Agriprocessors Inc., the largest employer in Allamakee County and the world’s largest glatt kosher meat packing plant, was abruptly shut down when federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entered the plant at 10 a.m. Monday.

Two arrest warrants were served.

One arrest warrant, served on Agriprocessors, sought individuals involved in aggravated identity theft and the fraudulent use of Social Security numbers.

The second warrant allowed for the arrest of 390 immigrant employees on civil immigration violations. Some ICE agents may have been dispatched to the homes of employees in Postville.

Dozens of federal, state and local officials descended on the site of the Postville meat packer, including ICE, Iowa State Troopers, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Iowa Department of Public Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Marshals.

ICE spokesman Harold Ort would not say exactly how many people were involved in the raid, saying only that there was staff "sufficient to make the arrests."

The raid was the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement action ever carried out in the United States.

As many as five helicopters hovered over the town of 2,200 as part of the security detail of the raid. According to a report in the New York Times, a former supervisor in the plant told federal authorities that a methamphetamine lab had operated inside the plant and that some employees carried weapons. Authorities have not yet confirmed this.

Management and administrative staff were questioned along with those who worked the lines of the plant. While the helicopters had departed by late afternoon, buses were still arriving to transport immigrant detainees who were taken to Estelle Hall on the grounds of the Cattle Congress at Waterloo.

By late Tuesday afternoon, 10 men and 10 women who were apprehended in the raid had been served with criminal charges including aggravated identity theft and false use of Social Security numbers, according to Bob Teig, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The rest of the people detained were still being processed for civil immigration violations. They included 304 men who are being held at the grounds of the Waterloo Cattle Congress, and 66 women who are being held at various county jails in the area.

Guatemalan immigrants made up the bulk of the people arrested, with 290.

According to Teig, no legal actions have been taken against Agriprocessors Inc.

The Prairie du Chien School Board voted 7-1 at its regular meeting Monday night in favor of adopting the integrated math program at Prairie du Chien High School. Board member Lonnie Achenbach voted against the measure.

The integrated math program had been in the development process for the past three years. In the past three School Board meetings, the subject heated up when several parents raised objections. The parents said that integrated math has gaps and does not adequately address algebra and geometry so as to fully prepare students for college math courses.

At the April 28 meeting, the board gave four options regarding replacing algebra 1 and geometry with integrated math 1 and 2.

The options were:

1. Eliminate algebra 1 and geometry and require all incoming freshmen to take integrated math 1 and 2 in their place.

2. In addition to integrated math 1 and 2, offer a "skinny" course in both algebra 1 and geometry.

3. Allow parents to have their students take an online course in algebra 1 and geometry in addition to integrated math 1 and 2 at a cost of $350 per course.

4. Go back to the traditional track of algebra 1 and geometry and eliminate integrated math.

Monday night’s vote didn’t follow any of these options fully. The vote was 7-1 in favor of what amounted to a combination of options 2 and 3. In addition to integrated math 1 and 2, "skinny" courses in both algebra 1 and geometry will be offered as well as the online courses in algebra 1 and geometry. s.

Assistant High School Principal Aaron Amundson, a former math teacher at the high school, gave a brief presentation in which examples of math problems from integrated math textbooks and algebra textbooks were compared.

"We don’t feel that there are gaps," said Amundson. "The math is the same."

Some parents pointed out that the wording was somewhat simpler regarding the integrated math.

Board President Brian Edwards said that the high school math teachers feel that the integrated math program does not have "gaps" and that it does adequately prepare students for algebra 2. Edwards said that the district should follow the recommendation of the teachers.

"This is a real struggle," said Edwards regarding the continued striving by the school district to improve math and other programs. "There is no right or wrong."

"I feel we should continue on with what the teachers (recommend). They work with this day in and day out," continued Edwards, who noted that it has been a long process to develop the integrated math program and that teachers, students and parents worked on the review committee.

"This is an ongoing process, attempting to improve in all subjects," Edwards said.

About 20 people attended the meeting, a mixture of parents and teachers. The group was relatively quiet during the meeting Monday night but had previously voiced their concerns in prior meetings. Many of the parents have said that the integrated math program is not adequate in preparing students for higher-level math courses. They also said that the School Board could have addressed an option 5, in which there would be integrated math 1 and 2, as well as full courses in algebra 1 and geometry as an alternative for parents to choose depending upon their student’s learning style and what path in education their student would pursue.

Following the vote regarding integrated math, the board went into closed session to discuss other matters. A group of several parents stayed in the hall, however, and discussed the math situation. The group was clearly not happy with the board’s decision.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said one parent in expressing exasperation. "They’re dumbing down the whole system."

Dealton Tichenor of Seneca Township died August 18, 1864, in the infamous Civil War prison of Andersonville.

Now, 144 years later, two of his great-grandsons have teamed up to write a book about the man, his life in Crawford County as a farmer and attorney, and his service and death during the Civil War.

Larry A. Jones, a Seattle attorney and genealogist, and Phillip Tichenor, a retired professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota, began corresponding about Dealton around 30 years ago, said Tichenor. Jones continued to research the family name and learn more about Dealton’s part in the Civil War, finding that some of his letters and journals were preserved in the Wisconsin Historical Society archives in Madison.

Around 1980 Tichenor visited an aging aunt in North Dakota, who showed him a letter which turned out to be Dealton’s last surviving letter from Andersonville Prison, confirming what up until then had been only family lore—that Dealton had been imprisoned there.

It was after Tichenor retired in the mid-1990s that he and Jones talked seriously about writing a book. While Jones arranged for photocopies of the materials in the historical society and set about transcribing them, Tichenor concentrated on microfilm research of the old Prairie du Chien newspapers.

The microfilms, said Tichenor, "gave us the kind of thrill of discovery that was, to our minds, right up there with finding the remains of the Titanic. We found that Dealton had been a pump manufacturer in Platteville, then came to Prairie du Chien with the extended family and entered the legal profession. That’s when the fun started: Since he lived up Seneca/Lynxville way, he and hundreds if not thousands of others thought the Court House should be up in the northern townships, so he launched a highly charged political drive for a referendum on ‘removing’ it to his area." The book tells about the resulting controversy and the newspapers’ comments regarding Dealton’s role in it. "From today’s perspective, Tichenor said, "this coverage is absolutely hilarious."

With Memorial Day coming up on May 26, it is a good time to remind Prairie du Chien area residents that the Veterans Memorial project continues to need financial support.

After delivering a Prairie du Chien patient to Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, a Madison hospital helicopter crashed late Saturday, killing all three passengers.

Because the Gundersen Lutheran Med Link helicopter was in use elsewhere, the UW Hospital Med Flight transported the patient to La Crosse, refueled at La Crosse Municipal Airport around 10:30 p.m. took off to return to Madison. At 11:15, UW Hospital reported they had lost communication with the helicopter. The wreckage was located about 8:25 a.m. Sunday in the town of Medary, near La Crosse. Dr. Darren Bean, nurse Mark Coyne and pilot Steve Lipperer died in the crash. Cause of the crash remains under investigation.