(Radio Iowa) — There will be no merger between Iowa-based UnityPoint Health and South Dakota-based Sanford Health. Executives abruptly announced Tuesday that the merger which had been in the works since June was called off. A merger would have created one of the country’s largest non-profit health systems. UnityPoint is based in Des Moines.

UnityPoint’s president said after months of consideration, the two organizations decided it was best for each to maintain their existing structures. UnityPoint operates 32 hospitals and has relationships with 280 physicians clinics in Iowa, western Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Sanford is based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and operates 44 hospitals and more than 200 clinics.

Last year, Sanford merged with Good Samaritn, an elder care organization that operates in 26 states and nine other countries. UnityPoint’s roots date back to 1993, when Iowa Methodist and Lutheran Hospitals in Des Moines joined under the name Iowa Health System. The system was rebranded as UnityPoint in 2013.

(Radio Iowa) — The Storm Lake Post Office is temporarily closed to the public — due to a Sunday evening car wreck. Police observed that a motor vehicle was crashed into the front of the post office, damaging the lobby, doors and windows. The post office building sustained approximately $10,000.00 in damage and the vehicle approximately $6000.00 in damage.

There were no injuries. An investigation determined that the driver accidentally stepped on the vehicle’s accelerator instead of the brake.

(Radio Iowa) — After a recent survey found thousands of sexual assault evidence kits were left untested in Iowa, the state is launching a plan to keep close track of such rape kits in the future. Lynn Hicks, communications director for the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, says a sample-tracking software company is being hired to roll out its Track-Kit system to all regions of the state by mid-2020.

Hicks says, “Basically, it will follow the rape kits from the time a kit is at the medical facility or hospital and used in an exam, and then all the way through the final disposition of the case.” According to Hicks, the system will connect more than 12-hundred users at Iowa medical facilities, law enforcement agencies, crime laboratories, and county attorney’s offices.

“Most important, it will allow that sexual assault survivor to be able to get information on the status and location of the kit,” Hicks says, “so they would be able to follow it throughout the process.” A survey in 2017 by the Iowa Attorney General’s Crime Victim Assistance Division found more than 42-hundred untested rape kits in police departments and sheriff’s offices across Iowa. Efforts are being made, Hicks says, to tackle that backlog, but the new tracking system is also crucial.

“We think this is going to be a big step forward,” Hicks says. “This software will increase the accountability and transparency throughout the process and ultimately will empower survivors of sexual assault.” Of the 42-hundred untested rape kits found statewide, more than 16-hundred have been sent to private labs for testing.

From those, Hicks says 235 D-N-A profiles have been entered into CODIS, the FBI’s Combined D-N-A Index System. Of those, 127 were hits, or matches to D-N-A in the database, enabling the information to be forwarded on to prosecutors.

A deer that was crossing 160th Street in Union County, last week, tried to jump out of the way of an SUV, but instead hit the windshield and driver’s side of the vehicle. The Union County Sheriff’s Office said the accident happened last Thursday, at around 2:20-p.m., as 27-year old Steven Provost, of Decatur, was traveling east on 160th. In an e-mail to KJAN, Provost said Also he went to a hospital emergency room to have glass removed from his face. He said also, damage to his 2018 Jeep Compass was in excess of $5,000.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The adult daughter of an Iowa City man charged with killing his wife is included on a long list of potential prosecution witnesses. A court document released Tuesday formally charges 67-year-old Roy Browning Jr. with first-degree murder in the April 5 stabbing death of his wife, University of Iowa employee JoEllen Browning.

Witnesses listed on the document include one of the couple’s two adult children, Elizabeth Browning Adrianse of Des Moines. She said last month that she and her brother did not wish to comment on the arrest of their father, saying the family “needs time to heal.”

Other witnesses include several employees of the Iowa City Police Department and the Division of Criminal Investigation. Representatives of multiple banks are also listed. Investigators allege that Roy Browning killed his wife as she was in the process of discovering that he had hidden major financial problems. He stood to inherit $2 million in savings and life insurance upon her death.

Browning is being held at the Johnson County jail and is scheduled to be arraigned next week.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The remains of a Marine from Iowa will soon return to his home state 76 years after his death in World War II. The Defense Department used DNA from a niece to identify the remains of 18-year-old Pvt. Channing Whitaker, of Granger, Iowa. Whitaker died on Nov. 22, 1943 during the Battle of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands in the South Pacific.

This undated photo provided by the Department of Defense shows Marine Corps Pvt. Channing Whitaker. Whitaker’s remains will soon return to his home state of Iowa 76 years after his death in World War II. The Defense Department used DNA from a niece to identify the remains of 18-year-old Pvt. Whitaker, of Granger, Iowa. Whitaker died on Nov. 22, 1943 during the Battle of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands in the South Pacific. (Department of Defense via AP)

Whitaker’s niece Marla Brubaker tells KCCI it is a miracle that her DNA was able to identify Whitaker’s remains. Archeologists have been working since 2009 to dig up and identify the remains of soldiers who were buried in a previously undiscovered burial trench on the Gilbert Islands.

Whitaker’s family will hold a funeral with full military honors in Des Moines on Nov. 22.