Special report by Siouxland Public Media's Mae Macfarlane. Every Thursday morning during the summer, if you were to enter the playground at Clark Early Childhood center, you would be greeted with a spray of water, muddy vegetables, and a group of gardening kindergarteners. Kristina McGrain, a special-education teacher at Clark, is one of the founding teachers of the Clark Garden Club. Teachers like McGrain are in charge of this program which is designed to include students in a hands-on learning

We talk with 4th district democratic candidate JD Scholten about his second try at winning the race against veteran incumbent Steve King. King has held the seat for 17 years but when he was challenged last year by Scholten, King won by only 3 points. We take an in-depth look at the case of the Iowa man on the list of federal death row inmates set to be executed in January. Retired federal judge Mark Bennet presided over the trial of Dustin Honken and talks about the case with Siouxland Public

A few Democratic hopefuls for president plan to stop in Sioux City over the next couple of days. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will appear at the Key Club on 4 th Street tonight at 6:30. She plans to discuss her vision for American. Then tomorrow night California Senator Kamala Harris plans to hold a rally at the Anderson Dance Pavilion. Harris is on a five-day river-to-river bus tour across the state of Iowa. Also, on Thursday night former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper will attend a

A religious activist accused of burning four LGBTQ children's books that he checked out of the Orange City Public Library has been convicted of criminal mischief and fined. Sioux County Attorney Thomas Kunstle says Paul Robert Dorr, of Ocheyedan, was found guilty of the misdemeanor today and ordered to pay $125 in fines and court costs. Dorr posted a video to Facebook in October in which he denounced the Orange City library for having the books and threw them into a burning barrel. Dorr had

080619 504 A man who burned four children’s books from the Orange City Library last year was found guilty of criminal mischief today Sioux County District Court. Paul Dorr was fined $65-dollars plus a 35 percent surcharge and court costs. Last October, Dorr recorded himself on video publicly burning four children’s library books that have lesbian, gay and bisexual themes --- mostly in protest to a pride festival happening in Orange City. In a written statement, Dorr said he burned the books to

080619 404 An Ocheyedan man who burned four L-G-B-T-Q themed children’s library books last year has been ordered to pay a fine for his criminal mischief charge. Paul Dorr was sentenced in Sioux County District Court today (Tuesday). He was ordered to pay $65-dollars plus a 35 percent surcharge and court fees. The fine is the minimum amount for his charge. In October, Dorr recorded himself on video burning four children’s library books with lesbian, gay and bisexual themes. It was mostly in

Officials say the closing of a South Sioux City bakery plant will cost the jobs of 81 people. Bimbo Bakeries is planning to close in October. Production will shift to other plants. Bimbo Bakeries is part of Mexico City-based Grupo Bimbo. The Democrat who came close to unseating Republican Congressman Steve King rallied supporters in Sioux City last night. Former minor league baseball player J.D. Scholten is taking another swing at flipping Iowa’s most conservative congressional district. He said

080519 532 A western Iowa Republican lawmaker says he's holding a campaign fundraiser featuring U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley at a shooting range despite calls for him to cancel the gun-centered event following weekend mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. State Rep. Steve Holt says his Sweet Freedom Celebration in Denison remains scheduled for tonight and Grassley's staff confirms he will attend and deliver a speech. Holt posted on his campaign Facebook page Sunday that "mental deviants have killed

080519 504 It looks like Republican Steve King may face off once again against Sioux City’s JD Sholten in the 4 th District Congressional race. The Sioux City Democrat from Sioux City says today he will make a second run for the seat. King.has held the seat for 17 years. Scholten says political analysts around the country said that nobody could get close to defeating King. But Scholten last year Scholten lost to King by only three percentage points, instead of the usual 20. Scholten says by

080519 432 J.D. Scholten says today he will make another run for the 4 th congressional seat held for 17 years by conservative Republican Rep. Steve King. The Sioux City native says he will seek the Democratic nomination Since winning the seat in 2002, King has been re-elected eight times, usually by margins of 20 to more than 30 percentage points until last November. And we proved everybody wrong by going out to all 39 counties, multiple times, most of them six times. And just going out,