The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m., w/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
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.1MB)
Subscribe: RSS
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa’s dental college plans to turn away new patients covered by Iowa’s Medicaid program, citing low payments and confusing rules. The Des Moines Register reports that leaders of the college have decided that, starting next week, it no longer will routinely accept patients covered by Iowa Medicaid’s Dental Wellness Plan. The plan covers most adults who are among the 600,000 poor or disabled Iowans covered by Medicaid. The college will continue to serve existing patients.
Associate dental college dean Michael Kanellis said in a letter to the Iowa Medicaid program dental program overseer that the Medicaid plan is paying less for services than it used to and has added confusing rules.
Department of Human Services spokesman Matt Highland said Thursday his agency will address the college concerns.
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Two-thousand opioid overdose reversal kits are being distributed in Iowa today (Friday). More than 350 pharmacies statewide will have the naloxone kits available for free. Each kit has two doses of the drug in nasal spray form. Kevin Gabbert, with the Iowa Department of Public Health, says naloxone usually costs about 150-dollars at a pharmacy. “We want to put it in the hands of those individuals that may find themselves in a situation where they encounter somebody that’s experiencing an opioid overdose,” Gabbert says. “Or perhaps they use opioids themselves and there’s some concern, and they want to have naloxone available and make family members or friends aware that they’re carrying this.” State health officials say there were just over 200 opioid-related overdose deaths in Iowa last year. Gabbert says the free kits are an opportunity for people most at risk of witnessing or experiencing an opioid overdose to get naloxone.
“If they were to go in and be expected to pay 140 dollars, many might not be able to afford that and so therefore wouldn’t get the medication.” Naloxone, under the brand name Narcan, can stop opioid overdoses, but people should still seek medical attention after using it. The state used federal grant funds to buy the naloxone at a reduced price. A state law passed in 2016 eased restrictions on naloxone, allowing adults who are at risk of opioid-related overdose — and their family and friends — to buy the drug from a pharmacy without a prescription.
(Radio Iowa w/thanks to Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)
A two-vehicle accident near Lewis, Thursday afternoon resulted in three people being transported to the hospital. The collision happened near 570th and White Pole Road, when one vehicle apparently pulled out in front of another vehicle at what was described as a blind intersection. After the vehicles collided, one of the vehicles struck a power pole, causing a power outage in Lewis and Griswold. Both vehicles ended-up in the ditch. The victims of the vehicle that hit the power pole, were trapped for a time by the downed power lines. The injured were transported to the hospital, by Medivac Ambulance along with Griswold Fire and Rescue. Their injuries were said to be non-life threatening. No names were immediately released.
Senator Joni Ernst and the rest of the Iowa Congressional Delegation recently sent a letter to President Donald Trump expressing concern about the impact of trade negotiations on farmers in the state. Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says process for handling trade issues isn’t exactly the way she would do it — but she says she the president does listen. “This president is very, very open and accessible, and more so than the last administration where we had even Democrats, some of my colleagues have stated they had very little if any interaction with the president,” Ernst says. Ernst says she favors a more linear approach to handling the trade issues. “He is juggling a number of trade deals right now, which makes it very complicated,” Ernst says. “Of course I would prefer that he take up a trade deal, we get that deal done and we move on to the next.”
She says in her talks with the president he has expressed confidence he can get the North American Free Trade Deal done by this fall. Ernst says the president says Canada has been the problem in NAFTA, so they’ve encouraged the president to do a bilateral deal with Mexico while continuing to work on Canada. “Trade is so important for us, so while we have all these trade deals up in the air, we need to have some level of optimism moving forward that these deals are going to get done. So, I want to see action on it. I want to see that we do have NAFTA done,” Ernst says. Ernst says they continue to remind the president of the concerns of farmers. “I know they are juggling a lot right now — it’s probably not the preferable way for Joni Ernst — but if we can get these deals done, I think our farmers will be doing well,” according to Ernst. “But I am extremely concerned in the short term on what it’s going to do to our markets.”
Ernst and Senator Chuck Grassley recently met with Terry Branstad, who is the former Iowa governor and now Ambassador to China to discuss trade with that country. “The ambassador did give us good feedback. I won’t discuss it openly today because of course we have a number of ongoing issues with China,” Ernst says. She says they also talked with Branstad about North Korea and while they have trade issues with China — China is important in helping to ensure the de-nuclearization of North Korea.
(Radio Iowa)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — High winds from a fast-moving storm front have knocked trees and limbs onto houses and cars and knocked out power to homes and businesses in several Iowa counties.
Gusts up to 80 mph were reported Thursday and winds nearing 60 mph were reported at Des Moines International Airport. At least two semitrailers were tipped over on Interstate 80 near Walnut and one on Interstate 35 near Bevington. No injuries were reported. At the Atlantic Municipal Airport, Thursday, the automated weather system recorded a wind gust of 61 mph just before 11-a.m. Numerous large trees were uprooted or had their limbs fall on property, including at least two vehicles, the Rolling Hills Bank sign on 7th Street was blown down, and power was out to several areas of town, with the west side having the longest outage while AMU crews worked to repair downed power lines. A fireworks vendor tent in the Atlantic Wal-Mart parking lot, was destroyed by the high winds.
In Anita, a tree fell on a house, but there were no injuries. Two-miles south of Massena, farm sheds were toppled and corn fields nearly flattened. Fontanelle and Greenfield reported damage in the form of fences down, a greenhouse was blown over the the Greenfield Shopko store, heavy rain and hail was reported. Winds gusted up to 70 mph. A home was damaged three-miles south of Greenfield, a machine shed was destroyed, a grain bin severely damaged and multiple trees were down in the same area. Downtown Greenfield also saw damage, with a gas leak – possibly storm related – having caused the evacuation and closing of the courthouse and neighboring businesses. The radio tower at the Adair County Hospital was blown down also. The Wallace Country Life Center near Orient also sustained damage. Officials report all hoop houses have MAJOR damage (most likely can not be repaired), the greenhouse had plastic ripped off but the structure seemed to have minimal damage, a tree was uprooted and numerous other branches were sheared-off. The west side of the house on the property was impaled by a tree branch that went through the wall and into the gift shop. There was roof damage on the barn, and the flag pole has a major bend in it. Winds topping 60 mph were reported in Stuart, Adair, Creston, Walnut and Harlan, to name a few of the communities affected by the storm. Scattered power outages were reported across the listening area.
Indianola officials say some trees posed a danger to cleanup efforts because they were touching downed power lines. Wind damage also was reported in Afton, Creston and Greenfield. A fireworks tent and fireworks were destroyed in Winterset.
A new Iowa State University Extension survey finds much of Iowa’s 30 million acres of farmland doesn’t change hands very often. Iowa State University economist Wendong Zhang conducted the 2017 survey. “About 22 percent of the land is owned in the structure of sole ownership. Another 28 percent is owned in joint tenancy — which is often between a spouse, husband and wife — and eight percent are tenants in common or other sorts of co-ownership structure,” Zhang explains. He says the co-ownership is often among siblings. Twenty percent of the farmland is owned by a trust, with many of them what are called revocable trusts, which means the ownership can be changed. “Typically they last for the lifetime of the owner who set it up…and the beneficiary tends to be the kids or grandkids of the current owner. So, it’s mainly used for the tax planning, estate planning or transition planing purposes,” according to Zhang.
He says 10 percent of the farmland is held in corporations that include families and are also used for tax planning purposes. Zhang says the use of trusts has increased since 1982 when only one percent of the farmland was structured that way. “Declining is sole owners and joint tenancy. So, over time there’s a gradual movement moving away from more individual ownership — especially sole owners to a more institutionalized ownership in terms of trusts and corporations,” he says. Another key finding in the survey is that 82 percent of the owners have paid off the land. Zhang says the amount of debt-free farmland impacts values.”Farm income has declined by almost half off the 2013 peak, but the farmland values have only declined about 15 percent. One of the key reasons is a lot of the owners have no debt — so they are not in a position to sell their land.”
The survey found 20 percent of farmland was owned by the same person for at least 40 years and 55 percent of the land was owned by the same person for more than 20 years. That stability also helps land values. “Farmland tends to be a long-term investment, not a whole lot of people are flipping farmland, so you see a very low turnover and the limited turnover tends to support the higher land values,” Zhang says. The state started requiring a survey of who owns Iowa farmland every five years beginning in 1949.
(Radio Iowa)
Sheriff’s deputies in Adams County along with the Adams County K-9 Unit and Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies, executed a search warrant at around 12:55-a.m. today (Friday, on the Westover residence at 2575 Elm Avenue. Deputies located and seized a substance believed to be methamphetamine, scales, plastic baggies, marijuana pipes, methamphetamine pipes, ammunition, offensive weapons and prescription drugs. The case remains under investigation. No arrests were reported.
And, a traffic stop Wednesday evening on a vehicle near Highway 34 and Fig Avenue in Adams County, resulted in the arrest of Emily Breffle, of Milwaukee, WI. Breffle was taken into custody for OWI and Possession of a Controlled Substance. The Adams County K-9 “Baxo” was deployed during the traffic stop.
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