TOLEDO, Iowa — In the scenic shop of the historic Wieting Theatre, one of the oldest theaters in Iowa, are 12 artists adding the final touches to their art for the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.
As they worked on the final artworks, they passed the aux cord to Eric Rosario, known more affectionately as Ro, from the Bronx, a borough of New York City, so he can control the background music. He picks songs from the musical "Alexander Hamilton" and pop star Taylor Swift.
The group of high school students has been working for months to create 30 pieces of public art that will be displayed in Tama-Toledo as the neighboring towns serve as an overnight stop for this year's 50th anniversary of RAGBRAI. It's just one of the ways the two towns are preparing to host a 1970s-theme day on July 27, culminating in a show from English rock band Foghat know for hits like "Slow Ride" and "I Just Want to Make Love to You."

Deandre “SipTheKid” Smith, 32, also known as Player 181, saw an advertisement in the summer of 2022 that Netflix was doing a wide casting call for “Squid Game: The Challenge.”
After confirming that the casting call was real, the actor applied. Smith, who has also been a part of “You Bet Your Life with Jay Leno,” got a call on the day before Christmas that same year.
“When I picked up the phone, they were so dramatic with it. He was like ‘I got some news for you’ and never said bad or good," Smith said.
That phone call punched his ticket and Smith got the chance to compete in the reality show based on the South Korean dystopian drama “Squid Game” for $4.56 million dollars.

The women’s basketball season is in full swing. During media day, Head Coach Tanya Warren set the tone, saying that this year’s women’s basketball team is hungry for the season. Last year, the women’s basketball team’s season ended in the second round of the 2022 Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
This was the fifth time the team ended with 20 or more wins in a season under Coach Warren. This year the Panthers were selected by league coaches, sports information directors and media members to finish fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). This year during media day, Coach Warren expressed that this year, “This is Maya’s Team.”

On a rainy Friday morning, more than 40 union members stood united outside of UPS on 1751 Hull Ave., flipping patties and turning hot dogs as they waited for a better contract.
The Des Moines members were part of the thousands of UPS workers nationwidewho staged a picket this week. They say if a new contract isn't reached by July 31, they will go on strike, putting at risk the nearly 25 million packages the shipping company delivers a day.
The Teamsters' agreement with UPS is the largest private-sector collective bargaining agreement in North America, according to a news release. It represents 340,000 package delivery drivers and warehouse logistic workers across the country, including 4,000 in Iowa.

This past Wednesday, Nov. 10, the Board of Regents (BoR) approved adding a stand-alone nursing program at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). This program will be designed to be a traditional stand-alone option. On Monday, Nov. 14, it was announced that Nancy Kertz, Ph.D., was selected as the executive director of nursing, and will be chief academic nurse administrator.
Kertz has experience in developing nursing at the graduate and undergraduate level. Some of the next steps currently include the accreditation process with the Board of Nursing, developing the curriculum and working with the state and national accreditors to gain their support.

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