A southwest Iowa man has died while serving with the Army in Afghanistan. The Omaha World Herald says according to family members, 25-year old Sgt. James Skalberg, a native of Emerson, in Mills County, died recently. The circumstances of his death were not revealed, and the Department of Defense has not yet confirmed his death, but their policy is wait 24-hours after the family has been notified. Sgt. Skalberg was a 2005 graduate of Nishna Valley High School. He  leaves behind his wife Jessica, and an 11-month-old son. More than 145 military members with ties to Nebraska and western Iowa have died in the Afghan and Iraq wars.

The Iowa State Patrol says an Audubon County man suffered non-life threatening injuries, when the motorcycle he was riding locked up on him Thursday evening on Interstate 80 in Adair County. 50-year old Dennis Kommes, of Exira, was traveling west on I-80 in the right lane, about three-miles west of Adair, when the back wheel on his 2008 Boss motorcycle locked-up and stopped turning. Kommes was unable to maintain control of the cycle, which turned onto its right side and then flipped onto its left,before coming to rest on the right shoulder of the road. Kommes, who was standing, alert and talking when authorities arrived on the scene, was transported by Anita Rescue to the Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic. The accident happened at around 5-p.m.

Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt, with tThe United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa has announced a settlement agreement, and the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services has entered into a corporate integrity agreement, with Bethany Lutheran Homes, Inc., a skilled nursing facility in Council Bluffs. The settlements resolves allegations of billing Medicare for medically unnecessary physical, occupational and speech therapy service.

Bethany Lutheran Homes has paid the United States the sum of $675,000 to settle the allegations, and entered into a corporate integrity agreement to ensure future compliance with federal health care program requirements. Klinefeldt says “This settlement
and corporate integrity agreement are the culmination of a two-year investigation and review of Bethany Lutheran Homes’s billing practices to Medicare.” He says his office “Is committed to ensuring the compliance with Medicare requirements and preventing fraud against the United States, and that Klinefedlt believes the settlement will reimburse the United States for past practices committed by Bethany Lutheran, and that The corporate integrity agreement will ensure their future compliance.”

Gerald T. Roy, Special Agent in Charge for the Kansas City Regional Office, added “The collaborative efforts of the agencies involved help ensure the solvency of the Medicare program and protect the beneficiaries that depend on the health care it provides.” The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General.