CLEAR LAKE, Iowa — [KCCI] – Two people suspected in a Michigan murder were arrested Tuesday, in northern Iowa. Clear Lake police say they got a call Tuesday night from law enforcement in Michigan asking for help. Authorities believed Margaret Kempainen, 50, and Jacob Kempainen, 20, were in town. They’re suspected of killing an 87-year-old family member in Michigan. Clear Lake police tracked the two down at a gas station and took them into custody.
(Radio Iowa) – If you have games, watches or electronics under your tree, you likely have those shiny, button-sized batteries in the box, too, and those batteries can be a critical problem if a child swallows one. Tammy Noble, a registered nurse and spokeswoman for the Iowa Poison Control Center, says the moisture in the throat can trigger the flow of current in the battery, which can lead to serious trouble in the esophagus. “The esophagus is the tube that goes from the back of your throat down to your stomach,” Noble says. “When it’s stuck in the esophagus, it can cause burns, even significant burns, within two hours after they swallow it.”
Curious kids can find those batteries in all sorts of products, from bathroom scales to grandma’s hearing aids. Unfortunately, it likely means a trip to the E-R if a battery is swallowed. “This is definitely an emergency situation when kids swallow these batteries,” Noble says. “Even the small ones, we get concerned about just to make sure it’s not stuck in the esophagus. We always refer those in to the hospital to get X-rays.” Parts of Iowa have snow on the ground and ice melt in the garage — or on the sidewalk and driveway. Noble says those white granules of ice melt might also look appetizing to a child. The various ice melting products on the market often contain either of two primary ingredients.
“Some are like your table salt, with sodium chloride, and other ones have potassium chloride,” Noble says. “Both of those, when you swallow that, it’s a larger quantity than just shaking the salt shaker on your food, so it can cause an upset stomach, especially if you’re swallowing larger quantities of it.”
If your child ate ice melt — or anything else questionable, be on the safe side and call the Sioux City-based Iowa Poison Control Center. The experts are available around-the-clock at 1-800-222-1222.
(Radio Iowa) – Scratch tickets are often given as Christmas gifts, but Iowa Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer says they are not recommending them for minors. “Technically, it is not against the law for you to give a lottery ticket to someone who is under age, but we would just ask folks to stop and ask whether it’s a good idea,” Neubauer says. She says it can be a gray area for some people. “We’ve tweaked our message a little bit this year. And we’ve said that we think that lottery tickets are something that should be purchased by adults for adults. And you know, that’s true for a lot of products,” Nueabauer says. “You know, certainly alcohol and tobacco come with age restrictions. And those are things that people give a lot this time of year, even movies and toys have age recommendation guidelines. So we just asked people to keep that in mind when they’re buying lottery tickets, please reserve lottery tickets for the adult audience.”
Neubauer says scratch tickets are a form of gambling. “Studies have shown that problem gambling can begin in adolescence when impulse and attention control are still developing. So we at the Iowa Lottery want our products to go to those who are mature enough to enjoy that entertainment,” she says. Neubauer says you have to be 21 to buy a scratch ticket, but it is NOT illegal for a minor to redeem a gift ticket.
“We at the lottery would always ensure that the ticket was legally purchased, legally presented, and legally possessed. And we would ask the right questions in that situation to make sure that that was the case. In this case, it simply comes down to who are you giving that ticket to and under what circumstances ” Neubauer says.
You can find out more about the issue on the Iowa Lottery’s Blog on their webpage.
(Red Oak, Iowa) – A Red Oak man was arrested Thursday afternoon on an assault charge. Red Oak Police report 54-year-old Vernon Brinkley Warf was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault and Child Endangerment. Warf was being held without bond, in the Montgomery County Jail.
Today: A 40 percent chance of rain, mainly before 10am. Patchy fog before 1pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 52. Light and variable wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the morning. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 37. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph after midnight.
Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 56. Light south wind increasing to 8 to 13 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph.
Sat. Night: A 50 percent chance of rain, mainly after midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 44. Breezy, with a south southeast wind 10 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.
Sunday: Rain. High near 53. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Sunday Night: Rain. Low around 38. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Christmas Day: Rain likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Monday Night: Rain likely, mainly before midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 31. Blustery. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Thursday’s High in Atlantic was 55. The Low was 42. We received .02″ rain/drizzle over the past 24-hours (ending today at 7-a.m.). Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was -10 and the Low was -14. The Record High on Dec. 22nd was 65 in 1933,and the Record Low was -27 in 1989. Sunrise is 7:42. Sunset is 4:52.
The Atlantic Trojans have back-to-back wins for the first time this season as the Trojans escaped Audubon with a 66-60 victory at Audubon Thursday night. It was a slow start offensively for the Trojans as the Wheelers played a box and one defense on Trojan senior forward Colton Rasmussen. The Wheelers used this strategy two weeks ago as they held Grady Jeppensen to just five points in a Wheeler win. But Rasmussen did a great job early on forcing any bad shots and playing through the flow of the offense. Head Coach of the Trojans Dalton Franken said they expected the Wheelers to run that defense and told Colton Rasmussen to just stay patient and let your teams get you open.
That allowed Trojan big guys Brock Henderson and Gavin McLaren benefitted off the tight defense scoring at the rim early and often that saw the Trojans jump to a double figure lead. Rasmussen would get scoring in the second quarter with 11 points pushing a Trojan lead to 19 at the halftime break. The third quarter saw much of the as the Trojans rode the offense of McLaren, Henderson, and Rasmussen to a 57-36 lead into the final eight minutes. Looking like a Trojan blowout win was possible the Wheelers turned it on in the final frame and gave Atlantic everything they could handle. The Wheelers went to a full court press that the Trojans struggled with. The Trojans would have five+ turnovers in the final minutes as they watched their 21-point lead evaporate all the way down to five with 2:30 left. Gavin McLaren got a huge basket to settle the nerves of the Trojans, but the Wheelers responded, and it was a five-point Trojan lead with under 30 seconds when Colton Rasmussen made the play of the night. The Trojans up 65-60 turned the basketball over and Audubon’s Aaron Olsen had a chance at a layup and potential and one opportunity, but Rasmussen beat him to the spot and took a huge charge that helped get the basketball back and secure a road victory heading into the Christmas break.
The Trojans have won back-to-back games for the first time under coach Dalton Franken. Coach Franken talks about how big it is going into the break on a high positive note.
The Trojans improve their record to 3-6 on the year and will be back in action in the new year on January 2d when they welcome in Glenwood for a 7:30 tipoff at Atlantic High School.
The fourth ranked Iowa Hawkeye women took command with a 19-3 third quarter run and beat Loyola of Chicago 98-69 in Iowa City. Caitlin Clark had a triple-double with 35 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists. The Hawkeyes played without starting guard Gabbie Marshall who was ill.
That’s Iowa coach Lisa Bluder. The 17 rebounds for Clark were a career high.
AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State men’s basketball team kept up with the Joneses Thursday night in Hilton Coliseum. Robert Jones and Curtis Jones combined for 33 points and 13-of-20 shooting from the field to aid the Cyclones (10-2, 0-0 Big 12) in an 80-48 victory over Eastern Illinois (6-7, 0-0 Ohio Valley).
The victory kept Iowa State unbeaten at home (8-0) and gave head coach T.J. Otzelberger win No. 150 in his career.
Curtis Jones drilled five 3-pointers and tallied 15 of his game-high 18 points in the first half, and Robert Jones added 16 points on a 7-of-9 effort from the field. He also had a team-high six boards. Tamin Lipsey posted 11 of his 16 points after intermission and Milan Momcilovic netted 16 points after being scoreless at the break.
Iowa State, which led by as many as 37 points late in the game, was 10-of-23 from 3-point range (43.5 pct.) and connected on 16-of-18 at the charity stripe (88.9 pct.).
How It Happened
Curtis Jones gave the Cyclones a spark from the bench in the early moments. He scored nine quick points behind a pair of 3-pointers to give the Cyclones an 18-9 lead. After increasing their lead to 26-12, the Cyclones went on a four-minute scoring drought to allow the Panthers trim the deficit to under double digits at 26-18 with under eight minutes remaining.
Curtis Jones made two more treys down the stretch to give the Cyclones a 39-26 advantage at the break. The Cyclones were 6-of-13 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes.
A Lipsey steal and nifty pass to Robert Jones for a bucket began second half scoring for the Cyclones. Robert Jones scored another basket on ISU’s next possession, as ISU soon forged ahead 48-30.
Lipsey and Momcilovic each scored seven points in the first nine minutes of the second period to increase the Cyclone lead to 58-34.
The lead grew to 33 points (76-43) after a Momcilovic trey with 3:15 remaining in the game.
Top Performer
Tamin Lipsey scored 16 points, but he made his mark in multiple areas in the victory. Lipsey added seven assists, six rebounds and notched four steals, his 10th-straight game with three or more thefts. Lipsey now has 116 steals in his young 45-game career, already ranking No. 18 in school history.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The Drake women’s basketball team (7-4) punctuated their non-conference schedule with a 108-60 blowout victory over North Dakota (3-8) on Thursday afternoon. The Bulldogs erupted for their first 100+ point performance since the 2021-22 season.
Courtney Becker and Taylor McAulay went back-to-back to start the contest with a three-pointer off the tip and a strip and score on the next trip down the floor. Anna Miller joined in with her first bucket with a shimmy down the lane before McAulay buried a three of her own.
McAulay continued her all-around start with a blocked shot on the perimeter, the second-straight for Drake, before Grace Berg canned the team’s third three-pointer in four attempts to force a North Dakota timeout. Drake led 13-2 at the first pause.
Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman put on a press out of the timeout as a change of pace defensively. The Fighting Hawks probed their way to a couple scores despite the increased pressure, but the Bulldogs maintained their early advantage. Anna Brown chipped in with five-straight points for the Bulldogs as the clock ticked under the halfway point of the opening quarter.
Drake’s lead bloomed into double figures for the first time after a Katie Dinnebier three as the Bulldogs continued their red-hot start.
Anna Brown led the Bulldogs down the stretch of the first period, reaching 11 points as the first player in double figures. Drake led by eight after the first 10 minutes of play. Pohlman’s squad hit seven three-point baskets in the opening stanza, their most in a single period since making the same number vs. DePaul in the 2021 WNIT.
The second quarter started with a much slower pace as the initial sprint tapered off. North Dakota used the shift to briefly swing momentum back in its direction as the hosts chipped away at Drake’s lead.
The Bulldogs weathered their way through the lower-scoring second quarter and rebuilt their lead in the process. Drake took a 51-34 advantage into the half.
Kacie Borowicz provided the first points of the second half for North Dakota, but Anna Miller answered on the other end. The Bulldogs’ onslaught ensued as Drake exploded out to a 27-point lead to force a Fighting Hawk timeout. Ava Hawthorne pitched in with her first triple of the afternoon to extend Drake’s advantage to 30.
Dinnebier banked one in as time expired on the third quarter. The Dogs led by 33 with 10 minutes to play.
Hawthorne fed Brown in the fourth quarter to give Drake exactly 100 points, their first triple-digit performance since beating Illinois State 104-62 in Feb. 2022. The Dogs cruised from there, eventually emptying their bench and earning the 108-60 road win.
“We scored 31 points in the first quarter,” Pohlman said after the game. “But I also thought that North Dakota did they made their set of runs..but we didn’t falter at all. We constantly stayed within the gameplan, getting inside touches outside touches, utilizing our versatility. We shot the three extremely, extremely well, especially in that very first quarter…just watching people step up to that line, go ahead and let it fly… it just felt really, really good.”
Six Bulldogs scored in double figures led by Anna Miller’s 20. Katie Dinnebier and Anna Brown both added 16 while Grace Berg and Taylor McAulay posted 13. Courtney Becker rounded out the Bulldogs’ offensive leaders with 10 points.
Freshman Shannon Fornshell corralled a team-high nine rebounds while Miller, Dinnebier, and reserve guard Ava Hawthorne dished out five assists.
Brooklin Dailey came off the bench for her best showing to date with a career-high seven points and seven rebounds.
“[This win] really means a lot,” Brown said in the postgame show. “Especially coming off [our last game] and then also just going into this little break we have before conference. I think it just gives us a little mojo going into MVC play.”
The Bulldogs will tip off their 2023-24 Valley slate on Dec. 30 with a trip to Southern Illinois.
(Radio Iowa) – Former Iowa Congressman Jim Ross Lightfoot is sharing the story of his life in a new memoir called, “Climbing Mountains With God.” Lightfoot says the book is about the importance of faith in helping meet life’s challenges. “That’s what life is — it’s a bunch of mountains,” said Lightfoot. “They pop up in front of you and you’ve got the choice of either trying to climb them, or just sitting on your fanny and doing nothing. If you don’t try to climb them, sitting on our fanny is about all you’re gonna’ accomplish.”
Born in 1938 in Sioux City, Lightfoot graduated from Farragut High School in 1956. After serving in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, he worked for I-B-M as a customer engineer and was eventually transferred to Oklahoma, where he later worked as a Tulsa police officer. Returning to southwest Iowa in the 1960s, Lightfoot joined the K-M-A radio farm department and stayed until 1984, when he was elected to the U-S House, serving until 1997. Lightfoot says he decided to write the book after recalling things his father said.
“My dad had all these wonderful stories to tell about riding his pony to school, and growing up in the Great Depression,” he said. “He and my mother renting a four-room house, and subletting two rooms so that they had enough money to live on. He farmed in the daytime and cut wood at night. She did sewing, and so on. All those years — almost 20 years at KMA — I had a tape recorder sitting right beside me and never once did I turn that recorder and get any of those wonderful stories he had to tell.” Lightfoot says he came to an epiphany of sorts in writing his memoir.
“As I was writing it,” said Lightfoot, “it occurred to me that, hey, I didn’t do all this stuff. I was just a tool. God used me to do it, and I believe that’s what’s life is all about. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up — so, we’re still working on it.” Lightfoot also recalled the mountains he faced in attempting to pass his first bill in Congress, one aimed at helping farmers during the farm crisis of the mid-1980s.
“I was green. I was a freshman. I didn’t know ‘come here’ from ‘sic em’ and I had to learn the ropes,” he says. “I wrote a bill that basically gave farmers some financial relief and allowed lending institutions to step outside the rules that are the Banking Commission had on them so they can negotiate with farmers and suppliers and so on. There are a lot of people sit down and made some fantastic deals which never would have happened otherwise, but it saved all of them and they stayed in business.”
The book “Climbing Mountains With God” is available through his website, jimrosslightfoot.com.
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