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)

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.