Bethlehem, Immanuel receive placements

The area Lutheran population will be interested to learn that both Bethlehem Lutheran Church, rural Greenleaf, and Immanuel Lutheran Church, rural Linn, received placements during "Call Day" this week.
Bethlehem's placement, Christopher LaBoube, is a candidate from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind., and he is supposed to start in late August after finishing a vicarage in Ontario, Canada.
Immanuel will receive a vicar, Richard Rikli, for one year from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. He will start some time this summer.
More in this coming week's issue of the WC News.

Beloit area damage

A insurance agent in Mitchell County said a modular home was completely destroyed and a brick house across Highway 14 from it received a lot of damage. Another house east from there was shifted off its foundation. No one was hurt that they know of.

Trees down by Jamestown, but that's it

The Cloud County Sheriff's Department said the storm downed some trees by Jamestown, but there were no other reports of damage in Cloud County.
To the west, the Mitchell County Sheriff's Department was still out surveying damage and was not releasing a damage report until the survey was complete. The jailer did say there was likely a tornado on the ground in Mitchell County.

No Republic County damage

Local authorities reported no damage reports in Republic County last night.
Now I'm waiting on the Cloud County Sheriff's Department to get back from lunch or something. They told me to call back at 1 p.m. because the sheriff's department wasn't in. Strange.

No local storm damage

The Washington County Sheriff's Department received no reports of damage in Washington County from the wind/thunderstorms that came through last night. The main storm seemed to fizzle out right as it hit the western border of the county. I'll check on reports to the west of us.

Politics - what do you think?

At the end of his weekly column this week, columnist Josh Zenger asks you to consider the following questions:
Will a brokered Democratic Convention result in a weakened nominee? Based on the popular vote and delegates rather than policies, who do you think should be the Democratic Nominee? Which candidate can best compete against Senator McCain November? Which candidate would be easiest for the Republican Nominee to defeat?
If you have input, leave a comment here.

A bus boost

The downtown Washington economy has gotten a boost from bus tours in the last few weeks. A bus full of tourists from the Salina-Tescott area spent time at the museum and ate at Mayberry's about three weeks ago and today, another bus showed up to eat at Mayberry's. It's nice to see these tours stop downtown once in a while and having a restaurant that can handle lots of people is probably one of the main reasons they make the stop. They usually hit other places in the county during these trips too.