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Iowa early News Headlines: Tue., 7/26/16

News

July 26th, 2016 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

CLARION, Iowa (AP) — Wright County officials approved a zoning change that will allow a North Carolina company to build a $240 million hog processing plant that will create about 900 jobs initially and hundreds more after completion of a second phase. The Mason City Globe Gazette reports the Wright County Board of Supervisors on Monday unanimously approved the zoning change needed for Clinton, North Carolina, based Prestage Farms to build the plant near Eagle Grove.

SHENANDOAH, Iowa (AP) — Police charged a pickup truck driver with hitting and seriously injuring a Florida bicyclist who was camping after riding in Iowa. The Des Moines Register reports 55-year-old Danny Cardin, of Homer, Louisiana, was charged with serious injury by vehicle and leaving the scene of a serious injury accident after police were called to a campground in Shenandoah late Sunday. The Iowa State Patrol says Cardin’s pickup struck a tent, dragging 67-year-old James Foley. He’d joined in an Iowa bike event.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A state lawyer is arguing that Iowa athletic director Gary Barta isn’t a public official. Assistant attorney general George Carroll has asked a judge to dismiss former senior associate athletic director Jane Meyer’s request for an injunction blocking her layoff. Carroll says the state’s whistleblower act doesn’t apply to Barta.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democratic lawmakers have released a survey that says some health care providers aren’t being paid properly under Iowa’s privatized Medicaid program. The survey released Monday says 90 percent of more than 400 health care providers who responded report administrative costs increased since the program switched to private management April 1. The survey indicates nearly eight in 10 of those providers say they haven’t been paid on time. A spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad calls the survey partisan.