Latest Iowa Headlines

All the headlines from our Iowa Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Big Iowa Health Insurer Unsure About Exchange

Sep 1 2011 // A leading Iowa health insurer isn’t sure yet whether it will participate in the state’s planned insurance exchange. The exchanges are expected to be a key part of the national health care overhaul. Some people...

No Punitive Damages After Wrongdoer’s Death, Iowa Supreme Court Affirms

Aug 22 2011 // Punitive damages may not be recovered from the estate of a “wrongdoer,” the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled. The Court’s decision in a case involving a damage dispute between rural land owners upholds a...

Pipeline Leaks into Missouri River in Iowa

Aug 15 2011 // A leak in a natural gas liquids pipeline operated by Enterprise Products Partners spilled fuel into the Missouri River in Iowa, the company said Monday. The leak was on the Iowa side of Enterprise’s Conway North line...

Iowa Gov. Branstad Seeks Presidential Disaster Declaration

Aug 12 2011 // Gov. Terry Branstad has asked President Barack Obama for a major disaster declaration or Dubuque and Jackson counties after storms dumped more than a foot of rain late last month in Iowa. Branstad on Wednesday requested a...

Iowa Warns Farmers on Deadly Livestock Accidents

Aug 10 2011 // Deadly livestock-related accidents in Iowa are not that unusual, so farmers need to be cautious and have an escape route, a workplace safety expert said. John Lundell of the University of Iowa Prevention Research Center...

Teachers in Iowa School District Get Pay Cut

Aug 9 2011 // Teachers in the Charles City School District in Iowa will get a pay cut under their new contract. Superintendent Andy Pattee told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier that teacher salaries will be about $221 less this year and...

University of Iowa Tests Flood Wall for Art Building

Aug 8 2011 // University of Iowa officials say they’re pleased with how a temporary flood wall held up during a test. The flood wall was erected outside of Art Building West on the Iowa City campus. The building was heavily...

Iowa Health Insurance Review Process OK’d

Aug 2 2011 // Federal officials have approved Iowa’s process for external review of health insurance providers as established under the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified the Iowa...

Iowa Governor Vetoes $5 Million Package for Lake Delhi Dam

Jul 29 2011 // Lake Delhi, Iowa, community leaders say they’re shocked and disappointed over Gov. Terry Branstad’s veto of a $5 million assistance package after flood waters destroyed the dam and recreational lake on the...

Iowa Receives Federal Waiver for Medical Loss Ratio Implementation

Jul 28 2011 // Iowa has received a waiver allowing an adjustment to some transitional Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act in Iowa. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) granted the waiver...

Feds to Review Iowa Health Insurance Rates

Jul 28 2011 // Federal officials say they intend to conduct their own review of Iowa’s health insurance rates because the state’s review of rates is insufficient. The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa is one of 10 states...

Iowa Pays $180,000 to Working Mom Fired by State

Jul 27 2011 // The state has agreed to pay $180,000 to settle the claim of a state worker who was fired after her supervisor expressed skepticism that working mothers can handle high-pressure jobs. That supervisor, Roya Stanley, resigned...

Iowa Insurers Get More Time on New Health Law Medical Care Requirements

Jul 25 2011 // Iowa insurance companies have been given more time to comply with a new federal rule designed to curb insurers’ profits. The regulation that went into effect this year calls for insurance companies to spend at least...

Iowa Governor Proposes Downstream Missouri River Group

Jul 8 2011 // Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has urged governors in three states to consider pulling out of a Missouri River association because of the Army Corps of Engineers’ long-term management of the river and what he believes is a...

Demolition of Flooded Homes on Iowa Island Begins

Jul 7 2011 // Contractors have started tearing down homes damaged in 2008 by flooding on San Souci Island in Waterloo, Iowa. Twenty houses in the island were turned over to the city in a $4 million buyout program authorized by the...

Flooded Missouri River Threatens Tributaries, Downstream Towns

Jul 6 2011 // In a season of flooding by some of the nation’s biggest rivers, it’s streams most Americans have never heard of that could cause some of the worst problems in the Midwest. Hundreds of tributaries that feed the...

Missouri River Levee Fails in Southwest Iowa

Jul 1 2011 // A Missouri River levee failed near Percival in southwest Iowa on June 30, the National Weather Service said. The breach, about a mile northwest of the town in Fremont County, had grown to about 200-yards-wide by 9 a.m.,...

People

Jun 20 2011 // Iowa-based United Fire & Casualty Co. announced new executive appointments and the election of four new directors for full terms on its 12-member board. Denver Regional Office Underwriting Manager Jolene Grow was...

Crews Racing Floodwaters to Build Up Iowa Levee

Jun 15 2011 // Crews in Hamburg, Iowa, were busy June 14 building up a secondary barrier to protect the small Iowa town after the swollen Missouri River punched a massive hole in the main levee. The river ruptured two levees in northwest...

Insurance Companies to Pay $50K Penalty to Iowa

Jun 7 2011 // Allied Property and Casualty Insurance and six affiliated companies have agreed to pay a $50,000 penalty to the state of Iowa for overcharging on more than 1,700 Iowa auto insurance policies. The Gazette said that coding...