DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Health insurance company Medica says it will offer insurance plans statewide in Iowa again next year through the Affordable Care Act exchange. The Minnesota-based company also says it will expand insurance offering for many Iowans.

Geoff Bartsch, the company’s general manager of family and individual business says the company is excited to stay in the market and to expand product choices.
Medica was the only statewide carrier in Iowa last year. Bartsch says this year the company will offer more choices and more network options in some areas of the state.

Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield has said it also plans to return to the Iowa individual market in 2019. Friday is the deadline for companies planning to offer ACA policies next year to file plans.

KOSCIUSKO, Miss. (AP) — A couple linked to a string of robberies and carjackings in Florida and other crimes in Arkansas, Iowa and Illinois has been found in Mississippi after a car wreck. Kosciusko police thought they were responding to a simple accident Wednesday night but found it was more than that.

Chief Herbert Drew tells The Clarion Ledger there was no tag on the car. Further investigation found the car had been stolen in Arkansas. Then, Drew says, police began getting related alerts to look out for suspects Lessie Earl Proctor and Annastasia Coenen. Coenen was hurt in the wreck and taken to an area hospital.

Authorities found Proctor early Thursday. He faces charges including possession of stolen property and weapon possession by a felon. Drew says Coenen has not been charged.

A Holy Cross woman is facing charges for driving drunk with her children riding ON the car. Dubuque County Sheriff’s deputies went to a parking lot in Holy Cross on Monday night after witnesses reported a woman was driving in and out of the lot with children on the trunk of her car.

The arrest report shows 36-year-old Casey Keeley admitted to letting her kids ride on the trunk and a breath test placed her blood alcohol content at 0.121. She’s charged with second-offense OWI, two counts of child endangerment, and driving with a suspended license.

(Radio Iowa)

NEW HAMPTON, Iowa (AP) — The trial of an Iowa father charged in the death of his infant son will be moved from Chickasaw County to Henry County. The Courier reports that a judge on Thursday ordered the change of venue after defense attorneys for 28-year-old Zachary Paul Koehn argued he couldn’t get a fair trial in Chickasaw County because of pretrial publicity.

The trial will be held in the Henry County Courthouse in Mount Pleasant, about 50 miles south of Iowa City. Koehn’s trial is set for Oct. 29. Police say officers found the maggot-infested body of 4-month-old Sterling Koehn in an infant swing.

Koehn and the baby’s mother, Cheyanne Harris, have pleaded not guilty to murder and related charges. They’re having separate trials.

(Updated) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s record-breaking astronaut, Peggy Whitson, retired Friday less than a year after returning from her last and longest spaceflight. She’s spent more time off the planet than any other American: 665 days over three space station missions. She’s also the world’s most experienced female spacewalker, with 10 under her spacesuit belt.

Whitson — a native of Beaconsfield in Ringgold County — was the first woman to command the International Space Station, holding the position twice, and the oldest woman ever to fly in space. She was also the only woman to have served as chief of NASA’s male-dominated astronaut corps. Fellow astronauts called her a “space ninja.”

“It’s been the greatest honor to live out my lifelong dream of being a @NASA Astronaut,” Whitson said via Twitter, thanking “all who have supported me along the way. As I reminisce on my many treasured memories, it’s safe to say my journey at NASA has been out of this world!”

The 58-year-old biochemist, who grew up on an Iowa hog farm, joined NASA as a researcher in 1986 and became an astronaut in 1996. Her last spaceflight, spanning 2016 and 2017, lasted close to 10 months. Only Russian men have spent more time in space: Gennady Padalka holds the record with 879 days over five missions.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called Whitson an inspiration, citing her determination and dedication to science, exploration and discovery. “She set the highest standards for human spaceflight operations,” Brian Kelly, director of flight operations at Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement, “as well as being an outstanding role model for women and men in America and across the globe.”

Before leaving the space station last September, Whitson said she would miss the orbiting outpost — an “awe-inspiring creation” — and the views from 250 miles up. “I will miss seeing the enchantingly peaceful limb of our Earth from this vantage point. Until the end of my days, my eyes will search the horizon to see that curve,” she said.

A semi tractor-trailer driven by a Cass County man struck traffic lights in Red Oak, Thursday afternoon. Red Oak Police say a 2000 Kenworth semi hauling a grain trailer and driven by 22-year old Jordan Michael Bazer, of Griswold, was making a turn from N. Broadway onto W. Oak Street in Red Oak at around 4:15-p.m., Thursday, when Bazer cut the turn too sharp. The grain trailer struck a set of City of Red Oak traffic lights, causing $5,000 damage to the light. The light pole was not damaged, however. The grain trailer sustained an estimated $3,000 damage.

No citations were issued, and no injuries were reported.

(Updated) ONAWA, Iowa (AP) — Drag racing has begun at a former western Iowa airport following the site’s $2 million transformation. Nearly 200 racers and 600 spectators gathered at the Onawa Racing and Events Complex last weekend for its opening, the Sioux City Journal reported . The city closed the seldom-used Onawa Municipal Airport two years ago and transformed it into a racing complex.

“We drew races from four to five states,” said Phil Schroder, of the OREC. “We had people staying in campers out here, people staying in local motel.”

The new facility’s concrete strip can host races of 1,000 feet, one-eighth mile and one-quarter mile. A $400,000 event center is equipped to run the facility’s concessions and will soon host other events, such as concerts and reunions.

Schroder said the complex will eventually pay up to $60,000 in property taxes. The facility is also bringing more people to town, which should increase the area’s sales tax revenue, he said.

Junior drag racers are welcome this weekend and the facility will host old-style drag races, where cars have flag starts, said Ron Conner, the site’s racing manager. Races on Saturday and Sunday will also include a testing portion, where racers can run the track multiple times to get calibrated.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled for the first time that workers under union contract with the state may sue for wrongful discharge if they’re fired for retaliation or other improper reasons. The decision came today (Friday) in a lawsuit filed in 2015 by former Iowa Workforce Development judge Susan Ackerman. Her claims included that former IWD Director Teresa Wahlert and other agency leaders defamed her, caused her emotional distress and breached her contract.

The court’s ruling overturns a judge’s dismissal of the wrongful discharge portion of her case and allows her lawsuit to go forward in district court. The supreme court, in a separate case, also says former Workforce Development judge Joseph Walsh, who led the agency’s unemployment appeals bureau, can proceed with his whistleblower and wrongful discharge lawsuit filed in April 2014. A third IWD judge, Marlon Mormann, had sued for age discrimination but the court upheld his lawsuit dismissal.

A woman attempting to visit an inmate at the Pottawattamie County Jail, Thursday afternoon, was arrested on a warrant. 30-year old Jerica Jean Moore, of Council Bluffs, was arrested in the Sheriff’s Office parking lot on the warrant for Violation of Probation. She was then booked into the Pott. County Jail. A Council Bluffs women appeared at the Pott. County Sheriff’s Office Thursday afternoon, wanting to turn herself-in on a warrant. The Violation of Probation warrant for 44-year old Kimberly Sue Trotter was confirmed. She was placed under arrest and turned over to Corrections Staff.

And, Thursday night, a Pott. County Sheriff’s Deputy assisted an Iowa State Patrol Trooper with a traffic stop at the 67 Mile Marker of Interstate 29. A passenger in the vehicle identified as 25-year old Marcus Craddock, of Omaha, had an outstanding arrest warrant out of Council Bluffs for theft 5th. The warrant was verified through Communications, and he was placed under arrest before being transported to the Pottawattamie County Jail where he was read his warrant and turned over to detention staff.