Iowa will be without head coach Kirk Ferentz on Saturday when the Hawkeyes host Illinois State. Ferentz is serving a one game suspension for a recruiting violation and assistant head coach Seth Wallace will have the final call on the sideline.
Ferentz wants to see the new offense under coordinator Tim Lester play a sound game.
The Hawkeyes are a three touchdown favorite but Ferentz says upsets happen every week.
Pre-game coverage on KJAN begins at 9-a.m., Saturday, with kick-off at 11-a.m.
Iowa State opens at home against North Dakota. Cyclone Coach Matt Campbell says a key in every opener is to be sound on both sides of the ball.
Campbell says the opener always has a lot of question marks.
Campbell says season openers are unique.
Northern Iowa opens in the UNI-Dome against Valparaiso. The Panthers were 6-5 a year ago. Out of the Pioneer Football League Valpo was 3-8 last season.
That’s UNI coach Mark Farley who is not sure what to expect from Valpo.
It is the first time the Panthers have opened at home since 2010.
(Des Moines, IA) – A company that won a state contract to provide managed-care services in Iowa is seeking a court injunction blocking the state’s disclosure of certain information in its bid. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports OptumRx of Minnesota is asking a Polk County judge to declare that information the company provided the state in response to a solicitation for bids by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services is a trade secret and should be kept confidential. The bid submitted by OptumRx earlier this year was to provide managed-care oversight and administrative services related to pharmacy benefits for Iowa Medicaid beneficiaries.
DHHS’ solicitation for bids on the work specified that information submitted by a bidder might be treated as public information by the DHHS once the winning bidder was selected, unless the entity that submitted the bid requested that it be treated as confidential. On July 20, OptumRx submitted its bid in two forms: a complete, unredacted version and a version that was redacted to omit information the company considered confidential or proprietary. On Aug. 16, DHHS awarded the contract to OptumRx. Three days later, DHHS sent the company a notice that the state agency had received a request for a complete copy of OptumRx’s bid.
The department told OptumRx it would have 72 hours, beginning on Aug. 20, to seek injunctive relief blocking disclosure. The department also indicated the company’s unredacted bid was being sought by MedImpact, a Michigan-based company that had submitted a competing bid on the project. OptumRx alleges that the information sought by MedImpact would give that company an advantage over its competitors and that disclosure will serve no public purpose. In court filings, OptumRx says the information it seeks to keep confidential “includes things such as employee and client management information, customer information and references, performance analytics, a description of its processes and metrics used to perform the requested services, project management and work turnover plans.”
The company alleges that “MedImpact regularly bids against OptumRx for similar Medicaid contracts,” and that MedImpact would “benefit from having such information for their competing bids in other states.” OptumRx is seeking a court order temporarily and permanently enjoining DHHS from releasing the unredacted copy of its bid.
DHHS and Medimpact have yet to file a response to the court petition. A hearing on the matter has not yet been scheduled.
(Des Moines, IA) – The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today (Friday) said “Through the Safe Haven Law, a baby girl, born July 30 is now in the care and custody of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, and will be placed with foster families until permanent placement is determined.”
Officials say that brings the overall total to 71 infants since the law went into effect more than two decades ago. This is the fifth case so far in 2024. In 2023, ten infants were relinquished to HHS custody under the Safe Haven Act. 
Iowa’s Safe Haven Act is an option for parents in crisis who determine they cannot care for an infant up to 90 days old. Designated safe havens are locations like hospitals, police and fire stations, etc. Iowa HHS then works to place infants in in approved foster homes while awaiting permanent adoption.
If you are interested in becoming a foster parent or adopting a child, visit https://iowafosterandadoption.org/ to learn more about becoming an approved foster or adoptive family. For more information on Iowa’s Safe Haven, visit https://hhs.iowa.gov/programs/CPS/safe-haven.
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ALTOONA, Iowa — [KCCI] – Friday (Today) is the last day of production at the Smithfield meat processing facility in Altoona. The company announced this summer that the ham boning facility at 612 Adventureland Drive NE, would close and 314 workers would be laid off. According to Iowa WARN, a state-run log of notices of layoffs, 319 employees will be affected.
Smithfield’s Altoona production is expected to be consolidated at locations in Monmouth, Illinois; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Crete, Nebraska. The company said the move will help improve the efficiency of manufacturing. A news release from Smithfield said the company would provide transition assistance to the Altoona employees, “including severance, financial incentives to assure business continuity and potential employment opportunities with Smithfield.”
UFCW photo
Iowa Workforce also provided help to the workers, including a job fair in July.
(Radio Iowa) – A school district in northern Iowa is finding success in recruiting mental health professionals to practice within its school buildings. Darwin Lehmann, Ssuperintendent of the Forest City Community Schools, says they’ve made adjustments and discovered if students can’t get to the counselors, they’ll bring the counselors to the students. “We partner with a number of local organizations to bring mental health into our building,” Lehmann says. “We found this out in the recession, that families had to make decisions. If they’re unable to take off work and get kids over to appointments, we allow entities to have space in our schools to provide appointments for kids.”
Lehmann says he encourages teacher involvement, and offers training in how to recognize potential mental health issues. “We’ve got more guidance counselors than most schools of our size,” Lehmann says. “We have pre-K-2, 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12 guidance counselors, and a couple of them have some specific training in mental health.” 
Recent studies find 90-percent Iowa’s counties have a shortage of mental health care professionals, and the state ranks 46th in the nation for psychologists per capita.
Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack isn’t ruling out another stint as U-S Agriculture Secretary if Kamala Harris wins and asks him to continue in the role. “I’ve dedicated my life to try to figure out ways in which I can help farmers and small towns because of the important role they play in the country,” Vilsack said. “Regardless of where I might be or what I might be doing, I hope that I’m able to continue to contribute in that vein because that’s what I’ve done for the last 40 years and that’s what I hope to be able to continue to do until I take my last breath.”
Vilsack served eight years as U-S Ag Secretary during the Obama Administration and has been President Biden’s Secretary of Agriculture since 2021. The nation’s longest serving Ag Secretary was from Iowa. “Tama Jim” Wilson, a farmer from Traer who served in the Iowa legislature and the U-S congress, was ag secretary for 16 years, during the administrations of Presidents McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Taft. Vilsack, who is 74, was elected mayor of Mount Pleasant in 1987, then served in the state senate before he was elected to two terms as Iowa’s governor.
Vilsack spoke with reporters yesterday (Thursday) at the Farm Progress Show in Boone. Vilsack indicated he would not comment on Governor Reynolds’ request for a waiver from a U-S-D-A program, so she can provide state-purchased food to needy families with kids next summer. The U-S-D-A program provides electronic benefits cards to families during the summer months if a child in the household qualifies for a free or reduced price lunch during the school year. “I want the state to have the opportunity to have their waiver request examined,” Vilsack said, “so I don’t want to make a comment about it while it’s being considered.”
The governors of 43 states have signed up for the U-S-D-A program for the summer of 2025. He says research shows it’s the most successful way to make sure youngsters have appropriate nutrition in the summer months. “It was not something that we just cooked up in the back room. It was something that is based on 10 years of research and that research basically indicated when you provide the resources to the families, those resources will be used by the families in the most appropriate way,” Vilsack said, “and that they will be used to actually purchase nutritious offerings to their children.”
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says the state will be able to provide more food, by making bulk purchases of nutritious food.
(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic School Board, during their work session, Wednesday, discussed the size of educational and extracurricular activity classrooms and programs. Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen said the district’s Kindergarten classrooms have one-or two that are at 25 students per class. Another has 22, and a few more are coming in, meaning those are large classes. Second-grade has a full class with 25 students. Dr. Johnsen said they are hoping to find someone to fill one of the Kindergarten classroom teaching positions.
Johnsen said Middle School Principal Casey Pelzer has some classes that have anywhere from 25-to nearly 30 students, “which are large class sizes, again,” she said. School Board member Laura McLean said not all of the district’s classes and grades are “massively overcrowded.”
Board President Kristy Pellett said it’s not an anomaly to have spikes in classroom sizes, and they’ve come up with ways to handle it in years past. Dr. Johnsen said when more bodies are packed into a classroom, the “style of learning changes.”
While no action was taken on class size during the Atlantic School Board’s work session, Board Policy says the Board is granted “Exclusive authority to decide the size of classes and determine the necessity of class grouping.” It is the superintendent’s responsibility to recommend class sizes to the Board, taking into account the district’s financial status, the qualifications and number of licensed employees, and other, relevant factors for the Board’s consideration.
With regard to extracurricular/advanced (elective) activities, Dr. Johnsen said asked the Board if a minimum number should be set for class-size, or to sustain a sports program, or should the program be put on hold until the numbers are up? Kristy Pellett responded to Board member Gini Jordan’s question “Doesn’t the sport kind of dictate the number that you need?”
She said “It’s really hard to have a student committed to start a sports season, have other kids drop out, and especially if the have the opportunity for individual competition, to tell that student you’re taking that opportunity away.” Board member Josh McLaren said that scenario a tough pill for him to swallow.
The Board agreed with Superintendent Johnsen, that there needs to be more discussion and a larger assessment and policy review, of academic and athletic programs, to determine what level of participation is best for student learning and enrichment.
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