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11/14/2009
IOWA NEWS
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Iowa Department of Public Health is reporting three additional H1N1-related deaths in the state. .
The new reports bring to 19, the number of deaths in Iowa related to the H1N1-virus. Among them are 18 adults and one child.
The latest victims were identified Friday by the Public Health Department as two adults in Linn County and an adult in Black Hawk County. The individual from Black Hawk County and one of the Linn County individuals had risk factors that increased the chance of complications from the H1N1 virus.
According to the Health Department, more than 500 Iowans have been hospitalized because of the virus.
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) Federal prosecutors say a 21-year-old Keokuk man has pleaded guilty to three counts of arson affecting interstate commerce.
Prosecutors say Travis Lee Thrush entered his plea Friday in Davenport and is scheduled for sentencing in March.
In an indictment handed down May 6, Thrush was accused of setting fire to an educational building at the First Baptist Church of Keokuk in May of last year, and starting another fire at a septic tank business in Keokuk last Jan. 6. The third fire, on Jan. 9, involved a large number of hay bales at the County Market in Keokuk, and authorities said that blaze forced precautionary evacuations because of propane tanks stored near the hay.
JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) U.S Rep. Bruce Braley predicts the final version of a health care overhaul plan will include a public option, providing coverage to people who don't have insurance through their employers.
Speaking Friday on the Iowa Public Television program ``Iowa Press,' Braley expressed little concern for the possible political fallout over health care reform. Braley says he's been clear that he supports comprehensive changes, and if that costs him public support he can live with it because reforming the system is so important.
Braley says his support for the House's health care plan was ``one of the proudest votes I've taken.'
Braley says the so-called public option is needed because private insurers haven't been able to confront issues such as increasing costs and limited coverage.
WASHINGTON (AP) Congressman Bruce Braley is speaking out on the former kosher slaughterhouse manager convicted of financial fraud.
In a statement released Friday, Braley says the conviction Thursday of Sholom Rubashkin (ROO'-bahsh-kin) on 86 of 91 fraud counts allows the town of Postville to finally see some closure. He also calls it an important step forward in the effort to fix the nation's immigration system.
A May 2008 raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville led to the arrest of 389 illegal immigrants. The plant's closing and now limited operation has devastated the town's economy.
Braley says the federal government cannot allow employers to break the law and take advantage of cheap labor. The Democrat adds justice has been served, and his ``heart goes out to the community of Postville.'
Rubashkin faces a second trial on immigration charges.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Iowa Supreme Court has ordered a trial in the case of a man who crashed his car while trying to avoid a trampoline that blew into the road during a storm.
Charles Thompson sued the owners of the trampoline, James Kaczinski and Michelle Lockwood, claiming they were responsible for the 2006 crash near Earlham in Madison County because they did not secure the disassembled trampoline.
A district court dismissed the lawsuit and the Iowa Court of Appeals upheld the decision.
On Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned both courts and ordered a trial.
A telephone message left for Thompson's attorney wasn't immediately returned. The attorney for Kaczinski and Lockwood, Sharon Soorholtz Greer, says she believed issues of liability in the case were clear but she would prepare for trial.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa will recoup $4.3 million from pharmaceutical companies that overcharged for medications.
Attorney General Tom Miller said Friday that eight of the 78 companies sued by Iowa in federal court have settled. Lawyers fees and the federal government's take of the settlement means the state will get $1.2 million.
The lawsuit, filed in 2007, alleged the drug companies intentionally deceived Iowa's Medicaid program, which pays for medical care and drugs for the elderly and poor.
The lawsuit, combined with those filed by more than 20 other states, claimed breach of contract, fraud, unjust enrichment and violations of federal Medicaid laws and the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.
Miller says he hopes more drug companies will settle. If not, the case will go to trial in Massachusetts next year.
© 2002 Associated Press.
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