(Radio Iowa) — Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is defending his “Medicare for All” plan as some competitors for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination warn embracing the proposal could doom the party’s prospects next year.  “Those candidate who run on that program, who have the guts to take on the drug companies and the insurance companies will win and win big,” Sanders said.

Sanders was the first of three candidates to speak Saturday at a forum in Council Bluffs sponsored by A-A-R-P and The Des Moines Register. Sanders repeated his accusation against former Vice President Joe Biden, that Biden has been “distorting” the tenants of the “Medicare for All” plan Sanders has authored. “Joe talked about a hiatus, in other words if you have a serious illness as we transition to ‘Medicare for All’ there may be a hiatus. That is absolutely wrong,” Sanders said. “Of course there will be a continuity of care.”

Sanders envisions enrolling Americans by age group, first having everyone over the age of 55 be covered by Medicare — until all Americans are covered by a government-paid plan from birth to death. South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg supports letting Americans buy into the Medicare system — a so-called “public option.” Buttigieg calls it “Medicare for all who want it” and argues will be cheaper than private insurance.

“It’s also one last dare, though, to the corporate world to come up with something better than they have. If they do, great. I’m not counting on it,” Buttigieg said, “and so I think what will happen over time is that this will become a very natural glide path toward a ‘Medicare for All’ environment — not by flipping a switch and banishing the private sector, but just by putting something better on the table and letting people figure it out for themselves.”

Montana Governor Steve Bullock — the other candidate who addressed A-A-R-P members on Saturday afternoon — says forcing millions of Americans to give up their private insurance isn’t the answer. “So many of them like it,” Bullock said. “Sometimes you don’t like either the cost or the deductibles. We can work on that without disrupting the entire system.”

Bullock supports adding a “public option” to Medicare, letting Americans UNDER the age of 65 buy into the system. Seventeen presidential candidates appeared at five forums this past week, adding issues of interest to seniors and offering ideas for reducing prescription drugs costs. Many expressed support for legalizing marijuana for medical use. On Saturday, Buttigieg said he supports legalizing marijuana for medical AND recreational use.

“I don’t recommend smoking anything, but not only are there important medical uses, but we’ve just hit at the point as a country where there are a lot of offenses, including I think non-violent drug offenses, where the way we responded to it — the incarceration — is actually doing more harm to society,” Buttigieg said.

Bullock, as the governor of Montana, recently approved tweaks to his state’s medical marijuana program.  “It goes to individuals in need and it makes a meaningful difference, but you always have the barriers at the federal level, both the scheduling of it as a drug and the difficulty of banking any of the dollars, being medical or recreational,” Bullock said, “so I think the federal government should get out of the way and this is a state-by-state decision.”

Sanders, the first candidate to speak Saturday in Council Bluffs, has long supported legalization of marijuana, as part of his criminal justice reform agenda.

Thousands of bicyclists and their support vehicles and/or entourages are set to enter Atlantic today (Sunday), as they dip their rear wheels in the Missouri River and take on the first leg of pedaling from Council Bluffs to their first overnight stay here in town. When they arrive, they can expect to find a lot of food and entertainment downtown.

Vendors will be ready to serve them in the City Park, and many church groups or organizations will be available as well to serve a variety of tasty treats to help replenish some of those burned-off calories from the first ride, which is 60-miles, or about 80-miles if riders chose to take memorial loop in McClelland.

A reminder, several streets have been blocked-off to vehicle traffic through 2-a.m. Sunday. Information about street closures and parking restrictions have been mentioned numerous times on KJAN, and the information is still available in stories on our News page, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

There’s a beer garden that will be set-up in the City Park, and the Atlantic Chamber has teamed-up with First Whitney Bank to have the downtown Christmas light turned on tonight, to add an extra special glow to the festivities. Stage entertainment in the downtown City Park includes opening act “Freakabout,” a four-piece rock band from Lincoln, NE. The headliner band is “Hairball,” who will perform a two-hour homage to some of the biggest arena acts in the world, including Van Halen, KISS, Motley Crue, Queen, Journey, and Aerosmith. Both concerts are free.

The riders and their support teams will begin to depart Atlantic on Monday, some well before the sun rises, so motorists are urged to be extremely cautious. They’ll be pedaling 68-miles from Atlantic, through Wiota, Anita, Adair, Casey, Menlo, Stuart, Dexter and Earlham, with their second overnight stop in Winterset. The 427 mile cross-State ride ends next Saturday, in Keokuk, with the dipping of wheels into the Mississippi River.

The Iowa State Patrol reports alcohol and speed were apparently to blame for a single-vehicle rollover accident early Saturday morning in Pottawattamie County, that injured four people. A 2004 Mitsubishi Outlander driven by 21-year old Richard Washington, of Lamoni, was traveling west on Interstate 80 just south of the I-80/I-680 split, when the SUV left the road to the right, at around 4:47-a.m., Saturday.

The vehicle rolled down an embankment and came to rest in a wooded area. The patrol says Richard Washigton and a front seat passenger, were believed to have been ejected from the SUV. Two rear-seat passengers were able to get out of the vehicle, which burst into flames. The vehicle was a total loss. Neola and Minden Fire responded to the scene, along with LifeNet helicopter.

Washington and 21-year old Alexis Koch, of Sanford, Florida, were not wearing their seat belts. Washington was transported by Minden Rescue to Mercy Hospital. Koch was flown by LifeNet to the UNMC in Omaha. Two other victims, 27-year old Larry Reid, and 25-year old Steven Fernandez, both of Lamoni, wore their seat belts. They were transported by Neola Rescue to Mercy Hospital.

EARLVILLE, Iowa (AP) — The trial of a man accused of using a corn rake to kill his wife has been moved from Delaware County to Dubuque County. The Telegraph Herald reports that the judge’s order to move the first-degree murder trial of 43-year-old Todd Mullis was released Friday.

Mullis, who remains in custody on a $5 million bond, had said he couldn’t get a fair trial in Delaware County, where his wife “worked closely with law enforcement” as a nurse.

Mullis has pleaded not guilty. Authorities say he fatally attacked 39-year-old Amy Mullis in November at her farm northwest of Earlville. Authorities initially believed she’d been fatally injured in a fall. An autopsy showed she died after receiving injuries that included multiple stab wounds to her back with a corn rake.

NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa man has been charged after police say he threatened to shoot people in his home, including children, as well as police officers. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that 54-year-old Alan Dale Rieken was arrested Thursday evening at his home.

Police say he told others in his home, “I’m going to shoot some cops and then you.”
Police say a woman attempted to intervene and was pushed to the ground without injury. Officers who arrived at the home say Rieken refused to comply with officers’ orders and was eventually arrested. The officers took a handgun from his waistband.

He’s charged with harassment, four counts of endangerment, one count of interference with official acts, one count of domestic abuse assault and one count of intimidation with a dangerous weapon.

There have been schedule changes for the Audubon County Fair Beef Show today:

Changes in start time and order of the show for our 4-H/FFA Market Beef show for Saturday, July 20.
We will begin at 12:30 with Clover Kids Bottle Calves. Then it will proceed: 4-H/FFA Market Steers, Market Heifers, Bottle Calves, Showmanship and wrap up with the Pen of Three contest.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A mid-summer heat wave continues to bear down on Nebraska and Iowa, but weather forecasters say a cool front is on the way. Heat indices reached into the triple digits for the third day on Friday, and the National Weather Service says more of the same is on tap for the two states Saturday. The service says a cold front is set to move into Nebraska later Saturday night and into Iowa early Sunday that will also bring rain.

The heat has led to the opening of several cooling centers in Nebraska and Iowa communities. In Omaha, Nebraska, The Salvation Army will open its Kroc Center in the southwestern part of the city starting at 8 a.m. Across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, the American Red Cross is opening another cooling center at the Salem Baptist Church. Cooling center also will be open in Des Moines and Cedar Falls in Iowa.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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In an update to an earlier report, officials with Minden Fire and Rescue say units from Minden were dispatched at around 5-a.m. to assist Neola Fire and Rescue at the scene of an accident just south of the Interstate 80/I-680 split on I-80 westbound. Authorities say a vehicle had exited the roadway and caught fire in a deep ditch. Upon arrival, units were notified that there were two occupants that were unaccounted for and the vehicle was fully involved. The first arriving engine pulled lines for fast attack while incoming units set up a perimeter to search the area. Upon investigation, units spotted two patients in a heavy wooded area around 20 yards from the blaze, calling for help. All four patients were transported by two ambulances on scene and LifeNet helicopter.

Names of the crash victims were not immediately available.

Photos from the Minden Fire & Rescue Facebook page.

(Radio Iowa) — On July 20th, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed on the Moon. A few hours later, Armstrong made this statement as he became the first human to set foot on the Moon’s surface. The only Iowa State University graduate to walk in space says he owes a lot to the heroes of Apollo 11, the mission that landed the first men on the Moon 50 years ago today (Saturday). Retired astronaut Clay Anderson, who was a student and teacher at I-S-U, says he was inspired watching coverage of the Apollo missions as a young man and knows it changed his life — and the world.  “I think it established us as the preeminent space fairing nation,” said Anderson. “Depending on who you read and listen to, it also put a huge puncture in the Soviet balloon that some people think caused their society to begin to crumble a little bit. It was a big win for America, it was a big loss for the Soviet Union, and changed the course of history.”

Anderson spent more than 166 days in space on two separate missions to the International Space Station. Still, he calls the crew of Apollo 11 the “real astronauts” because of the dangers they faced in their Moon mission. “I had a pretty good understanding that I was going to come back safely and that everything was going to work well, because the shuttle had flown hundreds of times,” Anderson says. “But, these guys were getting on rockets and getting into vehicles that had barely been tested. There was a lot of uncertainty. So, I give them a lot of credit for being the real deal, in that they took a huge risk to get to the Moon and back.”

He adds, “I’m standing on their shoulders, based on the facts that they did what they did with the technology levels that were available at the time. So, I owe those guys a lot.” The 60-year-old Anderson says Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin relied on their military and space training when alarms sounded as the lunar module attempted to land — indicating computer problems. One of the flight controllers at Mission Control in Houston was an Iowan who saved the mission. “I would point out to the great folks of Iowa that the guy that made the call from the back room about the alarm to ignore it was Steve Bales from Iowa State University,” said Anderson. “So, all those things worked together. Neil and Buzz knew they had a bunch of people on the ground watching their backs. And for them as fighter pilots to take control was pretty much normal for them.”

Budget cuts ended the moon missions after Apollo 17 in December of 1972. Anderson, who grew up in Ashland, Nebraska, rejects critics who say the money spent on space would have been better spent on Earth.”The first thing I would do is ask them to tweet that on their cell phone that they have in their hand,” he said. “And, I would remind them that when they tweet that, the satellites in space that allow them to send that tweet around the world are only there because of the space program.”

“Some of their Michael Jordan tennis shoes were designed based on the lunar astronaut boots that they wore,” Anderson says. “I would also remind the folks of Iowa that the artificial sow and the center pivot irrigation system have, in part, basics in NASA technology.” Anderson is the author of three books about space travel. He received a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University in 1983. He returned to I.S.U. as a distinguished faculty fellow in 2013 to teach aerospace engineering. He’s currently living in the Houston, Texas area.