AMES, Iowa (AP) — A state audit is questioning Iowa State University’s use of donations to buy an airplane used largely by former President Steven Leath to work on his piloting skills. A report released Tuesday says the school failed to get required written permission from the executive director of the Board of Regents for the $498,000 purchase. It says Iowa State should consider requesting reimbursement from Leath, now the president of Auburn University, for a March 2016 trip in which he was flown to his North Carolina home.

The report notes that 52 of 76 trips on the aircraft were used for Leath to obtain his instrument rating. Given its limited use for “clear business” reasons, the audit questions whether the purchase served a university purpose. The university is defending the purchase, saying the plane facilitated Leath’s fundraising activities.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports that sometime between Oct. 11th and 18th, someone stole 37 bridge planks from the Union County Secondary Roads’ storage lot, located at 1701 Commerce Road. The planks were valued at $2,368. Anyone with information about the crime should call the Union County Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office reports also, an Adair County man escaped injury after he swerved to miss a deer and his pickup went into a ditch. 49-year old Rodney Wayne Carroll, of Greenfield, was traveling south on Highway 25 at around 7:30-a.m. today (Tuesday), when several deer came out of a ditch and crossed the road in front of him. Carroll’s 2017 Ford F-150 Supercrew pickup sustained $3,000 damage during the accident.

Now that Iowa’s abandoned its so-called stop-gap effort to cut health insurance premium costs, both of Iowa’s U.S. senators are among the dozen Republicans supporting a bipartisan bid in the Senate to prop up the nation’s ailing individual insurance market. Senator Joni Ernst says the bill will hopefully limit 2018 premium increases for 72-thousand Iowans who buy individual health insurance policies. “I am willing to look at whatever is presented to find a pathway forward for Iowans. We are running out of time. There is no doubt about it,” Ernst said. “…I do understand the frustrations that exist out there and, believe me, that’s why I am trying to get a bipartisan plan through. Hopefully it will provide some sort relief for those Iowans.”

Ernst made her comments during a weekend appearance on Iowa Public Television. Today (Tuesday), during a conference call with Iowa reporters, Senator Chuck Grassley said the plan would accomplish two major things. Grassley says, “One would legally put money into the insurance companies to lower premiums for people that are under the poverty level by 250% and give them help with co-pays and high deductibles.” There are tens of thousands of people just in Iowa, Grassley says, who could use this financial boost to pay for their health insurance premiums. “That is something that Obama did but the courts said he didn’t have the authority to do it,” Grassley says. “The president wants to abide by the law that he took an oath to uphold so he’s not going to continue what Obama did because the courts said it was illegal so he wants Congress to enact this.”

The other main goal of the legislation, according to Grassley, is to make it easier for states to get a waiver from the federal government, something Iowa was just forced to table. Grassley, Ernst and 10 other Republicans, along with a dozen Democrats, are backing the bill. Ernst calls it a “short term fix.” “Which isn’t a perfect plan, but it allows the states greater flexibility. It allows those co-sharing payments to continue,” Ernst said. “We have to look beyond that and that means we are going to have to work on finding a much more long-term, permanent solution.”

Earlier this month, President Trump announced the end of cost-sharing payments to insurance companies. The payments are part of the Affordable Care Act, designed to cover some of the costs of insurance policies for the sickest Americans. Trump has given mixed signals about the bipartisan bill pending in the Senate that would continue those payments, but Ernst says Trump is likely to sign it if Congress can pass it. And she says the bill will hopefully limit 2018 premium increases for 72-thousand Iowans who buy individual health insurance policies.

(Radio Iowa)

CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say firefighters from at least eight departments responded to a blaze that heavily damaged a building at an egg facility on the west side of Charles City in northern Iowa. Firetrucks were dispatched a little before 5 p.m. Monday, and their crews remained at the Zoetis facility until nearly 11 p.m. One firefighter suffered a minor leg injury. Zoetis spokesman Bill Price said Tuesday from the company headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey, that no employees of the animal health company were injured.

He says several thousand chickens that produced eggs for vaccine manufacture were killed. Price also says the fire cause is still being investigated.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports four recent arrests. Authorities say 32-year old Jacob Ryan Jones, of Glenwood, and 27-year old Jennifer Lea Neal, a homeless person, were arrested Oct. 20th and 23rd respectively, on warrants for Probation Violation. Neal was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail. Jones’ bond was set at $300, while Neal’s bond was set at $5,000. And, 22-year old Destiny Nikole Smith, of Malvern, was arrested Oct. 20th on a warrant out of Council Bluffs with regard to Child Endangerment, and for Violation of Probation. Her bond was set at $7,000.

40-year old Michael Raymond Carver, of Glenwood, was arrested by Mills County Deputies on Oct. 19th, for Driving Under Suspension and No SR-22 Insurance. His bond was set at $1,300.

Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers reports an arrest has been made in connection with a stabbing incident that occurred during the early morning hours of Saturday, October 21st at 11th & Chestnut Streets, in Clarinda. The Chief says that at around 10:30-p.m., Monday, Clarinda Police Officers arrested 40-year old Jasen Lee Bebout, of Bedford, on arrest warrants for felony willful injury and assault while participating in a felony. Bebout was arrested in the 800 block of W. Tarkio St. after a short foot pursuit.

Jason Lee Bebout

He was being held in the Page County Jail on $10,000 cash only bond. Authorities say Bebout allegedly stabbed 39-year old Monty Casteel Jr., of Clarinda, multiple times during an altercation. Police reports have been submitted to the offices of Page County Attorney Carl M. Sonksen for review regarding the filing of formal charges.

A Union County man was arrested Monday morning in Adams County, on a Theft charge. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office says 22-year old Dakota Dean Rosch, of Creston, was arrested when he went to return an item he allegedly stole. Authorities say at around 10:45-a.m. Monday, Rosch backed his pickup up to another pickup in a corn field, and loaded a John Deere tool box worth $4,000 into his truck. The owner of the tool box saw Rosch leaving the field. A call was placed to Rosch, who agreed to meet the owner in Prescott to return the tool box. He was taken into custody after doing so.

Rosch was being held in the Adams County Jail on a $5,000 bond.