Obituaries

Sunrise Terrace is ushering in Christmas with Bill Luckenbill at the keyboard to tickle the ivories on Thursday, Dec. 21, at 2:30 p.m. Joining in with singing is encouraged.Following Luckenbill's performance, visitors are invited for community visiting on Friday, Dec. 22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Neighbors are invited to stop by to enjoy refreshments and say hello to people who were teachers and farmers and close ...

Willow Barton and Wayne Klopfenstein were recognized during the month of November as Mt. Pleasant Community High School Students of Character.Barton and Klopfenstein have done a great job of exhibiting the pillars of character at MPCHS and in the community. They are both seniors this year.

CEDAR RAPIDS ? For many Eastern Iowans hoping to ring in the New Year with a bang, finding fireworks for the celebration will prove much more inconvenient than just five months ago over the Independence Day holiday.Earlier this year, the Iowa Legislature made it legal for the first time in nearly 80 years to sell consumer fireworks, establishing periods around the Fourth of July and New Year's.The law calls for ...

JERUSALEM ? Thousands of Palestinians protested in a ?day of rage? on Friday in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and in East Jerusalem against U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of the ancient city as Israel's capital.Across the Arab and Muslim worlds, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Friday, the Muslim holy day, expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and outrage at the U.S. move.As ...

SOLON ? The Solon City Council hopes to decide by the end of the year if it will allow a nearby housing development afflicted with too much arsenic in its drinking water to connect to the city's clean water supply.Some in the Johnson County community of about 2,500 people say they're morally obligated to provide safe drinking water to Gallery Acres West's roughly 40 residents, while others oppose the proposal to ...

By Vanessa Miller, The Gazette A request from the University of Northern Iowa to pay $2.4 million for a privately owned bookstore that has been serving its Cedar Falls campus for 80 years won the approval Wednesday of the Board of Regents.Because UNI plans to run University Book and Supply as a nonprofit, the institution won't incur additional cost to operate it, administrators told regents during their ...

FARIA BEACH/LILAC, Calif. - Firefighters battled several intense wind-driven wildfires early on Friday across densely populated Southern California that have destroyed at least 500 structures and chased tens of thousands of people from their homes over the past five days.More than 5,700 firefighters from across California and the region worked to stop the spread of six large wildfires and other smaller blazes ...

CEDAR RAPIDS ? The rich history of the stately Grace Episcopal Church would be lost if a developer bought and demolished the building for another use, church leaders feared.A bell tower soars above the corner of A Avenue and Sixth Street NE, and limestone blocks and stained glass windows make up the facade. Only the side and back wall are original to 1851, when the church was being built.Expansions, remodels, ...

WASHINGTON - Josh Brookhart has four health insurers to choose from in Seattle's King County for 2018, more than many Americans like him who buy coverage on the Obamacare individual market.Yet none of the plans cover all the complex medical care needed for his seven-year-old son, Gabriel.Born with an extreme form of Chiari malformation, Gabriel required surgery to reinsert a part of his brain into his skull. He ...

CEDAR RAPIDS ? Wyatt Dagit has seen families left second-guessing.As a hospital chaplain for the past 10 years, Dagit said he's seen families having to make decisions on behalf of loved ones who are in medical crisis.It can be even tougher for families who have not had end-of-life conversations with those loved ones.?The family is doing the best they can on their behalf, but it is really tough when they ...