Founded in 2010
News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region
By Tim Townsend, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – ST. LOUIS — Nearly 900 Roman Catholic nuns will gather in St. Louis this week to discuss their future relationship with the Vatican. Ordinarily, this annual
By Brian Bennett, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — On a chaparral-covered hillside 40 miles north of Los Angeles in June 2010, researchers from the Department of Homeland Security hid a device the
By Cynthia Dizikes, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — There’s a common saying among people who have Multiple Sclerosis: If you’ve met one person with MS, you’ve met one person with MS. Each person’s
Scott Dochterman – CR Gazette – Which is more memorable: a touchdown pass on the game’s final play that lifts your team to victory or a heartbreaking field goal that stuns your
By Joe Christensen, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) – CLEVELAND — It’s almost as if someone flipped a light switch on the Twins and Indians on July 27, turning Minnesota’s season suddenly brighter and Cleveland’s
By David Wharton, Los Angeles Times – LONDON — As night descended on center court at Horse Guards Parade, a gentle rain began to fall. In that moment, you could see it and
By Vahe Gregorian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – LONDON — Seconds after zipping through her preliminary heat to the second-fastest time of the day in the 100-meter hurdles Monday at the Olympic Stadium, Lolo
By Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune – SAN DIEGO — The Cubs entered Monday night’s game at Petco Park with a five-game losing streak, falling 20 games under .500 after playing at a .655
By Gary D’Amato, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – LONDON — There’s nothing like a little international intrigue and a punch in the groin to liven up the men’s basketball tournament at the Olympic Games.
By Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – ST.LOUIS — California punk rockers the Offspring, with well over 20 years in the game, don’t harbor any concerns over how to keep music
By Mark K. Matthews, The Orlando Sentinel – WASHINGTON — Elated scientists, cheered by the successful landing of the most sophisticated collection of scientific instruments ever landed on the surface of Mars, got
By Danny O’Neil, The Seattle Times – RENTON, Wash. — Will Terrell Owens use a Sharpie to sign his contract with the Seahawks? It would be kind of funny if he did. Ten
By Mark Whicker, The Orange County Register – LONDON — Ryan Bailey was too upset to talk, Tony Azevedo was mystified, and Coach Terry Schoreder admitted to some concern. The U.S. men’s water
By Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – ST. LOUIS — The word has spread steadily in the past month through comments made in the Cardinals’ clubhouse and into the manager’s office. First, it
By Scott M. Reid, The Orange County Register – LONDON — She has been gone for almost four years now, and still he couldn’t let go. For four mostly trying years, hurdler Felix
By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times – WASHINGTON — As economic data points have gone recently, last week’s unemployment report was good news: 163,000 net new jobs created in July, exceeding analysts’ expectations.
By Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — President Obama supports an effort in Congress to waive taxes on honoraria earned by U.S. athletes who earn Olympic medals in London, the
By Richard Burnett, The Orlando Sentinel – ORLANDO, Fla. — After decades in obscurity, the price that U.S. workers pay for the management of their employer-sponsored 401(k) retirement plans is about to be
By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times – WASHINGTON — As economic data points have gone recently, last week’s unemployment report was good news: 163,000 net new jobs created in July, exceeding analysts’ expectations.
By Alisa Priddle, Detroit Free Press – TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — By building vehicles the same way in every plant around the world, Ford expects to reduce its manufacturing investment costs by 8
By Thomas Lee, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) – MINNEAPOLIS — Casting himself and his management team as the only ones who can rescue Best Buy Co. Inc., founder Richard Schulze said Monday that he
By Joseph A. Slobodzian, The Philadelphia Inquirer – PHILADELPHIA — Citing the “serious nature of his conduct,” a Philadelphia judge on Monday denied a request by lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn to
By Jason Meisner and Rosemary Sobol, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — A Chicago man on probation for a weapons conviction sent threatening photos of himself armed with a shotgun to a chef at
By Nate Ulrich, Akron Beacon Journal – BEREA, Ohio — Coach Pat Shurmur revealed one of the worst kept secrets in the NFL on Monday evening when he formally named rookie Brandon Weeden
By Franco Ordonez and Barbara Barrett, McClatchy Newspapers – WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Monday signed into law legislation to provide health care to thousands of sick Marine veterans and their families
By Brian Bennett, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — Federal investigators had “looked at” Sikh temple gunman Wade Michael Page more than once because of his associations with right-wing extremists and the possibility
By Annie Sweeney, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — Former Gov. George Ryan’s hopes of leaving prison early appeared to dwindle Monday with another rejection from a federal appeals court. Ryan, though, has less
By Matea Gold and Melanie Mason, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — If there was one certainty about this year’s presidential campaign, it was that President Barack Obama’s fundraising juggernaut could not be
By Lisa M. Krieger, San Jose Mercury News – SAN JOSE, Calif. — The whole purpose of the Mars rover is to explore the possibility of life. So why is it so obsessed
At approximately 3:40 a.m. on August 6, 2012, the Carl Junction Fire Department and the Jasper County, Missouri Sheriff’s Department responded to a fire at the Islamic Center of Joplin after being
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Brian Bennett and Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times – OAK CREEK, Wis. — The gunman who killed six people at a Sikh temple had a criminal record, a history of
By Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times – SHEIKH ZUWEID, Egypt — The Bedouin tribal leader hurried up a sand dune in the moonlight and scanned the troubled land below: the Israeli border to