Founded in 2010
News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region
By Julie Makinen, Los Angeles Times – BEIJING — Japan’s government said Monday it would buy three uninhabited islands southwest of Okinawa from the Japanese landowners, ratcheting up a territorial dispute with
By Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Members of the O.J. Simpson defense “dream team” were back in action 17 years after the legendary murder trial, this time defending the
By Cynthia Roldan, Palm Beach Post – WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Authorities have released the identity of the driver who crashed into a Jupiter Police officer Sunday as he tried controlling
By David Enders, McClatchy Newspapers – ABU AL-DAHOUR, Syria — Most of the civilians already have left this city of about 30,000, and many of those who remained could be seen Saturday
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Joel Hood and Kristen Mack, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — Chicago’s teachers union said it will strike Monday for the first time in 25 years after talks with
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times – KABUL, Afghanistan — Tensions simmered Monday as the main U.S. military prison in Afghanistan was formally transferred to Afghan control, even as Afghan officials accused
By David B. Caruso and David Porter, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) – NEW YORK — With its huge reflecting pools, ringed by waterfalls and skyscrapers, and a cavernous underground museum still under
By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times – SEATTLE—A potential new energy frontier opened early Sunday in the U.S. Arctic as Royal Dutch Shell plumbed a drill bit into the bed of the
By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — A new theory is pouring some cold — actually, some really hot — water on the idea that Mars could have been
By Ramadan Al-Fatash – BAGHDAD — Fifty-three people died in wave of attacks across Iraq Sunday that targeted mostly government security forces and Shiite-majority areas. In the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 155
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times – LONDON — Archaeologists searching for the tomb of Richard III are being given an extra week to excavate in light of promising findings of their
Kathie Bassett, The Telegraph, Alton, Ill. – EDWARDSVILLE – It has turned into the gift heard ’round the world. People everywhere have seemingly been touched by 8-year-old Wyatt Erber and his decision to
By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times – Texas has approved the nation’s fastest speed limit — 85 miles per hour—about the speed associated with the winds in a Category 1 hurricane. The
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers – ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The heart-wrenching tale of a Christian girl charged with blasphemy could, at last, have forced the beginning of a change of attitudes on
By Amina Ismail, McClatchy Newspapers – CAIRO, Egypt — Egyptian officials announced Saturday that their first major military offensive into Sinai since the inauguration of President Mohammed Morsi led to the deaths of
By Carol Marbin Miller, The Miami Herald – MIAMI — Florida health and disability administrators have been systematically dumping sick and disabled children — some of them babies — in nursing homes
MOSCOW — The diplomatic tussle between China and the United States intensified Saturday at the APEC summit in Vladivostok, Russia, with both claiming a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region. But it
By Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers – WASHINGTON — Using strong words, a federal judge has rejected the Obama administration’s efforts to change the rules under which Guantanamo Bay detainees are represented by
By Ken Dilanian, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — A Libyan man says he was waterboarded while in CIA custody in Afghanistan, a new allegation that challenges the long-standing claim by U.S.
Vanessa Miller, CR Gazette – Streets surrounding the University of Iowa’s Pentacrest have been closed and buses have been parked to create a barricade to the Old Capital lawn along Clinton Street
By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times – ISLAMABAD — A judge on Friday ordered the release on bail of a young Christian girl jailed for allegedly desecrating the Quran, a decision that
By David Pierson, Los Angeles Times – BEIJING — At least 50 people were killed after a pair of earthquakes jolted a mountainous region of southwestern China on Friday, damaging thousands of
Allie Shah, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) – The largest naturalization ceremony in Minnesota history took place Thursday at the Minneapolis Convention Center. About 1,500 people from 100 countries took the Oath of Allegiance,
By Kate Mather, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Two more cases of hantavirus infection have been linked to Yosemite National Park, one fatal and the other believed to have originated
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times – SAN DIEGO — Workers at the Navy’s top maintenance facility for F/A-18 warplanes have been exposed to “extremely toxic materials” such as lead, cadmium and
By Leah Thorsen and Kim Bell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – DE SOTO, Mo. — A woman who fatally shot her three daughters and herself with a shotgun she bought last week had
By Steve Schmadeke, Matthew Walberg and Stacy St. Clair, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — Moments after a jury found him guilty of drowning his third wife, a stone-faced Drew Peterson was shackled
By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times – ISLAMABAD — Authorities have ordered foreign workers with the Save the Children aid group to leave the country, after alleging ties between the group and
By Amy Hubbard, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — How long does it take to fly to the edge of the solar system? At least 35 years. Voyager 1 is there now,
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times – BEIJING — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew into a storm of criticism in Beijing on Tuesday in the midst of a six-nation tour perceived
By David S. Cloud, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Tuesday that a former Navy SEAL’s account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden contains classified information, intensifying a
By Guenter Deister – MUNICH — Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth will be among the guests Wednesday at the Fuerstenfeldbruck air base for a memorial service on the 40th anniversary of the Munich Olympics massacre.
By Tracy Wilkinson and Daniel Hernandez, Los Angeles Times – MEXICO CITY — Outlines of the next government of Mexico began to emerge Tuesday when President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto named a transition team
By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times – Helped by a declaration of a statewide health emergency, Louisiana officials pressed forward Tuesday with their cleanup from last week’s Hurricane Isaac. They also reported that
By David Enders, McClatchy Newspapers – ANTAKYA, Turkey — The number of people killed in violence in Syria has skyrocketed since U.N. efforts to broker a peace agreement fell apart in June, with
By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times – It could take weeks to bring Louisiana back to normal after Hurricane Isaac, an unusually wet storm that caused serious flooding in 10 parishes and damaged
DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) 2012 August Upland Wildlife Roadside Survey shows the statewide pheasant population has increased 16 percent when compared to last year. “We expected
By Laura King and Hashmat Baktash, Los Angeles Times – KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bombing at a funeral in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday killed 20 civilians and injured about three dozen
By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Dressed as usual in jeans and Velcro-secured sneakers, University of California, Los Angeles astronomer David Jewitt sat at his desk recently and
By Kathleen Hennessey And Christi Parsons, Tribune Washington Bureau – NEW ORLEANS — President Barack Obama surveyed flood damage caused by Hurricane Isaac and pledged Monday that the federal government will do