DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa agency is delaying plans to add a third company back into the state’s privatized Medicaid program. Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven says the agency will hire another company to offer Medicaid coverage in 2019. The agency originally said such a company would start next July.

Foxhoven says the agency will begin its search for a company soon, but the 2019 delay ensures adequate time. Foxhoven provided the information Tuesday to a health care council. It comes one week after AmeriHealth Caritas announced it will drop Medicaid coverage in Iowa at the end of the month after failed contract negotiations with the state. Two other private insurance companies, Amerigroup and UnitedHealthcare, will continue Medicaid coverage.

Foxhoven says UnitedHealthcare will take over coverage beginning Dec. 1 from AmeriHealth for about 215,000 patients. They also can transfer to Amerigroup.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a western Iowa county supervisor has died in a grain bin accident. Harrison County Sheriff Pat Sears says 63-year-old Russ Kurth, of Logan, died in the bizarre Tuesday morning accident outside a grain bin just north of Missouri Valley.

Sears say Kurth and another person were checking out a door from which corn was leaking on the new bin that had been recently filled. Officials say the door burst open as Kurth and the other man approached, burying Kurth in corn. The other man was able to escape.

Officials say Kurth was pulled from the corn more than an hour after the accident was reported. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Kurth was elected to the Harrison County Board of Supervisors in 2014.

The Red Oak Police Department reports no injuries after a two-vehicle collision in Red Oak on Tuesday morning. At 7:27am Officers responded to the accident at the intersection of North 5th Street and East Corning Street in Red Oak. After investigation it was determined that a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by 54-year-old Allen McCray Wilson of Red Oak was traveling westbound on East Corning Street when his vehicle was struck broadside by a 2013 Hyundai Elantra driven by 22-year-old Lee Orey Morrison of Emerson. Morrison failed to stop at the stop sign and was issued a citation for that along with a citation for No Insurance Accident Related. The Jeep sustained an estimated $2,000 damage and the Hyundai had an estimated $3,000 damage. Both drivers were wearing their seat belts and no injuries were reported.

The City of Massena’s Council Meeting is postponed to November 20th, 2017 at 7:00 P.M.

Officials say the state’s annual 157-million dollar investment in a teacher improvement program is paying dividends in teacher retention and job satisfaction, but student test scores are not yet rising. Ryan Wise, director of the Iowa Department of Education, says more than nine-thousand Iowa teachers are getting bonuses to serve as mentors or “coaches” to other teachers in their school district.

“Student achievement has been largely unchanged to this point,” Wise says. Wise says most educators see improvement in the professional environment in their school building and there are some gains in student test scores in individual school districts. “We think we’ve put in place all of the building blocks to increase student achievement, so teachers are collaborating more. They have higher quality professional learning. All of those things that lead to increases in improvement start with improvement in instruction and you ask teachers in almost every school in Iowa, they’re seeing those improvements in instruction that we know, over time, will lead to increases in (student) achievement.”

The state-funded teacher improvement program was phased in over three years. The 2016-2017 school year was the first time all 333 Iowa school districts were involved. Governor Kim Reynolds says during the last school year, there was a three percent gain in the number of students in kindergarten through third grade who met or surpassed reading proficiency goals.

“But, of course, like anything else, there is more work to do,” Reynolds says, “and our administration will continue to look for ways to ensure that teacher leadership and compensation is even more effective.” Reynolds has a daughter who teaches and she’s serving as a teacher coach this school year.

At the end of LAST school year, 85 percent of Iowa school districts said the program had helped retain teachers and attract new ones to their districts. Half of districts met their student achievement goals, according to the Iowa Department of Education. The American Institutes for Research found student scores on statewide assessment tests “remained largely unchanged” during the past three years.

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha child care provider accused of abusing a 4-year-old girl in her care has pleaded no contest. Television station WOWT reports that 59-year-old Lynn Rowe entered the plea Tuesday to the child abuse charge in Douglas County District Court. She faces up to three years in prison when she’s sentenced in January.

Police say the girl’s parents reported April 3 that Rowe had abused their daughter while the girl was at Rowe’s day care. Officials say the report was made after a worker at the day care recorded Rowe hitting the girl.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services shut down Lynn’s Learning Center shortly after Rowe’s arrest in April in Missouri Valley, Iowa.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Iowa DNR Conservation Officers have charged 31-year old Nicholas W. Slater, of Glendale, AZ, with deer poaching in Lake Manawa State Park. The incident allegedly happened November 19, 2016.

Slater faces the following charges in Iowa:

No valid non-resident deer license
No valid non-resident deer license (antlered or any sex)
Restrictions on taking game – illegal transportation of deer
Restrictions on taking game – illegal taking of deer
Restrictions on taking game – illegal possession of deer
Hunting on game refuge
No non-resident hunting license and habitat fee.

The total fines for Slater are $2,243.20, plus liquidated damages for an antlered deer scoring 150 points or less. A judge will determine the exact total of liquidated damages. The charges are part of a large, multi-state investigation that is ongoing.

Officers with the Red Oak Police Department were called to the Red Oak High School this (Tuesday) morning, after receiving word a students was acting out of control. Upon arrival and an investigation, a juvenile male was arrested for Disorderly Conduct and Simple Assault on a Teacher. There were no injuries reported following the assault. The youth was cited into Juvenile Court and released to their parent. The offender’s name was not released.

Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater, today (Tuesday), released his latest report on arrests.  Last Saturday night, 22-year old Dakota Dean Rosch, of Creston, was arrested on a warrant for Probation Violation. Rosch remains in the Adair County Jail. Last Friday afternoon, 38-year old Michael Ross Waddingham, of Orient, was arrested on warrants for two counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance/3rd or subsequent offense.

On November 1st, 32-year old Joseph Leonard LeClair, Jr., of Greenfield, was arrested by Greenfield Police on a warrant for Assault with bodily injury of mental illness. He was later released on bond. And, 25-year old Diego Ricardo Mazanarez, of Greenfield, was arrested Nov. 1st in the 2000 block of Highway 25 at around 9-p.m., for Driving While License Denied or Revoked for OWI. He was later released on bond.

And, on Oct. 30th, 48-year old Joseph Anthony Ford, of Council Bluffs, was arrested while walking in the 1900 block of Highway 25, in the center of the road. Authorities say he was holding an open bottle of alcohol. Ford was arrested for Public Intoxication, and Theft in the 5th Degree, for allegedly taking items from the home of a female in Greenfield, where he had previously stayed. The items were valued at less than $200. Ford was later released after time served.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported following an accident that occurred at around 1-p.m., Friday.  Sheriff Lyle Palmer said the accident happened about 6-miles east of Shenandoah, near the intersection of G Avenue and 220th Street. An investigation determined 89-year old Helen Loy Beach, of rural Shenandoah, was driving a 2015 Chevrolet Equinox SUV.  As she was turning east from G Avenue onto 220th Street, a white van coming from the East on 220th struck Beach’s SUV. The white van left the scene without its driver rendering aid or leaving any information. Beach was not injured. Her vehicle was not drive able and was towed from the scene.