All the headlines from our Iowa Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Jul 24 2012 // U.S. crops are taking a beating in the worst drought since 1988 but most farmers are not sweating like they did 24 years ago when a drought hit as they were just starting to recover from a farm depression that brought down...
Jul 20 2012 // Officials are moving quickly to seize the wide-ranging personal assets of the disgraced founder of an Iowa brokerage so they can try to reimburse thousands of customers and workers affected by his alleged $200 million...
Jul 20 2012 // The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows that severe drought affecting much of the Midwest and Great Plains now covers more than half of Iowa and three-quarters of Nebraska. More than half of Indiana is now listed in...
Jul 20 2012 // The drought ravaging America’s prime farmland is having an unexpected consequence that could shape the future of agricultural finance: in some cases, farmers who have amped up their insurance coverage may be giving...
Jul 19 2012 // A state official says that up to 250 employees in northeastern Iowa lost their jobs following the collapse of a financial empire owned by a businessman arrested in connection with a $200 million fraud scheme.Iowa Workforce...
Jul 17 2012 // An expanding U.S. drought, now deemed the worst since 1956, dealt another blow to the corn crop, with conditions deteriorating for a second straight week in the world’s top exporter of the grain, U.S. government data...
Jul 12 2012 // The largest U.S. grain trade group was stunned by the latest scandal to hit the futures industry when Iowa-based brokerage PFGBest collapsed after regulators accused the firm of misappropriating customer funds.“Even...
Jul 9 2012 // Fears are rising that grain crops in the core of the U.S. Corn Belt – the top corn-producing region in the world – will suffer big losses that are already causing farmers to plow up fields in other regions of...
Jul 6 2012 // Iowa has agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed negligence by University of Iowa hospital employees during a birth that caused a baby to have brain injuries that left him severely retarded, newly...
Jul 2 2012 // R&R Insurance Services Inc. in Waukesha, Wis., has appointed David Lancaster vice president of Employee Benefits. Lancaster has more than 25 years of insurance industry experience. Prior to R&R, he worked for...
Jun 29 2012 // A court is upholding a $1.2 million state fine for labor violations committed by a Texas labor broker who underpaid dozens of mentally disabled workers at an Iowa turkey processing plant. The Iowa Court of Appeals rejected...
Jun 29 2012 // Just one year ago Jeff Scates saw the worst flooding on his southern Illinois farmland since 1937. Today, Scates is watching his corn fields shrivel from the driest season in 24 years.“We’ve gone from one...
Jun 26 2012 // A Fremont, Neb., man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for a wire fraud conviction that cost banks and insurance companies in Nebraska and Iowa millions of dollars.Thomas Herink was sentenced in...
Jun 18 2012 // Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has name an executive with a West Des Moines financial group as the state’s new insurance commissioner.Thirty-seven-year-old Nick Gerhart, of Des Moines, will replace Susan Voss, who is...
Jun 18 2012 // The board of directors of Iowa Mutual Insurance Co., in DeWitt, Iowa, has elected Drew Bright president.Bright is the 10th president of the company in its more than 100-year history. He succeeds Thomas R. Cole, who retired...
Jun 13 2012 // Iowa City’s insurance may not cover the damage done in the landfill fire that’s been burning since May 26. At least two insurance experts told The Gazette that the city could be on the hook for the estimated $4...
Jun 8 2012 // A days-long fire at the Iowa City Landfill has created a combustible substance that officials are sending to western Nebraska for incineration.The Iowa City Press-Citizen said that the pyrolytic oil is a byproduct of the...
Jun 7 2012 // A Polk County, Iowa, judge ordered a West Des Moines contracting company to reimburse dozens of customers more than $160,000, barred the company and its owners from future residential contracting business, and restricted...
Jun 5 2012 // Mason Hansen guns his pickup and cranks the steering wheel to spin through sand up to 4 feet high, but this is no day at the beach.Hanson once grew corn and soybeans in the sandy wasteland in western Iowa, and his...
May 21 2012 // Buyers of commercial liability insurance pay on average 26 percent more in insurer expenses if their insurance company has to comply with regulations from multiple states instead of just a single regulator, according to...