DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Department of Human Services officials say they are temporarily withholding nearly $44 million in payments for this month to one of the management companies overseeing the state’s Medicaid program. Iowa DHS spokesman Matt Highland says in a statement Friday the agency has informed Iowa Total Care of the penalty for several compliance issues.

They include unpaid claims, inaccurate claims payments, problems with pricing methods and pharmacy dispensing fees. Highland says the money will be released to the company once the problems are resolved. The withheld amount represents about 26% of the nearly $170 million that would be due the company.

LECLAIRE, Iowa (AP) — A train derailment has sent at least a dozen rail cars and tankers off their tracks in downtown LeClaire. The derailment forced police to shut down a nearby highway and send a hazardous materials team to the site. The derailment happened Friday morning along U.S. Highway 67, just a couple of hundred feet from the banks of the Mississippi River. Police closed the highway in both directions and asked people to avoid the area. Scott County Emergency Management planner Brian Payne says the derailment involved a Canadian Pacific train and that a hazmat team had been sent to the scene. Payne said no injuries had been reported.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) —  A group that insures local governments across Iowa is going to court to try to block the state auditor from reviewing its spending, including travel to out-of-state vacation destinations. The Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP), which is owned by cities, counties and other governments, argues in a legal petition that it is not a “governmental subdivision” and that State Auditor Rob Sand has no authority to examine its finances. Sand’s office began reviewing the pool’s spending in October after The Associated Press reported that its directors have routinely held public meetings at vacation resorts in Florida every February and Michigan every August.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court says names of car owners ticketed by automated speed cameras are not public records. The court considered a lawsuit filed by former Ottumwa police sergeant Mark Milligan who was ticketed in 2016 driving a city-owned car. He filed an open records request for names of car owners caught on camera and ticketed and those not ticketed. Officials driving government cars often aren’t ticketed. The city denied his request, but a judge ordered their release. The city appealed. The supreme court concluded Friday that speed camera tickets are city citations not filed in court and therefore aren’t public record.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — A credit union manager has been accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a branch he managed in Ames. Henry Hill is jailed on charges of fraudulent practice and theft. His attorney declined to comment Friday. Court records say Hill went to police and told officers that he’d stolen an estimated $250,000 from his Greater Iowa Credit Union branch vault over seven years. An audit found the vault and some accounts were short nearly $431,000. Station KCCI reports that Hill told police he came forward after the credit union brought in a new compliance officer who planned to conduct cash accounts.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa officer is helping equip a six-member police force on an island in the Bering Sea more than 3,400 miles away. Davenport Officer Peme Canas pledged his support to the officers in Savoonga, Alaska, after learning they had no sidearms or other gear to protect the nearly 700 residents of the St. Lawrence Island community. He reached out to fellow officers and others for help. Now bulletproof vests, stun guns, police badges and other gear are on the way. Canas says he knows the officers in Savoonga will be moved by the kindness of people they will never meet.