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Thursday, February 20, 2014 OBITUARIES Loren E. Bayles, 83 Barbara J. Beard, 87 Evelyn Kimberley, 87 Helen M. Nuese, 91 INSIDE TODAY
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Newton residents keeping track of Ukraine unrest By Bob Eschliman Daily News Editor As a shaky truce ended within hours of it being announced, sending the capital city of Kiev back into chaos, one Newton woman sits in worry about what is happening to her native country of Ukraine. Svitlana Miller said the violence unfolding throughout the nation is heartbreaking. “Seeing people being killed because they want to be heard and they want to make a difference is truly distressing,” she said. “The territory of Ukraine was first inhabited at least fortyfour thousand years ago. And ever since then Ukrainians have been fighting for their independence and for the independence of their land. And this is exactly what is happening now.” Miller, who works as a student enrollment specialist and advisor for the Buena Vista University satellite in Newton, recently became a U.S. citizen. Her mother, Maria, also resides in Newton, but her grandparents and other family members are still in Ukraine. “Even though the biggest protests are happening in Kiev, things are intense in Cherkassy as well,” she said. “We are worried for
my grandparents and for their safety, because people know that they have family in the United States. Our friends are also afraid for their children because young adults are beaten and thrown in jail if they walk outside in groups of two or three and look ‘suspicious.’” Miller came to Newton as the first exchange student hosted by Newton’s Organization Promoting Everlasting Neighbors, the city’s sister-city organization. One of Newton’s two sister cities, Smila, is located a little more than 120 miles south-southeast of Kiev. Members of the OPEN Board have been communicating amongst themselves and with other former exchange students since the most recent hostilities began. Two other students, Anastasia “Nastia” Yefimova and Oksana Kovalenko, have both spoken with their former “host mother,” Jane Johnson of Newton. “Both girls came here as OPEN students from Smila,” Johnson said. “Nastia’s parents own a clothing sale business in the open air markets and Oksana’s mother is a branch manager of a bank in Smila and her father teaches math at the tech high school.”
Twitter Photos Pro-European Union protests in Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine, erupted into violence earlier this week, creating concern for many in Newton, which has a sister-city relationship with Smila, Ukraine.
She said Oksana attended Newton Senior High School during the 2008-09 school year, living with the Johnsons the second half of the school year. She is currently attending university in Kiev, and was due to graduate this spring with her bachelor’s degree with plans to earn her master’s degree, as well. Johnson said Nastia attended NHS during the 2004-05 school year, living with the Johnsons the entire school year. After high school, Nastia attended a university in Kiev affiliated with the University of Wisconsin, earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business. An internship with
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meaning she was nearly cut off from the rest of the city. She said she was so busy with her work, however, she didn’t realize what was happening outside at first. “My mom called me and said that it’s practically civil war was starting,” she wrote. “And just now, I’m watching TV, it is online translation, and it doesn’t look good ... There are more than thousand people hurt, a lot of people’ve been already killed, there are horrible fires over there ... And it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop .. Oh my, people are saying prayers and singing national anthem out loud!” UKRAINE See Page 5A
Tru Dimensions to host ‘Back on Stage Party’
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Citi Bank in Kiev eventually resulted in her current job. Tuesday, the first day of violence in Kiev, Nastia wrote twice to check in with Johnson: “It is [a] real nightmare. In all years that I’ve been living in Kiev, and it’s around seven years, I can’t recall [a] time when I would not be able to get home (like physically get from one spot to another),” she wrote. “All transportation system stopped at one point — subway didn’t work, busses didn’t go any where — it was even impossible to call a taxi.” She told Johnson her work was located near the epicenter of the protests in downtown Kiev,
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Ty Rushing/Daily News Hip-hop group Tru Dimensions is hosting its “Back on Stage Party” at the American Legion on Friday. Pictured are Producer Justin Hartz (left), rappers Justin “J.V.” Van Weelden (center) and Eric “Durty Erk” Hartz (right). Not pictured is another member, rapper Jason “Nutz” Gorusch.
Don’t call it a comeback. This Friday, Newton hip-hop group Tru Dimensions is not only hosting its “Back on Stage Party,” but they are having it at American Legion Post 111, which famously held the very first “official” hip-hop concert in Newton’s history. “We packed this place before Facebook,” Justin “J.V.” Van Weelden said, motioning toward the open space inside the bar area of the Legion.
Tru Dimensions is made up of rappers J.V., Eric “Durty Erk” Hartz, Jason “Nutz” Gorusch and producer/sound engineer Justin Hartz. The group began a hiatus when Nutz moved away from Central Iowa to continue his education. This led J.V., Durty Erk and Justin Hartz to form another group, VanHartz. J.V. recently got married, and for his honeymoon, he and his wife went to Colorado and paid Nutz a visit. TRU DIMENSIONS See Page 5A