Top Stories

by Lissa Blake

Live Healthy Iowa’s 100 Day Wellness Challenge opened registration for its 11th year in late December in preparation for kicking off the challenge January 23. This year's participants will benefit from a new website for the program, offering participants in the Challenge more innovative and user-friendly features, including updated personal tracking and goal-setting options and expanded nutrition resources.

by Bob Beach

Due to the New Year’s holiday, the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met Tuesday, January 3 and reconvened at its regular day and time Monday, January 9.

John Beard of Decorah has announced he will run for the Iowa State Senate in the newly created District 28, which includes all of Allamakee County, Clayton County, most of Winneshiek County and the northern half of Fayette County. The new District was created this past year as part of the overall redistricting plan for Iowa proposed by the Legislative Services Agency and approved by the Legislature.

The results of the Republican Party’s caucus held Tuesday, January 3 across Iowa were somewhat surprising to many, as former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney finished first with 30,015 votes, a mere eight votes ahead of former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who had gained momentum in the polls just days before the caucuses. Texas Congressman Ron Paul also made a strong showing, finishing third with less than 4,000 fewer votes than Romney and Santorum.

Veterans Memorial Hospital physicians and staff have announced that Kendyl Rae Wedo, daughter of Melissa and Randy Wedo of Monona, is the winner of the First Baby of the Year Contest at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon.
Kendyl Rae was born January 3 at 8:50 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Hospital. Dr. Benjamin Nesseim was her physician. Kendyl weighed 8 pounds, 4.5 ounces and was 22-1/2 inches long when she arrived.

The Audrey Gibbs family of West Union will be featured January 6 in one of the final two episodes of ABC's reality series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The episode was filmed last October amid much local attention and is scheduled to air at 7 p.m. on ABC Friday, January 6.  
The Gibbs’ farmhouse near West Union was in need of significant repair with no working toilet and a ceiling that was caving in.

The items below summarize the top news stories that appeared in The Standard during the second six months of 2011.

Allamakee County’s Corner of Hope (COH) Growing Project completed another successful year with a record amount of funds raised, $48,100. That locally raised total reflects the combined efforts of receipts from harvesting and selling crops of corn, soybeans and hay from six different plots across the county, along with generous contributions from churches, banks, agri-businesses, and individuals, and many contributions of products and services to help plant, grow and harvest the crops.

by David Johnson