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Iowa early News Headlines: Wed., 11/8/17

News

November 8th, 2017 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa agency is delaying plans to add a third company back into the state’s privatized Medicaid program. Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven says the agency will hire another company to offer Medicaid coverage in 2019. The agency originally said next July. Foxhoven says the agency will still begin its search for a company soon, but the 2019 delay ensures adequate time. Foxhoven provided the information Tuesday to a health care council.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds says she has asked an ethics board to determine whether a couple who work in Iowa’s executive branch violated any laws by working on the side as agents of Saudi Arabia. Reynolds says that lawmakers should also change state law next year to ban public officials from working as foreign agents. Her comments come amid scrutiny over Kim and Connie Schmett, who hold important state appointments and collected $101,500 in a Saudi Arabia-funded lobbying campaign.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Three men have pleaded guilty to using stolen identities and debit card numbers in a buying spree across Iowa. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 26-year-old Dunieski Santana Moreno and 21-year-old Liliany de Armas Mena pleaded guilty last week in Cedar Rapids’ federal court to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit access device fraud. Thirty-six-year-old Pedro Alvarez Rodriguez pleaded guilty to the same charges on Sept. 21. All three are Cuban citizens, but had lived in the U.S.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a western Iowa county supervisor has died in a grain bin accident. Harrison County Sheriff Pat Sears says 63-year-old Russ Kurth, of Logan, died in the bizarre Tuesday morning accident outside a grain bin just north of Missouri Valley. Sears say Kurth and another person were checking out a door from which corn was leaking on the new bin that had been recently filled. Officials say the door burst open as Kurth and the other man approached, burying Kurth in corn.