Jeneary and Carlin Announce Saturday Town Hall Meetings
(Des Moines) — Republican state lawmakers Dr. Tom Jeneary and Jim Carlin have announced they will hold two town hall meetings scheduled for Saturday morning. The legislators will be at the Kissenger Community Hall in Merrill beginning at 9:00 a.m. and the second town hall meeting will be at 11:00
a.m. at 3 Sisters Bistro at Remsen. The town hall meetings are open to the public. The legislators will discuss the issues and bills facing the state legislature.
State Senate Considers Bill That Would Require Medicare Patients To Work
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa Senate subcommittee has advanced a bill that would require tens of thousands of Medicaid recipients to work to keep their benefits.
Medicaid is a health insurance program for poor or disabled people paid for with federal and state money. Among those covered in Iowa are 172,000 adults living in poverty who were added to the program as part of a health care insurance expansion enabled by the Affordable Care Act.
Republican Sen. Jason Schultz says there’s a “groundswell of
support” for a work requirement in his northwest Iowa district.
State officials say about 60,000 people could be affected by the
bill, which requires recipients to work or volunteer at least 20 hours per week.
Opponents say it could kick people off Medicaid who must stay home, such as to care for a parent with Alzheimer’s.
The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation says seven other states have similar laws, including Arkansas where 18,000 Medicaid recipients were kicked off their health insurance after last year’s enactment of the law.
Polk County Residents Approve A Sales Tax Increase
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Voters in Des Moines and five other Polk County cities have approved raising the sales tax to 7 cents from 6 cents on the dollar spent.
More than 70 percent of Des Moines voters said yes to the measure Tuesday, and it also easily passed in Alleman, Altoona, Pleasant Hill, West Des Moines and Windsor Heights. The increase goes into effect July 1.
Three attempts for the increase have failed since 1996, most
recently in March 2018. A majority of Des Moines voters backed the measure a year ago, but it failed because a majority of suburban voters rejected it.
In May the Iowa Legislature canceled a state rule that required cities with contiguous borders to vote together on local option sales tax issues.
Found Human Remains Is Identified As Missing Man
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have confirmed that human remains found buried on the property of a Cedar Rapids home are those of a missing eastern Iowa man.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office says in a news release Tuesday that the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office positively identified the body as that of 31-year-old Christopher Bagley of Walker. Officials say he was stabbed to death.
Bagley’s remains were found Friday after deputies and other law
enforcement agencies searched the property.
No other details of what led police to the property were released.
Police have not said they have any suspects, and no arrests have been announced.
Des Moines Man Is Guilty Of Second Degree Murder From Fatal Bar Fight
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A man who had said he was only defending himself when he beat another man at a central Iowa bar has been convicted of second-degree murder.
On Monday a jury found 49-year-old Rodney Henricksen guilty. His sentencing is set for April 15. Joshua Sadlon, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, died a day after the incident at the Escape Lounge in Urbandale in January 2018.
Henricksen had said he’d tried to de-escalate threats made by the drunken Sadlon and said Iowa’s “stand your ground” law protected him from prosecution. The law says a person doesn’t have to retreat before using deadly force if he or she reasonably thinks his or her life is being threatened.
The jury rejected his claim of self-defense. Prosecutors called it a
bar beating, not a bar fight.
