Simpson College Softball Team Involved In Accident
COLFAX, Iowa (AP) – A charter bus carrying members of an Iowa college softball team has been involved in a multi-vehicle crash that closed part of Interstate 80.
The bus carrying students and coaches from Simpson College was headed east Friday morning on Interstate 80 near Colfax when a semi-trailer truck jack-knifed in front of it. School officials say
bus passengers were not seriously injured.
Iowa State Patrol says several semi-trailer trucks were involved in the crash. It is unclear if there are additional injuries. Eastbound lanes near the crash remain closed.
The crash is one of several after a major snowstorm dumped several inches of snow across the state.
Another bus later picked the team up for a tournament in Marquette, Mich.
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Car Rolls Backward Striking Woman and Killing Her
PACIFIC JUNCTION, Iowa (AP) – A 61-year-old woman has died under her car on her ice- and snow-slickened driveway in western Iowa.
Mills County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kim Clark says the accident occurred a little before 1:45 p.m. Thursday.
Clark says Barbara Glaser was in her car when it got stuck on her steep driveway. Clark says Glaser put the vehicle in park, shut it off and got out. But the car started to slide down the driveway and struck Glaser. It knocked her down, hit an embankment and then rolled over on her.
Glaser was pronounced dead at the scene, which is north of Pacific Junction.
Iowa Medicaid To Expand
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s Medicaid program will use a $1.3 million grant to start developing a statewide plan to reduce the cost of treating chronically ill patients.
The program said Thursday the six-month grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will enable it to coordinate with Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and other insurers to develop
the plan.
In a statement, Medicaid Director Jennifer Vermeer said one strategy will be to create a group of health care providers to better coordinate care for the chronically ill, who consume a
disproportionate share of costs.
Vermeer says the current reimbursement system rewards providers for the volume and not the value of services they provide. She says care can be improved while slowing the growth of costs by
preventing redundant services and medical errors.
Memorial To Be Constructed For Missing Cousins
EVANSDALE, Iowa (AP) – Volunteers say they expect work to begin this spring on a permanent memorial for two Iowa cousins who disappeared during a bike ride last summer.
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports work on a permanent memorial for Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins may begin in a few weeks at Meyers Lake. Contractors are waiting on a vote Saturday
from the Evansdale Park Board that will allow them to start some work before the regular construction season.
The board voted earlier this month to name the park at the lake Angels Park. An adjacent lakeside trial will be called Trail of Angels.
The girls were last seen in July riding their bikes by the lake. Their bodies were found in December in a wooded area.
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State Supreme Court Rules Woman To Be Buried In Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court says a woman must be buried in Iowa even though she clearly wanted her final resting place to be in Montana.
The court says in a ruling Friday that Mary Florence Whalen’s husband, Michael, has the final say even though she left specific instructions for burial in Billings, Mont.
Her husband plans to bury her in Anamosa. Her body has been at a funeral home there since her death in June.
The court says a 2008 Iowa law creates a process for people to spell out in specific documents who they want to handle burial arrangements. Since Whalen didn’t do that, the court in a 5-to-2
decision says her husband decides.
Chief Justice Mark Cady says the majority of justices are misinterpreting the law.
