The Council Bluffs Daily NonPareil reports a former Harlan doctor accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl 15 years ago at Myrtue Medical Center, plead Not Guilty Wednesday, in Shelby County District Court. 81-year old Wing Tai Fung, of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, was charged with second-degree sexual abuse, a Class B felony, for an alleged incident in January 1999. He allegedly molested a girl he was treating for a knee sprain at the hospital, according to a criminal complaint. If convicted, Fung faces up to 25 years in prison. A court date is pending.

Two of the five Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate say given the problems in the Veterans Administration, it’s now time for a health care voucher system for U.S. military veterans. Candidate Sam Clovis, a retired Air Force pilot, supports giving vets a voucher or a swipe card, so they can get care anywhere, not just at a V-A hospital or clinic. “This tragedy with the VA is very personal to me,” Clovis says. “My brother, a veteran, waited a year to get disability dispensation from the VA and I really think it’s what led to him imminent demise. I lost him a long time ago and I think it was because of the ineptness of the Veterans Administration hospital system and what we had to deal with to get him his care.”

Candidate Matt Whitaker, a former federal prosecutor, supports vouchers for vets to buy private insurance. “A voucher system where you are offered an amount of money that you can then go nn the free market and either buy more than the voucher or buy less and the savings could then stay in your pocket and address your personal health insurance needs and health care needs,” Whitaker said.
The other three candidates for the Iowa Republican Party’s U.S. Senate nomination say they’re open to the idea, but need to see the financial impact on the federal budget before they’ll endorse health care vouchers for vets.

Candidate Joni Ernst, a commander in the Iowa National Guard, says a “cost-benefit” analysis of the idea is the first step. “However, the VA as it’s standing now with the waiting lists whether it’s for mental health care, whether it’s for physicals of line of duty implications following a deployment — there’s a number of things that need to be looked at,” Ernst says.

Candidate Mark Jacobs, a retired business executive, says the V-A system “must be fixed” because many veterans have to drive long distances to get to a V-A center. “What we need to do is we need to open up to other private-market, out-of-network options so that our veterans can get the health care, the medical care that they deserve, that we have committed to provide them and I do think we have to look at this on a cost-benefit basis,” Jacobs says.

Candidate Scott Schaben, who is a Navy veteran, says it’s “an insult” that former soldiers have to wait a month or more for care, but he says a voucher system needs more analysis. “Before we would do any sort of transition, there’d have to be a cost-benefit analysis done to it,” Schaben says. “Part of the reason why the VA is there now and we’re not putting our veterans into it is because, in theory, it should be less expensive to the government.” The candidates made their comments Thursday afternoon during a forum focused on health care issues.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man has been arrested in connection to the April shooting death of his 4-year-old daughter. Police say 24-year-old Adam Mead turned himself in Thursday. The Des Moines Register reports Mead faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, neglect of a dependent person and two counts of making firearms available to minors.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is sending the White House a $12 billion-plus bill authorizing new flood control projects in Iowa, North Dakota and other states. The Senate passed the bill on a 91-7 vote yesterday after the House approved it Tuesday.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — Environmental groups have sued the Army Corps of Engineers over the agency’s use of man-made structures meant to keep the Mississippi River navigable. The federal lawsuit was filed Thursday in East St. Louis, Illinois. Plaintiffs including the National Wildlife Federation claim the techniques provoke flooding as seen during historic inundations four times in the past two decades.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A trombone serenade and the antics of a self-proclaimed “Certified Lunatic and Master of the Impossible” were the featured entertainment at an Iowa City construction site celebration this week. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports University of Iowa officials on Wednesday celebrated construction workers’ progress on the new Hancher Auditorium with a picnic lunch, complete with performances from artists Wycliffe Gordon and Tomas Kubinek.