Opinion

DES MOINES (AP) ? Des Moines? police chief has issued an updated policy that outlines when officers must end vehicle pursuits.The Des Moines Register says the revamped chase policy was sent to officers last week.The revisions include nine specific points on how to begin and end chases and the responsibilities of each vehicle and agency involved in a pursuit.Among the revisions is a new rule that only marked ...

MASON CITY (AP) ? Officials say they?ve begun the adoption process for seven puppies found cold and wet in a storage bin on the side of a street in Mason City.The Humane Society of North Iowa says a good Samaritan brought the puppies to a shelter managed by the Humane Society on Dec. 5 after he spotted a plastic bin on a neighborhood curb that said, ?Free Puppies.? The National Weather Service says Mason City ...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? The South African government says it is aware of reports that the bogus sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela?s memorial once faced a murder charge, and says he?s being investigated.Phumla Williams of the government communications office said today the government is investigating Thamsanqa Jantjie and how he was selected to interpret at a memorial Tuesday at which he stood close to U.S. ...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? People shopping for insurance on the federal marketplace may be informed they?re eligible for Medicaid and that their information is being sent to state officials to sign them up.However, states say they aren?t able to enroll them because they?re receiving incomplete data from the Obama administration.The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services wrote a memo to the 36 states using the ...

Fairfield incumbent Mayor Ed Malloy is running for his seventh two-year term as mayor. He faces one challenger on the ballot.Malloy served as an at-large city council member for two terms, from 1992-2000. He was first elected mayor in 2001 and has been re-elected every two years since. He has lived in Fairfield since 1980. He is married to Vicki Malloy and the couple has two children, Kelly and Justin.?I enjoy ...

Patrick Bosold is one of four candidates running for an at-large Fairfield City Council seat.Bosold has been a Fairfield resident since 1985. He is interested in serving on the city council to support continuing the city?s sustainability, including creating jobs.?The city has done an excellent job of promoting and advancing energy conservation, renewable energy and sustainability initiatives of many kinds in ...

Fairfield voters will decide whether to grant the city the power to enact a special levy to pay for street improvements.If approved, the levy could be as high as 67.5 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, and would last 10 years before it came up for a vote again. Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy said he expects the levy would generate about $200,000 annually.Iowa residential property owners are taxed at 52.82 ...

Fairfield High School senior Jorge Whitley is in the top 2 percent out of more than 250,000 000 Hispanic/Latino students and he was named a National Hispanic Recognition Scholar.?It?s based on ACT/SAT [college entrance exams] scores, GPA and rigor of courses taken in high school,? said Whitley.Students considered are from the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Mariana Islands and the ...

A breakfast was held this morning for the three inductees to the Fairfield High School Wall of Honor, prior to a student assembly in the auditorium. The inductees, their friends and family dined on a variety of egg casseroles, fruit and pastries. This year?s inductees, from left, Mahlon M. Vorhies, Park R. Davidson and Jayne Stewart Freeman, help themselves to a hearty meal served by Lori Mitchell, right, of ...

The Fairfield City Council will consider whether to allow hunters to kill deer in town at its next meeting Monday.The Fairfield Police Department has proposed opening a short deer season to take place in late December and early January to hunt deer in select locations on the west side and south side of town.If approved, the hunts would be confined to bows and would occur in three places: on ground owned by the ...

From left, Dr. Chumley and Elwood Dowd, played by Alex Helmick and Coren Hucke, respectively, have a heart-to-heart talk in ?Harvey.? Elwood explains Harvey, the 6.5-foot tall invisible rabbit, has the power to stop time. ?And you can go anywhere you like, with anyone you like, and stay as long as you like. And when you get back, not one minute will have ticked by. ? Science has overcome time and space. Well, ...

Harvest is in full swing across the country, and farmers in many states are surprised at the abundance of corn they?re getting from their fields.Dairy farmer Ben Steffen, who also grows corn, soybeans and wheat on 1,900 acres near the southeastern Nebraska town of Humboldt, said his first corn field brought in 168 bushels an acre, above the average of 140.?I?m surprised that what I?m hearing from my neighbors ...