Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DANVILLE, Iowa (AP) — A rail line in southeast Iowa is closed for repairs and cleanup after a coal train derailed. Authorities say more than 20 cars left the tracks Monday morning near Danville when the train struck a road grader.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad is rejecting a request that the state delay penalizing health care providers that don’t quickly sign contracts with the private companies set to run Iowa’s Medicaid program. Branstad said Monday that there was no need to change the timeline. Democratic lawmakers asked the state to delay the penalties that will hit providers that don’t sign up by Jan. 1.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Forecasters are warning 63 million people in the central U.S. to have an eye out for bad weather this week as colliding air masses threaten to generate high winds and possibly tornadoes. The threat Wednesday stretches from San Antonio to Chicago to Cincinnati. Missouri, southern Illinois and northern Arkansas face the greatest severe weather threat.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Polk county board is set to vote on a development agreement between board of a proposed $101 million convention hotel for downtown Des Moines. The nonprofit Iowa Events Center Hotel Corp. board, established by Polk County and the city, has approved six agreements that outline the hotel’s appearance and financing. Plans calls for the 330-room hotel, built on the southwest side of the Iowa Events Center, to open by December 2017.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A former Council Bluffs high school math teacher has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sexual contact with a student. KETV reports a judge on Monday sentenced 30-year-old Jeffrey Daugherty to the prison term and ordered that he be placed on a lifetime sex offender registry. Before resigning in February, he taught at Thomas Jefferson High School.

In September, Daugherty pleaded guilty to numerous charges involving sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl, including third-degree sexual abuse, sexual exploitation by a school employee and sexual exploitation of a minor. As the judge read his decision, Daugherty cried with his head buried in his hands. Daugherty will be eligible to seek parole in about 7½ years.

Governor Terry Branstad is blasting Iowa health care providers who’re complaining his administration is moving too quickly to shift management of Medicaid to private companies. “We started working on this in January, so we’re looking at almost a whole year,” Branstad says. “I know there are people that want to protect their funding stream and are afraid of change, but the truth is this has proven to be effective in other states.”

Branstad says taking the management of Medicaid patient cases away from government workers and shifting it to employees at private companies is saving money in other states and “improving patient outcomes.” Some health care providers are complaining they only recently got notice of the proposed rates for care of Medicaid patients in Iowa.

Democrats in the legislature are calling for a delay in a key deadline. Health care providers must agree to the new rates by January 1st — or face a 10 percent reduction in payments from the state for care provided to Medicaid patients in the future. Branstad says this latest round of criticism reminds him of what was said about his Medicaid expansion plan in 2013.

“The providers were up in arms. ‘It was terrible. We’re afraid of this.’ And you know what? Today we have more people insured than we’ve ever had insured,” Branstad says. “The providers are making more money than they ever had. Charity care at hospitals has gone down significantly, so the hospitals that strongly objected to that have really seen that it worked effectively.”

Three Democrats serving in the state senate say the people who “actually do the work” of caring for the more than half a million Medicaid patients in Iowa have asked for help to slow down the governor’s fast track toward managed care.

(Radio Iowa)

There likely will -not- be snow, but forecasters say a large portion of Iowa could see severe weather roll into the state late Tuesday and into Wednesday. Roger Vachalek, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, says it’s relatively rare but not unheard-of for a storm of this magnitude to strike during November. Vachalek says folks living across Iowa’s southern half should be on guard.

“There is a risk for severe weather in Iowa and especially for states to our south,” Vachalek says. “We have a slight risk all the way up to around Highway 30 and we may see storms that include hail or the possiblity of high winds and maybe some tornadoes.” Most of Iowa had very unseasonably warm weather last week, with highs in the 70s that were some 20 degrees warmer than normal. Vachalek says milder weather will be sticking around and should prevent any snowflakes from flying in this storm.

“There isn’t quite enough cold air coming in behind it to change the rain on the back side over to snow but we’ll be watching that,” Vachalek says. “There may be a brief change-over somewhere in far northwestern Iowa or maybe even in southern Minnesota, but for the most part, this will not be the snow event that some folks are looking for. We may have to wait a few weeks for that.” It’s a good idea, he says, for Iowans to be prepared for a storm like this.

“Folks should keep up with the forecast over the next few days and monitor the outlook that we mentioned for Wednesday and monitor the latest forecast and, of course, any watches and warnings that are issued,” Vachalek says. “We’re still a couple of days away from it so things could change, but it does look like a fairly significant event coming.” Learn more at the National Weather Service website: weather-dot-gov.

(Radio Iowa)

The Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce reports the Silver Cord Program is getting off to a strong start. Silver Cord is a graduation incentive program to promote volunteerism in the Atlantic Area. Atlantic High School seniors who volunteer a minimum of 200 hours throughout their high school career with graduate with a silver cord and be eligible for a $500 scholarship provided by the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce.

Several Silver Cord students came out to volunteer their time to help stock the mobile food pantry, pictured above are Bailey Schildberg, Ashley Freund, Tori Krogh, and Maddy Williams.

The program encourages volunteer opportunities with all Civic Organizations and will benefit the entire community. The Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce is partnering with the Atlantic High School and several other Community minded organizations and businesses to start the Silver Cord Program in Atlantic. In an effort to make the program more accessible to students, the Chamber is utilizing volunteerspot.com.

Volunteer Spot is an on-line tool used for volunteer sign-ups, scheduling and management. Chamber Executive Director Ouida Hargens says “Volunteer spot will be beneficial to the students involved in the Silver Cord Program and the entire community. Everyone will have access through www.AtlanticIowa.com.”

Students will be able to find, sign-up for, and manage their different volunteer opportunities through Volunteer Spot which will help both students and organizations stay organized during volunteer opportunities! If you have any questions about the Silver Cord Program or volunteerspot.com you can contact the Chamber of Commerce at 712-243-3017 or chamber@atlanticiowa.com.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said Monday, an elk of unknown origin in west central Iowa was shot at the request of the DNR Sunday morning, to protect the Iowa deer herd and domestic livestock from the potential impacts of chronic wasting disease and other diseases.

Elk sightings in Iowa are fairly common and when an elk is spotted, the DNR works with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to determine status of elk and the best available options. If the elk can be returned to the proper owners, then they are. If not, they then pose a risk to spreading CWD and/or other diseases and are dispatched.

The bull elk, estimated at 3-4 years old, was killed Sunday morning by a Monona County deputy sheriff as directed by the DNR after it appeared in front of a farmer combining his field. The animal was examined for identification markings without success and was buried according to Iowa livestock burial regulations in Monona County Monday morning. The brain stem and lymph nodes were removed for testing.

While the risk that escapees are introducing CWD or TB to Iowa’s wild deer may be small, the consequence to the resource is enormous and it is a risk that should be avoided. Removing a wandering elk is the responsibility of the Iowa DNR working in conjunction with the IDALS, and is not allowed by the public.

Left to Right
Kristin Johnk, Tucker Sager, Wyatt Saeugling, CJ Richards (photo provided)

Louisville Ky – Each year, the National FFA Organization honors FFA members who show the utmost dedication to the organization through their desire to develop their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. The Atlantic FFA chapter had 4 FFA members earn the American FFA Degree this year.

The American FFA Degree is bestowed up on a select group of students in recognition of their years of academic and professional excellence. This year, 3,434 American Degrees will be awarded. This year Kristin Johnk, Chancey Richards, Wyatt Saeugling and Tucker Sager were awarded the American FFA Degree at the 88th National FFA Convention & Expo Oct. 28-31 in Louisville, Ky. Sponsored by ADM Crop Risk Services, Case IH, DuPont Pioneer, Elanco, Farm Credit and Syngenta as a special project of the National FFA Foundation, the award recognizes demonstrated ability and outstanding achievements in agricultural business, production, processing or service programs.

To be eligible, FFA members must have earned and productively invested $10,000 through a supervised agricultural experience program in which they start, own or hold a professional position in an existing agriculture enterprise. Recipients must also complete 50 hours community service and demonstrate outstanding leadership abilities and civic involvement.

Each recipient of the American FFA Degree receives a gold American FFA Degree key, certificate and matted frame after being recognized on stage at that national convention. Wyatt Saeugling said, “I was glad to make the trip down to Louisville and receive my American FFA Degree. It’s really cool to see all of the other kids our age pursuing the same passion for agriculture that I have. I’m also excited to see where the ag industry will be within the next few years.” Kristin Johnk said “It is a great honor to have received this award, being among the 1% that attain this award nationally. This has been an opportunity of a lifetime and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our former FFA Advisor Mr. Bruce Johnk, current advisor Mr. Eric Miller, our families, and others in the community who have encouraged the four of us to pursue this degree.” Tucker Sager said, Getting my American Degree was a great learning experience that I had to work hard to get, but it was worth it.

The National FFA Organization is a national youth organization of 610,240 student members as part of 7,665 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for
premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. The National FFA Organization operates under a federal charter granted by the 81st United States Congress and it is an integral part of public instruction in agriculture. The U.S. Department of Education provides leadership and helps set direction for FFA as a service to state and local agricultural education programs. For more, visit the National FFA Organization online at FFA.org, on Facebook, Twitter, the official National FFA Organization blog or Atlantic FFA on Twitter.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reports a traffic stop in Exira Saturday morning resulted in the arrest of one person on numerous drug charges. 19-year old Koy Triston Anderson, of Elk Horn, was taken into custody at around 12:30-a.m.  Anderson faces charges that include: Possession of Marijuana with the Intent to Deliver; Possession of Prescription Pills; Possession of Marijuana; Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and Possession of Alcohol.

He was brought to the Audubon County Jail and released after making an appearance before the magistrate. Anderson’s preliminary hearing was set for Nov. 23rd.

The Boards of Supervisors in Cass and Adair Counties will canvass the votes of last Tuesday’s Municipal Elections tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. The Boards will hold their respective canvasses in Atlantic and Greenfield, respectively, beginning at 8-a.m.

During their regular meeting that begins at 8:30, the Cass County Supervisors will act on a Resolution or motion setting the number of deputies, assistants and clerks, in the offices of County Recorder and Treasurer, and if available, act on the appointment of a person to fill a vacancy position on the Cass County Civil Service Commission.

During the regular meeting in Adair County, the Supervisors will receive a 5th District Annual Judicial report, and at 8:15, hear from County Engineer Nick Kauffman, with regard to RCB Projects in Lee Township, and other office business.