(Radio Iowa) — State Auditor Mary Mosiman says she cannot say when a review of the state’s Medicaid program will be released to the public. In June, Mosiman announced her office would examine the data to determine if Medicaid costs have been reduced since private companies assumed management of patient care. The move to privatize the system has become a political issue in the governor’s race. Mosiman, a Republican who is also seeking re-election, says she cannot answer specifics about a work in progress, but Mosiman says the final report from her office will provide “financial clarity” about Medicaid costs. “It will be issued. I just can’t give you an actual date or I would also be behaving politically,” Mosiman says. “…Everything we do in the office is important.”

Rob Sand, the Democrat challenging Mosiman, says he agrees the examination shouldn’t be political, but Sand says the auditor’s office needs to equip voters with the facts about what’s happened since Medicaid was privatized in 2016.  “This is the office that’s supposed to be a watchdog for Iowa taxpayers and I think one thing that a watchdog should be doing is as soon as there’s a major change, you ought to be sniffing around,” Sand says. “We are in a state of upheaval with this issue.”

Sand and Mosiman made their comments this weekend during an appearance on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program. About 680-thousand low income, disabled and elderly Iowans are enrolled in Medicaid. Former Governor Terry Branstad predicted taxpayers would have saved more than 200-million dollars by now due to switching the system to private management. However, a recent report showed per patient costs increased six-and-a-half percent this past year and are projected to jump another 11 percent this year.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports five arrests over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday (Sunday), Adams County Deputies arrested Warren Davis, of Winterset, on an Adams County warrant for Failure to Appear. And, at around 10:40-p.m. Sunday, Adams County Deputies conducted a traffic stop near the intersection of Highway 25 and 272nd Street. Upon further investigation, Galen White, of Lenox, was placed under arrest for Operating While Intoxicated 2nd Offense.

At around 8-p.m. last Thursday, Adams County Deputies were notified of a suspicious person at Dollar General. Upon further investigation, Donald Gay, of Corning, was placed under arrest for Public Intoxication.

At around 8:40-p.m. Sept. 22nd, Adams County Deputies conducted a traffic stop, and upon further investigation, Crystal Schwartz, of Nebraska was placed under arrest for Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. On Sept. 21st, Adams County Deputies conducted a traffic stop near the intersection of 6th and Davis Avenue, in Corning. Upon further investigation, Arvid Hiley, of California, was placed under arrest for Operating While Intoxicated. Hiley was also cited for Open Container-Driver.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police are investigating a fatal shooting in Des Moines over the weekend. Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek told the Des Moines Register that a man died Sunday afternoon after he was shot several times.

BUFFALO, Iowa (AP) — The longtime fire chief in the Iowa town of Buffalo died over the weekend. The Quad-City Times reports that Terry Adams died Saturday morning at age 67. Longtime friend Buffalo Police Cpl. Rich Aleksiejczyk says Adams died of natural causes.

BELVIDERE, Neb. (AP) — Headstones will be dedicated Sunday at the southern Nebraska graves of three Union veterans of the Civil War. The Hastings Tribune reports that the group Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will dedicate the new headstones at Belvidere Cemetery in Thayer County. The three served with infantry from Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Volunteer students will be helping plant trees in north-central Iowa’s Mason City next week. On Wednesday, fifth-grade students from Newman Catholic Schools will plant nearly 40 trees along Taft Avenue. On Thursday, students from Mason City Alternative High School will plant between 60 to 100 trees along streets a few blocks over.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police are investigating a fatal shooting in Des Moines over the weekend. Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek said a 28-year-old Des Moines man died Sunday afternoon after he was shot several times.

The man was found on the ground near a white car. A 25-year-old woman and two children younger than 10 were in the car at the time of the shooting. They were unhurt.

The man’s identity wasn’t immediately released Sunday. The death is the ninth homicide of the year in Des Moines.

BUFFALO, Iowa (AP) — The longtime fire chief in the Iowa town of Buffalo died over the weekend. The Quad-City Times reports that Terry Adams died Saturday morning at age 67. Longtime friend Buffalo Police Cpl. Rich Aleksiejczyk says Adams died of natural causes. Adams had been with the Buffalo Fire Department for 48 years and served a chief for 33 years.

Aleksiejczyk says Adams was a great community leader and was respected in town.
The fire department became a family affair for Adams. One of his sons retired from the fire department as a lieutenant and three of his grandsons are with the department now.

Cass County Democratic Party Chair Sherry Toelle reports Charlotte Hubbell, wife of gubernatorial candidate Fred Hubbell, spoke to 40 voters in Atlantic on Friday, September 28th. Mrs. Hubbell spoke about her husband’s top priorities for Iowa, which include: affordable health care coverage, increased funding for education, and developing good-paying jobs.

Charlotte Hubbell

Toelle says Hubbell has pledged to reverse the Iowa Legislature’s actions against worker’s compensation and collective bargaining. She said also, he is adamantly opposed to Iowa’s privatization of Medicaid and will take action on his first day in office to begin the transition to return privatized Medicaid back to the Iowa Department of Human Services. He also plans to place women’s health centers back into Iowa. Hubbell has also stated his intentions to recoup the more than $100 million in tax credits that are going to large corporations without proving Iowa with a return on those investments.

When asked what she would foresee happening in Iowa over the next few years if her husband were elected, Mrs. Hubbell remembered when the water and air were clean and when Iowa was among the top five states in education. Those restorations were part of her vision for Iowa. She drew spontaneous applause when she spoke of restoring collective bargaining rights to Iowa’s workforce and increasing family incomes. Environmental quality and support of veterans were also priorities for the Hubbell-Hart campaign.

(Press Release)

(Radio Iowa) — A group working to get more young voters to turn out for Democrats this year has bought more than 100-thousand dollars worth of ads on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter aimed at millennials and Generation Z in Iowa. Haley Hager is the state director for NextGen America, a group that’s spending 33 million dollars nationally on these kind of digital ads. “Eighteen to 35 years olds don’t watch a lot of cable,” Hager says. “They are on their phones, all the time.”

Unlike traditional campaign ads that run 30- and 60 seconds, these NextGen digital ads are short, 15 second messages. That’s designed to deliver the message before the viewer doesn’t click away. Hager says in Iowa, 18-to-24 year olds are the least active voting block. “Political ads don’t usually target 18 year olds,” Hager says. “We turn out at half the rate, which means that traditionally campaigns don’t talk to us.”

NextGen has nearly five dozen paid staff in Iowa as well, working to register young voters. NextGen is financed by a California billionaire who has held town hall meetings around the country and has run T-V ads calling for impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

(Radio Iowa) — Western Iowans are divided about the merits of industrial wind projects being planned in the region. Chicago-based Invenergy wants to build almost 170 wind turbines in Sac and Ida counties in the next year, enough to power 90-thousand homes. Mason Fleenor, an Ida County farmer, says he’s worried about the noise and the view of large turbines on the horizon.  “If you know anything about cattle, when it’s real windy, cattle don’t work real good in the wind. They can’t hear what’s going on around them,” Fleenor says. “I’m the same way, I don’t like to listen to these things every day.”

Invenergy developed another wind farm in the county that’s been operating for about two years. The county estimates it gains more than two-million dollars each year from industrial wind energy after taxes. Ida County Board of Supervisors Chairman Rhett Leonard says revenue from the turbine property values benefits road infrastructure projects. “The good thing about this is, we were to the point where our roads and infrastructures were deteriorating so quickly and it’s such a high priced item to replace and maintain,” Leonard says, ” we were getting to the point where we weren’t sure what we were going to do with these.”

After the first phase of Invenergy’s initial project in the area was complete, about 500 residents petitioned the county to have wind turbines be at least one mile away from a house. The county established a code saying they have to be at least 15-hundred feet away. In a statement, Invenergy said it builds projects where landowners have voluntarily signed easements or leases.

In Adair County, an amended ordinance setting a 2,000-foot setback from non-participating residences and an 800-foot setback for participating property owners associated with two Mid-American Energy wind farms, has a third its third and final reading set to take place at the next meeting of the Adair County Board of Supervisors. When complete, a total of nearly 500 turbines will be spread throughout the County. Construction began last summer, but the erection of turbines has been met with public push-back over noise, visual pollution and bird safety concerns.

(Thanks to Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

Police in Red arrested 26-year old Dustin James Danick, Saturday. Danick, from Red Oak, was arrested in the 300 block of E. Market Street, for Domestic Abuse Assault/2nd Offense. Danick was being held without bond at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center.

Police Officers in Council Bluffs were called to the 1800 block of Valley View Drive at around 2:25-a.m. today (Sunday), for a reported single vehicle rollover accident. The vehicle left the roadway while traveling West on Interstate 80 near mile marker 5, and ended up on its top on Valley View Drive. The driver, 21-year old Kevans Faustin, of Maryland, was extricated by the Fire Department and transported to a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries.