ELK HORN -- The Spartans will look to Cage the Cougars Friday night as Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton celebrates homecoming this week culminating with the football game versus CAM, beginning at 7 p.m. in Exira.    The game is just one of a number of activities during the week.

    HARLAN -- The annual Teal Out held at Harlan Community High School’s volleyball game Tuesday evening, Sept.

    WALNUT -- Gladys Petersen of Walnut will mark her 90th birthday on September 29. Her family would like to honor her with a card shower. Cards will reach her if sent to 410 Pacific Street, Apt. 7, Walnut, IA 51577.    Her family includes daughter and son-in-law, Jackie and Dan Riessen, Avoca; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Gladys’ son is the late James Petersen and her husband is the late Lloyd Petersen.

    ATLANTIC -- Marvin Lynn McCool, 92, Atlantic, died Tuesday, Sept. 17 in Omaha, NE.    Services will be held Saturday, Sept. 21 at 3 p.m. at Burmeister-Johannsen Funeral Home in Shelby with burial of ashes at a later date in the Layton Township Cemetery in Walnut.  Friends may call Saturday from 2-3 p.m.

    PORTSMOUTH -- Albert Peter “Pete” Stein, 70, Portsmouth, died Sunday, Sept. 15 in Omaha, NE.    Services will be held Friday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at St. Mary Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church Fellowship Hall in Portsmouth with private burial of ashes in the Cass Township Cemetery in Portsmouth.  Visitation is Friday from 4-7 p.m.

    HARLAN -- Rainy conditions during the past week hasn’t stopped crews from Western Engineering from continuing street overlay work in town.  Street work continued this week with many locations throughout the town seeing milling and overlay improvements.

    AVOCA -- Friday night’s football contest between the Vikings and Westwood (Sloan) included a fundraiser for an AHSTW student fighting a rare form of cancer.    Charley Falkena is battling PTLD, or Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disease, which affects transplant patients.  The cancer will typically show itself within the first few years after the transplant takes place.

    REGIONAL – You’ll definitely feel them before you see them.  Those little black bugs which seem to have more teeth than they do body, swarming through the air in the early fall evenings just before dark, causing distress for anyone who may be gardening, attending a ball game or just out for a walk.       And that ferocious bite they have!       The past week has been the worst, as the warmer weather has brought them out of hiding, albeit a

    DES MOINES -- Claire Rowden and Rob Larson both of West Des Moines will marry on September 28 in a ceremony at the Shattering Silence Sculpture on the west grounds of the Iowa Judicial Building in Des Moines.    Parents of the couple are Bob and Rhonda Rowden, Iowa City; and Jeff and Shelli Larson, Harlan.