholic by nearly 40 strokes. Eden Lohrbach of Gilbert finished 5-under par to claim the individual championship. 

Pleasant Valley won the team championship for Class 4A and Linn-Mar’s Morgan Rupp shot 5-under par to sneak away with the individual state championship.

Click It or Ticket This Memorial Day!

By Yorke Prough · Friday, May 24th, 2024 at 12:08 pm CDT

Click it or Ticket this Memorial Day holiday. That’s right, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is urging drivers to buckle up this weekend.

The states in region 7, which includes Iowa, saw an overall increase in seat belt use over the last year, but this appears to be the exception. The national seat belt use rate in 2023 was 91.9%. The other 8.1% of drivers and passengers must remember that seat belts save lives. During this high visibility event, participating law enforcement agencies will take a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.

One of the focuses of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. NHTSA data shows a higher number of unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities happen at night. Also, men are overrepresented in unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities with 54% of men (8,098 people) and 41% of women (3,201 people) dying without a seat belt in 2022.

For more information on the Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement mobilization, please visit NHTSA.gov/ClickIt.

Fairfield CSD Receives $200,000 Grant

By Yorke Prough · Friday, May 24th, 2024 at 9:42 am CDT
Fairfield Community School District is thrilled to announce that their district will be receiving the Fairfield CSD SLFRF School Safety Grant!
The district has been awarded $200,000 and will use $50,000 at each building.

Mike Naig Applauds Passage of House Agriculture Committee’s New Farm Bill

By Yorke Prough · Friday, May 24th, 2024 at 9:40 am CDT

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig today applauded the House Agriculture Committee’s bipartisan passage of the new Farm Bill. He thanked Representatives Feenstra and Nunn, members of the Committee, as well as the entire Iowa delegation, for their work to incorporate Iowa’s priorities:

“Iowa farmers and consumers need a strong and comprehensive Farm Bill, and the House Agriculture Committee should be commended for taking a significant step toward that goal. Thanks to the influential work of Representatives Feenstra and Nunn, who serve on the committee, as well as Representatives Hinson and Miller-Meeks, many of Iowa’s priorities are included in the House Farm Bill.

Every title of the House Farm Bill matters to Iowa. We must ensure strong risk management tools like crop insurance, bolster commodity programs and fix the Prop 12 ruling. We also need to keep accelerating conservation, provide nutrition assistance and invest in rural development and trade promotion.

I appreciate the leadership of Chairman Thompson throughout the development of this significant legislation. Now it’s time for Chairwoman Stabenow to follow suit and release her committee’s version, schedule a hearing, and demonstrate that the Senate leadership is serious about getting a new Farm Bill enacted yet this year.”

Downtown Survey Project Meeting Ahead of Preserve Iowa Summit

By Yorke Prough · Friday, May 24th, 2024 at 9:34 am CDT

The Historic Union Block was the site of a meeting on the downtown survey project yesterday evening. Rebecca McCarley of SPARK consulting, Cedar Rapids, presented the information currently garnered from the project.

The goal is to assess the possibility of a historic district in Mount Pleasant listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Addressing the room, McCarley spoke about the intense amount of research that has had to been done. The first phase of the project, research, saw volunteers investigate historic newspaper ads which proved to be a good sign of where a business was located, and when. Telephone directories were also investigated, but the current address format was established in 1956, meaning that the directories between 1913 and 1952 created more work. Some volunteers even had the privilege of looking at historic images, dating all the way back to 1869.

Mount Pleasant has changed a lot of the years. For example, where the post office sits now once was a YMCA, until it was destroyed by a fire. Officers for the Mount Pleasant Police Department show up to work where a historic grocery store sat before. While Mount Pleasant has changed, parts of it remain the same. Out of the 137 properties surveyed in this project, 1/3rd date back to the Civil War era in the 1850s and 60s.

There are four criteria in which a district can be placed on the NRHP. This project focuses on criteria A and C, which is a pattern of important commercial activity, and architecture.

Many volunteers put countless hours into this project, and it is looking like the report will be finalized in June this year. By this fall, a potential grant application may be sent in.

If you’re interested in learning more about the history of Mount Pleasant, ensure that you attend the Preserve Iowa Summit in Mount Pleasant, June 6th-8th. Head to https://culture.iowaeda.com/events/230

Suspect Barricades Himself After Attempted Murder in Fairfield on Thursday

By Yorke Prough · Friday, May 24th, 2024 at 9:16 am CDT
Zachary George Gory

At approximately 12:14 P.M. on May 23, 2024, law enforcement responded to a call concerning a stabbing at 206 East Jefferson in Fairfield, Iowa.

Upon arrival, law enforcement discovered two victims who appeared to have multiple stab wounds. The victims were transported to the Jefferson County Health Center for treatment, and both have since been discharged with minor injuries.

The defendant, Zachary George Gory, age 35, remained barricaded in the residence until law enforcement forced entry. He was arrested and charged with two counts of Attempt to Commit Murder, B Felony charges, one count of Assault on a Peace Officer and one count of Interference with Official Acts, both misdemeanor charges. He was transported to the Jefferson County Health Center for evaluation and has since been taken to the Jefferson County Jail.

A criminal charge is only an accusation, and the Defendant is presumed innocent until and if found guilty in a Court of Law.

As a pending investigation, there is no further information to be released at this time.

This was a multi-agency effort, and the County Attorney’s Office wishes to thank the swift and thorough law enforcement efforts that helped to minimize injury to the those involved and protect the community at large.