A Blakesburg man has been charged with homicide after a passenger in his pickup was killed in an August accident. The Iowa State Patrol says 63-year-old Dennis Sandifer was driving on the Wapello-Monroe Road south of Blakesburg on August 2 his pickup struck another vehicle head-on. Passenger 29-year-old Brandon Pruett of Blakesburg was killed in the crash. Sandifer was arrested Tuesday morning (11/27) and charged with homicide by vehicle, which is a B Felony. Sandifer is being held in the Wapello County Jail on $25,000 bond.
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Oskaloosa’s lighted Christmas parade is Thursday night
Posted on by Rick Watts
Oskaloosa’s Lighted Christmas Parade is tomorrow night (11/29). Deb Bruxvoort with the Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group says people will be reserving good places to see the parade. “Parking is at a bare, bare minimum. There will be those who will put their cars downtown first thing in the morning. Right or wrong, it will happen. But you dress warm enough, you can park several blocks away and stand with a blanket wrapped around you and watch the parade from quite a long parade route. There’s a lot of places where you can watch the parade.”
Oskaloosa Police remind you that the downtown area will be closed to traffic around 6:30 Thursday night. The detour will go to H Street and around the area to avoid congestion. Thursday’s Lighted Christmas Parade also includes activities earlier in the day at Oskaloosa’s Penn Central Mall. At noon, there will be the Holiday Market and Festival of Trees. The silent auction runs until 9pm, with the winners announced at 9:30pm. From 4 to 6pm, there’s Family Fun in the Mall with games for kids… and kids can also get their pictures taken with Santa. And there will be live music at Penn Central Mall from 4 to 6:30pm.
Oskaloosa boys win and girls lose against Fairfield
Posted on by Rick Watts
Oskaloosa’s boys’ basketball team won its season opener last night (11/27), 42-40 over Fairfield in Oskaloosa. The Indians trailed much of the game until Rian Yates hit a three at the third quarter buzzer to tie the score at 31. It took a basket in the last minute by Xavier Foster to put the Indians ahead to stay. Foster had 7 of his 11 points in the fourth quarter. “I made my first shot and I got into a rhythm…and everything just went uphill from there.”
Oskaloosa Coach Ryan Parker talked about the game. “We’ve got a lot of things to work on, but in the end this might have been the perfect storm for us because things weren’t easy. Sometimes things are easy in practice. We’ve got to continue to get better.” Rian Yates, Xavier Foster and Cole Henry had 11 points apiece for Oskaloosa. The Indians open their Little Hawkeye Conference schedule Friday night at Grinnell.
On the girls’ side last night (11/27), Fairfield beat Oskaloosa 60-39. The Indians jumped off to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter, but Fairfield began forcing turnovers and took control of the game. Kaylee Johnson had 8 points for Oskaloosa. The 0-2 Indians play at Grinnell Friday night.
Shania Twain is ‘bored’ of country music
Posted on by Rick Watts
With a lifetime spent in country music, Shania Twain has some points she’d like her community to hear.
Ahead of the premiere of “Real Country”, a new talent competition series on USA Network which follows Twain and fellow Nashville star Jake Owen as they discover rising country acts, Twain aired her grievances to ENews about the gender inequities that still plague her chosen genre of music.
“What women?” she exclaimed when asked about the state of female artists in country music today. “We have too much of the sameness right now. I’m a little bit bored of it, and I want to pick it up. The only way to do that is to be proactive … I wanted a show that, when you talk about diversity, that includes gender diversity, style diversity, lifestyle diversity.”
Twain also spoke out about the well-documented lack of female artists in country music, saying that the Nashville community is, at the very least, aware there’s a problem. “We are not making radio progress,” she said, “but we are making very small, steady steps towards awareness that we’re lacking women on country radio.”
Twain, who turned 53 in August, also highlighted ageism within the industry, as she started to speak about advocating for “young” talent, before catching herself and amending her statement to apply to artists of all ages. “It doesn’t matter what age you are,” she said. “I’m fed up with the whole ageist thing as well as the sexist thing. This (show) is wide open, bring your talent on if you’re good enough, I don’t care what you are, as long as you’re a human being.”
GM to lay off up to 14,000 workers and closing as many as 5 plants
Posted on by Rick Watts
General Motors will cut up to 14,000 workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it abandons many of its car models and restructures to focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles, the automaker announced Monday. The reductions could amount to as much as 8 percent of GM’s global workforce of 180,000 employees. The restructuring reflects changing North American auto markets as manufacturers continue to shift away from cars toward SUVs and trucks. In October, almost 65 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. were trucks or SUVs. That figure was about 50 percent cars just five years ago.
GM is shedding cars largely because it doesn’t make money on them, Citi analyst Itay Michaeli wrote in a note to investors. “We estimate sedans operate at a significant loss, hence the need for classic restructuring,” he wrote. The reduction includes about 8,000 white-collar employees, or 15 percent of GM’s North American white-collar workforce. Some will take buyouts while others will be laid off.
At the factories, around 3,300 blue-collar workers could lose jobs in Canada and another 2,600 in the U.S., but some U.S. workers could transfer to truck or SUV factories that are increasing production. The company also said it will stop operating two additional factories outside North America by the end of next year, in addition to a previously announced plant closure in Gunsan, South Korea. General Motors Co.’s pre-emptive strike to get leaner before the next downturn likely will be followed by Ford Motor Co., which has said it is restructuring and will lay off an unspecified number of white-collar workers. Toyota Motor Corp. also has discussed cutting costs, even though it’s building a new assembly plant in Alabama.
GM isn’t the first to abandon much of its car market. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles got out of small and midsize cars two years ago, while Ford announced plans to shed all cars but the Mustang sports car in the U.S. in the coming years. Shares of GM, the largest automaker in the U.S. which sells the Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands, rose nearly 6 percent on the news to $37.98 in Monday afternoon trading.
GM doesn’t foresee an economic downturn and is making the cuts “to get in front of it while the company is strong and while the economy is strong,” CEO Mary Barra told reporters.
November 27th: On this day
Posted on by Rick Watts
Born on this day in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, was Eddie Rabbitt, singer-songwriter and musician who as a songwriter in the late 1960s, wrote such hits as “Kentucky Rain” for Elvis Presley in 1970 and “Pure Love” for Ronnie Milsap. Rabbitt also had the 1976 US #1 Country hit with “Drinkin’ My Baby (Off My Mind)”. He died from lung cancer at the age of 56 on 7th May 1998.
Mahaska County Sheriff said we received 17 inches of snow Sunday night
Posted on by Rick Watts
Seventeen inches. That’s how much snow fell in Oskaloosa Sunday (11/25). Throw in blowing snow and that made for difficult driving conditions. Mahaska County Sheriff Russ Van Renterghem (rent-er-hem) says his department was quite busy Sunday.
“From about 8:00 Sunday morning until 8:00 this morning, we had four accidents…..two accidents where a vehicle collided with another vehicle. We feel very fortunate they were all just property damage, no personal injuries on any of the four. But we had close to 75 single vehicles sliding into ditches, getting stuck in snow, that type of thing that we did assist motorists with.” Van Renterghem says things could have been worse. “75 motorist-assists seems kind of high, but not when you consider the amount of traffic in Mahaska County. I think a lot of folks just stayed home and rode the storm out at home.”
The National Weather Service also says 16 inches of snow fell in University Park, 15 inches in Bussey, 14 inches south of Knoxville, 13 inches of snow in Sigourney, 11-point-6 inches northeast of Blakesburg, 11 inches in Albia and between 4 and 8 inches of snow in Ottumwa.
Main Street Young Ambassador contest winners announced
Posted on by Rick Watts
The buildup to Oskaloosa’s Lighted Christmas Parade is underway. Monday night (11/26), the winners of the Main Street Young Ambassador Contest were announced at Penn Central Mall. Deb Bruxvoort, the financial manager of the Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group, tells us who this year’s Prince and Princess are.
“Our Princess is Libby Mitrisin, daughter of Chase and Jill Mitrisin. And our Young Ambassador Prince is Wyatt Steinlage, son of Wade and Jill Steinlage.”
Libby and Wyatt will be riding in Oskaloosa’s Lighted Christmas Parade Thursday night (11/29). The parade starts at 7pm at the Square in Oskaloosa.
Oskaloosa boys basketball starts tonight
Posted on by Rick Watts
It’s opening night for Oskaloosa’s boys’ high school basketball team. The Indians are coming off a season where they reached the 3A state championship game. Oskaloosa has three returning starters in Northern Iowa recruit Cole Henry, seven foot junior Xavier Foster and guard Rian Yates. Indians Coach Ryan Parker tells us about new players who will see playing time this season.
“Well, you’ve got Tyler Miller probably going to run the point first game for us. Tyler’s a junior. You knew him from football and baseball. Then we’ve got Noah VanVeldhuizen probably going to slide in at the 3 spot (small forward). Those two guys had a really good season on JV last year and they’ve earned those spots. Jackson Blythe is a senior, probably another point guard you’ll see. Austin Hafner, another senior guard that you’ll see. And then Colton Butler, Iszak Schultz, two other juniors.”
Oskaloosa hosts Fairfield tonight (11/27) in a boys and girls doubleheader. Our coverage on KBOE-FM starts at 6 with the girls game at 6:15 and the boys game following at 7:45.
KELSEA BALLERINI TO HEADLINE 2019 ‘DICK CLARK’S NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE’
Posted on by Rick Watts
Just days after putting up her Christmas tree with hubby Morgan Evans, Kelsea Ballerini made New Year’s Eve plans. The country star has signed on to headline the iconic Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve on December 31, according to Billboard.
Ballerini will join a slew of music’s biggest artists appearing on the west coast celebration, including Foster the People, Dua Lipa, Macklemore, Skylar Gray, Ella Mai, Charlie Puth and the Chainsmokers. Fans will recall that Ballerini joined up with The Chainsmokers earlier this year on the song “This Feeling.”
The west coast NYE celebration will make up just one portion of the five-hour-plus show. As in years past, Ryan Seacrest will host the event from New York City, with Jenny McCarthy assisting him in reporting everything that’s happening in Times Square. The show will also feature a celebration from New Orleans, which will be hosted by Lucy Hale. More performers for the Times Square and New Orleans celebrations will soon be announced.
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