Founded in 2010
News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region
MASON CITY – The Humane Society of North Iowa announced Wednesday a donation from Hy-Vee West and Purina in the amount of $200. Human Society Director Sybil Soukup explained on the organization’s
MASON CITY, Iowa – NIACC softball almost broke through for their first conference win of the season against Ellsworth, but lost both games 12-11 and 11-1 on Wednesday to drop to 8-18
MCT FORUM – By Blaine Harden, Los Angeles Times – Joining my 9-year-old daughter and a sizable slice of the American population, I queued up last week to watch “The Hunger Games.” My daughter
By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch – NEW YORK — U.S. stocks on Wednesday took their biggest hit in nearly a month on concern about Spain, where a weak bond sale revived investor concern about
MASON CITY – Police in Mason City were dealing with several calls due to altercations between individuals. At 10:10 pm Mason City Police were dispatched to Alley Katz Bar for a brawl
By Ali Safi, McClatchy Newspapers – KABUL, Afghanistan — Three American soldiers were among at least nine people who were killed Wednesday when a suicide bomber wearing civilian clothes blew himself up in
By Carol Rosenberg, McClatchy Newspapers – The Pentagon on Wednesday cleared the way for a death penalty trial against five Guantanamo Bay prisoners charged with engineering the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Retired Vice
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times – HOUSTON — By the time the ominous black and gray clouds cleared, meteorologists had classified the tornado on their five-point scale as an EF 3, a
By Ryan Haggerty, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — Ninety-three people have been sickened by a nationwide salmonella outbreak, but a source of the cases has not been confirmed yet, health officials said Wednesday.
By Carol Rosenberg, McClatchy Newspapers – MIAMI — The Pentagon on Wednesday cleared the way for a death penalty trial against five Guantanamo Bay captives charged with engineering the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
By Becky Yerak, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — Boots, an 11-year-old cat from Berwyn, Ill., has narrowly avoided using up the last of her nine lives, thanks to trust officers at Fifth Third
Dear Editor: Senator Merlin Bartz is at it again. He has decided to take a simple issue and has dressed it up to use it as a political attack. An article in
Story by Jody Spear and Kelly Meyer – Titantic 3-D (PG-13) starts today (Wednesday April 4) at the Cinema West Theater to commemorate the centenary of the Titanic setting sail on April
by Matt Marquardt – MASON CITY – A lawsuit was filed Monday in Iowa District Court by former North Iowa Fair Director Wanda Kruse against the North Iowa Fair Association. Kruse was
MASON CITY – The Mason City School District is administering “Iowa Assessments” this week. The tests were formerly known as the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. “These tests are one of the
By La Velle Neal III, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) – FORT MYERS, Fla. — Spring training isn’t quite over, but the Grapefruit League season is. The Twins lost, 6-2, to Tampa Bay on Tuesday
By Jim Souhan, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) – MINNEAPOLIS — An open letter to Zygi Wilf, Rick Spielman, Leslie Frazier and Christian Ponder: You fellas aren’t from around here, are you? What is it
By Joe Christensen, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) – FORT MYERS, Fla. — Mindy Valencia has tried to gauge her son’s standing in the Minnesota Twins’ clubhouse the past two years from words spoken and
By John Altavilla, The Hartford Courant – DENVER — Notre Dame and Baylor used the same prod to propel themselves through the season. Their meeting Tuesday night for the NCAA Division I women’s
By Joe Strauss, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – MIAMI — The St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night open a season, a stadium and their defense of a world championship. They also go without co-ace
By Michael Russo, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) – NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mike Yeo doesn’t buy that the reason the Minnesota Wild has been successful recently is because the pressure’s off and players feel looser
By K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune – Tom Thibodeau went into greater detail than usual about the Bulls’ recent shortcomings after Monday’s loss to the Rockets, the first time they had dropped two straight
By Mike Bresnahan, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Andrew Bynum walked into the locker room about an hour before Tuesday’s game with oversized headphones covering his ears, though the music was
By Jeff Shain, The Orlando Sentinel – AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods tied for fourth in each of the past two Masters. Last year’s came with a swing still in the midst of
By Rick Bonnell, McClatchy Newspapers – CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Some thoughts on underclassmen and the NBA draft: Mike Krzyzewski didn’t last this long as Duke coach by failing to adapt. Back in 1999,
MASON CITY, Iowa – NIACC softball showed strong defense early during both games against No. 4 Iowa Central, but lost to the Tritons in six innings twice, 9-1 and 13-4, on Tuesday
Editorial by Matt Marquardt – Today’s photo of the day comes from NIT Publisher Matt Marquardt. It is a photo I shot in the parking lot of the Mason City Public Library
Mason City Council public listening post. Watch video:
By Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times – WAUKESHA, Wis. — Just before President Barack Obama gave his scathing critique of the Republican Party on Tuesday, Mitt Romney sought to blunt the impact by
By Toluse Olorunnipa, McClatchy Newspapers – TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., brought an avalanche of criticism directed at Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. Yet the controversial
By Rebecca Keegan, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — In the late 1990s, a peculiar global fever broke out. Boys in Afghanistan began cutting their hair like Leonardo DiCaprio, girls in Japan
By John P. Martin, The Philadelphia Inquirer – PHILADELPHIA — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia let a pastor who admitted abusing adolescent boys at a Northeast Philadelphia parish return to limited ministry in 1997
By Rene Lynch, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — A majority of Republicans say the media have gone overboard with their coverage of the Trayvon Martin slaying, and 43 percent of whites
Rod Boshart, CR Gazette – AARP Iowa leaders on Monday accused MidAmerican Energy of engaging in a campaign of misinformation aimed at confusing Iowans about legislation they claim attempts to have company
By Dalina Castellanos, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Flight conditions were ideal as the Cessna twin-engine plane flew through the clouds above Sturgeon Bay, Wis. There was a very mild breeze,
George C. Ford, CR Gazette – With the sunshine and temperatures seeming more like May than the first week of April, Iowa farmers are anxious to start planting their 2012 crop of
McClatchy-Tribune News Service – The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times: ——— Recent weeks have brought sharply different perspectives on the state of women in America today. A new study
By Steve Giegerich, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – ST. LOUIS — George Owen sweats the normal stuff as he contemplates the next phase of his career. Like where the job will take him or
By Dick Polman, Philadelphia Inquirer – An amazing moment occurred the other day on the two-year anniversary of the health-reform law that has long been burdened by the pejorative term Obamacare. The president’s
Dave DeWitte, CR Gazette – The index used by state officials to forecast state revenues increased slightly for the fifth consecutive month in February. The Iowa Leading Indicators Index increased 0.1 percent