Founded in 2010
News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region
By Andrew Tangel, Los Angeles Times – NEW YORK — Stock markets will be closed Tuesday. The New York Stock Exchange announced it would remain closed another day because of Hurricane Sandy, which
By Jennifer Waters, MarketWatch – CHICAGO — Travel in and out of much of the East Coast has been mostly halted as Hurricane Sandy pounds its way up the densely populated coast. “This
By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — SpaceX’s Dragon space capsule survived a fiery re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down about 250 miles west of the Southern California
By Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers – BEIJING — Seven ethnic Tibetans in China set themselves on fire in the past week, bringing the number of self-immolations in defiance of Chinese government rule to
By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times – Thousands of people who evacuated their homes along Hawaii’s coast were allowed to return early Sunday after tsunami waves hit the islands with less intensity than
By Lindy Washburn and Melissa Hayes, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) – HACKENSACK, N.J.—Like a nor’easter on steroids, Hurricane Sandy was set to pummel North Jersey with wind and rain Sunday afternoon in
WASHINGTON — An earthquake that struck in the Queen Charlotte Islands region off the west coast of Canada generated a tsunami that was heading to Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES—More than 18 months after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, 40-foot tsunami and nuclear power plant woes that struck Japan starting March 11, 2011, levels of
By Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald – GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — The alleged architect of the USS Cole bombing was brought before the war court Wednesday and said he had chosen
Erin Jordan, CR Gazette – Cedar Rapids native Joshua Casteel, 32, died Aug. 25 of lung cancer his family believes was caused by toxins from an Army burn pit at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison,
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times – KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people in northern Afghanistan as he attacked prayer goers leaving mosque on one of the holiest
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times – HOUSTON — Two people were killed in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley after a state trooper flying in a highway patrol helicopter opened fire on a fleeing
Los Angeles Times – BEIRUT — The first day of a cease-fire in the Syrian conflict in observance of Eid al-Adha holiday went as many observers had expected: It was violated within
By Lisa Mascaro and John M. Glionna, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was cleared for release from the hospital Friday after suffering non-life-threatening injuries when his
By Curtis Morgan and Jacqueline Charles, The Miami Herald – GRAND GOAVE, Haiti—Mud gushed down from mountains, boulders barreled into highways and bedraggled residents waded through chest-deep flooding to get to homes under
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times – AUSTIN, Texas — Texas prides itself on being the biggest — now it’s also the fastest. On Wednesday, a newly constructed toll road opened about 20
By Adam Baron, McClatchy Newspapers – SAADA, Yemen — For much of the past decade, Yemen’s far northern governorate of Saada, on the border with Saudi Arabia, has been one of the most
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times – YANGON, Myanmar — More than 60 people have been killed and thousands of houses burned as ethnic and religious violence in western Myanmar intensifies, according to
By David Enders, McClatchy Newspapers – BEIRUT — The Syrian military announced Thursday that it would abide by a United Nations-sponsored cease-fire during the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, the first such agreement since
Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — President Barack Obama returned to Chicago’s South Side on Thursday and cast an early vote near his Kenwood home. The Democratic president chatted with poll workers in
By Mel Frykberg and Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers – CAIRO — Egyptian police have arrested five Libyans who allegedly are members of al-Qaida, intercepted two truckloads of arms from Libya and killed
By Sheera Frenkel, McClatchy Newspapers – JERUSALEM — Hamas militants fired more than 70 rockets into southern Israel on Wednesday, one day after the emir of Qatar became the first head of state
By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that a 24th person had died of fungal meningitis after receiving contaminated steroid
By Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald – GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — Hurricane Sandy swept through this remote base Thursday, ripping boats from their berths, cutting power to all but emergency facilities
By Wesley Lowery, Ruben Vives and Andrew Khouri, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES—Five members of a Downey family were shot — three fatally — in a bizarre shooting that started at
By Curtis Morgan and Jacqueline Charles, The Miami Herald – MIAMI — Hurricane Sandy began what could be a long and damaging march out of the Caribbean on Wednesday, leaving a string
Los Angeles Times – BEIRUT — The Syrian government has agreed to a cease-fire for the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Wednesday. Brahimi, the United Nations
By Kim Minugh and Ed Fletcher, The Sacramento Bee – SACRAMENTO, Calif.—So disturbing was the scene on De Soto Way on Tuesday afternoon that chaplains were called in to counsel the deputies
By David Willman, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — For two years, the nationwide BioWatch system, intended to protect Americans against a biological attack, operated with defective components that left it unable to
By Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald – GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba—Fifty years ago, as the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of war, thousands of U.S. Marines flooded this
By Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald – GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — A tropical storm took aim at this remote base in southeast Cuba Tuesday as the war court judge opened hearings
By Bill Smith – BEIJING — A middle-aged Tibetan man died after he set fire to himself in northwestern China’s Gansu province on Tuesday, the third such protest in the county in
By Taylor Luck – AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s King Abdullah II ordered on Tuesday the release of 20 jailed pro-democracy activists, as he responded publicly for the first time to activists’ calls
By Lisa Black, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — One victim in Sunday’s shooting spree at a suburban Milwaukee spa died of multiple gunshot wounds, a second died of a wound to her head
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times – YANGON, Myanmar — At least three people were killed and hundreds of houses burned in a fresh wave of violence pitting Buddhists against Muslims in western
By Carlos Sadovi, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — While patrons dove to the ground Sunday after an armed man walked into a Brookfield, Wis., spa, Zina Haughton went up to him to
By Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel – FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Eighteen-year-old Wayne Treacy was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Broward County Judge David Haimes during a hearing Monday. Treacy was
By Linda Davis, Oakland Tribune – PIEDMONT, Calif. — Phones were ringing off the hook at school district offices Monday as word spread about Piedmont High School’s fantasy sex league involving boys
By Michael Gordon, The Charlotte Observer – SPINDALE, N.C. — A 22-year-old man has accused his former Rutherford County church of holding him for four months against his will while he was
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Three women were killed and four were wounded in a shooting rampage Sunday morning at a spa in Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee. Radcliffe F.