Latest Iowa Headlines
All the headlines from our Iowa Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Official: 250 Iowa Jobs Lost After Peregrine Financial Collapse
Jul 19 2012 // A state official says that up to 250 employees in northeastern Iowa lost their jobs following the collapse of a financial empire owned by a businessman arrested in connection with a $200 million fraud scheme. Iowa...
Worst Midwest Drought Since 1956 Expanding North, West
Jul 17 2012 // An expanding U.S. drought, now deemed the worst since 1956, dealt another blow to the corn crop, with conditions deteriorating for a second straight week in the world’s top exporter of the grain, U.S. government data...
PFGBest Broker Scandal Leads to Calls for Insurance for Grain Trade
Jul 12 2012 // The largest U.S. grain trade group was stunned by the latest scandal to hit the futures industry when Iowa-based brokerage PFGBest collapsed after regulators accused the firm of misappropriating customer funds. “Even...
Corn Belt Fears Large Crop Loss from Heat Wave, Drought Conditions
Jul 9 2012 // Fears are rising that grain crops in the core of the U.S. Corn Belt – the top corn-producing region in the world – will suffer big losses that are already causing farmers to plow up fields in other regions of...
Iowa to Pay $3.75M for Boy’s Injuries
Jul 6 2012 // Iowa has agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed negligence by University of Iowa hospital employees during a birth that caused a baby to have brain injuries that left him severely retarded, newly...
People – Midwest
Jul 2 2012 // R&R Insurance Services Inc. in Waukesha, Wis., has appointed David Lancaster vice president of Employee Benefits. Lancaster has more than 25 years of insurance industry experience. Prior to R&R, he worked for...
Iowa Court Backs $1.2M Fine Over Disabled Workers’ Pay
Jun 29 2012 // A court is upholding a $1.2 million state fine for labor violations committed by a Texas labor broker who underpaid dozens of mentally disabled workers at an Iowa turkey processing plant. The Iowa Court of Appeals rejected...
Drought Brings Back Memories of 1988 Crop Losses
Jun 29 2012 // Just one year ago Jeff Scates saw the worst flooding on his southern Illinois farmland since 1937. Today, Scates is watching his corn fields shrivel from the driest season in 24 years. “We’ve gone from one...
Nebraska Construction Company Owner Sentenced for Wire, Insurance Fraud
Jun 26 2012 // A Fremont, Neb., man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for a wire fraud conviction that cost banks and insurance companies in Nebraska and Iowa millions of dollars. Thomas Herink was sentenced in...
Gerhart Appointed to Iowa Insurance Commissioner Post
Jun 18 2012 // Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has name an executive with a West Des Moines financial group as the state’s new insurance commissioner. Thirty-seven-year-old Nick Gerhart, of Des Moines, will replace Susan Voss, who is...
People – midwest
Jun 18 2012 // The board of directors of Iowa Mutual Insurance Co., in DeWitt, Iowa, has elected Drew Bright president. Bright is the 10th president of the company in its more than 100-year history. He succeeds Thomas R. Cole, who...
Experts Question Iowa City Landfill Fire Coverage
Jun 13 2012 // Iowa City’s insurance may not cover the damage done in the landfill fire that’s been burning since May 26. At least two insurance experts told The Gazette that the city could be on the hook for the estimated $4...
Iowa Landfill Blaze Produces Diesel-Like Byproduct
Jun 8 2012 // A days-long fire at the Iowa City Landfill has created a combustible substance that officials are sending to western Nebraska for incineration. The Iowa City Press-Citizen said that the pyrolytic oil is a byproduct of the...
Judge Orders Iowa Contractor to Repay Customers
Jun 7 2012 // A Polk County, Iowa, judge ordered a West Des Moines contracting company to reimburse dozens of customers more than $160,000, barred the company and its owners from future residential contracting business, and restricted...
Feet of Sand Leave Midwest Farms Wasteland After Flooding
Jun 5 2012 // Mason Hansen guns his pickup and cranks the steering wheel to spin through sand up to 4 feet high, but this is no day at the beach. Hanson once grew corn and soybeans in the sandy wasteland in western Iowa, and his...
The Cost of Duplicate Regulation
May 21 2012 // Multistate Regulation Hikes Commercial Insurers’ Expenses and Premiums by 26% Buyers of commercial liability insurance pay on average 26 percent more in insurer expenses if their insurance company has to comply with...
People – Midwest
May 21 2012 // Hastings, Mich.-based property/casualty insurance carrier Hastings Mutual Insurance Co., announced the retirement of CEO and President Bill Wallace. Wallace has served as CEO of Hastings Mutual for 14 years. He also served...
The Industry’s Role in Cutting Down Crooked Contractors
May 17 2012 // Approximately one year ago, on Sunday, May 22 at about 5:30 p.m., Joplin, Mo. was devastated by a massive EF 5 tornado that at times was one mile wide and traveled on the ground for more than 20 miles. This storm,...
County in Iowa Warns Residents of Records Breach
May 14 2012 // Some 3,000 Warren County, Iowa, residents have been notified that their personal information may have been scattered by the wind in the aftermath of a December fire at a human services office. Pat Penning, service area...
Cost of Liability Insurance Leads to Closing of Small Iowa Airport
May 14 2012 // The grass-strip McBride Airport has closed nearly 50 years after it was carved out of an eastern Iowa farm field. Ivan McBride told The Gazette it’s difficult to close the tiny airport in Marion that his late father...
