HARLAN -- Harlan Community High School’s Show Choir program has kicked off the contest season and continues to grow each year.     In its sixth year, the high school group Breaking Cylence has performed at two contests thus far, including the Elkhorn, NE Crystal Cup competition and the Pella Dutchmasters Invitational.    “We performed well at our first competition, but did not make it into the finals,” said director Chase Shoemaker, who is

    HARLAN – Harlan Community High School Vocal Director Chase Shoemaker recently was announced as a winner in the 2019 Composition Competition by the Iowa Choral Directors Association and the Iowa Composers Forum.    Shoemaker was commissioned at the beginning of the school year by Tanner Stutzman to write a winter, four-part treble choir piece for his Roland-Story High School treble chorus.  The unaccompanied piece is set to the poem Love Ca

    HARLAN -- Myrtue Medical Center was once again named one of the 100 highest-ranked Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in the United States by The Chartis Center for Rural Health.    Myrtue is the only Iowa hospital to receive this award eight years in a row.    Regarded as one of the industry’s most significant designations of performance excellence, the annual Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals award is based upon the results of the Hospital

    SHELBY -- Tom Rau of Shelby will celebrate his 80th birthday on March 8. His family is planning a card shower in his honor.

 MANNING (Feb. 21) -- That giant Ar-We-Va monkey is finally off the collective back of the Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton boys basketball team. The Spartans couldn’t have picked a better time to snap their 0-13 drought against the Rockets, pulling away in the fourth quarter to win Thursday’s Class 1A, District 15 final, 69-50, in the Manning gymnasium. Since the inception of the Rolling Valley Conference in 2013, Exira-EHK had lost 13 straight vs.

 ELK HORN (Feb. 19) -- AHSTW kept on fighting back last Tuesday night, but Ar-We-Va answered every challenge. Eventually, the Vikings ran out of time as the 8th-ranked Rockets converted 14-of-16 free throws in the final 2:03 to win 66-54 in a Class 1A district semifinal boys basketball game at Elk Horn. AHSTW led 5-2 early on but otherwise trailed the whole way.

 SIOUX RAPIDS (Feb.

 WATERLOO (Feb. 18) -- Harlan Community’s third trip in six years to the Class 1A Girls State Bowling Tournament resulted in its best finish yet as the Cyclones placed fifth out of eight teams Monday at Cadillac Lanes in Waterloo. HCHS checked in one spot and 97 pins ahead of sixth-place Red Oak, registering an individual total of 1,704 and a Baker Games total of 735 for a 2,439 team score.

 CARROLL (Feb.