BELLEVUE, Iowa (AP) — Police officers from around the country are reaching out to support a fallen Iowa officer’s son. Anamosa police Officer Mitch Kelchen died in a car crash over Labor Day weekend while off duty. After his death, Kelchen’s oldest son, Shane, collected business cards from other officers. But someone at his school destroyed the cards. Since then, police departments have sent Shane more than 10,000 cards.

Des Moines television station KCCI reports that officers from Kansas City, Kansas, got involved and presented a special gift to the family Friday in Bellevue, Iowa. They gave him two frames full of more than 150 business cards, including one of Mitch Kelchen’s cards.

Shane’s mom, Tina Kelchen, says the support her family has received since her husband’s death has been more than she expected.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials say an unauthorized, secret waiting list for psychotherapy appointments at Omaha’s VA hospital delayed care for 87 veterans this year.

The Omaha World-Herald reported Saturday that letters addressed to Iowa Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse blamed the unauthorized list on “training deficiencies” involving the hospital’s medical support assistants.

The VA’s response to Sasse said no employees were fired, but one employee who was involved retired and another resigned. It also said no bonuses were paid based on performance data implicated in the investigation of the secret lists.

Officials said the investigation is continuing into whether lower-ranking employees in the VA’s Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System were responsible. That should be completed by the end of the month.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — This week’s high winds in Iowa blew in a first for one electric utility. MidAmerican Energy officials tell Des Moines television station KCCI that winds blew hard enough on Monday and Tuesday for wind turbines to provide all the power needed to meet its customers’ needs for the state.

MidAmerican spokeswoman Tina Hoffman says the utility’s experts noted the wind was strong enough to produce the energy needed to power 670,000 electric customers in the state.

MidAmerican’s goal is to eventually produce 100 percent of its power with renewable resources. The company is upgrading its old wind turbines and building new ones to help reach that goal.

Much of the state saw sustained winds around 25 mph and gusts of around 40 mph on Monday and Tuesday.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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

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A traffic stop at around 2:50-a.m. today (Saturday) near the intersection of Corning Carl Road and 200th Street in Adams County, resulted in an arrest. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports Matthew Christopher Avila, of Corning, was placed under arrest for OWI/1st offense. Two passengers in his vehicle were cited for Open Container/Passenger (Over 21).

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County say a rural Villisca man was arrested Friday night following a traffic stop at the intersection of 155th Street and V Avenue. 62-year old Rodolfo Morales, Jr., was arrested at around 8:30-p.m. for Driving while License Revoked. Morales, Jr., was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $300 bond.

Early this (Saturday) morning, three people were arrested on drug charges in Fremont County. Sheriff Kevin Aistrope reports the Fremont County K9 Unit made contact with three individuals in the parking lot of the Sapp Brothers Truck Stop, in Percival.

Haggins

Hodges

Brown

During an investigation, the three persons, two men and a woman, were arrested for possession of a controlled substance. Authorities say 29-year old Donald C. Brown, of Kansas City, MO., along with 26-year old Deandre Hodges, and 29-year old Letangdra Haggins, both from Kansas City, KS., were taken into custody and brought to the Fremont County Law Enforcement Center, where they were unable to post bond.

One of the Iowans who doesn’t think they’ll be able to afford health insurance next year went to a statehouse event Friday to ask legislators for help — and some answers. “I don’t care who gets it done. I just need it done.” Fifty-seven-year-old Bill Zook, of Ankeny earns too much to qualify for subsidies to buy insurance on the individual market.

On Monday, Governor Reynolds said ObamaCare’s complicated rules don’t allow states to innovate and she withdrew Iowa’s “stopgap” plan that aimed to reduce premium hikes. Medica is the only insurance company left that will sell 2018 policies to the 22-thousand Iowans who must buy on the individual market. Zook says Medica will charge him 24-hundred a month, with a deductible of nearly 14-thousand dollars.

Adding on co-payments for office visits, Zook estimates he’d spend nearly 40-thousand dollars next year if he buys a Medica policy. “I don’t know. You know there’s these Christian organizations, MediShare, those sorts of things that I’m researching,” Zook says. “Here we are almost at November 1st and I was waiting for the ‘stopgap’, I was waiting for people like these senators and representatives here for some solutions and I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Zook, who says he has voted Republican, had hoped President Trump’s recent executive order allowing companies to sell insurance across state lines might help. But Zook can’t find any companies willing to sell him a policy. “I’m confused where to go next,” Zook says. “My insurance agent, I talked to him, and he said: ‘Move out of state.'”

Zook says it’s “not fair” that public employees in Iowa get health care benefits, while he may have to self-insure next year. Zook retired at the age of 55 after working in the retail industry. Six months after he retired, Zook’s former employer cancelled health insurance benefits for all retirees. Zook says he was told by his former company that policies sold on the “ObamaCare” exchange would be cheaper, but he says the Wellmark policies he bought were not cheap.

Wellmark is not selling individual policies for 2018.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A former University of Iowa wrestler has been arrested on computer-hacking charges after allegedly carrying out a high-tech cheating scheme. An FBI affidavit says Trevor Graves repeatedly hacked into the university’s grading system to give himself and others higher grades on tests and quizzes. The FBI says the 22-year-old also repeatedly obtained advanced copies of exams in his classes that he shared with others. He was arrested in Colorado this week.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Records show that an Iowa State Patrol commander started a consulting firm prior to receiving state approval for outside work and is using photos of himself at government-funded training events to promote the venture. A review by The Associated Press is raising questions about the captain’s involvement as a founding partner of a company that advertises police litigation and recruitment services. The patrol insists his outside work is limited to a single research project.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two Democratic lawmakers have proposed legislation creating a Medicaid-style health insurance plan for Iowans, but the proposal has virtually no chance in the Republican-controlled Legislature. Sen. Matt McCoy of Des Moines and Rep. John Forbes of Urbandale released details Friday on a plan that targets people in the individual insurance market of the Affordable Care Act. It offers an additional insurance option in the marketplace and would reverse Iowa’s privatized Medicaid program.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police believe the stabbing death of a Des Moines man earlier this week was the result of a dispute over a $50 debt. Television station KCCI reports that court documents say 39-year-old Michael Lee Bell Jr., of Des Moines, told police investigators he had several weapons with him Wednesday evening when he confronted 42-year-old Jerry Lavelle Martin over the debt.