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.

The Harlan Community School District plans to recognize the importance of Ovarian Cancer Awareness with a “Teal Out,” this Saturday. During a doubleheader basketball game against Council Bluffs/Abraham Lincoln, the Cyclones will hold the “teal out” to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer. There will also be a personal story told by Earling native and survivor of ovarian cancer, Nadine Kenkel.

Kenkel is an advocate for the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. She says Ovarian Cancer is a silent killer. “And that is because there is not a screening tool to detect ovarian cancer in its early stages. A screening tool example would be a pap smear to detect cervical cancer, a mammogram for breast cancer and a psa for men for prostate cancer.” 

A foundation was developed recently called Colleen’s Dream to create a screening tool for Ovarian Cancer. The foundation was started by Harlan Community graduate Billy Cundiff, whose mother in law passed away from the disease in February 2013. During the ball games, bracelets and t-shirts will be on sale along with a raffle drawing for a 32” TV donated by Bonsall’s TV and Appliance in Dunlap. A bucket run will take place at halftime of the boy’s game along with Kenkel speaking to the crowd. Kenkel says there are three goals for the Teal Out.

“One of them is to increase awareness for ovarian cancer. Another one is to educate women on early signs and symptoms for ovarian cancer. And then lastly to collect monetary donations to fund research which will find a screening tool to detect ovarian cancer in its early stages.”

The double header basketball game at the Harlan Community High School will tip off at 4-pm, with the girls’ game followed by the boys’ game on Saturday.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

January is national blood donor month. Stacy Sime — the manager of a center that supplies blood to more than 90 hospitals in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota — says every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood. “Donors of LifeServe Blood Center in 2013 impacted over half a million lives,” she says. “We feel like we’re a vital part of the health care community and creating a healthy state of Iowa.”

The LifeServe Blood Center is located in Des Moines, but holds blood drives throughout the three-state region. It is one of the 15 largest blood centers in the country and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad toured the facility Thursday after signing a proclamation about blood donor month. “Every day approximately 38,000 pints of blood are needed to maintain a safe and adequate blood supply,” Branstad says. “Yet only 10 percent of the population eligible to give blood do so annually.”

Branstad says his wife, Chris, is a “real regular blood donor” who used to co-chair blood drives when they lived in Lake Mills. The governor describes himself as an “occasional” blood donor.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Mills County report the arrest Thursday morning, of 41-year old Christopher Robert Reents, of Omaha. Reents was taken into custody at around 8:17-a.m. on a charge of Attempted burglary in the 3rd degree. His bond was set at $2,000.

Cass County Naturalist Lora Kanning reports there is a change of venue for Saturday’s “Soiree with the Swans,” in Atlantic, due to the extremely cold weather. Instead of being held at the Schildberg Quarry Recreational Area, Kanning’s 10-minute presentations regarding the Trumpeter Swans will be held at the Atlantic Public Library, from 11:30 a.m-to 1:00 p.m. ,with a light lunch available.

Hot chocolate, cookies, Sandwiches, and other snacks will be provided free of charge with donations being accepted (for swan care).The event is being sponsored by the Cass County Conservation Board, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and the Atlantic Public Library.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say even colder weather has been detected on its way to much of Iowa and the Midwest.  In an urgent winter weather message, the National Weather Service warned Friday morning that more life-threatening cold will hit the region Saturday night or Sunday morning. The service says temperatures could plummet to minus 30 and wind child readings could reach minus 60 and remain dangerously low through Tuesday morning. The service says “this will be the coldest air seen across the area since February 1996.”

Most of Iowa is in a deep freeze Friday morning. The weather service reported overnight lows of minus 20 in Waterloo, for example. In Des Moines the low temperature of minus 6 overnight has risen 3 above zero.