News

Des Moines, Iowa — A bill to establish more state oversight after 560-thousand Iowa Medicaid patients are shifted into privately-run managed care plans was up for debate in the Iowa Senate on Tuesday. Senator Amanda Ragan, a Democrat from Mason City, says with nearly five-and-a-half billion dollars in state money being spent on the program next year, the legislature should ensure health care providers are properly paid and patients have some sort of recourse if they’re denied care.

Senator David Johnson, a Republican from Ocheyedan, also has been raising concerns about privatizing Medicaid.

But Governor Branstad objects.

Branstad says he’s willing to hire a few more state workers to handle complaints from patients and Iowa health care providers once Medicaid is privatized April 1st.

Branstad says since the private companies will have their own employees to take complaints and resolve disputes, there’s no need to hire dozens of state workers to “oversee the overseers.” Branstad made his comments this weekend during an appearance on Iowa Public Television.

Le Mars, Iowa — An Akron man who is accused of killing his mother in June, 2014 has pled guilty in a plea agreement.

Forty-six-year-old Jonathan Neunaber was charged with First Degree Murder, which is a class “A” felony, punishable by a mandatory life sentence without parole. In a plea agreement accepted by the court on Monday, February 29th, 2016, Neunabor pled guilty to Second Degree Murder, a class “B” felony; and Willful Injury, a class “C” felony.

In the agreement, Neunaber agreed to be sentenced to a term not to exceed fifty years for the murder charge and a term not to exceed ten years on the willful injury charge for a consecutive term not to exceed sixty years in prison.

Judge Steven Andreasen noted that seventy percent of the sentence — or 35 years — would need to be served before Neunaber would be eligible for work release or parole. In the plea agreement, Neunabor would also have to pay victim restitution in the amount of $150,000 in regard to the murder charge as well as other costs and expenses.

Neunabor’s legal team had raised possible defenses of insanity and diminished responsibility and a motion to suppress evidence, but under the terms of the plea agreement, these would be dropped.

When he told the judge about the case at the hearing, Neunabor said that when his father died, he was not prepared to be the man of the house and be responsible for several things. He said after he killed his mother he took some pills with the intent that they’d all be buried together. But he said that didn’t work. He also admitted that he used a steel pipe to strike his mother and that, “I struck my mother more times than I’d like to.”

The judge had ruled in January that Neunaber was competent to stand trial.

The bodies of both of Neunaber’s parents were discovered in their rural Akron home in July, 2014. Autopsy results showed that his father, 83-year old Donald Neunaber, had died of natural causes, but that his mother, 80-year old Esther Neunaber died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Jonathon Neunaber was arrested the next day after being stopped for a traffic violation in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

No sentencing date has been set.

Northwest Iowa — We told you last week that gas prices in northwest Iowa have been on the rise for the past couple of weeks, and a fuels analyst at the Iowa Department of Agriculture says that’s due to an adjustment in the supply.

Harold Hommes says the gas refineries are the issue with rising prices.

Hommes says, while he wasn’t surprised to see a price increase, he was surprised by the amount of that increase.

He says suppliers had a glut of gasoline, and once that worked down some, they raised the price.

Hommes says the oversupply left little room for the refineries to make much on the sale of gas.

The average price of a gallon of gas statewide last week was one dollar, 67 cents, up seven cents from the week before. Gas prices have jumped as much as 18 cents in the last two weeks in parts of our area, with pump prices in Sheldon Monday afternoon at $1.76.