February 9, 2012

You are here: Home / 2007 / May / Archives for 21st

Iowa looks to take next step in Big Ten tourney

May 21, 2007 By

The Iowa baseball team will be the fourth seed in this week’s Big Ten Tournament in Ann Arbor,Michigan. The Hawkeyes are 31-21 overall and closed out with a 17-13 record in the Big Ten. They open against Illinois on Wednesday afternoon.

Iowa coach Jack Dahm says the next step for the program is to play well in the postseason. The team lost two ballgames in their last tourney appearance two years ago. He says they don’t want to just be happy to be there.

Dahm says while the program has taken some big strides the conference tournament offers a new challenge. He says you have to be able to win in the postseason to become a real confident program.

Dahm says Michigan is clearly the favorite but ever team has had a stretch that sows they are capable. Iowa roared into contention midway through the conference race on the strength of a 12-game win streak. He says every team had winning streaks, just like his team did. Dahm says Penn State is the hottest team in the conference right now.

Minnesota is the second seed in the tournament. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Adair County Patriot Rock honors soldiers

May 21, 2007 By

A central Iowa man is again turning a 56-ton boulder in western Iowa into a patriotic work of art. Ray "Bubba" Sorensen has been painting the "Freedom Rock" or "Patriot Rock," located just south of Interstate 80 in Adair County, since 1999.

Before Sorenson started his work, the big boulder was simply known as a "graffiti rock" to the locals. He says he wanted to put his "graffiti" on the rock by thanking local veterans for their service to the country. His first mural was entitled "Thank you for our freedom" and depicted the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. It received a huge response from local vets but was defaced by local youth, so Sorensen repainted it — and it’s become an annual event ever since.

Sorensen says the wrap-around mural takes him about three weeks from start-to-finish, working sometimes late into the night before the rock is completed in time for Memorial Day. Sorensen normally works for his employer from his home in Ames, but adapts to get the job done. Sorensen lives with his parents in Greenfield while work on the project is underway and takes vacation time to do so. The rock has received worldwide attention since it was featured on a local television station the first year it was painted. It has also become a Memorial Day tradition that draws thousands of people.

Local businesses have arranged bus tours to the rock. They’ve also helped contribute to the cost of lighting site and the placement of a kiosk where folks can leave notes for "Bubba." Sorensen says this year’s mural pays tribute to local man who lost his life in Iraq. He says a schoolmate and good friend, Marine Lance Corporal C.J. Miller, was killed in action last December. Miller’s face and a theme dedicated to the Marines is on the front of the rock. The remaining branches of service will be remembered on the wrap-around portion of the boulder.

Previous murals have paid tribute to Vietnam vets, World War Two and Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center victims, women in the military, "Generations of Valor," and the themes of liberty, honor and freedom. Sorensen says inspiration for the paintings comes from a variety of sources.

His next project is a mural commissioned by the San Diego, California, County Fair. " Freedom Rock " is located about 40 miles west of Des Moines and then two miles south on Highway 25.

Filed Under: Military

Iowa has 688 "Centenarians"

May 21, 2007 By

There are 688 Iowans who have reached the age of 100. Seventeen of those "centenarians" were on hand for a luncheon today in their honor. Vernon Miller of Jesup says one of the keys to his longevity is ice cream.

Miller’s preference is for homemade ice cream. Miller’s a farmer who lived through low livestock and crop prices during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Farm Crisis of the ’80s.

"If I haven’t seen something yet, I don’t want to see no more," Miller says. "Look how everything went — down. You couldn’t even pay your taxes anymore." Carl Ritscher of Keystone was born in Germany and arrived to the U.S. when he was 17. Farming was his profession, too. "We started farming with horses, you know, and now we’ve got tractors," he says.

Ritscher worked as a farmhand, saved his money and started renting ground to farm in 1931. He went broke in 1932 when corn sank to eight-cents-per bushel. "But the landlord said, ‘Just stay there, it’s going to get better and it did, finally," Ritscher says. Today’s luncheon was held in West Des Moines at the Governor’s Conference on Aging. Iowa’s oldest resident is Emma Carroll of Ottumwa. She celebrated her 112th birthday last week. 

Filed Under: Human Interest

Former Black Panther speaks at Grinnell Commencement

May 21, 2007 By

The keynote speaker at Grinnell College Commencement this morning was a woman who was a member of the Communist Party and the Black Panthers and who argues that prisons should be abolished. Sixty-three-year-old Angela Davis was first in the national spotlight back in 1969 when she lost her job at U.C.L.A. because of her membership in the American Communist Party and then in 1970 she was on the FBI’s list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives for the murder of a judge. In 1972 — after 16 months in prison — she was acquitted of that crime.

Davis urged the Grinnell College Class of 2007 to remember the work of Grinnell College founder J.B. Grinnell. “Will you remember that you attended a college established by a 19th century abolitionist who made this town — Grinnell, Iowa — a significant stop on the Underground Railroad?” Davis asked. “Will you remember that you attended a college founded by a man who unabashedly referred to himself as a radical?”

Davis told the graduates they will not have an easy future. “I wish I could earnestly suggest that young humanists and scientists will, with minimal effort, discover exciting passageways of progress for your future trajectories but that would be to trivialize both your education and both the global and local context in which you will work and study,” Davis said. Davis urged the graduates to read between the lines in life.

“Treasure the approaches and ways of thinking that you have learned more than the facts you have accumulated, for you will never discover a scarcity of facts and these facts will be presented in such a way as to veil the ways of thinking embedded in them,” Davis said. Davis closed by suggesting education is linked to freedom.

“Freedom then becomes a state for which one yearns, but rather an incessant struggle to remake our lives, our relations, our communities and our futures,” Davis said. Grinnell College officials gave Davis an honorary degree — a Doctorate of Humane Letters.

 

Filed Under: Education

Tipton soldier dies in Iraq

May 21, 2007 By

A soldier from eastern Iowa has died in Iraq. Twenty-year-old David Behrle of Tipton died Saturday in combat according to reports from school officials. The military has not officially confirmed Behrle’s death, but it is believed he died in a roadside bombing.

Behrle was a 2005 graduate of Tipton High school, and was active in athletics. Tipton High School officials say Behrle returned to the school about six weeks ago while he was on leave. Behrle is the second Tipton graduate to be killed in Iraq. Twenty-two-year-old Aaron Sissel, a member of the Iowa Army National Guard died there in November of 2003. Services for Behrle are pending. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Camping spots at state parks expected to fill quickly

May 21, 2007 By

Camping spots at Iowa’s state parks are expected to fill up quickly this week for the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Mike Schrader, park manager at Red Haw State Park in Lucas County, has some advice for potential campers.

"It pays to show up early, I know especially the busier parks will fill up at the middle of the week, if not sooner," Schrader says. Schrader says half of the camping sites are reserved, while the others are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

You can save some frustration by checking with your favorite camping area before pulling the camper all the way there. Schrader says call ahead and find out if the campground is full and the staff may be able to director you to another site. The Red Haw Park that Schrader oversees had allowed overflow camping when the main campsites filled up, but Schrader says that’s changing this year.

Schrader says this year the park along with Stephens Forest will follow the same policy the other parks have been under, and not allow overflow camping. Schrader says the change this year might catch some campers by surprise who had depended on overflow camping.

Schrader says they’ll have to ask them to find another area this year instead of overflow. He says they’ll do the best they can to help people find another campground. Schrader says overflow camping usually is only a problem during big holiday weekends. For more information on camping at state parks and the reservation system, surf to Iowa DNR’s website .

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With:

Two Iowa Guard units notified of federal mobilization

May 21, 2007 By

Members of two more Iowa National Guard units are being notified they’ll be mobilized for federal active duty next month. There are 240 citizen-soldiers from Iowa being called up in this round, 120 each from two units: Company D, 1st Battalion, 168th Infantry based in Denison, and Troop A, 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry based at Camp Dodge.

The Denison unit’s core missions are close combat and security, while the Camp Dodge unit specializes in reconnaissance and surveillance. All 240 troops are to be called up during June on deployments that will last between one and two years. Their specific assignments aren’t yet clear, only that they’ll be part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Global War on Terror. 

Filed Under: Military Tagged With:
« Older Posts