On June 24th, 2009 Mark Becker walked into the weight room of Aplington-Parkersburg High School in Northwest Iowa and shot and killed beloved coach and community leader Ed Thomas. Mark Becker has Paranoid Schizophrenia, a serious mental disorder that many blame for him committing the murder of Thomas. Mark Becker’s parent’s Joan and Dave are now on a mission around Iowa, holding informative events, and telling anybody who will listen about the warning signs of mental illness in hope of preventing future tragedies. Joan Becker explained the layout of the events, “This event is intended to be about a 45 minute presentation, explaining who we are, and what our family experienced. We have a question and answer session at the end, and attendees can ask any questions they want, about the event, or our journey, people I’ve met, or just how we can all work together to have a better system in place.” Joan Becker will be in Stuart at West Central Valley High School this Sunday night at seven o’ clock to give this presentation. Tune into Let’s Talk Guthrie County today to hear more from Joan Becker about the event, and about her life experiences in general.

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On Wednesday alone there were two reports of hunters getting injured in Iowa. This past weekend there was a local incident of a fourteen year old Dallas Center teen shooting himself in the leg in rural Dallas County while hunting. Kevin Baskins is our local DNR spokesman and says you can never be too careful while hunting, there are no take-backs, “Like we also say, once you pull that trigger, there’s really no taking it back. Know what your line of flight is. Know where all hunters are at all times. Make yourself visible, that’s why we have the blaze orange requirement, so hunters can see each other. Make sure you have a plan and hunt that plan, so you know where everybody is going to be at all times.”