The Iowa State Patrol is reporting another “extreme speed” incident. A trooper on Sunday clocked a vehicle on Interstate 80 near Council Bluffs going 115 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone. A picture of the radar reading and the car that was pulled over was posted by the Patrol to Facebook. Patrick Hoye, Chief of the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, says THAT motorist is not just putting their own life at risk – but many others on the road.

“When a driver is going that fast, there is just absolutely no reaction time for them to stop,” Hoye said. “They’re in and out of lanes…it’s an extremely dangerous situation.” Other motorists who spot another vehicle traveling at such an extreme speed are encouraged to safely report it to police. “What we ask citizens to do is pull over at the next exit, call the local sheriff’s department and alert them of that vehicle traveling at that extreme speed,” Hoye said.

“A lot of times, that’s how law enforcement is notified if there’s no officers in that area.” In recent months, the State Patrol has posted several photos of traffic stops on Iowa interstates involving vehicles clocked at speeds over 100 miles an hour.

(Radio Iowa)

An insurance brokerage based in Burlington recently agreed to pay a group of Iowa cities, counties and school districts over a million dollars to cover what the state insurance commissioner has classified as “deceptive” fees. But SOME local officials say they’re getting just a fraction of what they SHOULD be paid and they’d like to sue. Two Rivers Insurance has agreed to pay restitution to Winnebago County, for example, but County Supervisor Mike Stensrud, of Lake Mills, says the county actually overpaid Two Rivers by far, far more.

“I can definitively say that I will not go along with accepting the $5700 settlement,” Stensrud says. “I believe we can prove that we were bilked out of $85,000.” Stensrud is urging his fellow county supervisors to sue. “I believe that we should go after the loss that we incurred,” Stensrud says. Hancock County Supervisor Jerry Tlach, of Garner, says Hancock County paid the company more than 250-thousand dollars in brokerage fees that were disguised as premium costs, but Two Rivers has agreed to cut the county a check for just a quarter of that amount.

“We haven’t signed anything to say we’ll accept it yet or not,” Tlach says. “…This is the best deal the Iowa Insurance Division thought they could come up with.” Two Rivers Insurance sold Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance policies to local Iowa governments for more than 10-thousand employees statewide. In 2014, Wellmark informed regulators it had discovered Two Rivers was adding fees to what was described to customers as just the premiums.

Two Rivers denies wrongdoing, but in May the company agreed to pay the local goverments one-point-three million dollars. The president of Two Rivers told The Des Moines Register the brokerage still believes its “past practices were appropriate at the time,” but agreed to offer to pay restitution to end “what would be an extremely costly and burdensome legal process.” The settlement involves 15 counties, 12 Iowa cities and four school districts as well as the public library and public water utility in Council Bluffs.

These local governments formed a consortium to buy policies in a larger group. Many local officials involved have indicated they’ll accept the Two Rivers restititution because their counties, cities and schools were able to reduce insurance costs with lower group rates. The 33 local governments have until July 22nd to accept or reject the proposed restitution. Locally, the settlement involves the CITIES of Council Bluffs and Harlan, and the following COUNTIES: Guthrie, Monona, Pottawattamie and Union.

Here is a link to the insurance commissioner’s ruling and “Exhibit A” spells out how much Two Rivers is to pay to each of the local governments listed above.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Union County report a Creston woman was arrested last week on four Union County warrants. 45-year old Anita Ruth Michael was taken into custody on the warrants charging her with two counts each: Possession of controlled substance, and Possession of drug paraphernalia.  Michael was being held for Union County in the Ringgold County Jail on $2,600 bond.

Three male juveniles, ages 11, 9 and 7, face charges in connection with the destruction of playground equipment at the Odebolt-Arthur/BCIG School, Friday evening in Odebolt. The Sac County Sheriff’s Office reports Odebolt Firefighters were called to school located at 600 Maple Street, at around 5-p.m, Friday.

An investigation determined the juveniles were allegedly playing with lighters, and had set wood chips on fire underneath a plastic slide. The fire got out of control and quickly spread to the rest of the playground equipment. The damage was estimated to be between $70,000 and $80,000.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office has been called-in to assist in the investigation. The investigation is ongoing, and charges are pending.

At least one insurance company is having to bring in agents from out of state to handle all of the claims from severe weather that swept across Iowa last Thursday afternoon and evening. Hundreds of customers report damage to their homes and vehicles from large hail and high winds. Chris Pilcic, a spokesman for State Farm, says a few areas had tennis ball-sized hail and there’s damage from Shenandoah to Dubuque.

“It was really statewide, in different parts of the state geographically, though we are concentrating on some of the metro areas where we’ve had the most claim volume,” Pilcic says. “In addition to the local resources who’ve been working since the day of the storm, we’ve deployed more resources to those areas.” Those include: Des Moines, Cedar Falls, Waterloo and Davenport. The company’s claims specialists report a lot of roof damage, but also dented siding to homes and shattered windows, primarily from hail, but also from wind.

“Since the severe weather in Iowa, we’ve heard from over 1,000 customers reporting damage,” Pilcic says. “The majority of claims we’re hearing about thus far is to automobiles, over 600 claims have been filed. On the homeowners’ side, we’ve heard from nearly 500 customers reporting damage to their homes.” As of this (Monday) morning, State Farm reported a total of 11-hundred-10 hail claims in Iowa from last week’s storms. In all of last year, the company had 27-hundred hail claims in the state. Given the backlog of claims, some customers haven’t yet had a personal visit from their agent and Pilcic says you shouldn’t wait to take action to protect your property.

“If you have broken windows, if you’re missing shingles or there’s a hole in your roof, if there’s really significant damage, you can take steps to make temporary repairs,” Pilcic says. “If you buy tarps or plywood or even if you hire someone to make those temporary repairs, take pictures, save your receipts, save your invoices and tell your insurance company about it. That’s going to be covered by your homeowner’s insurance policy.” If you need to hire help to make repairs, he offers some advice: Don’t pay anything up front, get everything in writing, and get references and a physical business address of the contractor.

(Radio Iowa)

A Sac City man has been airlifted to a Sioux City hospital after falling from a bridge on Sunday afternoon. Sac County Sheriff Ken McClure reports deputies responded to the scene at approximately 5:30 p.m. on a report that a man had fallen into the Raccoon River from a bridge south of Sac City. When they arrived on the scene, they learned that 48-year-old Brad Blum was reported to be sitting on the railing when he fell backwards.

Sac County Emergency Medical Services transported Blum to Loring Hospital in Sac City and he was later airlifted out.

(Radio Iowa)

A fire caused heavy damage to a home in Sioux City this (Monday) morning. Fire Marshal Mark Aesoph says they were called out just before 9 a-m. “The first unit did go on scene and had heavy fire visible at the front of the structure,” Aesoph says. “There were 10 occupants in the home at the time of the fire, as well as several pets. He says the people in the home included the couple who rented it, some friends and six kids ranging in age from one to 12. All got out without any serious injuries.

He says a couple of people were looked at and did not appear to have any issues. Aesoph says the home did have working smoke alarms. Aesoph says the fire traveled quickly through the home and that’s why having smoke alarms is important. “Without that smoke alarm and the early warning to get moving, it could have been a very different situation,” Aesoph says. Investigators are still looking for the cause of the fire.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A spokesman for health care insurer Medica says it plans to sell insurance in Iowa next year and expects to make an announcement soon. Medica spokesman Larry Bussey confirmed Monday the company has preliminary plans to remain in Iowa but the company seeks clarity on how the Affordable Care Act exchange market in Iowa is going to function.

Iowa last week applied for a federal waiver to allow federal subsidies designed to lower costs for low-income and older participants to be used to entice younger people to buy insurance in hopes of keeping Medica and perhaps attracting others back to Iowa.

Medica is the only statewide insurer left in Iowa. State insurance officials feared the Minnesota-based company might also leave, causing 72,000 people to have no choice next year.

Montgomery County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Hamman, Monday, said the CodeRED system will be ending county-wide, later this month. Hamman said “For the past several years, Montgomery County has exclusively used CodeRED as our primary emergency mass notification system. In 2015, Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management launched Alert Iowa available to all 99 counties free of charge. With our service contract ending on June 30, 2017 with CodeRED, Montgomery County will switch all emergency mass notification messages along with severe weather alerts to the Montgomery County Alert Iowa system.”

Hammon said also, “To date, approximately 556 users have signed up for the Montgomery County Alert Iowa system and over 1,000 phone calls, text messages and emails receive these notifications. All current CodeRED users must opt in to the new system to continue receiving emergency and weather alerts.”

You can sign up with Montgomery County Alert Iowa by visiting www.montgomerycountyiowa.com/alertiowa or by calling the Montgomery Co EMA office at 712-623-3749.

Sheriff’s officials in Mills County said Monday (Today), 26-year old Laron D’Pree Hampton, of Glenwood, was arrested Friday morning at the Mills County Jail, on a warrant for Sexual Abuse in the 2nd degree/3rd offense. No other information was provided. His bond was set at $75,000.

Also arrested Friday morning, was 25-year old Justin Lewis Marsden, of Red Oak. He was already at the Montgomery County Jail when he was arrested on a warrant for Revoked Pre-trial Release. Bond was set at $12,000. And, 27-year old Million Jonathan Lee, of Emerson, was arrested Friday night for Domestic Abuse Assault. He was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond.

Saturday morning, Mills County Deputies arrested 43-year old Kimberly Michelle Streit, of Glenwood, for OWI/1stoffense. Her bond was set at $1,000. She was taken into custody following a traffic stop on Highway 34 at around 4-a.m., Saturday.

Sunday morning, 26-year old Lucas Craig Farmer, of Red Oak, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant for Arson in the 2nd degree. And, Sunday night, 40-year old Joseph Lee Hastie, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Driving Under Suspension.