(Radio Iowa) – A health insurance company is investing millions of dollars in mental tele-health services in Iowa’s K-12 public schools. The Cedar Rapids Community School District received one-and-a-half million dollars this week from Minnesota-based insurer UnitedHealth Group. Superintendent Tawana Grover says the money will help pay for an online tele-health portal that students can use to access mental health counseling.

“It’s one thing to check in,” Grover says. “It’s another thing to spend 30 minutes or an hour with someone that is solely focused on your needs, what you need, what you’re dealing with, and helping to not only listen, but to provide you with strategies that you can use whenever you go beyond the session.” The provider is Hazel Health, which focuses on school-based care. Brian Masterson, UnitedHealth’s senior behavioral health medical director, says starting in the schools could prevent longer term, more acute behavioral issues.

“We’ve been contemplating this for a few years, working with how do you address the mental health crisis in in our society, but also how to address that by working through it so you start an earlier time period,” Masterson says. “So in schools and those types of things, is an opportunity to teach people about the constructs of mental well-being.” UnitedHealth says it aims to provide the resources to historically under-served and rural communities. In the end, the program goal is to impact 100-thousand students.

As of Wednesday, it has funded the creation of two such programs in Des Moines and Council Bluffs. No rural programs have been announced.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak arrested a woman on drug-related charges this (Thursday) morning. 38-year-old Sara Sue Batten, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 9-a.m. in the 1200 block of N. Broadway in Red Oak, on charges that include Possession of a Controlled Substance and Poss. of Drug Paraphernalia. Batten was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa)- Iowa’s Congressional delegation is back in Iowa for a work period to meet with people in their district. Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion, hopes they can get some work done when they return to Washington. “We’re not in session next week, but we’re in session the next three weeks after that, I’m hopeful we’re still able to move forward with good legislation,” she says. “There’s a lot of time-centric bills that we’ve put out that I’m continuing to advocate to our leadership that we need to move the ball forward on those.” This is an election year and that can often keep legislation from moving forward.

Hinson says one of the key things they have to address is the Farm Bill. “I’m hopeful we’re able to get our bill across the finish line in a bipartisan way, but again, if we can’t by that September 30th deadline, I will support an extension,” Hinson says. Hinson says she’s not sure what a Farm Bill extension would look like.

She made her comments during her weekly conference call with reporters.

(Denison, Iowa) – Firefighters in Denison responded a little before 1-a.m. today (Thursday), to a structure fire at Boysen Laundromat, in Denison. No injuries were reported. The flames were contained primarily to the east interior end of the building, with smoke damage throughout the rest of the structure. Officials estimate the blaze caused $40-to $50-thousand dollars damage to the building and $100-to 150-thousand dollars damage to the building’s contents.

Photo from our sister station KDSN in Denison.

The cause and origin of the flames were not immediately clear. The blaze remains under investigation. Denison Fire received mutual aid from the Dow City, Vail, and Manilla Fire Departments. The Crawford County Memorial Hospital provided an ambulance on stand-by. Denison Police were also on the scene.