Page 1 - Clear Lake Mirror Reporter E-Edition 7-29-2015
P. 1

Fire on Lady of the Lake pg. 2

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Isolated T-storms
                                                                                                                                                                                                           for the weekend

                                                                                                                                                                                                           Chance of scattered
                                                                                                                                                                                                           thunder storms for
                                                                                                                                                                                                           Saturday and Sunday.
                                                                                                                                                                                                           High of 85 degrees on Saturday.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              More weather on page 5.

USPS 117-120 VOL. 145 Issue 30              July 29, 2015                           Serving Clear Lake and Ventura since 1869 • Hometown newspaper of Scott & Cherise James                                                              $1.50

  Clear Lake                                Clear Lake senior Jacob Hogan is welcomed home after hitting a walk-off grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Lions a win  Clinton,
Mirror-Reporter                             and a State Tournament berth. It was the second seventh inning grand slam for Hogan in the post-season.-Reporter photo by Chris Barragy.                      Sanders and
CALENDAR                                                                                                                                                                                                  other top
                                            Lions take State by storm                                                                                                                                     Democrats to
Wednesday                                                                                                                                These Lions seem                                                 attend Wing
Juggling fun                                                                                                                             destined for success                                             Ding at Surf

	 The Ventura Public Library                Seniors Matt Stephany and Brock Adams exchange fist bumps after each made stellar defensive  	 If ever there was a team destined for success, it has          	 The annual Iowa Democratic Wing Ding on Friday,
invites the public to attend a              plays in the final innings of the Lions’ quarterfinal win over Treynor Monday night.         to be the 2015 Clear Lake Lions baseball team. Twice             Aug. 14, will be the largest-ever gathering of Democratic
special summer program this                                                                                                              within a week the Lions found themselves down to                 Party faithful at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. Four
week. Today (Wednesday, July                                                                                                             their final out, facing the end of their season. They            of the five announced Democratic Party candidates run-
29) at 1 p.m. the Hanson Fam-                                                                                                            had started the summer as the top rated team in Class            ning for president will be in attendance:  former Rhode
ily from Kanawha, Iowa will en-                                                                                                          2A and the favorite to win the North Central Confer-             Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, former Secretary of
tertain with juggling and unicyl-                                                                                                        ence title. Some bumps along the way, including a late           State Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Governor Mar-
ing fun. Everyone is cordially                                                                                                           season loss to St. Edmonds, dropped them from first              tin O’Malley, and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
invited to attend.                                                                                                                       to fifth in the rankings and dashed NCC title hopes.             	 The Wing Ding has grown substantially over the
                                                                                                                                         But in the post-season the Lions simply refuse to give           years and now is recognized as a statewide event, draw-
Open mic night                                                                                                                           up. Twice in District play they were down to their last          ing attendees and press from all over the state.  It pro-
                                                                                                                                         out, trailing in the bottom of the seventh, and unbe-            vides grass roots funding for Democratic candidates in
	 The Surf Ballroom holds its                                                                                                            lievably pulled out victories. They began their quest for        the 23 counties that sponsor and support the event.
Open Mic Night each Wednes-                                                                                                              a State title Monday night and after heavy rains made             	 Attendees will once again experience an event filled
day. Anyone interested in per-                                                                                                           a mess of the tournament, the Lions stepped out onto             with great food and will have an opportunity to meet
forming may take the stage                                                                                                               the Principal Park field at 8:45 p.m. and posted a shut-         area and state Democratic officeholders and candidates. 
in the Surf ’s Cypress Lounge.                                                                                                           out win. A State title is just two games away! See our           	 Another highlight of the evening will be a special
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; show                                                                                                            sports section for more about the Lions.                         announcement by a new candidate declaring a run for
time is 7 p.m. Admission is free.                                                                                                                                                                         U.S. House of Representatives.  The annual Beacon
                                                                                                                                                                                                          Award will also be presented, honoring an outstanding
Thursday                                                                                                                                                                                                  Democrat who represents the best attributes of Demo-
Thursdays on Main                                                                                                                                                                                         cratic Party values.
                                                                                                                                                                                                          	 Entertainment for the evening will be provided by
	 The Clear Lake Area Cham-                                                                                                                                                                               Paul Micich and World Port.
ber of Commerce hosts Thurs-                                                                                                                                                                              	 Tickets for the evening are $30 in advance or $35
days on Main each week. From                                                                                                                                                                              at the door.  Purchase tickets by calling one of the fol-
6-11 p.m. Thursday, July 23,                                                                                                                                                                              lowing Wing Ding Committee members or by visiting
there will be live music, featured                                                                                                                                                                        the website: www.iowawingding.com, where tickets can
entertainment, classic cars, a                                                                                                                                                                            be purchased online.  In the past, doors opened at 5
bounce house, hand-powered                                                                                                                                                                                p.m.  Given the presence of the Secret Service this year,
kiddie train rides, a vendor                                                                                                                                                                              organizers will have to defer to them on plans for letting
street market and retail stores                                                                                                                                                                           people in.  Check our website for updates on the open-
stay open late. The night will                                                                                                                                                                            ing time.
be topped off with a movie in                                                                                                                                                                              	 Tickets are available from the following: John
the park. Main Avenue activi-                                                                                                                                                                             Stone, 641-390-3271; Dean Genth, 641-583-2024;
ties are 6-9 p.m. At 6:30, special                                                                                                                                                                        Gary Gelner, 641-843-3695; John Columbo, 641-420-
entertainment on the 300 block                                                                                                                                                                            7610; Linda Vaudt, 515-341-0125; Dave Mansheim,
(SE corner of City Park) will be                                                                                                                                                                          319-983-4026; Susan Nelson, 641-315-2654; John
provided by Sheltered Reality.                                                                                                                                                                            Ralls, 641-562-2993.

                                 continued

More CALENDAR
      on page 2

      Inside

  Opinion..................... 4
  Weather.................... 5
  Sports................13-14
  Legals..................... 17
  Classifieds.........18-19

 Heavy rain last week caused
the lake level to rise to +2.76”
 above the weir. Last year at
 this time the lake measured

     -.36” below the weir.

                                            Gone Cold: Exploring Iowa’s unsolved murders is a year-long collaborative effort by Iowa news organizations                    JIM ADCOCK                     MIKE MOTSINGER
                                            to revisit some of the most brutal and mystifying homicides in Iowa’s history.  Beginning today and in the
                                            weeks following, we’ll share information about many of the state’s 438 unsolved homicides.  It is our hope that
                                            by sharing these stories with a broad audience, justice will come for some of these victims.

                                            40 years after ‘Waverly Stranglings,’                                                                                          Getting away with murder
                                                                                                                                                                           Killers identified only about half the time
PHONE: 641-923-2837 EXT. 3                  a renewed search for answers
                                            by Mike Kilen                           of five daughters of Lowell and JoAnn     to California in 1974, she begged to         by Jason Clayworth,
  How to contact us at:                     Des Moines Register,                    Benning, Julia had been the picture of    stop in Winslow, Arizona, because the        Des Moines Register, jclayworth@dmreg.com
                                            mkilen@dmreg.com                        a good farm girl, following her father    Eagles sang about standing on a corner       	 Roughly a third of homicides in the U.S. go unsolved.
      Mail: 12 N. 4th St.,                  	 Julia Benning lived on a farm near    around to do chores as a youngster,       there. They did, and she sang.               	 In the Midwest, it’s even less likely a killer will be caught: Just over half — 52
     Clear Lake, IA 50428                   Clarksville, but she wanted to experi-  growing into a beautiful 4-foot-11-       	 Lighten up while you still can/            percent — are identified, according to FBI data referred to as “clearance rates.”
 Telephone: 641-357-2131                    ence the wider world. She had pen pals  inch tall young woman who sang in the     don’t even try to understand/Just find       	 Criminologists and forensic death consultants such as Jim Adcock estimate
      Fax: 641-357-2133                     in Michigan and Scotland and shared     Plainfield High School choir, played in   a place to make your stand/and take it       more than 200,000 homicides have gone unsolved in the United States since
Email: office@clreporter.com                with them her righteous rants about     the band and performed for the speech     easy.                                        1980. And the longer a case goes unsolved — the colder it becomes — the harder
Website: www.clreporter.com                 small-minded prejudices against black   team.                                     	 She wanted to work at a radio sta-         it is to crack.
                                            people, Indians and young women who     	 But with no money to attend col-        tion, but the managers said she needed       	 Advances in forensics and social media have helped identify some killers, but
@CLReporter                                 spoke their mind and didn’t conform in  lege, Julia went to nearby Waverly to     more experience and education. She           the bitter truth for victims’ families is that the national clearance rate has re-
                                            dress or behavior.                      find a job after high school. She loved   settled for trying to find a job at a bowl-  mained relatively static for more than 20 years.
                                            	 Her family didn’t know where this     the music of the era — bands like the     ing alley, but they already had stacks of    	Why?
                                            came from, but accepted it. The oldest  Eagles. When the family took a rare trip                                               	 “It’s a tough question to answer,” Adcock said, noting the number of mur-
                                                                                                                                       See WAVERLY on page 7               ders in the U.S. has dropped from around 25,000 in 1993 to 13,000 today.

                                                                                                                                                                                                          See INVESTIGATORS on page 7

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