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Iowa early News Headlines: Tue., Nov. 1st 2016

News

November 1st, 2016 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 2:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa is increasing the amount of money it pays three private insurance companies to administer the state’s Medicaid program. The non-partisan Legislative Services Agency says the Iowa Department of Human Services decided recently to pay more in rates distributed for each Medicaid patient. It’s unclear how the extra $33.2 million in payments will affect the state’s cost projections.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Cedar Rapids man has been sentenced to more than 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in connection to the illegal export of guns to Lebanon. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 51-year-old Ali Afif Al Herz was sentenced Monday to 28½ years in prison and ordered to pay a $150,000 fine. Al Herz’s son, Adam, and sister in law, Sarah Majid Zeaiter, were sentenced to prison earlier this month on related charges.

PERRY, Iowa (AP) — Police in Perry, Iowa, have charged a man in Morrison, Illinois with two counts of first-degree murder. Officers charged 24-year-old Carlos Marlo Hernandez-Ventura on Sunday with the deaths of 34-year-old Lourdes Flor De Leak and her daughter, 14-year-old Melany Elizabeth Barraz. All three lived at a Perry home where the bodies of Flor De Leak and Barraz were found Saturday night. A 78-year-old man, whose name wasn’t released, was found injured at the home.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An unseasonably warm week has aided farmers in getting crops out of fields in Iowa and Nebraska although both states remain slightly behind the five-year average. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday in its weekly crop update that in Iowa 71 percent of corn is harvested, about two days behind the average.