Founded in 2010
News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region
By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times – JERUSALEM — By ramping up its threat to attack Iran’s nuclear development program, Israel appears to have galvanized international attention around an issue it has long
Steve Gravelle, CR Gazette – Kate and Trish Varnum have a running joke every time they drive out of state. “We’d cross the border and we’d say, ‘It’s been nice being married
By Ricardo Lopez, Los Angeles Times – A blizzard that had pummeled northeastern Colorado on Friday moved across Nebraska and into southwestern Iowa on Saturday, causing dozens of accidents on highways as visibility
By Wallace Witkowski, MarketWatch – SAN FRANCISCO — Russia and China both vetoed a United Nations resolution against Syria on Saturday during a rare weekend session of the United Nations Security Council. It
By Christine Clarridge, The Seattle Times – SEATTLE — A federal jury on Friday awarded nearly $1 million to a severely mentally ill homeless woman who gave birth alone on the floor of
By Jon Stephenson, McClatchy Newspapers – KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban and other insurgent groups were responsible for nearly 80 percent of the civilian deaths in the war in Afghanistan last year, said
The Yomiuri Shimbun – TOKYO — Japan and the United States are discussing the transfer of U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa Prefecture out of the country ahead of the relocation of the
By Michael Logan and Shabtai Gold – NAIROBI, Kenya — The United Nations officially declared an end Friday to the famine that struck parts of Somalia last year, but it warned the
By Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times – CAIRO — Young men wearing surgical masks and hurling stones rushed police barricades Friday against the pop-pop of tear gas rounds that spread white smoke like
By Anna M. Tinsley, McClatchy Newspapers – FORT WORTH, Texas — Jennifer Wedel’s life has turned upside down since Monday. That’s when she chatted online with President Barack Obama about a controversial program
By Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Newspapers – WASHINGTON — Stung by critical stories about their crime laboratory, officials at Army Criminal Investigation Command recently questioned lab employees for hours and scrutinized personal phone records
By Carol Rosenberg, McClatchy Newspapers – MIAMI — A senior Pentagon official on Friday refused to delay a pre-arraignment phase in the prosecution of five Guantanamo captives accused of conspiring in the Sept.
By Patrick J. McDonnell and Alexandra Sandels, Los Angeles Times – BEIRUT — Demonstrators took to the streets across Syria on Friday to pay homage to an earlier generation of revolutionaries — Islamic
By Tim Townsend, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – ST. LOUIS — For 18 years, the Rev. William Rowe has done a little improvising while celebrating Mass on Sunday mornings at St. Mary’s Catholic Church
By Mark Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – MILWAUKEE — As federal researchers search for long-term solutions to the threat of an Asian carp invasion of the Great Lakes, the Obama administration on Thursday
By Eryn Brown and Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — In a reversal of policy after a nationwide uproar over its decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, Susan G.
By Jon Stephenson and Ali Safi, McClatchy Newspapers – MAHMUD RAQI, Afghanistan — The Afghan soldier who killed four French troops last month bribed an Afghan army recruiter to forge his enlistment papers,
Krystal Fowler, Daily Iowegian, Centerville, Iowa – CENTERVILLE The Centerville community lost a long-time resident and law enforcement officer on Friday, Jan. 27. Jerry Baker, who served with the Iowa State Patrol
By Andrew Garber, The Seattle Times – OLYMPIA, Wash. — A bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington cleared its biggest legislative hurdle late Wednesday in a historic vote by the state Senate. After
By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times – SEOUL, South Korea — Rescue crews have saved at least 200 people from the water off Papua New Guinea’s northeast coast after a ferry sank
By Maximilian Haupt – BERLIN — Six aid workers abducted in Yemen have been released unharmed, the German Foreign Ministry said in Berlin Thursday. The six, who were kidnapped by armed tribesmen
By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times – MEXICO CITY — It was a mere $1.9 million, stuffed as brand new bills into two suitcases on a small jet traveling from the drug-rattled state
By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s decision to stop giving money to Planned Parenthood for breast health services was not politically motivated, said
By Girlie Linao – MANILA, Philippines — Fifteen alleged members of militant groups linked to al-Qaida, including three suspected leaders, were killed Thursday in a pre-dawn airstrike on their hideout in the
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Asmaa Al Zohairy, Los Angeles Times – CAIRO — The coffins came down the hill in intermittent procession Thursday as families focused their rage on security forces for not
BOONE – Monday’s temperature hitting the middle 60s followed by middle to upper 50s on Tuesday has reduced the amount and quality of ice in central and southern Iowa. With little ice
By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times – BEIRUT — Russia remained firm Wednesday in its pledge to veto any U.N. Security Council resolution that could open the door for international military intervention
By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Wars have come and gone. But for more than half a century, the CIA and U.S. military have relied on a skinny sinister-looking
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Amro Hassan, Los Angeles Times – CAIRO — An Egyptian soccer match between two longtime rivals turned bloody when hooligans supporting the winning team stormed the field, attacking the
By David S. Cloud, Tribune Washington Bureau – BRUSSELS — The U.S. and its allies will formally change their military mission in Afghanistan to training and advising Afghan troops next year, a shift
Diane Heldt, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – IOWA CITY — Construction on the new University of Iowa Children’s Hospital is set to begin in October, according to an updated long-range plan for
Rick Smith, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – The city’s 40-year-old marketing slogan, “The City of Five Seasons,” continues to confuse even as the unfortunate tagline that came to accompany it, “The City
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times – KABUL, Afghanistan — Captured Taliban fighters have consistently expressed confidence that their movement will again rule Afghanistan, according to a report prepared by NATO forces, but
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times – LONDON — Four British men pleaded guilty Wednesday to planning a bomb attack on the London Stock Exchange as part of an al-Qaida-inspired plot to cause
By Jon Stephenson, McClatchy Newspapers – KABUL, Afghanistan — The announcement by France last week that it would speed up the exit of its troops from Afghanistan has been greeted with a mixture
By Paul T. Rosynsky, The Oakland Tribune – OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge found the city’s police department in “serious violation” of court-ordered standards and procedures related to a decade-old misconduct scandal
By Brian Bennett, Tribune Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — Al-Qaida ’s ability to conduct terrorist operations against the United States has diminished in the last year, but U.S. intelligence agencies said Tuesday that they
By David S. Cloud, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — U.S. military aircraft launched strikes that killed at least five suspected militants in southern Yemen in one of the deadliest attacks since the
(MCT) – UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations human rights arm on Tuesday expressed dismay at a proposal to try former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier for corruption instead of the more serious
By Doug Miller, April Bethea, Cleve R. Wootson and Steve Lyttle, McClatchy Newspapers – CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg police waded into the Occupy Charlotte protest site Monday afternoon, arresting at least seven people