Obituaries

CEDAR FALLS ? The National Weather Service issued a warning Monday for Eastern Iowa for wind chills of minus 25 to minus 40 degrees, but at least 10 people were unfazed.The winter warriors clambered into the Cedar River in kayaks.It's a tradition the owners of Crawdaddy Outdoors ? an outdoor goods store in Waverly ? began 26 years ago, co-owner Darrin Siefken said.?My buddy and I decided we would try doing ...

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has summoned the U.S. ambassador to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's angry tweet about Pakistani ?lies and deceit?, which Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif dismissed as a political stunt.David Hale was summoned by the Pakistan foreign office on Monday to explain Trump's tweet, media said. The ministry could not be reached for comment but the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad confirmed on ...

NEW YORK - A child playing with a stove may have caused the fire in a New York City apartment building that killed 12 people, including four children, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday.The fire, the deadliest in the city in a quarter of a century, broke out a little before 7 p.m. EST (midnight GMT) on Thursday on the first floor of a brick building and quickly spread upstairs, killing people on multiple ...

(Editor's note: Gloria Yoder will return next week with The Amish Cook. This week, Yoder's editor Kevin Williams steps in to talk about how far The Amish Cook has come since it's conception.)I want to thank all of our readers along the line for reading The Amish Cook. This year, 2018, will mark the column's 27th year, and I've been at the helm the whole time. It seems insane to do anything that long, but loyal ...

WENZHOU - When authorities in China's southeastern city of Wenzhou outlawed Sunday School earlier this year, Christian parents determined their children must still learn about Jesus and the Bible.Churches in Wenzhou started teaching children in private homes or at other venues. Some billed Sunday School classes as daycare, not education, or moved them to Saturdays, more than a dozen local Christians told ...

Ron and Alecia Clouse are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday, Dec. 30. They were married in Detroit, Mich. Alecia is originally from Detroit and Ron is from Fostoria, Ohio. They moved to Mt. Pleasant in 1988. Their children wish them a happy anniversary from the rest of the ?crazy Clouses.?

If it seems we're experiencing a more normal winter in Eastern Iowa compared with those of recent years, it really may be too early to know for sure.Below normal temperatures are expected to continue in Cedar Rapids and Eastern Iowa well into next week. The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities is forecasting high temperatures sharply below normal for this time of year.?Our high temperatures right now are ...

Davida Fisher Nicholson will be celebrating her 100th birthday on Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. To help her celebrate, send cards to 1201 E. Washington St., Washington, IA 52353.Davida was married to Donald Nicholson on May 27, 1946. He died March 1, 2017. Davida and Don had two children: Dean (Dianne) Nicholson and Patricia Nicholson Ryan. She has four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

A partnership between the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium will be good news for monarch butterflies and other pollinators this year.Under the Monarch Fueling Station Project, announced Tuesday, ethanol and biofuel plants across the state are encouraged to convert green spaces on their land into monarch habitat.?We thought it would be a great way to help Iowa's ...

For older people, getting out of the house regularly may contribute to a longer life - and the effect is independent of medical problems or mobility issues, according to new research from Israel.For study participants in their 70s, 80s and 90s, the frequency with which they left the house predicted how likely they were to make it to the next age milestone, researchers report in Journal of the American Geriatrics ...