The state treasurer is “raising the red flag” about state government finances. Michael Fitzgerald says the state had to dip into cash reserves to pay all its bills in April. “We have a serious issue here,” Fitzgerald says. “Our financial condition has deteriorated tremendously.”

April is a significant month in the state’s fiscal year. The state must make its monthly payment to public schools and another 325-million or so to health care providers who treat Medicaid patients. In addition, April is the month the state is writing tax refund checks before all the state income taxes owed to the state are paid. “We just squeeked by,” Fitzgerald says. “We came dangerously close to not being able to pay our bills on time.”

Fitzgerald, a Democrat who has been state treasurer since 1979, is asking Republican Governor Kim Reynolds to give her blessing to some “cash flow” borrowing. The state treasurer has the authority to sell short-term bonds to investors to raise money to cover cash flow problems. “Our surplus has been wiped out,” Fitzgerald says. “Our reserve funds are being eaten into and the trend continues to slide.”

Fitzgerald says the state has engaged in cash flow borrowing “many times” in the past. He suggests issuing short-term state bonds in September. “We’re on the brink of not being able to pay our bills on time,” Fitzgerald says. “…I’m raising the red flag.”

Governor Reynolds plans to meet with Republican legislative leaders soon to discuss the state’s troubling finances. The latest report from the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency indicates that over the last 11 months, state tax collections were 100-million dollars below expectations. Reynolds says the numbers “fluctuate daily,” but she isn’t ruling out calling legislators back to Des Moines for a “special session” to enact a plan that ensures the state budget doesn’t slide into a deficit.

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A hospital in Omaha will be closing its doors after 40 years and opening a new emergency room six blocks away. The Omaha World-Herald reports that Creighton University Medical Center will stop taking patients on Friday. Opening at the same time that the hospital closes will be a new emergency room six blocks east at Creighton University Medical Center University Campus.

The decades old hospital’s Level I trauma center and role as a teaching facility for Creighton’s medical school will move to a third facility, the expanded Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy. Chief medical officer at CUMC-Bergan Mercy Dr. Devin Fox said Wednesday that the closure of the hospital won’t leave northeast Omaha without medical services.

A father and son are spending their summer on the Mississippi River to raise awareness about veteran suicides. On Wednesday, Jeff and Logan Hastings paddled their kayaks into Dubuque, where they spoke with KCRG-TV.

The Hasting operate a nonprofit organization called Warrior 180 Foundation. They travel around the country to help veterans who are experiencing suicidal thoughts and having a hard time adjusting to civilian life.

Logan and Jeff Hastings (KCRG photo)

Jeff and Logan Hastings are both army vets. Logan served two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The father and son plan to travel over 2,300 miles in their journey to the Gulf of Mexico. Logan said it’s already been a grueling trip.

Despite his sunburn and aching limbs, Logan says the journey is worth making as he and his father work to spread their message. The Hastings say people who wish to donate to the cause can do so at their website: www.warrior180.org.

(Radio Iowa via KCRG-TV)

Out of more than 18-thousand applicants, NASA is naming a dozen new astronauts to the corps including an Iowa native. Radio Iowa’s Matt Kelley reports:

(As said) –
Thirty-nine-year-old Raja Chari grew up in Cedar Falls and has degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Air Force Academy and M-I-T. He’s a lieutenant colonel and a test pilot for the Air Force and flew combat missions over Iraq. Chari was told a few weeks ago that he was among the final 12 astronaut candidates but was ordered to only share the secret with his immediate family.

Raja Chari (NASA photo)

“I was able to call my wife and that’s when there was screaming on her end and I was still in my office with all of the folks right outside the door,” Chari says, laughing. “I had to just do a little happy dance in place. It was about all I could do at the time to not totally give everything away.” Chari’s wife, Holly, is a Cedar Falls native and they have three children. His mother still lives in Cedar Falls. Chari graduated from Waterloo Columbus High School in 1995 before heading to the academy. He admits he hasn’t always dreamed of becoming an astronaut but learning to fly was one of his early goals, along with studying science.

He’ll report for duty at NASA in August and will face two years of rigorous astronaut training, but says he’s excited at the prospects of rocketing into orbit and perhaps — going well beyond.

This is a particularly exhilarating time to be joining the space program, he says, with so many new possibilities on the horizon as NASA looks past the space station and toward missions that may lead to the Moon and to Mars. He’s piloted all sort of aircraft and has helped in developing America’s newest fighter, the F-35. With the space shuttle fleet long since retired, the prospects of being the first to pilot a completely new spacecraft into orbit are a thrill for Chari: “I wouldn’t say daunted so much as excited.”

(Radio Iowa)

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest early this (Thursday) morning, of 27-year old Codey Thomas Thramer, of Council Bluffs. Thramer was apprehended on a warrant for Prohibited Destructive Acts at around 3:10-a.m., following a traffic stop.

Wednesday afternoon, 20-year old Michael Christopher Edwards, of Oakland, was arrested following a traffic stop, for Driving While Barred. He was also given a warning for not have a front license plate.

And, at around 6:30-a.m. Wednesday, a Pottawattamie County Deputy arrested 18-year old Mason Mitchell Streit, of Council Bluffs, following an investigation into a truck with two occupants that was stuck in a creek near Eastern Hills and State Orchard Road. Council Bluffs Police was on the scene prior to the Deputies’ arrival, and advised two males may be intoxicated and under the age of 21. Streit was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense and Possession or purchase of alcohol by a person under the legal age.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office says a man from Central Iowa was arrested Wednesday night at the Union County Law Enforcement Center. 34-year old Daniel Charles Clausen, of Indianola, was arrested on a Union County Warrant for failure to appear on the original charge of theft 5th degree.  Clausen was being held in the Union County Jail on $1000 bond.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Transportation say a public information meeting will be held Tuesday, June 27, to discuss the replacement and right of way needs of the U.S. 30 bridge over Mill Creek, which is approximately 750 feet south of 128th Trail, in Harrison County. Traffic will be detoured on-site to the east of U.S. 30.

All interested persons are invited to attend the meeting anytime between 4:30 and 6 p.m. at the Dunlap City Hall (716 Iowa Ave). The meeting will be conducted utilizing an open forum format. Iowa DOT staff will be present to informally discuss the proposed improvements. No formal presentation will be made.

For general information regarding the proposed improvements or public meeting, contact Scott Suhr, transportation planner, Iowa DOT District 4 Office in Atlantic, at 712-243-3355 or 800-289-4368.

Leaders of the Iowa Hospital Association are raising concerns about Republican proposals they say would end federal funding of health care coverage for more than 100-thousand low-income Iowans. Ted Townsend is president and C-E-O of UnityPoint-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. “People fear the health care system in this country,” Townsend says. “…Our goal is to try to protect the fact that we’ve made some progress.”

The expansion of government-paid Medicaid coverage that’s been part of “ObamaCare” would be phased out under the alternative that cleared the Republican-led U.S. House earlier this year. Republicans in the SENATE are crafting their own plan in private. Iowa hospital executives warn the end of Medicaid expansion will hit low-income Iowans who’ve benefited from getting regular check-ups and care for chronic conditions like diabetes. Mike Myers, the C-E-O of Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon, is chairman of the Iowa Hospital Association’s board of directors.

“On a weekly basis, we would have people come in so ill that they required transport to the University of Iowa or another tertiary center for very extensive care,” Myers says. “Since that time, it’s rare that we have somebody come in with their diabetes out of control, heart failure, an infection that they let go and the fear is to go back to that is a big step backwards in the health status of individuals.”

Steve Baumert is the president and C-E-O of Methodist Jennie Edmondson Hospital in Council Bluffs. He says there are “countless stories” in his city of people who’ve been helped by the expansion of Medicaid, including one homeless man who was a frequent emergency room patient who’s now seeing a doctor regularly, has a job and is living in a home. “Those types of efforts clearly would be threatened with the reduction in Medicaid funding,” Baumert says.

Charity care at his hospital in Council Bluffs has been cut in half since 2013 when Medicaid was expanded. Iowa Hospital Association C-E-O Kirk Norris says hospitals all across the state are seeing similar trends. “Charity care levels since the expansion of Medicaid in Iowa have severely dropped,” Norris says.

The Iowa Hospital Association represents 118 hospitals.

(Radio Iowa)