senator bolkcom says it will be an uphill battle. the bill has passed in the commerce committee, and will now head toward review in the waves and means committee. if passed, it will head to the house for a vote. chris, nicole? thanks a lot brea. iowa is one month away from flipping the switch to a privatized medicaid system. federal agencies have delayed the process twice already. nearly 600-thousand iowans will have to switch and three for- profit groups will oversee the medicaid program. kcrg-tv9's sarah mccarthy traveled to kansas - a state that switched to a similar system in 20-13 to investigate issues with the system there. "inside the kansas state capitol, working through the problems of privatization is still a battle - even three years later.but lawmakers here learned lessons along the way that could be from the political center of the state, one of those lessons is oversight. kansas uses a third party problem solver called an ombudman and a legislative oversight committee. it's similar to what iowa plans to use to oversee m

i also had a chance to speak to senator joe bolkcom who is also not happy with the deal. he said extremely generous taxpayer subsidies to large corporations are the reason we don't have money for iowa's local schools and community colleges...

senator bolkcom says it will be an uphill battle. the bill has passed in the commerce committee, and will now head toward review in the waves and means committee. if passed, it will head to the house for a vote. chris, nicole? thanks a lot brea. the waterloo fire department says someone not throwing away smoking materials properly caused a house fire. fire crews responded to 1118 western avenue around 11 last night. fire officials say the fire started when someone threw away smoking materials on some leaves by the house. there was some slight damage to the house and fence. no one was hurt. in a tv-9 follow-up this a hearing this spring will determine whether a dubuque man accused of murder is competent to stand trial. 20 year-old helmon betwell faces first-degree murder and first-degree sexual abuse charges in the death of nancy krapfl . betwell's attorney said he doesn't understand the charges against him, because he has a mental disorder. his attorney filed for a competency hearing last week. a judge scheduled the hearing for april

senator bolkcom says it will be an uphill battle. the bill has passed in the commerce committee, and will now head toward review i. the waves and means&committee. if passed, it will head to the house for a vote. . chris, nicole? thanks a lot brea. iowa is one month away from flipping the switch to a privatized medicaid system. federal agencies hae delayed the process twice already. nearly 600-thousand iowans will have to switch and three for- profit groups will oversee the medicaid program. kcrg-tv9's sarah mccarthy traveled to kansas - a state that switched to a similar system in 20-13 to investigate issues with the system there. "inside the kansas state capitol, working through the problems of privatization is still a battle - even three years later.but lawmakers here learned lessons along the way that could be helpful to iowa." fromomhe political center r those lessons is oversight. kansas uses a third party problem solver called an ombudman and a legislative oversight committee. it's similar to what iowa plans to use to oversee m

senate democrat joe bolkcom sponsored a similar bill in 2015. it got through the dem leaning senate, but died after reaching the republican controlled house. this time around, house speaker linda upmeyer has been critical of the bill saying doctors worry they'll lose their license writing prescriptions seeing as the fda hasn't approved marijuana for medical use. - cover with quote cg - she told iowa radio quote: "i still really believe that the fda is the arbiter of what is a medication. and making sure that the safety, the quality - all those things is the same for any medication." the bill faces the february 19th funnel deadline, which means it needs approval in a house environmental officials will meet this week to discuss what's next in an investigation that found asbestos at a cedar rapids high school. the environmental protection commission will hold a meeting this tuesday in des moines. the commission could decide to send the case to the attorney general's office for enforcement action. both the cedar rapids school district and the compan

dollars are scarce for essentials like education.' 2:23 i also had a chance to speak to senator joe bolkcom who is also not hay wi the deal. he saidtremely generous taayer subsidies to large profitable rporations are the reason n't have money for iowa's attention of lawmakers... the first step is to determine how many untested kits there are... and where they're located. according to radio iowa.. the bill approved by a house committee would require police departments to participate in a survey detailing how many kits each department has. once the extent of the backlog is known.. lawmakers will develop a meanwhile after years of failed attempts.... a bill requiring insurance companies to cover autism therapy treatment is moving forward.. kerry lust is counting on its passage. her son brandon receives applied behavior analysis or a-b-a therapy. when her insurance company declined to pay for the therapy.. the lust's were granted a medicaid waiver for special needs children. that waiver expires at age nine... brandon is 8. the new bill would require insurance companies to cover treatment progra

bolkcom then came back with...that's fine...but show us how you can also properly fund schools...along with these tax breaks . we'll see how the math works on that. a company getting millions of dollars in state tax breaks is now accused of failing to pay the company that's building its new fertilizer plant. orascom broke ground on the nearly 2-billion dollar fertlizer facility in lee county in 20-13. much of that cost was coming in the form of state and local tax incentives... the department of economic development offered 107-million dollars in state tax credits. lee county added to that with 133- million dollars in local tax abatements. the department of transportation added another grant for one- point-6 million. now one of the subcontractors building it says it isn't getting paid. according to a federal lawsuit filed by maintenance enterprises orascom owes them more than 53-million dollars for work already completed. they say they haven't been paid since october 29th of last year. they are suing for breach of contract. according to the des moines register... there are other compan

i also had a chance to speak to senator joe bolkcom who is also not happy with the deal. he said extremely generous taxpayer subsidies to large corporations are the reason we don't have money for iowa's local schools and community colleges... we learned more this week about the financial plan to keep a kraft heinz plant in davenport. the plant downtown will close, but the company is building a new 200-million dollar plant at the eastern iowa industrial center. the deal is supposed to guarantee 475 jobs. davenport's share of the economic development plan will be 10-million dollars paid over 15-years to the company... and another one-point- six million for road construction and repairs. the council is set to vote on the economic development agreement next week. for the second consecutive friday, the iowa utilities board has delayed a decision on the bakken pipeline... the three member board spent the majority of the day discussing terms and agreement language relating to the construction, maintaining and repairing of a potential crude oil pipeline. if built, the pipeline wo