DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad says he has finalized an agreement with federal authorities to expand low income health care in Iowa. Branstad announced Friday that the state received final documents this week from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Iowa sought a waiver enabling the state to receive more federal Medicaid money for the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan.

Under the plan, the state will take federal funding to create a new health plan for some poor residents and to pay the premiums for other low-income Iowans to get private insurance on the new health care exchanges. The program could eventually cover up to 150,000 Iowa residents.

State officials said more than 65,000 people have applied for coverage under the plan.

Officials in Ames say part of Highway 30 near Ames is blocked off after a chemical leak was reported. KCCI says the incident was reported just before noon. Ames Police Sgt. Chris Crippen said a hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid chemical leak was reported at a business in the ISU Research Park just south of the highway on N. Loop Drive.

Officers started closing the highway about 12:04 p.m., the Iowa DOT reported. The highway is closed between the South Dakota Avenue ramps and the South Duff Avenue ramps.

There have been no reports of injuries thus far.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest on Thursday of a Griswold man. 68-year old Harry Alan Porter was taken into custody on a charge of  OWI 1st Offense. Porter was taken to the Cass County Jail where he was released the following day on his own recognizance.

Bitter cold temperatures are creating a different kind of problem in the Siouxland area. Officials with the U-S Army Corps of Engineers are looking at options for various ways to break up a large ice jam on the Missouri River between Ponca, Nebraska, and Sioux City, Iowa. Water levels are dropping down-river and may cut off water supplies to several communities, as their intakes could soon be above the water line.

The Corps is boosting releases from Gavins Point Dam in hopes of making up for the low levels. Of course, that means trouble upriver, as the ice dam is forcing water to pool and the river level is rising, along with fears of flooding.

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Business leaders in Iowa and Nebraska are joining forces to promote economic development in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area.   Govs. Terry Branstad and Dave Heineman signed an agreement Friday to add Advance Southwest Iowa Corp., a new public-private partnership, to the Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership. The group includes business leaders from Douglas, Cass, Washington, Dodge and Sarpy counties in Nebraska.

David Brown, president of the Great Omaha Chamber of Commerce, says the partnership will work to market the area for new business investment and expansion.  Pete Tulipana, president and CEO of the Iowa West Foundation, says about 18,000 Council Bluffs residents cross the Missouri River each day to work in Omaha, and roughly 6,000 employees travel from Omaha to work in Council Bluffs.