(Radio Iowa) — Iowa is seeing a slight upturn in the number of uninsured children but the Hawkeye State still has one of the lowest rates in the country. Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, says there are many reasons more children are falling into the ranks of the uninsured. “We’re seeing more red tape that states are requiring families to provide more pay stubs more frequently,” Alker says. “Some families are simply getting cut off because they never got a piece of mail saying it was time to renew their coverage.”

A report finds more than 20-thousand Iowa children, or about two-point-seven percent, were listed as uninsured in 2017, the most recent year the figures were released. That’s a modest increase from two-point-two percent uninsured Iowa children in 2016. Nationwide, the rate of uninsured children increased from four-point-seven percent in 2016 to five-percent in 2017, almost twice Iowa’s rate.

“These results are so troubling because they are occurring during a period of relatively low unemployment and economic growth — when you think children should be gaining health coverage, but they’re not,” Alker says. “That really reflects the high cost of dependent coverage for low-wage families.”

The report finds more than four-million children nationwide have no health insurance. “It’s really, frankly, a high cost for many families, regardless of income,” Alker says. “Because of this, we believe the uninsured child rate may increase even more rapidly should an economic downturn occur, which we know it will, eventually.”

The Georgetown report finds more than half of all uninsured children live in the South. More than one in five uninsured kids in the nation live in Texas, where the rate in 2017 was 835-thousand children or ten-point-seven percent, almost four times Iowa’s rate.

Police in Creston say a man was arrested Wednesday afternoon on an assault charge. 34-year old Steven Bochniak, of Creston, was arrested at the Law Enforcement Center on the charges of Domestic Assault – Simple, and Obstruction of Emergency Communications. He was being held in the Union County Jail while awaiting a  bond hearing.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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FAIRPORT, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a one person has died in a house fire in a community along the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa. The blaze was reported around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Fairport, which sits about 7 miles east of Muscatine. The victim’s name, the fire cause and other details have not been released.

An Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Conference will be held January 3rd through the 5th, in Shelby County. Assistant Shelby County Emergency Manager Jason Wickizer reports the classes will be held: from 6-until 10-p.m., Jan. 3rd; 8-a.m. to 4-p.m., Jan. 4th, and 8-a.m. to 1-p.m. January 5th, at 706 Victoria Street, in Harlan. Topics to be covered include:

• Friday – A review of Multi-Casualty vs. Multi-Patient incidents, Incident Command, and EMS Documentation to set those incidents apart for legal considerations.
• Saturday – EMS Skills: 12 Lead; Automatic CPR Devices; King Airway; CPR Code/Mega Code (ALS); EMS Documentation off-scenario; Trauma/Medical Assessment; Tourniquet/Quick Clot/Trauma Dressing Station; C-Spine immobilization after traction splint application.
• Sunday – EMS & Law Enforcement Driving Policies, Driving Course.

The classes and meals are free. Vendors have been invited to attend. For more information, call Jason Wickizer at 712-755-2124.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – A Davenport man has been charged with murder months after the death of his wife. Court records say Casey Klemme is charged with second-degree murder and domestic abuse assault. The records don’t list an attorney for him. Officers sent to the home July 26 found Tiffany Klemme lying on a floor. Police say she had bruising on her left eye, a bloody nose and other injuries. Her husband acknowledged only grabbing and pushing her. She was found dead in the home the next day. Authorities say the wait for autopsy and toxicology results delayed the filing of the murder charge.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports the Adams County Sheriff’s Department K9 Unit conducted a traffic stop early Wednesday afternoon, on a vehicle traveling 80-mph in a 55-mph zone. Upon further investigation, Rashawn Larone Hardy and Mattek Daquan Scott, of Flint, MI., were arrested for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

Just before 3-p.m. Wednesday, a vehicle was reported to have been stolen from the area of 150th and Corning Carl Road. The vehicle was recovered and returned to its owner. On Tuesday, a separate vehicle was stolen from the same area. It was later recovered in the parking lot of the Greater Regional Hospital, in Creston.

Authorities say the incidents should serve as a reminder to citizens about removing items of value from their vehicles, and to keep their vehicles and homes LOCKED UP.

(Radio Iowa) — If Iowa voters cannot make it to their neighborhood precinct meeting site on Caucus Night, the Iowa Democratic Party is sanctioning 99 “satellite” locations for caucusing on February 3rd — including three locations for Iowans who are in Europe. Registered Iowa voters who are overseas have the option of Caucusing in a student housing building in Paris, France or at homes in Scotland or the country of Georgia.

Seventy-one of the satellite caucus locations are in Iowa at places like college campuses, senior living facilities and churches and religious centers. All locations were evaluated and approved by a site selection committee. Iowa Democrats are establishing caucus sites in Arizona, California and Florida for Iowa voters who retreat to warmer states during the winter.

And Iowans around the nation’s capital will be able to Caucus at a Marriott hotel in Washington, D.C. Go to https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/1L0w7K9JSzkTZRgPDRsrLvGagJVq5oLU6/page/ZRd9 to find the list of satellite locations, plus information from the Iowa Democratic Party about “early bird” registration that will speed up the process of Caucusing on February 3rd.

(Radio Iowa) — The three Iowa Democrats serving in the U.S. House voted to impeach President Trump last (Wednesday) night. Congressman Steve King, the only Iowa Republican in the delegation, opposed it. He says Democrats are trying to undo the results of the 2016 election.  “They brought this case November 9th, the day after Trump was elected,” King said.

King gave a 90-second speech on the House floor Tuesday afternoon. He also accused Democrats of pushing impeachment to divert attention from Joe Biden AND Hillary Clinton’s actions. “And to go so far as to bring impeachment hearings to try and cover all of this up,” King said, “and I would take you back to October of 2015, when Barack Obama said Hillary Clinton would never intend to jeopardize our national security.”

Republicans immediately criticized the two first-term congresswomen from Iowa who voted to impeach the president for abuse of power, suggesting Abby Finkenauer of Dubuque and Cindy Axne of West Des Moines had destroyed their chance at re-election in 2020. Axne says she stands behind her vote.  “I never looked at the decision I had to make for this from a political perspective,” Axne said. “I wouldn’t be doing my job for the people in Iowa if that’s how I looked at my job. I looked at this from what’s best for our country and what my responsibilities are.”

Axne says her vote was about responding to the president’s abuse of power. “I think it’s the right thing to do,” Axne says. “I wouldn’t have done it if all the facts hadn’t led to that.” Finkenauer, in a written statement issued before the vote, said she had a duty to respond to an abuse of power at the highest level. Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Iowa City who is not seeking re-election, is the other member of the Iowa delegation who voted for the two articles of impeachment.

In a written statement issued Tuesday, Loebsack said President Trump’s actions cannot be allowed to stand as an example for future leaders. Both of the Republicans who represent Iowa in the U.S. Senate are criticizing the House vote. Senator Joni Ernst tweeted last night that Democrats — in her words — “have been heck bent on impeaching Trump since day one.”

Senator Chuck Grassley issued a written statement. He accused Democrats of advancing the first “partisan impeachment” of a president in modern history. The Iowa Democratic Party’s chairman tweeted that he was proud of the three Iowa Democrats in the House for showing that no one, not even a president, is above the law.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Court of Appeals has affirmed the murder and attempted murder convictions of a Coralville woman who in 2008 slashed the throats of her two young sons. Michelle Kehoe’s 2-year-old died but the 7-year-old survived and testified at her trial. Kehoe’s appeal alleges her attorney was ineffective in part because he didn’t claim she was mentally incompetent to stand trial. She says he also didn’t try to suppress incriminating statements made to investigators while she was hospitalized. The court ruled Wednesday she failed to prove her lawyer was ineffective. She’s serving a life sentence at the women’s prison in Mitchellville.