Last Week's Most Read Stories

Sweetest duty of all: Returning home (05/01/08)
The crowd was silent. Then an officer gave the command: "Alpha troop: dismissed." Wives sprang from chairs and ran to their husbands, children giggled and clung to their dads, parents wrapped arms around their sons. After 10 months of training and a tour of duty in Iraq, 35 soldiers from Troop A, 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry were home...

Russell retires from dentistry practice (05/02/08)
A longtime Le Mars dentist is putting away his dental tools. Dr. Monte Russell has retired after 34 years of dental practice and plans to remain in the town where he grew up and returned to after graduating from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry in 1974...

Brunsville wanderer finds new home after rescue (04/29/08)
Parker's time of aimless wandering through Brunsville is over. Gone are the days of stopping at the beauty shop to get his toenails painted or begging a treat from the butcher or stopping by a friendly family for a bite to eat in their garage. Parker, a 163-pound golden labrador, has a full-time home now...

Police tie two to longer string of burglaries (05/01/08)
Police are pinning 11 more burglaries on an 18-year-old already accused of being part of five other break-ins. A new suspect, a 16-year-old, was also tied to five of the burglaries after police interviews. The 18-year-old, Alexx Leo Conyers of Le Mars, faces 12 more felony charges for allegedly breaking in, stealing cash and vandalizing property. Conyers was already booked in the Plymouth County Jail...

LCS Prom 2008 (05/05/08)

Two stabbed after bar fight (04/28/08)
Witnesses and bar patrons chased down the suspect after two people were stabbed in a bar fight in downtown Le Mars. Christopher Velarde, 23, of Maurice, was charged by police with two felony counts of willful injury at about 2 a.m. Sunday after he allegedly stabbed two people: Joshua Thompson, 26, of Le Mars, and Melody Ropte, 30, of Le Mars...

Cup of tea: New downtown tea shop is Betsworth's dream (05/05/08)
No need to get on a plane to England to enjoy high tea. Just walk downtown in Le Mars. Sue Betsworth has put the teapot on for you. Her new eatery, Lady Anne's Tea Room and Gift Shoppe, will be opening this month. "All my life I've wanted to have a tea shop," she said...

LCS board terminates two teachers due to declining enrollment (05/06/08)
Contracts for two Le Mars Community School District instructors have been terminated by the board of education due to declining enrollment. The termination, made official last week, is effective June 30, 2008, the end of the 2007-2008 school year. Positions held by Melissa Forbes, a fifth grade teacher, and Cliff McMurray, a half time music teacher, were eliminated as part of the budget cuts needed for the 2008-09 school year...

Geiger house retains Italianate look despite remodeling (05/06/08)
Editor's Note: This is the second in a series featuring the stops on Le Mars' annual Tour of Historic Homes. A beautiful Italianate home, much remodeled for today's lifestyle but still retaining characteristics of its beginning, is one of four homes in the Foster Park area in the 2008 Tour of Historic Homes set for Saturday, May 10 in Le Mars. The tour is sponsored by the Le Mars Historical Preservation Commission...