Top 9: Communities Brace for Flood, Bachmann Court Date Set, A Multi-Million Dollar Bargain, Homeless Camp Murder Trial

By B.A. Morelli

Why nine? Because the Patch community includes nine sites in Iowa: Ames, Ankeny, Cedar Falls, Iowa City, Johnston, Marion,Urbandale, Waukee and West Des Moines.

9. Zander Reed, an Ankeny 10-year-old, competed in the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland on Wednesday. He made it through a couple rounds, but Arvind Mahankali, of Bayside Hills, NY won the contest. 

8. Ames Patch reports that the second murder trial for Glenn A Smith, 50, a homeless drifter, has begun. Smith is accused of stabbing Danny McGonigle in a homeless camp in Story County on May 19, 2008. McGonigle died en route to the hospital. He had 32 stab wounds. 

7. A Peosta developer had the winning bid of $3,255,000 on the state-of-the-art, LEED-certified building in Cedar Falls that housed Peregrine Financial Group and the 22 acres it sits on. That's far below the building's original cost of $20 million. Peregrine is bankrupt, and its founder and former president Russell Wasendorf Sr. is in prison for embezzling more than $200 million. 

6. The Waukee High School girls' golf team was more than prepared to go out on day two of the Iowa Girls Athletic Union State 5A Golf Championship and protect a 15-stroke lead it had built on Tuesday, but Mother Nature took the upper hand.

5. Johnston school board member John Dutcher says data doesn't back up the need for a $41 million Johnston Schools bondreferendum, which would support a variety of projections, including a new high school. The measure will go to voters on June 25. 

4. Urbandale Patch reports a  court date has been set in the Iowa lawsuit against former 2012 presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. Bachmann, who also announced she won't seek re-election, said it is unrelated to the lawsuit. 

3. Marion officials say they are staying prepared but not expecting disruptions due to flooding unlike down the road in Cedar Rapids, where it's all hands on deck as the city tries toavoid a sequel to the flood of 2008. 

2. A gay couple in West Des Moines are considering filing a civil rights complaint against neighbors. In a police report, theKuenens said they have been “continually harassed” by the upstairs neighbor with “sexual epithets, criticism and slurs based on their sexual orientation.”  

1. Nearly five years exactly from when a so-called "500-year flood" wreaked havoc on several parts of eastern Iowa, residents in Iowa City fear the days ahead will bring the remake of that movie. 

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Top 9 of Iowa: $15M for Iowa Education, Father Gets 50 in Game 50 in Game Store Sex Abuse, 52 Straight W's + 2 State Hoops Titles