DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former dentist who had operated clinics in West Des Moines and Des Moines has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison for drug and gun convictions.

The Des Moines Register reports that 39-year-old Shawn Michael Kerby was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for obtaining hydrocodone by misrepresentation and being a user and addict of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm. Kerby pleaded guilty to the charges in July.

Prosecutors say Kerby would prescribe the opiate painkiller to patients who didn’t need the drug. He then would have the patients return the pills to him once they were filled at a local pharmacy. The gun charge stemmed from a 2015 search of his home and dental practices that turned up several handguns and shotguns.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man has been sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison for killing a puppy by snapping its neck. The Des Moines Register reports that 26-year-old Christopher Vogel was sentenced Thursday and ordered to pay a $650 fine. He pleaded guilty in November to animal abuse in the killing of a Corgi puppy named Baby.

Police say Vogel went to a friend’s apartment and asked the neighbors if he could use their Wi-Fi password, then killed their 12-week-old dog when they refused his request.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — Central Iowa authorities say a man has been charged with murder in the death of his 2-month-old daughter. Police say 29-year-old Calvin Curtis White, of Nevada, Iowa, was charged Friday with first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death after the infant was found not breathing and declared dead days earlier.

Police say the mother called 911 after arriving home on Monday and finding the baby not breathing. The baby later died at a hospital. Authorities are awaiting autopsy results.

Police did not release details on what led to White’s arrest.

City of Exira Officials told KJAN news on Saturday at 9:30am that a Boil Advisory that had been in place for the City’s water supply has been lifted. A water main leak was pinpointed and repaired last week in the city. A boil advisory for all water used for consumption was put in place on Wednesday after a section of pipe was replaced, due to the threat of bacterial contamination as the system was recirculated. Proper testing has now been completed and Exira residents can return to normal water usage for consumption.

w/ Chris Parks

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A senate committee has approved legislation that would limit the liability for Iowa businesses accused of over-serving a customer involved in a drunk driving crash. If the bill becomes law, a person injured in a drunk driving wreck or the relatives of someone who dies in an accident would be limited to receiving a total of 175-thousand dollars from a bar or restaurant. Senator Michael Breitbach, a Republican from Strawberry Point, says the bill’s needed because Iowa bar owners are finding it harder to buy liability INSURANCE.

“Especially in the western part of our area, in our rural areas if you don’t serve food with your beverages, there’s only one company that will write your coverage,” he says. Breitbach grew up living on the floor above “The Hub” in Colesburg, his family’s bar, and Breitbach says he doesn’t want businesses like it to close because they can’t afford the liability coverage.

“We have a lot of small towns where maybe the only business in the town is the local tavern and maybe they don’t serve enough food that they don’t quality for a better priced policy,” Breitbach says. “We don’t want that business to do away. It might be the backbone of that town.” Senator Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines, opposed the bill. He says the current law helps “control risk.”

“In many of these situations, the person that is in the best spot to stop an impaired driver is the one who stops that next drink from being served,” Boulton says. “…What this legislation does is it does tear down some of that responsibility.” Under current law, a bar or restaurant can be held liable for all damages from an accident if the person was sold or served alcohol and the business DID know or SHOULD have known the person was intoxicated or was becoming too drunk to drive.

(Radio Iowa)

One of the ads in the big game Sunday will feature a really big western Iowa bull. A 15-second Cenex commercial features “Albert the Bull”, some actors, and some real Audubon residents. Audubon Chamber of Commerce president Brandon Toft says the Albert spot is expected to air sometime around the third quarter. He says two representatives of Minnesota-based C-H-S Energy’s advertising branch appeared at the banquet to show the commercial and also a short documentary on Albert. (Click on the left side of the audio bar(s) to listen)

Toft says he was impressed with the documentary.

The City was contacted late last Summer about shooting the commercial on location. Albert, who is 53-years old and 28-feet tall, was showing his age, so the town reacted quickly to give him some much needed sprucing up.

Toft said the residents of Audubon County are excited to see the Cenex ad, which will make a play on the words “Super Bowl” and turn it into “Super Bull.” And, while the short version of the commercial that debuts on T-V for viewers throughout the Midwest Region features mostly actors, at the end, there is a scene featuring members of the community standing in front of Albert. Toft was not present for that particular shot…he was busy with basketball that morning.

Here’s a link to the 5-minute documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llKOk_AA02A

(KJAN/Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An insurance company that had stopped accepting new Medicaid patients within Iowa’s privatized health care program will soon resume enrollment. The Iowa Department of Human Services announced Friday that Amerigroup plans to accept new patients beginning in May. Patients will then have a choice between Amerigroup and UnitedHealthcare, the other insurance company providing coverage.

Amerigroup also plans to provide coverage, beginning in March, for about 10,000 patients temporarily enrolled in the state’s old Medicaid reimbursement system. Amerigroup said late last year it didn’t have the capacity to accept new Medicaid patients. The company made the decision public after a third company, AmeriHealth Caritas, said it was leaving Iowa amid a contract dispute.

DHS says it’s responding to complaints over reduced services under the privatized Medicaid system.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed Iowa’s privatized Medicaid program violated the rights of disabled patients. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger made the decision Friday. She notes the main insurance company referenced in the lawsuit, AmeriHealth Caritas, stopped providing Medicaid coverage in the state late last year.

Disability Rights Iowa filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of six people, claiming the insurance companies running the health care program cut services to people with disabilities. It named Gov. Kim Reynolds and DHS director Jerry Foxhoven.

Jane Hudson, executive director of Disability Rights Iowa, says in a statement the organization is evaluating its next steps. She says the Legislature should take action in the meantime.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Longtime NBC journalist Tom Brokaw has donated thousands of documents spanning his career to the University of Iowa, and they’re now available to the public. The collection includes a notebook with interview questions for Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev and press badges from Saudi Arabia and the 1992 Republican National Convention.

Some of the donated photographs show Brokaw standing in front of plumes of smoke in New York on Sept. 11. Graduate Assistant Elizabeth Riordan says the collection shows 50 years of the biggest global news stories as seen through the eyes of one reporter.

Brokaw spent his freshman year at the university, which gave him an honorary doctorate in 2010. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the items were made available to the public on Thursday at the university’s Main Library.