Latest Iowa Headlines
All the headlines from our Iowa Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Document: Iowa School District Settled Discrimination Suit for More Than $170K
Dec 30 2019 // Newly released documents show that Mason City Schools in Iowa settled a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a former official for more $170,000. The district issued its former human resources director Jodie Anderson...
Iowa’s Collins Community Credit Union, Coverage Direct Partnering on Launch of Collins Insurance
Dec 27 2019 // Collins Community Credit Union is launching Collins Insurance, a partnership with West Des Moines, Iowa-based, independent insurance agency, Coverage Direct. This partnership will provide Collins Community Credit Unions...
Cedar Rapids Proposes $3M Settlement in Suit Over Traffic Camera Ticket Fines
Dec 20 2019 // Thousands of people whose state income tax refunds were withheld to pay Cedar Rapids, Iowa, traffic camera tickets would get refunds under a proposed $3 million lawsuit settlement. The City Council learned on Dec. 17 that...
Business Moves
Dec 16 2019 // National MetLife, PetFirst MetLife has agreed to acquire PetFirst Healthcare, a pet insurance program administrator that distributes its products through animal welfare agencies, direct-to-consumer channels and...
Ratings of Iowa’s Petroleum Marketers Management Insurance Upgraded
Dec 4 2019 // AM Best has upgraded the Financial Strength Rating to A (Excellent) from A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to “a” from “a-” of Petroleum Marketers Management Insurance Co....
Iowa Court Upholds Woman’s $4.9M Verdict From Icy Sidewalk Fall
Dec 2 2019 // The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld a $4.9 million jury verdict awarded to a Texas woman after she fell outside a hotel on an icy sidewalk. The court in its ruling last week rejected arguments by Marriott International...
Iowa’s Premier Advisors Acquired by Accel Holdings
Nov 21 2019 // Accel Wealth Management LLC, a financial services division of Accel Holdings Inc., has acquired Premier Advisors LLC, an independent financial management consulting firm located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Accel Group, an...
Amid Scrutiny, Vice Chair of Iowa Insurance Pool to Depart
Nov 20 2019 // The longtime vice chairman of an insurance pool for Iowa municipalities will not seek re-election, following scrutiny of its travel and his arrest for domestic violence. Gary Mahannah said earlier this year he would seek...
With Focus on Employee Wellbeing, Iowa’s Holmes Murphy Launches ethOs
Nov 14 2019 // Waukee, Iowa-based employee-owned and controlled insurance broker, Holmes Murphy, has launched a new company focused on employee wellbeing — ethOs. Led by Ali Payne, EthOs will focus on improving workplace culture,...
Serious Workplace Safety Violations Found After Attacks at Iowa Psych Hospital
Nov 13 2019 // Regulators have recommended a nearly $73,000 fine against the Iowa Department of Human Services after finding serious workplace safety violations at a state-run psychiatric hospital where several employees have been...
Iowa Insurance Pool Wants $22K for Access to Settlement Information
Nov 7 2019 // An Iowa government insurance program under fire for spending lavishly on out-of-state travel says it would cost $22,000 for the public to see how it’s been using money to settle recent legal cases. The Iowa...
Iowa Board Backs Adding PTSD to Medical Marijuana Program
Nov 4 2019 // An Iowa state board has recommended that medical marijuana should be a prescription option for treating post-traumatic stress disorder and intellectual disability with aggression, but it rejected the drug for two other...
Iowa Revokes License of Arizona Insurance Agent Over Annuity Fraud Scheme
Oct 28 2019 // An Arizona insurance agent has lost his Iowa insurance license and is barred for reapplying for 10 years after the Iowa Insurance Division found he fleeced elderly Iowa residents. The division said in a news release that...
Iowa Insurance Pool Board Rethinking Costly Out-of-State Meetings
Oct 25 2019 // Board members of an insurance program for Iowa’s municipal governments are rethinking their long-standing practice of holding public meetings at resorts in other states. Directors of the Iowa Communities Assurance...
Iowa’s GuideOne Insurance Names Groenheide Senior VP, Specialty
Oct 22 2019 // GuideOne Insurance in West Des Moines, Iowa, has appointed Mark Groenheide as senior vice president, Specialty. In this role, Groenheide is responsible for growing and managing the business by focusing on niche specialty...
Financial, Legal Advisors Scamming Elderly Has Become Big Business
Oct 21 2019 // Terry Ann McIntosh’s financial nightmare began four years ago, soon after she hired a caregiver through a family services website. McIntosh, then 75 and in a wheelchair, had assumed that the young woman who...
Contractor: Ensuring Security of Des Moines, Iowa, Skywalk a Tough Job
Oct 18 2019 // Ensuring safety on the skywalk system in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, has become tougher in recent years, in part because funding for security officers has been cut, a security contractor said after a gang of young men...
Iowa School District Settles 3rd Firing-Related Lawsuit for $1M
Oct 18 2019 // The Waukee, Iowa, school district has settled the last of three lawsuits filed by former employees who alleged they were retaliated against for exposing wrongdoing by the district’s former chief operating...
Iowa Meat Plant Pushes Back Against Claims of Micronesian Worker Mistreatment
Oct 8 2019 // An Iowa pork processing plant is working to address Micronesia’s concerns about the treatment of some of its citizens who work at the plant. Seaboard Triumph Foods said that it follows all employment laws and it is...
Micronesians Working at Iowa Meat Plant Allege Mistreatment
Oct 4 2019 // The island nation of Micronesia is raising concerns about how some of its citizens working at an Iowa pork processing plant are being treated. Micronesia sent a formal letter to the U.S. State Department asking U.S....
