Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Inspectors found some violations at a large Iowa day care center when it was owned by Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, including deficiencies in 2007 that prompted a downgrade in its license status. Whitaker and his wife owned Little Endeavors in his hometown of Ankeny, Iowa, a center with a capacity for 204 children from newborn to school-age, from 2003 until 2015. Inspection records paint a mostly positive picture but also find some occasionally serious and persistent concerns.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An investigation that found a hostile environment at Iowa’s labor department prompted the state to cut ties with two top administrators, including the longtime chief investigator for workplace deaths and injuries. The case has also produced a whistleblower complaint alleging Commissioner of Labor Michael Mauro and his deputy run the office “like a high school clique,” where friends receive favoritism and others are ridiculed, threatened and called names.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A new audit says Iowa’s savings from privatizing Medicaid is barely half as much as former Gov. Terry Branstad projected when he forced the change two years ago. The report by Auditor Mary Mosiman also found officials and lawmakers have failed to file quarterly financial reports as required by state law. When Branstad’s administration changed the system for overseeing health care for more than 600,000 poor and disabled Iowans, he projected it would produce $232 million in savings.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — A man charged with murder in the death of an Iowa State University golfer has been granted a new attorney over the objections of his current lawyer. The Des Moines Register reports Story County District Court Judge Bethany Currie granted a request Monday by 22-year-old Collin Richards for a different attorney. He cited a “communication issue.” Richards’ current attorney, public defender Paul Rounds, objected, saying there weren’t grounds for the change. Richards has pleaded not guilty.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports 19-year old Faith Leeann Clemmons, of Emerson, was arrested at the Mills County Courthouse Monday morning. Clemmons was taken into custody on a warrant for Failure to Appear, on an original, Possession of a Controlled Substance, charge, and on a warrant for Failure to Appear on Criminal Mischief in the 2nd Degree, Trespass and Assault charges. Her bond was set at $7,000.

At around 2-a.m. Friday, 21-year old Ariana Mersaydeze Parker, of LaVista, NE, was arrested following a traffic stop on Interstate 29, on charges that include Possession of a Controlled Substance, Child Endangerment, and Speeding. Her bond was set at $3,000. And, at around 12:05-a.m. Friday, 22-year old Hawa Mabior Akur, of St. Joseph, MO., was arrested on I-29 for Driving Under Suspension, of Failure to show proof of insurance. Bond was set at $300.

Late Thursday night, 26-year old Dylan Michael Betts, of Omaha, was arrested following a traffic stop on I-29, and charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance. His bond was set at $1,000. At around 2:30-a.m. Thursday, 24-year old Brett Michael Zeski, of Glenwood, was arrested in Mills County for OWI/1st offense. Bond was set at $1,000.

And, on Nov. 21st, 28-year old Aaron James Smith, of Pacific Junction, was arrested in Mills County for Possession of a Controlled Substance. His bond was also set at $1,000.

(Radio Iowa) — The leaders of Iowa’s three public universities made their budget pitches to Governor Kim Reynolds, Monday. University of Iowa president Bruce Harreld is asking lawmakers to approve seven million dollars in additional financial aid for undergrads who are Iowa residents. “I’m aware, very aware, that I must sound like a broken record as I’m consistently commenting on the need to increase resources to the university,” Harreld said. “…We cannot cut our way to quality.”

University of Northern Iowa president Mark Nook says enrollment at the Cedar Falls school is down, but Nook says tuition and fees average about 25-hundred dollars ABOVE universities around the country that are like U-N-I.  “We don’t have the resources and scholarships and things to compete on the same level with Iowa and Iowa State, so it is impacting our enrollment in a pretty significant way,” Nook says. Nook is asking lawmakers for a four million dollar budget boost for U-N-I in each of the next five years.

Iowa State University president Wendy Winterstein says her staff has combed through this year’s budget and reallocated 12 million in spending. “Iowa State is proud to be recognized for our lean organizational structure, but we can’t continue to deliver excellence on efficiencies alone,” Winterstein says. “New resources are needed to be able to assure that we can continue to fulfill our land grant mission and serve the state.”

Winterstein is also asking the governor and the legislature to send I-S-U seven MILLION more state tax dollars for student financial aid. The president of the board that governs the three universities says ensuring tuition is affordable makes a college degree accessible for more Iowans.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa saved $126 million this year from privatizing its Medicaid system, barely half what former Gov. Terry Branstad projected when he forced the change in 2016, according to an audit released Monday. The report by Auditor Mary Mosiman also found officials and lawmakers have failed to file quarterly financial reports as required by state law.

She said they “should have worked together to establish a method to estimate the program cost savings” when moving from state-managed Medicaid to a system managed by for-profit health care companies. When Branstad’s administration changed the system for overseeing health care for more than 600,000 poor and disabled Iowans, he projected it would produce $232 million in savings.

His successor, Gov. Kim Reynolds, and the Department of Human Services provided a wide range of new savings estimates last year, spanning from $47 million to $234 million. Mosiman found both of those were inaccurate. A $141 million estimate released this past May was the most accurate measure, the audit said, and recommended that method of calculation be used going forward. She updated that figure to $126 million on Nov. 7.

Democratic Sen. Pam Jochum, who called for the audit, says Mosiman’s report is incomplete and doesn’t include millions of dollars the managed care organizations running the program owe doctors, hospitals and mental health care providers. “The partial review of the Medicaid privatization disaster by the departing state auditor is a big pile of excuses with no good answers for Iowa taxpayers who are being ripped off,” Jochum said in a statement.

Mosiman, a Republican lost her bid for re-election to Rob Sand, a Democrat and a former Iowa assistant attorney general who promised a full investigation into the Medicaid finances. “I was elected to provide truth, integrity, and accountability to Iowans, and they deserve more answers,” Sand said. “I will continue to dig into this issue when I assume office in January, as I promised voters.”

Democratic critics and some health care providers have questioned whether the Medicaid change really is producing any savings. DHS has poured more money into Medicaid because insurance providers claimed they were sustaining losses. Iowa officials said in August they were giving Amerigroup and UnitedHealthcare, the two companies that manage the program, an additional $103 million over last year’s funding. Jochum and others have complained Medicaid recipient care has deteriorated under the privatized system. Hospitals, doctors and mental health care providers have said they’re not paid in a timely manner and must often fight to get paid. Jochum called on Reynolds to return Iowa to a publicly managed system.

Reynolds’ Democratic opponent, Fred Hubbell, said he’d return the program to state management, but he was defeated by Reynolds in this month’s general election. Reynolds’ spokeswoman, Brenna Smith, said Iowa like 39 other states adopted privatized managed care because Medicaid was growing at an unsustainable rate. “Our state is now on a path to sustainability, and the governor is working to ensure Iowa has a program that better helps improve patient health,” she said. “The governor has already made positive changes to the program since taking office and will continue to do so.”

DHS Director Jerry Foxhoven said in a statement he hopes the audit can put to rest the question of whether privatization generates savings. “We will continue to focus on providing the needed services to Iowa’s Medicaid members and ensuring the long-term sustainability of Iowa’s Medicaid program,” he said.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Most of the state’s corn and soybean crop have been harvested ahead of a snowstorm that blanketed much of southern and eastern Iowa. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Monday that 96 percent of Iowa’s corn crop had been harvested as of Sunday. While the percentage is even higher in northwest, north-central and central Iowa, 13 percent of corn remained to be harvested in southwest Iowa.

That statewide percentage is four days behind the five-year average. Iowa’s soybean harvest was 98 percent complete. That’s 12 days behind the five-year average.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — A man charged with murder in the death of an Iowa State University golfer has been granted a new attorney over the objections of his current lawyer. The Des Moines Register reports Story County District Court Judge Bethany Currie granted a request Monday by 22-year-old Collin Richards for a different attorney. He cited a “communication issue.”

Richards’ current attorney, public defender Paul Rounds, objected to the request, saying there weren’t grounds for the change. Currie granted the request. She says she’ll appoint an attorney from the state public defender’s Marshalltown office.

Richards is charged with first-degree murder in the death of student Celia Barquin Arozamena. She was killed Sept. 17 while she was playing a round at a public course in Ames, near the university campus. Richards has pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled for April 30, 2019.

The Red Oak Police Department reports two arrests during the day on Monday.

At 11:30am Officers arrested 31-year-old Nikkele Marie Peterson of Sioux City for Child Endangerment. Peterson was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $2,000 bond.

At 1:00pm Red Oak Police arrested 35-year-old David Ray Sturgis of Red Oak for Simple Domestic Assault. Sturgis was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on no bond pending appearance before a magistrate.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An investigation that found a hostile environment at Iowa’s labor department prompted the state to remove two administrators, including the longtime chief regulator for workplace deaths and injuries, records show. The case has also produced a whistleblower complaint alleging that Labor Commissioner Michael Mauro and his deputy run the office “like a high school clique,” where friends receive favoritism and others are ridiculed and verbally threatened. So far, they have kept their jobs.

State agencies have tried to keep the months-long investigation and upheaval inside the department confidential. But The Associated Press obtained records that paint an unflattering picture of the department that is supposed to protect workers from harm. The case is a test for Mauro, 70, who has long survived as one of the few high-ranking Democrats in Iowa’s Republican-dominated state government. A former Iowa secretary of state, Mauro was confirmed by the Senate last year for a second six-year appointment that runs until April 2023 and pays $112,000 annually.

Facing pressure from the executive branch, Mauro fired Iowa Occupational Health and Safety Administration director Jens Nissen and accepted the resignation of OSHA supervisor Deborah Babb on Oct. 12. Both were longtime state workers. Nissen, 55, investigated serious workplace injuries and deaths and routinely wrote reports that cited employers for safety violations. Babb, 60, supervised about a dozen workplace safety and health regulators.

The action came after the Department of Administrative Services investigated allegations that Babb verbally threatened and intimidated subordinates while Nissen was aware of complaints and failed to effectively intervene. Earlier this month, Nissen filed a complaint that defended Babb and alleged that it was Mauro who failed to take the workers’ concerns seriously. In a “summary of events” unsealed by the Public Employment Relations Board in response to an AP request, Nissen alleged that he was fired after speaking out about the department’s work environment.

Reached by phone, Mauro said Nissen’s complaint would be investigated by an outside agency but that he couldn’t discuss any details since it is a “personnel matter.” He said he has named veteran Iowa OSHA administrator Luther Don Peddy to lead the office on an interim basis. The case dates to July, when Nissen said he received verbal complaints from two Babb subordinates alleging that she had routinely threatened and intimidated them. He said he believed the conduct they described violated Iowa’s violence-free workplace policy and that he had witnessed similar behavior in the past.

Nissen said he reported the complaints to Mauro days later and added his own observations, including that she allegedly favored some employees by giving them a more permissive use of their state vehicles. He said Mauro told him he was aware of Babb’s tendencies, that he had spoken with Babb and everything would be fine. But at least one employee complained to the Department of Administrative Services, and that agency opened its own investigation. Mauro expressed displeasure with Nissen after learning of the probe in August and falsely accused him of disclosing information from management meetings to subordinates, Nissen alleged.

Nissen wrote that he further angered Mauro and deputy commissioner Pam Conner during a September meeting when he raised his hand after Babb asked if anyone believed the department had a hostile environment. Nissen said he was given the option to resign in October and he refused, adding that no reason was given for his termination. “The work environment at the Division of Labor is not what any reasonable person would expect in a professional setting,” Nissen wrote. “The Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner operate the department like a high school clique. If you are not ‘in’ you are in dire straits.”

He said that Mauro, Conner and Babb regularly talk abusively about subordinates, calling them dumb and ridiculing them for “trivial idiosyncrasies.” Conner called two minority employees “stupid” and used a curse word to refer to a third, Nissen alleges.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man accused of throwing into a dumpster a kennel with an emaciated dog trapped inside has pleaded not guilty. Polk County court records say the pleas were filed electronically Saturday for 35-year-old Derrick Peterson. The charges: animal neglect and abandonment of cats and dogs. A pretrial conference is scheduled Dec. 18. The Animal Rescue League of Iowa says a passer-by found the Chihuahua Nov. 2 in a dumpster in Des Moines’ River Bend neighborhood and took the starving dog to Animal Rescue League.

League veterinarians say the dog, dubbed “Oscar,” weighed just 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) and was suffering from a loss of muscle mass and fur as well as intestinal parasites. His fur was stained from being caged in his own filth for a long period.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Career education programs at Iowa Western Community College helped Richard Kleckner turn around his life after years living on the streets, abusing drugs and repeatedly getting trouble with the law. While locked up in Omaha, Kleckner decided in 2016 to stop abusing heroin and methamphetamine and instead pursue his high-school equivalence diploma. After his release, he moved to Council Bluffs and enrolled in HiSET classes through Iowa Western with financials support from IowaWORKS. “That’s how I got my foot in the door,” Kleckner said. “It gave me something to do. It got me out of the house. I felt active. I felt better for myself, and I really felt good when I passed my first test. That right there was a super huge boost to my ego and that’s when I felt like I could really do this.”

Richard Kleckner shows off the welding lab at Iowa Western Community College’s Kinney Hall in Council Bluffs on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018. Kleckner took a welding class through the Education 2 Employment career preparatory program and now has a job as a welder in Omaha. (Photo by Scott Stewart/Iowa Western Community College)

Kleckner said his teachers were exceptionally supportive and the small classes make sure everyone gets the attention they need. The program offers an option for self-directed HiSET preparation, too, for those students not seeking a classroom experience. “It’s basically really like a step-to-step program,” Kleckner said. “It makes getting your HiSET easy. I came in thinking, ‘Man, this is going to be really hard.’ I dropped out of school in ninth grade. I don’t know if I can do this. But then it became something that was fun. It became something that interested me that I wanted to be a part of. It was really exciting, and then once I got it, I knew that I wasn’t the person that I was labeled as being at that point. I am still in awe at everything that I have done.”

After earning his diploma, Iowa Western’s Education 2 Employment program paid for Kleckner to enroll in a welding class at the college. It paid for his books, welding boots and all other costs associated with the course – including his American Welding Society qualification test. Within a month, he landed a job as a welder for an Omaha manufacturer. He now hopes to be a role model and to continue to give back to improve the lives of others struggling with substance abuse.