By OLIVIA ALLEN – Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa (TNS) Over the past two weeks, most Quad-Cities schools have celebrated the holidays in some fashion to keep their students engaged before winter break. Several schools host annual concerts or Christmas recitals during this time, while many teachers or clubs sponsor themed parties. Others, however, took
Continue ReadingBy JOSHUA SHIMKUS – Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa (TNS) Starting on Jan. 1, 2025, the city of Moline plans to hire six new firefighters/paramedics with the intention of staffing a third ambulance in the city. This will be the first major staffing increase for the department in more than 40 years. According to a
Continue ReadingBy NINA BAKER – Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa (TNS) The Swampland Jewels, a fusion band mixing Iowa charm and Gulf Coast soul, will perform on Sunday, Jan. 19, for the first 2025 show in Polyrhythms’ Third Sunday Jazz series. “Let The Swampland Jewels take you on a trip down old Highway 61, and across
Continue ReadingBy CHAD DRURY – Ottumwa Courier, Iowa (TNS) OTTUMWA — The last meeting was already going to be difficult for Brian Morgan. Then his wife and three kids walked into the Wapello County Courthouse courtroom single file, and took a seat in the back of the room. Morgan chaired his final meeting of the board
Continue ReadingBy CHAD DRURY – Ottumwa Courier, Iowa (TNS) As the year 2024 comes to a close, here’s a look back on a year’s of news that appeared in the pages of the Ottumwa Courier. These headlines were curated by Courier staff, and come from reporting by the Courier and our news partners. Part 1 covers
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By ROB GILLIES – Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Two top Canadian Cabinet ministers are visiting Palm Beach to talk border security and trade with the incoming Donald Trump administration as Trump threatens tariffs on all Canadian products. New Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly will be in Palm Beach, Florida on
Continue ReadingBy JEFF REINITZ – Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa (TNS) WATERLOO — Authorities are asking the public’s help in locating a woman who fled from a residential facility where she was serving time for firing a gun in 2020. D’Iona Asia Marie Wilson-Bass, 21, failed to report back to the Waterloo Women’s Center for Change on
Continue ReadingBy JEFF REINITZ – Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa (TNS) CEDAR FALLS — A Denver caregiver has been arrested for allegedly using her Cedar Falls clients’ credit cards for personal expenses. Cedar Falls police arrested Rachael Lynn Nicklaus, 38, on Dec. 20 for three counts of felony dependent adult abuse, two counts each of identity theft
Continue ReadingBy Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa (TNS) WATERLOO — Waterloo Community Schools has named Charletta Sudduth director of equity, inclusion and belonging effective July 1. She will succeed Gina Weekley, who is relocating out of state with her family. Weekley will hold the position through June. Sudduth currently serves as the district’s pre-K administrator. That role
Continue ReadingBy MARIA KUIPER – Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa (TNS) TRIPOLI — A natural sanctuary now looks like a graveyard after bird flu has spread through its waterfowl. Sweet Marsh bird flu 02 Dead trumpeter swans litter the ice of Sweet Marsh in Bremer County. Sweet Marsh, a wetland northeast of Tripoli, welcomes Canada geese, trumpeter
Continue ReadingBy Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa (TNS) Each December, Courier reporters look back at their favorite stories of the past year. We ask them to pick their favorites: not necessarily the biggest stories of the year, just the ones they found most interesting. Here are some of Andy Milone’s favorite Cedar Valley stories of 2024. Some
Continue ReadingBy Eduardo Castillo – The Wichita Eagle (TNS) Dec. 26—A man and a cat were killed Christmas night when a duplex in Derby caught on fire. Officials have not yet released the identity of the man, who was in his 70s. He lived in the duplex with one other person, who wasn’t home at the
Continue ReadingBy Taylor Eldridge – The Wichita Eagle (TNS) Dec. 26—The Wichita State men’s basketball team is the best in the country at something it seemingly has no control over. No team can boast a better free-throw defense through Christmas than the Shockers, who rank No. 1 nationally with opponents shooting just 58.2% at the foul
Continue ReadingBy St. Joseph News-Press, Mo. (TNS) Dec. 26—The Kansas Highway Patrol reports that two individuals are injured and one is dead after a two-vehicle crash in Doniphan County, Kansas, on Christmas day. According to the KHP report at approximately 8:41 a.m. on Dec. 25, one vehicle was driving north on Kansas Highway Seven while the
Continue ReadingBy Tom Barton – The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (TNS) Dec. 26—The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. A semi truck collided with a train near Amana Thursday morning, temporarily blocking a busy highway. Authorities said no one was injured, and traffic was detoured around the crash site.
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By AP PHOENIX (AP) — A shooting at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix left two people injured by gunfire and another person stabbed in an incident related to a family dispute, police say. Phoenix police said the shooting happened at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday at an airport restaurant located outside the security checkpoints in Terminal
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By MELISSA GOLDIN – Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A taxi driver whose car hit six pedestrians when he jumped a curb in a Manhattan shopping district on Christmas Day was having a medical episode at the time, New York City police said Thursday. Two of those hurt are Australians, according to that country’s
Continue ReadingBy The Manhattan Mercury, Kan. (TNS) Dec. 26—A cyber attack targeting Ascension Via Christi hospitals, including the one in Manhattan, in May impacted about 5.6 million people, the company reported to federal regulators. Ascension officials said they’re working with third-party experts to investigate the personal information that may have been compromised and, over the next
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By COLLEEN SLEVIN – Associated Press DENVER (AP) — A 7-year-old boy who died in a shooting that left 24 bullet holes in a home on a tribal reservation in Colorado was lying next to his father in bed when he was hit, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. Zackieus Lang told investigators that his
Continue ReadingBy Christopher Braunschweig – Newton Daily News, Iowa (TNS) Dec. 26—Disagreements over the allocation of funding for various partner agencies have reared their ugly head once again at the City of Newton’s budget workshops. While city staff has recommended the bare minimum of assign funds for HIRTA and the Des Moines Airport’s expansion project, the
Continue ReadingBy Cheyenne Roche – The Creston News Advertiser, Iowa (TNS) Dec. 26—”Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” — Allen Saunders Well life hit us pretty hard these past few months. For weeks, it felt like every sign in the universe was pointing us toward moving to Dubuque — a
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By DEEPA BHARATH and JESSIE WARDARSKI – Associated Press The Native American Church is considered the most widespread religious movement among the Indigenous people of North America. It holds sacred the peyote cactus, which grows naturally only in some parts of southern Texas and northern Mexico. Peyote has been used spiritually in ceremonies, and as
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By AP ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Large fossil fuel companies would have to pay fees to help New York fight the effects of climate change under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The new law requires companies responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a state fund for infrastructure projects meant
Continue ReadingBy Globe Gazette, Mason City, Iowa (TNS) The Clear Lake Fire Department extinguished a blaze on Christmas Eve afternoon at a 2 1/2 story detached garage at 1019 S. Eighth St. Firefighters arrived at the scene shortly before 2 p.m. and found the garage was fully involved in flames, according to a press release from
Continue ReadingBy MARY PIEPER – Globe Gazette, Mason City, Iowa (TNS) Cerro Gordo County Sheriff Kevin Pals, who is retiring Dec. 31 after more than 45 years in law enforcement, first became involved in that career field as a teen. When he was a senior at Clear Lake High School, the town’s police department started a
Continue ReadingBy JIM SALTER – Associated Press A Nebraska man is getting title to his home back, years after losing it over a $588 tax debt, one of his lawyers said Thursday. Kevin Fair of Scottsbluff has been involved in a legal dispute since 2018, when he lost title to the home he had owned for
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By DEEPA BHARATH and JESSIE WARDARSKI – Associated Press HEBBRONVILLE, Texas (AP) — In this corner of southern Texas, the plump cacti seem to pop out of arid dust and cracked earth, like magic dumplings. It’s only here and in northern Mexico that the bluish-green peyote plant can be found growing naturally, nestled under thorny
Continue ReadingBy AP KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — A pizza deliverer in central Florida has been charged with pushing her way into a motel room with an accomplice and stabbing a pregnant woman after a dispute over a tip, authorities said. Brianna Alvelo was charged with stabbing a woman in her motel room in Kissimmee, Florida, a
Continue ReadingBy Monica Faram – Clinton Herald, Iowa (TNS) One Burleson family has received the best Christmas presents imaginable this year. On Dec. 11, they received the news that their 5-year-old is cancer free. Carolynn Quaranta was diagnosed with pineoblastoma, a rare, aggressive cancer deep in the central area of the brain where the two hemispheres
Continue ReadingBy The Manhattan Mercury, Kan. (TNS) Dec. 26—The percentage of people without jobs in Riley County dipped slightly last month. The Kansas Department of Labor a 3.1% unemployment rate in Riley County in November, down from 3.4% in October. That number matches the 3.1% jobless rate seen in September, which was a 0.7% decrease from
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