Iowa's Radio News Network
Authorities have identified the victim of a motorcycle accident in Hardin County. The Iowa State Patrol says 24-year-old Mark Draeger of Marshalltown died Monday just south of Eldora.
Draeger was eastbound on county road S-62 when he crossed the center line and his motorcycle entered the north ditch. He was ejected from the bike and pronounced dead at the scene. The patrol report does not indicate exactly when the accident occurred or if Draeger was wearing a helmet.
A hospital in the southwest Iowa town of Red Oak is being recognized as the number-one hospital in the state for patient satisfaction. Montgomery County Memorial Hospital public relations director David Jennings says the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services now requires hospitals that receive the Inpatient Prospective Payment System to report the results of a standardized survey of patients about their hospital stay.
Critical Access hospitals, such as Montgomery County Memorial, are not required to report, but he says many do. Jennings says there are 62 hospitals in the state that report their Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores. Jennings says some of the information compares them to the 62 hospitals in the state that report, while some of the data compares them with the other 3,711 hospitals nationally that report.
The hospital ranked first out of 62 hospitals in the state which report. There are 117 hospitals in Iowa and out of that number, 62 send reports to the CMS, most of which are larger hospitals. Montgomery County Memorial Hospital ranks very high when compared to other reporting hospitals in the state, region and nation. Jennings lists some of the categories upon which the survey is based.
They include: nurse communication, physician communication with the patient, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain management, communication about medicines, cleanliness, quietness around rooms at night, discharge information, the over-all rating, and the willingness of the patient to recommend the hospital to others. This information is posted on the web at “www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov“.
Contirbuted Kristan Gray, KMA, Shenandoah
The Iowa Network Services Football Friday night from Radio Iowa sports will present the first of three football playoff shows Wednesday October 28, 2009 with the substate round of action. Radio Iowa will also have shows on Monday November 2 for the first round, and Friday November 6 for the quarter final round. Join Dar Danielson and Scott Pierce for all the scores and highlights. See the scores for Wednesday night’s substate action below. [Read more...]
Adam Robinson
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz expects running back Adam Robinson to miss the remainder of the regular season due to an ankle injury he suffered in the Hawkeyes victory at Michigan State. The redshirt freshman from Des Moines is Iowa’s leading rusher with 629 yards on the ground.
Ferentz says a bowl games is very realistic, but for the rest of the season “unless we can find some pixie dust floating around,” it’s not going to work out and they will have to move on.
Brandon Wegher and Paki O’Meara are listed on the two-deep but Ferentz says the Hawks are becoming alarmingly thin at running back. “We’re running out of bodies in the backfield, it’s not a real crowded room right now,” Ferentz says. Ferentz says one option is to use true freshman Brad Rogers. The Ohio native was going to redshirt this season.
Ferentz says they took Rogers on the road and told him he should be ready to go. He says if Rogers has to go in, he will go in and do a good job. Iowa is 8-0 for the first time ever but Ferentz says a string of close games has helped the team stay focused. Ferentz says so far the team hasn’t seemed to be affected by the stuff that goes on outside and he says part of that is a tribute to the seniors.
Ferentz says they wonder about how many cracks in the dike they can handle, but they keep going out and getting it done. With each victory the Hawkeyes become more a part of the national conversation. Ferentz says they need to keep the distractions to a minimum. He says they have to be proactive about that and be smart about what they do. He says they learned from the past that the more you win, it creates more “chaos.”
Whether its the computer rankings, the coaches poll or the BCS standings, Ferentz says none of that matters if the Hawks don’t continue to win. He says the idea is to be there at the end, and says the Michigan State game is an example. Iowa plays three of the last four at home and plays Indiana this week followed by Northwestern. Ferentz says while many of the fans are looking ahead to a showdown with Ohio State the team is not.
Ferentz says everyone is looking ahead to Ohio State, but there are two teams coming in that they are 1-2 against in the last three years. He says that’s the reality and they need to worry about what is going on this week as they will have their hands full.
Texas A@M coach Mike Sherman says he can’t explain what made the difference for the Aggies the past two games. After getting drilled by Kansas State 62-14 A@M rebounded with a shocking 52-30 win over Texas Tech. They are 4-3 heading into this week’s matchup with Iowa State. He says if he could, he could write a book and sell it.
Sherman says last week they had their backs against the wall and came out swinging and executed better. Sherman says it is foolish to compare scores in college football because there are so many different factors that can effect the outcome. He says in the NFL you are very aware of who is injured or banged up, but in college football you don’t get that full knowledge when you prepare for each game.
Sherman says there was no difference in how the Aggies prepared for K-State and Texas Tech. He says they’ve talked about displaying character in last week’s game and that made a difference.
Legislative Oversight Committee hears phoned-in testimony of Deputy Attorney General.
The state’s legal team may challenge some, if not all of the $32 million in state tax credits already awarded to movie and TV projects filmed in Iowa.
Deputy Attorney General Eric Tabor briefly testified by phone before a legislative committee this morning to update lawmakers on the criminal investigation of the state film office.
Governor Culver fired the film office director in September and shut down the film tax credit program after revelations of shoddy bookkeeping and possible abuse of the program, like tax credits claimed for the purchase of luxury cars and iPods.
A South Amana man was charged Monday in connection with several small town bank robberies this month. Thirty-three-year-old Jason Bowers is accused of robbing four banks: the South Story Bank in Slater on October 9, the Farmers and Merchants State Bank in St. Charles on October 16, Peoples Bank and Trust in Rippey on October 17 and the First Trust Savings Bank in Oxford on October 21. Bowers was arrested by federal authorities Friday in Des Moines.
County sheriffs from Madison, Story, Greene and Johnson Counties are involved with the investigation. Each robbery involved a lone gunman wearing a ski mask. The only time he fired a shot was during the Oxford robbery, though no one was injured. In at least two of the cases, the suspect also stole cars belonging to someone in the bank. The vehicles were then found abandoned, leading investigators to believe the bank robber had an accomplice.south
O.KayHenderson.com