Stories from Friday, June 22, 2012

Following six accidents on a stretch of U.S. Highway 71 currently under construction, local law enforcement officials requested a lower speed limit for the portion of the highway within Spencer city limits. The Iowa Department of Transportation granted that request Tuesday...

For the second school year in Spencer, volunteers at Hope Reformed Church and Living Word Outreach Ministries have partnered to try and curb the hunger issues faced by students in the school district. Volunteers package some basic, easy-to-prepare items for young people to take home and eat over the weekend. Organizers think people would be shocked to know the hunger issue many students face...

The Spencer Alliance for a Creative Economy is pleased to announce the dates and live music scheduled for the five arts, farmers market, and entertainment events of the summer for 2012. This year, Mainstreet Market will run five consecutive Thursday evenings, July 19 through August 16. The following musicians will be performing: Jack Ryan and Friends, July 19; Robert D. Coates, July 26; Amber Norgaard, Aug. 2; Isaac Brockshus/Spencer Municipal Band, Aug. 9; and Chad Elliott, Aug. 16...

TNA - Total Nonstop Action - wrestling is making a return to the Clay County Regional Events Center. The professional wrestling company will make a stop in Spencer for the first time in three years on Friday, Aug. 17. Cowboy James Storm (right) will join his former tag team partner and current TNA heavyweight champion Bobby Roode, Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle, the Charismatic Enigma Jeff Hardy, the TNA Knockouts and others on the card. Tickets - including VIP meet and greet packages - go on sale at 9 a.m. today at the events center box office and Ticketmaster outlets.

Funeral services for Mrs. Dolores "Dee" O'Connor, 77, of Spencer, will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 22, 2012, at Warner Chapel in Spencer. Rev. Russell Muilenburg will officiate the service. Burial will be at Riverside Cemetery in Spencer. Mrs. O'Connor passed away Monday, June 18, 2012, at Spencer Hospital...

A memorial service for Elizabeth Ann Frank, former resident of Royal, will be held at St. Louis Catholic Church in Royal, at 2 p.m. Friday, June 29, 2012. Visitation will be at the church one hour prior to the service. Private interment for the family will be held at North Lawn Cemetery in Spencer following the service...

Junior R. Halverson, 89, of Sioux Rapids, Ia. died Thursday, June 21, 2012, at the Spencer Municipal Hospital in Spencer, Ia. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m., Monday, June 25, 2012, at the First Lutheran Church in Sioux Rapids. Burial will be in the Lone Tree Cemetery...

Funeral services for Mr. Wendell Nothwehr, 71, of Arnolds Park and Peterson, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, June 25, 2012, at St. John's Church in Peterson. Rev. Michael Hyde will officiate the service. Visitation will be held from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, with the family present at Warner Funeral Home in Spencer. A second visitation will be held from 5-8 p.m. Sunday with the family present at the Warner Funeral Home in Peterson...

"The Long Earth," by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Harper, 352 pp. $25.99 I really wanted to like this book. Until a few years ago, science fiction hadn't really interested me. I wanted the "arts," and the "literature," and the classic ideologies that had built up my world of books and culture...

"Tell the Wolves I'm Home," by Carol Rifka Brunt. The Dial Press, 355 pp. $25 I wasn't around in 1987. I don't know about the time when AIDS was so taboo that a person was mocked because their relative was suffering. And yet I had no problem becoming thoroughly entranced with Carol Rifka Brunt's debut novel, "Tell the Wolves I'm Home."...

When Adam Sandler decided it was time for him to star in an R-rated movie, he must have thought to himself, "Go big or go home." "That's My Boy" marks Sandler's first step away from the PG-13 - early teen target audience - to a more adult-based comedy. Much more adult-based...

For the third time this week, Gloria Jensen and the Sioux Central Rebels won by shutout, this time to open the Okoboji tournament on Thursday evening in Milford with a 2-0 win over the Pioneers. Jensen and her counterpart, Savannah Heithus, both worked quickly and didn't walk a batter in the hour-long game. ...

Feature: 1. Devin Smith, Lake City. 2. Cody Nielsen, Fort Dodge. 3. Brandon Nielsen, Spencer. 4. Josh Peters, Dickens. 5. Drew Bargolf, Sioux Rapids. 6. John Briggs, Cherokee. 7. Brad Kathman, Graettinger. 8. Jason Kolte, Missouri Valley. 9. Ernie Dailey, Worthington, MN. ...