Stories from Saturday, April 5, 2014

SPIRIT LAKE -- A majority of seventh graders are spending their spring running track, playing soccer, doing homework and spending their time enjoying the weather -- but one young girl in particular decided to help others in need. She decided to expand her reach beyond northwest Iowa...

SPIRIT LAKE -- Dickinson County is once again showing signs of growth in an annual population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau. Numbers released March 27 suggest the home to the Iowa Great Lakes grew by 288 residents over the past three years. The county reported 16,955 residents on July 1, 2013, compared to 16,667 residents on July 1, 2010...

BUENA VISTA COUNTY -- In late January, the Buena Vista County Sheriff's office received a report of child sexual abuse that had reportedly occurred a decade earlier, when the female victim, from Alta, was 5 years old. The sheriff's department, along with Mercy Hospital's Child Advocacy Center, conducted an investigation into the allegations...

SAC CITY -- Good old-fashioned police work led to the arrest of a Florida man in connection with a 5-year-old cold case in Sac City. John David Green was arrested in Orange Park, Fla. in connection with the disappearance and death of his former roommate, Mark Koster...