iowans addicted to eagle nest cam

Thousands of computer users around the world continue to flock, many daily, to an Iowa website camera showing an eagle nest in Decorah.Boss just walked in and caught me (watching) again," said Tammy on the live chat Tuesday morning.

Tammy was one of more than 22,624 people connected to the live camera on Tuesday at 11:36 a.m. Two of the eaglets were clearly visible napping the sun Tuesday morning. All three eaglets are alive and doing well.

The third egg in the nest hatched last Wednesday.

Officials with The Raptor Resource Project said more than 11 million people had viewed the camera that is atop a tree at the fish hatchery in Decorah over the last couple weeks.

The first eaglet hatched on April 2 as thousands watched and the second on April 3.

iowa national guard killed in afghanstan

A second Iowa Army National Guard soldier has died in Afghanistan this week, family members said Thursday.

The family of Don Nichols confirmed his death Thursday. Nichols is a 2009 graduate of Waverly-Shell Rock High School in Waverly in northeast Iowa.

Nichols' step-grandmother, Susie Poock, told The Des Moines Register the family was notified Wednesday night. Poock said Nichols was a member of the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Battalion. The military has not confirmed Nichols' death.

KCNZ radio in Cedar Falls said flags are flying at half staff at Waverly-Shell Rock High School after school officials announced Nichols' death. KCNZ reported that Principal Ken Winter told them that an announcement was made at school Thursday.

The Iowa National Guard said Thursday morning that it plans a news conference Thursday night, but didn't provide more details about what was to be discussed.

The briefing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Officials said it is "regarding recent events in the Afghanistan theater of operations."

Officials said the news conference will be of special interest those in northeast Iowa. The briefing will be held at the Camp Dodge Freedom Center at 7105 NW 70th Ave. in Johnston.

The Guard announced a similar news conference on Monday night where it announced the death of Brent Maher, of Council Bluffs

japans ed.

Students in many districts across Japan brushed off their uniforms and shouldered their bookbags for the first day of the new school year on Wednesday.

But while most were worried about meeting their new teachers or what their class schedules might be, some were facing the threat of nuclear contamination or the loss of former classmates.

In Tokyo, a group of students evacuated from the Fukushima area began the school year in a new city and a new classroom.

Keisuke Takahashi, 7, is one of several children staying at a youth center in Japan's capital as their parents in the north work or take care of worse-off family members.

"I just got a letter from my mom," he said. "It says that she is hurting because we're separated. But she says don't worry, we will go home together after the nuclear power plant settles down."

"I haven't got used to the life yet, because I have to live separately from my mom," he said walking into the Minamisuna Primary School. "I miss her."

Up in northern Japan, where the worst devastation from last month's tsunami occurred, the new school year has been delayed several weeks. Dozens of schools were wiped out or too badly damaged to reopen in Miyagi prefecture.

Obama latino students

President Barack Obama took to the Spanish-language network airwaves Monday to discuss challenges in educating Hispanics students.

In a Univision-sponsored town hall meeting with Hispanic students and educators at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, the president said to out-educate and out-innovate the global competition, the Latino community must play a key role in the future.

"Our workforce is going to be more diverse; it is going to be, to a large percentage, Latino. And if our young people are not getting the kind of education they need, we won't succeed as a nation," Obama said.

With several students and parents asking questions about immigration and deportations, Obama said the answer wouldn't be overnight. He hoped the DREAM Act, which would give kids who have grown up in the United States an opportunity to earn citizenship despite their family's immigration status, would be passed in the future.

"We didn't get it passed this time, but I don't want young people to be giving up because if people in the past had given up, we probably wouldn't have women's rights, we wouldn't have civil rights. So many changes that we've made had to do with young people being willing to struggle and fight to make sure that their voices are heard," said Obama.

Carrie Cofer, an English teacher at Lincoln-West High School in Cleveland, says one challenge she faces with her Hispanic students is that they haven't been in the United States long enough to become proficient in English.

Obama leads education plan

First lady Michelle Obama invited more than 20 accomplished women to the White House on Wednesday, asking them to serve as mentors for area high school students.

The women, along with the first lady, fanned out across the District of Columbia and surrounding suburbs in the afternoon visiting six local high schools encouraging the teenagers to follow their dreams and work hard to get there.

"There is no magic to being here. You know, Barack and I were not born with silver spoons in our mouths and connections and money and resources. A lot of why we're where we are today is because we worked hard. We felt a deep passion for getting our education," the first lady told students at Ballou High school in Washington.

She recalled having to get up as a child at 6:30 a.m. to ride a bus for an hour and a half to attend a better high school across town, for better preparation for college.

"I know what it feels like to struggle to get the education that you need. In so many ways, I see myself in you all," Mrs. Obama shared. "And I want you to see yourselves in me, so that you're not looking at me just as the first lady of the United States."

Mrs. Obama's events on Wednesday were scheduled as part of the end of National Women's History month.

At Washington's Woodson High school, the four mentors included an Air Force general, a TV network executive, an actress and a gymnastics champion who all answered questions for more than 20 female students.