Siouxland faces weather watches and warnings due to snow, cold, and dangerous wind chills.
Even though the National Weather Service announced a decrease in projected snowfall amounts, meteorologist say expect strong winds and dangerously cold wind chills. Sioux City is expected just to get an additional inch of snow. A post on social media says “if you have travel plans the next few days, please monitor the latest forecast & road conditions, and consider altering your plans if possible.”
Snow emergencies have been issued for the communities of South Sioux City, Dakota City, Moville, and Onawa.
Interstate 80 in the Omaha metro area was closed in both directions around the noon hour today due to several crashes.
Due to the frigid forecast, Cone Park will be closed Thursday and Friday. But, will be open Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and operate with extended hours next week. Cone Park opens for the season tonight at 6.
Strong winds and freezing temperatures are expected to hit Iowa in the next couple of days. It’s coming as the Iowa Department of Transportation is still clearing snow from last week’s snowfall.
Craig Bargfrede is Iowa D-O-T’s winter operations administrator. He says the wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour will likely make it harder to clear the roadways.
With the amount of snow that they’re talking and the wind that they’re talking, it's very possible that we could see some road closures, especially up in the northern part of the state and northeastern part of the state. So again, that is obviously something that we're very concerned about, something that we monitor quite closely.
He says they’ll work with state patrol staff on whether to make road closures. He advises holiday travelers to watch the weather forecast closely.
Iowa State has canceled a men’s basketball game and a women’s basketball game because of the potential for severe winter weather. The athletic department announced the men’s game on Wednesday against Omaha and the women’s game on Thursday against Drake will not be rescheduled. Athletic director Jamie Pollard said canceling the games would allow the players to travel safely for the holidays. Fans who had purchased single-game tickets for either game will be issued a refund.
The top Republicans in the Iowa Legislature say they want to wait for a pending court case to be resolved before taking more action to restrict abortion.
Governor Kim Reynolds’ request to revive Iowa’s so-called “fetal heartbeat” abortion ban was recently denied by a district court judge. Now she’s asking the Iowa Supreme Court to let the abortion ban take effect.
Iowa’s Republican-majority legislature is set to convene January 9th. House Speaker Pat Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver say they want to wait for the court case to play out before trying to pass a new abortion ban. Grassley says he doesn’t want to do anything that would “jeopardize” the Court’s decision.
“I’m of the opinion that…we’re going to get one shot to do this. And that when we do this, we need to have seen what the courts come up with. And then we act.”
Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver says it would be wise to wait for a court decision before passing new abortion laws.
“Really, there is no standard in state law from out state supreme court on what would be allowed or not allowed. And so that would be the point of trying to get the heartbeat bill that we passed back in 2018, to get that through the court system to see what the supreme court says is the new standard in the state of Iowa.”
Grassley and Whitver declined to say how far they’d go in banning abortion if the Court opens the door to a full ban. Both say they still support the “fetal heartbeat” law, which would ban abortions as early as six weeks with exceptions.
South Dakota’s Board of Regents has ordered a review of university campus events and its policy on minors attending them after a drag show at South Dakota State University last month faced criticism from conservative lawmakers for being advertised as family-friendly. The Board of Regents met for over an hour with legal counsel in a private meeting before unanimously passing a motion to initiate the review and discuss it at the board’s next meeting. Earlier this week, the Regents requested university presidents to place a moratorium on minors attending events held by campus student organizations. The Regents’ actions come after Republican lawmakers criticized a drag show event last month that was hosted by SDSU’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance.
Nebraska State Troopers will get the biggest pay raises they’ve seen in 20 years next year when their pay jumps 22% under a new contract. Incoming Gov. Jim Pillen announced the deal with the union that represents state troopers Wednesday. The deal takes effect next July. The base pay for new hires will increase $5.43 an hour to $30 per hour, and pay for specialty assignments will also be increased. The contract also includes a 5% raise in 2024. The head of the State Patrol Col. John Bolduc said the agreement will help recruit new troopers. In recent years, pay for state troopers had lagged behind other law enforcement agencies in the state.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Iowa are up.
That’s according to the latest numbers from the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
As of today (Wednesday) 272 Iowans hospitalized have tested positive for the virus. Up from 256 last week.
State officials report a slight drop in the number of positive tests. They say nearly 48 hundred positive tests were reported in the past seven days.
And the state has added 44 Iowans to its COVID death count. 10,387 Iowans have died from the virus so far.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 64 percent of all Iowans have completed their primary COVID vaccine series. And just 17 percent have received the most recent bivalent booster.
The nation’s largest Medicaid managed-care company has agreed to pay Iowa $44.4 million to settle claims that it defrauded the state’s Medicaid system. That makes it the latest state to settle claims that were originally raised in Ohio in 2021.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports St. Louis-based Centene agreed to pay the money over claims that its subsidiary, Iowa Total Care, overbilled taxpayers for prescription drugs in transactions handled by a Centene-owned drug middleman, Envolve.
Medicaid managed-care companies such as Iowa Total Care contract with state Medicaid agencies to sign up patients and create networks of providers such as doctors and dentists to care for them. Pharmacy benefit managers such as Envolve contract with such managed-care organizations to create lists of covered drugs, contract with pharmacies and reimburse them for the drugs they dispense.