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Marines suffer casualties in new Afghan campaign
AP PHOTO
U.S. Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, 1st Battalion 5th Marines temporarily occupy a house after arriving in an overnight air assault near the Taliban stronghold of Nawa in Afghanistan's Helmand province Thursday. Thousands of U.S. Marines poured from helicopters and armored vehicles into Taliban-controlled villages in southern Afghanistan on Thursday in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize the country.
July 3, 2009
NAWA, Afghanistan — U.S. Marines suffered their first casualties of a massive new military campaign Thursday as they engaged in sporadic gunbattles along 55 miles of Taliban-controlled heartland in southern Afghanistan.
One Marine was killed and several others were injured or wounded on the first full day of the assault, the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban government in 2001.
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Obama to Putin: Time to move past Cold War
July 3, 2009
WASHINGTON — Days from his first Moscow summit, President Barack Obama declared Thursday that former Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘‘still has a lot of sway’’ in his nation and needs an in-person reminder the Cold War is over.
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District to receive $5.6 million grant
July 3, 2009
A federal grant will give a $5.6 million boost to the Marshalltown Community School District budget over the next four years for dealing with behavior issues among students.
The Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative grant from the U.S.
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Internet car fraud strikes in Marshalltown
July 3, 2009
A case involving crimes in multiple states and defrauding people on the popular online auction site eBay was settled in U.S. District Court last week.
“It was originally our case,” said Acting Assistant Police Chief Brian Batterson.
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Emily Barske
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Unspoken Words
Fri, July 3, 2009 @ 9:39AM
When is somebody finally going to tell the media they have gone too far? Some major magazines are truly inhumane. They are willing to take the slightest bit of a mistake and make a celebrity into a horrible person. Reporters for all of these gossiping magazines are always looking at the bad side. It really makes me angry about some of the things that reporters said about Michael Jackson during his life. He wanted to have an amusement park (Neverland), for children who were very ill. He had beds in there for children who were too sick to be out of bed. So, the reporters turn his caring act for these children and say that he is just trying to lure the children there. It really is horrible that they turned a good deed by a good man into a trap by a bad man. It really is sad that because this is what some reporters said that the world believes it. Now, after Michael's death that is what people remember of him.
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Ken Black
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How does it all make any sense?
Thu, June 25, 2009 @ 3:40PM
I didn't know Ed Thomas, the fallen head football coach and athletic director at Aplington-Parkersburg. I may have seen him at football game once or twice, but I don't even know that. Where I did see him was on television. Those who are intimately familiar with high school football in the state of Iowa know Ed Thomas and knew him for a long time. It wasn't until this week that I learned what a pivotal football coach he really was. But the rest of the world, and I include myself in that, got to know Ed Thomas after the devastating Parkersburg tornado. He was the one on the television. He was the one in the community. He was the one that, seemingly, picked a devastated community up on his shoulders and decided there was something they could do, even when fate threw them a cruel punch. That lesson will never be more prescient than it is today. This man was the heart and soul of a football team. But apparently he was also the heart and soul of a community.
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Wes Burns
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Your Family Photos Are Wrong
Mon, April 20, 2009 @ 10:09PM
Ah, the family vacation. Every family around has vacation stories. They usually fall into one of the following categories: 1) Best Vacation Ever!: These are the stories where the whole family loaded up in the van and were driving to California when the van broke down and Robert Downey Jr. stopped to help them. The rest of the memories are a blur but the family really built a bond when they all had to run away from the Mounties together. These vacations rarely happen and chances are your family does not have one of these stories. 2) Worst Vacation Ever!: These are the vacations that start out promising (Hey kids! Lets all go down to the lake!) and eventually transform into a rejected script for a National Lampoon's Movie (Hey kids! We're the Prime Minister's guests so stop laughing at his toupee or you'll start nuclear war). Chances are your family has at least one of these stories...minus the international intrigue.
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Tammy R. Lawson
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The "Cut-Ups" of Comedy
Wed, July 1, 2009 @ 2:48PM
All right, for those who have ever gone under the knife, so to speak, this is for you: I not only have a new respect, I stand and applaud. Well, I would, that is, if I could get up and do it without cringing like the wounded animal I am. You see, I had minor, out-patient surgery on my ankle Tuesday, and it was the first time I had ever been purposely cut on by reasons other than my own accidental doing. And the situation had been coming on for several years. Even so, that doesn't mean I was totally up for it. To be precise: When I caught a glimpse of the so-called needle that would hopefully numb my physical and psychological pain into oblivion. The wrong type had been laid out on the table with the rest of the instruments and it looked like something you'd inoculate a horse with. My inner screams said "RUN, FORREST, RUN!" Alas, imagine my relief when they chuckled and retrieved the smaller, more convenient "bee sting" size.
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Andrew Potter
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Spotting spaghetti
Tue, June 30, 2009 @ 5:21PM
It seems something unique usually happens every time I walk down Main Street. This week I was walking a block west of the courthouse when I noticed a huge mound of cooked spaghetti on the sidewalk. It was not near a restaurant which led me to wonder how it got there. Did someone riding a bike have their lunch slip away from them? Did someone throw it out of a window on a second floor apartment? I also wondered who was going to be the lucky dog which found the food. The spaghetti was not on a dish or in a box. Just a mound of spaghetti on the sidewalk. Not the weirdest thing I’ve seen downtown but definitely raised my eyebrow.
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April Thorn
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GINORMOUS!
Thu, July 2, 2009 @ 9:42PM
I see a woman walking with a small girl and say hello. The woman smiles and says hi back. I turn and walk past the pair to hear, "She's big right mommy?" "She's very tall, yes," the woman replies. Seriously to a 2.5 foot-tall girl who everyone should be BIG to, to recognize that, yes, I am taller than the average population?! Please! They've got to find a cure for this being tall thin.
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