Founded in 2010
News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region
By Bryan Burwell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – ST. LOUIS — The unfathomable audacity of the family of the late Joe Paterno is beyond offensive. It’s sickening. It’s distasteful. However long it takes
By Patrick J. McDonnell and Alexandra Sandels, Los Angeles Times – BEIRUT — An audacious bombing aimed at the heart of Syria’s feared security services killed three high-ranking officials in Damascus and
By Scott Powers, The Orlando Sentinel – ORLANDO, Fla. — University of Central Florida scientists have discovered a new planet outside our solar system that is the closest Earth-size planet ever discovered.
By Matthew Schofield, McClatchy Newspapers – WASHINGTON — With both a tradition of helping service members get their votes counted as well as a tight turnaround between its primary and general elections this
By Janet Stobart, Los Angeles Times – LONDON — A private contractor’s planning for security at the Summer Olympics in London was incompetent, the chairman of a British Parliament committee said Tuesday. As
By Jim Wyss, McClatchy Newspapers – MIAMI — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continues amassing power, controlling courts, hounding critics and muzzling the media, Human Rights Watch said in 133-page report released Tuesday. “For
By Rebecca Cohen, McClatchy Newspapers – WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday ordered Capital One Bank to refund about $140 million to 2 million customers, marking the new watchdog agency’s
By Sheera Frenkel and David Enders, McClatchy Newspapers – JERUSALEM — The head of Israeli military intelligence told his country’s parliament on Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad won’t be able to defeat
By Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune – WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday announced it will conduct a broad investigation of flame retardants that a Chicago Tribune series identified as examples
By Alex Kane Rudansky, McClatchy Newspapers – WASHINGTON — In the early morning hours of Aug. 6, NASA and space enthusiasts across the world will be able to monitor the Mars landing
By Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times – New York City’s pioneering ban on all but the smallest amounts of trans fats in restaurant food has led to a significant reduction in consumption,
By Ian Duncan, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — Legalizing marijuana in even a single state could drive down prices dramatically across the country, encouraging more people to smoke the drug, a panel
By Laura J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times – For the first time, more than 8,000 temporary wilderness firefighters — the men and women who battle some of the nation’s most devastating fires —
By Mike Rosenberg, San Jose Mercury News – SAN JOSE, Calif. — Imagine being taxed a dollar for driving to the store. Commute to work? That’ll be a few bucks more. Is it
By Mike Jensen, The Philadelphia Inquirer – PHILADELPHIA—Angelo Di Maria knew about the plane flying over State College, Pa., on Tuesday, the one carrying a banner threatening, “Take the statue down or we
By Guy Cipriano, McClatchy Newspapers – STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The top NCAA official plans to examine all of his options in the organization’s response to Penn State’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky
By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times – While under death threats from insurgents in Baghdad last year, Tariq Abu Khumra mailed a prized possession to his girlfriend in California: a huge American
By Carol M. Ostrom, The Seattle Times – SEATTLE — Dr. John Lenihan sits at a computer console about 20 feet from his hysterectomy patient lying on the operating table. As if
Mark Dent, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – JULIAN, Pa. – From about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., a plane towing a banner that read “Take The Statue Down or We Will” flew above State
By David S. Cloud, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — A U.S. Navy fuel-resupply ship that had just passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf opened fire at a
By Steve Campbell, McClatchy Newspapers – FORT WORTH, Texas — A scourge of grasshoppers is chomping through gardens, orchards, pastures and urban landscapes across a wide swath of Texas this summer. A
By Meredith Cohn, The Baltimore Sun – BALTIMORE — The federal government has for the first time approved a drug that can prevent an HIV infection, a significant development for areas and
By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times – ANTAKYA, Turkey — Armored vehicles patrolled the streets of the Syrian capital’s historic Midan quarter. Shelling and gunfire rattled the southern Tadamon neighborhood. Protesters
By Mike Dawson, McClatchy Newspapers – STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky was too involved in The Second Mile charity to succeed Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno. That’s what Paterno
By Rene Stutzman and Jeff Weiner, The Orlando Sentinel – ORLANDO, Fla. — A woman told authorities that when she was a little girl, murder suspect George Zimmerman sexually molested her for
By David Pierson, Los Angeles Times – BEIJING — North Korea’s top military official was relieved of his posts, state media reported Monday, a surprise move that eliminates a key figure in
By Ken Bensinger, Kim Christensen and Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — The decision by three California cities to seek bankruptcy protection in the space of two weeks is
By Laura King and Aimal Yaqubi, Los Angeles Times – KABUL, Afghanistan—A convoy carrying several senior Afghan officials, including a Cabinet minister and a governor, was hit by a bomb Sunday in
By Erika Bolstad, McClatchy Newspapers – WASHINGTON — Residents of the nation’s capital may have thought they’d outgrown the scourge of a crack-using mayor and high murder rates, of exploding manhole covers
By Chris Rosenblum, McClatchy Newspapers – STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Betsey Howell has a proposal for any local residents feeling down from the double emotional hit of the Jerry Sandusky trial and
By Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times – CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met for the first time Saturday with new President Mohamed Morsi in a fresh push to
By Patrick J. McDonnell and Rima Marrouch, Los Angeles Times – ANTAKYA, Turkey — United Nations observers visited an alleged massacre site in Syria on Saturday but reached no conclusion about whether
By Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times – PASADENA, Calif. — Three weeks from Sunday night, an amiable, whip-smart engineer named Ray Baker will be staring into his computer screen at the Jet
By Jeff Abramowitz – TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli demonstrator set himself on fire Saturday night during a socio-economic protest in Tel Aviv, police said. Nearby protesters immediately poured water over
By Sid Astbury – SYDNEY, Australia — A surfer was killed by a shark early Saturday on Australia’s western coast, the fifth such death in the region in less than a year.
By Laura J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — The words on the wall, once inspiring, are now just sad, even disturbing. “They ask me what I’d like written about
By Laura King and Hashmat Baktash, Los Angeles Times – KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber struck a wedding hall packed with VIPs from across northern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least
Gregg Hennigan, CR Gazette – IOWA CITY — Patti Fields has been stopped about it at the grocery store, Marla Swesey while sweltering in the receiving line at a recent outdoor retirement
By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times – ANTAKYA, Turkey — The scenario was distressingly familiar: A Syrian village is surrounded and attacked, leaving scores dead. Rebels and the government trade accusations
By Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Barbara Farkas is certain about what happens after death. It is the end, she says; there is no heaven, no hell, no