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JBS expansion jumps forward, but how high?
T-R PHOTO BY TAMMY R. LAWSON
JBS can go nowhere but up since the Board of Adjustment has approved a special use permit toward expansion, but it will be up to the Planning & Zoning Commission as to just how high.
December 1, 2009
JBS cleared yet another hurdle Monday as the Marshalltown Board of Adjustment granted the company a special use permit toward expanding the pork processing plant.
But there were some conditions.
Noise can’t exceed the current levels of the property, appropriate security lighting has to be installed, and parking along Tenth Avenue — which includes a security gate — has to be removed.
Also, engineers must install white-embossed, insulated metal panels to diffuse reflections while all new lighting has to be directed downward and controlled.
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Obama to reveal war plan, bids to sell Americans
December 1, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Tuesday reveals his plan for winning an unpopular 8-year-old war in Afghanistan, embarking on a mission to sell skeptical Americans on the need to put thousands more troops in harm’s way and to spend additiona...
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Emotions high, Senate opens partisan health debate
December 1, 2009
WASHINGTON — Riven by partisanship, the Senate plunged into a widely anticipated debate Monday over sweeping health care legislation that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have vowed to approve and Republicans have sworn to block.
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Crime spree keeps local cops busy
December 1, 2009
Marshalltown police were kept busy over the holiday weekend with several incidents involving vandalism and burglary.
At least five local businesses and two private residences were the victims of burglaries.
» Full Story
Top Headline Poll
What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Turkey
34%
Green Bean Casserole
20%
Mash Potatoes and Gravy
37%
Party Potatoes
4%
Panes Reyenos
5%
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Emily Barske
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You've Got to Read the Book!
Fri, November 6, 2009 @ 11:28AM
Now as a book lover I think that books show so much more than movies. They have so much more description, but yet you also get to use your imagination to give yourself a picture of the characters or certain places. Maybe it’s just me, but I absolutely hate it when you go to watch a movie about a book you've already read and the characters are all wrong, the events are just less real, and it just is a complete disgrace to the book. Like take the Harry Potter books for instance, Harry's eyes are green just like his mother's. J.K. Rowling gives an explicit description of Harry's green eyes at least once or twice a book. Then in the movie they zoom in on Harry's eyes or just the face, and you see that his eyes are not green but blue! Now this is just one of the minor changes that they made from the book to the movie. I mean, hello, have they heard of colored contacts. Another movie, let’s say Twiligh.
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Ken Black
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Outstanding!
Mon, November 16, 2009 @ 2:27PM
It was a game I will never forget as long as I live. I don't know what it was like to be down on the field, but from the stands it looked and felt awesome. When I went to the UNI Dome Friday, I was hoping for a good game. What I got was so much more. With 3:30 left, having to go 80 yards with no timeouts, needing to convert more than one fourth down (and long fourth downs at that), you won't win those games in high school football all the time. But it didn't matter, because with 5 seconds left in the game, the scoreboard said Maroons 25, Bobcats 28. It was still that way when time expired. Throughout the game, I was sitting right behind some guys from Fort Dodge, one of whom insisted he was held in the end zone on the Dodgers' final offensive play of the game. They seemed to be sitting on the Marshalltown sideline for no other reason than to cajole Bobcat fans whenever anything went wrong. And for a good portion of the fourth quarter, there was a lot of cajoling to be done.
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Mike Donahey
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Vote today!
Mon, November 2, 2009 @ 3:58PM
"Now go out and vote, it will make you feel good." CBS correspondent Bob Schaeffer attributed those words to his late mother after he moderated a McCain-Obama debate last year. It is wise and timeless advice. Today voters in Marshalltown and citizens in other Central Iowa communities will vote in town elections. Is voting in a town election important? Yes. The men or women we re-elect or elect, will be making decisions, large and small, for us beginning in 2010. Eventually, some of their decisions we will like. Others we will not. But not everything in life turns out the way we want. And that includes politics locally, at the state level and nationally. A vote is like saying "this is who I think should be making those decisions" Not everyone feels comfortable standing up at a city council meeting. Nor do some like writing letters "to the editor.
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Tammy R. Lawson
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ATTENTION, KMART SHOPPERS!
Sun, November 29, 2009 @ 3:46PM
Black Friday was nothing like I thought it would be. No shoving, no stampedes, no ... nothing. Many methods upon which customers enter the stores were revised in order to prevent a crushing death blow, much like the one killing that Wal-mart greeter in Valley Stream, N.Y. last year. Although, by the time I made my rounds, several people throughout the day - along with a couple employees - cited a fist fight had broken out after the early-opening of that store, but I was unable to legitimately confirm it by press time. At 4 p.m., an on-duty manager there said he'd heard nothing of it. Hmmmmmmm ... A call to the police department also yielded no reports. Hmmmmmmm again. Shoppers at Kmart were required to line up, single file, and enter through only one opened door. I even staked out a spot within the store to strategically photograph any possible mob scene that may lightly take shape. Not one person stumbled. Not one person pushed.
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Mark Pawlak
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Dome will be rockin'
Fri, November 20, 2009 @ 6:52PM
CEDAR FALLS - It's just under an hour and a half away from the Class 4A state football championship between Marshalltown and Iowa City High. The traffic is backed up all around the UNI-Dome. The Bobcats faithful are out in full force already. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 tickets for the game have been sold in Marshalltown. It's still 20 minutes until the gates open, but crowds of MHS fans are waiting to get in. The support this team has gotten from the town is amazing. Tonight's game will be a tough one for the Bobcats as Iowa City High is the state's No. 1-ranked team and has all of pieces needed to be state champions. Marshalltown also has the offense, defense and special teams to get the job done tonight - and the Bobcats believe they can too. Win or lose tonight it's been a great ride in 2009. - Now about 45 minutes from kickoff, thousands line the Marshalltown side of the UNI-Dome. A huge roar came as the Bobcats stepped onto the turf for pregame warm-ups.
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Andrew Potter
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Questions swirl around Woods’ accident
Mon, November 30, 2009 @ 1:47PM
There are so many questions surrounding the single-vehicle accident by Tiger Woods. For me the statement Woods released recently only brought more questions to mind and did not clear up much. The fact that he said he wants to make sure it never happens again — that is what gets me. If it was just a fluke accident how can you make sure it never happens again. It makes it look like something was going on which impaired his driving. If it is correctable then it must have been something. It seems like there is much more to this accident that will be coming out. The statement by Woods appears the golfer wants the story to end here, but we all know that won’t be the case. When you’re perhaps the most well-known athlete in the world you can not get off quite that easil.
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Pam Rodgers
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The highs and lows of the holidays
Sun, November 29, 2009 @ 10:45PM
I love the holidays. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year because it’s a time to get together with the family members I don’t see on a consistent basis. My family is one of those that has a big Thanksgiving get together with 30 plus people at one one meal that spans four tables at my Grandma’s farm house. It’s great to see everyone and get some time away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. However, it never fails that at either Thanksgiving or Christmas (sometimes both) that I get some sort of illness after the crazy day is over. This year, it’s Thanksgiving. On Saturday, I began to feel congestion in my sinuses and the next day my head felt like it weighed 100 pounds, and I could hardly see straight my head hurts so bad. It’s like the absence of the constant driving force behind the holiday causes my system to cras.
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April Thorn
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Dogs have leashes. Not kids.
Thu, July 16, 2009 @ 11:58PM
I hate being in a store when you hear a child crying or see one throwing a fit and their parent is not paying attention to their offspring. Not that a parent has to coo at every sound their child makes, but when the crying and/or fit throwing is excessive, that's when a parent should acknowledge the child and either a) try to fix what is wrong, b) discipline the child, or c) decide it is time to go home and take the child out of the store. (Depending on what your personal child-rearing philosophy is. However it seems some parents are without a particular philosophy or brain, rather.) Understanding that children can throw unpleasant fits in stores and can also run away like an Olympic sprinter down a aisle, I get why parents may find it frustrating to take their children into stores. But at the same time the parents did make this choice.
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