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Iowa official pitches stopgap health insurance measure

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s insurance commissioner is proposing a plan he thinks could keep Iowa from becoming the first state to lose all of the health insurance carriers offering policies on the Affordable Care Act exchange next year.

Doug Ommen says he traveled to Washington last week with officials from two major Iowa insurance carriers to pitch a proposal to federal officials that would save the Iowa market from collapsing.

Minnesota-based Medica is the only remaining statewide insurer on the exchange and has said it will drop out if changes aren’t made.

Ommen’s plan reallocates federal subsidies currently used to lower costs for older participants to entice younger people into the insurance market. It also uses federal reinsurance dollars to help insurers absorb high-cost claims.

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield has committed to selling insurance in all 99 Iowa counties next year if the plan is approved.

Without approval, Ommen says Medica will drop out and 72,000 Iowa residents will be uninsured next year.

Programmer to plead guilty in Iowa, Wisconsin

Eddie Tipton

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors will ask for 25 years in prison for a lottery computer programmer who’s admitting to rigging jackpots in multiple states.

A plea agreement released Monday shows former Multi-State Lottery Association security director Eddie Tipton has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges in Iowa and Wisconsin. Prosecutors will seek a 25-year term for him in Iowa.

The document says his brother, Tommy Tipton, will plead guilty to theft charges in Iowa. The brother has agreed to recommend that he serve 75 days in jail.

The document calls for the brothers to pay back a total of $3 million in lottery winnings that were linked to rigged drawings in Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Kansas. They’ve also agreed to tell investigators “all facts related, directly or indirectly, to their actions to fix, win and claim lottery jackpots.”

Tyson recalls nearly 2.5M pounds of chicken products

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Tyson Foods is recalling nearly 2.5 million pounds (1.1 million kilograms) of ready-to-eat breaded chicken due to an unlabeled allergen.

The company, based in Springdale, Arkansas, says the recall was made after it was notified June 6 by a supplier that the bread crumbs Tyson received could contain milk.

According to Tyson, the recall is limited to food-service customers and the products are not available for purchase in retail stores. Company spokeswoman Caroline Ahn says the meat was shipped to 30 states.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says Tyson’s records show schools have purchased products through the company’s commercial channels.

There have been no confirmed reports of illness due to the products.

Missouri takes step toward compliance with federal ID law

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has signed a bill aimed at averting a scenario in which Missouri residents could have been turned away at airports for lack of valid identification.

The legislation signed Monday will give residents the option to get driver’s licenses or other identification cards that comply with the federal Real ID Act.

Compliance with the tougher proof-of-identity requirements is necessary at airports, some federal facilities and military bases. The federal government has said Missouri licenses won’t be valid at airports in 2018 if they’re not compliant.

But some lawmakers have raised concerns about privacy over the federal law’s requirement that states retain license personal documents, such as birth certificates. Missouri lawmakers banned state compliance with Real ID in 2009.

The new law undoes that. It takes effect immediately.

Missouri sued over psychotropic drugs for foster care kids

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is being sued over allegations of inappropriately providing psychotropic drugs to foster care children.

Two national child advocacy groups and Saint Louis University School of Law Legal Clinics filed the federal lawsuit Monday against the state Department of Social Services on behalf of several children currently or formerly in foster care.

The legal clinic, National Center for Youth Law and the organization Children’s Rights say this is the first class-action lawsuit that focuses only on psychotropic drugs given to foster children.

The lawsuit claims Missouri failed to make sure foster children receive the drugs safely and only when necessary. It says the state lacks adequate oversight of prescriptions for those youths.

The Missouri attorney general’s office didn’t immediately comment Monday.

University to more strictly enforce freshmen housing policy

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri plans to increase enforcement of a housing policy that requires first-time freshmen to live on campus.

The proposal is part of a budget plan approved last week by University of Missouri system President Mun Choi. The proposal says the Division of Student Affairs could generate $750,000 by more strictly enforcing the policy.

A 10-story apartment tower with 430 beds, called The Rise, is under construction in Columbia. The Columbia Daily Tribune reports it is advertising that it will pay freshmen to break the dorm contract, saying living in the dorms is not a requirement.

Leasing agent James Holloway says a few freshmen have already accepted the offer.

Campus spokesman Christian Basi says first-time students are generally required to live in dorms, with some exceptions.

Trump’s budget would cost Iowa $100M in federal funds

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa could see more than $100 million cut from federal grants that would reduce finances for early education, job training and low-income assistance.

The budget proposal by President Donald Trump was analyzed in new documents from a nonpartisan state agency that highlight Trump’s suggested elimination of several block grants for the state.

While Trump’s suggested cuts face an uphill battle in Congress, Iowa could be responsible for offsetting federal reductions as early as October or allowing programs to end.

Bill Brand, a division administrator for an energy efficiency program in low-income homes, says while he hopes some of the programs are saved, it cannot be assumed that funding will continue.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Kim Reynolds says the office will work with federal partners to ensure funding priorities are met.

Many Kansas lawmakers see school funding work as incomplete

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Many Kansas legislators see their work toward complying with a state Supreme Court mandate on public school funding as unfinished.

They take that view even though lawmakers passed a bill last week that phases in a $293 million increase in spending over two years.

Some expect to be forced to return to the Statehouse this summer.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has until June 19 to act on the school funding bill and he and his aides haven’t hinted at his plans.

If it becomes law, the Supreme Court still must review it.

The justices ruled in March that the state’s current education funding of about $4 billion a year is inadequate. Even lawmakers who support the new plan fear at least parts of it won’t satisfy the court.

Texas-to-Kansas passenger train service eyed by officials

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Amtrak and BNSF Railway officials are gauging interest in passenger train service between Texas and Kansas.

Joe McHugh, an Amtrak vice president, tells the Topeka Capital-Journal that there are many steps needed to establish passenger train service between the states. But he says there has been tremendous interest from people in southern and eastern Kansas in having such service.

A special inspection trip from Fort Worth to Kansas City, Missouri, this past week afforded Amtrak and BNSF Railway officials an opportunity to see what a new route following the Interstate 35 corridor might look like.

About two dozen people gathered on the platform at Topeka’s station Friday afternoon to meet the special train.

Body of teen pulled from eastern Kansas lake

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Rescue teams have found the body of a 17-year-old boy who drowned in a small eastern Kansas lake.

The Kansas City Star reports that the teen was swimming in the Pierson Park lake early Sunday with friends when he disappeared beneath the water.

The other three teens called authorities around 2 a.m. Sunday to report the boy missing, and rescue crews began a search.

The boy’s body was found and removed from the lake around 2 p.m. Sunday. The teen’s name has not been released.

Capt. David Thaxton of the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office says the teen’s friends heard him cry out for help but couldn’t find him in the dark. They swam ashore and called for help.

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