The Gazette Daily News Podcast: Recent Episodes
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A bite-sized dose of weather, local news and national news from The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. You can also subscribe via your Amazon Alexa by saying "Alexa, enable the Gazette Daily News skill," then you can listen daily by saying "Alexa, what's the news?"
Featured Stories:
– Cedar Rapids schools back to the drawing board on Harrison Elementary plans
– Here’s how Cedar Rapids is working to address Hy-Vee’s closure of First Avenue store
– ‘Swine Republic’ makes Library of Congress’ ‘Great Reads’ list
Sign up for Gazette newsletters here or listen to the award-winning On Iowa Politics Podcast.
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Lisa Bluder announces retirement as Iowa women’s basketball coach
– Iowa DNR asks Attorney General to seek penalties against co-op that caused massive fertilizer spill
– Iowa AG Bird attends Trump trial in NYC, expresses support for former president
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Seeking long-term mental health treatment in Iowa
- Iowa schools draw fewer candidates for superintendent
jobs
- Motherhood takes Cedar Rapids native to highest highs
and lowest lows
Featured Stories:
– Authorities seek Iowa sex trafficking victim who killed alleged abuser
– Budget cuts, homelessness among topics in annual Linn County address
– Orchestra Iowa among area organizations receiving Inspire Iowa grants
– Consider taking the Daily News Podcast Survey
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Justice Department, civil rights groups sue to block Iowa immigration law
– First Avenue Hy-Vee to close, leaving urban grocery gap in northeast Cedar Rapids
– Bud & Mary’s to sell cannabis vapes in Missouri
– Mucha artistry on display at Cedar Rapids museum
– Consider taking the Daily News Podcast Survey
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– West Union loses over $60K to email scam
– Iowa facility that mistreated residents with intellectual disabilities nears closure
– Two annual Cedar Rapids beer festivals merge into Cedar Rapids Brewing Society Benz Fest, debuting this week
Consider taking the Daily News Podcast Survey. Find a full transcript of this episode at thegazette.com. This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
- Mount Mercy, St. Ambrose considering becoming ‘one institution’
- Second autopsy of David Schultz to proceed without body
- Reynolds signs new law to bolster early reading
- Consider taking our Daily News Podcast Survey
Featured Stories:
- Iowa universities propose tuition increases for next year
- Cedar Rapids teachers get 3% base wage increase next year
- Iowa Republicans call to rally around Trump at state convention
- Consider taking our Daily News Podcast Survey - we're considering changes but want to hear from you first!
Find episode transcripts on thegazette.com. This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Why Iowa struggles to pass hands-free driving laws
- New law protects bikers, mobile pedestrians in crosswalks
- Time Check Neighborhood
- Daily News Podcast Survey
Episode Transcript
Welcome to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast for Monday, May 6, 2024. This podcast provides the latest headlines from the Gazette newsroom. I’m Becky Lutgen Gardner.
First, despite broad support, Iowa struggles to pass hands-free driving laws. Bills mandating hands-free technology to limit cellphone use while driving have been introduced in the Iowa Legislature since 2019, but all attempts at passage have been unsuccessful. More than 30 other states have passed such laws. Why doesn’t Iowa?
Advocates, fueled by personal tragedies like Ellen Bengtson's death in 2020, have relentlessly urged lawmakers to follow suit. Ellen was fatally struck by a distracted driver who was checking an app on his phone while doing over 55 miles an hour.
The absence of a hands-free law in Iowa resulted in the judge dismissing the case against the driver. Despite bipartisan and law enforcement backing, the latest distracted driving bill faced staunch resistance, notably from a libertarian faction within the GOP, citing concerns about individual liberties.
Rep. John Wills believes the focus should be on broader measures to curb distracted driving, not solely on phone
use. He argues, "Let’s not make the phone the enemy... Let’s cure the
disease rather than putting a Band-Aid on it."
Such arguments are drawing criticism. Luke Hoffman, executive director of the Iowa Bicycle
Coalition rejects the idea of a false choice
between freedom and safety. "What is the first responsibility of
government? It is to protect the people," Hoffman asserts.
Ellen's mother, JoAnn Bengtson, urges
drivers to prioritize safety and emphasize personal responsibility: "Put
your phone away... Turn your notifications off."
Despite these pleas, the legislative impasse
persists, leaving families like the Bengtsons grappling with profound loss.
"Justice in this case doesn’t bring our daughter back," Peter
Bengtson laments. "As a parent, you want to protect your daughter. It’s
something we’ll never get over."
Next,
advocates say a new law signed Friday
by Gov. Kim Reynolds will make Iowa’s roads and crosswalks safer.
The legislation extends the state’s crosswalk protection law.
Drivers in Iowa are now required to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.
The new law expands that requirement by requiring vehicles to yield to
bicyclists and pedestrians using mobility devices in crosswalks.
Iowa Bicycle Coalition executive director Luke Hoffman said, “Whether you
are out on the trails as a cyclist, a person with disabilities in a wheelchair,
a senior citizen on an electric scooter, a kid on a skateboard, or a parent
with a baby in a stroller, this legislation is a clear victory for all Iowans,”
A news release from the Iowa Bicycle Coalition also included statements
of support from the legislators who managed the bills in the Iowa Legislature:
Sen. Mark Lofgren and Rep. Tom Gerhold, both Republicans.
Lofgren said the new law will add protections for people at events like
the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa and outdoor entertainment.
Gerhold said it will “save lives and prevent accidents” and will protect people
who walk through crosswalks using strollers, wheelchairs, and other mobility
devices.
The law goes into effect July 1.
Finally, what’s happening with the Time Check neighborhood in
Cedar Rapids? The neighborhood was devastated during the 2008 floods. Homes
were destroyed and hundreds of former residents left the area. Buildings were
wiped out, leaving empty lots.
Over the past six years, the nonprofit group Matthew 25 has spearheaded
an effort to rehabilitate the neighborhood.
That effort is bearing fruit, thanks partly to a $1.4 million capital
campaign and multiple grants and tax incentives.
Matthew 25’s achievements include a nonprofit grocery store and rehabilitating
11 housing units. Developers have taken an interest in the neighborhood,
bringing in more businesses and housing.
But local leaders say much work
remains ahead for Time Check to realize a full recovery.
And those same leaders say one key piece to the puzzle moving forward is
flood protection to help ensure the neighborhood is never again wiped out by
the Cedar River.
The city’s greenway parks plan will guide amenities along the west side
of the river.
Al Pierson, president of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association
says,“When that greenway gets done, the flood protection is done, this
neighborhood is going to be dynamite. It’s going to be the best one in the city.”
Matthew 25 held a public event last week to showcase the progress made in
the neighborhood thus far. The group highlighted the nonprofit grocery store —
Cultivate Hope Corner Store — which the group said was created by transforming
a “rundown building on a high-crime corner.”
During the event, Matthew 25 also highlighted the 11 rehabbed housing
units and new construction on energy-efficient homes in the neighborhood.
Matthew 25 Executive Director Clint Twedt-Ball
said the group has spent $1.1 of the $1.4 million raised. He said, “The next
phase really is we’ve probably got six more units of housing that we’re still
looking to complete. And then I think the next phase is going to be really
continuing to push for, and in some ways wait for, flood protection in that
area so that we can take the next leap. Because a lot of the vacant lots are in
that 100-year flood plain and can’t be developed until flood protection
exists.”
Twedt-Ball said he hopes that by rehabbing Time Check, Cedar Rapids will
gain an area where families can “live up to their full potential.”
He says, “We have this neighborhood in Time Check that has really good
bones. It’s close to where the jobs are. It’s got lots of good parks. It’s got
the river right there. And yet, we’ve kind of as a community, in some ways,
just left it sit. We just need to love on it and rehab the whole neighborhood
and put it back into a place where people can thrive.”
We're considering some changes to the Gazette Daily News
Podcast, but we want to hear from you before doing so. This episode's
description has a link to a brief survey. We hope you take a few minutes to
share your thoughts on this show. Thank you!
Our weather:
Today will be sunny, with a high near 77. Monday night will have a chance of
showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 1 a.m. The low will be around 59.
Tuesday will have a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms,
mainly before 1 p.m. It will be mostly cloudy in the morning, then gradually
becoming sunny, with a high near 74.
The Gazette's Business Breakfast Series will
host its next event on Tuesday, May 7th. The focus is on retail.
What's working when it comes to retail in downtown neighborhoods? What
communities are getting it right? Join The Gazette with the presenting sponsor,
the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance…and housing development panelists for
a morning of networking and insight on this timely economic topic. Register now
at thegazette dot com slash business breakfast.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Becky
Lutgen Gardner.
Featured Stories:
– Iowa’s graduation rates have been incorrectly calculated for the last 10 years
– Justice Department intends to sue to block Iowa immigration law
– 300 tornadoes hit U.S. in April, second-most ever
Consider taking our Daily News Podcast Survey
We're considering some changes to the Gazette Daily News Podcast, but we want to hear from you before doing so. This episode's description has a link to a brief survey or you can visit thegazette dot com slash survey. We hope you take a few minutes to share your thoughts on this show. Thank you!
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Boy charged with firing gun at Hiawatha police officers
- Belle Plaine gets $500K to boost water retention amid drought
- 'School of Rock’ ready to roll through Theatre Cedar Rapids
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Herkys land across community in dark of night
– Iowa income tax rates head lower and faster under new law
– Abelardo’s opens second fast food Mexican restaurant in Cedar Rapids
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
– U.S. drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana in a historic shift, AP sources say
– Shellsburg man told police he helped Traer woman kill her husband in 2021
– Iowa City native returning to Hancher stage with ‘Chicago’
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
-
Court order moves fatal crew club lawsuit against ISU to trial
-
Here’s how closing Hills Elementary saves the Iowa City School District $1.66 million
-
Western Iowa man dies as spate of tornadoes hits the state
-
Google data center would be among Cedar Rapids’ largest water and energy users
-
Cedar Rapids City Council advances Higley Mansion rezoning
-
Local Farmer’s Markets getting underway
-
Iowa athletes file federal lawsuit against DCI over sports betting probe
-
Iowa Supreme Court sides with UI in Children’s Hospital spat, reversing $12.8M judgment
-
LaSalle, Regis middle schools to share leadership under Xavier Catholic Schools
-
Linn County weather radios back on the air
Featured Stories
-
Relief but sorrow after missing Iowa trucker’s body found
-
Iowa State, UNI closing DEI offices after regent directives, legislation
-
Universities balance retention with lawmaker concerns as tenure numbers slide
-
Heavy rain, severe storms possible Friday through Sunday
Featured Stories
– Cedar Rapids awards incentives to proposed $21M commercial park
– You can vote on coolest thing made in Iowa
– Learn about renters’ rights through free workshop Thursday in Cedar Rapids
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Caitlin Clark is set to sign a new Nike deal valued at $28 million over 8 years, reports say
– Iowa City man sentenced to 12 years for illegally possessing gun that toddler found
– Audit finds risk, consequences within UNI’s Compliance and Equity Management Office
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Iowa’s 2024 legislative session is over, here are the major changes passed
– Cedar Rapids man faces charges he tried to kill fiancee
– Three dogs found dead on Cedar Rapids trails
– Lansing’s Black Hawk Bridge reopens after emergency repairs
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
- Iowa Senate doesn’t extend pause on new casinos, opening door for C.R. to seek license
- Here’s why half of Latino immigrants are chronically homeless in Johnson County
- Bill Quinby, community builder and moral compass, dies at 92
Featured Stories:
- Cedar Rapids police respond to hoax threat at Harding Middle School
- EPA again will allow summer sales of higher ethanol blend
- Linn-Mar’s declining enrollment contributing to $2.5 million budget cuts
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Lawmakers approve overhaul of Iowa’s mental health system. Here’s what it would do.
- Willis Dady to host annual Hops for Housing fundraiser
- Iowa saw 8 tornadoes Tuesday
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
– University of Iowa eyeing $40M hydraulics facility in Coralville
– Cedar Rapids woman to plea to stealing from Madison Elementary PTA
– Iowa lawmakers revive effort to advance social studies concepts developed by conservative group
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Articles
– Hawkeyes downsize baseball field renovation, for now, due to ‘cost concerns’
– Trails turn small towns into cyclist sanctuaries
– Proposed state tax incentives for billion-dollar projects passed, sent to governor
View the full Gazette Cycling Guide here.
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Eldora teen found dead, 12-year-old taken into custody
– As expected, Caitlin Clark is the WNBA No. 1 pick, by the Indiana Fever
– About 100 trees removed for new road on University of Iowa medical campus
– Without funding, nonprofit that helped students graduate high school closes
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
- Iowa retailers warn of unintended consequences of capping THC content in hemp
products
-
Settlement brings transparency to real estate market but not necessarily lower prices
-
Clarkonomics: Caitlin Clark’s rising star brings economic jolt to Iowa
Featured Stories
– Iowa Supreme Court weighs reinstating ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion ban
– 3 dead in Iowa-Wisconsin homicide, suicide
– Bigger clinic means more people can see a dentist
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Capitol Notebook: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signs pregnancy program changes, other bills into law
– Seafood restaurant coming soon to former Vivian’s Soul Food building in Cedar Rapids
– Comedy pays homage to Giving Tree Theater’s late co-owner
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Cedar Rapids fire and police investigate arson at barbershop
– Lawmakers OK rules for clearly labeling meat substitutes
– Boozy doughnut shop opens in Cedar Rapids
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Gov. Kim Reynolds signs law boosting oversight of foreign ownership of Iowa farmland
- Esports facility to be built in Coralville
- Hills school closure prompts city to consider changing districts
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– NAIA approves transgender policy limiting women’s sports to athletes whose biological sex is female
– Linn County jury convicts Cedar Rapids man of fatally stabbing Devonna Walker
– Downtown Iowa City opens temporary pop-up storefront
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
- Despite Hawkeye championship loss, there’s no denying a new
era for women’s basketball
- Cedar Rapids receives $56 million federal grant to fund Eighth
Avenue Bridge replacement
- What Iowans can expect from today’s solar eclipse
Featured Stories
- Cedar Rapids secures $56 million federal grant to fund Eighth Avenue Bridge replacement
- Iowa women’s basketball returns to national championship game with comeback win over UConn
- Higley Mansion in Cedar Rapids could become residential rehab house for substance use treatment
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– UI police arrest, accuse two of vandalizing promotions of transgender swimmer’s former teammate
– International Banquet in Cedar Rapids celebrates 50 years of diverse flavors at Coe College
– Caitlin Clark repeats as Associated Press national women’s basketball player of the year
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Former University of Iowa Hospital employee uses fake identity for 35 years
- Iowa’s government boards no longer are required to have gender balance
- Live Stream: The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse April 8
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Iowa House passes bill bolstering early literacy standards
- Iowa City student wins prize in C-SPAN’s national video documentary competition
- Kingdom Community Center awarded $100,000 at third-annual Grand Impact luncheon
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Cedar Rapids’ Harrison Elementary to stay open this fall
- Cedar Rapids police respond to swatting call at Jefferson High
- Czech Village museum’s Clock Toer to add Prague-style astronomical clock features, figurines
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
-
Cancer in Iowa: Iowa changing the way it looks for cancer clusters
-
Cancer in Iowa: Here’s how Iowans are battling the state’s dire cancer rates
-
Iowa will no longer have park rangers under plan
Episode Transcript
Welcome to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast for Monday, April 1, 2024.
This podcast provides the latest headlines from the Gazette newsroom. I’m Becky
Lutgen Gardner.
First, Cancer in Iowa: Iowa is changing how it looks
for cancer clusters. That includes screening tests, proposed policies, and
personal advocacy to help move the needle in the fight against Iowa’s high
cancer rates.
In 2023, Iowa’s cancer rates soared to the second highest in the country.
The Iowa Cancer Registry has investigated 150 suspected
cancer cluster cases since 1994.
But only one investigation near Wellman resulted in a
confirmed cluster finding.
Researchers now want to reverse the cluster
investigation process by identifying locations with known contamination and then
studying cancer rates nearby.
The CDC also has new cancer cluster guidelines recommending
tracking communities to see if the disease develops over time.
Gary Streit helped
co-found the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network in 1977. And then was
diagnosed in 2016 with prostate cancer.
Within months, he had surgery to remove his prostate. Every year, he
participates in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life to fundraise for
fighting cancer. Last year, he walked 30 miles to raise more than $100,000.
He says of his advocacy, “If I broke my arm, I’d tell people about it.
People need to get past the stigma — have to get past the fear.”
Other Iowans are fighting cancer in their own ways. They’re calling for
more screening tests to detect and treat cancer earlier. Though few are gaining
traction with lawmakers, they’re proposing policies that help prevent cancer.
And they’re assuming another powerful role: advocates who can raise awareness
and demand change, all in the name of keeping Iowa’s population safer and
healthier.
Finally, Iowa’s state parks will no longer have park rangers under
a new alignment plan being executed by the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources.
The department confirmed that rangers at Iowa’s 69 state parks will gradually be classified as conservation officers assigned to one or more counties rather than assigned to
a specific state park or parks. Iowa DNR spokeswoman
Tammie Krausman said, “Under alignment, State Park Managers and Natural
Resource Technicians will exclusively handle state park operations, allowing
DNR’s sworn peace officers to solely focus on law enforcement tasks,”
But park advocates say the change will mean reduced law
enforcement presence at state parks, which, in the summer, become hubs of
activity that can involve overconsumption of alcohol, unsafe boating and
criminal activity.
Dawn Bill is president of Friends of Pilot Knob, a group that supports Pilot Knob State
Park in north-central Iowa.
She says, “Anywhere there is alcohol, law enforcement presence
needs to be known. Especially when you’re out in the middle of nowhere.
Even though the Iowa DNR is making changes according to an alignment plan, when The
Gazette asked for a copy, Krausman said the plan was still a draft, which makes
it not subject to public disclosure under Iowa’s open records law.
As sworn law enforcement officers, park rangers have been
jacks-of-all-trades for decades who do everything from repairing buildings and
overseeing mowing to educating the public about invasive species and cracking
down on out-of-control parties at campgrounds.
The Iowa DNR told rangers in 2022 that they had to move out of 26
state-owned houses in state parks, saying the upkeep was
too costly. That meant instead of being on-site for busy weekends, rangers
could live as far as 20 miles away.
Up to 16 million people visit Iowa’s state parks annually. The Gazette reported in March
that the parks need more than $100 million in repairs to fix leaking roofs,
rotting shelters, and outdated sewage lagoons. In recent years, Iowa DNR
Director Kayla Lyon has not asked the Iowa Legislature for additional funding.
Monday’s weather: Showers and thunderstorms. High near 47. Monday night showers are likely, mainly before 1 am. Low around 36. Breezy with wind gusts as high as 30 mph.
Tuesday has a 30 percent chance of showers before 1 pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52.
You can find a link to each of the stories featured in today’s episode in the episode’s description or at thegazette dot com.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Becky Lutgen Gardner.
Featured Stories:
- Republican states file lawsuit challenging Biden’s student loan repayment plan
- Manchester examining options after $4.25M verdict
- Adults get in on Eastern Iowa Easter fun
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Should Iowa bars, restaurants that sell THC drinks face greater liability?
- U.S. changes how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity. It’s the first revision in 27 years.
- Events venue to open near Anamosa
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Hills Elementary to close at the end of the school year, Iowa City school board decides
- Anamosa releases sewage into Wapsipinicon after equipment failure
- AEA changes, education funding and teacher pay boosts signed into law by Iowa Gov. Reynolds
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Coralville woman charged with stealing thousands from youth softball association
- Iowa Gov. Reynolds’ education director pick praised, criticized during public hearing
- New chicken chain is planning first Iowa restaurants in Cedar Rapids, Coralville
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- New exhibit showcases old connection between pop artist Keith Haring and Iowa City elementary school
- Marion teen guilty of first-degree murder in 2023 shooting death
- The Iowa Gardener: Iowa's changing weather
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon. Find the latest Eastern Iowa news at thegazette.com
-
Cancer in Iowa: What you need to know about Iowa’s soaring cancer rates
-
Cancer in Iowa: What role does agriculture play in Iowa’s high cancer rates?
-
Future of Hills Elementary to be decided Tuesday by Iowa City school board
Featured stories
- House GOP budget plan would raise Social Security retirement age, ban abortion
- Cedar Rapids fire that killed man was accidental
- Cardboard Boat Regatta returning to Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival lineup
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Google named as company behind proposed $576M Cedar Rapids data center
- Eric Marshall named Orchestra Iowa CEO
- Iowa City 12-year-old found safe
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon. Find the latest Eastern Iowa news at thegazette.com.
Featured Stories:
– One dead after Tuesday fire in Cedar Rapids
– Police support builds for proposal to regulate traffic cameras
– Here’s where you can Easter Egg Hunt in Eastern Iowa
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon. Find the latest Eastern Iowa news at thegazette.com.
Featured Stories
– Iowa City police searching for missing 12-year-old
– Iowa House bill would give more protections to police
– Capitol Notebook: Bill ending required periodic hotel inspections in Iowa passes state Senate
– Study: Rural Linn County needs 661 more units by 2040
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon. Find the latest Eastern Iowa news at thegazette.com.
Featured Stories:
- EPA bans asbestos, a deadly carcinogen still in use decades after a partial ban was enacted
- Water taxi starts Monday at closed Black Hawk Bridge
- Red Hot Chili Pipers bringing ‘bagrock’ to Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon. View the latest Eastern Iowa news at thegazette.com.
Featured Stories
– Report: Iowa’s state parks need 100M in infrastructure repairs, updates
– Iowa DNR finds no living fish in fertilizer-contaminated river
– Johnson County sheriff working on plan for new jail
Featured Stories:
- As funnel week ends, Iowa lawmakers leave some significant bills behind
- The Supreme Court upholds mandatory prison terms for some low-level drug dealers
- C.R. St. Patrick’s Day Parade back to March 17
- Going green for St. Paddy’s Day around C.R.
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Linn County is receiving naloxone distribution machines
- Cedar Rapids restaurant ordered to pay back nearly $30,000 in tips and penalties
- Going green for St. Paddy’s Day around C.R.
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- U.S. House votes to ban TikTok unless its Chinese parent company sells it. Here’s how Iowa’s reps voted
- Agri Star sends 250K gallons of meat processing wastewater to Postville treatment plant, some enters creek
- Lawmakers hit brakes on bill to ban Iowa DNR form buying land at auction
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Lawmakers looking to recreate long-defunct tax incentives for movies filmed in Iowa
- Big Grove is getting bigger with its first Omaha taproom
- Oscar Mayer Wienermobile returns to Cedar Rapids for St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2024
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Bill to help Iowa’s nursing homes manage costs advance
- Final lane openings on 80/380 interchange expected in April
- Cedar Rapids continuing partnership to give second-grade students free swim lessons, attire
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
– Private schools wonder how they’ll be affected by proposed AEA bills
– Gov.Reynolds proposes fix to Iowa’s splintered mental health system. Will it help?
– Government Notes: Cedar Rapids community garden plot rentals opening Tuesday
Featured Stories:
- Man injured in small explosion in Linn County
- Repair work needed to reopen Black Hawk Bridge begins
- Iowa House passes bill to block undocumented immigrants from public assistance programs
- Rogue Pianist bringing classical, contemporary sounds to CSPS in Cedar Rapids
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Linn County seed truck rollover turns fatal
- Johnson County puppy farm owner arrested on animal neglect charges
- Iowa’s Kim Reynolds endorses Donald Trump after Super Tuesday victories
- Jersey Mike’s locations return with charity month
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured stories
- Nikki Haley suspends her campaign and leaves Donald Trump as the last major Republican candidate
- Voters approve ‘crucial’ capital improvements fund for 3 area school districts
- Jill Weigel narrowly elected to Hiawatha City Council
- Seed truck crash blocks traffic in Linn County Wednesday
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Biden easily wins Iowa Democrats’ mail-in caucus
- Marion mayor: New mobile library, Central Plaza and more planned for 2024
- Former U.S. ag secretary to keynote Celebration of Ag in Cedar Rapids
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Valero, with five Iowa ethanol plants, joins Summit’s proposed CO2 pipeline
- Iowa Republicans celebrate court ruling in favor of Trump
- Independence woman dies in Benton County crash
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
– Iowa schools flying blind as they struggle to meet new budget deadlines
- CSPS shifts finances, artistic approach for ‘second act’ in Cedar Rapids
– Crop production steady, but drought took a toll
Featured Stories
- Prosecutors dropping sports betting charges against ISU athletes
- Iowa’s medical cannabis program competing with cheaper, unregulated THC products
- Comedian Tim Cavanagh loves Cedar Rapids audiences
- ‘Facing the Inferno’ brings wildland fire photos to Old Capitol Museum in Iowa City
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Caitlin Clark announces she’s turning pro at end of this Iowa women’s basketball season
- Iowa House passes AEA bill to reorganize state's special education structure
- Summit offers year’s free rent at NewBo City Market
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
– Ban on credit card codes for Iowa gun shops heads toward passage
– Child killed in Cedar County UTV crash
– Woman killed in Cedar County fire Tuesday
– Stabilizing Lansing bridge of the Mississippi River could take months
– Sherry Bates elected president of Iowa Board of Regents
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Iowa River Power Restaurant brunch, dinner menu returns to Iowa City with new Supper Club at The Highlander Hotel
- Linn-Mar school board appoints Laura Thomas to fill vacancy
- Blind Boys of Alabama bringing gospel sounds to Englert Theatre
Featured Stories
-State closes Lansing bridge over Mississippi River after movement found
-West Liberty stagecoach inn moves to become museum
-University of Iowa seeking new VP for research after resignation
-Government Notes: Comments sought on spending $20M on transportation projects (Amana Magnet School)
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon
– Few scores could spell big change to Iowa AEAs
– DNR confirms grey wolf found dead on Interstate near Davenport
– Mount Trashmore opens for unseasonably warm days
Featured Stories
– Kirkwood President Kristie Fisher making $350K
– Iowa researchers advocate for a drought information system, but lack funding
– Largest sycamore in Iowa likely destroyed by suspicious fire
– Postmodern Jukebox cuing up for Iowa City
– Martin Luther King Jr. in Riverside Theatre spotlight
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
Two accused in kidnapping, killing of Marion woman, third man arrested on conspiracy charge
UI eyes second new west-side parking ramp near Carver-Hawkeye
Governor appoints Cedar Rapids family law lawyer as next 6th Judicial District judge
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
Iowa bill would make it easier for landlords to evict tenants
University of Iowa to close centers in Cedar Rapids, Quad Cities
Sykora Bakery building purchased by property owner, restaurateur
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
Hiawatha man accused of kidnapping woman found dead in Amana
Iowa House passes bill to block code from tracking gun store purchases
Alcohol could be tied to Iowa’s fastest-growing cancer rate
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Linn County Attorney: Officer-involved shooting on New Year’s Day was justified
Iowa City police investigating attempted abduction
Second worker sues C6-Zero over injuries from 2022 blast
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– 'They Never Gave Up on Her'
– Flawed FAFSA rollout impacting students, schools, campuses across Iowa
– Theatre Cedar Rapids transitions into next century
– Iowa DOT faces ‘massive workload’ to repair median
barriers
– Iowa House Republicans advance new
AEA, teacher pay plan
– Orchestra Iowa announces concertmaster
– Former intern to become Alliant’s Iowa
President
Featured Stories:
– Caitlin Clark breaks the NCAA women’s basketball scoring record
– Iowa GOP lawmakers move to limit challenge to Trump, ban ballot drop boxes
– UI’s Mayflower still for sale; will house students another year
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured stories:
- Caitlin Clark’s date with destiny arrives Thursday at Carver
- Income-eligible households can apply to buy new homes through Cedar Rapids program
- Judge to decide rightful owner of $14,800 cash involved in possible fraud scheme
- Drake seeks most ‘beautiful bulldog’ for relays mascot
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Cedar Rapids community solar garden begins operations
- Preschool to be offered this fall at every Iowa City elementary
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa City Restaurant Week release menu specials
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– David Dostal to be appointed as Cedar Rapids’ next police chief
– Cedar Rapids man faces charges over explosive devices
– Burlington to open store in Coralville in May
– Government Notes: Marion hosting 30th State of the City address (Domes update)
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon
Featured Stories
- Unnamed company looks to build $576M data center in Cedar Rapids
- What is the ‘science of reading?’ And could it improve Iowa’s reading scores?
- Renewed legislation aims to safeguard Mississippi River amid growing environmental
concerns
Featured Stories:
- Shive-Hattery hired as consultant on next Cedar Rapids school facility plan
- Former student accused of threatening University of Northern Iowa Staff
- Barrett’s Quality Eats transforms casual cafe into fine dining for limited dinner series
- Sweet treats in Eastern Iowa for Valentine’s week
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Speakers decry Iowa bill giving politicians more control over libraries
– Cedar Rapids seeks community-oriented leader as new police chief
– Summit pipeline moves closer to reconsideration in North Dakota
Episode Transcript
You’re listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast on Friday, February 9th,
- This podcast provides the latest headlines from the Gazette newsroom. I’m
Becky Lutgen Gardner.
Library officials and supporters spoke out against a proposed bill
Thursday that would give city councils authority over public libraries
including book selection. They warned it would bring partisan, political decision-making
into library operations.
The legislator who managed the bill said his goal
is not to address the selection of books, but instead to provide elected local
officials with more authority over the spending of taxpayer dollars
Under the bill, a city council would be able to
hire a library director, use library funds for library projects and initiatives
by passing an ordinance … all without voter approval.
Wade Dooley, who chairs the library
board in Albion, called the bill a "train wreck."
He says, “It opens up all sorts of
possibilities for very disastrous consequences if you get an activist city
council that starts see-sawing on what they believe for a library to be or not
be. Our city council has barely any training to be a city council. Now, you
also want them to run a library. that’s not a good idea.”
Rep. Carter Nordman, a Republican from
Panora, advanced the bill. He says he’s heard from city council members who
want more direct control over library spending and personnel decisions.
Nordman says, “Ultimately, the library board wasn’t elected; the city
council was. And so, the buck stops with them when it comes to taxpayer
dollars. They should have that authority.”
Nordman said he would be willing to consider an amendment to the bill to
give city councils more authority over library boards but specify that content
selection is with library officials.
Next, In Cedar Rapids’ search for a new police chief, some residents say
they’re looking for a respected leader who focuses on community policing and
fosters a police department culture that promotes citizen equity and trust.
Residents had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with all four police
chief candidates Wednesday night in a meet-and-greet event at the DoubleTree by
Hilton Convention Center.
With the City Council’s consent, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz says he will
decide soon on which candidate will succeed Wayne Jerman. Jerman retired as police
chief last April.
Three candidates — Jennifer Birkhofer, Jeff Coday and David Dostal —
participated in media interviews before the event. Tom Whitten, declined media interviews.
Monica Vallejo is a citizens' review board member and met with all four
candidates. She said it’s important that the next police chief works to establish
more programs that promote diversity and inclusion with all communities.
Vallejo says the community overall feels comfortable and safe with Cedar
Rapids police because of the “wonderful job they do.” She says Jerman left
behind a stable community: "There are big shoes to fit. They have to be
working with trust a lot.”
Finally, Summit Carbon Solutions and other pipeline companies won
this week when the North Dakota Public Service Commission decided that state
rules preempt local ordinances on pipeline zoning issues.
That decision paves
the way for a rehearing on Summit’s application for a pipeline permit in North
Dakota, which the state’s commission denied last year.
The proposed pipeline
would run through Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota before ending in
North Dakota. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that hearings in Iowa have
concluded. The Iowa Utilities Board is now charged with deciding whether the
company is eligible for a permit and for eminent domain authority. Summit has
obtained easements for about three-quarters of its more than 680-mile route in
Iowa.
Join The Gazette for Iowa Ideas In-Depth Week on Homelessness in
Iowa, beginning February 12th. Register for free to participate in the daily
lunch-hour virtual sessions on homelessness, resources, and long-term solutions
in Iowa. Visit Iowa Ideas dot com for full details and to register, that's Iowa
ideas dot com.
Today’s weather in Cedar Rapids. Sunny with a high near 50. Tonight there’s
a 20 percent chance of rain before midnight. It will be partly cloudy with a
low around 30. Saturday will be sunny with a high near 42.
You can find a link to each of the stories featured in today’s episode in
this episode’s description or at the gazette dot com.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Becky
Lutgen Gardner.
Featured Stories:
- Records: Iowa Atheltics assistant IT director enticed teen
- Linn-Mar school board member Matt Rollinger resigns
- Big’s BBQ and Brew Pub moving to new Mount Vernon location
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– Iowa lawmakers advance bill that sets legal definitions for man and woman
– State pays $5k to settle lawsuit over ISU police chase
– Meet finalists for Cedar Rapids Police Chief this week
Featured Stories:
- Bill would add lawmakers to Iowa Board of Regents
- New owners look to transform former GoDaddy building
- First ‘voice writers’ help address Iowa’s court reporter shortage
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
–Proposed AEA bill would create ‘more chaotic, less equitable’ system
–After tax reform in Iowa, local governments look to fill budget gaps
–Homeless counts in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City show mixed results
Episode Transcript
You’re listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast on Monday, February
5th, 2024. This podcast provides the latest headlines from the
Gazette newsroom. I’m Becky Lutgen Gardner.
Thousands of Iowans continue to rally to support Iowa’s area education agencies. They’re responding to a bill introduced by Gov. Kim Reynolds that would overhaul the agencies.
But while AEAs provide valuable resources and training to educators and families across Iowa, many say they have room for improvement.
One is how they serve the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing children. That was just
one message shared with 12 legislators and about 100 parents, students and
educators at a forum at the Educational Leadership and Support Center in Cedar
Rapids on Saturday.
Several of the 30 people who spoke at the forum said deaf and hard-of-hearing children’s needs are not being met — and sometimes are ignored — by AEAs.
Vania Kassouf, a deaf advocate and virtual instructor in American Sign Language, told
legislators that Grant Wood AEA uses limited and outdated expertise for deaf
children. She supports AEAs' services for children with
special needs but says deaf education should be separate from special education
John Speer, chief administrator of Grant Wood AEA says the AEAs are “not a perfect
agency,” and getting people together to discuss additional updates is essential.
But he adds if the governor’s updated bill is enacted, “what we’ll have is a
more chaotic, less equitable and a more expensive system.”
The most recent version of Gov. Reynolds' proposed bill would allow
schools to opt out of the AEAs’ special education services and seek them elsewhere.
A Senate subcommittee advanced the bill last Wednesday. But Republicans
said the bill would likely see changes.
House Republicans declined to advance the bill out of
subcommittee, saying they wanted further conversation before acting on it.
In other news, many Iowa cities and counties are struggling to comply
with a state law signed last May. It was intended to relieve taxpayers from
increasing property assessments driving up their tax bills
The bill passed with bipartisan support after property assessments — increased
by an average of 22 percent statewide in 2023.
The law limits the amount local governments can acquire by taxing a
growing tax base. The law was meant to prevent cities and counties from seeing
a tax windfall from rising assessments.
But those cities with growing populations, new housing, and industries
are trying to figure out how to extend public services to more people without
being allowed to use that money.
Many city projects are being delayed or cut entirely due to the changes.
Swisher City Clerk Tawnia Kakacek says,
“Any time you cut taxes, you have to figure out what you're going to take out.”
Finally, winter homeless counts show mixed results in Linn and Johnson
Counties. Linn County declined from a record high in 2023, but Johnson County
saw its homeless numbers rise.
Homeless outreach workers coordinate twice a year to count unsheltered
homeless people
Linn County volunteers from Willis Dady and Waypoint found 20 unsheltered people
living outdoors on January 24th— a decrease from 29 last winter.
J’nae Peterman, director of housing services for
Waypoint, said, “It did surprise me; we are beginning to see our numbers
decrease.”
She credits devoting more resources to diversion
programs that help people before they enter the cycle of homelessness.
Johnson County saw a marked increase in those sleeping outdoors for the first time in
several years. Shelter House volunteers found 23 people living outdoors — an
increase from 13 last year.
The increase comes as a “pretty stark” development to
Shelter House staff, but no surprise after markers were indicated an increasing
trend in housing insecurity.
Join The Gazette for Iowa Ideas In-Depth Week on Homelessness in Iowa, beginning
February 12th. Register for free to participate in the daily lunch-hour virtual
sessions on homelessness, resources, and long-term solutions in Iowa. Visit
iowa ideas dot com for full details and to register, that's iowa ideas dot com.
Today’s weather in Cedar Rapids. Patchy fog early, but the rest of the day will
be mostly sunny with a high near 48 and low around 29. Tuesday will be mostly
sunny with a high near 50.
You can find a link to each of the stories featured in today’s episode in
this episode’s description or at the gazette dot com.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Becky
Lutgen Gardner.
Featured Stories:
- Cedar Rapids police respond to swatting call at Jefferson High School
- Capitol Notebook: Lawmakers advance bill allowing Iowa county attorneys to be armed at all times
- Cedar Rapids woman charged with murder, domestic abuse
- Attorney: Pundits on search for missing trucker have 'demoralizing effect'
- 'Something Rotten!' coming to Theatre Cedar Rapids stage
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Cedar Rapids will welcome four candidates for police chief interviews next week
- Thaw from Iowa's winter storms brings latest scourge: potholes
- Iowa City chef wins Pork Producers award
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Republican Iowa House lawmakers table Gov. Kim Reynolds’ AEA bill
- Iowa DCI counters allegations that sports betting probe used ‘warrantless search’
- Iowa Amber Alert suspect in custody after standoff
- Country-themed bar opening in Iowa City
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Trump stays on Illinois' ballot as election board declines to ban him over insurrection amendment
- Cedar Rapids orders two more Westhill Village Apartments buildings to vacate
- Millions of cicadas will flood Eastern Iowa this spring
Featured Stories
- POET ethanol plants in Iowa and South Dakota sign on to Summit CO2 pipeline
- Legacy of 2023 drought plagues livestock producers this winter
- Democrats target Eastern Iowa race in quest to regain U.S. House
– Iowa’s Area Education Agencies ‘magic sauce’ in helping
Children Succeed
– Linn County supervisors ask USDA for summer EBT funds that Reynolds
rejected
– Riders face hilliest route ever in this summer’s RAGBRAI
Featured Stories:
- Cedar Rapids police identify homicide victim
- Willis Dady Homeless Services opens new supportive apartments building in Cedar Rapids
- 'Inspiring Big Dreams': Capital campaign launches to build westside library in Cedar Rapids
- Ring will no longer allow police to request doorbell camera footage from users
- Jeff Parker bringing innovative sounds to Hancher's Strauss Hall
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Cedar Rapids must pay $22k for fish kill caused by main break
- North Linn fined $6k for asbestos violations in school renovation
- Marengo winemaker earns Iowa award
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- ISU officer fired after hitting two vehicles in car chase
- Iowans speak out against bill making it easier to fund pregnancy centers
- Families could monitor Iowa nursing home residents under bill
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Sledding crash turns fatal for Anamosa teen
- A vote to extend a capital projects fund to go to Linn-Mar, Marion voters in March
- Linn County assistant prosecutor appointed next 6th Judicial District judge
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
- Burglaries under investigation at scene of fatal C.R. apartment fire
- Iowa educators: Study area education agencies before making changes
- Gov. Reynolds: Iowa does not need all 9 of its area education agencies
- Longest-serving Iowa State Provost Jonathan Wickert stepping down
- Nominate a student for Excellence in the Arts!
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
- Ron DeSantis ends his struggling presidential bid before New Hampshire and endorses Donald Trump
- Week of heavy snowfall wallops Midwest, could bring drought relief
- Curious Iowa: How do cities clear snow?
- Government Notes: Cedar Rapids Public Library launching westside library fundraising campaign
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Stories Featured:
- Iowa City woman charged with threatening Mercy clinic
- Iowa's Chuck Grassley released from hospital after being treated for infection
- Man gets 65 years for Des Moines shooting that killed 2
- Beware of the respiratory illnesses infiltrating Iowa
- Dallas company buys former Sears store at Lindale Mall
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Stories Featured:
- Iowa City Police investigating threat to Mercy Hospital clinic
- Beth Goetz named University of Iowa's permanent athletics director, losing interim tag
- Eastern Iowa bankers fined $50K for taking customer information from F&M Bank
- Paula Poundstone returning to Englert in Iowa City
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories:
– Iowa House lawmakers advance stiffer punishments for ‘swatting’ calls
- False threats reported at multiple Eastern Iowa schools
– Cedar Rapids Public Library Foundation celebrates Dolly Parton’s birthday, literacy impact with Imagination Library
– Harbor Freight Tools eyes Bed Bath Beyond building
– Excellence in the Arts nominations
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
Stories featured:
Iowa's Chuck Grassley hospitalized, being treated for infection
Iowa lawmakers advance bill to add raw cannabis flower to medical program
With Iowa losing pharmacies, lawmakers advance new rules
This episode was hosted and produced by Bailey Cichon.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 16, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny and cold Tuesday, with a high near one degree. Wind chill values could drop as low as -35 degrees. On Tuesday evening it will be mostly clear, with a low of around -6 degrees.
Donald Trump’s popularity among Iowa Republicans was on full display Monday night, when the former president seeking a return to the White House won the state party’s presidential precinct caucuses in dominant fashion.
With all of the state’s 99 counties reporting their vote totals late Monday evening, Trump had won 98 counties, securing 51 percent of Iowa Republicans’ support in total. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won second place with 21 percent, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley finished third with 19 percent.
Republicans who spoke with the Gazette said they supported Trump because they feel the country is worse off than it was 4 years ago, and they would like a return to a Trump presidency. They said they trust him to secure the southern border and to improve the economy. Many of them also felt that they can’t trust politicians, so they will put their faith in someone from outside the system.
In case you are curious, the one county that Trump did not win was Johnson County, which gave the number one nod to Haley instead by the current margin of one vote.
Trump took the stage at his caucus-night rally at around 10 p.m. and thanked Iowa Republican caucus participants, his family, the Iowa public officials who have supported him, and his fellow candidates: DeSantis, Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. He then turned his remarks to current Democratic President Joe Biden, and celebrated his historic victory margin.
DeSantis and Haley both proclaimed in their post-caucus speeches that despite not winning the caucus, they felt their finishes had given them enough momentum to stay in the race.
Not so for Ramaswamy. The Ohio biotech entrepreneur, who promised his far-right and anti-establishment policy proposals could unite the country around a shared identity, garnered less than 8 percent in Iowa’s caucuses. He decided Monday evening to drop out of the race and endorse Trump.
The Republican Party of Iowa late Monday night said it projected statewide caucus turnout of roughly 100,000, which was lower than usual for understandable reasons. Temperatures across the state reached historic lows for an Iowa caucus night, with wind chills in the range of minus 30 degrees.
Next up is the New Hampshire Primary on January 23. Enjoy the absence of political commercials and political texts. For a little while, at least.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 15, 2024.
It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Iowa Caucus Day. It also is very, very cold today.
According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near -3 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Wind chill values could be as low as -40 degrees.
The one silver lining is it will gradually become slightly warmer as the week goes on, and weather models for the following weeks have temperatures bouncing back into the 20s and 30s.
But until those predictions come to pass, make sure to bundle up.
The Perry High School Principal who put himself in harm’s way to protect students during a school shooting earlier this month died on Sunday,
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger was critically injured during the Jan. 4 attack. Marburger was commended by public safety officials for putting himself in danger in an attempt to protect his students.
Likewise, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a statement in reaction to the news.
"Our entire state is devastated by the news of Dan Marburger's death," Gov. Reynolds said in a statement Sunday. "Dan courageously put himself in harm's way to protect his students, and ultimately gave his own life to save them. He will forever be remembered for his selfless and heroic actions. May he rest in peace."
An 11-year-old middle school student was killed in the shooting, and six other people were injured. The 17-year-old student who opened fire also was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
With mounting scientific evidence showing exercise can reduce stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression, one Iowa State University associate professor wants to know why and how, and whether the type and amount of exercise matters.
ISU associate professor of kinesiology Jacob Meyer recently landed two National Institute of Mental Health grants providing him resources to try to answer those questions.
The longer of the two projects — a $3.6 million, five-year study — gives him three years to recruit 200 adults with depression for a 16-week trial to test whether resistance training, also known as weight training, can be as helpful as aerobic exercise like running or biking has been shown to be.
The second, a $1.5 million, two-year study, aims to explore whether exercise might amplify benefits of therapy.
These inquiries are a continuation of Meyer’s research into the impact of exercise on depression,
From 2020 to 2022, Meyer and his ISU team led smaller pilot studies that produced “promising results” about the benefits of exercise. They found — among other things — that 30 minutes of exercise might reduce depression symptoms for at least 75 minutes after the workout and also amplify therapy benefits.
The Gazette’s reporters and photographers will be getting plenty of exercise tonight for the Iowa Caucus. The Gazette will have caucus coverage tonight on thegazette.com, a liveblog featuring on-the-scene photos and thoughts from voters, and will have several pages of coverage in the E-edition of the Gazette for Tuesday morning. Head to thegazette.com for information about how to participate in the caucus, caucus results as they come in and candidate reactions to those results.
Stay warm everybody.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, January 13th and Sunday January 14th, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service, we’re getting more snow and more cold. Saturday will have a 50% chance of snow, mainly after 11am with widespread blowing snow before 1pm. Otherwise it’ll be cloudy and cold, with a temperature falling to around 6 by 4pm. Wind chill values as low as -15. Total new accumulation should be less than an inch.
Saturday night has a 30% chance of snow, mainly before 7pm. Otherwise it’ll be mostly cloudy, with a low around -10. Wind chill values as low as -30.
Sunday will be mostly sunny and cold, with a high near -4. Wind chill values as low as -35 and Sunday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around -16.
This week’s second winter storm is upgraded as near-blizzard conditions loom
Compared with the winter storm earlier this week, this round of weather is less likely to bring quite as much snow, although a lot more blustery weather is on the way as wind chills will fall as low as minus 30 by Saturday night into Sunday. Temperatures will be in the negatives for most of Eastern Iowa on Sunday, as well as Monday — when many Iowans will head out to participate in the Iowa caucuses.
The national weather service has issued a wind chill warning from Sunday night through Tuesday evening.
Bondholders seek 96% of Mercy Iowa City sale proceeds as closure nears
With the $28 million sale of Mercy Iowa City to the University of Iowa just over two weeks away from closing, the 150-year-old community hospital’s largest bondholders are seeking court affirmation they will get the vast majority of that money “promptly.”
Computershare Trust Company, serving as master trustee for bonds issued to Mercy in 2011 and 2018, along with Mercy’s largest bondholder, Preston Hollow Community Capital, asked a U.S. Bankruptcy judge to direct Mercy to give them $26.8 million of the sale proceeds “either at closing or as soon as practicable following closing,” which is expected on Jan. 31.
Trump’s Iowa lead huge, unchanged in Iowa State University poll
There was no surprise, and very little movement in the final Iowa State University-Civiqs poll ahead of Monday’s first-in-the-nation Iowa Republican caucuses.
Just like all the ISU-Civiqs polls before it, the final edition, published Thursday, showed former President Donald Trump with a commanding lead over the remainder of the Republican presidential primary field in Iowa.
Trump was the top choice of 55 percent of those surveyed for the ISU-Civiqs poll, well clear of the second-place tie between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley at 14 percent each.
Have a good weekend everyone, and stay warm.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 12, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service it will snow all day on Friday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 31 degrees. The current NWS prediction is for 5 to 11 inches of snow by the end of Friday. It will be windy to start the day, leading to a chance of blowing snow, reduced visibility, and possible blizzard-like conditions. And it will grow even windier throughout the day, with wind gusts as high as 45 mph by Friday evening.
The snow will finally run out of steam on Saturday. After that, it is going to get really, really cold next week.
Instead of the nearly $40 million appropriations increase Iowa’s Board of Regents wanted the Legislature to approve for the next budget year, Gov. Kim Reynolds has recommended a $12.3 million bump — amounting to a 2.5 percent increase for each of Iowa’s public universities.
In making that recommendation as part of her fiscal 2025 budget proposal released this week, Reynolds rejected several specific regent university requests.
Reynolds’ proposal also excluded any funding toward a $1 million request for expanded mental health services on campus that student leaders implored regents to add to their legislative request for funding.
It remains to be seen whether the Iowa Legislature will follow her budget recommendations, but the governor’s proposal is a sign that it may be another year where Iowa’s universities receive far less funding than they asked for.
The city of Cedar Rapids saw a noticeable decrease in shots-fired incidents and other violent crime in 2023, according to the Cedar Rapids Police Department’s annual crime statistics.
Shots-fired incidents have been consistently decreasing in Cedar Rapids since they spiked in 2020 — jumping to 163 reports from 99 in 2019.
In 2023, 81 shots-fired incidents were reported in the city, the first year the total has dropped below pre-pandemic levels. It’s also about 35 percent less than the five-year average of 124.
Violent crime — the category including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — dropped to 435 reports in the city in 2023, down from 465 in 2022, but still above the 2018 and 2019 totals, which were 281 and 283, respectively.
Police attribute the decrease to some arrests made early in the year and the city’s Group Violence Intervention Program.
The city of Cedar Rapids has been working to reduce violent crime through its Group Violence Intervention Program since 2019. The program involves police and other community members working with people in the community who may be at high risk of being a victim or a perpetrator of violent crime.
Hundreds of people said goodbye Thursday to a vibrant 11-year-old boy known as “Smiley,” a week after he was shot to death at his school in Perry.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, residents of the small community of Perry packed a Catholic church and spilled over to a nearby church where the funeral for Ahmir Jolliff was televised. They recalled a boy with a “spirit bigger than his 11-year-old body could contain,” as the Rev. Andrea Brownlee put it.
A 17-year-old student named Dylan Butler armed with a shotgun and handgun killed Ahmir before classes began Jan. 4, the first day back from winter break. The high school principal, two other staff members and four students were wounded. Butler later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
School has been canceled since the shooting, but elementary students will go back to class Jan. 18 and middle school students will return Jan. 19. The shooting started in the cafeteria the middle school shares with the high school, so the repairs must be done there before the middle school can reopen.
In an earlier interview, Ahmir’s mother, Erica Jolliff, described her son as an outgoing boy who seemed to know everyone in Perry.
“He was so well-loved and he loved everyone,” she said.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 11, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy on Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 26 degrees. There is snow in the forecast Thursday night, but it looks like it will mostly start snowing in the early morning hours on Friday. Keep an eye on the forecast because things continue to change as the week progresses.
The entire region should see snow, with heavier snowfall predicted for areas along and north of Interstate 80. Snow accumulation should mostly stay between 4 and 8 inches, although NWS bureau meteorologists have medium confidence that some snow totals could surpass 8 inches. Periods of wintry mix are possible south of I-80.
As of Wednesday afternoon projections, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are respectively 70 percent and 69 percent likely to see 6 or more inches of snow.
My fearless prediction is it will not be fun for anyone needing to drive or fly on Friday.
A new chief integration officer the University of Iowa Health Care has appointed to manage its complex merger with Mercy Iowa City could earn $780,000 this year, according to her professional services agreement.
The hire follows UIHC’s $28 million bankruptcy acquisition of the community hospital.
Deborah Berini of the Pennsylvania-based Berini Consulting Group — chosen in December without an open search — has signed on to serve as UIHC chief integration officer and interim chief administrative officer from Jan. 2 to Jan. 1, 2025, “unless amended by written mutual agreement.”
Her fee is $65,000 a month, amounting to $780,000 for the year. The agreement doesn’t provide expenses for “on-site activity,” include benefits, or cover moving costs. But Berini is in Iowa City for the task of leading Mercy’s transition into the university’s sprawling health care system, UIHC spokeswoman Laura Shoemaker said.
The university used a “sole source purchase justification” to appoint Berini and use her one-year-old consulting group without conducting a search or issuing a public request for proposals due to “emergency need,” according to UI documents provided to The Gazette in response to a records request.
“With the short timeline for the Mercy Iowa City transition, we needed to onboard executive leadership support as quickly as possible, which is why we expedited the process,” Shoemaker said. “We are fortunate we were able to find the right person at the right time.”
Shortages of court reporters and contract lawyers continue to challenge Iowa’s courts, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen said Wednesday — as does low pay for Iowa judges, who are paying more of their salaries into their pensions.
Christensen, delivering the annual Condition of the Judiciary address to the Iowa Legislature, said the judicial branch is working to solve the shortages of court reporters and contract attorneys in order to avoid delayed justice. But more investment and action is needed by state lawmakers to address the crisis.
Christensen was appointed in 2018 by Gov. Kim Reynolds to serve on the seven-member Iowa Supreme Court and became chief justice in 2020.
The state faces a growing shortfall of private lawyers willing to contract with the state’s public defender’s office to represent indigent defendants.
Lawmakers last year approved funding to increase the pay of private lawyers who agree to represent indigent defendants by $5 an hour and provide $35 an hour for travel time, plus mileage, as some spend hours driving around Iowa to court hearings. But Iowa still pays below that of every surrounding state.
She said the problem is particularly acute in Eastern Iowa, where the lawyers can now earn nearly twice as much doing contract work across the river in Illinois.
As for judges, Christensen said an increase is needed for them as well,
Salaries by judges are set by statute. In the last 15 years, judges have received five pay increases. Christensen said Iowa judges make $16,000 less per year than judges in South Dakota and $38,000 less per year than judges in Nebraska.
She said the number of applicants for district court judge vacancies has decreased over 20 years, from an average of 17 applicants per opening to 6.5.
“This dramatic decrease in applicants is deeply distressing,” Christensen said. “Being appointed by the governor to the bench should be the pinnacle of an attorney’s career, not a deep financial sacrifice.”
Christensen also called on lawmakers to make changes to the Judicial Retirement System allowing judges to pay less of their salary into the pension fund, as this only makes the lower salary problem worse.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 10, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high of 27 degrees. The wind will be calmer Wednesday, with a 5 to 10 mph wind that could gust as high as 20 mph.
After snowfall totals nearing a foot in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City through yesterday evening, there could be still more snow on Wednesday. There will be a high chance of snow at around 5 to 11 p.m., with a potential of up to two more inches of snow.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds used her seventh Condition of the State speech Tuesday to call for accelerated income tax cuts and to express grief over last week’s deadly school shooting in Perry — and her gratitude for law enforcement and school officials who responded to it.
The Republican governor, in her annual address to a joint session of the Iowa House and Senate, also outlined plans to increase teacher pay, reform the state’s Area Education Agencies that serve children with disabilities and create a network of nonprofits to connect Iowans in need with assistance.
Reynolds began her address by acknowledging the shooting Thursday at Perry High School that killed 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff, a sixth-grader, and injured seven students and school staff. The 17-year-old shooter, a student there, killed himself.
Reynolds and lawmakers took a moment of silence to honor those affected by the Perry school shooting, and also an Algona police officer and Ionia firefighter who died in the line of duty last year.
Reynolds’ priorities and policy proposals for the year includes accelerating income tax cuts passed in 2022 that started to take effect this year. The law would gradually reduce personal income taxes to a flat 3.9 percent in 2026.
Reynolds’ proposal would expedite that transition. Most working Iowans would pay a 3.65 percent state income tax on their 2024 wages, and then a 3.5 rate in 2025. The proposal would reduce Iowans’ state income taxes, and thus limit future state revenue growth, by $3.8 billion over the first five years.
Reynolds also is asking the Iowa Legislature to invest $96 million in new money to increase starting teacher pay by 50 percent, to $50,000, and to set a minimum salary of $62,000 for teachers with at least 12 years of experience.
Saying they are not overly restrictive of free speech, two of Iowa’s so-called “ag gag” laws — which create penalties for individuals who trespass on agricultural property with intent to create financial harm — are constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled this week.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit delivered similar rulings Monday in two cases, reversing a lower court decision in both. A district-court ruling on a third lawsuit remains pending, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office said.
The appeals court rulings mean those state laws could soon become enforceable. But an attorney for one of the plaintiffs expressed confidence opponents would prevail upon appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Republican-majority Iowa Legislature has made four different attempts since 2012 to pass such laws, which supporters say are needed to protect farmers from individuals who unfairly portray their farming practices in undercover recordings. Animal welfare advocates say the laws restrict the ability of advocates to shine a light on the mistreatment of animals.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 9, 2024.
Monday eve ning was just the first round of snow, and what's coming next could come in bunches. The National Weather Service is predicting 6 to 10 inches of accumulation Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area. It will also be breezy, with a wind of 15 to 25 gusting as high as 40 mph, sometimes leading to blowing snow.
The NWS projections have most of the snow falling before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, with a small chance for more snow through the end of the day.
The high temperature is predicted to be around 32 degrees.
Iowa’s Republican lawmakers promised faster tax cuts and a continuation of the conservative agenda their majority party has enacted as the 2024 legislative session got underway on Monday.
Republican and Democratic leaders made opening speeches laying out their priorities for the 2024 session, with Republicans promising a continuation of policies they have already passed while Democrats asked for an actual seat at the table this session.
Lawmakers took a moment of silence and expressed grief over last Thursday’s shooting at Perry High School. Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley highlighted it as part of Republicans’ commitment to improving public safety, while Democrats said the shooting shows the need for stronger gun control measures.
Hundreds of students across Iowa walked out of school Monday in protest of gun violence organized by March For Our Lives Iowa, a student-led group advocating for ending gun violence and encouraging youth civic engagement. They have met with Iowa lawmakers to lobby for the legislative priorities of limiting gun access to individuals in crisis and prohibiting gun ownership for perpetrators of domestic abuse.
Despite this, Republicans showed no interest in gun control legislation on Monday.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation that will provide Perry funding as it works to recover from the shooting. Grassley said Republicans would invest in school security, prioritize school resource officers, bolster children’s mental health and teach “resilience over victimhood.”
What Republicans really wanted to talk about was tax cuts.
Republican leaders in the House and Senate promised to accelerate income tax cuts they passed in 2022 and expand business opportunities in the state.
Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver from Grimes compared Iowa’s policies and fiscal standing with those in neighboring, Democrat-run states Minnesota and Illinois. He highlighted Iowa’s fiscal health, noting the $2.1 billion state general fund budget surplus — which is projected to grow to $3.1 billion in the next fiscal year — plus another $3.7 billion in the state’s Taxpayer Relief Fund.
Besides reiterating a call to speed up the tax cuts, Whitver pledged to reduce the number of state boards and commissions — a process already underway after it was included last year in Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ state government reorganization plan and studied by a legislative committee.
The former GoDaddy building in Hiawatha has been sold to local developers, Hiawatha Economic Development Corp. announced Monday.
The internet hosting and domain-name registrar company’s building at 1 Parsons Dr. has been sold to NGD LLC, Doug & Chris Sevey with ENSEVA LLC, Mike and Andy Hodge with Hodge Construction as well as Bill and Tracy Bennett. The developers have not yet unveiled formal plans for redevelopment, according to a news release. The seller is KKR, Silver Lake Partners and Technology.
The more than 73,000 square-foot building was built in 1991 and remodeled in 2017. It housed more than 400 GoDaddy workers in 2020, before the company shared plans to downsize and move to smaller office space because of workforce changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 8, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy on Monday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 35 degrees. The low will drop down to 30 degrees later on in the evening.
Monday evening will also be when heavy snowfall could arrive, so do your emergency shopping during the day if you want to completely avoid snow. The National Weather Service projections show a 20 percent chance of snow at 5 p.m. that rockets up to a 100 percent chance of snow by 8 p.m.
And the snow could come in bunches, with a potential for up to 3 inches by the end of Monday and a total of 6 inches by the time you wake up Tuesday morning, with the potential with more snow to come on top of that. As a result, a Winter Storm Warning is in effect from 6 p.m. tonight until the start of Wednesday morning.
Cedar Rapids has an 85 percent chance of seeing more than 6 inches of snow by the time the snowfall ends, and a 27 percent chance of more than a foot. Chances increase farther south: Ottumwa has an 88 percent chance of seeing 6-plus inches of snow, and a 36 percent chance of seeing more than a foot.
Just weeks away from “day one” of the University of Iowa-Mercy Iowa City process designed to morph the 150-year-old Mercy Hospital into UI Health Care’s “downtown campus,” job offers are going out to more than 1,100 prospective transitioning employees.
Of more than 90 physicians employed by Mercy when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Aug. 7, UIHC in the final weeks of December made job offers to a majority of those who remained.
More than half of those offered have accepted to date, and the acceptances continue to come in according to UIHC spokeswoman Laura Shoemaker.
“It is our hope that all Mercy Iowa City physicians will choose to transition to UI Health Care as we grow our team and work to deliver high-quality care to our patients and communities.”
In addition to Mercy physician offers, UIHC is in the process of offering employment agreements to about 1,100 Mercy staff members — including advanced practice providers, nurses, nursing assistants, receptionists, administrators, janitorial workers, and food service providers.
UI Health Care Vice President for Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson told The Gazette that transitioning 1,100 new employees and the Mercy system to fit under the UIHC umbrella, all while dealing with lingering Mercy expenses and investing in the hospital’s aging infrastructure, will be, to put it mildly, a complicated task.
“Change can be very stressful, but I don't think there's any way anybody is going to look back five or 10 years from now and say, ‘We should have just let Mercy close’,” Jamieson said, pointing to worsening overcrowding issues at UIHC in addition to Mercy’s storied history and loyal patient base. “We need the beds to be able to serve the community.”
I will leave you today with a happy thought. It is just one week until the Iowa Caucuses arrive, which means there is just over one week left until political ads stop following you wherever you go.
Think of that as you shovel snow tomorrow, and it might just make your load feel lighter. But remember to use your legs to lift either way.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, January 6th and Sunday January 7th, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service, there may be some snow from Friday night, but otherwise Saturday will be partly sunny, with a high near 37. Saturday night will have a 20 percent chance of snow and be mostly cloudy, with a low around 27.
Sunday will be partly sunny, with a high near 34, and Sunday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 26.
The first winter storm of 2024 is en route to Iowa
The first winter storm of the year will blow across the Midwest early next week, meteorologists are forecasting.
The storm system should charge through southeastern Iowa Monday afternoon into Tuesday evening. It brings a 40 percent to 70 percent chance of at least minor winter travel impacts to Eastern Iowa, with the potential for accumulating snowfall and strong winds.
Be sure to check weather forecasts and road conditions before you travel anywhere, and pack an emergency supply kit for your vehicle.
Iowa Republican caucus results will be posted in real time on caucus night
The results of the first-in-the-nation Iowa Republican presidential caucus will be reported in real time on a public website, the state party said Thursday.
The Iowa Republican caucus results will be displayed online and constantly updated through the evening as they are reported to and confirmed by the state party, Republican Party of Iowa consultant Patrick Stewart told reporters Thursday.
Stewart said the results will be processed in three stages: vote collection at the 1,657 precincts across the state, verification at state party headquarters, and the public reporting to the website.
Iowa Democrats push to reverse state rejection of federal summer food assistance
Iowa Statehouse Democrats will push to reverse a decision from state officials to opt out of a federal food assistance program for low-income children, party leaders said during a forum Thursday.
House and Senate Democratic leaders made the remarks during the Iowa Capitol Press Association’s annual Legislative Session Preview Forum. Republican leaders and Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds declined to attend the forum.
The state Department of Health and Human Services announced in December that it would not participate in the 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children program. The program would have given $40 per child for each of the summer months to families who qualify for free and reduced lunch during the school year.
Instead, Reynolds said the state would expand existing programs that “leverage partnerships with community-based providers and schools who understand the needs of the families they serve.”
Have a good weekend everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 5, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy on Friday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 35 degrees. The low will drop down to 27 degrees, with a small chance of snow overnight.
Perry High School was terrorized by a school shooting early Thursday.
According to the Associated Press, on the first day of classes in the new year, a 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun and a hand killed a sixth grader and wounded five others. Police found the teen, later identified as Dylan Butler, dead of what they believe to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
An Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation official said Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger was among those hurt in the shooting.
Authorities released no information on what they believe Butler’s motive was, as they continued to investigate as the chaos subsided.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, two friends of Butler and a mother told a reporter that Butler was a quiet person who had been bullied for years.
At a town hall meeting at Kirkwood Community College Thursday morning, U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson was asked about the shooting and whether she would support sensible gun laws.
Hinson said had not been briefed on the shooting, yet, but that “anyone who even threatens this kind of violence has true hate in their heart.”
“These are horrific tragedies and anyone who decides to go to school, a grocery, any public event with this kind of hate in their hearts is an absolute monster, and I think if we could legislate away this kind of hate we would have done it by now,” Hinson said. “I think there is a balance to be had here between protecting our Second Amendment rights in this country, which I've been a firm supporter of, and making sure that we can actually hold the bad guys accountable.”
She said her focus would be on making sure law enforcement has the resources to respond to and prevent such incidents.
With the Iowa Caucuses just over a week way, the race for Republican candidates in Iowa still appears to be a Donald Trump’s race to win, based on polls of likely Caucus goers.
That means all the drama leading up to the vote appears to be on who will get the remaining bragging rights of coming in second place.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is facing backlash from Iowa conservative leaders for telling a New Hampshire crowd that its primary voters have the opportunity to "correct" the results of the Iowa caucuses.
“We have an opportunity to get this right," Haley said at a campaign event Wednesday in New Hampshire. ”You know how to do this. You know, Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it. … And then my sweet state of South Carolina brings it home. That's what we do.“
Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor, has gained momentum in the Granite State, surpassing GOP primary rival and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis there.
Haley and DeSantis are also neck and neck in Iowa based on polling numbers.
Predictably, DeSantis’ Iowa allies jumped on Haley’s comment.
“I trust Iowans to make their own decisions. No ‘corrections’ needed!” Reynolds, who has endorsed DeSantis, tweeted on X.
Iowa Christian evangelical leader Bob Vanderplaats, who also endorsed DeSantis for president, posted to X that Haley's remarks “are very telling regarding her status in Iowa” and that it is an “admission of getting beat" in the Iowa caucuses.
A spokesperson for Haley’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request from the Gazette to comment about the remark.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 4, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy on Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 33 degrees. The sky will gradually clear during the day and the low will drop down to 22 degrees.
Some more details have been revealed about the officer-involved shooting on Monday.
According to police records, a 20-year-old man, identified Wednesday as Michael Griffin of Cedar Rapids, fired an assault-style rifle at police officers as they pursued him in the events leading up to his death.
A search warrant affidavit filed Wednesday states that Griffin had talked early Monday with the occupants of 414 Longwood Drive NE, while displaying a black AR-15-style rifle. He demanded they tell him the whereabouts of someone he identified only by a street name. They persuaded him to leave, but shortly after, gunfire started hitting the house, the affidavit said.
Police were called to the area at 6:24 a.m. Monday. Witnesses described seeing shots coming from a dark sedan.
As Cedar Rapids police officers were driving to the area, they spotted a car that matched the description — and it had a bag covering its license plate. Police attempted to pull it over, but the car sped up and fled at speeds up to 75 mph.
Two people were inside the car, one of whom got out during the chase and was taken into custody. The driver then continued fleeing, according to the warrant request. Gunshots started coming toward officers through the driver’s side window and also through the back window of the car while the chase was ongoing,
Even after the vehicle was spun to a stop by a squad car, police say they still heard shots being fired from the vehicle, and officers returned fire, according to the search warrant. Griffin was then found dead inside the vehicle.
The five officers who fired on the vehicle have been placed on leave while the DCI investigates the shooting, which is routine for an officer-involved shooting.
Some residents of Westhill Village Apartments in northwest Cedar Rapids were ordered this week to leave their homes by the end of the month after an engineer flagged structural issues in three buildings, including cracks in the drywall and floor unevenness that may lead to a “potential structural failure.”
Residents of the buildings at 1610, 1620 and 1630 Seminole Ave. NW were given 30 days by Waterloo-based EPM Iowa, the private property management company, to vacate the properties.
The city of Cedar Rapids is requiring residents to leave to allow for repairs of structural problems, some stemming from the 2020 derecho.
According to the Building Services Department, the city is in contact with the Westhill Village Apartments’ owner, the owner’s authorized agent and the private property management company.
Under housing and property maintenance codes adopted by the city, the owner or the owner’s authorized agent is responsible for compliance with code violations.
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, January 3rd, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service, today will have a slight chance of freezing drizzle between 7am and 8am. Otherwise it’ll be mostly cloudy, with a high near 35 Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low around 20.
Johnson County, Iowa City governments choose leaders
The seven-member Iowa City Council on Tuesday elected Bruce Teague to continue to serve as mayor for a third time.
Unlike many cities, Iowa City voters do not directly vote for the mayor, so it is the council’s decision. His colleagues first elected Teague to the role in 2020.
Council member Megan Alter, who served as mayor pro tem from 2022-23, nominated council member Mazahir Salih for mayor pro tem — essentially an assistant mayor who fills in when the mayor isn’t available.
No other nominations were put forward for either position, so the council unanimously supported Teague as mayor and Salih as mayor pro tem.
Days before caucuses, GOP candidates hold clashing events
Former President Donald Trump will skip a televised debate five days before Iowa’s caucuses featuring GOP rivals Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley and will instead hold a competing event at the same time.
And presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who failed to qualify for the CNN debate stage, also will hold his own event at the same time.
The end result: Three clashing Republican campaign events in Des Moines.
They all are scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Jan. 10. Iowa's Republican caucuses will be held Jan. 15.
Passenger in Cedar Rapids car chase before shootout was a juvenile
The passenger who left a car during a police chase that ended in a shootout Monday is a juvenile, according to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
Authorities say police responded to reports of the shooting and quickly began pursuing the suspect vehicle, described by the DCI as being occupied by two males. The driver began shooting with a rifle at police near First Avenue and 12th Street SE and again near Mount Vernon Road and 34th Street SE, investigators said.
“At some point in the pursuit, the passenger in the suspect vehicle exited the vehicle and was taken into custody by officers,” according to a news release from the DCI.
According to Joe Lestina, DCI special agent in charge of the investigation. The identity of the passenger — and any information about any charges he may be facing — will not be released to the public because he is a juvenile
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service, today’s weather will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. Tonight will remain mostly cloudy, with a low around 25.
Shootout with Cedar Rapids police leaves suspect dead
Cedar Rapids police officers responding to reports of a drive-by shooting Monday morning were fired on repeatedly by the driver of the fleeing suspected vehicle — until five officers returned fire and killed the driver, state investigators said.
The names of the officers involved and the person killed were not released Monday by the state Division of Criminal Investigation, which is investigating the shooting. None of the officers was injured.
According to the DCI, the episode unfolded during a police chase that went on for miles on the city’s east side as the driver fired at pursuing officers on at least three occasions.
Iowa outdoor enthusiasts went on the year’s first hike
It was a good day for long-haired dogs, children with puffy coats and Eastern Iowa friends from different cities who met to enjoy nature on the first day of 2024.
Hikers of all ages met at the lodge at noon and took off along the Cedar Cliff trail, which winds along the bluff of the Cedar River. Some people strode the full 2-mile, hilly trail, while others stopped at the gazebo to chat with Ranger Luke Wagner. A couple families with small children spent an hour on the riverbank sandbar, digging with sticks and watching the ducks huddled in the frigid water.
They all met back at the lodge for cocoa, hot dogs and s’mores roasted over a fire in the massive stone hearth of the 1930s building.
Iowa Republicans look to broaden religious freedom
Iowa’s Republican leaders say they are not planning to expand on the list of laws passed last year addressing conservative social issues and regulating gender and sexuality issues in schools, but lawmakers may revive a push for religious liberty protections.
State Sen. Dennis Guth, a Republican from Klemme, said Republicans are going to pursue a bill to strengthen religious liberty protections, mirroring the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The law, signed in 1993 by Democratic President Bill Clinton, requires that courts apply strict scrutiny, the highest level of judicial review, when considering cases where a person’s religious liberty is burdened. It was passed as a reaction to a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that was seen as narrowing religious freedoms.
Welcome to the New Year.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 1, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service, your New Year’s Day weather in the Cedar Rapids area will be cloudy with a high near 33 degrees.
We will have articles previewing the Iowa Legislative session in today’s paper and beyond. Here are a few issues I pulled from our coverage.
Most Iowa workers are taking home more money from their paychecks as the state collects less income tax — the result of recent tax cuts enacted by the Republican-majority statehouse.
Those Republican lawmakers, along with advocates for limited taxes, want to continue cutting and reduce Iowans’ taxes even more.
The impact of those tax reductions, though, is beginning to show in the state’s revenues. There essentially will be no revenue growth from the current state budget year to the next: overall state tax revenue is projected to be just shy of $11.5 billion in both the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, according to the latest estimates from the state’s three-member Revenue Estimating Conference, the panel that projects future state revenues.
Before the recently enacted reductions, the state income tax produced nearly half of the state’s tax revenue that it spends on such things as education, health care, public safety, infrastructure and the environment.
When legislators return Jan. 8 to the Iowa Capitol for the 2024 session of the Iowa Legislature, Republican lawmakers plan to accelerate the state income tax reductions already on the books, with a possible eye toward gradually eliminating the tax altogether.
“Financially here in Iowa, we’re in the strongest position we’ve ever been in. And so that makes possible a conversation about expediting those cuts, bringing them up sooner — quicker — and getting those in place for Iowans,” Jack Whitver, the Republican Senate majority leader from Grimes, told the Gazette.
Iowa’s Republican leaders say they are not planning to expand on the list of laws passed last year addressing conservative social issues and regulating gender and sexuality issues in schools, but lawmakers say they may revive a push for religious liberty protections
State Sen. Dennis Guth, a Republican from Klemme, told the Gazette that Republicans are going to pursue a bill to strengthen religious liberty protections mirroring the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The law, signed in 1993 by Democratic President Bill Clinton, requires that courts apply strict scrutiny, the highest level of judicial review, when considering cases where a person’s religious liberty is burdened. It was passed as a reaction to a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that was seen as narrowing religious freedoms.
The federal law applies only to the federal government, but at least two dozen other states have passed a version at the state level.
Iowa Republicans have considered the bill several times in the past, but it has faced steep opposition from business groups that worried it would discourage people from living and working in the state.
Sen. Guth said that the hope is that the business community will be less opposed to the legislation this time around now that similar bills have spread to more states nationwide.
Welcome to the last weekend of 2023!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, December 30th, and Sunday, December 31st, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will have some patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, it’ll be partly sunny, with a high near 40. Saturday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 25.
Sunday will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. Sunday night will be partly cloudy, with a low around 22.
Judge temporarily halts new Iowa law on school books, gender identity teaching
Calling it “incredibly broad” and “wildly overbroad,” a federal judge Friday temporarily halted the implementation of most of a new Iowa state law that bans school books and curriculum with depictions of sex acts and prohibits the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade.
The ruling means most of the new law cannot be enforced while the federal courts continue to hear legal challenges to its constitutionality.
Judge Stephen H. Locher, of the U.S. District Court in Iowa’s Southern District, in a ruling Friday halted parts of the law that prohibit books and curriculum with depictions of sex acts, as well as the prohibition on teaching gender identity or sexual orientation through sixth grade.
Locher left in place the portion of the law that requires educators to notify parents when a student asks to be called by different pronouns. Locher said the plaintiffs in the case lacked legal standing: Because the plaintiffs involved are already publicly LGBTQ, that portion of the law does not apply to them, Locher ruled.
‘Sleeping giant’ being razed to clear way for pedestrian-bike bridge in Cedar Rapids
The railway bridge over the Cedar River that has been an eyesore for years is being removed to clear the way for a new pedestrian-bike bridge that’s part of the $20 million ConnectCR project.
A demolition crew was on the river this week to remove the old CRANDIC Bridge. Demolition is expected to be completed in the spring, with construction of the new bridge scheduled to begin in late 2024.
The new Alliant Energy LightLine pedestrian-bike bridge will be built across the river near Mount Trashmore, connecting the NewBo District on the east side of the river and the Czech Village District on the west.
Iowa City charter review could include revamping voting districts
Iowa City next month will begin the process of reviewing its city charter, which happens every 10 years.
At least one council member says there should be changes to what now is a “broken” system in which some council candidates represent geographic districts but all citizens may vote for all district seats.
The Iowa Constitution gives cities the power to choose among several forms of municipal government, among them the option of establishing a home rule charter to outline how city government is structured.
Most cities in Iowa use a mayor-council form of government in which the mayor and five council members are elected at large, Kemp said.
In Cedar Rapids, also a charter city, the mayor and three council members are elected at large, while the remaining five members are elected by voters who live in their districts.
Iowa City’s 19-page charter defines how the council is elected and sets the group’s responsibilities, which include appointing a city manager, city clerk, city attorney and city boards. The charter also describes the duties of the city manager and how citizens may petition for a referendum.
Have a good weekend, and Happy New Year!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for December 29, 2023.
There will be No exciting weather happenings on your last day of the week. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high of around 39 degrees.
An investigation has cleared a Delaware County sheriff's deputy who shot and injured an Illinois man who police believe had killed a Fareway employee in Monticello.
Delaware County Attorney John Bernau, in a news release, said Deputy Matt Menard’s actions “were reasonable and legally justified under Iowa law, and he will face no criminal liability.”
Nathan Russell, 39, of East Dubuque, Ill., was charged with first-degree murder, going armed with intent and being a felon in possession of a firearm in relation to the Nov. 7 shooting death of Aaron McAtee, 48, of Monticello. Russell has pleaded not guilty.
McAtee worked at Fareway and was outside near the loading dock early that morning when Russell is accused of driving by and opening fire. According to a criminal complaint, witnesses told police that McAtee was shot from a rifle pointed out the driver’s window of a black sedan with Illinois license plates.
Officers believed Russell was connected with the car because of interactions they’d had with him the night before.
After a search was launched, police say Russell fled into nearby Hopkinton, where he was found by Menard. The complaint states the deputy attempted to arrest Russell, but Russell was uncooperative and the deputy shot and wounded him.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis enlisted the help of conservative South Carolina state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, in Iowa as he scrambles to head off Republican presidential rival Nikki Haley.
Haley, a former South Carolina governor and former United Nations ambassador, has gained ground in Iowa, the leadoff nominating state, pulling even with DeSantis for second place in recent polling of likely Republican Iowa caucusgoers.
DeSantis and Kimbrell stopped Thursday evening at Mr. Beans coffee shop in Marion, where they addressed and took questions from a crowd of less than 100 supporters and media.
“The reason I'm here today is because our state is a red state and it’s redder because of Gov. DeSantis being governor of Florida than Nikki Haley being the governor of South Carolina,” Kimbrell, who represents South Carolina’s deeply conservative Upstate region, told the crowd.
The Haley campaign responded with a verbal eyeroll as the candidates continue to bicker as they jockey for a likely second place..
“It’s sad to see Ron DeSantis stooping to such desperate, lame attacks, but nothing will save his dying campaign,” Haley campaign spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik told CNN.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state on Thursday removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to invoke the 14th amendment to remove Trump from a ballot.
The decision by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows follows a ruling earlier this month by the Colorado Supreme Court that removed Trump from the ballot there under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That decision has been stayed until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether Trump is barred by the Civil War-era provision, which prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.
Bellows made the ruling after some state residents, including a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, challenged Trump’s position on the ballot.
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Bellows wrote in her decision. “I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
Stay safe out there and I'll see you in 2024. It should be an interesting year.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for December 28, 2023.
We may have a chance for snow again on Thursday. But, for real this time.
According to the National Weather Service there will be an 80 percent chance of precipitation on Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area. Snow that falls will likely be before 5 p.m. and could total as much as a .5 inch of accumulation.
The high temperature is predicted to be 36 degrees. Rain and snow mix is also possible, especially Thursday evening.
More people have died on Iowa roadways this year than in each of the past five years.
There have been 372 traffic deaths so far in the state, up 10 percent from last year. About 70 percent of 2023’s traffic deaths happened in rural areas, in at least 46 percent of fatalities drivers were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the accident, and roughly a third of the deaths came over three summer months.
Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla told the Gazette on Wednesday that excessive speed, distracted driving, impaired driving, and not wearing seat belts are some of the most common behaviors that police have linked to traffic deaths.
When Dinkla talks about these behaviors he uses the words “choose” and “decide.”
“People are choosing to drive these speeds,” he said, referring to speeds of up to 150 mph. “People are choosing to drive impaired with illicit and prescription drugs.”l
Dinkla cautioned that while New Year’s Eve isn’t the deadliest day of the year for car crashes, it’s still a time when more people drive impaired with alcohol or drugs.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Michigan’s Supreme Court is keeping former President Donald Trump on the state’s primary election ballot.
The court said Wednesday it will decline hearing an appeal of a lower court’s ruling from groups seeking to keep Trump from appearing on the ballot.
The ruling followed a Dec. 19 decision by the Colorado Supreme Court which found Trump ineligible to be president because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. That ruling was the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for December 27, 2023.
There will be a slight chance for snow for the first half of the day on Wednesday, mostly before 11 a.m. If it does arrive, it will most likely only be a dusting of snow.
The high temperature in the Cedar Rapids area will be 38 degrees with cloudy skies, according to the National Weather Service.
With a large swath of Eastern Iowa in extreme drought, the Christmas holidays brought a gift to thirsty cities and farms: steady rain.
In a 48-hour period ending at 8 a.m. Tuesday, most locations in Eastern Iowa received at least a half inch of rain — and some considerably more, according to reports to the National Weather Service.
Official readings in Cedar Rapids (.58 inches) and Iowa City (.60 inches) were on the low end of the scale. Reports to the weather service said that Williamsburg received 1.01 inches, and that some communities came close to that level.
Iowa is entering its 189th week in a row of abnormally dry and drought conditions — making it the longest drought in the state since the 1950s.
Mellow Mushroom announced it will be closing its Coralville location at the end of the year.
The Coralville site will close Dec. 31 after almost nine years in business at Coral Ridge Mall.
The quirky, psychedelic-themed restaurant opened at the mall in February 2015, replacing the space previously held by Bennigan’s.
A former elementary school building in the northern Iowa town of Rockford was destroyed by fire last week.
The fire was reported at around 10 p.m. Friday, according to a Facebook post by the Floyd County Emergency Management Agency. First responders found the building, at 205 Second Ave. NW, fully engulfed when they arrived.
Every fire department in Floyd County responded to the scene, as well as sheriff’s deputies, EMS personnel and Floyd County Search and Rescue. The fire also drew the Greene Fire Department from neighboring Butler County.
According to assessor’s records, the school was built in 1900. The emergency management agency wrote that the building replaced another school that was built in 1873 and lost to fire in 1899.
Merry Christmas and Holiday Day Off For Those Who Celebrate
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for December 25, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will be an almost certain chance for rain for much of Christmas Monday, with the chance for rain gradually dropping after 5 p.m. The wind also could be a problem with an east wind of 15 to 20 mph, gusting as high as 30 mph. The temperature should peak at 54 degrees, with a low dropping down to 31 degrees.
For holiday travelers, the rain hitting us on Monday is projected to gradually head northeast. As of early Monday morning, most flights with delays appear to be flights coming out of west coast destinations and crossing this large front currently creeping its way through the country’s midsection.
As you gather around your Christmas tree this morning you will feel comfort in knowing that a judge has ruled that a 13th century English legal document does not set legal precedent for stealing trees in Iowa.
According to reporting from the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, last week District Court Judge Derek Johnson denied the request of a new trial for 41-year-old Jason Levant Ferguson, who last month was found guilty by a jury of felony theft and 50 timber violations.
Court records show Ferguson admitted to cutting down and taking dozens of trees from the Stoddard Wildlife Management Area near Rolfe in northwest Iowa over the course of more than a year.
After the jury’s verdict last month, Ferguson asked for a new trial for a variety of reasons, including his alleged protection by the Charter of the Forest, which was first issued by King Henry III at the age of 10 in the year 1217.
Ferguson’s attorney, Kevin Fors of Harcourt, argued that provisions of the charter became part of the United States’ common law when it declared independence from England.
Judge Johnson, however, was not convinced, according to reporting from the Dispatch.
“The court finds that the English common law rights enumerated by the Charter of the Forest of 1217 do not apply to this case,” wrote Judge Johnson. “The Charter of the Forest explicitly applied only to the forests of England, and the laws of the United States have meaningfully and deliberately deviated from the rights granted under the charter.”
The University of Iowa announced this month it is increasing staffing and expanding boundaries for its “Nite Ride” service, which provides students and staff with free rides in the areas in and around the university between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Nite Ride uses a small bus to transport several people to their desired destinations in turn. Or for a $1 fee, Nite Ride offers direct rides in smaller vehicles.
The program previously has been staffed by part-time student security officers, but the university will now have one full-time security officer dedicated to driving for Nite Ride. Campus Safety also has created a new adopt-a-weekend program in which student organizations can sign up to staff the program with their members for a weekend.
Have a great Christmas. And, thank you, as always, for making us a part of your daily routine.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, December 23rd, and Sunday, December 24th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will have a patchy drizzle before 8am with widespread fog before noon. Otherwise it’ll be a toasty high of 54. Saturday night will still see patchy fog with a low of 46.
Sunday will be a rainy and foggy Christmas eve with an even warmer high of 57. Sunday night will have a low of around 48.
Iowa rejects millions in federal summer food aid for children
Iowa will turn down federal funding to pay for summer food aid to children, opting instead for a state-funded program officials say will provide better nutrition and avoid spending $2.2 million a year on administration.
Family advocates decried the decision, announced Friday, and questioned the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services’ estimate of costs for running the three-month program.
“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement. “An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”
Instead, Iowa will continue to support Iowa children eligible for food assistance year-round by enhancing and expanding already existing childhood nutrition programs, she said.
Iowa’s unemployment rate ticks up in November
Iowa’s unemployment rate ticked up to 3.3 percent in November, the state’s workforce development department reported this week.
The jobless rate was 3.2 percent in October, and 3.1 percent last November, according to the department.
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 3.7 percent in November, down from October’s 3.9 percent.
The number of unemployed workers in Iowa increased to 57,200 in November, up from 56,000 in October.
The number of working Iowans decreased to 1,672,000 in November from October’s 1,679,900. This November’s total of working Iowans was 3,800 more than last November.
University of Iowa appoints new leader of Mercy Iowa City integration
As the University of Iowa continues its takeover of Mercy Iowa City, administrators are sharing more details about the transition — including the appointment this week of Deborah Berini to lead management and integration with the now-bankrupt community hospital.
Berini — with more than two decades experience leading health systems like Penn State Health, the University of Texas Medical Branch Health System and University of Wisconsin Health — will start as UIHC chief integration officer and interim chief administrative officer Jan. 2.
Have a good weekend, and Merry Christmas everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for December 22, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly rainy on Friday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 49 degrees. The rain is predicted to mostly come after 10 a.m. There also is a possibility of patchy fog in the morning, so keep an eye out for that.
Two major rail crossings in Texas have been temporarily closed to address an influx of migrants crossing into the U.S., and Iowa politicians are not happy about it.
Iowa’s all-Republican congressional delegation sharply criticized this week in a letter to President Joe Biden’s administration, citing concerns about the potential impact on Iowa agriculture exports.
In a letter dated Wednesday, the Iowa delegation expressed “grave concerns” with the Biden administration’s closing of major rail crossings between Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the closures are meant to address “a recent resurgence of smuggling organizations moving migrants through Mexico via freight trains.”
More than a third of U.S. trade with Mexico moves through the two closed crossings, and for every day the crossings are closed, 60 trains sit idle and 4,500 rail cars face delay, the letter notes.
Mexico is the second-largest purchaser of Iowa goods, according to state and federal trade data.
In a response to The Gazette, the White House said the temporary action was needed to address a large number of migrants coming into the U.S. by rail.
“DHS took this temporary action in order to stop a large movement of migrants coming by rail and to protect the health and safety of its personnel,” a White House spokesman said in an email to The Gazette. “We are working closely with the Mexican government in attempt to resolve this issue and also surging personnel to the region. We are communicating regularly with industry leaders to ensure we are assessing and mitigating the impacts of these temporary closures.”
A Johnson County developer has agreed to pay a $4,000 penalty for stormwater violations during construction of Park Place, a 450-acre multiuse development that includes PinSeekers, in Tiffin.
Ders Development LLC agreed to pay the fine within 30 days and stop illegal discharges to the Spencer Creek watershed, according to the enforcement order released Thursday.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources did a routine inspection of the site, south of Forevergreen Road and west of Interstate 380, on July 24. The inspector found erosion in several places and inadequate protections against erosion and sediment migration, the order states.
“Evidence of a discharge of sediment-laden stormwater was observed to have flowed south from the end of the Pin-Seekers facility into the adjacent field,” the DNR reported.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for December 21, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy on Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area, with the chance for rain increasing after 3 p.m. and heading later into Thursday evening. The high temperature will settle in at around 43 degrees.
Bald eagle surveys in Iowa in 2023 showed a return to normal after 2022, the worst nesting season for many years because of bird flu, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reported.
Volunteers in January 2023 counted more than 2,900 eagles along 1,663.5 miles of Iowa waterways, which works out to almost two eagles per river mile surveyed, the DNR reported. The most eagles were spotted on the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers but the highest density (eagles per mile) was on the Iowa River.
The H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has affected both domestic poultry and wild birds in Iowa, and eagles are no exception.
In 2022, the number of young bald eagles fledged per nest in Iowa dropped below the threshold of one per nest for the first time in the survey’s history. Only an average of .88 young were fledged per Iowa nest in 2022.
The DNR numbers indicated that considering the rate of successful nests, a possible 720 young eagles were fledged by Iowa nests in 2023.
If you haven’t gotten your COVID-19 vaccine updated, yet, you are not alone.
According to reporting from the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, the number of Iowans who have up-to-date COVID-19 vaccinations has plummeted in recent months, after federal officials ended a public health emergency declaration and there was a sense that the risk of catching the virus had lowered.
Data from towa Department of Health and Human Services indicated about 10 percent of Iowans were considered immunized against COVID-19. That is calculated using the state’s database of immunization records.
The HHS also now lists the chance of catching COVID-19 in Iowa as Very High, with the number of flu infections also rising during recent months.
More than 60 percent of Iowans were vaccinated during the worst throes of the coronavirus pandemic, but those initial vaccinations have become less effective over time.
As we head into a busy travel week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now urging health care providers to vaccinate their patients and to recommend antiviral medications to those with flu or COVID. It has also provided a “vaccination conversation guide” intended to address concerns about the vaccine.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for December 20, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be a pleasant, sunny day in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, with a high of 46 degrees.
Koch Industries will pay $3.6 billion to buy the Iowa Fertilizer Co., one of the world’s largest modern fertilizer companies, amid surging profits for the industry.
OCI Global, the parent company for the plant located in Wever in southeast Iowa, announced the sale Monday to Koch Ag & Energy Solutions, saying the transaction will reduce debt for OCI, make money for shareholders, and allow future investment for the multinational firm. The sale is pending U.S. antitrust approval.
The Iowa Fertilizer Co. combines nitrogen from the air with hydrogen from natural gas at high pressure and temperature to produce ammonia, which binds the nitrogen to make fertilizer. When the plant opened, owners said they planned to produce up to 2 million metric tons of fertilizer a year.
Koch Industries, based in Wichita, Kan., is one of the largest privately-owned companies in the world. It was founded by Fred Koch, father of brothers Charles and David Koch. The Koch brothers are also very active in political circles, funding many conservative candidates and organizations, including the Americans for Prosperity– a super PAC that has an influential presence in Iowa.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds told a Bettendorf audience this week that former President Donald Trump is "misleading Iowans" with his campaign's recent ads highlighting her past praise.
Reynolds this fall endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the GOP presidential nomination — and has faced Trump’s ire for it.
Earlier this month, Trump's campaign launched a six-figure ad buy in Iowa that touts Reynolds' past support for Trump. The TV spot features a montage of Reynolds applauding Trump and his administration's policies at previous rallies.
In a Monday campaign event for DeSantis, Reynolds said Trump was "misleading Iowans" and that she has "absolutely endorsed Ron" and is proud of her endorsement.
"He thought he was entitled to my endorsement and nobody is entitled to anything," Reynolds said. "You have to step up. You have to earn it, you have to make your case."
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot.
Colorado’s highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge. That judge’s ruling stated that Trump was part of inciting an insurrection for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but it was unclear if the insurrection clause applies to the presidency.
Trump’s legal team has already said they will appeal the ruling to the United States Supreme Court in hopes he can be reinstated on the ballot.
If Trump is the Republican nominee, he would likely have an uphill battle winning in Colorado anyway. The main danger for his campaign would be if other states used Colorado’s decision as precedent to remove him from ballots in their states.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for December 19, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service the sunny sky will have to contend with increasing cloudiness during the day on Tuesday. The high temperature in the Cedar Rapids area is predicted to be 38 degrees. It should be less windy than Monday, however, with gusts only reaching up to 25 mph.
Seventeen days after a crash killed four people -- two teens and a mother and son -- police announced Monday who was driving each of the two vehicles that collided, but said the cause of the crash is yet undetermined.
In an earlier interview, Cedar Rapids public safety spokesperson Mike Battien said speed was believed to be a factor in the crash.
The fatal crash happened about 10 p.m. Dec. 1 on C Street SW between Thomas Edison Boulevard and Beth Page Drive. Police later released the names of the people who died: Casey Krager, 18, of Davenport, Carter Cooper, 18, of Bettendorf, Ruta Tekeste, 52, of Cedar Rapids and a 13-year-old who was not identified. The teen was identified on an online fundraising page as Tekeste’s son, Bruk Mehari.
Monday, police revealed the crash involved a 2006 Chevrolet Impala driven by Cooper and a 2010 Honda Pilot driven by Tekeste.
A GoFundMe page started on behalf of Tekeste and Mehari’s family has been closed after raising almost $60,000.
Christmas light displays in downtown Cedar Rapids, darkened when their power cords were stolen, will be turned back on now that an arrest has been made in the thefts, according to Nikki Wilcox, director of strategic development for the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance.
Several power cords connected to holiday lights in Greene Square, in a MedQuarter pocket park along First Street SE and outside NewBo City Market were stolen during the first couple weeks of December. The cords in Greene Square and the MedQuarter were replaced once, but were stolen again.
Last Wednesday, Cedar Rapids police arrested Scott Alan Clark, 48, of Cedar Rapids in relation to the thefts.
City officials had been waiting for an arrest before paying to replace the cords for the downtown and MedQuarter displays in hopes they wouldn't be stolen a third time. Now that the arrest has been made, the lights will be turned back on.
A contractor was working Monday to replace the cords, with the plan to turn the lights back on again starting Monday night, according to Wilcox.
Michaels, the North American arts and crafts chain, will soon open a location at the Westdale Town Centre as redevelopment of a former southwest Cedar Rapids mall property nears its culmination.
Frew Development Group — which is undertaking the $90 million redevelopment of Westdale Mall into an open-air, mixed-use development with housing, retail, hotels and other uses — announced Monday that Michaels has signed a long-term lease for 16,000 square feet of space. Opening is targeted for mid-2024.
Michaels — North America’s largest provider of arts, crafts, framing, floral and wall décor based in Irving, Texas — has another location in the Cedar Rapids metro in Collins Road Square in Marion. The Collins Road Square store opened in 1993, and closed for several months after sustaining significant damage in the 2020 derecho. The company also operates a store at 2515 Corridor Way in Coralville.
Stories featured
– Judge who led Linn County drug court retires next month after 34-year career
– Iowa farmers of color gather for first time to form connections, find resources
– Curious Iowa: Why can’t Iowans choose their utilities provider?
Episode Transcript
You are listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast on Monday, December 18, 2023. This podcast brings quick bites from the latest headlines coming out of The Gazette newsroom. I’m Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
The Judge who led Linn County drug court is retiring next month after a 34-year career. Sixth Judicial District Judge Fae Hoover said she has enjoyed her career but 20 years on the bench is quote “long enough” end quote. Hoover is 58 years old, which puts her many years ahead of the mandatory retirement age for Iowa judges, which is age 72.
Over her career, Judge Hoover worked for Iowa Legal Aid and Linn County Advocates, worked as a public defender, served as a district judge and lead the Linn County Drug Treatment Court.
While working as an associate district judge, Hoover began creating sentences that would allow someone to “buy down jail time” by completing treatment. Several people did just that and maintained drug-free lifestyles that allowed them to regain custody of children and employment and improve relationships.
Additionally, Hoover was the judge in the trial for Jerry Burns, who was charged in 2018 for the murder of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko in Cedar Rapids in 1979. Burns was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Hoover said, quote, “It’s been a great honor to serve.The most rewarding part was being the drug court judge. I started in September 2007. But Judge Valerie Clay is taking it over, so I’m leaving knowing the program is in good hands.” End quote.
Hoover will retire Jan. 2. You can read the full story by Trish Mehaffey at thegazette.com
Nearly 100 farmers of color gathered Saturday in Des Moines to help minority farmers succeed in Iowa. The Iowa Farmers of Color conference will become an annual networking event for Iowa’s Black and minority farmers.
The conference was organized by Todd Western III. Western was inspired to start the conference after visiting a national gathering of Black farmers in North Carolina called the Harvest Ball.
Western said, quote, “I was just so overwhelmed with the camaraderie, the community, the networking and the friendships of Black farmers coming together. I said, ‘We have to do this up north.’” End quote.
Western’s family has owned his Iowa farmland for more than 150 years. He is one of about 72 Black farmers in Iowa, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture.
Conference speakers highlighted federal programs through the USDA and nonprofits that aid minority farmers who have historically been left out of the department’s loan programs. Speakers also touched on the isolation and unique challenges farmers of color face.
Western said he hopes Iowa’s Black farmers lean on the relationships they built at the conference.
This week’s edition of Curious Iowa answers this question: Why can’t Iowans choose their utilities provider? Iowans have customer choice for insurance, groceries and other goods and services, but when it comes to utilities, location dictates which utility provider they can use. In the story, I explain what exclusive service areas are and how the Iowa Utilities Board and other regulators ensure Iowans pay a fair price for their utilities. You can find a link to that story in this episode’s description. Or pick up a copy of today’s edition of The Gazette.
Curious Iowa is a section of The Gazette dedicated to answering readers’ questions about our state, its people and our culture.
Finally, let’s take a look at today’s weather on Monday, December 18. Today will be windy in Cedar Rapids. Expect a high of 27 degrees and a low of 15 degrees. Temperatures will warm up tomorrow. Expect cloudy skies and a high of 36 on Tuesday.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s daily news podcast. Stephen Schmidt, your usual host, will return tomorrow. I’m Bailey Cichon, signing off.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, December 16th, and Sunday, December 17th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be rainy with areas of fog and a high near 45. Saturday night will have more rain and fog with a low around 36.
Sunday will be cloudy in the morning and gradually clear up with a high near 45. Sunday night will be partly cloudy with a low around 25.
Iowans in Congress renew push for year-round E15
Members of Iowa’s congressional delegation are renewing their push for federal officials to allow the sale of E15 in Iowa year-round.
U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, along with Reps. Randy Feenstra, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson, signed onto a bipartisan letter Thursday urging Biden administration officials to finalize a rule that would allow the sale of E15 — gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol — during the summer months in some Midwestern states.
It’s the latest beat in a battle stretching over a year from several Midwestern states to make the year-round sale of the fuel permanent. Federal rules limit the sale of E15 between June 1 and Sept. 15 because of concerns that it contributes to smog.
New Cedar Rapids school bond referendum could go to voters in 2025
Cedar Rapids school leaders are planning to go back to district voters in November 2025 with a plan to fund improvements to middle and high schools after a $220 million bond referendum failed last month.
First, however, voters in the district will be asked to consider extending the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy for an additional 10 years. That’s an existing capital projects fund for the purchase and improvement of grounds, construction and remodeling of buildings, major equipment purchases including technology. This vote will go to voters in September 2024.
A Cedar Rapids schools’ master facility plan oversight committee is expected to discuss improvements that would be funded by PPEL and how district officials could work with residents and city officials to develop and educate the community on a new bond plan.
Nikki Haley commits to CNN Iowa debate after Ron DeSantis attacks
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign announced she has accepted the invitation to CNN’s GOP presidential debate in Des Moines on Jan. 10.
The criteria for the debate, just five days before the caucuses, will likely limit eligibility to Haley, former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis’ campaign confirmed it will attend, but Trump is not likely to participate.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
Stories featured
– Big Grove Brewery, Pickle Palace ready to open Kingston Yard development in Cedar Rapids
– Arrest made in theft of power cords that kept Cedar Rapids holiday lights dark
– Orchestra Iowa jazzing up Holiday Spectacular in Cedar Rapids
Episode transcript
You are listening to The Gazette's Daily News Podcast on Friday, December 15, 2023. This is the podcast that delivers quick bites from the latest headlines coming out of the Gazette newsroom. I'm Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
Big Grove Brewery and Pickle Palace are the first tenants to open for business at Kingston Yard. Kingston Yard is Cedar Rapids' $81.5 million mixed use development located at 1st and 1st West. Big Grove opened yesterday, December 14. This marks the brand's fourth tap room.
The Cedar Rapids location features a large patio for those who want to enjoy fresh air with their beers. Inside, visitors can view open fermentation tanks. This is a technique favored in Germany and the Czech Republic but used by just a handful of U.S. breweries.
Meanwhile, the Pickle Palace entertainment and dining complex is planning a soft opening by invitation at the end of this month. The Pickle Palace is multiple levels. It holds--get ready for this list--a pickle ball court, a casual restaurant, a bar overlooking the court, special event space, a duckpin bowling alley, a British-themed pub and an extensive rooftop patio. For more details and photos, read the story at thegazette.com. There's a link to that story in this episode's description.
An arrest has been made in the theft of extension cords lighting holiday decorations in Cedar Rapids. 48-year-old Scott Allen Clark was arrested Wednesday on three counts of 5th degree theft and one count each of criminal mischief and illegal possession of prescription drugs. Over the last two weeks, extension cords from holiday light displays were stolen from Greene Square Park downtown, NewBo City Market and from a park in the MedQuarter, located at the corner of 3rd Avenue and 8th St. SE.
Next, Orchestra Iowa's Holiday Spectacular will feature the Iowa Women's Jazz Orchestra. Maestro Timothy Hankewich told The Gazette that since there's no Christmas music ever written for big band and symphony orchestra, the groups had to write it themselves. The shows run Friday, December 15th through Sunday, December 17th at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids. Read more about Orchestra Iowa's addition of Iowa Women's Jazz Orchestra and find out what the jazz band does when it isn't collaborating with the symphonic orchestra at thegazette.com. You can find the link to that story in this episode's description.
Finally, let's take a look at today's weather in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Today will be cloudy with a high of 48 degrees and a low of 37 degrees. Over the weekend, you can expect highs in the forties. Saturday is set to rain while Sunday will be cloudy.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette's Daily News Podcast. I'm Bailey Cichon.
Update: An arrest has been made in the theft of extension cords in Cedar Rapids. Read that update here.
– How the Grinch stole Christmas — one power cord at a time
– Iowa Area Education Agencies face ‘comprehensive review’
– Satanic Temple display at Iowa State Capitol sparks free speech debate
You are listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast on Thursday, December 14, 2023. On this podcast, we give you quick bites from the latest headlines coming out of The Gazette newsroom. I’m Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
Extension cord thefts in Cedar Rapids are leaving public holiday light displays dark. Cords have been stolen from downtown’s Greene Square park and at NewBo City Market. The first theft happened after lights were turned on Dec. 1 for the annual city tree lighting. Cords that lit trees around Greene Square were stolen. The Christmas tree in the park has not been touched. The Cedar Rapids Economic Alliance spent $300 to replace the cords, which were chained and zip tied. But the Grinch struck again and new cords were stolen along with a city-owned transformer used to illuminate the large snowflakes around the park.
Between Thursday and Friday last week, extension cords were stolen from two light displays at NewBo City Market. Another theft occurred between 6 and 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday at the parking lot next to the Paramount Theater on Third Avenue and First Street SE.
Cedar Rapids Police Department has been investigating the thefts using security camera footage from areas near where the cords were stolen. Until the thief or thieves have been caught, Greene Square will remain dark.
Next up, changes may be coming to Iowa Area Education Agencies as Governor Kim Reynolds and legislative leaders say improvements must be made to support students with disabilities. Iowa Area Education Agencies are referred to as AEAs and there are nine across the state.
Recent Iowa test results show those with disabilities scored between 33 to 50 percentage points lower on statewide math tests than the overall student population.
In a statement, Reynolds said that a comprehensive review of AEAs will help identify solutions and that children will continue to receive services.
Now, Iowa educators are worrying about the future of the agencies, which provide services from birth to age 21.
Iowa Senator Ken Rozenboom of Pella is the chair of the Senate Education Committee. Rozenboom said quote, “My perception is that AEAs are administratively heavy and performance light,” he said. “We need to refocus and direct our efforts to providing education needs for the education of special needs children, which is extremely important.” end quote.
Grant Wood AEA chief administrator John Speer said about 70 percent of funding for Iowa’s AEAs goes to support special education services, but the agencies also were created to meet schools’ needs in media and technology and educational services including math, science and literacy. By law, AEAs can spend no more than 5 percent of their budget on administrative costs, Speer said. “Every AEA in Iowa is below that threshold,” he said.
Read the full story at thegazette.com. Find a link in this episode’s description.
Now let’s head to news out of the Iowa State Capitol. The Satanic Temple of Iowa’s display at the capitol is sparking debate about free expression and religious freedom. Last week, the Satanic Temple of Iowa installed a statue of Baphomet, a goat-headed figure used to represent Satan.
Also in that display were the seven tenets of the Satanic Temple which the group said advocate for quote bodily autonomy, a rejection of arbitrary authority, recognizing our own fallibility, and inspiring nobility in the thought and action which we hope enlightens the viewer to our beliefs and inspires one to reflect upon their own approach to the world. End quote. The display will be up until Saturday.
The display has prompted calls for removal while others argue the display is religious expression protected by the First Amendment. Monday, the Temple issued a statement saying quote, we thank the staff of the Capitol, the Capitol Police and the Department of Administrative Services for holding fast to the principle of religious freedom and ensuring all religions have an equal opportunity to celebrate the holidays together in our beautiful Capitol end quote.
On Tuesday, the conservative law firm Thomas More Society installed a Nativity scene in the Capitol that will be up for two weeks. That day, Governor Reynolds said in a statement that she disagrees with the Satanic Temple’s display but encourages opponents to engage in speech and prayer rather than remove the display.
Find the full story by Caleb McCullough at the gazette.com.
Finally, a look at today’s weather on Thursday, December 14, 2023. Today will be partly cloudy with a high of 47 degrees and a low reaching 31 degrees. Friday will be cloudy. Temperatures will stay in the same range with a high of 46 degrees and a low of 36 degrees.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Bailey Cichon.
Stories Featured
– Campaign Almanac: Trump’s commanding lead increases in latest Iowa Poll
– Cedar Rapids firefighters put out kitchen fire at Long John Silver’s
– Hawkeye Marching Band back in the halftime lineup after outcry
Episode Transcript
You are listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast on Wednesday, December 13, 2023. This podcast gives quick bites from the latest headlines coming out of The Gazette newsroom. I’m Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
Former President Donald Trump’s lead has grown according to the latest Iowa poll from The Des Moines Register, NBC News and Mediacom. Trump was the first choice of 51% of those surveyed. This brings Trump up eight percentage points from the October Iowa poll. Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis polled at 19% and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley polled at 16% in the new Iowa poll. No other candidates received more than five percent. Both DeSantis and Haley have made recent campaign stops in Iowa to increase their support. This evening, Trump will speak at the Hyatt Regency in Coralville. The first-in-the-nation Iowa Republican caucuses will be held on January 15th. You can find the latest campaign and election news at thegazette.com/elections.
Williams Boulevard SW in Cedar Rapids was closed for about an hour Tuesday morning as firefighters responded to a kitchen fire at Long John Silver’s restaurant. Firefighters were called at 8:19 a.m. to the restaurant located at 2630 Williams Boulevard SW. Crews were able to extinguish the fire in the kitchen area. No one was injured and the building was empty. The building sustained fire, smoke and water damage. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Marching bands will take the field for half time at the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl after all. Plans to only feature Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw at halftime have been reversed following a petition led by Hawkeye fans. Both the Hawkeye Marching Band and University of Tennesse’s Pride of Southland band will perform on the field in Orlando before the New Year’s game and at halftime. Hawkeye Marching Band Director Eric Bush told The Gazette, quote, “We are thankful to the Citrus Bowl and Gavin DeGraw for working together to help showcase our bands which are not only an important part of the game day experience but also our university’s cultures and traditions.” end quote. Similar petitions have been assembled for the Cyclone Marching Band which is set to perform prior to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Memphis funk band Bar-Kays is set to perform at the halftime show. While the bands are focused on the upcoming bowl game performances, both the Hawkeye Marching Band and Cyclone Marching Band announced this week that they’re among five division I colleges named as finalists for Metallica’s marching band competition, which boasts a top prize worth $75,000.
Read the full story by Vanessa Miller at thegazette.com. You can find a link to that story in this episode’s description.
Finally, let’s take a look at today’s weather on Wednesday, December 13. If you’ve been waiting for snow, I have some bad news for you. Today will be mostly sunny with a high of 40 and a low of 22. Tomorrow, temperatures will rise to 45 degrees. Expect sunny skies. Thursday, temperatures will drop to a low of 26 degrees.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News podcast. I’m Bailey Cichon.
Featured Stories
– The Eastern Iowa Airport will pay $1.1M to buy property with PFAS in groundwater
– Northern Iowa faculty seek end to general fund support for athletics
– Iowa man arrested in fatal stabbing of a Nebraska priest
Episode Transcript
You are listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast on Tuesday, December 12, 2023. This is this podcast where you get quick bites from the latest headlines coming out of The Gazette newsroom. I'm Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
Eastern Iowa Airport will pay $1.1 million to buy a property with PFAS contamination in the groundwater. This agreement resolves after two years of negotiations after property owners learned that the water from their well had PFAS level 3.5 times more than a lifetime limit set by the federal government at that time. PFAS stands for per-and polyflourinated substances. PFAS can be found in man-made chemicals, like the firefighting foam firefighters at EAstern Iowa Airport used to contain fuel fires. On Monday, the Airport Commission unanimously approved resolutions to buy 3400 Walford Road from Paul and Nikki Hynek, who will continue to rent a house on the property. The couple agreed not to hold the airport liable for the PFAS contamination. According to the purchase agreement, the airport paid to ahve a new, deeper well drilled on the property last year. The airport also supplied bottled water to the Hyneks for two years. For the full story, read the article by Erin Jordan at thegazette.com. Find a link n the episode description.
Union faculty members at Northern Iowa University are seeking to end general fund support for athletics. According to reporting by The Gazette’s Vanessa Miller, UNI has given nearly $4.3 million of the campus’s general university funds to athletics in the 2023 budget year. This was almost $1 million more than planned. In fiscal year 2022, UNI sent $3.5 million to athletics, which adds up to $7.8 million in total over the past 2 years. Now, faculty is urging UNI Athletics to become self-supporting like its counterparts at University of Iowa and Iowa State University.
United Faculty President and jouranlism professor Christopher Martin said the millions of dollars funneled annually to athletics would help the university’s mission. Quote, “On the academic side, we’re really just cut to the bone. We have so many faculty lines that we need to have filled and replaced.” end quote.
Spokesman Pete Moris said although UNI administrators agree that academics, student success and faculty are key to UNI’s mission, athletics play an important role in driving applications, admissions and donations. Moris said UNI administration hears its faculty members and quote, “one of the ongoing directives for our athletics department is to generate more revenue and to identify additional opportunities for our athletics department to be more self-sustaining.” end quote. Find the full story at thegazette.com or at the link in this episode description.
An Iowa man has been arrested in the fatal stabbing of a Nebraska priest. 43-year-old Kierre L. Williams, of Sioux City, was arrested on charges of homicide and using a weapon to commit a felony. According to reporting from the Associated Press, a 911 call was placed around five Sunday morning about an attempted break-in at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. When oficers arrived, they found Rev. Stephen Gutgsell injured and a suspected attacker inside the church. Gutgsell was taken to an Omaha hospital where he died from his injuries. Gutgsell pleaded guilty in 2007 to theft by deception for embezzling $127,000 from an area church. He was sentenced to probation, ordered to pay restitution and reassigned to a new church. Washington County Sheriff Mike Robinson told WOWT-TV that authorities do not believe Gutgsell’s death and his criminal history are related.
Finally, a look at today’s weather on Tuesday, December 12, 2023. Today will be mostly sunny with a high of 32 and a low of 20. Tomorrow, temperatures will climb to a high of 40 and drop to a low of 21. Expect partly cloudy skies.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Bailey Cichon.
Stories Featured
– I-380 interchange project receives $57M boost from feds
– Dietitian weighs in on holiday feasting
– Curious Iowa: Are local animal shelters considered no-kill?
Episode Transcript
You are listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast on Monday, December 11, 2023. On this podcast, we give you quick bites from the latest headlines coming out of The Gazette newsroom. I’m Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
The reconstruction of the Interstate 380 interchange with Wright Brothers Boulevard is fully funded after receiving $57.3 million in federal infrastructure funding.
According to reporting from The Gazette’s Erin Murphy, the projected $112 million project would widen the interstate to six lanes from the north ramps of the Swisher interchange to south of U.S. Highway 30. Also, the Wright Brothers Boulevard interchange would be reconfigured to include a diverging diamond interchange. This would be a wider but similar interchange to the one that opened at Tower Terrace Road and I-380.
The Wright Brothers Boulevard interchange is the main exit to the Eastern Iowa Airport. The area is rapidly growing due to a boom in manufacturing, warehouses and homes.
Iowa DOT District 6 transportation planner Catherine Cutler told The Gazette earlier this year, quote, “The city plans for industrial and commercial growth around the airport, and we wanted to get ahead of that growth.” end quote.
Bids will be considered in mid-2024 with construction beginning as soon as late summer 2024. Project completion is slated for 2027.
Find the full story at thegazette.com. There’s a link to the story in this episode’s description.
As winter holidays draw near, The Gazette’s Diana Nollen spoke with Hy-Vee dietitian Stephanie Vande Brake about indulging in the festive flavors, managing cravings and understanding the science behind nutrition.
Eating a lot of starches or sweets causes blood sugars to rise and then what feels like a crash happens.
Vande Brake said when blood sugar gets low, quote,”Our body secretes hormones to tell our brain to crave more of those high calories foods. So when we’re having these big swings in blood sugar, biologically, that is why we experience really intense cravings and hunger.” end quote
Vande Brake said balanced blood sugar can prevent intense cravings. She recommends not eating sweets on an empty stomach to avoid having a crash.
Read The Gazette’s full interview with Vande Brake at thegazette.com or follow the link in this episode description.
This week’s edition of Curious Iowa answers a question from Gazette reader Rene Anderson. Anderson has worked and volunteered for multiple animal shelters in the area. Anderson asked The Gazette whether Eastern Iowa’s animal shelters are considered no-kill and how they work toward that goal. The Gazette’s Emily Andersen examined data from Linn and Johnson county shelters and spoke with staff to answer the question. Find that story in today’s copy of The Gazette or online.
Curious Iowa answers your questions about our state, its people and culture. Submit questions at thegazette.com/curious.
Finally, a look at today’s weather on Monday, December 11, 2023. Today will be sunny with a high of 38 and a low of 19. Tuesday will be mostly sunny with a high of 33 and low of 20.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I'm Bailey Cichon.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, December 9nd, and Sunday, December 10rd, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be Cloudy, with a steady temperature around 40. Saturday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 24.
Sunday will be sunny, with a high near 35. Sunday night will be mostly clear, with a low around 20.
Vivek Ramaswamy says he is not exploring Libertarian presidential bid
Vivek Ramaswamy has been courting Iowa Libertarians in his bid for the GOP presidential nomination, but he denied he is considering a run for president on the Libertarian ticket.
Members of Ramaswamy’s campaign met with the Polk County Libertarians earlier this week, seeking Libertarian support. But at an event in Muscatine on Friday, the Ohio biotech entrepreneur said he is not considering a third-party bid for president.
Ramaswamy’s campaign has had staffers attend Libertarian events to encourage them to register as Republicans and support Ramaswamy in the presidential caucuses, spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed, but she said Ramaswamy is not considering a run under that party’s banner.
McLaughlin said about half of those attending Ramaswamy campaign events are traditional Republicans while the other half have never caucused before.
November marked one of the driest months on record for Iowa
According to preliminary numbers from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the average statewide precipitation was just 0.38 inches — 1.44 inches below normal. It marked the eighth month of the year with below-normal precipitation.
The lack of precipitation pushed the state further into drought — particularly the southern half, which has degraded to a “drought warning” rating under the Iowa Drought Plan. Most of the northern half of Iowa currently has a “drought watch” rating, except for the northwest corner, which has a “normal” rating, according to a Thursday Iowa DNR Water Summary Update.
Iowa City providing resources for reducing lead in water
Iowa City has announced a new lead reduction program that will provide resources for home and business owners to reduce the lead in their water supply by updating old plumbing and water fixtures.
The program, announced earlier this month, is mostly focused on educating community members about the possibility of lead in their water, and what to do about it, according to Jon Durst, Iowa City water superintendent.
Reducing lead in the water in individual homes is difficult, because while the city controls the piping and materials used in the public water supply, the individually owned pipes that bring the water from the public supply to houses are the responsibility of homeowners, Durst said. And since many homes were built before federal legislation changed what alloys can be used in plumbing, there are still a lot of homes with lead in the pipes.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
Update: Since the original episode audio was recorded, new information was released about the Wednesday’s crash involving a motorcyclist and bus. The podcast was updated to include the new information.
Stories referenced
– Cedar Rapids motorcyclist who crashed into bus has died
– Canadian National buys Iowa Northern Railway
– ‘Mary Poppins’ ready to work magic in Coralville center
Episode Transcripts
You are listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast on Friday, December 8. I’m Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
A Cedar Rapids man has died from his injuries after a Wednesday crash in Cedar Rapids. 29-year-old Lewis McColley crashed his motorcycle into a bus that was turning into a Casey's gas station on the corner of Ellis Boulevard and O Avenue Northwest Wednesday afternoon. A Cedar Rapids police officer had attempted to pull him over for not having a license plate. He had been fleeing police for about a minute before the crash. McColley was taken to Saint Luke's hospital in Cedar Rapids with serious injurie, then transferred to University of Iowa hospitals and clinics where he died Thursday. The bus driver, 63-year-old Mark Campbell of Cedar Rapids, was the only person in the bus at the time and was not injured.
Linn County Sheriff's Office is handling the investigation. The case remains under investigation.
Canadian National is adding 275 miles of track with its purchase of Iowa Northern Railway. Montreal-based Canadian National made the announcement Thursday. The sale is pending regulatory review by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. Canadian National is one of North America’s six biggest railroads and operates more than 18 thousand miles of track across Canada and the United States. Meanwhile, Iowa Nothern Railroad serves agricultural and industrial markets. The line runs diagonally through Iowa from Manly to Cedar Rapids with branch lines from Waterloo to Oelwein and Forest City to Belmond. Iowa Nothern Railway chairman Daniel Sabin said the Iowa carrier believes Canadian National shares the railroad’s commitment to local stakeholders and that the sale will benefit customers, employees and the local Iowa economy.
The magical musical ‘Mary Poppins’ is coming to Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. City Circle Theatre Company will bring the show to life onstage and in the air December 8 through 17. Allison Dixon of Iowa City plays Mary Poppins, a magical nanny joined by her chimney sweep Bert, played by Cedar Rapids’ Calvin Boman. Boman will defy gravity as Bert in an upside down tap dancing number. Read more backstage details in The Gazette’s story by Diana Nollen, available online. Use the link in this episode description to get there.
Finally, let’s take a look at today’s weather in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Today will be partly cloudy with temperatures reaching a high of 54 and a low of 38. Looking ahead to the weekend, Saturday will be cloudy and colder than the past few days. Expect a high of 39 and low of 23. Sunday, temperatures will continue their downward slide. Expect a high of 32, a low of 20 and mostly sunny skies.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Bailey Cichon.
Stories referenced
– 71-year-old Cedar Rapids woman killed in fire
– Private funding will be key to 5-year plan for revitalizing downtown, Cedar Rapids City Council says
– Big Grove Brewery announces opening date for new Cedar Rapids location
Episode Transcript
You are listening to The Gazette's daily news podcast on Thursday, December 7th, 2023. This is the podcast where we give you quick bites from the latest headlines coming out of the Gazette newsroom.
I'm Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt,
A 71-year-old Cedar Rapids woman is dead after a Tuesday afternoon apartment building fire. Wasfia Elshannaway was one of four people taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation and other injuries. The fire broke out on the third floor of the apartment building at 210 19th St. in Northeast Cedar Rapids. Fire responders were called at 2:13pm. Firefighters and police removed several people from the building. Two cats were killed in the fire and two others were rescued by Cedar Rapids Animal Care and Control according to a news release from the fire department.
The cause of the fire was accidental but what started the fire has not been released due to the ongoing investigation. For more details, read Emily Andersen's story at thegazette.com. Find the link in the episode description.
Cedar Rapids City Council signed off on a 5-year downtown action and vision plan on Tuesday. Now, the Downtown Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District Commission will form a task force to recommend a downtown management structure in 2024. According to the plan, the desired result would be a business plan for the preferred option and a collaboration commitment from the City, Economic Alliance and Downtown Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District Commission. For more details, read Marissa Payne's story at thegazette.com.
Big Grove Fans can now mark their calendars for the opening of Big Grove Brewery's Cedar Rapids location. The brewery announced its fourth and newest location at 170 First St. SW will open Dec. 14. Big Grove is also in the process of opening a new distribution center in Iowa City known as "The Hop Lot". The Gazette's Elijah Decious reports that Big Grove plans to open the hop lot by February. For more details on the new facilities, read the story at thegazette.com.
Stories Referenced
– Eight area Catholic schools uniting under one school system
– Iowa City man sentenced to 35 years for string of burglaries
– Fulfill a child’s holiday wishlist at Goldfinch Tap + Eatery
Episode Transcript
You are listening to the Gazette Daily News podcast on Wednesday, December 6th, 2023. This is the podcast where we give you quick bites from the latest headlines coming out of the Gazette newsroom.
I'm your host, Bailey Cichon Filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
Eight metro area Catholic schools are combining to form a single corporation. That corporation will be called Xavier Catholic Schools as of July 1st, 2024. Regis and LaSalle Catholic middle Schools will consolidate into one location--where that is has not yet been identified.
According to reporting by The Gazette's Grace King, Metro Catholic schools have been operating under the Xavier Catholic schools brand since 2013 though each school has had its own school board.
Xavier Catholic schools are a part of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The schools consist of eight buildings with a total enrollment of 2,104 students for the 2023-2024 school year.
You can find that full story at thegazette.com. Find the link for that in the episode description.
An Iowa City man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for a string of burglaries and thefts in Iowa City. 40-year-old Joshua Harley Kelley stole items from a list of businesses including McComas, Lacina Construction, Pace Properties, Rogers Shoes, Brandt Heating and Air Conditioning, Pyramid Services, Carousel Motors, Billion Auto Ace Hardware and AM management.
The thefts started in 2021 and continued through January. According to the criminal complaint, the businesses experienced over $100,000 in combined property loss. Kelley was selling or trading the stolen property for financial gain and to support himself. During the investigation, police found the stolen property at Kelley's storage unit and the van stolen from Billion Auto was found at a different location.
Marion restaurant Goldfinch Tap + Eatery is partnering with Marion schools to connect the public with the wish lists of families in need. The giving tree is located inside the restaurant and costs about $50 to fill a child's wish list.
Last year, Goldfinch helped the public support about 45 families in the Marion community. This year, the restaurant hopes to support at least half of the 200 children in need. Gifts must be received by December 12th.
Finally, let's take a look at today's weather in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Today will be partly cloudy with a high of 41 and a low of 24. Looking ahead to Thursday, weather will be mostly sunny with a high of 51 and low of 33.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette's Daily News podcast. I'm Bailey Cichon.
Stories referenced in episode
– Iowa City bus ridership is up 44% since going fare free
– A bar in Cedar Rapids offered free beers until Iowa scored. Then the team got shut out.
– Cedar Rapids man sentenced to 11 years for child porn
Episode Transcript
You are listening to the Tuesday, December 5th, 2023 edition of the Gazette's Daily News podcast. I’m Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
This is the podcast where we give you quick bites from headlines coming out of The Gazette newsroom.
Iowa City's bus ridership is up 44% since going fare free in August. The city reports that Iowa City transit has had 45,009 more passenger trips this October than in October 2022. Iowa City decided in June to use pandemic relief money to launch a two-year pilot program of fare free operations. The city's goal is to double ridership during the program but Transportation Director Darian Nagle-Gamm said the city is not yet on track to meet that target.
Nagle-Gamm said the increase in ridership benefits everyone quote, “Each trip on transit reduces traffic congestion reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves air quality frees up parking spaces and helps connect people to job opportunities which improves the overall economic status of the community. Taking transit also improves public health as customers walk or bike to and from bus stops.“ End quote. You can read the full story by Erin Jordan online at thegazette.com. Follow the link in this episode description to get there.
This college football season a bar in Cedar Rapids offered free beers until Iowa scored. Then the team got shut out on Saturday X-Golf Cedar Rapids, an indoor golf facility and sports bar located near Edgewood Road and highway 100 offered endless free beers during Iowa football games until the Hawkeyes scored. The Washington Post reported that the bar served over 100 free beers during Iowa's big 10 championship game against Michigan. The promotion went viral on social media getting a shout out from ESPN and bringing in a few heckling phone calls from Michigan fans.
A Cedar Rapids man who participated in an online chat group where adult men solicited sexually explicit photos and videos from a 13 year old girl was sentenced to over 11 years in federal prison.
50-year-old Jason Dean Anderson previously pleaded guilty in US district court to one count of accessing child pornography including a depiction involving a minor under the age of 12.
In 2021 and 2022, Anderson participated in a Snapchat group where men sexually exploited the girl. Anderson admitted to requesting the girl take and post sexually graphic photos of herself. Law enforcement encountered Anderson in 2012 after authorities discovered he was having sexually explicit conversations online with a 17-year-old girl who lived in a facility for people with intellectual disabilities. Prosecutors said he had been talking to the 17-year-old for two years and had requested she send him sexually explicit photos of herself. U.S. District Judge CJ Williams sentenced Anderson to 135 months in prison and five years of supervised release following his prison term.
Now, let's take a look at today's weather in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Today will be partly cloudy with a high of 38 degrees and a low of 21. Tomorrow will also be partly cloudy with a high of 41 degrees and a low of 22 degrees. Enjoy the above zero temperatures while you still can, Iowa.
Thanks for listening to the Daily News Podcast. I'm Bailey Cichon.
Stories featured in today's edition of The Gazette Daily News Podcast:
Attorney Fees Accumulate in Mercy Iowa City Bankruptcy, and Objections Persist
Centennial Park receives grant
Curious Iowa: How does a convenience store set gas prices?
Find the latest headlines coming out of The Gazette newsroom here.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, December 2nd, and Sunday, December 3rd, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be Cloudy, with a high near 38 with a slight chance of rain and snow after 5pm. Snow is likely Saturday night, possibly mixed with rain, particularly after 1am. Otherwise it’ll be cloudy, with a low around 33
Sunday morning snow and rain are likely, otherwise it’ll be mostly cloudy, with a high near 39. Sunday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 25.
Vivek Ramaswamy condemns eminent domain, carbon capture pipelines
The Ohio biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate was joined at the Des Moines rally by state lawmakers who have led efforts to restrict eminent domain authority for the pipelines, as well as activists who have opposed their construction on their land.
Ramaswamy said Iowa’s Republican leaders have supported the pipelines’ construction despite the opposition of voters.
“Why are the Republican puppets that claim to represent you, why are they supporting this issue, or even worse, ignoring it?” he said.
Ramaswamy said the driving force behind his attention to the issue was the possibility of using eminent domain to involuntarily take land — through easements — to build pipelines.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. New London, which broadened the federal standard for eminent domain, was wrongly decided, he said, adding eminent domain should not be used for private companies.
Linn County Mental Health Access Center now open 24/7
the Linn County Mental Health Access Center is now available around the clock — 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year — taking walk-ins for adults ages 18 and over who are experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
Patients can receive services without an appointment and do not have to be residents of Linn County to receive services at the center. People can come to the center on their own or be brought to the center by loved ones, law enforcement or mobile crisis teams. The facility is located at 501 13th St. NW, Cedar Rapids.
Iowa's GOP representatives join bipartisan vote to expel Santos
All four of Iowa’s Republican U.S. representatives voted Friday to expel New York Republican George Santos from Congress, joining the bipartisan vote to oust the representative who has faced a string of scandals and criminal allegations.
The extraordinary move makes Santos just the sixth member of the U.S. House — and first Republican — to be voted out by his peers. He is also the first since the Civil War to be expelled without first being convicted of a crime.
The vote, which required a two-thirds majority, passed 311-114. The “yes” votes included 105 Republicans and 206 Democrats, while the “no” votes included 112 Republicans and two Democrats.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for December 1, 2023.
There will likely be rain and snow mix in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. The National Weather Service prediction is for rain and snow before 9 a.m. and snow after. Looking at the day as a whole, the chance for precipitation appears to be most likely in the evening, especially between 4:00 and 9:00 p.m.
The high temperature will be around 37 degrees.
Penguin Random House, the Iowa State Education Association and some bestselling authors are suing the state of Iowa over a new law that bans books with sexual content from public school libraries, arguing the law violates First Amendment free speech rights.
The publishing giant filed the lawsuit in federal court Thursday, naming Iowa State Board of Education President John Robbins, Iowa State Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow and a number of local school districts and officials as defendants.
Bestselling authors including John Green, Jodi Picoult and Malinda Lo are named as plaintiffs. An anonymous high school student and a parent, along with three teachers, also joined the lawsuit.
It is the second lawsuit filed this week against the law. Iowa Safe Schools, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, filed a separate federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging the law.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, was choking on food during a luncheon Thursday when fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky performed the Heimlich maneuver on her.
The Kentucky senator has some medical experience, as he formerly worked as an eye doctor.
The incident occurred during a closed-door Republican lunch in the U.S. Capitol. Shortly after, Ernst posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to thank Paul. Ernst joked that she was choking on “woke policies” from Democrats.
All five ousted members of the Benton County Board of Health, who were let go without warning in October, are suing the county and its Board of Supervisors for violating Iowa law by going into improper closed sessions leading up to the terminations.
The board’s former members contend the county supervisors didn’t have any public meetings where they discussed terminating the health board or disbanding the panel, which would be required under Iowa Code Chapter 21, according to the petition.
The health board, whose members are appointed by the supervisors, oversees public health services in the county. For 29 years, those services were provided under an agreement with Virginia Gay Hospital in Vinton.
But last spring, the hospital ended that agreement effective in June.
According to the petition, the board terminations were connected to a county-based medical system the board proposed as an alternative — and that the supervisors had approved. The lawsuit asserts that system came with a higher price tag, but the supervisors blamed the health board for the expense,.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 30, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny on Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 43 degrees. On Thursday evening it will be clear, with a low of around 27 degrees.
Grant Wood Elementary School in Iowa City was placed on hold about 9 a.m. Wednesday after an armed parent in the office began to threaten staff members.
According to a criminal complaint, the parent, identified as 31-year-old Brandon J. Jones, of Iowa City, entered the building to confront the principal about sending his son home from school. Staff told police he entered the main office and demanded to see the principal. He threatened to assault the principal and another staff member who tried to de-escalate the situation
Jones had a handgun on his hip and proceeded to hand it to his girlfriend, who had come into the school with him, saying something along the lines of “hold this so I don’t do something stupid with it,” the complaint states. She took the gun outside.
Jones then went into the school hallway, against protests of staff, and began looking for the principal. When staff told him they were calling the police, he went outside where he took the gun back from his girlfriend before being stopped by police, according to the complaint.
Jones faces one count if carrying weapons on school grounds, a Class D felony, and two counts of first-degree harassment, both aggravated misdemeanors.
During the incident, the building was placed on hold, which means classroom doors were closed and locked, and no one was allowed in the hallway or around the building. Classes resumed as normal for the remainder of the day and school counselors were on-site for any staff or student who would like to speak about the incident.
No candidates on the ballot in Nov. 7 city and school elections in Linn and Johnson counties requested recounts, according to county auditors.
Two races came down to just a few votes. Candidates had until Nov. 17 to ask for recounts. No challenges arose, so the winners stand.
In Solon, city council member Daniel O’Neil narrowly unseated incumbent Steve Stange in the race for mayor, receiving 191 votes — nine more than Stange.
In an at-large Alburnett school board race for three open seats, newcomer Mary Bauercamper defeated incumbent Yon Abel by just two votes to secure the third seat. She received 202 votes total — about 14 percent of ballots cast.
With its outgoing athletics director David Harris headed to Tulane University in January, where he’ll assume the same role, the University of Northern Iowa on Wednesday announced former University of Iowa AD and retired Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby will step in as interim AD.
In doing so, Bowlsby will make a return of sorts — as a Waterloo native and UNI athletics director from 1983 to 1991. Inducted into UNI’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004, Bowlsby currently is serving on the steering committee for UNI’s $250 million “Our Tomorrow” fundraising campaign.
“Very few opportunities could have lured me out of retirement, even on a short-term basis,” the 71-year-old Bowlsby, currently living in Dallas, said in a statement Wednesday. “Plenty of people have contacted me, but when President Nook called I certainly listened intently.”
After starting in the Northern Iowa athletics department Bowlsby served for 16 years as the athletics director for the University of Iowa.
Bowlsby was appointed Big 12 Conference commissioner in 2012, overseeing the addition of BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston to the conference.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 29, 2023.
Some warmer weather will return on Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny, with a high near 42 degrees. Wednesday night it will be cloudy, with a low of around 27 degrees.
Seven Iowa students are named as plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that challenges a new, sweeping state law that places restrictions on LGBTQ students and school materials.
The ACLU of Iowa joined two law firms in filing a lawsuit challenging Iowa Senate File 496, which prohibits the instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade, prohibits books with descriptions of sex acts and requires parental notification when a K-12 student wants to be referred to by a different pronoun or name in school.
The law was passed by Republican state lawmakers and signed into law in May by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The lawsuit asks the court for an immediate halt to enforcement of the law during the legal challenge. Attorneys said the lawsuit argues the state law violates the First Amendment right to free speech of Iowa’s LGBTQ students, and asks the court to find the entire law unconstitutional.
The federal lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of Iowa. The ACLU of Iowa, Lambda Legal and the law firm Jenner & Block are representing the seven students and Iowa Safe Schools, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ students in Iowa.
A former employee of University of Iowa Community HomeCare has paired up with a former patient to sue the entity on behalf of themselves and 67,000-plus others over a data breach in March they argue could have been prevented, was reported too late and unjustly enriched the university while causing years of risk.
Becky Kaefring, an Iowa City woman who worked for UI Community HomeCare from 2003 to 2019, and Kimberly Sullivan, a Shellsburg mother whose child received UI home care services, this fall sued UI Community HomeCare and UI Community Medical Services — which fall under the UI Health Care umbrella.
In the lawsuit, which seeks class action certification, the women accused the entities of making “calculated decisions to avoid its data security obligations at the expense of plaintiffs and class members by utilizing cheaper, ineffective security measures.”
The breach compelling the lawsuit happened March 23, although the UIHC didn’t report it until May, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“UI Community HomeCare has determined that the impacted files contained personal information related to patients,” according to the UIHC notice identifying 67,897 affected individuals. “At this time, UI Community HomeCare sees no evidence of misuse of any information related to this incident.”
But the plaintiffs argue they’re now burdened with years of monitoring and anxiety.
The lawsuit comes as a current UIHC patient two weeks ago updated her similar lawsuit, also seeking class status, accusing UI Hospitals and Clinics of the “unlawful and widespread unauthorized practice” of sharing confidential personal protected health information to third parties — like Facebook, also known as Meta.
A portion of First Street NE in downtown Cedar Rapids will be reduced to one lane of traffic starting Wednesday. The closure will make way for construction of infrastructure for the city’s permanent flood control system.
The affected portion of First Street NE will be southbound, from B Avenue NE to First Avenue NE. The lane closures are expected to last through construction, which will be until spring 2025. Drivers should expect delays.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 28, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will become increasingly cloudy during the day on Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area. It looks like Tuesday may be the coldest day of the week, with a high of 28 degrees and a wind chill of -10 degrees. On Tuesday evening it will be partly cloudy, with a low of 24 degrees.
A Cedar Rapids man, who is accused of trying to kill his wife by stabbing her multiple times in 2020, wants a judge to toss out his confession because of an “existing mental health diagnosis and being in a psychotic state.”
Anthony M. Depolis, 34, in a motion, also said he hadn’t been taking his prescribed medications for an extended time and had used illegal drugs when police interviewed him.
During the interview, he admitted to stabbing his wife, Diana L. Depolis, 37 at the time, with a knife on July 6, 2020, and that he purchased it in anticipation of using it against her, according to court documents.
According to the defense motion, Depolis didn’t voluntarily, knowingly, nor intelligently waive his Miranda rights due to his mental condition at the time.
The Linn County Attorney’s Office is resisting the motion that would remove his confession from consideration.
In a recorded video interrogation Depolis discussed “at length” that he had planned for years to kill his wife, and enlisted the help of a “third party” to cover up the murder and dispose of the body. He said he only regretted not actually killing her.
A judge set a hearing on the motion to suppress Jan. 5 in Linn County District Court. His trial set for this month will be reset.
In 2021, Depolis was found incompetent to stand trial and court proceedings in the case had been suspended for more than a year until he was restored and found competent in September 2022.
Depolis, during evaluations, was suspected of faking his mental health condition to avoid or delay his trial.
After 93 years in business at various locations in Cedar Rapids, Ginsberg Jewelers will soon close. During those decades, it’s been a family-owned business and a mainstay in the city’s retail community.
Steve Ginsberg, 63, is the fourth generation — and the last — to run the family business.
“All of my (three) sons are not interested in coming into the business,” he told the Gazette, adding he’d never pushed them to do so, just as his parents never pushed him or his siblings.
Bringing family members into a business against their will, he said, “would only bring resentment. Why would you want that? So I don't fault them at all.”
Besides not having willing successors to the business, Ginsberg said several factors led to the decision to close the store.
He said the overhead is too expensive compared to the sales that they are bringing in. He is also unwilling to go further into debt to keep the business afloat, especially when lenders are not the willing partners they once were.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 27, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Monday with a high near 27 degrees. A west wind of 10 to 15 mph could gust as high as 25 mph. On Monday evening it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 10 degrees.
Just one year into the public portion of the University of Northern Iowa's $250 million comprehensive fundraising campaign, the Cedar Falls campus already is most of the way to its goal — putting it more than two years ahead of schedule.
But UNI doesn’t plan to wrap its Our Tomorrow fundraising push early — before 2026, when the campaign’s finale is supposed to converge with UNI’s sesquicentennial — especially since unforeseen circumstances have added new projects and fundraising needs.
“The goal is certainly to exceed $250 (million),” UNI President Mark Nook told The Gazette, noting the campus hasn’t set a new specific goal. “We may in the future. But for now, we will run the campaign through June of 2026. And we're using that because 2026 is our 150th anniversary.”
The campaign is funding scholarships, additional majors at UNI, faculty initiatives and research, and the renovation of noted campus spaces, such as the Campanile, the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, and the UNI-Dome.
A residence on M Avenue NW had “major” damage after an early morning fire on Sunday.
According to a Cedar Rapids Fire Department media release, firefighters were dispatched at 3:48 a.m. to a residential fire at the 500 block of M Ave NW.
Upon arriving at the scene firefighters reported flames showing from the front of the house. They pulled one water line, and then another, before bringing the flames under control, according to the release.
A search of the interior of the home was done before an all clear was reported, according to the release. No residents appeared to be home at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported. Damage to the residence was listed as “major” in the release but no other information was given.
The fire remains under investigation.
According to reporting from the Waterloo Courier, no one was injured on Saturday evening when there was an explosion at a POET bioethanol plant that sent a fireball into the sky.
Emergency responders were called at around 4 p.m. after the resulting boom caused by the explosion.
Butler County Emergency Management Coordinator Chris Showalter told the Courier that the fire had mostly resolved itself by the time fire crews had arrived. The fire remains under investigation, but Showalter said the current speculation is that combustible dust somehow exploded.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 25th, and Sunday, November 26th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be cloudy, with a high near 36. Saturday nightwill be cloudy with a low of 27 and a 60% chance of snow with potential accumulation of around an inch.
Sunday will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 35 and a chance of more snow in the early morning with about a half inch of potential accumulation.
Cedar Rapids picks HACAP to run Wellington Heights affordable housing project
Once rehabilitation work is complete this spring on a once-blighted building in Wellington Heights, Hawkeye Area Community Action Program will own and operate the old Colonial Centre property that the city of Cedar Rapids is transforming into affordable housing.
The Cedar Rapids City Council this week approved HACAP’s proposal to own and manage the building now dubbed “The Heights” at 1500 Second Ave. SE. When construction is complete in March, this city project will offer 25 affordable rental units and be turned over to HACAP to run.
Guaranty Bank site among five Cedar Rapids projects awarded redevelopment tax credits
Among the five Cedar Rapids projects that were recently awarded redevelopment tax credits from the Iowa Economic Development Authority, local developer Steve Emerson’s proposed transformation of the old Guaranty Bank block received a major boost.
The former Guaranty Bank and World Theater building at 222 Third St. SE, as well as the building that once housed the Dragon Chinese restaurant at 329 Second Ave. SE, received brownfield/grayfield redevelopment tax credits from the IEDA board.
These tax credits help transform sites that are abandoned, blighted or underused. Brownfield sites are industrial or commercial properties where there’s environmental contamination. Grayfield sites are public buildings, industrial or commercial properties that have infrastructure in place, but the property is otherwise underused.
Complaints pile up as Iowa ranks 49th among states in nursing home inspectors
A federal report suggests Iowa has one of the nation’s worst ratios of nursing home inspectors to care facilities, and that the state’s use of private contractors to inspect homes is extraordinarily costly to taxpayers.
The report, published in May by the majority staff of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, highlights some of the issues Iowa regulators have acknowledged with regard to nursing home oversight.
One of the Iowa homes that recently caught the attention of regulators is the Pine Acres Rehabilitation and Care Center in West Des Moines. This past July, state officials visited the home to conduct an inspection, but not before the home had racked up 13 complaints — the oldest of which dated back 109 days, to March 3.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 24, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy Friday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 33 degrees.The wind will pick up a bit as well, with gusts reaching as high as 25 mph.
There’s been a national shortage of ADHD medications for more than a year, and patients have been affected here in Iowa as well. What started with manufacturing delays for a producer of Adderall in October 2022 has turned into erratic availability of methylphenidate, sold under brand named Ritalin and Concerta.
The shortage is caused by multiple factors, including production problems for manufacturers and limits the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency puts on how much controlled substances a company can produce, said Mike Brownlee, chief pharmacy officer for the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics.
Dr. Robin Kopelman, a psychiatrist who works with adult female patients through Meadowlark Psychiatric Services in North Liberty, said the monthly hunt for medications is an additional hardship for adults with ADHD.
Health care providers like Kopelman say they have gotten creative to help patients get needed medications. This might involve prescribing a slightly smaller or larger dose, switching brands or using a different form of the medicine, such as slow release, she said. The FDA in August approved a generic form of ADHD drug Vyvanse, which has created some additional options.
This year’s corn and soybean harvests are virtually complete in nearly every area of the state, with one exception: south-central Iowa.
“Farmers in south central Iowa still have over 10 percent of their corn for grain crop remaining to be harvested,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported back Monday.
That region of the state is often the last to finish harvest, according to USDA crop reports that date back more than a decade.
This year, part of that lag might have been caused by some replanting of soybeans, which delayed their maturation and harvest, said Clarabell Probasco, an Iowa State University Extension field agronomist who monitors part of that area.
Despite the delays in that area, Iowa’s soybean harvest is considered complete, and about 97 percent of the state’s corn had been harvested as of the beginning of the week. The work has been aided by a streak of mostly rainless weeks.
EntreFEST, the two-day conference celebrating entrepreneurialism and innovation, returns to Cedar Rapids in 2024 after two years in Iowa City.
The conference will be held June 13-14. Venues will include the Geonetric Building, 415 12th Ave. SE, and the Olympic Theater, 1202 Third St. SE, with more to be announced.
In addition to keynote speakers and panels, EntreFEST features dozens of smaller sessions that cover all aspects of business and entrepreneurship. Attendees are able to ask questions and interact with speakers, while happy hours and live entertainment give attendees the chance to network and unwind afterward.
More information about venues, speakers and tickets will be announced soon
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 23, 2023.
Happy Thanksgiving!
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 42 degrees. On Thursday evening it will become cloudier, with a low of around 23 degrees.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has approved a manure plan for Supreme Beef, a cattle feedlot in northeast Iowa, but opponents questioned whether it’s legal for the applicant to tweak the plan midway.
The DNR held a public hearing for Supreme Beef’s nutrient management plan application Oct. 16 and an equal number of people spoke for and against the plan for disposing of manure from up to 11,600 cattle.
The agency accepted revisions to the plan Nov. 8, 16 and 17, before issuing final approval last week, according to the letter the DNR sent Supreme Beef owner Jared Walz.
The plan for how Supreme Beef will apply liquid manure to farmland is in effect through the 2028 crop year. The feedlot must keep records of manure application so the DNR can review them during inspections, the letter says.
Supreme Beef hasn’t been able to apply manure to land since May, a month after Polk County Judge Scott Rosenberg sided with nature groups that sued the DNR and Supreme Beef over a previous plan they said was flawed and would endanger waterways in the Driftless region.
Opponents at the public hearing in October said Supreme Beef’s newest plan still had omissions and inaccurate information. These opponents, who include neighbors of the feedlot and water quality advocates, say they question whether the revisions to the plan after the Oct. 16 public hearing are legal.
Once rehabilitation work is complete this spring on a once-blighted building in Wellington Heights, Hawkeye Area Community Action Program will own and operate the old Colonial Centre property that the city of Cedar Rapids is transforming into affordable housing.
The Cedar Rapids City Council this week approved HACAP’s proposal to own and manage the building now dubbed “The Heights” at 1500 Second Ave. SE. When construction is complete in March, this city project will offer 25 affordable rental units and be turned over to HACAP to run.
“I think a lot of us look at that facility as a gateway into every day improving Wellington Heights,” Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said. “I’m thrilled about the partnerships all around and even happier that we know there’ll be resources there on-site to have a more comprehensive and holistic support for citizens.”
EntreFEST, the two-day conference celebrating entrepreneurialism and innovation, returns to Cedar Rapids in 2024 after two years in Iowa City.
The conference will be held June 13-14. Venues will include the Geonetric Building, 415 12th Ave. SE, and the Olympic Theater, 1202 Third St. SE, with more to be announced.
In addition to keynote speakers and panels, EntreFEST features dozens of smaller sessions that cover all aspects of business and entrepreneurship. Attendees are able to ask questions and interact with speakers, while happy hours and live entertainment give attendees the chance to network and unwind afterward.
More information about venues, speakers and tickets will be announced soon
To wrap up, I have some nice offers for all of our listeners who love the classic experience of reading a newspaper. If you're in The Gazette's delivery area, you're eligible for our Black Friday month-long special where you can get up to 50% off on your print subscription.
It should be noted that a print subscription also gives you access to all our content on thegazette.com as well.
If you’re interested in the deal, head on over to thegazette.com/friday
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 22, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 46 degrees. On Wednesday evening it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 31 degrees.
The super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to the airwaves in a pair of ads that feature Reynolds encouraging voters to support DeSantis.
The ads are part of a seven-figure ad buy in Iowa from Never Back Down. They are the first to feature Reynolds making a direct-to-camera pitch for DeSantis, who she endorsed for the Republican presidential nomination this month following months of public discord with the GOP front-runner, former President Donald Trump.
That feud continued Tuesday with Trump releasing a video on social media noting that Gov. Reynolds has gone from one of the most popular governors in the country to one of the least popular. He then suggested Reynolds must have been promised a position by DeSantis to back someone so far back in the polls.
Recent polls of likely Iowa caucus goers show DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley jockeying for a distant second place behind Trump. According to an average of polls by FiveThirtyEight, Trump has nearly 45 percent of support of Iowa Republicans, while DeSantis has 17.5 percent and Haley has around 15 percent.
A former softball coach at Solon High School and Clear Creek Amana High School pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually assaulting a teenage student about 17 years ago.
James Anthony White, 59, of North Liberty, charged with two counts of third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee, pleaded guilty in Johnson County District Court to one count of third-degree sexual abuse and enticing a minor away with intent to assault.
White, during the plea hearing, admitted to sexually assaulting the victim when she was 14- and 15-years-old, from January 2006 through December 2007. He also admitted to enticing away the victim with intent to commit assault.
District Court Judge David Cox said, as part of the plea agreement, the 10- and five-year prison sentences will run consecutively but will be suspended and White will receive probation. The sentencing judge will determine the length of probation.
Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith said the victim had been consulted about the plea agreement and had agreed to it.
The woman, who was a student of White’s during the 2006-07 school year and was coached by him on the Clear Creek Amana softball team, told police about the past sexual abuse incidents in early 2022, according to a criminal complaint.
She told police she was 15 when White was her teacher and coach, and said she had been groomed by White and they had a sexual relationship.
White was a teacher and softball coach at Clear Creek Amana for several years before leaving in 2012 to coach at Solon High School. He coached softball at Solon until 2017, then returned as an assistant baseball coach for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
His contract at Solon ended the summer of 2022, according to the Solon School District.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 21, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service rain will be likely in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday morning, but should come to an end by 8 a.m. It should be cloudy during the day, with a high near 47 degrees. Tuesday evening the low is listed at 27 degrees, with a blustery wind.
Cedar Rapids school leaders are considering ways to reverse the district’s declining enrollment trend, looking at “rich opportunities for growth,” including better marketing preschool and kindergarten in the hopes of capturing and retaining those families.
The district’s certified enrollment for the 2023-24 school year — a count taken by every school district in Iowa in October — is 14,697 students, an increase of 45 students from last year, according to data presented during a Cedar Rapids school board meeting Monday.
“That’s fantastic because that reverses a trend,” said Craig Barnum, chief information officer for the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
This is lower, however, than the 16,140 students within the district’s "attendance footprint,“ who are open enrolled into neighboring public school districts or private or non-public schools, Barnum said. In Iowa, school districts’ enrollment is a driving factor of state funding.
Increasing enrollment is one goal of the district’s strategic plan, approved by the Cedar Rapids school board in September. By June 2027, the district plans to stabilize enrollment and see a 1 percent increase.
There has been a decline of about 1,100 students in Cedar Rapids schools since the 2010-11 school year, according to district data.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday she was in talks with legislative and industry leaders about further reducing Iowa’s income tax rates in the upcoming legislative session.
Reynolds promised another round of income tax cuts when she announced in September the state ended the fiscal year with a $1.83 billion budget surplus.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, Reynolds said she wants to make sure any tax reductions put in place will be sustainable in the long term.
Reynolds pointed to the surplus and the taxpayer relief fund, a separate fund that ended last year with $2.74 billion, as evidence that Iowa is collecting too much in taxes.
Reynolds said she would have more details about the plan in her Condition of the State address in January. Iowa’s 2024 legislative session starts Jan. 8.
At a Cato Institute conference in February, Reynolds said her goal is to eliminate the state income tax by the end of her current term.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 20, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy on Monday with a high near 48 degrees. Rain will become increasingly likely during the day, with a 60 percent chance around 10 p.m. The low will settle in around 37 degrees.
A medical emergency may have caused a 21-year-old man to veer off Highway 30 on Friday evening, where he crashed and was killed, authorities said.
Cedar Rapids police and firefighters responded at 6:21 p.m. Friday to the area near Highway 30 and 21st Street SW to a report of a single-car crash.
They found a vehicle that had gone off the road and struck some railroad property below the bridge that spans railroad tracks and Prairie Creek.
First responders tried to revive the driver, identified by police as Nicholas Pearson, but he died at the scene.
A Cedar Rapids developer has been charged with stealing over $2,000 of goods from a home improvement store in Marion.
Eric Gutschmidt, 39, was charged in Linn County District Court last month with second-degree theft, a felony, according to a criminal complaint. He is accused of committing a “series” of thefts — six separate incidents — over the course of three days from March 5 through March 7 at Menards, 200 Menard Lane, in Marion.
Gutschmidt was arraigned this week and pleaded not guilty to the charge. His trial is set for April 2. He didn’t respond Friday afternoon to a message from The Gazette seeking comment.
According to the complaint, Gutschmidt took 57 packages of vinyl floor planks and three packages of floor tiles from the store without paying for the items, valued at $2,338. He initially was identified as the suspect because he provided his name and phone number for a different order of items he placed on the day the first theft occurred, the complaint stated.
Repairs are being made to deteriorating wood beams at Taft and Harding middle schools in Cedar Rapids after some of the columns were determined last month to be structurally unstable — forcing students out of those areas.
Two domes — one at Taft and one at Harding — are expected to be repaired by the end of December. The domes were closed as a safety precaution, and students were moved to other parts of the buildings.
Crews from McComas-Lacina Construction of Iowa City are working to install metal plates to the wood beam structures, and weld them to metal anchors attached to the concrete footings around the domes.
There are two domes at each of the middle schools with 16 beams supporting each dome.The domes for both schools were closed back in October after inspections found them to be structurally unsound.
The two middle schools were constructed in 1965 using the same design that features two domes.
Chris Gates, buildings and grounds manager for Cedar Rapids Schools, told the Gazette that these designs have stood the test of time in dry states like Arizona. However, in Iowa, a design where wood beams are exposed to precipitation and frequent freeze / thaw cycles, has turned out to not be the most practical choice.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 18th, and Sunday, November 19th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be sunny, with a high near 57, cooling to a low around 33 Saturday night.
Sunday will be cloudy with a high of 57, cooling to a low of 41 Sunday night.
deteriorating beams are being repaired at Taft, Harding
Repairs are being made to deteriorating wood beams at Taft and Harding middle schools in Cedar Rapids after some of the columns were determined last month to be structurally unstable — forcing students out of those areas.
The closure of the Taft and Harding domes is impacting more than 1,000 sixth through eighth grade students in the Cedar Rapids district. Outside the schools are fences around the domes with signs that read “do not enter.”
Band and orchestra students at Taft are practicing in the school’s front entryway. Lunch is eaten in the hallway and some classrooms. PE classes also are being held in the library or outside, weather permitting.
Later this month, music classes will move to a portable classroom being put up in front of Taft. There will be two portables with a total of four classrooms.
At Harding, renovations were made to create additional classroom space to accommodate students.
3 Iowa reps among those calling for George Santos to resign
Three of Iowa’s Republican U.S. representatives called on Republican U.S. Rep. George Santos to resign Thursday after a House Ethics Committee investigation found evidence of a string of alleged financial crimes tied to his 2022 campaign.
Reps. Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks called for Santos to resign from Congress, signaling that they would vote to expel him if he does not resign.
The three representatives, along with Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra, all voted against a previous measure to expel Santos from Congress.
The House Ethics Committee’s report says Santos stole from his campaign, deceived donors into paying him personally when they thought they were giving to his campaign, and reported fictitious loans to his campaign he then used campaign funds to pay back.
Panel takes first step to consider restructuring downtown Cedar Rapids’ managing entity
Could another organization host signature downtown events such as the farmers market or decide how to spend public funds on things like murals and lighting?
The Downtown Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District Commission — a mayor-appointed panel that oversees downtown initiatives — took steps this week to explore such questions and consider how to potentially change the management structure of downtown operations.
The move comes as consultant Progressive Urban Management Associates of Denver is slated to bring a refreshed Downtown Vision Plan guiding the future of the urban core to the Cedar Rapids City Council for possible adoption Dec. 5.
The plan will recommend the district put together a task force to make a recommendation on its structure going forward. One section of the draft vision plan examines the downtown entity’s current structure in relation to others in the country.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 17, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny on Friday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 47 degrees. On Friday night it will be clear, with a low of around 27 degrees.
Starting in December, tenants will move into a new affordable housing development in southeast Cedar Rapids that will add 44 rental units to the city’s core, with five units reserved for young people aging out of the foster care system.
The Des Moines-based Hatch Kiernan Galloway Development Group on Thursday marked the near-completion of Cedar Rapids Brickstone, a $12.2 million, four-story multifamily building at 627 Sixth St. SE.
The project will provide supportive services to tenants in partnership with local nonprofit, Foundation 2 Crisis Services.
Of the 44 units, 34 will be reserved for tenants at or below 60 percent of area median income. Ten units will be marked for tenants at or below 30 percent of area median income, according to the city.
The Brickstone housing complex also is in proximity to other nonprofits and service providers, the Ground Transportation Center for bus access and the downtown Cedar Rapids Public Library.
Three of Iowa’s Republican U.S. representatives called on Republican U.S. Rep. George Santos to resign Thursday after a House Ethics Committee investigation found evidence of a string of alleged financial crimes tied to his 2022 campaign.
The House Ethics Committee’s report says Santos stole from his campaign, deceived donors into paying him personally when they thought they were giving to his campaign, and reported fictitious loans to his campaign he then used campaign funds to pay back.
Reps. Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks called for Santos to resign from Congress, signaling that they would vote to expel him if he does not resign.
The three representatives, along with Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra, all voted against a previous me sure to expel Santos from Congress.
Santos said on Thursday he would not seek re-election in 2024 but did not say he would resign from Congress.
House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest, a Republican from Mississippi, will move to expel Santos this week, according to CNN.
The Iowa Hawkeye women won’t get to keep their #2 ranking for very long.
Kansas State scored the final 12 points and stunned No. 2 Iowa, 65-58, before a sellout crowd of 14,998 Thursday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
K-State came into Thursday’s game as the third-best defensive team in the nation, at 37 points per game. They held the Hawkeyes 34 points below their average of per game.
Iowa has good company in teams getting upset, though. Of the top 10 teams in the preseason Associated Press poll, Iowa was the eighth to fall so far. And it’s only mid-November.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 16, 2023.
It will be our last day above 60 degrees for a while Thursday. According to the National Weather Service there will be increasing clouds in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 67 degrees. It will also be breezy, with winds of 15 to 20 mph gusting as high as 35 mph.
We should still have highs in the 50s on Saturday and Sunday, but it appears that next week will begin the slide into colder temperatures.
A judge Wednesday sentenced 18-year-old Jeremy Goodale to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for his role in killing his high school Spanish teacher with a baseball bat.
District Judge Shawn Showers said this wasn’t a “typical” murder case — noting the brutal nature of the killing.
66-year-old Nohema Graber, a teacher at Fairfield High School, was killed in 2021 by Goodale and Willard Chaiden Miller. Both students were 16 at the time of the killing.
Showers, who considered all the juvenile factors required in sentencing a teen, said there were mitigating factors in the case, including Goodale’s genuine remorse, which was unlike “your co-defendant” – referring to Chaiden Miller. He also said Goodale’s plea of guilty and acceptance of responsibility also was a mitigating factor.
State education officials will not provide Iowa school districts with a list of library materials now prohibited under new K-12 book restriction rules, despite calls and suggestions for it to do so by school librarians and administrators and a state board member.
The Iowa Board of Education voted Wednesday to move ahead with proposed rules seeking to clarify restrictions under a new state law that prohibits books and curriculum in K-12 schools that contain descriptions of sex acts. The law also prohibits the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity through sixth grade.
The law passed solely by the Republican majority also requires school administrators to alert a student's caregiver if a student wants to use pronouns that differ from their sex assigned at birth.
Iowa cornerback and special teams standout Cooper DeJean has suffered a significant lower-leg injury in practice and will miss the rest of the season, the team confirmed Wednesday evening in a news release.
“This is truly heartbreaking for Cooper,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said in a statement. “He has played extremely well and is a real playmaker on our team. We will all support Cooper during his recovery, which will continue into the new year.”
DeJean, an Associated Press midseason All-American, has widely been projected to be a first-round pick in next year’s NFL Draft should he choose to forego his senior season.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 15, 2023.
It will be sunny on Wednesday with a high near 67 degrees,according to the National Weather Service. On Wednesday evening it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 45 degrees.
Proposed rules meant to provide guidance to Iowan physicians lack specific penalties they could face for performing abortions under a new law that remains tied up in court.
The Iowa Board of Medicine is set to meet Friday to consider proposed rules that include specific guidance on how medical providers are to implement the exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities and medical emergencies contained in a new law that would prohibit the vast majority of abortions in the state.
The proposed rules, however, currently do not answer key questions about whether doctors could face fines or licensing repercussions for performing abortions illegally. They simply state: “Failure to comply with this rule or the requirements of Iowa Code section 146E may constitute grounds for discipline.”
The fate of the fetal abortion law remains to be decided. For now abortion in Iowa remains legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
A Door Dash delivery driver killed in an October shooting at a Cedar Rapids apartment complex parking lot was shot six times, according to a criminal complaint against Cameron Leonard, one of the people police believe were involved in the shootout.
Leonard was arrested last week by U.S. marshals in Burlington after he was released from the hospital, where he was taken to be treated for multiple gunshot wounds after the Oct. 5 shooting.
According to a criminal complaint, Leonard’s brother, Maurice Brown — who was also killed in the shooting — placed a Door Dash order that was delivered by Snyder. Brown, 21, of Cedar Rapids, knew Snyder and “there had been a previous conflict between them,” the complaint said without elaboration.
After Snyder arrived a shootout ensued between the men.
KMRY radio host Ricky Bartlett of Iowa City and the band Vibe will be honored with a Danny Award at the fourth annual Danny Awards held Nov. 18 in New York. The awards sponsored by Daniel’s Music Foundation recognizes musicians with disabilities with the purpose of challenging society to think differently about disability.
The Danny Awards is considered an artist pipeline for Just Call Me By My Name, a record label for musicians with disabilities (distributed by The Orchard) that releases compilation EPs timed to key Disability Awareness dates. The label also seeks performance opportunities at festivals, award shows, DEI conferences and corporate events, and promotes artists’ music through listening stations at key venues.
Bartlett is a double amputee who lost his legs to a flesh-eating disease. After he nearly lost his life in addition to his legs, he decided to pursue his dream of acting and has been voice-over work for a Marvel project in the United Kingdom. He also saw a lot of work pour in from international projects during the SAG-AFTRA strikes (the union doesn’t have much of an international presence.) He’s also working on a Korean film, called “Target,” where he is playing a mob boss.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 14, 2023.
It will be increasingly cloudy and warmer on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 67 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The low will come in around 43 degrees.
Police released the identities of the two pedestrians hit by a car Sunday as they were crossing Memorial Drive SE in Cedar Rapids
Bonnie Stover was killed Sunday afternoon just outside of her home by a driver police say was drunk and fled the scene. Shawn Stover, her husband of 35 years, was also hit in the roadway and was hospitalized for his injuries.
Members of the Stover family told the Gazette that Bonnie Stover worked at Linn Area Credit Union and volunteered at various organizations throughout Cedar Rapids
“She does not deserve this. She seriously was like a saint. I’ve always said that she was like a saint on this earth. She was the nicest person,” said Molly Stover, one of her daughters.
Police said the crash was caught on video surveillance and they were able to identify the sport utility vehicle involved. Investigators found it parked about a mile away, at the home of Kyle Kubite, 45, of 2232 Pine Ave. SE.
Kubite was arrested on counts of vehicular homicide while intoxicated, leaving the scene of a personal injury accident and leaving the scene of a fatality accident. He remained Monday in the Linn County Jail.
Local auto salvage company Sunline has cleaned out its property on Sixth Street SW and moved hundreds of cars onto the Hawkeye Downs parking lot, making way for the old property’s sale to Copart, an insurance auto auction.
Roger Cassill, owner of both Hawkeye Downs and Sunline, said Monday he sold the old 40-acre Sunline property at 4400 Sixth St. SW to Copart to be one of its major locations in the Midwest. Copart currently has Iowa locations in Des Moines and Davenport. The sale closed Oct. 31, Cassill said, after the process started about a year ago.
The rezoning took place as Hawkeye Downs looked to refresh its property and explore new ways to draw residents and visitors to the racetrack. It has received thousands of dollars from the city over the years through hotel-motel tax funds the city reaps from overnight guests — for instance, $35,000 last November.
The city also in 2022 awarded the organization $50,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds as part of money given to nonprofits to support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cassill said there are plans going through the architectural stages for the front side of Hawkeye Downs, on the northeast side of the property. There are plans to develop the land with multiple buildings and a new expo center “to dress that up,” he said.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 13, 2023.
The week will start sunny and pleasant on Monday, with a high of 63 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The low will drop down to 35 degrees, with clear skies. The National Weather Service projects sunny skies and highs in the 60s for much of the rest of the week.
Pharmacies across Iowa have closed at an alarming rate over the past decade-plus, partly because insurance payouts don't cover drug costs.
Nearly 100 pharmacies across the state have shut their doors since 2008, according to research from a Drake University professor in a recent study.
And it’s still an issue. A survey last month conducted by the Iowa Pharmacy Association of its members found 40 percent of responding pharmacies expect to close within the next 12 months.
Pharmacists, lawmakers, policy experts and patient advocates say pharmacy benefit managers are largely to blame.
Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are third party companies that function as intermediaries between insurance providers and drug manufacturers.
Mike Deninger is a co-owner and pharmacist at Towncrest Pharmacy. The group collectively owns eight community pharmacies in Iowa City, Solon, Van Horne, Marengo, Belle Plaine and New Hampton.
Independent pharmacies like his rely on PBMs so that they can take various insurance plans, but those companies also decide how much money the pharmacists receive when reimbursing them.
“They will pay us whatever they feel like paying us, and it can change at any given time,” he said.
Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and colleagues this week introduced a bipartisan proposal that would tackle practices used by pharmacy benefit managers that drive up costs for prescription medications.
The bill would use a flat fee to compensate PBMs instead of pegging payments to a percentage of the cost of a drug.
A Cedar Rapids man has been charged with vehicular homicide and operating while intoxicated after his vehicle struck two pedestrians in the road Sunday, killing one and injuring the other.
Kyle Kubite, 45, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested Sunday and charged with the crimes after the pedestrians were struck in the 1400 block of Memorial Dr SE at roughly 4:45 p.m. Sunday
According to a media release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department, investigators determined Kubite was driving while intoxicated on Memorial Drive when he struck the two pedestrians, a man and a woman.
The woman was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the release. The man had non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to the hospital for treatment.
Police say the investigation is still underway but they are releasing no further information as of Sunday evening. The identities of the two pedestrians are being withheld while police investigate and family members can first be notified of the news.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 11th, and Sunday, November 12th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be partly sunny, with a high near 51, cooling to a low around 39 Saturday night.
Sunday will be sunny, with a high near 62, cooling to a low of 37 Sunday night.
Construction to close I-80 in Coralville overnight starting Sunday
Eastbound Interstate 80 in Coralville will be closed overnight starting Sunday and continuing through Thursday, according to a news release from the Iowa Department of Transportation.
A portion of the interstate will be closed from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. each night for construction at the First Avenue interchange, which is exit 242. A marked detour will take eastbound drivers off the interstate at exit 240 and back onto the interstate at exit 242.
The closures are scheduled for Sunday night through Thursday night, but dates could change depending on the weather, the release states. Construction crews will be performing bridge demolition work in the area.
The work is part of a $35.6 million project will transform the First Avenue interchange with Interstate 80 in Coralville from a traditional diamond to a diverging diamond. The city and state discussed updating the interchange for nearly 20 years. Work began in March this year and is expected to be complete in spring or early summer 2025.
Summit hearing in Iowa ends but decision months away
A monthslong evidentiary hearing for Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline permit in Iowa concluded this week with the final remaining testimony of landowners in the path of the company’s proposed project.
That sets the stage for the Iowa Utilities Board to make a decision about whether to grant the company a hazardous liquid pipeline permit, grant it with modifications to the company’s proposal, or deny it.
State law does not dictate when that decision must be made, but those who are participating in the proceedings will have an opportunity to submit substantial written arguments based on the evidence gathered during the hearing.
Gov. Kim Reynolds applauds Iowa’s new school ranking
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, ranked Iowa ninth in the nation in its recent “Education Freedom Report Card.”
Iowa saw the biggest jump of any state in its ranking between 2022 and 2023, owing largely to the education savings account program that lawmakers passed this year, allowing Iowa families to use public school dollars to pay for private school tuition and expenses.
The new law caused Iowa to jump 13 places in the conservative think tank’s rankings, from 22nd in 2023 to ninth this year. Iowa ranked fourth for Education Choice in the group’s report.
Iowa placed 16th in transparency, 30th in teacher freedom and 25th in return on investment.
During her Thursday remarks, Reynolds thanked the Republican lawmakers who helped pass the bill into law and said the demand for the program has exceeded expectations.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 10, 2023.
It will be sunny and a bit chilly on Friday. According to the National Weather Service the high will be near 47 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area, with sunny skies. Friday evening will be mostly clear, with a low near 29.
Iowa State University’s Catt Hall — honoring the women’s suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt, accused by some of holding racist views — will permanently keep its name after an ISU name-removal committee cast a final 11-4 vote.
That Nov. 3 vote — which the university announced Thursday — followed years of investigation, review of 250 historical documents, a dozen interviews and the production of a 46-page report that generated 311 public comments.
“Why are we ignoring all of her accomplishments for women and our college because of a few words she said over 100 years ago,” one ISU student wrote to the committee, according to a collection of the public comments Iowa State released.
Catt — born as Carrie Lane on Jan. 9, 1859, in Ripon, Wis — enrolled at Iowa State in 1877 and was the only woman in the graduating class of 1880, earning a bachelor’s degree in general science.
Among her accomplishments, Catt succeeded Susan B. Anthony as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, serving from 1900 to 1904 and from 1915 to 1920. She led the effort culminating in the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, giving American women the right to vote.
But, in doing so, Catt used racist arguments — according to historical documents and a standing change.org petition to “Rename Catt Hall” signed by 4,767 people.
“In an attempt to sway Southern states in favor of the 19th Amendment, Catt rallied white politicians by claiming that ‘white supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by women’s suffrage,' ” according to the petition. “Catt's racism has often been excused as simply a political strategy to gain Southern support rather than an ideology she actually supported.
More than 50,000 Iowa student loan borrowers have enrolled in a new income-driven repayment plan rolled out by President Joe Biden’s administration this year, the White House has announced.
The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan was announced by Biden after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his administration’s efforts to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for low- and medium-income borrowers.
In Iowa, 54,600 borrowers are enrolled in the SAVE plan, White House figures show.
The income-driven plan, which also considers the size of the borrower’s family, caps a borrower’s loan payment based on their income.
Also under the SAVE plan, if a borrower’s monthly payment is lower than the interest that accrues each month, the remaining interest is waived. The plan also makes it easier for borrowers to get their loans forgiven if they make payments on time over a set number of years.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the plan would cost around $230 billion over the next 10 years because of the increasing number of loans being forgiven. An analysis by the Penn Wharton School pegged the price at $475 billion.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 9, 2023.
It will be sunny and breezy on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 56 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Wind gusts could get as high as 35 mph, but should hover lower than that most of the time. The wind will calm Thursday evening, with a low of around 31 degrees.
The day after a $220 million bond referendum that would have funded improvements to Cedar Rapids school buildings was voted down, Superintendent Tawana Grover told the Gazette she is ready to “unify” residents around a new plan created with input from “all corners of the community.”
Grover said educating voters about the district’s facility needs will be critical as the district “goes back to the drawing board.” This includes informing voters of one of the stickier aspects of the bond — how larger school buildings can drive teacher collaboration, which in turn can improve student outcomes.
“Our middle schools are operating at 68 percent capacity. That’s a financial burden that has to be addressed,” she said.
According to unofficial results, about 38 percent of voters in the district were in favor of the measure — far short of the 60 percent needed to pass it. The district has some work to do if they want to change those numbers for a different bond referendum, as the highest approval the failed referendum received in any precinct was 54 percent.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird on Tuesday filed the legal case her team will present when the Iowa Supreme Court hears arguments around legislation that would prohibit the vast majority of abortions in the state.
A Polk County District Court judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the law back in July until its constitutionality can be considered by the courts.
The law prohibits abortions once a “fetal heartbeat” is detected, usually after around six weeks of pregnancy. In the wake of Iowa and U.S. Supreme Court rulings reversing a fundamental right to abortion, Bird argues a new “rational basis” test now applies in court. To pass the test, laws need only be “rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest.”
The brief also argues that abortion providers have no standing to sue, given that there is no constitutional right to provide abortions.
The NCAA amended its sports wagering reinstatement guidelines, but not in the way many Iowa Hawkeye fans were hoping.
Penalties for athletes who bet on other teams at their own school will start at having to sit out one season while losing that season of eligibility.
Most notably, it means Iowa defensive lineman Noah Shannon’s college football career is indeed over. The sixth-year senior had been suspended for one season for a sports wagering violation. Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz previously said Shannon placed a bet on another Iowa sports team on campus.
Ferentz said in a statement Wednesday he is “heartbroken” for Shannon and said the decision is “just wrong.”
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 8, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy Wednesday with a high near 55 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Wednesday evening the sky will gradually become more clear, with a low of around 36 degrees.
There were mixed results with local bond elections on Tuesday night.
Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly defeated a $220 million bond referendum that would fund improvements to schools in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, leaving officials to find other ways of addressing needs they say won’t disappear despite the failure.
According to unofficial results, about 38 percent of voters in the district were in favor of the measure — far short of the 60 percent needed to pass it. There was an almost 24 percent voter turnout for the school and city elections in Linn County, with some voters turning up at the polls to vote only on the Cedar Rapids bond referendum.
Ely voters also soundly rejected a $7 million bond referendum for a new Community Center — a facility that would have housed City Hall, the public library and recreational services.
The new facility, proposed to be built where City Hall currently sits at 1570 Rowley St., off State Street, was intended to be more noticeable for residents and visitors, accessible to trails and other amenities.
One bond that made it through with the voters’ seal of approval was a $43 million general obligation bond issue that will fund construction of a swimming pool and wellness center in the College Community School District that will be operated by the YMCA.
The measure passed with 65 percent support, according to unofficial results.
We have results of all the other area city council, mayoral, and school board elections on thegazette.com. Election results also will run with additional analysis in the Thursday print edition of the Gazette.
An East Dubuque man was shot Tuesday by a Delaware County Deputy who was attempting to take the man into custody after the fatal shooting of a Fareway employee in Monticello.
Monticello police responded to the Fareway Meat and Grocery Store at 7:29 a.m. Tuesday for a report of a shooting. There they found a Fareway employee who had been shot.
The employee, Aaron McAtee, 48, of Monticello, was taken to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where he died, according to a news release from the Monticello Police Department.
McAtee had been outside the store near the loading dock when he was shot, in what police believe was a random act of violence, the release states.
Investigators identified Nathan Russell, 38, as a person of interest in the shooting, and he was located by a Delaware County Deputy in Hopkinton. The deputy attempted to take Russell into custody, but Russell failed to comply with directions and the deputy shot him, according to the release.
Russell was taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with gunshot injuries. The deputy has been placed on leave pending the investigation of the officer-involved shooting.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 7, 2023.
Happy election day. Get out and vote if you can. We have an election section with information about how to vote, as well as stories on issues and Q&As with candidates, on the front page of thegazette.com.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Tuesday. The high will be about 59 degrees.
After a lot of Mercy hospital drama, the story may at least be moving to the next stage.
A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge Monday approved the sale of Mercy Hospital, Iowa City’s only community hospital, to the University of Iowa for $28 million.
The university will fund the purchase with its UI Hospitals and Clinics revenue, according to UI spokeswoman Jeneane Beck.
During a relatively brief hearing that left many issues unresolved — including some related to the hospital’s debt and waning cash resources — Mercy attorneys said court approval of the sale marked a “banner day” for the hospital.
According to leaders from both Mercy and UIHC, the university has agreed to invest in improving Mercy’s infrastructure, and have set forth some immediate first steps: offering all Mercy Iowa City employees in good standing jobs with UI health care; allowing community providers not affiliated with UIHC to keep practicing at the hospital, planning for the two organizations to officially join as early as 2024, and encouraging Mercy patients to continue getting care there.
The original winner of the bankruptcy auction, Preston Hollow Community Capital of Texas, did not object to Monday’s sale.
With Ron DeSantis trying to pull out a strong finish in the Iowa Republican caucuses just about two months away, he scored a rare endorsement Monday from a sitting Iowa governor during a presidential primary.
The question now is whether Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ endorsement of the Florida governor will have an impact on the primary in this first-in-the-nation caucus state where, as is also the case nationally, former President Donald Trump has consistently held a commanding lead in polls over DeSantis and the rest of the field.
Reynolds officially endorsed DeSantis during a campaign rally Monday night at an events center in Des Moines.
“To be quite honest, he is one of the most effective leaders I have ever seen,” Reynolds said. “We need someone who will fight for you and win for you, someone who won’t get distracted but will stay disciplined, who puts his country first and not himself. That leader is Ron DeSantis.”
Reynolds said part of the reason she felt compelled to endorse DeSantis is she does not believe Trump can win the election, in spite of recent polling showing the former president crushing his Republican competition and faring well when put against President Joe Biden.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 6, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service Monday will likely be the warmest day of the week. The prediction is for 68 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area, with mostly sunny skies. On Monday evening it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 41 degrees.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is expected to endorse Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in his bid to secure the Republican nomination for president. DeSantis has been struggling to maintain his claim to be the solid 2nd place alternative to former President Donald Trump, and an endorsement from Gov. Reynolds could give his campaign a boost in momentum as the Iowa Caucuses are rapidly approaching.
The Trump campaign was quick to criticize the news that Gov. Reynolds could endorse a political rival.
“Kim Reynolds apparently has begun her retirement tour early as she clearly does not have any ambition for higher office,” the Trump campaign said in an emailed statement. “Earlier this year, she promised her constituents that she would remain neutral in the race, yet she has completely gone back on that promise. Regardless, her endorsement will not make any difference in this race.”
Trump is the heavy favorite to win in Iowa. DeSantis is competing with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley to emerge as the second place choice in Iowa and on to New Hampshire.
But we’ve got our local elections to focus on this week.
Tuesday is Election Day in cities and school districts across Iowa. Voters will choose representatives on their city councils and school boards, and they’ll weigh in on ballot issues that could raise property taxes to pay for new schools and community facilities.
But early voting numbers reported in two Eastern Iowa counties show early interest in weighing in on those choices is lagging compared to the last city and school elections in 2021.
As of Thursday, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said turnout was down about 50 percent from early voting in 2021, totaling 4,785 ballots cast.
Miller said he thinks there are too many other distractions and voter apathy all contributing to a lack of turnout for this election. He estimated 75 to 80 percent of Linn County's registered voters will opt not to vote.
In Johnson County, election technician John Deeth said the county finished the 2021 election with 3,898 absentee ballot requests. Deeth said he did not anticipate turnout climbing as high as 2021, when, like in Linn County, there had been more contested elections.
A 17-year-old faces a felony charge after authorities determined he posted an Oct. 27 social media threat against Metro High School, Cedar Rapids police said Saturday.
The arrest marks the second time in a month that police have detained a teen for posting threats on social media against Cedar Rapids schools.
In the latest arrest, the threat against Metro quickly was determined by police to be unfounded and classes in the district went on uninterrupted. But the threat was then shared by others on social media, police said.
On Friday, a 17-year-old boy “was located by CRPD officers and taken to detention,” according to a police news release. Police said the teen, who they did not name, is not a student in the Cedar Rapids Community School District but they did not say where he is from or where he was located.
Police said the teen will be charged with intimidation with a weapon, a Class D felony. The case, once the teen is charged, will proceed through juvenile court, according to Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 4th, and Sunday, November 5th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday mostly sunny, with a high near 55, cooling to a low of 35 Saturday night.
Sunday will be partly sunny, with a high near 61, cooling to a low of 53 Sunday night.
Iowa woman one of 4 finalists for top National FFA award in agriscience
University of Iowa sophomore Jasmyn Hoeger is being recognized Friday as one of four finalists for a 2023 top achievement award from the National FFA Organization for her work developing an alternative treatment for livestock using UV light.
Hoeger is the only finalist in Iowa for The American Star Award in Agriscience. This week, she was interviewed by a panel of judges and one of the finalists will be selected as the winner of the award at the 96th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis.
Arab American caucus asks Iowa Democratic Party to apologize
A day after Iowa Democratic Party leadership condemned University of Iowa student Democrats for an “antisemitic” social media post, the chair of the state party’s Arab American caucus accused his party leadership of misquoting the students and called for an apology.
“The Iowa Democratic Party’s statement misquotes and misconstrues the original statement,” according to an email that Newman Abuissa, of Iowa City, sent Friday morning to state party Chair Rita Hart.
“We call on Rita Hart to correct the quote, and we stand with the IDP’s Progressive Caucus in calling for Rita Hart to apologize to University Democrats at Iowa.”
Democratic state party leadership did not respond Friday to The Gazette’s request for comment.
Vivek Ramaswamy launches $8M ad buy in Iowa, rents apartment in Des Moines
Ohio biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is launching a multimillion-dollar ad buy in Iowa and New Hampshire as the 38-year-old Republican presidential candidate trails key primary rivals in recent polling.
Ramaswamy’s campaign said so far it plans to spend $8 million in Iowa and $4 million in New Hampshire on an ad buy that will include broadcast, cable, radio, digital and direct mail.
The first ad in the series, “Truth,” begins airing Saturday, according to the campaign.
Ramaswamy has rented an apartment in Des Moines for him and his family. The Washington Post first reported on the apartment, as the entrepreneur and author prepares for more frequent visits and tries to build momentum ahead of Iowa's first-in-the-nation GOP caucuses on Jan. 15.
The campaign said it plans to shift resources to the state after next week's Republican presidential primary debate.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 3, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service Friday will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 52 degrees. On Friday evening there will be increasing clouds with a low of around 37 degrees.
After state party heads Wednesday called for leaders of a University of Iowa-based student organization of Democrats to resign over a statement deemed offensive related to the Israel-Hamas war, the Iowa State University College Democrats joined the fray by disaffiliating from the Iowa Democratic Party.
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly,” according to the ISU College Democrats statement. “But one that we believe is in the best interest of our club and our commitment to advancing our values and principles.”
The University Democrats at Iowa posted Wednesday on social media a statement expressing support for Palestine amid the Israel-Hamas war. The statement, which since has been deleted, ended with, “May every Palestinian live long and free, from the river to the sea,” according to The Daily Iowan.
The phrase “from the river to the sea” refers to the land between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. Palestinians have used the phrase for decades to call for the restoration of the land where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians once lived before being forced to leave with the establishment in Israel in 1948, Jessica Winegar, a sociocultural anthropologist at Northwestern University who studies political protest and the Middle East, recently told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Late Wednesday, shortly after the University Democrats at Iowa statement was posted, Iowa Democratic Party state Chair Rita Hart issued a statement condemning the college group’s statement and calling for the resignation of any member who signed it.
None of the student leaders for the group responded to questions from The Gazette on Thursday. The group also hasn’t posted on any of its social media channels since pulling down the controversial statement Wednesday.
A Tama woman was sentenced Thursday to more than two years in federal prison for draining nearly all her nephew’s trust fund — more than $380,000 of his Meskwaki per capita funds and Social Security benefits — which was mostly spent on diamond jewelry for herself.
Nancy Lee Johnson, 69, previously pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one of the seven counts of wire fraud after she was indicted in 2022.
U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams sentenced Johnson to 33 months in federal prison and ordered her to pay $387,213 in restitution.
According to plea agreement, Johnson’s nephew, a member of the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Tama, couldn’t manage his finances due to “mental disabilities.” Johnson was appointed as his guardian in 2011.
In 2017, she filed a petition in Meskwaki Tribal Court to become her nephew’s permanent guardian and conservator, the plea stated. In the petition, she said her nephew couldn’t care for himself and make important decisions concerning his finances.
According to the plea, she used her position as guardian and conservator to transfer money from her nephew’s trust fund into an account she opened in her name for the unauthorized purchases. Johnson was able to conceal her scheme based on her guardianship and claimed that she was acting on the nephew’s behalf.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 2, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service Thursday will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 52 degrees. On Thursday evening there will be increasing clouds with a low of around 37 degrees.
Red Star Yeast Company in Cedar Rapids has agreed to pay a $37,705 fine and buy local first responders $35,864 in equipment as part of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over hazardous waste violations.
On Jan. 23, EPA inspectors visited the Red Star plant at 950 60th Ave. SW and found three 10,000-gallon tanks of hazardous waste, including one that held selenium-contaminated sludge and two others labeled as “hazardous waste,” according to the consent decree the EPA provided to The Gazette. Selenium is an ingredient added to nutritional yeast.
The fire department and hazmat team prepared a list of equipment that would help in their responses to hazardous waste or other chemical incidents and Red Star submitted that to the EPA as part of a supplemental environmental project. Red Star has 60 days from Oct. 23 to purchase the gear.
Oral-B Laboratories has agreed to buy Kirkwood Community College’s Iowa City campus for $6.4 million — pending 120 days of performing “due diligence” on the deal.
That pending sale, made Aug. 10 for the 6.3 acres at 1816 Lower Muscatine Rd., is about $625,000 under Kirkwood’s asking price of nearly $7 million, according to a Realty.com advertisement promoting the property as a “hard to find” large parcel in “highly-sought after Iowa City.”
In 2018, Procter & Gamble announced it would move its shampoo, conditioner and body wash product lines out of Iowa City — and eliminate hundreds of local jobs as a result. But then two years later, it said it would keep the product lines here after all. Its oral care lines, including Oral B, were not affected under the plans.
In January, Kirkwood announced it was going to sell the 32-year-old campus Former Kirkwood President Lori Sundberg said the move was made to cut costs and consolidate offerings as community colleges face challenges in adapting to the changing educational landscape.
Longtime Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz intends to continue coaching beyond the 2023 season, he clarified Wednesday evening on his weekly radio show.
“I hope to keep doing this for quite a while,” Ferentz said. “I’ve always loved being here. … Until they tell me to sit down, I’ll probably keep going.”
The longtime coach’s future came into question after interim athletics director Beth Goetz announced on Monday her intention to not retain offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz after the 2023 season.
Ferentz said on his radio show Wednesday he was “not trying to intentionally cause celebration for some people that would love to see me go start a stamp collection or go birdwatching.”
“That was not the intent,” Ferentz said Wednesday. “The intent was to try to steer this thing back to what is important right now.”
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 1, 2023.
It's not quite winter, yet! According to the National Weather Service, Wednesday's weather will mark our ascendancy back to warm temperatures with a high of 42 degrees and sunny skies. Winds will also be a bit calmer than they were on Tuesday.
Iowans can now download an app that can be used as a digital version of their driver's license at businesses across the state.
The Iowa Mobile ID app can be used to verify a person's age for purchasing alcohol and tobacco, as well as for identification at certain TSA PreCheck checkpoints at Iowa airports.
The app was originally slated for release in 2022, but new updates in technology and best practices delayed the development of the app. The app is now available for download on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The amount of locations that the Mobile ID can be used in will be limited for a while. The app can be accepted by businesses that use the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division Age to Purchase app. Iowa Department of Revenue Director Mary Mosiman said in the release that integrating the two apps will lead to quicker adoption.
So far, 18 businesses have told the DOT that they are ready to accept the Mobile ID, according to a list on the agency's website. Iowa residents also can use the mobile ID at TSA PreCheck at the Des Moines International Airport, The Eastern Iowa Airport, and many other airports throughout the country.
Farmers in Iowa are routinely harvesting more than 200 bushels of corn per acre this year despite widespread drought as crop harvest reaches its conclusion, according to field agronomists for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
“Our corn hybrids are much better adapted to dry conditions now than they were 20 years ago,” said agronomist Angela Rieck-Hinz, who monitors part of north-central Iowa. “Most people were extremely fortunate that they caught a rain or two at the end of June and then they caught some more in August.”
About 77 percent of the state’s corn has been harvested for grain, according to a Monday report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. About 93 percent of soybeans have been harvested.
That is eight days ahead of the five-year average. Crops matured more quickly this year amid the drought and hot temperatures in late August and early September.
President Joe Biden will announce Wednesday more than $5 billion in already-approved money toward projects around renewable energy, land conservation and rural broadband connectivity, including more than $400 million for projects in Iowa.
Biden is headed to Minnesota, where he will visit a family farm as part of a White House push to spotlight his administration’s efforts to bolster rural farm economies. The president will announce new investments to support the adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices and expand access to affordable high-speed broadband internet as well as quality health care, affordable housing and clean water and energy in rural communities.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 31, 2023.
Bundle up for your trick-or-treating. According to the National Weather Service there will be scattered snow showers, mainly before noon. It will also be cold and windy, with a high near 38 degrees and winds of 20 to 25 mph gusting as high as 40 mph. It will be mostly cloudy during the morning, then the sky will gradually clear.
New research shows that black individuals make up 4 percent of Iowa’s population but account for 25 percent of its incarcerated population — confirming that the state is one of the worst in the nation for racial disparities in who gets locked up.
The Iowa data from the Prison Policy Initiative also shows Black individuals are sent to prison at a rate of 9.1 times higher than white people in the state, Wanda Bertram, communications strategist with the initiative, told The Gazette. The nonprofit, non-partisan organization provides research about criminal justice reform and mass incarceration in the United States.
A plan created by the ACLU projected Iowa and others could “dramatically” reduce its prison population with a few “sensible” reforms, including decriminalizing drug possession; expanding social services and treatment for mental health and substance use; reforming the pretrial system to enhance constitutional protections and eliminating “wealth-based discrimination” by restricting cash-only bails; and enacting parole reform to expand access to early release.
Iowa lawmakers and Gov. Kim Reynolds worked together to pass significant social justice legislation in 2020, but a year later no bills for racial equity were brought forward, including banning racial profiling by police, which had been proposed by Reynolds.
Reynolds established a committee to discuss social justice proposals between 2020 and 2021. The committee met five times and made three recommendations for reforms to collect data on race and ethnicity from law enforcement stops; analyze and study the data, and provide annual reports on the findings; and ban disparate treatment in law enforcement activities and the delivery of police services.
Another report, filed in December 2020 by the state human rights department, also recommended steps be taken to end racial profiling, and also recommended legislators examine policies designed to eliminate racial disparities in the adult and juvenile criminal justice systems.
None of these recommendations made it into bills in 2021 or after.
Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz will not be retained after the 2023 season, interim athletics director Beth Goetz said in a news release Monday.
“Our intention is for him to be with us through the bowl game, but this is his last season with the program,” Goetz said in the release. “Making this known today is in the best interest of the program and its loyal fans; it provides clarity during this pivotal time in the schedule.”
Brian Ferentz, in a statement to ESPN on Monday, said he has “always considered and will always consider it an honor” to represent Iowa as a player and coach.
Why did Goetz decide to let Brian Ferentz go? Well the offense’s stats may give a clue.
Iowa ranks dead-last nationally by a wide margin in yards per game with 232.4. The Hawkeyes’ 4.12 yards per play is the worst among Power Five teams, with the next-worst team averaging 4.69 yards per play.
The dire lack of production from Iowa’s offense is not a new problem in Iowa City.
The Hawkeyes finished 110th, or worse nationally, in each of the previous two seasons in completion percentage, yards per play, third-down efficiency and yards per game.
Kirk Ferentz, as usual for game weeks, is scheduled to have a news conference Tuesday afternoon. This just might come up.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 30, 2023.
It will be sunny Monday with a high near 39 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area, according to the National Weather Service. On Monday evening there will be increasing cloud cover, with a low of around 27 degrees. The wind will pick up Monday evening to 25 mph, portending a cold and possibly snowy Tuesday morning.
As Nov. 7 elections approach, many Iowa cities will have more open spots on the ballot than candidates to fill them.
Recent local election cycles in Iowa seem to have seen an uptick in open council seats on the ballot, said Mickey Shields, director of membership services for the Iowa League of Cities. He said the main drivers of fewer people stepping up to run for local office seem to be a mix: Longtime council members are looking to fully retire, political polarization is fueling heightened negativity toward city officeholders, and population loss is creating a smaller base of potential candidates.
More recently, Shields said League members have shared there’s more negativity circulating public service that goes beyond the scrutiny that working as a public official entails, worsened by social media or a disputed set of facts on a community issue.
“I always go back to talk to folks, especially people who stopped being a council member, it's kind of like, ‘Why volunteer to get yelled at?’” Shields said.
In the Corridor, publicly available candidate listings with the county auditors’ offices show there are five city councils in Linn County and three in Johnson County without enough candidates running to fill open seats, despite being Iowa’s second and fourth most populous counties, respectively.
Some Iowa communities don’t have anyone filed to run for office. Clayton County, for example, shows at least three communities — Elkport, Osterdock and Saint Olaf — have entirely blank ballots, and several more don’t have enough candidates.
Cedar Rapids students are showing a return to pre-pandemic learning levels on the Iowa School Report Card, with three schools categorized as “high performing” — the second highest rating schools can achieve.
Historically underserved groups of students also are also showing improvement, with Black students, students learning English as a second language and students with Individualized Education Plans (special education) increasing by 5 or more percentage points in math proficiency and 2 percentage points in English and language arts.
Students in Cedar Rapids schools’ learning English as a second language also outperformed their peers in the state by 8 percentage points.
Among many other improvements, the district’s four-year graduation rate rose to 80.3 percent.
This is a “significant milestone,” and the district has made “remarkable progress” on the report card, according to a news release from the district. Elementary and middle schools’ math proficiency rates have returned to pre-pandemic levels, with English language arts only a few percentage points away.
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, ending his campaign for the White House after struggling to raise money and gain traction in the polls despite staking everything on winning in Iowa..
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Pence becomes the first major candidate to leave a race that has been dominated by his former boss-turned-rival, Donald Trump.
The report also notes that the decision will save Pence from the embarrassment of failing to qualify for the third Republican primary debate, on Nov. 8 in Miami. A debate that Trump, once again, is planning to skip in favor of holding his own event nearby.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 28th, and Sunday, October 29th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be partly sunny, with a high near 44. Saturday night there’ll be a chance of rain and snow with a low around 33.
Chances of rain and snow will continue Sunday morning, otherwise Sunday will be cloudy, with a high near 39 and Sunday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 24.
'Kids are learning’ as Taft, Harding navigate closed domes
On Oct. 11, school officials announced the evacuation and closure of Taft’s east dome after an inspection found it was unstable. Monday, the Cedar Rapids Community School District announced it was closing the second dome at Taft and both domes at Harding Middle School. The two middle schools were constructed in 1965 using the same design that features two domes.
The closure of the Taft and Harding domes is impacting more than 1,000 sixth through eighth grade students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District. Outside the schools are fences around the domes with signs that read “do not enter.”
The domes will be repaired with funds from the district’s Physical Plant and Equipment Levy, a capital projects fund for the purchase and improvement of grounds, purchase, construction and remodeling of buildings and major equipment purchases, including technology.
Two portable classrooms will be installed at Taft in about three weeks. The classrooms are owned by the district and are currently being used at an elementary school.
Mercy reverses auction results; declares University of Iowa winner
The tumultuous and twisting bankruptcy case of Mercy Iowa City took another stunning turn Friday when the hospital revealed it had reopened its assets auction and changed its mind about who won the bidding — declaring the University of Iowa as having made the “higher or otherwise better” offer instead of its largest bondholder, Preston Hollow Community Capital.
In a bankruptcy filing, Mercy declared the UI “the winning bidder” — due, in part, to a “material disagreement” with Preston Hollow, which had topped the university’s final $28 million bid with a $29 million offer at the close of the auction Oct. 10.
UI President Barbara Wilson and UI Vice President for Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson in a letter to campus Friday said the about-face "unfolded quickly“ after Preston Hollow ”determined its previously selected bid was not financially viable.“
Cedar Rapids students returning to pre-pandemic learning levels
Cedar Rapids students are showing a return to pre-pandemic learning levels on the Iowa School Report Card, with three schools categorized as “high performing” — the second highest rating schools can achieve.
Historically underserved groups of students also are also showing improvement, with Black students, students learning English as a second language and students with
Individualized Education Plans (special education) increasing by 5 or more percentage points in math proficiency and 2 percentage points in English and language arts.
Also, the students in Cedar Rapids schools’ learning English as a second language also outperformed their peers in the state by 8 percentage points.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 27, 2023.
There will be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms Friday morning, but it should be a clear and sunny day according to the National Weather Service. However, the temperatures will continue their decline, with a high of 58 degrees earlier in the day falling to around 46 degrees by 2 p.m.
Iowa voters in 50 counties will be voting Nov. 7 on whether their school districts or local governments can issue bonds to fund projects.
General obligation bonds are a mechanism schools, cities and counties use to borrow money to fund large-scale, long-term infrastructure projects. Forty-five local government and school entities are asking voters to approve the spending.
School districts make up the vast majority of the bond questions on ballots, requesting approval for a combined $1.27 billion in bond issues across 35 districts, according to data compiled by Iowans for Tax Relief.
In comparison, ten cities and counties are asking for a combined $453.7 million in bond issues.
Iowans for Tax Relief, which lobbies for tax reductions at the state and local levels, aggregated the bond issues on its website in an effort to educate voters about what will be on their ballot, according to Chris Hagenow, the group’s president and a former Republican legislator.
While the group acknowledged some projects are necessary in growing districts, it questioned the need for many of the districts in the state to borrow money for new buildings or updated athletic facilities.
Hagenow said voters should look at their local bonds on a case-by-case basis.
The most widespread and third-most severe outbreak on record of a disease transmitted by biting flies is plaguing Iowa deer this fall.
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, is a viral disease spread to deer by biting flies called midges or no-see-ums. The disease has been in the southeastern and northeastern United States for decades, and was first discovered in Iowa in 2012. It’s often but not always fatal. It cannot infect humans.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has received 1,074 reports of suspected EHD-related deer deaths so far this year, said state deer biologist Jace Elliott. Actual mortality may be even higher considering unreported deaths.
Reports are most concentrated in Southeast Iowa around Henry and Van Buren counties, which each have more than 100 reports. Clayton County in Northeast Iowa has topped 100 reports as well. Counties with the most reports typically also have larger deer populations. The vast majority of counties are seeing less than 10 reports each.
EHD is seasonal, peaking in the late summer and early fall. Hard frosts kill the midges. This year’s warmer fall prolonged the lives of the infectious midges and may have contributed to the outbreak, giving extra opportunities for the disease to spread.
The first hard freeze is expected to hit Iowa by early next week, according to the National Weather Service Quad Cities bureau.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 26, 2023.
Looks like it could be a rainy one Thursday. The National Weather Service is predicting a chance for rain all day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a 90 percent overall chance of precipitation. The high will settle in at around 69 degrees.
U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican conservative who has been a devoted follower of former President Donald Trump, was elected Wednesday as the 56th speaker of the House — reopening the chamber for legislative business after a 21-day paralysis.
Johnson was the GOP's fourth speaker nominee in three weeks, but the only one able to achieve a majority of votes, including from Iowa’s four-member congressional delegation, to clinch the speakership
Superintendent Tawana Grover said Tuesday that the land on which Harding Middle School sits is an “opportunity we should keep our eye on” when it comes to considering where a new 1,200-student middle school could be built under a proposed $220 million bond referendum going to voters in the Cedar Rapids Community School District Nov. 7,
The district, however, has not identified a site for the middle school that would be built on the north side of Cedar Rapids under a facility master plan, Grover said during a forum on the proposed bond. The event was hosted by The Gazette with school district representatives and members of groups that support and oppose the bond.
“The goal is to make sure the school is in proximity to the students,” Grover said.
The two domes at Harding Middle School were closed to students and staff Monday because of the deterioration of several support beams. This displaced students from the school’s gym, cafeteria and performing arts classrooms. Taft Middle School — built in the same style as Harding — is in a similar situation.
Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday defended a new state law that requires schools to pull books with descriptions of sex acts from library shelves as the Iowa Department of Education said it may provide more guidance to schools trying to navigate the restrictions.
Passed by Iowa’s legislative Republicans and signed into law by Reynolds this year, the measure requires that school libraries include only "age-appropriate" material and specifically bans any book that describes or depicts any of a list of defined sex acts.
Reynolds read the list of sex acts written in law that would warrant a removal from libraries, and said the standard should be clear on what is and is not allowed in schools.
Education and library advocates have argued an overly broad interpretation of the law by school districts trying to avoid legal repercussions will lead to schools pulling materials off library shelves that should not be removed, depriving students of the opportunity to read books they otherwise would.
Speaking about the removal of commonly assigned books, Reynolds suggested school districts are implementing broad restrictions because they don’t like the law. She said the books that fall under the definition of a sex act in the law should be clear.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 25, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy Wednesday with a high near 70 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Rain is predicted again for Wednesday evening, with a 100 percent chance of precipitation. New rainfall could reach as much as half an inch.
As the 2023 harvest comes to a close, farmers in east-central Iowa are seeing variable but overall lower than normal crop yields.
Lower yields concentrate in areas hit hardest by drought, like Benton and Linn counties, said Rebecca Vittetoe, an Iowa State University Extension and Outreach field agronomist for east-central Iowa. Earlier this month, that region marked the epicenter of the worst drought on record in Eastern Iowa.
For Iowa as a whole, the USDA forecasts average corn yields to reach 199 bushels per acre — one bushel less than its prediction last month. Its soybean yield forecast held steady at 58 bushels per acre. Forecasts for both crops are marginally less than last year’s yields.
The 10-year average corn yields for Benton and Linn counties hover around 195 bushels per acre. So far, Vittetoe has heard corn yields vary from 130 bushels per acre to more than 200 bushels per acre this year. Last year’s corn yields hovered around 218 bushels per acre.
Soybean yields in Linn and Benton counties will likely also be down this year, Vittetoe said, with early reports varying between 40 to 60 bushels per acre.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds welcomed Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani on a visit to Iowa Tuesday, praising the relationship between the state and country.
Osmani is in Iowa for the World Food Prize Week of Events, an annual conference put on by the global foundation based in Des Moines. She will give the opening keynote at the conference on Thursday.
Kosovo, a Balkan country that borders Serbia and Albania, became Iowa's ninth sister state in 2013 under then-Gov. Terry Branstad. The partnership includes a military partnership between the Iowa National Guard and the Kosovo Security Forces.
Osmani said Kosovo's partnership with Iowa is a reflection of the country's partnership with the U.S. at large.
Kosovo is one of the world's youngest countries, having declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Its independence was supported by the U.S.
Traffic fatalities in Iowa are higher than they’ve been at this time of the year for at least the previous five years — with more than 300 people killed so far, already surpassing the target that officials had hoped not to exceed this entire year.
The average number of traffic fatalities by Oct. 23 in the past five years is 268, but this year there have been 301, according to Iowa’s daily fatality count.
The number of traffic fatalities so far actually could be higher than what’s been recorded online by the state, since roadway deaths are considered traffic-related if they occur within 30 days of a crash. Two deaths also occurred Sunday and Monday in Iowa — one of a firefighter who died after two fire vehicles crashed into each other near Ionia, and the other of a 25-year-old who drove off the road early Monday in Davenport.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 24, 2023.
It'll be the hottest day of the week Tuesday, but there will also be a chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 80 degrees Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be a chance for scattered thunderstorms mainly between 3 pm and 4 pm, and it will be breezy, with wind gusts reaching as high as 35 mph.
Clouds will gather throughout the day and there will be a 30 percent chance of precipitation during the day and a 90 percent of precipitation Tuesday evening.
Citing deterioration of several more support beams, the Cedar Rapids school district announced Monday it has closed the domes at Taft and Harding middle schools, displacing students and staff from the buildings’ gyms, cafeterias and performing arts classrooms.
The two middle schools were constructed in 1965 using the same design that features two domes. On Oct. 11, school officials announced the evacuation and closure of Taft’s east dome after an inspection found it was unstable.
The domes will remain closed until repairs can be made. Raker Rhodes Structural Engineering, one of the companies working with the district, will have a structural repair plan ready to present to the district “as soon as possible,” according to the email notifying parents of the closure.
Until the domes can be reopened, the district is working to acquire portable buildings to provide additional classroom space at Taft. At Harding, classrooms will be rearranged to open up space for lunch, performing arts and PE classes.
A motorcyclist was severely injured in a crash that caused a traffic backup Monday afternoon in southwest Cedar Rapids.
The motorcyclist was taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries, according to Cedar Rapids police.
The crash happened at Third Street SW and Wilson Avenue SW — close to Wilson Middle School — at about 1:20 p.m., police said. The motorcyclist had been traveling east on Wilson Avenue and crashed into a vehicle traveling north on Third Street SW. The driver of the other vehicle was not injured.
Neither the motorcyclist nor the driver of the other vehicle were identified by police.
Over 10 percent more passengers traveled through The Eastern Iowa Airport in September than in the previous record-setting September before the pandemic struck.
The previous September record was set in 2019, with 107,049 total passengers at the Cedar Rapids airport. This September, the number jumped to 118,085. That’s also 22 percent greater than a year ago in the same period.
Airport Director Marty Lenss said in a statement that the strong passenger traffic is promising as the holiday travel season approaches.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 23, 2023.
Clouds and potentially thunderstorms will eventually give way to mostly sunny skies on Monday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 72 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be some breeziness as well during the day, and the temperature will settle in at around 62 degrees Monday evening.
In front of an audience of her fellow Republicans, U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Ottumwa, stood on the bed of a bright-red truck and defended voting against Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan to be the next speaker of the U.S. House last week.
Miller-Meeks held her third annual “Triple MMM Tailgate” on Friday evening in Iowa City. The event featured seven candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Miller-Meeks said the decision led to her receiving what her office referred to as “credible death threats,” but she said she would not be swayed by these tactics.
“I am never going to quit fighting for Iowa, and I am never going to quit fighting for this country," Miller-Meeks said to a crowd of hundreds of supporters. "So if you think you can intimidate me, go … suck it up, buttercup!"
We may all have to suck it up, as it looks to be another chaotic week in the U.S. House. After Jordan’s bid for Speaker of the House flamed out late last week,9 different Republican candidates have signed up to vie for the position.
A commercial flock of about 50,000 turkeys in Buena Vista County was recently infected by a highly transmissible bird flu, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.
The Iowa Capitol Dispatch has reported that the quickly spreadly avian influenza was last detected in Iowa in March in a small flock in Chickasaw County. It has been a somewhat quiet year for the virus compared to last year, when infections led to the destruction of 16 million birds.
Humans are seldom infected by the virus, but it can spread quickly in domestic flocks and is lethal to the birds. Entire flocks are intentionally culled after the virus is confirmed to prevent it spreading to other birds.
The virus is believed to be transmitted by migrating birds that can carry it without showing symptoms.
If purple street lights have bothered you in recent nightime travels, you have a reason to rejoice.
John Hart, director of the maintenance bureau at the Iowa Department of Transportation, said last week that the state has replaced the vast majority of the LED streetlights that had turned purple.
Many transportation departments, including in Iowa, switched to LED streetlights in 2017 because they are more affordable, last longer and are more environmentally friendly.
But the issue of the off-color lights arose last year when some lights from Acuity American Electric Lighting, installed by the state in 2018, had faulty interior coating. When the inside coating deteriorated, the lights shone with a purple-blue hue.
Initially, Hart believed the state transportation department would have to replace more than 100 streetlights. But it turned out to be “several hundred,” mostly in Eastern and Southeastern Iowa.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 21st, and Sunday, October 22nd, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be sunny, with a high near 65, cooling to a low of around 39 Saturday night.
Sunday will be sunny, with a high near 61, cooling to a low around 48 Sunday night with a chance of showers after 1am, with chances of showers persisting into Monday afternoon.
Mercy Iowa City pensioners seek ‘official’ status in bankruptcy discussions
As attorneys wrangle over dwindling money available to pay lawyers, bankers, creditors and employees with the now-bankrupt Mercy Iowa City, the hospital’s pensioners are asking for a voice too.
Past and present Mercy employees who joined its now-frozen “church plan” over the nearly 50 years it was accepting new entrants on Wednesday made their payment concerns known — asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to establish an official “Committee of Pensioners,” similar to the committee it established for unsecured creditors.
With official status, the growing group of 449 pensioners who’ve requested regular communication would get more case information and a voice, given, “The future of the pension plan, as well as the status of its funding, is at issue.”
Mercy, in continuing to operate through the bankruptcy and transition to new ownership, has sought court approval to use for ongoing operations its “cash collateral” — a shrinking pot of money that could be distributed among the hundreds of creditors still owed many millions, unlike restricted pension funds.
Iowa Utilities Board preapproves more solar generation for Alliant
After nearly two years and several denials, the Iowa Utilities Board has preapproved two Alliant Energy solar projects that total 200 megawatts in capacity.
The decision follows the board’s preapproval of the Duane Arnold Solar facilities earlier this year.
Interstate Power and Light Co., an Alliant subsidiary, originally asked the IUB in November 2021 for preapproval of 400 megawatts of solar and 75 megawatts of battery storage, along with their associated lifetime costs and rates.
The projects included the Duane Arnold Solar projects that Florida-based NextEra is building near Palo.
The additional 200 megawatts have since been identified as the Creston Solar Project and Wever Solar Project.
Don’t miss The Gazette’s school bond forum
The Gazette will host a public forum on the proposed $220 million school bond with school district representatives, members of the vote yes and opposition groups. The forum will feature an overview as well as moderated conversation and audience questions about the upcoming school bond vote, which will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.
This is a free event but registration is required due to limited seating. This program will be live-streamed on thegazette.com.
Find out more about the live stream or register to attend in person at TheGazette.com/special-events
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 20, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny on Friday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 67 degrees. On Friday evening it will be mostly clear, with a low around 50 degrees.
The Cedar Rapids school board is upholding its decision to have Harrison Elementary demolished and a new school built on the site after community members implored the board to reconsider.
Residents believe the board’s decision lacks transparency and community input and could jeopardize the $220 million bond referendum going to voters Nov. 7, that would fund additional facility projects.
“I still believe a new facility is in the best interest of students, and I support the decision made back in April,” school board President David Tominsky said. “This recommendation will serve students, is fiscally responsible and will honor historic elements of the Harrison building.”
Ten people spoke during the public comment period of the special board meeting Thursday, all asking the board not to demolish the school, built in 1930.
Most school board members also spoke in favor of the decision. Board member Dexter Merschbrock continued his opposition to the decision, making a motion to not demolish Harrison.The motion was not seconded by any other board member and did not proceed.
Harrison is one of seven public schools built in Cedar Rapids before World War II, opening in 1930. The school contains a mural painted later in the 1930s by William Henning, a contemporary of Grant Wood. School officials have said that mural will be preserved.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump would be in a dead heat among likely voters if the 2024 presidential election were held today, according to the latest Grinnell College National Poll.
Both Biden and Trump running as their party’s respective nominee attract 40 percent support among likely voters. Eighteen percent say they would vote for someone else, according to the poll, conducted in collaboration with renowned Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer.
Support for both men splits along party lines, with 82 percent of Republicans saying they favor Trump and 83 percent of Democrats surveyed backing Biden. Independent voters remain divided, but tilt toward Trump, with 30 percent saying they would vote for someone else.
In other polling areas, a strong bipartisan majority also favors term limits for Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Fifty-nine percent support abolishing the Electoral College, and a 49 percent plurality also would do away with birthright citizenship.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 19, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday with a high near 63 degrees. On Thursday evening it will gradually become clear, with a low of around 46 degrees.
Iowa U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks switched her vote Wednesday for House speaker and joined nearly two dozen Republicans who voted against U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio as he was rejected on his second try at clinching the position.
She was the only Iowa Republican to vote against Jordan, while U.S. Reps. Randy Feenstra, Ashley Hinson and Zach Nunn stuck with the majority of Republicans in supporting the hard-right chair of the House Judiciary Committee. All four had voted for Jordan during the first vote Tuesday.
In announcing her change on social media Miller-Meeks said she had received credible death threats after switching her vote.
Miller-Meeks, who represents Iowa's southeast 1st Congressional District, said in an interview Tuesday she had reservations about Jordan becoming speaker. Those concerns included past opposition to the Farm Bill and biofuel subsidies, as well as the pressure tactics used by Jordan allies to whip votes.
The House is expected to reconvene Thursday for a potential third vote with no clear path forward to unify around a speaker.
Iowa City Police have arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman in an alley in early October.
Anthony Cotner Jr., 25, of Cedar Rapids now faces one count of second-degree sexual assault related to the incident, according to a media release from the Iowa City Police Department.
Police sought the public’s help in finding a suspect after the incident, which police said occurred near the alley of the 200 Block of South Van Buren Street in Iowa City in the morning of October 7th. In the police account, a victim reported being attacked by a man while walking in that area at around 1:40 a.m. that morning.
The Iowa City Police Department thanked the Cedar Rapids Police Department and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation for their assistance in the arrest.
Save CR Heritage — a nonprofit dedicated to saving historic properties — is appealing to the Cedar Rapids school board to reconsider its decision earlier this year to demolish Harrison Elementary School.
Save CR Heritage submitted over 500 petition signatures of eligible voters within the Cedar Rapids Community School District, which requires the school board to place the request on its agenda within 30 days of receiving the petition, according to Iowa Code.
The school board will hear public comment asking members to “overturn the recommendation to demolish Harrison Elementary School” — the language on the petition — at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Educational Leadership and Support Center in Cedar Rapids. Anyone is invited to attend and sign up to speak.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 18, 2023.
There will be a 20 percent chance of rain for much of the day on Wednesday. Otherwise it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 67 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 50 degrees.
A Cedar Rapids man, who just completed his federal sentence for running a large marijuana trafficking ring, was transferred into state custody after being charged Tuesday in the fatal stabbing of Chris Bagley in 2018.
Andrew Thomas Shaw, 34, was charged in Linn County District Court with first-degree murder, solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. A warrant was issued last year, while he was still serving his federal sentence in prison.
Shaw is accused of aiding and abetting Drew Wagner, 38, and Johnny Blahnik Church, 36, formerly known as Drew Blahnik, both already convicted in Bagley’s slaying, between Oct. 1, 2018 and Feb. 20, 2019, according to the complaint. He also is accused of hiring them to kill Bagley, 31, of Walker, which they did and were paid for the crime, the complaint states.
Wagner, during the trial for Blahnik Church testified how he and Blahnik Church carried out Bagley’s killing on behalf of their mutual drug dealer, Shaw, as revenge because Bagley robbed Shaw of money and drugs and beat him up in one incident.
If convicted, Shaw faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Iowa's all-Republican U.S. House delegation kept to the party line Tuesday and voted for U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan for speaker even as 20 House Republicans voted for others in protest and denied him the gavel in the first round of voting.
Jordan, R-Ohio, the far-right co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, won the vast majority of Republican votes for speaker in the first vote but was not able to reach the majority vote necessary to become speaker. The House will reconvene at 10 a.m. Iowa time Wednesday to hold another speaker vote.
"I support (Jim Jordan) for Speaker," Rep. Ashley Hinson, who represents Northeast Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, said Tuesday on X, formerly known as Twitter. "We spoke last week about our shared conservative priorities and the needs of Iowans, and I am confident he will advance both."
Without a change in rules, the House cannot pass legislation or budget appropriations until a speaker is elected, and a stopgap funding bill passed last month expires Nov. 17.
Cedar Falls community leader and small-business owner Sarah Corkery announced Tuesday she will seek the Democratic nomination for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, setting up a potential challenge to Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of Marion.
The district includes Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Waterloo and Grinnell.
Corkery, a first-time candidate and two-time breast cancer survivor, said she is running to expand access to affordable health care, lower prescription drug costs, strengthen gun safety laws and help farmers modernize their business.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 17, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will be patchy frost before 8 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 63 degrees. On Tuesday evening there will be increasing clouds, with a low of around 67 degrees.
The University of Iowa’s final bid to purchase Mercy Iowa City’s assets during bankruptcy proceedings was $28 million
UI Health Care Vice President for Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson revealed the amount during a Q&A session about the failed bid to acquire Mercy. Jamieson also said that there was an additional commitment from the university to spend at least $25 million on “immediate facility upgrades,” as well as more money to invest in retaining current staff members.
Jamieson, in her Q&A published on the UI Health Care communications site Monday, did not disclose Preston Hollow’s final winning bid. But, referencing Mercy’s bid procedures outlining its obligation to choose the “highest or otherwise best qualified bid,” Jamieson suggested the university made the best offer.
Mercy’s largest bondholder Preston Hollow Community Capital, in a drawn-out auction that spanned nearly a week, outbid the university by leveraging the debt as part of the bid for Mercy. Preston Hollow will be partnering American Healthcare Systems to run the hospital, and they are committing an – as of now undisclosed – amount of investment into the struggling community hospital to help sustain it into the future.
A judge will not transfer the murder and theft cases of a 17-year-old from adult court to juvenile court because, he wrote in a ruling, there wouldn’t be enough time or resources for rehabilitation and it’s not in the best interest of the community or the teen.
Judge Lars Anderson, in his ruling last week to deny the defense’s motion, said Tramontez Lockett, who is charged with the Feb. 18 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Michael Alexander McCune and stealing a vehicle, demonstrated the ability to do well in a structured environment while earlier in the Boys State Training School in Eldora while in juvenile court. But when outside of that, “problems appear to recur.”
The judge also noted Lockett will turn 18 in about nine months.
If Lockett remains in adult court, a judge would have a full range of sentencing options if the teen is convicted of the charges — first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit a forcible felony, first-degree theft and going armed with intent
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 16, 2023.
No rain on the menu for the start of the week. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 56 degrees. On Monday evening it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 37 degrees.
There was also thankfully no rain in Iowa City Sunday as 55,646 fans packed into Kinnick Stadium for “Crossover at Kinnick,” a scrimmage between the Iowa Women’s Basketball team and the DePaul Blue Demons– played on a court assembled on Kinnick’s field. Iowa triumphed 94-72, with Caitlin Clark recording her now typical triple double, with 34 points,10 rebounds and 11 assists in the windy outdoor conditions.
The game, which set a record for attendance at a women’s basketball game, was played at Kinnick’s north end. With the game beginning at 2 p.m., fans began tailgating before 10 a.m.
Proceeds went to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, and a preliminary check for $250,000 was handed over during a break in the action Sunday.
Republicans are hoping the next vote for Speaker of the House will go better than the last couple of tries.
National outlets are reporting that the next vote for speaker will be around noon on Tuesday.
Republicans have nominated Jim Jordan as their pick for Speaker. While it appears that Jordan still does not have even all the Republican votes needed to be nominated, Iowa’s congressional delegation is lining up in support of him, just as they did with Steve Scalise and Kevin McCarthy before him.
Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson at a fundraiser for Gov. Kim Reynolds on Saturday said her hope is the vote can end the chaos recently in Congress.
Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks was not as forthcoming in supporting Jordan’s leadership bid. She also praised McCarthy’s effort as Speaker in preventing a government shutdown, a move that ultimately led to him being pushed out of the position by his own party.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 14th, and Sunday, October 15th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, the rain could continue through early Saturday morning, otherwise it’ll be mostly cloudy, with a high near 57. Saturday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 43.
Sunday, will be partly sunny, with a high near 54, cooling to a low around 39 Sunday night.
Matthew 25’s Cultivate Hope Corner Store in Cedar Rapids receives $300,000 grant
$300,000 grant will support the nonprofit Cultivate Hope Corner Store operated by Matthew 25, fueling its mission of offering healthy food in a Cedar Rapids neighborhood where affordable, nutritious food options were scarce.
Matthew 25 has received a grant from the John and Cindy Family Foundation for $300,000 to be paid out over three years to support the store, located at 604 Ellis Blvd. NW in Cedar Rapids, which is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
The corner store, situated in Cedar Rapids’ Northwest Neighborhood that was devastated by the 2008 flood, looks to break barriers to healthy eating. It opened in April 2022 in a part of the city that was classified as a food desert, where little fresh produce and healthy food was available.
Solar developers willing to adapt projects, pay neighbors
Alliant Energy has shifted the location of solar farms to suit neighbors and pays “good neighbor” incentives to encourage open communication about projects.
But the utility that’s in the midst of installing 400 megawatts of solar in Iowa also has found some Iowa counties with ordinances that leave no room for solar development — even with voluntary easements.
Some Iowa farmers “feel like they are forced to toil all day long so people around them can see them driving their tractor and see them growing their crops. If they want to use the land in some other way, they’re being told they can’t do that,” Alliant Spokesman Justin Foss said during a panel discussion Friday as part of The Gazette’s Iowa Ideas conference.
Be sure to check out replays from our 2023 Iowa Ideas conference!
On Thursday and Friday last week, The Gazette hosted our annual Iowa Ideas virtual conference. The free conference is designed to gather Iowans from all perspectives to explore, discuss and offer solutions on issues impacting the state with over fifty sessions across nine tracks. Every panel was recorded and will become available in the coming days on IowaIdeas.com/replays
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 13, 2023.
Looks like it will be a rainy morning Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high chance of showers and thunderstorms before noon on Friday, then a little break for rain in the middle of the day, before a chance for more rain Friday evening. The temperature will top out at 63 degrees, with a 15 to 20 mph breeze gusting as high as 30 mph.
Francis Marion Intermediate School in Marion is closed to students the rest of the week after Wednesday’s storm caused several parts of the school’s roof to collapse.
Restoration and construction companies were on-site at the school for third- and fourth-graders in the Marion Independent School District Thursday to survey the damage and determine a cost estimate and timeline for repairs.
Superintendent Janelle Brouwer said a “significant amount of water” overnight Wednesday damaged three classrooms and seeped into other areas of the building. Brouwer said a construction company likely will be working to make repairs to Francis Marion school, 2301 Third Ave., over the weekend.
The district’s other schools will remain open.
The damage was identified by an evening custodian in the school Wednesday, Brouwer said. Notification that the school would be closed Thursday and Friday was sent to families Wednesday around 8 p.m. The closure impacts about 240 students who attend the school.
Alliant Energy’s Iowa utility is proposing a rate increase for its electric and gas customers it says comes to about $150 a year — with more to come later.
Interstate Power and Light Company is requesting a 7.7 percent increase to residential customers’ total electric bills. If approved by the Iowa Utilities Board, the hike would go into effect in October 2024. That corresponds to about $10 extra a month, said spokesperson Morgan Hawk.
An additional rate increase of about 5.7 percent would follow in October 2025, which breaks down to about $7 a month.
There’s only one phase of rate increases for natural gas customers: a 5 percent increase that, if approved, would start in October 2024. It would add about $3 more to customers’ total bills.
The utility is asking to raise its rates to cover added operation costs, support grid resiliency and allow future growth, Hawk said.
IPL is moving overhead power lines underground to decrease the number and the length of power outages. Frequency and duration of Alliant outages have decreased by about 30 percent over the last decade as more lines have moved underground, Hawk said.
Iowa state revenue is expected to decline slightly in fiscal 2024 and 2025, owing largely to recent income tax cuts, a panel of revenue forecasters reported Thursday.
The latest projections from the Iowa Revenue Estimating Conference — which will guide lawmakers on how much money they have to spend — predict state income in the fiscal year that started July 1 will fall by 0.9 percent from the fiscal 2023 level. The state revenues this budget year are expected to be $9.75 billion.
Iowa’s revenue in fiscal 2023, which ended June 30, was $9.85 billion, a 0.4 percent increase from the previous year.
“The state is showing a modest slowdown in revenue. However, those reductions are planned and being driven by the tax rate reductions for Iowa taxpayers,” said Kraig Paulsen, the director of the Iowa Department of Management and chair of the panel.
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a major tax overhaul law in 2022 that set Iowa's individual income on the course to a flat tax of 3.9 percent for all income brackets, and intended to lower corporate taxes to 5.5 percent if revenues hit a certain target each year.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 12, 2023.
More rain is likely for Thursday. And, according to the National Weather Service, showers will become progressively more likely as the day goes on in the Cedar Rapids area, topping out at about 80 percent probability. It will be a little bit warmer, with a high of around 61 degrees. It will also be breezy, with a wind of 20 to 25 mph gusting as high as 40 mph.
In response to the surprise news that the University of Iowa won’t be taking over its longtime community health care competitor Mercy Hospital after being outbid in a bankruptcy auction, UI President Barbara Wilson and UI Health Care Vice President Denise Jamieson expressed disappointment Wednesday.
“We are disappointed in this outcome because we believe there is value in having patient care delivered by an Iowa-based health system,” Wilson and Jamieson said in their statement. “Nevertheless, we are heartened that the selected bidder, the bondholder, has committed to keeping Mercy Iowa City as a hospital.”
According to the statement, the UI participated in the auction “because it is important to protect and enhance access to quality health care and jobs in our community.”
Preston Hollow is a multibillion-dollar investor providing backing for “projects of significant social and economic value to local communities across the United States.”
American Healthcare Systems is a 2-year-old Los Angeles-based health care operator that has made several health system-related purchases since its inception. It started with Asheboro, N.C.-based Randolph Health in 2021 — when American Healthcare received bankruptcy court approval to acquire that community health care system.
The young corporation has a leadership team of four, including Chief Strategy Officer Faisal Gill, who told The Gazette he leads acquisitions and mergers for the company.
“We want to save community hospitals,” Gill said, noting his company looks specifically for community hospitals facing challenges. “We want to turn them around and have them for the community. We did that in North Carolina and in Illinois. And we plan to do that in Iowa as well.”
An inspection of Taft Middle School led to the evacuation of a portion of the building Wednesday because of structural instability.
In a message to families, district officials announced that as a precautionary measure, students and staff will not use the east dome of Taft Middle— which houses the cafeteria, kitchen and performing arts classrooms — until further notice.
District officials did not respond to questions from The Gazette about how much repairs are estimated to cost, the timeline of the repairs and where there will be room for students with a portion of the building closed.
The east dome will not be occupied again until repairs are completed and the district receives an official notification that the use of that dome can be resumed, Taft Principal Gary Hatfield said in a message to families Wednesday.
One of the two men killed in a shooting last week at a Cedar Rapids apartment complex was delivering a DoorDash order at the time of the shooting, according to his mother.
Myron Snyder and Maurice Brown, both 21 and both of Cedar Rapids, were found with multiple gunshot wounds in the parking lot of 3960 Sherman St. NE when Cedar Rapids police responded to reports of gunshots at 8:21 p.m. on Oct. 5.
Brown and Snyder died from their injuries. Another man, who police haven’t identified, also was found with gunshot wounds and was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
Snyder’s mother, Alicia Rogers, said Snyder was delivering for the restaurant delivery service when the shooting started.
Jenn Rosenberg, a DoorDash spokesperson, confirmed that Snyder worked on behalf of the company and it has been contacted by law enforcement about the shooting.
“This was a tragic loss of life and our hearts are with the victim’s loved ones. We are actively in touch with local law enforcement to support their ongoing investigation however we can,” Rosenberg told The Gazette in an emailed statement.
Besides delivering for DoorDash, Snyder also worked part time with the Boys and Girls Club of the Corridor. The First Congregational United Church of Christ in Cedar Rapids said it was raising money for the family, and a separate GoFundMe page had raised over $2,400 by Wednesday afternoon.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 11, 2023.
☔ Rain appears likely for much of Wednesday. Although the National Weather Service has a chance of showers in the morning, the chance for rain in the Cedar Rapids area appears to take a big leap higher after 1 p.m. and then becomes even more likely in the evening. Rain looks like it will possibly continue into Thursday.
The high temperature will settle in around 58 degrees.
Bondholder Preston Hollow Community Capital has outbid the University of Iowa for Mercy Iowa City’s assets as part of the hospital’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
News of the auction results was made public Tuesday evening in a bankruptcy court filing.
In an associated news release, Preston Hollow reported plans to partner with American Health Care Systems to operate a new community hospital — free and clear of the debt, pension liabilities, unpaid dues, and uncured contracts the Mercy operation had accrued over years of financial decline.
Although it shared no details of a new hospital concept, Preston Hollow — as an investment firm — likely would leave the health care piece of the operation to American Health Care Systems, a Glendale, Calif.-based for-profit organization with health care management expertise.
Preston Hollow was able to outmaneuver the University of Iowa for the winning bid by drawing out the auction process with negotiations, and using the $63 million that Mercy owes them as part of a “credit bid” that the University of Iowa was unable to match.
The turn of events was a surprise to administrators from both Mercy and the university, who had already started contacting each other about the transition process to UI ownership in the past few weeks.
Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst met in person Tuesday with top Israeli leaders, four days after the Iran-backed Hamas militant group launched a surprise assault on Israel from Gaza.
Ernst last week led a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers, including Iowa GOP U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, of Ottumwa, to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Israel to support peace in the region and deter Iranian aggression. The group left on its envoy before the attack over the weekend.
Tuesday, Ernst met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, as well as American civilians in Israel, as that country bombarded Gaza in response.
Ernst emphasized that the United State fully stands behind Israel in their efforts to eliminate Hamas. The purpose of the delegation’s visit was originally to encourage peaceful relations between the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia. This was complicated by Saudi Arabia, along with many other Arab countries, publicly supporting Palestine as Gaza is under siege by Israeli forces.
Borlaug Elementary School in Coralville, which is a part of the Iowa City Community School District, was one of five schools in Iowa named a 2023 National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
Schools are recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools for demonstrating effective and innovative teaching and learning, and how teachers and staff are valued and supported through meaningful professional learning, according to a news release from National Blue Ribbon Schools.
Borlaug Elementary is recognized as an Exemplary High-Performing School for being among Iowa’s highest performing schools as measured by state assessments.
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, October 10, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Tuesday morning will see areas of frost before 10am. Otherwise, it’ll be sunny, with a high near 63. Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low around 39
Gov. Kim Reynolds orders flags at half-staff to honor deaths in Israel
Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has worked to strengthen ties between Iowa and Israel in recent years, Monday ordered flags at half-staff in Iowa to honor lives lost in the attack on Israel by Hamas this weekend.
In a statement, Reynolds said: “Iowans mourn for the families of those killed by Hamas in Israel. Hamas’ brutality knows no bounds, with reports of Holocaust survivors, women, and children taken by Hamas militants from their homes as hostages or brutally murdered. Today and every day, Iowa stands in solidarity with Israel and their right to defend themselves.”
The conflict in Israel and Gaza unfolded after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack Saturday. Israel has responded with rocket strikes in the blockaded Gaza Strip. More than 1,300 people had been killed as of Monday, including at least nine Americans.
Mercy Hospital: Foundation support necessary to keep operating
Mercy Iowa City's philanthropic foundation has — after contentious backroom negotiations — agreed to help fund the hospital’s operations as it navigates Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
In asking a U.S. bankruptcy judge to approve a settlement between the hospital, its foundation, and ancillary interested parties — like bondholders and an unsecured creditors committee — Mercy attorneys in court documents Monday said without foundation support, the hospital won’t be able to sustain operations.
Iowa City primary will decide November ballot Today
Voters in Iowa City Council District A vote Today in a primary that will decide which candidates’ names appear on the November ballot.
The district, which covers the southwest portion of the city, has three candidates vying to represent it on the Iowa City Council: Laura Bergus, Tim Borchardt and Pauline Taylor. Voters will be able to select one candidate. The top two vote-getters will advance to the Nov. 7 election.
Primary elections for Iowa City Council are relatively rare. According to Johnson County, the last time Iowa City had a primary for a regular city council election cycle was 2011. A primary was needed for a special election in fall 2018.
If a primary election is necessary for a district seat, only the voters who live in that district can vote in the primary. However, for the November election, all Iowa City voters – regardless of their district – can vote to decide a district winner.
Polling places in District A are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. today. Voters can find their polling places at gis.johnsoncountyiowa.gov/pollingplaces.
Don’t forget to register for our free 2023 Iowa Ideas conference!
Iowa Ideas is an annual virtual conference designed to gather Iowans from all perspectives to explore, discuss and offer solutions on issues impacting the state. Every attendee has the ability to customize their own schedule, with over fifty sessions across nine tracks. The free virtual conference will take place October 12-13. Register for free at IowaIdeas.com.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Mon., Oct. 9 — Indigenous Peoples Day.
According to the National Weather Service, Cedar Rapids, Independence, Manchester, Vinton and Anamosa are included in a frost advisory issued for Monday morning. The advisory is in effect from 1 to 9 a.m. Then, temperatures in the area are expected to warm to about 59 degrees under sunny skies. The weather service said the advisory is generally north of Highway 30, but “patchy frost is possible” farther south down to the Interstate 80 corridor. Then, overnight, expect widespread frost, mainly after 5 a.m., with a low around 33.
A Halloween display which seemed to mock inmates was removed Friday from the front entrance of Anamosa State Penitentiary, after state prison officials were alerted. A woman who was visiting her son over the weekend contacted The Gazette because she was offended by the display at the front of the prison, an entrance that visitors use when arriving to see loved ones and friends. The display featured a large cage and inside was a headless scarecrow figure, holding a pumpkin head, and dressed in an orange prison jump suit. The display included a sign — shaped like a pumpkin — that read, “Doing 30 years in the pumpkin patch.” Iowa Department of Corrections Director Beth Skinner said in a statement to The Gazette. “I want to apologize to visiting family members who saw it and for the poor judgment that led to this incident. It was inappropriate and insensitive, and it does not represent the values of our department.”
Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blamed President Joe Biden and his administration after Hamas militants launched the deadliest attack in decades on Israel, citing a $6 billion transfer to Iran that administration officials insisted had yet to be spent. DeSantis and Trump, who are running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, both stopped in Cedar Rapids over the weekend. Trump delivered a speech to about 2,000 people Saturday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids Convention Complex in downtown Cedar Rapids. DeSantis spoke Sunday to a crowd of a few hundred supporters at Refuge City Church in Cedar Rapids as a guest for a meet-and-greet organized by Never Back Down, the super PAC backing him for the GOP nomination.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 7th, and Sunday, October 8th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Saturday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 43.
Sunday, will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 65, cooling to a low around 39 Sunday night.
Iowa Democrats release details of mail-in caucus plan
Iowa Democrats will wait until Super Tuesday in early March to release the results of its planned mail-in caucus presidential preference contest that begins months earlier.
Iowa Democrats will be able to register for the mail-in absentee process starting Nov. 1, according to new details released by the party. Presidential preference cards will be mailed starting Jan. 12.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart briefed reporters Friday ahead of a meeting of the Democratic National Committee's rules committee, which has yet to sign off on Iowa Democrats’ presidential preference plan.
Cedar Rapids considering rules for controlling feral cat population
A proposed ordinance intended to control the population of free-roaming cats in Cedar Rapids is causing concern among animal welfare activists over provisions that include setting a threshold for ceasing to feed to animals.
The changes, if adopted by the City Council, would make Cedar Rapids one of several cities in Eastern Iowa to adopt rules for “trap-neuter-return” — a common way of keeping community cat populations under control without having to euthanize them.
Family farms turning pumpkin patches, orchards into tourist draws
From new pumpkin patches to lavender fields to honey to maple syrup, family farms have become popular destinations for families to enjoy the outdoors, connect with farmers and the local food system, reduce screen time and entertain, educate and stimulate children.
Johnson and Washington counties have teamed up on a new marketing effort to create a regional brand and promote the area as an agritourism destination.
At the state and local level, government and business leaders have sought to promote and leverage Iowa’s natural assets and entrepreneurial farm operations to further grow agritourism and engage the public in Iowa’s agricultural operations, whether through farm or winery tours, cider houses, hay rides, apple- and berry-picking or other activities.
Besides the Johnson and Washington county effort in the Corridor, Linn County also is working to boost agritourism, seeing its potential to attract visitors.
Go to TheGazette.com to read our full interview with with Sarah Thompson, rural development director of Greater Iowa City Inc., about the effort and the potential to increase agritourism in Iowa.
Don’t forget to register for our free 2023 Iowa Ideas conference!
Iowa Ideas is an annual virtual conference designed to gather Iowans from all perspectives to explore, discuss and offer solutions on issues impacting the state. Every attendee has the ability to customize their own schedule, with over fifty sessions across nine tracks. The free virtual conference will take place October 12-13. Register for free at IowaIdeas.com.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 6, 2023.
A chance for rain in the morning, and quite a bit cooler. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 30 percent chance for rain in the Cedar Rapids area Friday morning. The high temperature will crest at 56 degrees with a stiff breeze all day.
A teenager has been charged in connection with threats to Cedar Rapids schools circulating on social media that led to classes across the district being canceled Monday.
Cedar Rapids police announced Thursday night they had worked with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation to arrest a 14-year-old. Authorities said the teen is from Cedar Rapids, but did not say if the teen is a student in the Cedar Rapids Community School District nor say what charges he or she faces.
The district had notified parents last Sunday that district schools would be closed Monday because of the threats, which they did not describe. Cedar Rapids schools reopened Tuesday, although many students — about 40 percent — stayed away.
The district also imposed temporary new rules because of the threats: Students are not allowed to bring backpacks, bags or purses unless they are clear and see-through. Lunchboxes are allowed but will be examined by staff. High school students are not allowed to be released for lunch.
The district said Thursday after the arrest that it would continue with the safety protocols for Friday, but intended to lift them next week.
More than three-fourths of Linn County is now engulfed in exceptional drought — the most severe drought condition — according to a Thursday U.S. Drought Monitor report.
This is the driest the county has been in the history of the U.S. Drought Monitor, which began in 2000. This is also the first year there has been exceptional drought in Eastern Iowa at all.
The average temperature in Cedar Rapids throughout September was 5 degrees higher than the historical norm, according to the National Weather Service Quad Cities bureau. The city received just over an inch of rain that month — 2.33 inches less than normal.
The swath represents the only patch of exceptional drought in Iowa and the Midwest at large. It currently makes up about 3 percent of Iowa’s land. Exceptional drought has historically been contained to central and west Iowa — not Eastern Iowa.
About a quarter of the state is still covered in severe drought, stretching from the northeast corner down to the southeast corner. Northeast Iowa, where exceptional drought plagued farmers and ranchers last month, has improved. The rest of the state is experiencing severe or moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions. None of Iowa is drought-free.
Collins Aerospace, which employs about 9,000 people in Iowa, will lay off 68 employees in Cedar Rapids.
According to a state notice, the layoffs will occur Oct. 13.
A company spokesperson confirmed last month that Collins was planning layoffs across the company -- not in one specific division or location -- totaling less than 1 percent of its total workforce. One percent of its 7,000 employees in Cedar Rapids would be 70 people.
“Collins Aerospace is implementing actions to align its cost structure with the ongoing aerospace recovery,” Erin Callender, director of global media relations for Collins, said last month.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 5, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance of showers between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday. There will be increasing clouds during the day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 76 degrees.
There was supposed to be an auction for Mercy Iowa City in Chicago on Wednesday. At least that appeared to be the plan for most of the day.
Then, without explanation, Mercy Iowa City at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening announced the historic auction for its assets as part Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings would be continued “to a later date.”
The decision, according to a court filing made public just after 7:30 p.m., was done in “consultation with the official committee of unsecured creditors” — a group formed to represent the more than 400 individuals and companies that Mercy owes more than $17 million.
Although the continuance did not set a new auction date, Wednesday evening’s court filing indicated it would happen before the sale hearing, set for Oct. 10.
Mercy spokeswoman Eileen Wixted said Wednesday evening the auction process was delayed “so the parties can continue negotiations.”
As part of Mercy’s Aug. 7 bankruptcy petition, it announced the University of Iowa was offering a “stalking horse” bid for substantially all its assets of $20 million.
However, that was nowhere near paying off the $63 million in secured debt Mercy Iowa City has to bondholders, including its largest Preston Hollow Community Capital.There were several objections to Mercy accepting the university’s bid, and further negotiations have led things to where they are now.
A Linn County woman is charged with vehicular homicide in the death of a motorcyclist Tuesday evening.
Debra Trimble, 60, collided head-on with the motorcyclist, Chad Craig, 48, of Cedar Rapids, while Trimble was attempting to pass another car in a no-passing zone on Cottage Grove Avenue, near Highlands Court SE.
Trimble was driving north in a Pontiac Vibe just after 7 p.m. when she tired to pass the other car while going uphill on a curve.
A news release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office states Trimble is from Marion, but a criminal complaint lists her home address in Cedar Rapids.
Craig was pronounced dead at the scene. Trimble has been charged with homicide by vehicle, operating under the influence and unsafe passing.
A large fire broke out in a homeless encampment near South Gilbert Street in Iowa City Wednesday afternoon.
The Iowa City Fire Department quickly extinguished the fire and no injuries have been reported. None of the nearby buildings were damaged, according to Fire Chief Scott Lyon, who spoke with The Gazette at the scene.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 4, 2023.
It will be cooler Wednesday with a chance for rain in the morning. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly before 11 a.m. Other than that, it will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 81 degrees.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of a job Tuesday in a showdown forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives, throwing the House and its Republican leadership into chaos. It was the first time this has happened in the nation’s history..
McCarthy’s chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, orchestrated the rare vote on the obscure “motion to vacate,” and pushed ahead swiftly into a dramatic afternoon roll call vote.
Stillness fell as the presiding officer gaveled the vote closed, 216-210, saying the office of the speaker “is hereby declared vacant.
Next steps are highly uncertain as the House is in uncharted terrain, and there is no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority.
Mercy Iowa City has received at least one bid to compete with the University of Iowa’s $20 million offer to purchase substantially all its assets as part of the hospital’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition — triggering an auction Wednesday morning in Chicago.
Attorneys didn’t disclose how many bids Mercy received to compete with the UI offer — which set the minimum at $20 million and required an additional “breakup fee” of $800,000 — or 4 percent — to surpass. That means any competing bid has to be at least $20.9 million — including the breakup fee and a required bid increment of $100,000.
Originally, Mercy wanted to impose both a breakup fee and a $400,000 expense reimbursement for the time UI administrators spent working on their offer. But Mercy’s largest bondholders objected, lowering the bar to compete.
Proactive safety measures put in place Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids Community School District following a threat made on social media will remain in place through Friday.
Captain Charlie Fields, commander of the Community Services Division of the Cedar Rapids Police Department, however, said school would not have resumed if the police department did not think it was safe.
“We are confident in the fact that school is safe for the kids to be in,” Fields said. “We have worked for several years with the Cedar Rapids Community School District to put school safety plans in place for incidents such as what we are experiencing right now.”
There was about 60 percent student attendance at schools Tuesday, and the majority of staff were present and “prepared to support our students,” Superintendent Tawana Grover said during a news conference Tuesday.
The best stock car drivers in the world will compete next summer in Iowa, officials announced Tuesday.
The first-ever NASCAR cup race in the state will be in June at the Iowa Speedway in Newton, a track designed by NASCAR Hall of Fame member Rusty Wallace.
“I was hoping we’d get it. And we got it. It’s going to be a hell of a show, I can tell you that,” Wallace told reporters Tuesday after a news conference on the Iowa Capitol grounds in Des Moines.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 3, 2023.
It will be hot again Tuesday, with a hint of the temperature drop to come. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 91 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area, with increasing cloudiness during the day. It will also be breezy, with wind gusts as high as 30 mph.
The Cedar Rapids Community School District is resuming classes Tuesday and taking “proactive safety measures” after classes were canceled Monday because of a threat made on social media.
Students are not allowed to bring backpacks, bags or purses unless it is a clear, see-through bag. Lunchboxes are allowed but will be examined by staff. High school students will not be allowed to be released for lunch.
“A serious threat was made over social media by an anonymous person over the weekend,” district officials said in an email to families Monday. “Due to the seriousness of the situation, it was important that we address the issue effectively and responsibly for the safety and well-being of our students, staff and the entire school community.”
District officials are encouraging families to discuss the situation with their students and the importance of reporting any suspicious or potentially threatening activity to an adult as soon as possible.
An investigation into the threat is being conducted by the Cedar Rapids Police Department, state public safety agencies and the FBI.
As of a Sunday night news release, the Cedar Rapids Police Department had not identified any suspects or made any arrests.
Cedar Rapids Police “investigators began working immediately to identify the nature of the threat and its source. This has become a complex investigation and all leads are being examined closely,” the release states.
Could Nascar be coming to the Iowa Speedway?
We do know that Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will announce “a new major sports and entertainment event to be held in Iowa in 2024” during a news conference scheduled for Tuesday morning at the Iowa Capitol.
Reynolds’ office did not respond to a follow-up by the Gazette email seeking details about the announcement, including the type of event and community where it will be held.
The Athletic reports NASCAR is expected to add the Iowa Speedway to its 2024 Cup Series schedule. The speedway’s website briefly listed a “2024 NASCAR Weekend” for the Cup Series in June 2024, before it was removed Monday, the sports journalism website reported.
After some ups and downs, Hamburg Inn No. 2 will reopen this week under new ownership.
The iconic diner at 214 N. Linn St., rescued by Gold Cap Hospitality in August after turmoil that started in December, will open at 7 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5. The public is invited to get reacquainted with the Hamburg Inn’s timeless classics like Pieshakes, fried chicken and bottomless coffee as the new owner ushers in a new chapter in the diner’s nearly 90-year history.
Remodeling over the past several weeks has focused on bringing the diner’s vibrant past to its forefront, honoring the essence of what brought the restaurant success for so many years
With a focus on artifacts, newspaper clippings, and the history of presidents and high-level politicians who made the space a hot spot, diners can expect a fresh look with paint, wainscoting, wallpaper and signage in the same vintage aesthetic of the diner’s heyday.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 2, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Monday with a high of 91 degrees. The low will come in at around 63 degrees.
All schools, day care and athletic activities are canceled Monday for staff and students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District because of a social media threat.
In an email to families and staff Sunday evening, district officials declared an all campus closure for the safety of all students and staff. More information will be provided to the public Monday afternoon, according to the email.
An investigation into the threat is being conducted by the Cedar Rapids Police Department, state public safety agencies and the FBI.
Staff who work at the Educational Leadership and Support Center — the district’s offices — are still expected to report to work Monday.
Staff working in school buildings — including administrators, teachers, secretaries, custodians and daycare workers — are not allowed to enter the buildings.
Late Friday evening a pedestrian was killed when he was struck by a vehicle in Fairfax.
Terry Vaske, 49, of Cedar Rapids, died at the scene of the crash in the area of Casey’s General Store, 65 Williams Blvd., Fairfax, at about 9 p.m. Friday, according to a news release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.
The driver who struck Vaske has been identified as Theresa Ludeking, 63, of Norway. Ludeking was not injured in the crash, but did go to a hospital as a precaution.
Less than 24 hours before his civil fraud trial in New York, former President Donald Trump spent his Sunday afternoon in Iowa.
Trump was first at a rally that overfilled the Bridge View Center in the blue-collar Wapello County seat of Ottumwa, and later for a small-scale visit with Iowa farmers at a rural Mahaska County farm between Oskaloosa and Pella.
The farm setting leaned into Trump’s focus on agriculture policy during this trip. He repeated long-held claims of how great he was for Iowa farmers on agriculture and trade policy, and railed against electric vehicles of all kinds.
Trump also highlighted, as he often does in Iowa, the $28 billion in federal aid to farmers that he approved as president in order to offset losses they experienced while his administration renegotiated international trade agreements.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 30th, and Sunday, October 1st, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be Sunny, with a high near 90. Saturday night will be mostly clear, with a low around 66.
Sunday, will be sunny, with a high near 89, cooling to a low around 61 Sunday night.
Grassley, after Feinstein’s death, now oldest sitting U.S. senator
California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein died Friday at 90. Her passing makes Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, who turned 90 this month, now the oldest active senator.
Feinstein and Grassley were the top Democrat and Republican, respectively, on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 and 2018, when Republicans had the majority.
Grassley and Feinstein clashed on a number of issues over the years, but also worked together on a number of issues and pieces of legislation over the years, including supports for human trafficking victims, combating drug trafficking, and addressing methamphetamine abuse.
House rejects bill to avoid government shutdown as deadline nears
Iowa’s all-Republican U.S. House delegation voted Friday on a failed last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open as the funding deadline nears.
Federal government funding expires after midnight on Saturday.
The U.S. House on Friday failed to pass a short-term spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, that would have kept the government funded for 30 days while cutting funding by 30 percent for all agencies except the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.
The resolution also included a Republican measure to codify controversial Trump-era border policies that would make various changes to immigration law, including by imposing limits on asylum eligibility, which are a nonstarter with the Democratically-controlled Senate and White House.
The bill also called for the creation of a commission to study the federal debt. It would recommend changes to improve solvency for some programs, such as Medicare and Social Security.
Iowa police departments warn of phone scams
The Iowa City and Cedar Rapids Police Departments both posted on social media this week warning the public about common phone scams that have been popping up recently.
The post from the Cedar Rapids police says the department has received several calls recently from victims of what’s called a “grandparent scam.” This is a common scam used on older individuals. A caller claims to belong to a law enforcement agency out of town and tells the person being targeted that their grandchild is in trouble and they need money to release them, according to the post.
The scammers usually ask for money in the form of gift card numbers, wire transfers, cryptocurrency, or cash. They make the situation sound urgent so the person being called will be less likely to slow down and think through what’s happening.
The department recommends talking to family members about this scam. If you get a call claiming your grandchild is in trouble, hang up and call your grandchild directly.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 29, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday with a high near 82 degrees.
According to reporting from the Associated Press a government shutdown seems more likely than not as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy rejected Senate legislation on Thursday that would fund the government through November while dealing with House Republicans members who are divided on any potential alternative.
The impasse in congress comes just days before a federal shutdown that would halt paychecks for many of the federal government’s roughly 2 million employees.
In a sign of deepening resistance to assisting Ukraine, more than half of House Republicans voted against providing Ukraine $300 million in military aid, though the money was approved on a bipartisan 311-117 vote.
The House’s most recent movement on the appropriations legislation won’t keep the government from shutting down, but House leadership hoped the progress would persuade enough Republicans to support a House-crafted continuing resolution that temporarily funds the government while boosting security at the U.S. border with Mexico.
A state board determined Thursday that state campaign laws were not violated when Cedar Rapids school district officials used school resources to help collect signatures to get a bond referendum placed on the ballot this fall. However, board members nonetheless expressed their disapproval.
Leaders on the state oversight board criticized Cedar Rapids Community School District officials’ activities, and made plans to express as much in a letter to school leaders while also researching ways the board could more forcefully address similar actions in the future.
Earlier this month — while signatures were in the process of being collected — a complaint was made to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, asserting that district officials violated state law when they used school resources to produce literature encouraging the public to sign the petitions.
The complaint highlights emails sent by the district that encouraged people to sign the petitions, informed them where the petitions could be signed and described the various projects the district would undertake if the bond is approved.
Students in the Iowa City Community School District will get to explore courses in career and technical education as early as sixth grade as the district transitions from a junior high to a middle school model by fall 2024.
Iowa City school officials are creating curriculum that aligns with Iowa’s career and technical education service areas — in addition to traditional course offerings such as science and math — to prepare to move sixth-graders into schools with seventh- and eighth-graders.
Middle school is a critical time for students to begin exploring career pathways and developing career-related skills, said Lucas Ptacek, Iowa City schools’ executive director of secondary schools, in a presentation to the school board Tuesday.
Career development education at this age helps students identify their strengths and interests, adds relevancy to their academic classes and eases the transition to high school by supporting more informed educational choices that align with a students’ career goals, according to market research by Hanover Research cited at the board meeting.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 28, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday. The high will be around 76 degrees. There may be some areas of fog before 9 a.m.
With only a few days left for Congress to avert a government shutdown, Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said it is “idiotic” to hold up government funding over certain policy goals and argued a shutdown would hurt American taxpayers.
Grassley, a Republican, joined Senate Democrats and most Republicans Tuesday night to advance a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open until mid-November. The bill, which includes around $6 billion in funding for Ukraine, is not likely to gain enough support in the Republican-controlled House to pass.
Some Republicans have pushed for any government funding package to include key conservative policy items like tighter border security and cuts to Ukraine aid. With a slim Republican House majority, those representatives can tank any budget measures that don’t have support from Democrats.
Without a short-term funding bill agreed to by both chambers, the U.S. federal government will shut down on Sunday. Certain essential workers would still report for work but will not get paid until the shutdown ends. Nonessential workers would be furloughed without pay.
Dozens of University of Iowa graduate students and supporters shut down the Board of Regents meeting Wednesday afternoon with a raucous protest, during which they demanded a 25-percent “emergency” pay raise.
The protesters marched into the regents’ meeting on the UI campus Wednesday afternoon — interrupting a presentation from UI Health Care leadership, including new Vice President for Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson.
The UI student union — which goes by Campaign to Organize Graduate Students, or COGS — demands include not just an immediate wage hike but a “more equitable state university system for all.”
In making their demands, the gradu ate students said a “living wage calculator” produced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed the average UI graduate student worker makes 25 percent below the living wage for a single adult in Johnson County.
Iowa schools’ administrative costs are not significantly increasing nor are they a significant driver of overall K-12 public education spending, according to a new analysis from Iowa Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat.
Statehouse Republicans pushed back on the report issued by Sand this week.
During the annual legislative debate over public school funding, Republican state lawmakers have at times expressed concerns with how much Iowa’s public K-12 schools spend on salaries for administrators.
Sand’s report acknowledges that debate and suggests administrative spending is not a significant driver of public school expenses.
Using state financial figures and federal inflation rates, Sand’s report shows that statewide, Iowa public K-12 school spending on administrative costs increased 20 percent over six years, but when taking inflation into account, administrative spending over that period decreased 1 percent.
Statehouse Republicans pointed out that Sand’s report covers only a six-year period and questioned how administrative costs are defined.
“Our caucus has heard the same concerns from Iowans as Auditor Sand. Many Iowans have seen their school district prioritize administrators over teachers and students,” said Melissa Daetsch, spokeswoman for Iowa House Republicans.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 27, 2023.
The chance for rain will continue into the early portion of Wednesday but besides that it should be sunny and pleasant. According to the National Weather Service there will be scattered showers in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Otherwise it will be partly sunny, with a high near 73 degrees.
A fatal two-vehicle collision was followed by a single-vehicle accident involving a responding Johnson County Deputy just after noon on Tuesday.
According to a media release from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, at 12:38 p.m. deputies and emergency responders were called to the scene of a two-vehicle accident in the 2200 block of Black Diamond Road SW in rural Johnson County.
After arriving, they determined that one driver died at the scene and the driver of the other vehicle had minor injuries.
According to an Iowa State Patrol accident report about the accident, a Ford Escape had been traveling west on Black Diamond Road, near the intersection with Hazelwood Avenue, when it crossed the centerline on a curve in the road, striking a Dump Truck head-on.
The identities of both drivers are being withheld pending notification of family members and while an investigation into the accident continues.
Meanwhile, at 12:54 p.m., a Johnson County Deputy who was responding to the accident was involved in a single-vehicle accident at the intersection of Eagle Avenue and Rohret Road SW, according to the release from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
This is about a six-minute drive to the northwest from the scene of the original accident.
According to the release, the deputy was treated for injuries and released from a hospital. The crash is also under investigation by the Iowa State Patrol.
Some low-income households in Cedar Rapids may have some support getting around town with a city-funded program that will subsidize the cost of purchasing a bike or electric bike.
The city of Cedar Rapids is piloting a program to give vouchers to eligible households toward purchasing a bike or e-bike at local shops.
The 78 income-eligible households in the Family Self-Sufficiency Program may seek vouchers. This program offers individualized goal planning and meetings with family specialists to reduce Section 8 tenants’ dependency on welfare and other public assistance programs, improving their economic independence.
The vouchers are $700 for a bike and $900 for an e-bike. The vouchers also may cover safety-related equipment such as helmets and locks. In its fiscal 2024 budget for the year spanning July 1 to June 30, 2024, Cedar Rapids included $215,000 in one-time funding for sustainability initiatives.
Sustainability Program Manager Sara Maples said the program will reduce fuel and maintenance costs for families working toward financial independence while helping them travel to work, appointments and social services.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 26, 2023.
Rain is likely on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service projections there will be a chance of rain all day, but the highest probability in the Cedar Rapids area will come between noon and 7 p.m.
When not raining it should be mostly cloudy, with a high near 71 degrees.
An Iowa City nonprofit will lay off about 100 employees — many who live out of state — after losing a contract to provide backup chat and text support for the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
CommUnity Crisis Services and Food Bank still will answer chat and text messages to the 988 Lifeline from Iowans and serve as a backup for Iowa phone calls made to the hotline. CommUnity’s other services, including the food bank and Mobile Crisis Response Program, also will not be affected, CEO Sarah Nelson said Monday.
Starting in July 2022, the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline was cut to three digits — 988 — to make it easier for people to connect with help. When a person with an Iowa area code calls, they are routed to Foundation 2, in Cedar Rapids, or CommUnity.
CommUnity was awarded a one-year, $6.5 million contract in 2022 to serve as a backup provider for chat and text messages to the national Lifeline. CommUnity used the money to ramp up from 88 employees to 272 part-time and full-time employees who worked remotely from 10 states, Nelson said.
Vibrant Emotional Health, a New York company hired by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to administer 988, told CommUnity earlier this month their contract would not be renewed.
A panel tasked with reviewing Iowa’s boards and commissions has reversed its recommendations to eliminate some government boards after Iowans expressed concerns over losing federal funding and public services.
The Boards and Commissions Review Committee unanimously approved its recommendations during its final meeting Monday, proposing to eliminate or consolidate 111 of Iowa’s boards and commissions, leaving 145 in place.
The recommendations would need to be approved by the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature in next year’s session and signed into law by GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds before they take effect. The committee was created as part of a massive state government reorganization law Reynolds signed this year, which also shrank the number of cabinet-level state agencies and eliminated dozens of unfilled state jobs.
Cedar Rapids will be getting a slice of the state baseball tournament pie.
The Iowa High School Athletic Association announced Monday that Veterans Memorial Stadium will host the Class 3A and 4A portions of the 2024 tourney.
Carroll again will be the 1A-2A host. The tournament is scheduled for July 22-26.
The contract with Cedar Rapids is for one year. This will be the first time since 1974 Cedar Rapids will host state baseball.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 25, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m. on Monday in the Cedar Rapids area. There may also be some patchy fog before 9 a.m. But besides that, it should be another mostly sunny day, with a high near 80 degrees.
There may be a better chance for some rain on Tuesday.
Drought conditions have continued to worsen across Eastern Iowa this summer. Exceptional drought — the most severe drought ranking — covers about 5 percent of the state, the greatest extent Iowa has seen since the start of the U.S. Drought Monitor in 2000. Almost three quarters of the state is experiencing severe drought or worse.
Overall, 2023 ranks in the top 10 driest years for Northeast and East-Central Iowa. Linn and Benton counties each have received less than 50 percent of normal rainfall throughout the summer, marking their record-driest summers. About 80 percent of the state’s topsoil moisture levels ranked below adequate, according to the recently released U.S. Department of Agriculture Crop Progress and Condition report.
“The current drought, which is approaching 170 consecutive weeks of at least moderate drought conditions somewhere in the state, has been the longest in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s nearly 24-year period of record," said Justin Glisan, the state drought coordinator and climatologist, in a statement.
Those conditions have taken their toll on crops and livestock in Eastern Iowa, particularly into the northeast corner of the state. Harvest is just getting started — but many farmers aren’t optimistic about this year’s yields.
At this point, rain won’t make a difference to this year’s crops and grazing conditions. So far, 5 percent of the state’s corn has been harvested, along with 3 percent of its soybeans. Only time will tell how yields may turn out.
Traffic into and out of downtown Cedar Rapids on the First Avenue Bridge will be affected Tuesday during floodgate testing.
The First Avenue Bridge over the Cedar River is set to be closed from Third Street West to First Street East from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday. Detour signs will be in place.
The city is testing the roller gate that was installed near First Street East outside City Hall to ensure that the wet seal is watertight in the event of a flood. The gate is 12 feet tall, 82 feet long and 6 feet thick.
Besides doing floodgate testing, crews are scheduled to re-stripe the road.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 23rd, and Sunday, September 24th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be mostly sunny, with a high near 82 with a 10 percent chance of showers after 5pm. Saturday night will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 1am. Chance of precipitation is 70% and the low will be 61.
Sunday, showers are likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 1pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm with a high near 70. Sunday night will be Mostly cloudy, with a low around 59.
Iowa lowers top corporate income tax rateIowa's top corporate income tax rates will fall for the second year in a row to 7.1 percent.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a tax law in 2022 that included a trigger to decrease corporate tax rates if revenue exceeded $700 million. Taxes in fiscal year 2023 were $838 million, according to the Iowa Department of Revenue.
Based on the 2022 law's formula, corporate tax rates will fall to 7.1 percent in the highest two brackets. The tax rate for those brackets was 8.4 percent last year.
For businesses that bring in up to $100,000, the tax rate will remain at 5.5 percent, which is intended to be the flat tax rate for all businesses by 2028.
The same 2022 law included individual income tax cuts, gradually phasing Iowa's tax rate at a flat 3.9 percent by tax year 2026. Iowa's revenue is expected to drop by $1.89 billion once the tax cuts take full effect.
Lost solar project exposes obstacles to luring big business to IowaA large solar energy manufacturer at one point was looking to build in Iowa but chose Louisiana instead, in part because Iowa could not offer the same public incentives, according to the state’s economic development chief.
Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Finance Authority, told The Gazette that Iowa lost out on the opportunity to attract the manufacturer that was looking to build in Waterloo. The state “would have won” but “didn’t have enough incentives” to keep the company from looking to Louisiana.
Durham did not provide details of the proposed project or the name of the company. An authority spokeswoman said she could not share more information, and that communications with and about business prospects are confidential.
A bill proposed by the Iowa Economic Development Authority to provide a package of state tax incentives to try to lure a major business development to Iowa stalled in the Iowa House on the final day of the 2023 legislative session.
University of Iowa wants $50M from state to improve rural health careTaking a cue from last year’s Legislature, which tied its full Board of Regents funding increase to specific campus initiatives, Iowa’s public universities for the upcoming session have made significant “special purpose” funding requests — on top of their ask for $14.8 million more in “general” appropriations.
In total, the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa are seeking $23.5 million more for “special” projects and initiatives in the 2025 budget year that starts July 1. And UI’s $10 million portion of that ask will only start what the campus envisions as a five-year, $50 million “rural Iowa health care partnership.”
When combined with the regents’ request for $14.8 million more in “general” appropriations, the board’s full ask amounts to a $38.3 million bump over this year — for total education appropriations of $599 million in fiscal 2025. The board last year wanted a total increase of $34.7 million — with the vast majority sought in the form of general dollars the universities could use broadly toward their campus missions and operations.
But lawmakers gave them no general funding increase and instead tied all $7.1 million in new regent appropriations to specific initiatives: $2.8 million to UI’s College of Nursing; $2.8 million to Iowa State’s Future Ready Workforce Program; and $1.5 million to UNI’s Educators for Iowa Program.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 22, 2023.
Yet again we will have a day with a chance for rain all day, which may or may not actually materialize. Other than that, according to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 77 degrees. The chance for rain should increase as we head into Saturday.
Iowa first gentleman Kevin Reynolds, the husband of Gov. Kim Reynolds, has been diagnosed with lung cancer, the governor announced Thursday.
She said in a statement they are optimistic about the treatment he is undergoing. She did not announce details of what led to the diagnosis.
"Our doctor has assured us that significant advancements in lung cancer treatment have been very effective and we have every reason to be optimistic," Reynolds said. "We are confident in our team as we begin treatment, and we will beat this together."
Kevin and Kim Reynolds married in 1982. They have three daughters and 11 grandchildren. He became Iowa's first-ever first gentleman in 2017 when Kim Reynolds became governor.
A $220 million general obligation bond issue that would fund construction of a new middle school and improvements to high schools in the Cedar Rapids Community School District is heading to district voters Nov. 7.
The Cedar Rapids school board unanimously approved a resolution Thursday ordering an election after the district received 6,909 valid signatures. The district needed about 6,300 signatures from eligible district voters to place the issue on the ballot.
School board President David Tominsky said the number of signatures collected is a “real testament” to the community’s support of the resolution. “I’m really excited about the community learning more about what exactly they’re voting on and why,” he said.
Thousands of Iowans may have been wrongly cut from the Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (a.k.a. CHIP) because of an error in determining eligibility as the state works to return Medicaid enrollment to pre-pandemic conditions.
Iowa is one of 30 states where the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determined eligible individuals — mostly children — were being disenrolled, even though the states had information indicating they remained eligible.
The federal agency estimated 10,000 to 49,999 eligible Iowans were affected by the erroneous process. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the total Medicaid and CHIP enrollment in Iowa was 699,741 people in 2020.
In a written statement, Iowa Health and Human Services spokesperson Alex Carfrae said the state will change its automatic renewal processes to comply with the new federal expectations.
Iowa’s Swarm Collective will now accept donations for athletes in any of the Hawkeyes’ 22 intercollegiate sports, it announced Thursday morning.
The name, image and likeness collective’s financial support was previously exclusive to football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball since its founding in July 2022.
Those who either make a $1,000-plus one-time donation or a $100-plus recurring monthly donation can now earmark their gift toward any Iowa sport.
The Swarm Collective raises money for Hawkeye athletes through monthly memberships and larger one-time or recurring donations. Athletes then receive the NIL money as compensation for community service.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 21, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will again be a slight chance of rain all day on Thursday. Besides that it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 78 degrees.
As one the fastest growing metro regions in the Midwest, and second only in the state to Des Moines, Iowa City officials are looking for ways to lessen traffic congestion, provide alternative transportation options and improve commute times.
But which transit style makes the most sense?
Iowa City Council members voted 6-0 Tuesday to hire a consulting firm to explore the feasibility of adapting the existing Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway corridor right of way between Iowa City and North Liberty to accommodate a bus rapid transit system.
Bus rapid transit is a high-capacity system designed to deliver fast and efficient service that may include dedicated bus lanes, busways, traffic signal priority, off-board fare collection, elevated platforms and new stations, according to the Federal Transit Administration.
The transit system has advanced throughout the county in the last decade as congestion has increased and community leaders have sought affordable transit alternatives, according to the agency. Such systems operate in big cities like Los Angeles and Atlanta, and are growing in popularity in the Midwest including Cleveland, Omaha and Kansas City.
Because it contains features similar to a light rail or subway system, bus rapid transit often is considered more reliable, convenient and faster than regular bus service, according to federal transit officials. And with the right features, it can avoid the delays that can slow regular buses, like being stuck in traffic and queuing to pay fares on board.
The warden of the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility resigned earlier this month, just six months after starting the job.
“Kris Karberg resigned from his position as warden of the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility effective September 1, 2023,” Department of Corrections Spokesman Nick Crawford said in an email. “Deputy Warden Don Harris became acting warden effective the same day.”
Karberg had been warden at Fort Dodge since Feb. 17, when the Corrections Department transferred him from Anamosa State Penitentiary, where he had been warden since 2021.
The Gazette reached out to Karberg, who declined to comment extensively on why he’d left the Iowa Corrections Department. He said he was likely moving back to South Dakota, where he’d lived before taking the Anamosa job.
Karberg was deputy warden at the Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield, S.D., for three years before moving to Iowa. Earlier in his career, he spent 10 years providing private security in Southwest Asia, Belize and Afghanistan where he was a contractor for the U.S. State Department, he told the Iowa Board of Corrections in 2021.
On Wednesday night, Emmanuel Rodriguez hit a second-inning grand slam, the Cedar Rapids Kernels built an early 5-0 lead and went on to beat Great Lakes, 7-6, in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the Midwest League Championship Series in front of a boisterous crowd of just over 2,000 at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Players sprayed each other with bottles of sparkling cider on the field during a massive celebration that began with a victory dogpile around the pitcher’s mound when Rodriguez secured the final out with a catch of a fly ball.
It is the Cedar Rapids franchise's first MWL title since 1994.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 20, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 5 p.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise it will be partly sunny with a high near 81 degrees. The slight chance for rain will continue into the evening, with a low of around 60 degrees.
The most important qualities a new Cedar Rapids police chief should display, based on a community survey and outreach, are in community engagement, technology advancements, diversity and inclusion, training and education, collaborative partnerships and accountability and transparency.
The city, without a permanent police chief for five months, is hoping to post the job by the end of the week, Assistant to the City Manager Amanda Grieder said during a meeting Monday of the city’s Public Safety and Youth Services Committee.
Cedar Rapids is looking to replace Chief Wayne Jerman, who retired in April after turning 66 and aging out of his certification. Jerman, who spent 10 years with the city, was paid over $188,000 a year and oversaw operations of the department that is made up of 270 full-time equivalent positions, according to the city budget.
After receiving no increase in general education funding from the Iowa Legislature in its last session, the state Board of Regents has more than halved its ask for the upcoming term from a $32 million to a $14.8 million increase.
In its new funding request for the 2025 budget year, which starts July 1, the board is seeking $4.5 million appropriation bumps for both the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, along with a $5.8 million funding increase for the University of Northern Iowa, according to documents made public Tuesday.
If granted that full ask, the regents’ higher education budget would swell from $491.5 million to $506.3 million — but still below the $547.6 million in general operating funds the state appropriated the three public universities over 20 years ago in fiscal 2001.
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds pushed back Tuesday on comments former President Donald Trump made over the weekend suggesting state laws banning abortions after six weeks — like the one Reynolds signed in July — are a "terrible mistake."
Trump, the front-runner according to polls in the Republican presidential primary, made the comments in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Kristen Welker, pointing to the policy that a GOP primary opponent — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — signed into law in April in that state.
"I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake," Trump said of DeSantis in the NBC interview.
Trump, whose U.S. Supreme Court appointments were instrumental in delivering the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and federal abortion protections, did not say whether he would support a national abortion ban or what the cutoff should be. He said he would bring together Republicans and Democrats to find a “number of weeks or months” that’s going to “make people happy.”
The Florida law makes abortion illegal after six weeks with some exceptions. Iowa's law, currently blocked because of a lawsuit, bans abortion after cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo or fetus with some exceptions, which can be as early as six weeks.
"It’s never a 'terrible thing' to protect innocent life," Reynolds posted Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter. "I’m proud of the fetal heartbeat bill the Iowa legislature passed and I signed in 2018 and again earlier this year."
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 19, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there is a 40 percent of showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly before 10 a.m. After this it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 82 degrees. There will be a small chance for rain Tuesday evening as well, with a low of around 62 degrees.
Five Atkins volunteer firefighters were injured Monday when the firetruck they were riding in rolled into a ditch.
The accident happened on a rural road in Benton County shortly before 11 a.m., according to a news release issued by the city.
The firefighters were leaving the scene of one call and responding to the scene of another when the truck drove over an uneven surface on the side of the road, rolled into a ditch and landed on its top.
Five firefighters were taken to local hospitals where they were treated and released.
The truck, a 2022 model, was heavily damaged, the release states, but the department has an older truck that can be used to meet the city’s fire and rescue needs while the damaged truck is being repaired.
A Cedar Rapids woman waved a kitchen knife at a man, stabbing him several times, before leading police on a chase to get away, authorities said Monday.
40-year-old Latoya Taylor faces charges of attempted murder, an operating while intoxicated charge, and several other charges related to ensuing chase with police.
Police were called to the 1500 block of Washington Ave. SE about 6 p.m. Sunday for a report of a stabbing, according to Cedar Rapids police.
Officers found Willey Davis, 63, of Cedar Rapids, suffering from multiple stab wounds, including one to his neck, which was bleeding when police arrived, according to a criminal complaint.
A witness to the stabbing told police Taylor was the aggressor and that she had swung a kitchen knife at Davis, saying “I’m going to kill you,” according to the complaint. The court record did not say what relationship the two had.
When police arrived at the scene, they saw Taylor driving away in her mother’s vehicle. Officers turned on their emergency lights and sirens to initiate a traffic stop, but Taylor led them on a chase, during which she ran a stoplight and a stop sign and drove more than 25 mph over the speed limit, according to the criminal complaint.
Stop sticks — meant to puncture tires — were deployed near the Cedar Rapids Police Department to end the chase and Taylor was taken into custody.
Crews are tearing down a vacant warehouse off First Avenue and 29th Street NE that sustained damage in the 2020 derecho’s hurricane-force winds, but owner Rick Stickle has no immediate plans for repurposing the property.
Stickle, owner of Midwest Third Party Logistics, said it would have cost about $5 million to replace the warehouse’s roof, which was damaged in the August 2020 storm — the costliest thunderstorm in U.S. history. The building at 308 29th Street NE also sustained structural damage.
“We collectively decided talking with the insurance company that we would settle the claim for somewhat less than that and we wouldn't replace the roof, we'd dismantle the building,” Stickle said.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 18, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service on Monday it will be sunny with a high near 78 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Late Monday night into Tuesday morning there is a high chance of showers and potentially a thunderstorm.
According to the Associated Press a judge found an Iowa man guilty Friday in the murder of a 10-year-old girl who was missing for eight months before her remains were found in a pond.
51-year-old Henry Earl Dinkins was found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of Breasia Terrell, whose disappearance July 10, 2020, led to massive searches by dozens of volunteers and numerous law enforcement agencies. A fisherman found her body in March 2021 in a rural area north of Davenport.
Sentencing was set for Oct. 11, at which Dinkins faces a mandatory term of life in prison.
According to the report, after the decision, as deputies were removing Dinkins from the courtroom, spectators erupted in cheers.
No one was injured after firefighters responded to a fire raging at a farm southwest of Cedar Rapids on Sunday.
According to the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, firefighters from Fairfax and Cedar Rapids were called just after noon on Sunday to a fire at a farm at the 7500 block of 16th Ave SW.
Crews arriving at the scene saw that a corn bin and barn there were fully aflame. The fire had progressed to such a degree on those two structures that firefighters decided that they could not be saved, and they worked to contain the fire and protect nearby structures, according to the release.
Once a perimeter protecting those other buildings had been established, firefighters attacked the fire consuming the barn and silo from multiple positions, quickly bringing the fire under control.
The corn bin and barn were a total loss, according to the release. No firefighter injuries were reported.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Iowa Democrats voted on Saturday to hold their 2024 caucuses on Jan. 15, the same day as Republicans.
The date fills in one detail as the party works to plan its calendar and presidential nominating contest after being booted from being the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest by the national party earlier this year.
The date also falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday.
Under the party’s proposal, the caucuses would only be a party organizing meeting, while the presidential preference count that has historically put the caucuses in the national spotlight will be held via a mail-in process at a different time.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 16th, and Sunday, September 17th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will have a slight chance of showers between noon and 1pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Otherwise it’ll be partly sunny, with a high near 77. Saturday night will have a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm, cooling to a low around 52.
Sunday will be sunny with a high near 75. Sunday night will cool to a low around 49.
Iowa regulators approve renewable energy power lineAn underground high-voltage power line to ship electricity from Midwestern renewable energy projects to Eastern markets this week won approval for the portion of its Iowa route from state regulators.
The 350-mile SOO Green HVDC Link will start in Mason City and run to Plano, Ill. The direct current line will be buried underground mostly following a Canadian Pacific railroad right of way.
On Wednesday, the Iowa Utilities Board signed off on a plan to build about 174 miles of the 525-kilovolt transmission line. While most of the line will be buried on railroad and other public rights of way, the board granted the company eminent domain authority for four parcels in Clayton County and two parcels in Dubuque County.
Iowa City landfill receives $4M from EPA to expand compostingThe Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center has received a $4 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help expand its composting efforts, the city announced Friday.
The funding, which stems from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021, will expand the landfill’s compost area from 5 to about 7 acres. Designs for the expansion will begin this fall, with construction expected to begin in the spring of 2024.
The expansion will increase processing capacity from 15,000 to 20,000 tons per year — an addition big enough to fill about 500 garbage trucks. That compost then will be sold to fertilize area farms, gardens and lawns.
The money also will allow for improved equipment and technology, including updated equipment that can turn compost faster to move through material quicker. Mixing up compost frequently helps the materials breakdown faster.
The extra funding will increase composting efforts in the county for families who don’t have access to the curbside services. For example, it will expand the pilot program, Food Waste Wednesdays, where those families can drop off their food waste.
Thanks to the added capacity, the Iowa City landfill would like to eventually work on diverting food waste from local grocery stores and restaurants to the compost facility.
Potent cannabis drinks and edibles legal to minors in IowaIowans — including minors — can legally buy high-potency marijuana drinks and gummies because of loopholes in state and federal laws, according to leaders in the state’s new Bureau of Cannabis Regulation.
While 5 to 10 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can be intoxicating, some drinkable products have 1,000 milligrams or more per can, according to bureau staff. These products often are marketed as “heavy” because of the large doses of THC by weight of the product.
Iowa’s medical marijuana program, created in 2015 and expanded several times since, allows for people with certain medical conditions to buy products licensed in Iowa with a maximum of 4.5 grams THC per 90-day purchase in most cases. THC is the primary chemical in a marijuana plant that causes the “high.”
Iowa’s consumable hemp program limits the THC in products, including food, drinks and lotions, to 0.3 percent by weight. If you have a 12-ounce beverage, 0.3 percent is 1.02 grams or 1,020 milligrams.
Iowa Cannabis Regulation Bureau Chief Owen Parker said he will talk further with the Cannabidiol Board and with the Iowa attorney general and Department of Public Safety to consider proposing legislation for the session that starts in January.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 15, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny on Friday with a high of 81 degrees. On Friday evening the low will be 59 degrees, and a chance for showers and thunderstorms will increase as we head into the morning hours on Saturday.
Collins Aerospace, the North Carolina-based company that employs 9,000 people in Iowa, will lay off less than 1 percent of its total workforce.
The news was confirmed by a company spokesperson this week, who said the layoffs will be made across the company — not in one specific division or location.
Collins, an RTX business, employs about 80,000 people worldwide, of whom 7,000 are based in Cedar Rapids. One percent of the company’s workforce would be about 800 positions.
Erin Callender, director of global media relations for Collins, said the layoffs are part of an alignment effort.
“Collins Aerospace is implementing actions to align its cost structure with the ongoing aerospace recovery,” Callender said in an email. She could not comment on when the layoffs will happen, or how many employees in Iowa may be affected.
According to reportin g from the Associated Press, an Iowa police officer died after being shot while trying to arrest a man who was later captured in Minnesota, officials said on Thursday.
Algona Police Officer Kevin Cram was shot just before 8 p.m. Wednesday as he tried to serve an arrest warrant on 43-year-old Kyle Ricke.
Cram, a 33-year-old husband and father who had been an officer in Algona since 2015, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Cram was on patrol in Algona, a town of about 5,300 residents, when he learned of an active arrest warrant for Ricke on a charge of harassment, Mortvedt said. The officer saw Ricke and told him he would be arrested. That's when Ricke shot him, Mortvedt said.
In a move to expand equitable access to trees and green spaces nationwide, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday announced an award of $6 million toward Cedar Rapids’ effort to reforest the city after the 2020 derecho toppled most of the city’s tree canopy.
Vilsack, along with other federal officials, announced the major grant on a visit to Greene Square in downtown Cedar Rapids.
Cedar Rapids is among 385 recipients of $1.13 billion in U.S. Forest Service grants that will help communities grow tree cover in urban spaces and provide Americans with the health benefits that trees offer.
The funding, made available through the $740 billion Democrat-backed Inflation Reduction Act that took effect in August 2022
Vilsack told reporters the combination of community leadership, nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations and other partnerships behind ReLeaf Cedar Rapids made it a compelling application within the state of Iowa and a fitting location to spotlight in unveiling the grants.
The grant goes a long way toward the $37 million Cedar Rapids city officials and non profits are looking to secure to fund a 10-year plan to plant 42,000 trees
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 14, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday with a high near 77 degrees. It will be mostly clear Thursday evening with a low of around 49 degrees.
Mercy Iowa City has arranged tours of its health care facilities next week for potential bidders interested in competing for its assets against the University of Iowa — which last month made an initial “stalking horse” bid of $20 million to buy the 150-year-old community hospital.
During a hearing Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court — following Mercy’s Aug. 7 filing for Chapter 11 protection — attorney Felicia Perlman, representing Mercy through her Chicago firm, McDermott Will & Emery, said several interested parties have signed nondisclosure agreements in anticipation in learning more about the assets they may potentially bid on.
“We do have several parties who have signed (nondisclosure agreements) and are active in the data room, and we are providing diligence to and these tours for.”
Mercy unveiled the UI as its initial $20 million bidder Aug. 7, the same day it filed for bankruptcy. Two days later, the hospital proposed a Sept. 19 deadline for competing offers and built in “bid protections” for the university — raising concerns among the hospital’s secured creditors, who Mercy owes $63 million.
In response to questions about whether such a truncated timeline would chill competing bids and whether other objectionable provisions — like the UI protections and a caveat implying the facility must remain a hospital — Mercy attorneys this week agreed to sale-procedure amendments, which Judge Thad Collins on Wednesday indicated he’ll approve.
Tiffin voters approved a 1-cent local-option sales tax Tuesday intended to help the city keep up with its rapid population growth.
The city of 5,200 in Johnson County passed the sales tax with 186 votes (63 percent) in favor and 109 (37 percent) opposed. More than 10 percent of registered voters in the city turned out to vote, the Johnson County Auditor’s Office reported.
The sales tax of 1 percent will start Jan. 1 and is expected to generate about $600,000 a year. Half the money will be used to keep Tiffin property taxes from going up much above the current levy rate of $11.80 per $1,000 of taxable value, while the rest will be used to help pay for infrastructure projects in the growing community. In 2021, Tiffin was expected to double in size by 2030.
Tiffin officials have been planning for a rec center since at least 2020, when they envisioned an indoor facility with a gymnasium with a walking track above it, fitness rooms and possibly a pool.
Other priority projects are a new fire station, a park with an inclusive playground, as well as sewer and streets projects, Mayor Steve Berner told the Gazette.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 13, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there may be some patchy fog before 8 a.m. on Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area, but besides that it will be sunny with a high near 72 degrees.
A dead man who was found last week on the University of Iowa campus has been identified as Gabriel Moliter, 44, of Iowa City, according to university police.
Emergency responders were called to the north patio of the Stanley Hydraulic Laboratory, on Riverside Drive, at 7:15 a.m. Sept. six on a report of an unconscious and possibly deceased male, according to UI police. When they arrived, responders confirmed the death.
Based on a preliminary investigation and help from the Johnson County Medical Examiner, officials don’t believe foul play was involved in the death, a news release states. The release does not say what Moliter’s cause of death was.
Moliter was not a student or employee at the university, authorities said last week.
A magistrate concluded Tuesday, following last month’s non jury trial, that a North Liberty teen driving a sport utility vehicle on May 22 failed to yield to a jogger who he struck in a marked crosswalk on Melrose Avenue and Kennedy Parkway in Iowa City.
Sixth Judicial District Magistrate Mark Neary ruled Jonathan J.F. McCaffery, 16, at the time, “did not comply with the common law requirements under the circumstances.” McCaffery approached the pedestrian crosswalk at a little over the speed limit, according to what McCaffery told a police officer. At the scene, McCaffery said he was driving at “full speed.”
McCaffery is the son of University of Iowa head basketball coach Fran McCaffery.
Neary, in the ruling, said there is no evidence, according to police, that the teen was speeding, driving in a reckless manner, that he was distracted while driving or using his cellphone, or that he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Three witnesses said McCaffery didn’t slow down until the vehicle hit Corey Hite, 45, of Cedar Rapids. Witnesses also testified that another motorist had waved Hite into the intersection before McCaffery’s vehicle arrived.
Hite, an Iowa National Guard soldier, later died from his injuries.
Under Iowa law, there is an enhancement for this misdemeanor when it results in a death, which includes a $1,000 fine, a driver's license suspension of up to 180 days or both, according to police.
The NCAA has denied Iowa defensive lineman Noah Shannon’s appeal of his yearlong suspension for sports wagering, Coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday.
The failed appeal essentially marks the end of college football for Shannon, a sixth-year senior and two-year starter on the defensive line.
Ferentz previously said Shannon placed a bet on a different University of Iowa sports team. The NCAA’s updated sports gambling guidelines suggest an athlete who does so “will potentially face permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports.”
“I don’t agree with or understand, quite frankly, the decision, especially when it comes to the severity of the punishment,” Ferentz said Tuesday. “The panel that heard the appeal had an opportunity to really do something, make a decision that to me would...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 12, 2023.
It will be sunny with a high near 75 degrees on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance for rain in the Cedar Rapids area after 5 p.m. Otherwise it will be partly cloudy with a low of around 49 degrees.
Under proposed revisions to bankruptcy procedures for the sale of Mercy Iowa City, the 150-year-old community hospital might not remain a health care facility, might not go for $20 million, won’t give the University of Iowa the “bid protections” it once offered for the purchase and won’t be completed this month.
Responding to arguments that aspects of its initial procedures could deter alternate bidders from competing with the UI’s proposed “low purchase price” of $20 million, Mercy has agreed to change some of its requested rules — including one requiring bidders to “continue operating the project as a hospital.”
While initial procedures that Mercy on Aug. 9 asked a bankruptcy judge to approve required competing bidders to show health care experience in owning or operating comparable facilities, discussions since then have persuaded Mercy to instead simply request information from a bidder if it has health care licensure or “contemplates the ongoing operations of the hospital,” court records made public Monday show.
A bankruptcy hearing to consider this and other issues is set for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
A veteran-owned spirit company is recognizing those who have earned the highest honor in serving their country.
Cold Zero Premium Spirits, a whiskey and vodka company founded last year by members of the United States Military Special Operations community, will soon release a special edition of their whiskey honoring Medal of Honor recipients.
The 2,000 bottles, signed by six Medal of Honor recipients, will be available near Veterans Day in November through distributions at Hy-Vee, Fareway, military base stores and their website. Proceeds will benefit the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
In addition to their signatures, the labels will tell the stories of how each veteran earned the highest decoration in the armed forces. Each veteran’s story also will be highlighted weekly through the company’s social media.
Cold Zero Premium Spirits, founded by CEO Casey Maxted with other veterans, hit the shelves in April 2022 with whiskey and vodka produced in partnership with Cedar Ridge Distillery in Swisher. Rye whiskey, their first product, is aged in repurposed wine bottles from Napa County, California’s wine country.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 11, 2023.
There could be some rain to start your Monday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance of showers and potentially thunderstorms before 10 a.m. There also will be patchy fog between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. The chance for rain will go down as the day goes on. The high is predicted to be 70 degrees with cloudy skies.
An Indiana man was killed in an accident Saturday morning after his motorcycle collided with the back of a semi, ejecting him into the roadway where he was run over by another semi.
According to an Iowa State Patrol crash report, at 11:37 a.m. on Saturday a motorcycle being driven by Jon Gregory Brian, 57, of West Terra Haute, Ind. was traveling east on Interstate 80 in Poweshiek County when it collided with the back of a semi driven by Sherman Gilbert, 44, of Holbrook, Ariz.
Brian was ejected from his vehicle, landing in the roadway. He was then run over by another semi driven by Sidney Greenlee, 34, of Chicago.
A medical examiner was called to the scene by emergency responders. Brian was declared deceased and his body was transported from the scene.
Police apprehended a Cedar Rapids man on a motorized bicycle Saturday afternoon and accused him of fleeing the scene of a two-vehicle accident on Highway 30.
According to a media release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, emergency responders were called at 2:43 p.m. on Saturday for a personal injury accident at the intersection of Highway 30 and Cedar River Road.
According to police, the driver of one of the vehicles, Kenneth Kistener, 61, of Cedar Rapids was not at the scene of the accident. Officers apprehended Kistener heading south on Cedar River Road on a motorized bicycle.
After investigating the incident, they determined Kistener had been at fault for the original accident. According to their account of the report, Kistener had been traveling north on Cedar River Road when he failed to yield upon entering Highway 30, colliding with a vehicle heading east. The driver of that vehicle was listed as Daniel Franks, 44, of Marion.
Franks was uninjured in the accident. Kistener was transported to a hospital by Mount Vernon Ambulance for treatment of his injuries, according to the release.
The accident remains under investigation by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office with charges pending against Kistener, according to the release.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 11, 2023.
There could be some rain to start your Monday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance of showers and potentially thunderstorms before 10 a.m. There also will be patchy fog between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. The chance for rain will go down as the day goes on. The high is predicted to be 70 degrees with cloudy skies.
An Indiana man was killed in an accident Saturday morning after his motorcycle collided with the back of a semi, ejecting him into the roadway where he was run over by another semi.
According to an Iowa State Patrol crash report, at 11:37 a.m. on Saturday a motorcycle being driven by Jon Gregory Brian, 57, of West Terra Haute, Ind. was traveling east on Interstate 80 in Poweshiek County when it collided with the back of a semi driven by Sherman Gilbert, 44, of Holbrook, Ariz.
Brian was ejected from his vehicle, landing in the roadway. He was then run over by another semi driven by Sidney Greenlee, 34, of Chicago.
A medical examiner was called to the scene by emergency responders. Brian was declared deceased and his body was transported from the scene.
Police apprehended a Cedar Rapids man on a motorized bicycle Saturday afternoon and accused him of fleeing the scene of a two-vehicle accident on Highway 30.
According to a media release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, emergency responders were called at 2:43 p.m. on Saturday for a personal injury accident at the intersection of Highway 30 and Cedar River Road.
According to police, the driver of one of the vehicles, Kenneth Kistener, 61, of Cedar Rapids was not at the scene of the accident. Officers apprehended Kistener heading south on Cedar River Road on a motorized bicycle.
After investigating the incident, they determined Kistener had been at fault for the original accident. According to their account of the report, Kistener had been traveling north on Cedar River Road when he failed to yield upon entering Highway 30, colliding with a vehicle heading east. The driver of that vehicle was listed as Daniel Franks, 44, of Marion.
Franks was uninjured in the accident. Kistener was transported to a hospital by Mount Vernon Ambulance for treatment of his injuries, according to the release.
The accident remains under investigation by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office with charges pending against Kistener, according to the release.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 9th, and Sunday, September 10th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures on Saturday will be sunny, with a high near 82, cooling to a low around 57 Saturday evening.
Sunday will be mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Sunday night there will be a chance of showers and thunderstorms until 4am with a low around 60.
Iowa City Council votes to replace City Park Pool
City Park Pool, an “iconic” facility that has served the needs of the Iowa City community since 1948, will be replaced with a new pool.
The Iowa City Council voted unanimously this week to replace the pool. The vote followed an hourlong presentation of a report prepared by consultants from Williams Associates Architects of Itasca, Ill. The city hired the firm in May to analyze whether the pool should be repaired or replaced.
The 100-page report recommended replacement of the pool and includes a detailed list of the reasons why: water loss, accessibility, health and safety, and sustainability.
The report puts repair costs for the pool at about $10.5 million. A new pool could cost between $10 million and $15 million.
Report: Davenport building collapse had two ‘root causes’
Removed brick and inadequate support structures caused the west wall at a downtown Davenport building to collapse in May, an investigative report released Thursday concluded.
The report is dated Aug. 15, and was completed by two city-hired investigative engineering companies on the causes and origins of the partial collapse of the six-story building at 324 Main St. on May 28. The collapse resulted in three deaths, one person losing their leg, and many more homes and belongings lost.
The 113-page report determined that removing layers of brick during repair work in the three days before the collapse "severely compromised the western bearing wall" and that "the temporary shoring that had been installed was grossly inadequate."
Iowa looks at Florida program connecting needy with nonprofits, churches
Iowa officials are looking into a Florida program that connects people who need assistance with food, housing and other essentials to nonprofits and faith groups after Gov. Kim Reynolds expressed interest in it at a campaign event earlier this year.
Kelly Garcia, director of Iowa Health and Human Services, and a representative from Reynolds’ office attended a Florida conference this week focused on Hope Florida.
The state program uses online tools and state "navigators" to help people who need assistance connect with nonprofits and churches with the goal of getting them off government assistance programs. Members of the conservative Christian advocacy group The Family Leader from Iowa also attended the event.
The program, spearheaded by Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, uses a service called CarePortal, which allows people to submit requests for assistance. Nonprofits and faith groups can see those requests and respond. CarePortal is used in similar programs in other states.
Hope Florida also works with employers to help single parents find schedules that allow them to care for their kids and also with employers who can hire people with developmental disabilities.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 8, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Friday with a high near 77 degrees. It will gradually become sunnier as the day goes on. Friday night it will be clear, with a low of around 52 degrees.
All three of Iowa’s public universities have larger student bodies this fall than last — as of their official 10th-day census — including a small bump for the University of Northern Iowa, which has seen its enrollment trend down for more than a decade.
UNI’s total fall enrollment of 9,021 is up 72 students from last fall’s 8,949 — although it’s still below all of the previous falls dating to 1967 and well below its peak of 14,070 in 2001.
The University of Iowa also reported a slight total student body increase from 30,015 last fall to 30,042 this fall, as did Iowa State University — reporting 30,177 students, up 208 from last year’s 29,969.
ISU’s increase makes it — once again — the largest of Iowa’s three public universities, returning it to that position after UI enrollment surpassed that of the Ames campus last fall for the first time in a decade.
Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley told reporters Wednesday that “I have no question whatsoever” about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s health and ability to lead the caucus and broker passage of funding bills needed to avert a government shutdown.
McConnell, 81, has faced renewed questions about his health after freezing up twice during news conferences in the last two months since falling and suffering a concussion in March.
McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, was cleared to work by the Capitol’s attending physician, Dr. Brian Monahan. Monahan, in a letter released Tuesday by McConnell’s office, said there is no evidence the Senate GOP leader has a seizure disorder or experienced a stroke or a movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease.
McConnell is the longest-serving party leader in Senate history. Questions about his health have sparked intense speculation about who may eventually replace him.
A $43 million general obligation bond issue that would fund construction of a swimming pool and wellness center in the College Community School District that will be operated by the YMCA is heading to district voters Nov. 7.
The College Community school board unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday ordering an election after the district received 1,690 signatures — almost double what is required — to put the referendum on the ballot.
The bond also would fund an expansion of a wrestling practice room and convert existing gym space into an indoor batting facility at the new Ninth Grade Center — opening next fall — and an addition of a concession stand and ticket booth at John Wall Stadium.
The facility, if approved by voters with the district, could open as early as summer 2025.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 7, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 77 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area Thursday. It will be cloudy through mid morning, then the sky will gradually clear. The wind will be calm all day, with the low dropping down to 52 degrees.
A Linn County jury Wednesday convicted Brandon Lee Nelson for attempting to kill one police officer and pointing a gun at another after leading authorities on a high-speed chase on July 30, 2022.
The jury deliberated more than four hours following four and half days of trial. All jurors were polled, as requested by the defense, and all confirmed the 13 guilty verdicts.
The officers, Blair Klostermann Cavin and Matt Jenatscheck, who shot and injured Nelson after he pointed and aimed a shotgun at them, were in the courtroom for the verdict, along with a few family members and other Cedar Rapids officers.
Nelson, during testimony Tuesday, said he planned to have the police kill him because he was depressed over a breakup with his girlfriend and didn’t have the “courage” to kill himself. Nelson told the jury he had no intention of killing or harming the officers.
Nelson was hit three times before being downed by police at the scene. He discharged the shotgun once.
University of Iowa police are investigating a body found on campus Wednesday morning, although “the death is not believed to be suspicious.”
Emergency responders were called to the north patio of the Stanley Hydraulic Laboratory on Riverside Drive. at 7:15 a.m. Wednesday on a report of an unconscious and possibly deceased male, according to UI police. When they arrived, responders confirmed the death.
“Based on the preliminary investigation and assistance from the Johnson County Medical Examiner, the death is not believed to be suspicious,” according to police.
The individual, whose name was not released, isn’t a current student or employee, and the incident does not pose a threat to campus safety, authorities said.
Five current and former Iowa and Iowa State student-athletes have pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the state’s investigation into illegal sports betting, agreeing to pay a fine instead of risking jail time, according to court documents.
Current and former Iowa State University athletes Hunter Dekkers, Jake Remsburg and Dodge Sauser, and former University of Iowa athletes Aaron Blom and Gehrig Christensen, all have pleaded guilty to underage gambling.
That charge carries a $645 fine and no jail sentence. Previously, all five had been charged with tampering, an aggravated misdemeanor that can be punishable with a sentence of up to two years in jail.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 7, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 77 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area Thursday. It will be cloudy through mid morning, then the sky will gradually clear. The wind will be calm all day, with the low dropping down to 52 degrees.
A Linn County jury Wednesday convicted Brandon Lee Nelson for attempting to kill one police officer and pointing a gun at another after leading authorities on a high-speed chase on July 30, 2022.
The jury deliberated more than four hours following four and half days of trial. All jurors were polled, as requested by the defense, and all confirmed the 13 guilty verdicts.
The officers, Blair Klostermann Cavin and Matt Jenatscheck, who shot and injured Nelson after he pointed and aimed a shotgun at them, were in the courtroom for the verdict, along with a few family members and other Cedar Rapids officers.
Nelson, during testimony Tuesday, said he planned to have the police kill him because he was depressed over a breakup with his girlfriend and didn’t have the “courage” to kill himself. Nelson told the jury he had no intention of killing or harming the officers.
Nelson was hit three times before being downed by police at the scene. He discharged the shotgun once.
University of Iowa police are investigating a body found on campus Wednesday morning, although “the death is not believed to be suspicious.”
Emergency responders were called to the north patio of the Stanley Hydraulic Laboratory on Riverside Drive. at 7:15 a.m. Wednesday on a report of an unconscious and possibly deceased male, according to UI police. When they arrived, responders confirmed the death.
“Based on the preliminary investigation and assistance from the Johnson County Medical Examiner, the death is not believed to be suspicious,” according to police.
The individual, whose name was not released, isn’t a current student or employee, and the incident does not pose a threat to campus safety, authorities said.
Five current and former Iowa and Iowa State student-athletes have pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the state’s investigation into illegal sports betting, agreeing to pay a fine instead of risking jail time, according to court documents.
Current and former Iowa State University athletes Hunter Dekkers, Jake Remsburg and Dodge Sauser, and former University of Iowa athletes Aaron Blom and Gehrig Christensen, all have pleaded guilty to underage gambling.
That charge carries a $645 fine and no jail sentence. Previously, all five had been charged with tampering, an aggravated misdemeanor that can be punishable with a sentence of up to two years in jail.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 6, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it'll be mostly cloudy Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 75 degrees. It will also be breezy with a northwest wind of 10 - 20 mph with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Two athletes being investigated for illegal sports betting now face felony identity theft charges, the most serious counts filed to date in the ongoing state investigation of gambling on Iowa campuses.
Eyioma Uwazurike, a former Iowa State University football player and current member of the National Football League’s Denver Broncos, and Paniro Johnson, a current Iowa State wrestler, each have been charged with Class D felony identity theft, according to court documents filed in Story County.
In Iowa, a Class D felony carries punishments of up to five years in jail and a fine of between $750 and $7,500. Uwazurike and Johnson also still face an earlier charge of tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to both charges, and both are scheduled for separate jury trials at 9 a.m. Oct. 24 in Story County District Court.
The new identity theft charges, filed last week, allege Uwazurike and Johnson fraudulently used another person’s identifying information for their benefit in an amount exceeding $1,500. Court records in both men’s cases describe how they allegedly engaged with another individual to create accounts with sports betting companies and then placed bets from those accounts.
A Palo man accused of pushing an 8-year-old boy into a fire pit this weekend is also facing a trial on a charge that he assaulted his girlfriend in June.
According to a criminal complaint released Tuesday, the boy ran Saturday from the home that Christopher Wayne Maas, 42, was staying in on First Street in Palo. After reaching a nearby park, the boy told adults there that Maas, his mother’s boyfriend, had shoved him into a firepit, causing severe blistering to his face and shoulder.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office said it was looking for Mass, and he turned himself in Sunday at to Cedar Rapids police, where deputies took custody.
Maas was charged with child endangerment causing serious injury. He was released from the Linn County Jail on Tuesday after posting a $5,300 surety bond and a promise to appear in court Sept. 11.
Maas also is facing a previous charge in Linn County Court of assault causing bodily injury in relation to a June incident. He is accused of assaulting his girlfriend by dragging her off a bed, causing her to hit the back of her head on a bench, and slamming a car door in her face after he tried to drag her out of the vehicle, according to a criminal complaint
Former President Donald Trump will be among the thousands in Ames on Saturday to watch the annual Cy-Hawk football game.
Trump's campaign announced Tuesday he would attend the game, but did not say whether the former president and current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination would hold any public events while in Ames.
Kickoff for the game between the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones is set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 6, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it'll be mostly cloudy Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 75 degrees. It will also be breezy with a northwest wind of 10 - 20 mph with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Two athletes being investigated for illegal sports betting now face felony identity theft charges, the most serious counts filed to date in the ongoing state investigation of gambling on Iowa campuses.
Eyioma Uwazurike, a former Iowa State University football player and current member of the National Football League’s Denver Broncos, and Paniro Johnson, a current Iowa State wrestler, each have been charged with Class D felony identity theft, according to court documents filed in Story County.
In Iowa, a Class D felony carries punishments of up to five years in jail and a fine of between $750 and $7,500. Uwazurike and Johnson also still face an earlier charge of tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to both charges, and both are scheduled for separate jury trials at 9 a.m. Oct. 24 in Story County District Court.
The new identity theft charges, filed last week, allege Uwazurike and Johnson fraudulently used another person’s identifying information for their benefit in an amount exceeding $1,500. Court records in both men’s cases describe how they allegedly engaged with another individual to create accounts with sports betting companies and then placed bets from those accounts.
A Palo man accused of pushing an 8-year-old boy into a fire pit this weekend is also facing a trial on a charge that he assaulted his girlfriend in June.
According to a criminal complaint released Tuesday, the boy ran Saturday from the home that Christopher Wayne Maas, 42, was staying in on First Street in Palo. After reaching a nearby park, the boy told adults there that Maas, his mother’s boyfriend, had shoved him into a firepit, causing severe blistering to his face and shoulder.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office said it was looking for Mass, and he turned himself in Sunday at to Cedar Rapids police, where deputies took custody.
Maas was charged with child endangerment causing serious injury. He was released from the Linn County Jail on Tuesday after posting a $5,300 surety bond and a promise to appear in court Sept. 11.
Maas also is facing a previous charge in Linn County Court of assault causing bodily injury in relation to a June incident. He is accused of assaulting his girlfriend by dragging her off a bed, causing her to hit the back of her head on a bench, and slamming a car door in her face after he tried to drag her out of the vehicle, according to a criminal complaint
Former President Donald Trump will be among the thousands in Ames on Saturday to watch the annual Cy-Hawk football game.
Trump's campaign announced Tuesday he would attend the game, but did not say whether the former president and current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination would hold any public events while in Ames.
Kickoff for the game between the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones is set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Tues., Sept. 5.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny and hot today, with a high near 95, and heat index values as high as 100. we’ll have a 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5 p.m. Then tonight, a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m., with a low around 66.
The real estate owner at the center of multiple lawsuits over the collapsed building in Davenport has filed suit against the engineering firm that inspected the building. Andrew Wold, whose Davenport Hotel LLC owned the apartment building at 324 Main St., is accusing Select Structural Engineering, a company that inspected the building in the months before the collapse, of several things, including negligence and breach of contract. “At no time did Select Structural opine that the defects in the west wall would require an evacuation of the building,” Wold’s suit states. “To the contrary, Select Structural expressly stated that the Davenport Hotel was not in danger of collapse and that no evacuation was necessary.” Select has not yet answered the allegations in Wold’s suit. The new suit was filed last Thursday as part of an answer to another suit in which Wold, Davenport Hotel LLC and Select are among the defendants, according to Scott County court records. The May 28 partial collapse of the building at 324 N. Main St. occurred in the center of the west side of the six-story structure and involved every floor. Three people died, another lost a leg and many people lost their homes and property.
A vehicle traveling on Interstate 380 in Buchanan County Monday morning went off the roadway at a bridge, crashed onto the road below, and burst into flames, causing the death of one inside the vehicle. According to the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office, at approximately 6:25 a.m., several 911 callers reported details about the fiery crash witnessed at 330th Street below I-380, east of Brandon. The name of the person killed has not yet been released. Authorities closed 330th Street underneath I-380 but the entrance and exit ramps for the interstate remained open as they continued their investigation. The closure was expected to last for several hours.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 4, 2023.
It’s going to be a hot one for your Labor Day. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 96 degrees. There will be a bit of a breeze, with a wind of 5 to 15 mph gusting as high as 25 mph.
In tallying up assets for its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing — adding together everything from investments and real estate to office furniture and petty cash — Mercy Iowa City is reporting it’s “doubtful’ or perhaps even impossible for them to collect $161.7 million in patient account receivables.
That nearly $162 million is out of $189 million in currently owed patient fees for services billed or rendered — which could include charges not just to patients, but to insurance providers or government payers.
“The health care industry practice is to state accounts receivable at the gross value of the charges,” Mercy officials told The Gazette when asked about the many millions it won’t collect “Contractual reductions by commercial and government payers, charitable care, and uncollected bad debt substantially reduce the cash collected by the provider/hospital.”
Still, Mercy acknowledged that a deeply flawed rollout of an updated electronic medical record system in March 2022 “created significant operational problems,” including challenges with coding, billing and collecting for patient services.
“Mercy continues to work through the poor implementation of its IT system that negatively impacted its cash collections,” officials said.
We have much more detail on Mercy Iowa City’s recent bankruptcy in the Gazette or on thegazette.com
A Palo man turned himself in to authorities after they said he pushed a juvenile into a fire pit, causing severe burns.
According to a Linn County Sheriff’s Office news release, deputies were dispatched at 10:35 a.m. Saturday to a splash pad in Palo after receiving a report of a juvenile with severe burns to his head and shoulder. The callers said he had come from 1003 First St. in Palo.
After investigating, deputies determined the juvenile — whose age was not released — had gotten the burns when a man had shoved him into a fire pit, according to the news release. Deputies believe that man was Christopher Wayne Maas, 42, of Palo.
Linn County deputies searched the home at 1003 First St. but were unable to find Maas. According to a news release, Maas turned himself in to Cedar Rapids police and was taken into custody by Linn County deputies.
Maas was booked in the Linn County Jail on charges of child endangerment causing bodily injury and interference with official acts. The incident remains under investigation.
The Cedar Rapids Fire Department was called to the scene of a crash in northwest Cedar Rapids Friday night after a stolen car, which was being pursued by police, crashed into a home.
Cedar Rapids police were called to 4515 Martin Ct. NW at 11:24 p.m. Friday on a report there had been a burglary and a vehicle — identified in court filings as a Toyota Scion tC — was stolen. According to a news release issued by the police department, officers located the stolen car being driven in the area.
When officers attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver — Robert William Becker, 37 — lost control and crashed into the house at 909 Wiley Blvd. NW, the release states. Becker reportedly fled the scene, but was apprehended.
Becker has been charged with second-degree theft, in addition to a variety of eluding charges.
This episode was produced by Bailey Cichon and features the following stories from The Gazette:
Dive into Labor Day weekend at Eastern Iowa pools, splash pads by Diana Nollen
Nearly 60% of Iowa beaches had swim warnings this summer by Erin Jordan
Meth traffickers sentenced for bringing 'astronomical quantities' to Iowa by Trish Mehaffey
For the latest news from The Gazette, visit thegazette.com.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 1, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday with a high near 87 degrees. On Friday evening there will be clear skies, with a low of around 59 degrees.
No one was injured in a Thursday afternoon fire at the University of Iowa’s Iowa Advanced Technology Lab.
The fire at the lab, 205 N. Madison St., was quickly extinguished and the damage to the building is not expected to impact day-to-day operations, according to a UI news release.
The fire was reported at 1:07 p.m.
When University of Iowa police, UI Fire Safety and the Iowa City Fire Department arrived, people were evacuating the building and pointed the public safety officials to the southwest side of the building, where smoke was coming out of stainless-steel wall panels.
An estimate of the damage is not yet available, and an investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
A body pulled last week from the Cedar River has been identified as Kevin Finch, 53, who authorities said died of natural causes.
A city public safety news release said the last known address for Finch was in Ankeny, but did not say why his body was discovered here.
An autopsy performed by the state medical examiner showed no foul play was suspected in Finch’s death, according to the news release.
All ramps of the Interstate 80 and Interstate 380 interchange opened Wednesday afternoon for the first time in years as the major road project nears completion.
The Iowa Department of Transportation announced the good news for drivers on electronic signs leading up to the interchange.
The $387 million interchange project, which began in 2018, replaced the cloverleaf loops with directional ramps. Iowa DOT widened I-80 on both sides of the interchange, I-380 north of I-80 and Highway 218 south of I-80.
The department expects the makeover to reduce crashes and traffic delays on highways that will see increasing car and semi traffic, officials said last week at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Crews still are working on median barriers and installing permanent striping and rumble strips. But the Iowa DOT — and Johnson County officials — wanted to get all the ramps open before Friday’s FRYfest in Coralville and before Saturday’s Hawkeye football season opener.
NewBo City Market is preparing to undergo a $2.5 million project that would provide more space for businesses, a grocery store, a stage and a mezzanine that would become a stronger incubator for local entrepreneurs, artists and farmers.
The planned work at the market — a central community gathering space that developed after the devastating 2008 flood — still is in the early stages, according to Julie Parisi, the market’s executive director.
But the vision has been over a year in the making to make improvements that fuel tourism and enhance the market’s role as a community hub.
The new mezzanine would be built over about one-third of the north end of the market space, where seating is now located. Seating and event space will be moved onto the mezzanine.
That will open an additional 3,000 square feet of business incubation space on the first floor for up to 10 businesses, a farm-to-table grocery store and an indoor stage to incubate local performing artists.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 31, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 81 degrees on Thursday. On Thursday evening it should be clear, with a low near 52 degrees.
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will not reinstate COVID-19 restrictions as hospitalizations across the state increase and cases of a new coronavirus variant prompt masking requirements and other restrictions to reemerge at some colleges and businesses in other parts of the country.
In a statement issued by her office Wednesday, Reynolds said "concerned Iowans have been calling my office asking whether the same could happen here. My answer — not on my watch."
In recent weeks, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have been on the rise across the United States. This comes as the omicron variant EG. 5, recently designated as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization, became the newly dominant variant in the country.
The World Health Organization said it has not seen evidence of an increase in the severity of illness under omicron variant EG.5, but the appearance of a new "highly mutated" variant dubbed BA.2.86 — which the Washington Post reports threatens to be the most adept yet at evading the body's immune response — has raised questions among virologists and health officials about what the coming months could hold.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has appealed a recent district court decision that would allow certain voting materials to be printed in languages other than English.
In a statement, Bird — a Republican — said the move is an effort to “protect election integrity and defend state law.”
The appeal follows a June court decision in which a district court judge ruled that county election officials could provide voters with non-English voter materials, like registration forms.
“The Iowa English Language Reaffirmation Act is clear; all official documents are to be written in English — including voter registration forms,” Bird said in a statement. “We look forward to arguing our case in court to uphold the Act and secure the integrity of our elections.”
The June decision overruled a long-standing interpretation of Iowa law that barred the state and counties from providing voter registration forms and other materials in languages other than English. The lawsuit was brought by the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa against Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, the Iowa Voter Registration Commission and four county auditors.
The Supreme Court will either take up the appeal or send it to the state Court of Appeals to decide.
A Hiawatha man was sentenced to two and a half years in prison Monday on federal charges that he left threatening voicemail messages threatening to lynch an Arizona county election official and the Arizona Attorney General
Mark A. Rissi, 64, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of sending a threatening interstate communication.
Despite the Justice Department’s request for a 24-month sentence, U.S. District Judge Dominic Lanza, a Trump nominee, sentenced Rissi to 30 months in prison.
In court on Monday, Rissi’s attorney, Anthony...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 30, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Wednesday with a high near 81 degrees. It will be clear Wednesday evening with a low of around 49 degrees.
Witnesses testified Tuesday they saw a North Liberty teen driving a sport utility vehicle hit a jogger — “flipping him up in the air,” one said — as the jogger ran across a marked crosswalk on Melrose Avenue and Kennedy Parkway in Iowa City.
Three witnesses said the SUV, driven by Jonathan J.F. McCaffery, 16 at the time, didn’t slow down May 22 until the vehicle hit the jogger, Cory Hite, 45, of Cedar Rapids, in the crosswalk. There is no stop sign or signal at the crosswalk, but there is a sign warning drivers in advance of the walkway.
Police officers who testified Tuesday said they determined that McCaffery could not have stopped in time to avoid the collision with Hite.
Sixth Judicial District Magistrate Mark Neary heard testimony during a bench — or non jury — trial Tuesday and will file his written ruling later. McCaffery didn’t attend the hearing. He waived his personal appearance, which was granted by the judge, as long as he stipulated he was the driver in the fatal crash.
Of the 131 dogs removed Thursday, nine have died, officials said Tuesday.
Eight dogs died from health issues, including heat stroke and canine parvovirus. The other was “euthanized because of temperament issues related to ongoing pain and the neglect endured prior to being in our care,” according to Lee Hermiston, the public safety information officer for Iowa City.
The dogs were surrendered to Iowa City Animal Services after an inspection of the puppy farm, 3027 540th St. SW, near Riverside, by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Inspectors found the dogs on the property were being kept in hot, dirty conditions, and many of the dogs were in a “state of distress.”
Some of the dogs taken from the farm are being kept at the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center, and others are being housed at other locations in Iowa City. Animal services was able to borrow several dog pens from Cedar County, and other supplies were donated by community members after news about the dogs was reported.
The Bissell Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports animal welfare, is taking 60 of the dogs to an adoption agency in Michigan on Wednesday, and 30 of the dogs will go to other adoption agencies
The Iowa City Public Library was evacuated Tuesday afternoon after receiving a bomb threat, according to a Facebook post from the library.
The threat was received around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Iowa City Police Department responded and the library was evacuated out of an abundance of caution, according to the police department. The library stayed closed for the rest of the day Tuesday.
“We understand that this situation may cause concern and inconvenience to our patrons. Please know that we are doing everything we can to address the situation as quickly and safely as possible,” the Facebook post stated.
The library is scheduled to be open Wednesday with regular hours, according to the post.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 29 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny, with a high near 87 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday. The low will clock in at around 56 degrees.
A motorcyclist who was involved in a crash on Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids last week has died in the hospital from injuries related to the crash.
Ramius Hardiman, 30, of Cedar Rapids, was injured on Tuesday, Aug. 22 when he rear-ended an SUV on I-380. Cedar Rapids police told The Gazette last week that Hardiman’s injuries were not life-threatening, but a news release issued by the department Monday morning states that the motorcyclist has now died.
Hardiman was reportedly spee ding for several miles before colliding with the SUV. The occupants of the SUV were not injured.
The interstate was closed for more than two hours Tuesday after the crash, which happened just before 5 p.m., causing a large backup of traffic.
Hardiman was arrested in 2010, when he was 17, on charges of vehicular homicide after a crash on Nov. 8, 2010 that killed 17-year-old Jose Mendoza. The counts alleged Hardiman was operating a vehicle, in which Mendoza was a passenger, under the influence of alcohol and that he was driving recklessly when the car rolled and hit a utility pole in the 3300 block of Cottage Grove Avenue SE, Cedar Rapids.
The city of Cedar Rapids has opened a new skatepark. And, as with many things in the downtown area, the park has been cleverly worked into the city’s massive flood protection system.
Last weekend the city opened the facility, in the park at 1501 A St. SW, after building a detention basin as part of its permanent flood control system. The skatepark is now entirely made of concrete and features 28 obstacles — a variety of quarterpipes, wedges, ledges and more.
The reopening comes after the city demolished the original skatepark at Riverside Park.
The city replaced elements of the skatepark with concrete instead of steel parts, in line with current standards. California-based Spohn Ranch, a global skatepark designer, worked on the new design along with Alburnett-based Pirc-Tobin Construction.
Stage two of the Rochester Avenue reconstruction project is nearly complete, the city of Iowa City announced last week.
Stage two has included work on Rochester Avenue between Rochester Court and Rita Lyn Court. Paving was scheduled to start last week.
Once paving is complete, sidewalks and driveways between the two streets will be installed. This work is anticipated to wrap up in mid-September, which is when the project area will open to traffic.
Until then, drivers should still use the detour of First Avenue, Court Street and Seventh Avenue.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 28, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny Monday with a high near 84 degrees. It looks at first blush like it will be nice through Thursday, with it heating back up above 90 degrees on Friday.
More than 100 dogs were surrendered last week to Iowa City Animal Services after an investigation of a dog breeder in rural Johnson County, according to a news release from Iowa City Animal Services.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship performed a random inspection Thursday at Sunset Valley Farm, 3027 540th St. SW near Riverside, which found the 131 dogs on the property were being kept in hot, dirty conditions, and many of the dogs were in a “state of distress.”
According to the report, the exhaust fan in the whelping building — where the dogs give birth — was not running when the unannounced inspection started. With the exhaust fan running, the indoor temperature was still 91 degrees Fahrenheit, with 64 percent humidity.
The whelping area was not clean, and nearly all the 16 female dogs and pups were found with matted coats and dirty fur.
Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel said no arrests have been made, but the investigation at the dog breeding operation is ongoing.
Loren Yoder, the owner of the farm, was cited multiple times by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022. A call to Yoder Friday afternoon requesting comment was not returned.
The Iowa City Animal Shelter has been asking for donations from the community over the weekend to help care for the dogs. Their most recent request of Sunday night was for a freestanding, outdoor kennel.Measuring at least 6x8' and have a gate.They also were asking for canned wet food.
You can check with the Iowa City Animal Shelter what their latest needs are on Facebook or by calling 319-356-5295.
Drivers will be happy to know the massive reconstruction of the Interstate 80/380 interchange is ahead of schedule and nearing completion.
The goal is to get the last two ramps open by the end of the month, Hugh Holak, resident construction engineer with the Iowa Department of Transportation, told The Gazette.
Those two ramps are the Highway 218 northbound ramp to I-80 westbound and the I-80 westbound ramp to Highway 218’s southbound ramp.
The remaining work on the ramps includes shoulder grading, signage and other finishing work, Holak said.
Opening the ramps by the end of August, he said, should help traffic flow over the Labor Day weekend and for FRYfest in Coralville and Hawkeye football games.
The $387 million interchange project, one of Iowa DOT's top priorities, is at the junction of I-80, I-380 and Highway 218 in Johnson County.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 26th, and Sunday, August 27th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures on Saturday will be partly sunny, with a high near 83, cooling to a low around 54 Saturday evening.
Sunday will be sunny, with a high near 81. Sunday night will remain clear, with a low around 57.
Bondholders, bankruptcy trustee seek slowdown in Mercy hospital sale
Although Mercy Iowa City wants an expeditious sale of its assets — after the 150-year-old hospital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month — its bondholders and creditors this week asked a judge to tap the brakes to give them time for due diligence and to maximize the “value of the sale.”
“(Mercy’s) proposed bidding procedures are premised upon an exceptionally abridged timeline,” the hospital’s primary bondholders argued in court filings Thursday, referencing Mercy’s request for a Sept. 19 deadline for other bids to compete with the University of Iowa’s $20 million opening offer.
Chief Judge Thad Collins on Friday agreed to move a hearing on the timeline and sale process from Aug. 31 to Sept. 13 — which is just a week before the Sept. 19 bid deadline Mercy wants him to approve.
Mercy didn’t object to the new hearing date, but Mercy attorney Dan Simon said his client still will be pushing for an expedited process.
Extreme drought develops in northeast Iowa
Drought conditions in Iowa have worsened amid a lack of rainfall and a heat wave that has stretched for days.
A large area of extreme drought has developed in several northeast Iowa counties, according to a U.S. Drought Monitor weekly report on Thursday. That is the second-worst classification of four the agency uses to denote drought conditions.
The counties included in the new severe drought classification include Black Hawk, Grundy, Butler, Bremer, Chickasaw, Floyd, and a small eastern portion of Allamakee County.
The typically wettest months of the year have passed, and relatively heavy rainfall in the first half of August did little to improve the drought in Iowa. That led the federal Climate Prediction Center to reverse its rosier outlook for drought and predict that a similar dryness will persist in the state for the next two months.
About 47 percent of the state’s topsoil had sufficient moisture for growing crops as of Sunday, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
President Biden approves Iowa disaster declaration for Mississippi River flood damage
President Joe Biden on Friday approved a disaster declaration and relief for seven Iowa counties that sustained a combined estimated $6.3 million in damages from spring flooding along the Mississippi River.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds requested the major disaster declaration earlier this month. Rapid snow melt caused severe flooding in the seven Iowa counties between April 24 and May 13, resulting in significant damage to public infrastructure and private property.
Seven gauges measuring river height along the Iowa side of the river broke top five record crests.
The declaration makes available federal funding to state, tribal, and eligible local governments and certain nonprofits on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by flooding in Allamakee, Clayton, Des Moines, Dubuque, Jackson, Lee, and Scott counties.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 255, 2023.
The hot air is finally moving on–Slowly. According to the National Weather Service it will be a comparatively cooler 94 degrees on Friday, with highs in the 80s predicted starting on the weekend. There will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms throughout the day.
The Johnson County Board of Supervisors is likely to provide public funding for emergency contraception for victims of sexual assault and rape as a state program remains in limbo.
The move comes as more than 160 reimbursement requests for emergency contraception provided to sexual assault survivors from across the state are pending approval from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
According to records obtained by The Gazette, and first reported by Iowa Public Radio, the reimbursement requests from hospitals and pharmacies across the state total about $7,000. The vast majority are from this year, but one dates to August 2020. One is coded as confirmed child abuse.
Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird paused the funding as part of an audit of the victim services administered through her office. Bird announced the audit upon taking office in January.
However, it was not until early April that sexual assault response teams and other victim advocacy organizations learned of the policy change after her office confirmed it to the media, according to interviews and emails obtained by The Gazette under a public records request.
A fire at Iowa State University’s power plant Thursday disrupted the campus’ cooling system, compelling instructors to move classes online — or cancel them altogether — and prompting administrators to encourage on-campus residents to head home for the weekend.
As a result of the fire, reported at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, classes for the remainder of day and Friday were moved online or canceled.
Students were instructed to check their email and class communication channels for further direction from instructors and professors.
Six people were injured Wednesday after an anhydrous ammonia tank exploded at an agricultural cooperative facility in Manchester.
The city on Manchester initially reported on Facebook that three anhydrous ammonia tanks had exploded at the Three River FS facility, 1000 S Fifth St., but Manchester Fire Chief Mike Ryan said Thursday that only one tank exploded.
Other nearby tanks were pushed around by the force of the explosion, causing minor leaks in two other tanks.
The Manchester Fire Department was called at 2:07 p.m. Wednesday, Ryan said.
No injuries were reported at the scene, but six people were later transported in personal vehicles to the Regional Medical Center in Manchester to be treated for injuries related to the explosion, according to Delaware County Emergency Management.
Anhydrous ammonia, as a liquid, is a widely used source of nitrogen fertilizer. Its fumes, if inhaled, can cause lung irritation and respiratory problems, according to state websites.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 24, 2023.
There will be one more day at or near 100 degree peak Thursday before we head back down the temperature slope again. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 102 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area.
Although most schools and universities in the area have air conditioning to deal with the heat, that doesn’t necessarily account for living arrangements.
Of UNI’s six traditional halls, three apartment-style halls and one suite-style hall, six — including Dancer — don’t have air-conditioning.
Of Iowa State University’s 20 residence halls, half include rooms that aren’t air-conditioned — meaning about one-third of ISU’s thousands of on-campus residents are sleeping in the excessive heat.
Although all the 11 University of Iowa residence halls are equipped with air, the campus has shared safety information with students, warned that departments holding events might need to “make decisions” and said officials are “closely monitoring the high heat indices.”
The ISU Department of Residence has made cooled dorm dens available around the clock and disseminated other tips on how to stay comfortable and on where to go to get out of the heat. ISU has made available a supply of fans at residence hall front desks for students to check out.
“Here are some tips,” according to a message ISU Housing posted on Instagram. “Go swimming at State Gym. Go to the library. Veteran dorm residents: what are your favorite tips for staying cool during the first couple weeks?”
“Please put AC in all the dorms,” one person replied, echoing several other comments.
A motorcycle that crashed into the rear of a sport utility vehicle was what caused a massive backup Tuesday afternoon on northbound Interstate 380, according to police.
Officers were called to the scene at 4:52 p.m. Tuesday on I-380 near the Seventh Street NE exit, on the S-curve through downtown. A motorcyclist heading north had rear-ended an SUV traveling in the same direction, throwing the driver from the motorcycle.
The motorcyclist was taken to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries, police said. No other injuries were reported. The crash remains under investigation and charges are pending, according to the police department.
Several housing projects in the Corridor will get a boost from workforce housing tax credits recently awarded by the state — adding 458 residential units in the area, with Cedar Rapids projects driving the influx of housing.
Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Economic Development Authority recently announced $38 million in workforce housing tax credits across 59 statewide housing projects, supporting the creation of more than 2,000 residential units in Iowa, according to a news release.
Six Cedar Rapids projects were awarded $3.4 million combined, supporting 320 new housing units — more than any other city received in value, and equal to Des Moines in number of projects.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 23, 2023.
The heat continues. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Wednesday with a high near 103 degrees. Heat index values could rise as high as 115.
Expect the extreme heat to hang around at least through Thursday.
The meteorological reason behind the heat wave is similar to that behind the heat dome that trapped much of the nation in late July. There’s a high-pressure air mass currently centered over southern Iowa that encompasses most of the central U.S. It’s trapping hot summer air underneath, scorching communities.
Eastern Iowa schools are preparing for the extremely hot temperatures — announcing early releases and stocking water bottles on buses — as students start heading back to school Wednesday.
Cedar Rapids Community Schools will be dismissing middle and high school students at 10:50 a.m. and elementary school students at 11:50 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday. College Community and Linn-Mar school districts will have a three-hour early dismissal both days.
Iowa City Community Schools are planning no early dismissals.
Outdoor events are also experiencing delays. Taste of Iowa City, an annual culinary street event hosted by the Iowa City Downtown District, is postponing the popular celebration. Originally set for Aug. 23, will now be held on Tuesday, Aug. 29, from 4 to 8 p.m.
Iowa will receive more than $171 million in additional payments from tobacco manufacturers under a new agreement announced Tuesday by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird that resolves an 18-year legal dispute.
Bird announced Iowa is set to receive an additional $136 million in April 2024, with the rest disbursed annually from 2025 to 2029.
Under Iowa law, 78 percent of the payments will pay down the State’s debt to bondholders and the remainder will be deposited in the State Treasury's Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund.
The settlement resolves a long-standing dispute between the state and tobacco companies over annual payments owed under a 1998 agreement among 46 states and four major tobacco industry manufacturers.
Iowa was one of nine states that was still litigating its dispute in slow-moving arbitration over the payments, which had been unresolved for more than 18 years.
A North Liberty teenager cited for a traffic violation in a May 22 crash that resulted in the death of an Iowa National Guard soldier is asking the court to waive his personal appearance at his trial set to start next week in Johnson County.
Jonathan J.F. McCaffery, 17, waived his right to appear during the bench — or non-jury — trial, which he can do for a simple misdemeanor. He previously pleaded not guilty to failure to yield to a pedestrian in the right of way, according to court documents.
McCaffery will appear next Tuesday through his attorney, Joseph Moreland, at trial, according to the motion filed Friday.
McCaffery, who was 16 at the time of the crash, goes by the name Jack. He is the son of University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 22, 2023.
Monday was hot. Tuesday will be even hotter. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny and hot Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 101 degrees. Head index values could get as high as 118.
After months of turmoil with closings and reopenings, the iconic Hamburg Inn No. 2 was purchased last week by a group of local investors and is expected to reopen this fall.
The restaurant at 214 N. Linn St. closed in July for the second time in a year. It will reopen in October under new management.
New owner Gold Cap Hospitality, which owns Pullman Bar & Diner and St. Burch Tavern in Iowa City, hopes to keep the staple’s cultural importance intact “with the intention of stewarding the next generation of this Iowa City institution,” the company said in a news release.
“After almost 90 years, The Burg needs some fixing up. We’re taking stock of the things that are broken along with the things that aren’t,” said Nate Kaeding, founding partner and lead strategist at Gold Cap Hospitality
Flanked by National Guard soldiers, an armored Humvee and law enforcement, Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday attacked Democratic President Joe Biden's border policies, blaming him for record-high crossings, humanitarian concerns and an increase in fentanyl coming into the United States.
Reynolds joined fellow Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas, Jim Pillen of Nebraska, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma and Kristi Noem of South Dakota for a news conference in Eagle Pass, Texas, where that state installed a 1,000-foot-long floating barrier in July as part of a $4 billion border security initiative, Operation Lone Star.
Reynolds criticized President Biden for reversing border control policies put into place by former president Donald Trump, saying it has now made every state effectively a border state.
“Certainly, not to the extent that Texas is experiencing. But, let me tell you, Iowa is located at the intersection of two major interstates, and it is a pathway for the Mexican cartel and human traffickers to take to go from Mexico to the Midwest.”
Since 2020, Iowa has seen a 500 percent increase in the amount of fentanyl seized, a 100 percent increase in meth seized and a 35 percent increase in drug-related deaths. Much of it can be traced back to Mexican drug cartels, Reynolds said.
A new pair of Iowa polls, both regular and straw, show former President Donald Trump with a commanding lead over the expansive field of Republican candidates for president.
Trump’s advantage roughly five months out from the Republican Iowa caucuses, the first state nominating contest in next year’s presidential selection process, showed up over the weekend in both the Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll, and the Iowa Secretary of State’s State Fair Straw Poll.
In the Iowa Poll, Trump was the choice of 42 percent of likely Iowa Republican caucus participants, a full 23 percentage points ahead of the next-highest polling candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 19 percent.
Trump was also the choice of 42.5 percent of participants in the State Fair Straw Poll, which is an unscientific survey that is available to everyone at the Iowa State Fair, regardless of voter registration status, age or even residence. The poll is featured at the Iowa Secretary of State’s booth during the fair.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 21, 2023.
It’ll be hot again Monday. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny on Monday with a high near 94 degrees. On Monday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 73 degrees.
Cedar Rapids police and fire personnel recovered a body from the Cedar River on Sunday afternoon.
According to a city news release, police and firefighters received a report of a body floating in the river around 2:30 p.m.
Responding officers found a man’s body floating along the west bank of the river between the Ellis boat ramp and I Avenue boat ramp. Firefighters used a boat to recover the body just before 3:30 p.m.
Officials don’t yet know the identity of the dead man. An investigation is underway.
A section of sidewalk on Third Avenue in downtown Cedar Rapids was closed Saturday morning after bricks fell from the facade of a four-story building and landed on the sidewalk.
The falling bricks landed adjacent to the Granby building, 218 2nd St. SE, according to a news release from the city of Cedar Rapids. The incident was reported at approximately 7:25 a.m. Saturday, shortly before the Downtown Cedar Rapids Farmers Market opened. No injuries were reported, according to the city.
Using a Cedar Rapids Fire Department ladder truck, crews inspected the building’s exterior and removed other loose materials. The city’s Buildings Services Department was notified. A preliminary inspection indicated the bricks fell from the facade.
A Cedar Rapids man was sentenced Friday to 30 months in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Leo Christopher Kelly, 37, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on seven offenses, including obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony, and six misdemeanors.
According to court documents and evidence presented during Kelly’s May trial, Kelly was one of the few rioters who breached the Senate Chamber. While there, Kelly ascended the Senate Dais, leafed through sensitive documents and took photos of them, the DOJ reported.
Kelly’s video showed him joining other rioters in challenging police, the news release states.
Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Kelly to 30 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release. Kelly must pay $7,000 in restitution and fines.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 19th, and Sunday, August 20th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures on Saturday will be sunny, with a high near 92, cooling to a low around 71 Saturday evening.
Sunday will be sunny and hot with a high of 98. Sunday night will be partly cloudy, with a low around 72.
Education savings accounts a ‘catalyst’ for new private schools, according to an administrator
It’s likely more private schools will be opening in Iowa in the coming years, a private school administrator said Friday.
The education savings accounts program passed by Republican lawmakers and Gov. Kim Reynolds this year created an opportunity for new private schools to start up across the state, Josh Bowar, the head of Sioux Center Christian School and the interim outreach coordinator for the Iowa Association of Christian Schools, said during the taping of this weekend’s episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.
He said his organization has been in touch with at least 20 groups who are looking to open new Christian schools in the coming years because education savings accounts — valued at $7,600 per student for the coming school year — have increased the potential for the schools to attract students.
More than 18,000 Iowa students were approved for the coming school year for the savings accounts to attend private school. About 60 percent of those students already attend private school, while about 40 percent are coming from public schools.
Cedar Rapids man sentenced for role in Jan. 6 insurrection
A Cedar Rapids man was sentenced Friday to 30 months in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Leo Christopher Kelly, 37, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on seven offenses, including obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony, and six misdemeanors.
According to court documents and evidence presented during Kelly’s May trial, Kelly was one of the few rioters who breached the Senate Chamber. While there, Kelly ascended the Senate Dais, leafed through sensitive documents and took photos of them, the DOJ reported.
Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Kelly to 30 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release. Kelly must pay $7,000 in restitution and fines.
In the 31 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,100 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Marion traffic cameras now working at 2 intersections
Traffic cameras at two intersections in Marion have been installed and officially went live Friday for a 30-day warning period, according to a news release from the city of Marion.
The cameras are at the intersection of Highway 100 and East Post Road and the intersection of Highways 13 and 151.
The original goal was to have them up and running by July 1, but the city hit a delay with permitting on signage for the cameras, according to the police department.
Drivers caught on camera going more than 11 mph over the speed limit or running a red light will receive a warning in the mail for the first 30 days the cameras are live.
After that, violations will result in a citation mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 18, 2023.
The haze is returning Friday and lingering into the weekend. According to the National Weather Service there will be widespread haze before 8 a.m. in Eastern Iowa. Besides that it will be sunny with a high near 84 degrees.
In addition to the lingering haze, it’s also going to be hot, with temperatures forecast in the mid- to upper 90s Saturday through at least Tuesday and possibly later into next week.
Though temperatures are expected to be in the mid- to upper 90s in the Cedar Rapids area, the high humidity will push the heat index, or the “feels like” temperature, above 100 degrees.
The University of Iowa could soon receive “some feedback” from the NCAA about the “reinstatement process” for athletes caught up in this summer’s sports gambling investigations, interim athletics director Beth Goetz said Thursday.
“We're optimistic that we are just hopefully days away, perhaps, from getting some feedback at least initially on what that means for our student-athletes who currently are here and have remaining eligibility,” Goetz said in a news conference.
What exactly that “feedback” will entail is unclear.
The NCAA released updated guidelines earlier this summer suggesting athletes who bet on their own team or own school “will potentially face permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports.”
Those who bet on a different team in their sport could potentially lose eligibility for 50 percent of a season, according to the guidelines
It was the first news conference for the 49-year-old athletics director — the only woman AD in the Big Ten.
Goetz said she wants to be “great partners” with the Swarm Collective, which raises money via name, image and likeness for Hawkeye football and basketball athletes. This is a sharp contrast from predecessor Gary Barta’s frosty relationship with the collective.
Goetz wishes she “knew the exact answer” to what athlete compensation will look like down the road, but she thinks “college athletics needs to evolve.”
“We can provide greater resource, greater revenue opportunities — whether that's within or outside the athletic department — and still embed this experience with the components that tie it to education and make it different than pro sports,” Goetz said.
The deep-fried bacon brisket mac-n-cheese grilled cheese sandwich — a gooey, crispy, dense bomb of flavor from What’s Your Cheez — this week won the Best New Food award at the State Fair.
More than 8,000 people voted from three options to crown the winner, and 47 percent of votes were for the deep fried sandwich.
The other top options were the “Iowa Twinkie” from Watcha Smokin’ BBQ & Brew — a bacon-wrapped stuffed jalapeno pepper — and the “Grinder Ball” — a blend of bacon balls and mozzarella cheese, wrapped in bacon.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 17, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 80 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday. On Thursday evening there will be clear skies, with a low of around 53 degrees.
The city of Iowa City is looking at whether changes in property regulations can increase affordable housing and improve housing choice in the community as demand grows.
Zoning code plays a factor in affordable housing by allowing a diversity of options, which is why staff is presenting the five changes.
The goals of the proposed amendments include increasing housing supply and the diversity of housing options, incentivizing development of income-restricted affordable housing and addressing fair housing issues.
During Tuesday’s City Council work session, city staff presented five proposed changes to the zoning code that are intended to increase housing supply and diversity of housing options. Since it was a work session and not a formal meeting, council members asked questions and shared general thoughts, but couldn’t share their positions until a public hearing is closed.
An analysis looking at residential development in 2022 found if residential growth continues at the current pace, the demand will not be able to keep up with housing supply. The city will be able to accommodate less than 6,300 new residents by 2030, compared with a projected demand of 10,240.
The council will hold a public hearing on the proposed changes during its Sept. 19 meeting, which also will include the first consideration of the amendments.
Collins Aerospace has been awarded a $24 million contract for production and delivery of electric generators with containers to the U.S. Army’s Anniston Depot in Alabama.
The Collins’ generators deliver 50 percent more onboard power to the M1A2 Main Battle Tank, enhancing the tanks’ survivability and reliability, Collins said in a news release.
The Collins-designed generators fit in the same space as the legacy system without requiring major changes to the tanks or their existing electrical systems.
Collins Aerospace is the largest employer in Cedar Rapids, with nearly 7,000 of its 9,000 Iowa employees based in the city.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 16, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 86 degrees. Wednesday evening it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 67 degrees. It will be a bit breezy throughout the day, increasing as the day goes on.
Fire and law enforcement crews found a body near a house that exploded Monday morning in rural Buckingham, according to the Tama County Sheriff’s Office.
First responders were called to the house, at 1117 W Ave. rural Buckingham, at 10:14 a.m. Monday for reports of a possible explosion.
Law enforcement and fire officials determined the house had been destroyed by an apparent explosion. One resident told the Waterloo Courier that the explosion could be heard 6 or 7 miles away.
The body, which was discovered near the home, was taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny for examination and identification, according to a sheriff’s news release.
Officials have not released additional information about the identity of the deceased or the cause of the explosion.
In court filings Monday, major Mercy Iowa City investor Preston Hollow Community Capital — along with the master trustee of its debt — said the hospital “threw in the towel” and filed for bankruptcy protection without consulting them. They contend in their filing that should a “below-market” offer from the University of Iowa go through, Mercy will cease to be an independent “full-service acute care hospital.”
“Upon information and belief, the University of Iowa intends to reduce Mercy’s existing acute care service lines and convert Mercy into largely a behavioral health hospital,” the filing alleged.
As a result bondholders have asked a judge to appoint an examiner to investigate the hospital’s downfall and answer questions about the nature of the deal with the University of Iowa and Mercy’s management of its finances.
In last week’s announcement of the proposed sale — which is not a done deal— Mercy and the university said the purchase would afford a “more sustainable future” for the hospital. The UI, according to Mercy’s court filings, plans to establish a Mercy advisory board, allow Mercy to have its own chief administrative officer responsible for operations and make certain strategic upgrades.
Mercy doctors in good standing will keep their jobs, according to the proposal, and other employees will be allowed to reapply to the university.
Iowa voters will likely see a rematch for a southeastern Iowa congressional seat in 2024.
Iowa City Democrat and former state lawmaker Christina Bohannan announced her second bid for Congress, setting up a rematch against Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
Iowa’s 20-county 1st Congressional District includes the cities of Davenport, Iowa City, Burlington and Indianola.
Bohannan lost by nearly 7 percentage points, or more than 20,000 votes, to Miller-Meeks, who won re-election to a second term in November after winning her first election by the slimmest of margins — six votes over Democrat Rita Hart in 2020 after months of recounts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 15, 2023.
It'll be cool again Tuesday, without the chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny during the day in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 80 degrees.
Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted in Georgia on Monday, accused of scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
According to reporting from the Associated Press the indictment details acts by Trump and his allies to undo his key defeat in Georgia: lobbying Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes to keep Trump in power, pushing claims of voter fraud, and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to appoint a new slate of electoral college favorable to Trump.
Other defendants included former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced efforts to undo Trump’s election loss in Georgia.
It’s the fourth criminal case to be brought against the former president and the second this month to allege that he tried to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
Henry Dinkins’ son testified in court Monday that he saw his father shoot Breasia Terrell.
That assertion was made for the first time Monday in a Scott County courtroom after the 11-year-old boy returned to the witness stand for a second day and told defense attorney Chad Frese that he saw his father shoot and kill Terrell.
Dinkins is charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder of Terrell, who was 10 years old when she disappeared on July 10, 2020. Remains of her body were discovered in a DeWitt pond in March 2021.
Identified in court as D.L., the boy is Breasia Terrell’s younger half brother and was 8 at the time of her death. Throughout the testimony, D.L. offered some contradictory answers and appeared confused at times.
When Frese asked if D.L. was telling the truth about seeing Breasia's murder, the boy answered, "Everything I say is true."
The trial continues on Tuesday.
The Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is testing the new facial recognition technology at 25 U.S. airports, including those in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.
Other airports testing the technology include Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco.
Depending on how the testing goes, TSA has plans to use the technology at 400 airports nationwide.
At those 25 airport security lanes, you might be asked to look into a camera that takes your photo. You also will scan your driver's license or other photo identification. The software compares the snapshot of your face to your ID photo to verify that the two match.
Other checks are happening, too, including making sure your ID is legitimate and whether you belong to a special screening status, such as TSA PreCheck or requirements for extra security measures.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 14, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will likely be showers and thunderstorms before 7 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be a chance for rain after that, but it will grow progressively less likely as the day goes on. It will also feel quite cool for what we’ve recently been used to, with a high of 72 degrees.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are investigating a shots-fired incident reported north of Center Point on Friday evening.
At roughly 4:20 p.m. on Friday a group of children were playing near the intersection of North Center Point and Fee roads, according to a media release.
A silver four-door pickup truck was driving nearby, occupied by at least two males, according to the release. A white male in the truck fired a shot from the vehicle in “the vicinity of the children playing” and then sped off.
No one was injured in the incident. An investigation is ongoing.
The FBI is asking for anyone who may have information about this incident, or video of this area during this time frame, to call the FBI at (402) 493-8688.
The city of Cedar Rapids is trying again to seek a massive grant — $56.4 million — from the federal government to reconstruct the Eighth Avenue “Arc of Justice” Bridge over the Cedar River.
A key segment of the city’s permanent flood control system, the estimated $76 million bridge project would provide a lifeline connection for residents and emergency services when Cedar River waters rise to extreme levels like during the 2008 flood.
The Cedar Rapids City Council last week signed off on the application for a Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Costsaving Transportation Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The PROTECT discretionary grant program is a new program created through the federal bipartisan infrastructure law.
“The newly constructed bridge will be raised in elevation to allow a critical transportation corridor in the event of another major Cedar River flood condition,” Public Works Director Bob Hammond said in a statement. “With this project completed, it would be one of three north/south transportation routes to mitigate flooding impacts: those three being (Interstate) 380, Arc of Justice Bridge and State Route 100 bridge.”
Hammond said the city's executive leadership team recognized the project’s importance for diversity, equity and inclusion and chose the “Arc of Justice” as a fitting name. City officials have said the new bridge will limit the need to evacuate areas behind the completed flood control system, improve trail access and expand connectivity across the river.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 12th, and Sunday, August 13th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures on Saturday will be mostly sunny with a high near 89, cooling to a low around 63 Saturday evening.
Sunday will be Partly sunny, with a high near 86 and a 20 percent chance of showers after 1pm before cooling to 63 Sunday night with showers and a chance of thunderstorms.
Making sweet corn sweeter is on the plate of Iowa State researchers
Summer is the smell of cut grass, weekend barbecues and — especially in Iowa — the taste of sweet corn, which few people know better than Alan Myers.
An Iowa State University professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology since 1987, Myers has made it his mission to make sweet corn sweeter.
The most recent USDA-funded sweet corn research, run through the University of Florida, offered scientists $8 million to — among other things — develop new breeding tools, improve early-season tolerance and determine factors driving consumer preference.
The $800 million in American sweet corn grown annually accounts for about 1 percent of the country’s corn production — which is dominated by field corn. Sweet corn consumption has been trending down for decades.
Sweet corn is being celebrated this weekend at the annual St. Jude’s Catholic Church Sweet Corn Festival in northwest Cedar Rapids, where volunteers have shucked some 18,000 ears of corn to prepare.
Festivities include carnival rides, entertainment, games and food — including, of course, hot buttered ears of sweet corn.
Chuck Grassley: ‘It’s about time’ for Hunter Biden special counsel
Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Friday he welcomes the appointment of a special counsel for the investigation into Hunter Biden, the president’s son, but said he has reservations about the person selected for the post due to concerns about political bias in the U.S. Justice Department and the appointment of U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware as the special counsel.
Weiss, a U.S. attorney appointed by former President Donald Trump, was already leading an investigation into Hunter Biden about alleged unpaid federal taxes and an alleged gun possession crime. A plea deal between the prosecution and Hunter Biden’s attorneys fell apart last month when a judge rejected the deal.
“I have some questions about Weiss doing it, because Johnson and I sent all of this material we had … in regard to the payments that were made to Hunter Biden, and we don't know what they did with them," Grassley said.
Republican candidates flock to Iowa State Fair’s opening day
For the next 10 days, the Iowa State Fairgrounds will be the center of the battle for the Republican nomination for president.
The fair is virtually mandatory for anyone running for president as a Republican, a chance to meet voters from across the state, sample various foods on sticks and exhibit the retail politicking vital to winning support in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
Four candidates visited the fair Thursday, and a dozen more, including Democrats and a Libertarian, are expected to visit later.
Former Vice President Mike Pence drew the largest crowd Thursday at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox, where he implored several dozen people that it was time to “restore a threshold of civility in public life.”
California radio talk show host Larry Elder kicked off Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ “Fair-Side Chats” at JR’s Southwest Pork Ranch. The chats will be a series of discussions Reynolds will be holding throughout the fair with most presidential candidates.
After flipping burgers and chops at the Iowa Pork Tent, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum brought his focus on energy, economy and national...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 11, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service showers and thunderstorms will be likely Friday morning in the Cedar Rapids area but should likely end by 9 a.m. The sky will gradually clear after that Friday, with a high of 90 degrees. There will be a slight chance of rain Friday evening into Saturday.
The state’s investigation into illegal sports gambling in the athletic departments at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University picked up steam Thursday when another eight people — five of them current student athletes — were charged, bringing the number of people implicated so far to 15.
Like those charged before, the eight new defendants face charges of tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison if convicted. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation has been leading the probe. The UI indicated earlier that 26 current athletes were involved, and ISU said there were “approximately 15” current athletes involved.
At ISU, running back Jirehl Brock headlines the list of Cyclones charged, along with tight end Deshawn Hanika, defensive tackle Isaiah Lee and offensive lineman Jake Remsburg. All players were starters last year.
At the UI, current wide receiver Jack Johnson, former wide receiver Arland Bruce IV, former safety Reggie Bracy and student manager Owen O’Brien were charged.
In a statement last week, after the first round of charges were announced, gambling regulators said they had uncovered no evidence that Hawkeye or Cyclone games were compromised, despite some of the player bets that were alleged.
Even if they avoid criminal penalties, several of these athletes could run into eligibility problems if the NCAA finds them to be in violation of anti-gambling rules.
A Linn County jury on Thursday acquitted a Swisher man charged with driving his pickup truck into abortion protesters last year.
The jury deliberated more than five hours Thursday after the three-day trial in Linn County District Court before finding David Alan Huston, 54, not guilty of assault by use of a dangerous weapon-vehicle, an aggravated misdemeanor, and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.
A sealed verdict — not read in open court, which is typical in misdemeanor cases — was filed by Associate District Judge Russell Keast.
Ayla Boylen, a protester who testified against Huston, said Thursday, “I believe this acquittal sets a dangerous precedent for the safety of anyone practicing their First Amendment rights in the state of Iowa.”
The city of Cedar Rapids has finalized a $10 million deal to buy land from Rick and Marsha Stickle to build a flood control levee around Cedar Lake, with additional land providing for a flood plain — marking a key step to move forward with completion of the city’s network of flood protection.
The Cedar Rapids City Council unanimously voted this week to approve the city’s purchase of the property at and around 550 Stickle Dr. NE and Cedar Lake for a segment of the city’s approximately $750 million permanent flood control system. The deal also includes easement rights around Union Pacific’s north rail yard and the lake.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 10, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will be some areas of dense fog before 10 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 88 degrees. There will be a slight chance of rain overnight Thursday into Friday.
The Swisher pickup driver accused of hitting abortion protesters at a June 24, 2022, demonstration testified Wednesday that his vehicle didn’t hit anyone.
The pickup driver, David Alan Huston, 54, is on trial this week in Linn County District Court on charges of assault by use of a dangerous weapon-vehicle, an aggravated misdemeanor, and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident. If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison.
Huston said he didn’t know about the court ruling and that he didn’t know about the protest.
Huston said he had stopped at the Second Street SE intersection behind a car.
The traffic light cycled twice as protesters crossed Eighth Avenue. When the light was green again, he said, the car in front of him moved forward and then stopped, so he went into the other lane to go around the car that was in the intersection.
The prosecution showed a surveillance video of the incident several times throughout the trial, which shows the truck driving into the crowd and continuing to move forward with demonstrators in front of it.
Assistant Black Hawk County Attorney Heather Jackson, during cross-examination, asked if Huston was frustrated because he’d had to wait through two traffic light cycles. He said he wasn’t.
Jackson asked if he hadn’t told Cedar Rapids police Sgt. Ryan Dunbar that he had “laid on the horn because people needed to get out of the road and this had gone on long enough.” He denied saying that until Jackson played him the police recording.
Huston then admitted he had made those statements during a July 5, 2022, interview. He also later admitted telling police he was going at a “slow rate of speed, and if they would have had a brain, they would have gotten out of the way.”
The jury will begin deliberating the case Thursday morning.
A Washington County woman was killed Monday after the car she was driving was hit by a pickup truck in Iowa City.
Kristina Pearson, 30, of Wellman, was driving north on Boyrum Street just before 1 p.m. Monday when her vehicle was hit by a truck heading east on Highway 6, causing her car to hit a third vehicle, according to the Iowa City Police Department.
Pearson and a passenger in her car were taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where Pearson died later that day. The passenger remains in critical condition, according to a Wednesday morning news release from police. No other injuries were reported.
The driver of the truck — Drake Brezina, 24, of Riverside — was cited for a red light violation. The crash remains under investigation and additional charges are possible, authorities said.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 9, 2023.
We could see some more rain on Wednesday, but the cooler temperatures are certain to continue either way. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 9 a.m. It will also become increasingly cloudy during the day, with a high near 78 degrees.
The Board of Regents unanimously approved Tuesday a University of Iowa request to buy most of Iowa City-based Mercy Hospital’s assets for $20 million — without asking questions about the deal’s finances, including how the price was determined, where the money will come from and what will happen with the $63 million Mercy owes on publicly-issued bonds.
Regents spokesman Brock Ascher told The Gazette: “The bankruptcy court will determine what happens with Mercy’s debt, but the state will not be responsible.”
Under the proposed purchase agreement, the university will not be obligated with that debt.
UI President Barbara Wilson — in presenting the proposed deal to regents — said Mercy "did approach us and ask us to submit a bid to continue their long tradition of health care in our community and beyond.”
During the regents meeting, Wilson reiterated the goal of continuing uninterrupted care for Mercy patients as it goes through the bankruptcy proceedings and pending sale.
Iowa has joined other state attorneys general as part of an investigation into the social media company TikTok and its possible harmful effects on the mental health of young users.
The five-member Iowa Executive Council unanimously agreed this week on granting a request from Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office to bring in special counsel to help the office in its investigation into, and possible litigation against the wildly popular video platform.
Several states are investigating TikTok over whether it violated state consumer protection laws. The investigation has focused on the harm social media usage causes to young users, what TikTok knows about those harms, the techniques used by TikTok to boost young user engagement — including increasing the duration of time spent on the platform — and the frequency of engagement with TikTok.
An 11,600-head cattle feedlot near Monona is again seeking a permit to dispose of manure after a judge threw out a previous plan.
A half-dozen people — some who have opposed Supreme Beef’s plans since 2017 — spoke against the feedlot’s new proposed nutrient management plan at a virtual public hearing attended by nearly 40 people Tuesday.
Opponents raised many of the same concerns, including inaccurate manure calculations, an earthen basin in porous topography and the risk of runoff into a treasured trout stream.
The Sierra Club sued Supreme Beef and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in September 2021 after the Iowa DNR in April 2021 approved the feedlot’s nutrient management plan for up to 11,600 cattle. Trout Unlimited later joined Sierra Club in the lawsuit. The suit said the state based its approval on faulty data provided by Supreme Beef and that the facility will produce far more manure than it claimed.
Polk County Judge Scott Rosenberg sided with the nature groups in April and sent the decision back to the Iowa DNR. The agency told Supreme Beef Owner Jared Walz in May that until a new plan was approved by the agency, no manure could be removed from the site.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 8, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Tuesday with a high near 85 degrees. There will be a chance of rain late Tuesday, with the likelihood of rain increasing as we head further into Wednesday morning.
The University of Iowa has signed a letter of intent for $20 million to acquire “substantially all the operating facilities and key assets” of Iowa City’s Mercy Hospital.
Mercy Iowa City filed for bankruptcy protection Monday in hopes of preserving continuity of care for patients and employment opportunities for physicians and staff members.
The proposed $20 million purchase price is a far cry from a $605 million package that UI Health Care offered in 2022 to take ownership and make Mercy the “centerpiece” of a new UIHC “community division,” an investigation by The Gazette found. That deal never materialized as Mercy continued an on-again, off-again relationship with Des Moines-based MercyOne, which began managing Mercy Iowa City in 2017.
Mark Toney — who Mercy recently appointed as its chief restructuring officer — said a bondholder’s recent demand for a court-appointed receiver played into its moves. Mercy is fighting that demand in court, calling it a power play by the owners of a substantial amount of its debt.
The Cedar Rapids school board set a process in motion Monday to ask voters in November to pass a $220 million bond referendum to support the Cedar Rapids Community School District’s facility master plan — the first of two requests expected to come before voters over the next several years.
The board in a 5-1 vote approved ballot language to bring the question to district voters in the Nov. 7 general election. But first, a “yes” committee volunteering to lead the charge to rally support will have to quickly organize, collecting almost 6,400 valid signatures from district voters by Sept. 22 to get the question placed on the ballot.
The district’s proposed plan calls for a combined $445 million bond referendum to be approved by voters. With the first referendum facing voters in November, the second bond referendum of $225 million could go to voters in November 2029 — ensuring all buildings in the district are new or recently renovated by 2037.
More than 18,600 Iowa students have been approved for an education savings account to pay for private school tuition and expenses, the Iowa Department of Education announced Monday.
The numbers exceed state projections that expected around 14,000 students would be approved for the accounts during the program’s first year. Those original projections expected the program would cost $107.4 million in its first year, and $345 million by the fourth year.
Lawmakers set no budget cap on the program, so each approved application will be funded, regardless of cost.
The program, which provides a student’s full per-pupil state allocation — around $7,600 — to families to pay for private school tuition, was the top legislative priority of Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds this session, and the first bill she signed into law in January.
At a board of education meeting last week, Iowa Department of Education officials said they expected around 60 percent of approved applications to be from...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 7, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service showers should clear up before 9 a.m. on Monday. Despite that, it will be mostly cloudy still with as hgh near 81 degrees. On Monday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 62 degrees.
One person was injured Saturday in what appeared to be a targeted shooting at Hannah Park in Marion.
Marion police responded to the shooting at approximately 4:35 p.m., and found a victim who’d sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to a news release from the police department.
Police report the investigation is ongoing and there is no threat to the public.
A judge has ruled against Palo-area residents who filed a lawsuit last year opposing the rezoning of land for two industrial-scale solar projects.
The lawsuit argued the Linn County Board of Supervisors did not follow county land-use policies and used illegal spot zoning to rezone nearly 2,000 acres to allow for a renewable energy project near the decommissioned Duane Arnold nuclear plant.
Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Lars Anderson denied those claims.
“The (county’s) Comprehensive Plan provides for preservation of agriculture as well as protection of resources, under which the development of renewable energy is appropriate,” Anderson wrote in the July 20 decision.
Anderson said the 1,934 acres rezoned for the Duane Arnold solar project didn’t constitute spot zoning because it wasn’t a “small island” of land and because the new uses fit with the county’s goals to provide “protection and enhancement of the health and safety of all Linn County residents though the use of renewable energy.”
The Palo decision signals the Duane Arnold Solar Project may soon be able to move forward.
A newly released New York Times/Sienna College poll of Iowa Republicans shows former President Donald Trump with a commanding lead, but less dominant than national polls.
The survey of 432 likely Iowa caucusgoers was taken before a third indictment against Trump was made public Tuesday, charging him with federal crimes connected to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The new poll suggests more Iowa Republican voters are open to alternatives to Trump, but still overwhelmingly back him.
Trump carried the support of 44 percent of Iowans polled — 10 percentage points lower than the support he holds with Republicans nationwide.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Saturday, August 5th and Sunday August 6th.
According to the National Weather Service, on Saturday, we’ll have a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 8 p.m. It will be partly cloudy, with a low around 67.
Then Sunday, we’ll have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8 a.m., then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Showers and thunderstorms are likely after 2 p.m. with a high near 82. The low should be around 64.
A restaurant that been a Coralville institution for nearly 46 years will be closing this fall. The owner of Iowa River Power Restaurant, at 501 First Ave., said she received an eviction notice from the owner of the building. The restaurant’s last day of service will be Nov. 26 — the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Danise Petsel and her husband, David, bought the restaurant in 2002, which had opened in October 1977 in what had once been a power plant along the Iowa River dating to the early 1900s.
In the first test of a proposal to build a carbon dioxide capture pipeline connecting ethanol plants across five states, North Dakota regulators Friday unanimously denied granting a siting permit to Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions. The North Dakota Public Service Commission was the first state board to consider the request, which was planned to cross 320 miles in that state. Summit proposed the underground pipeline to capture CO2 from more than 30 ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, and to store it deep underground in North Dakota. In a statement, Summit said it would revisit their proposal and reapply for their permit. Evidentiary hearings on its proposal to build 687 miles of the route in Iowa, crossing 29 counties, are set to start Aug. 22 in Fort Dodge and last several days. Summit has indicated it wants a decision by the Iowa Utilities Board on its hazardous pipeline permit by the end of the year.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 4.
There will be thick fog to greet morning commuters. According to the National Weather Service there will be areas of dense fog around Cedar Rapids before 9 a.m. There will also be a slight chance of showers all day, ramping up in the evening into Saturday morning. Besides all that, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 92 degrees.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 presidential election loss, answering for the first time to federal charges that accuse him of orchestrating an ultimately failed attempt to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
Trump appeared before a magistrate judge in Washington’s federal courthouse two days after being indicted on four felony counts by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. The charges accuse him of trying to subvert the will of voters and undo his election loss in the days before Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent and bloody clash with law enforcement.
For now Trump remains the 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner. This is the third criminal case brought against Trump in less than six months.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office discovered an improvised explosive device in the roadway of the 1000 block of Secrist Road in Springville Thursday morning.
The device was found by a Sheriff’s Deputy just before 11 a.m. and was investigated by the Cedar Rapids Metro Hazardous Device Unit, according to a news release sent out by the sheriff’s office.
Secrist Road was closed for part of Thursday while the Cedar Rapids bomb technicians worked to make the device safe and remove it from the roadway.
A Johnson County jury convicted an Iowa City woman Thursday of helping her son flee the country to avoid being prosecuted for robbing and attempting to kill a woman on the University of Iowa campus in 2022.
Lima Khairi Mohammad Younes, 45, was found guilty of escape from custody, a felony, for aiding and abetting her son, Ali Younes, 20, to intentionally escape the GPS-monitored house arrest he was under as he awaited trial.
Ali Younes cut off his ankle monitor and fled to Jordan on May 6, according to authorities.
Lima Younes faces up to five years in prison. Her sentencing is set for Sept. 21.Her husband, Alfred Ali Mohammad Younes, 49, faces the same charge.
Ali Younes couldn’t be extradited from Jordan because the United States doesn’t have an extradition treaty with that country, according to police.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, August 3.
According to the National Weather Service there will be areas of fog before 10 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise, it will be partly sunny, with a high near 90 degrees. On Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 69 degrees.
More was revealed Wednesday about a sports gambling investigation that now involves both Iowa State and University of Iowa athletes.
Three months after the UI and ISU confirmed some of their student-athletes were being investigated for betting on sports in violation of NCAA rules, charges have been filed against seven current and former athletes at the schools.
The seven were charged with tampering with records as part of the state’s “ongoing” investigation, which could still result in more charges.
The three current Iowa State athletes facing charges are quarterback Hunter Dekkers, wrestler Paniro Johnson and offensive lineman Dodge Sauser. Former Iowa State defensive lineman Enyi Uwazurike, who was a fourth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, also faces the tampering charge.
Current Iowa kicker Aaron Blom, former Iowa men’s basketball guard Ahron Ulis and former Iowa baseball catcher Gehrig Christensen face the same charge, which is an aggravated misdemeanor.
Court documents allege the athletes made sports wagers in accounts under others’ names.
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which has been leading the investigation, said in a statement Wednesday its investigation into Iowa and Iowa State athletes “is ongoing and may result in the filing of additional charges.”
Iowa indicated 26 current athletes were involved in the sports gambling probe, and Iowa State had “approximately 15” current athletes involved.
Not every player known to be involved in the NCAA’s sports wagering investigation has been charged in law enforcement’s sports gambling investigation.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will use federal COVID-19 relief dollars to cover all expenses for the deployment of Iowa National Guard soldiers and state law enforcement officers to Texas to assist with security along the southern border.
Reynolds announced 109 soldiers from the Iowa National Guard on Wednesday deployed to Texas in support of Operation Lone Star, with the mission of “deterring illegal border crossings and preventing the trafficking of illegal substances by cartels through Texas.” The deployment will last until Sept. 1, the governor’s office said.
Iowa State Patrol officers will deploy Aug. 31 for a separate 30-day stint to support Texas state troopers with criminal interdiction, crime prevention, traffic enforcement and law enforcement assistance. An investigative team also will support Texas investigations of narcotics, weapons and human trafficking along the border, according to a news release from the governor’s office. That deployment will end Oct. 2.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 2.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area Wednesday with a high near 85 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms overnight into Thursday.
Three Iowa State student-athletes and one former athlete were charged Tuesday with tampering with records, a result of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s inquiry into sports gambling.
The Story County Attorney’s Office filed criminal complaints against ISU quarterback Hunter Dekkers, wrestler Paniro Johnson, offense lineman Dodge Sauser and former ISU defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike. Tampering with records is an aggravated misdemeanor.
The current and former student-athletes are accused of engaging in schemes with other people to disguise their identities and “manipulate online/mobile transactions in order to create the appearance” that their sports wagers were being conducted by other people.
The criminal complaint against Dekkers, who started all 12 games for the Cyclones last season, alleges that he placed wagers on approximately 26 Cyclone sporting events, including a 2021 football game against Oklahoma State when he was a sophomore backup quarterback. He did not play in that game.
In addition to facing criminal penalties, Dekkers, Johnson and Sauser could lose all of their remaining eligibility because of NCAA rules that bar student-athletes from betting on their own games or any other sports at an individual’s own institution.
A police lieutenant testified Tuesday that the mother of a man charged with attempting to rob and kill a woman last year on the University of Iowa campus helped sell the family vehicle before taking her son to a Chicago airport to skip the country — a week before his trial was set to start in Johnson County.
UI police Lt. Travis Tyrrell said police were alerted that the GPS ankle monitor of Ali Younes, 20, had been cut May 6, 2022, in Northwest Iowa’s O’Brien County. He lived there with his parents, Lima Younes, who is on trial this week, and Alfred Younes, charged separately in the case.
Lima Younes is charged with escape from custody, a felony. She is accused of aiding and abetting her son to intentionally escape the GPS-monitored house arrest. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison. The trial is expected to last all week.
According to a criminal complaint, Ali Younes on April 25, 2022, followed a woman on foot, tackled her near the UI Art Building West, strangled her until she lost consciousness and stole her earrings valued at $20,000. He was facing trial on attempted murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree theft charges.
Ali Younes remains a fugitive because Jordan doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States. Tyrrell, under cross exam, said he was allowed to live in Sutherland with an ankle monitor while on house arrest.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 1.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 89 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance of rain Tuesday night into Wednesday. The low will settle in around 69 degrees.
The National Weather Service has confirmed that tornadoes passed through the area on Friday night.
According to data posted Monday, an EF-1 tornado with peak winds estimated at 90 mph struck Andrew in Jackson County at 8:41 p.m. Friday. At EF-1, tornadoes are rated “moderate” on a scale that goes from EF-0, with wind gusts of 65-85 mph, up to EF-5, with gusts of 200 mph or more.
A second tornado was confirmed to strike Clinton at 9:16 p.m. Friday. The storm, with peak gusts estimated at 75 mph, was rated EF-0. It was on the ground for two minutes, leaving a path of almost 1.5 miles before crossing the Mississippi River and dissipating over Illinois, the National Weather Service said.
Damage was also caused by intense straight line winds that preceded the storm’s arrival..
Roosevelt Middle School could remain as a sixth-grade center and a new seventh-and-eighth grade school would be built to replace Taft Middle School under proposed changes to a combined multimillion dollar facility plan in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
New changes proposed Monday night, however, address concerns Cedar Rapids City Council members expressed last week in a joint meeting. City leaders said the original proposal would close too many middle schools on the west side of the city.
The change would increase a combined $445 million in school bond referendums an additional $56 million — a number Cedar Rapids school board members said they are unsure about bringing to taxpayers.
The decision, however, may not need to be made for another six years since Roosevelt and Taft are not a part of the facilities addressed in the first half of the bond referendum — $220 million — that could go to voters as soon as this November.
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has been ranked in the top 50 nationally in two medical care specialties for the second year in a row in the U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Hospitals” list made public Tuesday.
UIHC's ophthalmology ranking improved to No. 6 from No. 7, and its ear, nose and throat ranking moved up to No. 28 from No. 31.
However, UIHC's ranking is lower than it was a decade ago, when it was ranked in the top 50 in nine specialties.
Outside of the top 50, UIHC lost some ground this year. It achieved "high performing" recognition for six of its specialties last year, but this year it only received high performance in five specialties.
Although none of Iowa's other ranked hospitals placed in the top 50 in any specialties, MercyOne in Des Moines received high-performance marks for 14 of 21 considered procedures and conditions.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, July 31.
It will be sunny on Monday, but luckily not as hot as last week. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 87 degrees on Monday. On Monday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 65 degrees.
It seems we’re getting rain at just the wrong times.
RAGBRAI riders in Coralville had to take shelter as Friday night’s severe weather brought strong winds that knocked out power, downed trees and damaged buildings.
The storms moved in as Coralville was set to welcome thousands of cyclists for an overnight stop on the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa with a festival and concert by a rock band. Instead, campers were encouraged to seek shelter in City Hall and schools to ride out the storm.
“Due to severe weather we have had to make the difficult decision to cancel the Bush concert this evening,” RAGBRAI told cyclists over Facebook.
Reports to the National Weather Service included wind gusts up to 90 mph in Hiawatha, downed power lines and toppled trees in Marion, Shueyville, Swisher, Tipton and other locations. A tree fell on a mobile home in Wyoming in Jones County, a report to the weather service said.
Meanwhile, you-pick farms across Iowa are struggling this summer due to heat, drought and haze. The drought has made it difficult for farmers to grow water-intensive crops like blueberries and strawberries, and the haze has caused poor air quality, which has kept some customers away.
In 2015, Iowa’s horticulture industry generated $48 million in direct sales and an additional $32 million in other avenues like labor income and investor returns, according to the 2017 Iowa Commercial Horticulture Food Crop Survey.
About half of the state’s horticulture producers exclusively marketed directly to consumers.
You-pick farms offer visitors the chance to harvest their own produce straight from the tree, bush or ground. Dozens of such businesses contribute to Iowa’s agritourism industry. But many of the featured specialty crops — particularly fruit — are more sensitive to climate stressors, like heat and drought, than traditional row crops.
This summer marks Iowa’s third year in a row of drought. The July 20 U.S. Drought Monitor Report depicted 100 percent of Iowa in abnormally dry or drought conditions.
A former social worker with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics was arrested this week on charges he had a sexual relationship with a client.
James Daniel Burkhalter, 43, of Iowa City, is charged with six counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, a Class D felony. He had his first appearance in court Friday and was released from jail on his own recognizance.
Burkhalter is accused of having sexual contact with a patient on six occasions between October 2020 and May 2021. Four happened during scheduled clinical appointments, during which he was to provide mental health services, and two happened at the patient’s residence, according to criminal complaints.
A no-contact order has been filed on behalf of the victim.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 29th, and Sunday, July 30th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures on Saturday will be mostly sunny with a high near 89, cooling to a low around 63 Saturday evening.
Sunday will be sunny, with a high near 86 and cool to 59 Sunday night.
5 more Iowa nursing homes added to list of nation’s worst care facilities
Five Iowa nursing homes have been added to a federal list of the nation’s worst care facilities.
One of the five is a Sioux City home that, after being cited for violations tied to four resident deaths, is now in the process of voluntarily closing.
The five homes are deemed eligible for inclusion on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ national list of “special-focus facilities.” They join five other Iowa care facilities already deemed eligible for inclusion on the periodic list of nursing homes that have recurring quality-of-care problems.
The five Iowa homes that have been added to the list since April are Embassy Rehab and Care Center of Sergeant Bluff; Aspire of Gowrie; Countryside Health Care Center of Sioux City; Dunlap Specialty Care Center; and Iowa City Rehab & Health Care.
Sheriff’s office removes 39 dogs from Tipton shelter
The Cedar County Sheriff’s Office removed 39 dogs from a Tipton dog shelter this week after receiving complaints of animal neglect at the facility.
Sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant Wednesday at Just Dog Rescue, at 1707 Highway 130 east of Tipton, where they found the dogs living in unsafe conditions, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
The dogs have seen a veterinarian and are now under the care of the sheriff’s office.
No criminal charges have yet been filed, but the matter remains under investigation, according to the release.
The sheriff’s office was assisted in the warrant by the Cedar County Attorney’s Office, the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, the Tipton Veterinary Clinic, Cedar County Emergency Management and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
‘Dangerous’ heat marks RAGBRAI’s ride to Coralville
The 80-plus miles with 2,881 feet of climb that RAGBRAI riders endured Friday on their trek from Tama-Toledo to Coralville was among the hardest for many — given the excessive heat warning that blanketed the route.
Many reported “sagging” at some point during the nearly 100-degree day — indicating they rode part way before climbing in with a “support and gear” crew driving along behind or ahead.
Others pedaled through — powered by tent breaks offering craft beer, pie, ice cream and pork chops — but were happy to find a final resting spot for the day in Coralville, which joined RAGBRAI in the anniversary game by celebrating its 150th anniversary alongside the ride’s 50th.
Campers set up in and around S.T. Morrison Park, where vendors, volunteers, and entertainers greeted them — including Bush, which cemented its rock-band status in the 1990s and took the main stage at 8:30 p.m.
Some cyclists told The Gazette the long day bookending the long week might have them heading to sleep early — before taking off Saturday morning for a ride through Kinnick Stadium and on to West Liberty, eventually dipping their tires in the Mississippi in Davenport to wrap one of the longer RAGBRAIs at 500 miles.
For more interviews with cyclists and additional RAGBRAI news, check out our coverage on TheGazette.com/ragbrai
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 28.
Friday looks to be the hottest day of the Summer and the peak this week before we return to milder weather. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny and hot on Friday, with a high near 100 degrees. The heat index could reach as high as 112.
Friday night the peak will likely break with some showers or thunderstorms, with 60 percent chance of rain after 1:00 a.m.
Cedar Rapids school leaders will be doing more “fact finding” and “go back to the drawing board to seek out other possibilities” for middle schools based on feedback they received from the city council about a facility plan, Superintendent Tawana Grover said.
The school board and Cedar Rapids City Council held their first joint meeting Wednesday to discuss a facility master plan proposed by the school district.There they heard that the Mayor and members of the Cedar Rapids City Council were displeased by the $445 million facilities plan shifting schools away from the core and west side of city, potentially impeding the development the city is attempting to do there.
Grover said school leaders will “honor the feedback we heard” from the Cedar Rapids City Council.
“We believe investment in our schools is an investment in the city,” Grover said in an interview with The Gazette. “Having them at the table is critical … to understand their future vision as well.”
The Cedar Rapids school board will have a work session to further discuss a facility master plan that encompasses every school in the district on Monday, at 5:30 p.m. at the Educational Leadership and Support Center.
Motorists can expect to see more construction on another stretch of Mount Vernon Road SE in the coming year.
The Cedar Rapids City Council this week gave the go-ahead to a project that’s been in the works for about three years to reconstruct the roadways on 10th Street SE, Eighth Avenue SE and Mount Vernon Road SE to create a roundabout at the high-traffic intersection near McKinley STEAM Academy, Mercy Medical Center and other businesses.
In addition to the roundabout, the project includes work on the storm sewer, sidewalks and removal of an existing pedestrian overpass, Tim Mroch, the capital improvement program manager, told the Gazette.
Coralville has been preparing for months to welcome tens of thousands of cyclists Friday from all over the world during the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.
This year’s RAGBRAI route began July 22 in Sioux City and arrives Friday to stay overnight in Coralville. The cyclists will leave Saturday, going through Iowa City, and head toward Davenport to wrap up the ride.
This is Coralville’s sixth time as an overnight host, and the city recruited more than 900 volunteers for this year’s stop. If you’re traveling through Coralville and Iowa City, plan to allow extra time and use extra caution while driving through Friday or early Saturday.
Coralville is gearing up for a double celebration as RAGBRAI’s 50th year coincides with the city's own 150th anniversary. The theme of Coralville’s overnight stop is "Cheers to the years.”
Mayor Meghann Foster previously told The Gazette how Coralville is well-suited to be an overnight stop for RAGBRAI with hospitality being part of the city’s heritage, along with various options for entertainment, retail and restaurants.
“Coralville knows how to throw a good party,” Foster said.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 27.
It was really hot Wednesday, but Thursday is going to reach the rare triple digits. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 100 degrees. Heat index values are predicted to be up in the 105 range again. There will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Thursday evening into Friday morning.
In a joint meeting between the Cedar Rapids City Council and Cedar Rapids school board on Wednesday, council members expressed concern about schools near downtown and on the west side of the city closing under a facility master plan proposed by school leaders.
Under the plan as it stands now, the number of middle schools in the district would be reduced from six to four and a stronger feeder system would be created for students in K-12. School leaders believe this would provide more equitable services to all students and reduce operational and maintenance costs for the district.
The plan requires a combined $445 million bond referendum to be approved by voters — the first half of which could go to voters in November. The second bond referendum of $225 million could go to voters in November 2029.
“I don’t see how this passes in November,” Ashley Vanorny, a city council member who also has been a part of the school district’s facility master planning committee
“You’re basically closing all the middle schools on the west side,” Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell added that the city of Cedar Rapids has been focused on the downtown core of the city, with about 1,000 new living units opening this fall. She added that neighborhoods are often anchored by schools, and the facility plan hollows out the city.
Cedar Rapids Superintendent Tawana Grover defended the plan, saying she wants Cedar Rapids schools to be able to compete with neighboring districts like College Community and Linn-Mar. Students are “opting out” of Cedar Rapids schools, she said.
Educators who have turned down jobs in the district have said it’s because other districts offer newer facilities, Grover said.
Meanwhile, Mercy Iowa City and the owners of some of its debt continue to fight through their lawyers.
Charlie Visconsi, a managing director and representative of investment group Preston Hollow Community Capital, told the court the 150-year-old Mercy Hospital in Iowa City is in dire financial circumstances. He urged the court to act quickly on a request for receivership so the owners of $41.8 million can recoup some of their investment before it is too late.
District Court Judge Valerie L. Clay denied the request, in part because the bond holders have moved so fast they haven’t served Mercy with the original petition.
For their part Mercy Iowa City said that not only were the claims made by Preston Hollow false, they were making these claims in a power play because the investment fund did not agree with Mercy’s board on who should manage the hospital.
Mercy urged the judge to deny Preston Hollow’s petition that the hospital be put in receivership, saying that the boars efforts to turn around the hospital’s recent financial woes are already in motion.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 26.
Wednesday may start with rain, but it will end up sunny and hot, hot, hot. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mostly before 9 a.m. After that the clouds will gradually part until it is sunny, with a high of 96 degrees and a heat index as high as 105. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 72 degrees.
Linn County has agreed to pay an Oelwein man who was beaten and seriously injured by two inmates inside the county jail last year an $85,000 settlement of his federal lawsuit.
Ethan Palmer dismissed his suit last week against Sheriff Brian Gardner, jailer Pete Wilson and others in the sheriff’s office.
According to the lawsuit, Palmer asserted that on May 27, 2022 in retribution for reporting and assisting in an investigation and prosecution of Justin Michael Buehler, he was severely beaten by inmates Johnny Blahnik Church, and Gregory Sills, while in custody in the Linn County Jail.
On Jan. 7, 2019, Palmer gave federal agents information that Buehler regularly sold meth to other employees at Pries Manufacturing in Independence, according to the suit. Later that month, Palmer made controlled purchases of meth from Buehler to assist in the investigation.
Buehler was convicted and sentenced to 30 years for distributing methamphetamine.
Palmer was treated at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for extensive injuries, including facial trauma, an orbital fracture, broken nose and teeth and a fractured knee.
A Cedar Rapids man, who a federal prosecutor called a “menace to the community” for operating a shop to sell synthetic marijuana that netted over $1.3 million in 18 months, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in federal prison in a case put on hold for a decade after he fled the country.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Chatham said Mohammad Al Sharairei, 47, knew the substances he was selling were “poison,” displayed in colorful packages attractive to kids. He was “brazen” because even after law enforcement seized some of his merchandise in 2013, he continued to distribute synthetic marijuana.
This case has been pending nearly a decade because Al Sharairei, after being charged, agreed to plea in 2014 but he and his wife, Melissa Al Sharairei, fled the country.
Al Sharairei remained a fugitive until he was extradited from Brazil. According to U.S. marshals, he and his wife were arrested in Sao Paulo in February 2019 on a local charge, and turned over on the federal warrant in January 2022.
Both the Hawkeye and Cyclone athletic programs in the new budget year are anticipating earning record-breaking revenue. However, the biggest bump may come from Iowa women’s basketball, which is projected to triple the revenue of last year in the upcoming season.
In total, UI Athletics is expecting to generate $140.3 million in revenue, 9 percent over last year’s record-setting $129 million.
Iowa State University Athletics, which also generated a record $106.1 million last year, in the new budget year expects to bring in $111.5 million — thanks to strong anticipated ticket sales, philanthropy and multimedia revenue.
Following the national rise of Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeye
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 25.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny and hot Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 95 degrees. On Tuesday night the low will be around 71 degrees and there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms overnight.
An investor and holder of $41.8 million that Mercy Iowa City borrowed in 2018 has asked a judge to “appoint a receiver on an emergency basis” to take operational control over the hospital facilities.
Filed Monday in Johnson County District Court, the request was made by Computershare Trust Company, which took over for Wells Fargo Bank as master trustee of the 2018 bond series, and Preston Hollow Community Capital of Texas, which invested all $41.8 million five years ago. The plaintiffs together accuse Mercy of breaching financial covenants under its bond financing agreement.
In the filing the plaintiffs assert that 150-year-old Mercy Hospital is in “financial free fall” and headed toward closure.
Preston Hollow, according to court documents, has implored Mercy for months to formulate a turnaround plan “before it falls off the financial cliff.”
Mercy President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Clancy and Chief Restructuring Officer Mark Toney told employees in a companywide email that they disagree with the notice and that their attorneys have responded with a letter that disputes their assertions.
In that email Friday, Mercy executives affirmed, “We have made all of the payments on the bonds as required (like making the payment on your home loan when due).”
Just days earlier, Mercy leaders held town hall meetings updating its staff on “extraordinary progress” in addressing the community hospital’s financial standing — including improving cash collections and its troubled electronic health records system.
An Iowa City woman was arrested this weekend on charges that she broke into a North Liberty woman’s residence and held her captive at gunpoint for about three hours.
Nicole Marie Ambrose, 47, is charged with several drug, weapons, and burglary charges for the incident, which happened at the 200 block of Holiday Lodge Road in North Liberty at 1:20 a.m. on Friday.
According to a criminal complaint, Ambrose broke into the home by making a hole in a screen door and then unlocking the door from the inside.
The victim woke up to Ambrose pressing a gun into her side. Ambrose asked the woman who else was in the house and took the woman’s phone so she couldn’t call the police. The victim told police Ambrose had a roll of plastic, handcuffs and a backpack that she wouldn’t let the woman look into displayed on the couch.
Ambrose held the woman hostage until about 4:45 a.m., when the woman was able to talk Ambrose into leaving, the complaint states. Police found her just before 6 a.m. in possession of a loaded gun, marijuana and a drug pipe, according to the complaint.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, July 24.
We have now thoroughly entered the dog days of Summer, but someone also invited a heat dome to come over. More on that in a second.
It will start out a bit foggy in the Cedar Rapids area between 4 and 8 a.m. After that it will become mostly sunny, with a high near 91 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms Monday evening with a low near 68 degrees.
Now a heat dome is a very hot air mass that forms when high-pressure conditions in the atmosphere trap warm air from rising, creating a cap. One has plagued much of the U.S. — from the Southwest into Texas — since early June. This week, it’s projected to spread farther north and east as jet streams shift north.
Projections are placing Eastern Iowa on the northeastern edge of that heat dome expansion. Meteorologists from the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities Bureau estimated the region has a 20 to 40 percent chance of getting enveloped by dome.
Regardless of its spot in the dome, Eastern Iowa will very likely start seeing temperatures surpassing 90 degrees by Tuesday. The area may see temperatures in the mid-90s Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It will likely bring the hottest days of the summer so far.
“The question then becomes whether or not we hit the magic triple-digit” air temperatures, NWS Quad Cities bureau meteorologist Brian Pierce told the Gazette.
If Eastern Iowa remains on the dome’s outskirts, it's in for a wetter week. Thunderstorms may roll through the area in the night, potentially bringing several rounds of heavy rain. Thursday and Friday night show decent chances of some precipitation.
It will likely grow warm in the daytime, but temperatures may not get as hot as they would under the full force of the heat dome. Still, any rain would make the area more humid, which would raise heat index values or “feels like” temperatures.
A man and a woman from Cedar Rapids died Friday after the canoe they were in tipped over at Lake Macbride in Solon.
The victims were identified as Suad Al Yasiri, 28, and Willie Davis, 23, both of Cedar Rapids.
Neither Yasiri nor Davis was wearing a life jacket. They were transported to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for an autopsy.
A 911 caller reported seeing two people disappear under the water at 3:44 p.m. at Lake Macbride State Park, according to a news release from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
Emergency crews deployed boats to begin the search. Through the use of sonar, the victims were located in approximately 23 feet of water, the release states. One victim was recovered by the Johnson County Metro Dive Team at 6:50 p.m., and the other at 7:04 p.m.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 22nd, and Sunday, July 23rd, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be mostly sunny with a high near 87, cooling to a low around 61 Saturday evening with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms before 1am.
Sunday will be sunny, with a high near 90 and cool to 64 Sunday night.
Schools tapping into Cedar Rapids mental health care provider
Several Iowa school districts are adding a workplace mental health and wellness partner — based in Cedar Rapids — to help educators manage their mental health and achieve their goals.
Covenant Workplace Solutions is an employee assistance program that — like many of these programs — offers confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals and follow-up services for employees as part of their benefits. It also is trying to reduce the stigma around mental health in the workplace and make it easier for employees to access services, said Chad Charkowski, an owner and head of sales at Covenant Workplace Solutions.
The average use of employee assistance programs in the United States is about 5.5 percent of workers, according to the National Business Group on Health, which describes itself as a voice in health care policy.
Collins Aerospace expands plant in West Des Moines
Collins Aerospace has opened a $14 million, 9,000-square-foot addition to its manufacturing center in West Des Moines to house 3D metal printers.
The new 3D printers are aimed at cutting costs, wait times and the backlog of orders for commercial airplane parts, the company said in a news release, as well as avoid supply chain issues.
The first 3D metal printer installed has eight times the build volume of the facility's existing printers, significantly increasing the center’s “additive manufacturing” capabilities, the news release stated.
Iowa cracking down on speeding next week
Iowa law enforcement will be out on the road next week ready to pull over speeding vehicles and motorcycles as part of a multistate traffic safety awareness campaign.
The Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau is teaming up with law enforcement across the state and Midwest to keep drivers and passengers safe by raising awareness about the dangers of speeding and urging drivers to obey speed limits.
Iowa will join several states on Wednesday in the Speed Awareness Campaign.
Speeding is among the most influential factors in severe injury or fatal crashes. It reduces a driver’s ability to safely maneuver around other vehicles, obstacles or unexpected curves, and even modern systems have limitations in preventing the worst effects of a high-speed crash, according to the news release.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 21.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny on Friday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 82 degrees. On Friday evening it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 59 degrees.
After a rocky start to 2023, Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City has again closed temporarily.
A sign noting the closure is now taped to the front of the restaurant’s door at 214 N. Linn St., and Google results now list the restaurant as “temporarily closed.”
Citing staffing issues, the undated sign says the diner will be closed “until further notice,” with “hope to reopen again real soon.”
It is unclear when the restaurant closed again. A representative for Hamburg Inn could not be reached.
Hamburg Inn reopened Feb. 22 with limited hours, after several weeks of closure starting in early January.
Monica Vernon announced Thursday she is stepping down as executive director of The District: Czech Village and New Bohemia to spend more time with her family.
The District board is launching a search for a new leader after the departure of Vernon, who has led the organization since 2019. Her resignation takes effect Sept. 21.
The timeline to hire her replacement isn’t set, but Vernon said the district hopes to have someone hired in late September or early October.
Vernon, a former Cedar Rapids City Council member, said she has no plans to seek elected office again, but her experience on the council helped her strengthen The District’s partnership with the city of Cedar Rapids and other major area partners.
A Cedar Rapids man pleaded guilty Thursday to vehicular homicide in a 2022 fatal crash, which killed a 77-year-old Cedar Rapids woman and seriously injured a Marion woman.
Zawadi Christophe, 19, also pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle-operating while intoxicated, serious injury by vehicle-OWI and serious injury-reckless driving.
In the fatal crash plea, Christophe admitted to being under the influence of alcohol or drugs and driving recklessly when he unintentionally caused the death of Judy Hoover, of Cedar Rapids, and seriously injured Joanne Swenka, 73, of Marion,.
Driving on First Avenue in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 24, 2022, Christophe rear-ended a vehicle, driven by Swenka and with Hoover as a passenger. The crash caused the vehicle to veer into oncoming traffic, where it was hit by a pickup driving east.
Last year, Swenka’s family told The Gazette she and Hoover were driving home from bingo that night at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 20.
We'll enjoy another sunny day Thursday. According to the National Weather Service the high will be nearly 85 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be a little bit breezy, with gusts reaching as high as 25 mph. On Thursday evening the wind will calm, with a low around 59 degrees.
More than 10,000 Iowans will have their remaining federal student loan debt wiped out under fixes to the U.S. Department of Education’s income-driven repayment plans.
According to data released this week by the department, 10,730 borrowers in Iowa are eligible to have their loans automatically discharged in the weeks ahead, totaling $465 million statewide. This forgiveness requires no action by borrowers, who will be notified when their debt has been discharged.
These discharges apply to those who have accumulated either 20 or 25 years worth of qualifying months, depending on the type of income-driven repayment plan. The Department of Education will notify borrowers who reach forgiveness thresholds every two months until 2024, when borrowers still ineligible for forgiveness will receive updated payment counts.
The department announced in 2022 it would address failures in its student loan programs after details emerged about mishandling of income-driven repayment plans by the department and just how few people’s debts were canceled after 20 or 25 years, as they were supposed to have been under these plans.
Iowa politicians are pushing for a variety of bills related to improving both childcare and healthcare for children.
Families of children with complex medical conditions needing to travel out of state to receive specialized care would have fewer hoops to jump through under legislation sponsored by members of Iowa’s congressional delegation.
Iowa Republicans U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks reintroduced legislation Wednesday that would improve health care access for children with complex medical conditions by simplifying out-of-state Medicaid enrollment processes for pediatric care providers. The bill is backed by more than 200 children’s hospitals, patients and research organizations nationwide, including in Iowa.
A bill sponsored by Iowa Republican U.S. Sen Ernst would allow nonprofit child care centers, including religious nonprofits, to participate in a Small Business Administration loan program to open more child care slots.
Currently, only for-profit child care centers qualify for federal programs that help small businesses access capital. To qualify, child care centers would have to comply with usual credit requirements and licensing requirements.
Both of these bills also have Democratic cosponsors.
A man walking along U.S. Highway 30 in Cedar County was struck and killed Tuesday night as he crossed the roadway, according to an Iowa State Patrol report.
About 11:30 p.m., a Ford Expedition was traveling west on Highway 30, west of Mechanicsville, when a man who was walking on the south shoulder crossed the highway near Franklin Avenue "for an unknown reason" and was struck by the sport utility vehicle, the report stated.
Authorities have not yet released the name of the pedestrian or driver.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 19.
It will be mostly sunny Wednesday with a high near 89 degrees. According to the National Weather Service it will become partly cloudy as the day goes on, with a low of around 66 degrees.
Former President Donald Trump made light of his mounting legal troubles and continued his relentless, unproven claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and stolen during a visit to Cedar Rapids Tuesday.
“I didn’t know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries and all of this,” Trump said Tuesday evening during a stop at the monthly meeting of the Linn County Republican Party after taping a town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in downtown Cedar Rapids.
“Now, I’m like becoming an expert. I have no choice. It’s a disgrace,” Trump told about 170 people squeezed into the Elks Lodge on the city’s southwest side. “If you say something about an election, they want to put you in jail for the rest of your life. It’s a disgrace.”
Trump said Tuesday in a post on his Truth Social platform that he has received a letter informing him that he is a target of the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, an indication that he could soon be indicted by federal prosecutors.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled a new logo and marketing plan Tuesday as part of an attempt to draw people to live in Iowa.
The governor also said the executive branch of state government is now operating under its newly restructured and streamlined form, which she signed into law in April.
Reynolds offered the updates during a news conference Tuesday at the Iowa Capitol.
The marketing plan includes a new state logo, which Reynolds said will be used to market Iowa to attract new businesses and residents, will be used by state agencies and will be displayed on welcome signs across Iowa on the two interstates that run through the state and on other roadways. The logo features a landscape scene and the tagline, “Freedom to flourish.”
The new slogan will replace “Fields of opportunities.”
“Iowa’s national profile is on the rise, our reputation is strong, and Americans have taken notice,” Reynolds said, while saying that Iowa’s net migration recently increased for the first time in “a generation.”
Reynolds also told reporters that she will direct the state to appeal that ruling that currently is blocking the recently passed fetal heartbeat bill. She said she believes the bill is constitutional and, despite the Iowa Supreme Court recently ruling against a very similar bill, that the out outcome will be different this time.
Jack McCaffery entered a not guilty plea Monday for a traffic violation in a May 22 crash that resulted in the death of an Iowa National Guard soldier.
McCaffery will have a trial in August. He is the son of the University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery.
McCaffery was cited last week for a traffic violation stemming from a crash at the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Kennedy Parkway in Iowa City on May 22. Investigators say he was driving the vehicle that struck Corey Hite, 45, of Cedar Rapids, who was out for a jog.
A statement released by McCaffery’s parents through a lawyer said that the accident happened when another motorist waved Hite into the path of McCaffery’s vehicle as he was...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 18.
🌞 According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 83 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 59 degrees.
A Polk County District Court judge temporarily blocked enforcement Monday of a new law signed just days earlier by Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds that would ban the vast majority of abortions in the state.
The order means abortion — for now — remains legal in Iowa up until 20 weeks of pregnancy.
District Court Judge Joseph Seidlin — who was appointed by Reynolds — granted a request from Iowa abortion providers to halt enforcement of the new restrictions until its constitutionality can be considered by the courts.
Reynolds signed the bill into law Friday afternoon at the Christian conservative Family Leadership Summit, after it was passed earlier in the week during a one-day special session of the Iowa Legislature. During her remarks, Reynolds called abortion “the most important human rights cause of our time.”
A $220 million bond referendum that would fund a land purchase, construction of a new middle school and renovations to existing buildings could go to voters in the Cedar Rapids Community School District in November.
This would be one of two bond referendums proposed to go to voters that would ensure all buildings in the district are new or recently renovated by 2037, Jon Galbraith, Cedar Rapids schools’ operations director, said during a school board meeting on Monday.
A second $225 million bond referendum could go to voters in November 2029 to build a new middle school to replace Taft and renovate McKinley STEAM Academy.
Wilson, Roosevelt and Harding middle schools would be closed under this plan and the buildings hopefully repurposed by other developers, Galbraith said.
The College Community School District is gauging voters’ interest in supporting a bond referendum this November that would fund a recreation and wellness center — possibly with a pool, pickleball courts and an indoor track.
The school district is exploring the feasibility of building a facility that would be open to the public and operated by the YMCA of Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Area. At the very least, the district plans to take a bond referendum to voters that includes building a pool for its students, Superintendent Doug Wheeler said.
The facility, if approved, could open as early as summer 2025.
The cost of the bond referendum will depend on the scope of the project, but the school’s bonding capacity is just below $40 million, Wheeler said. The facility would be located on the district’s campus across from Prairie Crest Elementary, 301 76th Ave SW, Cedar Rapids.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, July 17.
There will be some pleasant weather to start your week. It will be sunny with a high near 81 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Monday. On Monday evening it will be mostly clear, with a low near 55 degrees.
The latest round of Canadian wildfire smoke should start clearing a little bit, but if you’re sensitive to its effects, keep it in mind and check the conditions.
It will be cooler overall this week, with highs averaging in the upper 80s.Tuesday looks like the likeliest day to have rain at this early juncture.
A person was taken to the hospital Saturday night after one of several bullets shot at a home on Cedar Rapids’ northeast side struck them while they were sleeping inside the house.
Cedar Rapids police were called to the 1100 block of 32nd St. NE at around 10:54 p.m. Saturday for a report of shots fired, according to a news release.
The home had been shot “several times” and an adult sleeping inside the house was struck by one of the bullets.
The victim was treated on-scene and transported to a local hospital. They are reported to be in stable condition, the release states.
An investigation into the incident is active and ongoing.
A Polk County district judge could decide as soon as today whether Iowa’s new abortion law will remain in effect amid a legal challenge.
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the new "fetal heartbeat" law on Friday, banning nearly all abortions after cardiac activity is detected in the embryo, which happens at about six weeks of gestation.
Meanwhile on Friday Polk County District Judge Joseph Seidlin heard arguments from the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and abortion providers about whether the law should be allowed to remain in effect as a legal challenge continues.
Opponents of the bill were asking Seidlin to block the bill on Friday while the matter is considered by the courts. He refused but said he would try to issue a ruling by the end of the day on Monday, noting that a ruling this important requires his ‘strong and lengthy’ attention.
This episode was produced by Bailey Cichon and features quick bites from the following stories:
Fewer Fireflies
Iowa Wesleyan auction
Hawkeye Football tickets
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 14.
There will be another day with a chance for rain, although a lot is uncertain. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. There will be a 50 percent chance of showers all day. The amount of predicted rain will be less than a quarter inch in total, except in areas where thunderstorms develop.
The city of Cedar Rapids will soon launch its process of refreshing the master plan guiding development of the approximately 130-acre greenway along the west side of the Cedar River — providing a vision for enhancements and recreational amenities alongside flood protection.
The Cedar Rapids City Council this week signed off on a contract with Brooklyn, New York-based Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. to update the greenway parks plan for $262,800.
The greenway plan will cover three areas: the Time Check neighborhood running north; the central riverfront in Kingston Village; and Czech Village in the south.
The greenway project will be coordinated to work with other city renovation and flood control projects as the city seeks to continue to improve the spaces that were heavily hit by flooding 15 years ago and by a derecho in 2020.
There will be some new local flight options available to Florida, just as the temperatures start to get colder here.
American Airlines on Thursday announced it will add a direct flight to Miami from Cedar Rapids, starting in November,
The Saturday-only seasonal service will run November through March.
The announcement came the same week that Allegiant announced that, also starting in November, it will offer nonstop flights from The Eastern Iowa Airport to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport — marking the airline’s ninth nonstop flight route out of the Cedar Rapids airport.
The new flight will fly twice a week. Allegiant announced introductory fares would start at $60, for one-way flights.
Initial plans called for the new Cedar Rapids flight to be offered year-round, but Allegiant considers all of its routes to be seasonal because its business model is built on offering low-cost airfare during vacation seasons.
Mike and the late Esther Wilson of Cedar Rapids have given $1 million toward the renovation of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch.
The Hoover Presidential Foundation said the gift has pushed the “Timeless Values | Modern Experience” fundraising campaign to roughly 65 percent of its $20 million goal.
Esther Wilson, who died in July 2022, was an active volunteer with RSVP, assisting Erskine Elementary students with mathematics and providing bookkeeping support to older women.
Mike Wilson, now 97, was an engineer at Rockwell Collins, who had limited time for other activities while working but embraced volunteer work after he retired, assisting student robotics teams and serving on his church’s board of trustees.
An area in the museum dedicated to standards and regulations, a topic in which Hoover, an engineer, played a pivotal role while U.S. secretary of commerce, will be named in Wilson’s honor.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 13.
According to the National Weather Service patchy fog before 8 a.m. will give way to a sunny day in the Cedar Rapids area. The high will settle in at 86 degrees. On Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 67 degrees.
A North Liberty teenager was cited Monday for a traffic violation in a crash at the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Kennedy Parkway in Iowa City, which resulted in the death of an Iowa National Guard soldier who was out for a jog on May 22.
Iowa City Police identified Jonathan J.F. McCaffery, 16, of North Liberty, as the driver of a 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe that struck Corey Hite, 45, of Cedar Rapids at 4:16 p.m. on May 22. McCaffery, who goes by the name Jack, is the son of the University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery.
Following a “thorough investigation, and after consultation with the Johnson County Attorney's Office,” the teen was cited Monday with failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, a simple misdemeanor.
Under Iowa law, there is an enhancement for this misdemeanor when it results in a death, which includes a $1,000 fine, a driver's license suspension of up to 180 days, or both, police said.
Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith said this is a pending case and she couldn’t talk about the facts of the case.
In a statement distributed Wednesday by an Iowa City law firm, Fran and Margaret McCaffery — Jonathan McCaffery’s parents — called the crash, which happened just after their son left school, a “tragedy” that has “devastated” their family.
“Investigators have told us that it was an unavoidable accident with no evidence to suggest distracted driving,” the McCafferys’ statement says. “The pedestrian, who was jogging at the time of the accident, was waved in front of our son’s passing vehicle by the driver of another vehicle.”
The McCafferys’ statement says they refrained from releasing a statement before this week out of respect for the Hite family and “to allow the Iowa City Police Department to conclude its investigation.”
New restrictions on abortion in Iowa will not be signed into law until Friday, but challengers are not waiting.
The Republican-led Iowa Legislature during a special session passed a new version of a bill late Tuesday that bans abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy.
Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will sign the bill into law at a political event hosted Friday by the Christian conservative group The Family Leader. She is scheduled to deliver remarks and sign the bill at 2:15 p.m. Friday.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the Emma Goldman Clinic and the ACLU of Iowa announced Wednesday they already challenged the pending new law in district court. A hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday in Polk County District Court on their petition to temporarily block the law from taking effect.
The legislation would go into effect upon Reynolds’ signature unless the court grants a temporary injunction that would prevent enforcement of the law.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 12.
Rain is on the way, at least for the first half of the day. According to the National Weather Service there is a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly before 1 p.m. As much as two inches of rain are possible. Outside of the rain, it will start cloudy and then gradually become sunny, with a high near 83 degrees.
Iowa Republican lawmakers passed a near-total abortion ban during a one-day special session Tuesday, making another attempt to enact a law that was blocked by courts in 2018 and remained so after an Iowa Supreme Court decision last month.
Lawmakers voted mostly along party lines after seven hours of debate to ban abortions after cardiac activity is detected in an embryo or fetus, with some exceptions.
The bill prohibits abortions once a “fetal heartbeat” is detected.
The bill would ban abortions after cardiac activity is detected in an embryo or fetus, with some exceptions. With passage, Iowa would join 10 other states with similar abortion limits.
Abortion rights advocates say such a prohibition would end 98 percent of the now-legal abortions in Iowa. They argued during lengthy public hearings the bill went against the will of Iowans and would strip women of their bodily autonomy.
The bill includes exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape in cases reported within 45 days, and incest in cases reported within 140 days. It also includes exceptions for miscarriages, a fetal abnormality that would result in the infant’s death, and for when the mother’s life is threatened.
Planned Parenthood, a reproductive health care system that provides abortions, has said it will challenge any abortion restrictions that come from the special session — teeing up what’s sure to be another legal battle that could take a year or more to resolve. That expected legal challenge could center on the level of legal scrutiny that should be applied by the courts to abortion restrictions.
Multiple reports of potential carbon monoxide gas exposure at a Cedar Rapids Motel 6 over the weekend have been attributed to two different sources — a natural gas leak and a clogged lint trap in the motel’s laundry room.
The last issue was resolved and motel guests were allowed back in the building by 3:15 p.m. Saturday, according to Mike Battien, the Cedar Rapids Public Safety communications specialist.
The first call ended after Mid-American Energy crews determined the gas was coming from a natural gas leak, which they stopped up, according to Battien.
When first responders were called the second time, firefighters performed a room-by-room search to make sure all residents were evacuated safely out of the building. Other firefighters searched for the source of the leak and ventilated the building.
A clogged lint trap was discovered in a dryer in the building’s laundry room, which was blocking carbon monoxide produced by the machine from leaving through the exhaust pipe and instead was leaking into the laundry room.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 11.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 90 degrees. There will be a slight chance of rain before 7:00 a.m. The more likely chance for rain will be late Tuesday night into Wednesday, where rain chances will climb to 80 percent.
The Iowa Capitol will be ground zero for state abortion policy Tuesday. Advocates on both sides of the issue plan to fill the Capitol as lawmakers consider legislation to severely restrict abortion access in the state.
Iowa lawmakers meet today in a special session to consider a bill that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. It includes exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape in cases that are reported within 45 days, and incest in cases that are reported within 140 days.
It also includes exceptions for miscarriages, a fetal abnormality that would result in the infant’s death, and for when the mother’s life is threatened.
Maggie DeWitte, executive director of the anti-abortion group Pulse Life Advocates, said she’s thankful Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republicans responded to calls to act quickly on new abortion restrictions “to save more and more unborn children’s lives and protect women from the harm of abortion.”
Opponents, including physicians, argue politicians should not be making medical decisions for patients, and that the law ignores well-established medical standards.
With under two years to go until the 2025 deadline that Iowa set for itself to get at least 70 percent of its workforce some form of education or training after high school, a new Gallup poll out today reveals confidence in higher education has plummeted — especially among Republicans.
Where 57 percent of Americans had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education in 2015 today that confidence score has slid 21 percentage points to just 36 percent.
The doubts and differences between 2015 and 2023 are strongest among Republicans, with just 19 percent expressing a great deal or a lot of confidence in higher ed today — down 37 points from 56 percent in 2015.
“Americans’ confidence in higher education, which showed a marked decrease between 2015 and 2018, has declined further to a new low point,” according to a Gallup statement. “While Gallup did not probe for reasons behind the recent drop in confidence, the rising costs of postsecondary education likely play a significant role.”
Kim Reynolds’ ascension to governor of Iowa and her first election victory are all thanks to Donald Trump, the former president asserted Monday in a social media post.
In his post, Trump noted that he “opened up the governor position” for Reynolds in 2017 by selecting former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as his ambassador to China, then claimed credit for her election victory a year later.
Trump’s post came after the New York Times published an article over the weekend describing apparent strains between Reynolds and Trump’s campaign. The Times reported that Trump and his campaign feel Reynolds is betraying her pledge to remain neutral in the Republican presidential primary by being friendlier to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his campaign.
Trump posted his thoughts Monday on Truth Social, the social media site that was created for him after he was suspended from Twitter in 2021 for spreading misinformation about the 2020 presidential election that he lost.
Trump wrote: “I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won. Now, she wants to remain...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, July 10.
It will be a sunny day to start your week. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 90 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A chance for rain will return on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Police and firefighters evacuated a southwest Cedar Rapids motel Saturday after receiving several calls reporting a gas leak or some other vapor exposure.
One person was evaluated by ambulance crews, but did not need additional medical care, according to a Cedar Rapids public safety spokesman. No injuries were reported.
Authorities were first called at 10:14 a.m. to the Motel 6 at 616 33rd Ave. SW. According to the spokesman, utility crews found the source of the exposure and fixed it. But then, about 1:44 p.m., authorities were called again after guests began complaining of symptoms of an apparent exposure to gas or vapor.
Firefighters responded again, and ventilated the motel and conducted a room-by-room search to evacuate guests. According to a previous real estate listing, the two-story motel, built in 1977, has 100 guest rooms.
The incident remains under investigation
Iowa Republicans will hold their upcoming presidential caucuses on Jan. 15, 2024, the state party announced Saturday.
The announcement resolves one uncertainty about the 2024 Iowa caucuses, but much still is in question as Iowa Democrats seek to hold an early caucus while following rules set by the Democratic National Committee last year that kicked Iowa Democrats from the first-in-the-nation spot.
Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann criticized Iowa Democrats’ previous caucus proposals — which included conducting the presidential selection process mostly by mail — in his announcement on Saturday.
Generally the one point of agreement between Iowa Democrats and Republicans, the caucus process has become fractious as Republicans have accused Democrats of threatening Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status with their mail-in caucus proposal.
Four weeks into summer school across Iowa’s public universities, enrollment remains below pre-pandemic levels — although campus leaders are “encouraged” by signs student counts are normalizing.
UI summer enrollment for the term that started May 15 was 10,261 — the lowest since 1980; 183 students below last summer’s 10,444; and 21 percent down from 2017’s 13,005.
Although Iowa State University saw a slight uptick of 65 students this summer to 8,468, its count remains well below the ISU summer peak of 12,060 students in 2017.
And while University of Northern Iowa’s summer enrollment inched up 42 students to 2,631, it’s 64 percent below the 4,326 students UNI reported in summer 2017.
Although Iowa’s public universities’ combined six-year graduation rate dipped in the most recent report in fall 2022, their collective four-year rate has been climbing — now reaching 56 percent, up from 35 percent in 2000.
The quicker paths to graduation could be in play in the public universities’ broader enrollment drops — mirrored in the lower summer counts — which were predicted, due to the state’s changing demographics, and were aggravated by COVID's impact on the traditional college experience and student lives.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 8th, and Sunday, July 9th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday has a 40 percent chance of showers before 8am, then it’ll be cloudy and gradually clear up until it’s mostly sunny, with a high near 81.Saturday night will be mostly clear, with a low around 59.
Sunday will be sunny, with a high near 83 and will remain clear Sunday night with a low around 61.
Casey DeSantis pushes for parental rights in Iowa
Praising Gov. Kim Reynolds’ policies in education and parental involvement, Florida first lady Casey DeSantis said her husband, Ron DeSantis, would bring the same energy and priorities to the White House.
Casey DeSantis spoke Thursday at a campaign event near Des Moines, moderated by Reynolds, as part of the launch of “Mamas for DeSantis,” a group to mobilize mothers and grandmothers who support Ron DeSantis’s bid for the Republican nomination for president.
Policies intended to increase school transparency and give parents more involvement in their children’s education have been a key issue in the Republican presidential primary, with Republicans taking aim at what they call indoctrination in schools and inappropriate subject matters in curriculum and school library books.
DeSantis said the COVID-19 pandemic gave parents a window into what their children were being taught at school, and said some did not approve of the curriculum being taught. She said the focus on those issues during her husband’s last campaign for Florida governor had broad appeal to independent voters that led to his outsized victory.
Drought intensifying in Midwest, impacting ag and shipping
Drought conditions have rapidly deteriorated across the Midwest over the past few weeks — and it’s uncertain how much rain will come the rest of this summer, experts said Thursday during a webinar hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and several climate partners.
May and June are historically the rainiest months for Midwestern states, said Molly Woloszyn, the regional drought information coordinator for NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System.
Most areas in the region departed from that, though, with much of Eastern Iowa receiving 4 inches less of precipitation than normal.
Up until now, temperatures in the Midwest have remained largely on par with seasonal averages. Because of El Nino, the central U.S. may see milder temperatures this summer. The phenomenon could also throw more rain toward Iowa, Missouri and into Indiana and Michigan.
Only time will tell how El Nino will influence weather, though, with its impact likely to affect the climate moving into late summer, fall and winter.
Free tutoring program partnering with Goodwill to pilot student internships
Empowering Youths of Iowa — a program that helps Cedar Rapids students graduate high school — is partnering with Goodwill of the Heartland in a pilot summer internship program.
Five students were selected by Empowering Youths of Iowa founder Sarah Swayze to take part in the paid internship based on how they’ve demonstrated responsibility.
In the pilot program, students are working with a Goodwill career adviser, gaining workplace skills and exploring their career interests, said Amy Winslow, career services and development manager with Goodwill. Students also learn how to create a resume, apply for a job and practice their interviewing skills.
The internship is a total of 25 hours or can be doubled for students who are doing well in the program, Winslow said.
Some students are at Goodwill stores sorting merchandise, stocking selves, creating displays and working in customer service. Another student is working in Goodwill’s e-commerce department in...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 7.
It will become increasingly cloudy during the day Friday, with a chance for rain later on. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 79 degrees in Cedar Rapids. There will be up to a 50 percent chance of rain Friday night, with a quarter inch of rain or less predicted, with the possibility for heavier rain if thunderstorms develop.
Drought conditions have rapidly deteriorated across the Midwest over the past few weeks — and it’s uncertain how much rain will come the rest of this summer, experts said Thursday during a webinar hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and several climate partners.
May and June are historically the rainiest months for Midwestern states, said Molly Woloszyn, the regional drought information coordinator for NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System.
Most areas in the region departed from that, though, with much of Eastern Iowa receiving 4 inches less of precipitation than normal.
Hotter than normal daytime temperatures are also intensifying dryness in the Midwest. The midday heat encourages water to evaporate from soils, contributing to low moisture levels across Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas and eastern Nebraska.
Agricultural conditions have declined throughout the region, said Dennis Todey, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Midwest Climate Hub.
Pasture and range conditions have deteriorated rapidly, causing some Midwest ranchers to sell off cattle. Only 24 percent of Iowa’s pastures and ranges are in good or excellent condition.
As corn crops enter their reproductive stage, called tasseling, in the coming weeks, drought conditions could impact their yield. Time will tell how soybeans fare as they enter their critical growing stages by August. Specialty crops across the region have suffered reduced or no yields.
More than 29,000 Iowa students applied to receive roughly $7,600 in state money to be used to pay for private school costs such as tuition and fees. And nearly 17,500 students — the majority of whom already attend private schools — have been approved so far, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Thursday.
The numbers exceed state projections that predicted 14,068 students would be approved to receive education savings accounts in the program's first year.
However, the final cost of the program and the final number of education savings account — or ESA — program participants will not be available until certified school enrollment numbers are finalized in October, Reynolds’ office said.
And not every family approved may be able to use the state-funded assistance, as space is limited at Iowa’s private schools. Some have wait lists for certain grades and are turning families away, while others say they’re nowhere near capacity.
The governor's office said accredited private schools have reported there are roughly 9,000 slots available across the state for new private school students, meaning there could be more students approved than seats available in private schools.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 6.
According to the National Weather Service, Thursday should be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high of 80 degrees. The low temperature will settle in at 53 degrees
Abortion access in Iowa would be restricted under legislation that statehouse Republicans plan to craft next week during a special session of the Iowa Legislature, called for Wednesday by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The special session will take place Tuesday at the Iowa Capitol.
The special session will be conducted “with the sole purpose of enacting legislation that addresses abortion and protects unborn lives,” the governor’s news release said.
Three Iowa House Republican lawmakers told The Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau that they expect Republicans will once again pass legislation that would ban abortions once a fetus’ heartbeat can be detected.
Currently, abortion in Iowa is legal until the 20th week of pregnancy.
Some major medical organizations, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, note that what is detected at six weeks is not a heartbeat, but instead electrical impulses, and that an actual heartbeat does not occur until roughly 17 to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Police in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City received hundreds of complaint calls about fireworks in the four days around the Fourth holiday this year, though the totals were down from previous years.
It’s illegal for individuals to set off fireworks in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, though people can fire off consumer fireworks in some surrounding cities and in unincorporated Linn County during certain hours.
A state law amended two years ago made it illegal for cities to ban the sale of fireworks or limit their sale to certain areas, like industrial zones. But individual cities and counties still can restrict their discharge.
In Cedar Rapids, police received 410 fireworks-related calls for service between Saturday and Tuesday.
In the same time period last year, police had 426 calls for service, down from 595 in 2021 and 750 in 2020.
Police issued 11 citations for illegal fireworks usage in the city over the four days, the same number as last year, but down from 15 in 2021 and 24 in 2020.
Iowa City saw similar decreases
The Solomon’s Landing development — a $20 million project that seeks to create an “entertainment district” just north of Penn Street in North Liberty — will receive city tax incentives worth up to $7.5 million.
The North Liberty City Council during a brief special session this week approved a development agreement authorizing tax increment payments. The city agreed to make eight annual payments not to exceed $7.5 million to reimburse a portion of taxes.
The agreement approved Monday is between the city and Pratt Real Estate Management. Developer Brandon Pratt, of North Liberty, is behind the project and had previously asked for financial assistance from the city.
The proposed development includes a 34,000-square-foot indoor recreation building, as well as a 33,000-square-foot bowling entertainment center with an adjacent Pizza Ranch restaurant.
The recreation building — called The Palestra — will be used for various indoor sports and community events. The entertainment facility would include bowling, ax throwing, arcade, billiards and a bar.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 4.
According to the National Weather Service, your Independence Day will be sunny and quite warm. It is predicted to be 94 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A chance of rain will return in the early morning hours on Wednesday.
Five people were injured in a boat explosion on Lake Rathbun in Appanoose County Sunday, according to a news release from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
One woman was evacuated by helicopter to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for moderate to severe burns. One adult male and three juveniles were taken by ambulance to Mercy One in Centerville for minor burns.
The boat exploded — likely because of a mechanical malfunction — during engine startup on the Buck Creek Arm of Lake Rathbun at approximately 3 p.m. Sunday, the news release stated.
If your holiday plans include a dip in a nearby lake, here is some good news: Most of Iowa’s state park beaches this week have water quality within safe standards for swimming.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources collects water samples each week at state park beaches and tests the water for E. coli bacteria and toxins from harmful algae — both of which can harm swimmers. The agency posts notices advising against swimming on weeks when levels exceed state standards, but many people do not see or heed the warnings.
Last week’s tests showed 31 of the beaches tested within safe levels for swimming. This includes Backbone, Macbride, near Solon, and Pleasant Creek, near Palo.
At eight state park beaches, swimming is not advised because of high levels of either E. coli or algal toxins. These are:
- Black Hawk, Lake View
- Brushy Creek, Lehigh
- George Wyth, Cedar Fall
- Lake Darling, Brightons
- Marble Beach, Spirit Lake
- McIntosh Woods, Ventura
- Pine Lake South, Eldora
- Prairie Rose, Harlan
Iowa DNR weekly advisories are available online or over a hotline at 515-725-3434. Two state park beaches — Lake Geode and Lake Ahquabi — are closed this summer for renovations so the water isn t being tested there.
The E. coli at Iowa beaches likely comes from feces from wildlife and manure runoff from farm fields. These bacteria levels often spike after a heavy rain. Accidentally ingesting contaminated water can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches or other symptoms.
The lake at Terry Trueblood Park in Iowa City, while not at one of Iowa’s state parks, remains is closed to swimming because of E. coli.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, July 3.
According to the National Weather Service Monday will feature sunny skies with a high near 89 degrees. The wind will be calm all day, and the even low will settle in at around 68 degrees.
We are already into July, and as of July 1 several new Iowa laws will take effect. For example, Iowa teens ages 14 to 17 can work more jobs at longer hours, low-income families will face new stricter requirements for receiving public benefits such as food assistance, and more Iowa parents will qualify for child care assistance, but will have to work more hours to remain eligible.
Lawmakers this year passed a slate of education bills into law, including a bill limiting LGBTQ instruction topics through sixth grade and barring books with sexual content from school libraries.
The new law requires schools to remove library materials depicting or describing a specific set of sex acts or sexual activities defined by Iowa law. Religious texts are exempted.
A new law also requires schools to notify parents if a student requests changing their name or pronouns.
LGBTQ advocates have said that could lead to schools forcibly “outing” students even if they might be put in danger at home. Supporters contend it codifies parents’ rights.
Legislation went into effect July 1 that greatly reorganizes the state government, reducing cabinet-level state agencies from 37 to 16, and eliminating hundreds of vacant state government positions. Meanwhile, another bill reduces the powers of the state auditor, essentially the only position of power at the state level that is occupied, at the moment, by a Democrat.
Other bills restricted the amount of damages trucking companies face for accidents, increased the penalty for distributing fentanyl, required in-person participation for Caucuses, and sought to fill maternal care deserts by enlisting midwives in that capacity.
A Cedar Rapids man who had an outstanding warrant is accused of leading officers on a high-speed chase Saturday evening.
According to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, a deputy attempted to stop a vehicle going east on Highway 100 near Ellis Road NW around 8 p.m. The deputy said the vehicle was going 80 mph in a 65 mph zone. The driver refused to pull over, leading to the pursuit.
As the fleeing vehicle continued east on Highway 100, the driver reached speeds as high as 125 mph before exiting onto Covington Road, according to the sheriff’s office. The vehicle then traveled west on Highway 100 before exiting on Highway 30 eastbound, then entering southwest Cedar Rapids.
The driver pulled into a parking lot behind GNC at 2320 Edgewood Rd. SW, according to the release. There, police arrested Michael Bowman, 24, of Cedar Rapids, who was the only occupant of the vehicle.
Bowman was taken into custody and transported to the Linn County Jail on the outstanding warrant plus several eluding charges.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 1st, and Sunday, July 2nd, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday has a high chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly in the afternoon. Otherwise, it’ll be mostly cloudy, with a high near 82. Chance of showers and thunderstorms continue Saturday night with a low of 66.
Sunday continues a 50% chance of thunderstorms and showers and will otherwise be partly sunny, with a high near 87. Sunday night will be mostly clear, with a low around 64.
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Biden’s student loan relief program and ruled in favor of a designer who doesn't want to make wedding websites for gay couples.
A sharply divided Supreme Court on Friday effectively killed President Joe Biden’s $400 billion plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts for millions of Americans.
The 6-3 decision, with conservative justices in the majority, said the Biden administration overstepped its authority with the plan, and it leaves borrowers on the hook for repayments that are expected to resume in the fall.
Biden was to announce a new set of actions to protect student loan borrowers and would address the court decision later Friday, said a White House official. The official was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of Biden’s expected statement on the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The court held that the administration needed Congress' endorsement before undertaking so costly a program. The majority rejected arguments that a bipartisan 2003 law dealing with student loans, known as the HEROES Act, gave Biden the power he claimed.
the Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled Friday that a Christian graphic artist who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples.
The court ruled 6-3 for designer Lorie Smith despite a Colorado law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender and other characteristics. Smith had argued that the law violates her free speech rights.
Smith's opponents warned that a win for her would allow a range of businesses to discriminate, refusing to serve Black, Jewish or Muslim customers, interracial or interfaith couples or immigrants. But Smith and her supporters had said that a ruling against her would force artists — from painters and photographers to writers and musicians — to do work that is against their beliefs.
Smith’s lawyer, Kristen Waggoner, said the Supreme Court was right to reaffirm that the government cannot compel people to say things they do not believe.
“Disagreement isn’t discrimination, and the government can’t mislabel speech as discrimination to censor it,” she said in a statement.
Kim Reynolds’ request for federal aid in building collapse denied
The federal government denied Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' request for assistance after a six-story apartment building partially collapsed roughly one month ago, leaving three dead, many injured and dozens displaced.
A federal agency “determined that the severity of the situation does not warrant an emergency declaration that provides supplemental federal emergency assistance,” according to a June 28 letter that Reynolds posted on social media.
Reynolds issued an emergency proclamation the day after the Davenport, Iowa, building's partial collapse to deploy state resources to the response. She sent a formal request for a federal emergency declaration the following week, estimating the response to be at least $5 million and asserting it was "beyond the capability of the State and the affected local governments.”
Reynolds said a second request is still pending.
Iowa officers cracking down this weekend on drinking while boating
Law enforcement agencies across the state will be...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 30.
According to the National Weather Service it will be a mostly cloudy day in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday, with a high near 89 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before noon, and a 40 percent chance after 7 p.m.
A divided Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
The court’s conservative majority effectively overturned cases reaching back 45 years in invalidating admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively.
The decision will have widespread effects throughout the country for years to come, but, for now, Iowa’s three public universities are not likely to be affected by the ruling. The University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa use a standardized rubric called the Regent Admission Index to determine undergraduate admissions. The index considers GPA, courses taken in core areas and ACT scores, and it does not factor in the applicant’s race.
University of Iowa spokesperson Jeneane Beck said the university’s graduate and professional programs have their own criteria for admissions, and officials will be reviewing the ruling to ensure their recruiting and admissions standards align with best practices.
Steve Emerson, the prolific local developer who’s fueled the redevelopment of many downtown Cedar Rapids properties, closed Thursday on the purchase of the former Guaranty Bank property — setting in motion the transformation of a key site in the urban core.
As the COVID-19 pandemic put a previous redevelopment plan that included a nine-story hotel and two restaurants on ice, Emerson’s takeover will add either housing or hotel units to the heart of Cedar Rapids.
The $2.8 million sale includes the Guaranty Bank and Old World Theater properties off Third Street and Third Avenue SE, as well as the Dragon Building a few blocks away on Second Avenue SE. These were owned by Guaranty Realty and were originally listed for $3.1 million.
Meanwhile, the downtown building that formerly housed The Gazette is undergoing a $6.3 million remodeling process to become the new offices of the Shuttleworth & Ingersoll law firm
The Cedar Rapids City Council this week awarded financial incentives for the property at 500 Third Ave. SE, which is owned by developer Steve Emerson.
The Gazette office was in the building for nearly 95 years before moving to 116 Third St. SE in August 2020, its fifth downtown location since the newspaper was founded in 1883.
The project was awarded city financial incentives under the Green Building Economic Development Program as it will achieve LEED certification, a measure of its sustainability and energy efficiency.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 29.
According to the National Weather Service it will be a partly sunny day in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday, with a high near 92 degrees. There will be widespread haze again, mostly before noon. There will be chances for showers and thunderstorms both in the morning and in the evening hours heading into Friday.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued an update late Wednesday extending the haze air quality advisory. The advisory stated that fine particulate levels near or above EPA health standards are expected to remain elevated Thursday and persist in Eastern Iowa through Friday.
Iowa state officials have reversed course and will apply for federal assistance to provide food for Iowa school children from low-income families during summer break, following weeks of lobbying by anti-hunger advocates.
Alex Carfrae, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, told The Gazette late Tuesday the state will participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s summer program this year. The deadline for states to apply is July 14.
Earlier this month, a department official told a member of the Iowa Hunger Coalition that Iowa was not going to participate in the summer Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer — or P-EBT — program this year, according to an email obtained by The Gazette.
That would have meant forgoing a potential $28.2 million, or $120 per eligible child, in federal food aid for an estimated 235,000 children who would have received free or reduced-price school meals this past school year.
Tuesday’s announcement comes after Iowa Democratic lawmakers last week implored Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to apply for the federal assistance, and after weeks of lobbying by members of the Iowa Hunger Coalition.
A North Liberty man, who was convicted of sexually abusing a boy over a year or so when the boy was 5 or 6 years old, was sentenced to 80 years in prison this week.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Andrew Chappell, during Monday’s hearing, ran four of the sentences for 38-year-old Thomas Dean Jesse, consecutively, and the others were run concurrently for a total of 80 years. Jesse was convicted of one count of lascivious acts with a child and 40 counts of second-degree sexual abuse.
Chappell said Jesse must serve 70 percent of three of the sentences before being eligible for parole.
Jesse was charged in January 2022 after a relative saw his laptop with videos that depicted dozens of acts of Jesse sexually abusing a 5- or 6-year-old boy
Iowa will receive $35 million in federal infrastructure money for bridge and road improvements across the state, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday.
The funding will be split among three projects:
•$24.8 million to replace nine bridges across the state
•$10 million to rebuild Main Street in Cedar Falls between University Avenue and Sixth Street
• And $300,000 to evaluate approaches to improving infrastructure connecting downtown Clear Lake to Interstate 35.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 28.
According to the National Weather Service haze will return Wednesday, otherwise it will be mostly sunny with a high near 88 degrees. There will be a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly after 2 p.m. The haze and rain chances will linger into the evening, with a low of around 70 degrees.
Expect the haze to linger until at least Thursday, when northeast winds will push the worst of it back into Wisconsin
Making good on a vision announced more than a year ago, a swath of land in northwest Cedar Rapids near downtown may soon be earmarked for a potential casino — should a state panel ever award a license to operate a gaming facility there.
The Cedar Rapids City Council next month will consider an option-to-purchase agreement through Dec. 31, 2025, with the Cedar Rapids Development Group, the city’s preferred casino developer, as well as preliminary terms of the potential facility.
If approved, this deal would set aside city-owned property between F and I Avenue NW and First and Fifth Streets NW to be purchased and redeveloped into a casino and entertainment complex.
State lawmakers last year enacted a two-year moratorium blocking new casino licenses until June 2024, thwarting the hopes of a gaming facility for Cedar Rapids at the site of now-demolished Cooper’s Mill.
A Cedar Rapids woman was arrested and charged with first-degree arson after a fire broke out Monday in her apartment.
Meredith Hendricks, 33, had her first appearance in court Tuesday and was being held in the Linn County Jail on a cash-only $50,000 bail.
Cedar Rapids firefighters were called just before 8 p.m. Monday to the fire at 2939 12th Ave. SW. Firefighters found a small fire contained to a single room in a second-floor apartment. Occupants were able to evacuate safely and no injuries were reported, according to the fire department
Hendricks’ apartment was the one on fire and she was still on scene when first responders arrived. According to a criminal complaint, police officers spoke with Hendricks and she admitted she had lit some papers on fire in her bathtub in order to dispose of them, and then smoked methamphetamine with another resident of the apartment complex. The complaint doesn’t say whether she was smoking in her apartment at the time of the fire or if she had left to smoke elsewhere.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has completed the second leg of her two-week overseas trade mission, stopping in Kosovo before traveling to Israel.
Reynolds previously stopped in Italy, where she met with Italian officials to discuss future trade opportunities and met with Italian owners of Wells Enterprises in Le Mars; SPAL Automotive, which has a sales and distribution center in Ankeny; and Maschio Gaspardo, an agricultural manufacturer with a branch in DeWitt.
While in Kosovo, the governor met with President Vjosa Osmani, the chairman of the Assembly of Kosovo and several ministers to discuss a state partnership with Kosovo and the Iowa National Guard and opportunities for commercial partnerships, Reynolds’ office said.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 27.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday, with a high near 88 degrees. The Canadian fire haze will be back, especially in the morning and early afternoon. Tuesday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 65 degrees. There will be a chance for showers and thunderstorms late Tuesday into Wednesday.
Iowa is receiving $43.5 million in federal funding to buy zero- and low-emission buses, with over half of those dollars going to Iowa City to expand its electric bus fleet and build a new transit facility.
Iowa City will receive $23.2 million, which includes doubling the size of its electric bus fleet to eight. The project will improve transit system conditions, service reliability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Federal Transit Administration, which awarded the funds.
Iowa City’s transportation director, Darian Nagle-Gamm, said the federal funds for additional electric buses and a new facility will be a “game changer” and a “necessary piece to the puzzle” of further improving the transit system for Iowa City residents.
Funding for the grants comes from the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed in 2021.
There was also news about broadband funding from that bill as well on Monday.
The White House announced Monday that Iowa will receive $415 million intended to build out broadband access in the most underserved areas of the state.
It is part of the national $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program.
The money will be rolled out through the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program, said Gloria Van Rees, spokesperson for the Iowa Office of the Chief Information Officer. To date, that program has directed more than $350 million to broadband grants using state and federal dollars, so this new money will more than double their efforts.
The grants will go to projects targeting “unserved” and “underserved” locations and households. Unserved locations are defined as lacking access to at least 25 megabits download and 3 megabit upload speeds, while underserved locations lack at least 100 megabits download and 20 megabits upload speed.
Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, was the only member of Iowa’s current congressional delegation to vote for the infrastructure bill. Rep. Cindy Axne, a Democrat who lost re-election in 2022, also voted for it.
The Polk County District Court approved a settlement agreement Monday in a lawsuit against Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office filed by journalists and media organizations who sought to require her office to respond to public record requests.
Reynolds settled the lawsuit after the Iowa Supreme Court refused to dismiss the case.
Clark Kauffman and the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Randy Evans and the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and Laura Belin and Bleeding Heartland filed the lawsuit in 2021, asserting the governor had violated Iowa’s open records law by refusing for up to 18 months to provide numerous records the journalists requested.
Under the terms of the settlement, the governor’s office agreed to allow a state District Court to resolve any future open records disputes with three plaintiffs that may arise over the next...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, June 26.
According to the National Weather Service it will be another day on the cooler side Monday, with a high near 81 degrees. It will be breezy with winds gusting as high as 30 mph. There will also be a light chance for isolated showers after 11 a.m.
The National Weather Service tracked several strong storms as they rumbled through the area on Saturday evening. There were reports of golf ball sized hail in Van Buren County and tennis ball sized hail near Ottumwa. A brief surge of wind, measured at about 70 mph, ripped through the Davenport area, leading meteorologists there to move to their safe space after a potential tornado was spotted nearby.
Between 1 and 2 inches fell in much of Eastern Iowa, which may give brief relief to drought conditions in the state, although much more rain is needed to remove the state from drought watch entirely.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the U.S. government may have to pay tens of millions of dollars to landowners along the Missouri River after a court ruled it worsened flooding there since 2007 that killed crops and wrecked homes and businesses.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court's 2020 ruling that the federal government must pay for the landowners' loss of value to the land. But the appeals court went even further in its decision last Friday, saying that the government must also pay them for crops, farm equipment and buildings lost to the flooding and finding the government contributed to the devastating flood of 2011.
Courts have found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responsible for recurrent flooding since 2007, three years after it changed how it manages the Missouri River’s flow to better protect the habitat of endangered fish and birds. It did so by notching dikes to increase water flow, keeping more water in reservoirs and reopening historic chutes, allowing the river to meander and erode banks.
More than 370 landowners in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and the Dakotas are currently represented in the lawsuit, and a merger with another class-action lawsuit of an additional 60 landowners could happen later.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, June 24th, and Sunday, June 25th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will see a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 5pm. The temperature will see a high of 93 and cool to a low of 67 Saturday night with a continued chance of showers and thunderstorms. Chance of precipitation is 90%
The chance of showers and thunderstorms will persist throughout Sunday, but otherwise it’ll be partly sunny, with a high near 80 and cool to 64 Sunday evening as chances for showers and thunderstorms continue.
Summit seeks second pipeline permit for project extension
As reported by Jared Strong - Iowa Capital Dispatch and published on TheGazette.com, Summit Carbon Solutions this week asked the Iowa Utilities Board to set informational meetings for the expansion in Floyd and Mitchell counties in northern Iowa. A 31-mile length of pipe would connect the Absolute Energy ethanol plant near St. Ansgar to Summit’s proposed pipeline network that is to span over 2,000 miles in five states.
The project would carry captured carbon dioxide away from ethanol plants for underground sequestration in North Dakota.
Federal officials have said such projects are crucial to meet goals for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but opponents of Summit’s pipeline worry about public safety and landowners’ rights. Summit is likely to seek eminent domain to obtain easements for about 1,000 parcels of land in Iowa.
Iowa schools win Carrie Chapman Catt Award for registering students to vote
The Gazette’s Grace King reports Isaac Newton Christian Academy in Cedar Rapids is one of 19 schools awarded the Carrie Chapman Catt Award this year for registering at least 90 percent of their eligible students to vote. This is the fourth year the private school has earned the award.
Across the state, more than 2,600 eligible high school students registered to vote this year in conjunction with the award initiative. Isaac Newton was the only school in Cedar Rapids to earn the Carrie Chapman Catt Award this year.
Regina High School in Iowa City registered at least 50 percent of eligible students and received a personalized certificate from the Iowa Secretary of State.
The award was create by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate in 2019 to encourage voter registration in Iowa high schools. The award is named after Carrie Chapman Catt, a famous Iowa native who was instrumental in securing passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women access to the ballot box more than 100 years ago.
More lanes, new interchange coming to I-380
As reported by The Gazette’s Tom Barton, Iowa state transportation officials recently gave the green light to proceed with plans to widen Interstate 380 and rebuild the interchange with Wright Brothers Boulevard in Cedar Rapids.
The Iowa Transportation Commission earlier this month approved the 2024-2028 Iowa Transportation Improvement Program. The non-binding planning document proposes the Iowa Department of Transportation spend $4.2 billion in state and federal funding on highway and bridge projects over the next five years.
Iowa DOT commissioners proposed to delay several projects as the cost for constructing roads and bridges has risen significantly over the past year while funding has largely remained the same. But the commission did not remove any projects entirely from last year’s five-year program.
The five-year program proposes spending more than $3.3 billion to improve the safety and condition of existing state highways and bridges, including dedicating more than $1.3 billion of additional bridge investments.
Among the projects recommended for funding include adding lanes, replacing major river...
This is Jami Martin-Trainor, a summer intern for The Gazette, and I’m here with your daily news update for Friday, June 23rd 2023.
Today’s weather is bright and sunny with a high of 92, and this evening will be partly cloudy with a low of 67.
Iowa Department of Education director resigns after three months
Iowa’s Department of Education director has resigned after a three-month stint on the job.
Chad Aldis, who was hired in March, has resigned from the office for family reasons, according to an announcement from Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office on Thursday.
Reynolds has appointed McKenzie Snow, the current deputy secretary of education for Virginia, to replace Aldis as director of the department.
Snow will start Monday, June 26, and Aldis will remain through June 30 to help with the transition, the governor's office said.
Reynolds praised Snow’s leadership in Virginia and New Hampshire, as well as her experience with the U.S. Department of Education and in the White House.
Snow previously worked in Republican former President Donald Trump’s administration, and as an aide to former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
Snow will take over the department as it charts implementation of the state’s new education savings account program, which lawmakers passed and Reynolds signed in January. The program was Reynolds’ key legislative priority this year and was expected to cost $107 million in the first year, but applications have already exceeded expectations.
University of Iowa lists its Mayflower Residence Hall for $45 million
Four months after the University of Iowa reported plans to sell Mayflower Residence Hall, the institution officially listed the property for $45 million.
The eight-story building includes 523 rooms that are “built and furnished to house 1,015 residents as a dormitory, with one to four residents per unit,” according to the listing posted Wednesday on Zillow.com.
The university doesn’t plan to vacate the 55-year-old property until next summer, and has plans to house students there through the upcoming academic year.
The Mayflower sale is part of the university’s “housing master plan,” which includes building a new residence hall specifically for returning students as opposed to freshmen who account for most of the students the university houses annually.
Although university officials haven’t shared a specific timeline for the new residence hall, they predict it will cost $40 to $60 million and will be paid for with proceeds from the Mayflower sale and additional borrowing.
By ridding itself of the Mayflower property, which UI bought in 1982, the campus will shed deferred maintenance costs associated with the building — which are part of the university’s current $1.2 billion backlog in building renewal needs.
Iowa City Council looking at what’s next in community policing plan
The Iowa City Police Department has implemented a majority of the recommendations outlined in a 2020 plan to restructure the department toward community policing.
Police Chief Dustin Liston this week told the City Council he is “really proud” of the progress made on the 36 recommendations in the last two and a half years. He said the plan is “just a start” and now is an opportunity for the council to weigh in on next steps.
The recommendations focus on...
This is Jami Martin-Trainor, a summer intern for The Gazette, and I’m here with your news update for Thursday, June 22nd 2023.
Today’s weather is looking similar to yesterday, with a sunny high of 91. The evening is mostly clear with a low of 67.
Iowa Gov. Reynolds settles 3 lawsuits regarding delayed open records requests
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has agreed to settlements in three lawsuits that alleged her office violated state law by failing to respond to open records requests in a timely manner.
Under the terms of one settlement, the governor’s office agreed to allow a state district court to resolve any future open records disputes with three plaintiffs that may arise over the next year.
The settlements were approved Wednesday afternoon by the Iowa State Appeals Board. Now, they must be given final approval by a district court judge.
The state will pay roughly $135,000 — the entirety of which will cover legal fees — to settle Belin v. Reynolds, according to state records. In that case, two Iowa news organizations and an advocacy group for government transparency argued the governor’s office violated state open records laws by taking between five and 18 months to fulfill open records requests in 2020 and 2021.
The governor’s office fulfilled the requests in January of 2022, a month after the lawsuit was filed. The governor’s office then tried to have the lawsuit dismissed because, its attorneys argued, the suit was no longer necessary after the records requests were fulfilled.
A condition of the settlement is that the governor’s office does not admit to a violation of state law.
Consulting firm will help Iowa City determine if City Park Pool should be renovated or replaced
Iowa City will likely have an answer this fall on if the seven-decade old City Park Pool should be repaired or replaced.
The Iowa City Council unanimously approved an agreement on Tuesday not to exceed $99,950 between the city and an Illinois engineering firm.
Repairs or construction of a new facility will be targeted after the 2024 season, and the facility will be closed in 2025.
The city said the pool loses 30,000 gallons of water per day. That is over three times the standard amount of water loss per day, according to the city.
City representatives have also said the main pool gutter is worn and abrasive, and residents have complained of minor scrapes as a result. Additionally, the pool house structure and mechanical equipment do not meet modern safety expectations.
The discussion surrounding the city’s aquatic facilities has received attention from the public over the last year. City Park Pool is the oldest of Iowa City’s three pools, and is the city’s only outdoor pool.
Residents have raised concerns about how the 73-year-old City Park Pool will be renovated and the lack of details so far. At Tuesday’s meeting, residents and council members expressed how discussions are heading in the right direction.
Iowa officials disappointed in EPA rule on biofuels mandates
Iowa Republican lawmakers and biofuels interest groups expressed disappointment on Wednesday after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule regarding the amount of corn-based ethanol that oil refiners must blend into the nation's fuel mix over the next three years.
While increasing blending volumes overall by raising the level for advanced biofuels, the new rule includes lower mandates for ethanol in 2024 and 2025 than the EPA had initially proposed.
Industry officials, farm advocates and members of Iowa’s congressional delegation said the levels ignore production capacity and projected growth in biofuels. The industry is an important market for Iowa farmers, with more than half of the state’s corn being used to produce ethanol.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the final rule will reduce...
This is Jami Martin-Trainor, a summer intern for The Gazette, and I’m here with your news update for Wednesday, June 21st 2023.
Today’s weather is looking sunny with a high of 92, and we’re in for a clear evening and a low of 66.
Iowa’s Joni Ernst partners with Democrat to limit Chinese purchase of U.S. farmland
Following Erin Jordan’s investigative report on who owns Iowa farmland, Tom Barton reports on how Iowa Republican and United States Senator Joni Ernst announced a new bipartisan proposal to overhaul how foreign ownership of farmland is monitored.
Ernst and Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow said they hope to limit China’s ability to purchase United States farmland. The proposal also requires the federal government to consider removing some Chinese and foreign landowners of land they currently own.
According to the Department of Agriculture, foreign ownership and investment in United States agricultural land has nearly doubled over the last decade. Ernst said current federal law doesn’t offer enough oversight regarding which foreign entities are buying farmland.
Ernst said China has been allowed to “use loopholes to attempt to exploit any potential vulnerability and assert control over our agriculture industry.”
Ernst also clarified that the proposed legislation does not prohibit Chinese and other foreign ownership in the United States. She said the legislation ensures the USDA and FDA have adequate knowledge of who owns land to ensure leaders can protect national security interests.
Middle Iowa River Watershed authority forming this month
The Middle Iowa River watershed management authority is expected to formally establish by the end of the month. It will be one of the newest watershed management authorities in Iowa, and spans from Marshall to Johnson County.
Watershed management authorities are agreements between cities, counties and soil and water conservation districts that coordinate water quality improvement and flood mitigation efforts. These were established in 2010 after the 2008 flood.
Iowa currently has 27 existing watershed management authorities, which cover 40 percent of the state. Across the board, they have received funding from all levels of government and general community support.
The Johnson County Board of Supervisors have overall allocated $125,000 for the Iowa River watershed plan. The project’s description is to “develop Iowa River Watershed plan to address nonpoint sources of pollution.”
Hunter Biden reaches deal to plead guilty in tax, gun case
President Biden's son Hunter has reached a tentative agreement with federal prosecutors on Tuesday. The deal has him plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and admit to the facts of a gun charge under terms that would likely keep him out of jail, according to court papers filed Tuesday.
Iowa United States Senator Joni Ernst commented on the plea deal to reporters on Tuesday.
“I am just grateful that we are starting to see some level of resolution here,” Ernst said. “And we’ll see what transpires over the course of the next few weeks and months. Obviously, if he pleaded guilty, there’s something there.”
Republican Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley also commented via statement.
“Today’s plea deal cannot be the final word given the significant body of evidence that the FBI and Justice Department have at their disposal. It certainly won’t be for me,” he said.
Any proposed plea deal would still need to be approved by a federal judge. Both the prosecutors and the defense counsel have requested a court hearing at which Hunter Biden, who is 53 years old, can enter his plea.
This has been your daily news podcast. For these stories and more, visit thegazette.com.
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 20th, 2023.
Today’s weather will be sunny and hot with a high near 91. Tonight will be clear with a low around 64.
Kim Reynolds announces nearly $150 million in broadband funding
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced nearly $150 million in funding for broadband development Monday, focused on areas with the highest need for high-speed internet.
The latest round of the Empower Rural Broadband Grant Program will make available up to $149 million for qualified broadband projects in underserved areas. Funding for the projects will come from the 2021 federal American Rescue Plan Act.
“Iowans deserve access to reliable, fast broadband,” Reynolds said in a news release. “Reliable internet connections are needed to live, work, and raise a family. This investment in infrastructure gets us one step closer to providing easy internet access to all Iowans.”
Unlike previous broadband funding opportunities, these grants will be focused on 96 “Broadband Intervention Zones” around the state — areas that have been identified as having a critical need for broadband access. The zones were identified using feedback from dozens of public meetings, the governor’s office said in the news release.
University of Iowa hospitals raise rates again 6%
As it has done annually for years, the Board of Regents last week approved a University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics across-the-board 6-percent rate increase in health care services starting next month — the highest allowed in many UIHC contracts with insurance providers.
“Given UIHC’s low charge levels, it would be reasonable to increase charges more than 6 percent,” according to a UI request. “However, given the cap on charge increases in many of its contracts, it is most prudent to cap the increase proposal to 6 percent.”
Compared with peer academic institutions, officials told the board, UIHC rates are “relatively low.” UI peer institutions include the universities of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — all of which have affiliated hospitals and health care systems.
“UIHC charges are below the 50th percentile of academic medical centers,” according to the request.
A comparison tool produced by the Iowa Hospital Association, however, shows UIHC — the state’s only academic medical center — is more expensive than most in Iowa for many services.
Court decision on student loans will affect thousands of Iowans
Tens of thousands of Iowa student loan borrowers are awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt.
The court is weighing a challenge brought by six Republican-led states, including Iowa, arguing the plan is unconstitutional, and is expected to decide on the lawsuit by the end of the month.
If the U.S. Supreme Court allows the loan forgiveness to go through, student loan borrowers without a Pell Grant would get up to $10,000 taken off their loan balance, while Pell Grant recipients would see up to $20,000 forgiven. The executive action is expected to cost around $400 billion.
According to the White House, 264,000 borrowers in Iowa applied or were deemed automatically eligible for relief as of January, before the program was halted by an appeals court panel. There were 169,000 fully approved applications. The White House estimated more 430,000 Iowa borrowers were eligible when the plan was announced.
Regardless of the decision in the federal case, student loan interest will resume Sept. 1, and required payments will resume in October. Iowa borrowers have an average of around $30,000 and hold a combined $13.2 billion in student debt, according to educationdata.org.
Today's episode was hosted by Bailey Cichon. For a closer look at today's featured stories, visit thegazette.com.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, June 17th, and Sunday, June 18th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be sunny with a high near 87, cooling to 64 overnight with a 40% chance of showers after 1am.
The chance of showers will persist through Sunday morning and the rest of Sunday will be cloudy with a high near 86.
Deadlocked Iowa Supreme Court means abortions legal for now
Abortion will remain legal in Iowa until roughly 20 weeks of pregnancy — for now — after the Iowa Supreme Court split in an opinion delivered Friday morning.
The court considered Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ request that the courts reinstate a law blocked immediately after it passed in 2018 that would ban abortions once a fetus’ heartbeat can be detected.
In its opinion Friday, three Iowa Supreme Court justices voted to let stand the district court ruling that said the so-called fetal heartbeat law remains unconstitutional. And three justices voted to reverse the district court ruling.
Justices Susan Christensen, Thomas Waterman and Edward Mansfield voted to uphold the district court’s ruling. Justices Christopher McDonald, Matthew McDermott and David May voted to overturn the district court ruling.
A seventh justice, Dana Oxley, recused herself from the case.
The 3-3 decision means a 2019 ruling by a Polk County District Court Judge against the law remains in effect, meaning abortion in Iowa remains legal until the 20th week of pregnancy.
Cedar Rapids schools deletes ‘Celebrating Pride’ Facebook post over disparaging comments
Comments criticizing the Cedar Rapids Community School District for recognizing Pride Month and disparaging LGBTQ people remained on the district’s official Facebook page for days before school officials — facing criticism over the comments while they worked with lawyers — removed the entire post this week.
On June 1, the district posted a short item — “Celebrating Pride” was all it said — to mark the month when pride celebrations and parades are held nationwide, including locally. The post, along with comments later made on it, was removed Tuesday.
Caitlin Wiedenheft, spokeswoman for the school district, said district leaders worked with their legal counsel and determined the post would be removed altogether “so no comments could be made by anyone.”
The district is reviewing its social media guidelines, including considering disabling comments on any social media posts in the future, Wiedenheft said in a statement.
While individuals are free to delete comments or posts on their own social media pages, it is another matter for governments and public officials. Governments can face free speech repercussions if they delete selective comments that don’t seem to violate posted guidelines.
History Center receives national award for Oral Histories LIVE program
The History Center is receiving a national award for its Oral Histories LIVE programming that preserves the stories that shaped Linn County.
The 2023 award of excellence for Leadership in History comes from the American Association for State and Local History.
The Oral Histories programs at The History Center, hosted by a moderator, showcase a local history maker for a night of stories and questions from the audience. The interviews are recorded, edited and published to become living history books accessible on The History Center’s website.
The interviews also are transcribed and become part of The History Center’s searchable archives.
Jason Wright, executive director of The History Center, Jason said the Oral Histories program was developed because of the need to capture the...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 16.
According to the National Weather Service it will be a mostly sunny day in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. The high is predicted at 84 degrees, while the low will be 60 degrees.
A haze engulfed Eastern Iowa on Thursday.
The wave of smoke had wafted down from more than 300 wildfires blazing in Canada. It wasn’t the haze’s first visit to the northern U.S. this summer — and it likely won’t be its last visit.
Wildfire smoke carries a mixture of solid and liquid particles that is dangerous to breathe in. Its heavy presence caused the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to issue an air quality advisory early Thursday afternoon for portions of Central and Eastern Iowa.
Air quality in Cedar Rapids deteriorated from “moderate” to “unhealthy” throughout Thursday morning, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Fire and Smoke Map.
The “moderate” category indicates acceptable air quality with a potential risk to sensitive populations. The “unhealthy” level of concern means the general public may experience health effects. Sensitive groups — like pregnant people, children and older adults — may experience more serious health effects.
The air quality advisory will last through 10 p.m. Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
The Iowa Supreme Court is poised to deliver an opinion Friday that will reset the legal landscape for abortion restrictions in Iowa.
The court on Thursday announced the four rulings that it will publish Friday morning will include Planned Parenthood of the Heartland v. Gov Kim Reynolds.
The possible outcomes of Friday’s opinion are many, and not as simple as an up-or-down ruling on the law at the heart of the legal challenge: A 2018 law that state courts struck down that would prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
The court’s consideration of that district court ruling could go in multiple directions, legal experts say.
In one scenario,The Iowa Supreme Court affirms the district court judge’s ruling. This would maintain the status quo, with abortion remaining legal in Iowa until the 20th week of pregnancy. It would then be up to Reynolds and the Republican-majority Iowa Legislature to determine whether to write a new bill that would restrict abortions.
Or, the Iowa Supreme Court rules against the district court judge and determines there is no fundamental right to abortion services in Iowa. Such a ruling would reinstate the 2018 fetal heartbeat law,...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 15.
It will be hot again Thursday with a side of Canadian fire haze. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 91 degrees. The weather service is predicting widespread haze between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. On Thursday evening it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 58 degrees.
After hearing from student representatives worried about the rising cost of higher education but aware of eroding state support, Iowa’s Board of Regents without discussion Wednesday approved across-the-system tuition and fee increases — including a 3.5-percent hike for all in-state undergraduates.
New tuition and fee rates for the next academic year starting Aug. 21 include varying increases for out-of-state students and those at the graduate level, depending on the campus.
Although regents for the upcoming budget year requested a $32 million increase in general fund appropriations from the state, lawmakers instead tied a combined $7.1 million increase to specific programs across the campuses: the UI College of Nursing; Iowa State’s Future Ready Workforce Program and UNI’s Educators for Iowa Program.
That continues a trend of Iowa’s generational disinvestment in higher ed.
After Iowa regents reviewed in closed session Tuesday the performance of their university presidents over the last year, they approved a range of pay increases and new compensation incentives Wednesday — including a raise for University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson.
Beginning July 1, Wilson will earn $700,000 a year — amounting to a $50,000 raise, the second such raise in two years, making her the highest-paid president across the three-campus regent university system. Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen’s salary will stay at $650,000 a year — although both she and Wilson received new deferred compensation incentives.
Regents also extended both presidents’ contracts.
Wilson, given a five-year contract when she started in 2021, now has a term of employment through June 30, 2028. Wintersteen, whose 2019 contract was set to expire this summer, received an extension through June 30, 2026.
University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook — whose salary has remained static since his hire in 2016 at $357,110 — on Wednesday received his first raise of $15,000 a year, bringing his annual pay to $372,110. His current contract runs through 2025.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a letter urging Congress to overturn California’s law dictating the conditions of livestock that produce meat sold in the state, joining the chorus of Iowa Republicans calling the law disastrous for Iowa agriculture.
The letter was joined by nine other Republican governors, whose states together represent more than half the pork production in the country. Iowa leads the nation in pork production, raising about a third of the country’s hogs.
The governors called on Congress to pass the Exposing Agricultural Trade Suppression Act, a bill introduced in the last Congress that would ban states from imposing regulations on the production of agricultural products outside the state.
The bill targets California’s Proposition 12, an animal welfare law approved by
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 14.
It may not be summer, yet, but it's going to feel like it on Wednesday. According to the National Weather service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday with a high near 90 degrees. On Wednesday evening it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 62 degrees.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Donald Trump became the first former president to face a judge on federal charges as he pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom Tuesday to dozens of felony counts that he hoarded classified documents and refused government demands to give them back.
Trump approached his arraignment with characteristic bravado, posting social media broadsides against the prosecution from inside his motorcade and insisting as he has through years of legal woes that he has done nothing wrong and was being persecuted for political purposes.
But despite his swagger, he still will have to answer to 37 felony counts that accuse him of willfully retaining classified records that prosecutors say could have jeopardized national security if exposed, as well as trying to hide them from investigators who demanded them back.
Meanwhile, back in Iowa, drama continued for Iowa Democrats.
Mike Gronstal, a Democrat from Council Bluffs and former Iowa Senate majority leader, was asked to resign from his statehouse lobbying job for the Iowa State Building and Construction Trades Council after the organization learned of his involvement in Senate Democrats’ recent removal of Sen. Zach Wahls as their leader.
The Iowa State Building and Construction Trades Council is a collection of nine regional building trades councils that represents thousands of Iowa construction workers. The organization lobbies state lawmakers on proposed legislation related to the construction industry.
The nature of Gronstal’s involvement in Senate Democrats’ leadership change was not detailed by the council or made public by Senate Democrats. But the two longtime staffers who were fired had worked for Gronstal when he was majority leader.
The council asked for Gronstal’s resignation the next day.
The two staffers who were fired by Wahls — Erik Bakker and Deb Kattenhorn — have been rehired and are once again working for Iowa Senate Democrats, a caucus spokesman confirmed.
And one staffer who Wahls had hired, Kaity Patchett, was fired by Jochum. Patchett previously worked in the office of former Central Iowa U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne.
A portion of Tower Terrace Road in Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha, which has been closed for a little over a year for the construction of an interchange connecting the road to Interstate 380, is scheduled to open later this month.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new interchange — a “diverging diamond” design — is scheduled for June 22, and the Iowa Department of Transportation is hoping to have the roadway open on or shortly after that date.
This will be Iowa’s third diverging diamond interchange, and the first on the east side of the state. Diverging diamond is an interchange design in which traffic switches to the left side of the roadway while crossing over the interstate, allowing those turning left onto the interstate a clean turn, rather than turning across incoming traffic.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 13.
It's going to be warmer and windier on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service, it will be partly sunny with a high near 84 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday. On Tuesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 59 degrees. Wind gusts could get as high as 30 mph during the day before settling down a bit at night
A man shot to death early Sunday in Cedar Rapids had been acquitted in 2018 by a jury of first-degree murder and other charges related to a street fight involving dozens of combatants.
Cedar Rapids police said Kenyauta Vesey-Keith, 23, was killed in a shooting in the 1300 block of First Avenue SE. Officers were called at 12:06 a.m. Sunday and found Vesey-Keith suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
In 2018, Vesey-Keith was acquitted of first-degree murder and other charges stemming from a 2016 fight that led to the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Brandon Johnson. Vesey-Keith was 16 at the time of the shooting, and 18 at the time of the trial. He was accused of first-degree murder, attempted murder, willful injury causing serious injury and intimidation with a weapon, but was acquitted of all charges.
In the trial, prosecutors argued that Vesey-Keith took a gun from a vehicle and fired multiple rounds, hitting Johnson and Gaudlin. Vesey-Keith's lawyers argued he fired the gun in self-defense and presented evidence that he had previous issues with Johnson and others before the street fight.
The investigation into the shooting Sunday is ongoing, and no additional information was available. Police said they believed it was a targeted incident.
Crews started Monday to demolish the remains of a six-story apartment building in downtown Davenport that partially collapsed more than two weeks ago, killing three people and leaving dozens without a home.
Workers were using a large excavator to dismantle the 116-year-old brick, steel and concrete structure in a process officials said would take several weeks. It's a difficult task because the building is in the heart of the city's downtown and is believed to contain asbestos and other potentially hazardous material.
Building owner Andrew Wold pleaded guilty Monday to a civil infraction filed by the city, according to online court records. The infraction, which stated that Wold didn't maintain safe conditions at the building, carries a $300 fine plus $95 in court costs. The city has said Wold will be charged for demolition expenses.
Separately, building tenants have named Wold and others in lawsuits related to the building collapse. Another lawsuit filed Friday — the fourth related to the collapse so far — said Wold and the city failed to notify tenants after a March 13 inspection to vacate, giving them enough time to collect their belongings, according to the Quad City Times
State Sen. Zach Wahls of Coralville, in a social media post Monday, described and defended the events that led to his ouster last week as Democrats’ leader in the Iowa Senate.
Wahls was voted out of his position as Iowa Senate minority leader when Senate Democrats called an impromptu meeting and voted to make Sen. Pam Jochum, of Dubuque, their new leader.
Wahls’ post Monday was his first public comment since the vote.
“I am no longer leader because I made the difficult decision to fire two longtime staffers who did not share my vision for change while restructuring our staff. My Senate Democratic colleagues disagreed with my decision,”
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, June 12.
There is another sunny, dry week in store for us all, at least until Friday or so when there looks to be a small chance for rain again. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 78 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Monday. On Monday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 59 degrees.
A 23-year-old man died Sunday after being shot in southeast Cedar Rapids.
The shooting was reported to police at 12:06 a.m. Sunday in the 1300 block of First Avenue in southeast Cedar Rapids, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
When officers arrived, they found a victim outside the address suffering from gunshot wounds, the news release states. He was given immediate medical attention and transported to a local hospital, where he died.
The name of the man has not yet been released.
A news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department states that the shooting “appears to be a targeted incident.” Anyone with information about it is asked to call Cedar Rapids police.
Hundreds more Iowans than anticipated have applied for a new state-funded private school financial assistance program, potentially costing the state $11.2 million more than lawmakers had budgeted.
As of 10 a.m. Friday, more than 15,500 applications had been submitted for the state's new education savings account program to receive thousands of dollars to pay their students' private school costs, according to the Iowa Department of Education.
And Iowans have more than 20 days left yet to apply.
Assuming all 15,538 applications received so far get funding, that would cost the state roughly $118.6 million.
While lawmakers set aside more than $107 million for the program in its first year, as with public school funding, “the appropriation from the Legislature is a standing unlimited appropriation,” said Heather Doe, communications director for the Iowa Department of Education.
The new law is expected to cost the state $345 million annually by 2027, when fully implemented. In total, over the course of four years, the program would cost the state an estimated $879 million, according to the LSA fiscal analysis.
The program, signed into law by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in January, will be phased in over four years until all K-12 students in Iowa will be eligible for roughly $7,600 per year in public funding to put toward private school tuition or other private school expenses.
Do Iowa’s private schools have room for a rush of new private school students? Well, Iowa has about 200 non-public schools, but only 58 of Iowa’s 99 counties have an accredited private school at this time.
Most of the areas where there are no private schools in the state are in rural areas. And several private schools in state are already near or at their capacity.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, June 10th, and Sunday, June 11th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be Partly sunny, with a high near 82. There’ll be a 50% chance of rain, particularly after 4pm, including a chance of thunderstorms, increasing to a chance of 80 percent in the evening. Saturday night will have a low of 60.
Sunday there’s a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1pm with a chance of thunderstorms before 10am. After that it’ll be partly sunny, with a high near 74 with a low of 49 Sunday evening.
Iowa could pay millions more than budgeted to help families pay for private school
Hundreds more Iowans than anticipated have applied for a new state-funded private school financial assistance program. More than 15,500 applications had been submitted for the state's new education savings account program to receive thousands of dollars to pay their students' private school costs, according to the Iowa Department of Education.
And Iowans have more than 20 days left yet to apply.
While lawmakers set aside more than $107 million for the program in its first year, as with public school funding, “the appropriation from the Legislature is a standing unlimited appropriation,” said Heather Doe, communications director for the Iowa Department of Education.
“All approved ESAs will be funded,” Doe responded in an email.
She did not respond Friday to a follow up message asking how the state would pay for additional scholarships beyond what lawmakers had budgeted and where those dollars would come from.
Ahead of 2008 Iowa flood anniversary, Hinson introduces flood mitigation bill
Ahead of the 15-year anniversary of the historic 2008 flood, Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, of Marion, introduced a bipartisan bill to improve flood and drought mitigation through existing federal conservation programs.
Introduced along with Democratic Illinois U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, of Moline, the bill seeks to provide communities with resources to protect against flooding, by amending the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program to support practices that mitigate the effect of flooding and drought, or improve and expand flood resiliency.
Hinson said elevating flooding as a natural resource concern within RCCP ensures flood mitigation, prevention and resiliency become a long-term priority for the program in helping communities secure resources protect themselves from flooding.
Cedar Rapids-based task force responded to Davenport building collapse
The emergency response to a Davenport apartment building that collapsed May 28 — killing three and injuring several others — involved specially trained members of Iowa Task Force 1 from Cedar Rapids and Sioux City.
The Cedar Rapids task force was called a couple of hours after the collapse, which happened around 5 p.m. Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend. The team, trained in search and rescue techniques, arrived in Davenport at midnight.
Though the team returned to Cedar Rapids soon afterward, it was called back to assist in the search for and then recovery of bodies this past weekend, according to Rick Halleran, a Cedar Rapids firefighter and battalion chief of the Cedar Rapids task force.
The building’s collapse was “such a horrible, tragic event,” he said. “On the backside of it, it (the task force) operated as designed. There are always things to improve upon and do different next time, but the amount of cooperation on multiple levels with different agencies, groups and people at different levels, was really good.”
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 9.
It will be another sunny, pleasant day on Friday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 83 degrees. On Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 58 degrees.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, former president Donald Trump has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, making him the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges by the federal government that he once oversaw.
The Justice Department was expected to make public a seven-count indictment ahead of a historic court appearance next Tuesday in the midst of a 2024 presidential campaign where Trump currently leads his fellow Republican contenders in the polls.
As is his custom, Trump jumped ahead of the news on Thursday evening by announcing the indictment on his social network, Truth Social.
The indictment carries potentially grave legal consequences, including the possibility of prison if Trump is convicted.
The case adds to deepening legal jeopardy for Trump, who has already been indicted in New York and faces additional investigations in Washington and Atlanta that also could lead to criminal charges.
About a month after the Mississippi River flooded parts of Eastern Iowa, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has placed the entire state in a “Drought Watch” following a dry May, according to a water summary update released Thursday.
In accordance with the new Iowa Drought Plan, the state’s drought regions are assigned one of four drought levels in the monthly water summary update: Normal, Watch, Warning or Emergency. The levels are established using current precipitation data, the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor maps, and historical streamflow and precipitation comparisons.
Last month, Iowa’s drought status as a whole was labeled Normal. Continued dry conditions led to a level upgrade after Iowa only received half of the rainfall that is usually expected in May.
That has left almost 99 percent of Iowa in some level of dryness or drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday. Most of the state falls into the abnormally dry or moderate drought categories — the next highest levels after normal conditions.
Only small sections of northern and central Iowa received above-average rainfall totals. Southwestern Iowa, on the other hand, bore the brunt of the dryness, only receiving 35 percent of its typical precipitation and experiencing its 12th driest May on record.
In a long-anticipated move, the Big Ten Conference will eliminate the East and West football divisions after the 2023 season and replace them with a new scheduling model that protects some rivalries. The top two teams in the standings, regardless of geography, will face off in the Big Ten championship game.
Iowa’s rivalries with Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska will be annual while all other opponents rotate. Not every school has the same number of protected rivalries.
Most schools have at least two protected rivals, while Penn State for whatever reason is the only team with zero. Thank you Nittany Lions for your somewhat arbitrary sacrifice so Iowa can keep all its trophy games.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 8.
It will be another sunny, mild day on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 81 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Thursday evening it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 53 degrees.
With somewhat unusual timing, Iowa Senate Democrats elected a new leader Wednesday night.
Republicans and Democrats in the Iowa Legislature typically elect their respective leaders shortly after elections every two years.
But on Wednesday night, Senate Democrats met and elected Dubuque Sen. Pam Jochum as their new leader, in the process ousting previous leader Sen. Zach Wahls, of Coralville.
Senate Democrats on Wednesday night did not address the reason for the change.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch, Iowa Field Report, and Iowa Starting Line reported Wednesday that many Senate Democrats were upset that Wahls, as caucus leader, recently fired two longtime staffers, Erik Bakker and Deb Kattenhorn.
Wahls, 31, was first elected to the Iowa Senate in 2018, and in 2020 was elected leader of the minority-party Senate Democrats, who are outnumbered in the chamber by Republican supermajority, 34-16.
Swimmers at Noelridge Aquatic Center in northeast Cedar Rapids were taken into safe housing on-site Wednesday after reports of shots being fired nearby.
Police received a report of shots fired in the 4000 block of Richmond Road NE at 4:41 p.m. Wednesday, according to a news release. Officers arrived on scene and witnesses described three minor males involved in an altercation that ended in a single gunshot being fired.
The release states the individuals fled before officers arrived. No injuries or property damage had been reported as of Wednesday evening.
Noelridge Aquatic Center, which is about a block from the location of the shots fired, was “secured by staff,” and swimmers were taken into safe housing on site until police indicated all was clear, the release states. The pool was scheduled to reopen at 6:30 for normal operations.
A Cresco man was arrested Wednesday on charges he sexually abused multiple Boy Scouts over a decade while serving as a troop leader in Cresco.
James Hughes, 73, is charged with four counts of third-degree sexual abuse and six counts of lascivious conduct with a minor, according to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
The investigation started March 18, 2021, when a Boy Scout filed a report of sexual abuse with the Cresco Police Department. The police department requested the Iowa DCI help with an investigation, which led to the discovery of several other instances of sexual abuse between Hughes and other juvenile Boy Scouts, authorities said.
According to criminal complaints, Hughes committed sexual abuse or misconduct against five boys, each between the ages of 13 and 16 at the time. The abuse spanned between 2008 and 2018, the records show.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 7.
The remnants of Tuesday's clouds will hang around for a while, before giving way to sun. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area before gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 81 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 52 degrees.
Continuing its construction boom involving more than $1 billion in new and renovated facilities, University of Iowa Health Care next week will seek Board of Regents approval to spend $249 million on a new 263,000-square-foot “Health Sciences Academic Building.”
The new six-story academic facility — realizing another item on UIHC’s “10-year modernization plan” unveiled last year — will house a trio of nationally-esteemed departments central the UI health campus: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Health and Human Physiology; and Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science.
The west side project — planned behind Slater Residence Hall — will encourage cross-department collaboration while also expanding the UI inventory of “modern general assignment classrooms,” according to regent documents.
A judge has sentenced a former Iowa State University football player, convicted of assaulting former University of Iowa basketball player Jordan Bohannon outside a downtown bar in 2021, to one year of probation and granted him a deferred judgment.
Nicholas Kron, 31, of Nashville, Tenn., pleaded in March to assault causing bodily injury, a serious misdemeanor. He admitted to assaulting Bohannon outside of DC’s Bar in Iowa City on May 23, 2021.
According to a criminal complaint, Bohannon and Kron were both at the bar and, after it closed, Bohannon and another person got into an argument outside. Kron punched Bohannon three times in the head, knocking him to the ground. Bohannon had a cut on his head from the assault. Bohannon's friends helped him leave but later he was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Bohannon filed a lawsuit against Kron for the assault in July 2021, but it was dismissed in January 2022 without prejudice by the court for failing to serve Kron with the suit in a timely manner. A new lawsuit was filed last month against Kron for “brutally, unlawfully and intentionally” assaulting Bohannon.
The Clear Creek Amana Community School District is breaking ground Thursday on a new elementary school to be built in Coralville.
The public is invited to the groundbreaking at 4 p.m. Thursday. The school will sit on 30 acres of land west of Coral Ridge Avenue and east of the intersection of Interstate 380 and Highway 6 in Coralville.
A name has not yet been chosen for the new elementary school and the naming process has not yet been laid out by the school board.
This will be the fourth elementary school to be constructed in the Clear Creek Amana district and will alleviate overcrowding in its other schools. It also will be the district’s largest elementary with a capacity for 600 students.
With Tiffin, North Liberty and Coralville recognized as three of the fastest-growing cities in Iowa, the Clear Creek Amana district estimates growing enrollment of 150 to 200 students per year, and the 10-year enrollment outlook estimates 300 to 350 students per grade level.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 6.
There will be a chance for rain Tuesday, but it will again be a low chance. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent of showers and thunderstorms after 3 p.m. in the Cedar Rapids area, growing slightly more likely Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Besides that it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 89 degrees. On Tuesday night there will be mostly cloudy skies and a low of around 61 degrees.
A Cedar Rapids teen who killed his parents with two knives and an ax on Oct. 14, 2021, will have to serve a mandatory minimum of 50 years of a life sentence before being eligible for parole.
Ethan Orton, who attacked his mother, Misty Scott-Slade, 41, after she fell asleep in a chair and his father, Casey Arthur Orton, 42, who was asleep on a sofa, told a psychologist they emotionally and verbally abused him all his life. And when his mother sent him an email the day before, saying he had to move out when he turned 18 — in five months — it pushed him to attack.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill considered the factors for a youthful offender facing a life sentence to determine the appropriate sentence. The Iowa Supreme Court banned life sentences without a chance for parole for juveniles in 2016, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s same decision in 2012.
Thornhill sentenced Orton to two life sentences but ran them concurrently, and found a mandatory 50-year minimum isn’t equal to a life sentence because he would be eligible for parole at 67, which is retirement age for many people.
An Iowa National Guard soldier who was three weeks away from retirement from the Guard has died after being struck by a vehicle May 22 in Iowa City.
The Iowa City Police Department confirmed Monday that Corey J. Hite, 45, of Cedar Rapids, died Sunday morning nearly two weeks after the crash. The department had not previously identified the pedestrian hit in the crash, which happened just after 4 p.m. that day at the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Kennedy Parkway.
The police department also hasn’t released information about the driver of the vehicle that struck the soldier, or whether any charges related to the crash are being contemplated. The Gazette requested a recording of the 911 call related to the crash, but the request was denied because police said the crash remained under investigation.
Hite was out for a jog when he was hit. He had spent the last couple of weeks in the hospital with serious injuries, including a pelvis fracture, multiple skull fractures, holes in his lung and kidney and brain swelling, according to a GoFundMe page started on behalf of the family. The fundraising page had raised over $4,600 by Monday afternoon.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the remains of all three men caught inside the Davenport apartment building that partially collapsed last week have been recovered, the city’s police chief said Monday, as survivors began filing lawsuits asserting that negligence led to the structural failure.
The police chief said Branden Colvin Sr., 42, was recovered Saturday. Ryan Hitchcock, 51, was recovered Sunday and Daniel Prien, 60, was recovered early Monday. He did not say if they died immediately after the May 28 collapse, but autopsies will be performed on all three.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, June 5.
There will be the return of haze to greet you on Monday. According to the National Weather Service there will be widespread haze before 4 p.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Not helping that at all will be a calm wind of 5 mph. It will be mostly sunny, with a high near 88 degrees during the day.
Our next chance for rain appears to be Tuesday, but even that's not for certain, so make sure to water those vegetable gardens.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the body of one of three men who had been missing after the partial collapse of an apartment building in Davenport has been found, a city official confirmed Sunday.
Branden Colvin Sr.'s body was recovered Saturday, city spokeswoman Sarah Ott said. Two other men — 51-year-old Ryan Hitchcock and 60-year-old Daniel Prien — still are unaccounted for.
Colvin, 42, is the first person confirmed to have died in the collapse.
The Quad-City Times reported that Colvin's son, Branden Colvin Jr., graduated from high school Saturday. He and other family members had been at the collapse site almost constantly, hoping for a miracle.
The discovery of Colvin's body came a day after authorities announced that the search for survivors had been completed, with attention turning to shoring up the structure so recovery efforts could begin.
Over the past four decades, 35 percent of fish kills have been related to agriculture, according to an Investigate Midwest analysis of state data from 1981 to 2022.
Iowa is one of the top 10 agricultural states in the country. It is the nation’s leading producer of corn, a commodity whose productivity depends heavily on fertilizer.
It is also the nation’s largest hog producer. Nearly one-third of the nation’s hogs are raised in Iowa, with the collateral effect of generating thousands of tons of animal waste or manure.
Jamie Mootz, the water monitoring data analyst at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources who handles the fish kill database, describes these events as unintentional incidents.
“You could call all of them an accident, but some are avoidable,” Mootz said.
Despite millions of dollars lost from fish kills over the decades, the amount of fines handed out is just one-sixtieth of the monetary value lost from fish kill events.
Cedar Rapids residents can enjoy access to new and emerging workforce technology through the Maker Room at the Cedar Rapids Public Library this summer.
After expanding its space and equipment at the downtown branch, the library is set to reopen the Maker Room Monday.
The new expanded space will host a laser cutter, 3D printer, Cricut Maker, a photo scanner, and access to the Adobe Creative Suite to bolster access to new technology and skills being implemented in the workforce.
Cedar Rapids Public Library Programming Manager Kevin Delecki said the program is focused on making cutting-edge technology accessible for all Cedar Rapids residents.
“Now with these emerging technologies that are starting to become more and more integrated into schools, workplaces and job skills for the next generation — those skills are starting to become an expectation,” Delecki said. “But the equipment to learn those skills isn't widely available, it isn’t affordable, and it does not have equitable access.”
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, June 3rd, and Sunday, June 4th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be sunny and hot with a high of 93 degrees with a low around 66 Saturday night. Sunday will start out sunny and hot with a high of 91, but in the afternoon there’s a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Sunday night should cool down to a low of 64.
Davenport official called 911 about building the day before it collapsed
The day before the Davenport Building collapsed, a downtown development official called 911 to voice concern about the stability of a wall of the apartment building.
Tony Behncke, operations director for the Downtown Davenport Partnership, said one of his employees called him on Saturday and, when Behncke couldn’t reach city officials, he called 911.
Behncke said his employee had talked to Ryan Shaffer, who runs a masonry business and had submitted a bid to the building’s owner earlier this year to shore it up and fix it. The owner thought the bid was too high and found another company to repair the century-old building, but Schaffer was so concerned about the building at 324 Main St. that he frequently checked on it.
On Saturday, Shaffer shared his concern with a Downtown Davenport Partnership employee cleaning up trash in the alley. The worker called Behncke, his boss.
Behncke said he called his city contact and the fire station but didn’t reach anyone, likely due to the holiday weekend. He called 911 at 2:46 p.m. Saturday to make a non-emergency report — a little more than 24 hours before the building partially collapsed around 5 p.m. Sunday.
For more information on this developing story, visit TheGazette.com.
Gov. Kim Reynolds signs final bills from 2023 legislative session
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed 65 bills into law late Thursday afternoon, signed another with a line-item veto and vetoed one bill entirely.
The signings represent the last batch of bills that passed the Republican-led Iowa Legislature during its 2023 legislative session.
Among the bills Reynolds signed:
Safe Haven ‘baby box’ to surrender newborns: House File 425, amends the state’s Safe Haven law to include the use of “newborn safety devices” at certain facilities that are staffed 24/7 with first responders, like a fire station or a hospital.
Mental health hotline on student ID cards: House File 602 requires school districts to put a 24-hour call and text line that provides crisis counseling on student IDs.
New nursing home moratorium: House File 685 places an initial, yearlong moratorium on building new nursing homes in the state and adding new beds to existing homes. The moratorium could be renewed in six-month increments, up to a total of three years.
For a full list of the bills Gov. Reynolds signed, go to governor.iowa.gov.
Greene Square ambassador program starting again for summer season in Cedar Rapids
The program that employs people who’ve experienced homelessness to patrol Greene Square and key downtown areas is starting again for the summer months.
From May to October, these workers — employed by Willis Dady Homeless Services — pick up trash, work to keep the peace in the downtown area, remind park visitors of the rules, refer people to social service agencies and call emergency services if needed as a last resort.
Cedar Rapids spent almost $2 million to renovate Greene Square in 2016 as a focal point for activities in the urban core such as farmers markets, concerts and festivals.
Four ambassadors will work this season for 15 hours a week each from Monday through Saturday, for a total of 60 hours a week. Two ambassadors will work a five-hour shift each day. The goal is to ramp up to seven days a week.
The ambassadors patrol the area spanning from First Street to Seventh Street SE and Second Avenue to Seventh Avenue SE. They will focus particularly on three high traffic areas: Greene Square, the Ground Transportation Center and trail near the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 2.
There's another chance for rain Friday, so we'll see if that happens this time. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 91 degrees. There will be a 40 percent chance of precipitation, mainly after 1 p.m.
On Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 67 degrees.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, a structural engineer report issued just days before a Davenport apartment building partially collapsed indicated a wall of the century-old structure was in imminent risk of crumbling, yet officials did not order residents to leave and said Thursday they relied on the engineer's assurances that the building remained safe.
Three residents of the six-story building still were unaccounted for, and there are no immediate plans to demolish what remains of the extremely unstable structure, according to local officials.
Crews were using drones to scan the building and consulting with experts about how to safely bring down the structure while being respectful of bodies that could be buried in a debris pile, Mayor Mike Matson said.
Earlier this week, authorities said five people were missing, but Davenport Police Chief Jeff Bladel said Thursday that two of them have since been found safe. One moved out of the building a month ago and was found in Texas, and the other was found locally.
The Iowa City Fire Department responded to a backhoe crash, house fire and downed power line at the corner of Fairchild and Linn streets Wednesday, according to a news release from the department.
First responders were called at 1:14 p.m. Wednesday in response to the back- hoe crash. The backhoe was on Fairchild Street, which is closed, as part of a street reconstruction project.
The call was quickly upgraded to a fire response as the house at 230 Fairchild St. caught fire. When firefighters arrived, at 1:24 p.m., they found smoke coming from all sides of the house and a power pole with a transformer on the ground near the front yard of the home. One person was trapped in the backhoe, with power lines draped over it, the release stated.
The fire was located in the attic and brought under control by 2:05 p.m. and extinguished by 2:41 p.m.
A city spokesperson said the backhoe crash was part of a series of events leading to the fire, but the incident remains under investigation.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a series of bills into law on Thursday.
This included an $8.5 billion budget that will spend more to help Iowa families pay for private school expenses, increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for Iowa nursing homes and raise the pay of private attorneys who represent indigent defendants.
Also signed was a bill requiring in-person participation in Iowa caucuses, a controversial bill restricting the powers of the Iowa auditor, and a bill requiring low income Iowans to meet more requirements and to provide more verification before receiving food assistance, healthcare, and child aid.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 1.
Once again there's a chance for rain in the forecast, but we'll see if it actually arrives. According to the National Weather Service it will become increasingly cloudy during the day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 89 degrees. There will be somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of a chance for showers and thunderstorms between 3 and 9 p.m. Thursday night, it is predicted to be partly cloudy, with a low of around 66 degrees.
You might not have to hear about the debt ceiling on the news for a while, assuming this passes in the Senate.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the House approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package late Wednesday, as President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy assembled enough Democrats and Republicans to pass the bill, while more conservative and liberal members of both parties still voted no in protest for various reasons.
The hard-fought deal pleased few, but lawmakers assessed it was better than the alternative — a devastating economic upheaval if Congress failed to act. Tensions ran high throughout the day as hard-right Republicans refused the deal, while Democrats said “extremist” GOP views were risking a debt default as soon as next week.
The package makes some inroads in curbing the nation’s debt as Republicans demanded, without rolling back Trump-era tax breaks as Biden wanted. To pass it, Biden and McCarthy counted on support from the political center, a rarity these days in Washington.
With an overwhelming House vote, 314-117, the bill now heads to the Senate with passage expected by the end of the week.
In his first visit to Iowa as a declared presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly framed Iowa and Florida as partners in a Republican battle to “restore sanity.”
To DeSantis, that includes laws prohibiting instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools, banning gender-affirming care for minors, and making abortions illegal after six weeks of pregnancy.
“Iowa has really set a great standard,” DeSantis told a crowd of about 500 people gathered Wednesday at Hawkeye Downs Speedway & Expo Center.
“People have said that all of the success in Iowa with these great conservative policies makes Iowa the Florida of the North. I don’t know … maybe we’re the Iowa of the South,” he said to loud applause.
He vowed to send Biden “back to his basement,” and said the nation is “careening toward bankruptcy” in the wake of Biden’s debt ceiling deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Mike Pence will launch his presidential campaign during a Des Moines rally on June 7, a source familiar with Pence’s plans confirmed.
The former vice president has made frequent visits to Iowa as he explored a bid for president. He will join several other presidential contenders at Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual Roast and Ride fundraiser on Saturday, days before the planned campaign launch.
He plans to campaign in all 99 counties, according to multiple reports. CNN will host a town hall with Pence at Grand View University at 8 p.m. June 7, the same day his campaign is set to launch.
Pence has made education, LGBTQ issues and civility in politics a focus of his early campaigning, taking particular aim at a gender support policy the Linn-Mar school district adopted last year.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 31.
Believe it or not there may be a chance for rain Wednesday, but it will not be very high. It will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 89 degrees. There will be a 20 percent chance of precipitation between around 2 and 6 p.m., but outside of this the chance for a return of rain is more likely on Thursday and Friday. The low temperature is predicted at 67 degrees with partly cloudy skies.
According to reporting from the Quad-City Times, at least five people are unaccounted for and two are likely to be inside the apartment building that partially collapsed over the weekend in downtown Davenport, city officials said Tuesday in an emotional hourlong news conference.
Spurred by the Monday night discovery of a survivor — more than a day after the Sunday evening collapse — and by protesters calling for further searches before the building is demolished, the city conducted another sweep despite the increasingly perilous condition of the six-story structure called The Davenport.
On Tuesday morning, protesters worried about the impending demolition of the building pleaded for another search. “Find Them First” and “Who is in the Rubble?" their signs said. Some used a megaphone to shout out names of building residents.
Tuesday afternoon, the city issued an update that a rescue team had conducted a search within portions of the building "that presented an acceptable risk for emergency response entry." While several animals were rescued and delivered to the Scott County Humane Society, no "human activity" was detected.
A structural engineer hired by the city has concluded that rescuers cannot go into the debris pile without destabilizing the building, said Davenport Fire Marshal Jim Morris.
"We want to get everybody out. And we want to do it right now," Morris continued, but said the city had to do so in a safe manner.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Tuesday that she plans to send about 100 Iowa National Guard soldiers and 30 law enforcement officers to Texas to assist with border security between the United States and Mexico.
The Iowa National Guard troops and state law enforcement personnel would deploy for separate 30-day stints in August and September, respectively, according to Reynolds’ office.
It is the second time in a two-year span that Reynolds has directed state troops and law enforcement to Texas. In 2021, up to 30 Department of Public Safety officers and 24 Iowa National Guard members assisted in law enforcement efforts at the border in response to requests from fellow Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona and the federal government, costing the state about $300,000.
During the first deployment, Iowa troopers assisted with 240 criminal arrests and 51 vehicle pursuits. Troopers also seized 18 firearms, $1.7 million dollars, 948 pounds of marijuana and 37 pounds of cocaine and methamphetamine, according to the governor’s office.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 31.
Believe it or not there may be a chance for rain Wednesday, but it will not be very high. It will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 89 degrees. There will be a 20 percent chance of precipitation between around 2 and 6 p.m., but outside of this the chance for a return of rain is more likely on Thursday and Friday. The low temperature is predicted at 67 degrees with partly cloudy skies.
According to reporting from the Quad-City Times, at least five people are unaccounted for and two are likely to be inside the apartment building that partially collapsed over the weekend in downtown Davenport, city officials said Tuesday in an emotional hourlong news conference.
Spurred by the Monday night discovery of a survivor — more than a day after the Sunday evening collapse — and by protesters calling for further searches before the building is demolished, the city conducted another sweep despite the increasingly perilous condition of the six-story structure called The Davenport.
On Tuesday morning, protesters worried about the impending demolition of the building pleaded for another search. “Find Them First” and “Who is in the Rubble?" their signs said. Some used a megaphone to shout out names of building residents.
Tuesday afternoon, the city issued an update that a rescue team had conducted a search within portions of the building "that presented an acceptable risk for emergency response entry." While several animals were rescued and delivered to the Scott County Humane Society, no "human activity" was detected.
A structural engineer hired by the city has concluded that rescuers cannot go into the debris pile without destabilizing the building, said Davenport Fire Marshal Jim Morris.
"We want to get everybody out. And we want to do it right now," Morris continued, but said the city had to do so in a safe manner.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Tuesday that she plans to send about 100 Iowa National Guard soldiers and 30 law enforcement officers to Texas to assist with border security between the United States and Mexico.
The Iowa National Guard troops and state law enforcement personnel would deploy for separate 30-day stints in August and September, respectively, according to Reynolds’ office.
It is the second time in a two-year span that Reynolds has directed state troops and law enforcement to Texas. In 2021, up to 30 Department of Public Safety officers and 24 Iowa National Guard members assisted in law enforcement efforts at the border in response to requests from fellow Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona and the federal government, costing the state about $300,000.
During the first deployment, Iowa troopers assisted with 240 criminal arrests and 51 vehicle pursuits. Troopers also seized 18 firearms, $1.7 million dollars, 948 pounds of marijuana and 37 pounds of cocaine and methamphetamine, according to the governor’s office.
This is Zack Kucharski from The Gazette, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday May 30th.
It'll be sunny again with a High of 92 today. Tonight it’ll remain clear and dip to 63 degrees, before jumping to 91 degrees Wednesday with a chance of showers.
One person was injured — but no deaths have been confirmed — when a six-story downtown Davenport apartment building partially collapsed Sunday evening after occupants said they had been complaining about conditions there for months.
Davenport city officials said in a news release the property owner was served Monday with an order to demolish the unstable building, which is expected to start today. The Davenport Apartment Building, 324 Main St., once housed the Davenport Hotel but has been converted into about 84 units with apartments and commercial spaces.
Residents were not being allowed back inside to remove their belongings, due to the building’s instability. Several tenants have been moved into temporary housing and the rest are staying with friends or family.
Iowa Gov. Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for Scott County in response to the partial collapse of the building. The governor's proclamation activates the Iowa
Individual Assistance Grant Program and the Disaster Case Management Program for residents impacted by the collapse.
The tally of tenured and tenure-track faculty across Iowa’s public universities has continued the drop it started a decade ago, declining 10 percentage points in as many years.
Ten years ago, 3,531 regents faculty were tenure-eligible, amounting to 63 percent of the 5,637 faculty total. Last year’s tenured and tenure-track count fell to 3,009 across the three universities — or 53 percent of the 5,635 faculty total.
Where the University of Iowa in the 2012-13 academic year reported a majority of its faculty had tenure or were on a tenure track — at 54 percent — UI tenure-eligible faculty today are in the minority, at 44 percent.
Congressional Republicans on Monday were pushing right-wing lawmakers to get behind a compromise to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending restrictions — as the White House wrangled progressives.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s vote counters were making calls on the Memorial Day holiday to stem defections from GOP conservatives who wanted far more cuts and a much smaller increase in the debt limit.
On the other end of the political spectrum, President Joe Biden’s allies are pushing liberals to swallow painful concessions on social programs in exchange for a two-year reprieve on the debt.
McCarthy admitted the agreement required concessions from both sides, dashing hopes from the far-right Freedom Caucus that he would hold out for major cuts in spending.
In sports, The Iowa Hawkeyes are an NCAA baseball tournament team, as expected. Iowa (42-14) is part of a four-team regional at Terre Haute, Ind., that includes top-seeded host Indiana State, third-seeded North Carolina and fourth-seeded Wright State. The Hawkeyes are the regional’s No. 2 seed and will play a first-round game against UNC Friday night at 6 (ACC Network).
That’s all for now. Have a great Tuesday. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.
This
is Zack Kucharski from The Gazette, and I’m here with your update for Memorial
Day, Monday May 29th.
It'll be sunny again with a High of 86 today. Tonight it’ll
remain clear and dip to 60 degrees, before jumping to 89 degrees Tuesday as
folks head back to work. It’s going to be dry and hot this week, with several
90 degree days in the forecast.
A Waterloo woman died late Saturday in Iowa City after the car she was driving in was hit by two 17-year-old drivers who failed to stop and hit her car.
Thecrash happened just before 11 p.m. Saturday at Court Street and Seventh Avenue. Twenty-two year old Jennifer Russell was hit by 17-year-olds Kesean Ford and Elijah Seals. Ford and Seals are from Iowa City. The crash was investigated by the Iowa State Patrol.
If you got to ride on trails in Linn county this weekend…there’s work to continue to build out the network that now features just over 100 miles of hard-surface trails in Linn County, Cedar Rapids and Marion.
To guide that future work, the city of Cedar Rapids and Linn County Conservation are working on a Trails and Bikeways Plan. And they’re asking the public, local businesses and trail and bikeway enthusiasts to think about the future and what they’d like to see.
The plan will update the city’s and county’s existing trails plans and maps.
The city’s plan was adopted in 2012 and the county’s was adopted about 20 years ago.
Trails and bikeways, local leaders believe, help recruit and retain workers, boost the quality of life, draw tourists to the area and attract new businesses.
Catching you up on a couple stories that broke late in the week. University of Iowa athletics director Gary Barta will retire as Iowa’s athletic director on Aug. 1. Barta held the post for 17 years.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed the Youth Labor Bill into law on Friday.
Working more jobs at longer hours is now an option for Iowa youth between the ages of
14 to 17 after Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday signed into law legislation that critics say will put young Iowans in dangerous workplace settings.
While the new law is significantly watered down from its initial form in the Iowa Legislature this year, it strips away some restrictions on jobs that 14- to 17-year-olds are allowed to work.
Supporters have said the bill provides more opportunities for young Iowans who want to work and could help address the state’s shortage of workers.
The new law addresses youth labor regulations in myriad ways. Among them:
- 16- and 17-year-olds, with parental permission, can serve alcohol in restaurants — but not in bars or strip clubs,
- 16- and 17-year-olds can participate in work-based learning programs in areas like manufacturing.
- 14- and 15-year-olds can work later hours (until 9 p.m. during the school year and until 11 p.m. during the summer); people over age 16 can work the same hours as adults.
In today’s Gazette, we debut an audience driven feature called Curious Iowa, which responds to your questions. Today’s installment looks underground at the Cedar Rapids sewer maintenance team. You can check it out at thegazette.com/curious.
That’s all for now. Have a great Memorial Day and a special thank you to those members of the Armed Forces who have given of their time to serve their country. Thank you. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, May 27, and Sunday, May 28, 2023.
The weather this weekend will be warm and sunny in Cedar Rapids for Memorial Day Weekend. According to the national weather service, Saturday should be sunny, with a high near 81 and Sunday will be mostly sunny with a high near 83. For Memorial Day it’s expected to get even hotter, with a mostly sunny sky and a high of 87.
Iowa State University will continue to help fund water sensors
Iowa State University will continue to help fund water quality sensors on Iowa’s rivers and streams, despite a budget cut by the Iowa Legislature.
The Nutrient Research Center likely will lose $500,000 — one-third of its previous state appropriation of about $1.5 million — for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
The cut came in Senate File 558, the natural resources and agriculture budget passed by both the Iowa House and Senate. The governor is expected to sign it.
Rather than back out of a commitment to allocate money to the University of Iowa, which administers about 70 sensors that measure nitrate in Iowa’s rivers and streams, Nutrient Center leadership announced this week they will take on some of the losses at ISU rather than zero out support for the sensors, which feed data to the Iowa Water Quality Information System.
Farm groups seek stronger safety net in upcoming farm bill
Iowa farm groups and congressional representatives said a strong safety net for farmers is vital as Congress works to reauthorize the federal farm bill this year.
Increasing baseline funding for programs like crop insurance that help cover losses from natural disasters or low revenue would help farmers deal with high production costs and uncertain futures, said Iowa Farm Bureau Federation President Brent Johnson.
The federal farm bill is a sprawling legislative package reauthorized every five years that deals with farming, rural development, nutrition, conservation, forestry and more. It lays out several key farm programs, like the safety net programs, as well as agriculture research and nutrition assistance.
Solon woman to walk across Iowa for second time, for mental health awareness
Karen Smith, like most moms, would do anything for her kids. That includes walking some 300 miles across the state of Iowa — twice.
On June 9, Smith, of Solon, will start her second walk across Iowa with the goal of raising money and awareness for four mental health nonprofits. Her first walk, last summer, was a result of an idea she had after seeing her husband and two sons struggle with their own mental health for several years.
“I decided I was going to do this walk, and my family thought I was insane. Then to go with it, and I asked their permission, I started a blog to share our family’s story. Because, in my mind, the more regular, everyday people talk about this and put it out there, the more normal it’s going to seem,” Smith said.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 26th.
It'll be sunny again on the last day of the working week. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny, with a high near 77 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Friday night it will be clear, with a low of around 49 degrees.
Enjoy the nice weather this weekend, but maybe check if your air conditioner works: There will be several days above 90 degrees following the holiday weekend.
A rush to enact new property tax breaks for Iowa seniors has led to confusion and concerns of fraud among county and city assessors, who say they are struggling to verify applicants’ age.
Iowa seniors can begin applying for a new property tax break created by legislation signed into law three weeks ago by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The new property tax law was approved with near-unanimous support in the Iowa Legislature during the last days of the legislative session.
The law took effect immediately and provides a $3,250 exemption on the taxable value of a home owned and lived in by Iowans age 65 and older.
The Iowa Department of Revenue last week amended an existing homestead tax credit exemption form to allow seniors to also apply for the new exemption. To claim the new exemption, applicants must provide their date of birth and certify information on the form is correct.
However, ambiguity in guidance provided by the Revenue Department — as well as the quick timeline for implementation — has caused confusion and consternation among assessors over what documents they can request and examine from Iowans to verify they’re 65 or older and qualify for the tax break, said Linn County Assessor Jerry Witt.
Witt said his office has been inundated with calls, email, letters and in-person questions from seniors about the new property tax exemption.
“The media a good job of getting the word out and we’re doing what we can to try to simplify” the process, Witt said. “It doesn’t seem to be going the best, so far.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sharply limited the federal government's authority to police water pollution in certain wetlands, bringing praise from Iowa’s Republican politicians as a win for farmers but warnings from environmental groups worried about the effect on clean water and flooding.
Thursday’s ruling was the second decision in as many years in which a conservative majority narrowed the reach of federal environmental regulations.
The justices boosted property rights over concerns about clean water in a ruling in favor of an Idaho couple who sought to build a house in that state’s panhandle. Chantell and Michael Sackett objected when officials identified a soggy portion of the property as a wetlands that required them to get a permit before filling it with rocks and soil.
By a 5-4 vote, the court said in an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that wetlands can be regulated under the Clean Water Act only if they have a “continuous surface connection” to larger, regulated bodies of water.
The outcome almost certainly will affect ongoing court battles over new water regulations, including for wetlands, that the Biden administration put in place in December. Two federal judges have temporarily blocked those rules — called WOTUS, or Waters of the U.S. — from being enforced in 26 states, including Iowa.
“The federal government has no authority to impose blanket jurisdiction over puddles, waters, and wetlands with vague, overreaching regulations on behalf of Biden’s ever-changing climate agenda,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said in a statement. “This is a big win for Iowa, where nearly every industry is impacted by WOTUS, including 46,000 small businesses and countless farmers. I’ve long fought to put in place a permanent, clear, and commonsense WOTUS definition, and will continue working to bring much-needed certainty to Iowa’s job creators.”
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, May 25.
It'll be sunny again Thursday, but it will be a bit cooler than much of the week. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 72 degrees. On Thursday night it will be clear, with a low of around 45 degrees.
The New York-based company that will operate Iowa’s new state-funded private school financial assistance program will be paid $4.3 million over the first six years, according to the terms of the contract with the state.
Odyssey, which was chosen by the state through a competitive bidding process, will be paid from the state’s general fund budget, the governor’s office said.
The company, which operates similar programs in Arizona and Idaho, this week began educating Iowa parents through a series of webinars about the new state program, which is projected to ultimately cost the state $107 million in the first year and $345 million annually at full implementation.
Under the new law, Iowans will be eligible for state funding equal to the amount of state per-pupil funding for K-12 public education, which for the 2023-2024 school year will be roughly $7,600, to pay for attending a private school.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s annual Click It or Ticket campaign — calling attention to the requirement for seat belts — started this week in advance of the Memorial Day weekend as traffic fatalities in Iowa remain higher than in previous years.
As of Wednesday, there have been 122 traffic-related deaths in the state so far in 2023. The average number of deaths for this point in the year during the last five years was 100, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s daily traffic fatality count.
Of the 122 people killed so far this year, 52 weren’t wearing a seat belt. There were 43 fatalities where the individual was wearing a seat belt, eight that are unknown and 19 where a seat belt was inapplicable, such as with a pedestrian or motorcyclist death.
According to Iowa State Patrol Trooper Bob Conrad, there will be extra traffic enforcement projects — like using planes to watch for speeding — over the holiday weekend and throughout the campaign. There also will be extra patrol officers working overtime who are specifically watching for things like seat belt use and speeding.
Ten acres at the corner of First Avenue and Second Street in Coralville — a “gateway between the University of Iowa and Coralville” — will include restaurant, retail, commercial and multifamily housing as part of a redevelopment project.
The Coralville City Council on Tuesday approved the site plan for the first addition of the Gather Iowa project by Dallas-based Rael Development Corporation. Last July the council approved a rezoning and master development plan to make way for the mixed-use development.
The city continues to work with the developer on addressing affordability concerns as part of the project’s future phases. Concerns have previously been raised about the plan possibly displacing existing minority-owned businesses and the people who live in 34 affordable housing units.
The site is in a prime location along the Coralville strip, but there have been challenges around proposed redevelopment of it.
Some of the difficulties include its position in the flood plain, replacing streets and other infrastructure and relocating a utility line that cuts across the site.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 24.
Enjoying the sunny and dry weather so far this week? Well there's no sign of it stopping any time soon. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 84 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 51 degrees.
The next head of the University of Iowa’s sprawling health care enterprise and medical college will be retired U.S. Public Health Service Capt. Denise J. Jamieson, who accumulated decades of leadership and health care experience with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at Emory University.
Jamieson, 58, will start Aug. 1 as UIHC vice president for medical affairs and dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine.
She’ll make an annual salary of $1.3 million, according to an offer letter saying her “experience and skill set are an excellent match for the position, and that your direction, guidance, and leadership will enhance education, research, and clinical care at Iowa.”
Jamieson will report to both UI President Barbara Wilson and Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin Kregel. She’ll oversee and maintain an “integrated strategic plan” for all of UI Health Care — including the Carver College of Medicine, the UI Physicians faculty practice plan and the UI Hospitals and Clinics, which reported a net position of $2.3 billion in fiscal 2022.
Jamieson’s hiring comes as UIHC is expanding its Iowa City campus, as well as building a new hospital in North Liberty.
Cedar Rapids firefighters rescued a man from a trench that collapsed while he was repairing utility lines to a local business Tuesday morning. This was the first time the Cedar Rapids Fire Department has performed this kind of rescue, according to a news release from the department.
The fire department was called to the 600 block of First Avenue SW at 9:39 a.m. Tuesday. The private utility contractor was trapped from the waist down in a collapsed work space.
Rescue teams with specialized training used shoring tools to remove the man from the hole, which was between eight and 10 feet deep, while also preventing further collapse. The man was conscious and able to communicate with crews while they worked.
After he was rescued, the man was sent to a hospital with “unknown injuries to his lower extremities,” according to the release.
After the firefighters cleared the site and removed their equipment, Cedar Rapids sewer employees were dispatched and used digging equipment to remove soil from the edge of the trench, to prevent further collapse.
Cedar Rapids rescue teams have trained annually on this type of rescue scenario since 1996, but this is the first situation within the city of Cedar Rapids that has required this specialized response, according to the release.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 23.
It'll be another warm, sunny day on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny, with a high near 84 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be clear, with a low of around 59 degrees.
A Cedar Rapids man drowned Saturday in West Okoboji Lake despite attempts to rescue him from the chilly waters, according to police and family.
Alexander Glover, 21, was visiting the Spirit Lake area with his girlfriend’s family, his mother, Sondra Williams, told the Gazette. While boating on the lake, he had jumped out of the boat to swim for a while. The boat drifted away and he attempted to swim back, but he got tired and slipped under the water, according to a news release from the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office.
The temperature in the lake at the time was 57 degrees, which the National Center for Cold Water Safety classifies as “very dangerous/immediately life-threatening“ for swimmers. The water was about 13 feet deep where Glover went under.
The family tried to throw Glover a rope, but he wasn’t able to reach it. Someone called 911 at 1:26 p.m. to report that Glover was drowning. A kayaker, Charles Anderegg, dove from his kayak and brought Glover to the surface, where members of the family Glover was with started giving him CPR until the Arnolds Park/Okoboji Fire and Rescue Team arrived by boat.
The team transported Glover to shore. He was taken to the Lakes Regional Healthcare Emergency Room, where he died.
Glover had a 1-year-old daughter, and his girlfriend is pregnant with Glover’s second child. He was also a devoted uncle to his niece.
The family started a GoFundMe hoping to raise $15,000 to help transport Glover home and to pay for a funeral service. As of Monday afternoon, that goal had been met and exceeded by almost $500.
Swimming is off limits — at least for now --- at Terry Trueblood Recreation Area in Iowa City because of high bacteria levels in the lake.
Iowa City’s regular water tests of Sand Lake, the centerpiece of Trueblood Park, showed E. coli levels above the safe standard for swimming, according to a news release Monday.
It’s the second year in a row bacteria has closed the lake for swimming. In 2022, the no-swim advisory lasted for weeks starting in mid-June. Staff at that time said they did not remember another summer in which the lake’s bacteria count triggered a warning.
Sand Lake is a popular spot for kayak and paddleboard rental, which may continue at the user’s discretion.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, May 22.
Monday will set the theme for the week as sunny, dry, and a bit warmer. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 82 degrees. On Monday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 57 degrees.
A 10-year-old child was killed in a single-vehicle rollover crash along Interstate 380 early Saturday.
According to a news release, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office identified the person killed in the crash as 10-year-old Elijah Beeman, of Waterloo. Two other occupants of the vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries. They are the driver, Roberta Hare, 30, of Waterloo, as well as a 5-year-old girl.
Police say emergency responders were called to the crash, just south of Cedar Ridge Road near Center Point, at 3:07 a.m. Saturday. They found a white Chevy Venture van on its top in the west ditch of the southbound lanes.
The crash remains under investigation.
Iowa landowners along the route of Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed carbon dioxide pipeline across Iowa may be offered third-party mediators during easement negotiations, the Iowa Utilities Board announced Friday.
In an order, the board said the proposal is intended to ease the negotiation process and make for smoother, more understandable proceedings for landowners.
But opponents of the pipelines said they see it as an attempt to encourage landowners who have been resistant to Summit’s negotiations to come to an agreement.
Summit, one of three companies seeking to build a CO2 pipeline in the state, has already signed agreements for close to 70 percent of landowners along its 680-mile proposed route, according to a company spokesperson.
The pipeline would sequester carbon collected from ethanol plants, taking advantage of federal tax incentives and making Iowa’s ethanol eligible to be sold in low-carbon markets, such as the lucrative market of California.
Under the proposal, if the landowner does not participate in the voluntary mediation, the board would begin seeking testimony related to eminent domain, which, if granted, would allow the state to take the land for the project and pay the landowner a set amount.
Brian Jorde, a lawyer representing a group of landowners before the Iowa Utilities Board and in numerous lawsuits, said the proposal is akin to “trying to do Summit’s work for them.”
“If they're going to start getting involved in helping billion-dollar companies have an easier time of wrestling property rights away from landowners who don't want to be subjected to this, then we're gonna have to have a very different conversation,” he said.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, May 20, and Sunday, May 21, 2023.
The weather this weekend will be warm and sunny in Cedar Rapids. According to the National Weather Service, Saturday’s weather will sunny with a high of 73, cooling to a low of 49 Saturday night. Sunday will also be sunny with a high of 78 and a low of 54 Sunday night.
It’s expected to remain sunny and warm into next week.
Hinson, Iowa pork producers want Congress to intervene on a California 'bacon ban’
Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson plans to reintroduce legislation to overturn California's animal welfare law that mandates more housing space for pigs in order for their pork to be sold in that state.
Opponents say the law, which was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, will drive up prices and devastate Iowa pork producers.
The California ballot initiative passed by voters bans the sale of pork in California from the offspring of pigs without at least 24 square feet of space and the ability to stand up and turn around in their pens.
Many hog farmers in Iowa, the nation’s top pork producing state, raise their pigs in facilities that don’t meet the standards of the California law.
The Supreme Court last week denied a challenge from national farm groups that said it violated the Constitution's prohibition on states restricting interstate commerce.
In his majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch said California voters have a right to regulate products sold within the state’s borders, but also noted Congress has the authority to overturn those regulations.
Traffic cameras coming this summer to Marion
Two stationary traffic cameras and one on wheels are coming by this summer to Marion.
The City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve a contract with Beverly, Mass.-based Sensys Gatso USA, to install and maintain two automated traffic cameras that monitor for speeding and red-light running, as well as for a mobile unit that monitors for speeding only.
In April, the council approved an ordinance that added language to the city code allowing for traffic cameras to be put in place.
Under the new contract, Sensys Gatso — the same company that operates traffic cameras for the city of Cedar Rapids — will install the stationary cameras at the intersection of Highway 151 and Highway 13, and at the intersection Highway 100 and East Post Road. The cameras will photograph, for citation, vehicles that run red lights at those intersections, and vehicles driving more than 5 mph over the speed limit.
The mobile unit will be deployed throughout the city in response to resident complaints about speeding. Notice of which area it will operate must be given on the police department’s social media pages and in print at city hall and the police station at least 12 hours before the camera unit is placed.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires blankets Iowa, triggering air quality concerns
Has the sky looked a bit hazy to you lately? Have sunsets seemed a bit off? You’re not imagining it — northern wildfires are the culprit.
Wildfires began to sprout in Alberta, Canada, in early May, bolstered by unusually warm dry weather and strong winds. The province declared a state of emergency on May 6 as more blazes erupted. As of May 10, 136 wildfires burned throughout Canada — 31 of which were uncontrolled at the time. More than 29,000 residents have since evacuated Alberta and the neighboring province British Columbia.
The resulting smoke from the blazes has wafted over much of the northern U.S. It started noticeably clouding Iowa skies around Tuesday, creating cloudlike cover and red, hazy sunsets. That smoke was between 15,000 and 20,000 feet in the air.
The northwest winds are changing course Friday; streams should start coming from the west. So, smoke should clear out of Iowa by Friday afternoon, aside from some intermittent patches that may pass over through the weekend.
But that most likely won’t be the last Iowa sees of the haziness. With around 30 wildfires still raging out of control in Canada, more smoke is bound to travel southeast at some point
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 19.
We may have more smoke than clouds on Friday, but it will be sunny otherwise. According to the National Weather Service, there will be patchy smoke in the Cedar Rapids area before 11 a.m. Otherwise it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 67 degrees. Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 46 degrees.
Where did all that smoke come from you ask?
Wildfires began to sprout in Alberta, Canada, in early May, bolstered by unusually warm dry weather and strong winds. As of May 10, 136 wildfires burned throughout Canada — 31 of which were uncontrolled at the time. More than 29,000 residents have since evacuated Alberta and the neighboring province British Columbia.
The resulting smoke from the blazes has wafted over much of the northern U.S. It started noticeably clouding Iowa skies around Tuesday, creating cloudlike cover and red, hazy sunsets. That smoke was between 15,000 and 20,000 feet in the air.
But as another round rolls through the state, it will be closer to the ground — and, as a result, bring more of a health risk. The smoke started fanning across northwest Iowa on Thursday morning and will be present again on Friday.
The last day of school for students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District is Friday, June 2, one school day earlier than initially planned.
The last day of school will be a normal Friday early dismissal, according to a news release from the district Thursday. Students will not have to report to school on Monday, June 5.
Schools are required by Iowa law to have 1,080 student contact hours. Cedar Rapids students will have met this minimum requirement by June 2, according to the news release.
A man was arrested last week in connection with a shooting during a birthday party in October 2021 in a Cedar Rapids hotel.
Quonie Shelton, 30, is charged with five counts of willful injury, five counts of reckless use of a firearm, and one count each of using a dangerous weapon in the commission of a crime, going armed with intent and intimidation with a dangerous weapon.
Shelton is accused of shooting into the crowd at a birthday party at the Ramada by Wyndham hotel on 33rd Avenue, on Oct. 1, 2021. Six people were injured, according to the police.
According to the criminal complaint from Shelton’s arrest, two of the six people hit during the shooting suffered injuries that led to a “prolonged, debilitating impairment to an extremity.” .
Shelton was arrested May 8 and is being held in the Linn County Jail on a $250,000 cash-only bond.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, May 18.
There will likely be some rain late Thursday into Friday, but you wouldn't know it from how the weather will be before that. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny with a high near 82 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday. Thursday night there will be a low of around 56 degrees.
Looking at the probability charts, the weather service predicts a possibility of rain between 7 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. on Friday, with the highest probability of rain set at 80 percent.
State labor rules for Iowa children in the workplace would be relaxed in a way that conflicts with federal workforce regulations under legislation awaiting Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signature, the federal labor department wrote in a letter published Wednesday by Iowa Statehouse Democrats.
Statehouse Republicans pushed back, saying some of the information in the letter is outdated because of changes made to the proposal during the legislative process, and because of what they say is a misinterpretation of the bill.
The letter from the U.S. Department of Labor, dated May 10, is a response to an inquiry letter sent March 14 by multiple Democrats in the Iowa Legislature.
In the letter, the federal labor department says that Senate File 542, called the youth employment bill by its supporters and child labor bill by its opponents, has at least four provisions would create labor standards for Iowa children that are lower than federal standards. Any employer that allowed to Iowa children to work under those contrary terms contained in the state legislation would then be in violation of federal regulations.
The proposal was approved with only Republican support in the Iowa Legislature.
Reynolds has not yet taken action on the bill. Her office did not say Wednesday whether she will sign the legislation into law, only that she has until June 2 to do so.
Two people who died early Sunday morning in a crash on Williams Boulevard in southwest Cedar Rapids have been identified.
Aja Dampier, 23, of Cedar Rapids, and John De Lapaz, 29, whose last known address was Cedar Rapids, died when their vehicle spun out of control and struck another vehicle, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department. The crash occurred just before 3 a.m. in the 2100 block of Williams Boulevard SW.
Dampier was pronounced dead at the scene. De Lapaz was transported to a hospital, but died following treatment.
The three adult passengers in the Toyota SUV were all seriously injured and transported to a hospital, but a news release issued Sunday indicated their injuries were not believed to be fatal.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 17.
Wednesday will be another pleasant, sunny day, with only the increasing wind giving a hint of rainier weather to come on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 75 degrees. The wind will generally hover around 10 mph, but could gust as high as 20 mph. On Wednesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 52 degrees.
Northeast Iowa’s 166-year-old Upper Iowa University is cutting 37 positions and closing seven of its more than 20 regional education centers due to dropping enrollment, shifting student needs and headwinds facing all of higher education.
The cuts include 22 layoffs at the private university’s main campus in Fayette and 15 positions lost in Upper Iowa’s closure of its single Illinois location in Rockford and six Wisconsin sites, including locations in Madison and Milwaukee.
The changes are part of the university’s efforts to focus on its main residential Fayette Campus; its strongest performing centers in Iowa, Louisiana and four military bases; and its online and self-paced distance learning programs, according to Upper Iowa spokeswoman Lynette Brandt.
Upper Iowa — founded in 1857, just over a decade after Iowa became a state — in the fall reported a total enrollment of 3,072, up slightly from 3,027 in fall 2021 but down 43 percent from the 5,382 it reported in fall 2018, according to Iowa College Aid.
Upper Iowa’s layoffs and closures follow the abrupt end to Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant, which ceased its 181-year run last week as the second oldest university in Iowa.
An Iowa City man has been arrested in connection with a weekend shooting that seriously injured another man near a downtown parking garage, Iowa City police said.
Alexander O. Voudhivong, 22, faces charges of willful injury causing serious injury, reckless use of a firearm, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent, fourth-degree criminal mischief and assault while participating in a felony.
Iowa City police were called about 11:45 p.m. Saturday to the 300 block of Iowa Avenue, near the Clock Tower Parking Ramp, where they found a man suffering from gunshot wounds. The man was taken to the hospital to be treated for serious injuries, police said. The victim’s name has not yet been released.
A criminal complaint states that Voudhivong took a gun from someone else and then used it to shoot the victim multiple times. Shell casings hit windows on a nearby building, causing an estimated $500 in damage.
Voudhivong then left the crime scene and changed his clothes in an attempt to disguise himself before leaving the area completely, the complaint states.
The shooting still is under investigation and Iowa City police said they anticipate more arrests will be made.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 16.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday with a high near 80 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 52 degrees.
A Cedar Rapids man, killed Friday in Cedar County when the semi-trailer truck he was driving was hit by a train, has been identified as Todd W. Evans, 47.
An Iowa State Patrol crash report initially stated that two people had died in the crash, but the report has since been updated to say Evans was the only fatality.
The crash happened shortly after 1:30 p.m. in the 120 block of 115th Street near Lisbon. An eastbound Union Pacific freight train hit the driver’s side of the truck as it attempted to cross the tracks, the report states.
Lisbon/Mount Vernon Police, Fire and Ambulance assisted at the scene, as did the Mechanicsville Fire Department and Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The rural crossing — which is positioned on a gentle curve in the track — does not have crossing gates or warning lights.
Honeywell and Iowa-based Summit Agricultural are partnering to build the world's largest plant making ethanol-based aviation fuel — a project that is likely to become a $1 billion facility and expected to open in 2025.
The plant eventually will produce enough jet fuel to power thousands of flights per year, according to Summit Agricultural. The facility will be located on the U.S. Gulf Coast and use Honeywell's technology to transform ethanol into sustainable aviation fuel, known as SAF, the companies said Monday.
The global aviation market demands more than 100 billion gallons of jet fuel annually, with Summit estimating that figure will double in the next 20 years.
At the same time, airlines across the globe are coming under increasing pressure to decrease their carbon dioxide emissions. The Biden administration has announced a goal for SAF to meet 100 percent of aviation fuel demand by 2050. But annual production in the United States was just 15 million gallons in 2022.
Monday’s announcement marks one of many steps private companies and governments have taken recently to bolster the market for the corn-based biofuel, which the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association said in 2021 accounted for over $5 billion of Iowa GDP.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, May 15.
The rain chances will go down on Monday, but the clouds will remain much of the day. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 66 degrees. There will be a 20 percent chance of precipitation, mostly before 2 p.m. On Monday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 52 degrees.
With an early look at weather for the rest of the week, it appears as if it will become sunnier and warmer than this weekend, with the rain only returning Thursday night into Friday.
The rainy forecast ruined more than picnics this weekend: Fans of presidential politics missed a cross state showdown
This was to be the first weekend when both former president Donald Trump and current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis were set to tour the state at the same time. Trump and DeSantis lead early polls for Republican favorites for president in 2024,
But Trump canceled his planned outdoor rally for Saturday evening in Des Moines, citing warnings of significant rain and winds reaching 70 miles per hour, a forecast that turned out to be a false alarm.
DeSantis made his Iowa trips this weekend, including a visit to Cedar Rapids, where he touted his reputation as a conservative governor willing to push hard for conservative policies and embrace conservative culture fights, be it against gender identity in schools or Walt Disney.
Police are investigating the cause of an early morning accident that left two people dead and three people injured Sunday.
According to a Cedar Rapids Police Department media release, emergency responders were dispatched at 2:56 a.m. for a two-vehicle accident in the 2100 block of Williams Boulevard SW.
After completing an initial investigation, police say a Dodge Caliber was traveling east on Williams Boulevard SW when it began to spin out of control and struck a Toyota RAV4 traveling west on Williams Boulevard.
The 23-year-old driver of the Dodge Caliber was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. A 29-year-old passenger in the Dodge was transported to a hospital, but died there following treatment.
The three adult passengers of the Toyota SUV were all seriously injured, but their injuries are not believed to be fatal, according to police. They were transported to a hospital for medical care to help recover from their injuries.
Names of those involved in the crash are being withheld pending notification of families.
One man was seriously injured in a shooting near the Clock Tower Parking Ramp in Iowa City late Saturday.
Police responded to the Clock Tower Parking Ramp at Iowa and Gilbert streets after hearing multiple shots being fired around 11:45 p.m.
The man was found on an Iowa Avenue sidewalk next to the parking ramp. Fire crews and paramedics provided aid at the scene and he was transported to a hospital to be treated for serious injuries, police said. His name has not been released.
A suspect was last seen fleeing the area on foot with several other people who had been involved in a fight before the shooting. No description of the suspect was released.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, May 13, and Sunday, May 14, 2023.
There’s a chance of showers and thunderstorms all the way through this Mother’s Day weekend. According to the National Weather Service there will be showers and chance of a thunderstorm, particularly after 5pm on Saturday. Chances of showers and thunderstorms will persist through Sunday morning, with high chances of a thunderstorm again after 7pm on Sunday.
Fortunately, expect Monday to kick off next week with a sunny day and a high of 74.
Iowa justices decide transgender care still covered by Medicaid
Transgender rights advocates celebrated an Iowa Supreme Court decision Friday to leave in place a lower-court ruling that a 2019 amendment to the Iowa Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional.
The Iowa Supreme Court declined to offer its own ruling on the constitutionality of 2019 legislation that stated the Iowa Civil Rights Act does not require state or local governments to provide for gender transition surgery, calling the question “moot.”
The Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion, written by Justice Thomas Waterman, said the court declined to offer its own opinion of whether the changes made to the Iowa Civil Rights Act were unconstitutional because, in the case before them, the issues had been resolved — the state has complied with the lower court ruling and has paid for gender-transition treatments for Medicaid recipients, even while appealing that lower court ruling.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy pitches raising the voting age to 25
Vivek Ramaswamy started an event on a swing through Iowa this week with a promise: “We’re not going to be angry tonight.”
“Tonight we're going to start a little curious,” he said.
The 37-year-old biotech entrepreneur from Ohio is making a long-shot, largely self-funded campaign for the Republican nomination for president.
And he’s doing it, in part, by lobbing hard-line conservative policies — including his suggestion in Dallas County on Thursday to institute “duty-based voting” for young adults between the ages of 18 and 24.
Ramaswamy’s proposal, which would require a constitutional amendment, would raise the voting age from 18 to 25, unless a person is in the military, a first responder or can pass the U.S. citizenship test.
It’s the latest of a number of proposals — dismantling the Department of Education, stationing the U.S. military at the southern border and using military force on Mexican drug cartels, and reversing affirmative action policies — that are part of his promise to take former President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda “far further” by exerting presidential powers in ways Trump never did.
Johnson County reveals its first-ever greenhouse gas inventory finding a 28 percent decrease in emissions between 2010 and 2020, largely thanks to cleaner and more efficient energy usage
Some human activities release greenhouse gases — such as carbon dioxide and methane — that rise into the atmosphere and trap heat. They are causing the climate to change faster than ever before in known history.
“They genuinely are a threat to life on Earth,” said Becky Soglin, the Johnson County sustainability coordinator and project co-lead. “Because of those effects, we want to be able to reduce the emissions.”
The report has been in the works for about a year. She worked with staff from the University of Northern Iowa Center for Energy and Environmental Education to complete the inventory. First, they collected data from different sectors — like energy usage and road travel. Then, they calculated emission total from the data. And they finished the project by reviewing and interpreting their findings.
They found that the more than quarter decrease in emissions was largely due to residential, commercial and industrial energy being generated more by wind power than coal. Energy equipment also became more efficient. Emissions from the commercial and industrial energy sectors — the top contributors in 2010 — dropped by about half by 2020.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 12
There will be more chances for rain on Friday, especially in the afternoon and evening. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 80 degrees. After 1 p.m. there will be an increased chance for rain going into the evening and into a rainy Saturday.
Iowa farm groups are decrying a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday that upholds a California animal cruelty law that regulates livestock confinement practices.
The high court found that the law, approved by California voters in 2018, does not violate the U.S. Constitution. The law regulates the confinement practices of birthing sows, veal calves and egg-laying hens whose products are sold in California, including those produced outside the state.
The law, in part, requires that breeding sows that give birth to hogs sold for pork in California be given 24 square feet of space — a regulation that national farm groups said violated the Constitution’s provisions that prevent states from restricting interstate commerce.
The Iowa Pork Producers Association said in a statement issued Thursday the law would raise the cost of pork nationwide by putting more stringent requirements on pork destined for California. Iowa leads the nation in pork production, raising about a third of the country's hogs.
A 17-year-old boy was killed Wednesday night in a shooting in northeast Cedar Rapids,
Cedar Rapids Police responded at 10:09 p.m. to the 3500 block of Oakland Road NE after 911 callers reported hearing a disturbance and one gunshot.
Officers found the teen suffering from an apparent gunshot wound in his upper torso. He was treated on-scene and transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
The name of the victim has not yet been released. No arrests had been announced in relation to the shooting as of Thursday and police are asking for anyone who may have seen the shooting to contact them.
Multiple people were injured in a fire at a Sun Tan City in Marion on Wednesday, according to the Marion Fire Department.
The fire department responded to the business on Blairs Ferry Road, at about 6 p.m. Wednesday. Two people were transported via ambulance with serious injuries, and a few others were evaluated on scene, according to Marion Fire Chief Tom Fagan.
Firefighters were able to confine the fire mostly to Sun Tan City, so it didn’t spread to other businesses in the area, Fagan said. The Marion Fire Department was assisted by Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha and Robins fire departments.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. It’s being investigated by the Iowa State Fire Marshal.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, May 11
Thursday marks the return of the rain, but it should still be somewhat summerlike and sunny before it arrives. According to the National Weather Service it will start out mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 82 degrees. The chance for rain will creep up as the day goes on, with showers and thunderstorms likely late Thursday into the early morning hours on Friday.
Physician assistants in Iowa no longer will be required to be supervised and have a written agreement with a specific physician in order to practice medicine under a bill signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Proponents say the measure will ensure PAs can more easily address the health care needs of Iowa’s underserved rural communities, authorizing them to provide health care services based on their medical education, training and experience.
More than 40 percent of Iowa’s PAs work in rural settings, according to the Iowa Physician Assistant Society.
Reynolds noted the state takes a similar approach with nurse practitioners, “who continue to work collaboratively with physicians to meet the health needs of Iowans.”
The governor signed House File 424 during a ceremony at the Washington County Hospital and Clinics. Reynolds said the hospital and clinics serve “as a model of the kind of high-quality rural health care that every Iowa county needs and deserves.”
PAs play a critical role in providing both primary and specialty care — including mental health — at a time when Iowa is grappling with a shortage of providers and faces challenges providing equitable access to care due to the state’s large rural and aging population, said hospital Chief Executive Officer Todd Patterson.
Patterson said the law will allow the critical access hospital to draw from “a larger pool of talent” in rural areas, by “eliminating some of the administrative burdens that currently exist.” Requiring oversight by a specific physician presents challenges for rural hospitals that struggle to find physicians.
A Cedar Rapids man, who said he was showing his support to former President Donald Trump and got caught up in the moment as he followed violent protesters into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, was convicted of seven charges Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.
Leo Christopher Kelly, 37, was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony, which carries up to a 20-year sentence, along with six other counts, including unlawfully entering and remaining on restricted grounds and in the Capitol; unlawfully engaging in disorderly and disruptive conduct on restricted grounds and in the Capitol; and unlawfully entering and remaining on the floor of Congress.
Kelly’s Washington, D.C. trial started May 1 and a jury returned the verdict Tuesday.
Kelly, who described himself as an independent during a Gazette interview after the riot, said he just followed the mob into the Senate chamber as they invaded the Capitol in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the 2020 election.
“It was just a crazy time,” Kelly said, adding he felt overwhelmed by what had happened.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 10
On Wednesday we will get one more pleasant, sunny day this week without the threat of rain. According to the National Weather Service, it will be partly sunny with a high near 78 degrees and a light wind. There will be a chance of rain that appears in the early morning hours on Thursday.
In-state undergraduate students across Iowa’s three public universities could face a 3.5 percent tuition increase in the next academic year under a proposal the Board of Regents will consider later this week.
Given the campuses have different base rates, that percentage increase amounts to:
$305 more for University of Iowa resident students, totaling $9,016 a year;
$304 more for Iowa State University resident students, amounting to $8,982;
$285 more for University of Northern Iowa resident students, bringing the base rate to $8,396.
The suggested increases, if approved, are below last year’s across-the-system increases of 4.25 percent — which came on the heels of a pandemic-plagued academic year and a $7 million state funding reduction in the 2021 budget year.
Heading into the legislative session that just concluded, regents in September asked the state for a $32 million increase in general education appropriations, citing a market "heavily influenced by inflation, competition for quality talent, and labor shortages.“
The money allocated from the budget by state lawmakers, however, fell far short of this request, leading to the university proposal attempting to bridge the gap with the increase to tuition.
As investigators look into whether dozens of student athletes at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University violated the law or collegiate rules by betting on sports, the state board that regulates gambling said Tuesday that the integrity of sporting events involving those two universities is not currently called into question.
The UI and ISU on Monday confirmed investigations into sports betting by dozens of student athletes across several sports, including both schools’ football and men’s wrestling teams, which would violate NCAA rules and subject them to discipline.
In a statement Tuesday, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, which administers the state’s gambling and betting laws, said it does not now possess any evidence to call into question the integrity of those two schools’ sporting events.
The statement appears to indicate the commission has not seen evidence that any UI or ISU student athletes placed bets on games in which they competed.
However, the UI said Monday its investigation also includes potential criminal conduct, although it did not elaborate. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which investigates and enforces those state laws, Tuesday confirmed its involvement in the “ongoing investigation.”
An Iowa City man, who was set to have a trial next week on attempted murder and robbery charges, cut off his GPS ankle monitor over the weekend and authorities Tuesday confirmed he fled to Jordan.
Ali Younes, 19, charged with attempted murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree theft, used Jordanian travel documents and boarded a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight Saturday in Chicago, according to Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith, University of Iowa police and federal authorities.
His mother and father are accused of helping him. They each have been arrested and charged with escape from custody — felon, which is a Class D felony.
Alfred Younes was arrested Tuesday by the Omaha Police Department’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit and the Omaha Airport Authority while he was attempting to board a flight in Omaha, Neb., with his destination set for Amman, Jordan. He will be extradited to Johnson County to face charges.
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 9.
It'll be another enjoyable sunny day on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 73 degrees. Commuters can keep an eye peeled for some patchy fog before 7 a.m.
On Tuesday night it will be mostly clear with near 53. The wind will be a mild 5 to 10 mph.
A man killed Friday in a motorcycle crash in Cedar Rapids has been identified by police as Tartorius Allen, 47.
Allen was riding a motorcycle about 3 p.m. Friday in the 200 Block of B Ave, NE, near the 5-in-1 Bridge, when he lost control and slid into a wall, according to Cedar Rapids police.
Emergency responders took Allen to the hospital, where he died
Student athletes at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University are being investigated for betting on sports in violation of NCAA rules, both schools confirmed Monday.
The investigations involve 26 UI student athletes across five sports — football, baseball, men’s basketball, men’s wrestling and men’s track and field — and includes one full-time athletics department employee, according to the school. At ISU, the investigation involves “approximately” 15 student-athletes from three sports — football, wrestling and track and field, the campus said.
Both schools said they have notified the NCAA of the potential violations.
It is unclear how both public universities came to announce the investigations on the same day. The state’s third public university, the University of Northern Iowa, is not currently involved in any similar investigation, a spokesman said Monday.
Some UI baseball players were absent from the Hawkeyes’ recent series against Ohio State.The UI had said Friday in a two-sentence statement that it “withheld some student-athletes” because of an “ongoing investigation” into a possible NCAA violation.
In a statement posted Monday, the UI said it was notified May 2 of “potential criminal conduct related to sports wagering” and has hired outside counsel to assist. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Association, which oversees legalized sports betting in the state, has not started any investigation into violation of state law.
The NCAA prohibits student-athletes, coaches, conference office staff members, institutional athletics staff members and non-athletics department institutional staff members who have responsibilities within or over the athletics department from betting on sports in which the NCAA conducts a championship.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, May 8th.
According to the National Weather Service, overnight from Sunday to Monday, showers and thunderstorms are likely, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 4 a.m. Some storms could be severe, with large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain. Rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches are possible. For Monday, a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 7 a.m. Some of these storms also could be severe. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. Winds from the east, 5 to 10 mph, coming from the north in the afternoon. Then Monday night, mostly cloudy, with a low around 52.
Federal and local law enforcement agencies are looking for a missing Iowa City attempted murder suspect after he cut off his ankle monitor while on house arrest in O'Brien County, according to a news release from the University of Iowa Police Department and Johnson County Attorney's Office. Ali Younes, 19, originally was charged with first-degree robbery and first-degree theft in April 2022 after police said he followed a woman on foot, tackled her near the University of Iowa Art Building West, strangled her until she lost consciousness and stole her earrings, valued at $20,000. In a trial information the following month, the Johnson County Attorney's Office added the attempted murder charge. After a contested bond hearing, the court released Younes on several conditions, including that he wear a GPS monitor, surrender his passport and stay with family members in O'Brien County pending trial, the release said. The Johnson County Attorney's Office was notified Saturday that Younes cut off his ankle monitor and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are involved in the search for Younes, and authorities are advising anyone who has information about his whereabouts to contact police immediately by calling 911 but not to approach him.
Three people were stabbed early Saturday morning when a large fight broke out near the intersection of Gilbert and Burlington streets in downtown Iowa City. Iowa City police responded to reports of a fight in the 300 block of S. Gilbert Street at 1:55 a.m. Saturday, according to a news release. The release states that as police arrived, multiple people fled on foot. Three adult men sustained stab wounds. They were transported to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and are expected to recover, the release states. Police report that their initial investigation indicates the people involved in the fight knew each other and there was no threat to the general public.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, May 6, and Sunday, May 7.
Higher temperatures and a slight chance for rain will continue into the weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with a high near 76 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday. There will be a slight chance of rain in the morning, then an increasing chance for showers and thunderstorms into Saturday night.
On Sunday the high will jump up to a summerlike 87 degrees with sunny skies. There will again be a chance for showers and thunderstorms, however, primarily after 1 p.m.
After cresting along Iowa’s eastern border this week, the Mississippi River is now receding.
In the first week of April, historic snowpacks in Minnesota and Wisconsin melted in about 96 hours, with 6 to 10 inches of snowmelt rushing into waterways that fed into the river, according to senior service hydrologist Matt Wilson of the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities bureau.
“The vast majority of the floodwater came from that snowmelt … so that’s really unique,” Wilson said. “When we do our modeling forecasting, we go back to past events and look at that. There wasn’t a past event to go back to look at this current setup.”
The amount of snowpack, plus above average temperatures, created “worst-case scenario” conditions, he said. Thankfully, not much rain fell to add to the swollen waterways.
Iowa river communities from the Minnesota border to Muscatine were hit hardest by the flooding.
Iowa lawmakers sent the last of Iowa’s 2024 budget bills to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk for approval on Thursday, directing billions of dollars to departments and operations across the state.
The general fund budget totaled $8.5 billion for the fiscal year starting July 1, a 3.7 percent increase over this year’s budget. More than $1 billion will be appropriated from other funds.
According to an analysis from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency, the expected state surplus after the 2023-24 budget year will be more than $2 billion.
Funding for Iowa’s K-12 schools represents the bulk of this appropriation. Schools will see a 3 percent increase in per-pupil funding, or about $107 million more than this fiscal year.
Iowa families who wish to apply for state-funded financial assistance to attend a private school in the 2023-2024 school year can submit an application starting at the end of this month, Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office announced Wednesday.
Applications for the Students First Education Savings Accounts will be accepted starting May 31 and through June 30, the governor’s office said.
With those applications pending, the state education board is adopting rules that specify eligibility requirements and parameters for the application process, as well as program administration and accountability, the governor’s office said.
Reynolds and the Republican-led Iowa Legislature earlier this year created the program, which will be phased in over four years until, at full implementation, all K-12 students in Iowa will be eligible for roughly $7,600 per year in state funding to put toward private school tuition or other private school expenses.
The program is expected to cost $107 million in the first year and by 2027, when phased in, will cost $345 million.
Have a good weekend everyone!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 5.
Friday will start sunny and pleasant, with a chance for some rain as the day goes on. According to the National Weather Service it will start out mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with temperatures reaching a high of 70 degrees. It will become increasingly cloudy as the day goes on, though, and there will be a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 3 p.m. The overall average chance of precipitation is listed at 30 percent.
Shortly after noon Thursday, Iowa lawmakers concluded their work for the year. Unless a special session is called, they will not return to resume their work at the Iowa Capitol until next January.
Republican leaders in the Iowa Legislature frequently used the word “historic” in their descriptions of the 2023 session.
House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, said Republicans followed through on the priorities “that we laid out to Iowans,” including property tax relief and “making sure that parents were a part of their children’s education,” whether through school choice or school transparency requirements for curriculum and books.
Meanwhile, Democrats did not mince words when describing their view of the 2023 session.
Sen. Zach Wahls, the leader of the Senate Democrats from Coralville, told reporters the session was “one of the most divisive and cruel ever seen in the history of the Iowa Legislature,” and said state house Republicans “poured gasoline on the flames of the culture war.”
Wahls criticized Republicans for the private school financial assistance program, their more strict regulation of books in K-12 schools with sexual content, and legislation that impacts transgender children in Iowa.
As these comments suggest, most bills were passed along party lines, with Republicans passing most of their agenda without needing, or receiving, any support from Democrats.
They did agree on a few things, such as a property tax reform bill that aims to lower property taxes by restricting how much funding schools and local governments can raise from increased growth to property values over a given time period. Governor Kim Reynolds signed that bill, almost unanimously approved by state lawmakers, on Thursday.
Kirkwood Community College named its new president on Thursday.
Nearly 10 years after leaving her vice presidential post at Kirkwood Community College for a senior role at ACT, Kristie Fisher has landed the premiere post atop Eastern Iowa’s largest community college.
Fisher had spent her last four years leading the 2,442-student Iowa Valley Community College District as its chancellor and president.
She arrives during challenging times for higher education. All of Iowa’s community colleges have lost students in recent years.
While seven of the state’s community colleges saw slight enrollment upticks in the fall, Kirkwood was among eight that saw a dip — although it remains the state’s second largest behind Des Moines Area Community College.
“One of the things that I think not just Kirkwood but all community colleges are going to be facing is the fact that there's so much learning loss from the time of the pandemic,” she said to the question of big issues she’ll have to tackle as Kirkwood president. “I think we're going to see that for the next decade.”
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, May 4.
We're jumping from a cold drop last week back up to almost 80 degrees on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 79 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The wind will remain calm at 5 to 10 mph On Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 51 degrees.
Iowa lawmakers gave final passage to a bill that will open more jobs to teenagers in the state, sending the bill to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk to be signed into law.
Senate File 542 would allow minors to stock shelves with items up to 30 pounds and load equipment into motor vehicles at 15, while 16- and 17-year-olds could serve alcohol in restaurants with parents' permission. Fourteen- and 15-year-olds could work later hours, and people over 16 could work the same hours as adults.
The Senate voted 29-18 to pass the bill, with Republicans Charlie McClintock of Alburnett and Jeff Taylor of Sioux Center joining all Democrats in opposing.
Republican supporters have said the bill modernizes Iowa's labor laws and opens new opportunities to young people to earn money.
The bill was amended in the House this week, and matched in the Senate, to remove what minority Democrats saw as some of the most egregious provisions.
The amendment removed language that would have allowed state officials to give waivers to 14- and 15-year-olds to work in jobs currently banned for minors as part of a work-based learning program. It would also require employers to keep minors from being employed by registered sex offenders and require employers to report a workplace harassment incident to the employee's parents and the state civil rights commission.
After its initial denial, the Iowa Utilities Board has preapproved the Duane Arnold Solar projects in Linn County — marking a first for solar projects in Iowa.
Interstate Power and Light Co., an Alliant subsidiary, originally asked the IUB for preapproval of 400 megawatts of solar and 75 megawatts of battery storage, along with their associated lifetime costs and rates. The application included the Duane Arnold Solar projects, the two industrial-scale solar projects that NextEra plans to develop and build near Palo.
In November, the IUB initially denied the application, known as an application for advance ratemaking principles. The board said Interstate Power and Light didn’t adequately consider alternative energy generation options that could make projects cheaper for both the utility and its customers, as required by Iowa Code.
In the meantime, Interstate Power and Light provided the board with more evidence, leading to the change of heart in their decision last week.
According to reporting from the Sioux City Journal, Iowa landowners opposed to liquid carbon dioxide pipelines crossing their property won a legal victory Wednesday, when a judge ruled a state law giving surveyors the right to enter private property is unconstitutional.
Ruling in a Clay County case, District Judge John Sandy said the law violated Iowa's constitution because it does not provide for just compensation for certain damages to landowners for their loss of the right to deny entry onto their land.
In a statement, Navigator said it will appeal the ruling because it deviates from precedents established in surrounding states where judges have recently upheld similar survey statutes.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 3.
We'll get sunny weather without the wind on Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 65 degrees. A calm wind of 5 to 10 mph will blow during the day. On Wednesday night it will be clear, with a low of around 42 degrees.
Two men were transported to a hospital early Tuesday because of a fire in the Geneva Tower apartment building downtown.
According to a Cedar Rapids Fire Department news release, an automatic alarm dispatched firefighters at 2:43 a.m. to the 12-story building at 310 Fifth Ave. SE. There also were reports of smoke on the seventh floor.
Firefighters found the apartment where the fire started and were able to extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading to other floors or apartments.
Fire crews searched and removed seventh-floor residents until the smoke was ventilated out of the building. One person was displaced from their apartment.
The fire remains under investigation.
There has been one incident of eluding police nearly every two days since January in Linn County, where a driver won’t pull over when an officer attempts to conduct a traffic stop and then typically takes off on a high-speed chase.
In looking at just one period from April 16-24, there were six eluding incidents, Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said. He has been reviewing these cases because he noticed the spike last month during his routine of filing criminal complaints each morning.
“The results were alarming, and the data was insightful,” Maybanks said. “We are on pace to charge more eluding offenses than we did in 2021 and 2022, despite increases in penalties for repeat offenders and unyielding prosecution of violators.”
While looking at previous years, he found 97 eluding charges were filed in 2020, 111 in 2021 and 112 last year. This year, based on the 44 charges so far, the office estimates it is on pace to file 129 eluding cases
.In reviewing the cases to find out why drivers flee, Maybanks said one offender told officers “I was stupid.” Another said he was late for work. And one driver didn’t have an excuse and told police “This is awesome.”
More low-income Iowans would become eligible for state assistance to cover child care expenses, but they also would be required to work more hours to remain eligible for the program under legislation being advanced in the Iowa Legislature.
The Iowa Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would increase the eligibility threshold for state assistance for child care costs from 145 percent to 160 percent of the federal poverty level.
The 160 percent threshold equates to a household income of $48,000 for a family of four.
The bill also increases by four hours, to 32, the number of combined hours of work or education that a participant must engage in to be eligible for the program.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 2.
Tuesday will be a bit warmer than Monday, but still breezy. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 61 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A northwest wind will blow at 15 to 25 mph, with wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Tuesday night there will be clear skies, with a low of around 35 degrees.
Next time you order items online, there’s a high chance the box your goods arrive in was made in Cedar Rapids at International Paper’s Cedar River Mill plant. And now International Paper is looking to invest into that plant’s longevity.
The plant at 4600 C St. SW — the largest 100-percent recycled paper mill in the Americas — broke ground Monday on its expansion project to generate an alternate steam supply and transition off coal-powered steam.
International Paper operates 18 containerboard plants and 28 mills overall in the United States. The company creates material for fiber-based packaging products for e-commerce, processed food and beverages, fruit and vegetables, protein, distribution and durable and nondurable goods.
Currently, the coal boilers at Alliant Energy’s Prairie Creek Generating Station provide all of the plant’s process steam. Starting Jan. 1, 2026, Alliant will no longer burn coal at Prairie Creek as part of an environmental lawsuit settlement.
After studying options for an alternate steam supply, International Paper officials decided the company will build and operate two natural gas-powered boilers to generate steam on-site, as well as build a water treatment plant. International Paper — among the top eight users of city water — will continue to purchase Cedar Rapids water, and purify that to generate the steam
Project manager Tony Cleaves told the Gazette that without the replacement steam supply provided by this $103 million expansion, Cleves said, International Paper would have to shut down its Cedar Rapids plant.
After rising for weeks, the Mississippi River reached its peak over the weekend in parts of Southwest Wisconsin and Northeast Iowa. It was cresting at midday Monday in Davenport and the neighboring cities of Bettendorf and across the river in Illinois at Rock Island and Moline.
The peak was slightly lower than forecast but still high enough to test the region's flood defenses and to keep officials on guard. The rising river, caused by a surge of water from melting snowfall to the north, may set some records along the river, but the National Weather Service still said the river levels generally will remain well below past records. Forecasts call for little rain in the coming days, so once the river crests it should soon begin a decline that will last for at least two weeks.
The amount of increases in property tax revenue that local governments are able to spend would be limited under legislation that is destined to become state law soon.
Republican leaders in the Iowa Senate and House on Monday announced their agreement on property tax legislation. The compromise legislation includes provisions from the separate bills that the two chambers had been advancing.
The compromise bill includes the Senate’s proposal to combine and simplify a variety of city tax levies and to address increases in property assessments and any corresponding increases in property tax revenue to local governments.
The new bill — which is an amended version of the House’s bill, House File 718 — also includes the House’s proposal to require any votes to approve local bonding be held on general election ballots in November of even numbered years. It would also require transparency measures for taxpayer
That means the Cedar Rapids Community School District’s planned $312 million bond referendum would have to wait until the November 2024 election.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, May 1st.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 55 in the Cedar Rapids area today. Windy, with a northwest wind 20 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Then tonight, mostly cloudy, gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 38. Still breezy.
A Polk County judge has reversed the decision of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to permit an 11,600-head cattle feedlot in northeast Iowa. Friday’s ruling in the lawsuit by the Sierra Club of Iowa and Trout Unlimited against the DNR and Supreme Beef says the state agency used “illogical interpretations and applications” to approve a nutrient management plan for Supreme Beef. The ruling sends the case back to the DNR for reconsideration. Supreme Beef, near Monona, is in the watershed of Bloody Run, one of Iowa’s most prized trout streams, and sits atop porous bedrock where a manure spill could easily contaminate groundwater.
With the assessed value of homes skyrocketing — up a statewide average of 22 percent this year — Iowa lawmakers from both political parties say they want to keep that rise from triggering big increases in the local property tax bills that homeowners have to pay. But the clock is ticking, as legislators’ work for the 2023 calendar year is drawing to a close. Soon, they will adjourn for the year and not be back at the Iowa Capitol until January 2024. Lawmakers are focused on two proposals — one bill each in the Iowa House and Iowa Senate, both written by majority-party Republicans — that have similar overall goals, but are operationally different. The question on many taxpayers’ minds is whether the two chambers can agree on just one bill still this year. For additional information on each of the plans, read more at thegazette.com.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for the last weekend in April.
There will be a moderate chance for rain all weekend and some colder temperatures. Thankfully there is no snow or frost in the forecast for the coming week.
According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high of 60 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance of rain throughout the day, as well as all of Sunday.
Sunday will be even colder, with a high of 51 degrees and cloudy skies.
The Iowa Supreme Court has granted further review of an appeals decision that overturned a Marion man’s second-degree murder conviction for killing Chris Bagley in 2018.
The Linn County Attorney’s Office asked the Iowa Attorney General’s Office to file the application after the Iowa Court of Appeals overturned the jury’s verdict for Johnny Blahnik Church, 35, who had been sentenced to 57 years for fatally stabbing Bagley, 31, of Walker, on Dec. 14, 2018.
The Iowa Court of Appeals overturned the conviction Feb. 8, and Blahnik Church was given a new trial.
Stewart Bagley, Chris’ father, said he received notice of the oral arguments and was told they will likely be in September.
If the court upholds the appeals decision, First Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter said in February that the case will be retried a second time.
Blahnik Church remains in jail pending this decision because he is also serving time on federal drug charges and Linn County charges for beating up a witness while in jail.
With structural beams up and construction underway on the exterior of a new University of Iowa hospital in North Liberty, city councilors this week approved a plan for a nearby Steindler medical park, clearing the way for its construction and continuing the interchange’s transformation from open space into full fledged medical hub.
Steindler — which until the upcoming change has been based in Iowa City, where it partners with Mercy Iowa City — also is eyeing growth into the Cedar Rapids corridor, looking both for clinic space and partnerships with Cedar Rapids hospitals.
As for its new ambulatory surgery center and orthopedic clinic in North Liberty, the plan is slightly smaller than what project officials proposed when seeking state approval in 2021. The plan was adjusted due to costs ballooning because of inflation.
In addition to their North Liberty expansions, both UIHC and Steindler are looking to grow their respective footprints — as Mercy Hospital in Iowa City struggles financially and administratively, recently airing plans to exit its MercyOne partnership and receiving a credit rating downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service.
Steindler has long partnered with Mercy Iowa City for a range of orthopedic services — from total joint replacements to broken bones and sports medicine. But given the uncertainty of Mercy Iowa City, it now is considering performing surgery at hospitals in Cedar Rapids too — including UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital, Mercy Medical Center, and other inpatient hospitals regionally.
Have a good weekend everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday. April 28.
Friday will feature the same warm weather Thursday had, with a slight chance of rain in the evening. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 71 degrees. There will be a 20 to 30 percent chance of rain after 4 p.m., with the chance for rain becoming more likely heading into the early morning hours of Saturday.
An update on the Mississippi River flooding. As of Thursday morning, the National Weather Service had issued 58 flood warnings across Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri. Iowa accounted for 11 of them.
Fourteen gauges along Iowa’s stretch of the Mississippi River — including those at McGregor, Dubuque and Burlington — were experiencing major flooding as of Thursday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Three others, including Lansing and Guttenberg, were experiencing moderate flooding.
The NWS’ Quad Cities bureau is expecting many river communities in its service area, stretching from Dubuque to Keokuk, to endure water levels rivaling their top three highest historical crests. The peaks could occur as soon as Saturday in Dubuque and slowly follow in downstream areas next week.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will oversee further cleanup at a Marengo explosion site after state officials struggled to enforce deadlines for removing contaminated water and soil.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources earlier this week sent the EPA a request for federal action to investigate and take “actions it deems are necessary” to address diesel fuel, lead and other chemicals in and around the C6-Zero site.
The EPA will oversee the site as part of Superfund, a program that allows the EPA to clean up contaminated areas and force responsible parties to perform the duties or reimburse the government for that work.
Earlier this month, the EPA filed a notice of violation against C6-Zero for failing to alert first responders and the state about dangerous chemicals and vapors at its plant in Marengo before a Dec. 8 explosion and fire.
The agency is continuing its investigation into C6-Zero and considering enforcement options. The agency has authority to pursue civil penalties of up to $67,500 per day for failing to submit safety data sheets and $27,000 per violation for failing to submit an emergency notice after an incident.
Three players from Iowa universities heard their names called during the first day of the NFL Draft.
Iowa Hawkeye Lukas Van Ness was picked 13th by the Green Bay Packers, while his teammate Jack Campbell was picked 18th by a division rival in the Detroit Lions.
Iowa State’s Will McDonald IV was picked 15th by the New York Jets, the first Cyclone to go in the first round in the last 50 years. George Amundson was the last ISU player to be picked in the first round, with the 14th pick in 1973.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, April 27.
Thursday's weather will be similar to the day before it, but warmer. According to the National Weather Service there will be patchy frost before 7 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise it will be sunny, with a high near 69 degrees. On Thursday night the low will be around 44 degrees with partly cloudy skies.
One of Iowa’s most generous and notable philanthropists, John Pappajohn, died earlier this week at the age of 94.
Pappajohn, along with this wife, Mary, gave more than $100 million to various philanthropic causes
Pappajohn served as director of more than 40 public companies, and his philanthropy has been recognized in the naming of UI’s main business building, the UI Hospitals and Clinics’ Pappajohn Pavilion, the John and Mary Pappajohn Clinical Cancer Center and UI’s Pappajohn Biomedical Institute Building.
He also enjoyed connecting with students, such as in 2015, when he spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 during a homecoming week event at the University of Iowa. He shared advice with the audience, largely made up of students– telling them: “Philanthropy is a way of life.”
"If you incorporate it in your DNA, it becomes part of your persona,” he said.
The Iowa Senate has passed a budget that could zero out funding for river and stream sensors that measure nitrate and phosphorus to see if conservation practices are working.
The budget for agriculture, natural resources and environmental protection, which passed Tuesday in a party-line vote 33 to 16 with Democrats opposed, shifts $500,000 from the Nutrient Research Center at Iowa State University to a water quality program in the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.
The ISU center, which supports the sensor network at the University of Iowa, had been planning to allocate $500,000 to the UI this year for the network and related projects. The budget also eliminated a requirement that the ISU center work with the UI and the University of Northern Iowa.
The sensors send real-time data to the Iowa Water Quality Information System, which has an interactive map online. As of Wednesday afternoon, the network of more than 50 sensors currently employed already showed 13 sensors reporting nitrate levels over the safe standard for drinking water.
The budget bill also removed language from Iowa Code that said Iowa would aspire to have 10 percent of its land under open space protection
In two studies, Iowa ranks 47th and 48th out of 50 U.S. states for its share of publicly-owned lands. Both studies, by Texas A&M University’s Natural Resources Institute and the hiking and climbing website the Summit Post, calculated that just roughly 3 percent of Iowa’s land is publicly-owned.
Iowa’s all-Republican congressional delegation — U.S. Reps. Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn and Randy Feenstra — on Wednesday said they planned to vote in favor of House Republicans’ bill that addresses the federal debt ceiling.
The Iowans negotiated with leadership to remove proposed reductions to incentives for ethanol and biofuels production from a long list of budget cuts in the proposed budget.
And their votes were needed, as the bill passed Wednesday night by a razor-thin 217-215 margin. The budget now goes to the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, who will likely have some significant changes to suggest as negotiations begin.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 26.
The frost returns! But it will be a prelude to a sunny day. According to the National Weather Service there will be widespread frost between 5 and 9 a.m. Otherwise it will be sunny, with a high near 59 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 38 degrees.
A Linn County jury Tuesday found a Cedar Rapids man guilty of voluntary manslaughter — not first-degree murder — for killing 22-year-old Emily Leonard last year by beating her repeatedly with a metal rod.
The jury found Arthur Flowers, 62, who faced a life sentence under the first-degree murder charge, guilty of the lesser crime and facing up to a 10-year term in prison.
Evidence showed Leonard was struck multiple times in the head with a metal rod or pole found on Flowers’ front porch at his southeast Cedar Rapids home. Blood found on the rod matched Leonard’s DNA.
The repeated blows caused multiple skull fractures and a large tear in her scalp, as well as other bruising, cuts and other broken bones.
Flowers didn’t present any witnesses in his defense, and the jury deliberated about five hours before reaching a verdict.
According to Iowa law, voluntary manslaughter is when someone causes the death of another person “solely as the result of sudden, violent, and irresistible passion” as a result of being provoked.
The Cedar Rapids school board has approved a lease agreement with the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance for City View Community High School to be located at the Alliance.
The school board approved the lease agreement Monday in a 5-1 vote, with member Dexter Merschbrock opposing the decision. Member Jennifer Neumann abstained from voting. Her husband, Doug Neumann, is the executive director of the Alliance.
Under the agreement, the school district will put $600,000 into the Alliance building to remodel a portion of the space to be used as a high school. The cost of the project will come from the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy, one of the primary revenue sources for funding school infrastructure and equipment repairs, purchases and improvements.
More than 105 incoming ninth and 10th-graders already are enrolled in City View Community High School, which officials say will provide students with more hands-on experiences than the traditional school model.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally announced that he is running for re-election in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to “finish this job” he began when he was sworn into office and to set aside their concerns about extending the run of America’s oldest president for another four years.
Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age. He faces a smooth path to winning his party’s nomination, with no serious Democratic rivals.
Americans must not find the age argument that compelling, as the leading Republican candidate according to polling is 76-year-old Donald Trump. If this lead holds until the Republican nomination, it would set the stage for a rematch nobody seems to want but still are keen on voting for.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, April 25.
Tuesday will start a three-day patch with warmer weather and sunny skies, before rain arrives toward the end of the week. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 57 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 33.
The National Weather Service’s Quad Cities bureau has been tracking precipitation, temperatures and snowpacks for months in anticipation of potential flooding. In its latest briefing, senior service hydrologist Matt Wilson warned of “worst-case scenario” conditions due to above normal temperatures and precipitation and melting northern snowpacks.
Those forecasts are coming to a head in Eastern Iowa, where the bureau is anticipating major and moderate flooding along the Mississippi River from Lansing to Burlington. The river is expected to crest in upstream areas as soon as this weekend. Water levels may surpass some of the top three record crests for locations like Dubuque and Bellevue.
On Monday afternoon, Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for Allamakee, Clayton, Clinton, Des Moines, Dubuque, Jackson, Lee, Louisa, Muscatine and Scott counties. The action lets state resources be utilized for response and recovery from flood impacts.
The Johnson County Medical Examiner’s Office has positively identified a body found in the Iowa River on Saturday as Cristian Martinez, a Muscatine man who had been missing for a week, according to a news release from Iowa City.
Martinez, 20, was reported missing on April 15, a week before his body was found, when he didn’t return home after a night out with friends. He was last seen by his friends on in the alley behind Bardot Iowa, a bar at 347 S. Gilbert St., sometime before 1 a.m.
On Saturday, Iowa City police responded shortly after noon to Napoleon Park, 2501 S. Gilbert St., on the east bank of the river. A couple reported the body in the river, which was retrieved by Iowa City Police and Johnson County Deputies. Authorities believed it was Martinez but needed official confirmation.
Harrison Elementary School will be demolished and a new building constructed on the site, the Cedar Rapids school board decided in a 6-1 vote Monday with Dexter Merschbrock opposing.
Under the plan, Madison Elementary School, 1341 Woodside Dr. NW, would close and the attendance zone combined with Harrison Elementary, 1310 11th St. NW. No decision has been made about the future of the Madison Elementary building or land.
The new concept deviates from two recommendations made earlier this month by a volunteer focus group based on an assessment of both schools from Legat Architects, an architecture firm in Iowa City.
Harrison is one of seven schools in Cedar Rapids built before World War II, opening in 1930. In the school there is a mural painted by William Henning, a contemporary of Grant Wood, who is known for his depictions of the rural Midwest. School officials have said that the mural will be preserved.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, April 24th.
According to the National Weather Service, there will be widespread frost before 9 a.m. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 55. Then tonight, a 50 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch are possible.
After waiting 52 years to hire its first female president in 2018, Kirkwood Community College last week introduced three women as finalists to succeed Lori Sundberg when she retires later this year. The first of her prospective successors to visit Kirkwood last week was Lisa Armour, who’s spent her entire higher education career in Florida and currently serves as interim provost and vice president for academic affairs of Sante Fe College — an 18,000-student public community college in Gainesville. The last to visit was Lori Suddick, who’s served institutions across the Midwest, holding various leadership posts at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay before stepping in as president in 2018 atop College of Lake County, a public community college in Grayslake, Ill. The second finalist introduced to campus — or reintroduced, more accurately — was Kristie Fisher, who early in her higher ed pursuits earned an associate degree from Kirkwood before later serving as Kirkwood’s vice president of student services from 2006 to 2014. Since the finalist visits and on-campus interviews last week, the 15-member Kirkwood presidential search committee has been collecting input from faculty, staff and the broader community through online feedback forms. A proposed schedule of presidential-search activities doesn’t identify a date for presidential selection. It does project an appointment date of Oct. 30.
The Iowa Utilities Board issued separate orders Friday assessing $2 million in civil penalties to two pipeline companies that have been operating hazardous liquid pipelines and underground storage facilities in the state for nearly three decades without obtaining permits from the Iowa Utilities Board. The board began a review last year of hazardous liquid pipelines and renewals of expiring permits, discovering Enterprise Products Operating did not have a current permit for approximately 750 miles of pipelines in Iowa that transport propane, butane and natural gasoline, according to a news release. It also found Sinclair Transportation Co. did not have a permit for a roughly 12-mile pipeline in Lee County that transports petroleum products, according to Iowa Utilities Board records. Neither company had been issued permits required to construct, maintain or operate a hazardous liquid pipeline in Iowa, the utilities board said in its release. The utilities board issued a total of $1.8 million in civil penalties against Enterprise for not obtaining permits for seven hazardous liquid pipelines and two hazardous liquid underground storage facilities. It issued a $200,000 civil penalty against Sinclair for operating its hazardous liquid pipeline without a permit.
A body that authorities believe to be that of Cristian Martinez — a 20-year-old Muscatine man reported missing a week ago — was recovered Saturday from the Iowa River, more than a mile downstream from where he was last seen. Iowa City police said they responded shortly after noon to Napoleon Park, at 2501 S. Gilbert St., on the east bank of the river. Authorities said a couple reported what they thought was a body in the river. The city said in a news release that the Johnson County Medical Examiner's Office would positively identify the individual found and determine the cause and manner of death. Martinez had gone to Iowa City with some friends who last saw him in the alley behind Bardot Iowa, a bar at 347 S. Gilbert St., sometime before 1 a.m. April 15. His phone had died earlier in the evening, according to the Iowa City Police Department.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, April 22, and Sunday, April 23.
The Spring weather rollercoaster continues, as temperatures will be dipping down this weekend before popping up next week. According to the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities, it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 45 degrees on Saturday. There is predicted to be a chance of scattered rain or snow showers after 1 p.m., with a chance for a little bit of snow after 7 p.m.
On Sunday night it will be partly sunny with a high near 49 degrees. It will drop down to 31 degrees Sunday evening, with another widespread frost after 3 a.m. Monday morning.
A day after getting state Board of Regents approval to proceed with $185 million worth of health care and medicine-related projects, the University of Iowa issued a request for qualifications Friday from firms interested in designing and developing a massive new North Inpatient Tower next to Kinnick Stadium.
The request shows UIHC is moving ahead with the new tower, first mentioned last year as part of its 10-year master plan, aimed at alleviating crowding across the more than 800-bed UI Hospitals and Clinics.
Planned north of the 14-story UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital, the new tower will emerge just west of the general hospital campus and overlook Kinnick to its southwest.
Payment for emergency contraception for nearly 70 sexual assault survivors in Iowa has yet to be reimbursed, while one claim for an abortion is also on hold, while Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird reviews state policy.
That’s according to a statement from Planned Parenthood North Central States, based on records obtained by Iowa Public Radio from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
The Iowa Attorney General's Office earlier this month said it had paused its practice allowing the state’s victim compensation funds to pay for emergency contraception — and, in rare cases, abortions — for victims of sexual assault, while it reviewed the state policy.
Though the payments are not explicitly required, it has been the state’s longtime policy to cover the cost of emergency contraception from the victim compensation fund. In rare cases, the fund also has paid for abortions for rape victims, said Sandi Tibbetts Murphy, director of the victim assistance division under previous attorney general, Democrat Tom Miller.
Bird defeated Miller in the 2022 November election.
The Salt Lake City-based Maverik chain of convenience stores is buying the Kum & Go chain of 400 stores in 13 states, including Iowa, the companies announced Friday.
The purchase price was not disclosed.
The Krause family started Kum & Go in 1959 with one store in Hampton in north-central Iowa. Its holdings now include 100 stores in Iowa.
Kyle Krause, president and CEO of Krause Group, said in a news release that Maverik “is ideally positioned to lead the next chapter of growth for Kum & Go. We have much in common, and I look forward to welcoming Chuck’s leadership, his team and Maverik to Des Moines.”
It has not been disclosed, yet, whether Maverik will change the Kum & Go name, or any of its offerings.
Have a good weekend everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, April 21.
It will be cloudy and breezy Friday, so remember to pack a light jacket if you need one, especially in the evening. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 55 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area, with increasing cloudiness. It will be breezy, with a wind of of 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph as the day goes on. There will be a small chance of rain before 9 p.m. Tonight it will drop down to 32 degrees, leading to an even chillier Saturday with a slight chance of snow.
Cedar Rapids Police are investigating a Wednesday night shooting in the southeast quadrant that left one minor injured, according to authorities.
Police responded about 9:50 p.m. to a call about shots being fired in the 300 block of 17th St. SE, police said. Officers found a minor boy suffering from a gunshot wound.
He was treated at the scene, then taken to a hospital. Police said his injuries appeared non-life threatening. Police did not announce any arrests in connection with the shooting.
The National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa is being sued over its display and sale of Evel Knievel memorabilia.
K&K Promotions, a Nevada company that owns the rights to the likeness, brand and intellectual property of the late motorcycle daredevil and stunt driver, Evel Knievel, is suing the National Motorcycle Museum in U.S. District Court for alleged trademark infringement and unjust enrichment.
The officially sanctioned Evel Knievel Museum is located in Topeka, Kan.
Anamosa’s National Motorcycle Museum has yet to file a response to the lawsuit. A spokesperson said the museum has pulled any Evel Knievel-related items from display and that the museum will be closing permanently in September of this year, due to low visitation numbers and other issues.
Nearly two-thirds of the 299 University of Northern Iowa faculty members who responded to a campus climate survey in the fall said they had “seriously considered leaving UNI” — citing an array of reasons including low pay, growing workload, and unwelcoming “climate in the State of Iowa.”
Of the 613 UNI staff members who responded, 53 percent said they too had considered leaving, according to the fall 2022 survey that netted 3,329 total respondents, amounting to 31 percent of the campus’ faculty, staff, and student population.
“One theme that emerged from respondents concerning why they considered leaving UNI involved being overworked and burnt out,” according to the survey, reporting 657 respondents provided comments on why they thought about leaving.
One person said, “The workload has gotten overwhelming. We are short staffed, and job duties just keep getting added without a pay increase.”
Findings from the nearly 500-page report were presented during two UNI town hall meetings this week, and officials said its findings generally were consistent with higher education institutions nationally.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, April 20.
Thursday will be windy and stormy, as cold air is coming into the area, leading to rain Thursday and a chilly Friday and Saturday. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high of 68 degrees. The wind will pick up during the day, blowing as high as 20 to 25 mph and gusting as high as 35 mph. Rain chances overall for the day is 60 percent, but it appears from their analysis that rain possibilities will likely cease by 4 p.m.
Crowding and capacity needs continue to stress the main University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, compelling administrators to expand the emergency department, reorganize existing services and — now — open a new “short-stay unit.”
UIHC opened a new 30-room short-term unit Monday aimed at freeing up patient beds for sicker patients; streamlining the hospital experience for short-term patients requiring observation before heading home; and allowing providers to focus on either critical-care or short-term needs.
Examples of UIHC patients who might require a short hospital stay are those needing further evaluation to determine whether they’re stable enough to be released or should be admitted; patients recovering from surgery; or ER arrivals requiring observation, like those with chest pain, for example.
Patients might find themselves in the short-stay unit after the operating room or a trip to the emergency room — which has become increasingly stretched in recent years.
The family of a Muscatine man who went missing from Iowa City over the weekend hosted a prayer vigil Tuesday evening, and has been working with police on ongoing search efforts.
Cristian Martinez, 20, had gone to Iowa City with some friends who last saw him in the alley behind Bardot Iowa, a bar at 347 S. Gilbert St., sometime before 1 a.m. Saturday. His phone had died earlier in the evening, according to the Iowa City Police Department.
Martinez was reported missing Saturday after his family noticed he hadn’t come home with his friends. Iowa City police investigators found security footage that showed Martinez at 12:56 a.m. in the 100 block of W. Harrison Street, walking west.
Family, friends and other community members gathered Tuesday at the downtown Pedestrian Mall in Iowa City to hand out flyers and show support.
The family has started a GoFundMe account to help with hiring a private investigator, and any other expenses as the search continues. As of Wednesday afternoon, the account had raised almost $10,000.
Iowa City is taking the first step in exploring space and department needs of the City Hall building on Washington Street, which houses various city departments including police and fire.
The city will be working with OPN Architects over the next six months on the master plan and feasibility study project, which the Iowa City Council approved as part of the consent agenda during Tuesday’s meeting. Since it was on the consent agenda, there was no council discussion.
OPN will review the current and projected space and needs of departments — including whether it would be possible to relocate the police department to a stand-alone building.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 19.
Wednesday will have a chance for rain in the morning and a chance for rain in the evening, with a break in the middle. According to the National Weather Service, it will be cloudy with a high near 70 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Rain chances are predicted at 30 percent before 11 a.m., dipping down to near 0 percent, then back above 40 percent by 7 p.m. At this time the heavy rain appears to be predicted to fall early Thursday morning.
Two Fairfield teens pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder for killing a high school Spanish teacher in 2021 over what prosecutors said was a bad grade, but one wouldn’t admit to striking her with a baseball bat — instead saying it was his co-defendant who killed her.
Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, 17, pleaded to first-degree murder, or aiding and abetting in that crime, during a hearing in Jefferson County District Court. He contended that he acted as lookout for 18-year-old Jeremy Goodale as he struck and killed Nohema Graber with a baseball bat on November 2, 2021. The 66-year-old Graber was a Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School.
Goodale testified Tuesday during his hearing that it had been Miller who had planned the assault, brough the bat, and struck Graber. Goodale testified he helped Miller move Graber off the park trail, where he struck her and she died.
Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown said the prosecution contends Miller was part of planning the murder and he also struck Graber with the baseball bat. Brown said that Miller also helped cover up the crime and destroyed evidence.
Brown said the prosecution believes the murder was committed due to Graber giving a bad grade, and it was Miller who was in her class that year, not Goodale.
Brown said the prosecution will recommend a minimum of 30 years in prison for Miller, with the possibility of parole. He said they will be recommending 25 years for Goodale, because he cooperated with the investigation.
Graber, who grew up in Mexico, had been a Spanish teacher at Fairfield High since 2012. She left behind three children — Christian, Nohema Marie and Jared — and a former husband, Paul.
The Iowa City Police Department has begun scouring the Iowa River and Ralston Creek in search of a 20-year-old Muscatine man who was last seen early Saturday, according to authorities.
Cristian Martinez was last seen walking west in the 100 block of W. Harrison Street, south of downtown, about 12:56 a.m. Saturday. His phone had died earlier in the evening and his loved ones have been unable to reach him.
Based on the direction Martinez was walking, police are concerned he may have ended up at the Iowa River. The Iowa City Police Department worked with Johnson County Emergency Management and the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the flow from the Coralville Reservoir to help search the river for Martinez.
Boats and drones have been used to search the river. Police have also searched nearby railroad tracks and Ralston Creek, and have obtained surveillance video from Iowa City, the University of Iowa, Johnson County and other private video. They’ve also reviewed Martinez’ bank account and cellphone activity, according to a news release
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, April 18.
Tuesday will start with frost but clear into a pleasant day. According to the National Weather Service there will be widespread frost in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly before 10 a.m. After that it will be sunny with a high near 62 degrees, with a calm wind.
A Tiffin man was arrested Sunday and charged with breaking into and causing “extensive damage” to parts of Veterans Memorial Stadium, home of the Cedar Rapids Kernels, over the weekend.
Andrew Joseph Reynolds, 23, is charged with first-degree criminal mischief and third-degree burglary.
According to a criminal complaint, Reynolds was captured on video surveillance breaking into the stadium and vandalizing the front offices and suites, and bouncy ball dispensing machine. He also broke the front window of the gift shop and stole several bags of merchandise, the compliant said.
Reynolds appears to have recorded himself running the bases in the stadium at the time of the break in, and posted it to Snapchat. Someone reported the video to Kernels’ staff, and they were able to identify him in video surveillance at the stadium.
The Senior Center will stay at its downtown Iowa City location — unless the City Council overrules a survey’s finding — as staff continues to work toward renovations under the center’s facility master plan.
After collecting nearly 1,000 responses, a public input survey showed 73 percent of respondents support keeping the Iowa City Senior Center at its current location, 28 S. Linn St.
The Senior Center asked for feedback last year through a short survey and community input sessions on what improvements and renovations to prioritize, as well as if the current location is the best option for seniors.
The 220-room, seven-floor Marriott Hotel on Collins Road in Cedar Rapids is going up for sale starting May 2.
The starting bid for the hotel auction is $3.2 million with bidding running through May 4.
Jeff Berkman, of real estate agency Hodges Ward Elliott, confirmed the hotel is for sale but did not provide further information.
The online listing points out it is “the only full-service Marriott hotel in the market and one of only three Marriott-affiliated hotels” in Cedar Rapids. The hotel is located next to Collins Aerospace, which the listing also states “generates a consistent flow of demand.”
The $14 million hotel opened in 1988 as the Collins Plaza and Convention Center. It became the Cedar Rapids Marriott in 2004, which included a renovation of guest rooms and a redesign of the ballrooms, meeting rooms and public spaces.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, April 17th.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 48. Breezy, with a northwest wind around 25 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph. And tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 30.
An Iowa City man was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison for attempting to kill his former girlfriend, her boyfriend and three children in 2021 by pouring lighter fluid under her apartment door and igniting a fire, trapping them inside. Ishmael S. Carter, 32, was found guilty in January of first-degree arson and five counts of attempted murder. Jurors deliberated more than four hours following the three-day trial. Carter will have to serve 50 percent of the arson conviction and 70 percent of the attempted murder conviction before being eligible for parole.
Iowa nursing homes and care centers are routinely fined as little as $325 for regulatory violations related to the physical and verbal abuse of residents. While many other types of nursing home violations trigger federal fines that can lead to penalties of up to $10,000, resident abuse violations often are subject to a state fine of $500. In some cases, the facilities haven’t appealed the $500 penalties, so they were automatically reduced to $325. Since Jan. 1, at least eight Iowa nursing homes have been cited for violations related to resident abuse.
A single-vehicle motorcycle crash in Buchanan County killed a man who was driving and injured a female passenger Saturday evening, according to an Iowa State Patrol crash report. At 5:52 p.m., 50-year-old Bradley L. Johnson of Hazleton was driving a Harley-Davidson motorcycle eastbound on Highway C57, just west of Hazleton. The report stated Johnson lost control at the intersection of Highway C57 (also known as 118th Street at that location) and Indiana Avenue, where the motorcycle entered the south shoulder and the driver and a passenger were ejected to the south ditch. The passenger — 46-year-old Sara J. Johnson — was airlifted to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for treatment of her injuries. Bradley Johnson did not survive the crash.
North Liberty is in the early stages of discussing whether to allow utility task vehicles — or UTVs — to operate on city streets. The North Liberty City Council at its meeting this week didn’t take a formal vote but did give city staff the green light to begin drafting an ordinance and offer a recommendation to the council. A state law passed last year allows registered all-terrain vehicles and UTVs to be operated in all 99 counties as along as the rider follows the various rules outlined in the law. The legislation allows cities to regulate operation of these vehicles within their city limits. Last year, Marion voted to allow UTVs on city streets.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
The Iowa House has passed a bill that would allow guns in school and college parking lots. The bill passed the House 62 to 37. The bill clarifies that the gun carrier would need a permit and the handgun must remain in the vehicle. If the vehicle is unattended, it must be locked. Democrats criticized the bill saying it would allow more guns around children just weeks after another U.S. school shooting. The bill would allow guns, knives and tasers to be stored in locked cars in Iowa's public universities and community colleges as long as they are not visible. The bill would lift restrictions on other areas including jail and prison parking lots and highways. Iowans would be allowed to carry a loaded gun on a snowmobile or ATV. Lawmakers added provision that would require schools to offer gun safety classes in grades seven through 12. For more details, read the story on thegazette.com.
Next, Iowa Supreme Court says Governor Kim Reynolds did not interact with justices before they heard the abortion case which the governor is the lead plaintiff. On Tuesday, oral arguments were given surrounding an injunction that prevents the state from enforcing the 'fetal heartbeat' bill. That bill bans abortions in Iowa after the sixth week of pregnancy. That day, Governor Reynolds entered through the Supreme Court's non-public office space. Counsel to Iowa Supreme Court's Chief Justice Molly Kettmeyer notified all lawyers in the case that the governor was not granted access to the space but "at no other time did the justices and the court staff have contact with parties to the case heard".
Looking ahead to next week, a fairy tale will come to life in Cedar Rapids.
Next week, World Ballet Series will make a stop at the Paramount on their 2023 national tour. The ballet is set to a score by Sergei Prokofiev and the choreography is by Estonia's Marina Kesler. Kesler's choreography is a modern take on the classical dance style. Gazette correspondent Katie Mills-Giorgio talked to the dancers who play Cinderella and the Stepmother. Read their interviews at thegazette.com.
Now, an update from the Tacoa Talley trial. 38-year-old Tacoa Talley and 34-year-old Samantha Bevans are each charged with the murder of 58-year-old Jodie Bevans on July 14th, 2022. Thursday, the jury was shown a Snapchat video that shows Bevans and Talley saying they'd killed Bevans' stepmother. Bevans will be tried separately on September 25th. During opening statements earlier this week, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Monty Platz said money in Jodie Bevans' home motivated Talley and Samantha Bevans to commit the murder.
Finally, a look at the weather. Today will be partly cloudy with a high of 83 and low of 57. Saturday expect rain with a high of 71 and low of 42. Sunday that rain is gonna stay and drop temperatures to a high of 43 and low of 33. Thank you for listening to The Gazette's Daily News podcast which provides quick updates of the latest news around Eastern Iowa. For The Gazette, I'm Bailey Cichon. Have a great weekend.
You are listening to the Thursday, April 13th, 2023 edition of The Gazette's Daily News podcast. I'm your host Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
Broadway is coming to Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City. Musical theater fans can see shows like 'Chicago' and 'Hairspray' in Hancher Auditorium's new subscription series. Other shows include 'Come From Away' and "To Kill a Mockingbird'. Subscriptions go on sale to the general public at 10am May 1st. Subscribers will have a discount as well as access to the best seats before single tickets go on sale July 31st.
Coralville's 5th St. reconstruction project has been delayed. While construction was expected to begin this month, all bids came over budget so the city is reviewing options to try again. The city estimated the project would cost about $5.2 million but the lowest bid came in at just under $7 million. That's about a third over budget. Now, leaders are looking to simplify the project or potentially complete it in phases. For more details read Izabela Zaluska's story: https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/fifth-street-reconstruction-delayed-in-coralville/
The trial is underway for a North Liberty man who is charged with the murder of 58-year-old Jodie Bevans of Palo. 38-year-old Tacoa Talley is accused of helping his girlfriend, 34-year-old Samantha Bevans, to kill her stepmother, 58-year-old Jodie Bevans on July 14, 2022. Samantha Bevans will be tried separately on September 25th. A prosecutor said Tuesday that Bevans was suffocated to death with a pillow in her own bed. Assistant Iowa Attorney General Monty Platz said Talley and his girlfriend, Bevans, killed Jodie Bevans to steal money from her safe, which they believed held thousands. The couple found only a few hundred dollars in the safe, Platz said. For more details from opening statements, read Trish Mehaffey's story: https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/prosecutor-says-north-liberty-mans-motive-for-killing-palo-woman-in-2022-is-money/
Finally, a look at today's weather. Today will be sunny with a high of 82 and low of 52. I'm Bailey Cichon for The Gazette. Have a great day.
You are listening to The Gazette's Daily News Podcast on Wednesday, April 12, 2023. I'm your host, Bailey Cichon filling in for Stephen Schmidt.
The future of the 'fetal heartbeat' law is up to the Iowa Supreme Court. On Tuesday, attorneys representing Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds argued in front of the Iowa Supreme Court over Gov. Reynolds' request that the court lift an injunction on the 2018 state law that would ban abortions once a fetus's heartbeat can be detected. Right now, abortion is legal in Iowa until 20 weeks of pregnancy. But if the Iowa Supreme Court grants Reynolds's request, a vast majority of abortions in Iowa will become illegal. Some major medical organizations argued that an actual heartbeat doesn't occur until about 17 to 20 weeks of pregnancy. What is detected at six weeks is not a heartbeat, but actually electrical impulses. There isn't a timeline for the Iowa Supreme Court's decision but most decisions are published by the end of the court's term June 30. Iowa Supreme Court is currently made up of five justices appointed by Governor Kim Reynolds and two by previous Governor Terry Branstad, who is also a Republican. For more details: https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/fetal-heartbeat-law-argued-in-iowa-supreme-court/
$306 million. That is how much the Army Corps of Engineers will contribute to constructing Cedar Rapids' flood control system on the east side of the Cedar River. Previously, the Army Corps had committed $117 million toward the project. Tuesday they announced the additional contribution. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. For a closer look: read Marissa Payne's story "Army Corps boosts C.R. flood control commitment to $306M on river’s east side".
Next, Barrel House is expanding to Coralville. This edition is the local franchise brand's third location in the Corridor. The Coralville location will be located at 3230 Redhawk Street, Suite 300. It's set to open around May.
Finally, a look at today's weather. Today will be cloudy with a high of 84 and low of 53. Thank you for listening. For all the latest stories coming out of Eastern Iowa, visit thegazette.com. For The Gazette, I'm Bailey Cichon. Have a great day.
Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne German is retiring. This comes after his police officer certification expired after turning 66 earlier this year. Jerman will retire once Cedar Rapids City Council signs off on his severance agreement. Jerman has been on paid administrative leave since March 9 after Iowa Law Enforcement Academy inquired about Jerman staying with Cedar Rapids as a civilian employee. For more details read the story by Marissa Payne: https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/cedar-rapids-police-chief-to-retire-after-he-aged-out-of-certification-and-reached-severance-agreeme/
Iowa City Schools will cut teaching staff over the next two years. Reductions will include 18 elementary teachers and 9 junior high and high school teachers. These cuts will save almost $2.5 million and were prompted by the expiration of pandemic funding. Three district-level administrator positions will be reduced to save $2.3 million. Meanwhile, the fiscal year 2024 budget will increase to accommodate planned facility projects. Read about those in Grace King's story "Iowa City schools reduce staff as pandemic funding expires" on thegazette.com. https://www.thegazette.com/k/iowa-city-schools-reduce-staff-as-pandemic-funding-expires/
Finally, some Eastern Iowa officials are concerned Iowa offenders are being released from prison too soon--either before their sentence allows or before inmates received treatment in prison. The Gazette's Erin Jordan reports that there have been at least two Eastern Iowa cases in which mistakes were caught by someone outside of the prison system. This story includes a detailed look at the work of the Iowa Board of Parole and changes coming as a result of the massive government reorganization bill signed Tuesday by Governor Kim Reynolds. This bill puts all decision-making authority with the state Corrections Department. For the full story, read "Paroled too soon?" by Erin Jordan.
https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-paroles-dangerous-offenders-too-often-officials-say/
And now a look at today's weather. Today will be partly cloudy with a high of 78 and low of 46.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, April 10th.
According to the National Weather Service, today will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 70. Winds from the southwest around 10 mph. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 48.
One person was killed, and another injured when a vehicle crashed in rural Johnson County early Saturday morning. The vehicle — a 2010 Jeep Wrangler — was traveling south in the 2800 block of N. Dubuque Street, near its intersection with Interstate 80, at 1:35 a.m. when it entered a ditch and rolled, according to a news release from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. The car’s two occupants, 18-year-old Trevor Burrows of North Liberty and 18-year-old Jacob Cohen of Iowa City, were ejected in the crash. Burrows died at the scene and Cohen was taken by ambulance to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Neither vehicle occupant was wearing a seat belt.
A woman working at an east side Iowa City Casey's was shot by a customer Saturday night, according to Iowa City police. At 7:17 p.m., police responded to a report of a shooting at the Casey's convenience store at 370 Scott Ct. According to police, the woman working at the Casey's was approached by two customers who assaulted her, and all three exited the store. While exiting, one of the customers pulled out a handgun and shot the woman, who suffered a minor injury. The suspects left the area on foot. Police are actively investigating the incident and asking the public for assistance. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Iowa City Police Department. Police are requesting anyone with security cameras in the area review their recordings for potentially useful footage or information.
The Iowa women’s basketball team has its fourth commit from the 2024 class. Teagan Mallegni, a 6-foot guard out of McFarland, Wis., announced her pledge to the Hawkeyes on Saturday. According to WisSports.net, Mallegni is a two-time WBCA D2 all-state pick. She led McFarland (26-3) to its first state-tournament appearance since 1999. Mallegni is ranked No. 59 among this year’s junior class, according to ESPN. She joins fellow Wisconsin prospect Taylor Stremlow in Iowa’s Class of 2024, along with Ava Heiden of Oregon and Callie Levin of Solon.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9.
It will be perhaps our first truly nice weather weekend of spring.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 67 degrees.
On Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 69 degrees.
The wind will also be mild, hovering between 5 and 15 mph, with gusts of 20 mph.
As student enrollment declines and school officials say Iowa’s per-pupil state aid has failed to keep up with rising costs, the Cedar Rapids Community School District is looking to trim $2 million in planned spending from its general fund — more than 80 percent of which pays staff salaries and benefits.
K-12 student enrollment in Cedar Rapids schools dropped 1,170 students — almost 10 percent — from 17,129 during the 2018-19 school year to 15,959 during the 2022-23 school year. The enrollment loss of 127 students from the current fiscal year to next is a decrease of about $2.57 million in per-pupil state aid, said Karla Hogan, Cedar Rapids schools executive director of business services.
State aid, which is based on the number of students attending a district, runs a year behind. The district's student count in October 2023 will be used to determine funding for the fiscal 2025 budget.
While the district is working to cut $2 million in spending from its original budget plan, those cuts are not expected to impact student learning, and school officials hope to avoid job cuts, Hogan said. The $2 million decrease is less than 1 percent of the district’s overall budget for fiscal year 2024, which begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2024.
Marion City Council members have advanced an ordinance that will open the door to deploying automatic traffic cameras in the city.
The traffic camera proposal initially was presented by Marion Police Chief Mike Kitsmiller in council work session Feb. 21, saying the cameras would improve safety despite a police staffing shortage. An ordinance clearing the way to begin a local program passed its first consideration March 23. It again unanimously passed Thursday night, and now must go to a third consideration.
The next City Council meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. April 20, though it’s not yet clear if the third and final consideration will happen at that meeting.
The proposed ordinance does not specify which company the city would contract with to supply and maintain the cameras — or where the cameras would go. The proposal simply gives the city the option of installing them.
The Jefferson High School academic decathlon team is heading to a national competition once again after taking top honors in the state for 23 consecutive years.
“It’s a legacy,” said Kevin Darrow, coach of the Jefferson High academic decathlon team. “Twenty-three years isn’t done by accident. It’s a formula. It’s not what we learn, it’s how we learn.”
The J-Hawks won the National Academic Decathlon for the first time in the school’s history in 2022. The students are now studying for the national tournament April 27-29 in Frisco, Texas. In 2025, the National Academic Decathlon will be held in Des Moines.
Have a good weekend everyone. I hope you can enjoy the nice weather.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, April 7.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Friday, with a high near 61 degrees. On Friday night the sky will be clear, with a low of around 38 degrees. A slight wind during the day will pick up just a bit during the evening.
The next two weeks are projected to bring above normal temperatures and precipitation to the upper Mississippi River basin, causing snowpacks in Minnesota and Wisconsin to melt.
Those conditions have created a 50 percent or higher chance that communities along the Mississippi River — from Dubuque to Burlington — will experience major flooding, according to the latest river flood risk briefing from the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities bureau.
“This is a little bit of that worst-case scenario that I’ve been warning about since February,” senior service hydrologist Matt Wilson told the Gazette. “We could see this being the start of a more severe spring flood season than we would have otherwise hoped for.
In Minnesota and Wisconsin, wetter than average conditions caused snowpacks to swell this winter to between 4 and 10-plus inches of snow water equivalent. They rank in the top 10 percent of snow events on historical record for the area — potentially even the top three, Wilson said.
Colder than normal temperatures have allowed those snowpacks to persist longer into the spring.
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week over a request from Gov. Kim Reynolds to reinstate a law that would ban abortion after six weeks.
Reynolds, a Republican, launched the lawsuit last year, asking a district court to lift an injunction on a 2018 law that banned abortion after cardiac activity is detected in a fetus, usually around six weeks. The court denied the request in December, and Reynolds appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court.
Reynolds encouraged people gathered Thursday at an annual prayer breakfast in Des Moines to pray for the outcome of the case.
If reinstated, the law would block abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy, often before a woman is aware she is pregnant. Medical experts say the sound detected by an ultrasound in those early weeks is not a heartbeat — because the fetus’ heart is not fully formed — but instead electrical impulses.
Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks.
A state board on Thursday awarded a combined $1.3 million toward efforts to revitalize Cedar Lake and renovate the African American Museum of Iowa, partially funding both projects.
The Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Enhance Iowa board gave $800,000 to the grassroots ConnectCR initiative’s Cedar Lake project, and $500,000 for the museum project Thursday. The awards come with a 90-day contingency of closing fundraising gaps.
The board previously rescinded ConnectCR’s initial $500,000 Community Attraction and Tourism grant but encouraged the city to reapply, so the city of Cedar Rapids did receive more money.
The city sought $1 million for the approximately $12.3 million project to transform the lake just north of downtown as part of ConnectCR.
The African American Museum of Iowa asked for $508,000 to go toward a portion of its nearly $5 million renovation project, which has closed the museum while the city builds a floodgate on 12th Avenue.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, April 6.
Thursday will have a bit of a chill to it, but it will be sunny. This will set a sunny, and increasingly warm, trend for the next week. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 52 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The wind will calm down a bit as well, sticking at 5 to 15 mph with mild gusts. Thursday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 31 degrees.
Mercy Iowa City held a series of “all staff” meetings Wednesday to announce upcoming changes for the 234-bed hospital — including a new chief executive, another operations improvement consultant and a plan to end its relationship with partner MercyOne.
Mercy Iowa City’s 13-member board appointed Tom Clancy, who serves as chair of the board, to take the reins as Mercy's new CEO tasked with turning the hospital’s fortunes around after recent financial hardships.
In his email, Clancy acknowledged fiscal challenges facing the hospital and said the board has hired ToneyKorf Partners to develop and implement a plan to help Mercy “improve its operations.” ToneyKorf is a New York management and advisory firm specialized in “helping health care organizations address complex and critical challenges.”
MercyOne will continue to serve Mercy patients during the transitional period as it has before. Mercy Iowa City considered seeking a new partner before, but did not find a partner organization that matched its needs, pulling back to MercyOne in 2022.
A Cedar Rapids man already in prison on a burglary conviction now faces a murder charge in a 2020 fatal shooting.
Damontie Haggstrom-Wells, 20, has been moved from prison to the Linn County Jail to face charges of first-degree murder, first-degree attempted burglary and going armed with intent, in the May 22, 2020, shooting of Daniel Spangler, according to a news release from Cedar Rapids police.
Spangler, 69, was found dead in his home in the 500 block of B Ave NW that day after police were asked to do a welfare check.
Iowa was one of only four states to turn down $3 million in federal money for planning to prevent climate change after a state official advised against it because there were “strings attached.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offered each state $3 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to come up with a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create green energy jobs, lower energy costs for families and reduce air pollution, among other objectives.
Governors had until last Friday to file notice they planned to apply for the grants. Iowa, Florida, Kentucky and South Dakota were the only states that declined to participate, the EPA confirmed Wednesday.
Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Economic Development Authority, told the finance authority board Wednesday she recommended Gov. Kim Reynolds not seek the federal money, saying there were “strings attached.”
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 5.
It'll be breezy again Wednesday, but we'll swap in colder temperatures instead of severe weather. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with temperatures falling to around 40 degrees by 10 a.m. The high temperature will settle in at about 51 degrees. It will remain windy throughout the day, with gusts as high as 35 mph. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 29 degrees.
Severe weather mostly missed Eastern Iowa Tuesday, but of course last week we weren’t so lucky.
Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity’s warehouse in southeast Iowa City is a “total loss” after last week’s tornado outbreak in Eastern Iowa.
The 5,760-square-foot warehouse was the organization’s main storage space for everything necessary to build and repair homes, including construction tools, safety equipment, new appliances, vehicles and trailers, the group said in a news release Tuesday.
Habitat for Humanity’s warehouse, built in 2016 at 4764 420th St. SE, also was used for volunteer space and workshops in addition to storing materials and other needed items. The nonprofit works to provide affordable housing in Johnson, Cedar, Iowa and Washington counties.
Construction Manager Christy Shipley added how the warehouse was “my dream project for more than a decade.”
It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but Hawes said it is likely a tornado hit the warehouse and the group’s neighboring HabLab classroom during the March 31 storms.
The neighboring HabLab facility still is standing but “sustained significant damage” and will need “several critical repairs,” the release said. This building includes a classroom, kitchenette, bathroom, staff office and additional storage.
A massive reorganization of the executive branch of state government, proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds and informed by a consulting firm, was signed into law Tuesday.
Reynolds signed into law the nearly 1,600-page bill, Senate File 514, which reduces the number of cabinet-level state agencies from 37 to 16 and eliminates scores of vacant state government jobs.
Reynolds and supporters of the realignment note that Iowa’s state government has not undergone a structural review in roughly 40 years and said the proposal will make state government more efficient in its operations and services to Iowans.
Critics have asserted that it places too much authority with the governor and have described it as a “power grab” by Reynolds.
A project to convert the upper floors of the Iowa Building in downtown Cedar Rapids into multifamily housing got a $5.5 million boost from the state last week.
Developer Steve Emerson’s redevelopment of the Iowa Building, located at 211 Fourth Ave. SE, received historic preservation tax credits from the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The program supports projects that rehabilitate historic buildings while keeping their character-defining features.
Emerson will convert the third through seventh floors of the Iowa Building into downtown housing units. The first and second floors will be renovated into office space. Jimmy John’s will continue to operate on the first floor.
Once complete, the project will add 41 market-rate rental units — all one-bedrooms. Emerson said work started in January and is slated to wrap up late this year or early 2024.
The IEDA also previously awarded $975,559 in workforce housing tax credits toward the Iowa Building’s redevelopment, as well as $750,000 in brownfield/grayfield tax credits. Both awards were announced in 2021.
This is Emerson’s only active downtown Cedar Rapids housing project, but he said he is contemplating other projects in the urban core.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, April 4.
You might want to find a comfortable spot in your severe weather safe space again. According to the National Weather Service, the Eastern Iowa area will again see some stormy weather on Tuesday. Meteorologists are predicting multiple rounds of storms as the day goes on, starting from a bit after noon and into the evening. These storms are predicted to again move quickly, at roughly 50 to 70 mph, and they will also have the potential to produce heavy wind, rain, hail, and potentially tornadoes. When all of that is not happening, the high temperature is predicted to be 68 degrees.
As Eastern Iowa residents recover from Friday’s tornado outbreak, one of the new concerns is clearing debris ahead of another band of storms expected Tuesday.
Continuing to get debris picked up or covered “so that it doesn’t become airborne flying missiles” is the goal before Tuesday’s storms, said Dave Wilson, Johnson County Emergency Management Coordinator. Wilson said a lot of progress has been made already.
The Iowa Department of Transportation is assisting with clean up in Hills and Coralville to speed the process along, Wilson said. He added that some debris from the storm’s path in Keokuk County landed in Johnson County.
Friday’s tornado outbreak left behind widespread damage in Eastern Iowa. The National Weather Service’s Quad Cities bureau confirmed 16 tornadoes as of Monday afternoon. It’s expected the final tornado number will be in the 20s.
At least 11 injuries were reported, with no known fatalities.
Linn County’s historic “Blue Bridge” on Bertram Road was damaged Monday when crews tried to lift it and move it to the Indian Creek Nature Center and likely is not salvageable.
Crews were lifting the bridge off its foundation when the bridge structure twisted, county officials said in a news release
The Linn County Secondary Road Department does not anticipate the bridge can be saved, but engineering contractors will evaluate the structure to make a final determination.
No one was injured in the bridge collapse. Bertram Road remains closed to traffic.
The nearby nature center was planning to use the 146-year-old bridge — a registered historic structure — to bridge a ravine on its trail system.
The steel truss bridge, the oldest in Linn County, was built in 1876 and has a timber surface. The bridge was painted blue in 1991.
A Tama County man suffered severe burns on one-third of his body in a Dec. 8 explosion at the C6-Zero plant, where he worked as a contractor, according to a lawsuit filed in Iowa County.
Kelly Regenold and his wife, Tammy Courbat, filed the suit March 21 against C6-Zero Iowa, C6-Zero Holdings and Heartland Crush LLC, the company that owns the Marengo building where the blast happened.
“The explosion blew Plaintiff off of a ladder and across the floor of the building. The subsequent fire destroyed the building and Plaintiff barely escaped with his life,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff was taken by ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where he was admitted for severe burns over 30 to 39% of his body, plus other injuries caused by the explosion and fire.”
Regenold is the second person working at C6-Zero to announce suffering major injuries in the explosion and fire. A GoFundMe page was set up soon after the fire for Cody Blasberg, who was severely burned and had to temporarily be put on a ventilator because of his injuries.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, April 3rd.
According to the National Weather Service, today we’ll have a 30 percent chance of rain after 2 p.m., partly sunny, with a high near 58. Winds from the northeast 5 to 10 mph. Tonight: A chance of rain and thunderstorms before 11 p.m., then a chance of showers, mainly between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. Cloudy, with a low around 44.
At least one of the tornadoes that ripped across Iowa Friday afternoon has been classified as an EF-4, the second-highest rating available on the scale that’s used to measure the storms. The National Weather Service’s Quad Cities bureau reported Sunday that preliminary assessments of damage from the March 31 storm system indicate multiple tornadoes touched down. The most significant of the tornadoes assessed so far was an EF-4 that tracked from Keokuk County into Washington and Johnson counties from 3:48 to 4:37 p.m. Friday. Its estimated peak winds were 170 miles per hour and its maximum width was 600 yards. The assessment reports that several houses were damaged, including one that was wiped “completely off its foundation.” Trees were “completely debarked,” a car was tossed 1,000 feet into a field, and a 325-foot cellphone tower was toppled. Three people were injured. Two additional tornadoes have been confirmed in Johnson County. The storm that passed through Coralville between 4:42 and 4:57 p.m. received a preliminary rating of EF-2 with wind speeds of up to 120 miles per hour. The Coralville tornado damaged a warehouse near Highway 6 and flipped several trailers and a truck. The path of the tornado — which was on the ground for about 75 yards — tore into a residential area. At least two injuries were reported. The second confirmed Johnson County tornado began southwest of Hills just before 5 p.m.. The greatest damage was to homes on the west side of town, where “roofs were completely torn off, siding removed from several homes and a large outbuilding destroyed.” The National Weather Service notes several trees were also snapped. The Hills tornado packed maximum wind speeds of 120 miles per hour. At its largest, it was 50 yards across, and it stayed on the ground for 8.8 miles, according to preliminary assessments. As of Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service had reported five other tornadoes during the Friday outbreak. They were in Des Moines, Jackson, Clinton and Cedar counties, and preliminary assessments report they were between EF-0 and EF-2 on the classification scale. In all, there were at least 11 injuries reported as a result of the storms. Damage assessments are expected to take several days.
Even Caitlin Clark couldn't stop LSU's offensive juggernaut in the March Madness finale. The Tigers won the first championship in program history with a brilliant offensive performance, beating Iowa 102-85 in the NCAA Tournament women's title game on Sunday. Jasmine Carson scored 22 points off the bench — including 21 points in a first-half blitz that featured five 3-pointers — Alexis Morris added 21 and the Tigers shot 54% from the field. Iowa's Clark, who was named The Associated Press women’s basketball Player of the Year, had 30 points and eight assists to wrap up a stellar season, but it wasn't enough to lead the Hawkeyes to the first title. Clark set an NCAA Tournament record with 191 points over six games, topping the record set by Sheryl Swoopes in 1993.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, April 1, and Sunday, April 2..
The weird Spring weather interlude will conclude Saturday, with some light snow, rain, and cold temperatures. Sunday will be back to some normal, thankfully boring, sunshine. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance of rain and snow showers before 8 a.m. and then a chance of snow for about an hour after in Eastern Iowa Saturday morning. It will be cloudy through mid morning, before gradually clearing, with a high near 46 degrees. It will be breezy, with wind gusts getting as high as 45 mph.
Sunday it should be sunny, with a high near 65 degrees. The gusts are also predicted to drop to 35 mph.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is activating state disaster assistance for 7 Iowa Counties, as tornado-producing storms whipped through Eastern Iowa Friday night, leaving damage in several communities, but thankfully no reported deaths so far, in their wake.
Coralville and Hills were the most severely hit in Johnson and Linn Counties, with damage to several buildings within their city limits. Downed trees temporarily blocked Highway 6 and a semi-trailer truck was flipped on its back.In nearby Solon, trees were also downed onto homes and vehicles, a farmhouse was damaged, and part of the roof was blown off of El Sol Mexican Restaurant downtown.
The Coralville Recreation Center at 1506 Eighth Street is serving as an emergency shelter for those displaced by the storm. A tornado that touched down near the intersection of 23rd Avenue and 9th Street in Coralville smashed windows and downed trees in mere minutes as the storms whipped through the area at 60 mph. Coralville Mayor Foster said only minor injuries have been reported so far.
After the storms rumbled through, many Iowans came out to help their neighbors clean up, and the number one concern for many without power was trying to find a way to watch the Iowa Hawkeye women’s basketball game to come that night. For those who found a way, they were not disappointed.
Caitlin Clark scored 41 points, and third-ranked Iowa stunned No. 1 South Carolina, 77-73, in an NCAA women’s basketball national-semifinal thriller before a sellout crowd of 19,288 Friday night at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
The Hawkeyes, in a rare Final Four appearance for the program, snapped South Carolina’s 42-game winning streak. They overcame a clear size difference, with the Gamecock’s outrebounding Iowa by a massive 24 rebounds, much of them on the offensive end.
Clark continued her dominance, scoring or assisting on 75 percent of Iowa’s points, and all of Iowa’s points in the pivotal 4th quarter.
Iowa will now face No. 9 ranked LSU for the national championship at 2:30 Sunday afternoon on ABC. But they already will go down in Iowa history on a very strange weather day at the end of March.
Have a good weekend everyone. Stay safe out there.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, March 31.
We're going to have a little bit of everything in the next 24 hours, including the potential for one of our first serious storms of the year. According to the National Weather Service there will be showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, primarily after 2 p.m. The high will be 73 degrees. The current projections from NWS has the majority of the rain falling between 3 and 5 p.m. Wind gusts Friday night could pick up to as much as 45 mph.
The NWS weather service also cautions that the storms will be fast moving, with some moving as fast as 60 mph.
Then, early Saturday morning, we could see a chance for snow, with a high of 30 degrees. It is then predicted to bounce back to a high of 66 degrees by Sunday.
Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the charges remained under seal late Thursday, but the investigation centered on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. Prosecutors said they were working to coordinate Trump’s surrender, which could happen early next week
Iowa Republicans were critical of the indictment, accusing the New York District Attorney of playing politics with the decision to indict, and accusing the prosecutors of not doing enough to stop rising crime in that city instead.
Days after Utah became the first state to enact laws limiting how children can use social media, Iowa Republican House lawmakers said they plan to pursue a similar measure that would require parental consent before children under the age of 18 can sign up to use sites like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
House File 526, as introduced by Rep. Henry Stone, a Republican from Forest City, would ban anyone under the age of 18 from having their own social media account. Social media companies that operate in the state would be fined $1,000 per violation, and the proposal directs the Iowa Attorney General’s Office to enforce provisions of the bill.
While the bill proposes an all-out ban of children on social media, Republicans who advanced it in a subcommittee meeting Thursday said they would amend it to give kids access to social media if their parents allow it.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has ordered a Coggon landowner to pay more than $20,000 after an investigation showed fertilizer pumped from the property killed more than 50,000 fish in Dry Creek last fall.
Patrick and Tracy Hammes, who live in Batavia but own a fertilizer storage site near Coggon, must pay a $10,000 administrative penalty — the largest fine the DNR can assess — and $11,400 in restitution and investigative costs, according to the order released Thursday.
Investigators believe the fish kill was caused by leaks in ammonia nitrogen storage tanks on the Hammes property. A review by DNR Biologist Dan Kirby estimated there were more than 50,000 dead fish as a result, including minnows, chubs, dace, suckers, stonerollers, darters and sunfish.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, March 30.
Thursday will be the calm in the usual Spring weather rollercoaster. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 62 degrees. It will be breezy, with a wind of 10 to 15 mph gusting as high as 30 mph. Showers and possibly a thunderstorm are likely early after midnight and into early Friday morning.
Iowa guard Caitlin Clark was awarded the Naismith Trophy on Wednesday as the national player of the year in women’s college basketball.
Clark, the first player in Division I women’s or men’s history to total at least 900 points and 300 assists in a season, is averaging 27.3 points 7.3 rebounds and 8.6 assists per game in leading the third-ranked Hawkeyes (30-6) to the Final Four.
Clark is the second Iowa women’s basketball player in five years to win it, joining Megan Gustafson in 2019. Iowa’s Luka Garza won the men’s Naismith Trophy in 2021.
The Hawkeyes and top-ranked, undefeated South Carolina meet in the Final Four at 8:30 p.m. Friday.
A man was arrested Wednesday on a charge of first-degree murder in relation to a fatal shooting at a Marion bar on St. Patrick’s Day, according to a news release from the Marion Police Department.
Duval Walker, 28, was arrested by U.S. Marshals and members of the FBI Safe Streets Task Force and Waterloo and Marion police departments in Waterloo, in the 900 block of Linn Street, Wednesday. He is accused of fatally shooting Cameron Barnes, 32, at Cocktails and Company, 1625 Blairs Ferry Rd., Marion.
Along with the first-degree murder charge, Walker is also facing charges of possession of a firearm or offensive weapon by a felon and going armed with intent.
Police were called to the bar at 11:06 p.m. March 17 on a report of shots fired. Barnes was found injured and was taken to a hospital where he died.
According to reporting from the Associated Press one of the teenagers charged in the death of their Fairfield High School teacher will testify against the other defendant.
Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding said during a court hearing that Jeremy Goodale, 17, has agreed to testify against Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, 17, during Miller's upcoming trial.
Goodale and Miller are both charged with first-degree murder in the November 2021 death of 66-year-old Nohema Graber, their Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School. Her body was found in a Fairfield park in November 2021.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, March 28.
We'll have a good example of bipolar Iowa weather in the next few days. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 30 percent chance of snow before 8 a.m. Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area. Then it will eventually clear and settle in with a high near 39 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a high near 26 degrees.
In two days the weather is predicted to jump 30 degrees to a high in the 70s. So, yes, any snow that falls Wednesday will be melting.
One of the oldest universities west of the Mississippi and the second-oldest in the state — Iowa Wesleyan University — is closing 181 years after opening in 1842.
After spending the last six months scrounging for funds to continue operating, and coming up short, the 20-member board of trustees for the private liberal arts institution on Tuesday voted unanimously to close at the end of this academic year in May due to “a combination of financial challenges.”
Those challenges include increased operating costs “due to inflationary pressures”; enrollment trends; a “significant drop” in philanthropic giving; and Gov. Kim Reynolds’ denial "of a proposal for federal COVID funding.“
During a news conference Tuesday, Iowa Wesleyan President Christine Plunkett said her campus asked Reynolds for $12 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act — or ARPA — funds to help it transition to a sustainable enrollment level of 1,000 students.
In a statement Tuesday about the denial of funding, Reynolds said that the request for funding came in late, and it is her administration’s policy not to use federal funding for a potential ongoing expense.
When the university closes May 31, the United States Department of Agriculture will take ownership of the 60-acre physical campus due to an unpaid loan by Iowa Wesleyan.
A bill that would have required more voluntary landowner participation before eminent domain could be used to build a carbon capture pipeline will not be advanced ahead of an Iowa legislative deadline this week, a key state lawmaker said Tuesday.
The bill — House File 565 — would require 90 percent of impacted landowners to voluntarily allow a pipeline to be constructed on their land before the pipeline company could use eminent domain to force agreements with other impacted landowners. It will not advance in the Iowa Senate, said Iowa Sen. Michael Bousselot, a Republican from Ankeny to whom the legislation was assigned in the Senate.
Bousselot said Tuesday he has not scheduled a subcommittee hearing on the bill — the first step in the legislative process — because there is not sufficient time to get the bill passed out of the Senate’s committee on commerce before Friday’s funnel deadline.
The most likely result is that the proposed eminent domain requirements will not pass the Iowa Legislature in 2023.
Three pipeline companies are seeking permits to build carbon dioxide pipelines in the state: Navigator CO2 Ventures, Summit Carbon Solutions and Wolf Carbon Solutions.
Navigator and Summit, the largest projects, are seeking eminent domain authority from the Iowa Utilities Board. Wolf is proposing a smaller pipeline, covering just four Eastern Iowa counties, and has said it will not seek eminent domain authority.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, March 28.
It will be mostly cloudy and mostly uneventful for the weather on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service the day will start mostly cloudy Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area before the sky clears a bit. The high will come in near 50 degrees. The low will clock in around 28 degrees, with increasing clouds Tuesday night.
Authorities are seeking information about the illegal dumping of at least 25 coyote carcasses in Johnson County over the weekend.
Thirteen of the carcasses were found Saturday on Eagle Avenue just north of Rorhet Road SW, west of Iowa City.
Another group of at least 10 carcasses was found nearby on Ivy Avenue SW, north of 400th Street SW, according to a Johnson County Sheriff’s Office post on Facebook.
Iowa's wanton waste law requires that the usable portion of game or fur-bearing animals be removed from the field. Also, it is unlawful to dispose of carcasses in a road ditch.
Linn County will likely continue its pause on new utility-scale solar installations through June.
The Linn County Board of Supervisors discussed Monday whether to extend its moratorium on new large-scale solar projects as renewable energy review committees wrap up their work to study the county ordinance governing the solar projects. A final vote on the extension is slated for Wednesday.
The supervisors originally adopted the moratorium in October to last through Dec. 31, with the option to extend it up to three times through 2023 while the review is underway. They extended it previously through March.
The moratorium does not affect the already-approved solar projects near Palo and Coggon, which remain underway. But applications for new projects will not be taken until the pause is over.
The police and fire departments responded to Cedar Rapids City Hall Monday morning after receiving a report of a suspicious package at 7:47 a.m., according to a news release from the city.
City employees were evacuated while the Cedar Rapids Metro Hazardous Devices Unit investigated the item.
The Hazardous Devices Unit determined the contents of the package did not pose a threat, and Fire Chief Greg Smith issued an “all clear” for the building at about 9 a.m.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, March 27th.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 47 in the Cedar Rapids area today. Winds from the north around 5 mph. And tonight, mostly cloudy, with a low around 29.
The varsity show choir from Linn-Mar High School came home as the national grand champion after competing against the nation’s best show choirs in Nashville this weekend. The school’s 10th Street Edition varsity show choir won the Grand Champion award at the 2023 Show Choir Nationals at the Grand Ole Opry. The show choir also was recognized as having the best vocals, best choreography and best band.
Caitlin Clark recorded the first 30-point triple-double in NCAA women’s basketball tournament history, and took it even further than that. She collected 41 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, leading Iowa to the NCAA women’s basketball Final Four. It’s the first women's Final Four in 30 years. The third-ranked Hawkeyes whipped Louisville, 97-83, in the Seattle Region 4 final Sunday night at Climate Pledge Arena. Iowa will play South Carolina or Maryland on Friday.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26.
Our weekend weather looks cool and a bit wet. According to the National Weather Service, snow in the early morning should cease by 8 a.m. on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area. It will eventually become sunny, with a high near 49 degrees. On Sunday there will be a slight chance of snow early, but it will be sunny again with a high near 44 degrees.
Three years after Iowa sidestepped traditional competitive bidding to hire a cloud computing company with little state government experience, the state has ended its contract with Workday.
After delaying the project last year because of “implementation issues,” the Department of Management and Office of Chief Information Officer decided the Workday platform won’t meet the state’s needs, according to a news release Friday.
The state now has signed a contract with CGI — its former vendor — to take over upgrading the financial management platform to a cloud-based solution. The project will start April 1, with an estimated completion in March 2024.
The Governor’s Office did not immediately respond to a question about how much money already had been spent on the failed implementation. The news release also did not say how much CGI will be paid through the new contract.
Cedar Rapids schools interim Superintendent Art Sathoff is stepping down next Friday, and incoming Superintendent Tawana Grover will begin April 3 — three months early — pending board approval.
The Cedar Rapids school board is expected to accept Sathoff’s resignation Monday in a board meeting. In that same meeting, Grover will be named interim Superintendent effective April 3. She will drop the “interim” title and start as superintendent July 1, according to board documents.
Grover, 47, was named the next superintendent of the school district in January, becoming its first female Black leader.
Caitlin Clark spearheaded the Iowa Hawkeyes to a telling 13-0 third-quarter run, propelling third-ranked squad to an 87-77 NCAA women’s basketball regional-semifinal win over the Colorado Buffaloes on Friday at Climate Pledge Arena.
Iowa (28-6) advances to the Elite Eight for the fifth time in program history, the first since 2019. The Hawkeyes will face Louisville (26-11) — a 72-62 winner over Mississippi — in a regional final at 8 p.m. (CT) Sunday.
The victor advances to the Final Four next week in Dallas.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, March 24..
Friday will be mostly uneventful weather wise, with the possible exception of some rain and snow late Friday into Saturday. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny, with a high near 48 degrees. Overnight into Saturday there could be a chance of rain, and then snow, with a half inch of snow possible. Any snow won't last long, though, as the high temperatures Saturday onward look to be above 40 degrees.
Two teenagers were arrested Thursday in connection with the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Michael McCune in February in northwest Cedar Rapids.
Dante Irvin, 15, and Tramontez Lockett, 16, face charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit a forcible felony and going armed with intent. Lockett also is charged with aiding and abetting first-degree theft, according to a news release from Cedar Rapids police.
Lockett is being charged in adult court and will have his initial appearance Friday.
Irvin will be charged in juvenile court, but Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said prosecutors will ask to have his case waived into adult court.
Cedar Rapids police found McCune with several gunshot wounds at the Tan Tara Apartments, 1640 F Ave. NW, shortly after 11:30 a.m. Feb. 18. He died at the scene.
Iowa House Republicans are proposing spending $8.58 billion in the upcoming budget year, an increase of about 4.5 percent from the current year, House Speaker Pat Grassley said Thursday.
The proposal is about $90 million more than proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican Senate leaders.
Two bills already signed into law — adjusting an erroneous property tax formula and setting a 3 percent increase in state funding to K-12 schools — pushed the budget goal above Reynolds’ target, and Grassley said House Republicans want to spend another $50 million on other priorities.
The state revenue panel estimated in recent meetings that Iowa would bring in roughly $9.65 billion in the next budget year. By state law, lawmakers can’t spend more than 99 percent of that estimate.
Republicans have consistently spent less than that 99 percent in the past several years, and Grassley said the budget proposal reflects Republican goals of spending about 89 percent of projected revenue.
House Republicans also are working on a bill to reduce property taxes, but Grassley said any hit to the state budget from that bill would be covered by the taxpayer relief fund, which is expected to have a balance of about $2.7 billion next year.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, March 23.
Rain in the morning Thursday will gradually give way to mostly sunny skies. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for showers before 8 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area and some lighter right between then and noon. After that, it should clear up to be mostly sunny, with a high near 45 degrees. The low is predicted to be around 28 degrees. There looks to be a chance for some snow on Friday, but don't worry, it won't last long.
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday signed into law a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, as well as transgender bathroom restrictions for schools, that are almost certain to be challenged in court.
Reynolds signed Senate File 538, making Iowa one of a growing number of states to prohibit gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
The newly-signed law prohibits Iowa doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy to transgender children under the age of 18. It also prohibits any surgeries on minors intended to affirm a gender that does not match up with their sex at birth.
Minors who are receiving medical treatment now would have 180 days to discontinue that care.
The governor also signed Senate File 482 that prohibits transgender youth from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity.
The bills will likely be at least temporarily halted by a legal challenge. Similar bills in other states are being challenged in the courts.
A Cedar Rapids man set for trial next week pleaded to lesser charges Wednesday for fatally shooting his girlfriend and another man and injuring several others last April inside the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge.
Timothy L. Rush, 33, originally charged with two counts of second-degree murder, would have faced up to 100 years if convicted on those charges alone. Now, he will face only up to 30 years in prison.
Rush pleaded in writing Wednesday to two counts of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of reckless use of a firearm causing bodily injury, and one count each of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon.
According to the plea agreement, three charges will run concurrently to the other charges and all other charges run consecutively for a total of 30 years in prison.
A Cedar Rapids man who has worked as a substitute teacher in the Cedar Rapids Community School District was arrested Tuesday on charges that he groomed and sexually exploited a student while he was a teacher at Central DeWitt High School.
Cody David LaKose, 37, is charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor — cause to engage in act, and four counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee. He was released from jail Wednesday on a $10,000 bond.
The DeWitt Police Department opened a formal investigation into LaKose on March 2, 2022, after a former student reported that he had groomed her and had a sexual relationship with her while she was his student, according to a criminal complaint.
According to the complaint, LaKose and the reporting student had sexual relations in his office at the DeWitt high school while she was a student, in the spring 2017. He also messaged her on Twitter and texted her, talking about sexual things and asking for and receiving nude photos.
Between January 2019 and June 2020, LaKose worked as a substitute teacher in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, primarily at Franklin Middle School, according to Caitlin Wiedenheft, the district’s communications director. The district did not receive any complaints about him, Wiedenheft said.
LaKose’s LinkedIn account — which was deleted sometime Wednesday — indicated that he teaches at the Regina Catholic Education Center in Iowa City, having started in August 2020. The school did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, March 22.
It will be even warmer on Wednesday, and with that may come an overnight thunderstorm. But, before that, it will be cloudy with a scant chance of rain.
According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy, with a high near 56 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday. There may be some patchy fog before 8 a.m. After 10 a.m. there will be a 20 percent chance of rain. Rain won't get really likely until late Wednesday night into Thursday morning, when a thunderstorm will possibly also arrive.
At least 30 Iowa schools, including schools in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, received phone calls warning of school shootings Tuesday morning– calls the state public safety department quickly determined were fake.
There was no evidence of any active threats in the state, Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens said Tuesday morning during a news conference at the department’s offices in Des Moines.
Bayens said the calls appeared to be coming in staggered — rather than many at once, had similar messages, and the caller’s voice was similar, leading him to believe the calls were all being made by the same person. Baynes said the caller or callers appeared to be using sophisticated technology that makes it difficult for law enforcement to track the call’s origin. He said the technology throws off phone call tracing programs by pinging around to a variety of locations, including internationally.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday that banning gender-affirming care for Iowans under the age of 18 is “in the best interest of the kids,” and her heart goes out to the children.
Echoing arguments made by some Republican lawmakers during debate, Reynolds on Tuesday said she does not believe the science is settled on the long-term impacts of gender-affirming care.
Reynolds discussed the proposed gender-affirming ban, which needs only her signature to become state law, and other topics during a news conference Tuesday at the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
It was Reynolds’ first formal news conference in eight months.
Reynolds scheduled the news conference, along with the state public safety department, to discuss a new state program for Iowans to anonymously report concerns about potential threat of school violence. She then fielded a handful of questions on other topics.
Moody’s Investors Service again has downgraded Mercy Iowa City Hospital’s credit rating following what it calls “severe cash flow deterioration, from historically weak levels, which has resulted in material and rapid cash burn” for the hospital.
Of Moody’s 21 long-term rating categories Mercy has been downgraded three spots from B1 to Caa1, putting it just four ranks from the lowest rank of C, according to a Moody’s report released last Thursday.
In alerting employees to the Moody’s downgrade last week, Mercy Iowa City Acting President and CEO Mike Trachta in an email said the change was based on “past financial performance.”
“While this decision is disappointing, our focus must remain on providing high-quality care and improving business operations,” Trachta wrote. “Our patients, their families and community need the type of medical care only provided at a community hospital like Mercy Iowa City.”
Moody’s is esteemed internationally for its credit ratings, risk analyses and bond research. A negative credit rating indicates that a debt an institution has is rated as being risky. As a result, a bad rating may make securing future funding more difficult, among other challenges.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, March 21.
Most of Tuesday should be cloudy, but on Tuesday night heading into Wednesday the chances for rain should pick up. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area for much of the day on Tuesday, with a high of 51 degrees. After 2 p.m. there will be a 30 percent chance of rain, while Tuesday night the chance will creep up to 50 percent. The low is expected to be near 40 degrees.
A prisoner and three staff members at the Anamosa State Penitentiary were taken to the hospital Saturday night after being exposed to an “unknown substance” at the prison.
At about 11:30 p.m., security and medical staff responded to a medical emergency in one of the prison’s living units and found a prisoner unresponsive in his cell, according to a news release from the Iowa Department of Corrections.
“Although staff did not observe any obvious substances when they entered the cell, the inmate appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance,” the Corrections Department reported.
They transported the prisoner to a hospital, where his condition stabilized. The Corrections Department has since returned him to Anamosa.
Three staff who responded to the emergency and “were also exposed to the unknown substance” became ill and were seen by the on-site medical team.
Staff administered Narcan, a drug that reverses a drug overdose by blocking the effects of opioids, to the prisoner and the staff members as a precautionary measure.
The Corrections Department restricted movement at the prison Monday and prohibited visitors to allow a “large-scale search of the prison for illegal contraband” after two other incarcerated men were found unresponsive in their cells Sunday morning in, what the agency believes, is an unrelated incident.
Iowa House Democrats called for strong protections for abortion rights Monday, unveiling proposed legislation that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and expand family planning resources.
In the bills they say they plan to: Amend Iowa’s Constitution to guarantee the right to an abortion and other reproductive health care, allow people to access birth control pills and some other forms of contraceptive without a prescription, extend Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months, and restore family planning programs under Medicaid.
The effort, which comes after a deadline for most proposed bills to be passed out of a legislative committee, is unlikely to advance in the Republican-controlled Iowa House and Senate, but it’s one of a few key pieces of legislation House Democrats have announced this year to draw contrast with the majority party.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, March 20th.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be partly sunny today in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 50. Winds from the southwest, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 36.
For the fourth time since 2015, Iowa is in the NCAA women’s basketball Sweet 16. Caitlin Clark posted 22 points and 12 rebounds, and had a hand in 33 of Iowa’s 35 second-half points. Iowa fought past Georgia, 74-66, in a second-round game before a sellout crowd Sunday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa advances to face No. 13 Duke or No. 21 Colorado in a regional semifinal Friday at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
The remains of a 19-year-old sailor, who died aboard the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor, are being returned to his hometown of Monticello for burial Saturday. Seaman 1st Class Donald A. Stott joined the Navy at age 17 after his dad agreed and signed the enlistment papers. He had been aboard the Oklahoma for a year and a day when Japanese planes and submarines attacked the harbor in Hawaii on a Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941. The Oklahoma capsized, and Stott and 428 of his shipmates died. The “day of infamy” attack killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including 68 civilians, and destroyed or damaged 19 Navy ships, including eight battleships.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, March 18 and Sunday, March 19.
If Saturday will be the cold snap, Sunday will be the gentle thaw.
According to the National Weather Service it will be a tad frigid today in the Cedar Rapids area with a high of 26 degrees, and wind chill values at -10 degrees.It will remain breezy, with wind gusts up to 30 mph, and there will be chances of snow flurries from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Sunday it is predicted to be sunny, with a high of 39 degrees. The wind will slightly lessen, dropping to 25 mph gusts
The week ahead is predicted to typically feature highs in the 50s and 60s, with the possibility of rain almost every day.
There was more good news for a major microchip expansion project in Cedar Rapids.
Collins Aerospace — the city’s largest employer — was awarded $1.85 million in state financial incentives toward its proposed $22 million expansion of its northeast Cedar Rapids campus to begin the production of microchips.
The Iowa Economic Development Authority board on Friday approved the incentives toward the project for Collins, a division of Raytheon Technologies, to renovate an existing building on its campus between Collins Road and Blairs Ferry Road NE.
This award supplements the local match the Cedar Rapids City Council approved on Tuesday of just over $1 million in tax incentives.
The company will use the building to develop and manufacture microelectronic — microchip — technologies for Collins Aerospace communications products, with production expected to grow.
In sports, Purdue was at the center of two major upsets on Friday evening, with Iowa’s Spencer Lee serving as the unlikely victim in the second.
In arguably the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history, the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights, the shortest team in the tournament, stunned top-seeded and very tall Purdue 63-58 on Friday night, becoming only the second No. 16 seed to win a game in March Madness. The Boilermakers were sad to learn that having a player a foot taller than everyone else does not help if the other 4 players are unable to shoot, pass, or handle the ball.
Meanwhile, Iowa’s Lee was upset by No. 4 ranked Matt Ramos of Purdue Friday night. Ramos secured a pin in the last second of the match to beat the almost undefeatable Lee, who had recovered from a serious knee injury before searching for his 4th National Title.
Lee was seeking to become the first Iowa wrestler to win four national championships, a feat only completed by 6 collegiate wrestlers.
Iowa’s wrestlers still rank No. 2 in the nation in points, with more wrestling to go this weekend.
With Iowa State and Drake also falling in men’s basketball Friday, the chance for March glory is on the shoulders of the women.
Iowa advanced easily over its first round opponent, Southeastern Louisiana, 95 - 43. They play 10 seeded Georgia on Saturday. Drake and Iowa State also play Saturday, matching up against Louisville and Toledo, respectively.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, March 17.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day. I hope your luck today is better than Iowa’s in the NCAA tournament.
Friday is going to be the start of three days where it feels like winter again; but don't worry, it'll get warm again right after.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy through mid morning in the Cedar Rapids area and then gradually clear to let the sun through, with a high near 32 degrees. The breeziness will remain from Thursday, with a wind of 20 to 25 mph gusting as high as 40 mph. Friday night will be chilly, with a low of 11 degrees combining with high winds to drop the wind chill value to -5 degrees.
Legislation that would prohibit transgender youth from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity is headed to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds for her signature.
The Iowa House voted 57-39, with five Republicans joining Democrats in opposition, to pass Senate File 482.
The legislation requires public schools to maintain separate bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, dressing areas and overnight accommodations for biological boys and biological girls.
Students wishing for greater privacy would need parental permission to request use of alternative facilities, such as a single-occupancy or faculty bathroom or locker room. Schools would be required to evaluate such requests and, “to the extent reasonable, offer options for alternative facilities.”
The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics this week stopped requiring patients and health care providers to wear masks.
The announcement came just a few days short of the third anniversary of the first COVID-19 hospitalization at UIHC on March 11, 2020.
Face masks now are optional in all UIHC facilities, including Iowa River Landing and QuickCare clinics, except for people who have symptoms of a respiratory virus or unvaccinated employees.
Face masks still will be required in places like the operating room or when patients are at risk of infection — which are pre-pandemic standards.
The decision to stop requiring masks as of March 8 reflects the decrease in COVID-19 cases and other respiratory illnesses in the community, the UI reported. Vaccination and natural immunity from prior infection also have blunted the severity of the disease for many people.
The city of Iowa City is planning to install 13 cameras throughout the Pedestrian Mall this summer, which the city says will help law enforcement by giving them access to footage when they are investigating incidents in the area.
The new cameras will capture more than is currently available and will be the first city-owned cameras in the downtown Pedestrian Mall, city staff told The Gazette. The estimated project cost is $95,000.
City officials told the Gazette the cameras were not prompted by any recent incidents in particular, but are part of a desire to have a wider range of camera coverage to help police.
Recent incidents on the Ped Mall include shots fired in 2021 and again in January this year. There have also been thefts reported, including a Christmas sleigh that was taken in November, and an inflatable rabbit that was part of an art exhibit was taken in February — both of which were ultimately returned.
Counties and cities are preparing to send out property assessments to homeowners in the coming weeks, and The Gazette wants to speak with residents who have gotten their assessment and would like to share more information. Did you experience a high increase in your home's assessed value? Are you planning to contest your assessment?
If you’re interested in speaking with a reporter, contact us at podcasts@thegazette.com and we’ll put you in touch with the reporters working on the stories in Linn and Johnson Counties.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, March 16.
Don't forget your umbrella Thursday, although you might want to hang onto it tight. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 90 percent chance of rain in the Cedar Rapids area, with the highest probability of rainfall being between noon and 10pm It will also be windy, with gusts as high as 30 mph during the day, and up to 45 mph during the evening. The high temperature will be 45 degrees, with a low around 20 degrees. The main good news is more snow is being deemed unlikely this go around
Birth control pills, contraceptive patches and vaginal rings would be available to Iowans from a pharmacist without a prescription under legislation approved Wednesday by the Iowa Senate — including by Republican lawmakers who previously rejected the proposal.
If it becomes law, Iowa would join 17 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing the dispensing of birth control without a prescription, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that researches and advocates on women’s reproductive health care policies.
The proposal covers only birth control, not drugs designed to induce an abortion.
Iowa Sen. Jeff Edler, a Republican from State Center who has been overseeing the bill, said during debate that the entire bill “continues to expand the access of health care to Iowans.” After debate, he declined a request to comment on the amendment that added birth control.
Senate Democrats were pleased to see and support the amendment.
House Republicans are scheduled Monday morning to hold a legislative hearing on their version of Gov Kim Reynolds’ maternal health care bill, House File 427, which still includes the birth control provision that the senate initially removed.
According to reporting from the Quad-City Times, federal approval has been secured for a train merger that is expected to deliver considerably more train traffic to several cities in Eastern Iowa.
The Surface Transportation Board, a federal regulatory authority, announced its decision Wednesday, clearing the way for the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern to create the first single-line freight rail network connecting Mexico, the United States and Canada.
This is the first major rail merger in 25 years, Chairman Martin Oberman said in a news conference Wednesday. The board determined combined rail lines would bring economic and environmental benefits to the country, which outweighed what he billed as minor local concerns.
The merger is expected to divert more than 64,000 truckloads from the roads to rail each year because of increased efficiencies of the single-line railway, which means train traffic is expected to gradually increase over several years along the route.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, March 15.
It'll be warm and breezy on Wednesday, almost enough to make you think Spring is coming soon. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 54 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Clouds will increase throughout the day, with wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Wednesday night the wind will die down just slightly, and the low temperature will come in around 44 degrees.
Collins Aerospace is pursuing a $22 million expansion of its northeast Cedar Rapids campus to begin the production of microchips.
The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday awarded $1.05 million in financial incentives to support the project for Collins, a division of Raytheon Technologies, to renovate an existing building on its campus between Collins Road and Blairs Ferry Road NE.
The company will use the building to develop and manufacture microchip technologies for Collins Aerospace communications products, with production expected to grow.
To receive the financial incentives from the city, the company must retain 25 existing employees and create no fewer than 16 additional full-time employees. The at least 41 employees have to be paid at or above the high-quality jobs wage threshold of $25.20 an hour.
A roughly 1,600-page government reorganization bill filed by Gov. Kim Reynolds could be headed to her desk for her signature by the end of the week — without significant amendment.
The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday passed House File 662, a companion to Senate File 514, on a largely party-line vote, with Republicans in favor.
Among other provisions, the bill would shrink the number of Cabinet-level state agencies from 37 to 16 and create more agency leaders who are appointed by the governor and subject to Iowa Senate confirmation, rather than being elected by state boards or commissions.
Democrats called the bill a “power grab” by the governor, arguing the bill will reduce government oversight and hurt the quality of government services for some Iowans.
Reynolds has said she's not trying to accumulate power, and that the move is intended to reduce the size and cost of government and to increase efficiency.
All diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Iowa’s public universities will undergo a “comprehensive” review, and no new DEI programs will be allowed to start during the review, the state board that governs the three schools announced Tuesday.
Iowa Board of Regents President Michael Richards issued the statement Tuesday as Republican state lawmakers are proposing legislation that would prohibit Iowa’s public universities from funding workers for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The proposal being considered in the Iowa Legislature would prohibit Iowa’s public universities from funding DEI staff positions, and would allow students, staff or alumni to take legal action over a violation.
Conservatives in Iowa — and across the country — have decried DEI programs as the teaching of liberal ideology to college students.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, March 14.
We'll get a bit more of the extra sun portion of daylight saving time on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service it is predicted to be sunny, with a high near 37 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Tuesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 28 degrees.
Former President Donald Trump touted trade policies he argues have been a boon for America’s farmers, and attacked Democratic President Joe Biden for a “non-stop war on American agriculture” in a speech Monday in Iowa.
Trump, 76, stopped at the Adler Theatre in Davenport where he delivered what was billed as an education policy speech in his first visit to the Hawkeye state since announcing his third bid for the presidency in November. Instead, Trump touched more broadly on his accomplishments as president, including trade policies and agriculture, in the first half of his speech.
He criticized the Biden administration over the new Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule that will expand protections for the nation's waters through updates to the Clean Water Act. Trump advanced long-held Republican arguments that the regulations are an environmental overreach and a burden to business.
Trump, too, touted his support of ethanol, telling the crowd they’re “still seeing the benefits” of his trade and agriculture policies, “but it’s slowly slipping away” under the Biden administration
Trump also criticized his rivals, comparing conservative darling Ron DeSantis to Mitt Romney, and made many bold claims, such as saying that he is the only candidate who can promise to prevent World War 3.
A Cedar Rapids man was charged Monday with voluntary manslaughter in the Oct. 23 fatal shooting outside an Iowa City bar.
19-year-old Antonio Steven Scotton,also faces a charge of intimidation with a dangerous weapon in the shooting death of Waymond Thomas, 36, of Iowa City.
Thomas was shot outside the H-Bar, 220 S. Van Buren St., around 2 a.m. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Scotton was arrested in November and charged with willful injury and participating in a riot in connection with a large fight inside the bar about 10 minutes before the shooting. Witnesses identified Scotton as the man who punched and kicked a woman who’d fallen and was knocked unconscious, a criminal complaint said.
The new charges allege Scotton and another person were walking away from the H-Bar when Thomas and a friend confronted them about the earlier assault, according to the new criminal complaint. Thomas punched Scotton, and a fight broke out between the four individuals.
During the fight, Thomas’ friend dropped a gun. Scotton picked it up and began firing.
As a result of the shooting and other incidents at the bar, Iowa City filed a nuisance abatement petition against the H-Bar in an effort to restrict its hours. The city and the bar’s owners eventually reached an agreement that it set its closing time at 2 a.m.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, March 13th.
According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have a chance of flurries between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Cloudy, with a high near 32. Winds from the northwest around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. And tonight, mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 16.
A Cedar Rapids woman was killed Friday night in a triple-fatal head-on crash on Interstate 80 in Scott County, according to an Iowa State Patrol accident report. Brina Anderson-Yoder, 23, of Cedar Rapids, was a passenger who died in the crash. At 11:15 p.m., a Volkswagen and a Chevrolet collided head-on in the inside lane of eastbound I-80 at mile marker 284, but the direction of travel for each vehicle had not yet been determined in the ongoing investigation. The driver of the Volkswagen, 46-year-old Tameka Paney of Rock Island, was killed in the crash. The Chevy driver, 29-year-old Andrea Smith of Davenport, survived the collision. Jessica Carr, 34, of Fresno, Calif., also was killed in the crash. It was unclear from the report which vehicle or vehicles Anderson-Yoder and Carr were in.
For the second straight year, Iowa women are a No. 2 seed in the NCAA basketball tournament. The Hawkeyes drew the “deuce” in the Seattle 4 Region. Iowa, the Big Ten tournament champion, will face 15-seed Southeastern Louisiana in the first round at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Friday.
No. 8 seed Iowa men take on No. 9 Auburn in Birmingham, Ala., this Thursday in the Midwest Region first round of the NCAA tournament. Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl was an Iowa assistant coach under Tom Davis from 1986 to 1992. Pearl has 648 wins as a head coach.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Journey” by Emily McGlothlen
Two Linn-Mar Community School District buses were involved in a collision Thursday just after 1pm. The accident took place at the intersection of Brentwood Drive and C Avenue in northeast Cedar Rapids. A news release from Cedar Rapids Police Department said three students sustained minor injuries and were taken to local hospitals for care.
University of Iowa Athletics will reimburse the state of Iowa $2 million for the settlement of a 2020 football discrimination lawsuit. UI President Barbara Wilson has not responded to questions about UI Athletic Director Gary Barta’s employment. The $4.2 million settlement was announced earlier this week. In a statement, UI head football coach Kirk Ferentz said he was disappointed in the decision to settle. Ferentz said, quote, “In fact, the parties originally named disagree with the decision to settle, fully believing that the case would have been dismissed with prejudice before trial.” For more details on the settlement, look for Vanessa Miller’s article at thegazette.com.
Eastern Iowa’s traditional Irish band Coppers & Brass will play its final concert on St. Patrick’s Day at The James Theater in Iowa City. The performance will also feature Champagne Academy of Irish Dance, harp duo Wandering Wild, poet David Hulm among others. The show starts at 7:30 the evening of March 17.
Finally, a look at today’s weather. Today will be cloudy. Temperatures will reach a high of 37 and low of 26. Looking ahead to the weekend, Saturday will reach a high of 35. Expect snow. Sunday will maintain the status quo with a high of 33.
Thank you for listening. For the latest news around Eastern Iowa pick up a copy of The Gazette on newstands now or visit thegazette.com. For The Gazette, I’m Bailey Cichon.
The Gazette Daily News podcast is your go-to daily source of bite-sized news and weather. You can even listen from your Amazon Alexa device by telling it to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill,” then saying “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”
Cedar Rapids’ investment in flood control may be larger than expected. Why? Inflation and spikes in construction costs. The city’s plan to install flood gates, levees and pump stations is estimated to cost $750 million over 20 years. Now, the city will reassess that cost in light of the current inflation rate. Despite rising costs, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said the city remains “deeply committed” to the project. For a closer look, read Marissa Payne’s article at thegazette.com.
Next, Swisher Special Election results: Swisher voters decided not to establish a public water system. 84.2% of voters decided to continue to source water from private wells and the seven current public water systems. Swisher’s Jefferson-Monroe Fire Department is the only fire department in Johnson County without a public water system. Swisher Mayor Chris Taylor previously told The Gazette that issues that prompted the special election, like improving fire response and addressing contaminated water still need solutions. For more details, read Izabela Zaluska’s article at thegazette.com.
Grab a beer to support homeless services in Cedar Rapids! Willis Dady Homeless Services will host their annual Hops for Housing event May 6. The event is at the Veterans Memorial Building from 2:30-5:30. The event features regional brewers who will offer over 100 craft brews. Tickets purchased in advance from the Johnson Avenue Hy-Vee will give exclusive access to a VIP hour with brewers, sponsors, and Willis Dady staff and board members. General admission is $35. For more event details, read Marissa Payne’s story at thegazette.com.
Finally, a look at the weather. Thursday expect three to five inches of snow with a high of 36 and low of 26.
Thank you for listening. For the latest news around Eastern Iowa pick up a copy of The Gazette on newstands now or visit thegazette.com. For The Gazette, I’m Bailey Cichon.
The Gazette Daily News podcast is your go-to daily source of bite-sized news and weather. You can even listen from your Amazon Alexa device by telling it to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill,” then saying “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”
You’re listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Bailey Cichon filling in for the regular host, Stephen Schmidt.
First, drip coffee lovers and home brewing fans, listen up. A new cafe is opening in Mount Vernon this summer. In addition to serving coffee, teas and espresso drinks, Little Scratch Coffee Roasters will sell beans for home brewers and host coffee education workshops. Owners Katrina and Joel Anderson have been in the roasting and coffee distribution business for seven years. Their new venture at 113 First St. E in Mount Vernon plans to open to the public by May 6. Coffee bean pickups are currently available by appointment.
The Iowa Senate unanimously passed a bill Monday that will give Iowans more control of their online personal data. The bill is Senate File 262. Briefly, the bill would require companies that control Iowans’ personal data to notify users of data collection, provide the collection upon request, share what the data is used for and whether it is shared with third parties. Additionally, Iowans would be able to delete the collected data. If passed, the requirements would take effect in 2025. For a closer look at Senate File 262, read Caleb McCullough’s article at thegazette.com.
Next, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation is pledging $1 million to Iowa FFA for agriculture education. This will help FFA address Iowa’s dwindling population of agriculture educators. Since 2015, Iowa has lost 204 ag educators to retirement or other career opportunities. Iowa FFA will use this money to attract and retain talent. For details on that initiative, read Grace King’s article at thegazette.com.
Finally, a look at today’s weather. Expect a high near 46 and a low around 34 tonight. Today will be cloudy and windy. Tonight there’s a 20% chance of precipitation. Whether that is snow or rain is still in the air.
Thank you for listening. For the latest news around Eastern Iowa pick up a copy of The Gazette on newstands now or visit thegazette.com. For The Gazette, I’m Bailey Cichon
The University of Iowa and Board of Regents will settle a lawsuit that claims the Hawkeye football program and its coaches further a culture of racism and harassment. In 2020, seven former players accused the program and its coaches of discriminating against players, using derogatory terms and creating a racially-hostile environment. Now, the UI and Board of Regents have agreed to pay $4.175 million to settle the lawsuit. According to the proposed settlement, the state would pay $2 million of that from its general fund. State Auditor Rob Sand opposes spending that state money “unless (UI Athletics Director) Gary Barta is no longer employed at the university and forfeits any severance or similar pay.” Sand said this is the fourth discrimination case against the UI Athletics Department in under nine years which resulted in nearly $11 million in settlements under Barta. The Gazette’s Vanessa Miller broke down the settlement payments and recent developments. Find Miller’s article at thegazette.com.
In other news, Big Grove Brewery has awarded $32,000 in grants to four Iowa nonprofits. Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Iowa, Central Iowa Shelter Services, the Free Lunch Program of Iowa City and Iowa City Coralville Boxing Club will be awarded $8,000 each. Big Grove Brewery’s Director of Communications Janelle Buxton said, “We know $8,000 isn’t much to some, but to others, it could make or break their operating budgets for the year. Whatever we do, we want to make a significant contribution to their project or program.” Because Big Grove’s next location is under construction in Cedar Rapids, Linn County nonprofits will be eligible for grants in the next cycle. For more information, read Elijah Decious’s story at thegazette.com.
Finally, a look at today’s weather. Expect partly sunny skies with a high near 47 and a low of 32. Winter weather may return to Cedar Rapids as there’s a 20% chance of snow after midnight. Winds will reach as high as 30mph.
Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Bailey Cichon.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, March 6th.
According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have patchy fog before 10 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 50. Breezy, with a northwest wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Then tonight, mostly cloudy, with a low around 31 - and blustery.
Several hundred people crowded the west steps of the Iowa State Capitol to protest LGBTQ-related bills lawmakers are considering this year. Democratic lawmakers, teachers, LGBTQ organizers and students who spoke at the rally said the bills being advanced by the state’s Republican majority contradict the notions of freedom and liberty the Republican Party champions in other areas. Lawmakers have advanced bills out of committees this year banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, prohibiting instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in early grades, requiring school employees to notify parents if they believe a child is transgender, and requiring students to use only bathrooms that align with their biological sex. Republicans supporting the bills said they are a reaction to concerns brought by constituents and parents, and they give parents more input in their child’s education.
In Iowa women’s basketball, Caitlin Clark had 30 points, 17 assists and 10 rebounds in her 10th career triple-double for the Iowa Hawkeyes, who built a 37-point halftime lead and beat Ohio State 105-72 on Sunday to win the Big Ten Tournament for the second straight year. Clark was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
Trial reset for one Fairfield teen accused of killing Spanish teacher
Yesterday, a judge agreed to reset the first-degree murder trial for one of the two Fairfield teens accused of killing their Spanish teacher in 2021.
Christine Branstad, the lawyer for Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, now 17, asked that the March 20 trial be continued and the prosecution agreed to the new date of April 21, according to court documents. The new date will allow both sides to address pretrial issues and “allow for a more efficient trial,” Branstad said in her motion.
Eighth Judicial District Judge Shawn Showers ruled jury selection will begin April 21 and testimony will start April 24 in Pottawattamie County District Court in Council Bluffs. The trial was moved from Jefferson County because of pretrial publicity.
Mercy Iowa City retained ‘performance improvement’ consultant
Mercy Iowa City Hospital in recent months had to retain a “strategic and operational performance improvement” consultant after breaching debt coverage obligations, according to a disclosure the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board posted Tuesday.
The 194-bed Iowa City hospital — one of 23 affiliated with the MercyOne network — retained Insight Health Partners to meet a “consultant requirement” because “income available for debt services of the obligated group is less than 110 percent of the maximum annual debt service requirement.”
Mercy Iowa City officials told The Gazette on Wednesday the hospital engaged Insight Health over the summer “to help Mercy Iowa City complete an assessment of financial and strategic operations, and their work was completed months ago.”
Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis planning trips to Iowa this month
The top two leading contenders in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination are headed to Iowa.
Former President Donald Trump will stop in Davenport March 13, a first foray to the leadoff caucus state since announcing his 2024 White House campaign.
Trump will deliver remarks on his “America First” education policy at the Adler Theater.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is flirting with an expected 2024 White House bid, will make his Iowa debut with a pair of events March 10.
DeSantis will be joined by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who will host a discussion with him in both Des Moines and Davenport, an aide familiar with event details confirmed.
Republican bill would ban DEI spending at Iowa universities
Republican lawmakers Wednesday initiated efforts to dismantle what they called “bureaucracies existing at our regent institutions” focused on diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory by advancing a bill barring Iowa’s public universities from spending money on those offices, employees and programming.
“For too long, the DEI bureaucracies at our institutions of higher education have been used to impose ideological conformity and promote far left political activism … all while spending literally millions in the process,”
Representatives for the Board of Regents spoke against the bill, spelling out potential unintended consequences — like the inability to comply with both the state bill and federal research contracts, putting hundreds of millions of dollars at risk.
“An example of this would be the accreditor for the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa,” Chief Academic Officer Rachel Boon said. “This accreditor has a requirement that there be in place effective policies and practices to address equity and inclusion sorts of goals.”
Lawmakers amended the bill to protect the universities’ federal contracts
Arrest made in 2007 Cedar Rapids cold case murder
A 42-year-old Cedar Rapids man, Curtis Padgett, was arrested Wednesday on a first-degree murder charge in a 2007 cold case. He is accused of fatally stabbing and beating Dennis Lee First, 64, who lived in his southwest side apartment complex.
First’s death was investigated as a homicide, but no arrests were made at the time, Cedar Rapids Police said in a news release. Investigators continued to work on the case, evaluating new leads and evidence over the last 15 years.
Police don’t say what led to Padgett’s arrest — whether it was further DNA testing or something else — and the complaint doesn’t provide that information.
Padgett will be formally charged Thursday during an initial appearance in Linn County District Court.
Iowa has second-highest cancer rate; only state with cancer cases rising
Fifty years after Iowa began collecting and analyzing data on residents diagnosed with cancer through its Iowa Cancer Registry, statistics reveal Iowa has the second-highest cancer incidence rate in the nation and is the only state with a rising rate of cancer.
“We’ve really been trying to dig into that because it just seems so unbelievable that here in Iowa we would have the second-highest rate of new cancer cases around the country,” University of Iowa associate professor of epidemiology Mary Charlton, who directs the Iowa Cancer Registry, told reporters Tuesday.
Kentucky has the highest cancer rate, lining up with its high smoking rate, Charlton said.
“We don't have as high a smoking rate, we don't have as high a lung cancer rate,” she said. “But what we do have is a relatively high rate of just about every major cancer type across the board.”
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, March 1.
The first day of March will feel like spring is coming soon, but we'll see what happens. According to the National Weather Service the day will start mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area, before becoming gradually sunnier. The high is predicted to be near 53 degrees with a low of around 30 degrees. It could be a bit breezy, with the wind increasing during the day, but wind gusts will not exceed 25 mph.
Two women were found dead Tuesday morning after deputies responded to reports of a shooting at a home on Jordans Grove Road, west of Springville, according to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies were called at 9:28 a.m. to the house at 2561 Jordans Grove Rd., where they found two adult women dead from gunshot wounds. A witness was interviewed at the scene, and the Sheriffs Office said “there is no danger to the public.”
The Sheriff’s Office did not say what led to the shooting and did not announce that any arrests had been made in relation to it.
The names of the deceased have not been released yet, pending notification of family. Both bodies have been transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny for autopsies.
Fifty years after Iowa began collecting and analyzing data on residents diagnosed with cancer through its Iowa Cancer Registry, statistics reveal Iowa has the second-highest cancer incidence rate in the nation and is the only state with a rising rate of cancer.
Kentucky has the highest cancer rate, lining up with its high smoking rate, while Iowa has a high rate of just about every major cancer type across the board.
As the Iowa Cancer Registry celebrates its 50th anniversary, the 2023 report notes the spike in cases is tied, in part, to Iowa’s aging population, “as advancing age is the leading risk factor for cancer.”
The rise in cases also ties to Iowa’s larger population — growing from 2.9 million in 1973 to 3.2 this year — and the improvement and corresponding increase in cancer detection among Iowans.The study also notes body mass index, inadequate physical activity, binge drinking and smoking as risk factors.
The former Hawkeye football players who in 2020 sued the University of Iowa athletics operation for racial discrimination and harassment have dropped their claims against head coach Kirk Ferentz, offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, Athletic Director Gary Barta and former strength coach Chris Doyle.
Those dismissals leave the university and the state Board of Regents as the only defendants in the federal case, which last week also dropped claims against linebackers coach Seth Wallace.
The case had been set for a jury trial in May 2023, but a U.S. District Court judge earlier this month postponed a pretrial conference and trial until further notice “in light of pending motions in this case.”
The former players — Akrum Wadley, Jonathan Parker, Marcel Joly, Aaron Mends, Darian Cooper, Brandon Simon, Javon Foy and several others later removed from the lawsuit — sued the Hawkeye football program and its coaches in November 2020 following outcry from former players on social media and years of internal and external investigations into accusations of discrimination.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, February 16.
Snow returns Thursday. According to the National Weather Service there will be patch blowing snow starting mainly from before you wake up in the morning through 4 p.m. Three to seven inches of snowfall is the current predicted total. The high is predicted at 28 degrees, with a low of 6.
In a precursor to a potential run for the White House, former Vice President Mike Pence took aim Wednesday at the Linn-Mar Community School District and its transgender-affirming policies during a rally in the early GOP nominating state.
“No one should have a greater role over what our children are learning or the values they're being taught than their parents,” Pence said to a room full of parents and supporters at a Pizza Ranch in Cedar Rapids.
The Linn-Mar policies, adopted last year but largely in place at many other school districts as well, spell out inclusive practices for transgender students, including giving them access to restrooms, locker rooms or changing areas that correspond with their chosen gender identity. Students in the seventh grade or above could request a “gender support plan” that calls for teachers and peers to address the student by a new name and new pronouns. The policy leaves it up to the students whether to notify parents.
Pence said “average Americans have been dragged into a left-wing culture war” that has “invaded our schools, our colleges and our workplaces.”
Pence did not say whether he will launch a 2024 White House run against his former running mate, former President Donald Trump, who already announced his campaign. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who formally launched her presidential bid Wednesday, is scheduled to campaign in Urbandale and Marion early next week.
Compounding the escalating costs associated with the University of Iowa’s construction of its 14-story Stead Family Children’s Hospital, campus officials are asking permission to spend $45 million replacing damaged windows on nine floors — tripling the $15 million they originally planned to spend replacing cracked or delaminated windows on two floors.
If the Board of Regents next week approves the higher cost, UI plans to start replacing windows this spring — nearly four years after first discovering problems with windows on floors four and five in July 2019, just two years after the hospital opened in 2017.
In UIHC’s request for board approval to spend three times the planned amount, officials explained the problem is more widespread than surmised and the hospital is "experiencing systemic issues with the windows failing to perform consistent with the agreed upon specifications.”
Iowa lawmakers once again are moving forward with a bill that would restrict the ability of cities like Cedar Rapids to use traffic enforcement cameras along interstates, state highways and county roadways.
A three-member House Public Safety subcommittee this week advanced legislation, House File 173, that would prohibit municipalities from placing or using automated traffic enforcement systems along state and county roads within the city’s boundaries, including state highways and interstates.
Placement and use of such devices by cities would be restricted to city streets. However, the bill does not prohibit the Iowa Department of Transportation from placing and using the devices on primary roads, or a county from placing and using cameras on secondary roads. The bill also limits the civil penalty for a traffic citation captured by the traffic enforcement cameras.
This has been a hot button issue for years. In 2018, the cities of Des Moines, Muscatine and Cedar Rapids successfully challenged rules established by the Iowa DOT that prohibited cities from placing the systems on highways and interstates.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, February 15.
We'll get a break from precipitation on Wednesday, but it will be windy and cold. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with the temperature dropping to around 30 degrees by 5 p.m. Wind of 10 to 20 mph could gust as high as 30 mph. On Wednesday night it will be cloudy, with a low near 23 degrees. Enjoy the view of grass, because a bunch of snow is predicted to come overnight into Thursday.
Nearly 55 years after a private firm built the Mayflower Apartment Community overlooking the Iowa River, marketed to students as a “luxury” dorm — and 40 years after the University of Iowa bought the eight-story building outright — the UI is planning to sell its Mayflower Residence Hall.
With those sale proceeds — plus any borrowing they need to do — UI administrators want to build a $40 to $60 million residence hall for returning students. Currently, most UI residence hall space is prioritized for freshmen.
The master plan indicates a new returning-student hall could hold between 250 and 400 beds — making it similar in size to Stanley Hall, housing 354 students, or Daum Hall, housing 344 students. The plan aims to build the new hall on UI-owned land also on the east side of campus.
Mayflower Hall was built in the 1960s in place of what started in 1851 as the Walter Terrell Mansion, home of the entrepreneur who built a dam and grain mill on the Iowa River. The mansion in the 1930s or 1940s became the Mayflower Inn, featuring the Mayflower Night Club, before it was demolished and replaced with apartments.
Cuts that Kirkwood Community College announced Monday resulted in 28 layoffs, some occurring across programs the campus is eliminating or changing because of low enrollment.
Both full-time and part-time employees were laid off in two programs the college is closing: Dental Technology and the Energy Production and Distribution program.
Kirkwood announced plans Monday to close those for-credit programs following an internal review of its operations, which officials said wasn’t documented in a report.
By laying off 28 the employees and closing the associated programs, Kirkwood anticipates saving about $1.5 million a year.
Iowa Homeland Security will pay more than $600,000 to replace firefighting clothing and equipment damaged in a Dec. 8, 2022, explosion and fire in Marengo after the company whose plant exploded refused to pay.
The decision will allow more than 20 agencies that responded to the blaze to replace gear ruined by diesel fuel and a mysterious solvent stored at the plant operated by C6-Zero. Without the cash infusion from the state, some departments would be fighting fires with older, uncertified gear, said Josh Humphrey, Iowa County Emergency Management Agency coordinator.
The explosion injured a dozen employees, caused an evacuation of nearby houses and polluted soil and water because of chemicals stored at the site, where C6-Zero was attempting to dissolve used shingles into oil, sand and fiberglass.
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, February 4, and Sunday, February 5.
The warmer weather will arrive this weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be increasingly cloudy during the day on Saturday with a high near 40 degrees. On Saturday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 25 degrees. Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 38 degrees.The high temperatures will remain above 40 degrees everyday next week until next Friday, when it will again drop back in the thirties.
Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks released a video Friday saying he expects to decide by the end of the month about filing charges in the fatal stabbing of Devonna Walker.
“The homicide of Devonna Walker is a very important case. As of next week, I must also attend to another very important case that will be going to trial in Linn County and will take up to two weeks. The homicide of Devonna Walker will continue to receive attention and be reviewed during this time period,” Maybanks said in the video.
Maybanks said he had also asked two of his top felony prosecutors to review the case as well.
Walker was stabbed Jan. 2 in the 2100 block of North Towne Court NE. Police were called about 6:45 p.m., and Walker was taken to a hospital where she died. Two people were detained and interviewed by Cedar Rapids police, but released. No one has been arrested in connection with her death.
A video of the stabbing, which has been circulating on social media, appears to show Walker, a Black woman, arguing with a white man and woman and engaging in a fight with them before she is stabbed by the man. The man is heard yelling a racial slur at Walker before the physical fight began.
Activists have been protesting regularly at the Cedar Rapids Police Department, asking for an arrest to be made. A town hall event was hosted Sunday by various activist groups, in which community members discussed the case and what it means for the Black community in Cedar Rapids. Another protest is planned for Saturday.
A mountain lion was killed in Johnson County last weekend, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources on Friday.
The animal — an adult female weighing 116 pounds — was shot by two licensed hunters who were out at night calling for coyotes west of Swisher.
The Iowa DNR had been aware of the mountain lion’s whereabouts since last spring, thanks to trail camera photos submitted by residents and hunters in the area.
“During that time, she was seldom, if ever, seen by humans and didn't ever cause safety or livestock problems,” said department furbearer and wetland biologist Vince Evelsizer in an email to the Gazette.
The department’s Clear Lake office now receives an average of two to four reports of mountain lion sightings a week. Statewide, more than 2,000 sightings have been reported since 2010. Johnson County had a confirmed sighting in April 2022 and a highly probable sighting in Oct. 2011. There have been no sightings in Linn County.
There will be another huge lottery drawing this weekend.
This time, it's an estimated $700 million Powerball jackpot drawing, which ranks at the 10th largest in U.S. lottery history. It comes on the heels of a $1.35 billion Mega Millions prize won by someone in Maine less than three weeks ago and a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won by a California player last November.
Have a good weekend everyone.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, January 23rd.
According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have patchy fog before 8 a.m. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 31. Winds from the southwest, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight, mostly cloudy, with a low around 24.
Union workers voted Sunday to ratify a four-year contract with multinational ingredients maker Ingredion, ending a strike that has stretched on for nearly six months against the company’s Cedar Rapids facility. About 88 workers trickled in before 10 a.m. Sunday at Teamsters Hall to vote on whether to ratify the contract and bring an end to the strike that began Aug. 1. After over two hours of discussion, union members could be heard clapping behind closed doors and began to cast written ballots. They wrapped up just before 1 p.m. with the vote to ratify the deal. Mike Moore, the principal and president of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 100G, had said Thursday that Ingredion and the union reached the tentative deal after two days of negotiations last week. Overall, he said, reaching a deal took about 25 face-to-face sessions.
One man was killed and another was injured in a fall from a scaffold last week in Dyersville, according to a news release from the city’s chief of police. At 8:37 a.m. Thursday, emergency responders were dispatched for an industrial accident at Farmtek, at 1440 Field of Dreams Way in southwest Dyersville. Police found two victims who had fallen about 20 feet from a portable scaffold. One was not breathing and police began CPR. One who fell was identified as 50-year-old Bruce Bockenstedt of Manchester. He was transported to a Dyersville hospital and did not survive his injuries. The other was transported to a Dubuque hospital and later transferred to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Police did not have an update on his status. The accident remains under investigation.
The Gazette has online maps showing how many private schools in Iowa are in each county, and how many of those private schools include a 12th grade. Go to thegazette.com slash data to see those details. Of course, that could soon change, thanks to a proposed state-funded private school financial assistance package - that could be passed this week.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, January 21, and Sunday, January 22.
We could get some light snow Saturday evening but other than that it should be a pretty calm weekend weather wise. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a 20 percent chance of snow after 5 p.m. in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday and a 40 percent chance of snow later on. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 31 degrees. On Sunday it looks to be mostly cloudy, with a high near 31 degrees.
Seven adults and a teen were arrested Thursday and Friday on charges related to an October shooting that happened in Tiffin, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
The 17-year-old, who was not identified by the sheriff’s office, faces an attempted murder charge.
The group of eight met up about 8:30 p.m. Oct. 24 with the intention of assaulting a juvenile “and several others associated with the juvenile” at a residence in Coralville, according to criminal complaints.
They found the people they were planning to assault and chased them in a vehicle to Highway 6 and Park Road in Tiffin, where one person in the group shot at least six times and hit the victim’s vehicle multiple times. No one in the victim’s vehicle was injured, according to a news release and the complaints.
In addition to the attempted murder charge, the 17-year-old and all seven adults are charged with participating in a riot, a felony.
One of the adults, Glenda Reighard, 22, of Tiffin, also is charged with giving false information in acquiring a weapon, a felony, and transfer of a pistol or revolver to a person under 21, a misdemeanor. Reighard is accused of buying a gun Oct. 2 for one of her co-defendants, the complaint states.
The others charged with participating in a riot are Jamyrion White, 20, of Coralville; Michael Rensing III, 19, of North Liberty; Aydin Kutcher, 18, of Coralville; David Love Jr., 19, of Coralville; Isaiah Scott, 19, of Coralville; and Dquavius Kelly, 21, of Coralville.
A three-member subcommittee of Iowa House lawmakers this week advanced a bill that would allow Iowa restaurant workers under the age of 18 to serve alcohol.
House File 14, filed by Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, eliminates the age for serving or selling alcohol in taverns and restaurants. The bill removes the age restriction for all retail establishments licensed to sell alcohol for on-premises consumption.
Wills, however, said it’s not his intent to lower the age for serving or selling alcohol in bars and taverns from 18.
“It’s kind of a silly law that we have that minors cannot carry drinks from the bar to the table,” Wills said. “But, if that they don’t drink that drink, the minor can pick up that full drink and bring it back to the kitchen to dispose of it. … It’s a workforce issue, because (restaurants that serve alcohol) can’t hire minors because they can only do part of the job.”
The Iowa Restaurant Association and Iowa Hotel & Lodging Association support the bill.
Have a good weekend everyone!
Welcome to the last weekend of 2022.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, December 31, and Sunday, January 1.
There could be a little bit of rain and fog on Saturday before things settle down on Sunday. According to the National Weather Service, there could be areas of dense fog overnight until around 10 a.m. in the morning on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be a 30 percent chance of rain, mainly between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 39 degrees. On New Year’s Day it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 43 degrees and a calm wind.
Iowa City’s iconic Hamburg Inn No. 2 is set to close indefinitely Jan. 8 in part due to strained communications between local management and the owner.
Assistant Manager Katy Wells confirmed plans to close, saying staff and local management made the decision among themselves, unsure if the closure would be temporary or permanent.
She said management, including General Manager Ajax Lasko, came to the decision a few days ago after being unable to make substantial contact with owner Micheal Lee, who is in Taiwan.
Michael Lee, a native of China and University of Iowa graduate, purchased the restaurant from Dave Panther in 2016. Panther’s family had owned the Linn Street restaurant since 1948. The restaurant first opened in 1935.
Substantial building maintenance needs all mounted at once at the Hamburg Inn building after the blizzard earlier in December, and local management doesn’t have the resources to make necessary repairs. Wells said the location’s building was built around 1947.
Cedar Rapids officials were dispatched Friday after hunters found human remains in the Cedar River.
Police and fire department staff were dispatched in the early afternoon after the hunters reported seeing the remains in the river, just below the water treatment facility near Bertram.
Positive identification of who the person was will still take some time, according to the release.
A Marengo company whose workshop exploded and caught fire Dec. 8 failed to meet a state deadline Friday for filing a report about how owners plan to clean up the area, which state regulators called a “clear threat to public health and the environment.”
An emergency order Dec. 15 gave C6-Zero until 5 p.m. Friday to submit the written report explaining sources of contamination and plan for cleanup. The order also stipulated that C6-Zero must implement all requirements of the plan within 45 days of the order.
The order notes regulators may impose civil penalties of up to $5,000 per day for solid waste violations and water quality violations and up to $10,000 per day for air quality violations.
The Marengo plant, which opened in 2020 and had about 30 employees, still was in a pilot phase Dec. 8 when liquid solvent in a tank exploded and started a fire. Between 10 and 15 people were treated for injuries at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and neighbors living near the facility were briefly evacuated.
Have a great weekend everyone. We’ll see you again in 2023.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, December 19th.
According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have a 50 percent chance of snow, mainly after 1 p.m., in the Cedar Rapids area today. It will be cloudy, with a high near 29. Winds 5 to 10 mph from the southeast. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch is possible. And tonight, a chance of snow before 9 p.m., then freezing drizzle likely, possibly mixed with snow between 9 p.m. and midnight. And a low around 16.
Two people forced a man to undress at gunpoint in Marion, assaulted him and stole backpack items from him in September, according to a Linn County criminal complaint. 21-year-old Tavion Robinson of Waterloo, and a partially named co-defendant with the last name of Johnson, are accused of robbing the man while in the 1400 block of Meadowview Drive on Sept. 6. According to the complaint, Robinson pointed the gun at the man, put it in his mouth and threatened to shoot him, and Johnson punched the alleged victim as he undressed. Both Robinson and Johnson took items from the man's backpack that had a value between $1,500 and $10,000. Robinson has been arrested on charges of first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit a forcible felony, going armed with intent, second-degree theft, first-degree harassment, and false imprisonment.
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn announced Saturday he will step down as leader of the party, after Democrats in the state faced a drubbing in the Nov. 8 midterm elections and a likely vote by national Democrats to strip Iowa of its first-in-the-nation caucus status it’s held for half a century. Wilburn, a state representative from Ames, was elected in January 2021 to lead the party as its first Black chair in facing a challenging midterm election and a battle to retain the Iowa caucuses. Wilburn replaced outgoing chair and former state Rep. Mark Smith, who decided not to seek a second term. Wilburn, in a statement, said his service to Iowans will continue as a state lawmaker, “but it is time to pass the torch.”
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🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday December 17 and Sunday December 18.
According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for snow flurries all day Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area. The high will be near 23 degrees, with the low dropping down to 11 degrees. On Sunday the sun will return, but it will remain cold, with a 24 degree high and wind chill values as low as 0 degrees.
Iowa regulators have slapped an emergency order on a Marengo company after a Dec. 8 explosion, calling the C6-Zero facility a “clear threat to public health and the environment” because of “unknown flammable chemicals and gases” remaining in a damaged building.
“Despite repeated information requests from the (Iowa Department of Natural Resources) and meetings in which compliance matters were discussed, C6-Zero and Mr. Howard Brand have failed to comply with Iowa’s air quality, hazardous condition, solid waste and legitimate recycling laws,” according to the order signed Thursday, and released Friday, by Iowa DNR Director Kayla Lyon.
C6-Zero describes itself as a recycler of used asphalt shingles, with founder Howard Brand III attempting to use a proprietary solvent to dissolve the shingles into component parts of oil, sand and fiberglass.
The order notes regulators may impose civil penalties of up to $5,000 per day for solid waste violations and water quality violations and up to $10,000 per day for air quality violations.
American Airlines soon will begin nonstop service from The Eastern Iowa Airport to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., adding a route that’s been years in the making for Cedar Rapids.
Airport and city officials announced Friday that the year-round service would begin June 1 to one of the airport’s top 10 destinations, and offer connections to other popular destinations including New York City, Boston and Charleston.
The Eastern Iowa Airport Director Marty Lenss said Reagan National Airport is a slot-restricted facility, meaning only a finite number of slots are available for each airline for landings and takeoffs.
“The fact that American Airlines is designating one of those exclusive slots to a CID flight is really … a tremendous investment and (shows) continued confidence by American in this region, and really the state of Iowa,” Lenss said. “So I don’t think I’m overstating it when I say this is a big damn day for Iowa.”
Coming tomorrow in the Gazette and on thegazette.com, we have a feature story on the Iowa Music Awards and why its organizers hope they can use it to kickstart a new movement in Iowa’s music scene.
Here’s a snippet from one of the story’s videos featuring Cedar Rapids-based rapper and DJ, Antonio “Tone Da Boss” Chalmers. Chalmers is the founder of the Iowa Music Awards, and he talks about why the awards show is about more than giving out plaudits.
More from the interview with Chalmers can be found on the front page of thegazette.com
Have a good weekend everyone! Stay warm.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, December 5th.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 43 in the Cedar Rapids area today. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph, then from the north in the afternoon. And tonight, mostly cloudy, with a low around 23.
Adding to the growing list of construction and renovation projects that University of Iowa Health Care is pursuing in and around its campus, UIHC now is asking a development team to design, plan and build a new primary care medical office building in Iowa City. The goal of erecting a UIHC-operated location in the same town as its main sprawling campus of more than 1 million square feet is to “increase access to primary medical care for the local community as well as train physicians in a setting most similar to other Iowa primary care offices.” The project comes as UIHC is building or pursuing a growing list of facility endeavors — including a $525.6 million hospital in North Liberty. Administrators with those Eastern Iowa community hospitals that sounded alarms UIHC was threatening their patient and staffing pool — and thus their livelihood — told The Gazette that the university’s community care development endeavor illustrates their earlier warnings and opposition. In arguing against the need for UIHC expansion a year ago, Michelle Niermann, UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids president and CEO cited there was “significant capacity” at existing hospitals across Eastern Iowa — including more than 40 percent of UnityPoint’s available space at the time, more than half of Mercy Medical Center-Cedar Rapids’ space and more than 70 percent at Mercy Hospital Iowa City.
The Iowa Hawkeyes will play Kentucky in its bowl game for the second consecutive season. Iowa will be be making their first trip to the Music City Bowl in Nashville on Dec. 31st. It will be the second time in the 2022 calendar year that Iowa and Kentucky faced off, following the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, December 3 and Sunday, December 4.
Saturday will feature Friday’s wind without Friday’s warmth. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 27 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday, with wind chill values as low as -5. It will be blustery to begin the day, with winds of 15 to 20 mph gusting as high as 30 mph. The wind should calm the second half of Saturday, with a low of around 19 degrees.
Sunday will be calmer and warmer. It is predicted to be sunny with a high near 42 degrees.
As expected, Iowa’s Democratic Party is on track to lose the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus status it has held for half a century.
In a major realignment meant to give voice in the party to more people of color, the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted Friday on a proposed calendar for early presidential nominating contests that will remove Iowa as an early state in the party’s nominating calendar.
The states making up the new early window for 2024, holding Democratic primaries before the first Tuesday in March, would consist of South Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Georgia and Michigan. The proposal will need to be approved by the full Democratic National Committee, but it is expected to easily pass.
Republicans, on the other hand, already have agreed to a nominating calendar that keeps Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status for GOP presidential candidates.
If all happens as expected, things could get awkward for Iowa Democrats. In accordance with tradition state law requires both parties in Iowa to hold their caucuses before anyone else in the nation. However, if Iowa still adheres to that with a full caucus, they could be penalized by the national party, including losing half or all of its delegates.
A 70-year-old Iowa City man was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday after entering a guilty plea for a charge that he fatally stabbed his wife in 2019.
Roy Carl Browning Jr., 70, of Iowa City, originally charged with first-degree murder, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in October. He was charged in the death of JoEllen Browning, 65, a University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics budget executive. Roy Browning entered an Alford plea to the charge, in which a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but admits the prosecution has enough evidence for a likely conviction.
He protested his innocence during the sentencing Friday, despite the plea. Investigators believe he stabbed his wife to prevent her from learning about risky loans, falsified accounting records, and that he had depleted one of her savings accounts.
A 19-year-old Cedar Rapids man pleaded Friday to lesser charges in the 2021 fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Illinois girl during a gun sale that turned into a “tussle” over money and the gun.
Marshawn Rome Jackson, 19, originally charged with first-degree murder, pleaded to voluntary manslaughter, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, dominion/control of a firearm by a felon and obstructing prosecution.
Jackson, during the plea hearing, admitted to intentionally shooting Tyliyah Whitis, of Peoria, Ill., during a gun sale July 21, 2021, First Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter said after the hearing.
Jackson and Whitis, who was in Cedar Rapids visiting her sister, knew each other and had hung out in the past, Slaughter said.
Jackson said Whitis wanted to buy a gun from him and wanted to hold it, but Jackson wanted to see the money first. A tussle over the gun began, and Jackson became angry and started getting out of the car. Whitis started accelerating, and Jackson fired the gun, hitting her in the back.
Have a good weekend everyone!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, December 1.
It will be sunny and back above 40 degrees Thursday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 41 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday. On Thursday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 32 degrees. It will remain breezy, with wind speeds gusting as high as 30 mph.
Iowa’s four U.S. House members voted Wednesday to approve legislation designed to avert a potential strike by railroad workers.
The legislation is the result of a compromise reached by railroad companies and a majority of the unions that represent rail workers, the Associated Press reported. A strike was still possible because some unions rejected the proposed agreement.
The House vote was 290-137, with 79 Republicans joining the majority of Democrats in supporting the bill, and eight Democrats joining the majority of Republicans who opposed it. The bill next moves to the U.S. Senate.
The legislation provides for 24 percent raises and $5,000 in bonuses retroactive to 2020 along with one additional paid leave day. That deal was agreed to by most, but not all, of the unions representing rail workers.
There has been a call from multiple sectors of politics and finance, including President Joe Biden, to stop the rail strike due to fears of the effect it could have on day to day life and the national economy.
A proposed ban on genetically modified corn imports to Mexico would have substantial impacts on Iowa farmers if carried out, farm groups say.
There’s still uncertainty about the details of the proposed policy, but U.S. officials said a total ban on genetically modified corn — which makes up more than 90 percent of corn grown in the United States — would cause a drop in the price of corn and in farmers’ profitability in the coming years.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador initiated the ban by presidential decree in 2020, with a scheduled start date of Jan. 1, 2024. The decree stemmed from concerns about the health and safety of genetically modified products.
Some Mexican officials have signaled the ban would affect corn going into food with exceptions made for corn designated for livestock feed, which makes up the vast majority of U.S. exports to the country. Obrador, who had previously said the ban would affect all corn imports, said last week in a news conference he’s looking at making an exception for livestock feed, according to Bloomberg.
If the ban covers all corn, agriculture experts said Iowa’s farmers would take a hit and would likely see their balance sheets in the red.
“It’s going to be extremely devastating if that was to happen,” said Lance Lillibridge, chair of the Iowa Corn Growers Association and a corn farmer in Benton County. “And it needs to be taken extremely seriously by everyone.”
According to an estimate from World Perspectives, the U.S. corn farming sector would experience a net $3.56 billion loss in the first year under the ban, and $13.61 billion in losses over 10 years.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, November 30.
The sun is back, but ack it's cold! According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 28 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday. It will be breezy again, with wind gusts as high as 35 mph during the day before settling down at night. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 16 degrees.
A Cedar Rapids man who faced a voluntary manslaughter charge for fatally shooting another man during a fight is free after the charge was dropped by the Linn County Attorney’s Office.
Assistant Linn County Attorney Molly Edwards, in a motion filed earlier this month, asked a judge to dismiss the charge against James Siegel, 42, based on Iowa’s “stand your ground” law, and said there is insufficient evidence to prove the manslaughter charge.
Siegel initially was charged with first-degree murder. But a few weeks later, it was amended to voluntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting of Ty John Casey, 39, on May 13 in northeast Cedar Rapids. At that time, additional investigation revealed a history between the two men, and the crime scene and autopsy supported the lesser charge, according to the amended complaint.
Siegel’s actions resulted from a “sudden, violent and irresistible passion” as a result of serious provocation — elements of voluntary manslaughter — by Casey, the amended complaint stated. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks at that time was asked about the history between Siegel and Casey, but he said he couldn’t provide details.
Iowa’s future as the first state where Democrats cast their preference for president will likely be decided this week.
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet Thursday through Saturday in Washington, D.C., and the committee is expected to vote on the party’s presidential nominating calendar, potentially knocking Iowa off the first-in-the-nation spot it has held for half a century. The committee will make a recommendation to the full DNC at the party’s next meeting.
While a vote on the calendar is expected to come up, Scott Brennan, an Iowan who sits on the rules committee, said the committee has not yet received an agenda for this week’s meeting.
Iowa’s caucuses have led the pack in presidential preference contests for both parties since 1972, drawing media attention and millions of dollars in campaigning from presidential hopefuls.
This year, the national Democrats’ rules committee voted to open up the early window, requiring states to apply if they want to hold a presidential primary or caucus before the first Tuesday in March. The current early states are Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
Iowa is among 16 states and Puerto Rico that applied this summer to be in the early window. The DNC will select up to five states that will be allowed to hold contests early. The rules committee said it would favor states that are diverse, competitive in the general election, and can run transparent and accessible contests. Iowa is around 85 percent white and has been trending increasingly Republican in recent elections.
Iowa quarterback Alex Padilla entered the transfer portal Tuesday as a graduate transfer.
Padilla played in two football games for Iowa this season, completing 21 of 43 passes while throwing one touchdown and two interceptions....
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 29.
The weather the rest of the week will be a mixed bag, with the temperatures trending colder as the week goes on. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with a high near 50 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday. There will be a 30 percent chance of rain mainly between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. It will also be breezy, with wind gusts as high as 30 mph. On Tuesday night it will be cloudy and blustery, with a low of around 21 degrees.
Seven people died in six crashes on Iowa roads over the Thanksgiving holiday period, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
As of Monday, 315 people have died this year in traffic wrecks on the state’s roads — surpassing the five-year average of 300 traffic deaths by this same date each year, despite efforts to crack down on distracted driving and excessive speeding.
Iowa saw 356 traffic deaths in all of 2021, state figures show. The state hasn’t had more than 37 traffic fatalities in a December in the last five years, a trend that suggests Iowa would not exceed last year’s grim total with another month to go this year.
The Kirkwood Regional Center in Coralville went into lockdown for about 10 minutes Monday morning after reports of an armed robbery in the area, according to an alert sent to Kirkwood students Monday.
The Coralville Police Department contacted the regional center at 11:25 a.m. and requested that the campus lock exterior doors due to an armed robbery nearby. Staff immediately locked the doors and contacted Kirkwood Public Safety.
At about 11:35 a.m. the police department contacted the school again to report that the suspect in the robbery, 21-year-old Jovon Ellis, had been caught, and the lockout could end, according to the alert.
The robbery took place south of campus at the Knollridge Garden apartments, at 2551 Holiday Rd., Coralville, according to a news release from the Coralville Police Department.
Ellis reportedly confronted two people who were leaving their apartment and ordered them back inside at gunpoint, where he stole their cellphones.
Owners of a mobile home park near Iowa City have agreed to pay an $8,000 fine after multiple violations since 2020 for discharging wastewater into a tributary of Snyder Creek, which feeds into the Iowa River.
Havenpark Management also agreed to build a new wastewater treatment facility for Sunrise Village, at 2100 S. Scott Blvd., by Aug. 31, 2025, according to a Nov. 17 consent order.
Havenpark, based in Utah, was criticized in 2019 for buying mobile home parks, including some in Iowa, and increasing the rent anywhere from 24 percent to 69 percent.
The penalty amount was based on whether Sunrise Village owners received economic benefit by the discharge, the severity of the situation and the culpability of the owners for the discharge. The maximum administrative penalty is $10,000.
Earlier this year, Havenpark bought two other Iowa City mobile home parks — Lake Ridge and Modern Manor — for a combined $33.5 million.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, November 28th.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 46 in the Cedar Rapids area today. Winds from the south 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. And tonight, increasing clouds, with a low around 36.
Authorities have released the identity of a girl killed in an ATV crash south of Manchester Wednesday. According to an updated Iowa State Patrol accident report, 13-year-old Charlee Engelken of Manchester was a passenger riding an ATV in the 1500 block of 240th Street shortly after 3 p.m. A 14-year-old boy from Manchester who was driving the four-wheeler lost control and the ATV went into the ditch, where it bottomed out and ejected all riders. Charlee was struck by the ATV and sustained fatal injuries. According to obituary information submitted to The Gazette, Charlee was raised in the Manchester area and was an eighth-grade student at West Delaware Middle School in Manchester.
Felony gun crimes have increased dramatically — even tripled for some categories — in Linn and Johnson counties since 2019, which prosecutors attribute to law changes and more people choosing to resolve disputes with violence. The gun charges that account for these increases include counts for possession of a firearm by a felon, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent and trafficking in stolen weapons. In Linn County, possession charges went from 15 in 2019 to 52 so far this year. Trafficking charges jumped from six in 2019 to 30 so far this year. Johnson County is seeing increases in possession charges, from 21 in 2019 to 50 so far this year. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks noted the numbers for Linn County don’t even include other crimes such as homicides and robberies, where a gun may have been used. There are 12 pending murder trials and numerous robberies and attempted murder trials. Maybanks and Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness agreed that the increases in gun charges are attributed to gun law changes — such as that carry permits are no longer required in Iowa.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 26 and Sunday, November 27.
There is a chance for a little bit of rain this weekend, but it mostly looks to be pleasant fall weather. On Saturday there will be increasing clouds and a little bit windy, with a high near 55 degrees. There will be a 40 percent chance for rain after midnight. It will be cloudy, with a low of around 36 degrees. On Sunday there will be a 40 percent chance of rain before noon. It will be mostly cloudy again, with a high near 42 degrees. On Sunday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 26 degrees.
An annual spring marathon connecting Iowa City and Cedar Rapids will not return in 2023.
Jim Dwyer, the race director and Corridor Running co-president, said organizers are discontinuing Run CRANDIC due to logistical and staffing issues, including getting enough volunteers and public safety officers to work the race.
Dwyer, who also co-owns Iowa Running Company in downtown Cedar Rapids, said the marathon requires about 75 to 100 public safety personnel from six agencies to secure the race route.
“It’s not ability to pay. It’s more of a staffing issue, really,” said Dwyer, who said a portion of the race entry fee covers street closures and the cost of providing for off-duty police officers, sheriff’s deputies and other security personnel.
The city of North Liberty continues to work on plans for a new park in the northwest part of the city.
The Northside Community Park Project is among the initiatives identified in the city’s 2022-24 goals report. The city is negotiating with a property owner to acquire the nearly 45 acres of land, which would make this one of the city’s largest parks.
The land — owned by the Meade Family Real Estate Limited Partnership — is located above West Penn Street between N. Jones Boulevard and Highway 965.
The city has more than 20 parks, including Centennial Park, which is the city’s largest park. A map from the city shows each of the city’s parks, along with service areas and where gaps exist.
A moratorium on new utility-scale solar installations will be extended through March, the Linn County Board of Supervisors decided this week.
The supervisors originally adopted the moratorium in October to last through Dec. 31 with the idea that it could be extended up to three times through 2023 while the county ordinance governing the solar projects is reviewed.
The moratorium does not affect the already-approved solar projects near Palo and Coggon, which will continue. But applications for new projects will not be considered until the pause is over.
“By the March deadline, we will have a better idea of how much time is actually needed,” Planning and Development Director Charlie Nichols said. “It won’t be open ended like now. We should be close to completion or at least developed enough to know how much time we need.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, November 24.
There will be a small chance for rain on Thursday, but the temperatures will remain pleasant. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly with a high near 52 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday. There will be a 20 percent chance of some rain before 1 p.m. On Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 29 degrees.
Let’s take a brief look at the origins of Thanksgiving in Iowa, thanks to the Gazette a Time Machine article, a series I incidentally recommend you check out on the website if you’re a history fan.
According to the article, Iowa's first territorial Thanksgiving is generally believed to have been proclaimed by Gov. Robert Lucas, who served from 1838 to 1841. The holiday's celebration was common in New England, and settlers who came west were believed to have continued the tradition.
But the first recorded gubernatorial proclamation of the celebration came from Iowa's second territorial governor, John Chambers of Kentucky, who was appointed in 1841.
Chambers' Thanksgiving proclamation, signed in the territorial office in Burlington 'at the requests of many of my fellow citizens,” declared Dec. 12, 1844, as a day of thanksgiving.
The day Iowa became the Union's 29th state - Dec. 28, 1846 - Ansel Briggs, elected the state's first governor on Dec. 2, gave his inaugural address. The following November, Briggs signed his first Thanksgiving Proclamation, setting aside Thursday, Nov. 25, 1847, as a day for giving thanks.
Back to the present, COVID numbers are on the rise again in Iowa just in time for holiday travel.
The state added 2,302 positive virus cases this week — the highest weekly total in more than two months. Last week, the new positive case count was 1,980. The actual total is likely higher, given the availability of at-home test kits, which are not reported to the state.
Hospitalizations from the virus increased by 26 percent in the past week after decreasing by 24 percent the week prior. The number of hospitalized patients increased from 137 to 172. ICU patients increased from 16 to 19.
These hospitalizations numbers are still relatively low compared to the overall history of the virus. COVID is just one of many viruses causing crowding at area hospitals.
In fact, hospitals across the United States are overwhelmed. The combination of a swarm of respiratory illnesses (RSV, coronavirus, flu), staffing shortages and nursing home closures has sparked the state of distress visited upon the already overburdened health-care system. And experts believe the problem will deteriorate further in coming months.
So get vaccinated if you can, wash your hands, and cross your fingers.
Ending with some happier news, Marion arborist Mike Cimprich has won a national award for derecho recovery efforts.
City arborist Mike Cimprich got an email last week announcing he was the recipient of the Merrell Changing Nature of Work Award.
He was chosen as the inaugural recipient of the award from the National Recreation and Park Association. The award recognizes an individual, or team, who has responded to natural disasters with a spirit of teamwork, community and perseverance to clean up, rebuild and advance the resilience and well-being of their community.
It comes with $10,000 to go toward a project. Cimprich told the Gazette it would go toward tree replanting in some way, whether that’s obtaining more staff or equipment or the actual tree planting itself.
Marion lost over 40 percent of its public tree canopy in the August 2020 derecho. Cimprich was integral in leading the response.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, November 23.
Soak in that temperature increase, we don't know how long this will last. According to the National Weather Service it will be increasingly cloudy during the day Wednesday with a high near 55 degrees. Commuters may be greeted by some patchy fog before 9 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy with a low of around 39 degrees.
Iowa’s economy is in recession and losses in its workforce will be exceptionally difficult to recoup because older Iowans who are retiring are not being replaced by younger or new residents, a state economist said Tuesday.
While the size of Iowa’s workforce has continued to climb steadily throughout 2022, the most recent number of Iowans working still lags behind October 2019 and behind its pre-pandemic level in February 2020.
Peter Orazem, a professor of labor economics at Iowa State University, discussed the state’s economy and workforce issues Tuesday while recording this weekend’s episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.
Iowa has the ninth-highest share of residents who were born in the state, Orazem said, meaning Iowa gets a proportionately small share of its population from other states or countries.
“If you look at the sources of replacement labor in Iowa, it’s really hard to come up with another one other than immigration, which has been the buffer for the Iowa labor force for many years,” Orazem said.
Speaking of PBS, you won’t be hearing any of their fundraising pitches for a while.
An apparent cybersecurity breach has caused Iowa PBS to cancel the remainder of its annual fall fundraising pledge drive.
An Iowa PBS spokeswoman Tuesday confirmed the issue, which has not impacted the station’s ability to broadcast programming.
“In the early hours of Sunday morning, Iowa PBS became aware of suspicious activity on our network systems. We swiftly brought in systems experts to help us identify the issue,” Iowa PBS spokeswoman Susan Ramsey said in a statement.
The incident led Iowa PBS Friends Foundation, the station’s governing body, to cancel the remainder of the Fall Festival, which is the station’s pledge drive. That decision likely will mean a significant reduction in donations to the station; roughly half the station’s annual revenue comes from contributions and grants, according to a recent state analysis.
“While this will mean a considerable loss of donor revenue in this period, we believe this is in the best interest of the Iowans we serve,” the statement said.
The College Community School District is increasing its starting salary for bus drivers to $23 an hour, a $2 per hour increase, in an effort to recruit and retain more drivers.
New hires also will receive a $500 sign-on bonus as just one recent initiative the district has launched in response to the national bus driver shortage, according to a news release Tuesday. All College Community employees who recruit a bus driver, van driver or bus aide to join the transportation department also receive a new recruitment bonus.
School districts across the nation are facing a shortage of school bus drivers.
During the summer of 2020, the Cedar Rapids Community School District lost a fifth of its school bus drivers because of COVID-19. In August, the Cedar Rapids district said it was facing challenging bus driver shortages. The district implemented several short and long-term strategies to close the staffing shortage gap, including combining routes and having mechanics trained and driving buses.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 22.
We're going to take a break from winter to return to fall for a while. According to the National Weather Service on Tuesday it will be sunny, with a high near 49 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be clear, with a low of around 25 degrees. The wind will remain calm all day.
The Eastern Iowa Airport says the facility is on track to record its second busiest year for Thanksgiving travel since 2019.
The number of seats in the market is more than three years ago for the same holiday period and flights are expected to be nearly full with Thanksgiving travelers, Airport Director Marty Lenss said in a news release Monday.
“When comparing available seats in the market for the same Thanksgiving (Monday through Thursday) travel period in 2019 compared to this year, we have 8 percent more seats this year,” Lenss said.
“In addition, we are seeing much larger aircraft than in 2019. The average number of seats per departure is at 109 per flight. In 2019 that number was 78 seats per flight.”
The airlines have been removing most of the smaller, 50-seat regional jets from their fleets, and replacing them with larger mainline aircraft.
A Swisher man, accused of driving his pickup into a group of abortion protesters in June, asked a judge Monday to move his trial out of Linn County because of “overt media attention and nefarious allegations” that he had a motive regarding abortion rights.
The June 24 protest near the federal courthouse in downtown Cedar Rapids followed the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned abortion rights, which had been in place almost 50 years nationally, returning control of the procedure to the states.
Mark Brown, the lawyer for David A. Huston, 53, who faces two misdemeanor charges, said there has been extensive media coverage — including on national platforms — of the charges against Huston.
Brown said he found 75 to 80 separate news articles regarding the incident by searching under Huston’s name and the charges he faces. The media reports turned the encounter into an “alleged abortion issue” and used “inciteful language,” such as “ramming, plowing or running into” the protesters.
The application to fill the upcoming vacancy on the Iowa City Council is now available.
The Iowa City Council last week voted unanimously to fill the vacancy by appointment instead of holding a special election. The appointee will succeed council member Janice Weiner, who resigned Nov. 9 after being elected a state senator to represent District 45.
One year is left on Weiner’s four-year, at-large council term, which runs through Jan. 2, 2024. Her resignation becomes effective Jan. 1.
The deadline to apply is Jan. 3.
The council will fill the vacancy at a special meeting at 3 p.m. Jan. 10 at City Hall. During the public meeting, finalists may make an oral presentation about their interest in the job, according to a city news release.
If voters want to petition for a special election, the petition must be filed within 14 days after the council decides on appointment or within 14 days after the appointment is made. A petition requesting a special election must have signatures from at least 743 eligible Iowa City voters.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, November 21st.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny today in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 37. Winds from the southwest 5 to 10 mph coming from the northwest in the afternoon. Then tonight, partly cloudy, with a low around 19.
The Jones County Sheriff's Office has released the name of a girl killed in a house fire in Onslow Friday. 10-year-old Geniyah Morgan was found by firefighters in an upstairs bedroom on Summit Street. Fire crews had made multiple attempts to reach her but were unsuccessful due to the intensity of the fire and heat on both floors of the residence. Her body was taken to the Iowa State Medical Examiner's Office in Ankeny, pending an autopsy. Geniyah was a fifth-grade student in the Midland School District. Her mother and four children, ages 1 to 8, were able to escape through a bedroom window on the main floor of the home. All were taken to the Jones Regional Medical Center in Anamosa with smoke and heat-related injuries. A one-year-old girl was then taken by ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, and released Friday night. A preliminary investigation by the State Fire Marshal's Office and Jones County Sheriff's Office determined the fire to be accidental, starting in the kitchen. Geniyah’s death was the seventh Iowa house fire fatality this past week.
Caitlin Clark scored a season-high 33 points and Iowa pulled away late to defeat Belmont 73-62 on Sunday. Besides Clark, no other Iowa player scored in double figures. Clark was listed as day-to-day after suffering an ankle injury on the final play of Thursday's 84-83 loss at Kansas State. But she played almost 31 minutes Sunday.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 19 and Sunday, November 20.
This may be the first forecast in awhile where they’ve brought out the word blustery. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a slight chance for flurries Saturday morning, but besides that it will be sunny most of the day. But it will also be cold, with a high of 22 degrees dropping down to a windchill of 0 degrees with blustery 15 to 25 winds. On Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with the winds calming a bit, and a low of 10 degrees. On Sunday the temperatures will get up to 35 degrees, again with sunny skies, and again with wind that will probably make it feel a lot colder. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 26 degrees.
Iowa will still have one statewide Democrat in office after Republican state auditor candidate Todd Halbur conceded the race Friday to Democratic incumbent Auditor Rob Sand.
Halbur said he was dropping his request for a recount because he did not have sufficient resources to file the requests in all 99 counties, and he claimed the Republican Party of Iowa would not help support a statewide recount.
Sand led the race by 2,893 votes out of nearly 1.2 million cast in the election — a margin of just 0.24 percent — according to the latest unofficial results reported by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office.
Because the victory margin is less than 1 percent, Halbur by state law could request a recount without being required to post a bond, with Iowa counties picking up the cost.
Halbur, though, would still have to physically file paperwork with each county auditor in the state within three days after the county canvass and recruit designees in all 99 counties to serve on recount boards.
“They have to have the flexibility to do a hand count for days and be flexible for 18 total days to get the recount done,” Halbur said in a statement provided to The Gazette. “My campaign does not have the staff or infrastructure to get that coordinated on a statewide basis in that short amount of time.
In less than three days this week, seven people — five of them children — have died in Iowa house fires, a fatality rate not seen in the state in at least 16 years, data shows.
Four children died Wednesday in a fire in Mason City. A retired couple died Thursday in a fire in northeast Cedar Rapids. And a fire early Friday in Onslow claimed another child.
The Mason City fire was blamed on a faulty power strip. The cause of the Cedar Rapids and Onslow fires remained under investigation, though officials believe the Onslow fire started in the kitchen.
Structure fires do tend to pick up this time of year, said Ron Humphrey, the special agent in charge for the Iowa Fire Marshal’s Office, because as the temperature drops, people start using different kinds of heat-generating appliances that can sometimes become fire hazards — like space heaters, furnaces and fireplaces.
“I can’t say that that’s any of the causes for these recent fires, but fires in general this time of year, we seem to get more because … people are starting to turn on their furnaces,” Humphrey said.
Data compiled by the State Fire Marshal’s Office dating to 2006 shows there has never been such a high fire fatality rate in such a short period of time in those 16 years. In December 2017 — four days before Christmas — two fires on the same day claimed six people, including a family of five in...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, November 18.
The snow will give us a break on Friday, but chilly weather will take its place. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with a high near 22 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. A west wind of 15 mph could gust as high as 25 mph. On Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 14 degrees. The wind will lessen Friday night, but only a little bit.
A Linn County jury on Thursday convicted Dimione Walker of first-degree murder in the April 10 fatal shooting of Michael Valentine inside the Taboo Nightclub & Lounge in downtown Cedar Rapids.
Walker, who claimed self-defense, briefly looked down as the verdict was read but then started smiling and almost laughing. After the jury left the courtroom, he continued to laugh. He winked at someone in the gallery as he was being taken from the courtroom in handcuffs.
Walker faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. His sentencing is set for Dec. 16.
Jurors found Walker, 29, of Coralville, guilty of first-degree murder, going armed with intent and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The verdict was returned in less than 90 minutes, which is the shortest deliberation in recent years for a Linn County murder.
Crews pulled a retired couple from the basement onto the lawn after responding to a house fire in northeast Cedar Rapids. The couple was declared dead at the scene, according to authorities and family members.
Charles Osterkamp, 72, and Sheri Osterkamp, 70, were the only occupants of the home.
Their son, Mark Osterkamp, said his parents had been retired for a few years. Charles Osterkamp worked at the former Midland Forge plant as a laborer. Sheri Osterkamp had been a stay-at-home mom.
Firefighters were called at 12:08 p.m. to the 3800 block of Pine Tree Dr. NE after a 911 caller reported seeing smoke. When firefighters arrived, witnesses told them there were people inside the one-story structure, according to a city news release.
Crews found two people in the lower level and brought them outside, where they were declared dead.
A Marion man convicted in the 2018 murder of Chris Bagley pleaded guilty Thursday to charges he assaulted a drug informant in jail to prevent him from testifying against a drug dealer.
Johnny Blahnik Church, 35, formerly known as Drew Blahnik, pleaded guilty to tampering with a witness and willful injury causing serious injury. The plea was an Alford plea, meaning that Blahnik Church still holds he is innocent of the charges, but admits that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict him in a trial.
According to a criminal complaint, Blahnik Church, along with Gregory Sills, 49, of Oelwein, followed Ethan Palmer, the drug informant, into the bathroom in their cell pod at the Linn County Jail on May 27, and began “striking” Palmer. They eventually dragged Palmer out into the main area of the cellblock and continued to attack him.
Palmer’s injuries included a broken nose, two broken orbital bones, a torn retina, chipped teeth and a broken knee, the complaint states.
Palmer was set to testify at the federal trial of Justin Michael Buehler, who was charged and later convicted of two counts of distributing methamphetamine. Palmer still testified in the trial, which started 12 days after the assault. Palmer had been in...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, November 17.
Another day of predicted snowfall, although there again shouldn't be that much of it. According to the National Weather Service on Thursday there will be a chance of snow primarily between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 29. Thursday night will remain mostly cloudy, with a low of around 17 degrees. A wind of 10 to 15 mph will gust as high as 25 mph.
After shedding students annually for more than a decade — a post-Great Recession trend aggravated by the pandemic — Iowa’s 15 community colleges this fall recorded their first collective enrollment uptick since 2010: a half percentage point bump, pushing the student tally to 82,251.
Individually, a new Iowa community college enrollment report this week shows a more nuanced divide — with seven colleges reporting an increase and eight reporting the opposite.
Cedar Rapids’ Kirkwood Community College is among those with fewer students this fall — after restoring some of its massive 2020 COVID-19 losses last year. At 12,414 students, Kirkwood is sitting 1.5 percent below last fall’s 12,607.
Those that made gains this fall include the state’s largest — Des Moines Area Community College — reporting a 5.4 percent increase to 21,637, which widened its enrollment gap with Kirkwood, the state’s second largest college.
Some of that shift involves escalating joint enrollment among students pursuing high school and college credit simultaneously. This fall, 37,123 Iowa high school students participated in at least one joint-enrollment program — up 4.2 percent.
It’s looking like Marion may extend its bus route to and from Cedar Rapids while adding micro transit vans inside the city.
Staff from Marion, Cedar Rapids and Horizons presented three transit options to the Marion City Council during its work session Tuesday night.
Marion city staffers are recommending the option that would extend the bus route along First/Seventh Avenue through Uptown Marion and loop back with a 15-minute frequency through Uptown.
The preferred option also would add three micro transit buses. And the current transfer stop at Twixt Town Road would end and Marion passengers wanting to go into Cedar Rapids would simply stay on the bus.
Marion has set aside $225,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to buy three, 16-passenger buses for the micro-transit piece. The micro-transit buses also could pick up passengers anywhere in Marion and drop them off anywhere within Marion.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 16.
There is a chance for snow again on Wednesday, although it appears as if accumulation will not be significant. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 50 percent chance of snow Wednesday, mainly in the morning, with a half inch of accumulation possible. It will be cloudy with a high near 35 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low near 22 degrees.
Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday night that he will mount a third White House campaign, launching an early start to the 2024 contest.
"I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States," Trump said to an audience of several hundred supporters, club members and gathered journalists in a chandeliered ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago club, where he stood flanked by more than 30 American flags and banners that read, "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Trump's decision paves the way for a potential rematch with Biden, who has said he intends to run for re-election despite concerns from some in his party over his age and low approval ratings. The two men were already the oldest presidential nominees ever when they ran in 2020. Trump, who is 76, would be 82 at the end of a second term in 2029. Biden, who is about to turn 80, would be 86.
The former president’s decision to run again comes amidst an investigation by congress into his potential role in the January 6 riot in the nation’s Capitol, as well as several other lawsuits. But his legal problems are not the primary reason he is not as strong politically as he once was, as national Republicans have been openly critical of the role Trump backed candidates played in underwhelming midterm election results.
Wilson Middle School, just under a century old, may be demolished under a proposed plan for Cedar Rapids middle and high schools.
The plan hinges on voters approving a $312 million general obligation bond in a referendum. The school board is expected to approve a timeline for the plan next month, including taking a bond referendum to district voters in September.
One of the main goals of the plan is to reduce the number of middle schools in the district to provide more equitable services to all students, director of operations Jon Galbraith said in a Cedar Rapids school board meeting Monday. This would create a feeder system from middle school to high school and it would reduce operational and maintenance costs for the district, he said.
The district has about 3,300 middle school students with the capacity for 4,200, Galbraith said. In the last six years, the district has lost about 1,400 K-12 students, he said.
Under the plan, a new middle school is proposed to be built on the north side of Cedar Rapids with capacity for 1,200 students — an increase from the 500 to 800 students now at each middle school.
The original proposal for Wilson Middle School was to renovate and build an addition for the school to have a capacity of up to 600 students. Galbraith said feedback on the plan was that it’s inequitable since Washington High School — which Wilson feeds in to — is the only high school in the district that wouldn’t have a new middle school.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 15.
First came the cold temperatures, now comes the snow. According to the National Weather Service, snow will likely start after 4 a.m. Tuesday morning in the Cedar Rapids area and continue throughout the day. 1 to 2 inches of snow accumulation is possible. The high will be near 36 degrees, with a low around 27 degrees.
Monday was the first day of testimony and opening statements in the first-degree murder trial of Dimione Walker, 29, of Coralville, following about three days of jury selection last week.
Walker is claiming self-defense in the fatal shooting of Michael Valentine, 25, of Cedar Rapids in the Taboo Nighclub & Lounge on April 10.
Police testified after opening statements, and a video of the shooting was shown as part of day one testimony.
The prosecution opened their arguments referencing the clips of security footage that they argued will show Walker keyed in on Valentine and opened fire – with Valentine, unarmed, attempting to block his face with his hands. They said Walker fired eight rounds, striking Valentine five times, before he fell to the floor.
Sarah Hradek, Walker’s lawyer, admitted that this “isn’t a whodunit.” She said Walker shot Valentine but it was self-defense. She agreed with the prosecution that the jurors would see a video that shows Walker shooting Valentine, but she asked the jurors to keep in mind why this happened because the video wouldn’t reveal that.
The defense said they will show evidence that Valentine shot Walker in 2016, where Walker and another person were treated for injuries at a hospital
There were 10 others also injured during the club shooting. Another man, Timothy Rush, 32, of Cedar Rapids, is charged with killing Nicole Owens, 35, and Marvin L. Cox, 31, the same night. Rush’s trial is set for March 28.
The state is accusing jurors of leveling “excessive” damages and being “influenced by passion or prejudice” in awarding $12.8 million last month to a Cedar Rapids contractor who helped build the 14-story Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
The Iowa Attorney General Office — representing the University of Iowa and the state Board of Regents — in court documents gives three reasons a Johnson County District Court judge should grant a new trial and a second chance to defend against allegations from contractor Modern Piping:
They argued that the award was excessive, and appears to have been influenced by passion or prejudice; that the damages were not supported by sufficient evidence and were contrary to law; and that the university and regents were harmed by legal errors in jury instructions.
The state, in its motion for a new trial, offered an alternative remedy for what it characterized as an unjust award — either vacating the award altogether or reducing it to $2.5 million.
The court documents are the latest in the legal drama surrounding the Children’s Hospital project, the price of which has ballooned to over $400 million due to poor management, bad luck, and legal rewards.
The counting of Iowans’ votes continues a week after the Nov. 8 election as state and local officials this week will conduct...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, November 14th.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be cloudy today in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 39. Winds from the southeast 5 to 10 mph. Tonight snow is likely, mainly after 4 a.m. and a low around 30. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch is possible.
For the first time since the pandemic upended daily life across the globe and halted travel, the city of Cedar Rapids is once again doling out grants to local arts and cultural nonprofits funded through the tax it takes in from overnight hotel guests. The Cedar Rapids City Council last week awarded $525,000 in hotel-motel tax revenue for fiscal 2023 — the budget year spanning July 1 through June 30, 2023 — to 17 nonprofit organizations that fuel the city’s economy by offering arts, entertainment and recreational attractions that draw thousands of residents and visitors to town. Although payments are restarting, the award is less than half the amount the city typically distributes.
The oldest bridge in Linn County will be lifted up by cranes and put on a truck to haul it about a mile away to the Indian Creek Nature Center, where it will become a pedestrian bridge. The Bertram Bridge, also known as the Blue Bridge on Bertram Road near the nature Center, was built in 1876. The steel truss bridge’s design was brand-new for the time, and over the next 146 years no major alterations have been made. Its timber deck surface has been replaced several times over the decades and, in 1991, it received a royal blue color treatment, earning its nickname. Throughout its life so far, it served vehicle traffic and survived multiple flooding events, most notably in 1993 and 2008. The Blue Bridge will arrive to its new location during the Indian Creek Nature Center’s 50th anniversary next year. The bridge replacement project will cost $2,425,608.45 and the truss relocation will cost $184,373.00. The projects are both funded with local-option sales tax money. The new bridge will be a concrete, two-way bridge. The project is expected to be complete by August 2023.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 12, and Sunday, November 13.
It sadly was not a bad dream, it really is this cold still. According to the National Weather Service there will be a small chance of freezing drizzle before 4pm on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area, and a chance for snow flurries from 4 to 5 p.m. Otherwise it will be cloudy, with a high near 34 degrees. On Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 36 degrees and a low temperature of 24 degrees. The wind will finally calm on Sunday, breaking a string of windy days.
According to the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, widespread rainfall last week in the southeastern half of the state significantly reduced drought conditions, as indicated by the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report.
Most of that area had at least 2 inches of rain — with a maximum of 4.3 inches — and drought conditions were erased in about 16 percent of the state.
The rainfall reversed about a month’s worth of worsening dryness that had pushed the state’s overall drought to its worst in nine years.
But that rainfall missed portions of northwest Iowa that are among the driest, and areas of severe and extreme drought — the two worst drought designations — slightly expanded.
Nearly two-thirds of Iowa still is suffering from some degree of drought, which the Drought Monitor ranks using four categories: moderate, severe, extreme and exceptional. About 11 percent of the state has extreme drought or worse, in an area that centers on Sioux City at the western border and extends east to Humboldt.
According to the Associated Press, A U.S. judge in Texas has blocked President Joe Biden's plan to provide millions of borrowers with up to $20,000 apiece in federal student-loan forgiveness — a program that was already on hold as a federal appeals court considers a separate lawsuit by six states, including Iowa, challenging it.
District Court Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of former President Donald Trump based in Fort Worth, said Thursday the program usurped Congress' power to make laws.
The debt forgiveness plan would cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 in income. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, would get an additional $10,000 in debt forgiven.
According to the White House, over 400,000 Iowa borrowers would see some student loan debt forgiven under the program. Of those, nearly 250,000 are Pell Grant recipients.
The oldest bridge in Linn County will be lifted up by cranes and put on a truck to haul it about a mile away to the Indian Creek Nature Center, where it will become a pedestrian bridge.
The Bertram Bridge, also known as the Blue Bridge on Bertram Road near the nature center, was built in 1876. The steel truss bridge’s design was brand-new for the time, and over the next 146 years no major alterations have been made to it. Its timber deck surface has been replaced several times over the decades and, in 1991, it received a royal blue color treatment, earning its nickname.
Throughout its life so far, it served vehicle traffic and survived multiple flooding events, most notably in 1993 and 2008
“The bridge is old — very old,” Linn County Assistant Engineer Garret Reddish said. “Fire trucks, semis, snow plows really can’t go over it. And we have records from the 1970s talking about replacing it, so this is a project around 50 years in the works.”
The bridge will be replaced on the roadway by a normal concrete bridge.
Reddish said the Blue Bridge will remain open throughout the winter and into the spring. The plan is for it to be moved
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Veterans Day, Friday, November 11.
Temperatures fell off the side of a cliff last night and kept falling until they hit freezing. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 35 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. On Friday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 25 degrees. It will be windy, so definitely wear that coat you were already thinking of wearing. Winds of 10 to 15 mph could gust more than 20 mph.
For the second time this election week, state elections officials spent Thursday dealing with an error in Linn County as the statewide counting of Iowans’ votes from Tuesday’s election continues with another recount ordered.
In addition to a recalculation of Linn County’s vote totals due to an error in the reporting of its early vote counts, partial recounts also were conducted Thursday in Warren and Des Moines counties. The partial recounts were ordered by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate after irregularities were discovered Tuesday night. In addition, on Thursday afternoon, Pate ordered an administrative recount of absentee ballots in Scott County. All election results in Iowa are considered unofficial until they are reviewed and certified by the state’s canvassing board.
Unofficial results in Linn County came Thursday only after a recalculation of the county’s vote totals due to a second error made by the county auditor’s office.
According to the Secretary of State’s office, Linn County reported 600 more absentee ballots than the office had actually received at the time the polls closed. The discrepancy was discovered by the Secretary of State’s office, which then alerted the Linn County Auditor’s Office.
According to the Linn County Auditor’s Office, a computer froze while the county’s absentee ballot counts were being uploaded. The process was completed on a backup computer, but officials believe 600 ballots were inadvertently reported twice — once during the original attempt and again during the backup attempt.
The Linn County Auditor’s Office resolved the tabulation of the county’s votes, and the posted results were corrected, the Secretary of State’s office said. The Secretary of State’s office took the opportunity to chide the county again for not following procedures it had laid out.
A 16-year-old faces charges related to a shooting near Mount Mercy University and Regis Middle School last week that injured a Mount Mercy student and caused several schools to lock down.
Natorian Nicholas Smith, of Cedar Rapids, faces several charges in connection to the shooting. The charges against Smith were filed Thursday, though he was already being held at the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center because of a probation violation related to the shooting, according to a Cedar Rapids police news release.
Smith was reportedly involved in an exchange of gunfire just before 4 p.m. Nov. 3 near the intersection of K Avenue and Elmhurst Drive NE, police said.
A Mount Mercy cross-country runner was on his way to practice and got caught in the crossfire. He was shot in his right forearm, a non-life threatening injury, according to the criminal complaint.
Police collected video surveillance that showed an exchange of gunfire between three people in a silver Chevy Cruze and two people on foot. Investigators found more than 20 shell casings in the area and found a car, a house and a garage had each been struck by bullets, the news release said.
A police K-9 led officers to 1300 Oakland Rd., a few blocks from the shooting, where they made contact with Smith. A search warrant...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, November 10.
There will be one more day in the 70s Thursday, but it won't be the sunny and calm day Wednesday was. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for showers and thunderstorms Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area beginning at 11 a.m. and increasing as the day goes on, with the highest likelihood for rain coming around 4 pm. The temperature will peak at 72 degrees around 11 a.m., but will drop to 61 degrees later on, foreshadowing the 40 degree drop we will see by Friday. It will be windy all day, with 15 mph winds gusting as high as 30 mph.
In what could be the first test of a state law that holds county auditors criminally liable for election malfeasance, the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office said it is investigating the Linn County Auditor’s Office over a ballot error in a Linn County precinct.
The error came to light the same day that Democratic Linn County Auditor Joel Miller tried — unsuccessfully — to unseat Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate in Tuesday’s election.
The Linn County Supervisor District 1 race was missing from one of the “ballot styles” in the Putnam Township area, but it was on other ballots in Ely, which is in the area, and elsewhere in the district. Miller acknowledged the error during a news conference and said no other races on the ballot were affected.
Secretary of State Office Communications Director Kevin Hall said Wednesday that the error could be “an apparent technical violation of Iowa’s election laws.”
“If it is determined the apparent violation constitutes or may constitute election misconduct, we will refer the matter to the Attorney General and Linn County Attorney as required by Iowa law,” Hall said.
Under a law passed by the Iowa Legislature last year, county auditors can face felony charges for failing to follow guidance from the secretary of state. An auditor may face a fine of up to $10,000 for a technical infraction of state election law or failure to follow guidance from the secretary of state.
Adding to the hundreds of millions in new construction, renovations and expansions already planned or underway across its Johnson County campuses, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics this week wants state Board of Regents approval to spend another $16 million upgrading its main Iowa City location.
One $8 million project going before the board Wednesday would, if approved, allow the main campus to convert the second level of its south wing into 13 inpatient rooms — addressing a key capacity concern at the UIHC, which regularly sits above 90 percent occupancy of its 658 adult inpatient beds.
Although a 10-year UI master facilities plan the board OK’d in January didn’t specifically mention the $8 million south wing conversion, this week’s UIHC request for board approval notes the master plan “included this project.”
The UIHC plans to use patient-generated revenue to pay for the south wing conversion, aimed at taking from spring 2023 to spring 2024 to construct.
The projects come as the UIHC continues to face capacity issues, which it hopes to address in part with a new $525.6 million hospital campus in North Liberty currently under construction.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, November 9.
The weather on Wednesday will be warmer. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 72 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 64 degrees. It will be windy, with a wind of 10 to 15 mph gusting as high as 20 mph during the day, and the wind intensity increasing Wednesday evening.
Election night in Iowa went decidedly in favor of Republicans, further increasing their control over politics in the state. There are full results at thegazette.com, but if you want a summary, Republicans won nearly every available position, except for some county level positions in urban counties.
By a large margin, incumbent Governor Kim Reynolds was chosen by Iowans to serve another four years.
Reynolds, the Republican incumbent who has been Iowa’s governor since 2017 and the state’s first female governor, was reelected Tuesday over Democrat Deidre DeJear.
“From the very beginning, this campaign has been about Iowa. It’s been about you. Because it’s the people of Iowa who make this state what it is: hardworking, innovative, committed to each other,” Reynolds said Tuesday night from Iowa Republicans’ campaign headquarters in downtown Des Moines.
One big-ticket agenda item Reynolds has not achieved is her proposal to shift $55 million in taxpayer funding from public schools to private school tuition assistance. This will likely be one of the big items on her agenda in 2023. Also likely to be make appearances will be further restrictions on abortions and cuts to taxes.
“Our message for you tonight is this: We are not stopping. We are not slowing down. I am so excited to get back to work and to lay out a bold, conservative agenda and to follow through on what we say we are going to do,” she said. “It is going to be an agenda where you keep more of your money, where our schools are thriving and all parents have choice.”
Republicans swept most of Iowa's statewide offices Tuesday to add to their full control of the governor's office and Iowa Legislature, unseating the longest-serving state attorney general and state treasurer in U.S. history.
That’s according to unofficial election results from 97 of 99 Iowa counties. The only possible exception was the race for State Auditor, where Democratic incumbent Rob Sand was narrowly leading Wednesday morning — but with recounts ordered for all races in Warren and Des Moines counties.
Republicans defending their seats for the U.S. House and Senate also won reelection Tuesday. Chuck Grassley will be 95 by the time he would hypothetically have to run for re-election again. Cindy Axne, the sole Democrat in the U.S. Congressional Delegation, appears to be losing her seat by a margin of 2,000 votes, but the race remains too close to call.
Voters approved a ballot measure Tuesday further bolstering gun rights in the state, enshrining into the state constitution language that would declare Iowans’ right to gun ownership in strong legal terms.
With most Iowa precinct reporting late Tuesday, the measure was passing by nearly 66 percent approval with over 700,000 Iowans voting in favor.
Iowa voters were asked to add language to the Iowa Constitution that states it is a “fundamental individual right” to keep and bear arms, and that any restraint on that right is invalid unless it meets the stringent demands of “strict scrutiny” in court.
The language sets a high legal bar and goes beyond protections contained in the Second Amendment by dictating the level of judicial review Iowa courts must apply when considering whether gun restrictions in the state are permissible. In layman’s terms, gun control legislation is now very difficult to pass in...
Happy Election Day
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 8.
Your Election Day weather will be sunny and breezy. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 57 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday. On Tuesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 50 degrees. A wind of 10 to 15 mph could gust as high as 20 mph.
Polls are open 7:00 am – 8:00 pm in Iowa on Tuesday so remember to vote if you have not already. Then check back into thegazette.com later on for election results and coverage.
Four years after taking over the sprawling Kirkwood Community College system in 2018 as its fifth president --- and its first female top leader — Lori Sundberg, 64, announced plans Monday to retire next fall.
The Cedar Rapids-based Kirkwood board of trustees will launch a nationwide search for her successor “in the coming months,” according to an announcement of Sundberg’s departure. The goal, Sundberg told The Gazette, is to name a new president by summer.
Sundberg plans to stay on through Kirkwood’s next Higher Learning Commission accreditation visit in October 2023, giving her time to help onboard a new president and avoid an interim leader.
A University of Iowa inspection of the sixth-floor Mayflower Residence Hall window a freshman fell from early last Thursday has confirmed “no problems with the window and that it operates normally,” officials told The Gazette.
The first-year male student who fell, according to initial reports, was playing catch with other students in a residence hall room just before 4:30 a.m. Thursday when he “leaned back and fell through the screen of an open window.”
He landed on the north roof of Mayflower Residence Hall — meaning he fell about five stories, according to UI officials. The student was able to speak with first responders, who took him to the UI Hospitals and Clinics for treatment. The university hasn’t publicly shared more details on his condition.
A preliminary assessment found no foul play, but the incident does remain under investigation.
Two separate groups of co-workers from Hiawatha businesses split $50,000 lottery winnings late last week.
The Iowa Lottery announced that a group of 21 co-workers from the Hiawatha engineering firm Hall & Hall Engineers Inc. split $50,000 from Wednesday’s Powerball drawing. The group’s ticket was just one number from winning the $1.2 billion jackpot.
A separate group of 10 co-workers from the Hiawatha manufacturer RUD Chain also split $50,000 from Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, according to the Iowa lottery.
With no jackpot winners, the Powerball has climbed to $1.9 billion.
all has climbed to $1.9 billion.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, November 7th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 50 in the Cedar Rapids area today. Winds from the north 5 to 10 mph then from the northeast in the afternoon. And tonight should be partly cloudy, with a low around 35. An Illinois man described as a suspect in the fatal shooting of one female and accused of injuring two others by gunfire, east of St. Louis, was arrested in Cedar Rapids Saturday night, according to the Belleville (Ill.) Police Department. At 9:50 a.m. Saturday, Belleville police responded to a woman who called for help at a residence. Arriving officers found three females who had been shot. Two were taken to a hospital and the third was deceased at the scene, according to the release. One of the surviving victims, hospitalized in St. Louis, is in critical condition and the other is in stable condition. Police said there is a family relationship between the suspect, identified as 47-year-old Markeith Wright and the victims, and investigators believe the incident began as a domestic disturbance. According to arrest records, Cedar Rapids police took Wright into custody at 9:44 p.m. Saturday at Cedar Valley Townhomes at 3000 J St. SW. The St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s Office in Illinois has charged Wright with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery. His Illinois bond was set at $1,500,000. A University of Iowa inspection of the sixth-floor Mayflower Residence Hall window a freshman fell from early Thursday has confirmed “no problems with the window and that it operates normally,” officials told The Gazette. The first-year male student who fell, according to initial reports, was playing catch with other students in a residence hall room just before 4:30 a.m. Thursday when he “leaned back and fell through the screen of an open window.” He landed on the north roof of Mayflower Residence Hall — meaning he fell about five stories, according to UI officials. The student was able to speak with first responders, who took him to the UI Hospitals and Clinics for treatment. The university hasn’t publicly shared more details on his condition. A preliminary assessment found no foul play, and the incident was completely accidental. The incident does remain under investigation, however. Several UI residence hall policies could come into play in the UI investigation — including ones involving room windows and screens, which aren’t to be unhooked, for example. UI Housing and Dining also has policies around “hall sports,” barring “using rollerblades, roller skates, or skateboards, and throwing or bouncing balls or athletic equipment.” – 🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 5, and Sunday, November 6. The weekend will likely start with a continuation of Friday’s rain, but it should end up a mostly sunny affair overall. According to the National Weather Service, showers are likely, mainly before 1 p.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be cloudy, with the skies eventually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 50 degrees. It will also be breezy, with a wind of 10 to 15 mph gusting as high as 35 mph. The wind will calm as the day goes on and the clouds depart. On Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with a low near 45 degrees. On Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 59 degrees. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 36 degrees. There was an update Friday on the shooting near three schools that caused lockdowns the day before. A Mount Mercy University cross-country runner was injured when he was caught in a shooting Thursday afternoon while on his way to practice. The 21-year-old student, whose name was not released, is expected to make a full recovery, according to campus officials. The shooting happened just before 4 p.m. near Hazel Drive and Elmhurst Drive NE. Nearby schools Mount Mercy University, Regis Middle and Garfield Elementary all went into lock down. Cedar Rapids police believe the student was inadvertently caught in gunfire between two or more shooters. In an email sent to parents, Regis Principal Josh Gredys said the individual who was shot was transported to Regis “for safety and care. Due to the nature of this situation, students may have seen the injured person, in addition to blood from the wound.” The injured Mount Mercy student was treated at the middle school before being transported by ambulance to a hospital. Police say his injuries are not life-threatening. A judge Friday granted a motion to have a Marion man, who is accused of fatally assaulting his 19-day-old infant, undergo a mental evaluation. His murder case is suspended pending the outcome. Sixth Judicial District Judge Jason Besler said https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/marion-father-charged-with-killing-infant-after-dropping-slamming-on-floor/ (Samuel Elijah Goodwin, 23,) will have an evaluation by an independent psychologist, as requested by defense, and a status conference will be set in early January. Pending the results of that evaluation, the prosecution may ask the court to have another evaluation by a state psychologist. Goodwin, charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death, admitted to police to assaulting the infant by throwing him in a crib and slamming his head into the floor because he wouldn’t stop crying, according to a criminal complaint. It’s time for another Fall Back transition. Daylight saving time is out, and standard time is in this weekend. Standard time begins at 2 a.m. local time Sunday and lasts until March 12. Remember to set your manual clocks back an hour before going to bed Saturday night. The time change means darkness will arrive earlier in the evening but it will be lighter earlier in the morning than now.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 5, and Sunday, November 6. The weekend will likely start with a continuation of Friday’s rain, but it should end up a mostly sunny affair overall. According to the National Weather Service, showers are likely, mainly before 1 p.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be cloudy, with the skies eventually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 50 degrees. It will also be breezy, with a wind of 10 to 15 mph gusting as high as 35 mph. The wind will calm as the day goes on and the clouds depart. On Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with a low near 45 degrees. On Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 59 degrees. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 36 degrees. There was an update Friday on the shooting near three schools that caused lockdowns the day before. A Mount Mercy University cross-country runner was injured when he was caught in a shooting Thursday afternoon while on his way to practice. The 21-year-old student, whose name was not released, is expected to make a full recovery, according to campus officials. The shooting happened just before 4 p.m. near Hazel Drive and Elmhurst Drive NE. Nearby schools Mount Mercy University, Regis Middle and Garfield Elementary all went into lock down. Cedar Rapids police believe the student was inadvertently caught in gunfire between two or more shooters. In an email sent to parents, Regis Principal Josh Gredys said the individual who was shot was transported to Regis “for safety and care. Due to the nature of this situation, students may have seen the injured person, in addition to blood from the wound.” The injured Mount Mercy student was treated at the middle school before being transported by ambulance to a hospital. Police say his injuries are not life-threatening. A judge Friday granted a motion to have a Marion man, who is accused of fatally assaulting his 19-day-old infant, undergo a mental evaluation. His murder case is suspended pending the outcome. Sixth Judicial District Judge Jason Besler said https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/marion-father-charged-with-killing-infant-after-dropping-slamming-on-floor/ (Samuel Elijah Goodwin, 23,) will have an evaluation by an independent psychologist, as requested by defense, and a status conference will be set in early January. Pending the results of that evaluation, the prosecution may ask the court to have another evaluation by a state psychologist. Goodwin, charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death, admitted to police to assaulting the infant by throwing him in a crib and slamming his head into the floor because he wouldn’t stop crying, according to a criminal complaint. It’s time for another Fall Back transition. Daylight saving time is out, and standard time is in this weekend. Standard time begins at 2 a.m. local time Sunday and lasts until March 12. Remember to set your manual clocks back an hour before going to bed Saturday night. The time change means darkness will arrive earlier in the evening but it will be lighter earlier in the morning than now.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, November 4. It's going to be rainy and colder on Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for rain virtually all of Friday, with that rain chance carrying over into Saturday as well. The high will drop down to 67 degrees, with a low of 46 degrees. Police responded Thursday afternoon to reports of a shooting in northeast Cedar Rapids that left one person injured and triggered lockdowns at three area schools while officers investigated. The shooting was reported at around 3:35 p.m. in the area of Elmhurst Drive and Hazel Drive, near Mount Mercy University, Regis Middle School and Garfield Elementary. Mike Battien, Cedar Rapids Police Department’s public safety spokesman, said one adult male was injured and went to Regis seeking medical help. The victim was identified by Mount Mercy University as a student who was out for a jog at the time of the shooting. Battien said the student “may have been an innocent bystander.” He was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Battien said police were working to identify the shooter or shooters, and it’s possible people were shooting at each other in the area when the jogger was hit. A University of Iowa student has been hospitalized after falling out of a sixth-floor window at Mayflower Residence Hall early Thursday. UI police were called to Mayflower at 4:22 a.m. for a report of a student falling out the window and landing on the hall’s north roof — meaning he fell about five stories, according to UI Public Safety spokeswoman Hayley Bruce. Initial reports are that the fall was an accident. Students said they were “playing around in a residence hall room when one student leaned back and fell through the screen of an open window,” Bruce said. The student, who was not identified, was able to speak with first responders when they arrived, and he was transported to UI Hospitals and Clinics for treatment. More than seven years after a Cedar Rapids contractor first sued the University of Iowa over delayed payment for work on a pair of high-profile projects — Hancher Auditorium and the Stead Family Children’s Hospital — a jury has delivered another blow to the UI, ordering it to pay another $12.8 million to the contractor. A jury last week deliberated just over an hour before finding the UI in April 2016 wrongfully blocked the American Arbitration Association from refereeing its disputes with Modern Piping on both the Hancher and hospital projects. The judgment will further swell expenses tied to the 14-story Children’s Hospital — which originally had a $270.8 million price tag but as of today has cost more than $400 million The latest judgment against UI is essentially a penalty for dragging its feet after losing a ruling against Modern Piping. As a result of the delay, Modern Piping filed a counterclaim seeking compensation for all the costs of the university’s original refusal to arbitrate.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, November 3. One last day of sunny and pleasant weather for the week. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 73 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday. It will be breezy, with a wind of 15 to 20 mph gusting as high as 35 mph. On Thursday night there will be a low of around 60 degrees. A chance for rainfall will increase as Thursday heads into Friday morning. A new ramp and exit change are coming Thursday morning for drivers traveling south on Interstate 380 to Interstate 80, as work continues on the massive reconstruction of the Interstates 80 and 380 interchange. The new I-380 southbound to I-80 westbound ramp is opening, which will simplify the interchange, according to an update from the Iowa Department of Transportation. Earlier this year, in August,https://www.thegazette.com/news/new-flyover-ramp-opening-at-i-80-i-380-interchange/ ( the last loop ramp closed and the flyover ramp from I-380 southbound to I-80 eastbound opened.) Come Thursday morning, southbound traffic on I-380 to will use one exit — Exit 0 — to travel in either direction on I-80. The exit point for Exit 0 will be about a quarter mile earlier than expected. After exiting, traffic will split into two depending on which direction they plan to travel on I-80. Drivers heading east toward Davenport should keep left and use the new flyover ramp that opened in August. Anyone heading west on I-80 toward Des Moines should keep right. A judge has denied a motion to dismiss the first degree murder charge against Dimione Walker — one of two men accused in April’s fatal shooting inside the https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/coralville-man-charged-in-taboo-deadly-shooting-wants-to-subpoena-police-records/ (Taboo Nightclub & Lounge.) The motion, filed earlier this month by Walker’s attorneys, claimed that his right to a speedy trial was violated because his trial did not take place within 90 days of the trial information being filed. Sixth Judicial District Judge Andrew Chappell heard arguments Monday https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/judge-considering-motion-to-dismiss-charges-for-accused-taboo-shooter/ (during a hearing) and denied the motion Wednesday. Walker, 28, of Coralville, is accused of killing Michael Valentine, 25, in the April 10 shooting at the downtown Cedar Rapids club. Police said another man, Timothy Rush, 32, of Cedar Rapids, https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/amended-charges-filed-against-accused-taboo-shooter-after-death-of-victim/ (killed two others). Ten people were injured. Judge Chappell argued in favor of the prosecution having good cause for the delay for the trial, as authorities in Illinois had delayed Walker’s extradition after he had been arrested there. Iowa schools must consider the requests of families with medically vulnerable students who wish to have teachers and classmates near the students wear face masks, a federal judge ruled this week. Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday said she will appeal the ruling. The ruling comes from a lawsuit in which 11 Iowa families from 10 school districts asked the courts to block a state law passed in 2021 that prohibits schools from requiring staff and students to wear face masks, a common mitigation practice early in the global COVID-19 pandemic. What the ruling means is Iowa law still prohibits schools from requiring all staff and students to wear face masks but that districts must consider accommodating medically vulnerable students who request staff and students near them wear masks.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, November 2. The great weather continues! According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 76 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday. On Wednesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 53 degrees. Two Iowa teenagers killed their high school Spanish teacher last year after being frustrated over a bad grade. Prosecutors made the claim Tuesday in court documents that for the first time reveal a possible motive for the murder. According to reporting from the Associated Press, the documents were filed ahead of a hearing Wednesday where a judge will hear arguments on whether to suppress any of the evidence against Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale, https://apnews.com/article/homicide-iowa-conspiracy-des-moines-fairfield-ed4457ea50af4d77e3ee5ba601e44834 (who are charged with murdering high school Spanish teacher Nohema Graber in Fairfield on November 3, 2021.) In a police interview, Miller described the frustrations he had with the way Graber taught Spanish and over how the grade in her class was lowering his GPA. “The poor grade is believed to be the motive behind the murder of Graber, which directly connects Miller,” court documents filed by Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding and Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown said. Miller initially denied any involvement in Graber’s disappearance but “later stated he had knowledge of everything but did not participate,” according to court documents. He told police that the real killers — a “roving group of masked kids” — forced him to provide his wheelbarrow to help move her body and to drive her van from the park. Miller’s defense attorneys are seeking to invalidate four search warrants and suppress evidence from Miller's home, comments he made to police and information taken from his cellphone, and the social media platform Snapchat. With more than a year of construction to go on a new 38,500-square-foot, two-level Hawkeye wrestling practice facility, the University of Iowa is moving to officially name it after a family that made the $7 million lead gift. The “Goschke Family Wrestling Training Center” will honor Doug and Ann Goschke — Iowa natives who split their time between Iowa and Florida. Officials said the facility — which originally was expected to cost $17.3 million before inflation and an expanded scope for the new women’s wrestling team https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/inflation-drives-up-budget-for-new-hawkeye-wrestling-facility/ (drove the price up) to $31.6 million — will be funded entirely by gifts. The current Carver Circle campaign has raised nearly $27 million in gift commitments to date. Construction adjacent Carver-Hawkeye Arena, where the wrestling teams compete, began in summer 2022 and is scheduled for completion in spring 2024. Teamsters Local 238 signed a new three-year agreement with Archer Daniels Midland Tuesday, averting a strike at the multinational food processor’s facility in Cedar Rapids. The union’s previous contract with ADM, based in Chicago, had expired at midnight. The new agreement was effective immediately. Jesse Case, secretary-treasurer of local 238, said in a statement the new agreement includes an immediate 6 percent across-the-board raise for the first year, a $5,000 ratification bonus, 40 hours of sick leave, eight additional hours of personal leave and “additional premium pay for many classifications.” The ADM facility employs 450 workers with an additional 200 to 300 skilled-trade contractors also on site.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 1. The next three days are going to be nice, weather wise, and then the cold and wet fall weather is going to be returning. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny with a high near 74 degrees on Tuesday with a light wind. On Tuesday night it will be clear, with a low of around 46 degrees A Cedar Rapids man died after crashing his vehicle while fleeing from police early Monday in Cedar Rapids. Just after 2 a.m., Cedar Rapids police attempted a traffic stop for traffic violations on a black Chevy Tahoe on 33rd Avenue SW. The Tahoe was being driven by 38-year-old Jamie Hill. Police said Hill fled from officers onto Interstate 380 southbound. Around 2:15 a.m., he exited I-380 and took the Highway 30 West exit, where he lost control of the vehicle and rolled several times. He was pronounced dead as a result of the crash. The incident is being investigated by the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Iowa State Patrol. Defense attorneys for one of two men accused in April’s fatal shooting inside thehttps://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/coralville-man-charged-in-taboo-deadly-shooting-wants-to-subpoena-police-records/ ( Taboo Nightclub & Lounge )argued that charges should be dropped against him due to the prosecution violating his right to a speedy trial. 28-year-old Dimione Walker, of Coralville, is accused of killing Michael Valentine, 25, in the April 10 shooting at the downtown Cedar Rapids club. Police said another man, Timothy Rush, 32, of Cedar Rapids, killed two others. Ten people were injured in total. In a motion earlier this month Walker’s lawyers said that his rights were violated because his trial did not take place within 90 days of when the trial information was filed. The trial information was filed in May, before Walker had been https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/coralville-man-returned-to-iowa-to-face-murder-charge-in-taboo-shooting/ (extradited to Iowa). District Attorney Nick Maybanks said that local authorities tried repeatedly to get Walker to Linn County quickly, but authorities in Illinois, where he had been arrested, were resistant. The defense countered that the prosecution could have gotten around this problem by filing charges against him after he was extradited back to Iowa. Judge Andrew Chappell oversaw Monday’s hearing, and will determine the fate of the motion and other motions, at a later date. According to the Associated Press there were no winners in Monday’s Powerball drawing, which means a massive payout awaits on Wednesday. The lack of a winner means the next drawing Wednesday night will be for a $1.2 billion jackpot. The increased jackpot will be the https://apnews.com/article/iowa-aa10b4a420901f35ee98adb41c76c67d (4th-largest in U.S. history). The biggest prize was a https://apnews.com/article/2b540577dabe4d47986b66ea1ffbfbcf ($1.586 billion Powerball jackpot) won by three ticketholders in 2016. No one has hit all of the necessary six numbers since Aug. 3, meaning there have now been 38 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner. This shows just how https://apnews.com/article/mega-millions-powerball-jackpots-e39d36b5c6c5718703e42b3ba6751470 (slim the odds are) of winning the jackpot: right now the odds of winning are listed at 1 in 292.2 million.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, October 31st. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area today, with a high near 66. Winds from the northwest around 5 mph. And for Halloween night, mostly clear, with a low around 38. An Iowa City man was killed early Saturday after colliding with a semi-truck on Highway 1, according to an Iowa State Patrol report. At about 2:15 a.m. Saturday, 22-year-old Riley Reynolds was driving south in a Ford Taurus on Highway 1, about 3 miles north of Iowa City. A truck driver was completing a U-turn at 280th Street, blocking the southbound lane of Highway 1. Reynolds struck the trailer and went into the ditch, causing fatal injuries. A Cedar Rapids man pointed an AK-47 replica BB gun at officers responding to a violent burglary Saturday and threatened to kill them, according to a Linn County Attorney's Office criminal complaint. 38-year-old Jeremy Haines is accused of tearing off a Ring doorbell camera at a man's home, kicking in a deadbolted door and then kicking the man in the face while they were on basement stairs. According to the complaint, both Haines' home and the alleged victim's home are at the same house number in southeast Cedar Rapids, near Mount Vernon Road. When police arrived, Haines came out the side door of his residence, pointed the long gun at the officers, and threatened to kill them. Haines was arrested and taken to the Linn County Jail on charges of first-degree burglary with bodily injury, two counts of assault on persons in certain occupations, two counts of first-degree harassment while threatening a forcible felony, and fourth-degree criminal mischief. Haines is being held on $50,000 cash bond, according to jail records. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 29, and Sunday, October 30. The weekend will start with fog, then get cloudy, but no rain is in the forecast at the moment. According to the National Weather Service, there will be patchy fog before 9 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise it will be sunny, with a high near 64 degrees. On Saturday night it will become increasingly cloudy, with a low around 42 degrees. Sunday is predicted to be mostly cloudy with a high near 64 degrees, and a low of around 42 degrees. The wind should be calm all weekend. The city of Iowa City is taking legal action against the property and business owners of the H-Bar https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/police-identify-man-shot-in-alley-by-h-bar-in-iowa-city-2/ (following a recent fatal shooting, increased serious incidents and a spike in calls for service.) The city filed a nuisance abatement petition Friday afternoon in Johnson County District Court requesting the court require the H-Bar, located at 220 S. Van Buren St., to close between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily. The bar is currently open 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursdays and 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, according to its Facebook page. The city said in a news release Friday afternoon it is pursuing these measures “to protect the community from the ongoing serious criminal activity occurring at and around the business since its opening earlier this year.” A hearing for the city’s request for temporary injunction has been set for Dec. 1 at 10 a.m. at the Johnson County Courthouse. Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 23 of this year, there were https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/police-identify-man-shot-in-alley-by-h-bar-in-iowa-city-2/ (173 calls for service at the address). These calls ranged from fights to firearm incidents. Last Sunday, Waymond Thomas, 36, of Iowa City was struck by gunfire outside of the H-Bar following an altercation that started inside. Thomas was transported to the hospital, where he died. West Liberty Foods will close its Mount Pleasant meat-processing and slicing facility in early May of next year, eliminating 350 jobs there, the company announced Friday. The West Liberty-based company will move and consolidate operations from this location to other facilities in Iowa, Illinois and Utah, the company said in a news release Friday. The closure will occur in two phases, with the first on Dec. 31. Brian Melhus, general counsel for West Liberty Foods, told The Gazette 130 employees will be impacted in the first phase, with the remaining 220 employees impacted in the second phase. All operations will cease at the plant on May 7, 2023. West Liberty Foods also has plants in Bolingbrook, Ill., and Tremonton, Utah in addition to the West Liberty location. Melhus said the company doesn’t expect the other locations to be impacted. According to Melhus, the Mount Pleasant location specialized in producing sliced deli meats, and its business was impacted when a customer of West Liberty Food decided to slice its meat in store.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, October 28. The temperatures keep slowly ticking upward after a cold start to the week. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Friday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 61 degrees. On Friday night it will be clear, with a low of around 34 degrees. Ingredion and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 100G have agreed to meet face to face next Tuesday for the first time in more than a month. The local has been on strike at the multinational ingredients manufacturer’s https://www.thegazette.com/business/ingredion-union-workers-object-to-proposed-overtime-changes-job-cuts/ (Cedar Rapid facility since Aug. 1.) Mike Moore, the local union’s principal and president, would not disclose the location of the Nov. 1 meeting but said he would attend with only his negotiating team — no other union members would be present — and Ingredion officials had agreed they would not bring security personnel. A Sept. 21 meeting with the Westchester, Ill.-based manufacturer ended when both parties were asked to leave the Hotel at Kirkwood Center after the two sides became heated over Ingredion officials bringing armed security professionals with them. The two sides have met via video conferences since then. Two 19-year-olds were arrested Wednesday on charges that they vandalized several cars, a building and street signs in Marion in July. The graffiti included “KKK,” “I am a Nazi” and swastikas, according to the Marion Police Department Gary Alan Jacobsen III, of Cedar Rapids, and Zane Alexander Wilcox-Thomas, of Marion, are each facing four counts of third-degree burglary of a vehicle, and one count each of third-degree burglary, first-degree criminal mischief, conspiracy to commit nonforcible felony, trafficking stolen weapons, conspiracy to commit aggravated misdemeanor and person ineligible to carry dangerous weapons. Police interviewed a third subject, identified in criminal complaints as Koda Shane Holst, and are pursuing the same charges against him, according to police. The three men entered a garage in the 1100 block of 10th Street in Marion on July 21 and stole spray paint cans, which they used to vandalize several cars, personal property and city of Marion property, causing more than $10,000 in damage, according to a criminal complaint. Marion investigators identified the three suspects after finding cell phone pictures that were taken the night of the incident and showed all three wearing the same clothing they were seen in on a home security camera system, according to the news release. The incident was investigated to determine if any of the crimes committed could be considered hate crimes, but no evidence was found to warrant the additional charges, according to police. In a question placed on the ballot by a group calling for a moratorium on wind energy and solar farms, Tama County voters will decide next month whether to increase the number of county supervisors from three to five. The Tama County Against Turbines group gathered more than 1,000 signatures earlier this year, as required by law. At least 908 signatures were required based on how many people in Tama County voted in the last presidential election. Tama County Against Turbines is a group of residents who have been speaking since April at Tama County Board of Supervisors meetings during public comments, calling for a moratorium on permitting any new industrial wind or solar projects in the county until the county has updated its ordinances governing them. If the Tama County measure passes, all five of its supervisor seats would be up for election in November 2024. Before then, a redistricting commission would draw up maps for the five equal-population districts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, October 27. It will be another pleasant fall day on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 58 degrees. On Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 37 degrees. Art Sathoff, the recently retired superintendent of the Indianola Community School District, was named Wednesday as the interim superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District. The vote was 6-1, with Dexter Merschbrock opposed. He did not give an explanation from the dais of his vote. https://www.thegazette.com/k/rock-star-cedar-rapids-superintendent-noreen-bush-dies/ (Former Superintendent Noreen Bush), 51, died Sunday. She was diagnosed with cancer more than two years ago. Friends and colleagues said Bush was a “rock star,” “leader among leaders” and a “model for doing what’s right for kids.” Bush went on family medical leave in September. The school board approved her resignation letter last month, effective June 30, setting in motion a superintendent search process. Former president Donald Trump is coming to Iowa next month to campaign for the Republicans on the ballot, and, presumably, himself. Trump plans to hold a campaign rally at Sioux City’s Gateway Airport on Thursday, Nov. 3 — just five days before Election Day, the Trump campaign announced Wednesday. Trump plans to deliver remarks in support of his effort to advance his agenda and to energize voters to support Republican candidates Trump has endorsed, including Grassley and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, the Trump campaign said. Trump’s last visit to Iowa was just more than a year ago: he endorsed Grassley — to a mixed reaction from the crowd gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds — https://www.thegazette.com/government-politics/trump-returns-to-iowa-amid-record-favorable-ratings/ (during a rally )last October. This time, Trump will be speaking in the hometown of Mike Franken, the Democratic opponent who is running closer to Grassley than any of Grassley’s previous six re-election opponents, according to polling and fundraising.https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2022/10/15/iowa-us-senate-race-chuck-grassley-mike-franken-poll-election/69562063007/ ( A recent Mediacom/Des Moines Register Iowa Pol)l said Franken was within 3 percentage points of Grassley, who won his previous six re-election bids by an average of 35 points. Navigator Heartland Greenway this week became the second developer of a carbon dioxide sequestration pipeline to ask Iowa regulars to allow it to use eminent domain to force landowners to sell it easements for the underground hazardous pipeline route. In a filing Tuesday with the three-member Iowa Utilities Board, Navigator asked for a permit to build its C02 pipeline from Northwest to Southeast Iowa for 811 miles. Early this year, another CO2 pipeline developer — Summit Carbon Solutions — also asked regulators to allow it to use eminent domain to build its pipeline through 30 Iowa counties in Northern and Western Iowa, according to its permit application. Developers of CO2 pipelines stand to get billions of dollars in tax subsidies. Iowa law gives the Iowa Utilities Board authority to allow eminent domain for things like electric transmission lines and underground pipelines. To be granted this power, municipal governments or private companies must show their projects serve a public use. If the power of eminent domain is granted, a county compensation commission determines fair market value for the properties.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, October 26. The sun returns on Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service it should be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday with a high near 57 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 37 degrees. A mild wind will calm as the day goes on. An Independence elementary school principal has been sanctioned by the state for violating Iowa’s law on school seclusion and restraint. The mother who filed the complaint says her 6-year-old daughter was held in a seclusion room for 12 minutes — not for being violent as the law requires for this drastic measure — but for lying on the floor and refusing to follow directions. The final order between the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners and Principal Kathryn “Kay” Reidy, says Reidy has agreed to complete 15 in-person hours of “Ethics in Education” and complete a course on seclusion and restraint in education. If she fails to do either of these things in one year, Reidy’s professional license will be suspended, the order states. Independence Superintendent Russ Reiter said in an email Tuesday that Reidy, an educator for 27 years, was “not directly involved in any recent instances of seclusion,” but as principal “takes responsibility for the actions of students and staff in her building.” In Iowa, educators may use seclusion or restraint only to prevent “an imminent threat of bodily injury,” to prevent serious property damage or when a student’s actions threaten to disrupt the learning environment, according to https://www.thegazette.com/education/state-approves-new-rules-for-school-seclusion-and-restraint/ (new rules enacted in January 2021). A teen arrested three weeks ago on a drunken driving charge kept driving despite a revoked license and caused a crash Monday night, killing a woman and seriously injuring another, according to police and court records. Zawadi Christophe, 18, of Cedar Rapids, is charged with one count of homicide by vehicle — OWI, one count of serious injury by vehicle — OWI and one count of driving under suspension, according to a criminal complaint. Around 9 p.m. Monday, Christophe was driving west in a gray Dodge Journey in the 800 block of First Avenue W, Cedar Rapids police said, when he rear-ended a BMW sport utility vehicle that was also heading west. The crash caused the BMW to veer into oncoming traffic, where it was hit by a Dodge Ram driving the opposite way. A passenger in the BMW, 77-year-old Judy Hoover of Cedar Rapids, died in the crash. The driver of the BMW, 73-year-old Joanne Swenka of Marion, sustained serious injuries, including a brain bleed, skull fractures, facial fractures, several broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a spinal cord fracture, a pelvis fracture and blood in her abdomen, according to the criminal complaint. Swenka was transported to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for treatment. Christophe had his first appearance on the charges in court Tuesday and is being held in the Linn County Correctional Center on a $100,000 cash-only bail. In new international university rankings out Tuesday comparing an expanding number of research institutions and their scholarly impact across multiple disciplines, both of Iowa’s ranked universities continued to lose ground — with Iowa State University sliding 26 spots. The University of Iowa fell six spots to No. 180 from https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-iowa-state-lose-ground-in-u-s-news-world-report-global-rankings/ (last year’s No. 174) — 27 spots below its 2018 ranking at No. 153, according to the U.S. News & World Report list, which is in its ninth year. ISU’s 26-spot drop — in the same year it left the prestigious research-focused Association of American Universities — took it from No. 237 to No. 263. To rank universities on a global level, U.S. News used feedback from reputational surveys aggregated...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, October 25. Monday's rainfall could continue a bit into Tuesday morning, but it should be more sparse overall. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance of showers before noon, and a small chance of rain after 3 p.m. Other than that, it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 51 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be mostly cloudy with the clouds gradually clearing. There will be a low of around 37 degrees. Iowa City police have identified the man who was fatally shot outside a bar early Sunday morning. Waymond Thomas, 36, of Iowa City was struck by gunfire outside of H-Bar, at 220 S. Van Buren St. At 1:59 a.m. on Sunday, police were dispatched to the H-Bar for a report of multiple shots fired in the alley. The https://www.iowa-city.org/IcgovApps/police/Details?dispatchNumber=22165446 (police activity log) says “about 6 shots” were heard. Thomas was transported to the hospital, where he died. According to records provided to The Gazette, there has been a sharp increase in the number of times police were called to H-Bar this year. The logs show there were no calls to 220 S. Van Buren St. in 2021. However, between Jan. 1 and Oct. 23 of this year, there were 173 calls for service at the address. “We increased our patrols around H-Bar this summer and will continue to do so,” said Lee Hermiston, ICPD’s public safety information officer. “We have also increased patrols around Downtown in order to keep community members safe.” The COVID-19 pandemic spared no state or region as it caused historic learning setbacks for America's children, erasing decades of academic progress and widening racial disparities, according to results of a national test that provides the sharpest look yet at the scale of the crisis. Those are findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the "nation's report card," which tested thousands of fourth and eighth-graders across the country. It was the first time the test had been given since 2019, and it's seen as the first nationally representative study of the pandemic's impact on learning. Across the country, there were the largest decreases to math scores since the numbers have been tracked. Reading scores dropped to 1992 levels. Nearly four in 10 eighth-graders failed to grasp basic math concepts. Not a single state saw a notable improvement in their average test scores, with some like Iowa simply treading water at best. Even though Iowa fourth-graders were only holding their own on math, they still did significantly better than the nation as a whole. Iowa is one of 16 states — including neighbors Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and South Dakota — that outperformed the nation in fourth-grade math. The test is typically given every two years. It was taken between January and March by a sample of students in every state, along with 26 of the nation's largest school districts. Scores had been stalling even before the pandemic, but the new results show decreases on a scale not seen before. Iowa football has not publicly named a starting quarterback yet for its upcoming game against Northwestern. Monday’s depth chart lists the starter as Spencer Petras or Alex Padilla. It’s a change from past depth charts, which listed Petras as the first-team quarterback and Padilla as the second-team quarterback. Iowa sidelined Petras after he went 6-for-14 for 49 yards and had two interceptions and a fumble against the No. 2 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. Padilla went for a somehow comparatively better 5-for-10 for 32 yards, with one interception, after he was subbed in.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, October 24th. According to the National Weather Service, showers and thunderstorms are likely in the Cedar Rapids area before 2 p.m., then showers and possibly a thunderstorm between 2 and 4 p.m., then showers after 4 p.m. The high will be near 73. It will be breezy, with a south wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. There is a 90% chance of precipitation. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch are possible. Then tonight, more showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 2 a.m., With a low temperature around 45. “Rock star” and “leader among leaders” Cedar Rapids schools’ Superintendent Noreen Bush, who was diagnosed with cancer more than two years ago, died Sunday. She was 51. Cedar Rapids school board member Jen Neumann said Bush was a “small woman with the largest shoes ever” and it will be hard to fill her role atop Iowa’s second largest school district, with about 16,000 students. The school board earlier planned to meet Monday to appoint an interim superintendent. Bush went on medical leave in September. The board last month accepted her resignation effective June 30. Bush graduated from the UNI with a bachelor’s degree in English education. She earned her master’s in educational leadership administration and superintendent’s certification from Drake. Bush began her career in education as an English and drama and forensics teacher in Clayton, Mo. Before coming to Cedar Rapids schools in 2019, Bush worked as a principal in the College Community School District. Bush was named 2021-22 Iowa Superintendent of the Year by the School Administrators of Iowa. She was nominated by her peers and selected for the award by a committee of other Iowa superintendents. A man died at the hospital after he was struck by gunfire outside an Iowa City bar early Sunday morning, according to an Iowa City Police Department news release. At 1:59 a.m., police were dispatched to the H-Bar, at 220 S. Van Buren St., for a report of multiple shots fired in the alley. Before officers arrived, reports came in that one person was shot. At the scene, police found a man suffering from at least one gunshot wound. They provided emergency medical aid until an ambulance arrived and transported the man to a hospital, where he died. Iowa City police are seeking assistance from anyone who has additional information or security camera footage of the incident. In August, a woman was seriously injured in a similar shots-fired incident in the alley outside the H-Bar. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
Fewer Eastern Iowa youth charged after changes made to police programs in schools https://www.thegazette.com/k/fewer-eastern-iowa-youth-charged-after-changes-made-to-police-programs-in-schools/ Changes made to the Cedar Rapids schools’ resource officer program — police in schools — is contributing to fewer children being charged with a crime in schools and decreasing the racial disparity of those complaints, according to data from the Iowa Department of Human Rights. There has been a 49 percent reduction in complaints made in schools in the 6th Judicial District — Linn, Johnson, Tama, Benton, Jones and Iowa counties — since 2019. There also has been a reduction in racial disparity with Black students making up 33.9 percent of complaints, down from 53.9 percent in 2019. Amid legal battle, Cedar Rapids to drop racial requirement for Citizen Review Board membership https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/amid-legal-battle-cedar-rapids-to-drop-racial-requirement-for-citizen-review-board-membership/ The city of Cedar Rapids is preparing to eliminate a rule requiring that five of the nine-member Citizen Review Board identify as people of color. The move comes after a federal judge blocked enforcement of the policy pending the outcome of a lawsuit alleging the rule is racially discriminatory. According to a draft policy shared with the board Thursday, the amended ordinance states the mayor and City Council shall “strive to include members from a diverse background,” including people who identify as a racial or ethnic minority. The change will do away with the requirement that the board include a specific number of people who identify as people of color. U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams issued a ruling last week that bars enforcement of the rule pending the outcome of Cedar Rapids man Kevin Wymore’s lawsuit against the city and Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell. Wymore, a white man, asserts in his lawsuit that the rule about who can serve on the board is racially discriminatory. Appeals court puts student loan relief program on hold https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/gop-led-states-appealing-dismissal-of-suit-over-student-loan-relief/ A federal appeals court late Friday issued an administrative stay temporarily blocking President Joe Biden's plan to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay while it considers a motion from six Republican-led states including Iowa to block the loan cancellation program. The stay ordered the Biden administration not to act on the program while it considers the appeal. But the order came just days after people began applying for loan forgiveness, so it was not clear yet how the stay would impact those have already applied.
Linn County supervisors allocate $13M in ARPA funds to services, infrastructure https://www.thegazette.com/news/linn-county-supervisors-allocate-13m-in-arpa-funds-to-services-infrastructure/ (https://www.thegazette.com/news/linn-county-supervisors-allocate-13m-in-arpa-funds-to-services-infrastructure/) Thirty-three community projects received a boost Wednesday with a Linn County Board of Supervisors vote to allocate $13 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds toward area social service and infrastructure projects. Among the projects helped Wednesday is the Cedar Rapids Public Library, which had the biggest ask of $6 million for a new west-side library and opportunity center — offering a wide variety of social services and a food pantry — to replace the Ladd Library, currently at 3750 Williams Blvd. SW. The supervisors allocated about $4 million toward that project, with the city planning to contribute more. Bird flu detected in backyard flock in Iowa https://www.thegazette.com/news/bird-flu-detected-in-backyard-flock-in-iowa/ (https://www.thegazette.com/news/bird-flu-detected-in-backyard-flock-in-iowa/) State and federal agriculture officials on Thursday confirmed a new case of the highly transmissible bird flu in a backyard flock in Dallas County. No confirmed cases of bird flu had been reported on Iowa farms or in an Iowa backyard since early May. But in early September, two dead, wild geese in Eastern Iowa had the virus, and three ducks shot by hunters in western Iowa in mid-September also had it, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported. Bird flu has re-emerged as wild birds begin their fall migration south, and has put Iowa chicken and turkey farmers on alert for a second round of the deadly, highly transmissible bird flu, which destroyed 13 million Iowa birds last spring. Mapleton man 5th Iowa Lottery winner of at least $1 million this year https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/mapleton-man-5th-iowa-lottery-winner-of-at-least-1-million-this-year/ Daryl Ingram, of Mapleton, claimed his $1 million prize in the Iowa Lottery on Thursday, becoming the fifth million-dollar lottery winner in Iowa this year. Ingram, 62, who is retired from trucking and still farms, purchased his winning Powerball ticket at KCK’s Food and Fuel in Danbury in Woodbury County, according to the Iowa Lottery. His ticket came within one number of winning at least a share of the $485 million jackpot. Ingram said he plans to use his winnings to pay off his home, invest for the future, and take a trip with his girlfriend, according to the Iowa Lottery. Two more million-dollar prizes remain unclaimed: a $2 million winner sold at a Casey’s in Forest City, and a $1 million winner sold at a Gateway Express in Ames, according to the Iowa Lottery.
Iowa COVID-19 hospitalizations are at the lowest level since May https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/iowa-covid-19-hospitalizations-at-lowest-level-since-may/ (https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/iowa-covid-19-hospitalizations-at-lowest-level-since-may/) The number of new COVID-19 cases in Iowa dropped for the seventh consecutive week, to 1,508, down from last week’s 1,718 new infections, according to numbers released Wednesday. To date, 861,010 people have tested positive in Iowa since the pandemic arrived in the state in March 2020, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Linn County reported 135 new infections in the past week, down from 162 the previous week. The county has recorded 61,047 people testing positive since March 2020. Johnson County added 124 new cases, down from 148 reported the previous week. A total of 42,553 people in Johnson County have tested positive since March 2020. Johnson County is no longer on the Wolf CO2 pipeline route https://www.thegazette.com/energy/johnson-county-no-longer-on-the-wolf-co2-pipeline-route/ (https://www.thegazette.com/energy/johnson-county-no-longer-on-the-wolf-co2-pipeline-route/) A pipeline proposed to transport carbon dioxide from ADM plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton no longer would go through Johnson County, developers reported. Wolf Carbon Solutions, based in Denver, Colo., will hold a second round of informational meetings Dec. 5 and 6 in four Iowa counties about the proposed 280-mile pipeline, according to an order issued Wednesday by the Iowa Utilities Board. The company confirmed its first round of meetings did not include proper notification of all landowners to be affected by the route. Iowa City moving forward with updating recreation facilities, including City Park Pool https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/iowa-city-moving-forward-with-updating-recreation-facilities-including-city-park-pool/ (https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/iowa-city-moving-forward-with-updating-recreation-facilities-including-city-park-pool/) The Iowa City Council on Tuesday approved the 557-page Recreation Facilities and Programs Master Plan, which is a programming and facilities road map for the next 10 years. The plan, along with an executive summary, is available on the city’s website. The council’s 4-2 approval signals support for fully renovating City Park Pool. Councilors John Thomas and Pauline Taylor were the two votes against the plan and favored deferring the vote to work out additional details after hearing concerns from residents. Mayor Bruce Teague was not present during Tuesday’s meeting. Approval also allows the city to continue with renovations at Mercer Park, adjusting and expanding recreation programs, and evaluating the future of Robert A. Lee pool in the coming years.
The USDA announces $1B debt relief for farmers The federal government announced Tuesday a program that will provide $1.3 billion in debt relief for about 36,000 farmers who have fallen behind on loan payments or face foreclosure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the farm loan relief program funded from $3.1 billion set aside in the Inflation Reduction Act allocated toward assisting distressed borrowers of direct or guaranteed loans administered by USDA. The law was passed by Congress and signed in August by President Joe Biden. A Coralville man charged in Taboo Nightclub’s deadly shooting wants to subpoena police records During the investigation into the Taboo Nightclub & Lounge fatal shooting of Michael Valentine, 25, individuals told Cedar Rapids investigators that there had been previous shootings involving Dimione Jamal Walker, 29, and Valentine, according to a motion filed Tuesday in Linn County District Court. The nightclub shooting early April 10 killed three people and injured 10, police said. Walker is charged with one of the murders and another man is charged with the other two. The prosecution hasn’t yet responded to the motion. Walker also filed a notice last week that he will claim the shooting was in self-defense or in defense of others. Ashley Hinson released from Cedar Rapids hospital following treatment for kidney infection Iowa U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of Marion was released from a Cedar Rapids hospital Tuesday after being admitted Sunday night for a kidney infection, days before early voting begins and a televised debate in the race for the 2nd Congressional District that was subsequently canceled. In a statement, Hinson said she will continue resting at home, and looks forward to resuming campaigning soon.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Tuesday, October 18th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area today, with a high near 47. Winds from the north-northwest between 11 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Then tonight it will be clear, with a low around 23. Iowa’s candidates for governor clashed over the best use of Iowa’s state tax revenue, education and abortion in the first and only scheduled debate between Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Democrat challenger Deidre DeJear. Monday night on Iowa PBS, Reynolds touted the record of her six-year term, pointing to tax cuts and keeping schools and businesses open during most of the COVID-19 pandemic as her major achievements and the reason voters should elect her again. DeJear, a businesswoman from Des Moines, said the state has been underfunding critical systems including education and health care, and said state government is not prioritizing the needs of Iowans. A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll released Sunday showed Reynolds with a solid lead over DeJear, with support from 52 percent of Iowa voters compared with DeJear's 35 percent. Libertarian Rick Stewart, who did not meet the qualifications to be invited to the debate, showed 4 percent support in the poll. Iowa U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of Marion was hospitalized Sunday night at UnityPoint St. Luke's Hospital for a kidney infection, and a televised debate in the race for the 2nd Congressional District has been canceled. In an update Monday afternoon, her chief of staff, Jimmy Peacock, said Hinson was feeling better but still undergoing treatment and would remain hospitalized overnight. Hinson, a Republican running for re-election to a second term in Iowa’s newly drawn 2nd District, was scheduled to debate Democratic challenger and state Sen. Liz Mathis of Hiawatha tonight on Iowa PBS. A news release from Iowa PBS said both candidates were offered dates to reschedule the debate, but “none of those dates were mutually acceptable to the campaigns.” Former Iowa men’s basketball player Joe Wieskamp was placed on waivers by the San Antonio Spurs Monday. Muscatine’s Wieskamp was a second-round draft pick of the Spurs in 2021 after leaving Iowa following his junior season. He began the season on a two-way contract, and was converted to a standard NBA contract in March. He signed a two-year contract this summer with the first year guaranteed. So he’ll be paid $2.175 million by San Antonio unless he is claimed on waivers. Wieskamp averaged 17.1 points in 15 games last season for San Antonio’s Austin Spurs NBA G League affiliate. He played in 29 games with San Antonio, averaging 2.1 points in 7.1 minutes per game. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Thursday, October 17th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area today, with a high near 42. Also breezy, with a northwest wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 24. Three years after two University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics nurses and a physical therapist filed a lawsuit accusing their employer of violating federal and state code in how and when they paid employees, the state Board of Regents has agreed to settle the class-action case for $15 million. The board’s agreement with the class of about 11,000 UIHC workers comes after a U.S. District Court judge in March ruled the hospital not only violated wage laws by paying employees late, but did so intentionally and owes “liquidated damages” to affected employees. The plaintiffs asserted that they routinely were not paid their wage adjustments for working extra shifts and hours until one month or more after the period in which they were earned. The regents appealed the ruling. After an appellate court both affirmed and reversed that decision in part, the sides met for mediation in August and agreed on the $15 million total. That sum includes $3.4 million for the plaintiffs’ attorneys and $10,000 each for six UIHC workers who eventually signed on as plaintiffs. The $11.6 million balance will go to the thousands of “class settlement members” who accused the UI of illegally paying overtime and salary adjustments late. Eleven people who live near the site of two industrial-scale solar projects near Palo are suing the Linn County supervisors, challenging the supervisors’ zoning decision that will allow construction of the facilities. The petition filed in Linn County District Court asks for judicial review of the decision. Such reviews “may be a proper remedy for reviewing the legality of decisions made by city councils and county board of supervisors in zoning matters,” according to the Supreme Court. The residents accuse the supervisors of not following Linn County land-use regulations and Iowa Code, arguing the ordinance constitutes “spot zoning.” The filing comes after the supervisors approved the zoning changes needed to allow NextEra’s Duane Arnold Solar projects to move forward. This is the second case brought against the supervisors. Earlier this year, a family living near the Coggon Solar project also sued, seeking the same judicial review. The project is on hold until a court hearing, which has yet to be set. No hearing date has been set for the Palo lawsuit either. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
State revenue growth to slow, but projections remain high Iowa’s state revenue is expected to drop off some in the next two years but remain at historic highs, according to a state panel charged with estimating yearly receipts. The Revenue Estimating Conference on Thursday predicted a 2.7 percent drop in revenue in fiscal 2023, which began July 1, followed by a 0.6 percent increase in fiscal 2024. The drop comes mostly from a decrease in personal income tax revenue, reflecting tax cuts championed by legislative Republicans earlier this year. Total state revenue for each year would remain above $9.5 billion under the projection, which would be historically high revenue and an increase from previous projections. Iowa judges up for retention get high marks from state bar association The Iowa State Bar Association has released the results of an evaluation conducted every two years of judges across the state, which provides guidance to voters as they decide Nov. 8 whether the judges in each district should remain on the bench. Sixty-one associate and district judges and four appellate judges are up for retention this year. Of those, seven district judges and four associate district judges are from the 6th Judicial District — Linn, Benton, Johnson, Jones, Iowa and Tama counties. According to the bar’s judicial performance review, the bar members — lawyers — gave this district’s 11 judges high enough ratings to be retained. Two of the judges — associate district judges Valerie Clay and Jason Burns — received retention percentages of 100 percent. Iowa has more jobs than people to fill them. What officials are doing From launching a new business engagement division, to using federal pandemic relief money on a new marketing and recruitment campaign, to helping employers provide dual-language instruction, Iowa’s top economic and workforce development officials shared their ideas for solving the state’s workforce challenges during Thursday’s Iowa Ideas conference. “We have a population problem in Iowa, right? We have more jobs than there are people to fill them,” state Economic Development Director Debi Durham said during The Gazette’s virtual conference, which continues Friday. Iowa has about 84,400 open jobs and about 44,700 people unemployed, according to Iowa Workforce Development. You can find recordings from this and all of our other Iowa Ideas sessions at TheGazette.com and iowaideas.com.
State revenue growth to slow, but projections remain high Iowa’s state revenue is expected to drop off some in the next two years but remain at historic highs, according to a state panel charged with estimating yearly receipts. The Revenue Estimating Conference on Thursday predicted a 2.7 percent drop in revenue in fiscal 2023, which began July 1, followed by a 0.6 percent increase in fiscal 2024. The drop comes mostly from a decrease in personal income tax revenue, reflecting tax cuts championed by legislative Republicans earlier this year. Total state revenue for each year would remain above $9.5 billion under the projection, which would be historically high revenue and an increase from previous projections. Iowa judges up for retention get high marks from state bar association The Iowa State Bar Association has released the results of an evaluation conducted every two years of judges across the state, which provides guidance to voters as they decide Nov. 8 whether the judges in each district should remain on the bench. Sixty-one associate and district judges and four appellate judges are up for retention this year. Of those, seven district judges and four associate district judges are from the 6th Judicial District — Linn, Benton, Johnson, Jones, Iowa and Tama counties. According to the bar’s judicial performance review, the bar members — lawyers — gave this district’s 11 judges high enough ratings to be retained. Two of the judges — associate district judges Valerie Clay and Jason Burns — received retention percentages of 100 percent. Iowa has more jobs than people to fill them. What officials are doing From launching a new business engagement division, to using federal pandemic relief money on a new marketing and recruitment campaign, to helping employers provide dual-language instruction, Iowa’s top economic and workforce development officials shared their ideas for solving the state’s workforce challenges during Thursday’s Iowa Ideas conference. “We have a population problem in Iowa, right? We have more jobs than there are people to fill them,” state Economic Development Director Debi Durham said during The Gazette’s virtual conference, which continues Friday. Iowa has about 84,400 open jobs and about 44,700 people unemployed, according to Iowa Workforce Development. You can find recordings from this and all of our other Iowa Ideas sessions at TheGazette.com and iowaideas.com.
University of Iowa has suspended its search for a new for a new health care VP and medical college dean. After narrowing down the search to four candidates, administrators extended an offer to one of the finalists, but the finalist declined due to family obligations. UI Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin Kregel said “I am sorry that we could not come to an agreement, but we certainly respect the candidate’s decision…We will re-evaluate the search process and launch it again as soon as possible. We are eager to find candidates who share our exciting vision for the growth of the university’s health care system and for the Carver College of Medicine.” Brooks Jackson, the university’s current vice president for medical affairs and medical college dean — who announced plans to resign in February — has agreed to continue serving at the helm until UI hires a successor. Then Jackson will remain on the faculty as a professor and researcher — just not in the administrative role. Kim Reynolds earns top mark for fiscal responsibility in conservative group’s report. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds received the highest grade for fiscal responsibility among the nation’s governors in a report issued by the conservative Cato Institute. The biennial report grades governors on their fiscal policies from a limited government perspective, and awards higher grades to governors whose states have cut taxes and spending, according to the Cato Institute. Reynolds said in a news release from the governor’s office: “Iowa prides itself on stewarding taxpayer dollars with care and an eye toward growth…That means exercising restraint in our spending and taking every opportunity to return tax dollars to the hardworking Iowans who generated them in the first place. This is their money — not the government’s — and they have a right to expect their own representatives to act like it. I’m grateful to the Cato Institute for recognizing that Iowa does so.” Today marks the 2nd day of The Gazette’s 2022 Iowa Ideas. Iowa Ideas is an annual virtual conference designed to gather Iowans from all perspectives to explore, discuss and offer solutions on issues impacting the state. Today’s schedule includes Speed Networking, and two sessions of panels across nine different tracks including Art & Culture, Community Development, Education, Energy and Environment, Heath Care, Human & Social Services, Policy, and Workforce. Registration is free, and all panels will be available as replays on IowaIdeas.com.
University of Iowa has suspended its search for a new for a new health care VP and medical college dean. After narrowing down the search to four candidates, administrators extended an offer to one of the finalists, but the finalist declined due to family obligations. UI Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin Kregel said “I am sorry that we could not come to an agreement, but we certainly respect the candidate’s decision…We will re-evaluate the search process and launch it again as soon as possible. We are eager to find candidates who share our exciting vision for the growth of the university’s health care system and for the Carver College of Medicine.” Brooks Jackson, the university’s current vice president for medical affairs and medical college dean — who announced plans to resign in February — has agreed to continue serving at the helm until UI hires a successor. Then Jackson will remain on the faculty as a professor and researcher — just not in the administrative role. Kim Reynolds earns top mark for fiscal responsibility in conservative group’s report. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds received the highest grade for fiscal responsibility among the nation’s governors in a report issued by the conservative Cato Institute. The biennial report grades governors on their fiscal policies from a limited government perspective, and awards higher grades to governors whose states have cut taxes and spending, according to the Cato Institute. Reynolds said in a news release from the governor’s office: “Iowa prides itself on stewarding taxpayer dollars with care and an eye toward growth…That means exercising restraint in our spending and taking every opportunity to return tax dollars to the hardworking Iowans who generated them in the first place. This is their money — not the government’s — and they have a right to expect their own representatives to act like it. I’m grateful to the Cato Institute for recognizing that Iowa does so.” Today marks the 2nd day of The Gazette’s 2022 Iowa Ideas. Iowa Ideas is an annual virtual conference designed to gather Iowans from all perspectives to explore, discuss and offer solutions on issues impacting the state. Today’s schedule includes Speed Networking, and two sessions of panels across nine different tracks including Art & Culture, Community Development, Education, Energy and Environment, Heath Care, Human & Social Services, Policy, and Workforce. Registration is free, and all panels will be available as replays on IowaIdeas.com.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Thursday, October 13th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area today, with a high near 55. It will be breezy, with a northwest wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph. Then tonight it should be mostly clear, with a low around 33. An Iowa City man pleaded guilty to stabbing his wife multiple times in 2019 before she was scheduled to speak to a banking official who would have told her about his risky high-interest loans, falsified accounting records and that he emptied one of her savings accounts. 70-year-old Roy Carl Browning Jr., of Iowa City, originally charged with first-degree murder, made an Alford plea to second-degree murder. He still faces a life sentence because a second-degree conviction is 50 years in prison. He will have to serve a mandatory 35 years before being eligible for parole. Under the Alford plea, Browning didn’t admit guilt but admitted that the prosecution had enough evidence for a likely conviction in the murder of his wife, 65-year-old JoEllen Browning. A pair of former Iowa broadcast journalists running for an Eastern Iowa congressional seat argued policy over abortion, infrastructure, parental rights and more in their first televised debate before the Nov. 8th general election. Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of Marion and Democratic challenger Liz Mathis of Hiawatha participated Wednesday in an hourlong debate hosted by their former employer, KCRG-TV9. Hinson and Mathis are running for Iowa’s newly drawn 2nd Congressional District, which includes 22 counties in Iowa's northeast corner, and includes the cities of Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Dubuque and Mason City. Up to $96 million in business capital, including loans, will be made available to Iowa start-ups and small and veteran-owned businesses under a state plan approved this week by the federal treasury department. The funding is being made available through the federal State Small Business Credit Initiative, a program that was created in 2010 and renewed and expanded in the latest federal pandemic relief package, the American Rescue Plan. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, October 10th. Today will be sunny with a high near 74 in the Cedar Rapids area. According to the National Weather Service, winds will come from the east, 5 to 10 mph then from the south in the afternoon. And tonight should be mostly clear, with a low around 53. Two people were killed on a Benton County highway Saturday when a passing pickup struck a left-turning UTV, according to an Iowa State Patrol crash report. At 4:04 p.m., 76-year-old William Geater and 60-year-old Mary McElhinney, both of Vinton, were eastbound in a Ranger Polaris UTV on County Highway E24 (also known as 61st Street Lane) about three miles east of Vinton. Specific information about who was driving the UTV has not yet been released. An eastbound Dodge Ram 1500 pickup, driven by 74-year-old Francis Baldus of Jewell, began passing the UTV as both vehicles approached 68th Avenue Drive, according to the report. The UTV made a left turn in front of the pickup and the pickup struck the UTV, causing it to roll in the north ditch and ejecting the occupants. The crash remains under investigation by the Iowa State Patrol. In Hawkeye football, Iowa lost 9 to 6 against Illinois Saturday, in a game without a single touchdown. All of the scoring came from field goals. Iowa struggled to move the ball as Spencer Petras completed 18 of 36 passes for 170 yards and an interception. Petras took five sacks and the Hawkeyes rushed for just 52 yards. The Hawkeyes averaged a measly 1.7 yards per rush. Five of six Iowa drives went for negative yardage during the second and third quarters.
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 8, and Sunday, October 9. It may start out frosty, but temperatures will climb into a pretty nice weekend. According to the National Weather Service there will be widespread frost in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday, mainly before 9 a.m. But it will be sunny, with an eventual high near 62 degrees. On Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 39 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny, with a high near 72 degrees. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a high near 43 degrees. A Cedar Rapids couple will donate $2.1 million to seven Linn County nonprofits, United Way of East Central Iowa, one of the beneficiaries, announced Friday. The couple, Mike and Jo Cambridge, ran a staffing business called Cambridge TEMPositions in Cedar Rapids for more than 30 years before they retired in 2014. In 2015, the couple donated https://www.thegazette.com/news/cedar-rapids-couple-donates-4-5-million-to-catholic-schools-churches/ ($4.5 million) to five Catholic schools and churches. The seven nonprofits that will receive funds, along with United Way of East Central Iowa, are Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Foundation 2 Crisis Services, Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa, Mercy Medical Center Foundation, the Salvation Army of Cedar Rapids and Willis Dady Homeless Services. Each nonprofit will receive $300,000 over the next three years. So somebody decided that doing an active shooting drill on election day might be a bad idea. Kirkwood Community College officials on Friday notified the campus they’re postponing an active shooter drill previously planned for Election Day, Nov. 8 — a delay that came after some faculty and staff voiced concern about the drill’s timing and potential to disrupt voting. In the Friday “special update” announcing the active threat drill would be moved, Kirkwood Public Safety officials said they’re working with the Cedar Rapids Police Department to find an alternative date. The entities originally picked Nov. 8 for the drill on Kirkwood’s main Cedar Rapids campus solely because it worked for everyone’s schedules according to a Kirkwood spokesman. Kirkwood’s Cedar Rapids campus hosts two polling places, and its Iowa City campus hosts one polling place. A $5 million grant will aid an overhaul of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, the state announced Friday, the same day former President George W. Bush was in Cedar Rapids to help raise funds for the museum’s renovation. The grant was issued by the state’s economic development agency through a program that promotes tourism. The grant is funded by federal pandemic relief funding, which Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds originally opposed. Herbert Hoover is the only U.S. president born in Iowa. https://hoover.archives.gov/ (The museum) features information about Hoover and his wife, First Lady Lou Henry Hoover. The Hoover Presidential Foundation is in the midst of https://www.thegazette.com/news/herbert-hoover-presidential-library-and-museum-open-again-in-west-branch/#:~:text=by%20Iowa%20taxpayers.-,Fundraiser,-One%20of%20the (a $20 million capital campaign) to renovate the museum’s permanent galleries and exhibit galleries. The project will include the addition of 2,250 square feet of updated and interactive displays, and a modernized visitor experience. Former President Bush was scheduled Friday to https://www.thegazette.com/government-politics/former-president-george-w-bush-will-be-in-cedar-rapids-friday-heres-why-hes-here/ (receive a humanitarian award and headline a fundraiser for the museum). The event was not open to the media, per an agreement with Bush’s staff.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, October 7. The cold has arrived once again. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday with a high near 55 degrees. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 32 degrees. Widespread frost is likely Friday night into Saturday morning. In a debate between the candidates for U.S. Senate in Iowa, both candidates agreed that incumbent Republican Chuck Grassley has been in office for a long time. Where they differed Thursday night was the value of that seniority. It was the first and only scheduled debate between Grassley and Democratic challenger former Navy Admiral Mike Franken, as each tried to persuade voters they would be the better representative for Iowans in Washington. Grassley touted his seniority, noting that he would be the longest-serving and most senior senator after the election, should he be elected to an eighth term. Franken said Grassley’s time in the Senate has been defined by failure to solve problems and a lack of leadership. Franken said he would be an energetic and new voice for Iowa. In addition to age range discussions, Grassley and Franken jousted on the topic of abortion, accusations of sexual harassment against Franken, inflation, health care, and Grassley’s association with former president Donald Trump. President Joe Biden is pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of “simple possession” of marijuana under federal law, as his administration takes a dramatic step toward decriminalizing the drug. According to reporting from the Associated Press, Biden is also calling on governors to issue similar pardons for those convicted of state marijuana offenses, which reflect the vast majority of marijuana possession cases. Biden is also directing the secretary of Health and Human Services and the U.S. attorney general to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. Rescheduling the drug would reduce or potentially eliminate criminal penalties for possession. Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. The White House did not set a timeline for the review. But Biden said he believes that as the federal government and many states ease marijuana laws, they should maintain limitations on trafficking, marketing and underage sales. Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder revealed Thursday that it is unlikely that recruit Ava Jones will ever play basketball again after a tragic crash in July. Bluder said a recent MRI revealed that all four major ligaments in both of Jones’ knees are torn. Coach Bluder said the women’s basketball program already has committed to honoring Jones’ scholarship, regardless of whether she’s able to play basketball again. The crash ha ppened July 5. Jones and her fa mily were on a sidewalk in Louisville when a 33-year-old man who admitted to taking hydrocodone before driving hit them, according to reports. Her father Trey did not survive the accident, and her mother Amy suffered serious injuries. Her brother had minor injuries. A GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/sv8vex-jones-family-fund (page has raised more than $150,000 for the family), with many of the donations coming from Iowa fans.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, Oct. 6. Your Thursday could begin with some fog before the sun chases it away. According to the National Weather Service there will be areas of fog before 10 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise, it will be partly sunny, with a high near 68 degrees. It will become increasingly windy as the day goes on, with winds gusting as high as 25 mph. Dress warm Thursday night, as it will drop down to 38 degrees. A Cedar Rapids police fatal shooting of a man suspected of attacking his girlfriend in August was justified, officials said Wednesday. The shooting initially drew protests until authorities released video of the incident showing the man threatening officers with a knife. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks https://www.linncountyiowa.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2986 (released a report) from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office detailing the investigation into the Aug. 30 https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/dci-cedar-rapids-police-shot-killed-armed-man-at-domestic-disturbance/ (officer-involved shooting of William Isaac Rich), 22, outside a transitional housing complex. Maybanks announced as a result of the reports findings, he will not pursue criminal charges against Officers Sgt. Bryson Garringer or Investigator Chris Christy. Christy and Garringer were the two Cedar Rapids officers involved in the shooting, which happened at Inn Circle, a transitional housing site at 5560 Sixth St. SW. According to the report from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, the officers responded just before 1 a.m. to the Inn Circle. Rich’s girlfriend had called 911 to say that Rich choked, punched and tried to drown her. She said she believed he was going to kill her. When officers arrived, Rich was armed with a knife and refused to follow commands. The Cedar Rapids Police Department https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/video-footage-released-of-fatal-cedar-rapids-officer-involved-shooting/ (released video footage) of the shooting in September, after family members of Rich https://www.thegazette.com/news/protesters-demand-answers-in-fatal-shooting-of-cedar-rapids-man/ (protested for the right to see the video). In the police body camera video, the knife Rich was carrying is shown. Rich can be seen fighting with the officers. At one point, he is pushed back and three shots are heard, followed by an officer shouting, “Get on the ground, now.” Rich falls over but attempts to get back up, at which point four more gunshots are heard and Rich stops moving. The Cedar Rapids Community School District is the first district in the state to be awarded a federal magnet schools grant — $14.8 million to be distributed over the next five years, the U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday. The district applied for the funding from the Magnet School Assistance Program as it prepares to open its first magnet high school, named City View Community High School. The first disbursement of the federal grant will be $6.4 million for the first two years. Magnet schools offer theme-based learning — such as science, technology, engineering, arts and math; or leadership and entrepreneurship, for instance. The Cedar Rapids district operates other magnet schools, but none until now at the high school level. City View will be a magnet high school for students to engage in project-based learning and is expected to open by fall 2023. A location has yet to be announced for the school. Up to 200 primarily rising ninth- and 10th- graders will be able to enroll at City View for the 2023-24 school year. If there are more than 200 students interested in attending next fall, the district will use a lottery system to select and accept students. The school eventually will serve up to 400 ninth to 12th-graders. Other Cedar Rapids high schools have between 1,300 and 1,700 students each. The grant will support the enhancement of four existing magnet...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, Oct. 5. The warmth is predicted to linger another day with a chance for rain Wednesday, with the temperatures dropping steeply by Friday. According to the National Weather Service, it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 75 degrees. On Wednesday evening it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 54 degrees. There will be a 40 percent of showers Wednesday evening, mostly between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. A Linn County jury has found a Cedar Rapids woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend guilty of a lesser charge after she had originally been charged with murder. Jacqueline Holmes, 38, faces up to five years in jail. After about a day and half of deliberations following more than five days of testimony, she was found guilty last Friday of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter — unintentionally causing the death of her boyfriend, Tremaine Williams, 35, on March 4, 2020. A retired Illinois law and psychology professor, who consults and testifies in cases involving domestic violence, said during the trial that https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/defense-expert-says-cedar-rapids-woman-on-trial-for-fatally-stabbing-her-boyfriend-is-a-battered-w/ (Holmes was a battered woman )and suffers from its effects. She said Holmes told her about three men who physically abused her, including Williams. The https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/prosecutor-says-woman-delayed-getting-boyfriend-911-help-after-stabbing-him/ (prosecution had argued that Holmes )delayed getting help for Williams after she stabbed him in the shoulder at a southwest Cedar Rapids house. There also was testimony from an investigator that Holmes repeatedly changed her version of what happened that night during recorded police interviews. A company seeking to build a carbon dioxide pipeline through five Iowa counties, including Linn, says it will hold a second round of public meetings after confirming some landowners did not get proper notice of its August meetings. Wolf Carbon Solutions, based in Alberta, Canada, held meetings Aug. 29-31 in Johnson, Cedar, Linn, Clinton and Scott counties to talk about a proposed 280-mile underground pipeline that could transport carbon dioxide from ADM plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton to an underground site in central Illinois. But many of the people who attended those meetings said they had not been notified by certified mail and questioned whether the process was legal. The Iowa Utilities Board Sept. 23 ordered Wolf to explain within 10 days how public notice was provided and verify certified letters were sent. The company setting new meetings could delay their project, but doing so may be preferable to providing certified addresses from affected landowners. Companies proposing other CO2 pipelines in Iowa have resisted publishing the names of all affected landowners. Opponents want those names to help unite opposition. On Friday Former President George W. Bush will receive a humanitarian award and headline a fundraiser for the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Cedar Rapids. But don’t expect a lot of news coverage of his visit. As part of an agreement with Bush’s staff, media coverage of the event is not allowed, said Brad Reiners, communications director for the Hoover Presidential Foundation. The museum will present Bush and former first lady Laura Bush its first Hoover Humanitarian Award for their work in Africa. The former president and former first lady have worked to combat HIV/AIDS across Africa through the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief. The effort has saved at least 18 million lives through critical care and treatment since 2003 when then-President Bush authorized it, according to the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Ticket sales for the fundraising banquet are closed. Proceeds will go toward a $20...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, October 4. Tuesday will be one more day with a high in the seventies before it cools down a bit the rest of the week. According to the National Weather Service, on Tuesday it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 76 degrees. A south wind of 5 to 15 mph will gust as high as 20 mph. On Tuesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 52 degrees. The wind will calm to a gentle breeze by day's end. The state has agreed to pay a North Liberty couple nearly $4 million after their almost 2-year-old son died in 2018 from an undiagnosed strep infection following days of visits to University of Iowa-affiliated clinics and facilities. The State Appeal Board on Monday unanimously approved a $3.99 million settlement with Scott and Melissa Keating, who filed their suit in 2019. The family’s concerns started on February 15, 2018, when Jack Keating — who was just days away from his second birthday — came down with a fever and raspy breathing. According to the couple’s lawsuit, over the next 3 days the family saw several different UIHC providers from UI Quick Care, to Pediatric Associates, to the UIHC emergency department. Despite the child’s worsening condition, none of the doctors diagnosed him correctly with what would end up being a fatal case of strep throat. Jack Keating died on the morning of February 19. The Keatings in their lawsuit accused UIHC and its employees of negligence and failure to, among other things, properly assess, examine, test, diagnose and treat their son in a timely manner. The Iowa City Marketplace was purchased for just under $14.3 million by a Tennessee-based company focused on redeveloping shopping centers. CORE Realty Holdings of California sold the shopping center in late July to Brookwood Capital Advisors. A not-yet-disclosed chain store is anticipated to move into the vacant space that formerly housed Von Maur and Lucky’s Market once a lease is finalized. The shopping center, formerly known as Sycamore Mall, is on Sycamore Street in southeast Iowa City. The shopping center was rebranded in 2013. The rebranding was intended to provide more areas for social interaction and turn the area into a social space by bringing together dining, entertainment and mixed use. Brookwood Capital Advisors focuses on finding empty sites, leasing out the spaces and “setting the sites up for long-term success,” according to the group’s website. After this year approving controversial utility-scale solar projects near Coggon and Palo while turning aside recommendations from their staff for a moratorium, the Linn County Board of Supervisors voted Monday on its first consideration to pause any more at least until the end of the year. County staff has requested the moratorium in order to better refine the guidelines for the implementation of solar projects in Linn County. The county said a three-month moratorium would provide a structure with check-ins on progress. The Dec. 31 deadline also would allow the current Board of Supervisors to decide on an extension before a new board is sworn in this January after the November elections.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, October 3rd. Today it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 75, according to the National Weather Service. Winds from the southeast 5 to 10 mph. Then tonight, a low around 48. A 16-year-old girl was taken to a hospital for minor injuries early Sunday after a woman driving an SUV crossed a center line in northern Linn County and crashed head-on into the car the girl was driving. A Linn County Sheriff’s Office news release said at 12:17 a.m., 50-year-old Julia Gharib of Marion, was driving a Toyota 4Runner south on Highway 13 near the Linn Delaware Road intersection when she crossed the center line and collided with a northbound Chevrolet Malibu driven by 16-year-old Ava Bockenstedt of Manchester. Bockenstedt was transported by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids for minor injuries. The release did not specify whether Gharib was injured. Both said they were wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash. Gharib was charged with operating while intoxicated and improper use of lanes. A white Cedar Rapids man followed a man from a gas station to the man’s workplace in Hiawatha and fired two gunshots at him Friday because of the man’s race, according to a criminal complaint. 31-year-old Joshua Barnhart had followed the man from Casey’s on 32nd Street NE in Cedar Rapids to Midland Concrete in Hiawatha, where the man works. Barnhart then got out of his vehicle, pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired two shots at the man before fleeing. Barnhart eluded officers until they used stop sticks on his vehicle. According to the complaint, Barnhart said he had targeted the victim because of his race. Barnhart has been charged with attempted murder, assault with intent to inflict serious injury with violation of individual rights, and going armed with intent, all felonies; assault while displaying a dangerous weapon, an aggravated misdemeanor; and eluding, a serious misdemeanor. He is being held on $500,000 cash-only bond. A man was seriously injured in a house fire Saturday night in northwest Cedar Rapids. Around 11:30 p.m., the Cedar Rapids Fire Department was dispatched to 1730 11th St. NW for a report of a single-family house fire. Officials said in a news release that flames were visible from the front of the house when crews arrived. While searching the two-story house, firefighters found an unresponsive man in a first-floor bedroom, according to a Facebook post by International Association of Fire Fighters Local 11. He was pulled from the home and taken to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital with serious injuries. No others were found in the home but several pets died in the fire, according to the release. – 🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 30. Pleasant, not quite as brisk, fall weather has returned, starting Friday and heading into next week. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday with a high near 71 degrees. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 45 degrees. A light wind will become even calmer as the day goes on. A Marion resident is suing the Linn-Mar Community School District, saying she was banned from school board meetings for the next 12 months because she disrupted the August school board meeting. Amanda Pierce Snyder, who lives in the Linn-Mar district, was removed from the Aug. 29 school board meeting after she interrupted board members’ discussion and was asked to stop speaking by the board president, Britannia Morey. When Snyder didn’t stop speaking, Morey asked the Marion police officer at the meeting to remove Snyder from the room. The lawsuit claims that Snyder then received a letter from the school board saying she was banned from attending in-person school board meetings for the next 12 months. The lawsuit asks the court to rule that banning Snyder from board meetings is illegal and cannot be enforced. It seeks to have the district penalized for violating Iowa law and fined $1,000 to $2,500 per meeting Snyder cannot attend. It seeks the removal of Morey from the president’s role if she again violates Iowa Code during her term and asks that the district pay Snyder’s attorney fees and court costs. Snyder’s lawyer is Alan Ostergren, who also is suing the district over its transgender policy, representing the https://www.thegazette.com/k/judge-denies-request-to-bar-enforcement-of-linn-mar-transgender-policy/ (Parents Defending Education organization). A firefighter and civilian were injured Thursday in a house fire in Cedar Rapids. Firefighters were called to 2120 Ninth St. SW at 12:27 p.m. Thursday and immediately began fire suppression efforts on the front of the home, where there was visible smoke and flames. Firefighters also began treating a man suffering from burns and wounds sustained in the fire. The man was in the front yard of the house when fire crews arrived. While fighting the fire inside the house, one firefighter was injured when ceiling materials gave way and fell on him. The civilian man and the firefighter were both taken to a hospital. The injuries to the firefighter are minor, and the extent of the injuries to the other man are not known, according to the news release. Iowa and five other Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration in an effort to halt its plan to forgive student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans, accusing it of overstepping its executive powers. According to reporting from the Associated Press, it’s https://apnews.com/article/biden-education-lawsuits-executive-branch-88a53926a6583fdb7b8c311206f5357f (at least the second legal challenge this week) to the sweeping proposal laid out by President Joe Biden in late August, when he said his administration https://apnews.com/article/student-loan-forgiveness-biden-plan-d9c8e18774a744187c9af634bf4eb728 (would cancel up to $20,000 in education debt) for eligible borrowers. In Iowa, as many as 450,000 people could be affected by the news debt forgiveness, according to Iowa College Aid, the state’s student financial aid agency. In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in a federal court in Missouri, the Republican states argue the plan is not tailored to address the effects of the pandemic on federal student loan borrowers as is required by the 2003 federal law that the administration is using as legal justification. In a statement, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds argued the wide-scale debt relief is unfair to hard-working Americans to have their tax dollars used to forgive student loan debt of the “well-off who can afford to pay their own loans.”
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, September 29. There will be another frosty start to the day Thursday, but it should be slightly warmer than Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service, there will be patchy frost before 8 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise, it will be sunny, with a high near 67 degrees. On Thursday night it will be clear, with a low of around 40 degrees. University of Iowa Health Care leaders have notified employees that nurses in the coming weeks will face “some of the most challenging” staffing to date — warning that nurses in some units at times will have to take on five patients at once. Some UIHC nurses report the “increase in nurse-patient ratios” is out of line, and they’ve coordinated a protest over it outside the hospital for Thursday. “We refuse to let our hospital administrators make poor decisions that affect our quality of care because they couldn't plan well and prepare properly,” according to a https://www.facebook.com/events/474965984646060/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%2252%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22[%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22share_link%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22share_link%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%7B%5C%22invite_link_id%5C%22%3A390742276425005%7D%7D]%22%7D (Facebook event page) for the protest encouraging staff, patients, family and managers to “bring the cowbell, noisemakers, signs, ALL of it!” In response to The Gazette’s questions on nurse shortages and whether UIHC is upping nurse-patient ratios, officials would not provide a clear response on how things will change from their current ratios. A former state trooper, who was going to stand trial next month for the second time on a charge of using unreasonable force on a motorcyclist during a 2017 traffic stop, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge this week. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/former-iowa-state-trooper-will-be-retried-for-using-unreasonable-force/ (Robert James Smith, 58,) of Durant, pleaded guilty Monday to deprivation of rights under the color of law. He faces a maximum sentence of one year in federal prison, a $100,000 fine and one year of supervised release following any prison term. According to the plea agreement, the defense and prosecution agreed to recommend Smith receive probation, but the judge can decide whether to accept that recommendation. Smith, in the plea, admitted that on Sept. 25, 2017 he attempted to catch up with a motorcycle driven by Bryce Yakish, then 20, of Davenport, who was traveling at 84 mph westbound on Interstate 80. Yakish eventually exited and crossed the interstate southbound and Smith turned on the overhead lights and siren of his patrol vehicle. Yakish pulled into the entrance of the West Liberty Travel Plaza. Yakish stopped and was getting off his motorcycle as Smith got out of his vehicle and quickly approached him, he admitted in the plea. Yakish was standing next to his motorcycle and had his hands in the air when Smith hit Yakish in the chin area with an open hand palm strike. Yakish was wearing a helmet with a face mask but the force of the strike caused Yakish to fall backward over his motorcycle. In his plea said the strike was intentional. However, he also now admits in his plea that in his initial report and in subsequent testimony he claimed the strike was unintentional, and that he had only been trying to grab Yakish by the shoulder when he missed and hit him in the helmet. Smith was terminated from the Iowa State Patrol following an internal investigation of the arrest and allowed to retire in 2018, according to testimony. Farmland values and cash rents are up considerably, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual National Agricultural Statistics Service surveys. Iowa cropland values rose 19.7 percent on average over the past year — from $7,810 per acre to $9,350 per acre, according to the September edition of the “Ag Decision
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 28. Hump day will be more like a valley when it comes to temperatures this week. According to the National Weather Service, there will be areas of frost in the Cedar Rapids area before 9 a.m. on Wednesday. Otherwise, it will be sunny, with a high near 62 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 36 degrees. Temperatures should rise back into the 70s by Friday and stick there through the weekend. Iowa’s state budget has an unspent surplus of nearly $2 billion, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Tuesday — 54 percent higher than last year’s record-breaking level. That surplus comes on top of the $8.1 billion of state funding expended in the budget year that ended June 30, and represents an increase of $670 million over the previous surplus, according to figures from the governor’s office and nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency. The budget surplus growing to $1.91 billion could give cover for statehouse Republicans to enact even more state tax cuts during next year’s legislative session, should they retain control after this fall’s elections. https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-gov-kim-reynolds-signs-into-law-1-9-billion-in-tax-cuts/ (The tax cuts enacted this year) — largely to state income taxes — eventually will result in $1.9 billion less in state tax revenue annually, compared with current rates. By 2026, a 3.9 percent “flat tax” rate will apply to all taxpayers, regardless of income. A federal judge has struck down the third attempt by the Iowa Legislature to stop animal welfare groups from secretly filming livestock abuse. According to reporting from the Associated Press, a judge’s decision on Monday rejected the law approved by Iowa lawmakers in April 2021 that makes it a crime to trespass on a property to place a camera to record or transmit images. The law, which had support from Republicans and some Democrats. made the first offense punishable by up to two years in prison and subsequent offenses a felony. These laws, and others like them nationally, are usually labeled “ag gag” laws, as they are designed to protect farmers at the expense of the outside world knowing what they do on their farms. Farmers argue intruders could track disease into their farms and want to unfairly portray their livestock practices, while animal welfare groups say producers don't want the public to see how farm animals are treated. Earlier lawsuits have resulted in courts striking down similar laws in North Carolina, Kansas, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. The Linn County Board of Supervisors will make its final allocation of $13 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding in October. The applicants — among them not-for-profits and other local governments — have requested around $77 million. The supervisors said Monday they would discuss the second round of funding at their Oct. 10 informal meeting, with the intention of making the allocation decisions at their Oct. 12 formal meeting. The largest remaining request that has not been funded is from the Cedar Rapids Public Library. The library is asking for $6 million for a new west side library and opportunity center, to replace the Ladd Library, which is leased and situated in a strip mall at on Williams Boulevard.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, September 27. Tuesday's weather will be sunny and cool. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a high of 64 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be a wind of 5 to 15 that could gust as high as 20 mph. Tuesday night it will be clear, with a low of around 32 degrees. The wind will calm as Tuesday comes to an end. In an emotional meeting Monday, the Cedar Rapids school board accepted Shttps://www.thegazette.com/k/cedar-rapids-superintendent-noreen-bush-to-resign-after-2022-23-school-year/ (uperintendent Noreen Bush’s resignation )effective June 30, 2023. Bush, who went on medical leave last week, will remain superintendent during her medical leave and through June 30, 2023. She was diagnosed with cancer about two and a half years ago. “I absolutely love our district,” Bush said via Zoom video during the meeting. “I absolutely love serving as superintendent. And so it comes with a heavy heart to ask for the acceptance of my resignation … My greatest hope is I have an unbelievable miracle land in my lap, and on June 30, I am able to exit as superintendent and still serve (the district), perhaps back in the classroom.” Continuing her career in education as a teacher or principal would “fill my heart with joy,” Bush said. For now, Bush said she is deciding to focus on her health and her family as she continues her cancer battle. A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid Monday in a test run for the day a killer rock menaces Earth. According to the Associated Press, NASA tested the asteroid ramming technique on a harmless asteroid 7 million miles away, with a spacecraft named Dart plowing into the space rock at 14,000 mph. Scientists expected the impact to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space and, alter the asteroid’s orbit. Though the impact was immediately obvious it will be days or even weeks to determine how much the asteroid’s path was changed. https://apnews.com/article/astronomy-space-exploration-science-asteroids-ee5f1594906d9666d0bee18209666102 (The $325 million mission) was the first attempt to shift the position of an asteroid or any other natural object in space. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is warning that voters should be on the lookout for election misinformation after an Iowa voter reportedly received a phone call with incorrect voting instructions. According to the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, Pate’s office was told last week that a Mahaska County voter received a call from an out-of-state number. The caller told him he did not need to return his absentee ballot to his county auditor’s office but could just register his vote over the phone. Voting over the phone is not possible, and as the voter had not requested an absentee ballot, he refused and reported the incident. The Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the call. Pate asked Iowans who have received similar calls to contact his office at (515) 281-0145.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, September 26th. Today is expected to be mostly sunny, with a high near 64, according to the National Weather Service. Also, it will be breezy, with a northwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. The low tonight should be about 41. The high and low temperatures are about 7 degrees below average for this time of year. Some areas could see frost by mid-week. In Hawkeye football, Iowa’s defense forced three turnovers, avoided big plays and even scored twice in the Hawkeyes’ 27-10 blowout win over Rutgers Saturday. Cooper DeJean scored first with an interception returned 45 yards for a touchdown. It was DeJean’s third interception through four games of his sophomore season. Then in the second quarter Sebastian Castro forced a fumble and Kaevon Merriweather recovered it and went 33 yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Spencer Petras had his most efficient performance of the season, going 11-for-17 for 148 yards. – 🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, September 26th. Today is expected to be mostly sunny, with a high near 64, according to the National Weather Service. Also, it will be breezy, with a northwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. The low tonight should be about 41. The high and low temperatures are about 7 degrees below average for this time of year. Some areas could see frost by mid-week. In Hawkeye football, Iowa’s defense forced three turnovers, avoided big plays and even scored twice in the Hawkeyes’ 27-10 blowout win over Rutgers Saturday. Cooper DeJean scored first with an interception returned 45 yards for a touchdown. It was DeJean’s third interception through four games of his sophomore season. Then in the second quarter Sebastian Castro forced a fumble and Kaevon Merriweather recovered it and went 33 yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Spencer Petras had his most efficient performance of the season, going 11-for-17 for 148 yards. – 🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 24 and Sunday, September 25. The weather is going to be quite nice this weekend, besides being a bit breezy. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 76 degrees. Winds of 5 to 10 mph could gust as high as 20 mph. On Sunday it will be sunny, with a high near 72 degrees. The forecast again lists the conditions as breezy. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 49 degrees. From an early look at next week, expect similar weather in the coming week. An Iowa man was convicted Friday of charges that he led a crowd of rioters in chasing a U.S. Capitol police officer up a staircase and accosting other officers guarding the Senate, one of the most harrowing scenes of the mob’s attack that day. According to the Associated Press, a federal jury deliberated for roughly four hours before convicting Douglas Jensen of felony charges that he obstructed Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021. Jensen was convicted on all counts, including a charge that he engaged in disorderly conduct inside the Capitol while carrying a folding knife in his pocket. During the riot, Jensen, a construction worker from Des Moines, was wearing a T-shirt with a large “Q” expressing his adherence to the QAnon conspiracy theory. One of the most memorable images from the Jan. 6 attack captured Jensen with his arms extended as he confronted a line of police officers near the Senate chambers. “Go arrest the vice president,” Jensen told one of the officers, according to prosecutors. Speaking of Mike Pence and Iowa connections, the former vice president will headline a fundraiser alongside Iowa Rep. Bobby Kaufmann next week in Wilton, marking another visit to Iowa and bolstering speculation around a 2024 presidential run. According to an invitation for the event, Pence will be joining the 15th annual “Kaufmann Family Harvest Dinner” on Sept. 29 in Wilton. The invitation says other candidates and state leaders will be at the fundraiser, but only Pence and Kaufmann are named. Pence was last in Iowa in August at the Iowa State Fair, joining Sen. Chuck Grassley on a tour of the fair. He’s attended party fundraisers and speaking engagements intermittently in the state since the 2020 election, including a speech at the University of Iowa in November. Bobby Kaufmann is running for re-election to Iowa’s 82nd House District, which covers Cedar County and parts of Muscatine and Scott counties. He faces a challenge from Libertarian Clyde Gibson of Montpelier. The White House on Friday said the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services would receive $9 million in state opioid response money, as part of the $1.5 billion it announced in nationwide funding to help combat the nation’s opioid epidemic. A White House official said the grant funding is being distributed as soon as possible, through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, but no timeline has been set. Rod Courtney of CRUSH of Iowa, a Cedar Rapids based not-for-profit that provides support, resources, education and referrals for individuals with substance use disorders, called Friday’s White House announcement “encouraging.” He was particularly hopeful about a planned $104 million investment to expand prevention services for substance use disorder in rural communities. “Personally, I think that would be a game changer,” he said of the funding to help create new sites to provide medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder in rural communities, “because it brings the cost of care down and accessibility up.” Have a good weekend everyone!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 23. The temperatures will remain on the cold side and it may rain some on Friday. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 61 degrees. Right now it's looking like the highest probability for rain will be between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. On Friday night it will be cloudy, with the clouds gradually clearing, and the low temperature settling in at 52 degrees Cedar Rapids school Superintendent Noreen Bush will resign at the end of this school year. Bush, who went on medical leave Monday, will remain superintendent of the district during her medical leave and through June 30, 2023, according to a letter to the community Thursday afternoon. Bush “has turned her focus on her health with a recent medical leave of absence,” according to the letter, which said she had submitted her resignation to the board. Bush was diagnosed with cancer two-and-a-half years ago while serving as superintendent of the Cedar Rapids School District. District officials have not responded to a question posed by The Gazette last week asking who will be responsible for day-to-day decisions while Bush is one medical leave. The new, long-awaited Marion Public Library now has a “soft” opening date of on or before Nov. 15. The Library Board of Trustees met in special session on Tuesday evening to discuss when the new building could open and settled on a date more than two years after the project’s groundbreaking in Oct. 2020. Library Director Bill Carroll shared the news with the Marion City Council during its formal session Thursday night. “The community has been without a full-service library since the August 2020 derecho. I applaud our team for their innovative approach to providing services and our patrons for their continued patience and understanding,” Carroll said. The new library was supposed to open this month after being pushed back from its prior July opening goal. Carroll also said earlier this month that https://www.thegazette.com/news/marion-library-opening-delayed-again/ (October was a goal for the opening date.) Iowa’s trouble with brain drain — the departure of college graduates to other states — is not a new issue, but a recent report illustrates just how poorly Iowa ranks among U.S. states. Iowa has the 10th-worst percentage difference in the nation between the number of college graduates it produces and the number of college graduates living in the state — a negative 34 percent — according to a recenthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/09/films-assigned-college/ ( Washington Post analysi)s that uses data from a paper published by https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30088/w30088.pdf (the National Bureau of Economic Research). That figure is lower than the six states bordering Iowa. https://www.thegazette.com/government-politics/4000-more-iowans-u-s-census-bureau-releases-2020-population-estimates/ (Iowa’s population growth has been stagnant) for more than a decade, and for years Iowa policymakers and economic development officials have worked to find ways to keep more new college graduates from moving out of state. State experts said part of the problem is Iowa lacks enough well-paying jobs for all the college graduates Iowa produces. “It’s all relative, and (Iowa), compared to other states, relatively does a good job, historically, of producing human capital, which is producing college graduates,” said John Winters, an economics professor at Iowa State University. “But the flip side … as far as on the demand side, the demand for college graduates, Iowa overall is not as strong. Winters noted significant disparities within Iowa, with the state’s larger cities keeping more college graduates — and more people in general — while mid-sized cities and rural communities are losing population.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, September 22. It’s the Autumn Equinox on Thursday, and it’s certainly going to feel like Autumn. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 64 degrees. On Thursday night, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 48 degrees. A mild wind will calm as the day goes on. Just weeks ahead of the start of the busy holiday shopping and shipping season, Nordstrom sent emails to employees at its Midwest Fulfillment Center in Cedar Rapids saying the corporation planned to “adjust the size” of its workforce there. The Seattle-based department store chain filed a https://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/worker-adjustment-and-retraining-notification-act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, f)or 231 employees at its southwest Cedar Rapids facility, signaling the elimination of their positions. In the Monday email to employees, Jason Bell, Nordstrom’s senior vice president said the company is moving away from a national fulfillment model to a regional model. Nordstrom is also sunsetting its Trunk Club offering, which will reduce mail volume, Bell wrote. A Nordstrom spokesperson confirmed the email to The Gazette on Wednesday. The spokesperson said the fulfillment center employed more than 1,100 workers before the planned changes. Iowa this week surpassed 10,000 deaths from COVID-19. As of Wednesday, the pandemic’s death toll reached 10,051 in Iowa, after another 57 deaths were confirmed in the past week. That weekly total is more than double the previous week’s 26. The virus has claimed more than a million lives in the United States in the past two-and-a-half years. And while it’s not the crisis it once was, hundreds of people are still dying each day from COVID-19. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has loosened COVID-19 guidelines in the past months — issuing the same guidelines for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals and cutting the quarantine period from 10 days to five — it has not declared an end to the pandemic. New COVID-19 booster shots targeting the omicron variant have been available to most Iowans 12 and older for a few weeks now. The newer shots are bivalent, meaning they target both the original strain of the virus as well as targeting the omicron variant of the disease that has been causing many of the breakthrough infections in the last year. More than 400,000 Iowa borrowers are expected to see their student loan debt reduced or erased under President Joe Biden’s debt forgiveness plan, according to estimates the White House released this week. According to the White House fact sheet, 408,700 Iowa borrowers will see some federal student loan debt forgiven. Of those, 248,900 are Pell Grant recipients and are eligible for up to $20,000 in debt forgiveness. Other borrowers are eligible for up to $10,000 in debt forgiveness. Pell Grants go to students from low-income families. The U.S. Department of Education is expected to open an application for borrowers to apply for debt forgiveness in early October, according to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. The plan has not been without its critics. Gov. Kim Reynolds signed onto a letter with 21 other Republican governors this month calling on Biden to withdraw the plan and saying it puts the burden on lower-income Americans. There also is a Republican led plan in the works to challenge the loan reductions in court.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 21. It's going to feel completely different on Wednesday than the day before it. According to the National Weather Service, the high in the Cedar Rapids area is predicted to be 73 degrees. There will be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms for much of the day, otherwise it will be partly sunny. On Wednesday night it will be cloudy, with a low of around 51 degrees. Representatives of Ingredion and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 100G — nohttps://www.thegazette.com/business/ingredion-cites-commitment-to-being-good-corporate-citizen-as-cedar-rapids-strike-continues/ (w in its seventh week of a strike a)gainst Ingredion’s Cedar Rapids facility — were asked to leave the Hotel at Kirkwood Center Tuesday morning after the two sides became heated over Ingredion officials bringing armed security professionals with them. Mike Moore, the local’s principal and president, said in a news release sent to The Gazette that “the union views this show of intimidation as a sign of disrespect and a lack of intent to bargain in good faith.” In an email to The Gazette Tuesday afternoon, Becca Hary, Ingredion corporate communications director, wrote, “We have been eager to resume negotiations in order to reach a fair agreement for the benefit of all. Unfortunately, throughout this process, Ingredion employees have received repeated threats of violence — in fact, approximately 100 have been received since Aug. 1. Hary added that Ingredion officials “look forward to resuming negotiations as soon as possible. We have proposed alternative meeting options and stand ready to continue to bargain in good faith toward a new agreement.” The union called a strike Aug. 1 over wages, overtime and health care benefits, among other issues. No further meetings between Ingredion and the union have been scheduled. It seems a utility-scale solar moratorium is in Linn County’s near future. The Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the Board of Supervisors approve the moratorium. The commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval during its meeting on Monday night. The proposed moratorium, if approved, would be in effect for 12 months, or whenever the code is changed if it’s sooner. A moratorium would allow current projects already approved to continue, but the county would not be accepting new applications during the time period. The main sentiment behind the moratorium appears to be that the country needs to consider if its solar power procedures and implementation are as good as they could be. “Our code language is good language. Most of the jurisdictions that have codes like ours are similar or less robust,” County Planning and Development Director Charlie Nichols said. “Nationally, it is good code. But staff recommends approval (of the moratorium) because we can make it better. My hope is we come out of this with a model not just for Iowa, but all across the nation.” “We’ve learned a lot and we want to take those lessons and put them in our code,” Nichols said. “We want to look at vegetation under the solar panels, we want to take a closer look at screening. We want a more standardized approach with battery-storage systems because that’s not in our code and it needs to be.” More than $2.6 billion of Iowa soybeans and corn will be purchased by Taiwan, according to letters of intent signed during a ceremony at the Iowa Capitol on Tuesday. A trade delegation from Taiwan joined Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa agriculture secretary Mike Naig in signing the informal agreements, which state Taiwan’s intent to purchase over the next three years about 100 million bushels of soybeans valued at roughly $2 billion, and 59 million bushels of corn valued at roughly $600 million. According to Randy Miller, president of the Iowa Soybean Association and a soybean farmer, more than...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, September 20. Will Tuesday be the last angry gasp of Summer? According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 96 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday. It will be sunny and clear all day, with a low settling in around 68 degrees on Tuesday night. Wednesday should see a high temperature 30 degrees cooler than Tuesday, and this cooler weather will carry on for the rest of the week. Inspired by the Green Bay Packers’ five-year-old “Titletown” entertainment district, Iowa State University on Monday unveiled plans to develop 40 acres between its Iowa State Center arts complex, Hilton Coliseum, and Jack Trice football stadium into a destination https://cyclones.com/feature/cytown#vision (“CyTown.”) The ISU vision for the $200 million CyTown project involves a 135,000-square-foot development including a medical facility, retail space, offices, and luxury suites. The endeavor would include an outdoor public plaza and amphitheater, restaurants and pubs, a hotel and convention center. Development will happen over years and in stages via a series of projects — starting with $25 million in parking and infrastructure improvements, scheduled to go before the Board of Regents for approval in November. The board in June already gave Iowa State the OK to start planning that work, which involves constructing new parking with new lighting and installing new water, power, gas, phone, storm sewer, and sanitary lines able to support all the development Iowa State envisions. Iowa Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mike Franken denied allegations that he grabbed and kissed a former campaign staffer without her consent after the conservative news website Iowa Field Report detailed a police report alleging unwanted advances. According to the report, the person, assumed to be Franken, grabbed the collar of the vest of a former female campaign staffer in March and kissed her on the mouth after meeting for drinks in Des Moines. The assistant Polk County attorney found no criminal act had been established and closed the investigation as “unfounded.” No charges were filed. Franken, though, told reporters at a Social Security Works town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids on Monday that he met with former campaign staffer that night “at her request,” after she reportedly had been fired from his campaign, and "I had a glass of beer." Franken, however, repeatedly denied the allegations in the police report. “It never happened,” Franken, told The Gazette. Dozens of Iowa cities have annual hunts to control deer population within city limits. Hunters also can hunt on private land within the city limits if they have permission. Iowa City still is in the infancy of its own program, which dealt with early pushback from concerned citizens. Now it’s gearing up for its third bowhunting season. As in past seasons, the city has a very low participation rate. As of now, only three bowhunters have signed up, Assistant City Manager Rachel Kilburg said. The number of deer harvested last year? Four. Residents who oppose the sharpshooting and bowhunting programs want to see non-lethal methods used, like contraception and relocation. But 2021 saw dozens of car accidents involving deer in Iowa City, totaling thousands of dollars in damage — more than double the 2020 totals. Before that, the number of accidents ranged from 51 to 58 betwen 2016 and 2019. According to a city memo from Kilburg, the last aerial deer count was “concerning.“
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, September 19th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny today in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 83. Winds from the northeast at around 5 mph. Then tonight, it should be mostly clear, with a low around 67. A 21-year-old man serving time in an Iowa prison died Wednesday at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, according to an Iowa Department of Corrections news release. Keyote Smith was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. Wednesday after being admitted earlier in the week “for an acute illness related to a chronic medical condition.” The Johnson County Medical Examiner will perform an autopsy. Since October 2020, Smith had been serving a maximum 10-year sentence for a second-degree robbery conviction in Marshall County. Last year, he filed an application for post-conviction relief. No one was injured Saturday after a vacant house near Coggon caught fire during a brush burn, according to the Linn County Sheriff's Office. The owners of the acreage in the 5800 block of Quality Ridge Road had a burn permit for brush and were burning an area north of the vacant house on their land, which is about 1.5 miles west of Coggon. The owners contacted authorities after winds caused the fire to spread to the house. Emergency responders found the structure fully engulfed when they arrived. The house is considered a total loss. Coggon's fire chief reported there was nothing suspicious about the fire. The Nevada vs Iowa football game at Kinnick Stadium lasted longer than anyone could have imagined Saturday night. Because of three lightning delays, the game ended after seven hours — from the rainy 6:40 p.m. kickoff to 1:39 a.m. Sunday morning, when the Hawkeyes won the game 27-0, scoring three touchdowns on offense. – 🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 17 and Sunday, September 18th. Rain appears likely this weekend but it also looks like it will be getting chillier again next week, so maybe go for the umbrella and shorts combo? According to the National Weather Service there will be a 30 percent chance of rain Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly area 3 p.m. There will be a high of 83 degrees with partly sunny skies. It will be a bit windy, with a 5 to 15 mph wind gusting as high as 25 mph. On Saturday night the rain chance will jump up to 70 percent, with mostly cloudy skies and a low near 68 degrees. Rain chances will continue on Sunday with Saturday’s rain lingering into Sunday morning, and a chance for more rain after 2 p.m. When it is not raining, it should be mostly sunny, with a high near 87 degrees. Internet hosting and domain-name registrar business GoDaddy plans to move its operations to downtown Cedar Rapids next year, the company told its Hiawatha employees in an email earlier this summer. “This move represents our need for a smaller space given fewer employees use the office daily,” the company said. Spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas told The Gazette on Friday that the company had not yet announced its “intended location in Cedar Rapids.” GoDaddy was founded by Bob Parsons, who sold his Cedar Rapids-based Parsons Technology financial software company to Intuit in 1994 for $65 million. Johnson County has acquired 83 acres of woodland, prairie and a farmstead near Solon that will be available for public use. The property known as Two Horse Farm, at 2257 Sugar Bottom Road NE, was acquired in part through a donation by Erin and Brian Melloy, the former owners, and in part through a purchase with $1.2 million in state and county conservation funds. The land includes 64 acres of forest, 15.5 acres of reconstructed prairie and a 3.5-acre farmstead that includes a 1890’s-era farmhouse and a barn built in 1913 that now houses https://www.theraregroup.org/#:~:text=Located%20in%20Iowa%20City%2C%20Iowa,that%20number%20continues%20to%20grow. (Raptor Advocacy Rehabilitation & Education (RARE)). A unique part of the land transaction is that seven acres of prairie have been donated to the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. “The Native Americans our state is named after have no land whatsoever (in Iowa),” said Brad Freidhof, county conservation program manager. The Iowa Tribe controls a 12,000-acre reservation in northeast Kansas and southeast Nebraska, but its original land was in Iowa and was the namesake of the state. As part of the deal with tribal members, the county has agreed to maintain the tribal land as it does the adjacent area. The hope is it will give members of the tribe who now live elsewhere a way to come make connections in the state that was once its home, Friedhof said. A man who was arrested in a California airport while trying to conceal 5 pounds of methamphetamine in his carry-on bag to bring with him to Iowa pleaded guilty this week in federal court. 21-year-old Kiyonte Sowell, of Los Angeles, was convicted in U.S. District Court of one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. He was indicted with 10 others who were charged with distributing ice meth from 2018 through March 2022. Early this year, the Drug Enforcement Administration was conducting a wiretap investigation into a meth trafficking ring in Cedar Rapids, according to federal prosecutors. On Feb. 28, Sowell went to the Los Angeles International Airport to take a flight to Cedar Rapids. Sowell brought a large roller bag and attempted to take the bag through security as his carry-on luggage, according to the plea. Airport security searched the bag and found about 2,200 grams of meth and arrested Sowell. The drug trafficking ring was led by 36-year-old David Poitier Belton, of Cedar Rapids, also charged in the conspiracy....
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 16. The weather during the day on Friday will be much like the days before it this week. But there could be some rain overnight into Saturday morning. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 85 degrees. A wind of 5 to 15 mph could gust as high as 20 mph. On Friday night there will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 a.m. Besides that, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 67 degrees. Freight railroad companies and unions representing workers have been locked in a dispute over pay and working conditions this week, but President Joe Biden said Thursday that they had reached a "tentative" deal to avoid a major economic disruption. A strike would have affected not only commuters who rely on the railway to get to work but also the nation's energy supply and drinking water. Two of the largest unions -- representing 57,000 conductors and engineers -- held out until the final hours. But Wednesday and through the night into Thursday, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh held emergency meetings with the rail carriers and unions to help broker a deal. Disruptions were already being felt: Amtrak announced it would cancel all of its long-distance trains starting Thursday, and other rail systems braced for shutdowns. The impasse was tied to disagreements between management and labor over sick time and penalties for missing work. U.S. freight railroad workers were close to striking over claims that grueling schedules, strict on-call policies and poor working conditions have been driving employees out of the industry over the past several years. North Liberty-based GreenState Credit Union said Thursday it had instituted a reduction in force, effective immediately, that eliminated the positions of 42 employees across the organization. Citing a decreased demands for loans, Jim Kelly, the credit union’s chief marketing officer, said in an email to The Gazette Thursday that most of the workers affected were “in the mortgage lending or commercial banking divisions.” In an attempt to control inflation the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates. As a result, the average for 30-year-fixed mortgage rates nationwide has climbed to slightly over 6 percent. Applications for mortgages have dropped in response. Superintendent Noreen Bush of the Cedar Rapids Community School District is taking a medical leave beginning Monday. Bush was diagnosed with cancer two and a half years ago while serving as superintendent of the 16,700-student school district. “Noreen established a theme of ‘love and care’ for our district to begin this school year,” school board president David Tominsky said in a message to the community Thursday. “And we, as a school district and broader community, fully support her with all our love and care as she takes this important time to focus on her cancer journey.” Over the summer, Bush participated in a cancer clinical trial in Pittsburgh, Penn., where she underwent cellular therapy.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, September 15. The trend of sunny weather continues Thursday, with the most notable difference being a slightly stronger wind. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 83 degrees. A wind of 5 to 15 mph could gust as high as 20 mph. On Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 62 degrees. Iowa’s Republican U.S. senators shied away from supporting a proposed nationwide ban on abortions when asked about that possibility Wednesday. South Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a bill on Tuesday that would create a nationwide ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley told reporters he prefers to leave the issue to states. “Finally, after 50 years, this issue has been returned to the states so voters can have a voice through their elected representatives at a state level and not by unelected judges,” Grassley told reporters. “So this is a state issue.” Sen. Joni Ernst did not provide as clear cut of an answer when speaking to reporters, but did say that states should have the “initial role’ when it comes to abortion restrictions. Members of one union rejected a tentative deal with the largest U.S. freight railroads Wednesday, while two ratified agreements and three others remained at the bargaining table just days ahead of a strike deadline. A national rail workers strike could intensify snarls in the nation's supply chain that have contributed to rising prices. Government officials and a variety of businesses are bracing for the possibility of a nationwide rail strike that would paralyze shipments of everything from crude and clothing to cars, a potential calamity for businesses that have struggled for more than two years due to COVID-19 related supply chain breakdowns. Railroads are trying to reach an agreement with all their other unions to avert a strike before Friday’s deadline. The unions aren't allowed to strike before Friday under the federal law that governs railroad contract talks. There are 12 unions — one with two separate divisions — representing 115,000 workers that must agree to the tentative deals and then have members vote on whether to approve them. A Cedar Rapids man died Tuesday night after driving off the road just north of the Edgewood Road Bridge and hitting a tree. Cedar Rapids police said Scott Devore, 66, was the driver and only occupant of the vehicle in the 7:36 p.m. crash. The southbound lanes of the bridge were closed until 12:15 a.m. Investigation into the incident is ongoing.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 14. The sunny and warm weather continues on Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 82 degrees. There will be a light wind of 5 to 10 mph. On Wednesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 59 degrees. A Cedar Rapids man arrested Monday https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-man-accused-of-involuntary-manslaughter-in-fatal-shooting/ (on a charge of involuntary manslaughter )intended to wound another man, not kill him, on April 25, according to a criminal complaint filed in Linn County District Court on Tuesday. Marlon Juane Jackson, 43, left his apartment around 3 a.m. to investigate a potential burglary of his car in the parking lot near 12th Avenue and Auburn Drive SW, the complaint states. After he examined his vehicle, Jackson saw https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-man-found-dead-after-shooting/ (Dustin Frondle), 36, of Cedar Rapids, walking in his direction, leading to a confrontation.. During the altercation, Jackson told police he fired several “warning shots” into the ground near Frondle, but Frondle, who was unarmed, continued to come toward him. Jackson told police he intended to shoot at Frondle’s legs, not wanting to kill him but wanting to stop him. Jackson shot Frondle three times — in the left thigh, the right leg, and the left shoulder. The shot to Frondle’s shoulder passed through his lung and heart, killing him. According to the criminal complaint, investigators found Jackson had previously been convicted of a felony in Michigan and had lied on his gun permit application to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, claiming he had no felony convictions. Linn County will not have a landfill within its borders after the current one closes in Marion in 2044. The Solid Waste Agency’s board made that decision because no Linn County land is available for a new landfill because of zoning restrictions. Instead, the agency and its board are looking at regional solutions in its “https://www.solidwasteagency.org/about-us/forward-2044 (Forward 2044)” planning, according to Karmin McShane, the agency’s executive director. Some of the ideas include partnerships with other counties or even teaming up with a private company in a state like Illinois to handle some of Linn County’s waste. Linn County, for example, could ship some of its waste to a neighboring county’s landfill and, in return, that county transfers some of its waste to be incinerated in Linn County. A magnet high school for students to engage in project-based learning is being added to the Cedar Rapids Community School District next fall 2023. A location has yet to be established for the school — named City View Community High School. Officials are waiting to hear if they will receive a $15 million grant from the Magnet School Assistance Program from the U.S. Department of Education, school officials announced during a school board meeting Monday, although the school will open either way. City View is intended to provide “experiential learning in the community.” Students at the school will be able to explore life and career goals through job shadows, internships and apprenticeships. And it will connect students to business people and mentors in Cedar Rapids District officials will begin recruiting up to 200 primarily rising ninth- and 10th-graders to enroll in the school for the 2023-24 school year. The school will eventually serve up to 400 ninth to 12th-graders. The school will not offer athletics or music, which students can still find at their local high school.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, September 13. It's going to warm back up a bit this week, starting on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 81 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 53 degrees. The wind should remain mostly calm throughout the day, even more so as night arrives. An Iowa court denied a request from parents to https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/parents-urge-court-to-bar-enforcement-of-new-linn-mar-transgender-policy/ (temporarily bar enforcement of a Linn-Mar school district policy) that protects transgender and nonbinary students while a lawsuit to negate the policy is pending. U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams ruled Monday on a national parental advocacy group’s request, denying the injunction. The policy ensures the district complies with state law that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, according to court documents. An injunction would have blocked students from any protection from harassment and bullying on the basis of gender identity, as well as prevented the school from disciplining such harassment and bullying under various Title IX and Iowa civil rights-related provisions that defendants are obligated by law to enforce, Williams ruled. The Linn-Mar Community School District is being sued by the national Parents Defending Education organization over the policy https://www.thegazette.com/k/linn-mar-school-board-members-debate-policies-to-protect-transgender-students/ (approved by the Linn-Mar school board) in April. The policies spell out inclusive practices for transgender students, including giving students access to restrooms, locker rooms or changing areas that correspond with their gender identity. With wild birds beginning the fall migration southward, Iowa’s chicken and turkey farmers once again are on high alert for avian influenza. This year’s version of the bird flu resulted in the destruction of more than 13 million birds in Iowa this spring. While significant, that was not nearly as devastating as the 2015 version of the avian flu, which resulted in the destruction of more than 31.5 million chickens and turkeys in Iowa, and resulted in a $1.2 billion hit to the state’s economy, https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/08/report-finds-12-billion-iowa-avian-flu-damage (according to one report). New cases have been identified throughout the Midwest in recent weeks: at poultry farms in Minnesota and Ohio, and backyard flocks in Wisconsin and Indiana. According to the Associated Press, an indicator that the painful inflation of the past 18 months may be slowly getting better could come Tuesday, when the government is expected to report that the acceleration in U.S. prices slowed in August compared with a year ago https://apnews.com/article/us-inflation-july-report-ec477624de30115dd49f35009b2659c0 (for a second straight month). Economists have forecast that the report will show that prices jumped 8.1% from 12 months earlier, down from a four-decade high of 9.1% in June and 8.5% in July, according to data provider FactSet. Sharply lower gas prices are behind much of the decline, along with the costs of used cars, air fares and clothing. Furthermore, according to figures monitored most closely by the Federal Reserve, consumer prices are predicted to have dropped 0.1% in August. It would be the first outright decline in month-over-month inflation since May 2020 and would follow a flat reading in July.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, September 12th. According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have a 20 percent chance of rain before 1 p.m. today in the Cedar Rapids area. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 72. Winds from the northwest, 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Then tonight, it should be clear, with a low around 50. A man with a gunshot wound arrived at a Cedar Rapids hospital Saturday shortly after police were dispatched to a shots-fired report, according to a Cedar Rapids Police Department news release. At 12:23 p.m., officers were sent to the area of Ninth Street and D Avenue NW where they found shell casings behind a house in the 500 block of Ninth Street NW. A nearby vehicle and a neighbor's shed were struck by gunfire. Less than an hour later, officers were notified that a man with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound arrived at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital for treatment. It was the second shooting in two days for the city. On Friday, police were called to a shots-fired incident at an apartment complex in southwest Cedar Rapids, where property damage was found. Police said a juvenile male showed up at a hospital for treatment, shortly after that shots-fired incident was reported. An Olin man was killed early Saturday while driving an ATV in a Jones County wildlife area, according to an Iowa Department of Natural Resources news release. At about 3:30 a.m., 35-year-old James Minor drove off the roadway at Olin Access Wildlife Management Area and hit an obstruction. Authorities said Minor was declared dead at the scene. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 10, and Sunday, September 11. This is a weekend that is going to feel very much like fall has arrived with cooler temperatures and potentially some rain in store. According to the National Weather Service, on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area it will be cloudy, with a high near 72 degrees. There will be a north wind of 5 to 15 mph with wind gusts as high as 20 mph. There will be an above 50 percent chance of rain from around 6 p.m. on Saturday until 6:00 a.m. on Sunday. On Sunday the chance of rain will linger, mostly until 1 p.m., and the high will be 67 degrees. The wind will be similar to Saturday. On Sunday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 54 degrees, and a 40 percent chance of showers. Six years after a Davenport veteran’s suicide sparked national attention and calls from members of Congress for an investigation after having been denied inpatient psychiatric care, the Iowa City Veterans Administration Medical Center is planning for a major expansion. “Over the past several years, mental health — both in the military and civilian sector — has been recognized as a shortcoming in our medical treatment of individuals, whether they veterans or civilians,” Heath Streck, associate director for operations, said following a 9/11 flag-raising ceremony on Friday at the Iowa City VA Health Care System. Streck stressed, however, that several mental health initiatives and newly approved funding by Congress will help deal with these shortcomings. President Joe Biden in June signed the Sgt. Ketchum Rural Veterans Mental Health Act into law. The legislation was named for Sgt. Brandon Ketchum. The 33-year-old served in Iraq and Afghanistan and struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse after serving in the U.S. Marines and the Iowa Army National Guard. He died by suicide in 2016 after being denied inpatient psychiatric care at the Iowa City Veterans Administration Medical Center. The new law, supported by Iowa’s congressional delegation, will establish teams of specialists that can be more responsive to the needs of rural VA hospitals, as well as requiring the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study and report on whether the VA has sufficient resources to serve rural veterans who need mental health care that is more intensive than traditional outpatient therapy. Streck and Jamie Johnson, public affairs officer, said the Iowa City-based VA health system is in the process of developing a medical psych unit and plans to develop a community living center in addition to a residential rehabilitation treatment program to fill gaps and meet demand. Over the next five budget years, the University of Iowa and its health care enterprise plan to spend more than $1.4 billion on new construction and renovations — including $620.9 million on a new inpatient hospital tower and $212 million on a new “modern health care research facility.” Iowa’s three Regent universities this week shared more details of their projected capital spending over the next five years in a facilities plan going before Iowa’s Board of Regents next week. For UI, the report for the first time attached numbers and general timelines to conceptual projects the campus unveiled earlier this year as part of its 10-year master plan. “UIHC’s five-year capital plan for other funds would be for $786 million, up 51 percent from last year’s $521 million, mainly due to a new inpatient bed tower project,” according to the new report. A spending schedule for the new UIHC inpatient tower budgets nearly $3 million toward that project in the next budget year, jumping to $148 million for fiscal 2025 — with costs escalating through fiscal 2028, reaching a total of $620.9 million. Although spending on the project could continue beyond that fifth year, the new UIHC inpatient tower at that price
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 9. It will be another sunny warm day on Friday, but keep an eye out for your fall jacket because some cooler weather is coming Sunday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 89 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Friday night it will be clear in the evening, with a low of around 61 degrees. The wind will remain mild all day. Iowa politicians joined leaders from around the world to offer condolences and pay tribute to Britain’s revered and longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at the age of 96. “Queen Elizabeth II was a strong and graceful leader for the better part of a century,” 88-year-old U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement. “As queen, she was a tremendous source of stability and clearly loved the people she served. She’ll forever be a symbol of decency and humanity for the whole world. Queen Elizabeth II leaves a remarkable legacy of duty, honor and service.” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, in a statement, called Queen Elizabeth “a remarkable and steadfast woman who fought side by side with the United States through some of the Free World’s most trying times.” “I’ll always admire her fortitude, love of freedom, and tenacity that has inspired other women in leadership,” Reynolds said. “Kevin and I join with Iowans in sharing our condolences to the Royal Family.” With the death of the queen, her 73-year-old son Charles automatically becomes monarch, even though the coronation might not take place for months. It is not known whether he will choose to call himself King Charles III or some other name. The Cedar Rapids Police Department https://www.facebook.com/cedarrapidspolicedepartment/videos/500101218598029/ (released body camera footage) Thursday of a fatal officer-involved shooting on Aug. 30. William Isaac Rich, 22, of Cedar Rapids, https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/dci-cedar-rapids-police-shot-killed-armed-man-at-domestic-disturbance/ (was shot) early in the morning on Aug. 30 after police were called to the Inn Circle, 5560 Sixth St SW “regarding violent domestic issues,” according to police, The video released by the police department starts with Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman explaining the incident that led to the shooting. In a short summary of the video footage, the officers were called to the scene with an indication that Rich had been in a domestic dispute with his wife and had punched, choked, and attempted to drown her. When officers arrived, they grabbed Rich, telling him to get his hands up. The police department then slowed down the video to show that Rich had a knife in his hand. After a scuffle ensued, Rich was pushed back, and three shots rang out, with an officer telling Rich to get on the ground. Rich fell to the ground but then attempted to get back up, leading to four more gunshots, stopping his movement. The footage was released partially due to a community protest of the shooting, including members of Rich’s family. The shooting is under investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and both officers, Sgt. Bryson Garringer and Investigator Christopher Christy, have been placed on paid leave. Once the Iowa DCI investigation is complete, it will be reviewed by the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. A decade after the University of Iowa could last call itself the largest higher education institution in the state, UI this fall has reclaimed that distinction — reporting higher total enrollment than Iowa State University https://www.thegazette.com/education/iowa-state-remains-largest-university-in-iowa/ (for the first time since 2012). Two weeks into the fall semester, UI on Thursday reported 30,015 total undergraduate, graduate, and professional students — up slightly over last fall’s 29,909, but still below its pre-pandemic count of 31,142 in fall 2019. Iowa State
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, September 8. The weather is going to feel like summer for a bit on Thursday, before the fall weather most certainly will arrive this weekend. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 88 degrees. On Thursday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 61 degrees. The wind should hover between 5 and 10 mph all day. A Cedar Rapids man who was https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/man-shot-by-cedar-rapids-police-officers-identified/ (shot by police officers on July 30) was released from the hospital and booked into the Linn County Correctional Center Wednesday on two counts of attempted murder, among other charges, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department. Brandon Nelson, 23, pointed a gun at two officers — Officers Blair Klostermann and Matt Jenatscheck — during a traffic stop. Nelson shot once during the exchange, and the officers shot toward Nelson 12 times, according to the Linn County Attorney’s Office’s official memorandum about the incident. Nelson sustained three gunshot wounds. Neither of the officers was injured. County Attorney Nick Maybanks https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/linn-county-attorney-rules-july-officer-involved-shooting-in-cedar-rapids-was-justified/ (announced on Aug. 22 that the shooting was found to be justified) on the part of the officers after an investigation by the attorney’s office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Prior to the traffic stop, Nelson had been driving recklessly around Cedar Rapids, according to the memorandum. He admitted to consuming alcohol the night of the incident and said he didn’t remember what happened that night before finding himself on the ground in pain after being shot. After https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/linn-county-supervisors-approve-first-of-three-readings-on-palo-solar-project/ (three 2-1 votes by the Linn County supervisors), the NextEra Duane Arnold Solar projects near Palo were given the official green light on Tuesday. Approval for the projects comes despite complaints from landowners and opposition against the projects by the Palo city council. The Iowa Utilities Board already has approved the projects. While NextEra will develop the rural Linn County project near Palo, https://www.thegazette.com/energy/alliant-energy-plans-iowas-largest-solar-battery-facility-at-palo-site/ (Alliant Energy has filed a proposal with the Iowa Utilities Board) to buy the large-scale solar farm from NextEra and further develop it into the state’s largest solar and battery storage facility. Duane Arnold Solar I project proposes to use 316 acres of an 857-acre area to place photovoltaic solar arrays capable of generating up to 50 megawatts of energy. Duane Arnold Solar II project would use 815 acres of a 1,780-acre area to place solar arrays capable of generating up to 150 MW. It also would include a 75-MW, four-hour battery energy storage facility. This is the second utility-scale solar project the county has approved this year. In January, the supervisors approved developer Clenera’s Coggon project in a 2-1 vote after planning and zoning commission members voted 6-1 to recommend denial. However, progress on thehttps://www.thegazette.com/news/coggon-solar-project-on-hold-as-opponents-seek-court-review/ ( 640-acre solar farm near Coggon) is on hold while a court resolves a case brought against the supervisors by a family who lives near the site. A Mega Millions ticket bought at an Ames convenience store is a $1 million winner, according to the Iowa Lottery. It is the third Mega Millions prize of at least $1 million won in Iowa in just more than a month, the lottery said. The latest winning ticket came within one number of winning the $191 million jackpot, the lottery said. With no winner, that jackpot now increases to an...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, September 6. According to the National Weather Service there could be some fog to start your morning commute on Tuesday, but most of it should clear out by 9 a.m. After that cloudy skies will eventually become sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 81 degrees. The low is predicted to settle in at 60 degrees, with partly cloudy skies. Local governments in Johnson County want to make the Iowa River a signature attraction for residents and visitors. With the help of Think Iowa City, the cities of Coralville and Iowa City, along with Johnson County, are preparing a nearly $6 million application to the state’s Destination Iowa program that will be submitted in the coming weeks. The joint application seeks funding for various projects improving water and trail access in the county. This includes a new park in Coralville with various amenities, a skatepark renovation in Iowa City, new boat ramps, and completing the Clear Creek Trail connection https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/campground-improvements-coming-to-growing-kent-park/ (out to Kent Park). The application is part of a long-term plan to develop features to make the river easier to use from the Coralville Reservoir dam all the way down south to Hills and Riverside. That includes improving the trail system, adding more boat ramps so people can easily get on the water and planning other attractions along the river. Navigating North Liberty will get more cumbersome once the University of Iowa completes its half-billion-dollar hospital project, according to a traffic study the university commissioned to determine what measures it should take to help mitigate congestion in the booming district. The study, which Shive-Hattery Architecture and Engineering produced in May, analyzed 20 intersections near Highway 965 and Forevergreen Road, where UI Health Care is building its $525.6 million campus. The firm recommended the addition of either traffic signals, more lanes or new restrictive signage at eight intersections to keep driving from devolving into unacceptable delays. The analysis suggests dual turn lanes and a traffic signal off Forevergreen Road and a single turn lane off Wheaton Road — both of which UIHC would pay for.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Labor Day, September 5th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly cloudy today in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 74. Winds from the northeast 5 to 10 mph. Then tonight, partly cloudy with a low around 62. With Labor Day weekend serving as the unofficial kickoff to the fall campaign season, former U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack joined Iowa Democratic candidates running for state and federal office gathered at Sutliff Farm & Cider House in Lisbon on Saturday for a campaign rally to help elect Liz Mathis and Christina Bohannan. About 350 people attended, according to Mathis’ campaign. Mathis, a Democratic state senator from Hiawatha, is running to unseat Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of Marion in Iowa’s newly reconfigured 2nd Congressional District. Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor and Democratic state representative from Iowa City, is running against Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa in Iowa’s new 1st Congressional District. Mathis and Bohannan criticized Hinson and Miller-Meeks for voting against the federal infrastructure bill signed into law while praising projects supported by their funding. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to Labor Day Weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 3, and Sunday, September 4. Some cooler weather is arriving just in time for the long weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a slight chance for rain after 1 p.m. on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area. The high temperature will be near 80 degrees. On Sunday it will be partly sunny with a high near 77 degrees. And on Labor Day Monday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 82 degrees. After weeks of confusion and uncertainty, dog owners in the Benton County town of Keystone were served written notices to remove their “pitbulls” from town. The Benton County Sheriff’s Office served written notices to dog owners on Friday before the holiday weekend. The county and the city of Keystone have breed-specific ordinances banning pitbulls. MaKinzie Brecht, a Keystone resident and pit bull owner, said she and a few other residents have received official notices from the City of Keystone and the Benton County Sheriff’s office. The notice states that if the owner “fails to remove the dog as directed and within the prescribed time” of three days, “the City of Keystone will take such steps as necessary to remove said animal from the city limits.” The notice states that those served have two days to appeal after receiving the notice. The notices arrived on Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend. Brecht said the dog owners in Keystone have collectively hired a lawyer to deal with this situation moving forward. A Marion man, who had his conviction of killing his former girlfriend overturned in 2020, waived his right to a jury trial and will have a bench trial — meaning the judge will determine the verdict — later this month. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/retrial-for-marion-man-charged-with-killing-ex-girlfriend-will-be-delayed/ (Greg Davis, 30, charged with first-degree murder,) told 6th Judicial District Judge Sean McPartland that he knowingly and voluntarily waived a jury trial during a pretrial hearing Friday. He also will submit a written waiver to the court. Davis will again claim insanity or diminished capacity as his defense in the second trial, which starts Sept. 13 in Linn County District Court. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/marion-man-found-guilty-in-fatal-stabbing-of-ex-girlfriend-faces-life-in-prison/ (Davis was convicted of first-degree murder )by a Linn County jury in 2018 but the https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/murder-conviction-overturned-for-marion-man-who-stabbed-ex-girlfriend-26-times-and-hid-body-in-roll/ (Iowa Supreme Court overturned the verdict) in a 4-3 decision in 2020. The justices found the trial judge — McPartland — failed to instruct the jury regarding Davis' insanity or diminished capacity defense on the first-degree murder charge, which meant jurors couldn’t consider it as part of their verdict. According to the Associated Press, NASA aimed for a Saturday launch of its new moon rocket, after fixing fuel leaks and working around a bad engine sensor that foiled the first try. The inaugural flight of the 322-foot rocket — the most powerful ever built by NASA — was delayed late in the countdown Monday. Atop the rocket is a crew capsule with three test dummies that will fly around the moon and back over the course of six weeks — NASA's first such attempt since the Apollo program 50 years ago. NASA wants to wring out the spacecraft before strapping in astronauts on the next planned flight in two years. There is also a local tie to the moon missions. https://www.collinsaerospace.com/news/news/2020/01/collins-signs-320m-contract-lockheed-martin-provide-critical-subsystems-nasa-orion-spacecraft (Collins Aerospace, Cedar Rapids’ largest employer, signed a contract with Lockheed Martin in 2020) to provide systems to support NASA’s Orion spacecraft fleet for Artemis missions III through VIII, the
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 2. There will be another sunny and warm day on Friday before temperatures cool off, just a bit, over the weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 90 degrees during the day in the Cedar Rapids area. On Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 66 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1 a.m. Saturday. With Labor Day weekend approaching, Iowans hitting the road should plan ahead and prepare for traffic delays, given that more travelers are expected to take advantage of the final three-day weekend of the summer, despite high gas prices. AAA predicts this will be the busiest Labor Day travel weekend in three years, reaching pre-pandemic levels similar to Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends this year, despite inflation, higher airfares and gas prices pinching household budgets. While gas prices have fallen for 10 consecutive weeks to below an average of $4 a gallon nationwide, prices in Iowa were 50 cents higher on average than last Labor Day. As of Thursday, the average price of gas across the state was about $3.51 a gallon, down more than $1 from a peak of $4.76 in June and less than the national average of about $3.83 a gallon. The city of Marion will receive $9.8 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid with recovery from the devastating 2020 derecho, Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson announced Thursday. The Marion Republican said the money will aid the city with ongoing recovery efforts from the August 2020 storm that barreled across a 770-mile swath of the Midwest in 14 hours. It was, at the time, the costliest thunderstorm event in U.S. history and causing an estimated $12.5 billion in inflation-adjusted damages. At least $7.5 billion worth of damage was in Iowa alone, according to state officials. The $9.8 million awarded will reimburse the city of Marion for debris removal from waterways that was completed following the derecho, said city Finance Director Lianne Cairy. The $9.8 million will cover 90 percent of the city’s $10.9 million request for aid from FEMA, with the state contributing the remaining 10 percent, Cairy said. Math and reading scores for America’s 9-year-olds fell dramatically during the first two years of the pandemic, according to a new federal study — offering an early glimpse of the https://apnews.com/article/covid-technology-health-education-1d2f79e2c242d2212ff47983050e5330 (sheer magnitude of the learning setbacks) dealt to the nation’s children. According to reporting from the Associated Press, rhttps://apnews.com/article/science-education-race-and-ethnicity-atlanta-ff46418c59af90132998817731fe166a (eading scores) saw their largest decrease in 30 years, while math scores had their first decrease in the history of the testing regimen behind the study, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the U.S. Education Department. In math, the average score for 9-year-old students fell 7 percentage points between 2020 and 2022, according to the study. The average reading score fell 5 points. The study also found that the effects were especially pronounced for unprivileged students and for students of color. Federal officials say this is the first nationally representative study to compare student achievement before the pandemic and in 2022, when most students had returned to in-person learning. Testing was completed in early 2020, soon before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and then again in early 2022.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, September 1. Summer isn't gone quite yet. According to the National Weather Service, on Thursday it will be partly sunny, with a high near 91 degrees. On Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 66 degrees. Iowa once again will have three for-profit insurance companies managing the state’s $7 billion privatized Medicaid program that provides healthcare for more than a quarter of the state's population. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday its intent to award contracts to current Iowa Medicaid managed-care organization Amerigroup Iowa and to Molina Healthcare of Iowa, whose CEO, Jennifer Vermeer, spent nearly a decade as the Iowa Medicaid director. Molina’s parent company, though, has faced fines in three states, including in the past couple months, for not paying providers on time and allegations of improperly submitting claims for reimbursement. Amerigroup and its subsidiary health plans also have been https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-xpm-2010-08-13-fl-hmo-payments-0814-20100813-story.html (fined) or https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2008/August/08-civ-723.html (paid a hefty settlement) for denial of service and Medicaid fraud claims over the years. The company, in a statement on its website, said its “mission is to improve the health and lives of our members by delivering high-quality health care, and we look forward to fulfilling that mission in Iowa.” The downtown Cedar Rapids Public Library is reopening today after most cleaning has wrapped up following a fire that closed the facility for a month. https://www.thegazette.com/fires/downtown-cedar-rapids-library-closed-after-fire-breaks-out-in-light-fixture/ (A fire broke out in a light fixture) above the Commons of the downtown library, 450 Fifth Ave. SE, around 3:45 p.m. July 27. The building was safely evacuated with no injuries. The fire was quickly put out. There was minimal damage to library materials, according to a news release, but there was extensive smoke residue in the building, as well as fire retardant and water from sprinklers that went off above the Commons. A professional team from restoration service SERVPRO has cleaned and restored the majority of the building, including books, computers, air ducts and carpets. Some work continues on the ceiling, light fixture and first floor directly under the light fixture where damage occurred. With damage still present, the library will close at a later date for three days to complete final restoration after investigations have concluded. There is no date for that future closure at this time. The Biden administration hopes to make getting a COVID-19 booster as routine as going in for the yearly flu shot. According to the Associated Press, shots of the updated boosters, specifically designed by Pfizer and Moderna to respond to the omicron strain, could start within days. The U.S. government has purchased 170 million doses and is emphasizing that everyone will have free access to the booster. Until now, COVID-19 vaccines have targeted the original coronavirus strain, even as wildly different mutant strains emerged. The new U.S. boosters are combination, or “bivalent,” shots. They contain half that original vaccine recipe and half protection against the newest omicron versions, BA.4 and BA.5, that are considered the most contagious yet. White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said he recommends most Americans get the booster by the end of October.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 31. It will be sunny again Wednesday, with the temperatures rising as well. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 89 degrees on Wednesday. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 61 degrees. University of Iowa Health Care on Tuesday got state approval to continue building a massive 469,000-square-foot hospital campus in North Liberty as planned — despite a more than 33 percent cost overrun, bringing the total project budget to more than half a billion dollars. The https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-needs-state-ok-for-north-liberty-hospital-cost-overruns/ (State Health Facilities Council) voted 3-1 during a Tuesday morning meeting to allow the project to continue with a revised $307.1 million budget. In total, UIHC reported inflation has driven up the budget for its full North Liberty project — which includes an academic, research, and clinic building — to more than $525.6 million, an increase the Board of Regents approved in July. State Health Facilities Council Chairman Harold Miller on Tuesday was the only member of the four-person group to vote against the UIHC budget hike — voicing disappointment the university didn’t better anticipate and budget for inflation, which started its steep ascent between UIHC’s first denied application and its second approved revised version. A Marion man convicted of killing Chris Bagley in 2018 was charged Tuesday in the jail assault of an informant who he attacked in May in an attempt to stop him from testifying against a drug dealer. Johnny Blahnik Church, 35, formerly known as Drew Blahnik, during an initial appearance, was charged with willful injury resulting in serious injury, a felony. He was also charged with tampering with a witness, an aggravated misdemeanor. Blahnik Church remains in jail after being sentenced to 57 years for fatally stabbing Bagley, 31, of Walker, in December 2018. This stabbing was related to Bagley robbing another local drug dealer named Andrew Shaw. According to a criminal complaint about the drug informant assault, Blahnik Church, along with Gregory Sills, 49, of Oelwein, followed Ethan Palmer, the drug informant, into the bathroom in their cell pod at the Linn County Jail on May 27, and began “striking” Palmer. They eventually dragged Palmer out into the main area of the cellblock and continued to attack him. Palmer’s wife, Laurie Palmer, https://navcdr.writer.saas-prod.navigacloud.com/-https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/drug-informant-brutally-beaten-in-linn-county-jail-before-testimony/ (told The Gazette) earlier this month about the attack on her husband. Law enforcement and court documents from a federal conviction of the drug dealer, Justin Michael Buehler, 39, who Palmer testified against, confirmed the assault. Buehler was convicted in U.S. District Court in June on two counts of distributing methamphetamine. Cedar County residents crowded the Tipton High School auditorium Monday night for an informational meeting about a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would slice through eastern Iowa. It was the second of https://www.thegazette.com/energy/revised-public-meetings-approved-for-wolf-carbon-solutions-pipeline-proposal/ (six scheduled meetings in Eastern Iowa), where https://www.thegazette.com/energy/adm-wants-to-build-co2-pipeline-from-cedar-rapids-plant/ (ADM and Wolf’s proposed 280-mile carbon dioxide pipeline) will stretch from Cedar Rapids into Illinois. During the 3 1/2-hour meeting, attendees posed questions about safety, conflicts of interest on the Iowa Utilities Board and a supposed lack of compliance with required meeting notifications for impacted residents. Wolf representatives also spoke about eminent domain and said they intend not to use it when constructing the pipeline. After Linn County, Cedar County is the...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 30. It's going to be sunny all week, but Tuesday will be a little cooler than days to come. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 80 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday. It will also be breezy, with a wind of 10 to 20 mph gusting as high as 30 mph. On Tuesday night it will be clear, with a low of around 57 degrees and a calmer wind. In an unexpected turn, a Cedar Rapids man told a judge he wanted to plead guilty Monday to robbing a cabdriver who was fatally stabbed during the crime in 2011. The plea came before trial testimony was to begin. https://www.thegazette.com/news/after-acquittal-in-death-of-cab-driver-johnathan-mitchell-indicted-in-cab-robbery/ (Johnathan Mitchell, 44,) started talking to his lawyer, Chad Frese, near the end of the jury instructions on Monday. Frese requested a sidebar — a private discussion with lawyers and U.S. District Chief Judge Leonard Strand. Strand excused the jury for a break, and Frese said Mitchell wanted to plead guilty to robbery affecting commerce, as charged. He said Mitchell, who has been found incompetent off and on since 2016, was competent and he had actively helped in his defense during preparation for this trial. This case has been pending for six years, mostly due to https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/man-charged-in-2011-killing-and-robbery-of-cedar-rapids-cabdriver-is-appealing-court-order-to-give-h/ (Mitchell being found incompetent) when he refused to take antipsychotic medications prescribed by prison doctors. On Monday, Mitchell admitted he robbed Catherine Ann Boyle Stickley, 54, of Cedar Rapids, on April 29, 2011. He also admitted to taking cash, a purse and money bag from her during the robbery. Mitchell didn’t admit to stabbing Stickley 18 times, as a medical examiner determined. The fact that Stickley died as a result of the robbery will be a sentencing issue and could impact the sentencing guideline for Mitchell, who faces up to 20 years in federal prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Reinert said after the plea hearing. Iowa organizations encouraging alternatives to abortion may see increased demand for their services if abortion laws change. However, the $500,000 in state funding the Legislature allocated to expand these services is not yet available and new abortion restrictions may come first. The Legislature passed the “More Options for Maternal Support” (MOMS) program https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=HF2578 (into law) earlier this year, appropriating $500,000 toward funding nonprofit organizations that encourage alternatives to abortion. These organizations, often called pregnancy centers, provide services such as pregnancy and adoption counseling for expecting and new parents. Program funds have not been distributed yet. Alex Carfrae, a public information officer with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, said the goal was to have services in place before the start of the next fiscal year. The next fiscal year starts July 1, 2023. Abortion still is legal in Iowa, but the U.S. and state supreme courts decided this summer that the medical procedure is not protected under the federal or state constitution. These decisions opened the doors for legislation and court challenges seeking to restrict abortion in the state. As it stands, abortions are banned in Iowa after 20 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases where the mother’s life is at risk. Gov. Kim Reynolds is hoping to bring that timeframe down to six weeks. Earlier this month, the governor’s attorneys https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/08/11/reynolds-asks-court-to-lift-injunction-against-iowas-fetal-heartbeat-law/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1bbbd8b9-f717-4115-b35f-6b299a019cb5 (filed a court brief) asking an Iowa judge to lift an injunction blocking enforcement of the so-called fetal...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, August 29th. According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. It will be partly sunny, with a high near 86. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph, coming from the northwest in the afternoon. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch are expected, except for possibly higher amounts in thunderstorm areas. Then tonight, it should be mostly clear, with a low around 61. On Sunday, Republican U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson - who is running for re-election - hosted ‘Ashley’s BBQ Bash’ at the Linn County Fairgrounds in Central City, with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Tim Scott, of South Carolina, as guests. Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Rep. Jim Banks, of Indiana, also spoke at the rally. Speakers ripped President Joe Biden, congressional Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over passage of a sweeping climate and health care package and a student loan debt cancellation plan they argue will worsen inflation, and raise taxes during a possible recession. Hinson is running in Iowa’s new 2nd Congressional District against Democratic state Sen. Liz Mathis of Hiawatha. Hinson currently represents Iowa’s 1st U.S. House district. According to Hinson’s campaign, more than 750 people attended the BBQ Bash. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 27, and Sunday, August 28. There will be a chance for showers and thunderstorms in the middle chunk of the weekend. According to the forecast from the National Weather Service the chance for rain will start ramping up after 4 p.m. on Saturday and will become most likely from early Sunday morning until around 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon. When it is not raining, it will be partly sunny both days, with a predicted high of 85 degrees on Saturday and 88 degrees on Sunday. A buyer has stepped forward to redevelop the 51-acre Transamerica property at a prime location near Highway 100, but specific details about what will take shape at the site remain to be seen. Real estate agent Kerry Panozzo — the owner of HomeSmart international, which has offices in the Quad Cities — said Friday his company closed on the purchase of the property at Edgewood Road and 42nd Street NE about a month ago. EOP Development LLC purchased the site for $7.02 million, according to Panozzo. There is no timeline established yet for development. Transamerica relocated its Cedar Rapids operations to the former Hibu site in southwest Cedar Rapids starting in 2016. The Cedar Rapids Police Department is investigating a Thursday night stabbing that left one person dead. Police were called to Cedar Valley Townhomes at 3000 J St. SW just before 10 p.m. Thursday, according to a news release from the police department. Cordaro Griffin, 34, was found outside an apartment with a stab wound in his chest. He was taken to a hospital where he died. Witnesses to the stabbing cooperated with investigators, and police believe there is no active threat to the public, according to the release. Rescue workers from several agencies are credited with saving a farmer who was trapped in a grain bin overnight in Hardin County. The victim was conscious and alert, and he was transported Friday to Hansen Family Hospital in Iowa Falls for treatment, said Hardin County Sheriff Dave McDaniel. The man had apparently become trapped in the bin at his rural Ackley-Iowa Falls area farm on Thursday afternoon and wasn’t discovered until Friday morning when a neighbor came over. The neighbor called 911 around 11:16 a.m. Friday. Workers used shields to keep more grain from engulfing the victim, and they cut holes in the bin to relieve pressure. He was freed by 12:36 p.m., the sheriff said. Have a good weekend everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 26th. It will be all sun Friday before a slight chance for rain will return over the weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny, with a high near 80 degrees on Friday. On Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 59 degrees. The wind will remain around 5 mph all day. The city of North Liberty is hoping to transform Centennial Park into a regional attraction for the Corridor. A design concept for the $17.7 million project was presented to the North Liberty City Council this week. Proposed features include an event center, outdoor stage, open air pavilion, splash pad and garden to honor city veterans. City officials said they hope the project will draw more people to the city. The city purchased land for the park in 2010 and developed a master plan for it in 2012. Centennial Park, the city’s largest park, opened in 2013. The city has completed four phases of work since the master plan was created, with the most recent phase wrapping up this year. Completed projects include construction of driveways, permeable paver parking, trails and age-appropriate play features. A preliminary project schedule shows construction beginning in December 2023 and lasting through May 2025, but that is subject to change as the design is developed and as funding is secured. A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Wednesday on a warrant for an attempted murder charge after he led police on a foot chase, according to a Cedar Rapids Police Department news release. Bernick Karsten Brown, 38, is accused of attempting to kill his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, Branly Nkosi, by hitting him multiple times in the head with a baseball bat Feb. 12. The attack caused multiple skull fractures, a brain bleed and other serious life-threatening injuries, according to a criminal complaint. The man also had a stab wound in his back, but the complaint does not state whether the stabbing is thought to have been done by Brown. A Cedar Rapids patrol officer recognized Brown, who had several warrants out for his arrest, on Wednesday shortly after 5 p.m. The officer started tracking Brown and called for backup, according to the news release. Brown tried to hide in a home in the 1400 block of Bever Avenue SE and escaped out the back as police attempted to contact him, the release states. Canines were deployed during the foot chase, and Brown eventually was arrested after punching an officer. The company that owns the site of the Kentucky Derby is one step closer to buying the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City after receiving approval from the state’s Racing and Gaming Commission on Thursday. The unanimous approval, which came after little discussion from commissioners, marks a major milestone in the Churchill Downs’ $2.75 billion bid to buy Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, or P2E, which owns the Hard Rock Casino and other racing and gambling properties in Virginia and New York. Churchill Downs announced the deal in February. Based in Los Angeles, P2E is a gaming and entertainment company that was formed in 1999 by Iowa native M. Brent Stevens. In February, Churchill Downs, which is publicly traded, announced the purchase of P2E's gaming properties, which also included seven horse racetracks in Virginia and a casino in New York. The deal was subject to regulatory approval, including state gaming commissions in Iowa, Virginia and New York.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, August 25. Rain may have swept through your area early on Thursday, but by the time you wake up it will be another sunny day. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 83 degrees on Thursday. On Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 63 degrees. More than 40 million Americans could see their https://apnews.com/hub/student-loans (student loan debt reduced) or eliminated under the long-awaited forgiveness plan President Joe Biden announced Wednesday. According to the Associated Press, Biden’s policy fulfills a campaign promise by erasing $10,000 in federal student loan debt for those with incomes below $125,000 a year, or households that earn less than $250,000 a year. He’s canceling an additional $10,000 for those who received federal Pell Grants to attend college. Biden also extended a https://apnews.com/article/business-congress-miguel-cardona-lifestyle-education-2fad4da6c3fee980b5dacc65561ffa81 (pause on federal student loan payments) for what he called the “final time.” The pause is now set to run through the end of the year, with repayments to restart in January. Most people will need to apply for the relief. The Education Department has income data for a small share of borrowers, but the vast majority will need to prove their incomes through an application process. Officials said applications will be available before the end of the year. A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of a man charged with possessing a gun as a felon after police officers recognized a juror as being an associate of people connected to the man on trial. Sixth Judicial District Judge Kevin McKeever declared a mistrial on the second day of the trial after police officers and Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks made him aware of the juror’s associations with defendant https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/gun-arrest-made-near-cedar-rapids-house-under-surveillance/ (Royal R. Jones, 19). The juror isn’t being named at this time in accordance with The Gazette’s policy of not identifying jurors unless they agree to talk to a reporter. Maybanks said police officers who were testifying in the case recognized the juror. After doing some background investigation, they determined she was a known associate of individuals that Jones knows and who were “involved in shots fired and firearm incidents.” The officers also believe she likely knows Jones. Officers also told the judge about a social media post the juror had made, saying she had jury duty and that the person on trial would be freed and found not guilty. The Iowa City school board is looking to fill a vacancy after former board president Shawn Eyestone resigned Tuesday. The board is taking applications, due Sept. 6, to fill the position by appointment. Applicants will be given time to address the school board before it makes a decision Sept. 13. Iowa Code allows the school https://go.boarddocs.com/ia/iccsd/Board.nsf/files/CHFR396BFB0F/$file/Vacancies%20on%20School%20Boards.pdf (board to fill vacancies by appointment). A replacement must be appointed within 30 days of the vacancy. The school board is choosing to appoint a school board member instead of holding a special election, which is costly to the district. Eyestone said he is “putting my money where my mouth is” by going back to school to pursue a career as an educator, he said. His classes conflict with Tuesday school board meetings.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 24. It will be another sunny day on Wednesday, with a possibility for some rain coming early on Thursday morning. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 86 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 66 degrees. There will be a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, primarily after midnight and into the early morning hours on Thursday. A $312 million plan to improve Cedar Rapids secondary schools includes building a new aquatic center to replace the three pools in the district’s high schools, and a new 1,200-student middle school. In a presentation to the school board on Monday, district officials proposed reducing the number of middle schools in the district from six to four, renovating and adding additions or new construction, and making improvements to the district’s four high schools over the next seven to 10 years. The plan hinges on voters approving a $312 million general obligation bond in a referendum scheduled for March 7. If the bond is approved, the district’s property tax levy — which is currently zero — would increase to $2.70 per $1,000 of taxable valuation. This is the first general obligation bond ask the Cedar Rapids Community School District has made in 22 years. The last ask was in 2000 for $46 million, which passed. A retired University of Iowa music professor has been indicted in federal court on charges of distributing methamphetamine that resulted in a death and of possessing child pornography. John Robert Muriello, 65, of Iowa City, is accused of buying drugs from a supplier in California and of having 12,000 photos and 3,183 videos on his electronic devices, many of them of minor boys, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in June. Muriello was indicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute meth that resulted in serious bodily injury or death and one count of possession of child pornography. He is being held without bond in the Muscatine County Jail. His trial is set for Dec. 5 in Davenport. https://music.uiowa.edu/people/emeritus-faculty (Muriello is listed on the university’s website) as an emeritus professor of voice and opera. The university placed Muriello on leave in May 2021 and he retired on July 1 of this year. On May 28 of 2021 Iowa City police obtained a search warrant for Muriello’s home after an overdose death two weeks earlier triggered a drug investigation. A school bus for the Bennett Community School District in Cedar County crashed with another vehicle Tuesday morning — the first day of school — sending both drivers and one child to the hospital. The crash occurred at the intersection of Hwy 130 and Washington Avenue, between Bennett and New Liberty, according to a news release from the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office. There were six children on the school bus at the time of the crash. The release did not specify what led to the crash, but stated there is an ongoing investigation. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=502880051841564&set=a.477582197704683 (The Bennett Community School District released a statement) Tuesday thanking the emergency responders who reported to the scene. The district said all students were “accounted for and tended to.”
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for August 23, 2022. Tuesday could start a bit foggy for you early commuters, but the sun will win out in the end. According to the National Weather Service there will be patchy fog in the Cedar Rapids area before 7 a.m. Otherwise it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 83 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 61 degrees. The wind will remain calm all day. There was supposed to be a vote on Linn County solar power on Monday. But they forgot you can’t spell meeting without dotting an I and crossing a T. The first of three Linn County Board of Supervisors meetings that was supposed to provide a public forum on a proposed solar project was canceled before it could start on Monday. County officials said an oversight on the legal notice publication about the meeting necessitated the cancellation. No new meeting date has been announced. The error? Not getting the correct language in the county paper of record, which is The Gazette. Public meeting law requires advance notice be given so the public has a chance to attend the meeting. Supervisor Ben Rogers said they were informed that the proper notice had not been given 10 minutes before the meeting began. The supervisors were set to vote on developer NextEra’s Duane Arnold Solar projects near Palo. The official vote would’ve been the first of three votes needed to rezone the area from agricultural to agricultural with a solar overlay, allowing for the project to be built. The Linn County Attorney’s office has completed its investigation of ahttps://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/man-shot-by-cedar-rapids-police-officers-identified/ (n officer-involved shooting )that injured a Cedar Rapids man last month. Two Cedar Rapids Police Officers — Officer Blair Klostermann and Officer Matt Jenatscheck — shot at 23-year-old Brandon Nelson, of Cedar Rapids, after he pointed a gun at the officers and shot at them during a traffic stop in the 2200 block of Glass Road NE in Cedar Rapids. The incident happened at about 4 a.m. on July 30. Nelson fired a shotgun once. Klostermann shot four times and Jenatscheck shot eight times, according to the attorney’s office’s https://www.linncountyiowa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/20501/8-22-22-Official-Memorandum-of-the-Linn-County-Attorneys-Office-for-Officer-Involved-Shooting-on-July-30-2022 (official memorandum about the investigation). Nelson sustained three gunshot wounds but survived his injuries. He still is in the hospital, according to Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks. According to a police account of the incident, Nelson was stopped by police after driving recklessly that morning. He later admitted to investigators that he had been drinking the night of the incident. Charges against Nelson are being considered and the investigation is continuing, according to Maybanks. Marion announced Monday that a Kansas fire department administrator will be the city’s new fire chief. Starting next month, Tom Fagan, 42, will oversee the city’s department of 38 career firefighters and 10 paid, on-call firefighters. Fagan, who has 22 years of experience, is division chief of administration for the Lawrence-Douglas (Kan.) County Fire Medical Department. He has been serving as interim fire chief for his current department, which is in a community of 97,000 residents.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, August 22nd. Today in the Cedar Rapids area, we can expect patchy fog before 8 a.m. Otherwise, the National Weather Service forecast calls for sunny skies, with a high near 82. Winds will be calm, then coming from the north at about 5 mph. Tonight, it should be mostly clear, with a low around 59. A Central City man was seriously injured in a farm accident Saturday, according to a Linn County Sheriff's Office news release. At about 3 p.m., 52-year-old James Weighton was operating a 1934 John Deere tractor with a plow in the 5800 block of Troy Mills Road to plow a field with other members of a local tractor club. While making a turn at the end of the field, his tractor struck a log that was covered by grass. Weighton was thrown from the tractor and dragged by the plow for approximately 40 yards before falling free, according to authorities. Emergency responders provided medical assistance at the scene and he was taken by helicopter to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for treatment of serious injuries. Former Vice President Mike Pence offered scant details on his plans for 2024 at the Iowa State Fair, a trip that followed a talk in New Hampshire and fanned speculation of a presidential run. Pence rebuffed questions about any 2024 ambitions, saying his reason for coming to Iowa was to support Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is running for re-election and who took Pence on a tour of the fair Friday. Reiterating comments made Wednesday in New Hampshire, Pence on Friday criticized Republicans who are calling for the defunding of the FBI, but said he was “deeply troubled” that the agency executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s home. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 20, and Sunday, August 21. The weather is going to feel like Autumn this weekend, as in the cooler and rainier part of Autumn. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a chance for rain nearly all day on Saturday, with a high near 76 degrees. On Saturday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 62 degrees. On Sunday the chance for rain will be mostly gone, but some of the cool will remain. It is predicted to be mostly sunny, with a high near 81 degrees and a low of around 60 degrees. Hawkeye offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz — among several defendants facing accusations of racial discrimination in a lawsuit filed by former Iowa Hawkeye football players — wants a judge to rule in his favor and essentially drop the case against him, calling the claims “meritless, unsupported, and contrary to law.” Addressing each of the seven former players named as plaintiffs in the federal suit filed in October 2020, Ferentz in his Thursday motion disputed and discredited their accusations — pointing specifically to deposition testimony he said contradicts earlier statements made in a sworn interrogation. Throughout the motion, Ferentz cited players’ skill level, attitude, and work ethic among reasons they didn’t succeed — not any racial bias on his part. He aired concerns about a secret recording, addressed alleged incidents of racism, and shared details of player performance in the classroom and on the field. The lawsuit — ongoing for nearly two years — emerged from allegations on social media in the https://www.thegazette.com/hawkeye-football/iowa-football-allegations-what-former-players-said-when-they-played-which-coaches-they-named/ (summer of 2020 )about racism within the Hawkeye football program. The suit prompted contentious exchanges between the former players and Hawkeye personnel, including accusations of harassment and delay tactics. It also led to reforms within the Iowa football program, along with the dismissal of longtime strength coach, Chris Doyle. A Sumner man has been arrested in connection with a fatal fire in Waterloo Friday morning. Waterloo police arrested John Walter Spooner, 59, on a charge of first-degree arson. A passerby notified crews at the downtown fire station after seeing smoke coming from 309 E. Second St. Several people were inside, and one person had jumped from a window to safety, Treloar said. Firefighters found one person inside the home and carried him out. He was taken to a Waterloo hospital where he was later pronounced dead. His identity hasn’t been released. Spooner was found walking in the area, and witnesses said he was seen near the home shortly before the blaze, according to police The two https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/linn-county-commission-recommends-approval-of-palo-solar-projects/ (solar projects intended for construction near Palo) could move another step closer to reality next week as Linn County Supervisors meet for a series of readings. The supervisors’ sessions are scheduled for the Palo Community Center, 2800 Hollenbeck Rd., beginning at 6 p.m. Monday. If the first reading passes, meetings will follow on Wednesday and the next Monday, Aug. 29, both also at 6 p.m. Supervisors will vote on whether to change the zoning in the area of the projects — both by NextEra and named Duane Arnold Solar I and Duane Arnold Solar II — from agricultural to agricultural with a solar overlay, allowing for the installations to be built. The two projects share the name with the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in Palo, which was decommissioned in 2020. Have a good weekend everyone!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 19. Rainfall appears to be on the menu for Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for rain in the early morning hours Friday, but it will become especially likely between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. When it is not raining, it should be cloudy, with a high near 81 degrees. The low is predicted to settle in at around 64 degrees Friday night, with more chances for rain Saturday morning. A “female victim” was hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries after an errant bullet struck her inside her home early Thursday evening. According to a media release from the Cedar Rapids police, officers responded at 4:10 p.m. Thursday for a call of shots fired in the 1500 block of Bever Avenue SE. As officers arrived, they found “a female victim who had been struck by an errant bullet while inside her home,” according to the release. Police say the woman was transported to a hospital and her injury does not appear to be life-threatening. Police say investigators are processing evidence and interviewing possible witnesses to determine why the shooting happened and who may have been responsible. Police are also asking for witnesses to come forward and for anyone with security camera footage to reach out to investigators at 319-286-5491. According to reporting from the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, Iowa continues to lead the nation in puppy mills sanctioned by the federal government and is expanding its lead over other states. During the second quarter of 2022, a total of 23 Iowa breeders and brokers were cited for regulatory violations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Missouri came in a distant second place for the number of violators, at 13. Iowa’s second-quarter total represents a 21 percent increase over the number of Iowa violators cited in the first quarter of the year. Mindi Callison, executive director and founder of national animal welfare group Bailing Out Benji, said it’s possible Iowa has drawn more scrutiny from inspectors this year due to the national attention generated by former Wayne County dog breeder Daniel Gingerich, who surrendered more than 500 dogs to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa after authorities successfully brought a lawsuit against his operation. According to the Associated Press, the Big Ten's new $7 billion media rights deal will string the conference's top football games across three major networks each week, creating an NFL-style television schedule on Saturdays. The Big Ten announced Thursday it has reached seven-year agreements with Fox, CBS and NBC to share the rights to the conference's football and basketball games. The deals go into effect in 2023, expire in 2030 and eventually will allow the conference's soon-to-be 16 member universities to share more than $1 billion per year. The Big Ten currently has 14 members, stretching from Rutgers and Maryland on the East Coast to Nebraska across the Midwest, and covering some of the biggest media markets in the country, including New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. In 2024, Southern California and UCLA are scheduled to join the Big Ten, https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-hawkeyes/believe-it-or-not-big-ten-is-going-hollywood/ (adding the Los Angeles market to its television footprint).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, August 18. It will be a little hotter Thursday with a chance for rain in the evening. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 85 degrees. On Thursday night there will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Otherwise, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 64 degrees. Drivers traveling south on Interstate 380 should be prepared for a significant change Friday morning as an old ramp closes and a new flyover ramp opens — a big milestone for the massive reconstruction of the Interstates 80 and 380 interchange. The existing loop that connected I-380 southbound to I-80 eastbound will close permanently as the new flyover ramp opens. The exit toward I-80 eastbound will now be about half a mile earlier on I-380. This is the last of the loop ramps to close within the interchange, and it is the second flyover ramp to open. The flyover ramp uses a new, elevated bridge. The Iowa DOT anticipates some initial confusion with the exit toward I-80 eastbound — Exit 0A toward Iowa City — being about half a mile earlier. For drivers, that means the exit toward Iowa City will now be before the exit for I-80 westbound. The westbound exit — Exit 0B toward Des Moines — will remain in the same location. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped 24 percent in Iowa in the past week, and the number of new cases also decreased by double-digits. As of Wednesday, 244 Iowans were hospitalized with COVID, down from the 323 hospitalizations reported the previous week, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the past week, 4,921 new virus cases were reported, down from the 5,660 cases reported last week, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. The Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union confirmed Wednesday that high school students may now earn monetary compensation from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). Iowa becomes the 15th state to approve high school NIL, which was instituted at the collegiate level nationwide last year. There are some restrictions on NIL for high schoolers. The compensation can not be tied to specific athletic achievements, the compensation cannot be intended to convince an athlete to attend a particular school, or to remain enrolled at a school. And the compensation should not be provided by the school or an organization associated with the school. The guidelines, IHSAA executive director Tom Keating said, “aren’t meant to be heavy-handed or punitive in nature. We needed to give students some guidance, some things to think about, as we go forward.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 17. We get one more sunny, uncomplicated day before a chance for rain will ramp up as the weekend approaches. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 82 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 59 degrees. Before University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics erects a new tower for patients — a long-term project officials revealed earlier this year as part of a 10-year master plan for the main campus — it is looking to spend $95 million adding two floors onto its existing inpatient tower. The UI this week issued a request for proposals from prospective construction managers for a “vertical expansion of inpatient tower” project on which crews would start work next summer, according to a university timeline. The total project budget, according to the UI request, is $95 million with the construction portion accounting for $50.4 million. A summary of the project, spelled out in the request for qualifications from interested construction managers, indicated UIHC aims to add two floors to its existing eight-floor John Pappajohn Pavilion, increasing the tower to 10 stories by adding a total of 38,000 square feet. The budget also includes renovating floors seven and eight. An 8-year-old boy was hospitalized over the weekend after being attacked by two dogs in Springville. The child was attacked Friday afternoon by a “mastiff-pit bull mix” and another “pit bull” mix, according to Maj. Chad Colston of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. The child was treated at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids and transferred to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. “The child was bitten in the head, face, arms and legs. Some pretty gruesome injuries,” Colston told The Gazette on Tuesday. Linn County doesn’t have a breed-specific animal ordinance, but it does have a “vicious animal ordinance” for “rare” cases like these, Colston said. Both dogs have been seized and placed in quarantine, one at a veterinary clinic and the other at the Cedar Valley Humane Society. Colston said the dogs’ owners have been cooperative. Owners have a couple of days after being served a notice to appeal the vicious animal label. The notice was served Monday. If there is no appeal, the two dogs will be euthanized. A Burlington contractor accused of taking thousands from four Linn County homeowners for derecho repairs but never finishing the work has agreed to plead guilty to first-degree theft charges, according to Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks. According to court documents, Ryan Richard Standard, 50, stole over $32,000 total from multiple Linn County homeowners. He did complete some of the work for a couple of the victims, whose homes were damaged in the August 2020 derecho, but largely kept the money for his own use without completing the work, according to the criminal complaint. Maybanks said that part of the plea agreement was intended to make sure the 4 victims received restitution from Standard, but these amounts will not be revealed until he is sentenced.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 16. The great weather continues! According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 78 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Tuesday. On Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 58 degrees. Coe College on Monday unveiled a new dean of diversity, equity and inclusion following controversy last fall. In addition to serving as the private Cedar Rapids college’s lead diversity officer, Donald Jaamal will function as its Title IX coordinator — a dual role making him part of Coe’s “senior staff,” a stipulation Coe community members included among their demands issued in November. Jaamal — the fourth diversity officer in Coe history, after it established an Office of Diversity and Inclusion in 2015 — was hired following an extensive national search, according to a Coe news release Monday. He started work Aug. 8. Coe — last fall and in the months since — has fhttps://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/even-if-case-closed-coe-college-remains-focus-of-diversity-questions/ (aced questions and criticism )over its handling of diversity, equity and inclusion issues after former trustee Darryl Banks resigned over a closed-door dispute among board members leading up to their selection of new Coe President David Hayes. Banks, a Coe alum who spent more than 40 years on the board, said he raised diversity-related concerns with the presidential search but that a fellow trustee called him a liar. Banks sought a reprimand, apology and a retraction, but never got them. The historic Guaranty Bank building and Old World Theater property is now listed for sale as efforts to transform the buildings into two hotels and restaurants as a “cornerstone” project in the heart of downtown Cedar Rapids have faltered, the potential developer said Monday. “That one specifically does not appear to be on the horizon,” Mike Whalen, president and chief executive officer of the Heart of America Group, said of his proposal that called for an approximately $50 million investment to restore the buildings on most of the block at Third Street and Third Avenue SE. “ … In the end, there was maybe a difference of opinion with the owner as to the value of the property that could not be resolved.” GLD Commercial lists the selling price at $3.1 million for the property, which was built in 1895. Adam Gibbs, vice president of GLD, said the property has been marketed for about 90 days locally and regionally, and there is a “fair amount of interested parties” so far considering some kind of historic tax credit redevelopment. The Linn County Correctional Center has adjusted its agreement for housing federal inmates in an effort to address deputy complaints and resignations about overtime work at the jail. Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner said that because the jail has been short staffed, deputies have been required to work overtime to meet the minimum number of corrections officers required for each shift. The number of officers needed each day depends on the number of inmates. “They have been complaining about the overtime that they’ve been required to work. In fact, we’ve lost some deputies, very good deputies, to other agencies because of the amount of overtime that we’re requiring them to work,” Gardner said. One cause for the overtime has been requirements for the federal inmates held there, which usually constitute one-fourth to one-third of the jail’s total population. As part of the jail’s contract with the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two deputies are required to accompany federal inmates when they leave the jail for things like a doctor’s appointment or to go to the hospital. To address the problem, Gardner reached a new agreement with the U.S. Marshals and ICE. Federal agencies will be required to transport their detainees to and from scheduled medical...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, August 15th. According to the National Weather Service, today in the Cedar Rapids area we can expect mostly cloudy skies, with a high near 78. Winds from the east around 5 mph. And tonight, we’ll have a 30 percent chance of showers, mainly after 1 a.m. and a low around 62. A suspect in a Nebraska double homicide was arrested after barricading himself inside an Iowa church on Sunday. West Des Moines Police Sgt. Jason Heintz said 27-year-old Gage Walter of Omaha ultimately surrendered and was arrested after several hours of negotiating with authorities from inside the church in Winterset, Iowa. Heintz said Walter fled when police tried to pull him over in West Des Moines Sunday morning and led officers on a chase for about 45 minutes before abandoning his vehicle and entering St. Paul Lutheran Church. Walter is a suspect in the deaths of two women, whose bodies were found Saturday inside an Omaha home. Police called their deaths suspicious, but didn't release details of how they died. Investigators were searching for a car stolen from the home where the bodies were found. Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, in campaigning Saturday at the Iowa State Fair, said he’s running for secretary of state to “make voting easy again.” Miller said advocating for laws that make in-person and absentee voting easier would be his prime focus as secretary of state, the top elections official in the state. He criticized current Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, for not opposing legislation that opponents said curtailed voting rights. Iowa Republicans passed a wide-ranging voting law in 2021 that cut the state’s early voting period from 29 days to 20. The law also made general election polls close an hour earlier, required absentee ballots to arrive to county auditors by the end of Election Day no matter their postmark, and limited the options for county auditors to facilitate early and satellite voting. Proponents of the law said it was an effort to enhance election security. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend. This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 13th, and Sunday, August 14th. We will return to above 90 degrees for a day with Saturday’s weather. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 91 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. There will also be a 20 percent chance for rain between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Besides that it should be partly sunny for much of the day. Saturday night there should be increasing clouds, with a low around 66 degrees. On Sunday the cool weather will return, which will set the trend for much of the week to come. The high is predicted to be near 82 degrees during the day with partly sunny skies. On Sunday night it should be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 61 degrees. The Cedar Rapids school district paid a ransom in hopes of keeping personal data compromised in a cyberattack last month from being released, the school superintendent has told parents. “As part of the process to resolve this matter, CRCSD made payment to a third-party entity to ensure critical information that may have been accessed was not released,” Superintendent Noreen Bush wrote Friday in a letter to parents. “We made this decision after consulting closely with cyber security experts and legal counsel and determining it was in the best interest of our school community.” Her letter did not disclose the amount of ransom that was paid, nor provide the name of the group that launched the attack. Both Cedar Rapids and Linn-Mar school districts experienced disruptions in their computer systems within a month of each other starting in July, shutting down some operations for days as the start of the new academic year approaches Aug. 23. The City of Cedar Rapids late Thursday night dropped the requirement that staff and visitors wear masks inside city buildings and vehicles to curb the spread of COVID-19. An email from City Manager Jeff Pomeranz to staff noted the mask mandate would be lifted, effective immediately, because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had updated its COVID-19 community transmission levels to “medium” for Linn County. Cedar Rapids’ mask requirement for city buildings took effect in mid-July as COVID-19 cases were on the rise again, fueled by new omicron subvariant, BA.5, the dominant variant within the United States that is highly contagious, even among those who are vaccinated or have previously been infected. At the time, Linn County was at a “high“ community transmission level, when the CDC recommends wearing masks indoors. . A warehouse once owned by ACT will become Iowa’s newest medical marijuana manufacturing facility, with its products expected to reach the market in early 2023. The Iowa Cannabis Company expects to spend $10 million to adapt the 120,000-square-foot space at 2727 Scott Blvd. to grow marijuana plants and produce products for Iowa’s medical marijuana program. “As we approached our build out, we recognized we needed to relocate our facility to a much larger space to meet the economies of scale,” Iowa Cannabis Company Owner Aaron Boshart on Friday told the Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Board. The number of patients certified to buy medical marijuana products in Iowa has https://idph.iowa.gov/Portals/1/userfiles/234/Files/2022_07%20Monthly%20Website%20Program%20Update.pdf (gone up more than 70 percent) in the last year, from 6,831 in August 2021 to 11,676 in July. A big part of that increase is the rise of online medical providers who will certify a https://idph.iowa.gov/omc/For-Patients-and-Caregivers (qualifying medical condition) needed to get in the program. Have a good weekend everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 12. It appears all of the rain chances for Thursday got shifted back to Friday morning. According to the National Weather Service showers and thunderstorms will be likely in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly before noon. It will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 75 degrees. The overall chance for rainfall is listed at 60 percent. Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 67 degrees. There was some great news for a local arts organization. The IRS has notified iconic Cedar Rapids arts organization CSPS that it has reinstated the group’s tax-exempt status, opening access to more funding sources as the nonprofit grapples with charting a long-term path toward sustainability. “This is wonderful news for this important community arts organization as we enter a full season of programs to inform, entertain and transform,” CSPS board President Monica Vernon said in a statement. CSPS previously was notified in July 2021 that its 501(c)(3) status, which allows the group to receive charitable contributions and access to certain grant funds, washttps://www.thegazette.com/local-government/cedar-rapids-arts-organization-csps-loses-tax-exempt-status-for-not-filing-tax-returns-for-3-years/ ( automatically revoked) for failing to file tax returns for three consecutive years from 2018 through 2020. The failure to file those tax returns happened under previous CSPS staff and board members, after leadership changes and COVID-19 disruptions already had dealt the group a blow it worked to pay off more than $100,000 in debt. Abortion would be illegal in Iowa after six weeks of pregnancy — often before the woman knows she is pregnant — if Gov. Kim Reynolds’ request to the Iowa courts is granted. Reynolds filed a motion Thursday asking a state court to lift an injunction on legislation passed in 2018 that would have banned abortions in Iowa at six weeks. That bill, passed by the Republican-led Iowa Legislature and signed into law by Reynolds, was halted at the time by a district judge who cited a previous Iowa Supreme Court ruling that negated a 24-hour waiting period for an abortion. But since the https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/with-roe-overturned-iowa-poised-to-restrict-abortion-access/ (U.S. Supreme Court) and https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/justices-abortion-not-protected-by-iowa-constitution/ (Iowa Supreme Court) earlier this year issued rulings that effectively repealed a pregnant person’s right to abortion access, Reynolds is asking the state courts to now lift the injunction on the six-week ban. Currently, abortion is legal in Iowa through 20 weeks of pregnancy. The Iowa Capitol Dispatch reports that drought conditions may be imminent for swaths of Iowa during an important period for corn growth. Drought conditions are likely to develop over the southern half of Iowa in August as the month starts with a string of abnormally hot days with little chance for rain, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The portion of the state that is abnormally dry or in varying degrees of drought expanded last week to more than half of the state. It’s the first time the dry area has been that large since April, when persistent rains delayed corn planting. The latest Drought Monitor report released last week showed an expansion of severe and extreme drought in northwest Iowa and the extension of abnormally dry conditions across much of southern Iowa.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, August 11. It'll be another sunny day Thursday, with some random rain chances to mix things up. According to the National Weather Service, there could be isolated showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area over the lunch hour, then again at night. Otherwise it will be partly sunny, with a high near 81 degrees. The low Thursday night will be around 60 degrees. Just over a week before classes are scheduled to resume Aug. 22 for the fall semester, Kirkwood’s Board of Trustees will consider Thursday approving an operating budget for the upcoming year that includes the in-state increase of $14 per semester credit hour — from $186 to $200. The estimated cost of a full course load of 15 credit hours for an academic year is $6,000 for in-state students and $8,040 for out-of-state students. In-state students at Kirkwood paid $4,860 for a full course load five years ago. Kirkwood’s rate hike is the steepest among Iowa’s 15 community colleges. “The substantial increase is due to the high inflationary period that we are in,” Kirkwood Chief Financial Officer Jim Choate told The Gazette. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Iowa increased for the second week in a row, while the number of new virus cases continued to decrease. In the past week, 323 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 309 patients the week before. In the past week, 5,660 new COVID-19 cases were reported, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Last week, that number was 5,768. Students returning to school is traditionally a point at which case numbers start to climb again, the numbers could change quite a bit in the coming weeks. A “massive new family entertainment center” including an IMAX theater is coming to fast-growing Tiffin. Des Moines-based Fridley Theatres this week announced its newest project — The Palms Theatres, IMAX and Family Entertainment Center. It will be part of the Park Place development just off Interstate 380. In addition to the theater and large IMAX screen, the Tiffin complex will feature arcade games, bowling, a restaurant and bar. The IMAX screen will be 70 feet tall and 90 feet wide, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1004793670162035 (according to a video posted on Facebook) by Fridley Theatres. The city of Tiffin https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/tiffin-focuses-on-staying-ahead-of-its-rapid-growth/ (anticipates a significant amount of growth) at Park Place. The 265-acre development is being planned by Ders Group of North Liberty. It will include entertainment, restaurants and shopping, as well as apartment and lots for houses.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 10. This week’s theme of fog in the morning leading to a pleasant, sunny day will continue on Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a possibility for patchy fog in the Cedar Rapids from 5 a.m. until 8 a.m. After that it will be sunny, with a high near 86 degrees. Wednesday night will be mostly clear, with a low of around 64 degrees. The wind will again remain calm for much of the day. A Cedar Rapids man was charged Tuesday with assaulting protesters as he drove his vehicle “aggressively” toward the group who were on foot crossing the street near the federal courthouse on June 24. The protesters had been protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade striking down federal abortion protections. David Alan Huston, 53, was charged with assault by use or display of a dangerous weapon — vehicle, an aggravated misdemeanor; and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident. If convicted, he faces up to two years in jail. Huston will be prosecuted by the Black Hawk County Attorney’s Office following an investigation by the Cedar Rapids Police Department. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/prosecutors-reviewing-case-for-possible-charges-in-cedar-rapids-rally-for-abortion-rights/ (Black Hawk County Attorney Brian Williams said last month) he was reviewing the case because at least one member of the Linn County Attorney’s Office was present during the incident and could be a witness. Iowa Republicans jumped to former President Donald Trump’s defense after the FBI’s search for documents as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida estate. Some quickly denounced the Monday search by the FBI of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, where agents executed a search warrant for classified documents, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-fbi-search-99097089194e736315c366a0e8fbafee (the Associated Press reported). “The Department of Justice must immediately explain their justification for this unprecedented raid,” Marion Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson tweeted Tuesday. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article264310461.html (The Miami Herald) reported agents obtained a search warrant from a federal magistrate judge in West Palm Beach to get dozens of boxes allegedly containing classified material that Trump had taken to his home when he left the White House. A source close to the investigation told the Herald the FBI was able to show probable cause because Trump and his lawyers had already turned over classified documents sought by the National Archives and Records Administration that he was not supposed to have taken, and investigators suspected the former president may have more. Times they are a changing, and college football is no exception. The Big Ten's next round of media rights contracts will not include a deal with ESPN. Two people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the Big Ten was looking for a seven-year deal worth $380 million per year from ESPN, and the network declined. ESPN has held television rights for the Big Ten since the mid-1980s. The network has shared Big Ten rights with Fox in the latest contract. ESPN and ABCs exit from Big Ten broadcasting opens the door for NBC and CBS to negotiate their way as new broadcast partners.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 9. Tuesday will start a bit foggy, but the weather will be swell after that. According to the National Weather Service there will be patchy fog before 8 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise it will be sunny, with a high near 81 degrees. Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 59 degrees. The wind will remain calm all day. City High School in Iowa City will honor a 17-year employee and “wonderful human being” who https://www.thegazette.com/news/coralville-man-dies-while-trying-to-save-child-in-iowa-river/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&fbclid=IwAR1f01YQ3X8yP3OCBdTIvl9rqgDCJuXRjUUNVHO9-i1Kn0JZPo-RF1WNg-k (drowned Friday while trying to save a child from the Iowa River) in southern Johnson County. 42-year-old Wegayewu Faris,, had been a custodian at City High since 2005, according to Principal John Bacon. The school will honor him with a plaque highlighting his story. Faris was fishing Friday in the Iowa River at River Junction Access near Lone Tree when an 8-year-old boy, who was not related to Faris but was also fishing with family, went into the river and began struggling. Faris entered the river to try to save the child. With the help of Faris and a nearby kayaker, the boy got safely out of the water, but Faris became submerged. His body was found by law enforcement an hour later. A major part of Coralville’s Fifth Street — an area described as the city’s “civic center” — will be getting a $5 million upgrade starting next year. The portion of Fifth Street to be reconstructed starts at 12th Avenue and goes through the 20th Avenue intersection. The 12th Avenue intersection will not be impacted. The “total reconstruction” includes tearing out the pavement and replacing the sidewalks, as well as new water main and storm sewer. New trees, lighting and landscaping also will be added. Fifth Street will remain two lanes, but an 8-foot shared-use path will be added along the north side of the street out to 20th Avenue. Work is planned to be done in phases starting in the spring and continue over the next couple of years. According to the Associated Press, the FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said Monday. Even if it doesn’t lead to a trial, a search of a former president’s home is unprecedented. Trump, disclosing the search in a lengthy statement, asserted that agents had opened up a safe at his home and described their work as an “unannounced raid” that he likened to “prosecutorial misconduct.” The search intensifies the months-long probe into how classified documents ended up in more than a dozen boxes located at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. It occurs amid a separate https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-donald-trump-presidential-elections-election-2020-subpoenas-54fcade9ac0e15faf544b615f8f45902 (grand jury investigation) into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. It also complicates his potential run for president, which is almost certainly still going to happen.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, August 8th. Today in the Cedar Rapids area, according to the National Weather Service, we’ll have a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 10 a.m. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. It should be a partly sunny day, with a high near 80. And winds from the north, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Then tonight, it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 61. Authorities said a Coralville man drowned Friday evening while helping efforts to rescue an 8-year-old child who was struggling in the currents of the Iowa River near Lone Tree. The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office reported a call came in shortly after 6 p.m. about a possible drowning at River Junction Access in southern Johnson County. Authorities said the child entered the river and began to struggle, so the man went in to help save him. But the man submerged, and a passing kayaker and another person tried to find him but could not. The kayaker rescued the child from the water. Bystanders performed CPR and the child was transported to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The body of 42-year-old Wegayewu Faris was found about 7:10 p.m. Authorities said he is not related to the child, but like the child he had come with others to fish at the river. The sheriff’s office said Faris and the bystander were instrumental in saving the child’s life. A woman was seriously injured by multiple gunshots in an alley outside an Iowa City bar early Sunday, according to an Iowa City Police Department news release. At 2:24 a.m., police responded to the H-Bar, at 220 S. Van Buren St., for a report of multiple shots fired and found the woman in the adjacent alley with multiple gunshot wounds. Investigating officers determined multiple people were in the alley when the shots were fired. The woman was treated on scene by emergency medical responders and transported to a hospital for serious injuries. Iowa City police said the suspected shooter was last seen fleeing the area in a vehicle. They are asking the public for assistance by sharing any related information or security camera footage. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 6, and Sunday, August 7. There are two things we can expect for this weekend’s weather: Heat and rain. According to the National Weather Service on Saturday it will be partly sunny with a high near 93 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The heat index values will rise up to as high as 101 during the day. On Saturday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. There will be a chance for showers pretty much all day on Sunday, with it increasing as the day goes on and heads into Monday morning. It will be mostly cloudy with a high near 91 degrees and a low of 71. Among four proposals Mercy Iowa City entertained last year in its search for a partner was one from University of Iowa Health Care, offering over $605 million to take ownership of the community hospital and make it the “centerpiece” of a new UIHC “community division.” “We believe that UI Health Care is the ideal partner for Mercy Iowa City,” according to the university’s proposal from August of last year, which was obtained by The Gazette. “Our goal is to combine the resources of UI Health Care’s comprehensive, integrated delivery network with the unique local strengths of Mercy Iowa City to expand the scope of care and improve access.” UIHC said it planned to launch a community hospital division — separate from its academic divisions — centered on Mercy Iowa City, which would remain a hub for primary and secondary care in the region with its own local governance and board. Documents obtained by The Gazette show that in addition to UIHC, Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, UnityPoint Health and Marshfield Clinic Health System of Wisconsin offered to take over Mercy Iowa City, which was seeking a partner in the first place due to struggling financially in recent years. Mercy Iowa City officials didn’t answer The Gazette’s questions about why the four partnership proposals didn’t pan out, calling those decisions “proprietary and confidential.” Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union are dropping their legal challenge of Iowa’s 24-hour waiting period on abortions, which the state Supreme Court allowed to go into effect in June, the groups announced Friday. Instead of pursuing the litigation, they will be focusing on the 2018 law struck down by a district court that would ban abortions after six weeks. Gov. Kim Reynolds has indicated her strategy after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade’s federal protections for abortions would be to try to get this law reinstated rather than to try to pass new legislation this year. Abortion still is legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks, but the 24-hour waiting period took effect in July, requiring people to get two separate appointments within 24 hours in order to get an abortion. Utility terrain vehicles (UTVs) are now allowed on Marion streets. The Marion City Council Thursday approved a new ordinance’s final reading to allow the vehicles. The council voted 6-0 with Mayor Nick AbouAssaly absent for the formal meeting, but he again voiced his opposition to the ordinance during the council’s Tuesday night work session. He voted no during the first two readings. UTVs, also called utility task vehicles or side-by-sides, are like all-terrain vehicles in their use for off-road recreation. But UTVs are heavier, can have up to six wheels and haul heavy loads. UTVs will be able to be operated on any city roadway with a speed limit of 35 mph or less, except for 10th Avenue east of 35th Street and East Post Road south of Oak Brook Drive. In addition, use of UTVs would be allowed only from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Operators must be 18 or older with a valid driver’s license.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 5. We will get another break from extreme heat Friday before it returns on Saturday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 88 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday, with a light wind. On Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 71 degrees. An assailant who attacked three members of a Cedar Falls family who were camping last month at Maquoketa Caves State Park shot and stabbed the father, stabbed the mother and shot and strangled their 6-year-old daughter, state autopsy results revealed Thursday. The state medical examiner, who for the first time disclosed that family members had been stabbed or strangled, ruled the deaths were homicides. The Iowa Department of Public Safety also confirmed their attacker was Anthony Sherwin, 23, of LaVista, Neb., who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the family was attacked early July 22 in their tent. Sherwin was at the park camping with his parents at the time. Killed were Tyler Schmidt and Sarah Schmidt, both 42, and their daughter, Lula. Their son, Arlo, 9, survived the attack without physical injury but investigators have not said where in the park he was when the attack inside the tent occurred. Investigators indicated that there are indications for what the motive for the attack was, but they did not disclose them on Thursday. One of Iowa City’s two female firefighters is suing the city for gender and sexual orientation discrimination, harassment and retaliation. Sadie McDowell, who has been on unpaid leave since 2021, said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Johnson County District Court she has experienced “inappropriate sexist, sexual and racist comments,” as well as unwanted sexual contact and embarrassing situations, like someone stealing her pants while she was in the shower. “Throughout her ten-plus years of employment, Sadie heard male firefighters and fire officers make sexually inappropriate comments nearly every single day,” the 19-page lawsuit states. Saying she has developed mental health conditions including depression and stress-related disorders because of the incidents, McDowell is seeking a jury trial. The city of Iowa City denied McDowell’s claims in a statement Thursday. Just in time for the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art’s long-awaited reopening on Aug. 26, its most heralded piece — Jackson Pollock’s “Mural” — is back on campus after a long hiatus. “Mural” arrived home July 14 after nine years touring museums and entertaining millions in Europe and across the United States. Welcomed by museum Director Lauren Lessing in its 3,200-pound crate, “Mural” has been placed in its new home in the second-floor Chris and Suzy DeWolf Family Gallery. Displaced by the 2008 flood, like many UI collection pieces, the 8-by-20-foot “Mural” traveled to 14 venues at home and abroad. The museum will be officially dedicated Aug. 26, kicking off a two-day grand-opening celebration. Its inaugural exhibition, titled “Homecoming,” will display more than 600 works by 500-some artists, including “Mural,” which marks a “pivotal moment in Pollock’s career.”
This is Zack Kucharski with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Thursday, August 4th. A quick check of the weather from the National Weather Service: Sunny, with a high near 85. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, low around 64 and light winds.
Now to what’s making news:
The closure and cleanup at the Cedar Rapids downtown library is expected to last into September, library officials announced Wednesday. The closure comes after a small July 27 fire in a light fixture in the library commons area. Smoke soot is being cleaned-up throughout the interior of the 100,000 square-foot building. The library is still working through the investigation and insurance claims, library director Dara Schmidt said Wednesday. All items in the library -- including the carpet — will be wiped down and cleaned while the facility is closed. Reopening the lobby area for hold pickups is her next priority during the library’s temporary closure. The library extended book due dates and holds, but patrons still can return materials to Hiawatha and Marion Libraries or one of the book drops at metro-area Hy-Vee stores instead. Schmidt said the library’s 82 employees have been reassigned to work in the west-side Ladd Library, outdoor and vehicle outreach programs and at a cooling and computer center located across the street at Waypoint.
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A parents group is suing the Linn-Mar Community School District, superintendent and board members over its new policies to protect transgender students from discrimination. The lawsuit asserts that the policy violates parents’ rights to consent and students’ rights to express a different opinion. Parents Defending Education is identified in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court as a grassroots organization that includes “parents, students and other concerned citizens” with a mission to prevent the “politicization of K-12 education.” The group contends the Linn-Mar policy passed in April allows children to make fundamentally important decisions about gender identity without parental involvement and hide those decisions from their parents. According to the 30-page petition, the parents group filed it to “protect parents’ rights to raise their children and students’ rights to freedom of expression.”
Linn-Mar district officials didn’t immediately respond to an email and phone message seeking comment.
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. Reflecting the Cedar Rapids school board’s decision to remove police from the city’s middle schools, the Cedar Rapids Police Department has proposed additional changes to the agreement for school resource officers that account for the reduction from seven to five officers. With the start of the 2022-23 school year fast approaching, the Cedar Rapids City Council and school board have yet to approve the same contract outlining terms of the program that will station police officers this year at Kennedy, Washington, Jefferson and Metro high schools and Polk Alternative Education Center, but take them out of Cedar Rapids middle schools.
While Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman said he accepts the district’s decision to pull SROs from the middle school, it said it’s not logical to expect the five remaining officers to do the work that seven did previously. The city said that diversion outcomes will be less likely to happen at junior highs without SROs, Jerman said. Instead, patrol officers, who have different training experience and expertise than the SROs have.
Another change clarifies that school resource officers shall assist the district with facilitating lockdown drills specifically at school buildings staffed with school resource officers instead of at all school buildings twice per year.
The two sides still don’t have a finalized agreement, with the start of the school year about three weeks away. The issue will come up on...
This is Zack Kucharski with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Wednesday, August 3rd. A quick check of the weather from the National Weather Service: showers and thunderstorms are likely, especially midday. Otherwise, partly sunny with a high of 88. Winds from the west 10 to 15 and 20 mph gusts. 60% chance of rain. For tonight, a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 9 p.m. Otherwise, gradual clearing with a low around 63 degrees. West winds will swing to the north after midnight.
Now to what’s making news:
Facing increasing pressure from Democrats and veterans advocacy organizations, the U.S. Senate passed a bill late Tuesday expanding health care and disability benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. The Senate passed the measure, 86-11, with Iowa Republican U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley voting in favor. Ernst, a combat veteran, had previously objected with some other Republicans to a budget provision in the bill, which briefly blocked its passage. Democratic President Joe Biden has pushed for the legislation and is expected to sign the bill into law.
Tuesday’s vote ended a brief stalemate when the process derailed after some Senate Republicans including Ernst made a late attempt last week to change a budget provision in the bill and blocked it from advancing, infuriating veterans advocacy groups. A key voting bloc in the Nov. midterm elections, the advocacy groups ramped up the political pressure over the last five days on GOP lawmakers to act.
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A Cedar Rapids man faces four counts of attempted murder and other charges following an alleged road rage incident Tuesday afternoon that resulted in shots being fired as the cars traveled southbound on Interstate 380.
Deryan Sims, 33, of Cedar Rapids, is accused of four counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault while displaying a dangerous weapon, intimidation with a weapon, reckless use of a firearm and carrying weapons in the commission of a crime in connection with the incident.
Police received a call around 2:10 p.m. Tuesday from a passenger in a car involved in a road rage incident on southbound Interstate 380. The incident began in the area of Center Point Rd. NE and 32nd St. NE.
Investigators say Sims pointed the gun at a vehicle with two adults and two kids inside and fired the gun twice during the incident. One of the bullets struck the front end of the car, police said. No one was injured.
Police recovered the gun and ammo during a traffic stop.
The driver of the car Sims was driving in, Kelly Theisen, 40, of Cedar Rapids, was charged with driving on a suspended license. The investigation remains ongoing, and Sims will make an initial appearance Wednesday in Linn County District Court.
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And finally, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced Tuesday his office has joined a nationwide task force of state attorneys general working to cut down on illegal and unwanted robocalls used to scam seniors and defraud consumers nationwide. The bipartisan group has issued 20 civil investigative demands to 20 gateway providers and other entities that are allegedly responsible for a majority of foreign robocall traffic in the United States, according to a news release. The task force will focus on “the bad actors” throughout the telecommunications industry, to help reduce the number of illegal and unwanted robocalls that Iowans and other Americans receive, according to the release.
More than 33 million robocalls are made to Americans every day, according to the National Consumer Law Center and Electronic Privacy Information Center. And an estimated $29.8 billion was stolen through scam calls in 2021, with most of the robocall traffic originating overseas.
This is Zack Kucharski with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Tuesday, August 2nd. According to the National Weather Service, we will see gradual clearing in the Cedar Rapids area today after a cloudy start through mid-morning. It will be hot, with a high near 94. Winds from the south 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Then tonight, it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 80. ++++
A former softball coach at Solon High School and Clear Creek Amana High School, made an initial appearance in Johnson County District Court Monday accused of sexually abusing a student 15 years ago.
James White, 58, of North Liberty, faces two counts of third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee. He is being held in the Johnson County Jail on a $40,000 bond.
A woman, who was student of his during the 2006-07 school year and was coached by him on the softball team, went to police in March to report the abuse, according to criminal complaints.
The woman, who was 15 when White was her teacher and coach, told police she was groomed by White and they had a sexual relationship. White, then 43, is accused of calling the then 15-year-old and asking her to meet him on a gravel road in rural Johnson County, according to the complaints. He reportedly gave her directions and asked her not to hang up the phone the whole time she was on her way there. In another instance, White reportedly invited her over to his house while his wife, who also was a high school softball coach, was out of town coaching in a state softball tournament.
White was ordered to have no contact with his accuser. He posted a $40,000 surety bond and was released from jail Monday, court records show.
White worked as a teacher and softball coach at CCA for several years before he left in 2012 to coach at Solon High School. He coached softball at Solon until 2017, then returned as an assistant baseball coach for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. His contract at Solon ended earlier this summer, according to Solon School District Superintendent Davis Eidahl. https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-prep-sports/jim-white-named-national-coach-of-the-year/ (In 2017, White was named the National) https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-prep-sports/jim-white-named-national-coach-of-the-year/ (High School Coaches Association coach of the year.)
White also coached various sports at CCA High School and CCA Middle School during the last few years. He resigned from CCA in June, according to the school district.
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The driver who exchanged gunfire with two Cedar Rapids Police officers early Saturday after being pulled over for erratic driving has been identified as 23-year-old Brandon Lee Nelson of Cedar Rapids, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said Monday. Investigators say Nelson was westbound on Glass Road in Cedar Rapids just before 4 a.m. Saturday when police tried to pull him over. Nelson and two Cedar Rapids police officers exchanged gunfire. The officers, who were not injured, have not yet been identified, but are on leave pending the outcome of the DCI’s investigation. Nelson was taken to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics following the shooting but is expected to be released soon. Nelson has multiple prior convictions for eluding police in Linn County, online court records show. ++++
A https://apnews.com/article/ayman-al-zawahri-al-qaida-terrorism-biden-36e5f10256c9bc9972b252849eda91f2 (U.S. drone) https://apnews.com/article/ayman-al-zawahri-al-qaida-terrorism-biden-36e5f10256c9bc9972b252849eda91f2 (strike) in Afghanistan this weekend killed https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-al-qaida-ayman-zawahri-cairo-united-states-0baac649ad46ff1595c7ab7077b213dc (Ayman) https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-al-qaida-ayman-zawahri-cairo-united-states-0baac649ad46ff1595c7ab7077b213dc (al-Zawahri), who helped Osama bin...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, August 1st. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area today, with a high near 86. Winds from the northwest 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Then tonight, we have a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 4 a.m., with a low around 65. Two Cedar Rapids police officers exchanged gunfire with a driver they pulled over early Saturday, injuring the driver, authorities said. The officers, whose names were not released, were not injured. The Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation said it had been asked by the city to help investigate the officer-involved shooting. The DCI said that shortly before 4 a.m., the officers pulled over a car for erratic driving in the 2200 block on Glass Road NE, just west of Interstate 380. “The driver of the vehicle brandished a firearm and gunfire was exchanged between the driver and two Cedar Rapids police officers,” the division said. The driver, whose name also was not released, suffered gunshot wounds and was taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. A condition was not released. The Democratic National Committee has delayed a decision on the presidential nominating calendar, leaving Iowa Democrats to wait three months until after the November midterm elections to find out the fate of the Iowa caucuses. Iowa is among 16 states and Puerto Rico vying to be included in Democrats’ early presidential nominating window ahead of Super Tuesday in early March 2024. The DNC rules committee voted in April to reopen the presidential nominating window, forcing all interested states — including the current early-nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — to apply for a spot. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 30 and Sunday, July 31. Temperatures will inch up this weekend, but will still remain quite pleasant. It’d be a good idea to get out and enjoy the weather before the heat returns with a vengeance next week. On Saturday it will be sunny with a high near 86 degrees.On Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 62 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny again with a high near 87 degrees. A light wind from Saturday will increase just barely up to 5 to 10 mph on Sunday. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 70 degrees. A federal class-action lawsuit brought by youth basketball players who were potential sex abuse victims of former Iowa Barnstormers basketball coach Greg Stephen reached a settlement Friday that will establish a fund of over a $1 million for the athletes. Guy Cook, lead attorney for an https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/adidas-added-to-class-action-suit-against-former-barnstormers-coach/ (unnamed former Barnstormers Basketball of Iowa player who filed the suit in 2020), said the fund will be established for select former youth athletes affiliated with the Barnstormers and coached by Stephen from 2005 through 2018, and “fell victim to Stephen’s illicit acts of secretly procuring nude images of players.” The settlement is pending court approval. The trial was set to start Monday in U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa in Davenport. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/180-year-sentence-for-former-youth-coach-greg-stephen-who-covertly-recorded-naked-teens/ (Stephen, 44, of Monticello, was sentenced in 2019) to 180 years in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count each of possession of child pornography and transportation of child pornography. A Cedar Rapids man accused of killing a woman April 10 at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge likely will face updated charges because a man seriously injured that night died late last week. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said 31-year-old Marvin Cox, of Cedar Rapids, who was shot in the head, died from his injuries Sunday, July 24, and criminal charges against https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/accused-cedar-rapids-nightclub-shooter-charged-with-10-more-offenses/ (Timothy Rush, 32), will be updated. Rush is accused of fatally shooting Nicole Owens, 35, his girlfriend and mother of his 1-year-old daughter, and of shooting and seriously injuring Cox, who had been on life support since the shooting. Marie Mulkey, Cox’s mother, told The Gazette after the shooting that https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/suspect-in-downtown-cedar-rapids-shooting-has-history-of-gun-related-convictions/ (she had been spending every day with her son in the hospital). The other man charged in the shootings, https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/prosecutors-trying-to-extradite-cedar-rapids-man-charged-in-deadly-nightclub-shooting/ (Dimione Walker, )is accused of fatally shooting Michael Valentine, 25. 10 people were shot in total by the two gunmen. The Cedar Rapids Police Department has identified the man killed in a stabbing Wednesday as 52-year-old Christopher Anson. Police were called Wednesday afternoon to the 1500 block of Fifth Avenue SE, where they found Anson, of Cedar Rapids, on the floor of an apartment building common area with a stab wound in his chest. Police began CPR, but Anson was declared dead at the scene. Two males were transported to the police department for interviews, according to a news release. Police said the attack was not random and the public is not considered at risk. The investigation continues, police said, and no further details will be released at this time. Have a good weekend everyone.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 29. The great weather continues! According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 82 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 59 degrees Thanks but no thanks. This appears to be the answer from the Cedar Rapids School Board after the City of Cedar Rapids offered to pay for two officers that the board voted to remove from the district’s middle schools in a recent approval of the contract. Cedar Rapids school board president David Tominsky said Thursday the board is not considering changing its decision on a contract for school resource officers in schools after the mayor offered for the city to pay for two of the officers to work in middle schools. “The board has examined the School Resource Officer program comprehensively, made a data-driven decision, and voted earlier this month on a path forward,” Tominsky said in an email to The Gazette. “After review of the mayor’s letter, no board member will be changing their vote.” Board members said the decision was not based on funding, but rather on a racial disparity in student arrests. This said, there will still be officers in other schools in the district. The city of Cedar Rapids hopes to receive a $50 million boost for flood protection under a bill that passed the U.S. Senate Thursday. Senators voted 93-1 to pass the 2022 Water Resources Development Act. The biannual packages authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers to carry out water resources projects and includes key measures secured by Iowa Republican U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley to update Cedar Rapids’ flood system and a levee in the Des Moines area. The bill could unlock federal dollars for flood protection on the east side of the Cedar River — which would allow the city to accelerate work on other segments of the system. A year after Mercy Iowa City announced plans to exit its four-year affiliation with the statewide MercyOne health network and integrate into a larger health care system, the only community hospital in Iowa City is ending its unsuccessful search and sticking with MercyOne after all. In an email to Mercy Iowa City employees Thursday, Acting President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Trachta acknowledged “significant changes that could not have been anticipated” during the search for a partner that would help put the hospital on a better financial path. In the email, Trachta also announced Dawna Miller, Mercy Iowa City’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Judy Andronowitz, vice president and chief operating officer, are leaving. While Mercy Iowa City is focusing internally on improving performance and staffing, the hospital has engaged consultant Insight Health Partners to assess its financial and strategic operations, Trachta said Thursday. An assessment of the 194-bed hospital will take about 60 days and engage leaders, colleagues and providers in meetings and evaluation activities to give feedback for the campus’ future. Mercy Iowa City has been struggling to find financial footing for years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, which ravaged the healthcare industry. Numbers show that Mercy Iowa City did not bounce back as well as other local hospitals as pandemic conditions improved.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 28. Thursday will start with a slight chance for showers, but if you don't get up especially early you can pretend that never happened. According to the National Weather Service after 7 a.m. it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 81 degrees. On Thursday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 58 degrees. The debate over school resource officers appears like it will continue awhile longer. The city of Cedar Rapids is offering to fully fund two additional school resource officers to do work at Cedar Rapids middle schools after the school board voted earlier this month to remove those officers. In a letter to the school board — obtained by The Gazette — dated Tuesday and signed by Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell, the two additional school resource officers could start their day at the Cedar Rapids Police Department to serve middle schools. These additional officers would bring the total number of police in Cedar Rapids schools back up to seven, where it had been. It remains to be seen whether this will move the needle for the Cedar Rapids School Board. Part of the reason the board voted to remove the officers are statistics showing that there is a racial disparity in the way students are disciplined when resource officers are present. Tests have confirmed a brain-eating amoeba was present in a southwest Iowa lake where a Missouri resident was sickened last month. That person, who swam at Lake of Three Fires State Park in the last two weeks of June, https://www.thegazette.com/environment-nature/lake-of-three-fires-swimmer-infected-by-brain-damaging-amoeba-has-died/ (died of the parasitic infection July 7.) Several state agencies completed testing of the water at Lake of Three Fires, 25 miles east of Clarinda, and confirmed the presence of Naegleria fowleri amoeba that can cause a rare and often fatal brain infection. Now that testing is complete, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources will reopen the beach at Lake of Three Fires, which has been closed since July 8. The beach will be posted with signs warning swimmers of the presence of the parasite in the water and the risk of infection. The state does not plan to test other recreational waters. Swimmers can reduce their risk by keeping their head out of the water and using nose clips or plugging their nose when going underwater. Iowa saw the number of new COVID-19 cases continue to increase in the past week, reporting 5,924 new cases in the past week, up 12 percent from the previous week’s 5,301 new cases. This continues the upward trend in cases in July after cases in June hovered at under 4,000 a week. Experts believe that a highly contagious version of the omicron variant now dominant in Iowa and the rest of the nation is leading to the increase in cases. As of Wednesday, 84 Iowa counties — including Linn and Johnson — are experiencing “high” COVID-19 community transmission, compared to 78 counties last week. In one bit of good news, hospitalizations for the disease went down slightly this week now at 249, from last week’s 256. There were also far fewer deaths from the disease, with 23 new covid deaths reported.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 27. We'll have another mild summer day Wednesday, with a bit less sun. According to the National Weather Service the day will start mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area, then gradually become sunny, with a high near 84 degrees. Then the clouds will return Wednesday night, with a 30 percent chance for rain heading into Thursday morning. The low will be about 66 degrees. While not a silver bullet, legislation to increase the retirement age for commercial pilots will incrementally help as airlines contend with labor shortages that have caused them to trim flight schedules and drop regional service, Eastern Iowa airport officials say. Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley joined a group of fellow Republican senators Monday to introduce a bill that would raise the mandatory commercial pilot retirement age to 67 from 65 in a bid to address a pilot shortage that has fueled flight cuts. Pilot unions and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have pushed back on the idea of raising the mandatory retirement age over safety concerns. Pilot unions and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have pushed back on the idea of raising the mandatory retirement age over safety concerns. With an aging pilot population and heavy use of early retirement packages during the COVID-19 pandemic, one recent study projects North America will be short 12,000 pilots by 2023. Meanwhile, nearly 14,000 licensed pilots in the nation will reach the mandatory retirement age over the next five years and be forced to retire. The Iowa Utilities Board issued an order Tuesday granting electric generating certificates for the Duane Arnold Solar projects near Palo — as long as Linn County supervisors agree. State regulators will issue the certificates for the two separate projects after NextEra, the company pursuing the projects with Duane Arnold Solar LLC and Duane Arnold Solar II LLC, has filed and the board has accepted a final, unappealable decisions to be made next month by the Linn County Board of Supervisors. The certificate is a permit that authorizes a company to operate a public facility within an area and is typically for public utilities or similar entities. The Duane Arnold Solar I project proposes to use 316 acres of an 857-acre area to place photovoltaic solar arrays capable of generating up to 50 megawatts of energy. The Duane Arnold Solar II project would use 815 acres of a 1,780-acre area to place solar arrays capable of generating up to 150 MW and a 75-MW, four-hour battery energy storage facility. NextEra, which has operated in Iowa since 1999, said in June it plans to invest $800 million in the solar project, including $50 million paid to landowners over the project’s 30-year life span. The company has 11 wind projects in the state. The Palo site — near the decommissioned Duane Arnold nuclear plant — would be its first solar project in Iowa, though it has them in 27 other states.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 26. The heat will probably return soon, so let's enjoy this mild weather while we can this week. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near 80 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Tuesday night there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Besides that, it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 67 degrees. The wind will be calm all day. Why did the shooting at Maquoketa State Park happen? It is a question that for now has investigators stumped. As they look for any connection between the family and the suspected shooter, they say they have uncovered little to establish a motive, noting they have not turned up any connection between Anthony Sherwin and those they say he killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park. Sherwin was later found dead in a wooded area of the park from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. What police have said is that Sherwin, 23, of the Omaha suburb of La Vista, had no criminal history before the attack, and investigators said he appeared to target the victims at random. Sherwin’s parents, who had been camping with their son, expressed incomprehension that he would carry out such an attack. Cecilia Sherwin told the Omaha-World Herald Sunday that she believes her son went to help the family after hearing gunshots. She said their family does not accept the version of events described by police. In addition to Sherwin, Tyler Schmidt, 42; his 42-year-old wife, Sarah Schmidt; and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula Schmidt, all died in the attack. Personal information from staff at the Cedar Rapids Community School District may have been included in data stolen earlier this month in a cybersecurity breach, a memo from the district reveals. The stolen data potentially included staff members’ full names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account and routing numbers, and medical information including diagnosis and treatment information or health insurance information, according to a letter mailed to staff — obtained by The Gazette — dated July 22. The Cedar Rapids Community School District has 3,500 employees. All authorized access to district networks has been disabled and an investigation is being conducted by the district with external cybersecurity professionals, according to the letter. Hobby Town owners Niels and Musetta Christiansen plan to close their hobby shop at 3655 First Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids, with all merchandise, equipment and fixtures for sale and regular prices discounted up to 50 percent. The Town and Country Shopping Center shop will hold a private sale starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday, then open to the general public at 9 a.m. Thursday. according to a news release sent by Retail Sales Pro, the Florida-based company hired to facilitate the sale. Inflation and rising rent costs were cited as the primary reasons for closing the retail venue. The store sells a variety of hobby items including remote control cars, trains and airplanes, along with games, rockets, models, puzzles, kites, paint, parts and tools.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, July 25th. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect increasing clouds today, with a high near 77 in the Cedar Rapids area. 5 mph winds from the northeast will shift and come from the southwest in the afternoon. Then tonight, we’ll have a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 a.m. and a low around 61. A 9-year-old Cedar Falls boy was spared in an attack that killed his parents and younger sister early Friday as they camped at the Maquoketa Caves State Park in Eastern Iowa, according to the mayor of Cedar Falls. Mayor Rob Green issued a statement on Facebook saying that the family’s son, Arlo, "survived the attack, and is safe." The Iowa Department of Public Safety identified the victims as Tyler Schmidt, 42; his 42-year-old wife, Sarah Schmidt; and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula Schmidt. Their bodies were found in their tent early Friday, and investigators said they had been shot. Authorities said the suspected gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin of Nebraska, was found dead in a wooded area of the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safety's Division of Criminal Investigation, told the Associated Press on Saturday that the motive for the attack was still unknown. – 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 23, and Sunday, July 24. It will be a hot weekend to start, a wet weekend at times, and a breezy weekend all the time. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a high near 96 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday with a heat index as high as 104. After some rain early Saturday morning there will be a good chance for rain late Saturday night into Sunday morning. There will be a reduced chance for rain of about 30 percent until about 1 p.m. on Sunday. It will also be much cooler, Sunday, with a predicted high of 86 degrees and a low of around 64 degrees. Winds will hover between 5 to 15 mph for the weekend and could gust as high as 25 mph at times. Next week, it is looking to be a bit cooler still, with a chance for rain returning again. Three family members from Cedar Falls were killed while camping Friday at Maquoketa Caves State Park, and the suspected Nebraska gunman then shot and killed himself, law enforcement officials said. Officers were called to the park’s campground before 6:30 a.m., the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said in a statement. Officers found three people fatally shot in a tent at the campground, DCI Assistant Director Mitch Mortvedt said. The DCI identified the three Friday evening as Tyler Schmidt, 42, Sarah Schmidt, 42, and Lulu Schmidt, 6. Investigators did not say how the three were related or provide a motive for the attack. The suspected gunman was identified as Anthony Orlando Sherwin, 23, of Nebraska. Investigators do not believe he had any prior relationship with the Schmidt family, Mortvedt said. The nation’s winningest high school softball coach, Larry Niemeyer died at 84 Thursday night, following a longtime battle with illness. Niemeyer won 2,089 https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/07/21/iowa-high-school-softball-state-tournament-winterset-dallas-center-grimes-dcg-score-ighsau/10122055002/ (softball games) over a decorated career at Adel and Cedar Rapids Jefferson, while also racking up 871 wins and a state title as Jefferson's girls basketball coach. “In my opinion, he is the greatest high school coach there has ever been,” Waterloo West girls’ basketball coach Tony Pappas said. “To coach for 52 years, two sports and excel at that high of a level, it’s unbelievable. A state panel gave final approval Friday to awarding Cedar Rapids $9 million that will give a boost to development in Cedar Rapids’ urban core, funding new recreational amenities and infrastructure that will support the area’s growth. The Iowa Economic Development Authority board okayed the funds as part of the Reinvestment District program, a competitive program that reinvests sales and hotel-motel tax revenues produced over a 20-year period into projects that enhance the quality of life and create or expand recreational opportunities Most of the millions the IEDA gave the city will go toward the $81.5 million mhttps://www.thegazette.com/local-government/work-to-start-this-spring-on-cedar-rapids-81-5-million-development-featuring-big-grove-brewery-wit/ (ixed-use First and First West development t)hat features a Big Grove brewery. Cedar Rapids specifically will put $6 million toward a city-owned, 550-stall parking ramp to support the project
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 22. A chance for rain will return for much of Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Then, after 8 p.m. there will be a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Otherwise, there will be cloudy skies that gradually become sunny during the day. There will be a high near 88 degrees, and a low of around 70 degrees. The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance has addressed a farmers market vendor who was selling crafts with the logo of an anti-government militia group. The Economic Alliance, which manages the Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers Market, said in a Thursday news release that it received complaints from concerned citizens about a July 16 vendor who sold crafts displaying the logo of the Three Percenters, a far-right anti-government militia group. The Economic Alliance did not name the vendor, but noted they were “a popular and longtime” merchant at the market who makes and sells hundreds of different craft products. The merchant agreed tos stop selling the merchandise. Members of the Three Percenter groups often signal their affiliation by holding up three fingers in the “OK” sign. Members of the Three Percenters have been accused of, arrested or indicted for participating in the U.S. Capitol insurrection last year, the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 and other acts of domestic terrorism, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. A Linn County jury convicted a Cedar Rapids man this week for beating and robbing an older Coggon couple and forcing his way into their home by impersonating a police officer. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-man-charged-for-beating-and-robbing-coggon-couple/ (Brandon William Lee), 33, was found guilty Tuesday following a weeklong trial of two counts each of first-degree robbery and willful injury, and one count each of first-degree theft and impersonating a public official. He faces up to 77 years in prison. Lee came to the Coggon home of Joseph Henderson, 73, and Sandra Henderson, 72, about 6:30 p.m. Jan. 9, and identified himself as a police officer and displayed a badge, according to testimony. Once inside the home, Lee repeatedly assaulted the couple, while demanding they take him to their safe. Lee stole more than $50,000 from the safe. Joseph Henderson died a few months after the assault, which wasn’t the cause of his death, according to a medical examiner. He had been diagnosed with cancer and Alzheimer’s. Linn and Black Hawk counties will receive $3.5 million of federal American Rescue Plan funds allocated by the state to finish paving the last 16 miles of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail that runs between Evansdale and Hiawatha. Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office announced the Destination Iowa grant funding Thursday, with the trail project being one of three to receive funds in this round of allocations. Applications for projects in Cedar Rapids and Marion are still awaiting word on their fate. Once completed, the Cedar Valley Nature Trail will have a paved 52 miles. The trail also links other well-known trails in Eastern Iowa, including the CeMar, Grant Wood and Highway 100 trails in the Cedar Rapids and Marion areas. Those using the trail can also make their way down through Johnson County.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 21. It will be back above 90 again Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 93 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Thursday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 65 degrees. There will be a small chance of rain Thursday night going into Friday morning. Johnson County Public Health has confirmed the first case of monkeypox within the county, making for the fifth confirmed case in the state — and the first one in the Corridor. County public health officials said in an announcement they were working with the Iowa Department of Public Health to investigate the circumstances of the individual’s exposure and to inform close contacts of the exposure. No other details were shared on the case. Infection from the monkeypox virus occurs through skin-to-skin contact and through contact with an infected individual’s rash or sores or touching the clothing and bedding that has been in contact with those rashes or sores. The virus can also spread through respiratory secretions during prolonged face-to-face contact, such as kissing. Monkeypox is not considered a sexually transmitted infection, but it often spreads through intimate contact. Monkeypox causes flu-like symptoms such as fever and chills, and a rash that can take weeks to clear. Not to be outdone, COVID-19 is continuing its rise in Iowa. After reporting a significant spike in case counts last week, Iowa reported new COVID-19 infections statewide reached 5,301 cases in the past seven days. Last week, the state reported 5,187 new cases — a 30 percent jump from the 3,980 cases reported the week before. The spike came after infections remained in the 3,900 range for a month. The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past week reached 256 statewide. That’s an increase from the 229 patients reported last week. The state public health department has confirmed 41 more Iowans have died as a result of the coronavirus in the past week. Last week, the state had confirmed 15 deaths. A new coronavirus subvariant — BA.5 — that has an increased level of transmissibility has become the dominant variant in the United States. As case counts and hospitalizations increase statewide and nationally, local public health and health care experts are urging residents to use increased caution. In addition to being highly transmissible, this subvariant can infect some individuals with vaccine immunity as well as those who have had the virus before. In non virus news, the city of Cedar Rapids is paring down its request for a share of $100 million in state-awarded federal funds from $27 million down to $8.4 million. The reduction was done after a suggestion by staff members from the Iowa Economic Development Authority, which is overseeing the rewards for projects across the state. State officials created the Destination Iowa program with federal COVID-19 economic relief funds and invited local governments to apply for a share of the money. The revised application includes major destination features from the original application in a “LightLine Loop” project totaling $25.6 million that hones in on the Czech Village greenway space. This largely encompasses a roundhouse, recreation zone and plaza area, with a focus on how the funds would boost tourism and recreation. So far, Gov. Kim Reynolds and the IEDA have awarded $16.5 million in grant money to four projects in the https://www.thegazette.com/article/field-of-dreams-tv-series-trails-and-lakefront-project-awarded-16-5m-in-iowa-tourism-grants/ (first round of funding) through Destination Iowa, including the development of a “Field of Dreams” television series, new trail construction and new Des Moines lakefront amenities.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 20. It will dip below the 90s again Wednesday, and thankfully the breeze will remain. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 88 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A northwest wind 10 to 15 mph will increase to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. On Wednesday night it will be clear, with a low of around 66 degrees. University of Iowa Health Care is requesting a 33 percent increase — to over $525 million — for continuing to build its new hospital in North Liberty, saying inflation and a workforce shortage are causing the cost to skyrocket. Hospital officials are asking the Iowa Board of Regents for approval on a revised construction budget for the 469,000-square-foot campus at the southwest corner of Forevergreen Road and Highway 965. The project — which is already underway — remains the same as a proposal approved by regents in fall 2021, as the new budget does not include any changes to the campus layout, building design or floor plans. The hospital project's original proposed cost was $230 million, but that was bumped up after the scope of the project was changed after its approval. The University of Iowa College of Education has received a $15 million donation — the largest gift ever to the college — to support training and research in school mental health. The Iowa Center for School Mental Health, https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/state-university-of-iowa-launch-center-for-school-mental-health/ (founded last summer) with $20 million in federal pandemic relief money, will be renamed the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health after the gift from the Chicago-based Scanlan Family Foundation. The center is a partnership between the UI and the Iowa Department of Education to address the mental health needs of Iowa students and staff with professional development, research and clinical assessment and intervention. The gift and renaming, which will be considered June 27 by the Iowa Board of Regents, will expand clinical support for school mental health in collaboration with the https://belinblank.education.uiowa.edu/ (UI’s Belin-Blank Center.) The mayor of Fairbank was killed in a two-vehicle crash Monday morning on U.S. Highway 218 that involved a driver's education car. Gregory Harter, 71, a passenger in the driver's education vehicle, died at the scene. Three others were injured, including two 14-year-olds, one of whom was the driver. The Iowa State Patrol said that shortly before 8:30 a.m., a 14-year-old from Waterloo was driving southbound on Highway 218 near the Janesville exit when the car went onto the shoulder. The driver overcorrected, crossing the southbound lanes of the highway and the median into the path of an oncoming car. Fairbank is a small town located west of Oelwein in Buchanan and Fayette counties.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 19. It will be another warm one Tuesday, but at least there will be a breeze. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny, with a high near 93 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be breezy, with a south wind of 5 to 10 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 70 degrees. Iconic Cedar Rapids arts organization CSPS will experience another leadership shake-up when its interim executive director leaves at the end of this month. Jim Miller, who has served as the interim leader since January, will leave July 31. He stepped in after the departure of Taylor Bergen — the first leader of the organization after the departure of the group’s founders. The departure comes as the group grapples with financial struggles and it awaits the IRS’ reinstatement of its tax-exempt status. Leadership changes and COVID-19 disruptions already had dealt the group a blow as leaders worked to pay off more than $100,000 in debt. Then the IRS last July revoked the organization’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity status after it failed to file tax returns for three consecutive years — 2018, 2019 and 2020. That happened under previous CSPS staff and board members. Dr. Robert Kruse, a director from the MercyOne system in Des Moines, is Iowa’s new state medical director, the state announced Monday. The announcement came from the newly formed Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, which combines the previous state public health and human services departments into one agency. Kruse has been working as MercyOne’s medical director of occupational health. Kruse replaces Dr. Caitlin Pedati, who was the previous state medical director and state epidemiologist. Pedati, who was one of the key figures in the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-medical-director-and-epidemiologist-dr-caitlin-pedati-leaving-iowa-department-of-public-health/ (left her state position) this past fall. Iowa public school districts can apply for federal funding to replace diesel school buses with zero-emission and low-emission models, State Auditor Rob Sand told reporters on Monday. The funding, made available through the bipartisan federal infrastructure law passed in 2021, will give grants to districts looking to swap old buses with more energy-efficient models. The new buses replacing the old ones must be battery powered or run on compressed natural gas or propane, which emit less greenhouse gasses than diesel. They also have to be model year 2021 or newer and have a gross weight rating over 10,001 pounds.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, July 18th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny today in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 89. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 68. Two police officers who wrongly arrested a Coralville man for being an impaired driver without any evidence and locking him up in jail for nearly three months didn’t lose their jobs or face any consequences that were made public. Former Iowa City Officer Travis Graves resigned from the department on Oct. 15, 2018, and was hired four days later as a conservation officer with Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and former Coralville Officer Jeff Reinhard resigned and became an Iowa City officer in April 2019, according to both departments. Both were hired for their new positions after the wrongful charge against Anthony Watson was dismissed April 9, 2018, but before a lawsuit by Watson was filed in September 2019. The Iowa City and Coralville city councils approved a $390,000 payout to settle the lawsuit from Watson, which accused the cities and Graves and Reinhard of negligence resulting in personal injury, false arrest, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and malicious prosecution. Typically, when civil settlements are reached before trial, the defendants don’t admit to any guilt or wrongdoing — it is rather a compromise of a disputed claim. – 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
The chance for rain from Friday will carry over a little into Saturday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance of showers, hovering at around 20 percent, in the Cedar Rapids area between 1 and 4 p.m., and a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after that. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 83 degrees. The low will be around 68 degrees. This trend will continue into Sunday, but with partly sunny skies and a high near 86 degrees. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 66 degrees. With a brief glance at next week’s temperatures, it’s looking hotter again, so enjoy the cooler weather we get this weekend. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office continued its search Friday for an 11-year-old Cedar Rapids girl named Zyah Thomas who went into the Cedar River Wednesday near Palisades-Kepler State Park. A Thursday evening tweet from the Sheriff’s Office said Thursday’s search efforts, which were conducted using boats and divers, yielded no results, and the search would continue Friday. Thomas was visiting the beach Wednesday afternoon with her family. She was playing in the water when she began to struggle, leading her to disappear into the river, according to Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner. On Friday, there were eight deputies on scene. The search was being conducted using boats and a helicopter. Nearly a dozen nursing homes in Iowa have closed since late last year, largely due to financial stress from inflation, supply chain issues and workforce shortages, the leader of a statewide health care organization said Friday. While many businesses and industries are facing those same pressures, Brent Willett, president and CEO of the Iowa Health Care Association, said nursing homes cannot respond to those pressures in the same way other businesses can. Because of that lack of flexibility, many nursing homes, especially in rural areas, face closing, Willett said, and he argued that due to these challenges nursing homes need more financial assistance from the state. Willett made the comments Friday during taping of this weekend’s episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS. Even where nursing homes that are staying afloat, many are being forced to reduce their services or available beds, Willett said. According to a recent survey of his group’s members, at least 45 percent of Iowa nursing homes are limiting or freezing admissions because of a lack of staff, he said. Due to a https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-scrambles-to-find-seats-for-more-freshmen-than-expected/ (larger-than-expected freshmen class coming next month) to the University of Iowa — meaning strong demand for on-campus housing — the UI has announced several measures aimed at mitigating crowding in its residence halls. Where the campus in both of the last two academic years provided on-campus isolation and quarantine space for students who contract COVID-19, students this fall must come up with their own plan, according to a https://apps.its.uiowa.edu/dispatch/messages/view/f916a796-5406-4249-8554-b1986510af01 (recent message) from UI Housing and Dining. The university also is reopening its Parklawn Hall, which UI officials previously suggested they might raze as part of redevelopment plans for 7.8 acres that include the former Hawkeye marching band practice field. In another interesting maneuver aimed at addressing the overflow, UI Housing and Dining is converting student lounges on floors in its Rienow, Slater and Stanley halls into rooms. Six students will share each lounge, which will be accessible only by key to its residents.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 15. There will be a chance for rain early and a chance for rain at the end of the day Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 40 to 50 percent chance for rain in the Cedar Rapids area Friday morning, with the chance decreasing by 1 p.m. The chance for rain will spike up to around 30 percent Friday night. Otherwise it will be cloudy, with a high of 88 degrees and a low of 70 degrees. Emergency responders are continuing to search the Cedar River near Palisades-Kepler State Park for an 11-year-old girl, identified Thursday by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office as Zyah Thomas of Cedar Rapids. Crews were called to the state park Wednesday afternoon when the girl reportedly went into the water and began to struggle, according to a new release.The search continued throughout the rest of Wednesday. In a tweet Thursday, the Sheriff’s Office identified the girl by name and called the incident a drowning. Sheriff Brian Gardner said Thomas was visiting the beach area Wednesday with her family. Progress on a 640-acre solar farm near Coggon — approved by the Linn County Board of Supervisors after contentious public meetings — is on hold while a court resolves a case brought against the supervisors by a family who lives near the planned project. On Wednesday, the Iowa Utilities Board denied Coggon Solar LLC’s request for a certificate of public convenience, use and necessity until the court acts. The certificate is the permit that authorizes Coggon Solar LLC to operate a public facility within the area and is typically for public utilities or similar entities. https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/linn-county-supervisors-vote-2-1-to-approve-coggon-solar-project/ (In January, the supervisors voted 2-1) to approve rezoning in the area to allow for the project. The approval meant that about 750 acres would be rezoned from agricultural to agricultural with a renewable energy overlay that expires after 35 years. In February, Martin Robinson, Paula Robinson, Tom Robinson and Laura Robinson filed an appeal and initiated a proceeding in Linn County District Court to challenge the zoning decision. The Robinsons had been present at several of the meetings about the solar project and had expressed concerns about the effect it might have on property values, among other criticisms. The Vinton Public Library, which has been closed this week afterhttps://www.thegazette.com/news/with-another-leader-leaving-vinton-public-library-closes-for-now/ ( losing its interim director )— and, before that, two directors in two years — will reopen for limited hours beginning Monday. The two directors left for other jobs amid https://www.thegazette.com/news/two-directors-quit-vinton-library-after-complaints-about-hirings-lgbtq-and-biden-books/ (city resident complaints about the library’s display of LGBTQ books and books about Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris). The library will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Board members and the library’s one part-time employee will take shifts to check out books and provide access to the library’s computers, copier and fax machines. The board said they are also moving ahead on interviewing three candidates for the new director position.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 14. There will be a small chance for rain on Thursday but the higher chance for rain will be Friday. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a 20 percent chance of rain before 10 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. After that it will be partly with a high near 86 degrees. Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy with a low of around 69 degrees. Iowa saw a 30 percent jump in new coronavirus infections in the past seven days, new state and federal coronavirus data released this week shows. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 5,187 new COVID-19 cases in the past seven days — a 30 percent jump from the 3,980 cases reported last week. The spike comes after case counts had remained in the 3,900 range for the past four weeks. It remains to be seen whether this is an anomaly or a sign of the presence of omicron variants of the virus that have been pushing infection rates up in other parts of the world. Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past week were also up, totaling 229 in Iowa, compared to 190 patients hospitalized last week, according to federal health data. Neither of Iowa’s Republican U.S. senators expressed support for a nationwide ban on abortions when asked about that possibility Wednesday. On separate conference calls with Iowa reporters, both Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst said the issue of abortion regulations now rests with individual states after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that eliminated what had been a federally guaranteed right to abortion access. For a national abortion ban to pass, Republicans would have to regain majorities in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, and win back the White House. And assuming the filibuster still is in place, Republicans would need 60 votes to pass a ban through the Senate. Grassley also said he could not support any provision that would make it a crime for a pregnant person who lives in a state where abortion becomes illegal to have one in a state where it remains legal. Grassley said he believes such a provision would be unconstitutional. He said the right to travel between states is “one of the principles of freedom in America.” An explosion Wednesday morning destroyed two houses in the northwest Iowa city of Le Mars and injured three people. The 6:30 a.m. explosion demolished two adjacent houses and damaged a third house, Le Mars Fire-Rescue Chief Dave Schipper told the https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/updated-house-explosion-fire-levels-house-in-le-mars-and-sends-three-to-the-hospital/article_6a618cf4-2557-5471-a39f-bbfc7d5282f0.html#tracking-source=mp-homepage (Sioux City Journal). The people who were injured were inside or around one of the homes. Two were taken to a Le Mars hospital, and one was taken to a Sioux City hospital and later transferred to a burn center in Lincoln, Neb. Schipper called it “very fortunate" that no one died in the explosion, which he thinks was caused by a gas leak. The explosion was so powerful it shook homes blocks away and damaged doors and windows, including at a nearby fire station.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 13. It will be mostly sunny Wednesday with a high near 87 degrees. According to the National Weather Service it will then become partly cloudy Wednesday night, with a low of around 64 degrees. A chance for rain will return on Thursday. Going through the state’s court system remains the preferred strategy for enacting restrictions on access to abortion in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday. Speaking to reporters, Reynolds said she was “disappointed” in https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-supreme-court-rejects-gov-reynolds-request-to-rehear-abortion-case/ (the Iowa Supreme Court’s recent rejection of her request) that the high court rehear an abortion case in order to establish legal standards for future restrictions on abortion access in Iowa. However, Reynolds said she remains undeterred in her belief that it is the proper strategy to continue pursuing legal remedies to a pair of abortion restrictions already passed into law by her and her fellow Statehouse Republicans. Reynolds wants the Iowa Supreme Court to rehear a case involving the law that requires a 24-hour waiting period between the first doctor’s appointment and when a pregnant person has an abortion, and wants the district court to lift the injunction on a 2019 law that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which often is before most individuals know they are pregnant. For now, abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Cedar Rapids police have completed an investigation into how a female pedestrian was injured after coming into contact with a pickup truck during a protest for abortion rights last month, and the case is now being reviewed for possible charges by a Black Hawk County prosecutor. Linn County Supervisor Stacey Walker, who rushed that day at the rally to help women in front of the truck, told The Gazette it was an “act of pure violence” as the truck drove forward as protesters crossed the street. But police, who interviewed the driver later that day, did not make any arrests in the incident. Black Hawk County Attorney Brian Williams said he has obtained the police evidence, but there may be additional follow-up. Williams said his office was reviewing the case because at least one member of the Linn County Attorney’s Office was present during the incident and “could potentially be a witness.” Alliant Energy started construction on a community solar garden in Cedar Rapids this summer, and once it’s complete next summer, electricity customers can enroll and receive monthly credits on their electric bills. The solar garden will consist of 18,000 solar blocks that will produce 4.5 megawatts per year, which could power around 3,600 homes, the company said in a Tuesday news release. The solar garden will be built on Alliant property north of the 1100 block of 33rd Avenue SW in Cedar Rapids. Subscriptions for the community solar garden https://www.alliantenergy.com/cleanenergy/whatyoucando/communitysolar/communitysolarformcr (opened on Tuesday). Alliant Energy offers an https://www.alliantenergy.com/cleanenergy/whatyoucando/communitysolar/communitysolarcalculatorcr (online calculator) for potential subscribers to determine how many solar blocks they would need to supplement or fully cover their energy needs.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 12. It will be a sunny, pleasant day on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny, with a high near 85 degrees. A northwest wind of 5 to 10 mph will gust as high as 20 mph. On Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 64 degrees. School resource officers will no longer patrol Cedar Rapids middle schools after the school board voted Monday to decrease the number of police in schools from seven to five and reduce the cost of the contract proportionally. The amended contract with the Cedar Rapids Police Department removing the two officers was approved 5-2, with members Jennifer Neumann and Marcy Roundtree in opposition. The revised contract is in effect until June 30, 2023. School resource officers will be based at Jefferson, Kennedy, Washington and Metro high schools and Polk Alternative Education Center. Ten speakers spoke during public comment ahead of the vote Monday, with the majority advocating to remove or reduce the number of police officers in schools. The state agreed Monday to a $7.5 million medical malpractice settlement after a 41-year-old Davenport man suffered severe life-limiting impairments following care at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for a bleeding brain tumor. According to the new settlement, Christopher Dolan — now 47 — is in a wheelchair and requires 24-hour care. “His speech, motor, bowel and bladder functions are compromised, and his right leg and arm are spastic and paralyzed,” the settlement reported. Dolan was referred to UIHC in late December of 2016. After a pituitary tumor was discovered on three different occasions he was discharged from the hospital instead of being treated. By the time Dolan was treated and the tumor removed a few days later, it was determined that his brain had been damaged while the tumor had remained in his head, leading to a variety of complications. NASA is scheduled to release the first images taken by the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday after giving an impressive preview image Monday night. It’ll mark the beginning of the next era in astronomy as the largest space telescope ever built begins collecting scientific data, helping to answer questions about some of the universe’s earliest moments. On Tuesday, NASA is set to reveal the rest of the JWST's first images at 9:30 a.m. Central Standard Time. You can watch the announcement live on NASA TV starting at 8:45 a.m.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, July 11th. For our Monday in the Cedar Rapids area, we’ll have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before noon, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. It will be partly sunny, with a high near 87. Winds from the northwest, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation at 30%. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 64. Police are investigating after a shots-fired incident Saturday injured one in southeast Cedar Rapids. At 2:34 p.m., police were dispatched to the 800 block of 16th Street SE for a report of shots fired, according to a city public safety news release. In the 800 block of Camburn Court SE, one block to the west, they found evidence of multiple shots fired but no victim in the area. Soon after police arrived, a person with a single gunshot wound to the shoulder arrived at a hospital by private vehicle. Authorities said the victim was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Several hundred people gathered Sunday at the Iowa State Capitol to demonstrate for abortion rights in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which removed the federal right to an abortion and gave states the ability to restrict access to abortion. The rally was organized by a broad coalition of Iowa-based civil rights and reproductive rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa and the Great Plains Action Society. – 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10. This weekend’s weather will be sunny and cool. According to the National Weather Service, on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area it will be sunny with a high near 82 degrees and a low near 60 degrees. On Sunday the high will be close to 85 degrees, again with sunny skies, and the low will come in at 66 degrees. The Vinton Public Library, which lost two directors in two years amid community complaints over books, is now closed indefinitely as the interim director has left, too. https://www.thegazette.com/news/two-directors-quit-vinton-library-after-complaints-about-hirings-lgbtq-and-biden-books/ (The previous directors left )after city residents complained about the library’s display of LGBTQ books and books about Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The library board met Tuesday to accept the resignation of Colton Neely, the interim director. Neely, formerly the library’s children’s director, will become a museum curator in Burlington. His last day — and the library’s last day to stay open for now — was Friday. Vinton, a town of about 5,000 and the county seat of Benton County, will now be without its library for at least the next week as the library board attempts to configure hours to work around an absence of directors. Board members told the Gazette that the hiring process for another director is in process. A Missouri resident has been infected by a microscopic organism that causes a rare, life-threatening brain infection after swimming in late June at Lake of Three Fires State Park in Southwest Iowa. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services has closed the Taylor County lake to swimming as officials test for Naegleria fowleri, a single-cell, parasitic amoeba that can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis. The brain infection is rare — with only 154 known cases in the United States since 1962 — but it’s nearly always fatal. https://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Parks/Iowa-State-Parks/Lake-of-Three-Fires-State-Park (Lake of Three Fires), about 25 miles east of Clarinda, is an 85-acre lake popular with boaters and anglers, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports. The state park was dedicated in 1935 and is named after a group of Native Americans from the Potawatomi tribe, known as the “Fire Nation,” who once inhabited the area. The lake has frequently been https://www.thegazette.com/government-politics/going-swimming-at-a-state-park-beach-iowa-gets-tougher-on-toxins/ (closed to swimming) in past summers because of harmful algae that create toxic microcystins that can sicken swimmers. Algae are fed by phosphorus that washes from farm fields into streams and lakes. The Big Ten Conference is “not seeking applications” for any new members after its blockbuster additions of USC and UCLA, Iowa athletics director Gary Barta said in a Friday news conference. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but at this point, I can tell you the Big Ten is still not seeking members,” Barta said. “I know the Big Ten is taking calls. … I'm not predicting that we would be adding any more in the near future.” Barta declined to say whether he’d support the addition of more schools from the west coast such as Oregon or Washington to the Big Ten. He did say he would likely support membership for Notre Dame, if the Big Ten finally managed to seduce them into the conference after years of pining. Barta said the primary concern now is solving logistical problems, such as travel challenges not just for football, but for nonrevenue sports as well.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 8. There will be a chance for rain again Friday morning, but ultimately it will end up as a sunny and cool day. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mostly between 2 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday. After that it will be partly sunny, with a high near 82 degrees. On Friday night it will be mostly clear with a low of around 62 degrees. Iowa will likely see another large budget surplus for a second straight year, but what lawmakers will do with it is not clear. Iowa brought in more money than expected last fiscal year, fueled by higher wages, farm income, strong job growth and federal stimulus spending. Then state tax receipts surpassed $9 billion in the budget year that just ended, an increase of more than 12 percent over the previous year, according to a new state report. Republicans who control the Iowa Legislature used an over $1.2 billion budget surplus for the 2021 fiscal year, and a $2 billion Taxpayer Relief Fund, as the basis to pass another tax cut package earlier this year. Bettendorf Republican state Rep. Gary Mohr, who chairs the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, didn’t rule out the possibility of further tax cuts next year when asked on Thursday. Seven people died in five car crashes on roads across the state over the long July 4 weekend, according to the Iowa State Patrol. The patrol responded to 36 crashes during the weekend, five of which were fatal and six of which caused injuries, according to a tweet from the department. Crash reports show that in one of the five fatal crashes, three people were killed. Patrol officers also pulled over 4,096 people during the weekend, made 33 felony arrests and handed out 2,134 speeding tickets. There have been 159 fatalities so far in 2022 — 11 of them in the first week of July, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has fined a northwest Iowa dairy owner the maximum $10,000 penalty for releasing 376,000 gallons of manure into a creek from a new anaerobic digester that hadn't been properly sealed or certified. Winding Meadows Dairy, in Rock Valley, was part of a https://www.thegazette.com/agriculture/nine-iowa-dairies-get-digester-permits-since-new-law-seven-plan-expansion/ (wave of Iowa dairies that got permits) to build digesters last year after Iowa lawmakers passed a bill that allows animal feeding operations to exceed capacity if they have a digester to treat manure. Back in January, before the certification had been filed, a manure applicator pumped in manure and water from two lagoons “to see how the digester worked,” the consent order states. They got an answer, but not the one they were looking for. Digester advocates say the anaerobic process — used at wastewater treatment plants for decades — is a way to create electricity and heat, while the leftover digestate doesn’t smell like manure. Opponents of the digesters believe the devices are a backdoor way to encourage more large-scale animal confinements in Iowa, as a recent legal change in the state removes the animal cap on large feedlots if their manure is treated by digesters.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 7. There will again be a chance for rain on Thursday, but the likeliest chance looks to be early Friday morning. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with a high near 81 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be a 30 percent of showers and thunderstorms after 11 a.m. but it will become most likely from midnight until 4 a.m. on Friday. The low is predicted to be about 69 degrees with cloudy skies. An Iowa City man is facing a charge of terrorism and two charges of possession of explosives for two incidents in Iowa City, including one Tuesday at the GuideLink Center. Additional charges against Nezzy Underscore Conway, 23, are expected by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and Iowa City Police Department, according to a Wednesday news release from the sheriff’s office. Conway is charged with possession of incendiary or explosive device with intent, a felony, after bringing “incendiary materials with an attached fuse” to the GuideLink Center, which serves people in mental health or substance abuse crises. Law enforcement responded to the incident at the GuideLink Center, 300 Southgate Ave., on Tuesday morning. Conway physically assaulted staff members there, authorities said. When officers arrived, he began to attack them and was detained. Conway left a backpack at the center. The Johnson County Metro Bomb Team removed the “suspicious package,” which included incendiary materials with an attached fuse, authorities said. A search warrant was conducted at Conway’s home at the Capitol House Apartments, 320 S. Dubuque St. in Iowa City. Some of the building’s occupants were evacuated and later allowed back in. Items in Conway’s residence were consistent with the incendiary materials found at the GuideLink Center. A project to expand and update the passenger terminal at The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids is set to receive another $20.4 million in federal funding, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced Thursday. That makes a total of nearly $49 million in federal funding dedicated this year to the airport project. The latest batch of funding comes from the federal infrastructure law and is part of $1 billion that is being awarded to 85 airports across the country, federal officials said. Eastern Iowa Airport officials said the terminal upgrades will include additional jet bridges, expanded concourse space, more concessions and amenities and a continued transition to a geothermal ventilation system. Iowa Republicans came out of the June primary elections with a big advantage in registered voters. Compared with July 2021, Republicans in the state have gained about 20,000 voters while Democrats have lost about 15,000. According to the most recent voter data from the Iowa Secretary of State, 681,871 Iowans are registered as Republicans and 597,720 are registered as Democrats. Independent and third-party voters account for 570,364 registered voters. Republicans outnumber Democrats in Iowa by more than 84,000 voters, the highest lead the party has commanded in more than two years.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 6. Wednesday's weather will follow a similar pattern to Tuesday's but it will be cloudy and cooler, with less potential for serious storms. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 88 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4 p.m. and a 50 percent chance later on Wednesday night. The low will be around 72 degrees. A Coralville police officer, one of those responding to a call about a 3-year-year-old being shot Sunday, later died from an acute medical emergency, according to a Facebook post from the Coralville Police Department. “We are reeling from both of these incidents,” Coralville Mayor Meghann Foster said in an interview with the Gazette on Tuesday. “The loss of this young child in our community, and the loss of this officer who served for over two decades and was known for his kindness.” https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/3-year-old-coralville-child-dies-after-suffering-gunshot-related-injury/ (Damari Sanders), a 3-year-old boy, was critically injured Sunday in Coralville after suffering a gunshot wound. The child died later that evening at the hospital. Investigators have not yet released any details on why and how the child was shot. Sgt. John Williams, who had been with the Coralville Police Department for over 28 years, died from a medical emergency “in the aftermath” of responding to the shooting, according to the Facebook post. But his death was not directly related to Damari’s death, according to Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth. New legal standards for potential abortion restrictions in Iowa must be argued first in front of a lower court judge, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in rejecting a request from the governor. The court denied Gov. Kim Reynolds’ request to rehear a case involving a state law that requires a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can have an abortion. Reynolds had requested the high court rehear it so that justices could rule on what legal standard would be applied to future abortion regulations in the state. That district court judge’s ruling is likely to be appealed, and the case likely will return to the Iowa Supreme Court anyway, said legal expert Sally Frank, a law professor at Drake University. Frank said the courts eventually will be asked to rule what type of legal standards should be applied to future abortion regulations. Frank said what kind of abortion restriction or ban statehouse Republicans propose afterward likely will depend on which standard the state courts apply. While dozens were treated at Eastern Iowa hospitals over the weekend for fireworks-related injuries, this year’s holiday brought fewer emergency incidents than previous years, local providers say. UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids saw two fireworks-related injuries over the holiday weekend, but none were severe. By comparison, the emergency room reported five injuries at the same time last year. Mercy Medical Center, also in Cedar Rapids, reported one firework injury over the holiday, and it was not severe. Last year, the hospital also reported one injury. This drop is a welcome trend that may show Iowans are getting more used to legal fireworks, in contrast to a spike of injuries five years ago. A study from UIHC researchers found Iowa’s two largest trauma centers saw https://www.thegazette.com/news/study-firework-injuries-in-iowa-spike-post-legalization/ (fireworks-related injuries more than double )in the two-year period after the Iowa Legislature legalized the sale of fireworks in May 2017. In addition, the severity of injuries increased, with injuries to children nearly tripling, according to the study.
Happy Independence Day! This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, July 4th. According to the National Weather Service, showers and thunderstorms are likely today, mainly before 1 p.m. It will be partly sunny, with a high near 90. Winds from the south, 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Our chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch are possible. Then tonight, we have a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 7 p.m., with a low around 74. Police are asking witnesses to help with an investigation after a juvenile male was shot Saturday. About 3:34 p.m., Cedar Rapids police responded to reports of shots fired in the 1400 block of Third Avenue SE and found the male who had been shot in the abdomen, according to a city public safety news release. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital for emergency surgery and is expected to recover. Four days earlier, about two blocks away from Saturday’s shooting, officers found a juvenile who was suffering from a gunshot wound in his foot. An adult from north-central Iowa is infected with the state's first probable case of monkeypox, the Iowa Department of Public Health said. The patient, who was not identified, was likely infected during international travel and is now in isolation and receiving outpatient care. The department is conducting contact tracing to determine if anyone else is at risk. Most monkeypox patients experience only fever, body aches, chills and fatigue. People with more serious illness may develop a rash and lesions on the face and hands that can spread to other parts of the body. – 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 2, and Sunday, July 3. Your 4th of July weekend forecast will start sunny on Saturday with a chance for rain and high temperatures increasing as the week goes on. According to the National Weather Service, on Saturday it is expected to be mostly sunny, with a high near 87 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Sunday there will be around a 20 percent chance of rain, but it will be mostly sunny with a high of 88 degrees. On Independence Day Monday the chance for rain will climb to 50 percent, but it is again predicted to be otherwise partly sunny, with a high near 90 degrees. Most years, Iowa corn is far taller than “knee high by the Fourth of July,” but this year’s crop — set back by late planting and too little rain — fits the adage. The “knee high” phrase may be as old as Iowa, founded in 1846. One of the earliest times the phrase appeared in an Eastern Iowa newspaper was on July 3, 1884, when the Sumner Gazette said “It has been considered that if corn was knee high by the Fourth of July that the crop will be sure and safe.” But with advanced corn breeding and fertilizer, corn today often reaches 8 feet by midsummer. But that’s under good growing conditions. Iowa’s cold, wet spring https://www.thegazette.com/agriculture/spring-planting-has-sprung-in-eastern-iowa/ (delayed corn planting statewide) by two weeks and set soybean planting back 12 days, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship reported in May. That wait contributed to 4 percent fewer corn acres planted nationwide this year. Farmers then have had to deal with dry conditions in the last few months, along with high nitrogen fertilizer costs due to Russia’s war with Ukraine and COVID-19 supply chain issues. A former mental health therapist and licensed independent social worker with a Cedar Rapids school who pursued a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy was sentenced Friday to more than 11 years in federal prison. 46-year-old Miranda Bohlken Breeden, of Monticello, pleaded guilty last year to one count of enticement of a minor. During the plea hearing, Breeden admitted she used text messages to entice the 14-year-old boy to engage in illegal sex acts between November 2019 and January 2020. She also admitted that based on this she would have been charged with third-degree sexual abuse in state court. According to court documents, Breeden was placed on leave from Polk Alternative Education Center when Cedar Rapids Community School District officials found out about the criminal investigation. The investigation revealed that Breeden had sex with the 14-year-old while in hotel rooms, inside her personal vehicle and during school hours in her locked office. The https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/first-covid-19-shots-given-to-iowa-kids-6-months-to-5-years/ (first pediatric doses of the COVID-19 vaccine) were administered to babies, toddlers and preschoolers across Eastern Iowa this past week after federal health officials approved the shots for children 6 months to 5 years. Approximately 195,000 children aged less than 5 live in the state, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Two vaccines were approved for use: the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years, and the Moderna vaccine for kids ages 6 months through 5 years old. Health care clinics and pharmacies https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/first-covid-19-shots-given-to-iowa-kids-6-months-to-5-years/ (began offering the first shots to young Iowans) last week after the state delivered 23,500 pediatric doses in the first round of vaccine distribution. Demand for shots at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, the state’s largest health system, was “initially very high,” said UIHC Chief Pharmacy Officer Mike Brownlee. When the system opened up the first appointments June 22, 250 slots filled “almost...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 1. Some rain early will give way to eventually sunny skies and cooler temperatures Friday. According to the National Weather Service it will be around a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7 a.m. It will be cloudy, but gradually sunnier as the day goes on, with a high near 84 degrees. Friday night will be mostly clear, with a low around 63 degrees. Adventureland Park was negligent when a water raft last year flipped over and killed an 11-year-old boy and seriously injured his 15-year old brother, the sons’ Cedar Rapids parents asserted in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed Thursday. The Jaramillo family were suddenly put in danger when their 1,700-pound raft on the Raging River ride suddenly flipped them all underwater on July 3 of 2021, according to a 55-page lawsuit filed in Polk County District Court. 11-year-old Michael, and 15-year-old David Jr. remained trapped underwater for more than five minutes as their injured parents struggled and failed to free them. David Jr. turned 16 while in a medically induced coma after the raft trauma and Michael was pronounced dead the day after the accident from “freshwater drowning,” the suit states. The suit alleges the park did not turn off the ride quickly enough and also had been negligent in maintaining that and other rides for years. The park was later sold to another owner. Guy Cook, the Des Moines lawyer for Adventureland, told The Gazette on Thursday the claims of the lawsuit will be specifically addressed in future court filings. In a seismic shift in college athletics, the Big Ten voted Thursday to add Southern California and UCLA as conference members beginning in 2024. According to the Associated Press, the expansion to 16 teams will happen after the Pac-12’s current media rights contracts with Fox and ESPN expire, making the Big Ten the first conference to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Big Ten is building on previous expansion into the nation’s largest media markets, and the move allows the conference to keep pace with the SEC as one of the most powerful entities in college sports. The move could set off a chain reaction of other schools leaving their conferences as they want to latch onto these growing super conferences and their lucrative television deals. The announcement came almost a year after Oklahoma and Texas formally accepted invitations to join the SEC in July 2025. A https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1530_n758.pdf (U.S. Supreme Court ruling) Thursday that limited the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants left many Iowa officials and environmental advocates concerned about its implications in the state. Nearly 24 percent of https://iub.iowa.gov/iowas-electric-profile (Iowa’s energy in 2020) was generated with coal — a figure overshadowed by wind power, which was responsible for 57 percent of the state’s energy that year. Still, there are nine utility-owned coal-fired power plants remaining in Iowa. Thursday’s court ruling means that federal regulations can’t take a systemwide approach to regulating greenhouse gas emissions, said Kerri Johannsen, energy program director for the nonprofit Iowa Environmental Council. Instead, future regulations would have to focus on specific power plants, which could each challenge regulatio ns individually. It is unclear how this will affect Iowa energy long term, as coal power has been losing steam for awhile now. MidAmerican would not comment to the Gazette about its 6 coal power plants still in operation, but Alliant said Thursday that it still plans to sunset the three plants it owns by 2040.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 30. It will be the hottest day for the next week on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it should be mostly sunny with a high temperature near 93 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be breezy, with a 10 to 20 mph wind gusting as high as 30 mph. On Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 69 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance for showers and thunderstorms early Friday morning. Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wednesday that she is not planning to call a special legislative session this year to pass abortion restrictions, but she suggested she may consider it if her attempt to bring back enforcement of Iowa’s so-called “fetal heartbeat” law fails. Reynolds, a Republican, announced this week plans to challenge a 2018 district court decision that halted enforcement of the law, which would ban abortions after cardiac activity is detected in a fetus — usually around six weeks. Her announcement came after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a federal right to an abortion and allowed states to limit abortions. She’s also asking the Iowa Supreme Court to reconsider a recent ruling that overturned a previous ruling saying the state constitution guarantees the right to an abortion. While a win for Iowa Republicans, the ruling, which came before the U.S. Supreme Court decision, still left room for courts to strike down some restrictions. “We’ve got two laws in place, and so we’re going to move forward with that and wait and see what the ruling is based on that, and then we’ll reassess after that point,” she said at an event in Wright County. The second man arrested in the deadly shooting at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge in April remains in an Illinois prison on a parole violation and Illinois authorities have refused to return him to Iowa, despite a signed waiver of extradition. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said Tuesday his office is taking all the “legal avenues” to bring https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/second-man-arrested-in-taboo-nightclub-and-lounge-shooting-in-cedar-rapids/ (Dimione Walker, 29, of Cedar Rapids, )back to Iowa to face pending charges of first-degree murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent and felon in possession of a firearm. The office is now obtaining a governor’s warrant and is working with Iowa and Illinois coordinators to expedite Walker’s return. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/accused-cedar-rapids-nightclub-shooter-charged-with-10-more-offenses/ (Timothy Rush )also has been charged and is accused of fatally shooting Nicole Owens, 35, his girlfriend and mother of his 1-year-old daughter, and seriously injuring Marvin Cox, who was shot in the head at Taboo on April 10, along with causing injury to several other people. Rush was working security at Taboo the night of the shooting, his lawyer said in April during a bail review hearing. Rush has pleaded not guilty to 15 charges in Linn County District Court. Coronavirus hospitalizations continue to decline in Iowa as cases hold steady. As of Wednesday, 162 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That’s a decline from 184 patients last week and 186 the week before. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 3,988 new cases of COVID-19 in the past seven days, an uptick compared with 3,919 new cases reported last week. In total, 9,688 Iowans have died as a result of COVID-19 during the pandemic.
Abortions would be illegal in Iowa once a fetal heartbeat can be detected under a pair of requests Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she plans to submit to Iowa courts. The Republican governor announced that, in the wake of last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, she will ask the Iowa Supreme Court to rehear a recent case on abortion regulations so the state court can establish what legal standards can be applied to abortion restrictions in Iowa. And Reynolds said she will ask the state courts to lift an injunction on the so-called “fetal heartbeat” law that was passed in 2018 but immediately stopped by the courts. For now, abortion remains legal in Iowa until 20 weeks of pregnancy. According to Gazette reporting, members who currently serve on Iowa’s Board of Regents have made monetary and in-kind political donations totaling nearly $339,500 since 2019 — primarily to Republicans, with the majority going either to Gov. Kim Reynolds, who makes appointments to the board, or to the Republican Party of Iowa. Iowa Code requires the nine-member board governing the state’s public universities to have gender and political balance, meaning it can’t have more than five members of the same gender or political party. The current board includes five women and four men, with five reporting Republican affiliation, three identifying as independent and one, Nancy Dunkel, marked a Democrat. JC Risewick, appointed last week. has given Reynolds almost $60,000 since 2020 — $40,000 of which were in-kind donations in the form of flights. State law doesn’t restrict or regulate regent political giving. Neither does regent policy, although it does cover potential conflicts of interest with the universities themselves. University of Iowa Athletics must turn over all materials former players have requested from an “independent and external review” of the Hawkeye football program — including reports on specific coaches — despite UI assertions the records are subject to “attorney-client privilege” and should be private. Former Hawkeye football players are suing the University of Iowa and some athletics staffers for racially motivated discrimination and harassment. The UI in early 2020 hired a law firm Husch Blackwell to investigate the football program’s culture after numerous former players went public with allegations of racism and discrimination — leading to the university’s $1.3 million separation deal with former strength coach, Chris Doyle. As part of its review, the law firm interviewed current and former players and employees and produced a report confirming the program “perpetuated racial or cultural biases and diminished the value of cultural diversity.” Documents the players in the lawsuit want include Doyle’s performance evaluations and Husch Blackwell personnel reports on Coach Kirk Ferentz, assistant coaches Brian Ferentz and Seth Wallace, and Doyle.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 28. We'll get another sub 90s day Tuesday before it warms back up in the middle of the week. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny for much of the day in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 87 degrees. On Tuesday night after 4 p.m. there will be a 20 percent chance of showers up until around 7 p.m. Then Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 63 degrees. The Iowa City Church on American Legion Road is searching for a place to hold services after an early Saturday morning fire “fully engulfed” the building “in flames and smoke” before it was declared a total loss. The cause of the fire is unknown, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said Monday. “It is standard practice for the (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) to investigate a fire involving a church and the primary focus at this point is to determine the cause.” The Johnson County Joint Emergency Communications Center received a call at 4:22 a.m. Saturday about a structure fire at 4643 American Legion Road. West Branch Fire Department and https://www.facebook.com/IowaCityPublicSafety/posts/pfbid02ChAVQWk6wR3xoktc8GD1BmmudFZbU87JrLo8twrTo3QsyuZ2GTfgGb5ixQF2XH2el (Iowa City Fire Department) responded to the fire on the east side near Iowa City, as did the Iowa City Police Department and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. The fire was in West Branch’s jurisdiction. Fire crews extinguished the fire after several hours due to the size of the building and bad weather in the area, the Sheriff’s Office said. The state of Iowa will invest in the development of a “Field of Dreams” television series, new trail construction and new Des Moines lakefront amenities with a tourism development program funded by federal dollars. Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Economic Development Authority on Monday announced $16.5 million in grant money awarded to four projects in the first round of funding through Destination Iowa, a $100 million program supported by the federal American Rescue Plan act. The two biggest allotments of this chunk of funding were $6 million to Universal Television for the development of a “Field of Dreams” television series, and $7 million to the Siouxland Regional Trail System to develop 100 miles of continuous trail projects connecting Sioux City, Le Mars, Hinton, Merrill and Sergeant Bluff. In May the city of Cedar Rapids decided they would seek $27 million in funds from the program for a project to transform the greenway along the Cedar River and to boost outdoor recreational amenities. Meanwhile, Marion is seeking over $3.5 million in funding toward two major projects that will contribute to the city’s goal of making Marion a regional destination. Marion is seeking funding for the Uptown Central Plaza project as well as the final phase of the long-awaited CeMar Trail through the Destination Iowa Grant process. The total cost of the two projects is just over $9 million.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, June 27th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny today, with a high near 80. Winds from the northwest 5 to 10 mph. Then tonight, mostly clear with a low around 58. Police are investigating a shooting Saturday that sent the victim to the hospital for treatment. Cedar Rapids police say they were called Saturday night to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital about a victim who had suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot injury. The victim, whom authorities did not name or provide an age or gender, was treated and released. The potential scene of the shooting was in the 1200 block of Ninth Street NW, police said. Police described it as a “targeted incident,” and no arrest had been announced. Just two votes still separated the candidates, but a different Republican candidate emerged victorious in a state Senate race following hand recounts this past week in Linn and Benton counties. State Rep. Charlie McClintock on Friday came out just two votes ahead of combat veteran Colman Silbernagel in a reversal of the unofficial June 7 Republican primary election night results for Iowa Senate District 42. The district covers much of rural Linn and Benton counties. There is no incumbent senator in the district because of redistricting in 2021. McClintock will face Democrat Jessica Wiskus of Lisbon in the Nov. 8 general election.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, June 25, and Sunday, June 26. Showers that began in the early morning hours Saturday should end by around 1 p.m. And, in its wake, some nice cooler air will arrive. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a high of 89 degrees with partly cloudy skies in the Cedar Rapids area after the rain ceases. The low should be around 63 degrees. Then, on Sunday, the high will be a very pleasant 77 degrees with sunny skies. There should be a bit of a breeze at 10 to 15 mph. Then Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low near 54 degrees. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that 50 years ago established the fundamental right to abortion, Iowa lawmakers are free to dramatically reduce or outlaw the procedure in the state. The reversal of the 1973 case puts the power back into the states’ hands to decide the future of abortion access for its residents, meaning the ruling’s impact will vary state to state In Iowa — where Republican leadership has attempted for years to restrict abortion — access to the procedure is likely at risk. Iowa Republicans, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, heralded the ruling and vowed to continue to protect the unborn. No restrictions went into effect in Iowa with the court ruling, and abortion remains legal in the state up until 20 weeks. Planned Parenthood clinics across Iowa and the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City remain open and patient care continues. Reynolds and legislative leaders did not respond to messages Friday as to whether they would call a special session of the Iowa Legislature to take up a new abortion law. According to the https://news.gallup.com/poll/321143/americans-stand-abortion.aspx (latest Gallup Poll), more than eight in 10 Americans believe abortion should be legal to some degree, and a majority did not want Roe v. Wade overturned. At the same time, the country remains far from unified on the extent to which abortion should be legal, according to Gallup. Meanwhile protests were held against the decision across the nation, including several Iowa cities. In Cedar Rapids a truck collided with a woman who had been protesting, leading to the woman heading to the hospital for evaluation. A police statement said the incident happened at 7:17 p.m. near the U.S. Courthouse near Eighth Avenue and Second Street SE in downtown Cedar Rapids. About 200 protesters had gathered there. While no arrests were announced, Cedar Rapids Police said they were scouring the area for surveillance video cameras that may have captured the incident. While police in a news release described the collision only by saying “contact was made between a vehicle and one of the pedestrians,” some of those who were at the protest said the driver of the truck deliberately hit the protesters.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 24. Back below 90 we go for the final day of the work week. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 86 degrees on Friday in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be increasing clouds Friday with a low of 69 degrees. There will be a good chance of rain early Saturday morning. Warmer temperatures will return on Saturday and with that will come storms, but the push and pull will result in even cooler temperatures afterward. Iowa Democrats argued Thursday the state offers a path to victory for long-shot candidates and opportunities for meaningful conversations with rural Americans and Iowans from every walk of life as they made their pitch to hold onto their place at the front of the party’s presidential nominating calendar. State party officials presented proposed changes for caucuses to the Democratic National Committee’s Rules & Bylaws Committee in Washington in an effort to hold onto their first-in-the-nation status. Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn told committee members Iowa presents a “unique opportunity” for presidential candidates to connect with voters distributed across urban, rural and suburban areas in a “presidential swing state” where a majority of congressional districts are competitive. The DNC rules committee voted in April to reopen the presidential nominating window, forcing all interested states — including the current early-nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — to apply for a spot. Iowa has long drawn criticism for being a first in the nation presidential contest given the state’s lack of diversity and confusing caucus setup. The party hopes that the proposed changes to the state’s caucus might help the state keep its traditional spot at the front of the line. According to the Associated Press, the United States Senate easily approved a bipartisan https://apnews.com/article/health-violence-gun-politics-mental-ab399a7a1c5eea98bcd12e944679355f (gun violence bill) Thursday, setting up final approval of what will be Congress' most far-reaching response in decades to the nation's run of brutal mass shootings. After years of futile Democratic efforts to curb firearms, https://apnews.com/article/shootings-texas-new-york-violence-buffalo-df9202d5686880aab00559979d180e17 (15 Republicans joined with them as both sides decided inaction was untenable) after last month’s rampages in https://apnews.com/article/buffalo-supermarket-shooting-victims-982351652caf7ecf3da304c6c64f62fb (New York) and https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-may-24-584466945120 (Texas). It took weeks of closed-door talks but senators emerged with a compromise embodying incremental change intended to stop more bloodshed. Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst split votes, with Grassley voting no and Ernst voting yes. The $13 billion measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people judged to be dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention. Iowa’s Keegan Murray was selected by the Sacramento Kings with the fourth pick in Thursday’s NBA draft. Murray, from Cedar Rapids Prairie, became the highest NBA draft pick ever from Iowa. Fred Brown went sixth in 1971. Murray is the Hawkeyes’ first Top 10 pick since Ronnie Lester in 1980. Murray joins a team that hasn’t reached the NBA playoffs since 2006. They went 30-52 this season. Kings GM Monte McNair said Murray was an easy choice at No. 4. “Ultimately,” he said, “after sitting in the room with my front office staff, our whole staff, our scouting department, our analytics department, (it) became unanimous that Keegan Murray was the best player...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 23. It will be back above 90 degrees Thursday, but the wind will be calm and the sky sunny. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 91 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with a 5 mph wind. On Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 65 degrees. Members of the Cedar Rapids Chttps://www.cedar-rapids.org/local_government/city_boards_and_commissions/charter_review_commission.php (harter Review Commission s)ay Iowa’s second-largest city should consider piloting a new way of selecting city leaders once Iowa law allows it. Commission members voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend language directing the City Council to appoint a new commission to https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/should-cedar-rapids-adopt-ranked-choice-voting-system/ (consider the issue if ranked choice voting), which would avoid runoff elections, becomes allowed under Iowa law. But while the concept has found a receptive audience in Cedar Rapids, it faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature. State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who chairs the committee responsible for advancing such bills, said he has no interest in changing Iowa law to allow for ranked choice voting. The method allows voters to rank candidates by preference rather than selecting just their top choice. Supporters say rank choice voting, also known as "single transferable vote" or instant-runoff voting, is less costly than a runoff election, results in higher turnout, discourages negative campaigning and leads to the election of candidates who are favored by a broader swathe of voters. A Republican National Committee field office in Cedar Rapids was vandalized over the weekend. RNC staff on Monday found a rock thrown through a window of their office in the 4100 block of Center Point Road NE. The RNC, in a statement, referred to the incident as "political violence.“ Cedar Rapids Police, however, said they do not have any specific evidence to indicate the vandalism was politically motivated. Police said it remains an open investigation, but have no video or traceable evidence from which to go on. There was no note, message or graffiti suggesting a political motive, according to an RNC spokesman. A statement from the RNC about the vandalism, though, referenced a "growing trend of violence and vandalism being inflicted on Republicans and conservatives across the country." The number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations went back down after a tiny spike last week. The overall trend over the summer months appears to be stable and getting better, which has been the pattern during the pandemic. As of Wednesday, 3,919 new coronavirus cases had been reported in the past seven days, a decrease from the 3,987 cases reported the week before, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. As of Wednesday, 184 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Last week, 186 hospitalized Iowans had the virus — the most since the 202 patients reported on March 2. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care also decreased to 17 this week from 25 last week, which was the highest ICU patient count since March 9.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 22. It will be a little bit cooler on Wednesday, but the real cooldown will have to wait until the weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 88 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 63 degrees. The city of Cedar Rapids is hoping for a $50 million boost to its construction of a $750 million permanent flood control system — if proposed federal legislation is signed into law. Several steps and likely multiple years remain before any funding comes to fruition, but draft language in the 2022 https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/e/1/e1a5557f-de89-442f-9571-26396db7c476/46ECE692C73686EE7C22437E0D735361.wrda-2022-4292022.pdf (Water Resources Development Act )would unlock the funds for flood protection on the east side of the Cedar River — which would allow the city to accelerate work on other segments of the system. The Water Resources Development Act is renewed every several years and includes projects such as the city’s flood control system. It’s the first step in the appropriations process for any Army Corps of Engineers project Although Congress authorized construction of the city’s east-side flood control system in 2014, it wasn’t until 2018 — 10 years after the big flood — that federal lawmakers actually allocated the money. So the city may have to wait a bit until they see whether this money can be shifted in another direction. Four months after https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-board-of-regents-member-milt-dakovich-dies/ (Milt Dakovich, a longtime member of the Iowa Board of Regents, died) of cancer, Gov. Kim Reynolds on Tuesday named Seneca Companies President and COO James “JC” Risewick to fill the regent vacancy. Risewick will begin serving immediately on the nine-member board that governs Iowa’s three public universities and two special schools, though his appointment must be confirmed by the Iowa Senate when it is next in session. The regents’ next meeting is July 27, when they’ll consider raising tuition rates for the fall. If confirmed, Risewick will serve out the remainder of Dakovich’s six-year term — set to expire in April 2025. Risewick serves as president and chief operating officer of Seneca Companies in Des Moines, which touts itself as “an established leader in the petroleum industry.” A University of Iowa Health Care researcher is among 21 nationally to receive an American Lung Association award worth hundreds of thousands for “COVID-19 and respiratory virus research” – his looking specifically at “long-haul” COVID. https://medicine.uiowa.edu/radiology/profile/sean-fain (Sean Fain), a radiology professor in the UI Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Imaging, received the Lung Association’s award – which includes up to $100,000 annually for up to two years – for his project titled, https://www.lung.org/research/about-our-research/meet-the-researchers/sean-fain (“Understanding ‘Long Haul’ COVID-19.”) The research – https://clinicaltrials.uihealthcare.org/search/studies?studies%5Bquery%5D=COVID (among at least 10 ongoing) UI-based COVID-related clinical studies and trials – aims to investigate blood vessel injury in COVID patients and methods for improving lung-inflammation treatments. In severe cases, according to Fain’s project pitch, COVID triggers an immune response when it enters a body, causing inflammation and injury to blood vessels. Blood vessel injuries in the lungs can create scarring known as “interstitial lung disease,” a condition that remains even after any COVID infection resolves.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 21. There will be a slight chance for rain Tuesday evening, but besides that it will be another hot, muggy day. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4 p.m. getting slightly more likely toward 10:00 p.m. Otherwise it will be sunny and hot, with a high near 96 degrees and heat index values as high as 104. The low will be about 69 degrees. Insurance and investment services company Transamerica filed a notice withhttps://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/worker-adjustment-and-retraining-notification-act ( Iowa Workforce Development saying it will eliminate 40 positions as of Aug. 1)5. The company began paring away at its Cedar Rapids employee count back in 2018 when it outsourced parts of its business to India-based Tata Consultancy Services. At that time it shifted 882 jobs to Tata. Transamerica, with offices on C Street SW in Cedar Rapids, is a subsidiary of AEGON, a Netherlands-based life insurance company headquartered in the Netherlands. https://www.thegazette.com/real-estate-development/transamerica-to-auction-off-51-acre-site-in-northeast-cedar-rapids/ (It placed the site of its former Edgewood Road and 42nd Street NE offices on a two-day auction )through California-based Ten-X beginning this week, after being unable to find a buyer since March 2021. The starting bid was set at $1.75 million. Officials for Transamerica did not respond for comment when asked by the Gazette about the latest position changes or how many employees it still has in Cedar Rapids. According to the Associated Press, President Joe Biden said Monday that he will decide by the end of the week whether he will support a federal gasoline tax holiday, possibly saving U.S. consumers as much as 18 cents a gallon. The administration is increasingly looking for ways to spare the public from higher prices at the pump, which began to climb last year and surged after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Gas prices nationwide are averaging just under $5 a gallon, according to AAA. Prior to its invasion of Ukraine, Russia provided as much as 12 percent of the world’s oil supply, but the conflict led the United States and Europe to boycott Russian oil exports. Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel help to pay for highways, which is why even if it were approved, it would likely only be a temporary holiday to help lower prices through peak travel months. The Cedar Rapids City Council has given a green light to continued operation of the city’s automated traffic cameras, extending the city’s contract for the system’s operation through June 30, 2027. The council’s agreement with Beverly, Mass.-based Sensys Gatso USA, approved this past Tuesday, extends the current agreement, which would have expired at the end of this month. The city uses 15 traffic cameras to enforce speed violations at four locations along Interstate 380 and to monitor red-light and speeding violations at five intersections in the city. https://www.cedar-rapids.org/local_government/departments_g_-_v/police/ate_camera_locations/ate_camera_locations.php (The camera locations) are posted on the city’s website. To date, the traffic camera program has generated $7.43 million in revenue in fiscal 2022, which ends June 30. The traffic cameras have experienced their own speed bumps in the past, with some state lawmakers trying to ban their use, but they have the support of the Cedar Rapids city government for the moment.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, June 20th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny and hot, with a high near 95 in the Cedar Rapids area today. Winds from the south, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight, clear, with a low around 70. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday signed into law the so-called bottle bill, the nickname for legislators’ annual attempt to make changes to the 44-year-old program that is designed to encourage Iowans to recycle some beverage containers. Under Iowa’s recycling program, consumers pay a 5-cent deposit on most plastic and aluminum beer and soda containers. They can recoup that nickel by returning empty containers to redemption centers or retailers. The changes to the law allows more grocery stores to leave the program. The changes attempt to boost the number of redemption centers by tripling a fee paid by beverage distributors to the redemption centers. The hope is that the increased funding will increase the number of redemption centers, including mobile and automated units. – 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
Welcome to the weekend. This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, June 18, and Sunday, June 19. This weekend will feature a dip into some slightly cooler weather, and then a return of the heat that will turn super hot again on Monday. According to the National Weather Service, on Saturday it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 83 degrees. The low will drop to 58 degrees Saturday night with clear skies. Then on Sunday it will be sunny, with a high near 90 degrees and the low will also pop up to 67 degrees. The wind will remain mostly light most days, hovering at 5 to 10 mph with wind gusts as high as 20 mph. The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for lawmakers to severely limit or ban abortion in the state, reversing a decision by the court just four years ago that guaranteed the right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution. According to the Associated Press, the court, now composed almost entirely of Republican appointees, concluded that a less conservative court wrongly decided abortion is among the fundamental privacy rights guaranteed by the Iowa Constitution and federal law. Friday's ruling comes amid expectations that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, which would turn the decision to restrict abortion back to the states. If that happens, Iowa lawmakers could ban abortion without completing the lengthy process of amending the state constitution. The Iowa decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed by abortion providers who challenged a 2020 law that required a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion, so that waiting period requirement would now go into effect. There will be no casino in Cedar Rapids for at least two years after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law Friday a provision that places a moratorium on new casino licenses. An amendment to a larger gambling bill means regulators cannot issue any new licenses in Iowa — including plans for a https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/cedar-rapids-casino-plans-envision-250-million-cedar-crossing-entertainment-complex-at-old-coope/ (potential $250 million, 160,000 square-foot entertainment and cultural arts complex) at the site of now-demolished Cooper’s Mill near downtown Cedar Rapids — until June 2024. Citing “gambling fatigue,” the Republican-led Iowa Legislature this year https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-lawmakers-propose-2-year-moratorium-on-new-casinos/ (approved the two-year moratorium on new casinos), essentially taking action on a matter that traditionally has been conducted by the state’s Racing and Gaming Commission. The new law jeopardizes Cedar Rapids’ third try for a casino. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission previously denied a gaming license to Linn County in 2014 and 2017, both times citing studies showing it would “cannibalize” revenues from other casinos, particularly Riverside Casino & Golf Course in Washington County. Cedar Rapids casino backers were hopeful the current commission would be receptive to a Linn County casino, as previous opponents had cycled off the panel. Cedar Rapids-based Kirkwood Community College has announced plans to close two of its eight regional and county centers due to declining enrollment and a “significant decrease” in use of the locations. The college’s 28-year-old Tippie-Mansfield Center in Belle Plaine and its 31-year-old Cedar County Center in Tipton will permanently close June 30, according to a Kirkwood news release. The closures will reduce Kirkwood’s Eastern Iowa locations from 14 to 12 and eliminate its physical presence in Cedar County, one of the seven counties in its service area. The announcement this week comes less than a month after Kirkwood announced plans to re-evaluate use of its 97,000-square-foot Iowa City...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 17. The weather will settle into a pleasant state Friday and Saturday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 87 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The low temperature will be around 60 degrees, with clear skies. The black and red Juneteenth flag billowed outside City Hall as city staff and community members gathered Thursday morning to mark the first commemorative flag to be flown at a public building under a new city policy. As a visual symbol of the city’s strides to be inclusive and welcoming of all residents and visitors, the Cedar Rapids City Council this past Tuesday — which was Flag Day — adopted a Display of Flags policy to govern when commemorative, special occasion and other ceremonial flags may be flown on flagpoles at city-owned properties. Under the policy, other commemorative, special-occasion and ceremonial flags may be displayed to recognize state or federal holidays, to commemorate any period recognized by local proclamation, to accompany any official city action or ceremony, or in conjunction with an event involving any official Cedar Rapids Sister Cities. Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating emancipation of enslaved African Americans. This year’s holiday will fall on this Sunday. A Cedar Rapids police officer was seriously injured and hospitalized Wednesday morning after being repeatedly punched in the face by a fleeing suspect, authorities said. The injured officer was identified as Rod Schulte, a 23-year employee of the police department. Ryan Floerchinger, 34, of Cedar Rapids, faces charges of second-degree burglary, willful injury, assault on a peace officer with the intent to inflict serious injury, interference with official acts causing serious injury and trespass. He also was served with outstanding warrants. The criminal complaint said Schulte responded to a harassment call at 2:20 a.m. Wednesday in the 300 block of Lewellen Dr. NW, where Florechinger’s former girlfriend lives. Schulte located the suspect, later identified as Floerchinger, who took off running with the officer chasing. Floerchinger then charged Schulte, knocking the officer to the ground and began repeatedly punching him. He fled but was found inside a locked bathroom and taken into custody. A Cedar Rapids police investigator testified Thursday during a hearing that a man accused of bludgeoning a woman to death with a board on April 2, waived his Miranda rights during an interview with police and said the man understood those rights. Investigator Martin Devore said https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/police-say-cedar-rapids-man-violently-killed-woman-he-claimed-died-from-heroin-overdose/ (Arthur J. Flowers, 62, )of Cedar Rapids, charged with first-degree murder, was hard to follow at times during the interview but seemed to understand the questions. He also never asked for a lawyer nor said he wouldn’t answer questions. Flowers is asking the court to toss out his April 2 interview with police because he wasn’t fully aware of his rights and the consequences of signing the waiver. His attorney also is asking to move Flowers’ trial out of Linn County because of pretrial publicity. Police say they were initially called to Flowers’ home for the report of a heroin overdose. However, they say when officers arrived and found the body of 22-year-old Emily Leonard her injuries and the blood splatter on the wall were indicative of a violent death, with the board the likely weapon.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 16. Thursday’s weather will be sunny and just a little bit cooler, mostly in the low temperature. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 91 degrees. On Thursday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 63 degrees. The weather will cool more over the next three days, before spiking back up starting on Sunday. Everything is getting more expensive these days, so why not add tuition to the mix. Base tuition for resident undergraduates attending one of Iowa’s three public universities will increase 4.25 percent in the fall under a proposal the Board of Regents will first consider Wednesday. A final vote on the rate proposal is scheduled for July — the month before affected students arrive at their respective campuses for the 2022-23 academic year. If approved, the unde rgraduate in-state tuition increases will be $355 more for a year at Iowa, $345 at Iowa State, and $331 at UNI. Both ISU and UNI also aim to impose a 4.25-percent tuition increase on their out-of-state undergraduates, increasing non-resident tuition by $1,026 a year at ISU and by $785 at UNI. The UI intends to impose a smaller 1.17-percent tuition increase on its non-resident undergrads, mirroring its in-state $355 increase on residents. A City High administrator who students and parents said opened a school door for a senior prank that turned into vandalism has resigned from that job and now will teach at Iowa City West High School. “Scott Jespersen shared his intent to step away from his assistant principal position at City High School,” Principal John Bacon wrote in an email to parents Wednesday. The Iowa City Community School District board of directors accepted Jespersen’s resignation Tuesday night, Bacon said. City High parents https://www.thegazette.com/k/iowa-city-high-vandalized-days-before-graduation/ (told The Gazette last month) Jespersen let some students into the building late May 22 to hang balloons and streamers ahead of the school’s graduation ceremony, but other students came in and damaged the building by spray painting walls, pouring syrup on items and cutting up photos, among other actions. Jespersen and the Iowa City School District have not commented to the Gazette when asked about the incident. Iowa became the last state in the nation to ban elder abuse on Wednesday. Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law Shttps://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=SF522 (enate File 522,) which sets criminal charges — ranging from misdemeanors to felonies punishable by up to 25 years in prison, based on the severity of the crime — for abusing, assaulting or financially exploiting a person age 60 or older. Reynolds signed the bill during a ceremony at Highland Ridge Senior Living Community in Williamsburg. After years of advocates pressing for action, the bill passed unanimously in both legislative chambers in the 2022 session. Previously, Iowa was the only state in the nation where elder abuse was not a crime. Iowa law currently includes definitions of elder abuse but does not include criminal penalties. Because it has not been a crime in Iowa, accurate data about the prevalence of elder abuse in the state is hard to ascertain, advocates said. However, Iowa has seen a sharp increase in reports of abuse or neglect of dependent adults age 18 or older, including older Iowans.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 15. It will be slightly cooler Wednesday, but the real relief won't come until the rain arrives. According to the National Weather Service a high of 94 degrees is predicted in the Cedar Rapids area with a heat index of 101. Showers and thunderstorms are likely between 4 and 10 p.m. The low is predicted to be around 61 degrees. The heat and humidity should drop a bit more on Thursday. But it doesn’t look like that will last for long… While the Cedar Rapids school board has delayed its vote on having police officers in the school, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously backed the program — fearing it’s a matter of when, not if, an incident will occur that jeopardizes the safety of Cedar Rapids school children. The agreement endorsed by the council calls for seven resource officers in the schools, including two stationed at middle schools. Council members authorized the city manager to negotiate a new agreement with the school district maintaining a police presence in the schools. The council decision came a day after the school board, in a 6-1 vote, delayed a decision on renewing their end of the school resource officer agreement, saying they wanted more discussion and data. There have been some discussions on the board, as well as concerns in the community, that the presence of officers has led to a racial imbalance in the way discipline is handled in the district. School districts in Iowa will have access to more resources designed to help prevent school violence thanks to $100 million in federal pandemic relief funding that Gov. Kim Reynolds is putting into the state’s school safety bureau. Reynolds announced the move Tuesday during a news conference at the state public safety offices near the Iowa Capitol complex. The resources will include state personnel, training, and emergency communication systems, all designed to help schools prevent school violence or react to emergency events like school shootings. Reynolds created the school safety bureau in January 2020, but the Republican-majority Iowa Legislature has not funded the bureau in the three legislative sessions since. The funding used to fund the bureau will be pulled from pandemic relief bills passed under President Trump and President Biden. Reynolds said the $100 million infusion of federal funding will sustain the school safety bureau through 2026, and could be funded even longer pending new gun control, school safety and mental health care legislation being considered in Congress. The UI’s Stead Family Children’s Hospital has ranked among the nation’s top 50 in seven of 10 specialties in U.S. News & World Report’s new 2022-23 “Best Children’s Hospitals” rankings released on Tuesday. It is the hospital’s best showing since 2016. And — except for two of its seven ranked specialties that both dipped one spot — UI pediatric specialties made meaningful https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-childrens-hospital-at-no-15-in-first-u-s-news-midwest-rankings/#:~:text=University%20of%20Iowa%20Children's%20Hospital,News%20Midwest%20rankings%20%7C%20The%20Gazette (year-over-year gains) in the U.S. News Children’s Hospital rankings.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 14. It’s going to be ridiculously hot Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny and hot in the Cedar Rapids area with a high of 99 degrees. Heat index values with the heavy humidity will rise as high as 106. It will also be breazy, with a south wind of 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Wind gusts could be as high as 30 mph. There will be a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms late Tuesday night, but otherwise it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 73 degrees. We have an article with a list of cool off zones in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids on the front page of theGazette.com. The Cedar Rapids school board Monday postponed a vote on an agreement for school resource officers — also known as police — in schools, with some board members voicing concern that the data presented on the program is incomplete. In a 6-1 vote, with President David Tominsky opposing, the school board agreed to meet in a work session between now and July 11 to further discuss the school resource officer contract before voting on it in their next scheduled meeting at 5:30 p.m., July 11, at the Educational Leadership and Support Center on Edgewood Rd NW. While data shows there are racial disparities in the discipline meted out against students in the district, school board members said a survey given out to gauge student and teacher opinions on the officers painted a flawed picture due to an error in the way the survey was distributed. They also were hesitant to pull the officers without proper consideration given the overall concern for school safety lately in the public. Deficiencies in the University of Iowa Children's Hospital “curtain wall system” at the center of https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-suing-contractors-over-cracked-windows-in-childrens-hospital/ (a new lawsuit )were observed during construction, left uncorrected, and have become so prevalent that most patient windows — along with many others — pose “life safety issues” if left uncorrected. “The number and severity of the (insulated glass unit) defects are progressive, with problems continuing to manifest themselves with the passage of time,” according to the lawsuit Iowa’s Board of Regents filed Friday on behalf of UI in Johnson County District Court. They noted replacing hundreds of damaged windows is the only path forward. The lawsuit has been filed against Iowa City-based Knutson Construction Services Midwest, Inc. and Cupples International, Inc., based in St. Louis. Specific proactive and reactive steps the university has taken include installing protective film and clips on hundreds of windows that should hold the glass within if the glass units break. Still the threat of falling glass is severe enough that the children’s hospital playground has been closed as a precaution. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, Iowa’s Republican U.S. senators, said they are waiting to see the final version of bipartisan legislation containing modest gun control proposals before stating whether they will support it. The legislation was the result of two weeks of negotiations between a bipartisan group of U.S. senators in response to recent mass shootings in the United States. But Grassley, who is up for re-election this fall, said he was “encouraged” to see the bipartisan group produce a proposal. https://www.thegazette.com/federal-government/u-s-senate-bargainers-announce-outline-of-gun-violence-agreement/ (The current proposal) would make juvenile records available during background checks whenever someone under the age of 21 buys a gun; ban convicted domestic abusers from being able to buy a gun; and send federal funding to states enacting so-called red flag laws, which attempt to temporarily take guns away from individuals who could be considered potentially violent.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, June 13th. According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 94. Heat index values as high as 101. A heat advisory is in effect for Linn and Johnson counties, and most of the state, from noon today until 8 p.m. Wednesday. Winds from the east, 10 to 15 mph, coming from the south in the afternoon. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 76. A Hiawatha woman attempted to rob her pizza delivery driver at gunpoint Saturday, police said. 20-year-old Savannah Owens held a gun to the delivery driver's head and demanded all his money while in the 100 block of Northwood Drive, according to a criminal complaint. Owens was arrested and taken to the Linn County Jail Saturday on charges of first-degree robbery and going armed with intent. For the second time in two months, Bridge Under the Bridge is searching for a location to call home. The nonprofit, started in August 2020 to provide free hot meals to those in need after the 2020 derecho, was open for one day at its second location. The organization, run by Bridgette Williams-Robinson and her husband, left The ROC Center on 10th Street SE after serving there on May 4. Williams-Robinson said the location wasn’t a good fit for her family and organization’s needs. With several meetings set up for next week with various property owners in Cedar Rapids, she hopes to secure a new location soon. At the end of April, Bridge Under the Bridge was forced to leave its original spot under Interstate 380 on Eighth Avenue SW after receiving notice from Linn County. Linn County, which leases the land from the Iowa Department of Transportation, received complaints over several weeks about debris and maintenance of the site. – 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
There will be the possibility of showers and thunderstorms almost all weekend, but the possibility will never get very high. According to the National Weather Service the chance for rain will hover between 10 and 40 percent starting Saturday morning until around 2 p.m. Sunday. When it is not raining, it is expected to be warmer during the weekend and partly sunny, with a high of 80 degrees Saturday and 86 degrees Sunday. This is a prelude to much warmer temperatures next week. Former Cedar Rapids Washington girls’ basketball coach Frank Howell died Friday at the age of 52. Howell, whose trademark in 13 years of coaching girls’ basketball at Cedar Rapids Washington was a bright red sweater and consistent winning, died Friday afternoon of an aggressive form of brain cancer. Beyond his many wins, Howell left behind an impact on his players and fellow coaches, who shared their grief at Howell’s passing on social media throughout the day. Howell is survived by his wife, Sarah, and two daughters, Meredith and Natalie. Wisconsin-based refrigeration and appliance company Sub-Zero is seeking city and state incentives to build a $140.6 million light manufacturing facility in Cedar Rapids that would add nearly 200 full-time jobs, most considered to be at the high-quality wage rate. The Cedar Rapids City Council is slated to consider a term sheet Tuesday outlining preliminary points of a deal with the company and the developer, an entity of Tiffany Earl Williams, to build a 400,000 square-foot building at 10015 Sixth St. SW, east of The Eastern Iowa Airport. Located near the airport between Walford Road and Wright Brothers Boulevard SW, this part of town has seen a https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/cedar-rapids-southwest-quadrant-seeing-explosion-of-development/ (boom in construction). Cedar Rapids has attracted growing manufacturing, warehousing and logistics and distribution companies, among others, thanks to easy access to the airport and highway network in the southwest quadrant. The University of Iowa is suing two contractors who installed 900-some windows in its 14-story Stead Family Children’s Hospital, many of which have proved defective, with delamination and cracks showing just five years after the hospital’s opening. UI Health Care in April 2021 went to the Board of Regents asking to spend another $10 to $15 million to replace two floors of damaged windows — which they first discovered in July 2019, two years after the 2017 opening. An extra $15 million pushed the total hospital cost — already ballooned from $270 million to $392.7 million — up to a new total of $407.7 million. As part of the new expense, UI installed a protective film and clips to secure the windows and mitigate potential safety concerns. The campus also closed the new Children’s Hospital playground out of an abundance of caution. Officials have stressed the defective windows don’t pose a threat to patients, employees, visitors or the public. No one has been harmed, although the windows need to be replaced and are being monitored.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 10. Friday there will be a chance of rain in the morning and a chance of rain in the evening, with a cloudy day in the middle. The National Weather Service predicts it to be mostly cloudy with a high near 74 degrees, with the low coming in at around 56 degrees. The chance for rain will top out at 50 percent. The committee investigating the violent rioters that stormed the nation’s capitol building on January 6, 2021 made the case both that the incident should not be downplayed and began their case connecting it to then President Donald Trump and his associates. The first of several hearings was held on primetime television Thursday night, and in a sense was designed with a television audience in mind, with the first hearing recapping the events of the day with video and the panel speaking with a capitol police officer about her experiences that day. The panel laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump Thursday night, saying the assault was hardly spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. The riot left more than 100 police officers injured, many beaten and bloodied, as the crowd of pro-Trump rioters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged into the Capitol. At least nine people who were there died during and after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police. The next hearing will be at 9 a.m. on Monday. Iowa’s first medical marijuana manufacturer and distributor is changing its name, planning a $10 million expansion in Iowa and moving into other states where it can legally sell recreational pot. MedPharm Iowa will become the much less medical sounding, Bud & Mary’s Cannabis Co., showing a shift in the company’s focus from just medical marijuana allowed in Iowa to recreational marijuana products allowed in some other states. Bud & Mary’s will break ground next week on a $10 million expansion of the Des Moines manufacturing facility to “allow for a 3x increase in cannabis production for the Iowa program in order to meet increasing patient needs.” The company will continue to make and sell the same products, including Batch cannabis vapes, which, since their release in March, “are on track to be Iowa’s most popular medical cannabis product in 2022,” a company news release states. Matt Gatens, a productive and popular basketball player when he was at Iowa and a former high school basketball star in Iowa City, has been hired as an assistant coach to Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeyes men’s basketball staff. Gatens replaces Kirk Speraw, who announced his retirement from coaching last month. Gatens was a four-year starter for the Hawkeyes from 2009-12. His final two seasons were McCaffery’s first two as Iowa’s head coach, while his first two are part of a Hawkeye basketball era that fans try to actively forget. Gatens was a two-time All-Big Ten selection, two-time team captain, two-time academic all-conference honoree, and recipient of the 2012 Chris Street Award.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 9. Thursday should continue this week’s theme of sunny during the day, rainy overnight. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 79 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be mostly cloudy Thursday night with a low of 59 degrees. A chance for showers will return after 1 a.m. on Friday. Linn County supervisors are expected to give final approval Monday https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/linn-county-prepares-to-ban-conversion-therapy-of-lgbtq-youths/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-06-09 (for a ban on subjecting a minor to “conversion therapy”) — a practice of trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of an LGBTQ person into a straight man or woman. The Linn County Board of Supervisors approved its second consideration of the ordinance Wednesday on a 2-1 vote, with Supervisor Louie Zumbach opposed. A third and final consideration of the ordinance is scheduled for Monday. In Iowa, only Davenport has a conversion therapy ban. Across the country, about 100 municipalities and 19 states have banned it. New data published by the Iowa Department of Public Health this week shows COVID-19 vaccination rates continue to increase in Iowa but still remain below the 70 to 80 percent benchmark experts have set to reach herd immunity against the virus. As of Tuesday, the number of fully vaccinated Iowans and non-Iowans in the state now totals 1,933,003, an increase of 10,083 from the May 3 totals. That’s 62.3 percent of the state’s total population and 66.4 percent of those aged 5 and older. New seven-day COVID-19 cases increased to 4,283 as of Wednesday, continuing the weekslong trend of increasing coronavirus activity. This week’s total compares to the 3,854 new cases reported last week. A single-vehicle rollover crash killed the driver of a pickup east of Coggon early Wednesday morning, according to the Linn County Sheriff's Office. About 4:19 a.m., deputies and other emergency responders were dispatched to Monticello Road near Highway 13, a news release said. A pickup had been traveling westbound on Monticello Road when the driver, identified as Michaela Devaney, 33, of Cedar Rapids, lost control on a curve, the release said. The vehicle rolled several times, ejecting Devaney, who was the only occupant in the pickup. Devaney was pronounced dead at the scene. The crash remains under investigation by the Linn County Sheriff's Office.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 8. You could wake up to rainy skies Wednesday, but it won’t last all day. According to the National Weather Service the majority of the rain in the Cedar Rapids area should move out of the area by 1 p.m. After that it will be mostly sunny, with a high of 73 degrees. The low will be 53 degrees Wednesday night with mostly clear skies. It was election night Tuesday and most races went as expected in Iowa, but there was a bit of a surprise in the U.S. Senate race. Mike Franken, a U.S. Navy veteran from Sioux City, earned the Democratic nomination Tuesday in Iowa’s U.S. Senate campaign, handily beating former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer of Cedar Rapids by 15 percentage points. Franken, who was runner-up in the 2020 Democratic primary for another Iowa U.S. Senate seat, made his second attempt count. Finkenauer had been viewed as a bit of a favorite to win the race after she announced due to name recognition and ties to the national party. With his victory, Franken earned the right to challenge longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in this fall’s Nov. 8 general election. Grassley, as expected, easily survived his own primary challenge Tuesday. But that, of course, wasn't the only race Tuesday night. For more, check out our complete election night coverage on thegazette.com. An Iowa City man who helped organize Black Lives Matter events pleaded guilty Tuesday to lesser charges after injuring police officers by shining laser light beams in their eyes during 2020 protests in Iowa City. Matthew D.C. Bruce, 26, originally charged with six felony counts of assault on persons of certain occupations causing bodily injury, pleaded to two counts of assault causing bodily injury, which are serious misdemeanors, and three counts of assault, which are simple misdemeanors. Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said the prosecution will ask a judge to sentence Bruce to 180 days in jail but suspend 150 days, leaving him with 30 days to serve. Bruce was identified in multiple news reports as an organizer of the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement, a group that had organized protests in Des Moines following the death of George Floyd, 46, who was killed while in custody by former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin. The Uptown Marion Market will use the new Seventh Avenue festival street when it returns on Saturday. The market, which takes place one Saturday a month over the course of the summer, runs from 8 a.m. to noon. This year, over 35 local vendors will be selling fresh produce, wine, honey, baked goods and other artisan items. Marion streetscape work and other construction continues this summer, all around the Uptown area, but the market will still be accessible.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for election day, Tuesday, June 7. It’ll be mostly sunny Tuesday with a high near 78 degrees. According to the National Weather Service, on Tuesday night there will be a small chance for rain, but the highest chance for showers and potentially a thunderstorm will be after 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Iowa City police released officer body camera and squad car video clips Monday it says shed more light on a public intoxication arrest last week that remains under review. The arrest late Friday of Daria Brown, 22, on S. Clinton Street was partially captured on a video circulating on social media. That video shows the arrest from one angle as a combative Brown is put into custody in the back seat of a police vehicle as an officer punches her. Video released by the department shows the arrest from other angles, including one that shows Brown trying to grab a Taser off of an officer’s belt as he places her in the vehicle. Brown faces one count of public intoxication, two counts of interference with official acts, four counts of assaults on persons in certain occupations and one count of disarming a police officer. The city said the arrest remains under review in accordance with its use of force policy. Iowa athletics made $3 million from alcohol sales after sales tax in 2021-22 — thehttps://www.thegazette.com/hawkeye-football/beer-in-kinnick-a-brew-haha-or-something-less/ ( first year of fully selling alcohol at games —) according to documents obtained by The Gazette via a public records request. Most of the revenue after sales tax — $2.4 million of the $3 million — came from football games or the spring open practice at Kinnick Stadium. Three football games — Sept. 4 against Indiana, Oct. 9 against Penn State and Oct. 16 against Purdue — had more football sales than any sport had in its entire season. Iowa earned $338,839 in revenue after sales tax from men’s basketball games, $180,458 from wrestling matches and $77,415 from women’s basketball games. Before 2021, alcohol was only available in suites and premium seating areas. UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital has announced a $25 million expansion of its heart and vascular center, a move to help providers meet a growing patient demand for more specialized and minimally invasive services, officials say. Construction is expected to begin sometime this summer on the Cedar Rapids hospital’s Nassif Heart Center. The project, which will take place over the next two years, will consolidate cardiac and vascular care into the center and will expand existing services. The move will help alleviate space constraints, and help providers meet the growing demand for services locally Patient demand for cardiovascular services has been growing at St. Luke’s and other health systems in recent years, and it’s not solely driven by the growing senior population in Iowa. Advancements in medical technology have opened the door to a greater number of patients becoming candidates for surgery.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, June 6th. According to the National Weather Service, showers and thunderstorms are likely today, mainly before 2 p.m. Expect mostly cloudy skies, with a high near 76. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph coming from the north in the afternoon. Our chance of precipitation is 70%, and rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, generally. Then tonight, we have a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8 p.m., and a low around 56. Iowa City police say they are reviewing an arrest made Friday, partially caught on a bystander’s video, of a woman accused of biting a deputy and attempting to disarm an officer. The video shows several officers placing the woman in the back seat of a marked police vehicle while she attempts to get back out. The video is unclear whether she is handcuffed, but it briefly shows her hands are behind her back. It shows the back of an officer as he punches her several times before the squad car’s door is closed with her inside. The city said in its news release that a police foot patrol saw the woman hitting the windows of a downtown bar after being denied entry. The woman, 22-year-old Daria Brown of Iowa City, was arrested on a count of public intoxication. But then Brown resisted arrest, the city said, by assaulting three Iowa City police officers. While being placed in a patrol vehicle, Brown grabbed an officer's Taser and attempted to disarm the officer, the city said. Brown then was taken to the Johnson County Jail, where the city said she bit a Johnson County sheriff's deputy. Crews rescued a man spotted Saturday evening clinging to a concrete wall in the Cedar River downtown. Shortly after 5:30 p.m., firefighters were called to the Second Avenue Bridge near May’s Island where witnesses pointed to the man in the water, authorities said. Crews deployed rescue ropes over the sides of the bridge to initially capture him. A swift water boat crew was launched with firefighters and police officers on board. The boat crew rescued the man, bringing him into the inflatable boat, and he was taken to an awaiting ambulance crew. The fire department did not release the man’s name or age or say how he came to be in the river. In criminal complaints, however, the man was identified as 33-year-old Christian J.R. Murphy. He was taken into police custody on city charges of swimming in the river and carrying a concealed folding knife with a blade longer than three inches, both simple misdemeanors. – 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of June 4 and June 5. After a few days of sunny weather it looks like rain will return this weekend. According to the National Weather Service, showers will be likely in the Cedar Rapids area before 11 a.m. and also Saturday night. In the gap between rain during the day it should still be mostly cloudy, with a high near 74 degrees. Sunday should follow a similar pattern with a chance for rain throughout the day. However, the sun may peak its way through the clouds at some point Sunday and the high temperature is predicted to be 79 degrees. A man who https://apnews.com/article/des-moines-iowa-ames-shootings-religion-953db59ed6487d27f361338274073fac (fatally shot two women before killing himself) in the parking lot of an Iowa church had been romantically involved with one of the women and faced a court hearing next week on a charge of harassing her, investigators said Friday. Authorities said 33-year-old Johnathan Lee Whitlatch, of Boone, pulled up in a pickup truck outside Cornerstone Church on the outskirts of Ames just before 7 p.m. Thursday and began shooting at three women with a 9 mm handgun. Eden Montang, 22, and Vivian Flores, 21, were killed in the attack, and Whitlatch then shot himself, Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said. The two women were friends and students at Iowa State University and were walking together to the church for a weekly service that is popular with university and high school students. The sheriff said Whitlatch and Montang had recently broken up, and investigators believe Whitlatch’s intent was to kill her. Iowa Democrats are proposing sweeping changes to their caucuses, essentially turning the complicated system into a simple straw poll, in an attempt to preserve their status as one of the first states to express their choice for the next U.S. president. The Iowa Democratic Party on Thursday afternoon formally submitted to the national party an application to be one of the early-voting states to the national party’s rules and bylaws committee. The national party’s rules and bylaws committee is expected to meet later this month to review states’ applications. The Iowa caucuses — both Democrat and Republican — have kicked off the country’s presidential nominating process every four years for the past four decades. But in recent years, national Democrats have expressed concern with the caucus system, which requires in-person attendance, and with a lack of diversity in the state, which makes it, in critics’ eyes, unfit to serve as the influential first state in the process of picking a president. The heat on Iowa Democrats intensified after the 2020 caucuses, when a computer program designed to tabulate caucus results failed on caucus night. As a result, official results weren’t reported for several weeks. In contrast, the first in the nation status appears to be safe for Iowa Republicans, who already have a simplified voting system in place. It also helps that Republicans have had a lot of success in recent elections in Iowa, and the congressional delegation holds some sway with national Republicans.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 3. It looks to be another sunny day on Friday, with a chance for rain returning on Saturday. According to the National Weather Service, the high temperature will be close to 79 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with sunny skies. The skies will remain mostly clear Friday night, with a low around 53 degrees. A man shot two females to death and then apparently killed himself Thursday night outside a church in Ames, authorities said. Details were scarce about the shooting Thursday night, as police did not have much information to release about the victims or the motive for the shooting. They did confirm that the shooting happened outside the Cornerstone Church, a megachurch on the outskirts of Ames. A news conference about the shooting is planned for Friday morning. After state lawmakers last week passed a last-minute two-year moratorium on new casino licenses, state gaming regulators on Thursday voiced concern the move would introduce politics into Iowa’s gaming operations. Commissioner Lance Horbach, a former Republican lawmaker from Tama, said the point of commissions is to keep politics out of decisions. “My concern is if this is signed, politics is now in Iowa’s gaming industry,” Horbach said, according to audio of the commission’s meeting. Commissioner Daryl Olsen, a Republican from Audubon, said commissioners were “surprised” and “disappointed” with the moratorium. The members of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission opted to wait to see if Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signs the bill before deciding what’s next for a Linn County casino application. There have been multiple initiatives and votes for a Cedar Rapids casino in the last decade, with all of them ending in defeat. Organizers had hoped to pitch their latest $250 million vision for a casino and entertainment complex before the gaming regulators this week, but these plans were derailed by the moratorium. Collins Aerospace and two other companies have been chosen to design NASA’s next-generation spacesuit. Collins Aerospace, Cedar Rapid’s largest employer, said on its website the suits could be worn by astronauts “when working outside the International Space Station and — within the next decade — on the moon.” The suits, according to the website, will “offer enhanced mobility and weigh less than the current generation spacesuits, allowing for increased mission times. The suits are also designed to accommodate nearly every astronaut body type and can rapidly incorporate new technologies.” The suits will be engineered and designed in Windsor Locks, Conn., and assembly, maintenance and testing of the suit will be completed at its https://www.collinsaerospace.com/newsroom/News/2021/05/Collins-expands-Operations-to-Houston-Spaceport (Houston Spaceport facility,) Jessica Napoli, external communications senior manager, told the Gazette in an email.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 2. There will be a high near 77 degrees Thursday with sunny skies. According to the National Weather Service it could get a bit breezy in the Cedar Rapids area with wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Continuing what has become an annual University of Iowa Health Care cost increase, the Board of Regents on Wednesday approved a 6 percent patient rate hike — which officials said could have been higher given the state of the economy. More revenue per patient can help UIHC keep up with rising costs of drugs and medical equipment, for example, as the largest and most lucrative hospital system in the state. Many patients won’t experience direct impact from the higher rates, as the increases typically fall to payers like Medicare and Medicaid. But some patients — like those who pay out of pocket or get specialty care services — will feel the hit. The higher rates will go into effect July 1. An Eastern Iowa railroad company has been awarded a $7.2 million federal grant to upgrade its line that serves industries in the Cedar Rapids area. The grant to Iowa Northern Railway Company is one of 46 projects in 32 states and the District of Columbia being announced today by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Iowa Northern, which has about 115 employees, serves mostly agriculture-related industries such as ethanol producers ADM and POET. It also moves John Deere tractors, Tyson frozen foods and egg products The number of COVID-related hospitalizations in Iowa increased almost 30 percent in the past week, going from 139 patients to 180 this week, federal officials reported Wednesday. It is the highest number reported since March 2, when 202 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The totals, however, still remain far below the 991 patients hospitalized the week of Jan. 19 at the height of the omicron surge. New COVID-19 cases totaled 3,854 as of Wednesday, a slight decline from the 3,960 new cases reported last week, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Coronavirus activity has been increasing in Iowa over the past several weeks as the highly contagious omicron subvariant, BA.2, has become the dominant coronavirus strain in the Midwest and the rest of the country. Keegan Murray will likely be going top 10 in the NBA Draft. His brother, Kris, to the relief of Iowa fans, will be heading back for his junior season. Murray announced Wednesday on Twitter that he was withdrawing from the 2022 NBA draft and returning to the Hawkeyes for his third year of college. The 6-foot-8 forward from Cedar Rapids Prairie averaged 9.7 points and 17.9 minutes per game last season. “Everyone in our program is very excited to have Kris back,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said in a statement Wednesday. “We are happy that Kris had a positive experience going through the NBA process. He gained valuable feedback through workouts and conversations with NBA personnel. Kris will be awesome next year.”
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 1. We will have a cool, sunny day Wednesday, with a small chance for some rain Wednesday evening. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 72 degrees. On Wednesday night it will become cloudy, with a low around 52 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance for showers going into Thursday. According to the Associated Press, the Biden administration on Tuesday said it will send Ukraine a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems, a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been lobbying for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region. The rocket systems are part of a new $700 million contribution of security assistance for Ukraine from the U.S. that will include helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, tactical vehicles, and more. The administration is trying to toe the line in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, providing Ukraine with assistance while not giving them weapons that could further provoke Russia’s ire, such as rockets that could reach Russian soil. Shuey’s Restaurant and Lounge in Shueyville will close temporarily after the building was damaged in a fire Saturday. The Jefferson Monroe Fire Department responded to the fire at 4:30 a.m. Saturday and found flames on the back of the building and across half the roof, according to Jefferson Monroe Fire Chief Glen Heims. No one was injured in the fire. It was extinguished with the help of fire crews from Swisher, Solon, Ely, North Liberty, Fairfax and Cedar Rapids. The cause of the fire is being investigated by the state fire marshal. Shuey’s announced that it would be closed due to the fire but its owners vowed to rebuild “better than ever.” A Georgia man, who was convicted of assaulting a TSA officer and interfering with her job duties after drugs and nearly $38,000 in cash were found in his bags, was sentenced last week to two months in prison. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/georgia-man-pleads-to-assaulting-tsa-officer-at-eastern-iowa-airport/ (Andre Burns, 38, of Atlanta, Ga., )pleaded guilty in February to one count of interference with airport security. According to the plea, Burns was flying out of The Eastern Iowa Airport on June 16, 2019, and his bag was tagged as a “suspicious package” as it went through a security checkpoint. He was directed to a secondary security location and officers inspected his luggage and found an envelope with nearly $38,000 cash and 35 grams of marijuana. Burns then grabbed some of the cash, ran through the exit lane of the screening area, and punched TSA officer Yolanda Mendoza in the stomach when she tried to detain him, according to state and federal court documents.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Tuesday, May 31st. Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend. Today we have a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, according to the National Weather Service. It will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 82. Winds from the southwest, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight, partly cloudy, with a low around 56. Local casino backers have unveiled plans for a $250 million, 160,000 square-foot entertainment and cultural arts complex near downtown Cedar Rapids at the site of now-demolished Cooper’s Mill. The Cedar Crossing casino proposal calls for bars, restaurants, a 1,500-capacity entertainment center and other venues along the west side of the Cedar River, between Kingston Village and Time Check Park. Gaming interests believe the complex would set a new bar for Iowa casinos. The project also would incorporate flood control to protect the structure from rising waters. The Cedar Rapids Development Group, an entity of mostly local investors, and Linn County Gaming Association, the nonprofit that would allocate a slice of revenue to local nonprofits, will jointly apply for a gaming license with the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission after the proposed state moratorium on new licenses ends in June 2024. The moratorium takes effect June 1, pending a signature from Gov. Kim Reynolds, who said Friday she was reviewing recently passed legislation with her staff. Over the next 24 years, if nothing changes, Kirkwood Community College is on track to spend nearly $40 million maintaining its 97,094-square-foot Iowa City campus — which has a current classroom-use rate under 40 percent and saw a 75 percent enrollment decline between 2016 and 2021. Given that makes little budgetary sense — especially in a post-pandemic age when many campuses are facing enrollment losses and fiscal challenges — Kirkwood earlier this year initiated a trio of consultants to study the Iowa City site. The goal was to better understand the needs of students, employers and the broader community in making “informed decisions about the future of Kirkwood facilities in Iowa City.” And the consultants have made their recommendation — Kirkwood should find another Iowa City site, downsize by more than two-thirds and recalibrate its course offerings. The appropriate size of a “New Iowa City Kirkwood Center,” according to the consultant’s analysis, would be about 30,000 square feet. That would shave 67,094 square feet off Kirkwood’s current Iowa City footprint, which is spread out across three buildings — a main credit center, annex and learning center. – 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of May 28 and May 29. Memorial Day Weekend will have plenty of sun. Saturday will start cool and cloudy, with a high of 79 degrees. There will be a very slight chance for rain Saturday afternoon. Sunday and Monday’s weather will be very similar, breezy and sunny with limited cloud cover, and a high of 88 and 90 degrees respectively. A judge will not move the trial for a former University of Iowa student charged with killing his parents and sister last year to another county because he says the media coverage in Linn County hasn’t been “pervasive and inflammatory” as the defense argued. Alexander Ken Jackson, 21, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He is accused of killing his father, Jan Jackson, 61; mother, Melissa Jackson, 68; and sister, Sabrina Jackson, 19, in June of last year. Sixth Judicial District Chief Judge Lars Anderson, in his ruling filed late Thursday, said after reviewing 152 exhibits of media coverage provided by Jackson’s lawyers, he found the coverage to be “uniformly factual and largely devoid of inaccuracies, denunciations of Jackson or overly emotional coverage.” A first-degree murder charge has been changed to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter for a Cedar Rapids man accused of fatally shooting another man during a fight. James J. Siegel, 42, now faces a 10-year sentence, if convicted, instead of a life sentence in the May 13 fatal shooting of Ty John Casey, 39. According to an amended complaint filed Thursday, further investigation revealed a history between the two men and the crime scene and autopsy supported the lesser charge. Siegel’s actions resulted from a “sudden, violent and irresistible passion” as a result of serious provocation by Casey, and these elements make the crime more fitting for the charge of voluntary manslaughter Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks stated in the complaint. Maybanks was asked by the Gazette about the history between Siegel and Casey, but he said he couldn’t provide details. The rapidly growing southwest quadrant of Cedar Rapids is slated to see even more of an uptick in warehouse construction, thanks to the area’s shovel-ready land and easy access to transportation through the airport and highway network. The Cedar Rapids City Council this week approved tax incentives for two new warehouses in the Midwest Commerce Park from local developer Tiffany Earl Williams. The projects are a 50,000-square-foot building on Capital Dr. SW, which would be leased by Hy-Vee for a warehouse and distribution facility, and a 100,000-square-foot building on Atlantic Dr. SW for the headquarters of Worley Warehousing.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 27. Friday will start out cloudy but it will end up a pleasant, sunny day. According to the National Weather Service after gradual clearing there will be a high near 73 degrees and sunny skies in the Cedar Rapids area. Friday night it will be mostly clear with a low around 52 degrees. A March 28 trial date has been set for one of the two men accused in the April 10 shootings at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge that killed two people and injured 10. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/victims-of-sunday-morning-nightclub-shooting-in-cedar-rapids-identified/ (Timothy Rush, 32, )of Cedar Rapids, has pleaded not guilty to 15 charges in Linn County District Court. According to a criminal complaint, Rush is accused of fatally shooting Nicole Owens, 35, his girlfriend and mother of his 1-year-old daughter, and of shooting and seriously injuring Marvin Cox, who was shot in the head. Rush is also charged for shooting 5 other people. The other man charged in the shootings, https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/second-man-arrested-in-taboo-nightclub-and-lounge-shooting-in-cedar-rapids/ (Dimione Walker, 29), is accused of fatally shooting Michael Valentine, 25. Federal marshals arrested Walker near Chicago on April 18. He remains in jail there, pending being extradited back to Iowa. Iowa state park rangers and staff told late last year they needed to move out of state-owned housing now have until the end of 2023, according to a budget proposal passed by the Iowa Senate and House this week. Lawmakers in March https://www.thegazette.com/article/state-park-staff-would-get-eviction-reprieve-under-iowa-budget-proposal/ (granted an extension through 2024), but a budget amendment this week reduced the grace period. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-dnr-tells-rangers-to-move-out-of-state-owned-houses-at-parks/ (told rangers in November) they had a year to move out of houses in 26 state parks, citing as a primary factor the nearly $1 million cost of repairing the houses, some of which were built in the 1930s. Former rangers and other law enforcement officers have predicted this change will meanhttps://www.thegazette.com/state-government/park-rangers-speak-out-about-losing-housing-in-iowa-state-parks/ ( longer response times) if there is an emergency in one of the 26 parks — some of the state’s largest or most remote parks. City High parents and others have donated $1,500 so far to fix vandalism done to the school last weekend in what some have described as a senior prank gone awry. More than 500 people have signed an online petition to support Assistant Principal Scott Jespersen, who parents and students said was placed on leave following the incident. Parents who spoke with the Gazette said it is their understanding that a school administrator let some students into the building Sunday night to hang balloons and streamers, but other students came and damaged the building by spray painting walls, pouring syrup on items and cutting up historical photos, among other actions. The school district would not comment to The Gazette, saying it is a personnel matter.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, May 26. It looks like another cloudy and wet day on Thursday, but there should be some extended breaks from rain during the day. In fact, according to the National Weather Service the highest possibility for more rain looks to be between 2 and 6 p.m. For most of the day it will be cloudy with a high of 67 degrees. Thursday night should be mostly cloudy with low around 53 degrees. In the wake of a Texas school shooting that has claimed at least 21 lives, Iowa’s U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is calling for expanding the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center with a greater focus on school violence prevention. Grassley made his remarks in response to an 18-year-old gunman barricading himself in an Uvalde, Texas, classroom and killing at least 19 children and two teachers. The Secret Service conducts threat assessments in other areas, Grassley said, and his Eagles Act would expand its role to include school violence prevention. The bill is named for the mascot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the site of another mass shooting in February 2018. The bill would establish a national program on school violence prevention that will include expanded research. It also would allow the Secret Service to equip communities and schools with training and best practices on recognizing and preventing school violence. Deer hunters in Iowa would be able to use semi-automatic rifles during a newly created antlerless season in January under a bill approved by lawmakers Tuesday and sent to the governor. The measure given final approval by the House is designed to help control the deer population and respond to complaints that Iowa has too many deer that eat corn and are hazardous to motorists. Deer hunting with AR-15 rifles is allowed in other states. Many states have restrictions for when they can be used and regulate the type of ammunition allowed. The state education budget lawmakers finalized early Wednesday includes a fraction of the $22.1 million increase Iowa’s three public universities sought for the upcoming budget year. https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/lawmakers-back-meager-increase-for-iowa-universities/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-26 (The education appropriations bill offers a $6.2 million increase for the Board of Regents,) just a bit over one fourth of the increase they were looking for. The continuing decline in increased funding from the state is another challenge universities face as enrollment declines and campuses have yet to fully recover from the downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 25. It looks like it will rain for much of the day Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area. Although exact chances for rain will fluctuate between 40 to 80 percent for much of the day, the safe bet is to bring an umbrella if you need one. When it's not raining, it should be cloudy with a high of 70 degrees. The National Weather Service predicts rain continuing through at least Thursday night. It is looking like Friday will be sunny, however. An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, https://www.thegazette.com/news/texas-governor-15-killed-in-school-shooting-gunman-dead/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-25 (killing at least 19 children) and two adults. The gunman was killed by law enforcement. Officials said Tuesday the death toll at the school in Uvalde, Texas could increase. It is the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where a gunman fatally shot 20 children and six adults in December 2012. Authorities did not provide a motive for the shooter, who also shot his grandmother before the attack, but said he was a resident of Uvalde and went to high school there. Another session of the Iowa Legislature concluded in the early morning hours Wednesday, ending a five-month assembly that will be remembered both for what lawmakers got done and what they couldn’t get across the finish line. With Republicans dominating all portions of Iowa’s government, Iowa lawmakers changed the state’s bottle return law, banned transgender girls from playing girls sports, required gas stations provide the E15 blend of ethanol and passed a $1.9 billion state income tax cut. Most notably Republicans were not able to agree on an initiative from Gov. Kim Reynolds that would have provided taxpayer dollars to private school tuition assistance. Despite Republican lawmakers extending the session to try to reach a compromise, rural Republicans rebelled, fearing the change would hurt school districts that are the only thing keeping many small towns going in the state. After state lawmakers Monday swiftly proposed and passed a https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-lawmakers-propose-2-year-moratorium-on-new-casinos/ (two-year moratorium )blocking new casino licenses in Iowa — halting Cedar Rapids’ third try for a gambling facility — city officials are making a last-ditch plea to Gov. Kim Reynolds to veto the measure. The request may go unheeded, though, as Elite Casino Resorts Chief Executive Officer Dan Kehl — a staunch opponent of a Cedar Rapids casino — through a political action committee in 2021 donated thousands of dollars to Republican leadership, including to Reynolds, in 2021. Kehl and opponents have argued a Cedar Rapids casino would “cannibalize” the gaming properties in Riverside and Waterloo particularly, oversaturating the market and resulting in job losses, diminished amenities and less nonprofit spending. Kehl’s company operates the casinos in Riverside and Davenport. Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said Tuesday she communicated with the governor, asking her not to sign the bill arguing that the rushed nature of the moratorium’s passage sets a bad precedent for future legislation.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 24. Tuesday will begin a trend of rainier weather that will continue through Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 68 degrees. The chance for rain will pick up to around 40 percent after 4 p.m. Tuesday and spike up to 90 percent overnight into Wednesday. It will be breezy late Tuesday as rain creeps its way closer, and the low temperature should be around 53 degrees. A proposal by Gov. Kim Reynolds to shift taxpayer funding for public schools to scholarships for private school tuition assistance will not pass the Iowa Legislature this year, a top statehouse Republican said on Monday. Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, told reporters Monday that there were not enough votes among the 60 House Republicans to get the 51 votes needed to pass the proposal in the 100-member House. The legislative proposal had already passed the Republican-led Iowa Senate and Republican leaders had been holding up the session in hopes of reaching a compromise with House Republicans. The bulk of the holdouts among House Republicans were legislators in rural districts, where public school officials said the loss of students to private schools could be fiscally devastating. It is the second consecutive year that Reynolds, a Republican, made the proposal, only to see it falter in the Republican-controlled Iowa House. With Cedar Rapids casino backers on the cusp of applying again for a state license, the Iowa Legislature with scant notice Monday approved a moratorium on issuing any new approvals for casinos for two years. The moratorium, a new topic that came up in what appears to be the last days of the 2022 legislative session, is part of https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=HF2497 (House File 2497), a broader law on gaming and regulations. The bill was passed 35-11 in the Iowa Senate and later 60-23 in the Iowa House. The measure needs Gov. Kim Reynolds’ approval to become law. If it becomes law, the hiatus would thwart Cedar Rapids’ third try for a casino until July 2024. State regulators previously denied a gaming license to Linn County in 2014 and 2017. “It’s incredibly disappointing that this can happen seemingly in the dark of night without the city to even have the opportunity to respond,” Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said after the vote. Lawmakers who supported the change argued that Iowa’s gambling industry is at its saturation point and any other casinos would cannibalize the existing market. A judge has set a hearing in July on a motion to move the trial of one of two Fairfield teens accused of killing a high school Spanish teacher with a baseball bat out of Jefferson County because of pretrial publicity and to suppress several pieces of evidence and his statements to police at trial. A lawyer for https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/judge-rules-2nd-fairfield-teen-to-be-tried-as-adult/ (Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, 16, )says her client can’t get a fair and impartial jury in Jefferson County based on “extensive pretrial publicity.” In the suppression motion by Miller’s lawyer, filed previously in March, the defense is asking the court to not allow the prosecution to submit evidence obtained during a search of Miller’s residence on Nov. 4 of last year, and his statements to police because his rights were violated. In the motion, Miller’s lawyer argues that Miller’s mother signed a juvenile waiver when police asked to speak with her son about a missing person — Graber. Miller’s mother was told about vandalism at Graber’s home, not that it was regarding a homicide investigation or that Miller was a suspect. His lawyer argued that the subsequent police interrogation was thus tainted by the fact that Miller was not properly informed of his rights.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, May 23rd. According to the National Weather Service we can expect increasing clouds today, with a high near 62 - and winds from the west 5 to 10 mph. Then tonight, a 30 percent chance of showers after 1 a.m. and a low around 48. More than 300 people gathered at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday to celebrate Christine Grant’s life and legacy. The crowd included former players, coaches she hired over a quarter-century and athletic administrators from around the country. Grant died Dec. 31st at age 85. One of the 963 Americans, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, that Russia over the weekend permanently banned from entering the country is a local judge who’s surprised he made the list. Sixth Judicial District Senior Judge Patrick Grady was bemused by the news because he has never traveled to Russia. He did go in 2012 to the southwestern part of Poland with Judge Fae Hoover and Gary Hinzman to study the courts and penal system. — 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, May 21, and Sunday, May 22. Saturday's weather will be very similar to what we had Friday. According to the National Weather Service, it will be cloudy for much of the day with a high of 57 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be at least a slight chance of rain all day, with the highest chance of showers and thunderstorms being between 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday will just be simple, sunny and pleasant. There will be a high of 64 degrees with sunny skies. It will be a little windy, with wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Rain is set to return on Monday. Political fundraising is heating up in Iowa as the primaries are approaching and November election day isn't that far away. In the gubernatorial race, Democrat Deidre DeJear https://www.thegazette.com/campaigns-elections/dejear-improves-but-reynolds-still-dominates-iowa-gubernatorial-candidate-fundraising/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-21 (is doing better in her fundraising) but Gov. Kim Reynolds is still continuing to use her incumbent status to dominate in resources available. After raising just less than $280,000 in the last four-plus months of 2021, DeJear reported raising nearly $740,000 in the first four-plus months of this year, according to state campaign records. But that still pales in comparison to the $1.3 million raised by Reynolds over the same period this year. Thursday was an election year reporting deadline for state candidates in Iowa. Candidates were required to report all fundraising from Jan. 1 through May 14. They will be required to file another report before the June 7 primary election, for which early voting is underway. DeJear finished the period with just less than $382,000 left in her campaign account. Reynolds, meanwhile, finished the period sitting on a shade under $5 million in the bank. Meanwhile, Rick Stewart, the Libertarian Party’s candidate for Iowa governor, has paused his campaign after being arrested while protesting recently in Arlington, Va. The Libertarian Party of Iowa issued a statement saying it “completely supports the decision,” and indicated Stewart will resume his campaign before this fall’s election. Stewart, an activist from Cedar Rapids, was participating in a non-violent protest at the federal Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in support of allowing terminally ill cancer patients to use psilocybin, the hallucinogenic ingredient in certain mushrooms, under the “Right to Try” act. Stewart was charged with trespassing during a staged "die-in" protest outside of the Drug Enforcement Agency headquarters. When the city of Cedar Rapids once again begins charging fares for transit bus rides later this summer, staff are proposing a simplified, equitable reduced-fare system. To reduce confusion and conflict at the fare box as well as encourage more ridership, Cedar Rapids Transit riders would be charged less to ride the public vehicles, according to a proposal made this week to the Cedar Rapids City Council’s Finance and Administrative Services Committee. The city has not charged fares to ride the bus since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 to minimize contact between drivers and passengers. This new fare system would take effect Sept. 6, after Labor Day, pending approval from the City Council. Full fare would be $1, down from $1.50, under the proposal.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 20. Friday's weather should start with showers and thunderstorms, but it will eventually clear off into a sunny day. The showers are mostly predicted to be between around 4 a.m. and 11 a.m. After that, the clouds should gradually clear, with a high of around 70 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A judge Thursday set a $1.5 million bail for a Cedar Rapids man charged with two counts of first-degree murder in two fatal shootings that happened within 24 hours of each other in January. Sixth Judicial Associate District Judge Russell Keast, during an initial appearance hearing, ordered the bail for Kazius Childress, 20, without hearing any arguments from the prosecution or defense. Childress was arrested with the assistance of U.S. Marshalls in Davenport on Tuesday. So far criminal complaints haven't provided a motive or the connection, if any, between the two victims and Childress. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said Thursday they were “associates” but declined to provide further information. Mercy Medical Center has named Dr. Timothy Quinn as its next president and CEO. The family medicine physician, who has been the executive vice president and chief of clinical operations since 2012, will step into the top leadership position effective Jan. 1, 2023. Officials at the 424-bed hospital in Cedar Rapids announced their selection on Thursday. Dr. Quinn will replace Timothy Charles, who plans to retire at the end of this year after 19 years at Mercy Medical. Iowa athletics director Gary Barta opened himself to criticism earlier this month when, on a UI athletics website podcast, https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-hawkeyes/iowa-athletics-director-gary-barta-pursuing-repeal-of-ncaas-one-time-transfer-rule/ (he suggested) the NCAA consider reinstating a year of ineligibility for transfers. In an interview with the Gazette, Barta conceded that such a change is unlikely at this point, but he did seek to clarify his stance that the current situation promoting a bidding war for recruits is unsustainable. Barta said NIL opportunities should be for student athletes, not recruits, and he hopes the NCAA can restrict situations where boosters might be paying players directly rather than through the proper channels. “If they do that, in theory, hopefully it would slow things down, it would get it back to a realization that name, image and likeness is designed for student-athletes to earn money off their name, image or likeness. It's not designed to be used as a recruiting addition,” Barta said. You can read the edited interview between the Gazette and Barta on theGazette.com.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, May 19. We should get a break from rain Thursday, but the clear skies won’t last long. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 86 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The wind will pick up and clouds will gather as the day goes on, as showers and thunderstorms are expected to return early Friday morning. It will be mostly cloudy Thursday night with a low around 62 degrees. It will cost over $200,000 to rebuild a Vinton park that was burned down this past weekend in an apparent arson, according to a https://www.facebook.com/vprdzone/videos/1083969198874545/ (video posted to Facebook) by the director of the Vinton Parks and Recreation Department. The fire happened early Saturday morning, according to a https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=364839229007992&set=a.258145219677394 (news release from the Vinton Police Department). Vinton police and firefighters responded just before 3 a.m. and found the main playground equipment engulfed in fire as well as a Vinton Parks and Recreation vehicle. There also was a trampoline on fire in the area. The playground equipment, vehicle and trampoline were all a total loss. Two juvenile suspects were identified by police as part of the investigation and charges are pending. Chief Ted Paxton said Wednesday the police department still is gathering information as the investigation continues and police hope to have official charges filed before the end of the week. Mandatory masking is returning to local hospitals as COVID-19 transmission rates continue to rise in Iowa. On Wednesday, Iowa reported 3,847 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days, continuing the recent trend of increasing case counts statewide, according to new data from the Iowa Department of Public Health. Last week, the state reported 3,172 new cases. Four weeks ago, the state added 1,063 new cases in a seven-day period. Hospitalizations from the disease have also increased for four straight weeks. As a result, after scaling back some requirements a month ago, both Cedar Rapids hospitals have recently implemented universal masking rules within their respective facilities. The upturn in new cases is driven by the highly contagious omicron subvariant, BA. 2, which has become the dominant coronavirus strain in the Midwest and the rest of the country. The next, roughly $8.2 billion state budget is being crafted as state lawmakers returned to work Wednesday for the first time in more than two weeks. If all goes well, the budget should be submitted on time. It’s a signal that state legislators are preparing to finish their work for the year and adjourn the 2022 legislative session. Still unknown is the fate of one piece of legislation hanging over the session: Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal for taxpayer-funded scholarships for private school tuition assistance. Reynolds and Senate Republicans, who passed the bill in late March, have been delaying the end of the legislative session with hopes of convincing enough House Republicans to vote for the bill to pass it there, too, and get it to Reynolds’ desk for her signature.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 18. Rain is likely Wednesday morning, but it will eventually clear off into a pretty nice day. According to the National Weather Service, there is a chance for rain and potentially thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area Wednesday morning. The chance for rain should conclude by noon, with clouds clearing into a sunny sky and a high of 76 degrees. It should remain clear Wednesday night, with a low of 55 degrees. U.S. Marshals on late Tuesday afternoon arrested a man in Davenport https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-man-charged-with-two-fatal-shootings-from-january/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-18 (who is being charged for two Cedar Rapids fatal shootings) that occurred within 24 hours of each other in January. Kazius Jarekaiser Childress, 20, was arrested for the fatal shootings of Cordal R. Lewis, 19, and Kavon I. Johnson, 22, on Jan. 27 and 28, Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks told The Gazette. According to criminal complaints, Childress is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of going armed with intent. Cedar Rapids police have not yet provided a motive for the killings or any connection between the three men, but did reveal that they were assisted by U.S. Marshals Northern Iowa Fugitive Task Force to make the arrest. The E15 blend of ethanol, which contains a higher percentage of the corn-based fuel and is typically about 10 cents per gallon cheaper, will become available at most Iowa gas stations under legislation signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds. Reynolds held a ceremonial bill-signing at a Central Iowa farm near Prairie City, about a half-hour east of Des Moines. Under the new law, Iowa gas stations must by 2026 offer the E15 blend of ethanol in at least one pump. The lower E10 ethanol blend is currently the most common at Iowa gas stations. Just more than 10 percent of Iowa gas stations currently offer E15, according to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. The law allows smaller stations to apply for an exemption to the requirement, and makes financial assistance available for stations that will need to upgrade their infrastructure to store and provide the E15 ethanol blend. Linn County Public Health is now offering treatment for hepatitis C in its clinic, an unusual step for a county public health department in Iowa as local officials take on a larger role in harm reduction efforts. Hepatitis C is an inflammatory liver disease, affecting at least 27,000 people in Iowa, caused by a virus, which is passed by contact with blood from someone who has the infection. For some, it’s a short-term illness, but the majority develop chronic infections. Historically, chronic hepatitis C has been most prevalent among baby boomers, or those born between 1945 and 1965, officials with the Iowa Department of Public Health said. However, recently there has been an uptick in cases in younger age groups, and health officials are finding this particularly true of individuals who use injectable drugs, such as heroin.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 17. It should be nice to kick off the day Tuesday, with a chance for showers and thunderstorms later. It will be partly sunny with a high near 75 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The chance for rain will come after 5 p.m. with showers and potentially even thunderstorms possible. The overall precipitation chance is listed at 70 percent. The chance for rain will continue into Wednesday morning. After just two hours of deliberation, a jury Monday found Michael Thomas Lang https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/michael-lang-found-guilty-of-murdering-iowa-patrol-sgt-jim-smith/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-17 (guilty of first-degree murder) for killing Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Jim Smith during a standoff at Lang's home in 2021. Lang, 42, was also accused of leading officers on a high speed chase prior to the standoff, injuring a police officer, and shooting at the driver of an armored vehicle. The defense did not dispute any of this occurred but attempted to work their way around the first-degree murder charge by saying he shot in self defense as officers breached his home, an argument which https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/defense-wont-put-on-case-in-trooper-slaying/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-17 (the judge ruled against). Smith, who was born in Cedar Rapids, was married and was the father of two children. There was another very different ruling of note on Monday. A new state law that prohibits Iowa schools from requiring all students or staff to wear face masks can go into effect after a federal appeals court https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/court-lifts-injunction-iowa-schools-cannot-impose-mask-requirements/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-17 (on Monday lifted a temporary injunction). Two of the judges on a three-member federal appeals court lifted the injunction because they said it is no longer relevant, given the significant reduction in COVID-19 transmission in Iowa since the challenge was filed in fall 2021. One judge dissented, writing that lower transmission rates do not solve the problem for students with special needs or health risks, who receive an unequal learning experience as a result of limiting what districts can do to protect them. A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Monday on suspicion of assaulting a woman and her 8-year-old child by shoving and grabbing them while pointing a gun at them and threatening to kill the child. Guadalupe Andrade, 32, is charged with several charges after police say he shoved the woman, causing her to fall and hit her head on a metal bed frame. According to the criminal complaint, he then got a firearm from the bedroom, loaded and “racked” the weapon and pointed it at the woman and her child. While pointing the gun at the child, Andrade is seen on a video recording saying “I’m going to finish him off,” the complaint states. Andrade also is accused of grabbing the child by the shirt while holding the firearm. He remains in the Linn County Jail under a $30,000 bail.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, May 16th. Today we can expect a sunny day in the Cedar Rapids area, according to the National Weather Service, with a high near 77. It will be breezy, with a northwest wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 51. Police said one man was killed and another arrested on a murder charge in a Friday night shooting in northeast Cedar Rapids. At 9 p.m., they got a report of a shooting at 3906 Northwood Dr. NE. The report came from 42-year-old James Siegel of Cedar Rapids, who told dispatchers he had shot 39-year-old Ty Casey of Cedar Rapids, according to a criminal complaint. Officers found that Casey suffered a gunshot wound and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities said two people at the home, including Siegel, were taken to the police department and were questioned. Siegel told investigators Casey threw a punch at Siegel, and Siegel responded by picking up a Ruger handgun from a nightstand and firing a shot that hit Casey in the upper chest area, according to the complaint. Police said Casey threw another punch at Siegel and missed, then Siegel shot at Casey a second time. A woman drowned Saturday afternoon while tubing in the Wapsipinicon River. Shortly after 1:30 p.m., first responders received a report that a woman saw a friend’s tube float by her, but the friend was missing. Crews found the caller on the south bank in the area between the Paris River Bridge on Sutton Road and the bridge on Paris Road in Linn County. A rescue boat was launched. The friend was located by Linn County conservation officers unresponsive in the river shortly after 2 p.m. Lifesaving efforts began as she was transported to the Paris Road Bridge bank area. The woman — identified Sunday as 47-year-old Mechele Horak of Marion — died about a half-hour later, authorities said. A Linn County Jail inmate in custody as a hold for the U.S. Marshals Service was found unconscious in his cell Saturday evening and was pronounced dead after emergency medical care, according to the Linn County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff’s office identified the man as 34-year-old Charles Nathan Beasley of Chicago. It was the seventh Linn County inmate death since the beginning of 2020. — 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, May 14th and Sunday, May 15th. Graduation weekend is upon us for Iowa's universities, and the jubilant graduates will be greeted https://www.thegazette.com/weather/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-14 (with some much improved weather). It will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 85 degrees on Saturday. There will be a chance for rain Sunday morning into the early afternoon, but after 2 p.m. it should be partly sunny with a high near 70 degrees. Speaking of graduations, students are enthusiastic for the return of in-person celebrations at Iowa's universities after years of COVID-19 disruptions, even leading Iowa State to https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-universities-resume-spring-in-person-commencement-thousands-expected/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-14 (roll out an additional ceremony to meet demand). In total, more than 11,500 graduates across the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa campuses are expected to participate in dozens of commencement ceremonies Tears fell and tempers flared Friday in a Linn County Courtroom as family members https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/family-calls-killer-a-monster-for-taking-their-loved-one-and-her-unborn-child/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-14 (confronted the convicted killer of a mother and her unborn child). Johnnie Osborne, 28, was sentenced to 50 years for the murder of 25-year-old Asia T. Grice and her baby in Cedar Rapids in 2020. Osborne only avoided the possibility of a life sentence by agreeing with the prosecution to plead guilty to the crimes. Keonna Smith, who was in the apartment at the time of the shooting, was also shot in the head; Osborne admitted he had intended to kill her as well but she survived with serious injuries. After emotional testimony, Melvin Watson, the father of Asia Grice, started to approach Osborne, sitting at the defendant’s table, but five Linn County sheriff’s deputies intervened, and family members also asked him to stop. He returned to sit with family members in the courtroom. Some family members held a poster on their laps, with photos of Grice, during the sentencing. Osborne’s family and friends were on the other side of the courtroom. A truck driver was killed Friday morning following a collision with a train operated by Iowa Interstate Railroad. The crash happened around 7:25 a.m. at the Vail Avenue crossing in Durant. The crossing has gates, but it is not known whether they were functioning at the time of the crash. The truck's driver was ejected in the crash. The driver’s name is being withheld pending notification of relatives, the Iowa State Patrol said. The operator of the locomotive was not identified in initial crash reports. Durant is in Cedar County, about 40 miles east of Iowa City.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 13th. I looked up the origin of Friday the 13th, and it turns out that bad luck combo is relatively recent, while 13 on its own has been considered unlucky for centuries. The more you know. Colder air will finally make its way back into the Cedar Rapids area on Friday, which could lead to some storms on Friday afternoon. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny during the day, with a high near 84 degrees. There is a chance for rain listed after noon, but this will reach its highest probability Friday night. Even then, the chance for precipitation is currently only 40 percent. And after a week of record breaking high temperatures, this weekend’s weather is looking quite pleasant. Testimony ended Thursday in the trial of the Grundy Center man accused of shooting and killing Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Jim Smith in 2021, https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/defense-wont-put-on-case-in-trooper-slaying/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-13 (with the defense not calling any of its own witnesses). The defense indicated it wasn't calling anyone to testify, and the accused, Michael Thomas Lang, 42, told the court he wasn’t going to take the stand either. One of Lang's attorneys, Aaron Hawbaker, said Lang's decision to testify was related to his inability to argue the killing was in self defense. Judge Joel Dalrymple had previously ruled that the actions of law enforcement during the arrest were lawful, so arguing that Lang killed Smith in self defense was not a valid argument for the defense to pursue. Dalyrmple also gave the jury Thursday and Friday off to give more time for jury instructions to reduce the possibility of a mistrial. Smith, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, was the second Iowa State Patrol trooper to be shot and killed in the line of duty. He is survived by his wife and two children. The second of two teens accused of murdering a Fairfield High School Spanish teacher https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/judge-rules-2nd-fairfield-teen-to-be-tried-as-adult/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-13 (had his request to move his trial to juvenile court denied) on Thursday. The attorneys for 16-year-old Willard Noble Chaiden Miller had argued that he would benefit from the rehabilitation opportunities provided in the juvenile detention system, but the judge denied this request, like he did for Jeremy Everett Goodale, 17, the day before. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/fairfield-police-2-students-murdered-spanish-teacher-from-their-high-school/ (Both teens are charged with first-degree murder )and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony in the killing of Nohema Graber. Her body was found in a park near the school Nov. 3. About 13 months after the NCAA approved a policy allowing collegiate athletes to transfer once without having to wait a year to play, Iowa athletics director Gary Barta is “pursuing” a repeal of the rule. “OK, if we can’t totally control name, image and likeness, then let’s go back and put a one-year — if you transfer, you can transfer, you don’t have to lose your scholarship, but you must sit out a year,” Barta saidhttps://open.spotify.com/episode/46fryKBsl3BmgAr5hbSnwm?si=bdc7cf03874d4b7e ( on the athletics department’s Fight for Iowa podcast.) The increasing volume of NIL deals — and the efforts by boosters to lure recruits or transfers to their schools via NIL — has prompted the concerns that there may be bidding wars over coveted players. Barta argued that making players sit out a year after transferring would give some institutional control back to athletic departments. Barta has plenty of influence among his peers in collegiate athletics, having recently served on the College
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, May 12. It has felt like thunderstorm friendly weather for a few days now and late Thursday into Friday might be when they finally show up. But this will only be after we experience another sunny, hot, and humid day. The high for the Cedar Rapids area is predicted to be a balmy 91 degrees during the day with partly sunny skies. Storms could develop Thursday into Friday as cold air fights its way back into the mix. Friday will see an increased chance for storms, possibly severe ones. A judge Wednesday rejected a request from the teen accused of murdering a high school teacher to have https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/judge-denies-sending-murder-case-to-juvenile-court-for-a-fairfield-teen/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-11 (his case transferred from adult court, where he faces harsher penalties if convicted). Judge Shawn Showers cited what authorities said was 17-year-old Jeremy Everett Goodale’s active role in planning the murder last year of Fairfield High School Spanish language teacher https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/fairfield-teens-charged-with-murder-argue-confidential-documents-shouldnt-be-made-public/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-11 (Nohema Graber, 66, )along with “gathering the necessary supplies” to complete the “brutal” act and steps taken afterword to conceal the body and crime. Goodale and https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/fairfield-teen-accused-of-killing-teacher-ripe-for-rehab-psychologist-testifies/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-11 (Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, 16, )are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony in the killing of Graber, who was their Spanish teacher. Her body was found in a park near the school Nov. 3. Goodale was 16 at the time of the killing. The number of new COVID-19 cases in Iowa has nearly tripled in the past four weeks, and Linn and Johnson counties are once more considered to be “high transmission” counties by federal health authorities. https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/iowa-covid-19-case-counts-triple-over-three-week-period/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-11 (The state on Wednesday reported 3,172 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days), compared to the 1,063 new cases reported in a seven-day period a month ago. The upturn is because of the highly contagious omicron subvariant, BA.2, which has become the dominant coronavirus strain in the Midwest and the rest of the country. A severe shortage in baby formula has https://www.thegazette.com/government-politics/iowa-congressional-members-candidate-call-for-action-on-baby-formula-shortage/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-11 (drawn the attention of members of Iowa’s congressional delegation) and has become a campaign issue as well. Spot shortages in many groceries and pharmacies have been worsened by a FDA recall that stopped production at Abbot’s largest U.S. formula manufacturing plant in Michigan. As supply disruptions and the massive safety recall have continued, several big box retailers have begun rationing sales of the formula. After hearing about the scarcity at his county meetings, Grassley https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_to_fda_-_baby_formula_shortage.pdf (wrote) the FDA to ask what it is doing to address the shortage. He cited reports that at least 40 percent of baby formula supplies in the U.S. are completely depleted. Iowa was among six mostly...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 11. The weather should be sunny and hot again on Wednesday with a chance for thunderstorms on Wednesday night. The high in the Cedar Rapids area should top out at about 88 degrees. There will be a lingering chance of thunderstorms before 1 a.m. but the chance for thunderstorms looks to be below 20 percent. The low temperature will still be nearly 70 degrees, which, if you recall, would have been considered a pleasant high temperature just a week ago. It turns out having almost half of your council members with conflicts of interest on an issue makes it hard to vote on it. With four of nine City Council members facing conflicts requiring they recuse themselves from voting on the Cedar Rapids Country Club’s expansion plans, https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/cedar-rapids-city-council-tables-vote-on-country-clubs-expansion-plans/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=name_heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-10 (the five voting members Tuesday tabled consideration) to give the Country Club more time to meet conditions that would address neighbors’ concerns. The council’s move delays the Country Club’s plans to expand over seven residential lots and potentially vacated Fairway Terrace SE right of way to develop a tennis complex and courts, expand the parking lot and modify the driving range to increase amenities for members. Several dozen residents, mostly from Country Club Heights, petitioned against the requests, though most speaking at the meeting slightly favored the project, provided the club meet conditions to make the facility more compatible with the neighborhood. Controversy continues to brew at Linn-Mar, as Governor Kim Reynolds visited to speak with concerned parents about the district's transgender policies. It also turns out that Linn-Mar school board member Matt Rollingerhttps://www.thegazette.com/k/linn-mar-school-board-member-matt-rollinger-did-not-share-with-school-board-after-being-invited-to/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=name_heres_your_daily_briefing_from_the_gazette&utm_term=2022-05-10 ( did not alert the rest of the school board that he was having a private meeting with Gov. Reynolds and U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson). Rollinger claimed he did not attend the meeting in his capacity as a board member. About 40 people spoke at the meeting with the governor were concerned about new policies that spell out inclusive practices for transgender students recently passed by the Linn-Mar school board, Rollinger said. The event was not open to the media, and the governor's spokesman said the meeting was private. The discussion was similar to an April 25 school board meeting that elicited four hours of public comment, with the majority of the 76 speakers opposing the policies, Rollinger said. Some speakers who opposed the policies called them “woke,” cited the exclusion of parents or guardians and said they were unChristian. Rollinger said he did speak at the meeting other than to thank the two elected officials for coming. “I very specifically said I am here speaking on my own behalf,” Rollinger said as Linn-Mar school board members asked him about his role in the meeting. While Rollinger said he was not there as a representative of the school board, later he said he went to “hear his constituents’ concerns.” A Cedar Rapids teen pleaded to lesser charges and was sentenced to probation Tuesday in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old who attempted to steal marijuana from him in 2020. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/judge-orders-house-arrest-for-18-year-old-charged-in-fatal-shooting/ (Kyler Carson, now 18,) initially faced voluntary manslaughter and other charges. He pleaded to possession with intent to distribute marijuana with the use of a firearm, assault, obstruction of prosecution and carrying weapons.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 10. It is going to be warm again Tuesday, with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near 87 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be a 20 percent chance for showers after 1 p.m. and continuing through Wednesday. The low should be around 68 degrees. With no news Monday on the disappearance of city employee Erik Spaw, his mother offered a possible explanation of what might have happened, and why his assigned waterworks fleet pickup was found submerged in the Cedar River on Saturday. Karen Spaw, 88, of Cedar Rapids, told The Gazette on Monday that her 54-year-old son has Type 1 diabetes and may have passed out from low blood sugar and driven into the river. Her son, she said, had been having a hard time regulating his blood sugar and insulin intake recently and that his blood sugar had dropped dangerously low several times. Crews continued searching the river for Spaw on Monday, using boats and a K-9 officer. They reported having no updates on day 3 of the search. Spaw, who has worked for the city for more than 20 years according to his mother, worked a Friday evening shift at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant. The unoccupied water department fleet pickup assigned to Spaw was later found in the river near Ellis Road NW on Saturday. A Navy seaman from Independence who was killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor will finally be laid to rest in Iowa this Saturday. David F. Tidball, 20, a seaman first class, was on the USS Oklahoma, which sustained multiple torpedo hits, causing it to capsize. His body was recently identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, and he will be buried at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Independence. The graveside service will be open to the public. When Tidball died, he was survived by his parents and three siblings. Only nieces and nephews remain to commemorate him, according to hhttps://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/wcfcourier/name/david-tidball-obituary?id=34614995 (is obituary.) Tidball was one of 429 USS Oklahoma crewmen who died, all of whom were buried in the Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries, according to a news release from the https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/2663096/uss-oklahoma-sailor-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-tidball-d/ (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency). The remains of the seamen were disinterred in 1947, when the American Graves Registration Service was assigned to recover and identify fallen U.S. military personnel in the Pacific Theater. The bodies were brought to the Central Identification Laboratory, where 35 men from the USS Oklahoma were identified. The rest, including Tidball, were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. Their remains were classified as non-recoverable. The Biden administration announced on Monday that 20 internet companies including Mediacom, have agreed to provide discounted service to low-income Americans, a program that could effectively make tens of millions of households eligible for free service through an already existing federal subsidy. According to the Associated Press, thttps://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144 (he $1 trillion infrastructure package) passed by Congress last year included $14.2 billion funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides $30 monthly subsidies ($75 in tribal areas) on internet service for millions of lower-income households. With the new commitment from the internet providers, some 48 million households will be eligible for $30 monthly plans for 100 megabits per second, or higher speed, service — making internet service fully paid for with the government subsidy if they sign up with one of the providers...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, May 9th. Today, expect partly sunny skies, with a high near 85, according to the National Weather Service. Breezy, with a southeast wind around 25 mph, and gusts as high as 40 mph. Then tonight, a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66. Winds from the south, 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts are possible in thunderstorms. Crews continued searching Sunday for a city of Cedar Rapids Water Division employee whose fleet truck was found submerged a day earlier in the Cedar River not far from where he was working. Authorities said that 54-year-old Erik Spaw of Cedar Rapids was working a Friday evening shift at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant, at 7807 Ellis Rd. Early Saturday, water division staff reported he had not returned to the J Avenue Water Treatment Plant after working most of his shift at the northwest plant. His own vehicle was found in the parking lot at the J Avenue plant, but the Utilities and Fleet Departments determined the last known location of Spaw’s assigned fleet vehicle was near Ellis Road NW. Crews found the city truck submerged in several feet of water about a mile upstream from the Edgewood River bridge. When the truck was brought to shore, though, there were no occupants found inside. Teams were using sonar-equipped boats and draglines Sunday to search the site and downstream in the river. Differences over a hard line on when to send U.S. troops to Ukraine and over ethanol policy were among the few contrasts to emerge during a televised debate Saturday night between the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate in Iowa. Mike Franken, a retired three-star admiral in the U.S. Navy from Sioux City, was the only candidate to establish a scenario under which he would send U.S. troops to Ukraine to assist in the country’s defense against Russia’s military invasion, which is in its third month. Abby Finkenauer, a former congresswoman and state legislator from Cedar Rapids, and Glenn Hurst, a physician from Minden, both said the United States should support economic sanctions on Russia and provide assistance like weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but should not devote U.S. troops. Finkenauer, Franken and Hurst are vying for the Democratic Party’s nomination in Iowa’s 2022 U.S. Senate campaign. The incumbent is Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is running for an eighth six-year term. He also faces a primary challenge, from Sioux City lawyer and state legislator Jim Carlin. — 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, May 7, and Sunday, May 8. Happy Mother’s Day Weekend. There should be some happy weather for the weekend. According to the National Weather Service forecast Saturday will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high of 70 degrees and a mild wind of 5 to 10 mph. On Sunday there will be a chance for rain but it only looks to be a slight one at the moment, with mostly cloudy skies and a high near 68 degrees. Then, all of a sudden, it will be genuine shorts weather next week, with high temperatures reaching the 80s and possibly even the 90s. So enjoy those two days of pleasant spring weather, it might be all we get this year. 22 people exposed to elevated levels of carbon monoxide were taken to local hospitals Friday afternoon as fire crews responded to alarms sounding at a southwest quadrant transportation and logistics company. According to a fire department news release, crews were called about 2:30 p.m. to the warehouse and office of NFI Interactive Logistics in southwest Cedar Rapids. Alarms to detect carbon monoxide were sounding and first responders found “multiple employees feeling unwell.” Firefighters and Area Ambulance crews treated employees for possible carbon monoxide exposure and 22 people were transported to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s and Mercy Medical Center for what authorities said was “a precaution for further assessment and treatment.” Crews said they isolated the facility’s gas lines but the incident remained under investigation. A Cedar Rapids man has been charged with vehicular homicide and operating while intoxicated following https://www.thegazette.com/news/crash-kills-motorcyclist-at-i-380-and-highway-30/ (a crash that killed a motorcyclist Thursday )afternoon. Carlos Garcia, 39, was driving south on Interstate 380 Thursday in a black Buick SUV when he started toward the exit ramp to Highway 30 east. He then veered away from the exit ramp, through a grassy divide, and back onto I-380 where he hit the motorcycle, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department. The driver of the motorcycle, Jeffery Lankford, 53, of Cedar Rapids, was in the southbound inside lane. He was thrown from the motorcycle and pinned against the median cables dividing the north and southbound lanes of I-380 and died at the scene, according to a criminal complaint against Garcia. Along with the vehicular homicide and drunken-driving charges, Garcia faces additional charges of driving with a suspended license, interference with official acts, disarming a police officer and cocaine possession, according to the complaint. Starting May 3, 2023, the federal government will require a driver’s license or ID card with the “Real ID” mark for air travel and when entering a federal building. Anyone without one starting on that date will be required to provide additional identification. But just less than a year out from the deadline, roughly 2 in 5 Iowans have not yet obtained the Real ID. To get a Real ID in Iowa, individuals must make an appointment to appear in person at an Iowa DOT facility or receive service in person at a county issuance location. The process cannot be completed online. To get the ID stamp of approval you must provide the DOT with proof of identity, proof of security, and two documents proving Iowa residency. There are examples of all three of these categories on the Iowa DOT website, so just something to keep in mind as you’re doing your spring cleaning this weekend.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 6. There will be a chance for showers Friday, mostly before 1 p.m. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 30 percent chance for rain Friday morning. Besides that it will be mostly cloudy with a high of 61 degrees. We should have a break from the rain from Friday afternoon through Saturday, so there will be some nice spring weather for you to enjoy. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds does not expect any abortion-related legislation to be passed during the current legislative session, which is nearly at its end. Reynolds told reporters Thursday that the plan instead is to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court’s official ruling on an abortion-related case, and then determine a path forward in Iowa. Earlier this week, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473 (Politico reported) that the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that protects a woman’s right to an abortion. If this happens the expectation is that abortion laws will be dictated by individual states. All that remains for this Iowa legislative session are the bills that set spending for the next state budget. There is also an ongoing impasse over legislation that would create taxpayer-funded scholarships for private school tuition assistance. A motorcyclist was killed Thursday afternoon in a crash on southbound Interstate 380 near the intersection with Highway 30. Police said they were questioning the driver of a black Buick sport utility vehicle they say struck the cyclist and are expecting to seek charges, but they did not say what the charges would be. The name of the cyclist killed in the accident has not yet been released. Authorities say police officers and fire crews were dispatched at 3:56 p.m. to the scene. A preliminary investigation showed the SUV driver planned to exit I-380 and head east on Highway 30. But the SUV veered away from the exit ramp through a grassy divide, and back onto the interstate where it crashed with the motorcycle. Police said the motorcycle driver was thrown from the cycle, dying from injuries sustained in a crash between the SUV and restraining cables dividing the north and south lanes of I-380. The driver of the SUV was uninjured. University of Iowa Health Care has joined a clinical trial to study new regimens of COVID-19 booster shots. The Iowa City-based health care system is participating in a new Phase 2 clinical trial that will test booster vaccines in various combinations to determine which provide the best immune response against existing and emerging COVID-19 variants. The trial will study six combinations of new and existing booster shots developed by Moderna. As more variants emerge, the study aims to prepare for future virus variants that can evade protection from current COVID-19 vaccines. The intent is to finetune future vaccines to prevent breakthrough infections. Including the University of Iowa, the clinical trial is being conducted at 24 sites.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, May 5. Back to rain again Thursday and Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 40 percent chance of rain in the Cedar Rapids area mainly after noon and this will jump up to 80 percent by Thursday evening. Otherwise it will be cloudy with a high temperature near 54 degrees. Toyota Financial Services will eliminate 322 positions in Cedar Rapids, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with Iowa Workforce Development on Monday. The move is not entirely unexpected. In March 2021, the company said https://www.thegazette.com/business/toyota-financial-services-to-relocate-cedar-rapids-customer-service-center-that-employs-600/?amp=1 (it would relocate its customer service center )that at the time employed 600 within the next two years. The service centers are to be consolidated to Chandler, Ariz., Plano, Texas, and Alpharetta, Ga. Vincent Bray, corporate communications senior manager, told The Gazette in an email Wednesday “that every team member in good standing at Cedar Rapids who wanted to continue with the organization has been offered a position at one of our other locations.” The number of new COVID-19 cases continued to increase in Iowa in the past week, but the number of coronavirus deaths in the state remains low. The state added 2,114 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days, up 23 percent from the 1,716 new cases reported last week, according to new data from the Iowa Department of Public Health. New cases have been increasing steadily in Iowa for more than a month as the omicron subvariant, BA.2, has become the dominant coronavirus strain in the Midwest and the rest of the country. Despite this, hospitalizations only ticked up slightly this week. There also was some good news on deaths from the virus. On Wednesday, the state public health department confirmed four deaths as a result of the coronavirus in Iowa — the lowest number of deaths confirmed in one week since the pandemic began, data shows. If you stream it, people might get Peacock. Probably not, but it’s worth a try. This summer, a new diamond in the rough will be created in the Des Moines area for a seven-part Field of Dreams prequel series to be streamed next year on Peacock. The show will take a deeper dive into the backstory and characters from the original film, said Liz Gilman, film commissioner with Produce Iowa, the State Office of Media Production, based in Des Moines. The cast hasn’t been announced yet, but Gilman has been told people will recognize the names. She also hasn’t heard if Kevin Costner, who starred in the original film, will be attached to the production. Shooting is slated for Polk County, Boone, Oskaloosa and Clinton, and Iowans are invited to get in on the action. Other scenes will be shot in Minneapolis, Boston and Los Angeles.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 4. Wednesday will be a day mostly free of rain for a change, although it will start off with some frost. According to the National Weather Service there will be patchy frost in the Cedar Rapids area before 7 a.m. Otherwise it will be mostly sunny with a high near 61 degrees. There will be a slight chance of rain Wednesday night but Thursday morning is looking more likely as when showers will return. With persistent rain and lingering cool temperatures, corn planting in Iowa is 11 days later than last year and nine days behind the five-year average. Soybeans are nine days behind 2021 and five days behind the five-year average, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship https://iowaagriculture.gov/news/weekly-crop-progress-report-5222 (reported Monday.) On a positive note, April showers have helped ease drought conditions in Eastern Iowa. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows 15 Eastern Iowa counties, including Linn and Johnson, still are “abnormally dry,” but that dry area shrunk in the https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?IA (most recent weekly report.) Abortion — for now — likely would remain legal in Iowa up to the 20th week of pregnancy, even if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its landmark 1973 ruling that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion, as was reported Monday night. But the timing of both U.S. and Iowa Supreme Court rulings could complicate matters. An overturn of Roe v. Wade would return the authority over abortion regulations to the states, and the Iowa Supreme Court has issued multiple recent rulings striking down attempted abortion restrictions by Iowa Republicans including a three-day waiting period and a ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. The latter ruling stated that a woman’s right to an abortion is a protected, fundamental right in Iowa. Which means the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, on its own, would not change Iowa’s state abortion regulations. However, the Iowa Supreme Court is currently considering another recently passed abortion restriction, requiring a one-day waiting period. And Iowa Republicans earlier this year filed legal briefs asking the court to overturn its 2019 order striking down the ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. If the Iowa Supreme Court overturns its previous ruling, and the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, then Iowa Republicans would be legally clear to pass abortion restrictions. Both rulings could come this summer. A teenager moving “very fast” under downtown bridges spanning the Cedar River was rescued Monday night near the 12th Avenue Bridge. First responders were called at 8:50 p.m. to the Third Avenue Bridge where they spotted the male teen “moving downstream very fast past bridges over the river,” according to news release from the Cedar Rapids fire department. Firefighters hung ropes over the side of a bridge for the teen grab onto, and he was able to hang on for a while until his grip gave out. Meanwhile, other firefighters were getting into position to catch the teen downstream, with more ropes hung from bridges and a swift water boat crew launched from Valor Way. The boat crew was able to reach the teen just before 12th Avenue Bridge, where more ropes were waiting to catch him if needed. The boat crew brought the young man back up stream to awaiting ambulance personnel. He was taken to Mercy Medical Center for medical evaluation. The fire department did not state how the teen ended up in the water.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 3. Tuesday will start rainy before gradually becoming more clear. According to the National Weather Service, rain from Monday night will carry over into Tuesday morning until around 10 a.m. It should reach a high of around 51 degrees, with the skies eventually shifting from mostly cloudy into mostly clear by Tuesday night. The low Tuesday night is predicted at 38 degrees. Politico reported late Monday night that The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision protecting women’s rights to abortion, according to a draft majority opinion circulated inside the court. Politico said it obtained the initial draft majority opinion, which was signed by Justice Samuel Alito. The decision has not been released, yet, but this is in line with the way the majority of justices indicated they were leaning after they heard legal arguments on the subject last December. The immediate impact of the ruling, as drafted in February, would be to end the half-century-old guarantee of federal constitutional protection of abortion rights and allow each state to decide whether to restrict or ban abortions. Iowa Republican lawmakers have recently tried to restrict abortion several times before getting stopped up by court challenges. They indicated earlier this legislative session that such a decision by the Supreme Court would encourage them to try again, so they were content to wait until it arrived. Bridge Under the Bridge is in search of a new location after Linn County notified the nonprofit it needed to move from its spot under the Eighth Avenue SW bridge where it has provided free hot meals to people in need since the 2020 derecho. The organization formed after the Aug. 10, 2020, derecho pummeled Cedar Rapids was ordered to remove its equipment and food trailer from the site under Interstate 380 along Eighth Avenue SW, near the Linn County Juvenile Justice Center, after the county says a time frame lapsed for the couple to clean the site after numerous complaints from neighbors. The nonprofit was offered a few different locations and will make an announcement later this week about a final selection, The state will pay an $8 million settlement, believed to be one of the largest in state history, to the family of a Quad Cities-area man who was left unable to walk after being struck by an Iowa Department of Transportation snowplow blade in 2019. The State Appeals Board approved the deal at its regular meeting Monday afternoon. The $8 million settlement is believed to be one of, if not the largest, in state history, according to spokespeople for multiple state agencies. It is more than the state panel approved for all settlements in the entirety of the 2021 state budget year, and also more than five of six fiscal years between 2013 and 2018. According to state records, on Jan. 23, 2019, the blade of a snowplow owned by the Iowa DOT struck Terry Bunting, of Silvis, Ill., on Highway 67 in Scott County, causing serious injuries. In 2019, Bunting told WQAD-TV in Davenport that he was on his mail route through LeClaire when his windshield wipers began freezing over. He pulled off the interstate and pulled over to clean his wipers. As he was returning to his truck, he was struck by the snowplow blade.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, May 2nd. Today we can expect increasing clouds, with a high near 57, and a 10 percent chance of showers after 5 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. Winds from the northwest around 5 mph becoming north in the afternoon. Then tonight, showers before 1 a.m., then showers and possibly a thunderstorm between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., then showers after 4 a.m. And a low around 47. Police responding early Saturday to reports of gunfire found a person who had been shot and suffering non-life-threatening injuries. Police said the incident happened before 1 a.m. in the 1100 block of K Street SW. The victim, who they did not identify, was transported to a hospital. Police said the shooting also caused property damage to a vehicle and residence. Authorities said the shooting was under investigation and no arrests had been made. Police believe it was a targeted incident and there is not a threat to the public. Soon, 16- and 17-year-old workers at child care centers in Iowa will be able to work unsupervised, and all workers will be allowed to oversee more children, if Gov. Kim Reynolds signs into law legislation headed her way. The Iowa Legislature approved the bill last week with mostly Republican support. They said the proposal will help child care centers to address critical staffing shortages. Democrats warned that the legislation will not address the shortage in a meaningful way because most centers will choose to not take advantage of the loosened regulations. And in the cases where centers do, Democrats warned it could create dangerous scenarios. — 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1. Heavy rain will be most likely early Saturday morning before mostly clearing off, with a small chance for more rain the rest of the weekend. According to the National Weather Service showers and thunderstorms should mostly clear out of the Cedar Rapids area by 8 a.m. Saturday. After that it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 67 degrees. It will be quite breezy, with wind gusts as high as 30 mph. On Sunday the slight chance for rain will remain, with the high temperature dropping to 53 degrees with cloudy skies. Early indications are that it will be similarly soggy for the coming week as well. Linn County Board of Supervisors Chair Ben Rogers called Friday for the board to increase again to five members after voters – upset at six-figure salaries – whittled it down to three members in 2016. Rogers made his remarks during the annual State Of Linn County address, held in-person for the first time since 2019 because of the pandemic at The Hotel at Kirkwood Center. https://www.thegazette.com/article/linn-county-supervisors-say-they-want-2-more-colleagues/ (In Linn County, the number of elected members on the Board of Supervisors has changed twice in the last two decades. )It increased from three to five members in 2006, and decreased back down to three in 2016. Rogers, who has addressed the issue before, cited the increasing workload and the complexity of issues as well as the ability to talk one-on-one with colleagues as reasons to increase the number of supervisors. He also said that having 3 supervisors leads to worse representation, particularly for rural parts of the county. Although the 2020 derecho’s hurricane-force winds toppled thousands of trees around Cedar Rapids, the city of Cedar Rapids was named a Tree City USA for the 44th year. The award is presented by the Arbor Day Foundation and Iowa Department of Natural Resources to communities that show a dedication to the importance of trees. Cedar Rapids has received this award for more consecutive years than any other city in Iowa. Cedar Rapids in February adopted the https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/cedar-rapids-city-council-to-adopt-37-million-releaf-plan-to-recover-from-devastating-derecho-tre/#:~:text=The%20%2437%20million%20ReLeaf%20plan,changes%20that%20would%20result%20in (ReLeaf plan )to reforest the tree canopy lost in the derecho over a 10-year period. The plan is part of a public-private partnership with Marion-based nonprofit Trees Forever. The plan provides a comprehensive urban reforestation model. Officials believe Cedar Rapids’ tree loss is perhaps the biggest urban forestry disaster in U.S. history, and in crafting this plan aimed to provide the premier reforestation model for communities grappling with devastating tree loss. According to the Associated Press, a man charged with shooting and killing an Iowa State Patrol trooper last year in Grundy Center plans to plead self-defense. Michael Lang, 42, is scheduled to stand trial May 9 in the April 9, 2021, shooting death of patrol Sgt. Jim Smith. Lang is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and assaulting a police officer. Smith, a 27-year patrol veteran, was shot as he led a team of officers into Lang's home in Grundy Center. Police say Lang had barricaded himself inside the home after assaulting another officer after a traffic pursuit earlier in the day.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, April 29. It will be warmer Friday but the chance for rain will remain. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for showers, with thunderstorms possible, after 10 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. The listed high is 65 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. Rain becomes even more likely Friday night, jumping from 40 percent to 90 percent probability, with new rainfall amounts between a quarter and a half an inch possible. The low should be close to the high temperatures earlier in the week, settling in at 56 degrees. Several petitions are circulating through the Iowa State University community opposing changes to its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences — specifically its history department — after administrators earlier this year announced $15 million in cuts by the 2026 budget year. The petition references Iowa State’s recent decision to exit the prestigious Association of American Universities after 64 years, which the school did after criticizing the AAU ranking system — noting it favors “institutions with medical schools and associated medical research funding.” Also circulating are two separate petitions opposing proposals to eliminate the ISU Department of History’s graduate programs. All of this comes as the university https://www.thegazette.com/article/iowa-iowa-state-liberal-arts-colleges-face-budget-woes-cuts/ (in February announced )a need to “right-size its budget in response to changing enrollment and student demand, as well as position the college for future success.” An Iowa City clinical psychologist Thursday said one of the Fairfield teens charged with killing a Spanish teacher with a baseball bat would benefit from juvenile court treatment and rehabilitation services — if moved out of adult court — but admitted there is no specific programming for homicide defendants. Psychologist Brenda Payne, who testified for the defense during a hearing to determine if the murder case against https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/fairfield-teens-charged-with-murder-argue-confidential-documents-shouldnt-be-made-public/ (Jeremy Goodale, 17,) should be transferred to juvenile court, said she conducted several tests to help form her opinion. She tested the teen’s intellectual, executive, emotional and personality functioning. He is “bright,” has “above average” problem solving skills and no mental health issues. Goodale is the first of two teens seeking to have their cases transferred from adult court to juvenile court, where they could face lesser charges and penalties if convicted. Goodale and Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, 16, are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony in the killing of Nohema Graber, 66, the Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School. Her body was found in a park near the school in November. A 73-year-old man died Wednesday morning after a farming accident in rural Linn County, according to authorities. According to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, Stephen Jay Martin, of Springville, had been operating a field processor near the intersection of Bowdish Road and Whittier Road north of Springville when he stopped to make some adjustments to the equipment. Martin appeared to have slipped and fallen, causing an injury which resulted in his death. Martin’s family discovered the incident and called law enforcement. Linn County deputies, sheriff’s rescue, Central City Fire and Center Point Ambulance responded about 7:45 p.m. Next stop Baltimore for Tyler Linderbaum. The Ravens took the former Hawkeyes star center with the No. 25 pick in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Thursday’s selection marked the 19th time that an Iowa offensive lineman has been drafted in the Kirk Ferentz era.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, April 28. Thursday begins a run of days where it looks like there will be at least a chance for showers every day for the next week. In the case of Thursday, the chance is not very high. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for rain showers all day on Thursday, although the chance for precipitation never will exceed 50 percent all day. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 57 degrees. West Des Moines-based retailer Hy-Vee said Wednesday it will ask “up to 500 additional employees” to move from corporate-level jobs to retail positions at its stores, effectively laying them off. Hy-Vee in March https://www.thegazette.com/business/hy-vee-changes-aisles-online-sites-in-cedar-rapids/ (eliminated 121 corporate-level positions), with 102 of those employees offered retail positions at its stores. In addition to eliminating the corporate jobs, the company said it will be “pausing several projects — such as the new warehouse in Cumming, Iowa — to be resumed at a later date.” The company cited the current challenging business climate as a reason for the change.Hy-Vee said business is being challenged by rising inflation, increasing fuel and construction costs, and supply chain disruptions. An 18-year-old man is accused of strangling a woman on the University of Iowa campus until she lost consciousness and then stealing her earrings, valued at $20,000. Ali Alfred Younes of Iowa City was arrested Tuesday on charges of first-degree robbery and first-degree theft. A criminal complaint states that Younes was seen on video Monday night walking in the opposite direction from the woman on the Iowa Memorial Union footbridge. He turned around and jogged to catch up with the woman as she headed toward the Art Building West. He grabbed her from behind and tackled her to the ground. He rolled her over and strangled her until she passed out, then forcibly removed her earrings, according to the complaint. Younes was located by police using a combination of security camera footage and a description of the assailant given by the woman. He was arrested at his girlfriend’s house, where police conducted a search warrant and found the stolen earrings. The complaint states Younes admitted to police he stole the earrings because he believed the woman was dead. New COVID-19 cases and virus-related hospitalizations continued their upward momentum this week in Iowa. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,716 new coronavirus infections in the past seven days. That’s an increase from the 1,063 new cases reported last week. That also compares to the 478 cases reported four weeks ago. Johnson County had the highest seven-day positivity rate in the state in the past week — 247 positive tests per 100,000 residents. COVID-19 cases have increased across Iowa in recent weeks as a result of a new strain of the coronavirus that has arrived in force across the United States. Called BA. 2, it’s a new subvariant of omicron that has a short incubation period and a high rate of transmission, according to Dr. Dan Diekema, epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Fortunately, he said, the rate of increase in the community is not as steep as it was during the omicron surge, which peaked in mid-January.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 27. Wednesday will begin with what should be the last round of frost for the week before becoming another crisp day, with warmer weather and rain on the horizon. According to the National Weather Service, the frost will melt early in the Cedar Rapids area and the high will creep up to 54 degrees during the day. It will become increasingly cloudy and windy as the day moves on, with wind gusts of up to 20 mph increasing to 30 mph Wednesday night. Over $17,000 in donations and gifts meant for University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics patients — largely for those diagnosed with cancer — and families were unaccounted for, improperly used, unsupported or missing, the state auditor said in a report released Tuesday. Questions around former administrative specialist Anna Maria Hernandez’s handling of donations, gift cards and purchases prompted hospital officials to call on the auditor to investigate the UIHC Care Coordination Division in February 2021 Hernandez, 41, of Iowa City, had been the division’s administrative services specialist since July 1, 2018, but assumed many titles since starting there in 2006. An investigation into $1,350 in missing gift cards eventually led to administrators calling university police, and Hernandez was put on paid leave in November of 2020. She resigned that month, and the state launched an audit into the possible misuse of funds from 2012 to the end of 2020. One month after Hernandez resigned her position at UIHC, she was arrested on suspicion of misappropriating nearly $75,000 from the Fox Hallow Condominium Owner’s Association, for which she was the lone board member. According to a police report, she withdrew cash, wrote checks to herself, made wire transfers and linked her Venmo, CashApp, and PayPal accounts to the association’s bank account. More charges will be filed against a man accused of murder in a shooting at a Cedar Rapids nightclub, police said Tuesday. Timothy Rush, 32, is one of two suspects who have been arrested in relation to the shooting, which happened at Taboo nightclub on April 10. Rush originally received several charges in the shooting death of Nicole Owens, who was his girlfriend and the mother of his 1-year-old child. On Tuesday police charged him in connection with 5 of the 10 people who were injured during the shooting. One of these men who was injured, Marvin Cox, is still in the hospital in serious condition after being shot in the head. Another man was arrested near Chicago on April 18 in relation to the shooting. Dimione Walker, 29, was arrested by federal marshals and is being held in jail in Illinois until he can be extradited back to Iowa. He is being accused in the death of Michael Valentine. Iowa will become just the fourth state with 16 weeks or fewer of state unemployment benefits under legislation that needs only Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signature to become law. The reduction in state unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 16 was approved Tuesday by majority Republicans in the Iowa Legislature. Reynolds made a similar proposal earlier this year, and is likely to sign it into law. “I just think we need to be doing everything we can to encourage people to stay in the workforce and to stay in the game,” Reynolds said Tuesday. “ The legislation also changes the requirements for receiving unemployment payments while looking for work. Before the change, unemployed Iowans had six weeks that they could turn down jobs that paid less than their previous position while still receiving unemployment payments. With the new change, the job applicant would have to accept a job at 90 percent of their former pay at week 1, with this dropping 60 percent of their former pay by week 8. This is intended to pressure unemployed workers to either accept lesser paying jobs or to be cut off from unemployment payments. The bill passed on Tuesday with
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, April 26. Tuesday will start with widespread frost, but it will work its way into a pleasant, sunny day. According to the National Weather Service, the frost should melt away by 8 a.m. Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area. The sun will shine and the wind will be relatively calm, with a high of 54 degrees and wind speeds of 5 to 10 mph. The low will settle in around 34 degrees and another round of frost will arrive overnight.. A Cedar Rapids man was found dead Monday morning after police responded to a shots-fired call in the area of 12th Avenue and Auburn Drive SW. Dustin Frondle, 36, was found unresponsive at 3:13 a.m. He was suffering from a gunshot wound in his chest. CPR was initiated, but Frondle was declared dead at the scene, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department. Police said Monday that they believe the shooting was an isolated incident. Most Iowa gas stations would be required to sell the higher E15 blend of ethanol under legislation that soon could be headed to Gov. Kim Reynolds, who made the proposal to lawmakers. The Iowa Senate’s tax policy committee Monday approved Reynolds’ proposal after making some changes, including the addition of another way for small gas stations to receive an exemption from the proposed requirements and financial assistance for potential equipment upgrades. Lawmakers may debate and pass the bill out of both chambers Tuesday, which would send it to Reynolds’ desk for her signature. If the proposal is passed into law, all Iowa gas stations with at least two pumps would be required to make the corn-based E15 ethanol blend available for sale on at least one pump. E15 is a higher ethanol blend than E10, currently the most prominent ethanol blend sold at gas stations. The proposal, https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=HF2128 (House File 2128), has been a priority for Reynolds — who made a similar but more prescriptive proposal last year that didn’t gain enough traction in the Legislature. It is one of the few remaining pieces of legislation keeping state lawmakers from concluding their work for the 2022 legislative session. More than nine out of 10 U.S. small business owners say inflation, supply chain issues and worker shortages are having a negative effect on their businesses, according to a national survey published Monday by Goldman Sachs. According to the survey, 91 percent of small business owners said those economic trends are hurting their businesses. Seventy-three percent said increasing energy costs also are hurting their bottom lines. The survey report did not include state-level responses. According to the survey, nearly nine out of 10 small business owners believe the post-pandemic economic recovery has gone better for large businesses. Eighty-eight percent said small businesses are struggling relative to larger companies in their local communities.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, April 25th. Today in the Cedar Rapids area we can expect it to be partly sunny, with a high near 48, according to the National Weather Service. Winds from the northwest 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight, it should be mostly clear, with a low around 28. A man in the Cedar River, clinging to a concrete wall, was rescued Saturday afternoon by fire crews. Authorities said the man, who they did not identify, was spotted before 1 p.m. on the river’s west bank near First Avenue and First Street W. They did not say how he came to be in the water. Rescuers threw ropes over the wall to the man, who was growing weak holding on, and lowered a firefighter down to secure him. A boat was launched and crews plucked the man — and the firefighter — to safety. He was evaluated by an Area Ambulance crew, but the Fire Department said it does not know if the man was taken to a hospital. Former Vice President Mike Pence dropped by the Cedar Rapids Kernels game against the Peoria Chiefs Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium, along with U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson. Pence was also in western Iowa Saturday to join U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra in serving breakfast to delegates at Iowa’s Republican 4th Congressional District convention in Carroll at the high school. — 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, April 23, and Sunday, April 24. Enjoy the warm and sunny weather on Saturday because the rain is returning Saturday night, and the weather will return to cooler temperatures much of next week. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Saturday with a high near 78 degrees. It will also be breezy, with a wind of to 25 mph gusting as high as 40 mph. Saturday night there will be showers and possibly a thunderstorm, with a 90 percent chance of precipitation. The low temperature will be around 53 degrees. Rain will be possible again through Sunday morning. It should clear eventually, though, revealing sunny skies with a high near 63 degrees. On Sunday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 38 degrees. The high temperature will drop down to 50 degrees on Monday and the high temperatures will hover there for much of the week. According to a report from the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, Iowa is leading the nation so far this year in puppy mills that were sanctioned by the federal government. A national animal welfare group determined the ranking after a review of detailed inspection reports filed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the first quarter of 2022. The review indicates that so far in 2022, 19 of Iowa’s breeders and brokers of dogs and cats have been cited for violations — more than any other state in the nation. Missouri places second, with 16, and Wisconsin places third with 13. Violations included improper sanitation and housing for the animals, improper treatment of injured or sick animals, and housing too many animals in one space. Henry Dinkins, accused of killing 10-year-old Breasia Terrell, will have his trial in Linn County. Dinkins, 49, of Davenport, is accused of kidnapping Breasia on the morning of July 10, 2020, and shooting her, causing her death. Breasia was the half sister of Dinkins’ son, and investigators have said both children were staying the night with him at the apartment where he was living with a girlfriend. Her remains were found March 22, 2021, by two fishermen in a Clinton County pond. She had been missing for 9 months. The trial is scheduled for Oct. 17. Major League Baseball announced late Thursday morning that the https://www.thegazette.com/cedar-rapids-kernels (Cedar Rapids Kernels) and Quad Cities River Bandits are scheduled to meet for a Midwest League game Aug. 9 at the https://www.thegazette.com/field-of-dreams/ (Field of Dreams) movie site near Dyersville. This will be the second professional baseball game at the site, https://www.thegazette.com/sports/a-night-of-baseball-dreams-in-dyersville-with-a-movie-like-walk-off-ending/ (following last August’s MLB game) (the first ever in Iowa) between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox. The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds will play a regular-season game https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-announces-2022-field-of-dreams-game (Aug. 11 at the Field of Dreams). The Kernels and River Bandits will wear throwback jerseys from 1919 for their game. The Kernels, who officially will be the visiting team, will wear jerseys of the Cedar Rapids Bunnies, who they were known as from 1904 to 1932. Quad Cities will be the Davenport Blue Sox, their mascot during the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, April 22. We will be getting the wet part of spring some more on Friday, but at least now it will be joined by the warm part of spring. Showers and possibly a thunderstorm will visit the Cedar Rapids area, mainly before noon, then there will be a chance for showers and thunderstorms after noon. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. The high temperature is expected to be 71 degrees, with a low clocking in at a balmy 61 degrees. Sixty-four years after joining the prestigious Association of American Universities — an invitation-only member group of North America’s most elite comprehensive research universities — Iowa State University announced Thursday it’s leaving the group. “The decision to end AAU membership is driven by Iowa State's commitment to its mission, strengths and impact,” according to the ISU Provost Office. “While the university's core values have not changed since joining the association in 1958, the indicators used by AAU to rank its members have begun to favor institutions with medical schools and associated medical research funding.” Iowa’s Board of Regents, lawmakers and university executives — in appealing for state appropriations — have for years touted the state’s position of having two AAU research universities, considering its modest population, at ISU and the University of Iowa. In pleading for legislative funding, regents, UI and ISU have in the past warned of the threat of losing AAU status — which comes with international prestige, helpful in recruiting both faculty and students, and access to AAU grants and funding. Cities will have fewer options to regulate where fireworks can be sold under legislation signed into law Thursday by Gov. Kim Reynolds, who approved more than two dozen measures. Under the new law, cities including Cedar Rapids and Iowa City will no longer be able to restrict firework sales to only certain zoning categories, like industrial, a regulation the cities made in response to citizen complaints and a rise in injuries. Republicans who called for the new measure said it stops cities from attempting to, in effect, ban fireworks sales. City officials said the law will make it more difficult to prevent fireworks from being sold in potentially dangerous locations. With COVID-19 activity on the rise in Eastern Iowa as a result of a new coronavirus subvariant, a local public health expert is again emphasizing the importance of vaccinations and other safety measures to protect others. Johnson County has seen elevated transmission rates and growing case counts in recent weeks as a result of BA.2, a subvariant of omicron that is rapidly spreading across the United States, according to Dr. Dan Diekema, epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Fortunately, Diekema said, the rate of increase in the community is not as steep as it was during the omicron surge, which peaked in mid-January. “I don’t think anyone expects it to reach anywhere near the level’s of the (omicron) surge we saw back in January, and in part, that’s because the immune response from infection or from vaccination seems to be cross-protective between (omicron) and BA.2,” Diekema said. He added, “So we are seeing an increase, but it’s not exponential. It’s of concern, but not at the same rate that we saw with (omicron).”
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, April 21. Thursday will feature a break from the rain and some warmer temperatures. According to the National Weather Service the predicted high temperature for the day should be 68 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The day will start mostly cloudy before gradually clearing throughout the day. But Thursday night into Friday morning the rain and high winds will return, with the highest chance of rain will be Friday morning. How to deal with rising gas prices? How about a 4 day work week? With gas prices still hovering around record levels — and Iowa’s college and university campuses facing a budgetary quandary in the form of inflation — Kirkwood Community College is rolling out a pilot program this summer to close campus offices on Fridays. The average national price for regular unleaded gas reached $4.33 a gallon in March — setting a record. The U.S. average was down to $4.11 Wednesday, with Iowa averaging $3.86, according to AAA. A year ago the national average was $2.87 a gallon. Kirkwood’s pilot four-day workweek applies to office employees. It doesn’t affect course and student schedules, which have been set for summer and fall and include Friday classes on campus. Excluded from Kirkwood’s four-day summer schedule are the facilities department and The Hotel at Kirkwood Center. The Marion City Council at a meeting Tuesday leaned slightly toward a future aquatic center without a wave pool, but they are leaving the option open to add one. Marion Parks and Recreation Director Seth Staashelm presented the council with three options for the project during a Tuesday night work session. Each option differed in estimated pricing and space needed to complete it. Last yearhttps://www.thegazette.com/article/marion-presents-new-aquatic-center-concepts-with-large-slides-lazy-river-and-wave-pool/ (, more than 1,300 residents responded to a city survey) about the future aquatic center, exceeding the city’s goal of hearing from 500 to 600 people. The Marion Municipal Swimming Pool at 1855 35th St. opened in 1987 and has seen attendance drop in the past few years, Staashelm previously told The Gazette. The aging facility is also experiencing ongoing and increasing maintenance. COVID-19 activity in Iowa is on the rise, according to data from the state public health department released Wednesday. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,063 new infections in the past seven days, an increase from the 900 new cases reported last week. That compares to the 930 cases reported the week before, and the 478 new cases reported three weeks ago. The totals are still far below the Jan. 19 omicron surge, when 38,500 new cases were reported for the week. COVID-19 patients in intensive care reached an all-time low this week, totaling just two patients statewide as of Wednesday. Last week, seven patients were in intensive care. The previous all-time low was reported two weeks ago, when six COVID-19 patients were in intensive care in Iowa. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 20. Warmer weather is on its way and with that comes a chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for rain all of Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area but showers and potentially a thunderstorm should appear after 1 p.m. The high temperature is expected to be 52 degrees with a listed chance for precipitation at the day at 100 percent. On Wednesday night the temperature will drop down to 39 degrees and the chance for rain down to 50 percent. The forecast for the week has high temperatures in the 70s and more chances for rain at the end of the week. A decision by a federal judge in Florida to https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-business-travel-tampa-3408cc825582126fbda5fbedd3a49dd3 (throw out a national mask mandate for public transportation across the Uni)ted States has created a confusing patchwork of rules for passengers as they navigate airports and transit systems. The ruling gives airports, mass transit systems, airlines and ride-hailing services the option to keep mask rules or ditch them entirely, resulting in rules that vary by city and mode of transportation. The White House on Tuesday signaled they might appeal the ruling but only if the Center for Disease Control tells them the continuation of mandates are warranted. Locally the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids posted on Twitter Tuesday morning that, “Passengers, employees and guests are no longer required to wear masks or face coverings in the terminal.” Many airlines have also announced that masks are no longer required on flights. Public transit in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids will no longer require passengers to wear masks following the ruling. Coralville Transit also lifted its mask mandates for public transit following the court ruling and a statement from the Transportation Security Administration. The panel undertaking a once-in-a-decade review of Cedar Rapids’ governing document is considering whether to recommend an overhaul of the local electoral system to do away with runoff elections and instead establish ranked choice voting, should it become allowed under state law. Prompted by a contentious and https://www.thegazette.com/campaigns-elections/heading-into-cedar-rapids-mayoral-runoff-tiffany-odonnell-outraises-amara-andrews/ (costly )local election cycle last November, the changes the Charter Review Commission may recommend to the City Council are intended to simplify voting, promote fair and nonpartisan elections and offer a solution to low-turnout, more expensive runoff contests. A majority of the three-person working group that reviewed Article III of Cedar Rapids’ charter recommended adding language to the document to switch to a ranked-choice system if Iowa lawmakers ever move to adopt it. The group also is recommending adjusting council member terms so the five district representatives would be voted on in one election year, then two years later the three at-large seats and mayor would be on the ballot. For at-large elections resulting in multiple winners, the group recommended the “single transferable voting” method — similar to “instant runoff,” but for multi-member vacancies. To decide a contest, voters rank all candidates. Votes are transferred if a candidate reaches a certain quota to be elected, or from the least-popular candidates — once eliminated in initial tallies — to other candidates based on the preference indicated by the voter. Several citizens and members of nonprofit election reform group Better Ballot Iowa have written to the commission urging consideration of ranked choice voting. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, April 19. It will become increasingly cloudy during the day, Tuesday, with rain arriving Tuesday night. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 52 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The chance for rain will mostly be in the overnight hours as Tuesday becomes Wednesday, the low will be around 40 degrees. A man wanted for murder shortly after the attack at a downtown nightclub this month was tracked down by federal marshals to a Chicago suburb and was arrested Monday. He is the second man detained in the shooting that killed two and injured 10. Dimione Jamal Walker, 29, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Matteson, Ill. He faces charges in Linn County of first-degree murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent and felon in possession of a firearm. He was also wanted by the Illinois Department of Corrections on a charge of parole violation — possession of a weapon. The other suspect in the case, Timothy L. Rush, 32, is in jail on charges that include a second-degree murder charge that he killed Nicole Owens, 35. Michael Valentine, 25, also was killed in the attack. Authorities would not confirm if they believe Walker is responsible for that murder, and would not further explain why he faces a first-degree murder charge while the other suspected gunman faces a second-degree murder charge. Save CR Heritage, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving historic properties, launched a petition drive this month for the closure of Garfield Elementary School to be put on a Cedar Rapids school board meeting agenda. Under a new Iowa law, residents can bring an agenda item to a school board with signatures of 500 district voters. If enough signatures are gathered by the end of the month, the closure would be placed on the May 9 school board meeting agenda. As part of a new school district facilities plan Arthur and Garfield Elementaries are set to be closed to make way for a new elementary school. Both buildings were opened in 1915, and while the buildings will not be demolished, there are no plans for how they will be repurposed. This is why the heritage organization’s members want to get on the agenda so the public’s views on future plans can be addressed. Starting this week, masks now are optional for most patients, visitors and fully vaccinated staff members at UnityPoint Health hospitals in Eastern Iowa. Health system officials announced a revision of mask policies at hospitals and associated clinics at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, UnityPoint Health-Allen Hospital in Waterloo and UnityPoint Health-Finley Hospital in Dubuque. However, masks still are recommended for those who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19, are immunocompromised or otherwise desire to wear a mask. People who have tested positive for COVID are also recommended to mask. Revision to masking policies is based on community transmission levels of COVID-19, officials said in their announcement Monday. Currently, all three hospitals are in areas with low virus transmission. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, April 18th. Today in the Cedar Rapids area we can expect it to be mostly sunny, with a high hear 46. It will be breezy, with a northwest wind 15 to 20 mph increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 40 mph. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 27. A Marion man charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in an apartment complex last year has been found competent to stand trial. Logan Mitchell Isaac was ordered to undergo a competency evaluation in January and his case was temporarily on hold until the evaluation was completed. Isaac was charged in July 2021 with one count each of first-degree kidnapping and willful injury causing bodily injury, and two counts of third-degree sexual abuse. A woman told Marion law enforcement she had arranged to meet a man, later identified as Isaac, on April 24, 2021, to provide a massage at Moundview Manor, 2501 Highway 13, according to a criminal complaint. After Isaac let the woman into the building, he attacked her and placed his arm around her mouth and neck and forced her into a bathroom. He confined her in the bathroom, placed her in a headlock and forcefully "head-butted her several times, causing visible bodily injuries," then sexually assaulted her, according to a criminal complaint. A trial is expected in September or later. A decommissioned World War II-era destroyer, named after the Sullivan brothers of Waterloo, docked near downtown Buffalo in New York is taking on water and listing perilously but officials believed it would be saved. Crews were working to keep the USS The Sullivans from sinking at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, where it had been open for tours. Park president Paul Marzello said they believe there was a breach on the right side of the hull last Wednesday night. He said crews trying to stabilize the 79-year-old vessel are pumping out up to 13,000 gallons a minute. Emergency repair crews, including an underwater diving team, are at the scene working to determine what caused the breach. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, April 16 and Sunday, April 17. This will be a don’t forget to bring you jacket weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 46 degrees. It will be a bit breezy with wind gusts as high as 25 mph. The low will drop to 28 degrees Saturday night. On Sunday there will be increasing clouds with a high near 44 degrees. After 2 p.m. there will be a 40 percent chance for rain. The low Sunday night will be 33 degrees. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer of Cedar Rapids qualifies for the primary ballot, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday — rejecting a lower court decision and allowing her to continue her campaign for the nomination and chance to face Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. The court's unanimous decision leaves Finkenauer as the likely front-runner in a race with two lesser-known candidates ahead of Iowa's June 7 primary. The winner will run against Grassley, seeking an eighth term, provided he wins a GOP primary against state Sen. Jim Carlin as widely expected. The high court rejected a lower court's ruling that found that Finkenauer failed to meet a state law that requires candidates to submit at least 100 signatures from at least 19 counties to qualify for the ballot. The justices agreed that a Polk County judge was wrong when he ruled that three signatures from two counties were invalid, leaving Finkenauer without enough signatures. The ruling noted that under the current laws missing or incorrect dates are not one of the current valid reasons for sustaining an objection to petitions. A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly drove at and struck a construction worker during a confrontation over a roadway closure. Bruce Marlon Schutte, 66, faces charges of willful injury causing bodily injury, assault while displaying a dangerous weapon and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident. According to a criminal complaint, Schutte approached a road closed sign in the 2300 block of 18th Street SW in Cedar Rapids Thursday and tried to move it out of the way. He was confronted by construction workers, who he told to move or he would run them over. Schutte allegedly got back in his car and accelerated toward a worker who had asked him to go a different direction. He hit the worker and sent him onto the hood of his car, injuring the worker’s left knee, hip and elbow. Schutte then left the scene. A Cedar Rapids man charged with second-degree murder in ahttps://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/complaint-shooting-suspect-charged-with-killing-1-of-2-victims-at-cedar-rapids-nightclub/ ( fatal shooting at a downtown nightclub )was barred from carrying weapons after drunkenly shooting a sawed-off shotgun in 2012 — but continued to carry arms anyway, court records show. Timothy Ladell Rush, 32, is accused of fatally shooting Nicole Owens, 35, the mother of his child. Another person, Michael Valentine, 25, was also killed in the shooting, which took place early Sunday in the downtown Taboo Nightclub and Lounge. Police have not said who they think killed Valentine and have said they believe a second gunman was involved. But they have not announced any new arrests in the case. In the 2012 case, Rush, who was intoxicated, lead officers on a foot chase before being caught. He originally was charged with possession of an offensive weapon, interference with official acts and public intoxication. But he later pleaded guilty to only possession of an offensive weapon. He was sentenced to three years of probation, court records show. Rush was https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-man-faces-federal-weapons-charge/?fbclid=IwAR0OGmuzndFgP8gKF0aCIk7eI2iH6dTixIfOP-NGwgkQniBFey2c9dNDtdM (arrested again in 2014), charged in federal court in Iowa with being a felon in possession of a firearm and being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in...
On today’s episode: A Cedar Rapids man charged with second-degree murder was barred from carrying weapons, but continued to do so anyway, a Cedar Rapids man is facing numerous charges following a January wrong-way crash on Interstate 380, and the Amana Colonies is planning an agritourism venue. Support for this podcast is provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville, and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). Listen to this daily briefing on your Amazon Alexa enabled device: Tell Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill” so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?” Find more podcasts from The Gazette at https://www.thegazette.com/podcasts/ (thegazette.com/podcasts).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, April 14. It won’t rain on Thursday, but it will still be very windy. Typical spring in Iowa pick your poison. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 50 degrees. As mentioned it will be windy all day, with a wind of 15 to 20 mph increasing to 25 to 30 mph in the afternoon, possibly gusting as high as 50 mph. A chance for rain and some snow could return overnight into Friday morning. According to the Associated Press, a tornado hit near Gilmore City in rural north-central Iowa as a strong line of storms moved across the state Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service confirmed later on Wednesday. Up to 10 tornadoes were reported across mostly the northern half of the state as the storms moved through, but only the tornadoes near Logan in western Iowa and near Stacyville and St. Ansgar in northeastern Iowa have been confirmed. Survey teams were headed to those areas Wednesday to determine whether tornadoes had touched down and to verify the intensity of those storms. Fueled by $11 million in federal pandemic aid, the Linn County Board of Supervisors approved funding Wednesday for 39 applicants — including programs to increase affordable housing, reduce gun violence, address mental health needs and support food distribution — in its first round of divvying up the county’s share of the relief money. Linn County will get a total of $44 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. Of that, the county will take $11 million for its own lost revenue and administrative costs during the pandemic, a category allowed under the federal rules. That leaves $33 million to dole out — the $11 million awarded Wednesday, and $22 million more after May or June. Foundation 2 Crisis Services received the largest amount in the social services category, at $900,000 for a new headquarters. Foundation 2 Chief Operating Officer Erin Langdon said the award is transformational for the organization. A lawyer for former Democratic U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer asked the Iowa Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a lower court judge's ruling that kicked her off the June primary ballot, saying she deserves the chance to vie for the chance to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in November. Finkenauer, whom many Democrats see as their best chance to deny Grassley an eighth Senate term, turned in nearly 5,000 signatures to get on the June 7 primary ballot. But two Republicans argued before the State Objections Panel that she hadn't submitted at least 100 from at least 19 counties, as required by a state law. They pointed to three signatures in two counties that were not properly dated. The high court didn't say when it might rule, but it is expected to do so soon because ballots must be sent to printers by Monday to meet a deadline to mail ballots to Iowa residents living abroad. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 13. Rain is likely on Wednesday as storms move through the state. According to the National Weather Service after the storm system moves through Wednesday morning there will still be some chances for scattered storms and thunderstorms before 1 p.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Then there will still be a chance for rain in the afternoon ibut the severity should be less severe. The overall chance for precipitation is listed at 70 percent. The temperatures will also cool into the low 50s, which is where they look to be staying until the middle of next week. Standing inside a distilled grain storage facility at a Central Iowa biofuels processing plant Tuesday, President Joe Biden repeated a pledge his administration announced earlier in the day: They plan to make the higher E15 blend of ethanol available for sale during the upcoming summer months. “I feel like I’m preaching to the choir here,” Biden said to a few dozen invited guests at the event, as distilled grain poured into the facility beside him. The event, which marked Biden’s first visit to Iowa since his election in 2020, was held on the grounds of one of 12 facilities in Iowa operated by POET, a biofuels processing company based just across the state’s northwest border in Sioux Falls, S.D. The most common ethanol blend sold at gas stations is E10, and not all Iowa gas stations offer E15. Under current federal law, the higher-blend E15 cannot be sold during the summer driving period, defined as June 1 through Sept. 15, because of concerns it adds to smog when the weather gets hot. The Biden administration announced Tuesday that its Environmental Protection Agency will issue an emergency action that will make the E15 blend available through this summer. The action will cite the strain on the nation’s fuel supply caused by the Russian military’s invasion of Ukraine. A man suspected of killing Nicole Owens, 35, https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/2-dead-10-hurt-in-shooting-at-cedar-rapids-nightclub/ (in the early Sunday shooting in a downtown nightclub) is the father of a baby they had in 2021, records show, and he wrote in a court document that he had once worked at the club. Timothy Ladell Rush, 32, faces charges of second-degree murder and a handful of other serious charges. Police arrested him Monday and he had his initial appearance in court Tuesday morning. Owens and Rush are the parents of a girl born in early 2021 in Cedar Rapids, Linn County birth records show. A criminal complaint released Tuesday against Rush does not address who police believe shot and killed a second fatal victim in the attack https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/2-dead-10-hurt-in-shooting-at-cedar-rapids-nightclub/ (at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge), 415 Third St. SE., that also injured 10 others. Police said that Michael Valentine, 25, was also killed. Police Chief Wayne Jerman told reporters Sunday investigators believe two gunmen were involved and described the attack as targeted. The panel reviewing Cedar Rapids’ charter, the document that outlines the scope and duties of city government, will extend the timeline for its once-a-decade review. Initially slated to wrap up work no later than May 1, the Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday granted the nine-member Charter Review Commission until June 30 to complete its review and extended the members’ terms at the commission’s request. So far, the commission has not recommended major shake-ups to the makeup of council or to the city’s council-manager form of government, which voters adopted when they approved a “home rule” charter in 2005. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart...
Enjoy your warm, dry weather during the day on Tuesday, because rain looks to be coming Tuesday night and Wednesday, and cold will be making a brief return after that. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 67 degrees. It will be breezy, with a wind of 10-15 mph increasing to 15-20 mph in the afternoon. Wind gusts could reach 35 mph. The chance for rain will start scaling up after 4 p.m., with rain and potentially thunderstorms becoming more likely after midnight and heading into Wednesday. There were several developments Monday in the aftermath of Sunday’s shooting at a Cedar Rapids nightclub that killed two and injured 10 others. A suspect in a shooting early Sunday outside Taboo Nightclub and Lounge in Cedar Rapids was arrested Monday on a second-degree murder charge and other counts. Police announced that Timothy Ladell Rush, 32, faces charges of second-degree murder, willful injury, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, reckless use of a firearm and possession of a firearm as a felon. Rush was taken to the Linn County Jail, where he was held for now without bail. A criminal complaint outlining details of the charges was not available Monday evening. Police still have not provided a motive for what they are calling a targeted shooting. They also have stated they believe two gunmen were involved in the shooting. Police did identify the two victims of the shooting, both Cedar Rapids residents who had been at the club to celebrate a friend’s birthday party. Police identified victims of the double homicide as Michael Valentine, 25, and Nicole Owens, 35. Cedar Rapids Democrat Abby Finkenauer is appealing a decision by an Iowa district court judge to throw her off the June 7 primary election ballot for a U.S. Senate seat. “After careful review, I have decided to challenge this deeply partisan decision to the Iowa Supreme Court,” Finkenauer, a former member of the U.S. House, said in a statement Monday. Finkenauer will ask the court to reverse a ruling issued Sunday night by Polk County District Court Judge Scott Beattie that she did not submit enough signatures on nomination petitions to qualify for the Democratic primary to determine the party’s U.S. Senate nominee in the November general election. His decision overruled the State Objections Panel that rejected challenges to Finkenauer’s campaign raised by GOP activists. The panel decided Finkenauer had met the ballot requirement to acquire at least 3,500 signatures, including at least 100 signatures each in at least 19 counties. Even if Finkenauer is able to get back on the ballot she faces a steep challenge, having to first win the Democratic primary before taking on forever incumbent Senator Chuck Grassley. The Linn County Board of Supervisors will meet Wednesday to decide where $11 million of its total $44 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding will go. During Wednesday’s formal meeting, supervisors will decide which of around 120 projects from over 90 groups to fund with this first allocation of ARPA dollars. The county has already allocated $11 million to itself for lost revenue and administrative costs, a category allowed under the ARPA rules. I don’t have time to read off all 120 projects, but if you’re interested in reading about them before the vote we have a searchable database of all of them in the story on the front page of thegazette.com Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, April 11th. Today in the Cedar Rapids area we can expect mostly sunny skies, with a high near 61, according to the National Weather Service. Winds from the west around 10 mph. Then tonight, it should be mostly clear, with a low around 39. Police believe more than one assailant carried out a shooting early Sunday at a downtown Cedar Rapids nightclub that left an adult male and an adult female dead and 10 others injured. Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman told reporters that police were just outside the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge at 415 Third St. SE responding to an earlier call about an incident outside. The officers saw an “exodus” of people fleeing the club and went inside to find the fatalities and wounded. No arrests were announced, and Jerman told reporters the assailants — who police believe are both men — had fled with the crowd. Up to about 150 people were in the club when the shooting broke out. The shooting was contained in the club, Jerman said, and did not spill outside. The incident marked the fourth and fifth homicides in the city this year. A shooting Friday night in the Cherry Hill neighborhood targeted the home of an off-duty police officer, authorities said Saturday. The officer, who was not identified, was not injured and the shooting was under investigation. Police said multiple shots were fired, and rounds hit the home, garage and a take-home squad car. Police said they received reports of the shooting in the westside neighborhood shortly before 11:30 p.m. Friday. Anyone with tips or leads is encouraged to call the Cedar Rapids Police Department or anonymous tips may also be shared with Linn County Crime Stoppers. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “Momentum” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10. We’ll get a break from the rain this weekend before it looks to be returning for much of next week. According to the National Weather Service on Saturday there will be a high near 52 degrees with sunny skies in the Cedar Rapids area. On Saturday night the low will be around 32, with a mild wind. On Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 64 degrees. It will be breezy, with a wind of 10 to 15 mph increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. The wind gusts could get as high as 35 mph. On Sunday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 44 degrees. President Joe Biden appears to be headed back to Iowa for the first time since his election in November 2020. While the White House as of Friday afternoon would not confirm the trip, the Iowa Democratic Party issued a statement trumpeting Biden’s “upcoming” visit to Iowa. The White House declined to confirm a report from the Des Moines Register that Biden plans to visit Des Moines on Tuesday. Without confirmation from the White House, no details about Biden’s visit were immediately available on Friday. Things Biden could talk about on his visit to Iowa could include the roughly https://www.thegazette.com/transportation/infrastructure-bill-will-bring-nearly-5-billion-to-iowa/ ($5 billion over five years in new federal funding) the state will receive under the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Also possible would be a waiver that would allow E15 ethanol blend to be sold year round as a way of lowering gas prices nationally. Iowans bet big on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, casting more than $233.5 million in sports wagers in March, according to https://irgc.iowa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022/02/January2022_0.pdf (state gaming numbers posted Friday). That figure was an 8 percent increase over the previous month, and a 45 percent increase over the same month in 2021. But it fell short of the record numbers posted during football season, including a high of $303.3 million in January. Sports betting numbers typically decrease over the summer months. The convicted killer of Chris Bagley wants to represent himself in his upcoming drug trial, and a judge granted it Thursday. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/judge-grants-chris-bagley-killer-name-change/ (Drew Alan Blahnik, 34, of Marion,) who changed his name to Johnny Blahnik Church after being sentenced to 57 years in prison for fatally stabbing Bagley Dec. 14, 2018, will act as his own lawyer for his April 19 trial. He is charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance — marijuana — and drug tax stamp violation. Blahnik is accused of possessing 100 “heavy-hitters” or marijuana cartridges individually wrapped that were intended for delivery, according to a criminal complaint. Police found the cartridges underneath his bed while serving a search warrant Feb. 25, 2019 — before he was charged in Bagley’s murder — at his residence in Marion. According to trial testimony, Blahnik “hunted down” Bagley on behalf of local drug dealer https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/manager-of-large-drug-trafficking-ring-related-to-chris-bagleys-death-sentenced-to-nearly-8-years/ (Andrew Shaw,) after Bagley had robbed drugs and money from Shaw. Shaw is currently serving time in federal prison on drug charges. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
On today’s episode: Iowa’s U.S. senators vote against confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, the state plans to close it’s Glenwood facility for Iowans with disabilities, the Fairfield teens charged in their teacher’s killing are denied an appeal by the state supreme court, and long-time Cedar Rapids radio personality Ric Swann dies. Support for this podcast is provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville, and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). Listen to this daily briefing on your Amazon Alexa enabled device: Tell Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill” so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?” Find more podcasts from The Gazette at https://www.thegazette.com/podcasts/ (thegazette.com/podcasts).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, April 7. The temperature will drop Thursday, but the chance for snow remains slight. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with a high of 42 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be windy, with wind gusts as high as 35 mph. The overall chance of precipitation is 90 percent for the day. Most of the rain is projected to fall between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., but there will be a chance for rain all day, and a chance for snow in the early morning on Thursday and Friday. Hancher has itself a new director. Andre Perry, former executive director of the Englert Theatre, will lead Hancher Auditorium into a new era and new business model as the University of Iowa https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-will-keep-funding-hancher-auditorium-despite-aim-self-sufficiency-2024/ (continues phasing out $1.5 million in annual support) by 2024 from one of the state’s leading arts presenters. Hiring Perry for the job comes after Chuck Swanson, longtime Hancher director, https://www.thegazette.com/news/chuck-swanson-announces-retirement-from-hancher-auditorium/ (announced in February that he would be retiring) this summer. Hancher has been Swanson’s passion project, connecting people from national and international stardom to UI students, staff, the community, state and region. In announcing his move, Swanson said it’s time to bring in “fresh eyes” to chart Hancher’s future as it moves to a self-sustaining model. Perry will begin his new role May 16 as executive director of Hancher Auditorium and the Office of Performing Arts and Engagement at the UI. His position will carry the title of “Chuck Swanson Hancher Executive Director.” Two Cedar Rapids men are accused of stealing about $150,000 in gold and silver from the adoptive father of one of the men. Donnell Johnquille Carter, 20, and Jacob Lee Mossman, 18, are each charged with one count of first-degree theft in Linn County. Mossman already pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree burglary in Grundy County and was sentenced Tuesday to two to five years of probation, with the possibility a 10-year-prison sentence if he fails to follow the conditions of the probation. Mossman’s adoptive father reported on Jan. 14 that someone had broken into his house in Grundy County between Jan. 9 and Jan. 14 and about $150,000 worth of gold and silver was missing from a safe, according to a criminal complaint filed in Grundy County. There was evidence of forced entry on a door, but no evidence of force on the safe. The man told police he believed that only he and his spouse knew the code to the safe. On Jan. 24, Cedar Rapids police contacted the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office to say they had arrested Mossman after a traffic stop. While searching the car and a residence shared by Mossman and Carter, Cedar Rapids police found about $50,000 worth of gold and silver, as well as a handgun that also belonged to Mossman’s adoptive father. The handgun had been stolen out of a separate safe in the house, and the man did not know it was missing until police found it and called to ask if it was his. Iowa will use $100 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to launch Destination Iowa, an investment in “transformational, shovel-ready attractions.” Cities, counties, nonprofits and other organizations can apply for Destination Iowa grants from four funds: economically significant development, outdoor recreation, tourism attraction, and creative place-making. Over the past two years, Iowa saw a record number of Iowans and out-of-state travelers use outdoor amenities such as state and county parks and recreational bike trails. However, the hospitality industry in Iowa experienced a 46.1 percent decrease in employment and there was an overall 29 percent decline in visitor spending as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Destination Iowa aims to invest in
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 6. So this is another good news, bad news weather forecast. I’ll start with the bad news because that’s coming the next few days. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance of rain again on Wednesday, primarily after 1 p.m. Clouds will increase as the day goes on, with a high of 52 degrees. It will also become breezy, with wind gusts as high as 30 mph possible. The overall chance of rain on Wednesday will be 40 percent. Then it will get even colder on Thursday, and there will be a chance of rain and potentially snow again Thursday night. Now the good news is that temperatures should bump up by the weekend, and I am seeing highs in the upper 60s by early next week. A bill to safeguard residents of mobile home parks against rapid rent and fee increases, and well as adding protections against evictions, passed the Iowa House on Tuesday night despite criticism it had become too watered down to help tenants much. The bill passed Tuesday includes provisions recommended by the Iowa Attorney General and some that were included in legislation approved by the House with bipartisan support two years ago — only to die on the last day of that legislative session. HF 2562 would extend several protections for residents of mobile home parks, such as cancellation of rental agreements, rent and utility increases, and protection from retaliation for complaints against the owner or landlord. It also would require all sales of homes from the park owner be in writing, and include detailed information about the cost and payments. The legislation is in response to the purchases of mobile home parks around Iowa by venture capitalists and real estate investment trusts that can make what was affordable housing unattainable for people who have lived in the parks many years. These out-of-state purchases date back years in Iowa, but in 2019 inspired louder opposition from park residents. Support came from some Iowa lawmakers after companies announced sharp lot rent increases and higher utilities charges, but Republicans had balked on adding any protections until this year. Iowa elections officials are hoping for the prompt resolution of a challenge to Abby Finkenauer’s U.S. Senate nomination paperwork that will determine whether she will be on the primary ballot. A hearing is scheduled Wednesday in Polk County District Court on the https://www.thegazette.com/campaigns-elections/iowa-republicans-ask-judge-to-overturn-state-panel-decision-knock-finkenauer-off-ballot/ (challenge) brought by two Iowa Republicans asking that a state panel’s decision to accept the Democratic hopeful’s nominating paperwork be overturned, a move that would result in Finkenauer being taken off the ballot. In the meantime, county auditors who oversee elections are being advised to proceed with preparing and proofing ballots for the June 7 primary “all the way up to the point of giving your vendor the go-ahead to print,” said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Secretary of State Paul Pate. The Republican court challenge arose from the decision by the State Objection Panel to accept Finkenauer’s ballot petitions despite questions about some signatures on her paperwork. As a U.S. Senate candidate, Finkenauer was required by state law to acquire at least 3,500 signatures, including at least 100 signatures each in at least 19 counties. The ACLU of Iowa is urging Coralville and three other cities in the state to repeal their ordinances against panhandling, saying the measures violate free speech rights. The organization https://www.aclu-ia.org/en/press-releases/aclu-cautions-four-iowa-cities-about-unconstitutional-panhandling-ordinances (sent letters) Tuesday to the cities of Coralville, Davenport, Dubuque and Bettendorf, saying their ordinances are both unconstitutional and ineffective. With local rules “criminalizing poverty, all they do is...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, April 5. Some more wet weather could return on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance of rain and then possibly a thunderstorm after 4 p.m. The overall chance of precipitation is listed at 80 percent. Otherwise the high temperature will rise to near 56 degrees with partly sunny skies. The low should be around 38 degrees, so there will be no chance for snow until at least Thursday. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to allow the sale of gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol — E15 — this summer to ease prices at the pump. “Doing so will give the citizens of our states relief from the volatile and record-high gas prices, including price increases caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine,” Miller said in a letter from him and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt to EPA administrator Michael Regan. Miller, a Democrat seeking re-election, joins many Republicans and ethanol industry leaders in calling for the Biden administration to use E15 to ease gas price pressures on consumers. Air-quality regulations prohibit the sale of E15 from June 1 to Sept. 15 in many areas of the United States. The EPA has the authority to allow E15 fuel to be sold year-round when “extreme or unusual fuel or fuel additive supply circumstances exist.” Iowa and Kansas are among the nation’s top ethanol producers. Sen. Chuck Grassley is a “no” vote on confirming Ketanji Brown Jackson as a Supreme Court justice. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, announced his decision Monday morning at a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Having carefully studied her record, unfortunately, I think she and I have fundamentally different views on the role judges should play in our system of government. Because of those disagreements, I can’t support her nomination,” said Grassley, the ranking Republican on the committee. Jackson appears to be on track for a split Senate confirmation as President Joe Biden’s first Supreme Court appointment. Republican Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney have announced they will vote for Jackson’s confirmation. Residents and visitors can once again rent an e-bike or scooter in downtown Cedar Rapids and surrounding districts to get around town. The city launched its micromobility program for a fourth season on April 1. Through the program, Chicago-based vendor VeoRide brings a fleet containing e-bikes, standup scooters and sit-down scooters to the urban core. Users can rent the devices through the Veo mobile app. The program’s return comes on the heels of the Cedar Rapids City Council signing off on a https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/scooters-to-stay-in-cedar-rapids-with-changes-to-promote-safety-reduce-clutter/ (three-year extension) of the city’s contract with VeoRide. Some https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/cedar-rapids-to-consider-extending-contract-for-electric-bike-scooter-rentals/ (changes were made to the program) in an effort to promote safety and reduce clutter from improperly parked devices. These include ID verification to confirm the rider is above 18, a required safety quiz at the start of each riding season, a lower idle time for staff to pick up devices, and geofencing preventing the scooters from being used in event areas defined by the city’s special events team. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, April 4th. Today in the Cedar Rapids area we can expect mostly cloudy skies, with a high near 51, according to the National Weather Service. Winds from the northwest, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Then tonight, still mostly cloudy, with a low around 36. A Cedar Rapids man who called 911 Saturday to report a woman's heroin overdose has been charged with murder after police found the woman with what appeared to be blunt force head trauma, according to a criminal complaint. Officers were called at 6:06 p.m. Saturday by 62-year-old Arthur Flowers, who reported that the woman overdosed at his home in the southeast quadrant. Flowers initially attempted to leave when officers arrived but then took them to a bathroom where 22-year-old Emily Elizabeth Leonard, of Cedar Rapids, was found with “obvious head injuries and blood spatter all over the bathroom,” according to a criminal complaint. The woman’s clothing was in disarray, and a bloodied 1x6 board, which investigators believe is the murder weapon based on the woman’s head injuries, was found in the bathroom. Investigators said they found blood evidence from another area where she was likely killed and then moved. Flowers has convictions for assaulting women by punching them and threatening to kill one woman while wielding a knife, according court documents. He also has convictions for harassment. During Flowers’ initial appearance Sunday, Judge Russell Keast set bail at $1.5 million cash or surety. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “Momentum” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3. The weather this weekend will feature much of what we saw this week smashed into two days. According to the National Weather Service, rain and snow will be possible Saturday morning before noon in the Cedar Rapids area, with a slight chance of rain between noon and 1:00 p.m. The overall chance of precipitation is listed at 80 percent. Eventually it will become a bit milder, with a high near 49 degrees. The skies will clear up by Saturday night, with a low around 30 degrees and calm winds. Then, on Sunday, we will be looking at a 50 percent chance of rain, this time after 1 p.m. It will become increasingly cloudy with a high near 52 degrees. Rain will again be likely Sunday night, with a low around 38 degrees. Next week’s advance forecast is looking pretty similar, but a bit warmer, with consistent highs in the fifties. A judge Friday reset the trial for a Cedar Rapids man charged with shooting Randal Campbell and then staging it to look like a suicide. Joshua K. Conklin, 29, will stand trial Nov. 15 for second-degree murder and obstruction of prosecution. He is accused of fatally shooting Campbell, 44, with an air rifle on June 21, 2019 at close range in his right eye, according to a criminal complaint. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/couple-faces-charges-in-cedar-rapids-murder-with-pellet-gun-that-was-staged-to-look-like-a-suicide/ (Police responded to a report of a suicide) just after 9 p.m. June 21, 2019, at 1834 Hamilton St. SW and found Campbell dead, with an air rifle positioned on his lap. An autopsy showed Campbell was fatally shot with the air rifle and the pellet entered his brain through his right eye. Police say further investigation revealed that Conklin also lived at the address in a detached garage and had recently gotten into a dispute with Campell’s mother, who owned the property. Additionally, video surveillance showed Conklin and his girlfriend, Felisha Campbell, near the detached g arage and leaving after her uncle, Randal Campbell, had been shot. Police said that Felisha Campbell revealed to them later that she had suggested staging the shooting of her uncle as a suicide to protect her boyfriend. According to a report from the Associated Press, bird flu has infected two more farms in Iowa, forcing the killing of 5.3 million hens and 88,000 turkeys, officials said on Friday. The new cases mean that across the nation since the outbreaks began a month ago, farmers have had to kill about 22 million egg-laying chickens, 1.8 million broiler chickens, 1.9 million pullet and other commercial chickens, and 1.9 million turkeys. Iowa accounts for many of those cases. Iowa is the nation’s leading egg producer and had 46 million chickens on farms in February, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Iowa raises about 11.7 million turkeys annually. Because https://apnews.com/article/business-health-environment-and-nature-iowa-agriculture-9245d97453568576bd0b564f9c52c343 (the virus is so infectious and deadly for commercial poultry,) entire flocks are destroyed and composted on the farms when they are infected. https://apnews.com/article/science-health-business-iowa-agriculture-f5a5c6fbf1d6b551413fb249086fdbec (Spread of the disease is largely blamed on the droppings or nasal discharge of infected wild birds), such as ducks and geese, which can contaminate dust and soil. The CDC says that bird flu has no immediate health concern for humans, and poultry and eggs are safe to eat. Former President George W. Bush will headline a Hoover Presidential Foundation banquet in Cedar Rapids this fall. Bush, who was president from 2001 to 2009, will speak at the banquet Oct. 7 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in downtown Cedar Rapids. In addition to honoring Bush and former first lady Laura Bush for their humanitarian work in Africa, foundation President Jerry...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, April 1. We get a break from rain and snow Friday before chances resume overnight. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 50 degrees. Even the wind will be gentle, with a wind blowing at 5 mph much of the day. The low is expected to be 34 degrees Friday night, with increasing cloudiness. The cost of staying in housing provided by the state’s three public universities could be going up for the first time in a few years. The Regents next week will consider approving a 3 percent hike for the “standard” double room and meal plan at both Iowa State and the University of Iowa, along with a 2 percent bump for the standard plan at the University of Northern Iowa — its first increase since 2019. The proposed rate increases come after a string of semesters were upended by COVID-19, which forced the universities to move classes online for a period — sending students home in March 2020 and then keeping many from returning to the residence halls the subsequent academic year. Public and private education policy, changes to unemployment benefits and crafting the state’s $8.2 billion budget remain on state lawmakers’ to-do list as they approach the unofficial target date for adjournment. The 100th day of the session, when legislators’ daily allowance for housing and food expenses expires, is April 19. But legislators can work beyond that date if needed. There are key areas of disagreement between the House and Senate on multiple pieces of significant legislation, perhaps none more so than on K-12 education policy. This week, both chambers passed education bills. But the House narrowly addressed transparency in and parent involvement with school materials and curriculum. The Senate passed a bill that not only addressed those topics, but also proposed a new program where taxpayer funding for public K-12 schools could be used to fund private school tuition assistance of $5,520 each student for moderate and low-income families. The Senate bill is close to what Reynolds proposed at the outset of the session. The danger to the tuition assistance is from House Republicans from rural districts who rely on public schools in their communities. If enough of them balked at the idea, they would form a voting bloc with minority Democrats, who all oppose both this bill in particular as well as the idea of using taxpayer money to fund private schools in general. Damage to the small airways in the lungs is an aftermath of COVID-19 that may cause long-lasting side effects, even for those who did not have a serious illness, according to a new study from the University of Iowa. Researchers at https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/university-of-iowa-establishes-clinic-for-former-covid-19-patients/ (the UI Post-COVID Clinic) conducted CT scans of patients previously infected by the coronavirus and uncovered physical changes in the small airways — which may explain ongoing breathing problems associated with long-haul COVID-19. And these symptoms are appearing in patients regardless of the severity of their COVID-19 illness. These persistent symptoms, described as small airways disease, were detected in about 40 percent of the patients in the study, One positive note from the study is the researchers noted they have not seen any cases of long-term COVID effects in people who have been vaccinated twice and received the booster. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, March 31. Snow is likely Thursday morning. And if that has you feeling down I can report that this will be the coldest day of the week, so it’s all up from here. According to the National Weather Service overnight rain could become snow after 4 a.m. on Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area and this should continue into the afternoon. It will be cloudy with a high near 39 degrees. The total chance of precipitation is 70 percent, with less than a half inch of snow possible. It will be windy during the day with wind gusts as high as 30 mph, before calming down Thursday night. A federal judge has ruled the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics not only violated wage laws by paying workers late, but it did so intentionally and must pay “liquidated damages” to over https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/judge-certifies-class-action-suit-for-ui-hospital-workers-alleging-unfair-pay-practices/ (8,000 current and former UIHC employees.) The lawsuit contended UIHC was compensating employees for overtime or extra time hours later than the Iowa wage law allows. Although attorneys for the state argued that UIHC shouldn’t have to pay affected employees additional damages because it eventually paid them what they earned, U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Rose wrote in her ruling Tuesday that UIHC must be penalized to stop future infractions. Several UIHC employees filed the initial lawsuit in 2019, and Judge Rose last year certified it as class-action, granting class status to three groups — including employees who worked for UIHC since fall 2017 and weren’t paid until more than 12 days after the end of the period in which they earned their wages, as required by state law. For the first time since the pandemic began in Iowa two years ago, area hospitals are reporting having zero COVID-19 patients on certain days as the latest coronavirus surge continues to wind down in Iowa. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state ticked up to 74 people in the past week, up from the previous week’s total of 67, according to federal data. That compares to the seven-day peak of 991 hospitalizations reported Jan. 19 during the height of the omicron surge. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care also ticked up to 15 in the past seven days, compared to 11 in the previous week. But reaching zero COVID-19 patients, even for one day, marks a major milestone for health care providers who have been on the front lines of the pandemic for the past two years. The state of Iowa is trying to do its part as Ukraine continues to resist an invasion from Russia, announcing Wednesday it is shipping unused protective helmets and vests from state and local law enforcement agencies to the embattled country, where they will be donated with the hope of helping Ukrainian military forces and citizens. During a news conference at Camp Dodge, where Slyvka spoke, Iowa officials said the state public safety department oversaw the collection of donated gear from its own reserves as well as 18 local law enforcement agencies around the state, and will send 146 protective helmets and 714 ballistic vests to Ukraine. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state stands ready to accept Ukrainian refugees and has notified the federal government. She said she does not have a projected timeline for when the federal government might ask Iowa to house Ukrainian refugees. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, March 30. The rain that started with thunderstorms Tuesday night is likely to continue into Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with a high near 56 degrees. There will be a 60 percent chance of precipitation with new rainfall amounts between a quarter and a half of an inch possible. There could be more rain Wednesday night, with it potentially turning into snow Thursday morning. Republicans in the Iowa Senate passed a bill that is intended to reform Iowa’s 5-cent bottle deposit bill, a goal that has long been discussed but has met with repeated futility. The Senate Republican plan, which passed with a 31-18 vote Tuesday with only Republican votes, would triple the fee paid to redemption centers in the hopes of encouraging more to open. The idea is that more redemption centers would allow grocery stores flexibility to opt out of the program as a place to accept returned bottles and cans. Democrats in the Senate contend that this reform bill will not work as intended, and will instead lead to the end of the popular recycling incentive program in the state if redemption centers do not appear to fill the void. Another version of bottle deposit reform is being discussed in the Iowa House, and it would be up to Republicans in both branches to see if they can work out their differences between the two versions. A new elementary school will be built on the annex of Arthur Elementary School, and the Arthur and Garfield Elementary School attendance areas will be combined, the Cedar Rapids school board voted late on Monday. The school board approved the next steps in the facilities master plan for the Cedar Rapids Community School District, including closing Arthur Elementary and Garfield Elementary and opening a new school in the fall of 2024. Harrison and Madison elementary school attendance zones also will be combined by fall of 2025. District officials are still considering two options for how to do this: either by renovating the existing Harrison Elementary building or building on the property of Madison Elementary Each new elementary school will serve between 500 to 600 students. Right now, elementary schools vary in student population, serving between 200 to 500 students, creating an unequal distribution of resources. A woman who lived in the Meskwaki settlement in east-central Iowa was fatally mauled by a pack of dogs Monday according to tribal police. The Meskwaki Nation Police Department said in a Facebook post that the mauling happened Monday afternoon, describing the incident as a “vicious attack" by a large pack of dogs that killed a young woman in the area of Springs Road. All the dogs were later identified and killed., according to police. The unincorporated settlement of Meskwaki is about 3 miles northwest of Tama and about 50 miles west of Cedar Rapids. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, March 29. It looks like rain will return on Tuesday and into Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance of rain Tuesday during the day, with the chance ramping way up to 80 percent Tuesday night. Until then it will be cloudy with a high near 45 degrees. It will also be breezy, with a wind of 15 to 20 mph gusting as high as 40 mph. Thankfully the low temperature will not get anywhere close to freezing, in fact warm air will arrive Tuesday night keeping the temperature between 40 and 50 degrees. Higher than projected gambling revenue will make it possible for the Legislature to bump up the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund, or RIIF, by $87 million in the coming year, but gambling fortunes won’t favor Iowa forever. The House Transportation, Infrastructure and Capital Appropriations subcommittee on Monday voted 7-2 to send a proposed RIIF budget to the full committee. It likely will be considered Tuesday. Some of the additional funding proposed in fiscal 2023 is due to concerns that Iowa gambling revenue may dip or nose dive as Nebraska casinos come online, said Rep. Jacob Bossman, R-Sioux City. Some projects are being accelerated, and others are being paid for sooner than previously scheduled. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has received studies projecting Iowa gaming revenue could fall somewhere between $183 million and $256 million a year. One study said Council Bluffs casinos indicated that as much as 80 percent their revenue is from Nebraska residents. A civilian rescued a dog from a house fire Monday morning, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Fire Department. The Cedar Rapids Fire Department responded to the fire in the 3600 block of Northwood Drive NE a little after 11 a.m., according to a news release from the agency. Only one person was in the house at the time of the fire, and a civilian had already ensured that person was safe when emergency responders arrived. The civilian had also entered the house to save a dog that was barking in distress. If my reading of the fire department’s press release is correct, they give the unnamed civilian due credit for their heroism, but they would prefer if people did not run back into burning buildings. While firefighters were working to extinguish the fire that caused serious damage to the home, one firefighter was hit by ceiling materials that gave way and collapsed on him. He was evaluated on-site and returned to work after it was determined he had not suffered serious injuries. You may have already noticed this where you are, but Hy-Vee will be offering fewer pickup locations for online orders as of this week. Hy-Vee announced the change while also acknowledging there was a cut 121 corporate-level positions in the past week, with 102 of those employees being offered retail positions at its stores. Hy-Vee CEO Randy Edeker, in a video message to employees, said 88 percent of Aisles Online business has been occurring at 117 of its stores. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, March 28th. Today in the Cedar Rapids area we can expect partly sunny skies, with a high near 43, according to the National Weather Service. Light winds from the northeast later coming the southeast. Then tonight, it should be mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has identified the woman who died Thursday morning while being held overnight in the Linn County Correctional Center. 31-year-old Malorie Hults was found unconscious on the floor by a corrections officer at 2:12 a.m. Thursday. Officials said Hults wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a detectable pulse. Corrections staff administered CPR, and Hults was taken to Mercy Medical Center where she was pronounced dead. The cause of death still is unknown. Hults’ body has been transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny for an autopsy. Iowa agriculture officials have confirmed another case of bird flu in a flock of commercial pullet chickens. The outbreak in Franklin County is the seventh such outbreak found in Iowa this month, according to a news release Saturday from the Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship. The department said the latest case affects about 250,000 birds. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “Momentum” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, March 26 and Sunday, March 27. It’s going to be cold this weekend, but at least the sun will be out. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday with a high near 38 degrees. It will be breezy again, although not as bad as Friday, with a 20 mph wind gusting as high as 35 mph. On Sunday it will be slightly warmer and substantially less windy, with sunny skies and high near 41 degrees. Iowa “should and will accept Ukrainian refugees” if they seek to come here, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Friday during a visit to Marion. President Joe Biden announced this week that the United States would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of their country. While the administration believes most refugees will stay in nearby countries in case they are ever to return home, the United States joined other Western counties in helping to address the crisis. The month-old war in Ukraine has caused devastation the Republican senator compared with World War II and has forced millions from their homes. For Ukrainian refugees coming to Iowa, he said, there would be plenty of jobs available. Grassley, however, stressed this immigration situation is not the same as the people who cross the border the illegally into the United States, who are “breaking our laws.” Cedar Rapids-based McGrath Family of Dealerships will acquire the Toyota of Iowa City dealership, effective April 1. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. This move expands the McGrath reach to 14 locations and new-vehicle brands to 13. Murphy McGrath, general manager of McGrath Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram., will take on a new role as McGrath Toyota of Iowa City general manager, the company said in a news release. The addition is the McGrath group’s first franchise dealership in Johnson County since Pat McGrath Oldsmobile GMC Isuzu in 1996. A man died Friday after being buried in grain northwest of Williamsburg, according to the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office. Iowa County emergency responders were called to 2172 M Ave. for a report of a grain bin entrapment at 7:30 a.m. Rescuers worked for about an hour to find the man, whose name is to be released Saturday, the sheriff’s office said. The grain bin involved was a 20,000-bushel capacity bin owned by Kinze Manufacturing and leased to Circle J Grain of Williamsburg. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has identified the woman whohttps://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/linn-county-jail-inmate-dies-cause-of-death-unknown/ ( died Thursday morning )while being held in the Linn County Correctional Center overnight. 31-year-old Malorie Shea Hults was found unconscious, lying on the floor, by a corrections officer at 2:12 a.m. Thursday. Hults wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a detectable pulse, officials said. Corrections staff administered CPR, and Hults was taken to Mercy Medical Center where she was pronounced dead. The cause of death still is unknown, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. Hults’ body has been transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny for an autopsy. Hults, of Cedar Rapids, was taken into custody by Cedar Rapids police Wednesday evening on a domestic assault charge. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, March 25. We should get a break from rain Friday but it will still be a bit chilly with a stiff wind. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 48 degrees. It will be a bit breezy during the day, with a 10 to 15 mph wind increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Wind gusts could get as high as 40 mph. There will be a 20 percent chance of rain in the evening, but besides that it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. The Iowa House has approved an 11-month moratorium on the Iowa Utilities Board scheduling eminent domain hearings for pipeline construction. If the state Senate agrees with the proposed moratorium, it would delay any hearings on the three carbon capture pipelines being proposed in Iowa until after Feb. 21, 2023 — when the Legislature is back in session. The https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=H-8248 (amendment) to https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=H-8248 (House File 2565) came from Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who said the moratorium would provide “eminent domain protection for landowners affected by proposed pipelines.” It would not change the rules regarding the use of eminent domain or stop the construction of the carbon pipelines being proposed in Iowa, but it would provide 11 months of a level playing field for negotiations between landowners and companies hoping to build pipelines, he said. A Cedar Rapids man avoided a possible life sentence Thursday by pleading guilty to lesser charges for killing his pregnant girlfriend and causing the death of her unborn child nearly two years ago. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/march-trial-set-for-cedar-rapids-man-accused-of-killing-pregnant-girlfriend-and-her-unborn-child/ (Johnnie Osborne, 28, )originally charged with first-degree murder, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, attempted murder and termination of pregnancy during a felony. His trial was set to start next Tuesday. He now faces up to 50 years in prison for second-degree murder, 25 for attempted murder and 10 years for termination of pregnancy. During the plea hearing, Osborne admitted to fatally shooting girlfriend https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/her-sister-was-shot-and-killed-last-week-in-cedar-rapids-now-victoria-mcdaniel-is-calling-attention/ (Asia T. Grice, 25, )who was in her second trimester of pregnancy on May 1, 2020. She died of a gunshot wound to her head, and her unborn child didn’t survive, according to a criminal complaint. Grice’s friend, Keonna Smith, who was in the apartment at the time, also was shot and seriously injured. Twenty-one members of the University of Iowa Health Care community, UI administration, or Board of Regents have been appointed to a committee to find the campus’ next vice president for medical affairs and dean of its Carver College of Medicine. The search committee to replace https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-health-care-vp-brooks-jackson-stepping-down/?nocache=1 (outgoing Vice President and Dean Brooks Jackson) also has chosen the executive search firm of Wittkieffer to assist in the national hunt for a successor. The university didn’t immediately provide The Gazette with its Wittkieffer contract or say how much it is paying the firm. Wittkieffer, according to its website, currently is helping UI find administrators for its College of Public Health, and find new chief analytics and chief quality control officers for UI Hospitals & Clinics. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, March 24. Thursday will feature a chance of rain and snow, although not likely much of the former. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance of rain and snow before 11 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area and then a chance for rain between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The overall chance for precipitation is listed at 50 percent with new snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Besides that, it should be cloudy with a high near 41 degrees. On Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 34. A judge suspended court proceedings for one of the Fairfield teens accused of killing their high school Spanish teacher with a baseball bat after his lawyer filed an appeal with the Iowa Supreme Court on Wednesday. The interlocutory appeal asks the court to overturn 8th Judicial District Judge Shawn Showers’ rulings Tuesday which allows the public — including media — to attend a hearing Thursday about moving the first-degree murder case of Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, 16, to juvenile court. Miller’s lawyer also asked the court to overturn Showers’ ruling denying the request to have a suppression hearing before the Thursday hearing . The other teen charged, Jeremy Everett Goodale, 16, hadn’t filed a similar appeal as of Wednesday morning, and his “reverse-waiver” hearing is set for 1:15 p.m. Thursday. A Cedar Rapids police officer was struck in the hand by a projectile fired from a BB or pellet gun Wednesday morning while making an arrest, authorities said. Police said that about 11:30 a.m., they were following up on a call in the 1500 block of Second Avenue SE. An officer felt a projectile whiz by. Officers traced the source to a nearby home, but the occupant refused requests that he open the door, authorities said. After repeated attempts, police said, the department’s Special Response Team was called and entered the home on a search warrant. The man “fired a shot from a BB or pellet gun and struck an officer in the hand during the entry procedure,” police said in a news release. The team “deployed less-than-lethal munitions” and the man was taken into custody. The man, Leo W. Bushnell, 36, faces charges of two counts of assault on a peace officer, second-degree criminal mischief and possession of an incendiary device. Police said they expect more charges to come. COVID-19 continues to wind down in Iowa — for the moment. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 720 new COVID-19 cases statewide in the past seven days, down from the previous week’s 1,008 new cases, according to new coronavirus data released Wednesday. As of March 17, the COVID-19 transmission level for 97 Iowa counties — including Linn and Johnson — were in the “low” category, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Appanoose and Davis counties in southern Iowa were rated in the “medium” transmission category. However, U.S. health officials say the nation likely will see an uptick in COVID-19 cases caused by a new omicron variant that’s causing cases to increase in parts of Europe and Asia, https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-europe-infectious-diseases-e338ab4c30b68025dbc049c36838f357 (the Associated Press reported) this week. So when it comes to a break from masks, gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop)
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, March 23. Another rainy day is coming Wednesday, and likely another one the day after. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 70 percent chance of rain in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 48 degrees. The rain is not expected to be particularly heavy. Wednesday night there will be a 50 percent chance of rain with a low around 33 degrees. An Iowa City couple this week received a nearly $98 million civil verdict after suing Mercy Hospital in Iowa City after their newborn suffered permanent brain damage when health care providers “improperly used forceps and a vacuum, crushing the baby’s head” during delivery. The infant’s parents, Andrew and Kathleen Kromphardt, brought the medical malpractice lawsuit against Mercy Hospital, Dr. Jill Goodman and OB-GYN Associates for negligence throughout her pregnancy, labor and birth in 2018. The Johnson County jury’s verdict found the hospital and clinic were equally negligent and equally responsible for damages — future medical and custodial care, loss of future earning capacity, past and future pain and suffering, past loss and future loss of function of the mind and body. The jury awarded $97.4 million to the Kromphardts. Geoffrey Fieger, a nationally known personal injury lawyer in Southfield, Mich., who represented the Kromphardts, said in a statement the ruling represents the “largest verdict” ever made in the state for a birth trauma case. The city of Cedar Rapids is once again trying to secure $22 million through a federal grant program for the reconstruction of the Eighth Avenue bridge over the Cedar River — a key component of the permanent flood control system that would provide a lifeline connection for residents and emergency services during extreme flooding. The city is submitting a RAISE, or “Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity,“ grant application to the U.S. Department of Transportation to cover about 40 percent of the $50 to $55 million cost of replace the bridge with a cable-stayed, higher-elevation structure that stays open as rivers rise. The bridge would tie together Cedar Rapids’ permanent $750 million Flood Control System — the river’s east side work with the Army Corps of Engineers and the west side, which is not eligible for federal funding under the Corps’ cost-benefit formula. This week is https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/being-prepared-for-severe-weather-in-iowa-more-than-listening-for-sirens/ (Severe Weather Awareness Week) in Iowa, and that includes a statewide tornado drill at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Some counties are participating and some are not. Linn County Emergency Management said in https://linncounty-ema.org/vertical/sites/%7BF92E742E-E56A-4BEB-A418-D1CFA9D3A67F%7D/uploads/Media_Release-_NO_SIRENS_-_Tornado_Drill_03162022.pdf (a news release) that schools, businesses and individuals are strongly encouraged to participate in the drill, but the county won’t activate its outdoor warning sirens. The county wants to avoid confusing the public by activating the sirens outside the normal monthly tests, according to Emergency Management Coordinator Steve O’Konek. Johnson County will activate its sirens for the statewide drill Wednesday, according to a https://www.icgov.org/news/march-21-25-severe-weather-awareness-week-iowa (news release from Iowa City). Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, March 22. It looks like it is going to rain for much of Tuesday, with a chance for some thunderstorms early and late. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, there will be a 90 percent chance of rain in the Cedar Rapids area Tuesday with the possibility of a thunderstorm. The high should be around 57 degrees, with a wind of 10 to 15 mph gusting as high as 30 mph. On Tuesday night there will again be a 90 percent chance of rain with a chance of a thunderstorm, with a low around 44 degrees. It will be a little less windy Tuesday night, with the wind dropping to 5 to 10 mph. Lawyers for two Fairfield teens charged with killing a high school Spanish teacher argued Monday that a hearing Thursday regarding whether their cases should be moved to juvenile court could include confidential materials — medical or other reports – that could prejudice jurors against the teens. Lawyers for https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/fairfield-police-2-students-murdered-spanish-teacher-from-their-high-school/ (Jeremy Everett Goodale and Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, )both 16, argued during an in-person hearing that also was by video, that Thursday’s https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/judge-resets-hearing-for-fairfield-teens-charged-with-slaying-teacher/ (reverse waiver hearing )could include information from a juvenile court officer, law enforcement investigation, psychological evaluations and search warrant applications, which each have portions that otherwise would be confidential. Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding argued both teens are accused as adults and the murder charges filed against them are in district — adult — court and should remain open. If the court grants transferring the cases to juvenile court, further proceedings would be closed. A motive for the killing has not been released. But according to court documents, the teens schemed over social media to kill Nohema Graber, who had taught at Fairfield High since 2012. They monitored her routine before ambushing her on her daily walk in the park, killing her and later hiding her body, according to court documents. The Iowa Utilities Board has accepted the filings of applications for the two Duane Arnold solar projects near Palo and has set a partial procedural schedule moving forward. The IUB announced Friday that it issued an order and accepted the applications for certificates of public convenience, use and necessity for the two projects, Duane Arnold Solar I and II, and has docketed the applications for further investigation. Duane Arnold I is a proposed 50 MW solar facility on 316 acres of agricultural land within an 857-acre project site in Linn County. Duane Arnold II, the larger of the projects, is a proposed 150 MW solar facility and 75 MW battery storage system on 815 acres within a 1,780-acre project site. U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, continues to call for the U.S. to step up the delivery of lethal aid to support Ukraine’s battle against a Russian military invasion, including facilitation of the transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets from Poland. Ernst returned Sunday night from leading a bipartisan delegation of nine colleagues on a weekend visit to Poland and Germany. In eastern Poland, Ernst said, the delegation heard from Ukrainian leaders in exile, who “delivered a clear message to the United States: We need more lethal aid weapons, including air defense system, and we need it ASAP.” She’s concerned the U.S. aid is not flowing fast enough, blaming “Washington bureaucracy.” Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, March 21st. We’ve made it to spring! The National Weather Service says the day will start off cloudy, then become mostly sunny, with a high near 71. Winds will be from the southwest, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight, rain is expected, mainly after 1 a.m., with a low around 46. One person was killed and two were injured Sunday in a crash involving a semi truck and a car on Interstate 80 in eastern Johnson County. According to a crash report by the Iowa State Patrol, at about noon, a 2006 Toyota Prius traveling eastbound in the right lane of Interstate 80 was struck from behind by a 2022 International semi, which was in the same lane. The crash resulted in one death, one seriously injured and one with minor injuries. Names have not yet been released. In women’s basketball Sunday, before a sellout crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Lauren Jensen scored 19 points against her former team, including the go-ahead 3 with 12.9 seconds left that lifted No. 10 Creighton over second-seeded Iowa 64-62 in the second round of the women's NCAA Tournament. Monika Czinano led the Hawkeyes with 27 points on 12-of-20 shooting. Caitlin Clark added 15 points, but shot 4-for-19 from the floor. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “Momentum” by Emily McGlothlen
The rain of Friday should fade away by early Saturday morning, leading to the return of some warmer temperatures by Sunday. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with gradual clearing in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday, with a high near 51 degrees. There could be some patchy fog early on Sunday, but besides that it will be sunny, with a high near 66 degrees. The wind will remain light throughout the day. On Sunday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 47 degrees. Take advantage of the sun on Sunday, especially, because rain is likely to return on Monday through Wednesday. Two Iowa U.S. representatives are still waiting for information about what caused a delay in National Weather Service tornado warnings reaching the public when tornadoes swept across Iowa earlier this month, killing seven people. First District Rep. Ashley Hinson and 3rd District Rep. Cindy Axne are asking the weather service for an explanation of a communications system malfunction that led to delays in critical alerts to the public March 5. Some warnings didn’t reach the public until nine minutes after they were issued. The weather agency has blamed a technical issue in its Dallas-Fort Worth office. Noting that it’s severe weather season in Iowa, Hinson said she wants answers “sooner rather than later … to make sure we are finding out exactly where the breakdowns happen in the communication on their end.” A Cedar Rapids man who authorities said was the leader of a large-scale drug trafficking ring was sentenced Friday to 30 years in federal prison. George Patrick Ashby, 62, was convicted last year of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Court documents state he distributed a significant amount of methamphetamine in the Cedar Rapids area from 2018 through March 2020, but he also sold heroin. Ashby admitted to investigators that his supply of meth came from Fort Madison, Burlington and another city in Iowa. The Marion YMCA will be closed this weekend after a small fire damaged a mechanical room Thursday. It will reopen sometime next week, according to a YMCA Facebook post. Firefighters were called to the YMCA, 3740 Irish Dr., right across the street from fire department headquarters, around 7 p.m. after smoke was seen coming from a laundry area. The fire in the mechanical room was extinguished quickly and contained to one room. Crews then assisted YMCA staff in removing smoke and odors from the building. No one was injured. The cause of the fire is being investigated. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
Rain is likely for much of Friday. According to the National Weather Service it will be a cold day Friday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 40 degrees. There will be a 100 percent chance of rain during the day with almost an inch of rain predicted. Friday night into Saturday morning the rain will taper off, with a slight chance for some snow. The low is predicted to be around freezing. Republican state lawmakers on Thursday repeated their warning that they are prepared to pass changes to Iowa’s recycling law this year rather than wait for beverage distributors and grocery stores to reach a compromise agreement. Senate Republicans advanced the proposal, https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=SF2122 (Senate File 2122), during a meeting Thursday of the Senate’s tax policy committee. The newly amended bill would increase the fee paid by distributors to support redemption centers. It would also soften the requirements for where redemption centers must be located. Under Iowa’s current recycling law, consumers pay a 5-cent deposit on all purchases of carbonated beverages in bottles and can. The deposit can be refunded by returning those bottles and cans to redemption centers or some retail stores. The nonprofit Friends of Coralville Lake is moving forward with its https://www.thegazette.com/environment-nature/as-silt-threatens-coralville-lake-nonprofit-explores-solutions/ (action plan) to raise awareness and explore solutions to the problem of increased sedimentation that eventually could close off the lake to recreation. The preliminary plan will look at what solutions are available to address the sedimentation, followed by a feasibility study to see if there’s community interest in pursuing it. The action plan and feasibility study will be funded though the federal American Rescue Plan Act pandemic aid. The Johnson County Board of Supervisors on Thursday unanimously approved the grant agreement. Organizers say there is no quick fix to the sedimentation problem, but there are potential solutions — such as buffer strips, silt traps and dredging — which the group is in the early stages of exploring, as well as the impacts of these solutions. The Iowa City Police Department has responded to several vehicle burglaries in the past couple weeks. Police advise keeping doors locked and valuables out of sight. The burglaries have mostly been happening at city parks, police said. Some of the break-ins involved smashed windows, but in some cases the car doors had been left unlocked. This is the second spike in Iowa City car burglaries this year, police said. Several break-ins also happened the last couple weeks of January as well. One gun was stolen out of a car during that series of burglaries, police said. None of the more recent break-ins have led to stolen guns. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, March 17. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. It will be a colder day, with a chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 52 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be cloudy, with a 30 percent chance for rain primarily before 11 a.m. On Thursday night rain will become likely, with a low around 36 degrees. There will be some chances of rain and snow mix on Friday morning. The ongoing terminal upgrade project at The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids will get nudged across the finish line thanks to a new round of federal pandemic relief funding being distributed to Iowa’s airports. During a news conference Wednesday at Des Moines International Airport, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the $100 million in funding, which is from the federal American Rescue Plan passed in 2021 by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden. Each of Iowa’s eight commercial airports will be eligible for the funding, which https://iowadot.gov/aviation/Iowa-Commercial-Aviation-Infrastructure-Fund (will be distributed largely in proportion to the amount of air travel at each airport). The Eastern Iowa Airport will be eligible for $28.4 million, which will enable it to complete the fourth and final phase of its terminal upgrade project, an airport official said. Ongoing upgrades will include expanded space, additional jet bridges, more concessions and amenities and a continued transition to a geothermal ventilation system. Local funds will match the federal-state investment, and improvements are scheduled to begin in the spring of 2023. More Geneva Tower residents were able to move back home this week, since being displaced by a https://www.thegazette.com/fires/apartment-residents-injured-in-cedar-rapids-high-rise-fire-at-geneva-tower/ (fire in February). Nine residents returned to Geneva Tower on Tuesday, and on Wednesday about 12 residents who live on the 12th floor returned, according to a news release from Affordable Housing Network. The network hopes to have all residents back in the tower by the middle of next week, even though restoration of the ninth floor — where the fire started on Feb. 20 — likely won’t be finished for several more weeks. Geneva Tower, located in downtown Cedar Rapids, rents to low-income seniors and adults with disabilities. It is home to 160 residents, all of whom were displaced by the fire. All residents were safely evacuated the night of the fire. The number of new COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations continued to decline in Iowa in the past week as the state emerges from the latest surge in the pandemic. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,008 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days, according to new coronavirus data released Wednesday. That’s down from the1,746 cases reported for the previous week and the 6,809 cases reported the week before. The latest COVID-19 surge in Iowa, driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant, peaked on Jan. 19 with 38,574 new cases reported in one week. A big drop was reported in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, with 112 patients hospitalized in the past week, down from 154 reported the week before. That compares to the seven-day peak of 991 hospitalizations reported Jan. 19. Despite the improving numbers, people are still dying from the disease. The state public health department confirmed 87 new deaths as a result of COVID-19 in the past seven days, compared to 91 deaths the previous week. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, March 16. It will be the warmest day of the week Wednesday, at least until warm temperatures return late in the weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Wednesday with a high near 68 degrees. It will also be a bit breezy, with a wind of 5 to 10 mph increasing to 15-20 mph by the afternoon. Wind gusts could reach as high as 30 mph. On Wednesday night there will be increasing clouds, with a low around 44 degrees. Over 60 employees will be let go from the Duane Arnold Energy Center in May under its plan to draw down staff at the closed nuclear plant near Palo. Iowa’s only nuclear plant, which was to be decommissioned in October 2020 but was shut down after being extensively damaged in the August 2020 derecho, had about 500 employees before being closed. The plant is owned by Florida based energy company NextEra. NextEra spokesperson Megan Murphy Salyer said Tuesday that the layoffs are part of the company’s continued plan and gradual drawdown of the decommissioning plan. Along with an enhanced retirement program, NextEra says it is also working with employees to place them in other jobs throughout the company or help with job searches in the industry. NextEra is also partnering with Alliant Energy and other companies to identify opportunities for employees. NextEra submitted its application last month to Linn County to construct utility-scale solar projects near Palo called Duane Arnold I and II. This may not be the permanent end for nuclear energy in the state. A new type of nuclear power plant — smaller, modular and designed to be safer in power outages is gaining some popularity nationally. MidAmerican Energy is asking the Iowa Utilities Board for permission to investigate the possibility of such a plant as part of a $4 million low-carbon emission pilot that would also include solar and wind power. They have asked the state for an answer on the project by October of this year. Iowa County officials told the Gazette they believe the Wasserbahn Waterpark Resort’s sudden closure earlier this month was likely related to finances and came after recent complaints. “There’s probably going to be a lot of civil litigation with this, which is not unusual when a hotel goes out of business,” Iowa County Sheriff Rob Rotter said. “There’s been nothing criminal reported to us so far.” With tube slides, an 160-gallon bucket dump, geysers and a floating log walk, the Wasserbahn has been a popular Eastern Iowa attraction since it opened in 2004. The hotel, built in 1971, had changed names and gone through several owners since 2011. It is located off Interstate 80 in Williamsburg. Recent hotel and pool inspections show customer complaints, including one about black mold seen in part of the hotel that had been closed off for renovations and another from a family who said they got sick after visiting the water park Feb. 8. Wasserbahn’s fate is unclear at this time as it changes hands between owners. It appears as though its future as a water park hotel is in doubt. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
It should be another pleasant day Tuesday as the spring trend continues. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 58 degrees and a light wind. On Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 40 degrees. At the end of this week looms another deadline for the Iowa legislature: the second “funnel” deadline of this year’s session. By the end of the week, in order to remain eligible for consideration moving forward, any bill must have passed one chamber — either the Iowa House or Iowa Senate — and a committee in the opposite chamber. The deadline does not apply to tax policy or spending bills. So lawmakers — particularly Republicans in the agenda-setting majorities — this week will be prioritizing work on bills that have not yet reached that benchmark. Among the bills to watch out for up for debate this week: a series of proposals focused on giving parents more control on content in schools; bans on businesses requiring vaccines or face coverings; and a bill that seeks to make the requirements to receive unemployment benefits more stringent. Also possible this week could be a proposed update to the state’s bottle recycling law. A boy was injured Sunday evening in Cedar Rapids after a shooting in the 1600 block of Seventh Avenue SE. Police responded to the area at 7:24 p.m. and found a boy suffering from a gunshot wound in his lower back. He was found on the enclosed porch of a house in the area, according to a news release from Cedar Rapids police. The boy was taken to a hospital for treatment. Police described his injuries as serious but not life-threatening. Recent testing by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources found “very low” but detectable levels of two types of industrial chemicals in Cedar Rapids’ public water supply, but the city reports that its water remains safe to drink. The Iowa DNR is testing for PFAS, a family of thousands of chemicals used in industrial processes around the globe since the 1940s. They are called “forever chemicals” because they accumulate over time in water, soil, animals and humans. Prolonged exposure to these chemicals over time may cause various maladies, such as cancer. Based on current data, the city says there is no indication Cedar Rapids water customers must take any special actions at this time. The city’s water remains safe to drink. “At the city of Cedar Rapids, we take water and water quality very seriously. Our drinking water is safe and is well within the EPA and DNR standards,” Water Plant Manager Christine Knapp said in a statement. “We will continue to work with the Iowa DNR to monitor PFAS and will keep providing our community with safe, high-quality drinking water.” Meanwhile Central City got some bad news in the same survey. According to the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, Central City has concentrations of PFAS in its drinking water that exceed safety thresholds in other states and that are the highest so far identified by a new Iowa surveillance program. That test result was for the two most-studied PFAS and is more than double the highest concentration previously detected by the tests conducted in Iowa. It approaches the current federal safety guideline of 70 parts per trillion. It has triggered a more thorough review by the Iowa DNR’s Contaminated Sites Section to try to determine the cause of the elevated levels. “Have there been train derailments? Any use of firefighting foam?” asked Corey McCoid, supervisor of the Iowa DNR’s Water Supply Operations Section. “It’s just to try to track down what may be some of the possible sources and whether that warrants further investigation. The city’s well is within a mile of the site of a massive fire more than five years ago at a recycling business, Iowa Gold Distributing. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, March 14th. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect a partly sunny day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 56. Winds from the south 10 to 15 mph then from the southwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Then tonight, it should be mostly cloudy, with a low around 29. If state lawmakers go along with legislation already approved by the Iowa House, it could be the last time Iowans have to go through the twice-a-year ritual of changing their clocks — if Congress agrees, too. In a floor debate, Rep. Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City, cited research from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine warning of the dangers of seasonal time changes. Any change in the twice-a-year clock change also would be dependent on Congress because federal law does not allow full-time daylight saving time. Under the Uniform Time Act, states may exempt themselves from daylight saving time. Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time at all. In men’s basketball, the Iowa Hawkeyes defeated Purdue Sunday, 75-66 at Indianapolis in the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament championship game. The triumph catapulted Iowa toward the NCAA tournament with a 26-9 record and produced its first title in this event since 2006. Keegan Murray had a game-high 19 points and broke the record for total points in this tourney with 103. Murray was named the tourney’s Most Outstanding Player, and Bohannon was on the all-tournament team. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “Ready” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, March 12and Sunday, March 13. First of all, I should note that this weekend is daylight savings time week, meaning we will Spring forward an hour on Sunday. Just a reminder to set your clocks ahead, presuming you have any that don’t update themselves. As for the weather, there will be one last cold day on Saturday before a warm week begins on Sunday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 25 degrees on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area. The wind will not be overly strong until Saturday night, but it will have a wind chill of -10 degrees before it warms up Saturday night. On Sunday it should be sunny with a high near 55 degrees and a mild wind. It may get quite warm and sunny this coming week, with a potential for near 70 degrees on Wednesday. So if you want to spend your weekend looking for your Spring clothes I think it might finally be safe to do so. According to reporting from the Washington Post, Democratic leaders took another step Friday toward ending Iowa's status as the first state in the party's presidential nominating process. A party rules committee meeting showed clear support for a new path that would prioritize more diverse and competitive states. The meeting of the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee came to no final decisions, but once again a majority of speakers made clear they are open to shaking up the presidential primary calendar to better reflect what speakers described as the party's values. Despite Iowa’s lack of demographic diversity, the national party has also criticized the Iowa Caucus for what is viewed as an archaic caucus system. It did not help that the most recent caucus was botched so heavily that results were delayed for a week, leading to the resignation of the head of the Iowa Democratic Party. On the Republican side, there is no indication that Iowa will lose its first in the nation status. Besides already being a primary, Iowa Republicans enjoy the benefit of having more sway in the national party. Two years after a pandemic-plagued University of Iowa announced plans to https://www.thegazette.com/education/sweeping-ui-budget-cuts-affect-hancher-thousands-of-employees-and-harrelds-pay/ (wean its acclaimed Hancher Auditorium) off university general fund support by 2024, UI officials Friday committed to continue providing $750,000 “annually” for the venue’s facilities and maintenance costs. The UI did not respond to questions about how long that annual contribution will last, and it comes to half the $1.5 million annual support the UI has typically made to Hancher in years’ past. The news came as part of a larger announcement about the creation of a new UI Office of Performing Arts and Engagement that will house a re-branded “Hancher Presents,” which is intended to expand its reach to “potential venues across the university and Iowa City area to further enable arts engagement.” Iowa City City Manager Geoff Fruin has named Scott Lyon as the city’s next fire chief. Lyon, now the assistant fire chief in Urbandale, is to start April 4, pending approval by the city’s Civil Service Commission and City Council. He will succeed John Grier, the city’s fire chief from 2013 until February 2022, https://www.thegazette.com/news/iowa-city-fire-chief-retiring-after-nearly-30-years-with-department/ (who retired after nearly 30 years with the department). Deputy Chief Eric Nurnberg has served as interim chief. Fruin said in a memo that Lyon “clearly articulated his strong belief that the fire department is an extension of the community.” Fruin said he expects Lyon will create new partnerships between the department and the community, other city departments and regional public safety organizations. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, March 11. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny Friday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 29 degrees. It will be a bit windy with wind gusts as high as 25 mph and a wind chill at -10 degrees. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 4 degrees. An Iowa State University “Sport Clubs Review Committee” formed after two students died in https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-state-acknowledges-failures-in-fatal-crew-club-boating-accident/ (a Crew Club accident a year ago )has developed a list of recommendations aimed at improving club safety — including new rules expected to reduce the number of “high-risk” clubs. Sport clubs deemed “unreasonably risky” and unable to satisfy new “enhanced risk mitigation measures” would be required to transition into “enthusiast student organizations.” Those enthusiast groups would serve as forums for “like-minded and passion-sharing students to come together.” But they wouldn’t be allowed to engage in the actual high-risk activity as part of a school sanctioned club. Iowa State has about 50 clubs the committee projects would be deemed high-risk. The university formed the internal committee following two independent reviews of the March 28, 2021, crew tragedy. The incident that sparked the reviews occurred on a windy day last spring when an ISU Crew Club boat capsized on Little Wall Lake. Iowa’s state budget is even healthier than fiscal experts previously estimated — for the moment. Over the next two budget years — once newly approved state income tax cuts go into effect — Iowa’s state revenues are projected to decline, according to nehttps://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/QR/1288519.pdf (w projections made Thursday b)y the state’s revenue estimating panel. Should those projections hold true, it would be the first time Iowa state revenue declined in consecutive budget years https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/LTR/current.pdf (since the 2009 and 2010 budget years), according to state records. Despite that projected decline in future state revenue, Kraig Paulsen, the state’s budget department director and Gov. Kim Reynolds’ representative on the revenue estimating panel, said the state’s finances remain strong. He said so long as state revenues continue to grow at their historical average of roughly 3 or 4 percent, no state department or agency will be forced to cut its budget in future years. The National Weather Service has confirmed four additional tornadoes that struck Iowa during Saturday evening’s deadly severe weather, bringing the total from the previously confirmed nine to now 13. Seven people were killed in tornadoes near Winterset and Chariton. The strongest of the 13 tornadoes was responsible for most of the deaths. It was listed as an EF-4 tornado with peak winds of 170 mph and it stayed on the ground for nearly 70 miles between Winterset and Newton. It left the longest path of destruction since a 1984 tornado that carved a path 117 miles long. The storm killed six people in rural Winterset, four of them from the same family seeking shelter in a home’s pantry because the house had no basement. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, March 10. It looks like the snow that was predicted for Thursday earlier in the week could be heading mostly to the south. Still, according to the National Weather Service, there will be a 30 percent chance of snow, mainly between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 28 degrees. The chance for snow will taper off even further Thursday night, with a low around 15 degrees. As a sneak peek, it looks like we’ll have to deal with cold weather a few more days before bumping back up to above 50 degrees on Sunday. Kim Reynolds finally made it official Wednesday: She’s running in November’s election for another four-year term as Iowa’s governor. The Republican governor made her re-election announcement at an event hosted by her campaign Wednesday night at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Her remarks were a mixture of her record in Iowa with criticisms of federal Democrats’ policies. “As long as I am governor, Iowa will be a state where you can live your life freely, not have to wake up every morning worrying about the next thing the government will do to you, your business or your children,” Reynolds said during the rally. Iowa’s first female governor, Reynolds has served in the office since 2017, initially filling the unexpired term of then-Gov. Terry Branstad, who was named U.S. ambassador to China. Reynolds ran for election to a full term in 2018, winning against Democrat businessman Fred Hubbell. Iowa reported a significant drop in new COVID-19 cases in the past week as the state enters its third year of the pandemic. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,746 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days, a major decline from the 6,809 cases reported the previous week, according to data released Wednesday. This major shift comes as Iowa emerges from the omicron surge, which peaked Jan. 19 with 38,574 new cases reported in one week. The Iowa City school board this week began considering the benefits and impact a four-day school week would have on student learning, families and staff. Though the district has no plans to move to a four-day week at this time, Superintendent Matt Degner told the board at its meeting on Tuesday the idea “has the potential to create a better outcome for our students.” With a four-day school week, the school year would start earlier in August and extend to the end of June, which could lessen “summer slide” — the loss of achievements made during the school year — Degner said. The current school calendar, which begins after Aug. 23 and ends around Memorial Day in May, is “based on the old agriculture calendar,” School board members expressed interest in the idea and some concerns, including meeting the needs of special education students and retaining hourly staff like paraeducators. The impact on child care and summer camps also must be considered, they said. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, March 9. According to the National Weather Service, it will grow increasingly cloudy over the day on Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 33 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 15. Authorities arrested six teenagers, including a 14-year-old, in a Monday shooting outside a school that killed a 15-year-old boy and seriously wounded two teenage girls, Des Moines police said Tuesday. According to reporting from the Associated Press, the suspects are each charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the Monday afternoon shooting on the grounds of East High School, near Des Moines’ downtown. Police said gunshots fired outside the school came from several shooters from multiple vehicles. Police identified the 15-year-old killed as Jose David Lopez, of Des Moines. Lopez, who was not a student at the school, was the intended target of the drive-by shooting, police said. The other two shot are females, 16 and 18, who both attend East and were among a group standing with Lopez when they were inadvertently shot. Another University of Iowa fraternity has been suspended — but this time not by UI officials but by its international headquarters. Last week, the executive committee of the Sigma Chi International Fraternity suspended its UI chapter for “an indefinite period” due to “accountability issues within the chapter.” Issues, according to a March 1 letter the headquarters sent the UI chapter, included “events related to hazing within its preparation for brotherhood pledge education program and its members’ disregard for risk management policies put in place by the university and international fraternity.” The letter didn’t go into detail on the hazing allegations — although the UI Sigma Chi chapter has been in trouble with the campus in every year since at least 2017 for alcohol and conduct violations; non-compliance with the university’s arrest policy; holding prohibited events; or hosting impermissible and illegal tailgates. After more than an hour of comments Tuesday, a House Appropriations subcommittee split along party lines with Republicans in favor to advance Gov. Kim Reynolds’ school choice bill. Although many of the comments were more about the merits of private schools and school choice rather than the appropriations in https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=hsb672 (House Study Bill 672), Reynolds’ legislative liaison told the subcommittee that education is the state’s single-largest line item — 56 percent of the $8 billion-plus general fund budget. For most families, that’s “money well spent,” liaison Molly Severn said, but the governor believes “parents matter … (and) deserve options.” Reynolds’ proposal would provide scholarships of as much as $5,500 a year to private school students from families with incomes of less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level — presently $110,000 a year for a family of four. Critics of the proposal say that the scholarships will weaken public education while only helping 10,000 of Iowa’s half a million K-12 students. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, March 8. There will be a few days without snow to give our latest batch a chance to melt. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 39 degrees. A modest wind could get up to 10 to 15 mph by the afternoon. Tuesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 24 degrees. One teenager was killed and two others were critically wounded in Des Moines Monday after gunfire that appeared to come from a passing vehicle struck them outside East High School, according to reporting from the Associated Press. Des Moines police said in a news release that potential suspects have been detained in the shooting on the grounds of the high school, near Des Moines’ downtown. No charges were immediately filed. Authorities said initially the three teenagers were critically injured in the shooting. A 15-year-old boy was then declared dead, while two female victims, ages 16 and 18, were still listed as critically injured as of Monday night. The two girls are students at the high school, while the boy was not a student there, according to police. Police did not release any of their names as of Monday night. According to the Washington Post, a tornado that killed seven people in southwest Iowa Saturday may have done so partially due to a delay in the national alarm system. A total of 17 tornado warnings were issued by the National Weather Service in Des Moines on Saturday. However, a system problem happening nationally at the same time caused a delay in these local alerts. Susan Buchanan, the weather service’s director of public affairs, wrote that “a technical issue caused a delay of between 2-7 minutes for some transmissions,” noting that “system engineers quickly took action as soon as the problem was detected.” She emphasized that warning lead times averaged about 20 minutes during the tornado outbreak. After a surprise last-minute withdrawal of https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/johnson-county-surgical-group-claims-violation-in-steindler-north-liberty-application/#:~:text=NORTH%20LIBERTY%20%E2%80%94%20A%20Johnson%20County,medical%20hub%20in%20North%20Liberty. (all opposition to a new Steindler North Liberty Ambulatory Surgery Center) — including from a group of surgeons that previously vowed legal action — a state council Monday unanimously granted a certificate the project needs to proceed. By granting the $19.2 million https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/steindler-delays-north-liberty-project-given-partner-prospect-with-in-state-hospital-system/ (project a “certificate of need,”) the five-member State Health Facilities Council cleared the way for construction of a new 35,880-square-foot ambulatory surgery center on 36 acres off Interstate 380 and Forevergreen Road in North Liberty. The project will unfold just about 1.5 miles east of the North Liberty tract where University of Iowa Health Care is building a new $395 million, 469,000-square-foot hospital, marking major development in North Liberty’s medical corridor. Mercy Iowa City in February https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/steindler-orthopedic-partnering-with-mercy-iowa-city-on-north-liberty-medical-park/ (announced a new partnership with Steindler) to help develop the North Liberty campus. But officials during Monday’s hearing didn’t explicitly cite that as a reason for the opposition withdrawals Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, March 7th. The National Weather Service on Sunday predicted 3 to 5 inches of snow during the overnight hours for the Cedar Rapids area. It will be cloudy through mid-morning Monday, then gradually clearing, with a steady temperature around 28. Winds are expected from the northwest, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch is possible. Then tonight, it should be clear with a low around 15. Seven people were killed when several tornadoes swept through Iowa Saturday night. It was the state's deadliest storm in more than a decade. Emergency management officials in Madison County said four were injured and six people were killed when one tornado touched down in the area southwest of Des Moines near the town of Winterset around 4:30 p.m. Among those killed were two children under the age of 5 and four adults. In Lucas County, about 54 miles southeast of Des Moines, officials confirmed one death and multiple reported injuries when a separate system struck less than an hour later. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources said the person who died there was in a recreational vehicle at a campground at Red Haw State Park in Chariton. One of those injured was also at the park. In women’s basketball, the No. 2-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes are Big Ten tournament champions after their 74-67 win over the No. 5-seeded Indiana Hoosiers Sunday. It marks the first time Iowa women’s basketball has won the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles in the same year. The duo of guard Caitlin Clark and center Monika Czinano fueled Iowa’s offense Sunday, combining to score 48 points. Czinano had a team-high 30 points on 13-for-18 shooting and 10 rebounds. Clark had 18 points on 6-for-17 shooting and seven rebounds. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “Ready” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6. It’s going to be a taste of spring this weekend, with a return to the cold the following week. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 65 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday. Keeping with the spring feel, there will also be rain and thunderstorms likely, with showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 3 p.m. There will also be a chance for showers and thunderstorms Saturday night, with wind gusts as fast as 45 mph. The low will be around 31 degrees. Sunday will be colder and calmer. It is predicted to be partly sunny, with a high near 45 degrees. There could be a chance for rain and snow Sunday night, with a low around 30 degrees. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ campaign arm is planning a “special event” that could be the official kickoff of her re-election campaign. The Reynolds campaign announced Friday it will hold a rally Wednesday at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. The announcement does not say what Reynolds will talk about at the event. Reynolds, a Republican, is up for re-election this fall. She has not yet officially announced her desire to seek another four years as Iowa governor, but is widely expected to do so. This year, Democrats have just one active candidate to challenge a potential Reynolds run: Deidre DeJear, a Des Moines businesswoman who ran for Iowa secretary of state in 2018. More than 1,000 tickets have been sold for the Russian Ballet Theatre’s performance of “Swan Lake” on Sunday evening at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids. Michael Silva, executive director of VenuWorks of Cedar Rapids, said via email that he is “not aware of any mass refund requests” in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a precaution against any backlash or protests, he said Cedar Rapids police will be on hand for the performance, but he does not expect there to be any disturbances. “This troupe has recently played the theaters in both Davenport and Dubuque, and we are hearing that the performance was beautiful and the messages about peace have been well received by the public,” Silva said. The Iowa Department of Public Safety is asking the Iowa Legislature for $385,000 to take the “final steps” in outfitting all Iowa State Patrol troopers with body cameras. If lawmakers approve use of the Technology Reinvestment Fund for equipment installation and licensing of software, troopers could be using the body cameras in a year, Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens said. The agency that stops more than 150,000 motorists a year, provides security at the state Capitol and staffs high-profile events like RAGBRAI will benefit from body cameras, according to a briefing document prepared for the Legislature. The agency will seek competitive bids for the cameras, which cost between $600 and $1,000, and for data storage. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart athttp://www.newpi.coop/ ( newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, March 4. Friday will be a cloudy day that will lead to a rainy Saturday. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 48 degrees. A wind of 10 to 15 mph will gust as high as 25 mph. There will be a slight chance of rain Friday night, with a low around 42 degrees. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law legislation that bans transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports in Iowa. Iowa becomes the 11th state to enact a ban on transgender girls in girls sports. The legislation, https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=HF2416 (House File 2416), passed through the Iowa Legislature with https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/ban-on-transgender-girls-in-iowa-girls-sports-approved/ (only Republican support). Republicans and supporters of the new law say it is a matter of ensuring fairness in girls’ and women’s athletics. “It’s simply a reality of human biology. Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity, and it’s absolutely unfair,” Reynolds, a Republican, said during the public bill-signing event. “Girls athletes would inevitably be displaced by biological boys with physical advantages.” There are no examples of transgender girls dominating a girls’ sport in Iowa, and examples nationally exist but are rare. Democrats, advocates for transgender people and other opponents argue the besides the rarity of what the bill says it is trying to fix, bills the target transgender students will create a feeling of exclusion who already report high rates of school bullying, isolation, and suicidal thoughts. After at least six incidents of misconduct since the fall of 2017 — including two this academic year — the University of Iowa has suspended its chapter of the popular Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity for at least four years. That means the chapter — known as “PIKE,” sitting adjacent UI’s Mayflower Residence Hall along Dubuque Street — won’t be eligible for UI recognition again until July 1, 2026. Should the chapter face more misconduct allegations in the interim while not recognized by the university, administrators could extend the suspension, according to a Feb. 23 disciplinary letter. The Iowa PIKE chapter was https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-fraternities-investigated-for-rowdy-tailgate/ (among three UI fraternities) found to have been involved in hosting impermissible and illegal tailgates in the fall. The panel that regulates Iowa gaming facilities will take applications from those seeking a license to operate a facility in Linn County, potentially opening the door to the development of a casino in Iowa’s second-largest city. But Cedar Rapids will only secure permission from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission if city officials and developers successfully make their case, overcome opposition and assuage concerns that a casino in Cedar Rapids will “cannibalize” the market. That market also includes Waterloo and Riverside, cities within an hour drive that already have casinos. The five-member panel has denied Cedar Rapids a license to operate a casino twice before, in 2014 and 2017, because it considered the market sufficiently served. But Cedar Rapids believes “the time is now” for a casino. Officials say the casino could be part of Iowa’s solution to stave off competition from recently approved gaming at Nebraska’s six horse tracks. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, March 3. There will be a decent chance for some snow Thursday, but accumulation should not be too much and it should mostly be done by noon. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 50 percent chance of snow Thursday morning in the Cedar Rapids area. Accumulation of less than a half inch is predicted. Besides that it will be mostly cloudy with a high near 35 degrees. There will be a low of 28 degrees Thursday night, with a mild wind. Transgender girls and women would no longer be allowed to play sports at Iowa schools, colleges and universities with other girls and women under a proposal that is one step from becoming law. Having passed the Republican-led Iowa Legislature Wednesday, the bill needs only Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signature to become law. Reynolds’ spokesman did not immediately respond Wednesday on whether she plans to sign the legislation into law. She has previously indicated support for the proposal. Iowa would become the 11th state to ban transgender athletes from participating in athletics with other athletes of the gender with which they identify, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that researches state policies. New COVID-19 cases saw a slight uptick in Iowa this week, but hospitalizations continued to drop and vaccine rates continued its sluggish upward pace, according to coronavirus data released by the Iowa Department of Public Health. Iowa inches closer to 2 million fully vaccinated statewide as more than 4,346 additional residents and non-residents completed their vaccine series in the past week. In total, 1,897,018 are fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, the data shows. The state reported 6,722 new COVID-19 cases, an increase from the 4,417 cases reported last week. In total, 754,511 people in Iowa have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since it first arrived in the state in March 2020. The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 dropped from 345 last week to 202 this week — the lowest total since 201 hospitalizations were reported on Aug. 4 of last year. A new elementary school will be built in Coralville in the Clear Creek Amana Community School District after voters approved a bond issue Tuesday of up to $65 million to fund construction. The new two-story elementary school would be larger than the district’s other schools to accommodate 600 students, according to the district. It could be open by the 2024-25 school year. 77.5 percent of those who voted, voted in favor of the bond referendum. Bond referendums require a 60 percent supermajority “yes” vote to pass. With Tiffin, North Liberty and Coralville recognized as three of the fastest-growing cities in Iowa, the school district estimates growing enrollment of 150 to 200 students per year. The 10-year enrollment outlook estimates 300 to 350 students per grade level. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, March 2. Wednesday will conclude the pleasant, uncomplicated, sunny part of the week. We will then progress to confused temperature fluctuations leading to rain or snow, depending on the day. According to the National Weather Service on Wednesday it will be mostly sunny with a high near 62 degrees. As Wednesday night passes into Thursday morning there will be increasing chances of snow, with a low around 24 degrees. President Joe Biden vowed in his State of the Union address Tuesday night to check Russian aggression in Ukraine, tame soaring U.S. inflation and deal with the fading but still dangerous coronavirus. President Biden tried throughout his speech to maintain the delicate balance between describing the dangers the nation faces while painting an optimistic picture of its future. One such danger, Russian President Vladimir Putin, was mentioned numerous times as an example of an autocrat who must be stopped by the United States and its Democratic Nato Allies. "Throughout our history we've learned this lesson — when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos," Biden said. "They keep moving. And the costs and threats to America and the world keep rising." Ahead of the speech, White House officials acknowledged the mood of the country is "sour," citing the lingering pandemic and inflation. Biden used his remarks to highlight the progress from a year ago with the majority of the U.S. population now vaccinated and millions more people at work, but also acknowledged that the job is not yet done, a recognition of American discontent. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds was selected to give the Republican rebuttal to Biden’s speech. Wearing dual American and Ukrainian flag lapel pins, and with the Iowa Capitol in the background, Reynolds spoke for roughly 15 minutes shortly after Biden’s address. Reynolds blamed Biden for inflation, rising crime, a botched departure from Afghanistan and Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. Reynolds said Biden’s actions helped pave the way for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, specifically citing the Biden administration’s waving of sanctions on an oil pipeline in Russia and, according to Reynolds, “focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness.” Gov. Reynolds also used her speech to tout what is being done in Iowa, such as an accelerated demasking during the COVID-19 pandemic and the $1.9 billion in state income tax cuts that https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-gov-kim-reynolds-signs-into-law-1-9-billion-in-tax-cuts/ (she signed into law earlier Tuesday). One of the Fairfield teens charged with killing his high school Spanish teacher is asking the court to prohibit the public — including the media — from a hearing later this month regarding a motion to move the cases into juvenile court. Lawyers for Jeremy Everett Goodale, 16, in a motion argue that testimony at the reverse waiver hearing will include confidential information that would “hinder” Goodale’s ability to have an impartial jury if the information is released to the public before this case is resolved. Under Iowa law, the court can exclude the public from hearings if a judge determines the “possibility of damage or harm to the child outweighs the public’s interest in having an open hearing,” according to the motion. Allen Cook and J. Nicole Jensen, in their motion, also point out that expanded media coverage — cameras, electronic equipment and use of social media in the courtroom — doesn’t have to be allowed if a judge determines the coverage would interfere with the defendant’s right to a fair trial. Goodale is one of two teens accused of killing Nohema Graber last November. Graber had taught at Fairfield High since 2012. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s...
On today’s episode: Gov. Kim Reynolds will https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-gov-reynolds-national-tv-moment-imminent/ (address the nation with the Republican response) following Biden’s State of the Union, https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/gov-kim-reynolds-orders-russian-liquor-pulled-from-wholesale-shelves/ (Russian liquor won’t be sold) by the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, Clear Creek Amana school district voters go to the polls today https://www.thegazette.com/k/clear-creek-amana-schools-65-million-bond-on-ballot-tuesday/ (to vote on a $65 million bond), and the https://www.thegazette.com/basketball/ (Iowa high school girls basketball tournamen)t continues today. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). Check out more podcasts from The Gazette at https://www.thegazette.com/podcasts/ (thegazette.com/podcasts).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Feb. 28th. According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have a mostly cloudy day in the Cedar Rapids area, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 50. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph, then from the west in the afternoon. And tonight, we should have increasing clouds, with a low around 29. KCRG-TV9 news anchor Jay Greene was terminated Sunday from the station he’d worked as morning anchor, just days after the station learned of an incident involving him. In a news release, KCRG said Greene had violated the station’s code of conduct. Additional details of the incident, which station management learned of Friday night, were not released Sunday. Greene had been a morning anchor with the station since April 2020, and had worked as a digital producer at the station since 2018. In women’s basketball, Iowa guard Caitlin Clark had 38 points and 11 assists and No. 21 Iowa clinched a share of the Big Ten championship with a 104-80 win over No. 6 Michigan on Sunday. It’s the first conference regular-season title since 2008 for the Hawkeyes. The game was a sellout, with an attendance of 15,056. It was the first sellout for an Iowa home game since January 31, 1988 when Iowa defeated Ohio State. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, February 26th and Sunday, February 27th. The last weekend in February will end with high temperatures above freezing. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny with a high near 38 degrees Saturday. Wind gusts of up to 25 mph could cause some patchy blowing snow between noon and 4 p.m. The wind will calm by Saturday night, with a low around 22 degrees. On Sunday there will again be a high of 38 degrees, but with sunny skies and a calm wind. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 20 degrees. The forecast for the coming week has highs above 40 degrees, with some days creeping toward 50 degrees. Milt Dakovich, an Iowa State University graduate and longtime member of Iowa’s Board of Regents, died this week, board President Michael Richards announced Friday. Dakovich, who lived in Waterloo, was 67. Although Richards didn’t share details of Dakovich’s death, he praised his fellow regent as a “wonderful man.” Former Gov. Terry Branstad appointed Dakovich to the board on June 3, 2013, and he was reappointed March 1, 2019, by Gov. Kim Reynolds. His term was set to expire April 30, 2025. He was the longest serving current regent. The trial for a University of Iowa student charged with killing his parents and sister in Cedar Rapids will be bumped, possibly after the year anniversary of the fatal shootings, and may be moved to another county. Lawyers for https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/trial-reset-to-april-for-21-year-old-charged-with-killing-parents-sister-in-cedar-rapids/ (Alexander Jackson, 21, )during a status hearing Friday, told 6th Judicial District Chief Judge Lars Anderson that the previously set trial date of April 5 wasn’t possible because they just recently received all the discovery from the prosecution and needed to schedule depositions. Jackson waived his right to appear and did not attend the hearing. He has not attended any pretrial hearings since being charged. Tyler Johnston, one of Jackson’s lawyers, said they also would be filing for a change of venue and would file a one-year waiver — meaning Jackson waives his right to have a trial within a year of the June 15, 2021, triple homicide. NextEra has officially submitted its application to Linn County for its Duane Arnold Solar project in Palo. The Florida-based company submitted its application to the county on Thursday for the two-phase project respectively called Duane Arnold Solar I and II. The county https://www.linncountyiowa.gov/1644/Applications (published the applications on its website) Friday. The county process for this project will be the same as it was for the Clenera Coggon Solar project. It will have to go through a technical review committee meeting, a planning and zoning meeting and three Board of Supervisors readings. Ultimately, the supervisors have the final say on whether a project passes on the county level. If approved by the county and state, the project would begin operation by the end of 2024. By locating the project at the site of the former Duane Arnold nuclear power plant, Alliant can use the already existing power transmission infrastructure to add the solar power to the grid. Iowa City’s Wednesday evening farmers market is canceled “for at least the 2022 season.” Brad Barker, the city’s recreation superintendent, said he sent word Thursday afternoon to all vendors informing them of the decision. Vendors were asked to register and commit to the 2022 season by Feb. 15. A total of 15 full-season vendors were needed but only 11 registered. The Saturday farmers markets will continue as planned. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, February 25. It’s going to be cold again on Friday but the good news is it will be getting better from here over the next week. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near 28 degrees on Friday. On Friday night it will be mostly cloudy, before gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 11 degrees. A light wind during the day will calm even more Friday evening. Iowa Republicans compromised with themselves Thursday and as a result have passed a new tax cut. Most Iowa workers would pay a 3.9 percent state income tax under a new $1.9 billion tax cut proposal that is likely to become law soon. The Senate and House approved the legislation Thursday, giving Reynolds time to sign it into law just before she is scheduled to appear on national television next week to deliver the Republican Party’s response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. “There’s never been a better time in Iowa for bold, sustainable tax reform,” Gov. Reynolds said in a statement issued just after the bill passed. “This bill rewards work, takes care of our farmers, and supports our retirees, all while protecting key state priorities. Democratic critics said that not only will the tax cuts take a chunk out of the state budget if steady economic growth does not occur to offset the loss of revenue, the cuts also disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Analysis from the state budget office predicts the median Iowa household will see an annual reduction of $593 on their state income taxes, while the wealthiest Iowans — those earning $1 million or more — will see a $67,000 reduction. Linn County is slated to receive the lion’s share of nearly $57 million awarded to the state by the federal government to assist with long-term recovery from the August 2020 derecho. The Iowa Economic Authority is administering $56.94 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds, 80 percent of which must be spent in Linn County — nearly $45.6 million. According to Kanan Kappelman, IEDA communications and tourism leader, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development determined the county was the “most impacted and distressed” area. As part of the requirements determined by HUD, 70 percent of these funds must benefit low- to moderate-income individuals and 15 percent of the funds must be spent on activities to mitigate the risks of future disasters. Overnight drivers moving through the Cedar Rapids metro area on Interstate 380 will have to find different routes next week. I-380 from Highway 100 to County Home Road will see northbound and southbound closures throughout the week for the installation of beams for a new north bridge over the interstate. The northbound lanes of I-380 will be closed from Highway 100 to County Home Road from 10:30 p.m. Monday to 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. The southbound lanes will be closed from County Home Road to Boyson Road from 10:30 p.m. Wednesday to 4:30 a.m. Thursday. During the closures, there will be a marked detour route for interstate traffic using Highway 100, Highway 13 and County Home Road that takes traffic around the Cedar Rapids metro area instead of through it. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, February 24. It looks like we’re getting one more dose of snow before another nice thaw period next week. According to the National Weather Service there will be snow in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday, mainly between 2 p.m. and tapering off by the end of the day. 1 to 4 inches of accumulation are possible. The high will be near 25 degrees, and the low will come in at 15 degrees, with thankfully mild wind. For the record, the forecast also looks cold on Friday, but will warm up quite a bit again by Saturday. As of early Thursday morning Russia had begun what many feared they would do, beginning an invasion of Ukraine with the help of nearby Belarus. Russian President Vladimir Putin is maintaining that these attacks are special military operations and that an invasion is not taking place, even as Russian military vehicles have crossed into Ukrainian territory and Ukrainian military targets have been attacked. 8 people have been confirmed killed as the fighting has only just begun. For now, the United State and Europe are lining up economic sanctions against Russia while also condemning the invasion. It remains to be seen how any other country’s military involvement could escalate, but in the short term this fighting will likely unsettle markets and raise gas prices due to Ukraine’s status as an energy distribution hub connecting Western and Eastern Europe to countries to the east. The State of Iowa squared off against advocates for abortion as they argued before the Iowa Supreme Court Wednesday. At stake is whether the court should overturn a District Court judge’s ruling on a state law requiring women to wait at least 24 hours before obtaining an abortion. The state is asking the justices to overturn the permanent injunction on the 2020 law, and in doing so, also overturn a similar ruling on a 2018 law that not only struck down a 72-hour waiting period but also affirmed women’s fundamental right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution. The opposing attorney argued the court should continue to block the 2020 law because state legislators violated legislative regulations when adding the measure as an amendment to an unrelated law and rushing it through the final hours of the session. This current lawsuit over an Iowa abortion case also comes as the rest of the nation prepares to hear the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on a separate abortion case, which is expected in June. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has called this case the “best opportunity yet” for the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark abortion rulings such as Roe v. Wade. Iowa State University police have arrested two freshmen in connection with recent social media posts warning people to avoid specific campus buildings, officials announced Wednesday morning. Officers at 6 p.m. Monday received a report about an anonymous post on the social media network Yik Yak advising people to “not come to Carver tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.,” a reference to Carver Hall — an academic building situated in central campus, west of the Campanile, in Ames. A second anonymous post — coming a few hours later — warned people to avoid Parks Library, a few buildings north of Carver Hall. Iowa State police worked overnight Monday with the FBI and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation to identify and monitor individuals believed to be responsible for the posts. Investigators determined Iowa State didn’t need to close campus and instead worked with building administrators to implement precautionary safety measures. Because the posts involved a specific location, referenced a time and “used the same language associated with other prior acts of violence,” ISU police and the Story County attorney found probable cause to arrest and charge ISU freshman Abdullateef Malallah, 18, of Ames, and ISU freshman Ty Jerman, 19, of Ames, with “threat of terrorism.” Support for this news update was...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, February 23. It will be chilly Wednesday but at least no freezing rain should appear. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 20 degrees. Wind chill values will dip as low as -10 degrees. A wind of 5 to 10 mph will gust as high as 20 mph. On Wednesday night the winds will calm. It will be mostly cloudy then, with a low around 11 degrees. Gov. Kim Reynolds will give the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, congressional Republican leaders announced Tuesday. The annual State of the Union address is scheduled for March 1. Biden will deliver his remarks to a joint session of Congress. Reynolds will deliver the response afterward from Des Moines. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, and U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, made the announcement Tuesday. A joint news release said Reynolds during the COVID-19 pandemic “became a national leader in effectively balancing lives and livelihoods” and said she was the nation’s first governor to require schools to offer to open for full-time, in-person instruction. 160 residents of Geneva Tower — many of them older and disabled — are sheltering at the Veterans Memorial Building or with family and friends after being displaced by a fire on Sunday. Veritas Church, which is across the street from Geneva Tower, became a temporary Red Cross shelter immediately after the fire, which had its source on the 9th floor and did not affect any of the lower floors. Fifty-two residents were moved to a more permanent shelter Sunday evening at the Veterans Memorial Building, with others joining them later, said Pami Erickson, executive director of the Eastern Iowa Red Cross Chapter. Other residents are staying with family or friends, she added. Geneva Tower employees were contacting tenants individually Monday to give updates and make sure they all have somewhere to stay, Craig said. Geneva Tower apartments are rented to mostly low-income seniors and adults with disabilities, so many of the residents have specific medical needs. The would-be operator of a Linn County casino is selling control of its Sioux City casino and other properties to Churchill Downs Inc., the racing, online wagering and gaming company anchored by the iconic Kentucky Derby. The $2.5 billion deal announced Tuesday does not include the Iowa subsidiary drafting a proposal for a Cedar Rapids casino. The deal is between Churchill Downs and Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (P2E), the parent company of the Cedar Rapids Development Group. This entity, made up of mostly local developers, has an agreement with the city to apply for a license to operate a Cedar Rapids casino., should the state approve such a proposal. Jonathan Swain, president of P2E, said the deal does not change investors’ plans to secure a gaming license from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to build a casino in Linn County. “We were born in Iowa 22 years ago, and when this is done, I'll be in my 60s,” Swain said. “This is kind of our last project, and we're going to make it the best one. It's been a long process. We’re very patient, and we look forward to the opportunity, if granted the ability to apply by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.” The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has spurned Cedar Rapids on multiple occasions in its quest for a casino, citing a concern that a Cedar Rapids casino would siphon off business from nearby casinos. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
On today’s episode: University of Iowa’s Henry B. Tippie College of Business https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/henry-b-tippie-namesake-of-the-university-of-iowa-business-college-dies-at-95/ (dies at 95), the Iowa House approves legislation banning the participation of transgender athletes, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources looks to https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-dnr-wants-to-sell-honey-creek-resort/ (sell its struggling Honey Creek Resort). Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). Check out more podcasts from The Gazette at https://www.thegazette.com/podcasts/ (thegazette.com/podcasts).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Feb. 21st - Presidents Day. According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have a mostly cloudy day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 45. East wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. And a chance of drizzle after 4 p.m. Then tonight, a chance of drizzle before 7 p.m., then rain between 7 and 2 a.m., followed by freezing rain. The low is expected to be around 27. Little or no ice accumulation expected. Fire crews battled a large apartment fire in downtown Cedar Rapids into early Sunday morning. Cedar Rapids firefighters responded to the fire at the Geneva Tower just after midnight. The building primarily houses elderly and disabled residents. Firefighters arrived as heavy smoke and flames were visible from the ninth floor and spreading to the 10th, according to the fire department. The fire also damaged the 11th and 12th floors. All residents in the building were evacuated as the department used high-rise ladders and fire suppression systems. The firefighting operations were stopped around 3 a.m. One resident of the senior-housing building was transported to a specialty treatment center for smoke inhalation and possible heat-related injuries, according to a news release. A number of other residents were taken to hospitals for smoke exposure and other medical issues. No injuries to firefighters were reported, and multiple area departments helped put out the fire. A man was killed in a head-on crash early Saturday morning when a pickup crossed the centerline and collided with his car south of Hazleton, according to a Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office news release. At 2:35 a.m., 31-year-old Ronald Landals, of Perry, was driving a northbound Pontiac G5 on Highway 150 near 140th Street when a southbound Chevrolet Silverado driven by 27-year-old Brian Goedken, of Independence, crossed the centerline and collided with the car, according to crash investigators. After striking the Pontiac, the pickup collided with a northbound Ford Police Interceptor driven by Mitchell Franck, 26, of Fairbank, an off-duty Buchanan County sheriff’s deputy who was traveling behind Landals’ vehicle. Landals was pronounced dead at the scene, and a passenger in the car was airlifted to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City with serious injuries. Goedken and a passenger in the pickup were transported to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids with non-life-threatening injuries. Franck was transported to Buchanan County Health Center in Independence with minor injuries. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, February 19th and Sunday, February 20th. This weekend will feature both weather from this month and weather from a month from now. According to the National Weather Service, on Saturday it will be sunny with a high near 27 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Wind chill values will be as low as -10 degrees, with a wind of 5 to 15 mph gusting as high as 25 mph. On Saturday night it will drop just a few degrees, down to a low of 22, but it will get a little windier. On Sunday it will be sunny again, but a full 30 degrees warmer, clocking in with a high near 52 degrees. It will be breezy again, with wind gusts as high as 30 mph. On Sunday it will be mostly clear, with a low around 31. Four people, including the former mayor of Iowa City, were rescued after being trapped when a grain bin filled with corn ruptured outside of Mount Vernon Friday morning. Two men were setting up to unload the bin when a door opened and corn spilled out, burying both men. Two other men who saw the spill stopped to help and also got trapped in the corn, according to a news release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. Emergency responders were called to the scene at 1504 N. Highway 1 at 9:32 a.m. on Friday. The two who tried to help — Shaun Lambertsen, 49, of Martelle, and Matt Hayek, 51, of Iowa City — were rescued first. The first two men who were trapped — Jared Youngblut, 37, of Lisbon, and Allen Mallie, 62, of Mount Vernon — were rescued soon after. Mallie, Lambertsen and Hayek were assessed by medical personnel at the scene and released. Youngblut was transported to a hospital with injuries that are not believed to be life threatening, officials said. Tis the season of candidates announcing they are running for things, and a pair of local Democrats announced their intentions Friday. Former Linn County Supervisor and current county employee Brent Oleson is running for public office again, this time for Linn County treasurer. His announcement comes after current treasurer, Sharon Gonzalez, said she is retiring when her term ends this year. Oleson, 51, was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2008 and re-elected in 2012 and 2016. He currently works as the county’s deputy director of public policy and community relations. Oleson, a former Republican-turned-Democrat, announced in August 2020 he would not seek re-election as a supervisor. He said he’d initially planned to serve only two terms when elected in 2008, but opted to run for a third term to continue advancing county conservation projects and programs. Meanwhile, a current state legislator in Linn County is looking to transition into county government next year. Kirsten Running-Marquardt, the Democratic state representative for District 69, announced on Friday that she would be running for the District 1 seat on the Linn County Board of Supervisors. Born and raised in southwest Cedar Rapids, Running-Marquardt, 44, said she is looking to move on from 13 years in state government to county government to work more closely on local issues. Her current state district aligns with the future County District 1 that includes west Cedar Rapids, Fairfax, Walford and adds Ely. Running-Marquardt is the second person to formally announce she’s running for the District 1 seat, currently held by Stacey Walker, https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/linn-county-supervisor-stacey-walker-not-seeking-re-election-in-2022/ (who announced last year he wouldn’t be running for re-election.) Breanna Oxley, a fellow Democrat and teacher at Roosevelt Middle School, https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/breanna-oxley-dropping-state-senate-race-running-for-linn-supervisor-instead/ (is also running for the seat. )Oxley, 30, announced her campaign back in October. Oxley is also the granddaughter of the county administration building’s namesake: Jean Oxley, the first woman to serve on the
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, February 18th. According to the National Weather Service it should be mostly sunny with a high near 40 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. The sunny weather should get tempered by a cold wind that will get stronger as the day goes on, reaching a wind chill of -10 degrees and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. There will be a slight chance of rain or snow Friday night, with the wind getting even stronger, and a low around 9 degrees. Cedar Rapids-based broadband provider ImOn Communications said it has reached an agreement to be acquired by a division of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The acquisition, by Goldman Sachs’s infrastructure investing business, will support ImOn’s expansion of its high-speed fiber network in the surrounding markets, the provider announced Thursday. More specifically ImOn, with the help of the funding, will complete its network build out to residences and businesses in the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, Iowa City, Coralville and Dubuque in the next three years. ImOn was founded in 2007 as a single-market cable provider. Today it owns and operates a more than 2,000 miles of network that reaches more than 60,000 households and businesses, it said. A Cedar Rapids man was killed Wednesday morning when a semi-truck crossed the median on Interstate 80 and collided with the pickup he was driving, according to the Iowa State Patrol. Driver Steven Michael Dolezal, 71, was killed when his Ford F-150 was struck around 9:20 a.m. Wednesday just 3 miles east of the Wilton/Muscatine exit on I-80. His passenger, Joan Kay Dolezal, 71, was injured and taken to a hospital in Davenport. Both were wearing seat belts, according to http://accidentreports.iowa.gov/index.php?pgname=minimal_ar&caseno=2022004408 (the crash report). The driver of the semi, Mykhaylo Palamarchuk, 65, of Chicago, was also taken to the Davenport hospital with injuries. The semi-truck was traveling west on I-80 when it crossed over the cable barrier and median, striking the eastbound pickup head-on. The crash is being investigated by the Iowa State Patrol. After four years of leading the University of Iowa’s $1.2 billion health care operation, Brooks Jackson, the UI vice president for medical affairs and dean of the nationally ranked UI Carver College of Medicine, is stepping down. Jackson, 68, plans to remain on the UI faculty to pursue research, according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication. The university plans to immediately embark on a search for his successor, and Jackson will continue to serve until that person starts work, according to the UI. As head of UIHC, Jackson led the largest multispecialty physician group practice in the state — a health care operation with a total impact of more than $4 billion on Iowa’s economy, employing more than 33,000 statewide. The University of Iowa is also seeking to fill UIHC’s CEO position as multi million dollar expansion projects to the hospital are soon to be underway in Iowa City and North Liberty. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, February 17th. Thursday there will be some holdover from the precipitation from Wednesday, but, mostly, it will be cold. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 15 degrees and a wind chill as low as zero. It will likely be blustery, with wind speeds of 15 to 20 mph gusting as high as 30 mph. There will be a small chance of snow between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., but the snowfall doesn’t appear as if it will be significant. On Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy, before gradually becoming clear, with a low around 5 degrees. If the cold has you feeling down, it appears like it may be above 50 degrees with sunny skies this coming Sunday, so look forward to that. The latest COVID-19 surge in Iowa is continuing its downward trend as state officials transition to a new phase of reporting pandemic numbers. The new coronavirus data released this week by the Iowa Department of Public Health is more limited compared to previous weekly totals. On Tuesday night, state officials shut down its online coronavirus dashboard. Coronavirus data has shifted to a Department of Public Health website. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations is no longer reported, and the number of long-term care facilities with outbreaks — three or more cases among staff and residents — is no longer reported. At last check there were more than 100 long term care facilities with outbreaks, while hospitalizations had been going down. Access to these numbers could be determined at a later date. As far as numbers they still are reporting, Iowa reported 7,863 new infections of the novel coronavirus in the past week, a decrease from the 12,833 reported the previous week. The Iowa House has approved a plan to gradually move to a flat income tax rate of 4 percent for all Iowans despite warnings from opponents that it will increase the gap between haves and have-nots and reduce the state’s ability to support services such as education and public safety. The bill, one of three GOP tax relief plans under consideration, would phase in a four-year gradual reduction in Iowa’s personal income tax rate from the current top rate of 8.53 percent for the highest wage earners to 4 percent for all taxpayers. HF 2317 is nearly the same as Gov. Kim Reynolds’ plan in that it would lower the state income tax to 4 percent. Unlike her plan and the Senate bill, the House doesn’t include any corporate income tax relief. The Senate would go further by lowering the tax rates to 3.6 percent and using a state taxpayer relief fund to eventually eliminate the income tax altogether. According to a Legislative Services Agency analysis, the House bill would lower income tax collections by $5.8 billion from fiscal 2023 through fiscal 2028. That would be partially offset with transfers of $829 million from the taxpayer relief fund for a net impact on state revenue of $5.002 billion over six years. That is almost a reduction of $1 billion a year. For perspective, this year’s proposed state budget from the Iowa Senate is $8.2 billion total. The Iowa Hawkeyes football coaching staff will have at least one new face in 2022. Ken O’Keefe is “stepping away” from his role as Iowa’s quarterbacks coach, the program said in a news release Wednesday, while moving into an off-the-field role in the Iowa program. O’Keefe, 68, has spent 18 years on head coach Kirk Ferentz’s staff — first as offensive coordinator from 1999-2011 and then as quarterbacks coach since 2017. He spent five seasons in the NFL on the Miami Dolphins’ staff between his two stints in Iowa City. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, February 16th. If you have been enjoying the warmer weather the last few days, sorry it’s going to get a bit colder Wednesday night and Thursday, and that cold will come with precipitation. According to the National Weather Service rain is likely Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area, primarily falling between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The high will be 45 degrees in the morning, but that will drop to 35 degrees by 5 p.m. and drop to the teens by Wednesday night. Rain could return again Wednesday night, and with the temperatures dropping it will likely be either freezing rain or turn into snow. It will also be windy, with gusts as high as 30 mph. The size, scope, and cost of a new University of Iowa wrestling training facility has swelled since it was announced two years ago due to now including women’s facilities. In September Iowa became the first NCAA Division I Power Five conference school thttps://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-has-reached-agreement-on-settlement-terms-in-female-athletes-title-ix-suit/ (o offer women’s wrestling.) The original project cost of $17.3 million has increased 53 percent, to $26.5 million, according to documents provided to the Board of Regents, which next week will consider approving the project design, description and budget. The new two-story facility will include women’s and men’s locker rooms, strength and conditioning space, a two-story wrestling room, training and therapy rooms, a coach office suite, recruiting room, student-athlete lounge and an underground tunnel leading to Carver-Hawkeye Arena — where the wrestlers compete. When University of Iowa Health Care eventually builds a new inpatient tower on its main Iowa City campus, officials intend to name it in honor of the late Richard O. Jacobson, whose foundation recently committed $70 million to the project. That gift, according to the UI Center for Advancement, is the largest in the university’s 175-year history and brings Jacobson’s total lifetime support to more than $86 million — including gifts to the UI football program, the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and the Iowa Reading Research Center. The Board of Regents next week will consider approving the Jacobson name for the new inpatient tower, which officials have said will help a cramped UI Health Care “meet the complex care needs of all Iowans, allowing them to receive high-quality care without leaving the state.” Jacobson died in 2016 at age 79. He started a warehouse business in 1968 that grew into a shipping business employing thousands. A 19-year-old Cedar Rapids man — chttps://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-man-accused-in-fatal-shooting-of-15-year-old-girl-found-in-crashed-car-in-july-2021/ (harged last week in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Illinois girl in July )— had been convicted a month earlier for trafficking stolen weapons, but he was out on probation after receiving a deferred judgment. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-man-accused-in-fatal-shooting-of-15-year-old-girl-found-in-crashed-car-in-july-2021/ (Marshawn Rome Jackson,) according to court documents, had at least two previous convictions, including being on juvenile probation Oct. 14, 2020, when he picked up his first adult conviction for stealing a vehicle. Officers were able to connect him to that crime by his electronic GPS monitor, which was ordered as part of his juvenile probation. Jackson pleaded to a lesser charge of operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent and was sentenced to 30 days in jail last February. Jackson is accused of fatally shooting 15-year-old https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/police-identify-teen-found-dead-shot-in-vehicle-at-apartment-complex-in-southwest-c-r/ (Tyliyah L. Whitis )of Peoria, Ill., who was found dead in the driver’s seat of her sister’s car July 21, 2021. Be sure to...
On today’s episode: Iowa’s COVID disaster proclamation https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/end-of-state-proclamation-isnt-the-end-of-covid-19-local-public-health-officials-say/ (expires Tuesday at 11:59 p.m.) The Legislature https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-legislature-sets-2-5-school-funding-increase/ (approves a 2.5 percent increase in state funding) for Iowa’s public K-12 schools And https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/more-record-numbers-for-iowa-sports-betting/ (sports betting hit another record) in Iowa, with $300 million wagered in January
Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). Check out more podcasts from The Gazette at https://www.thegazette.com/podcasts/ (thegazette.com/podcasts).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Feb. 14th. According to the National Weather Service, we will have mostly sunny skies today in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 26. Light and variable winds becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Then tonight, it should be mostly cloudy, with a low around 11. Some Linn County voters — especially those in southern rural parts of the county and in Robins — will switch districts for electing their supervisors starting later this year under new boundaries approved Friday. The Linn County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt the new district maps, prepared by the nonpartisan state Legislative Services Agency and approved earlier by a temporary redistricting committee. This fall, two of the three supervisor seats face election. Candidates running for the District 1 seat currently held by Stacey Walker and candidates running for the District 2 seat currently held by Ben Rogers will run for the newly redrawn districts. Walker has announced that he will not be seeking re-election. Supervisor Louie Zumbach does not face re-election this cycle, but will shift to a newly redrawn District 3. In men’s basketball, sophomore Keegan Murray scored a career-high 37 points to power Iowa to a 98-75 win over Nebraska on Sunday. Murray sank 15 of 21 shots — 3 of 4 from 3-point range — and made 4 of 5 foul shots for the Hawkeyes. Iowa stays home to host Michigan on Thursday. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, Feb. 12, and Sunday, Feb. 13. This weekend’s weather will be a bit of a heartbreaker, but love and football will not be denied. According to the National Weather Service, on Saturday it will be mostly sunny with a high near 12 degrees with wind chill values as low as -10. On Saturday night it will be mostly cloudy with a low around 7 degrees and a slight chance of snow. On Super Bowl Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 17 degrees. Valentine’s Day Monday should see hearts grow fonder, as temperatures rise above freezing again, with sunny skies and a high near 33 degrees. While the state of Iowa continued its low-debt ways, local governments last year took advantage of low interest rates to take on debt and start infrastructure projects. So while the state’s debt was reduced, the combined total of state and local government debt increased by 5.3 percent to $18.8 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June 2021, state Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald said Friday. That increase is the highest in a decade, when the average increase was 3 percent, according to figures provided by the state treasurer’s office. Fitzgerald attributed the increase to local governments pursuing infrastructure projects while interest rates were low. He said his analysis is that those local governments are operating responsibly. The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday announced it will no longer require face coverings in the court-controlled areas of county courthouses though judges will have discretion to require masks in their courtrooms. Chief Justice Susan Christensen removed the face covering requirement last year for court-controlled spaces but reinstated it after the surge in new COVID-19 cases. At that time, the court gave judges the discretion to allow those in their courtrooms to remove their masks or to take other measures to mitigate the spread of the virus. The court will continue to monitor virus cases and update guidance as necessary. The trial for a Cedar Rapids man, accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend and causing the death of her unborn child, will go forward March 29. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/trial-reset-to-september-for-cedar-rapids-man-charged-with-killing-pregnant-girlfriend-and-causing-d/ (Johnnie Osborne IV, 27, )is charged with first-degree murder, termination of pregnancy during a forcible felony, attempted murder and willful injury. He is accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend, Asia T. Grice, 25, who was in her second trimester of pregnancy on May 1, 2020. She died of a gunshot wound to her head, and her unborn child did not survive, according to a criminal complaint. Grice’s friend, Keonna Smith, who was in the apartment at the time, also was shot and seriously injured. The trial is expected to last 10 days, and 100 prospective jurors will be called. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, Feb. 11. Friday’s weather will be a good example of when you’re about to make a seasonal transition and the weather can’t quite make up its mind. According to the National Weather Service the day will start relatively warm, but windy, with a high near 40 mph and wind speeds of up to 35 mph. There will also be a chance of rain or maybe snow depending on the temperature around noon. Then Friday night the cold air will return, dropping the low to 7 degrees, with wind chill values as low as -10. This will lead into a colder weekend, with the 40s returning next week. In some good weather news, the risk of spring flooding on the Mississippi River, as well as its tributaries, including the Cedar and Iowa rivers, is near to being below normal, the National Weather Service reported Thursday. The Cedar River at Cedar Rapids has a 5 percent likelihood of reaching major flood stage of 16 feet this spring, compared with the 7 percent historical average, the National Weather Service reported., The river is 15 percent likely to reach minor flood stage of 12 feet at Cedar Rapids, which is below the historical risk of 25 percent. The Iowa River at Iowa City historically has a less than 5 percent chance of reaching its major flood stage of 26 feet and its minor flood stage of 23.5 feet. It was a busy day in the Iowa Capitol. A proposed ban on transgender girls competing in girls athletics in Iowa passed out of an education subcommittee for consideration of the education committee. House File 2309 says sports teams either have to be for biological males, females or co-ed The Iowa House also approved a 2.5 percent increase in state aid to K-12 schools Thursday, a number which educators and Democrats called “woefully inadequate.” Democrats had proposed a funding increase of twice that much, saying that if Iowa can afford a $300 million corporate tax cut, which is being proposed in tax plans by the governor and Republicans in the Senate, then they should be able to afford $300 million for increased school funding. The 2.5 percent was passed by House Republicans, anyway, in a 57-39 vote. Majority Republicans also added $19.2 million in one-time funds to help schools with inflationary pressures. In the Iowa Senate, a hearing was held on a bill that would enable parents to start legal proceedings against schools or educators who distribute books or materials the parents deem obscene. Sen. Jake Chapman, from Adel, said the intent of the bill is to empower parents to remove content from schools that they find objectionable when their requests to school boards and school districts fall on deaf ears. In its current form, which will come up for consideration in a Senate Judiciary Committee, a fine of up to $500 per day could be assessed against an instructor if a judge found that the material in question was obscene or pornographic. The fate of the bill, however, remains unclear, as Republican leaders in both the House and Senate have expressed reservations about criminal penalties being levied against educators. Finally, another longtime theater group has fallen victim to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the curtain fell on the final show for the Cedar Rapids Follies on March 31, 2019, it never went back up due to COVID-19 and rising production costs for the volunteer-driven production. Beginning in 1980, it was an annual effort that took more than 100 volunteers onstage and many more behind the scenes who typically spent their winters rehearsing, sewing and creating the scenery needed to create an original show from a new script every year. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, Feb. 10. Thursday’s weather will continue the warmer but also windy weather from Wednesday, with a chance for some snow Thursday night. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near 36 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Winds of 10 to 15 mph could gust as high as 20 mph during the day, but the wind gusts will increase to as high as 30 mph Thursday night. With that wind there will be a 50 percent chance of precipitation, with snow before 11 p.m. turning into rain after that. COVID-19 outbreaks are still quite high in Iowa at long term care facilities, but cases and hospitalizations appear to be on the decline. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds cited these falling numbers Wednesday when explaining to reporters why she feels comfortable ending the state’s COVID-19 emergency health proclamation. “We need to move on,” Reynolds told reporters at the Iowa State Capitol on Wednesday. “I think Iowans know what they need to do. They’ve demonstrated that, so it’s time to move on and treat this like we do other viruses.” State officials will continue to encourage Iowans to stay home when sick, Reynolds said, but added the state saw “a significant decline” in coronavirus-related hospitalizations in recent weeks. Iowa reported 12,833 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, with a seven-day positivity rate of 13.3 percent. That’s down more than 40 percent from last week’s total of 22,730 new cases. The positivity rate last week was 18.5 percent. The number of patients hospitalized this past week with COVID-19 dropped to 617, compared to the 794 reported last week. It should be noted that these hospitalization and case numbers still remain high compared to the average during the pandemic. Also the state reported 114 long-term care facilities with outbreaks, the highest amount since late 2020. The Governor does appear correct, however, that this latest outbreak is settling in a better place. The final edition of the weekly North Liberty Leader was published Thursday. Bob Woodward of Woodward Communications, which publishes the paper, told The Gazette some of the factors that led to the decision was the paper’s low subscriber count compared with the city’s population, as well as insufficient advertising support. North Liberty is a city of just over 20,000 residents as of the last census count. The paper had 300 subscribers, Woodward said. The paper has been publishing since 1976, according to the North Liberty Leader’s Facebook page. Subscribers with prepaid subscriptions will be contacted for refunds of the unused balance. Woodward Communications discontinued publication of the Marion Times last summer. Woodward said the fate of the papers in Solon and Mount Vernon could be in jeopardy if business doesn’t improve. He even floated combining the Solon and Mount Vernon papers together as one solution to save both. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, February 9. We will get a preview of Spring Wednesday with a chance for some snow becoming a chance for rain as it heats up to near 40 degrees. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, there will be a slight chance of rain and snow in the Cedar Rapids area before 11 a.m., then a slight chance of rain between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Overall the chance for precipitation is listed at 20 percent. Besides that it should be mostly cloudy, with a high near 38 degrees. A requirement to expand access to the E15 blend of corn-based ethanol at Iowa gas stations, one of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ top priorities, appears to be well on its way to her desk. The proposal passed through a streamlined legislative process Tuesday in the Iowa Senate, leaving it just a few legislative steps away from the governor’s pen. The legislation would require that most Iowa gas stations offer E15 ethanol — a higher blend than the E10 fuel typically available — in at least half their pumps. The proposal contains a waiver process for stations that cannot obtain E15 ethanol or lack the sufficient equipment to store the fuel. It also contains tax credits to support ethanol and other biofuels. A Cedar Rapids man, charged in December with burglary, theft and gun charges, assaulted a Linn County sheriff’s deputy Tuesday as he escaped from a routine medical transport, fled on foot and stole an SUV before being nabbed, authorities said. Tyler Glen Deemer, 34, escaped from a sheriff’s vehicle about 12:52 p.m. and fled from the area of the 900 block of Eighth Avenue SE. He was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and was in handcuffs and leg restraints. A short time later, residents reported that a man, later identified as Deemer, had stolen a silver Ford Edge SUV from the 900 block of 10th Street SE, according to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s deputies located Deemer in the stolen vehicle about 1:56 p.m. in the area of Robins and Boyson roads in Hiawatha. Law enforcement from several area agencies pursued the SUV westbound on Boyson Road. Deemer eventually ran the vehicle in the ditch on Carpenter Road near Indian Road NE and ran on foot. He was arrested after a brief chase about 2 p.m. For his trouble, Deemer received multiple additional felony and misdemeanor charges. The Cedar Rapids Community School District is considering asking voters this fall to approve a bond issue that could range from $55 million all the way to $420 million to help fund its facilities master plan. In an update Tuesday that was open online for the public, Superintendent Noreen Bush presented three possible options for a general obligation bond this September: $55 million, $280 million or $420 million, depending on the scope of work. Last year, the Cedar Rapids school board approved an agreement between the district and OPN Architects to study secondary schools for a facility needs assessment, including the district’s six middle schools, three high schools and its alternative high school, Metro. It is estimated about $150 million will be needed to bring the district’s six middle schools — Franklin, McKinley, Roosevelt, Wilson, Harding and Taft — up to current education standards, Bush said. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
On today's episode: Rangers at 23 of Iowa’s state parks are being evicted by the DNR, Cedar Rapids unveils its $37 million plan to replenish trees lost in the 2020 derecho, and longtime Iowa men’s basketball commentator https://www.thegazette.com/hawkeye-basketball/mac-mccausland-former-iowa-basketball-tv-analyst-dies/ (Mac MacCausland died) over the weekend. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Feb. 7th. For our Cedar Rapids area weather today, according to the National Weather Service, we can expect a chance of flurries after 7 a.m. It will be a partly sunny day, with a high near 22. Wind chill values could be as low as -10. Winds from the northwest 5 to 10 mph, then coming from the south in the afternoon. For tonight, a chance of flurries before 7 p.m., and partly cloudy, with a low around 13. The Cedar Rapids Virtual Academy will no longer offer live, daily instruction from district teachers next school year. Instead, virtual learning will be offered to kindergarten though eighth-graders next fall through Edgenuity, a nationally accredited online provider. The district announced the switch — beginning in the 2022-23 school year — in a newsletter to families on Friday. The online classes are offered to families who want a virtual alternative instead of sending their children to in-person classes. Students now enrolled in the Cedar Rapids Virtual Academy have daily, live, online instruction with a district teacher and some independent work. The Friday newsletter did not say how online instruction will be offered to high school students next school year, and district officials could not be reached for comment. Large landowners in Linn County who are looking this spring to replant trees lost in the 2020 derecho will benefit from the next phase of Marion-based not-for-profit Monarch Research’s Planting Forward reforestation initiative. Monarch Research is offering large private landowners easy access to native Iowa trees to be planted this spring in the 2022 Planting Forward for Woodlands project. Interested landowners have from now until Feb. 18 to order trees at the organization’s website, monarchresearch.org, to meet spring planting timelines. This project is intended for private landowners who lost more than 25 trees during the Aug. 10, 2020, derecho. Monarch Research has earmarked a limited number of trees for these landowners or those with 3 or more woodland acres. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, February 5, and Sunday, February 6. We are warming our way back toward freezing again. That sounds counterintuitive, but trust me, it will feel better. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 28. It will be moderately windy, but that wind should die down by late Saturday, which will be partly cloudy with a low around 17 degrees. On Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 32 degrees. On Sunday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 5. It will drop back in the 20s on Monday but I am seeing forecasts for highs in the 40s after that. The final curtain has fallen on the Old Creamery Theatre. The not-for-profit professional troupe, founded in Garrison in 1971 and relocated in the former Amana Colonies Welcome Center in 1988, intended to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2021. Instead, the pandemic pause pushed those plans to 2022 — but now, unable to financially sustain its operations, the theater is permanently closing. On Thursday, it returned the building to the Amana Society. “It’s not a surprise,” Peter Teahen, president of the theater's board of trustees, told The Gazette. “We’ve gone almost two years now, coming up in March, with no productions. We ran out of money.” Iowa men’s basketball head coach Fran McCaffery will miss Sunday’s game against Minnesota after testing positive for COVID-19, the athletic department said in a news release Friday. Assistant coach Billy Taylor will serve as acting head coach for the game. Taylor has been a head coach at Lehigh, Ball State and Division-II Belmont Abbey. Taylor will lead the Hawkeyes against a Minnesota team that has lost seven of its last eight games. The U.S. secretary of defense said in a letter to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds that the federal Department of Defense has the authority to require all service members — including those in the Iowa National Guard — to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Reynolds, in a statement, said she “strongly” disagrees with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, calling it “unconscionable” to dismiss soldiers who refuse to be vaccinated. Roughly one in five Iowa Guard members is not vaccinated, an Iowa National Guard spokeswoman said Friday. Austin’s letter, dated Jan. 27, was in response to https://governor.iowa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Joint%20Governors%20Letter%20to%20SECDEF%20-%20NG%20Vaccine%20Mandate%2012.14.2021.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery (a Dec. 14 letter from Reynolds) and four other Republican governors. Nearly a year after the Board of Regents approved spending another $10 to $15 million to replace dozens of damaged or at-risk windows in the University of Iowa’s $392.7 million Stead Family Children’s Hospital, work has yet to begin. In response to questions The Gazette asked last October, UI officials this week said a timeline for the Children’s Hospital window replacement still “has not been established.” When UIHC https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/regent-committee-recommends-10-15-million-for-new-childrens-hospital-windows/ (first went to regents last April) asking to spend millions on the damaged windows, officials reported knowing about affected windows on levels four and five and on a connector bridge with the John Pappajohn Pavilion. UI official now say they’ve established a timeline for “the first project to replace the connector bridge” that starts work in September and wraps in June 2023. The delay, they said, is “due to long glass fabrication lead times.” Officials told The Gazette their budget hasn’t changed, even as the hospital continued to investigate and identify more windows needing a temporary protective film prior to replacement. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, February 4. Friday’s weather will thankfully be the last day in the teens before some warmer weather this weekend and into next week. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area for the last day of the week, with wind chill values as low as -10. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around -2. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Thursday that she will end Iowa’s COVID-19 public health disaster emergency with a proclamation later this month. As a result, the state public health department is changing how it publicly reports COVID-19 data. The emergency proclamation will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 15, and with it the state’s ongoing pandemic response will shift to managing the coronavirus “as part of normal daily business.” On Feb. 16, the state will be decommissioning its two state-run websites that provided key information for Iowans on COVID-19. One is https://vaccinate.iowa.gov/ (vaccinate.iowa.gov), which has a COVID-19 vaccine appointment finder tool for users. The other is https://coronavirus.iowa.gov/ (coronavirus.iowa.gov), the state’s public COVID-19 data hub for regular reports on new cases, hospitalizations, deaths, vaccinations and other metrics used to measure the virus’ impact on Iowa. The state will also change requirements for hospitals and long term care facilities reporting COVID-19 statistics. The Iowa Department of Public Health pledged to still monitor the disease and facilitate testing, but the goal is to move COVID-19 into a place where it is treated like other diseases, such as the flu. In other words, the disease isn’t gone. They just don’t want people to talk about it as much. The trial for a Cedar Rapids teen charged with killing his parents with a knife and an ax has been reset to Oct. 18. Lawyers for https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-police-teen-stabbed-parents-to-death-to-take-charge-of-his-life/ (Ethan Alexander Orton, 17,) charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree murder, said they needed more time to prepare for that case and hadn’t received all the discovery evidence at this time. The trial was set to start Tuesday. Orton waived his right to a speedy trial, and Assistant Linn County Attorney Mike Harris didn’t resist resetting the trial. Sixth Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill granted the change. Orton’s attorneys have indicated that they are likely working toward an insanity plea. The teen remains in jail under a $2 million cash-only bail. First-degree murder is a life sentence without parole, but because he is a juvenile, he would have the opportunity for parole if convicted. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is asking for the public’s help to identify the person who shot a bald eagle in southeast Cedar Rapids Jan. 9. The DNR responded to a report of an injured bald eagle along the Cedar River near the https://linncountytrails.org/trails/find-a-trail/sac-fox-trail/ (Sac and Fox Tra)il. The raptor was captured and taken to a local wildlife rehabilitator where the gunshot wound was discovered during examination. Due to the severity of the eagle’s injuries, it had to be euthanized. Anyone with information is urged to call or email State Conservation Officer Travis Graves at (319) 350-2863 or Travis.Graves@DNR.Iowa.gov, or call the Turn In Poachers (TIP) hotline at 1-800-532-2020. Callers may remain anonymous. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, February 3. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, it should be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday, with a high near 13 degrees. Wind chill values will drop as low as -15 degrees. On Thursday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around -4 degrees. COVID-19 outbreaks at long-term care facilities in Iowa are in the triple digits this week, while the number of new virus cases and hospitalizations are declining after weeks of surging numbers. This week, 109 long-term care facilities — about a quarter of Iowa’s 445 nursing homes — were reporting coronavirus outbreaks, according to weekly totals released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health. That’s nearly four times the 25 outbreaks — three or more cases among staff and residents — reported four weeks ago and is the highest total seen since Jan. 1, 2021. In good news, after a weeks of rising numbers that strained health care systems’ capacity and resources, COVID-19 hospitalizations are on the decline in Iowa. As of Wednesday, patients hospitalized with COVID-19 dropped to 794 statewide from the 929 reported last week. The number of patients in intensive care and on ventilators also continued to decline this past week. The Iowa House overwhelmingly supported what they called a “big deal” Wednesday to boost the renewable fuels industry and farmers by mandating that retailers offer products to consumers containing more ethanol. The House voted 82-10 to require fuel retailers to begin offering E15, a higher blend than the E10 fuel more typically found at the gas pump. E15 is a blend of 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline. It contains 5% more ethanol than E10. If the bill, a priority for Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, is approved next by the Iowa Senate, more than half of Iowa fuel retailers would be required to offer E15 on at least one pump, and after January 2023 new stations and those that install new pumps would have to offer E15 from at least half of their dispensers. A federal judge’s ruling Wednesday will make it easier for potential sex abuse victims of former youth basketball coach Greg Stephen to join a class-action lawsuit against Stephen and the Iowa Barnstormers. Guy Cook, lead attorney for an unnamed former Iowa Barnstormers basketball player who filed the suit in 2020, told The Gazette the ruling should help advance settlement of the case. In the ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Locher refused the Barnstormers’ request to require potential victims to “opt-in” to the lawsuit. Last year, a https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/judge-approves-class-action-against-iowa-youth-basketball-league-former-coach-greg-stephen/ (federal judge ruled all former and present members of Barnstormers) — who were potential victims of Stephen’s between 2005 and April 5, 2018 — could join the class action lawsuit. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/180-year-sentence-for-former-youth-coach-greg-stephen-who-covertly-recorded-naked-teens/ (Stephen, 44, of Monticello, was sentenced )in 2019 to 180 years in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count each of possession of child pornography and transportation of child pornography for acquiring naked photos and images of Iowa Barnstormer AAU players. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
February 2: There will be a small chance for snow Wednesday, but it shouldn’t be too much to worry about, as it appears a large storm will be dipping south slightly and missing most of us. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of snow before 7 a.m. on Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area. After that it will be cloudy, with a high near 16 degrees. Wind chill values will vary between -5 and -10 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy with a low around 3. In news: A CO2 pipeline company wants to use eminent domain, an opioid settlement grows even larger, the DNR investigates a gas leak, and Hancher's executive director announces retirement. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
On today’s episode, Feb. 1, 2022: Iowa https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/iowa-virus-hospitalizations-fall-from-january-peak/ (COVID hospitalizations drop) The State Auditor’s Office https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/state-auditor-finds-no-significant-concerns-in-iowa-covid-data-reporting/ (audits Iowa’s COVID data) Former Hawkeye players’ attorneys accuse the University of Iowa https://www.thegazette.com/hawkeye-football/former-hawkeye-football-players-accuse-university-of-iowa-of-delaying-racial-discrimination-suit/ (of stalling a racial discrimination lawsuit) Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness https://www.thegazette.com/campaigns-elections/johnson-county-attorney-wont-seek-re-election/ (isn't seeking re-election) An Iowa House GOP proposal would https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/house-gop-pitches-streamlined-licensing-to-help-teacher-shortage/ (make it faster to get a teacher’s license)
Support provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville, and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (NewPi.coop.) Visit https://www.thegazette.com/podcasts (thegazette.com/podcasts) to hear more podcasts from The Gazette.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Jan. 31st. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect a mostly sunny day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 37. Winds from the southeast 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Then tonight it will be mostly cloudy, with a steady temperature around 33. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. An Iowa City woman and a Columbus Junction teenager have been charged with attempted murder and robbery of a Coralville man who was shot while in his car in an apartment complex parking lot in Washington, Iowa, earlier this month. 19-year-old Mya Wright and 17-year-old Jaden Miller had arranged to meet a 41-year-old Coralville man on Jan. 7th for a drug transaction. The two had conspired with the intent to commit a robbery, according to a Washington County criminal complaint. About 8 p.m., during the attempted robbery, Miller fired a single shot from a handgun, striking the Coralville man in his torso as he was sitting in his car, according to a Washington Police Department news release and the criminal complaint. Miller and Wright are being held on $500,000 cash-only bond, according to court records. Each charge is a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. An Iowa City man was jailed Friday night on a charge of first-degree theft after stuffing his jacket pockets with $11,838 in cash while depositing money into a Walmart safe Wednesday in Coralville, according to a police department criminal complaint. 18-year-old Brandon Jarvis was seen on surveillance video handling and depositing money into a safe at the Walmart store at 2801 Commerce Dr. The complaint said Jarvis was seen folding a wad of cash and placing it into his left jacket pocket, then folding another wad and placing it into his right pocket. Still more cash was dispensed from the safe and stuffed into a jacket pocket. First-degree theft is a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, January 29th and Sunday, January 30th. The weekend looks sunny and a little chilly, with warmer temperatures coming at the start of next week, according to a forecast from the National Weather Service. On Saturday it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 29 degrees. The wind chill will be as low as -10 degrees with wind gusts as high as 20 mph. On Saturday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 14 degrees. On Sunday it will be partly sunny, with a high near 23 degrees. The wind will calm a bit, and the low will drop to 13 degrees on Sunday night. The new RAGBRAI route was announced Friday night, and it will give northern Iowa a chance to shine. The route will start from Sergeant Bluff to Ida Grove, winding its way through Pocahontas, then heading northward to Emmetsburg and passing through Mason City and Charles City, before cycling toward the river through West Union and ending in Lansing. The overnight stops will be: Ida Grove, Pocahontas, Emmetsburg, Mason City, Charles City and West Union. The ride across Iowa is set for July 23-30. Police are investigating a second fatal shooting in less than 24 hours in southeast Cedar Rapids, and court records show the two men who died had been involved in a fight in 2020. The body of Kavon Iberheem Johnson, 22, was found at 7:25 a.m. Friday in a parking lot at Cedar Valley Park, south of Otis Road SE. Johnson appeared to have died from one or more gunshot wounds, according to a city news release. Officials did not say if the shooting happened at the park. Police also identified Cordal R. Lewis, 19, as the man found https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/police-investigating-fatal-shooting-in-southwest-cedar-rapids/ (fatally shot Thursday) afternoon on 31st Street Dr. SE. Police found his body in the street at 2:39 p.m. with one or more gunshot wounds, according to a news release. Both shootings appear to be targeted incidents, police said. They did not say if the incidents were related, and no suspects have been arrested. Court records show Lewis and two other men were charged with assaulting Johnson on June 17, 2020. Lewis pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily injury, a serious misdemeanor, and served time in the Linn County Jail. It was no surprise that COVID-19 was going to have a major impact on the University of Iowa Athletic Department’s finances. Athletics director Gary Barta first projected the deficit to be about $74.8 million. Thanks to a partial football season, cost-cutting and other factors, it ended up being $44.7 million, https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-hawkeyes/report-hawkeye-and-cyclone-athletics-deficits-werent-as-steep-as-predicted/ (per a July 2021 Board of Regents report). Iowa’s latest NCAA financial report, which uses different metrics to measure Iowa’s budget, similarly indicated a $42 million deficit. The athletic department used a loan from the university to pay back the deficit. Deputy athletics director Matt Henderson said that the good news is a lack of attendance disruptions this fiscal year, so far, means a similar deficit is unlikely to occur again – fingers crossed. “We’re bouncing back,” Henderson said. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
The former president of Go Cedar Rapids pleads guilty of bank fraud tied to newbo evolve; the Cedar Rapids School District look to return to mask mandate; Cedar Rapids and Swisher firefighters pull out all the stops to rescue a man from a corn silo. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
Show summary: COVID-19 hits Iowa's nursing homes with a vengeance, former Go Cedar Rapids financial director pleads to fraud charge for role in newbo evolve, and a Supreme Court Justice indicates his imminent retirement. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, January 26th. The temperatures are on their way back above 10 degrees. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 11 degrees. Wind chill values drop as low as -25 degrees with gusts as high as 20 mphl. On Wednesday night it will be partly cloudy, with the temperature rising to 19 degrees by Thursday morning. The wind chill will finally give us a bit of a break, rising to -5 degrees. A federal appeals panel Tuesday allowed the state of Iowa to enforce a law that prevents local schools from imposing mask mandates — but not for schools attended by students whose disabilities make them more vulnerable to severe illness if they get COVID-19. The appeals panel found that a mask requirement is a “reasonable accommodation” for students with such disabilities, and allowed a group of parents of disabled children to pursue a lawsuit that seeks to strike down the May 2021 state law. Two members of a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Omaha found a previous federal judge's decision to issue an injunction that blocked the state ban on mask mandates was too broad because it applied to all schools statewide. The split nature of the ruling has led to school districts interpreting it in vastly different ways. The Cedar Rapids School District, for example, decided Tuesday to no longer require masking but to encourage it. The Iowa City School District, by contrast, decided to keep its mask requirements in place. The opening of a magnet high school for freshman and sophomores in the Cedar Rapids Community School District is being delayed until at least fall 2023. District officials originally proposed opening a magnet high school for the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. After gathering input from staff, students, parents and residents about the concept of a magnet high school, the district decided to delay its opening, Superintendent Noreen Bush said in an email to The Gazette. Bush said it has become “increasingly clear” more time is needed to develop the magnet high school. Iowa’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell to 3.5 percent in December, the Iowa Workforce Development said Tuesday. That is down from 3.7 percent in November and 3.7 percent a year ago, the agency said in a news release. IWD added that the total number of unemployed Iowans decreased to 57,900 in December, which were down by 3,800 from November. Motorists in Iowa would be prohibited from using hand-held cellphones or other electronic communication devices while driving under legislation approved Tuesday by the House Transportation Committee. If the legislation is approved by the Legislature, Iowa would join 25 other states in prohibiting the use of electronic devices capable of sending or receiving messages and storing or displaying videos while driving. In those states with hands-free legislation similar to what is being proposed in Iowa, there has been, on average, a 15 percent reduction in fatalities, according to an insurance company representative who spoke Tuesday at a hearing on HF 392. Iowa law now prohibits the use of hand-held electronic communication devices to write, send or view electronic messages while driving. Under HF 392, use of an electronic device would be a moving violation. The fine for a violation would increase from $45 to $100. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, January 25. It’s going to be another frigid middle of the week, starting on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 3 degrees. Wind chill values will drop to as low as -25 degrees with wind speeds of 5 to 15 mph. On Tuesday night it will drop down to -16 degrees, with wind chills remaining at -25 degrees. A utility-scale solar project covering over 700 acres west of Coggon can start construction this spring after the Linn County Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 in favor of the project Monday night after hundreds of residents had packed meetings over the last few months to either praise or denounce the facility. Supervisors Ben Rogers and Stacey Walker voted for the project, while Louie Zumbach voted against it. The approval means that about 750 acres will be rezoned from agricultural to agricultural with a renewable energy overlay that expires after 35 years. The project, a partnership between Idaho-based Clenera and the Central Iowa Power Cooperative, will be located almost 3 miles west of Coggon in rural Linn County. While the project has enlisted property owners to voluntarily take part in the array, it has drawn opposition because of its large scale, because it temporarily removes farmland from growing crops and because some neighboring property owners say it comes too close to encroaching on their land. Two weeks after the only remaining LGBTQ bar in Cedar Rapids https://www.thegazette.com/food-drink/belles-basix-longtime-lgbtq-bar-in-cedar-rapids-to-close/ (announced its closure), a buyer has stepped in to preserve Club Basix — the owners of the LGBTQ nightclub Studio 13 in downtown Iowa City. Jason Zeman and two partners in Corridor Entertainment Group were announced as the new owners of the club at 3916 First Ave. NE. They brought one of four serious, prospective offers, according to outgoing owner Andrew Harrison. A purchase price was not disclosed. The purchase announcement comes after a flood of support for the bar inundated Harrison, to his own surprise. After 10 years of owning the bar, he will depart from Belle’s Basix — a namesake derived from his former drag name, Pretty Belle — on Feb. 1. As businesses for years have struggled to recruit skilled workers to fill open positions — a challenge COVID-19 has only worsened — the city of Cedar Rapids and Kirkwood Community College announced Monday they are launching a partnership to fill local workforce needs. Cedar Rapids will allocate $500,000 of its $28 million share of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the College Career Connection program, a new workforce scholarship initiative with Kirkwood that will be the first of its kind among Iowa cities. Students in the college’s Career & Technical Education programs will receive grants totaling up to $6,000 a year when funding becomes available this fall, helping to fill the gaps for students when state, federal and other financial aid doesn’t cover an individual’s need. To be eligible, students must be Cedar Rapids residents and qualify financially as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Kirkwood President Lori Sundberg said the students who would most benefit are those who surpass income eligibility for a Pell Grant but still have “significant financial need.” Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Jan. 24th. According to the National Weather Service, we have a 30 percent chance of snow, mainly before 10 a.m. It will be cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with the temperature rising to near 28 by 11 a.m., then falling to around 16 during the remainder of the day. Winds from the southwest 5 to 15 mph then from the north in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Tonight, mostly clear, with a low around -7. Wind chill values as low as -20. A Marion nursing home has been cited for more than two dozen health care violations and is accused of being so short-staffed the residents have not received food or medicine as scheduled, according to a report by the Iowa Capital Dispatch. One resident of the Silver Oak Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Marion died at the home after a fall last Thanksgiving. The alleged physical abuse of another resident wasn’t reported to the state as required by law, and some temporary employees have reportedly arrived for work and immediately walked out after seeing how short-staffed the facility was. The facility has been cited for 25 separate federal regulatory violations. It is now facing a state fine of $12,500, which could be cut to $8,125 if the owners agree to forgo an appeal. Until last year, when the home was sold, it was known as Willow Gardens Care Center and had operated for three years with no fines or citations. Last May, the facility was bought by Ivy Healthcare Group, which is based in Surfside, Fla. Iowa defeated Penn State in men’s basketball Saturday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 68-51. The Hawkeyes evened their Big Ten record at 4-4 and improved their overall mark to 14-5. Keegan Murray led Iowa with 15 points. Kris Murray had 13, Patrick McCaffery and Jordan Bohannon 11. Iowa’s next game is at home against Purdue Thursday at 8 p.m. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop. — 🎹 Podcast music: “Momentum” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, January 22 and Sunday, January 23. Another cold weekend with some snow is on the way. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, there will be a chance for snow in the morning on Saturday and a chance for snow in the evening on Saturday. The morning snowfall will likely be less than a half inch, while the evening snowfall could be as much as 2 inches. Expect temperatures in the teens for most of Saturday. On Sunday it will calm down a bit, with an increasingly tranquil wind, sunny skies, and a high near 18 degrees. A Cedar Rapids police reserve officer who fired three shots at a vehicle being driven at him last December will not face charges, the Linn County Attorney’s office announced Friday. Reserve Officer Scott Fruehling, who has been employed with the department since September 1994, https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-police-officer-hit-with-car-after-chase-suspect-at-large/ (tried to stop a vehicle) at 8:36 p.m. Dec. 17 on 32nd Street NE. A short chase ensued to the 1600 block of Center Street NE, where the car finally stopped, blocked by road construction. When Officer Fruehling got out of his vehicle to speak with the driver, the driver turned the car 180 degrees and drove at him, knocking Fruehling to the ground. The driver was eventually identified as 26-year-old Eddie Ayers III. Ayers was arrested on multiple charges on January 14. Lance Cpl. Gabe Heefner has “progressed a lot” since arriving two months ago at a rehabilitation hospital in Chicago, his father told the Gazette this week, after the Marine was shot in a bizarre incident last year while driving along an Iowa City street. Nile Heefner said his son’s healing progress over time had likely plateaued, but a https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/cranioplasty#:~:text=Cranioplasty%20is%20the%20surgical%20repair,a%20previous%20operation%20or%20injury. (cranioplasty surgery) Thursday may “jumpstart his recovery.” Doctors have told the family that after an artificial skull plate is put in, there can be significant improvement in the patient. Last October, the 20-year-old Marine was shot in the head while driving on Highway 6 near Sycamore Street. Police said the round was fired by a man who was shooting a pellet gun at a squirrel in his yard, but missed and hit Gabe instead. Gabe crashed his car after being shot and was taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where his family said he was https://www.thegazette.com/crashes/iowa-city-native-fighting-for-his-life-after-being-shot-as-he-drove/ (“fighting for his life.”) Gabe, the oldest of three children, was in town visiting his grandparents when he was injured. Iowa City resident Philip Olson is https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/non-jury-trial-set-for-iowa-city-man-accused-of-aiming-at-squirrel-but-wounding-marine/ (accused of violating city code) by discharging a pellet gun within city limits. Iowa City police said that three days after the shooting, Olson came to the department to say he had heard about the incident and “admitted to shooting from inside his house at the squirrel and missing” at that time. Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/iowa-city-marine-shooting-brings-scrutiny-of-iowa-air-rifle-regulations/ (previously told The Gazette) she wanted to charge Olson with reckless use of a firearm but a “loophole in the law” prevented the more serious charge. An air rifle or similar gun is not considered a firearm or dangerous weapon in Iowa, which makes it hard to prosecute, Lyness said. A Marion nursing home has been cited for more than two dozen health care violations and is accused of being so short-staffed the residents have not received food or medicine as scheduled. One resident of the Silver Oak Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Marion died at the home after a...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, Jan. 21. It won’t exactly be a heatwave Friday, but at least the high will be above 10 degrees. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 14 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Wind chill values will still drop as low as -25 degrees. On Friday night into Saturday morning there will be a chance for snow, with predicted accumulation of less than a half inch predicted. Increasingly driven by fentanyl, opioid-related deaths continue to surge in Iowa and across the country at a “shocking” rate, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said on Thursday. “The deaths that we’ve seen have just been heartbreaking,” Miller said during a news conference, which he called after seeing the latest national drug overdose statistics issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Iowa Public Health Department estimates that deaths in Iowa due to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, rose from 31 percent of all overdoses in 2016 to 87 percent in 2021. While there is pharmaceutical fentanyl for treating severe pain — 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine — the most recent cases of fentanyl-related harm, overdose and death in the United States are linked to illegally made fentanyl, according to the CDC. The University of Iowa will regild the dome of the Old Capitol this summer after failure of gold leaf installed in 2003. https://opnarchitects.com/ (OPN Architects), of Iowa City, recommended regilding at a cost of $504,375, compared with putting on a gold-colored sheet metal roof, which the firm estimated to cost $681,914 and take another year because of supply chain delays for sheet metal. The UI plans to put the project https://buildui.facilities.uiowa.edu/buildui/project-info?projnumber=0913201 (out to bid Feb. 8). The Old Capitol Building, for which the cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1840, was to be the hub of state government after Iowa City was chosen as the state capital in 1839.The original dome was copper, but the UI paid $200 in 1920 to have 6,500 3-inch gold leaf pieces applied to the surface. Periodic regilding has happened ever since. After years of funding delays, the Army Corps of Engineers announced plans Wednesday to spend over $829 million on modernizing locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi River, including an infamous bottleneck north of St. Louis that farmers say is crucial to their ability to sell grain overseas. The announcement, which comes after Congress passed the bipartisan $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, represents the single largest investment to Mississippi River locks and dams since their original construction in the 1930s, according to the Waterways Council. Iowa and Illinois lawmakers say the funding will finally hasten long-delayed replacement of river locks that are well beyond their 50-year design life and cannot accommodate modern tows. Most of America’s locks and dams were built in the 1920s and 1930s. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, Jan. 20. It’s going to be another cold one Thursday, but at least it won’t be as windy as Wednesday. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, it will be sunny with a high near 3 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. While the wind chill will clock in at -25 degrees, the wind will be a comparably gentler 5 to 10 mph. The wind will become calmer and it will get even colder as the day goes on, with the temperature dropping to a low around -15 degrees. The state released their weekly COVID-19 numbers on Wednesday, and almost all of them are bad and getting worse. On Wednesday, Iowa reported 38,574 new COVID-19 cases in the past week — an average of 5,511 cases per day. The total, released by the Iowa Department of Public Health, is the highest number of new cases in a week Iowa has seen since the pandemic began almost 2 years ago. Statewide coronavirus positivity rates continued to increase as the omicron variant continues to run rampant, reaching 26.2 percent over the past seven days. Last week, it was 23.8 percent. Patients admitted to Iowa hospitals because of COVID-19 reached 991, an increase from the 923 admissions last week. On Monday, hospitalizations had reached 1,010, the most seen since the 1,124 COVID-19 patients seen across the state on Dec. 3, 2020. The surge in COVID-19 cases is leading several University of Iowa instructors to move their classes online, despite it being against campus policy. As students return to its public universities for the spring semester, the University of Iowa graduate student union is urging members to move all courses they’re teaching online for the first two weeks — despite UI policy barring such action without permission. The UI-based Campaign to Organize Graduate Students — or COGS — began circulating a petition last week urging members to sign and participate in the electronic-instruction shift. A COGS spokesman told the Gazette that hundreds of instructors across numerous departments have moved their courses online to start the semester — which began on Tuesday. A Cedar Rapids teen charged with fatally stabbing his parents in October may claim insanity and diminished responsibility at his murder trial set for next month. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-teen-ethan-orton-charged-with-killing-parents-found-competent-to-stand-trial/ (Ethan Alexander Orton, 17,) charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree murder, was found competent to stand trial last week by a judge following a psychiatric evaluation. He is accused of fatally stabbing his parents, Casey Arthur Orton, 42, and Misty Scott-Slade, 41, on Oct. 14 at their home in northeast Cedar Rapids. Orton’s lawyers filed a notice of defense Tuesday, stating he “may rely on the defenses of insanity and diminished responsibility” at his Feb. 8 trial. Yesterday I mentioned that Democratic challengers for governor would have to break records to match incumbent Kim Reynolds. They fell far short of doing so. https://webapp.iecdb.iowa.gov/PublicView/statewide/2022/Period_Due_Date_19-Jan/Candidates/Reynolds%2C%20Kim_Kim%20Reynolds%20for%20Iowa_5173/Reynolds%2C%20Kim_Kim%20Reynolds%20for%20Iowa_5173__DR2_Summary.pdf (Reynolds’ campaign raised nearly $3.8 million in 2021) — more than 13 times what DeJear raised. https://webapp.iecdb.iowa.gov/PublicView/statewide/2022/Period_Due_Date_19-Jan/Candidates/DeJear%2C%20Deidre_DeJear%20for%20Iowa_5198/DeJear%2C%20Deidre_DeJear%20for%20Iowa_5198__DR2_Summary.pdf (DeJear’s campaign raised nearly $280,000 in 2021), but spent nearly $271,000 to run her campaign. The only other Democratic candidate for governor is Kim West, an attorney from Des Moines whose 2021 report was not pasted as of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Iowa’s 2022 primary election is June 7; the general election is Nov. 8. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op....
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, January 19th. Wednesday will unfortunately begin the very cold portion of the week. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny and cold in the Cedar Rapids area with the temperature falling to 4 degrees by 11 a.m. Wind chill values will be as low as -15, with a wind of 15 to 25 mph gusting as high as 35 mph. If that wasn’t bad enough, it will drop down to -8 degrees Wednesday night. UIHC needs to find itself a new CEO. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Chief Executive Officer Suresh Gunasekaran — just three years after arriving to lead the state’s largest teaching hospital — is leaving to head the No. 9-ranked University of California San Francisco Academic Health System. His departure was announced by the university on Tuesday evening. Gunasekaran will be leaving at the end of February to start March 1 as CEO of the UCSF Academic Health System. Gunasekaran started at UIHC on Nov. 19, 2018, following a national search to replace UIHC CEO Ken Kates, who had retired. Before joining UIHC, Gunasekaran was chief operations officer for the University of Texas Southwestern Health System in Dallas. We don’t know what the Democratic campaigns for governor have raised, yet, but we know now that if they want to raise more than their Republican rival, Kim Reynolds, they will have to set a record. Gov. Reynolds’ campaign announced it raised nearly $3.8 million in 2021 and finished the year with nearly $4.8 million in its account. The campaign said both would be state records: the former being the most raised in a year preceding an election, and the latter the most ever for a statewide campaign. Reynolds has not yet officially declared her campaign for re-election, although she is widely expected to run for another four-year term. Democrats running to face Reynolds include two candidates from Des Moines: businesswoman Deidre DeJear and lawyer Kim West. A Tama County grand jury Monday did not indict a Tama County sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Chelsea man after the man fired his handgun during an October standoff, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety. According to an account from authorities, the Tama County Sheriff’s Office received calls at about 7:27 p.m. Oct. 28 reporting https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/man-dies-after-being-shot-by-deputy-in-tama-county/ (gunshots being fired near 1001 Station St. in Chelsea). When officers arrived, they found Dewey Dale Wilfong III, 28, displaying a handgun toward others in a “threatening manner.” Several law enforcement agencies from the surrounding area responded to the scene, and a standoff escalated to the point where Wilfong discharged his handgun. A Tama County sheriff’s deputy, who is not identified in the news release, fired one round, striking Wilfong in the upper torso. Wilfong was taken to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, where he was pronounced dead. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation conducted an independent investigation into the shooting and a case was presented to a grand jury for possible charges, which they then indicated did not merit going to a jury trial. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
On today’s episode: A Linn-Mar High School student and staff member are https://www.thegazette.com/k/linn-mar-student-staff-member-recognized-for-their-faith-courageous-social-justice-work/ (honored with the Dr. Percy and Lileah Harris “Who Is My Neighbor?” award) Iowa legislators weigh in on https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/as-iowas-share-of-sports-betting-pot-grows-lawmakers-begin-to-talk-about-spending-it/ (how to spend $13 million in sports betting tax revenue) An inmate https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/two-staff-members-injured-in-coralville-prison-assault/ (assaulted two officers at the Coralville prison) over the weekend.
Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Jan. 17th, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect a mostly cloudy day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 30. Winds from the northwest, 5 to 10 mph, coming from the west in the afternoon. Then tonight, mostly cloudy still, with a steady temperature around 24. A year and a half after the University of Iowa Athletics Department formed an alumni advisory committee in the wake of players alleging the football program fostered a culture of racism and bullying, head coach Kirk Ferentz last week abruptly dissolved the volunteer group. Ferentz wrote in a Tuesday email to the 10-member group of football alumni who have worked since summer 2020, “I have come to a decision that this is an appropriate time to dissolve our committee as it stands currently. As we start a new calendar year and prepare to move forward with our preparation for the 2022 season, I am giving thought to how we restructure the committee/board in a way that best serves our program moving forward.” Ferentz’s decision to dissolve the group came after a contentious meeting Oct. 18th and after committee chair David Porter, former Hawkeye offensive lineman, suggested to the group in a chain of text messages Jan. 2nd that it’s time to “bring in a new head football coach, football staff, and athletic director.” Ferentz declined The Gazette’s request for an in-person, phone or online interview. He said in an email provided by a spokesman that he decided to “evolve” the committee in November — after the contentious meeting but over a month before Porter’s message — and communicate the decision in January. In college basketball, Iowa avoided an epic collapse and defeated a depleted Minnesota men’s basketball team Sunday afternoon in Williams Arena, 81-71. The Hawkeyes improved to 3-3 in the Big Ten, 13-4 overall. Playing with just seven scholarship players because of an ankle injury to starting forward Eric Curry and COVID-19 issues with others, Minnesota was undersized and outmanned. The Gophers took a 7-2 lead, but Iowa reeled off the next eight points and never gave up the lead. Iowa’s next game is Wednesday night at Rutgers. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at https://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop). — 🎹 Podcast music: “Momentum” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, January 15th and Sunday, January 16th. By the time you wake up Saturday the snow will finally have stopped. Luckily that will be the end of heavy snow for the weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near 20 degrees. A wind of 5 to 10 mph will settle into a calm wind by Saturday night, which will also have mostly cloudy skies and a low around 0 degrees. On Sunday there will be a 20 percent chance of snow after noon, but it doesn’t appear like it will be significant snowfall. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 27 degrees. The calm wind will continue again Sunday. On Sunday evening it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 18 degrees. Kirk Ferentz is coming for Joe Paterno’s records. Iowa football head coach Kirk Ferentz agreed to a contract extension that will last through the 2029 season, the athletics department announced Friday. The 66-year-old Ferentz, who already is the longest-tenured college football coach in the country, will be 74 when the new contract ends. If he does not retire before the end of the contract, he’d have spent 31 years as head coach at Iowa. The total compensation will be $7 million per year, with a chance for performance based bonuses. Police arrested a Cedar Rapids man Friday on suspicion of assaulting a police officer who attempted to make a traffic stop in December and fired at the man’s vehicle when he drove toward him. Eddie Ayers III, 26, was charged with assault on persons in certain occupations — use/display weapon; assault on persons in certain occupations — bodily injury; interference with official acts with a dangerous weapon; eluding resulting in injury; and some traffic violations. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-reserve-officer-named-in-officer-involved-shooting/ (Ayers is accused of driving a vehicle )that Reserve Office Scott Fruehling attempted to stop at 8:36 p.m. Dec. 17 on 32nd Street NE. According to the police account of the incident, Ayers attempted to flee but was stopped by road construction, when Fruehling got out of his car to talk to approach the vehicle, Ayers reversed course and drove at him. Officer then was forced out of the way by the car while shooting his service weapon at the vehicle. Fruehling is currently on non-active duty while the department investigates if the use of his weapon was justified. The incident caused him minor injuries. A judge ruled Friday that a Cedar Rapids teenager charged last year with killing his parents with a knife and ax has been found competent to stand trial. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-police-teen-stabbed-parents-to-death-to-take-charge-of-his-life/ (Ethan Alexander Orton, )17, charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree murder, was sent in December to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville for a psychiatric evaluation. His defense lawyers told 6th Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill they believed Orton has a mental impairment or disorder. Thornhill didn’t give further details of the evaluation, which determines if a defendant understands the charges against him and is able to assist his lawyers with his own defense. A new performance venue that’s part of a “multipurpose development” is in the early design stages at a familiar location in downtown Iowa City. Those who have walked down E. Burlington Street past The Mill in recent weeks have noticed the orange placards https://www.thegazette.com/restaurants/the-mill-in-iowa-city-set-to-be-demolished-soon/ (announcing the building’s impending demolition). The permit was issued Thursday, and demolition on the iconic venue is expected to begin in two weeks. But while The Mill is set to be demolished, the intent is that some of its characteristics will help form a new “state-of-the-art performance venue,“ said Marc Moen, a...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, January 14. Right after a few days of melting snow, we are going to get some more Friday to replace what was lost. Depending on where you live and where the storm goes, you could get a lot more. According to the National Weather Forecast the snow will start mainly after 10 a.m. and mostly end before midnight, with the majority falling in the afternoon and evening. In the Cedar Rapids area there are 1-3 inches of snow predicted, but just a few counties to the west could see nearly a foot of snow. In the meantime, the temperature will drop to the high 20s, with potential wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Taking snowfall and wind into consideration, if you can plan to not be on the road after 5 p.m. Friday, it might be for the best. The BIden administration’s attempt to increase vaccination rates in large businesses hit a snare Thursday, but his mandate efforts weren’t entirely defeated. According to the Associated Press, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected. The mandate sought to force large employers to either mandate their employees get vaccinated for COVID-19 or to submit to weekly testing. Although the federal mandate will no longer be in place, the Biden administration noted it did motivate companies to put their own policies into effect and as a result vaccination was increased. The vaccine mandate that the court will allow to be enforced nationwide scraped by on a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the liberals to form a majority. The mandate covers virtually all health care workers in the country, applying to providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding. It affects 10.4 million workers at 76,000 health care facilities as well as home health care providers. The rule has medical and religious exemptions. Eastern Iowa child care providers will be adding almost 700 new child care slots after being awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars through Iowa’s Child Care Grants Project. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Tuesday nearly $37 million would be awarded in Child Care Grants that will create nearly 5,200 child care openings in Iowa. The money — $27 million in federal funds to the Iowa Department of Human Services, $6.7 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds and $3 million from the Iowa Legislature — will help fund new construction and renovations and maintenance to existing centers. According to the governor’s office, Iowa leads the nation in the percentage of households where both parents work outside the home. But 23 percent of Iowans, and 35 percent in rural areas, live in areas lacking enough child care slots. A Cedar Rapids man was arrested after selling $18,250 of ice methamphetamine to confidential informants, authorities said after seizing about 16 pounds of the drug from his home and more than $200,000 concealed in his toddler’s bedroom. Terrell McBride, 33, was charged Wednesday with possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance. McBride will remain in jail pending trial, unless he asks for a detention hearing. A preliminary hearing is set for Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Between October and December, law enforcement made a series of controlled buys from McBride totaling more than 3 pounds of ice meth for $18,250. They obtained a federal search warrant for his home on C Avenue NE. During the search Tuesday, law enforcement found 16 pounds of ice meth and about 2.7 pounds of marijuana. The bulk of meth, also called crystal meth, was in a utility closet in the home’s basement. Authorities said they also found more than $200,000 in cash in his toddler’s bedroom. Support for this podcast...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, January 13. We get one more day of above freezing weather, Thursday, before snow arrives on Friday and it gets a bit colder over the weekend. According to the National Weather Service forecast there will be a chance of flurries before 7 a.m., and some areas of fog before 11 a.m., so keep an eye out during your commute. But, besides that, it will be mostly cloudy Thursday with a high of 37 degrees. A light wind will blow at between 5 to 10 mph. On Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy with a low around 24 degrees. In Iowa’s weekly update on COVID-19 numbers it is clear that Iowa is following along with national trends spurred on by the omicron variant with another near record breaking week. Linn and Johnson Counties both reported record or near record case numbers for the second week in a row, with both counties over 2,000 new cases in the new week. Both counties also reported surging positivity rates, with nearly 1 in every 3 tests coming back positive. The fast-spreading omicron variant has also driven up the demand for testing. Though test supplies still remain available for the moment, Iowa Department of Public Health spokeswoman Sarah Ekstrand said the current surge “could affect Test Iowa kit availability for brief periods of time.” COVID-19 patients in Iowa hospitals reached 923 as of Wednesday, another 100-plus patient increase since last week. Despite surging COVID infections and hospitalizations across the state, Iowa’s Board of Regents on Wednesday announced no changes to its campus guidance or operations for the upcoming spring semester, which begins next Tuesday. The board’s fall guidance mandated faculty and staff return to their pre-pandemic on-campus duties; required the universities offer the same level of in-person educational experiences as before; and barred the institutions from mandating masks, social distancing or vaccinations. Iowa’s Board of Regents also discussed some interesting building plans for the University of Iowa campus disclosed at this same meeting. In discussing plans over the next decade for their campus, University of Iowa officials revealed Wednesday they intend to buy the Old Capitol Town Center, a downtown Iowa City mall opened in 1981 just south of the Pentacrest that already houses many campus programs. The UI also revealed its 10-year plans include selling its 109-year-old downtown Jefferson Building, modernizing its student memorial union, replacing the union’s parking ramp and upgrading its athletics facilities. Athletics upgrades include an already-announced $20 million stand-alone Hawkeye wrestling facility, a $9 million women’s gymnastics and spirit squad training center and improvements to its baseball facilities. A Cedar Rapids man faces multiple charges after a home invasion in Coggon on Sunday that injured the two elderly homeowners. Brandon W. Lee, 33, was arrested by the Linn County Sheriff's Office Special Response Team at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday at 2429 Reynolds Ave. SW. Lee, now in the Linn County Jail, is charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of willful injury causing bodily injury, first-degree theft and impersonating a public official. Deputies were called to a home in the 1800 block of Maple Way in Coggon about 6:30 p.m. Sunday where two 72-year-old homeowners had been assaulted. The homeowners said someone knocked on their front door claiming to be a law enforcement officer, demanded entry while brandishing a gun and forced his way in. Once inside, the man demanded money and assaulted them. They were both taken to a hospital to be treated for their injuries and one of them remains hospitalized. First-degree robbery is a Class B felony, punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, January 12. It’ll be the warmest day of the week Wednesday, with light wind and partial sunshine. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near 39 degrees. The wind will be calm, blowing from the south at 5 mph. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy with a low around 23 degrees. On Tuesday Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds gave the annual Condition of the State address in Des Moines. Reynolds used the speech to give a preview of her priorities going into the next legislative session. Her biggest proposal of the night was the reduction of the state income tax rate to a flat 4 percent for all taxpayer income brackets, put in place in phased reductions over the next 4 years. The governor’s office said that would make Iowa’s state income tax burden the fifth-lowest in the country. The state, according to the governor’s office, currently has the 16th-highest burden. The proposal would reduce state revenues by roughly $1.6 billion in 2023, the governor’s office said. Reynolds’ proposal also would phase out all state taxes on retirement income. Besides this, Reynolds said her administration plans to get more people into the workforce by cutting of unemployment sooner; train teachers and give one time federal aid payments to teachers who stay on the job; address parent concerns about the content in school libraries; allocate public funding for parents who want to enroll their children in private schools; and introduce legislation that would require ethanol be offered in more ways by all relevant retailers. Following a vast and swift trend sweeping four-year colleges and universities nationally, the Iowa Board of Regents is moving to permanently eliminate the mandate that applicants to their public universities submit either SAT or ACT scores — ending the 63-year-old requirement. The board Wednesday will consider https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0122_ITEM_9__Admissions_Policy_Rec_4B94DAE5833BF.pdf (the proposal,) which comes after regents https://www.iowaregents.edu/news/board-news/board-of-regents-waives-requirement-for-actsat-score-for-next-years-entering-class (in August 2020) took the temporary step of waiving the standardized test requirement — first enacted in 1959 — given challenges COVID-19 posed for students wanting to take the tests. The regent proposal will retain ACT and SAT scores as one of three factors freshman applicants need to achieve automatic admission to the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa — along with grade-point average and number of courses taken in core subject areas. ADM announced Tuesday it wants to build a carbon dioxide pipeline from its plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton to a site in Illinois where it will sequester the greenhouse gases. This is the third proposed CO2 pipeline for Iowa, which, if approved by state regulators, would add thousands of miles of underground pipe in Eastern Iowa. ADM and Wolf Carbon Solutions https://www.adm.com/news/news-releases/wolf-carbon-solutions-adm-announce-partnership-to-advance-decarbonization-of-ethanol-production (announced Tuesday )they have signed a letter of intent to build a 350-mile pipeline to transport liquefied CO2 from ethanol and cogeneration facilities in Cedar Rapids and Clinton to ADM’s already-operational sequestration site in Decatur, Ill. Companies that sequester carbon are eligible for federal tax credits of up to $50 per metric ton. By reducing the carbon footprint of ethanol production, these companies hope to make the fuel more competitive in states, such as the huge market in California that also has low carbon fuel standards. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids;...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, January 11. Tuesday will be a day for melting snow, but not too much. According to a forecast for the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 37 degrees. The wind will still be cold, with wind chill values as low as 15 degrees below zero and gusts as high as 25 mph. On Tuesday night it will be partly cloudy with a low around 22 degrees. A hearing to determine competency of a Cedar Rapids teen, who is accused of killing his parents last October using a knife and ax, is set for Friday in Linn County District Court. Last month, lawyers for https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-police-teen-stabbed-parents-to-death-to-take-charge-of-his-life/ (Ethan Alexander Orton,) 17, charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree murder, asked a judge to suspend proceedings in the case until the teen could be evaluated by a state psychiatric doctors. Defense lawyers, in the motion, said they believed Orton has a mental impairment or disorder that would prevent him from understanding the charges against him and assisting in his defense. Orton’s lawyers, Doug Davis and Madison Wiese, in the motion said their beliefs are based on in-person communications with Orton and information they have received. They also asked that Orton be evaluated to determine if he suffered from diminished capacity at the time of the killings. Belle’s Basix, the only LGBTQ bar in Cedar Rapids, is set to close at the end of January its owner, Andrew Harrisson, told the Gazette on Monday. Open since 1997, the bar in northeast Cedar Rapids is set to close for a lot of the same reasons other businesses have been struggling in the past year: challenging financial problems made untenable by disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Harrison said he welcomes offers to purchase the business, hoping to keep it alive even if he can’t himself. Inquiries have started to come in since his weekend announcement. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a home invasion in which two Coggon homeowners were assaulted. Around 6:28 p.m. Sunday, Linn County deputies responded to a report of a home invasion in the 1800 block of Maple Way in Coggon, according to a news release. The homeowners, Joseph and Sandra Henderson, both 72, reported someone knocked on their front door. When they answered, a man who claimed to be a law enforcement officer demanded entry into the residence and forced his way in. He was brandishing a gun. Once inside, authorities said, he demanded money and assaulted the Hendersons before fleeing a light-colored, four-door sedan of unknown make and model. The Hendersons were transported to a hospital to be treated for their injuries. Joseph Henderson remains hospitalized. According to the sheriff’s office, the man is white with a medium build, standing about 6 feet to 6 feet, 3 inches tall. Iowa Republican leaders in the Senate told journalists last week they will no longer be allowed to work on the chamber floor, a change that breaks with a more than 140-year tradition in the Iowa Capitol. The move raised concerns among free press and freedom of information advocates who said it is a blow to transparency and open government that makes it harder for the public to understand their elected officials. The new rule denies reporters access to the press benches near senators' desks, a location current and former statehouse reporters say is crucial for the most accurate coverage. The position allows reporters to see and hear everything clearly on the Senate floor and to get real-time answers and clarifications. Beginning this session, reporters will be seated in an upper-level public gallery instead. No such change has been made so far in the Iowa House. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Jan. 10th. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect a sunny day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 13. Wind chill values could be as low as -15. Winds from the north, 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Then tonight, clear, with a low around -4. A correctional officer was transported to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics after he was assaulted by an inmate Friday evening at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, according to an Iowa Department of Corrections news release. The inmate approached the officer at his post and, soon after, the inmate began assaulting the officer. Nearby staff responded to an alert and restrained the inmate. The officer was taken by a department vehicle to a hospital and later was transferred to UIHC in Iowa City for examination and observation. According to the release, the inmate was not injured. The penitentiary has been placed on modified restricted movement, and the Department of Corrections is continuing to investigate the incident. In women’s basketball, the 22nd-ranked Hawkeyes defeated Nebraska, 95-86, in a fast-paced Big Ten women’s basketball game in Lincoln Sunday afternoon. Iowa entered the game shooting 29 percent from 3-point range this season. But McKenna Warnock spearheaded an 11-for-19 long-distance barrage Sunday. The Hawkeyes led for virtually the entire game. The Hawkeyes play at Purdue on Thursday, then meet Nebraska again next Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. — 🎹 Podcast music: “Momentum” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, January 8, and Sunday, January 9. We’ve made it to the sweltering weekend, where it will mostly not be below zero degrees. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, on Saturday it will be increasingly cloudy with a high near 29 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A wind will blow from 5 to 15 mph with a windchill of -5 degrees. On Saturday it will be cloudy with a low of 8 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny, with a high near 15 degrees. Wind chill values will be as low as -5, with a slightly weaker wind that Saturday. Hundreds of Eastern Iowa students and staff reported testing positive for COVID-19 and were absent from school this week, the first week of classes after the holiday break. The Cedar Rapids Community School District, which requires students and staff to wear a mask, reported Friday that 197 students and 49 staff members had tested positive for COVID-19. Iowa schools are also in limbo about whether to follow a recent workplace vaccine mandate from President Joe Biden now that it is currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court, where it may be rejected in full or in part. According to state data, 898 people were hospitalized with the disease as of Friday night, an increase of 200 new patients since last week. Unvaccinated people make up 81 percent of those in the ICU and 72 percent of those hospitalized with the virus overall. An Iowa City man, convicted in November of first-degree murder, told the family of the victim that he wasn’t the shooter before a judge sentenced him to life in prison. Reginald Little, 46, was unapologetic to Kejuan Winters’ family who attended the Friday sentencing in Johnson County District Court. Little continued to deny his role the fatal drug robbery on April 20, 2020. Sixth Judicial District Judge Lars Anderson denied the defense’s motion for new trial, which argued there was lack of sufficient evidence and other issues at trial, and sentenced Little to life in prison without parole. Police accused Little and another man of planning to rob Winters of his drug supply, and then fatally shooting him in the ensuing struggle. Denying the request for a delay from the developer of a utility-scale solar project west of Coggon, the Linn County Board of Supervisors voted Friday to go ahead with holding more community meetings of the controversial project. The three supervisors unanimously voted to keep the community meeting schedule the same as announced before — starting with meetings Monday, Thursday and Jan. 18. All will take place at 6 p.m. at the Linn County Fairgrounds in Central City. In November, the Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-1 to recommend that the supervisors deny the solar project 3 miles west of Coggon. Members cited taking agricultural land out of use as one of the reasons, though some members said it seemed the project proposal met all the county’s standards. The proposed facility is a partnership between Idaho-based Clenera and the Central Iowa Power Cooperative. Clenera Director of Development Tom Fitzgerald had requested a delay of holding more community meetings earlier this week, said Linn County Planning and Development Director Charlie Nichols said. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; you can also order online through Co-op Cart at New p-i dot c-o-o-p. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op....
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, January 7. Friday will be the last day of the recent cold snap as temperatures will climb from sub zero to near freezing over the weekend. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 7 degrees. Wind chill values will still remain as low as -25 degrees. Friday night will already show a hint of the warming, with the temperature rising to 11 degrees. President Joe Biden on Thursday forcefully condemned what he called Donald Trump’s election “big lie” that sparked the deadly breach of the Capitol by his supporters a year ago and continues to motivate deep national division. He marked the anniversary of the insurrection by declaring he will stand and fight for “the soul of America.” “For the first time in our history, a president not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol,” Biden said. “But they failed.” Trump and his allies to this day contest the legitimacy of his election loss, a fact that is not lost on either party as we head into an important midterm election year. On an unusual anniversary in Washington, both parties responded with typical division. A driver hit two semis and two passenger vehicles while going northbound on southbound Interstate 380 Thursday, stopping traffic near the 42 Street NE exit while Cedar Rapids firefighters extricated people from three vehicles. According to a Cedar Rapids police spokesman, after hitting the four vehicles, the driver stopped near 42nd Street, got out of his car, stripped all of his clothes off and ran from the scene in near zero degree weather. He was apprehended and taken to a hospital for evaluation. No charges have been filed pending testing and interviews, the spokesman said. There were no life-threatening injuries from the incident, although police and firefighters spent more than two hours on the scene extracting three people from the vehicles involved. A trial for an Iowa City man, accused of killing his wife in 2019 because she was going to find out about his risky high-interest loans and falsified banking records, has been delayed for the sixth time, now to July 12. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/another-trial-delay-for-iowa-city-man-charged-with-killing-his-wife-in-2019/ (Roy Carl Browning Jr., 69, charged with first-degree murder), was set to go to trial Feb. 1, but last month asked for another continuance because an “indispensable” prosecution and defense witness couldn’t be available to testify at the trial due to “medical circumstances.” Leon Spies, Browning’s lawyer, said he had talked to Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness, and she didn’t resist the continuance. This trial has been reset five times since 2020 because of scheduling conflicts and the suspension of jury trials and limited jail visits during the early months of the pandemic. Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; you can also order online through Co-op Cart at New p-i dot c-o-o-p. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, January 6. Thursday will be the coldest in a week of cold days. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny and cold in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 4 degrees. A wind of 10 to 15 mph will gust as high as 25 mph with a wind chill value as low as 25 degrees below zero. On Thursday night the low will be -13 degrees, with -25 degree windchill. With the state’s weekly release of COVID-19 numbers on Wednesday, two things became clear: one, the state’s number of cases and deaths surged over the past week, and two, the omicron variant of the disease has arrived in full force. In Iowa, 20,075 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the past week, almost doubling the 11,234 new cases reported the week before. Deaths from the disease also saw an unusually high increase to 161 deaths, increasing the death toll from the disease statewide to 8,019 since the pandemic began here in March of 2020. After a few weeks of drops, Iowa’s numbers of people hospitalized with the disease jumped back up again to 795. Iowa health experts told the Gazette on Wednesday that the huge jump is being fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant becoming the dominant strain in the state. Ahttps://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioslocal_desmoines&stream=top#variant-proportions (ccording to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report), as of the week ending Jan. 1, the omicron variant made up 77.4 percent of the COVID-19 sequenced tests in the region made up of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri Officials with the state’s largest hospital expect the number of cases in Iowa will peak in late January or early February, noting it’s hard to predict the impact. “We’re hopeful we’ll see that our hospitalizations do not peak to the levels that they were before with delta, and we believe that we’ve seen that in other areas around the world. We’re watching it closely,” said Dr. Mike Brownlee, University of Iowa Health Care chief pharmacy officer This latest strain has the ability to spread much more rapidly than other variants, including the highly transmissible delta variant it just displaced. It also has a shorter incubation period between exposure and infection, enabling the strain to spread much faster than previous variants In a call with reporters on Wednesday, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley said he sees no possibility Senate Republicans will support President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan if it ever comes up for a vote. “Republicans probably will not support anything that's $1.8 trillion because we all voted against $1.9 trillion that was passed in March on a party-line vote,” Grassley said during his weekly call with reporters. Grassley said the fact the nation’s economy being strong while inflation levels are unusually high has led Republicans, who already are not fans of large social spending bills on the best of days, to resist the idea even more. Lawmakers also will be on edge Thursday, as it marks the one year anniversary since violent rioters overran the nation’s capitol building, an incident that still is being investigated along largely partisan lines. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, January 5. The weather will be chilly and windy on Wednesday. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny and cold in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 8 degrees Wednesday. Wind chill values will be as low as 15 degrees below zero with a wind of 15 to 25 mph gusting as high as 40 mph. The low Wednesday night will be -3 degrees. It’s been more than three years since the infamous “newbo evolve” festival brought headliners including Maroon 5 and reality TV stars to Cedar Rapids along with a financial disaster, resulting in jilted vendors and an unpaid $1.5 million bank loan. On Tuesday, federal authorities announced two men who headed the event face charges of fraud. According to documents filed in U.S. District Court, former GO Cedar Rapids president and chief executive officer Aaron McCreight, 46, now of Dothan, Ala., and former GO Cedar Rapids finance director Doug Hargrave, 54, now of Puyallup, Wash., each face one count of bank fraud. Court documents accuse McCreight and Hargrave of a scheme to defraud a bank — Bankers Trust of Iowa — by making misrepresentations about the festival’s ticket sales, projected revenue, projected expenses and the amount of loss that McCreight and Hargrave expected the event to generate. If convicted, McCreight and Hargrave each face up to 30 years in federal prison, a fine and supervised release following any prison terms. A judge hasn’t set first appearance dates for them yet. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she will present an agenda to the Iowa Legislature that includes state income tax cuts, plans to address workforce issues and reforms to K-12 education policy. Legislative Republican leaders pledged to present a tax cut plan that will be both significant and, in their words, sustainable. They have stated a moonshot goal of taking advantage of the current budget surplus to help them in their goal to eliminate the state income tax, but concede this may not be totally doable this session. Anyone seeking details on any of those plans will have to stay tuned. Specifics were scarce Tuesday, when Reynolds and legislative leaders participated in the Iowa Capitol Press Association’s annual legislative preview forum at the Iowa Capitol. Reynolds, who faces re-election in 2022, said she plans to unveil her self-described “bold and historic agenda” next Tuesday during her annual Condition of the State address to the Iowa Legislature. The 2022 session of the Iowa Legislature begins next Monday. An Iowa City man was arrested and jailed after police say he shot his landlord, who was at his residence to fix a plumbing problem last month. Carter Wolf, 24, is accused of firing through his bedroom door at least six or seven times in the direction of the landlord, according to a Johnson County criminal complaint. The victim was struck by multiple bullets and needed immediate surgery and hospitalization. Police say the landlord of the residence in the 400 block of E. Fairchild Street in Iowa City had made arrangements to fix a plumbing issue at the house on Dec. 21. He later proceeded upstairs to knock on a bedroom door to gain access to plumbing, which is when Wolf fired his weapon. Wolf’s door was not the door the landlord was knocking on, according to police. Police say Wolf admitted to firing his gun through his closed door in the direction of the victim, and that he never saw the victim before shooting. Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at http://www.newpi.coop/ (newpi.coop).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, January 4. If you have some errands left to do this week that require being outside, and want to do them when it’s not terribly cold, Tuesday is your day this week. According to the National Weather Service the high temperature will climb to near 35 degrees Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area. Clouds will increase during the day, with the temperature dropping to a low of 9 degrees by Tuesday night. Highs look to be in the teens and single digits for the rest of the week. The White House announced Monday that it will devote $1 billion toward assisting independent meat and poultry producers, aiming to undercut the four powerful meat producers that Iowa Republicans have long said sell farmers short and that the Biden administration asserts are responsible for rising meat prices. The effort aligns with Iowa Republican U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, who have backed legislation attempting to tackle this problem. In 1977, the four largest beef packers accounted for 25 percent of the market, according to Democratic Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. But as of 2018, the four largest packers controlled 85 percent of the market. The “Big Four” includes Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef. Two Iowa City teenagers are facing first-degree robbery charges after an alleged armed robbery last month at GreenState Credit Union on the city’s west side. Iowa City police responded just before 11 p.m. Dec. 21 to a report of a robbery at the credit union. According to police, the victim was using the drive-thru ATM when he was approached by an individual with a gun, who then pointed the gun at his head. The victim was able to drive away unharmed, police said. Police were able to see the incident on surveillance video. They identified the pair seen on the video as Laron Gadlen Jr., 16, and Tavarion Herron, 17, who were arrested Monday. Police say their investigation into the incident is ongoing and more arrests are possible. The Johnson County Board of Supervisors unanimously selected Supervisor Royceann Porter as the next board chair during an organizational meeting Monday. The board also unanimously selected Lisa Green-Douglass to serve as vice chair. Porter is the first African American to serve as chairperson of the board since the county was established in 1837, according to a county news release. Porter is a longtime community leader and advocate who has worked on mental health services, affordable housing, workers’ rights, restorative justice and opportunities for youth. She also has served on the Iowa City Community Police Review Board. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Jan. 3rd. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect it to be sunny, with a high near 22 today in the Cedar Rapids area. Wind chill values could be as low as -20. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 15. A Cedar Rapids man was arrested and jailed Sunday on suspicion of robbery after police said he entered a home with a loaded handgun, demanding marijuana from the residents. 20-year-old Dewayne Hunt is accused of entering a Cedar Rapids home in the 1600 block of Eighth Avenue SE on New Year's Day. Police said he had a loaded Glock handgun and demanded marijuana from two people in the home. During a struggle with the residents, Hunt fired a shot from the handgun. Hunt was held by the victims until police officers arrived, according to the criminal complaint. Hunt is charged with first-degree robbery, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison; felon in possession of a firearm; and carrying a concealed weapon. He is being held on $35,000 cash or surety bond. In the Citrus Bowl on Saturday, Chris Rodriguez ran for a 6-yard touchdown with 1:48 to play, and Kentucky rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Iowa Hawkeyes 20-17. DeAndre Square intercepted a Spencer Petras pass with 48 seconds to play to clinch the victory. Iowa had dominated Kentucky in the second half before the final drive, when the Wildcats drove 80 yards in eight plays. Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious — 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the last day of 2021, Friday, December 31. Friday will hover above freezing for part of the day, and with that will come a chance for a variety of annoying road conditions. According to the National Weather Service the high for the Cedar Rapids area will be 36 degrees. Friday morning could have some dense fog on your commute. After this, there is a slight chance listed for light snow in the early afternoon, a slight chance for snow and rain after that, and a slight chance for freezing rain after that. The low will settle in at around 8 degrees Friday night, and this will be followed by potentially heavy snow on Saturday. The students at Prairie Crest Elementary will get one extra day of winter break while workers rid the College Community school of “any remaining asbestos exposed during construction.” A letter the district sent Wednesday to Prairie Crest families said the district learned last week about the asbestos release that dated back to construction work in the building in June. The letter stated a contractor removing the carpet did not abate asbestos within the carpet glue before removing it. It was discovered by an asbestos consultant who was doing an annual asbestos inspection. The building may not be ready for occupancy again until Jan. 9, but the date is uncertain. The district expects to send families a final plan no later than Sunday. Linn County Public Health has ended its COVID-19 contact tracing efforts. Effective Friday, the county public health agency will no longer conduct case investigation and notify individual residents of positive coronavirus exposure. Eric Bradley, deputy director of Linn County Public Health, said the efforts are being stopped because COVID-19 spread in the county and state are likely too widespread to be slowed by contract tracing. This week Linn County reported more new cases than it has seen in over a year. The department also is taking its cue from the Iowa Department of Public Health, which had ended its routine contact tracing efforts for all individual COVID-19 cases statewide this past August. The Iowa Supreme Court has given Autumn Steele's family another chance to gain full access to the 911 call and police video of the incident in which Steele was fatally shot by police in 2015 outside her Burlington home. In an https://www.iowacourts.gov/courtcases/12502/embed/SupremeCourtOpinion (opinion released Thursday), the state Supreme Court said Adam Klein, the lawyer who originally sought the records on behalf of the Steeles, has legal standing to take the case to the District Court, despite the https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/details-released-in-fatal-police-shooting-of-autumn-steele/ (Iowa Public Information Board deciding in 2019) law enforcement agencies could keep records of the police shooting secret from the public. The court found Klein may seek only judicial review of release of the 911 call, body camera footage and police vehicle footage and may not pursue records already made public. The high court decision comes nearly seven years after Burlington Police Officer Jesse Hill accidentally shot Steele after responding to a domestic disturbance at her house Jan. 6, 2015. Let’s end our last 2021 update with something everyone loves: Baby names. According to information compiled by local hospitals, Henry was the most popular name for boys born at Cedar Rapids hospitals in 2021, while Ava and Nora took the top picks for newborn girls. Nationwide, the most popular names for 2021 were Olivia for girls and Liam for boys, according to BabyCenter.com. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, December 30th. We should get a break from snow on Thursday, with a chance for more to come on Saturday. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 31 degrees. A calm wind will blow all day. On Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 19 degrees. In the state’s weekly COVID-19 information update, the number of hospitalizations for the coronavirus continues to drop, but new cases ticked up again this week. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, the number of people being treated for COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals dropped from 747 to 711, although those in intensive care rose from 158 to 165. The number of patients on ventilators inched down from 101 to 97. Of those hospitalized for the virus, 80.6 percent had not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In all, Iowa saw 11,234 new COVID-19 cases this week, up from 10,381 new cases last week. Linn and Johnson Counties both reported the most new cases in a week that either county has seen since November of 2020. This surge in Iowa appears to be before the highly contagious omicron variant of the disease has arrived. The variant is hitting states like New York right now, and according to the Associated Press new cases of COVID-19 in the United States have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average. Nationwide, new cases per day have more than doubled over the past two weeks. A driver escaped a fiery semi tractor-trailer crash uninjured after falling asleep while driving on Interstate 380, according to a Buchanan County Sheriff's Office news release detailing an accident Christmas week. Investigators said Ryan Thieman, 49, of Marble Rock lost control at about 4:25 a.m. Dec. 21 while driving on southbound I-380 near mile marker 51. The semi struck the inside guardrail of the bridge over Lime Creek. Leaking fuel ignited a fire, which engulfed the truck and extended to the median between the northbound and southbound lanes. Thieman was able to exit the semi without injuries from the crash, the release stated. He later was cited for failure to maintain control. The southbound lanes of I-380 were shut down between mile markers 49 and 55 for about 5 hours to allow the wreckage to be extinguished and cleared. A Cedar Rapids man is accused of stealing tools and lottery tickets from the Hy-Vee Food Store at 279 Collins Rd. NE. Jason B. Ross, 51, faces two felony charges — first-degree robbery and theft of lottery ticket — and fourth-degree theft, a serious misdemeanor. Officers said Ross entered the store through the back door and stole a Hy-Vee jacket, several tools and roughly $3,000 worth of Iowa Lottery tickets, according to a criminal complaint. When Hy-Vee employees confronted Ross, he produced a fixed-blade knife, backed out of the store and ran, according to the complaint. He left the lottery tickets behind but took the other items. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, December 29th. There should be a chance for some more snow Wednesday, mostly in the late afternoon and evening. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 23 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area, so the snow will stick when it falls. There is a 40 percent chance of snow predicted after 3 p.m. and a 50 percent chance of snow before midnight. Linn County and its sheriff’s office are paying a former deputy and his lawyers over half a million dollars to settle his assertions that fellow deputies belittled him for taking leave to help care for his newborn son. Scott Becker initially filed a lawsuit against the county in January 2020 in Linn County District Court, but it was refiled in U.S. District Court in February 2020. In his suit, Becker said he took time under the Family Medical Leave Act to care for his child in 2018, but then faced harassment and retaliation from co-workers who didn’t want to fill in for him while he was out. Under terms of the settlement, Becker will be paid $334,062 and Fiedler Law Firm in Des Moines will be paid $240,937, according to a document provided by the county According to the Associated Press, the county attorney prosecuting the case of two https://apnews.com/article/fairfield-des-moines-iowa-conspiracy-homicide-87dfe280796d778c0ad55a829e1990b5 (Iowa teens charged with murde)r in the death of their high school Spanish teacher said in court documents they surveilled her pattern of life, ambushed her along her daily walk and dragged her into the woods, returning later to hide her body. Those additional details of the death of Nohema Graber in early November were revealed in a Dec. 23 filing in the case of Jeremy Goodale, 16, of Fairfield. He is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder with classmate Willard Miller, also 16. Attorneys for both teens have asked a judge to https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/second-fairfield-teen-charged-in-spanish-teachers-killing-wants-case-sent-to-juvenile-court/ (move their case to juvenile court.) Hearings on the requests are scheduled for Jan. 27. Authorities have confirmed earlier that Graber had suffered “inflicted trauma to the head," Her body was found concealed under a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties at Chautauqua Park in Fairfield. A University of Iowa student faces sex abuse charges after allegedly forcing a woman to perform a sex act at a 2021 Super Bowl party. Alexander T. Economos, 21, of Urbandale, was arrested Tuesday and faces charges of third-degree sex abuse, a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and assault with intent to commit sex abuse with bodily injury, a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Economos is accused of forcing a woman to perform a sex act Feb. 7 in a bathroom at a Super Bowl party in the 900 block of E. Washington Street in Iowa City. Finally, John Madden, the Hall of Fame coach who gained fame as a broadcaster whose enthusiastic calls combined with simple explanations provided a weekly soundtrack to NFL games for three decades, died Tuesday morning, the league said. He was 85. The NFL said on Tuesday that Madden had died unexpectedly and did not detail a cause. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, December 28th. Cedar Rapids should see some snow, some wintry mix, and some rain Tuesday morning into the afternoon. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, the precipitation should start early Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area. It should start as snow, with a chance of 1 to 3 inches of precipitation, then turn entirely to rain after 2 p.m. There will be a high of 36 degrees during the day, before it becomes mostly cloudy with no precipitation Tuesday night and a low around 15 degrees. The Atkins City Council voted last week to censure a council member who opposed hiring a city administrator for $92,000, but another council member says those things are not related. The six-member council http://www.cityofatkins.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2021-12-21-Agenda-Special-Council-Update-12-20-2021-1.pdf (voted Dec. 21) on a resolution for a public censure of Julie DeMeulenaere, who has been on the council since March. The resolution was not included with the online meeting agenda and Mayor Bruce Visser declined Monday to answer questions about what caused the censure. City Attorney Ryan Tang stated at last week’s meeting the censure was related to litigation. DeMeulenaere told the Gazette she feels the council’s action was retribution for her opposition to the hiring of a city administrator. Council member Joey Svejda denied this charge, saying it was related to legal matters he can’t discuss further. An Iowa City man has been charged with arson following a fire near a Hy-Vee loading dock Saturday. According to an Iowa City Police Department criminal complaint, Hy-Vee management called about 8 p.m. to report a fire by the loading dock at the 1720 Waterfront Dr. store. Firefighters told officers an accelerant was put on the fire. Surveillance video showed a man — later identified as 56-year-old https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-city-man-accused-of-assaulting-at-random-two-university-of-iowa-employees/ (Douglas H. Johnson) — walking in front of the Hy-Vee and then toward the loading dock. A few minutes later, around 5:45 p.m., Johnson was seen quickly walking away from the area of the loading dock, according to the complaint. Police said when they located Johnson, he smelled of an accelerant and admitted to being in the area of the fire. A third man has been arrested in connection with a shooting earlier this month at the Old Capitol Town Center parking ramp. DeMarcus D. Robertson Ray, 18, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested by Iowa City police Wednesday after he was released from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Police responded at 1:25 a.m. Dec. 5 to a report of multiple shots fired at the ramp at 220 S. Capitol St. Officers found evidence that multiple shots were fired. When officers arrived, they saw several people running from the scene, as well as Robertson Ray with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Robertson Ray was hospitalized for treatment and ordered to be taken into custody when discharged, according to court records. Earlier this month,https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/iowa-city-police-investigating-downtown-shooting-that-injured-man-at-old-capitol-mall-parking-ramp/ ( police arrested) Darnell F. Martin Jr., 21, of Coralville and Mason D. Ward, 18, of Cedar Rapids. Martin and Ward each face a charge of reckless use of a firearm causing property damage. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Dec. 27th. In the Cedar Rapids area today, according to the National Weather Service, we can expect patchy fog between 9 and 10 a.m. Otherwise, partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a steady temperature around 39. Winds from the west, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight, increasing clouds, with a low around 27. A bicyclist from Walford was struck from behind by a vehicle and killed on Christmas Day, according to a news release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. About 2:25 p.m., a northbound 2017 Ford Escape driven by Holly Dubishar of Amana struck a northbound bicyclist near 11609 Linn Benton Rd. The bicyclist was pronounced dead at the scene. The sheriff’s office on Sunday identified the victim as 76-year-old Terry Zabortsky of Walford. The crash remains under investigation by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. A Cedar Rapids woman woke up to the sound of a burglar opening her refrigerator, according to a Linn County criminal complaint. During the incident in the early morning of Oct. 30th, the resident confronted the female intruder in the living room of her home in the 3500 block of Elm Avenue SE. The alleged burglar was wearing gloves and “indicated she was going to take the victim's computer to make Christian music with it,” according to the complaint. Police said before leaving the home, Brittany Miles wrote her name on a piece of paper and the resident was able to identify her in a photo array. Miles was arrested Wednesday and charged with second-degree burglary, a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. She is being held in the Linn County Jail on $15,000 cash or surety bond. Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious — 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
On today’s episode: You might see a hint of snow early on Christmas morning; NASA’s https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/forget-santa-university-of-iowa-astrophysicist-anticipating-nasa-telescope-launch-christmas-morning/ (launching the massive James Webb Telescope) early today that astrophysicists are excited about; Iowa will spend https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/iowa-paying-9m-for-extra-nursing-staffing/ ($9 million for out-state-nurses) in state to help with the COVID surge; and the U.S. saw a https://www.thegazette.com/news/pandemic-puts-brakes-on-u-s-population-growth/ (near-stagnant population growth) over the past year, though Iowa grew slightly.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, December 24. Friday will continue the recent warming trend, but you may not notice since rain will also be involved. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for patchy drizzle starting Friday morning in the Cedar Rapids area and continuing through 3 p.m. There may also be a chance for some fog early Friday afternoon. After that it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 51 degrees. There will be a chance for rain again Friday night into Saturday morning. A Cedar Rapids man was charged this week in the robbing and beating of Ali Mason, known as the “Taco God” among Cedar Rapids foodies. Jwan Trevelle Roush, 24, is charged with first-degree robbery, a Class B felony, and fourth-degree theft, a serious misdemeanor. He’s being held in the Linn County Jail on a $27,000 cash or surety bond. A criminal complaint said Roush was identified on security video. The video, the complaint said, shows Roush attacking Mason inside The Hype Bar & Grill, 1810 Sixth St. SW, on Dec. 5, striking Mason in the face, knocking him to the floor and continuing to beat him until Mason was unconscious. Roush is accused of stealing $450 from Mason and destroying his phone. https://www.thegazette.com/restaurants/taco-gods-hype-bar-grill-finds-a-home-in-cedar-rapids/ (Mason opened The Hype )in May 2021, giving him a brick-and-mortar front for the birria tacos he helped popularize in Cedar Rapids when he started https://www.thegazette.com/food-drink/taco-god-hopes-to-open-a-restaurant-featuring-his-signature-dish/ (selling them from home) in May 2020. He was attacked on what was to be his last day, as he had decided to break out of his partnership. He told the Gazette had made the decision to leave the business before the attack took place. A Cedar Rapids man is charged with attempted murder stemming from a Dec. 2 shooting outside Jim’s Foods store in southwest Cedar Rapids. Tyson Peppard Hale Jr., 19, was charged Wednesday with attempted murder, willful injury causing serious injury, going armed with intent and reckless use of a firearm causing bodily injury, all felonies. The criminal complaint stated security video showed Hale shooting multiple times at a man leaving the store, 812 Sixth St. SW. The shots shattered several bones in the man’s hand, and the man required surgery. During an interview with police, Hale admitted to firing the weapon “three to four times, but claimed he didn’t intend to kill [the man],” the criminal complaint stated. The CeMar Trail project had a productive 2021, with one new pedestrian bridge opening in Marion and another well on its way. The new bridge that will span Marion Boulevard — near Thomas Park — is about 53 percent done, Marion Associate Planner Kesha Billings said. Crews will be back working on it in April, or earlier, weather permitting, she said. The goal is to open the bridge in the fall. The federal government is paying 80 percent of the $1.4 million cost, with the city paying the remaining 20 percent, Billings said. The bridge is one piece of the larger CeMar Trail project, a decades-old plan to build a trail system connecting downtown Cedar Rapids and Uptown Marion. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, December 23. It’s going to warm up a bit again toward the end of the week. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Thursday with a high near 48 degrees. On Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 32 degrees. New COVID-19 cases and related hospitalizations in Iowa are trending downward this week after reaching record-level totals earlier this month. According to the latest data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health, the number of patients hospitalized for the coronavirus dropped this week to 747, a decline following six consecutive weeks of increases. The state reported 823 patients hospitalized as a result of COVID-19 last week, marking the first time since Dec. 12, 2020, that coronavirus hospitalizations were at or above 800. Total available intensive care beds dipped to another all-time low this past week — the second week in a row — after reaching 130 available beds statewide on Dec. 21. Cedar Rapids police on Wednesday released the name of the officer who fired his gun last week at a vehicle after an attempted traffic stop, but offered no detail on whether anyone has been arrested in the altercation. Reserve Officer Scott Fruehling, who has been employed with the department since September 1994, will not perform any police duties while the officer-involved shooting is being investigated, according to a news release. Police say that Fruehling attempted to perform a traffic stop last Friday at 32nd St. NE. When the motorist would not stop, a short chase ensued, until the fleeing suspect turned onto a road blocked off by construction. Police say with both vehicles stopped, Officer Fruehling stepped out of his vehicle to confront the driver, but the driver at that time turned their vehicle around and drove through Fruehling the other way. Fruehling fired at the vehicle as he was hit according to the police account. Police say they are still looking for the suspect who was involved in the incident. Fruehling was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital. Once the process is completed, it’s likely more than 1,000 refugees from Afghanistan will have been resettled in Iowa, according to a state refugee services worker. As of mid-December, roughly 700 Afghans had been resettled in Iowa, Mak Suceska, bureau chief for the Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services within the Iowa Department of Human Services, said during the Wednesday taping of “Iowa Press” at Iowa PBS Studios. He said he expects that number to grow to more than 1,000. Suceska and Kerri True-Funk, director of the Des Moines field office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, said the refugees are relocating in cities across the state, including Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, the Quad-Cities, Sioux City and Council Bluffs. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, December 22. It’ll be another sunny, always-somewhere-near freezing day on Wednesday. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 34 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 26. The Iowa City Community Police Review Board has concluded that the use of flash bangs and tear gas by police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest last year was justified and did not violate the police department’s excessive force policy. The five-member board was divided “even after lengthy deliberations,” according to a https://www.iowa-city.org/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=2038100&dbid=0&repo=CityofIowaCity (Dec. 13 report from the board). By a 3-2 vote, members decided to “not sustain” the complaint but raised concerns over how police acted when the tear gas was deployed. The board received a formal complaint about the incident on June 4, 2020 — a day after Iowa City police and Iowa State Patrol officers used flash-bangs, tear gas and pepper sprays on protesters to keep the crowd off Interstate 80. Starting on Feb. 9, the board met 11 times to consider various reports on the incident. A suspect is in Iowa City police custody after officers responded just before 10 a.m. Tuesday to reports of shots fired in a home near downtown and found a male suffering from gunshot wounds. Investigators have shared few details about the 9:46 a.m. report of “multiple shots fired” at 402 Fairchild St. — which sits two blocks west of North Market Park in the historic North Side neighborhood and three blocks west of Mann Elementary. Officers responding to the two-story home found the suspected shooter on the second floor, in addition to a male with multiple gunshot wounds, according to an Iowa City police news release. He’s been hospitalized and is being treated for his injuries — although police didn’t disclose his condition. A handful of Senate Democrats on Tuesday held a news conference to announce they will introduce legislation that would propose an amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would make marijuana legal for recreational use and regulate it like alcohol. Amendments to the Iowa Constitution must be passed in two legislative sessions separated by an election, and then must be approved by a public vote. More than half of Iowans, 54 percent, support legalizing marijuana for recreational use, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll from March, an increase from 29 percent in 2013. Despite this increased support, it all will likely be a symbolic effort. Brad Zaun, a Republican State Senator from Urbandale who heads the committee that would have to sign off on constitutional effort even moving forward in the first place, told the Gazette that he doesn’t intend to let it see the light of day. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
On today’s episode for Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021: Iowa’s https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/iowa-post-thanksgiving-coronavirus-surge-spills-into-christmas-week/ (COVID spike continues) heading into Christmas An independent review https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowas-prisons-overcrowded-understaffed-security-review-shows/ (shows Iowa’s prison system is overcrowded and understaffed) A https://www.thegazette.com/crashes/celebration-of-life-planned-for-decorah-high-school-students-killed-in-car-crash/ (memorial event) will be held Thursday for two Decorah High School students killed in a crash Iowa’s basketball team https://www.thegazette.com/hawkeye-basketball/hawkeyes-mens-basketball-team-has-skirted-covid-19-so-far/ (manages to skirt COVID for now)
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily News podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to "enable The Gazette Daily News" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying "Alexa, what’s the news?" If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your podcasts.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Dec. 20th. According to the National Weather Service, today in the Cedar Rapids area it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 39. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph then from the north in the afternoon. And tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 16. Two teens were killed and three more seriously injured in a single-vehicle crash Friday night in Winneshiek County. The accident happened around 10:30 p.m. Friday at Pole Line Road and County Road W-14, according to the Iowa State Patrol. The rural intersection is between Cresco and Decorah and north of the town of Ridgeway. Investigators said the driver lost control and entered the west ditch. The sport utility vehicle is believed to have rolled three times before coming to rest on its tires. The names of those involved have not yet been released, but all were under 18 years old. Performance results in Iowa public schools are significantly down from previous years, according to new data from the Iowa Department of Education. Within the Grant Wood Area Education Agency — which serves 32 public school districts in this area — Metro High School in Cedar Rapids had the lowest score, dropping by three categories from commendable to priority. There are six categories in Iowa school performance ratings. Highest to lowest, the categories are exceptional, high performing, commendable, acceptable, needs improvement and priority. Cedar Rapids Virtual Academy, which launched during the 2020-21 school year and expanded to K-12 students this year, was also listed as a priority school. The only three schools in the Grant Wood AEA district in the highest category — exceptional — were Lincoln and Wickham elementary schools in Iowa City and Mount Vernon Middle School. In men’s basketball, sophomore Keegan Murray poured in a career-high 35 points and Iowa breezed to a 94-75 victory over Utah State in a game at the Sanford Pentagon on Saturday night. Murray knocked down 13 of 17 shots from the floor with two 3-pointers and seven rebounds for the Hawkeyes, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious — 🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update Saturday, December 18th and Sunday, December 19th. The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday appears to be pretty similar for both days. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 34 degrees with mostly sunny skies in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday. Then it will be sunny with a high of 34 degrees on Sunday. The main difference looks to be with the low temperatures, with Sunday night looking to trend a bit warmer, with a predicted low of 25 degrees. A student brought a loaded gun to McKinley STEAM Academy on Friday, police said, when schools and law enforcement officials already were on high alert because of a nationwide social media post Thousands of Eastern Iowa students stayed home from school Friday after an anonymous TikTok social media post declared it to be “American School Shooting Day.” Law enforcement and education officials throughout Iowa said they were monitoring but knew of no credible threats of school violence in the state. One male student, whose name and age were not disclosed by authorities, faces a charge of carrying a firearm on school grounds, a Class D felony, and taken to the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center, police said. Drew Blahnik, 34, for the stabbing of Chris Bagley, 31, of Walker, was sentenced during the Friday hearing to 57 years in prison, the maximum available to the court. Blahnik, convicted by a Linn County jury in July, must serve 70 percent of that time, or 35 years on the murder sentence, before being eligible for parole. Judge Christopher Bruns, in his ruling, said the testimony and evidence at trial established that Andrew Shaw, a Cedar Rapids drug dealer who Bagley had previously robbed and assaulted, wanted Bagley dead. Credible evidence showed that Shaw, who has not been charged in Bagley’s death, asked Blahnik to kill Bagley. Shaw is currently serving time on drug charges. Ending a 31-year relationship that has brought hundreds of high school athletes and their fans annually to Cedar Rapids, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union announced Friday it was moving its state high school volleyball tournament to the new Xtream Arena in Coralville instead. The championship, last played in November in the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in downtown Cedar Rapids, has an estimated economic impact of $2 million in the community. Xtream Arena opened in September 2020. The arena has a capacity of 5,100 spectators plus additional floor seating, and is connected to the five-court, 53,000-square-foot GreenState Family Fieldhouse. The arena is home to the University of Iowa volleyball team and the Iowa Heartlanders ECHL hockey team. A dozen tornadoes struck Iowa in Wednesday’s storms, the National Weather Service has confirmed — double the number of December tornadoes the state saw in the last seven decades. For some context for how rare this storm was: The most active month historically in Iowa for tornadoes is June, with 810 tornadoes and 22 related deaths recorded since 1950, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. In comparison, in that same time period, Iowa had seen only six tornadoes in December — until this week. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, December 17th. It will be another calm December day weatherwise Friday. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 38 degrees. On Friday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 27 degrees. Wednesday evening’s unprecedented December storm killed one person after gusts toppled a semi, left thousands across the state waking up without power and met the criteria to be classified as a derecho — although not as severe as the infamous 2020 derecho that Eastern Iowa is still recovering from. The storm caused damage across the state but mostly in Western and north-Central Iowa, damaging homes and taking down power lines. The strong gusts rolled a semi truck and its trailer on its side near Walford, on the border of Linn and Benton counties, killing the driver, according to the Iowa State Patrol. The driver was heading south Wednesday night on Highway 151 just west of Walford as the storm was moving through the area. The driver was not wearing a seat belt, according to patrol. As COVID-19 hospitalizations in Iowa have reached the highest levels seen in more than a year, Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital jointly announced Thursday they have postponed elective and non-urgent surgeries effective immediately. The Cedar Rapids hospitals both have reported an alarming increase in patients hospitalized as a result of the coronavirus in recent weeks, which has placed “increasing strain on both hospitals’ capacity and staffing.” The decision comes after data was released Wednesday by the state showing Iowa broke a 2021 record for COVID-19 hospitalizations, this week surpassing more than 800 patients. As a result of this, total available intensive care unit beds in the state dropped to a new low, reaching just 136 open beds as of Dec. 9. ImOn Communications said it has accelerated its Iowa City expansion, aiming to have the fiber network available to all residences and businesses by the end of next year. ImOn CEO Patrice Carroll told The Gazette the company will be halfway to its goal in the next month with an additional 4,000 addresses added to its Iowa City footprint. In addition to fiber internet service, ImOn will begin offering cable television using internet-protocol television technology in Iowa City by early next year. The Cedar Rapids-based ImOn first announced its plans to expand into the Iowa City market in 2015. Competitor Mediacom https://www.thegazette.com/news/judge-imon-can-continue-iowa-city-build-out-amid-mediacom-lawsuit/ (attempted to block the expansion with a lawsuit) against the city of Iowa City and ImOn, but the judge ruled against Mediacom, allowing the expansion to continue. Iowans are https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowans-gambling-9-6-million-a-day-on-sports-betting/ (betting nearly $10 million a day on sports), but that hasn’t had an impact — at least so far — on the state’s lottery ales. Iowa Lottery sales have continued to be “strong and resilient,” totaling $178.5 million in the first five months of fiscal 2022 — a 6.7 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, Lottery Chief Executive Officer Matt Strawn said Thursday. While there’s been no erosion in lottery sales since legal sports betting came online in Iowa in August 2019, Strawn said he’s monitoring the growth in sports betting and the increased competition for consumers’ discretionary entertainment dollars. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, December 16th. Wednesday’s weather was, in a word, weird. The day started with 70 degree temperatures setting records for a mid December day all over the state. Then the record breaking winds came, with a storm line stretching from Missouri to Minnesota rocketing eastward at 75 mph, some tornadoes spawning along the way. Storm sirens blared as the system passed through, and 60 mph gusts still persisted hours afterward, with the smell of smoke pulled from a wildfire all the way in Kansas lingering in the air. But, besides thousands of Iowans losing power, toppled semis, and damaged windows, the initial impression before a formal damage tally on Thursday morning is that structural damage was kept to a minimum compared to what could have happened with such a unique storm. You will wake Thursday to a pretty normal December weather, with a predicted high of 39 degrees. It will remain a bit breezy throughout the day, with gusts as high as 30 mph, but the sky will be sunny, with clouds returning Thursday night. Over 800 people are being treated in Iowa hospitals for COVID-19, a surge setting yet another record for the year as Iowans head into another holiday travel window. As of Wednesday, 823 Iowans were hospitalized, marking the first time since Dec. 12, 2020, that coronavirus hospitalizations were at or above 800, according to the latest data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health. This week’s new total climbed from last week’s 777, continuing the weekslong trend of increasing hospitalizations as infections spike. One positive trend was that new infection rates and total new infections reported dropped compared to the previous week after both climbed for much of November into December. A downward trend in these numbers, if it could be sustained, would eventually lead to reduced hospitalization numbers. A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Tuesday for arson after police say he attempted to burn down a woman’s house. Austin Lee Strub, 29, has been charged with first-degree arson, a Class B felony, after police say he forced entry into a woman’s home in the 1100 block of Crestview Drive SE and threatened to “torch the place.” A criminal complaint alleges that the defendant used a lighter and aerosol can of brake cleaner to ignite and spray the kitchen wall and front door. Police noted damage corroborating the victim’s account, and found the lighter and aerosol can they say was used. In addition to arson, Strub is charged with making threats with an explosive or incendiary device. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, December 15th. The main story of Wednesday will likely be the weather. As of 2 a.m. the high temperature in Cedar Rapids of 55 degrees, set in 1957, had already been broken. According to the National Weather Service the high on Wednesday in Cedar Rapids will likely top 70 degrees. If that wasn’t strange enough for December, on Wednesday night, thunderstorms could roll into the area as cold and warm air clash, with heavy rains and wind gusts above 60 mph possible. Most storm activity should be done before 9 p.m. Legal proceedings in the case against a Cedar Rapids teenager accused of stabbing his parents to death in their home in October have been suspended so state psychiatric doctors can determine if he’s suffering from a mental disorder. District Court Judge Ian Thornhill this week ordered a “competency evaluation” for Ethan Alexander Orton, who’s just four months from his 18th birthday. Orton will be moved from his Linn County detention to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville “to determine whether he is suffering a mental disorder which prevents him from appreciating the charge, understanding the proceedings, or assisting effectively in his defense,” according to court documents filed Monday. Judge Thornhill confirmed Orton’s defense team has submitted sufficient information to support their belief the teen is suffering from a severe mental illness. Protesters opposing mask requirements for students threatened to sue the Cedar Rapids school board if it does not repeal the mandate. Many protesters showed up at Monday’s school board meeting in matching T-shirts that read “Freedom over Fear.” Protesters also carried a large sign that read “Unmask our children.” A group of parents yielded their five-minute public comment period to one man, Russell Hotchkiss, who is father to a first-grader at Hiawatha Elementary School. Hotchkiss spoke for over 30 minutes, pleading for the mask mandate to be removed, threatening a lawsuit and asking for school board members’ resignations. Mask opponents contend that masks inhibit kids from socializing and restrict breathing. A recently passed Iowa law had prohibited school districts from instituting their own masking mandates, but this law is in limbo after a federal ruling that this provides an unequal learning environment for those vulnerable to COVID-19. After the ruling, Cedar Rapids schools reinstated a mask mandate for all students, staff and visitors Sept. 15. Masks also are required for Cedar Rapids-based day care programs, with masks encouraged during school activities beyond the school day. I don’t know everything Iowans like to do, but drinking and gambling appear to be pretty popular. I mentioned yesterday that Iowa is having another record setting sports gambling year, and Iowans have also set a new record for liquor sales for the second consecutive fiscal year. The latest total surpassed $400 million for the first time, an increase of an “unprecedented” 13.2 percent over the previous record, according to the annual report published Tuesday from the state agency that regulates alcohol beverage sales in Iowa. There was $415.8 million in liquor sales in the state during the fiscal year that spanned July 2020 through June 2021. Once again, Black Velvet held the top spot as the most popular liquor brand purchased by Iowans, holding onto a position the Canadian whisky has held since at least fiscal 2012 when the state began reporting the top brands. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, December 14th. Tuesday’s weather is going to make for a pleasant, unusually warm December day before Wednesday goes off the rails with some springlike weather. On Tuesday it will be partly sunny, with a high near 53 degrees. A southeast wind will blow at 10 to 15 mph. On Tuesday night it will be mostly cloudy, but the overnight low will actually be warmer than the previous day’s high, at 56 degrees. This will pave the way for a Wednesday that has a predicted high temperature in the low 70s, with breezy conditions and a chance for rain. An Iowa City man accused of violating city code in October by discharging a pellet gun within city limits — inadvertently shooting and severely wounding a Marine who was driving by at the time — has pleaded not guilty in an initial court appearance. A non-jury trial for Philip Olson, 69, is set for 10:30 a.m. Feb. 24 at the Johnson County Courthouse, according to court documents filed last week. Olson declined to comment when reached Monday by The Gazette. He is accused of violating City Code 8-7-3: Toy Guns and Slingshots, which prohibits discharging “any air rifle, toy pistol, toy gun or other toy arms or slingshot” within city limits. The minimum fine is $105 and the maximum is $855. Iowa City police said last month that on Oct. 17, Olson was inside his house and shooting at a squirrel in his yard with an air rifle but missed and instead hit Lance Cpl. Gabe Heefner, 20, as he was driving by on Highway 6 near Sycamore Street. The Marine, who crashed after being shot, was severely injured. Heefner was at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for about a month before being transferred to a rehabilitation hospital in Chicago. Police say the toy gun ordinance charge came after Olson came forward and admitted to shooting out his window around the time that Heefner had been driving by. Paraeducators in Cedar Rapids schools will get over a $3 an hour pay increase beginning in January after an agreement was reached in negotiations between the school district and Cedar Rapids Organization of Teacher Associates. Wages for current Cedar Rapids paraeducators in the Cedar Rapids Community School District will be increased to $15.50 an hour or 3 percent — whichever results in a higher hourly rate for the employee — beginning Jan. 8, 2022. Starting wages are also being increased to $15 an hour from $12.28 an hour. There will be no additional changes to the base wages for the 2022-23 school year. Superintendent Noreen Bush said there was a “sense of urgency” and workforce needs accelerated this conversation to increase wages for paraeducators. As of Monday, there were 67 job openings in Cedar Rapids schools for paraeducators. Betting an average of $9.6 million a day on sports, Iowa gamblers and sportsbooks operators were giving thanks for legalized sports betting in November, posting yet another monthly record with wagering topping $287 million and revenue for the rapidly growing industry approaching $20 million, state data shows. Last month’s continued betting frenzy on professional and college sports — an activity that became legal in Iowa in August 2019 — pushed the wagering handle above $975 million for the current fiscal year that began July 1 and put Iowa within reach of $2 billion in betting for the calendar year if there’s another strong showing in December, financial reports issued by the state Racing and Gaming Commission indicate. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Dec. 13th. According to the National Weather Service, in the Cedar Rapids area today it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 49. Winds from the southwest, 5 to 10 mph. Then tonight, partly cloudy, with a low around 32. Our unseasonably warm temperatures are expected to peak on Wednesday with a high near 71 degrees. T.J. Otzelberger became the first Iowa State men’s basketball coach to win his first 10 games with the team, guiding the 17th-ranked Cyclones past Jackson State 47-37 on Sunday. The Cyclones improved 10-0 after ending last season with 18 straight losses. Iowa State beat Jackson State last Dec. 20th, then didn't win again in finishing 2-22. On Thursday, the Cyclones defeated the Hawkeyes 73-53. Like food? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On This newsletter. Sign up at https://www.subscribepage.com/chew (thegazette.com/chew) — 🎹 Podcast music: “Generation Z” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, December 11, and Sunday, December 12. Saturday the rainy weather from Friday will cease, and Sunday we will get a preview of the unusually balmy weather predicted in the coming week. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, freezing rain and snow chances should come to an end Saturday morning by 7 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. It will remain cloudy with a high near 39 degrees, along with breezy conditions in the beginning part of the day, with a wind of 20 to 25 mph gusting as high as 40 mph. On Sunday it should be sunny, with a high near 49 degrees. Each day until next Wednesday will be warmer than the previous, with Wednesday’s predicted high near 70 degrees. The state of Iowa is sending 100 traveling nurses and respiratory therapists to more than a dozen hospitals across Iowa as health care providers grapple with an increasing number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations. Using federal dollars, the state contracted to send health care staff to 17 facilities that provide level 1, 2 and 3 trauma care, including facilities in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, state public health officials confirmed to The Gazette. These traveling staff, who come from out-of-state, began arriving this week at Iowa hospitals. All the extra staff are contracted for six weeks, working roughly 60 hours a week directly with COVID-19 patients and assisting where they are needed for inpatient care, such as the emergency department or intensive care unit, local hospital officials said. The trial for a 21-year-old University of Iowa sophomore charged with killing his parents and sister in June has been reset to April 5 in Linn County District Court. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/trial-will-be-reset-for-21-year-old-charged-with-killing-parents-sister/ (A judge said last month) the previous January date would be reset after the last pretrial hearing because attorneys for Alexander Ken Jackson said they were still waiting to take depositions and to exchange all evidence in the case. Sixth Judicial District Chief Judge Lars Anderson let the prosecution and defense work on a new trial date with court administration. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-triple-homicide-suspect-alex-jackson-to-be-held-on-3-million-cash-bond/ (Jackson, who graduated from Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School,) is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He is accused of killing his father, Jan Jackson, 61; mother, Melissa Jackson, 68; and sister, Sabrina Jackson, 19, on June 15. Deer hunters found a dead mountain lion with a broken snare around its neck in east-central Iowa, state wildlife officials reported. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources said the nearly 120-pound cat was found Tuesday in Poweshiek County by a group of hunters. Mountain lions — also known as pumas and cougars — have no legal wildlife status in Iowa, meaning the hunters could have kept the carcass. Instead, they turned it over to DNR officials. The DNR stated it would examine the dead cat to attempt to learn more about its background. Iowa starting running back Tyler Goodson will not play in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1 as he prepares for the NFL Draft, he announced Friday in a tweet. The Junior rushed for 1,151 yards and averaged 4.5 yards per carry in 2021 despite having a young and inconsistent offensive line in front of him. He is the first Iowa player to opt out of the upcoming Citrus Bowl matchup against Kentucky. Current projections have him going in around the 5th round of the NFL Draft. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, December 10. Friday’s weather will continue our up and down variety we’ve had lately. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 41 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with a chance for rain mainly coming after 3 p.m. Then Friday night, snow will become a possibility along with the rain, with a low near 31 degrees. Snow accumulation of less than a half inch is predicted. Fifteen months after a University of Iowa student https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-city-police-took-sex-assault-report-connected-with-university-of-iowa-fiji-fraternity/ (told investigators she was sexually assaulted) by a pair of fraternity brothers who shared video and pictures of the attack on social media, Iowa City police have arrested one of the accused men on a harassment charge. Carson Douglas Steffen, 20, of North Liberty, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of first-degree harassment, an aggravated misdemeanor, which generally is punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine potentially in the thousands of dollars. UI student Makena Solberg asserted in an October lawsuit that on Sept. 4 to 5, 2020, she was sexually assaulted in the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity — called FIJI — operating at the University of Iowa. The criminal count against Steffen does not charge him with a sexual assault, but rather says that about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 5, 2020, he sent “a photo to multiple persons on Snapchat” of the victim “engaged in a sex act with another male.” Although the alleged assault occurred last fall, news of the https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-city-police-took-sex-assault-report-connected-with-university-of-iowa-fiji-fraternity/ (lagging police response) and absence of charges prompted days of protests, https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-fiji-protests-caused-200k-in-damage-displaced-28/ (including one inciting thousands and extensive damage to the FIJI house.) Omicron, the newest variant of the novel coronavirus, has been detected in an Iowa resident, state public health officials say. The state’s first case of the COVID-19 variant was detected in an unvaccinated individual under the age of 18 who lives in Black Hawk County, the State Hygienic Lab confirmed on Thursday. The unidentified individual remains asymptomatic at this time. The case was the result of travel exposure, and was detected after the family sought testing based on public health recommendations, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. The individual, as well as the family, is in isolation, state officials say. Though it’s still unclear whether omicron is more dangerous than delta or other variants, experts say initial data shows it is likely more transmissible and has the ability to spread to individuals quickly, potentially avoiding some levels of immunity. This, along with already surging COVID-19 numbers, led area hospitals Thursday to plead with Iowans to both seek vaccination if they haven’t gotten it already, and to get a booster shot if they completed their vaccine regimen more than 6 months ago. Pfizer released info this week that the booster shot should help protect against the omicron variant, although more research still is needed to see how it interacts with vaccinated people. One of the teens charged with killing the Spanish language teacher at Fairfield High School last month is asking a judge to move his case to juvenile court, where he would face a lesser sentence if convicted. Christine Branstad, the defense attorney for Willard Chaiden Miller, who is charged as an adult with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony, is asking the court for a reverse waiver — moving Miller’s case from adult court to juvenile court. She said because Miller is 16 years old, a transfer to juvenile court is appropriate according to Iowa law. Branstad, in a request...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, December 9. Thursday’s weather could start with freezing rain and end with warmer temperatures. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service freezing rain and sleet are likely before 8 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area, with a slight chance of rain after 8 a.m. Be careful if you have an early commute, but forecasters do not believe there will be lasting accumulation of ice or sleet. After this, it will be cloudy with the skies gradually clearing to sunny and a high near 44 degrees. As the number of COVID-19 patients in Iowa hospital beds and intensive care units continues to climb to levels not seen since the worst of the pandemic a year ago, local health experts forecast a trying winter as the flu season only complicates a spreading disease. According to data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health, 777 people were hospitalized in the state as a result of the coronavirus. The last time hospitalizations were that high was Dec. 15, 2020, when 798 patients were admitted. In just the latest 24-hour period measured from Tuesday to Wednesday, 133 COVID-19 patients were admitted to Iowa hospitals — the highest since 141 on Dec. 8, 2020. The state reported 13,039 new cases of COVID-19 over this past week, an increase from the 9,489 reported last week. This is also an amount of weekly cases not since a similar spike a year ago. Iowa’s positivity rate for the past seven days was 12.3 percent, an increase from 11.9 percent last week. The state’s positivity rate is currently higher than the nationwide average, which is 8 percent Meanwhile, Iowa Republican U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst voted Wednesday to pass a Senate resolution that would invalidate President Joe Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandates for private employers. The resolution https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-congress-d48c96a241ea8922420a3866c6adda2d (passed the evenly divided Senate) by a bipartisan vote of 52-48, with help of two Democrats — Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Federal courts have temporarily blocked implementation of federal rules requiring federal contractors, health care workers and workers at businesses with at least 100 employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4 or face weekly testing. Unvaccinated workers would be required to wear a face mask on the job. But the vote allows the senate to weigh in against the rules, even if it is unlikely it would pass the House or a veto from President Biden. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday she will allocate $100 million of American Rescue Plan Act money to Iowa water infrastructure and water quality projects. Most of it — $75 million — will fund a new grant program through the Iowa Finance Authority to support four priorities: Economically-significant projects, watershed protection projects, industrial water reuse pilot projects and wastewater infrastructure for communities without sewer systems. Larry Weber, a University of Iowa professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Edwin B. Green chair in hydraulics, said he’s “delighted” about the governor’s announcement, with an important caveat. “We’re excited to participate in the proposal process with the ideas we have,” he said of the new grant program. “We recognize $100 million is important, but, as I’ve said before, our need is $10 billion. This is a small, but important, step on the pathway toward watershed improvement in the state.” Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, December 8. It will be cold again Wednesday, but at least the sun will make an appearance. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 32 degrees. The temperature will start to rise slightly overnight Wednesday into Thursday, but that will also come with a chance of some light snow Thursday morning. A Cedar Rapids man who was convicted of murder in 2018 has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge for the same crime after his initial conviction was overturned on appeal due to improper jury instructions. 33-year-old Quarzone Martin entered a guilty plea in late November for killing of Andrew Meeks, 26, and injuring another man during a drug deal involving Xanax pills in 2017. Martin claimed he shot the men in self defense during his original trial. Martin pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, willful injury causing serious injury and going armed with intent. At his sentencing Tuesday, the prosecution and defense agreed to ask 6th Judicial District Senior Judge Patrick Grady to run all the sentences consecutively for 25 years in prison. Martin has served four years on the second-degree murder conviction and will be given credit on this new sentence. In a 7-2 vote Tuesday, the Cedar Rapids City Council advanced proposed changes to a nuisance abatement policy that would crack down on absentee landlords who don’t show up for inspections or otherwise neglect their properties. The vote came after several landlords spoke against the changes, largely for fear that a one-time failure to make an inspection or plow snow will land their properties on the list. Among several proposed amendments to the ordinance outlining regulations for nuisance properties, is a change that would allow one “no show” trip, where a property owner fails to appear for an inspection scheduled by the city, to result in a nuisance property designation. The city currently allows for two “no show” trips before a property gets on the nuisance list. The Building Services department imposes a “no show” fee on property owners who are habitually unresponsive and absent from inspections. After flirting with the idea of running for a different office, most notably taking on incumbent Governor Kim Reynolds, Iowa Auditor Rob Sand announced Monday that he will be running again for the auditor position. Sand, a Democrat from Des Moines, was elected auditor in 2018, when he unseated the Republican incumbent. This year, https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/state-auditor-rob-sand-mum-on-his-campaign-plans-during-cedar-rapids-stop/ (he weighed a run for governor) in 2022. In a short video he posted online Tuesday, Sand said his office has worked over the past three years to save Iowa taxpayers’ money by working with local officials and operating with a staff of workers of all political stripes. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, December 7. There will be some of the coldest temperatures of the week Tuesday before temperatures pick back up again as the week goes along. According to a weather forecast from the National Weather Service there will be a chance of snow flurries between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 30 degrees. It will be cloudy, with a south wind of 5 to 15 mph. On Tuesday night the sky will gradually clear, with a low around 20 degrees. 4 years after the University of Iowa began fiercely denying allegations it discriminated against a student organization by punishing it for barring an openly gay member from becoming a leader of the group, the state will pay the law firm representing the student group nearly $2 million. In a pair of judgments from lawsuits that the Business Leaders in Christ student group led against the UI in 2017 and that Intervarsity Christian Fellowship filed in 2018, the U.S. District Court ordered the university to pay a combined $1.93 million for attorney fees and damages. The payments close the yearslong hard-fought disputes that involved numerous injunctions, summary judgments, appeals, affirmations, requests for reconsideration and final rulings. Business Leaders in Christ was first to sue UI in 2017 when the campus yanked its student organization status — including not allowing it at campus recruiting fairs — after a member complained he was blocked from becoming a leader when he refused to affirm the group’s belief that same-sex relationships are against the Bible. In its lawsuit, the Christian groujp accused the UI of selectively applying its human rights policy, noting other student groups — like Muslim and ethnic groups and fraternities and sororities — are allowed to restrict leadership and membership based on gender, ethnicity and ideology. The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office will request $240,000 for a Lenco BearCat armored vehicle — despite objections from protesters and some elected officials that civilian police forces shouldn’t deploy military-style vehicles — in its upcoming fiscal year budget. Sheriff Brad Kunkel presented an $810,841 decision package, which also includes money to replace aging camera equipment, to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors during a work session Monday morning. The board has been holding work sessions for county departments to present fiscal 2023 budget requests ahead of the first vote, which is slated for Jan. 12. The BearCat would replace the county’s Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle — or MRAP — which was acquired by the Sheriff’s Office in 2014 for free through a federal program disposing of obsolete or unneeded military equipment. The MRAP has been a source of community concern and scorn in Johnson County ever since it was first acquired. In discussion about the budget Monday, supervisors were split over the need of any armored vehicle for the department at all and the benefits of using the BearCat as a more palatable replacement for the MRAP. More than 30 people spoke out against a carbon dioxide pipeline proposed to run through 36 Iowa counties, including Linn, at an informational meeting where hundreds of people gathered Monday night in Cedar Rapids. Navigator CO2 Ventures, a Texas company, is proposing a 1,300-mile pipeline that would capture carbon dioxide at Iowa ethanol and fertilizer plants and transport it in pressurized liquid form through a pipeline to a sequestration site in south-central Illinois. There, the liquid carbon would be injected into rock formations, where it would calcify and be permanently stored. The idea, which scientists say can work, would keep carbon dioxide out of the air, where it contributes to global warming. Questions asked during Monday night’s more than three-hour meeting concerned safety, the proposed pipeline route, whether the project brings value to average Iowans
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Dec. 6th. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area today, with a high near 28. It’ll be blustery, with a northwest wind 15 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Then tonight, we’re expecting a low around 13. Iowa City police have arrested two men in connection with a shooting that injured a man early Sunday at the Old Capitol Town Center parking ramp. In a news release, police said they arrested 21-year-old Darnell Martin, Jr., of Coralville, and 18-year-old Mason Ward, of Cedar Rapids. They each face a charge of reckless use of a firearm causing property damage. The release said police responded at 1:25 a.m. Sunday to a report of shots fired at the ramp at 220 S. Capitol St. Officers found evidence that multiple shots were fired. One man was taken to a hospital with what police believe is a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the abdomen. Police said the investigation is ongoing and additional charges are pending. The No. 15 Iowa Hawkeyes will be playing in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl against No. 22 Kentucky on Jan. 1 at noon Central Time. The Citrus Bowl is the most prestigious bowl with a Big Ten affiliation outside of the New Year’s Six bowls. The Hawkeyes fell out of the New Year’s Six conversation after Michigan thumped them, 42-3, in Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game. The matchup will pit Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops against his alma mater. Stoops played for the Hawkeyes in the late 1980s and then was a graduate assistant under then-coach Hayden Fry. Like food? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On This newsletter. Sign up at https://www.subscribepage.com/chew (thegazette.com/chew) — 🎹 Podcast music: “Generation Z” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, December 4 and Sunday, December 5. This weekend’s weather will be colder than the weather we enjoyed during the week, but still much warmer than the weather that will arrive on Monday. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, it will be mostly cloudy with a high near 41 degrees on Saturday. On Saturday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low near 30 degrees. On Sunday the wind will pick up a bit, with cloudy skies and a high near 48 degrees. On Sunday night it is predicted to be blustery, with a low near 20 degrees. A judge will not grant defense requests to lower the $1 million cash-only bail for two 16-year-olds charged with plotting and killing the Spanish language teacher at Fairfield High School. Eighth Judicial District Judge Joel Yates, in his ruling Thursday, said he considered Iowa law on bail, arguments made by attorneys, the nature and circumstances of the crime charged and the family ties and financial resources of the teens, Jeremy Everett Goodale and Willard Noble Chaiden Miller. Goodale and Miller pleaded not guilty Monday and both have trials set for April 19 in Jefferson County District Court. They may not be tried together, but neither of their attorneys have filed anything yet regarding severing their cases. Both teens are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. They are accused of scheming to kill Nohema Graber, 66, who had taught at Fairfield High since 2012. Authorities found her body Nov. 3 in a Fairfield park just blocks east of the school, where she was known to go for walks. Authorities say social media posts tied the teens to the killing. Patients with Alzheimer ’s disease appear to be more likely to die from COVID-19 than those who don’t have the neurodegenerative disease, according to new University of Iowa research that could hold implications for ethical vaccine distribution and global policy decisions. The new study, published in the October Journal of Alzheimer’s disease, found Alzheimer’s patients are 20 percent more likely to die from COVID than others — an important finding as COVID, with its ongoing mutations and variants, “will likely remain a major threat in the coming years.” The UI researchers were able to identify the trend by accessing a health research database containing de-identified medical records of more than 50 million patients — mostly from the United States — through Feb. 17, meaning the data came both before widespread vaccination had been completed and new variants had emerged. Enrollment in Iowa’s elementary and secondary schools last academic year dropped for the first time in eight years, according to the latest Condition of Education report Friday. Officials with the state Department of Education reported that last school year’s student count of 484,159 in K-12 districts represented a drop of nearly 6,000 students — or just over 1 percent — from the 490,094 total for the 2019-20 school year. State officials said they believe the pandemic to be the greatest contributing factor to the enrollment drop, which was seen at all grade levels but was most pronounced at the preschool and kindergarten levels. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, December 3. The weather Friday will be a little cooler than Thursday, but still quite pleasant for early December. According to a National Weather Service forecast it will be sunny with a high near 53 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 28 degrees. Among a handful of key areas on which the University of Iowa is focused as it heads into a future facing challenges old and new is mental health and supporting student well-being, University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson told a group of community members Thursday. By instituting a new annual $24 student fee, the UI has added eight mental health professionals to its counseling service — which now has 38 staffers, including three psychology interns and six practicum trainees. UI Counseling this fall is offering virtual and in-person support; group and individual therapy; relationship and couples counseling; and phone consultations among other things. During Thursday’s meeting, a community member asked what compelled the UI to focus more attention on mental health. Wilson said that while it’s embedded in the campus’ strategic plan, she also has personal convictions around the mental health needs of her community. “I don't think you can be a leader today and ignore the challenges that we're facing around mental health,” she said. “And they're really pre-pandemic. Before the pandemic, national statistics tell us that 30 percent of students going to college come into a university with a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, or with some other mental health challenge.” With the pandemic, that has spiked nationally to 80 percent, she said. Local blood centers are helping replenish the blood supply in Michigan following a school shooting in Oxford, Mich., this week that killed four and injured seven. ImpactLife, formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, sent 15 units of O-type red blood cells to hospitals in Oxford and the surrounding region north of Detroit on Wednesday. A 15-year-old student at Oxford High School has been charged with first-degree murder and terrorism in connection with the shootings. ImpactLife officials said the request for blood came through the Blood Centers of America, which coordinates blood donations after “mass transfusion incidents.” ImpactLife provides blood services to 126 hospitals in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri. Officials emphasized regional blood centers makes sure they “prioritize local needs” when responding to an emergency request. ImpactLife is seeking donors to “ensure the ongoing availability” of blood A Monticello man faces a first-degree arson charge, accused of causing an explosion in his home’s basement that injured a Jones County deputy last month. David J. Costello, 62, had threatened to set off a bomb at his home Nov. 17 when Monticello police and a deputy were called to his home at 606 N. Sycamore St. As officers attempted to talk with Costello, he ignited a propane torch near a natural gas line he had opened. The officer and deputy were “consumed in a flash fire” from the resulting explosion, according to a criminal complaint. The Monticello Fire Department put out a fire of nearby combustible materials, the complaint stated. The deputy was treated for minor injuries, and Costello was taken to a hospital for a medical and psychological evaluation. Next year will end a chapter in the state's gambling history when an Iowa dog track hosts the last live greyhound race in Dubuque. The dwindling number of greyhounds bred for racing, along with the slow demise of the once-thriving industry, forced the operator of the Iowa Greyhound Park in Dubuque to request a scaled-back, 18-day race meet for 2022 with the last live race expected to occur in May, according to the state Racing & Gaming Commission. Organizers say the end of racing...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, December 2. Thursday will feature the warmest weather left in the week, as temperatures will gradually drop afterward. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny with a high near 60 in the Cedar Rapids area. The wind will be moderate to light, calming to 5 mph by Thursday evening with a low of 37 degrees. The number of Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19 this week, including those in need of intensive care and ventilators to help breathe, reached the highest level in nearly a year. Hospitalizations in the state as a result of the coronavirus increased for the fourth week in a row, jumping to 721 from 623 last week, according to a report released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health. That’s the highest seen since Dec. 17, 2020, when 746 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care and on ventilators also is at the highest total since December 2020. In one bit of more positive news, the state reported 9,489 new COVID-19 cases this week, a decline compared to the previous week after five weeks of increasing infections. The state reported 10,643 new cases a week before. It is too soon to know if this will start a downward trend for infections, but since hospitalizations tend to lag a few weeks behind infections, a decrease in infections could give Iowa’s hospitals a chance to catch up with the latest surge. Residents in northeast Cedar Rapids will be losing a grocery shopping option. Hy-Vee will permanently close its Collins Road NE grocery store, adjacent to Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids, on Jan. 9. The store has 53 full-time and 141 part-time employees, Hy-Vee communications officer Tina Potthoff said in an email. Pothoff said the employees will be offered jobs at other locations in the area. The closing is one of 4 stores being shuttered by the chain across 4 states. Pharmacy customers will receive a letter notifying them their prescriptions will be transferred to a nearby Hy-Vee Pharmacy, or a pharmacy of their choosing, the company also said. Hy-Vee Aisles Online pick-up services at these stores will cease as of Monday, Dec. 6. Delivery options will be fulfilled by a nearby Hy-Vee location, the chain said. A Belle Plaine man was charged with two felonies Tuesday after police said he stole over $10,000 worth of copper from an abandoned apartment building. Cedar Rapids police responded to a burglary report Monday at the Colonial Centre building and found Jeremiah Lee Hawkins, according to a criminal complaint. Along with Hawkins, police found two bags of copper wire that had been cut from the structure at 1500 Second Ave. SE, in the Wellington Heights neighborhood. Police said Hawkins admitted to the burglary. The 33-year-old Hawkins is charged with first-degree criminal mischief, a Class C felony, and third-degree burglary, a Class D felony. He’s also charged with possession of burglary tools and possession of methamphetamine. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, December 1. A light rain will end early Wednesday morning, leading to a partly cloudy and warm day to start off our December. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, there will be a slight chance for rain before 7 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Then it will be mostly cloudy through morning, before becoming sunny, with a high of 60 degrees. The low will settle in around 44 degrees Wednesday night. Cedar Rapids has itself a new mayor. Tiffany O’Donnell defeated Amara Andrews Tuesday night in a runoff election, emerging with 68 percent of the ballots cast, or 13,479 votes. O’Donnell also had the most votes on election night weeks earlier, but did not secure enough votes to win outright, leading to the runoff. O’Donnell campaigned on finishing derecho cleanup, fixing city streets and accelerating flood recovery on both sides of the Cedar River. She also has centered leaning on the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem for the recruitment and retention of workers and businesses, as well as creating a more vibrant urban center surrounded by unique neighborhoods. Currently the chief executive officer of the Women Lead Change organization, O’Donnell is likely a familiar face for many in Cedar Rapids, as she previously was a news anchor for CBS2/FOX 28. The Iowa City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved the first consideration of the latest iteration for a senior living facility near Hickory Hill Park. The vote brings the project two votes away from approval after suffering multiple delays and defeats after resistance from neighbors and fans of the park. Council member John Thomas, who https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/iowa-city-council-to-vote-again-on-contentious-development-near-hickory-hill-park/ (did not support the previous plan) when it was before council, said “designing with nature”in mind was achieved and the updated proposal is a “huge win for Iowa City” in the long term. The updated proposal for rezoning the 48.75-acre plot northeast of the park is scaled back from previous plans, and devotes nearly three times more land to the city park. Hickory Trail Estates, a senior living facility, would be built on 8.85 acres at the southeast corner of the plot. The facility would have 120 continuing care retirement community units with a total of 134 beds. To prove that there is a silver lining for every cloud, the rise of a new COVID-19 omicron variant and a subsequent economic slowdown might just mean lower gas prices. The drop in oil prices, triggered by fears that the new variant will throttle economic activity around the globe over the coming months, could shave 20 to 25 cents a gallon off the current $3.34 per-gallon average price of unleaded regular, according to AAA spokesman, Mark Jenkins. Jenkins told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that consumers shouldn’t expect any big drops right away. “Gas prices normally rise like a rocket and fall like a feather,” Jenkins said. “So it could take a couple of weeks before prices at the pump fully reflect the downturn in the futures market.” Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the last day of November, Tuesday, November 30. As last days of November go, Tuesday’s weather should be pretty nice. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 51 degrees. On Tuesday night there will be a 50 percent chance for rain, mainly after 1 a.m., with a low around 37 degrees. Tiffany O’Donnell raised three times as much as her opponent Amara Andrews, in the last month running up to tonight’s runoff election that will decide the city’s next mayor. Voters earlier this month narrowed a four-way race to just the two top vote-getters, knocking incumbent Brad Hart out of the running. O’Donnell, who earned the most votes of the four but not enough to win the job outright, raised $64,520 since the last reporting period, according to campaign disclosure reports filed Monday. That exceeds the $20,262.47 Andrews raised in the runoff cycle. The election has stoked political divisions as O’Donnell, a registered Republican, has emphasized the need to keep the part-time mayoral role nonpartisan, while Andrews has campaigned as a Democrat. Andrews has said one’s https://www.thegazette.com/campaigns-elections/partisan-divides-emerge-in-nonpartisan-cedar-rapids-mayoral-race/ (political party ties )are an indicator of values and judgment. Both candidates have used firms for various campaign services aligned with their respective parties. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. The Cedar Rapids teenager accused of killing his parents has entered not guilty pleas to two counts of first-degree murder in arraignment documents filed Monday. Ethan Alexander Orton, 17, was charged as an adult in the killings of Misty Scott Slade, 41, and Casey Orton, 42, in their home at 361 Carnaby Dr. NE in the early morning hours of Oct. 14. He has pleaded not guilty to charges, but has not waived his right to a speedy trial. A trial date was not immediately set Monday afternoon. After receiving a 911 call around 2 a.m. Oct. 14 for suspicious noises coming from the residence, Cedar Rapids police reported they arrived at the Orton house and found the accused sitting outside, covered in “what appeared to be blood.” According to a criminal complaint, https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-police-teen-stabbed-parents-to-death-to-take-charge-of-his-life/ (Orton told officers he had stabbed both his parents), but then turned to an ax when his mother was still alive. According to reporting from the Associated Press, a federal judge Monday blocked https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-business-lifestyle-health-c6c9d651f631464e168f7a47b6e353bf (President Joe Biden’s administration) from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on thousands of health care workers in 10 states including Iowa. These states together had brought the first legal challenge against the requirement. The court order said that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid had no clear authority from Congress to enact the vaccine mandate for providers participating in the two government health care programs for the elderly, disabled and poor. The preliminary injunction by St. Louis-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp applies to a coalition of suing states that consists of Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Similar lawsuits also are pending in other states. Iowa has five state-run health care facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding: the Iowa Veterans Home, the Cherokee and Independence Mental Health Institutes, and the Glenwood and Woodward Resource Centers Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash...
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Nov. 29th. According to the National Weather Service, in the Cedar Rapids area today it will be cloudy through mid morning, then gradually clearing, with a high near 53. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph then from the west in the afternoon. Then tonight, partly cloudy with a low around 31. A Cedar Rapids woman was arrested Saturday after GPS tracking in a stolen work truck led Hiawatha police to the vehicle. According to a Linn County criminal complaint, 25-year-old Wendie Beard entered a Hiawatha home Saturday in the 300 block of Marion Street and took a man's work truck, valued at over $10,000, as well as Apple Watches, an iPhone and a credit card reader. The GPS technology in the truck assisted the officers, who caught up with Beard and made a traffic stop on Alice Road near Center Point. Police said Beard was driving while barred and they found the items stolen from the Hiawatha home in her possession. They also said she had used a can of white spray paint to cover decals on the truck and had attempted to alter the license plate. Beard is in the Linn County Jail on charges of first-degree theft, a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison; third-degree burglary; driving while barred; fourth-degree criminal mischief and drug paraphernalia The Lee Enterprises newspaper chain has adopted a “poison-pill” plan to protect itself from a hostile takeover while the company's board considers an unsolicited offer from hedge fund Alden Global Capital. The shareholder rights plan would take effect if Alden gets control of more than 10% of Lee's stock anytime in the next year. The Davenport, Iowa-based company said the plan would allow its other shareholders to buy shares at a 50% discount at that point or possibly get free shares for every share they already own. New York-based Alden said last week that it already owned more than 6% of Lee's stock when it offered to buy the rest of the shares for $24 apiece or about $141 million. The plan Lee adopted Wednesday would make it more expensive for Alden to acquire a controlling stake in the company. Like food? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On This newsletter. Sign up at thegazette.com/chew — 🎹 Podcast music: “Generation Z” by Emily McGlothlen
On this weekend’s episode: The https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/new-omicron-covid-variant-stokes-world-fears-triggers-travel-bans/ (omicron COVID variant) stokes global fears A Texas company is proposing a https://www.thegazette.com/environment-nature/carbon-pipeline-would-go-through-eastern-iowa/ (1,300-mile carbon sequestration pipeline) across Iowa Iowans could have https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-drivers-license-going-digital-next-year/ (digital versions of driver's licenses) by summer 2022 The Hawkeyes’ https://www.thegazette.com/hawkeye-football/iowa-gets-big-plays-from-defense-special-teams-to-avoid-upset-at-nebraska/ (big comeback over Nebraska) keeps Big Ten title game hopes alive
Happy Thanksgiving! This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, November 25th. Thursday’s weather will be perfect for people who need to use their porches for extra refrigerator space. According to the National Weather Service the day will start off mostly cloudy and then clear in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 30 degrees. A blustery northwest wind during the day will calm by the end of Thursday night, but it will still be cold, with a low around 15 degrees. Iowa continues to see increases in new COVID-19 cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations, with virus transmission rates still at the highest levels in almost every county, as the Thanksgiving weekend that traditionally goes hand in hand with spreading viruses is upon us. Iowa reported 10,643 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health’s weekly report, making it the fifth week in a row for increases in new infections. The number of Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19 increased for the third week in a row, jumping to 623 from last week’s 544. A Colorado woman accused of forging documents from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to show she had COVID-19 — as an excuse to get out of a court hearing — is facing formal charges out of Colorado related to the Iowa allegations. Emily Elizabeth Cohen, 41, of Boulder, faces three new counts of forgery and three new counts of attempting to influence a public servant for purporting to be COVID-19 positive — and faking UIHC documents to prove it — dating to July, according to an arrest affidavit filed this week. The affidavit information showed that investigators looked into Cohen’s claims after she had used COVID-19 as an excuse to get out of an earlier court date this summer, also using a supposed UIHC test as the justification. Upon following up on the tests, they appear to have never taken place. Cohen, a Boulder immigration lawyer, is facing theft charges in Colorado for allegedly collecting fees from immigrant families before losing contact with them without producing visas or work permits, according to the Boulder Daily Camera. She is set for a 10-day trial in Boulder County starting Dec. 6 for 11 felonies. An Iowa Court of Appeals panel ruled this week that residents of the Rompot neighborhood were wrongly denied a hearing in district court when they challenged Cargill’s construction of a rail yard in southeast Cedar Rapids. Work on the $6.5 million rail yard https://www.thegazette.com/article/cargill-starts-work-at-site-of-contentious-rail-yard-in-cedar-rapids/ (began this summer), so the Tuesday ruling may have little impact on construction. The appeals court did not rule on the merits of the Rompot neighborhood lawsuits, simply saying the arguments should have been heard in district court under state civil procedure rules. The rail yard being built on Stewart Road SE, between the Rompot neighborhood and Prairie Park Fishery, has riled neighbors who fear it will create noise and air pollution, harm the environment, erode property values and pose safety risks. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, November 24. Wednesday will feature some of the warmest and coldest temperatures of the week. According to the National Weather Service the day will start mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 58 degrees. On Wednesday night, the wind will become blustery and the temperature will plummet, with a low around 26 degrees and a wind speed of 10 to 20 mph gusting as high as 30 mph. Two Fairfield teens, who authorities say plotted and carried out the “brutal” killing of the Spanish language teacher at their Fairfield High School earlier this month, asked a judge Tuesday to lower their bail to a tenth of the $1 million they each are being held on — and to let them post a fraction of that, instead of paying it in cash. Both defense attorneys argued that according to Iowa law, bail should be something reasonable that Jeremy Everett Goodale and Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, both 16, could pay rather than remain in a juvenile detention center until trial, which may not happen for months. They asked for bail of $100,000 each, to be paid either in cash or by posting a surety bond. Conversely, prosecutors argued Tuesday that because of the callous circumstances of this case, each bail should be doubled to $2 million to protect the community from the teens. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/fairfield-police-2-students-murdered-spanish-teacher-from-their-high-school/ (Both teens are charged with first-degree murder) and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. They are accused of scheming to kill Nohema Graber, 66, who had taught at Fairfield High since 2012. Authorities found her body Nov. 3 in Chautauqua City Park, just blocks east of the school, where she was known to go for walks. The judge said he would provide a written ruling on the bail question next week. Cedar Rapids schools starting this week are getting upgrades to some heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems intended to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Technology called needlepoint bi-polar ionization is being added to some schools’ heating, ventilation and air cooling systems to help filter particles out of the air, including viruses like COVID-19, bacteria, mold, dust, dander and smoke. The district did not identify which schools are adding the technology. The project is being paid for from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. Total cost of the equipment is approximately $1.6 million and the cost of installation will be about $600,000. The district received $32.4 million from the U.S. Department of Education and American Rescue Plan to help offset costs during the pandemic. A 20-year-old Cedar Rapids man was arrested last week on a warrant after investigators connected him to a ride share Veo scooter and shell casings found near the scene of a shooting that seriously injured a man last summer. Cody Michael Adkins is charged with attempted murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, willful injury causing serious injury, going armed with intent and use of a dangerous weapon in commission of a crime. A police investigation identified Adkins and his co-defendant, who hasn’t been arrested at this time, as the suspects who opened fire on Archibald Ledsinger and Darian Boyd as they were driving July 1 in Cedar Rapids. According to police, Adkins and the other man walked out directly in front of their vehicle. Words were exchanged and then Adkins and the co-defendant “opened fire” striking Boyd several times, causing serious injuries. The number of casings indicated two guns were involved. 14 shell casings were found at the scene and eventually led to Adkins. A public rideshare scooter had been leased under his co-defendant’s name. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 23. We’re riding the temperature roller coaster back to warmer weather on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 50 degrees. On Tuesday night there will be increasing clouds, with a low around 40. It could be a bit windy, with a south wind blowing at 5 to 15 mph and gusting as high as 25 mph, with the wind picking up as the day goes on. An Illinois man was arrested on Sunday after being accused by police of shooting a Marion woman in the leg last June. Authorities allege Jeremy Sneed, 33, of Joliet, Ill., grabbed a gun from his vehicle and threatened several people at a home on Chapelridge Circle on June 26 in Marion. According to the criminal complaint, Sneed pointed the weapon at a man with the intent to kill him. Sneed missed and the bullet struck a woman in the leg. Authorities have charged Sneed with attempted murder, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. He is in the Linn County Jail on $50,000 bond. University of Iowa Health Care has spotted an alarming spike in new influenza cases in recent weeks, establishing a real possibility that hospitals statewide will be grappling with a “twindemic” of widespread flu and COVID-19 cases this winter. UIHC has begun to see a rapid increase in influenza cases, rising from just one laboratory-confirmed case two weeks ago to over 150 cases in the last week, UIHC chief medical officer Dr. Theresa Brennan told reporters Monday. The health care system’s announcement follows a warning the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had issued to Americans earlier this fall that the country could be in for https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/upcoming-flu-season-could-be-severe-posing-risk-for-twindemic-with-covid-19/ (an “early and possibly severe flu season” this year). And with a low flu vaccination rate among Iowans ahead of this week’s Thanksgiving celebrations, Brennan warned an elevated level of influenza cases — coupled with the ongoing surge of COVID-19 infections — “could really impact our community and our health care resources.” According to reporting from the Associated Press a judge has ruled that an Iowa measure that prohibits Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgeries for transgender residents violates state law and the state constitution. In a decision made public Monday, Polk County District Court Judge William Kelly ordered the Iowa Department of Human Services to provide coverage for sex reassignment surgeries when ordered to treat gender dysphoria, a psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one's sex assigned at birth and one's gender identity. It often begins in childhood, and some people may not experience it until after puberty or much later, according to the American Psychiatric Association. About 12 states, including Iowa, exclude the surgeries from Medicaid coverage. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Nov. 22nd. According to the National Weather Service, in the Cedar Rapids area today, it will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 35. Winds from the northwest, 5 to 10 mph. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 22. Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate said Friday they will pay up to $270,000 over the next six months to have an Iowa consulting firm examine the 2020 election with an eye toward developing changes to their state’s election law. The “forensic investigation" is being launched in response to pressure from Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump upset over his 80,000-vote loss in the state, but is well short of the Arizona-style “audit” that many of them have clamored for. The contract was signed by Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward and Envoy Sage, a Dubuque-based company. Committee spokesperson Jason Thompson said it will be made public in redacted form in the coming days. The company will be paid out of a taxpayer-funded leadership account that Ward controls and the agreement can be extended, he said. Envoy Sage president Steve Lahr issued a statement saying company officials have no “pre-conceived notions for what we will or will not find” and that he considers objectivity to be critical. Thompson initially said Lahr recalled making only a single political donation, several years ago, to a friend from his time in the military. Later Friday, Thompson said Lahr acknowledged also making donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee and to U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, a South Carolina Republican. It was senior day at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City Saturday, and the Hawkeyes are now 9-2 after a 33-23 win over Illinois. One of the highlights was a 100-yard kickoff return by Charlie Jones for a first-quarter touchdown. Iowa is 6-2 in the Big Ten and still in play for the West title, though it needs to beat Nebraska Friday and have Minnesota take down Wisconsin the following day in Minneapolis. Like food? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On This newsletter. Sign up at https://www.subscribepage.com/chew (thegazette.com/chew) — 🎹 Podcast music: “Generation Z” by Emily McGlothlen
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Nov. 29th. According to the National Weather Service, in the Cedar Rapids area today it will be cloudy through mid morning, then gradually clearing, with a high near 53. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph then from the west in the afternoon. Then tonight, partly cloudy with a low around 31. A Cedar Rapids woman was arrested Saturday after GPS tracking in a stolen work truck led Hiawatha police to the vehicle. According to a Linn County criminal complaint, 25-year-old Wendie Beard entered a Hiawatha home Saturday in the 300 block of Marion Street and took a man's work truck, valued at over $10,000, as well as Apple Watches, an iPhone and a credit card reader. The GPS technology in the truck assisted the officers, who caught up with Beard and made a traffic stop on Alice Road near Center Point. Police said Beard was driving while barred and they found the items stolen from the Hiawatha home in her possession. They also said she had used a can of white spray paint to cover decals on the truck and had attempted to alter the license plate. Beard is in the Linn County Jail on charges of first-degree theft, a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison; third-degree burglary; driving while barred; fourth-degree criminal mischief and drug paraphernalia The Lee Enterprises newspaper chain has adopted a “poison-pill” plan to protect itself from a hostile takeover while the company's board considers an unsolicited offer from hedge fund Alden Global Capital. The shareholder rights plan would take effect if Alden gets control of more than 10% of Lee's stock anytime in the next year. The Davenport, Iowa-based company said the plan would allow its other shareholders to buy shares at a 50% discount at that point or possibly get free shares for every share they already own. New York-based Alden said last week that it already owned more than 6% of Lee's stock when it offered to buy the rest of the shares for $24 apiece or about $141 million. The plan Lee adopted Wednesday would make it more expensive for Alden to acquire a controlling stake in the company. Like food? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On This newsletter. Sign up at thegazette.com/chew — 🎹 Podcast music: “Generation Z” by Emily McGlothlen
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 20 and Sunday, November 21. It’s not going to get super warm this weekend, but it won’t be too bad for late November. According to the National Weather Service it will become increasingly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 51 degrees. The low will settle in at around 32 degrees Saturday night. On Sunday the clouds will gradually part onto a mostly sunny day, with a high near 48 degrees. The wind will pick up as the day moves along however, so expect a blustery Sunday night with a low near 22 degrees. The January trial for a 21-year-old University of Iowa sophomore charged with fatally shooting his parents and sister in June will be reset to a later date. Attorneys for https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-triple-homicide-suspect-alex-jackson-to-be-held-on-3-million-cash-bond/ (Alexander Ken Jackson) told a judge Friday during a case status hearing that they are still waiting on discovery in the case from the prosecution, which they understand is being shared as soon as possible. The defense said the Jan. 25 trial date isn’t possible, considering they lack all the evidence and haven’t started depositions. The prosecution did not resist this request, and the judge asked the prosecution and defense to work out a later date. Jackson, who graduated from Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He is accused of killing his father, Jan Jackson, 61; mother, Melissa Jackson, 68; and sister, Sabrina Jackson, 19, on June 15. According to reporting from the Associated Press, the rules for getting a COVID-19 vaccine booster are about to become much simpler. The United States on Friday opened COVID-19 booster shots to all adults and took the extra step of urging people 50 and older to seek one, aiming to ward off a winter surge as coronavirus cases rise even before millions of Americans travel for the holidays. Up until this point, Americans faced a confusing list of who was eligible for a booster that varied by age, their health and which kind of vaccine they got first. The Food and Drug Administration authorized changes to Pfizer and Moderna boosters to make it easier. Under the new rules, anyone 18 or older can choose either a Pfizer or Moderna booster six months after their last dose. For anyone who got the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the wait already was just two months. And people can mix-and-match boosters from any company. The board governing Iowa’s medical marijuana program plans to ask the Iowa Legislature to allow the state public health department to decide how many dispensaries for consumers there should be — and where they should be located — rather than restricting dispensary licenses statewide to five. The https://talentbank.iowa.gov/board-detail/e7729aa7-361b-4234-a9e0-8da55f787bcf (board) voted unanimously at a virtual meeting Friday on a recommendation to the Iowa Legislature to change the law to give the state health department discretion to decide how many dispensaries are licensed and where they will be located. This would allow the agency to consider putting more dispensaries in urban areas with a higher concentration of registered patients, while still balancing access by rural patients. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, November 19. It’s going to be a bit warmer on Friday, on the way to a nice weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 41 degrees during the day in the Cedar Rapids area. On Friday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 35 degrees. An attorney with Hunter Companies confirmed Thursday the local firm is no longer proceeding with plans to buy the former Transamerica site and develop a mixed-use facility there, casting uncertainty on the future of the 51-acre property at Edgewood Road and 42nd Street NE. A preliminary subdivision plat was slated to come before the Cedar Rapids City Planning Commission on Thursday after its initial consideration was tabled in October so Hunter Companies could work with residents to address concerns about the development. The planned https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/hunter-companies-looks-to-develop-transamerica-site-in-cedar-rapids-into-mixed-use-project/ (mixed-use facility )had riled up hundreds of residents who mobilized against the proposal over concerns with traffic, stormwater management and tree removal. Hunter Companies had been making efforts to seek community feedback before coming back with a proposal, however, and it was not clear as of Thursday why they decided against going forward on the project. Turmoil over Coe College’s commitment to diversity reached a crescendo during the private school’s recent presidential search, leading two trustees to submit scathing letters of resignation and students to hold protests Thursday. Protesters have asserted the issues go beyond the trustee resignations and relate to diversity issues across campus — but they cited the Oct. 25 resignation of longtime trustee Darryl Banks, a Black man who graduated magna cum laude from Coe in 1972 and was elected its last Rhodes scholar 50 years ago. In his letter of resignation, Banks cited the way the college’s leadership had handled the search for a new Coe president over the summer as the tipping point for his decision to depart. A Monticello man was taken into custody late Wednesday after setting off an explosion in his home. David John Costello, 62, was arrested Wednesday night after authorities responded to a domestic disturbance 911 call. Costello’s wife reported that Costello was threatening to “blow up the residence,” according to a Monticello Police Department news release from Police Chief Britt Smith. When a Monticello officer and Jones County deputy arrived at the scene, the officers found Costello in the basement of the residence. As officers tried to communicate with Costello, he ignited an explosion in the basement, the release said. After the explosion, Costello was taken into custody. The Monticello Fire Department also responded to extinguish the flames in the home. The Jones County deputy and Costello were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. After surrounding residences were evacuated as a precaution, the Cedar Rapids Hazardous Devices Unit assisted in securing the residence Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, November 18. Thursday looks like it may end up as the coldest day of this week. According to the National Weather Service it will be increasingly cloudy during the day in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 37 degrees. It will be breezy, with a northwest wind of 10-20 mph gusting as high as 30 mph. On Thursday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 23 degrees. The strike against Deere and Co. is finally over. The UAW union voted late Wednesday to ratify the most recent offer from Deere, ending the strike that has extended into five weeks. The six-year contract covers about 10,100 production and maintenance employees at 12 facilities in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas. Other than minor changes to Deere’s incentive program, the agreement — the third one offered — provided the same benefits as the second agreement, which was turned away Nov. 2 by a 55-to-45 percent vote. This time, union members approved the deal 61 to 39 percent. Arriving just in time for your holiday trip, more viral infections. The seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate reached 10.2 percent in Iowa this past week, the first time that marker has been in the double-digits in months. The number of new COVID-19 cases also climbed for the fourth week in the row — to 9,132 — a worrying sign ahead of the upcoming holidays. The state Department of Public Health reported 9,067 cases in the week before that, and 7,643 new cases the week before that. Those rising positivity rates and number of new cases come at the same time as Iowa is reporting an all-time low in the number of available intensive care beds — 143 available statewide. With legal and political challenges mounting to a Biden administration COVID-19 vaccine mandate for large employers, federal regulators put the rule on hold just weeks before businesses would have to start complying with requirements. On Nov. 4, President Joe Biden announced that private businesses with more than 100 employees must require their staff to get fully vaccinated against the virus by Jan. 4 or face weekly testing and mandatory masking. Employers would have to comply with parts of the rule by Dec. 6, including developing a compliance plan and offering paid time off for vaccinations. But at least 27 states including Iowa have filed legal challenges in at least six federal appeals courts. After a federal appeals court in New Orleans last Friday ordered that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to “take no steps to implement or enforce" the regulation until a court order allowed, OSHA announced it would do just that. On Wednesday, over 150 U.S. House Republicans including Eastern Iowa Reps. Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks filed legislation seeking to nullify the Democratic president’s mandate. That legislation likely would have failed to pass, but it did represent the strong Republican dissatisfaction with the mandate. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, November 17th. Wednesday will mark the decline in temperatures this week until we reach warmer temperatures again potentially by this weekend. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area during the day with a high of 47 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 29 degrees. Once again, fewer students enrolled this fall in Iowa’s 15 community colleges — continuing a decadelong slide the pandemic worsened, driving a 7.5 percent drop from https://educateiowa.gov/sites/files/ed/documents/Fall%20Enrollment%202019.pdf (fall 2019) to https://educateiowa.gov/sites/files/ed/documents/Iowa%20CC%20Fall%20Enrollment%20Rpt%20Nov%202021%20TAB%20P.pdf (fall 2021). Still, this semester’s one-year dip of 1.6 percent in total enrollment across the state’s community colleges is an improvement over the one-year drop of 6 percent in https://educateiowa.gov/sites/files/ed/documents/Fall%20Enrollment%202020.pdf (fall 2020), according to a new report the Iowa Board of Education is set to discuss this week. Iowa’s 2021 losses also fare better than national average losses, showing community college enrollment across the nation slid 5.6 percent this fall over last and 14 percent since 2019. Iowa’s community college total enrollment loss this year would have been steeper were it not for a 3.4 percent increase in “joint enrollment” — that is, when high school students take community college credits as well. An Eastern Iowa man was killed Monday night in a single-vehicle crash on Interstate 80 in Iowa City. The Iowa State Patrol said 59-year-old Jay Statser of West Liberty was traveling westbound on I-80 in a 1998 Ford Explorer about 10:44 p.m. when he lost control, entered the north ditch and struck a bridge pillar for the Highway 1, or North Dodge Street, overpass. The crash remains under investigation. Iowa City police are investigating an incident involving two young children in which a firearm was discharged Nov. 7. The incident happened around 2:18 p.m. at an apartment complex on Foster Road, https://www.iowa-city.org/IcgovApps/police/Details?dispatchNumber=21167122 (according to the activity log. )The log item says “stab/gunshot/penetrating trauma” and in the notes area it says “5 YO.” “I can confirm the police department is actively investigating an incident with a firearm involving two young children,” Iowa City Public Safety Information Officer Lee Hermiston wrote in an email to The Gazette on Tuesday. “Due to the ages of the parties involved and because this is an open investigation, I cannot release any more information at this time.” According to reporting from the Associated Press, a federal judge has blocked the U.S. Treasury from enforcing a provision of the American Rescue Plan Act that prohibited states from using the pandemic relief funds to offset new tax cuts. U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler ruled Monday in Alabama that Congress exceeded its power in putting the tax mandate on states. He entered a final judgment in favor of 13 states including Iowa that had filed a lawsuit and instructed the Treasury Department not to enforce the provision. “This is a major victory for the State of Iowa and Iowa taxpayers,” Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement. The governor also indicated that she intends to push for more tax cuts in the near future, but what types of cuts these will be is still unclear. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 16th. Tuesday will offer a break from our recent cold trend. According to the National Weather Service we can expect mostly sunny skies with a high near 58 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Tuesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 40 degrees. Enjoy it while it lasts, however, as the rest of the week after Wednesday looks like it will be returning to late November reality. An Iowa City man was sentenced to 60-years in prison Monday for killing a man and injuring several others when he attempted to kill himself by driving the wrong way on Interstate 80 in 2019. 34-year-old Stephen Lucore was found guilty of several charges, including second degree murder and homicide by vehicle, for the death of Robert Sawyer, 64, of Nocona, TX. Members of the Sawyer family, including David Sawyer, who was driving the vehicle Lucore collided with, were in attendance Monday and pleaded for justice. The state of Iowa spent about $12.3 billion in federal funds in fiscal 2020 that represented about a $3 billion increase — much of which was tied to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act — according to an audit issued Monday by State Auditor Rob Sand. Sand said about $2.3 billion of the 32.7 percent spike in federal aid the state received during the 2020 fiscal year came from the CARES Act, while changes in non-CARES and non-loan programs included an increase of about $518 million in funding for Medicaid expenditures. Sand critiqued Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for using funding to pay her personal staff, which he described as having too many people. He suggested that the justification for using the federal funding was not properly done, and some money might need to be returned. A spokesperson for the governor said that her staff has spent much of its time since the pandemic began dealing with the after effects of the pandemic, so using recovery funds to pay them is appropriate, and the U.S. Department of Treasury has signed off on this use. Iowa will receive roughly $5 billion over five years in new federal funding from the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law Monday. The new federal funding for roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects will provide a revenue boost similar to when the state raised its fuel tax by a dime a gallon in 2015, according to Iowa’s Department of Transportation director. Stuart Anderson, director of the Iowa Department of Transportation’s transportation development division, said the funding boost represents a 25 percent increase in the first year, and increases to a 35 percent boost by the fifth year. “That definitely will mean more funding is available for construction work,” Anderson said. The U.S. Senate passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure funding bill in August and the U.S. House passed it last weekend. Of Iowa’s senators and representatives, only Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democratic Representative Cindy Axne voted in favor of the bill. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Nov. 15th. According to the National Weather Service, there is a slight chance of snow between 8 and 9 a.m. It will be cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 41. Winds from the southeast, 5 to 10 mph. Our chance of precipitation in the Cedar Rapids area is 20%. Then tonight, it should be partly cloudy, with a low around 31. A Cedar Rapids man faces charges of first-degree burglary and assault while displaying a dangerous weapon based on allegations he assaulted a woman Thursday at her apartment in Cedar Rapids. Clarence Oliver, age 53, is accused of forcing open the door of the woman’s apartment and threatening her and another occupant with a handgun. Security video in the building corroborated her report, according to the criminal complaint. Investigators contacted and questioned Oliver, who admitted entering the woman’s apartment with a gun, but claimed he did not point it at the occupants. Police said they arrested Oliver and recovered two firearms. Authorities said a collision Saturday night between a freight train and a barge sticking out onto the railroad tracks sent coal cars and diesel fuel into the Mississippi River along Southeast Iowa’s Lee County. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the barge was parked along the shore of the Mississippi River near Montrose. The Burlington Hawk Eye reported it was pulled up to the shore in a way that the nose of the barge was left extending over the tracks. When a southbound train operated by BNSF came down the tracks about 11:50 p.m., it hit the barge — derailing two locomotives and overturning several coal cars. No injuries were reported. For the seventh straight season, Iowa brought home the bacon in its annual battle for a bronze pig. The Hawkeyes pulled off a nail-biting 27-22 win over unranked Minnesota to keep their Big Ten West hopes alive and ensure the Floyd of Rosedale Trophy spends another year in Iowa City. The game included six ties or lead changes. Like food? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On This newsletter. Sign up at https://www.subscribepage.com/chew (thegazette.com/chew)
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 13 and Sunday, November 14. We will stay in our newly found cold zone for the weekend, but there will be no more snow for now. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service there will be a high of 38 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday. The day will begin cloudy, before gradually becoming sunny. Winds will blow at 10-15 mph. On Saturday night into Sunday morning there will be a small chance for rain, and a low of 36 degrees. On Sunday it will be mostly cloudy with a high of 35 degrees. It could be a bit breezier, with a northwest wind of 15 to 25 mph gusting as high as 35 mph. An 18-year-old Cedar Rapids man admitted during a Friday plea hearing that he fatally shot University of Iowa student, Malik Sheets, during an argument at a June 18 party last year. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/lower-bail-for-teen-accused-of-killing-malik-sheets-was-denied-by-judge/ (Christian D. Emedi), originally charged with first-degree murder and obstruction of prosecution, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder. Under the plea agreement, he will be sentenced to 15 years in prison. During the hearing, Emedi acknowledged he fired all five shots that killed Sheets, 20, who died from injuries to his neck and chest. The other teen charged in Sheets’ death, Marshawn Jeffries, also of Cedar Rapids, has a tentative plea agreement, which hasn’t been filed. Deere & Co. and the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America have reached their third tentative agreement, according to a release Friday from Brian Rothenberg, an UAW spokesman. A ratification vote by members of the union will be held Nov. 17 according to the Quad-City Times. The strike has been ongoing since mid October, affecting workers in three states, including thousands of workers in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. Cindy Axne, the lone Democrat in Iowa’s congressional delegation, announced Friday that she plans to seek re-election in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District next year. Axne previously also considered running for the U.S. Senate or Iowa governor in 2022. She is serving her second two-year term in the U.S. House. Iowa’s 3rd District race likely will draw national attention as Democrats attempt to maintain their slim majority in the U.S. House. Democrats have a small voter registration advantage in the new 3rd District, which includes Polk and Dallas counties, plus much of south-central Iowa. The crash that killed Iowa State Patrol Trooper Ted Benda last month happened when Benda swerved to avoid a deer while responding to a call at high speed, Iowa State Patrol reported Friday. Benda, 37, of rural Decorah, was https://www.thegazette.com/crashes/trooper-in-critical-condition-after-northeast-iowa-crash/ (driving south) on Highway 51 north of Postville around 11:30 p.m. Oct. 14 when he swerved to avoid striking a deer that had entered the roadway from the west, the Iowa State Patrol said. “Due to this evasive action, the Dodge Charger lost traction, entered into the east ditch, and struck an embankment on the driver’s side,” Sgt. Alex Dinkla said in an email to The Gazette. “The vehicle then rolled, coming to rest on the driver’s side.” Benda was extricated from the damaged patrol car and airlifted to Gundersen Lutheran Hospital in La Crosse, Wis., where he was in critical condition for several days before he died Oct. 19. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, November 12. We’re going to get a little winter preview on Friday. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a 50 percent chance of snow in the Cedar Rapids area Friday with accumulation of less than a half an inch possible. The high temperature will be 36 degrees, with cloudy skies and winds that could gust more than 30 mph. It looks like the snow will be most likely in the morning, but will be a lingering possibility throughout the workday. Friday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 30 degrees. Initial plans for a mixed-use development at the former Transamerica site that sparked widespread concerns among residents is back on the Cedar Rapids City Planning Commission agenda for consideration after the developer pulled it last month to gather more input first. The commission will consider Cedar Rapids-based Hunter Companies’ preliminary plat for the 51-acre site on Edgewood Road and 42nd Street NE, where former Transamerica office buildings were demolished, at its http://cedar-rapids.org/11.18.2021%20CPC%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf (Nov. 18 meeting). Residents were concerned primarily about excessive traffic off Edgewood Road and 42nd Street NE, a busy intersection with many nearby businesses, schools and other facilities. Hunter Companies has not said what it intends to build at the Transamerica site. But it has built other mixed-use projects in Cedar Rapids, including Northtowne Market across from Target on Blairs Ferry Road NE, which includes restaurants such as Moe’s Southwest Grill and Jimmy John’s as well as elevate salon and spa. An Iowan serving a 25-year prison sentence for rigging lottery computers to win jackpots for himself, friends and family is suing the state of Iowa, claiming he was pressured four years ago to plead guilty to crimes he did not commit. Eddie Tipton, now in prison in Clarinda, wants the court to halt https://apnews.com/article/4d6bedd2f2b347d68a3be15c2761b577 (all restitution he's been ordered to pay) until a trial is held, during which he said he will present documents and other evidence to persuade the court to reverse his sentence. During a 2017 court appearance, Tipton admitted to tampering with what were supposed to be random number generators to enable his co-conspirators to claim jackpots in Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Kansas. It was Tipton's job to write software that is supposed to randomly pick numbers for lottery computers used for various games by 37 states and territorial lotteries. Despite pleading guilty, his lawyer’s request for leniency was denied by the judge. Tipton was also ordered at the time to pay $2.2 million in restitution. ITC Midwest has given $200,000 to the ReLeaf Program, a public-private partnership between nonprofit Trees Forever and the city of Cedar Rapids, to support tree replanting in Cedar Rapids after the 2020 derecho. The ReLeaf initiative aims to replenish the urban forest after the 2020 storm’s hurricane-force winds toppled about 70 percent of the city’s tree canopy. The organizations involved in the partnership are working to develop and implement a long-term effort that will help reforest public spaces and provide outreach for tree planting on public and private property in Cedar Rapids. ITC Midwest is a regional subsidiary of the ITC Holdings Corporation, the largest independent electricity transmission company in the United States. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, November 11. Your Veterans Day forecast will feature less rain than Wednesday, but still will be breezy and colder as we transition into an end of the week that could bring the first snow of the year in some parts of Iowa. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, the rain should mostly cease by about 7 a.m. Thursday morning. The high will be 51 degrees with mostly sunny skies. A west wind will blow at around 15 mph, and could gust as high as 25 mph. The low will be about 34 degrees Thursday night. Protests that enveloped the University of Iowa’s Phi Gamma Delta fraternity this fall caused more than $200,000 in damage to the chapter house and displaced 28 members for the semester. Communications obtained by The Gazette through an open records request show UI officials reached out to the fraternity, which goes by FIJI, offering support in the immediate aftermath of the protests — which started Aug. 31 and went on for days, sparked by widely-publicized allegations that a pair of FIJI brothers last fall https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-city-police-took-sex-assault-report-connected-with-university-of-iowa-fiji-fraternity/ (sexually assaulted a UI student) and disseminated video of the attack. Damage to the FIJI house from the raucous protests of more than 1,000 will require repair to 120-plus damaged windows, landscaping, a permanent gas grill, four doors and frames “at a cost of over $200,000,” according to an Oct. 15 email from FIJI Assistant Executive Director Todd Rotgers. UI student Makena Solberg filed a civil lawsuit in late October against FIJI members Carson Steffen and Jacob Meloan alleging them of sexually assaulting her. Iowa reported 9,067 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, pushing the total cases in Iowa to 500,119 since March 2020 when the virus first appeared in Iowa. That total — up for the third week in a row — compares to 7,643 cases the previous week and 6,938 new cases the week before that. The rise in new cases could be tied to worsening weather, as cases had been dropping during the pleasant weather in mid October. Statewide, Iowa’s seven-day positivity rate was 9.4 percent, an increase from the 8.5 percent reported last week. Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks will seek re-election in Iowa's newly-drawn 1st Congressional District in 2022, avoiding a potentially competitive and contentious race against Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne. The move also sets up a potential GOP primary challenge. The new 1st District covers much of Southeast Iowa, including Johnson, Cedar, Jones, Iowa, Washington, Keokuk, Louisa, Scott, Clinton and Muscatine counties, and includes 16 of the 24 counties Miller-Meeks currently represents. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, November 10. Wednesday won’t be much colder than Tuesday, but it has the potential to be much wetter. According to the National Weather Service the high temperature will be near 58 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The chance of rain will increase as the day goes on, with mild rain most likely until Wednesday night, when there will be the possibility of a thunderstorm. The chance for rain Wednesday night is listed at 100 percent, with the possibility of several inches of rain. Mayor Brad Hart said Tuesday he is endorsing challenger Tiffany O’Donnell as his successor in the Nov. 30 runoff after voters decided last week that City Hall needed a change in elected leadership. “Tiffany O’Donnell has leadership experience, broad knowledge of the community, ran a nonpartisan campaign and has demonstrated the high ethical standards we need in the mayor of Iowa’s second largest city.” Hart said in a statement. Because no candidate won 50 percent of the vote in last week’s election, the two top vote-getters — O’Donnell and TrueNorth Companies employee Amara Andrews — will face each other in a Nov. 30 runoff election for mayor. Andrews narrowly edged out Hart for second place in the race, who announced last week that he would not be seeking a recount. A Cedar Rapids man died after losing control of his motorcycle Monday evening in the 3900 block of Lewis Bottoms Road, according to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. Randy Deaton, 55, was discovered in a ditch after first responders went to the scene of the single-vehicle accident. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office said his blue 2017 Harley-Davidson motorcycle left the roadway while driving southbound on Lewis Bottoms Road. After losing control and leaving the roadway, he struck a mailbox and came to rest in the west ditch. Deaton was treated for his injuries after being airlifted to a hospital, but it was not enough to prevent his death. A Linn County judge has ordered a Cedar Rapids contractor to pay $40,000 as part of a settlement for improper asbestos removal during renovations at Washington High School in 2014 and 2015. The order, signed Monday, resolves a https://www.iowaattorneygeneral.gov/newsroom/asbestos-violations-abatement-cedar-rapids-dnr?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery (2019 lawsuit) by the state against Abatement Specialties alleging the company failed to thoroughly inspect for and remove asbestos before renovation, failed to adequately wet the material, and failed to carefully lower it to the ground during removal. Washington was closed July 8, 2015, after an air sample test showed asbestos fibers in the air above an acceptable level during a renovation project, https://www.thegazette.com/news/asbestos-investigation-to-close-washington-hs-until-end-of-week/ (The Gazette reported. )An anonymous tipster reported seeing asbestos-filled debris in the school hallways during the renovation. An investigation by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources showed communication and oversight problems led to the release of asbestos into the air, possibly exposing more than 100 construction workers to the carcinogen. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 9. So we got to cheat for a few days and pretend it isn’t actually going to get colder. Tuesday is going to be the last one of those days this week. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near 60 degrees Tuesday. On Tuesday night there will be a low of 40 degrees. Every day after in the forecast from this point on will get colder than the previous day before it, with a chance for rain on Wednesday and Thursday. A 12-year-old girl died Sunday in an utility-task vehicle (UTV) crash in Buchanan County. Around 5:20 p.m. Sunday, Buchanan County sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call of a UTV crash southeast of Winthrop. A 12-year-old girl driving a Polaris Ranger UTV with a passenger lost control of the vehicle, which rolled over into a ditch, ejecting the driver and pinning her underneath, the sheriff’s office reported. The juvenile passenger was not injured. The crash is under investigation. A UTV is bigger than an all-terrain vehicle and allows for two people to ride side by side. One of the teens charged with killing University of Iowa student Malik Sheets during a party last summer will plead to lesser charges. First Assistant Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks is asking a judge to separate trials for https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/2-teens-face-charges-in-slaying-of-malik-sheets/ (Marshawn L. Jeffries, 18, and Christian Emedi, 18,) who are jointly charged with first-degree murder and obstruction of prosecution. Maybanks also is asking for Emedi’s trial, now set for Nov. 16, to be reset because Jeffries has accepted a plea agreement. There are no details of the tentative plea for Jeffries in court documents. The U.S. fully reopened to many vaccinated international travelers Monday, allowing families and friends to reunite for the first time since the coronavirus emerged and offering a boost to the travel industry decimated by the pandemic. The restrictions had closed the U.S. to millions of people for 20 months. American citizens and permanent residents were always allowed to enter the U.S., but the travel bans grounded tourists, thwarted business travelers and https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-health-travel-relationships-528d66c448c9b6fc7dd50ac5ddef03fc (often kept families far apart). Travelers must have proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test. After more than a quarter of a century representing Iowa City, state Rep. Mary Mascher has announced she will not seek re-election in 2022. In announcing her retirement, Mascher thanked Johnson County voters for “their love and support over the last 28 years.” Mascher is the second Iowa City Democratic legislator to announce retirement this month. State Sen. Joe Bolkcom announced last week that he will not seek re-election to a seventh term. Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Nov. 8th. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect a mostly sunny day today in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 66. Winds from the south around 5 mph coming from the north in the afternoon. Then tonight, it should be cloudy with a low around 47. In college football, Iowa remained at No. 19 in the latest AP Poll released Sunday after their 17-12 win against the Northwestern Wildcats. After quarterback Spencer Petras tried to play three drives despite an injury and struggled, backup Alex Padilla took over and led the Hawkeyes to their best offensive performance since the 51-14 Maryland win on Oct. 1. Padilla completed 64 percent of his passes for 172 yards. Northwestern quarterback Andrew Marty hit receivers several times on deep throws but his accuracy was problematic. He finished with a 57 percent completion rate along with two interceptions. Like food? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On This newsletter. Sign up at thegazette.com/chew
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 6, and Sunday, November 7. We are looking at some pleasant weekend weather coming up. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 65 degrees on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area. On Saturday evening it will be mostly clear and a low around 42 degrees. There will only be a mild breeze all Saturday. On Sunday it will be a little warmer with a slightly more vigorous breeze, with mostly sunny skies and a high near 69 degrees. Sunday night it will be mostly clear with a low around 46 degrees. In truly a bizarre turn of events, an Iowa City man shooting an air rifle at a squirrel in his yard inadvertently shot and badly wounded a Marine who was driving by at the time on Oct. 17, authorities announced Friday. Philip Olson, 69, of Iowa City, faces fines ranging from $305 to $1,055 for violating city code and Iowa Department of Natural Resources regulations. Olson, who came forward during the investigation and was not arrested by police, declined to comment Friday when reached by The Gazette. The announcement reveals to the public for the first time what police believe happened on the evening that Gabriel Heefner, 20, a lance corporal in the U.S. Marines, was found in a crashed car with a gunshot wound to the head. Heefner had been in town visiting his grandparents and went to grab takeout when he was shot along the way. HIs family reports that he is out of critical condition after a period of fighting for his life, but remains in the hospital and is far from recovered. With a slim margin putting Amara Andrews in the second-place spot to proceed to the Nov. 30 runoff election against Tiffany O’Donnell in the race for Cedar Rapids mayor, incumbent Brad Hart announced Friday he will not ask for a recount. “I will finish out my term by serving this great city just like I've tried to do every day for the last four years,” Hart said. “Thank you to my fellow city council members and to the talented city team I've had the privilege to work with. Thank you to the citizens of Cedar Rapids for the opportunity to serve you over the last four years. It has been an honor.” After Linn County accounted for over 100 provisional ballots countywide Thursday, or ballots that required further review of a voter’s eligibility to be included in the official count, Andrews increased her margin over Hart from 24 votes to 40. She finished with a total 7,359 votes out of 26,175, https://www.linncountyiowa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/17890/November-2-2021-CitySchool-Election-Results-by-Precinct?bidId= (according to unofficial results). There was finally a break of deadlock in Washington D.C. late Friday night. According to reporting from the Associated Press, the House approved a $1 trillion package of https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-technology-business-broadband-internet-congress-d89d6bb1b39cd9c67ae9fc91f5eb4c0d (road and other infrastructure projects) after Democrats resolved a months-long standoff between progressives and moderates, notching a victory for President Joe Biden, albeit not as large of a package as Democrats had hoped for. The House passed the measure 228-206 late Friday, prompting prolonged cheers from the relieved Democratic side of the chamber. Thirteen Republicans, mostly moderates, supported the legislation while six of Democrats' farthest left members opposed it. Iowa and the country could be headed for record corn yields, despite uneven weather throughout the year, state agriculture and climate experts said Friday. Iowa corn is forecast at 2.5 billion bushels, averaging 201 bushels an acre, which is an increase of 24 bushels per acre over last year, according to the latest information from the federal agriculture department. Soybeans appear headed for similarly big yields. Soybeans in Iowa are forecast at 611 million bushes at an average of 61 bushels per acre, up 7 bushels per acre
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, November 5. Remember Thursday’s weather? Well add a little more wind and a warmer evening and you’ve got Friday. According to the National Weather Service the high in the Cedar Rapids area will be around 55 degrees. A wind of 10 - 15 mph could gust as high as 25 mph. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 40 degrees. Two 16-year-old Fairfield students face murder charges in connection with the death of a high school Spanish teacher at the school they attended, authorities said Thursday. Willard Noble Chaiden Miller and Jeremy Everett Goodale, both 16, are accused of killing Nohema Graber, whose body was found Wednesday in a Fairfield park not far from the high school. They are accused of killing Graber, 66, who had taught at Fairfield High School since 2012. It was not disclosed whether she had been the teens’ teacher. Fairfield Police said they were able to arrest Miller and Goodale after someone who knew them shared social media posts that contained details of the murder. A motive for the murder has not been released. A defiant Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday promised “immediate” legal action over a Biden administration rule requiring larger businesses to have their employees get COVID-19 vaccinations or face regular workplace testing. Reynolds released a statement promising to challenge the new federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule on vaccines for employees of companies employing 100 or more. https://www.thegazette.com/federal-government/u-s-mandates-vaccines-or-tests-for-big-companies-by-jan-4/ (Under Thursday’s directive), workers at larger businesses will have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4 or face regular testing. According to U.S. Labor Department guidance, workers who choose the testing option may have to bear the cost, as well as being required to wear a face mask on the job beginning Dec. 5. The Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday evening unanimously approved the updated iteration for a development near Hickory Hill Park, that is backed by the Friends of Hickory Hill. The updated proposal for rezoning the 48.75-acre plot northeast of the park is scaled back from previous plans, and devotes nearly three times more land to the city park. Hickory Trail Estates, a senior living facility, would be built on 8.85 acres at the southeast corner of the plot. The facility would have 120 continuing care retirement community units with a total of 134 beds. Residents have opposed previous plans for the project, proposed by Axiom Consultants and Nelson Development, that included single-family homes. The third iteration of the proposal was ultimately rejected by the Iowa City Council. The most recent proposal does not include the single-family housing. A 41-year-old former immigration lawyer facing theft charges in Colorado is being held in the Johnson County Jail in Iowa City, accused of fabricating a positive COVID-19 test from the University of Iowa in an attempt to avoid a mandatory court appearance in Colorado. Emily Elizabeth Cohen was booked at 3:08 p.m. Tuesday on a detainer from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, shortly after she tweeted that the Colorado court system “just had me arrested alleging I lied about having COVID. Tweeting from cop car.” Cohen is scheduled for a 10-day trial in Boulder County in Colorado starting Dec. 6 for 11 felony theft counts stemming from allegations she collected tens of thousands in fees from immigrant families before losing contact with them without producing visas or work permits, according to the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper Are you a fan of trying new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, November 4. Thursday will begin a warming trend that will lead to a pleasant weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 53 degrees. Thursday night’s low will still be near freezing, settling in around 34 degrees. The rate of new COVID-19 cases is increasing again in Iowa, at least for the moment, according to data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health. After weeks of falling infection rates following a spike in infections that came with the beginning of the school year, the past week saw the cases jump from 6,983 new cases the previous week to 7,643 new cases this most recent week. It was the first jump in new cases after more than a month of declining numbers. Iowa also saw another 104 deaths added to the state’s total death count from the disease. The statewide death toll is now at 7,069 people since the pandemic was first reported in Iowa in March of 2020. The under 17 age group continues to have the most cases, with 20 percent of the new cases reported in the past week. Although this could change with the approval of a vaccine regimen for 5- to 11-year-olds. Young Iowans began receiving COVID-19 vaccinations Wednesday after federal officials approved shots for children ages 5 to 11 the night before, clearing the way for a new phase of vaccine distribution in Iowa. Pediatricians, pharmacies and other vaccine providers across the state have begun administering the Pfizer vaccine shots to this age group with doses from advanced allocations that arrived, in some cases, just hours before the vaccine received emergency use authorization. That included a handful of providers in the Corridor, who were distributing pediatric doses during vaccine clinics Wednesday evening. From one ongoing battle to another: Deere & Co. said Wednesday that the proposed contract offered striking workers — which union members rejected Tuesday — is the company's "last, best, and final offer." UAW members, on strike since Oct. 14, rejected the deal, 55 percent to 45 percent, despite gaining majority support from Quad-City union members. Union members at manufacturing plants Waterloo and Dubuque, however, rejected the contract. That means the strike will continue by 10,100 production and maintenance employees at 12 Deere facilities in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas. It is the first major walkout at the agricultural machinery giant in more than three decades. Union members said that the contract was rejected despite an increased wage offer over the original agreement because lingering demands still have not been addressed by the company. The union is now discussing next steps. New state and federal pandemic relief funding will be used to make child care in Iowa more accessible, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday as the recommendations on her child care task force were compiled in a new state report. According to the group’s report, Iowa has the nation’s highest share of households in which all parents work, yet many families especially in rural areas do not have access to child care. Roughly 23 percent of Iowans overall — and 35 percent of rural Iowans — live in a “child care desert,” an area with a significant shortage of child care providers, according to the report. Reynolds said the state will make available $10 million in grants for expanding current child care facilities or building new ones, and distribute $200 million in federal grants to child care facilities that suffered economically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Are you a fan of trying in new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, November 3. The sun will be out Wednesday, but don’t let it fool you. It will be definite sweatshirt weather with a high of 46 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The low temperature will settle in below freezing at 31 degrees. Thankfully, the National Weather Service reports we will have some warmer weather in store in our near future. It was election day Tuesday, and with that came the news that there would be a change in leadership of Iowa’s second-largest city. What still remains to be seen is who that new leader will be. Cedar Rapids voters decided Tuesday to narrow a four-way race for mayor to Amara Andrews and Tiffany O’Donnell, outright defeated incumbent Brad Hart to head to a Nov. 30 runoff election. No candidates reached the necessary 50 percent of the vote, so the top two vote-getters — TrueNorth executive Andrews and Women Lead Change Chief Executive Officer O’Donnell — have less than a month to vie for the city’s top elected role. O’Donnell emerged with over 40 percent of the vote — 10,991 total — while Andrews edged out Hart by a 24-vote margin to finish second with 7,332 votes, according to unofficial results. Speaking of results, you can find all of the rest of Tuesday’s election results, plus our coverage of local races, at thegazette.com. There was another important vote Tuesday, this on the ongoing Deere strike involving more than 10,000 employees spanning three states including Iowa. The UAW union on Tuesday voted down the latest offer from Deere & Co., the second proposal offering higher wages and perks aimed at resolving a strike. The union vote appeared close to 55 percent opposed and 45 percent supporting the deal. The proposed agreement offered improved wages and benefits from the initial agreement, which was overwhelmingly voted down Oct. 10. The strike will continue without the ratification of an agreement. It's a setback for the union and the company, as representatives for both have been meeting in negotiations since before the strike. Another big decision that happened Tuesday will affect parents and children nationwide. According to reporting from the Associated Press, U.S. health officials on Tuesday gave final approval to Pfizer’s kid-size COVID-19 vaccine, a milestone that opens a major expansion of the nation’s vaccination campaign to children as young as 5 years of age. The Food and Drug Administration already authorized the shots for children ages 5 to 11 — doses just a third of the amount given to teens and adults. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention formally recommends who should receive FDA-cleared vaccines. The announcement by CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky came only hours after an advisory panel unanimously decided Pfizer’s shots should be opened to the 28 million Americans in that age group. In anticipation of the approval, Pfizer over the weekend began shipping millions of the pediatric shots to states, doctors’ offices and pharmacies — in orange caps, to avoid mix-ups with purple-capped vials of adult vaccine. Are you a fan of trying in new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
On today’s episode: It’s Election Day in Iowa, Alliant Energy wants to buy the solar project at Palo’s Duane Arnold site, Cedar Rapids hospital workers face vaccine deadlines, and the state volleyball tournament is underway.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Nov. 1st. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect a mostly sunny day today, with a high near 48. Winds from the west, 5 to 10 mph. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 28. A teenager faces an attempted murder charge in a Saturday night shooting outside the Willis Dady Homeless Services facility that left a man injured. Just before 9 p.m. Saturday, Cedar Rapids police got a call about a shooting near 1247 Fourth Ave. SE. The shooting occurred in the parking lot and alley area outside the Willis Dady facility. Police said they found an adult male who had what they described as non-life-threatening injuries from being shot, and he was taken to a hospital. Officers “did locate evidence” that led to a juvenile being taken into custody. Authorities identified the shooting victim as 39-year-old Beau Kopp (K-o-p-p), who was shot in the abdomen. An initial investigation found that Kopp was involved in an argument with one person in a group of three when he was shot. A city public safety spokeswoman identified the suspect as Corey Lamar Cullar Jr., 17. He was arrested on charges of attempted murder, willful injury and going armed with intent. He was taken to the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center. In college football, Iowa fell from No. 9 to No. 19 in the latest AP Poll released Sunday after suffering its second consecutive loss to an unranked opponent. In a three-week span, the Hawkeyes slid from No. 2 to No. 19, their worst ranking in the AP Poll in 2021. Wisconsin remained unranked despite its 27-7 win against Iowa on Saturday. Like food? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On This newsletter. Sign up at https://www.subscribepage.com/chew (thegazette.com/chew)
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 30, and Sunday, October 31. October’s last weekend will end with sunny skies, and the warmest weather we should see for a little bit, so don’t be afraid to get out and enjoy yourself. On Saturday it will be partly sunny, with a high near 55 degrees. A north wind will blow from 5 to 10 mph. Saturday night it will be partly cloudy and a little windier, with a low temperature around 41 degrees. It will be windier still Sunday, and that wind appears to be cold, as the high temperature will drop down to 51 degrees with sunny skies. Sunday the temperature will drop still further, with a low around 31 degrees. Thankfully Halloween night should not feature the miserable rain that Iowa traditionally offers trick-or-treaters, but warm costume ideas will be welcome ones. The week concluded with some drama for the Cedar Rapids Mayoral race right before election day next Tuesday. Entrepreneur Steve Shriver said Friday he quit as chair of Amara Andrews’ campaign for Cedar Rapids mayor over “strategic differences” after her team acknowledged it coordinated with a political action committee to send a mailer to voters criticizing rival Tiffany O’Donnell, claiming she has touted herself as a Reagan Republican while hiding more extreme conservative views. Shriver said this is an example of the pernicious side of politics that he doesn’t want to be a part of. This is a continuation of an open debate among candidates about whether party affiliation should be brought into the mayoral race at all. Andrews, billing h erself as a progressive Democrat, has argued partisan views should be a part of the race, while O’Donnell and incumbent Mayor Brad Hart, both Republicans, argue the mayoral position is nonpartisan. I will leave it to you to decide why they are squabbling about party affiliation in a city that tends to favor Democrats. In the meantime I suggest you check out thegazette.com to see where all 4 mayoral candidates stand on issues that might affect you directly. If you click Elections at the top of the main page it will take you to our elections coverage, with the latest coverage as well as candidate profiles. Finally, whomever you favor, please vote in your local elections on Tuesday. Iowa business leaders said Friday they are concerned that expanding exemptions from workplace COVID-19 vaccination requirements — and protecting jobless benefits for those who refuse to follow a mandate — may result in unintended consequences or added costs related to the surprise changes enacted by the Iowa Legislature and signed into law Friday by Gov. Kim Reynolds. The swift arrival of https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=HF902 (House File 902) and its passage during Thursday’s one-day special legislative session added to the frustration and confusion that Iowa employers already were facing due to vaccination mandates that now are in conflict with the new state requirement that they exempt employees who claim a medical or religious exemption. While business leaders are not fans of federal mandates in general, they are concerned about the Iowa laws for two main reasons: one, workers who opt to take the unemployment they now qualify for instead of complying with getting vaccinated could make the already challenging effort of finding employees even harder; two, a new layer of complexity when it comes to new exemptions raises the probability a business will make a potentially harmful mistake. Gov. Reynolds took the action on the same day that Iowa joined nine other states in a lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for all workers employed by a federal contractor, which is one-fifth of the nation’s workforce. A Tama County man is dead after being shot by an officer in Tama County on Thursday. The Tama County Sheriff’s Office received calls of shots being fired near the 1000
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, October 29. The 24-hours of rain will finally come to an end early Friday morning. According to the National Weather Service the rain will mostly cease by 7 a.m. After that it will be cloudy, with a high near 53 degrees. It will also be windy, with a north wind of 15 mph gusting as high as 35 mph. Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 40 degrees. The wind will slow down just a tad, at 10 to 15 mph. Turns out that the second time was the charm for Iowa’s Redistricting efforts. After months of political and pandemic-related delays, and the rejection of the first plan for establishing new congressional and legislative election boundaries, the Iowa Legislature approved a redistricting plan Thursday for the next decade. On a 48-1 vote, the Senate approved https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=SF621 (Senate File 621 )to create new congressional and legislative districts. The House followed suit 93-2, with five legislators absent. Although the consensus is that the plan is GOP-friendly, Senate Democrats said they backed it because it meets the requirements of Iowa law and the state’s constitution. Also completed Thursday were some minor protections for workers who lose their jobs after resisting mandatory vaccinations. These Iowans would still be able to collect unemployment benefits under legislation passed by the General Assembly and headed to Gov. Kim Reynolds for her expected signature. Iowa Republicans said Thursday that ideally they would like to do more to allow people to resist mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, but this appeared to be the most they could do without risking a legal challenge. Hunter Companies has withdrawn its preliminary subdivision plat for the former Transamerica site, saying it wants to gather more neighborhood input. Plans for the 51-acre site on Edgewood Road NE had been scheduled to come before the City Planning Commission on Thursday afternoon Hunter Companies is buying the land from Transamerica and pursuing a mixed-use development there. Neighbors concerned about the project created an active Facebook groupto make their concerns known. It had 129 members as of Thursday afternoon. Organizer Dave Watson said he thinks Hunter is a great option to develop the property but he wants the developer to work with the neighborhood. The list of concerns include saving trees, retaining retention ponds, providing more green space as part of the development; and worries about increased traffic. When it comes to drinking water, several Iowa communities have high-quality H2O, says a panel of celebrity judges. But none better, apparently, than the defending champions, Keokuk. The Iowa chapter of the American Water Works Association held a blind taste test Wednesday at the Double Tree convention complex to determine which Iowa community offers the best-tasting drinking water. Cedar Rapids was this year’s host city. Keokuk’s water emerged at the top of a sample of seven Iowa cities’ drinking water. The entries were judged on appearance, odor, taste and aftertaste by a panel of local media personalities, special guests and a host city representative. This event was part of the association’s annual conference. Are you a fan of trying in new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, October 28. Rain is on tap for Thursday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high chance for showers for much of the day, with a high of 51 degrees. On Thursday night the low temperature, interestingly enough, will only drop to 47 degrees, a sign of a slightly warmer Friday that will also probably have less rain. Iowa’s COVID-19 numbers have received their weekly update, and it was reported that 117 more Iowans died of COVID-19. All of these deaths occurred in September and October, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. 100 deaths were reported the previous week. Statewide, the COVID-19 death toll now totals 6,965 since March 2020 when the virus first appeared in Iowa. New case numbers were roughly the same as the week before, with the under 17 age group again leading the way for most new cases. With COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 expected to gain federal approval by next week, state and local health officials are preparing to administer shots to thousands of young Iowans in the coming weeks. The Iowa Department of Public Health anticipates the approximately 284,000 Iowans in that age group can start receiving shots by the first week in November, pending an emergency use authorization. Vaccine experts are meeting over the next week to offer final recommendations on the two-dose coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech. In anticipation of a surge in demand for the shots, federal officials have already purchased enough pediatric doses for the estimated 28 million Americans who will become eligible. A judge has upheld the firing of former Cedar Rapids police Sgt. Lucas Jones, saying the termination was supported by evidence of dishonesty and violation of departmental policies. Sixth Judicial District Judge Christopher Bruns, in an Oct. 5 ruling, said Police Chief Wayne Jerman’s finding — that Jones was dishonest about an Oct. 30, 2016, traffic stop and that he had violated two departmental policies — is supported by substantial evidence and Iowa law. The firing was later affirmed by the city’s Civil Service Commission after Jones appealed his termination. The reason given for firing Jones was that he had been dishonest when confronted about having his microphone turned off during a traffic stop. According to the Cedar Rapids Police, a pattern of Jones turning off his microphone while in the field was discovered during an internal investigation into the shooting of a Black motorist named Jerime Mitchell. Jones shot Mitchell during a Nov. 1, 2016, traffic stop near Coe College after stopping Mitchell for having a light out on his pickup truck’s license plate. Mitchell was paralyzed in the incident and successfully sued the city for damages. After much speculation of how the pandemic would affect Iowa’s high-profile university athletic programs — with deficit projections phttps://www.thegazette.com/iowa-hawkeyes/with-loss-of-tv-revenue-looming-iowa-discontinues-4-sports/ (rompting the University of Iowa to cut sports )programs — final numbers for the fiscal 2021 budget reveal losses were steep but less than first feared. Instead of the expected $60 to $75 million shortfall UI Athletics Director Gary Barta last August cited in eliminating men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s gymnastics and men’s tennis, UI Athletics ended the budget year June 30 with a $42.9 million deficit, according to a new Board of Regents report. That is on the low end of Barta’s revised deficit prediction from last October Barta has previously said that https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-hawkeyes/gary-barta-restoration-of-4-dropped-sports-at-iowa-isnt-possible/ (even a reduced deficit wouldn’t be enough to save) the https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-hawkeyes/save-iowa-sports-group-struggles-to-be-heard-at-university-of-iowa/ (men’s sports) cut by the department. Although, it...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, October 27. Wednesday’s weather will be a transitional one between the sun of Tuesday and the rain predicted to come Thursday. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 58 degrees. A southeast wind of 15 mph could gust as high as 25 mph. There will be a low of 45 degrees Wednesday night, with a possibility for rain as it turns into Thursday morning. A report of sexual assault at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at the University of Iowa that spawned widespread protests earlier this fall now is at the center of a lawsuit seeking enough money to act as a deterrence to others. In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Johnson County District Court, UI student Makena Solberg — who names herself in the filing — reports being sexually assaulted by two members of the fraternity, which goes by FIJI, on Sept. 4 into Sept. 5, 2020. She identified the defendants as FIJI “members, directors or officers” Carson Steffen and Jacob Meloan. She accuses the two men of sexually assaulting her while she was incapacitated and then sharing video and photos of the assault online in a group chat. A former assistant track coach at Linn-Mar High School and owner of a high school sports photography and video service in Marion was formally charged Tuesday with holding a 17-year-old male student in a school office bathroom and sexually abusing him during a Sept. 27 “training program.” Kameron Martelle Beets, 29, of Cedar Rapids, is charged with third-degree sexually abuse, third-degree kidnapping, sexual exploitation of a minor, sexual exploitation by a school employee and invasion of privacy. The criminal complaint was filed Oct. 22 when a warrant was issued for Beets, but he wasn’t arrested until 5 p.m. Monday by Marion and Cedar Rapids police in southwest Cedar Rapids. The complaint was made public Tuesday when Beets made an initial appearance in Linn County District Court. MidAmerican Energy is adding sun power to its renewable energy portfolio, utility officials said Tuesday. The Des Moines-based energy company is taking the final steps to flip the switch at its first utility-scale solar energy project located in Waterloo. In mid-November, MidAmerican will power-up the 3-MW Waterloo solar project, made up of nearly 10,000 solar panels with capacity to serve nearly 650 average Iowa homes. In addition to the Waterloo solar array, MidAmerican plans to have more projects online this year elsewhere in Iowa that will add 61 megawatts of solar power. According to the Associated Press, the U.S. moved a step closer to expanding COVID-19 vaccinations for millions more children as a panel of government advisers on Tuesday endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer's shots for 5- to 11-year-olds. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously, with one abstention, that the vaccine’s benefits in preventing COVID-19 in that age group outweigh any potential risks — including a heart-related side effect that's been very rare in teens and young adults despite their use of a much higher shot dose. The FDA is not bound by the panel’s recommendation and is expected to make its own decision within days. Are you a fan of trying in new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
On today’s episode: UI and ISU slide in global U.S. News & World report rankings Linn County and Cedar Rapids will begin https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/organizations-may-seek-14m-in-american-rescue-plan-funds-through-cedar-rapids-linn-partnership/ (seeking applications from organizations) to receive American Rescue Plan funds An Iowa State student has become the https://www.thegazette.com/federal-government/first-woman-enlisted-infantry-soldier-in-iowa-national-guard/ (first woman enlisted infantry soldier) in the Iowa National Guard.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Oct. 25th. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect a mostly cloudy day, then it will gradually become sunny, with a high near 52. It will be breezy, with a north wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Then tonight, we’ll have areas of frost after 3 a.m. Otherwise, mostly clear, with a low around 34. An Iowa City man was killed Friday evening while checking damage to a vehicle he was in that had just struck a deer and become disabled on Interstate 35, according to the Iowa State Patrol. 69-year-old Steven Kohli was a passenger in a Lincoln compact sport utility vehicle being driven by 66-year-old Michael Kohli on southbound Interstate 35. At about 7:25 p.m., an hour after sunset, the vehicle struck a deer and became disabled in the outside lane, near mile marker 45, in the southwest corner of Warren County. According to the crash report, Steven got out to look at the damage and was struck and killed by a pickup truck driven by a 69-year-old Minnesota man, who was trying to drive around on the right side of the SUV because of vehicles in the left lane. No other injuries were reported. Breanna Oxley announced Saturday she won’t run for a state Senate seat — where she would have faced a fellow Democrat — and instead will run for a Linn County supervisor position coming open. Supervisor Stacey Walker announced earlier this week that he would not be running for re-election in 2022, leaving an open race for the District 1 seat. No one else has yet announced for the seat, which pays $119,198 a year and represents a majority of Cedar Rapids, including downtown and the south side. Oxley, age 30, a social studies teacher at Roosevelt Middle School, is the granddaughter of Jean Oxley, the first woman elected as a Linn County supervisor and the longest-serving member of the board. Like food? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On This newsletter. Sign up at https://www.subscribepage.com/chew (thegazette.com/chew)
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 23 and Sunday, October 24. If you have chores or recreation that requires being both dry and outside this weekend, I recommend doing all that on Saturday. According to the National Weather Service, after widespread frost in the morning it should be sunny with a high near 56 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday. Saturday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 42 degrees. On Sunday there will be rain possible early and rain likely late, with a near 100 percent precipitation prediction after 1 p.m. There will be a high near 51 degrees. Thunderstorms are also possible, with rainfall totals of more than an inch accumulation predicted for the day. Officers investigating a https://www.thegazette.com/crashes/iowa-city-native-fighting-for-his-life-after-being-shot-as-he-drove/ (Sunday night shooting) in south Iowa City that has a 20-year-old Marine fighting for his life have identified a person they suspect to be “responsible for the driver’s injury” and believe the shooting was “unintentional.” Although police say they know who the person of interest is, they have not made an arrest and are not releasing their name while investigation into the incident continues. At 6:37 p.m. Sunday, officers found Gabriel Heefner with a gunshot wound to the head and unconscious in his vehicle, which had crashed into a median west of the Highway 6 and Sycamore Street intersection. He was the only person in the car. Heefner remains hospitalized as doctors work to control the swelling caused by the shooting. The Iowa Economic Development Authority on Friday awarded $1.5 million in tax credits to fuel the redevelopment of two downtown Cedar Rapids housing projects. Together, the projects will add 84 housing units. The first proposal from developer Steve Emerson will convert the upper floors of the Iowa Building, 211 Fourth Ave. SE, into downtown housing units. The state will give $750,000 in tax credits to the project. Another Emerson project also will receive $750,000 in tax credits to convert the old Skogman Realty headquarters, at 411 First Ave. SE, into the Palmer Building housing development. Starting Sunday, Oct. 24, Iowans in the 319 and 515 area codes will need to dial all 10 digits of a phone number to make a call. The https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/10-digit-dialing-for-319-and-515-area-codes-required-to-make-way-for-988-suicide-hotline/ (new requirement from the Federal Communications Commission) makes way for 988, a new three-digit number that will connect callers to the https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ (National Suicide Prevention Hotline )starting in July 2022. The national change will affect 82 area codes in 32 states. Are you a fan of trying in new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, October 22. The sun should return Friday, but not the warmth of earlier in the week. According to the National Weather Service, the cold air could result in some patchy frost Friday morning in the Cedar Rapids area, but it will not linger long. The high is expected to be 55 degrees with sunny skies. Widespread frost is predicted for the weekend and rain appears likely on Sunday. Round two of Iowa politicians politicking about redistricting appears to be going similar to the way round one went. The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency released a second plan Thursday after the first plan was unanimously rejected by Iowa Senate Republicans. The second plan addresses what was one of the stated concerns of those Senators, removing some of the irregular shapes found in the first plan. Using population numbers from the census, the agency is guided by law to, as much as possible, create districts that are square, rectangular or hexagonal so as to avoid irregular-shapes. The agency is also supposed to create these districts without political ramifications in mind. Political ramifications, however, are never far from a politician’s mind. Just like with the first plan, Iowa Democrats declared public support for the plan. Also, just like the first plan, Iowa Republicans were not so hasty, leaving open the possibility that they could reject the second plan. It should be noted that this map will leave the status quo closer to the current boundaries than the first map did, which might appeal to Republicans enough to pass it, as they hold majorities in every level of Iowa government. Lawmakers will meet Oct. 28 to make a decision on accepting this second plan. If the second map fails to gain approval, the agency has 35 days to submit a third map, that lawmakers can then offer edits to. Discovered Sunday night with a gunshot wound in a crashed car, Marine Gabriel Heefner is “fighting for his life” in intensive care, his father told the Gazette. Meanwhile Iowa City police continue to investigate the shooting. https://www.thegazette.com/crashes/man-in-critical-condition-in-iowa-city-after-crash-gunshot-wound/ (Police said )Heefner’s vehicle left the roadway and crashed into the median just west of Sycamore Street. The 20-year-old Heefner was found in it, shot in the head. According to his father, Heefner had been visiting his grandparents in Iowa City and on his way to pick up food when the shooting occurred. The bullet entered through the driver’s side window, which was slightly open. Iowa City police said Tuesday evening they have identified a person of interest in the shooting, but an arrest has not been made and this person’s name has not been made public. According to reporting from the Ames Tribune, two Iowa State University crew club members were participating in their first practice on the water when they drowned in March. The revelations come as part of an investigation into the incident. It is believed that the inexperience of the members and the fact that the pandemic had kept the crew off the water for 18 months led them to disregard some red flags, such as a wind speed that was slightly higher than advisable in the club’s own rules. Yaakov Ben-David, 20, and Derek Nanni, 19, died after the boat they were in capsized on Little Wall Lake, about 20 miles north of the university’s campus in Ames. Three other members made it to shore, two of them with help from bystanders. Iowa State has previously announced it was suspending the club for at least the remainder of the current school year to give the club time to implement necessary health and safety measures. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, October 21. Whereas Wednesday’s weather featured the happy, sunny weather of early fall, Thursday will feature the cold and cloudy offerings of late fall. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with a high near 55 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A wind of 15 mph will gust as high as 25 mph. Thursday night there will be a low of 36 degrees, and this will come with a chance for frost. One hundred Iowans died this past week of COVID-19, the most deaths confirmed in a one-week period since April, though the number of new COVID-19 cases has decreased for the fourth consecutive week. State public health officials reported 6,907 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, compared to 8,167 cases the week before. The under 17 age group, one of the least vaccinated age groups, was again the largest age group with new cases. When factored in with the fact that those not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 account for 77.2 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations, it continues to bear out that vaccines not only slow down the spread of the disease, they reduce the severity of symptoms for those who have breakthrough infections. Linn County Supervisor Stacey Walker said Wednesday he will not seek re-election next year after serving six years on the board, instead taking what he calls a “leap of faith” into new endeavors that include helping progressive candidates get elected. Walker, 33, the board’s current chair, was first elected in 2016. His seat will be up for election in 2022 with the term ending in January 2023. The Linn County Board of Supervisors now consists of Walker and Ben Rogers, both Democrats, and Louis Zumbach, a Republican. They each earn just under $120,000 a year. According to the Associated Press, unemployed Iowans would be required to meet weekly with state case managers, conduct twice as many weekly work searches and undergo audits to prove they're actively looking for work under a new proposal announced at a news conference Wednesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds. Unemployment payments could be frozen if unemployed workers fail to meet the new criteria. Reynolds said some of the changes will require legislative approval but didn't elaborate. Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend said more than 86,500 job openings are posted on the Iowa Workforce Development website spanning all industries statewide. She said nearly 68,000 Iowans remain unemployed. Iowa State Patrol Trooper Ted Benda died Tuesday, five days after crashing his patrol car while responding to a call in northeast Iowa. Benda, 37, was assisting the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office with a call for service around 11:30 p.m. last Thursday when he was involved in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 51, about six miles north of Postville, the Sthttps://www.thegazette.com/crashes/trooper-in-critical-condition-after-northeast-iowa-crash/ (ate Patrol reported last week.) Benda was airlifted to Gundersen Lutheran Hospital in La Crosse, Wis., where he was in critical condition for several days. The accident remains under investigation. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, October 20. It should be another nice fall day Wednesday, with a chance for some rain in the afternoon and evening. For the most part the National Weather Service is predicting mostly sunny skies in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 71 degrees. Rain looks to be most likely between noon and 6 p.m. The low is predicted to be 48 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. Federal agents conducted a search in New Sharon on Tuesday in a firearms investigation, but the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation assisted in case there was a connection to the Xavior Harrelson death investigation. The search warrant was obtained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for a property in New Sharon in connection with a firearms violation case. The DCI indicated they participated in the search due to the proximity to where Harrelson went missing, but this is particularly curious because investigators have not released the cause of death, yet. Last Friday, nearly five months after the 11-year-old Harrelson was reported missing from a Montezuma mobile home park where he lived with his mother, authorities confirmed that human remains found in a nearby farm field were of the boy. The drama surrounding hospitals potentially being built in North Liberty continues. A Johnson County surgical group is posturing to sue member surgeons associated with Steindler Orthopedic Clinic, accusing them of violating a no-compete agreement by seeking state permission to build a new surgery center in what could become a new medical hub in North Liberty. Johnson County Surgical Investors made its threat — and other arguments — in a letter urging the State Health Facilities Council to deny Steindler a “certificate of need” to build a $17.9 million ambulatory surgery center on 36 acres near the Interstate 380 interchange with Forevergreen Road. Johnson County Surgical Investors and Iowa City Ambulatory Surgical Center — a 13-year-old multi-specialty center jointly owned by the Johnson County group and Mercy Hospital in Iowa City — argue the Steindler development in North Liberty is not only unnecessary but unlawful. Their arguments are tied, largely, to a relationship between Steindler and the Iowa City surgical center giving 13 Steindler physicians “active medical staff privileges” at the center — located just a half mile from where Steindler is now in Iowa City. According to the letter, because those 13 are physicians and owners of both Steindler and Johnson County Surgical Investors, they signed agreements not to own, operate, manage, finance, lease or invest in any other ambulatory surgical center in Johnson County. According to reporting in the Washington Post, Iowa authorities are investigating multiple threats — including one of lynching — that Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn received soon after writing an op-ed earlier this month critical of former President Donald Trump. Wilburn wrote the opinion piece published in the Des Moines Register ahead of Trump's Oct. 9 rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. In it Wilburn accused Iowa Republicans of putting their loyalty to Trump ahead of Iowans' needs. Wilburn received two phone messages from a restricted number, and one left in his Legislature email's inbox. Only the first voicemail included a violent threat of lynching, but all three included explicit and racist language Wilburn said that while it is difficult to identify people in these cases, he intends to press charges if they are found. Iowa’s Republican Senators both condemned the messages. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, October 19. It will be pleasant and sunny again on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 75 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with sunny skies. A south wind of 5 to 15 mph could gust at times as high as 25 mph. Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 52 degrees. The Cedar Rapids Community School District saw drops in achievement scores in reading and math at each grade level that took the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress last spring when compared with 2019 — which educators say reflects a loss of instructional time last year. The Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress is a test taken by students in grades three through 11 once a year to measure performance in English Language Arts, math and science. Students were not tested in 2020 because of the pandemic. Officials attribute the drop in achievement to loss of instructional time because of the pandemic and the August 2020 derecho, and as both students and teachers had to adapt to remote learning. A 20-year-old man is in critical condition after being found with a gunshot wound inside a crashed car. Police said they were called at 6:37 p.m. Sunday about a crash on eastbound Highway 6 in southeast Iowa City. Officers said the vehicle the man was driving left the roadway and crashed into the median just west of Sycamore Street. The man, who was not identified, was taken to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City in critical condition, police said. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Iowa City Police Department Negotiators for Deere & Co. and its striking union spent Monday talking, without reaching a contract agreement, as of 6 p.m. that would end the five-day strike by roughly 10,000 workers. Union workers holding blue-and-white signs — members of the Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) — spent the day on the picket lines in Davenport, Dubuque, Waterloo and Ankeny, Iowa, and East Moline, Milan and Moline, Ill., and in Kansas. The six-year contract offer from Deere, which union members overwhelmingly rejected, would have raised wages by roughly 5 percent over the life of the contract. The proposed deal also limited retirement benefits for workers hired after the contract was ratified. Multiple Deere workers have told reporters that the proposed contracts was unacceptable, considering the company’s record-high profits over the past year. They also have said they have recently dealt with forced overtime and poor treatment from managers. About 9,000 members of the Iowa National Guard have been directed to get a COVID-19 vaccination or risk disciplinary actions that could include “separation,” as a last resort, if they refuse without citing an approved medical or religious waiver. The vaccination deadline for Iowa Air National Guard members is Dec. 2, while members of the Iowa Army National Guard will have until June 30, 2022, to comply. Officials estimate that about 65 percent of Iowa’s roughly 9,000 Guard members had received at least their first COVID-19 vaccination as of Oct 15. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Oct. 18th. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect sunny skies, with a high near 74. Winds from the south at 5 to 10 mph. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 48. A North Liberty man with a history of sex crimes is in the Johnson County Jail, accused of raping a woman on a rooftop in downtown Iowa City this summer. According to an Iowa City Police Department criminal complaint, around 1:40 a.m. July 25th, a woman was leaving a bar and trying to find her friends when a man took her by the arm, guided her outside and up to a rooftop area. The man pushed her to the ground and sexually assaulted her, while covering her mouth with his hand and yelling at her as she told him to stop, the complaint stated. After the alleged assault, the woman led officers to the rooftop area in the 200 block of East Washington Street and police found an Iowa driver's license belonging to Fitsum Russell. Also, police said a sexual assault kit located DNA that matched Russell's. Russell was booked into the Johnson County Jail on Friday night, charged with third-degree sexual abuse — second or subsequent offense. The repeat offense enhanced charge raises the offense level from a Class C felony to a Class A felony. He is being held on $150,000 cash or surety bond. Russell has three previous sex crime convictions in Linn and Johnson counties. The unranked Purdue Boilermakers upset No. 2 Iowa Saturday, 24-7, shocking the college football world and upending the Hawkeyes’ College Football Playoff aspirations. Iowa never led in what turned into an ugly Saturday. For the second consecutive week, Iowa found itself in a double-digit deficit, but didn’t muster a second-half comeback this time. The Hawkeyes fell from No. 2 to No. 11 in the Associated Press Poll. Get hot takes, newsletter exclusives, weekly food reviews and more in our weekly Hawk Off The Press newsletter. Sign up today at https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r2r3u0 (thegazette.com/hawkoffthepress)
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 16 and Sunday, October 17. The chillier temperatures are going to continue this weekend, but at least the sun will be out. According to the National Weather Service, a low hovering above freezing in the early morning Saturday will lead to patchy frost before 9 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. After this it will be sunny, with a high near 62 degrees. A 10-15 mph wind will calm down to 5 mph by Saturday night, with a low around 39 degrees. Sunday will warm up a bit, with a high near 69 degrees, and the wind remaining calm. Sunday night it will be clear, with a low around 44 degrees. Nearly five months after Xavior Harrelson was reported missing from a Montezuma mobile home park where he lived with his mother, authorities confirmed Friday that human remains found in a nearby farm field were of the 11-year-old boy. “The cause of death has not been released at this time,” said a statement from Poweshiek County Sheriff Thomas Kriegel. The boy was reported missing May 27, just shy of his 11th birthday. Posters with Xavior’s picture plastered the town, and a reward fund raised about $35,000, but massive searches failed to locate him. Then on Sept. 30, a farmer reported to authorities that remains had been spotted in a soybean field about 3 miles northwest of town. The state’s consideration of https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/surgery-center-argues-that-new-ui-hospital-in-north-liberty-needs-competition/ (a proposed ambulatory surgery center) — near where the University of Iowa already is building a $395 million hospital in North Liberty — has been bumped from this month to February after a hospital system approached Steindler Orthopedic Clinic about a potential collaboration. On Wednesday, when The Gazette published an article about Steindler North Liberty Ambulatory Surgery Center seeking approval from the State Health Facilities Council, a hospital system not yet publicly identified approached the center requesting it consider “a proposal to build an inpatient hospital that could anchor the Steindler development.” That vision would include an orthopedic specialty hospital, and it could fully transform the long-vacant swath of land into a new health care hub just off Interstate 380. Abnormal influenza activity last year means it may be harder for experts to predict the 2021-22 flu season. But national experts already are warning Americans they could be in for a severe season. Reduced population immunity due to a lack of influenza activity since the pandemic began in March 2020 could mean the United States will face an “early and possibly severe flu season” this year, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials have warned. That potential for a “twindemic” of both widespread flu and COVID-19 cases is at the forefront of local public health officials’ minds as the winter months draw closer, highlighting the importance of getting vaccinated against both viruses and taking other steps to avoid infection. Closing with a fun story, on Friday, it was the No. 1 Iowa field hockey’s turn to beat a top ranked opponent with a 2-1 penalty-shootout win over No. 2 ranked Michigan. And their victory was greeted with fans rushing the field. Fans, many of whom were athletes from other Iowa teams, then swarmed her in the field-rush, similar to what happened for the #3 ranked Iowa football team after its win the previous weekend against Penn State. Friday’s win is the latest in what appears to be a special season for Iowa, which already has more wins than the 2020 Final Four team and 2018 Sweet 16 team Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you...
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts. This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, October 15. This is the first weekend of the year that will feel like a true Fall football weekend, although thankfully that won’t come with fans miserable in the rain. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance of rain between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Friday. After that it will be partly sunny with a high near 61 degrees. Friday night the skies will gradually clear, with a low around 40 degrees. A 17-year-old was found soaked in blood outside his northeast Cedar Rapids home Thursday morning. He told officers afterward that he killed parents to take charge of his own life. Ethan Alexander Orton has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his father Casey Orton, 42, and mother Misty Scott Slade, 41. Police say Ethan Orton told them he stabbed his father to death, stabbing his mother too, but switching to an axe when his mother appeared to still be alive. Both parents worked for McGrath Auto in Cedar Rapids. It is the second multiple family member killing by a young man in Cedar Rapids this year. In June, Cedar Rapidshttps://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-triple-homicide-suspect-alex-jackson-to-be-held-on-3-million-cash-bond/ ( police arrested Alexander Ken Jackson, 20, after they say he shot to death his father, mother and sister) — also in a northeast Cedar Rapids home. Investigators say Jackson initially tried to cover up his crime by telling what authorities called a “transparent lie” about an intruder breaking in and doing the killings instead. As a sign of progress in their investigation, Cedar Rapids police have interviewed a 13-year-old boy hospitalized with injuries after an Oct. 1 shooting at a birthday party at a southwest Cedar Rapids hotel. Police Chief Wayne Jerman held a https://www.thegazette.com/k/phones-of-victims-in-ramada-hotel-shooting-friday-have-been-disconnected/ (news conference Oct. 4) to say no one was talking with police about a shooting that wounded six people. Police now report they’ve talked with the teenage boy and several other victims and witnesses to the https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/multiple-people-hurt-in-shooting-at-ramada-in-southwest-cedar-rapids/ (shooting at the Ramada by Wyndham) hotel. The shooting broke out during a birthday party in a hotel conference room, authorities said. Police were unsure if there was one assailant or more. The shooter could face charges of going armed with intent and attempted murder, Jerman said on Oct. 4. Police are also reviewing all available surveillance video as part of the ongoing investigation Democrat Mike Franken of Sioux City, a retired three-star Navy admiral, is entering Iowa’s U.S. Senate race. Franken, who announced his campaign on Twitter on Thursday morning, is the fifth candidate in the Democratic primary. The winner of the primary will likely face longtime incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in next fall’s general election. The other Democratic candidates are former U.S. Rep. and state lawmaker Abby Finkenauer of Cedar Rapids, farmer and former county supervisor Dave Muhlbauer of Manning, physician Glenn Hurst of Minden and veterans advocate Bob Krause of Burlington. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds appeared in Cedar Rapids Thursday for a wide-ranging interview as part of The Gazette’s https://www.iowaideas.com/ (Iowa Ideas) conference. She said conversations about preventing legal workplace vaccine requirements are ongoing but this won’t distract from the redistricting issue that caused lawmakers to call a special session in...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, October 14. Thursday will bring a bit of a break from the rain before a slight chance for rain in the evening. According to the National Weather Service the sky will gradually clear from partly cloudy into sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 67 degrees. A west wind of 5 to 10 mph will blow. Thursday night there will be a 30 percent chance of showers, mainly as Thursday night flips into Friday morning. The number of new COVID-19 cases in Iowa declined in the past week continuing a downward trend, but the number of virus-related deaths from those already infected continues to climb. The Iowa Department of Public Health confirmed 97 new deaths from the virus in the past week, bringing the state’s death toll since March 2020 to 6,748. Of the 97 deaths, 38 occurred in October; 51 in September; six in August; and two in May. The number of new COVID-19 cases in Iowa decreased for the third week in a row, indicating the recent surge driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus may be on the decline. The state reported 8,167 new cases, compared to the 9,860 reported last Wednesday. The under 17 age group, which is largely unvaccinated due to age restrictions on the vaccine below the age of 12, continues to lead the state in new cases each week. Meanwhile, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds continued her staunch opposition to mask or vaccine mandates on Wednesday, describing legislation on a local radio program that she is discussing with legislators that would ban vaccine mandates in workplaces. This legislation could come as soon as the rapidly upcoming special session of congress. With three more home games remaining in the Hawkeye football season, the University of Iowa — like many other employers — is facing a “significant” staffing shortage at Kinnick Stadium. In an email disseminated Wednesday to UI Athletics Department employees and UI Staff Council members, leaders requested “game day volunteers” willing to work at stadium gates, in sections for disabled spectators and in premium club areas beginning this Saturday, when Iowa takes on Purdue at 2:36 p.m. in Kinnick UI Athletics contracts with Contemporary Services Corporation for much of its stadium staffers — including workers at the gates, in the parking lots and around stadium seating entry points to check tickets. It also contracts with Aramark for concessions workers. Given the staffing crunch Contemporary Services is facing nationally, UI Athletics is short about 200 workers, according to Marcus Wilson, executive senior associate athletics director. The battle continues to heat up between area healthcare providers aiming to stay competitive in the Corridor. Given the state’s recent about-face in allowing construction of a $395 million University of Iowa hospital in North Liberty to proceed, it should grant the same permission for construction of a nearby, unaffiliated $17.9 million ambulatory surgery center, the proposed facility argues. Steindler North Liberty Ambulatory Surgery Center is seeking a certificate of need from the State Health Facilities Council to erect a free-standing facility on 36 acres near the Forevergreen Road interchange with Interstate 380. A proposed master plan for the project — which includes a 71,000-square-foot Steindler Orthopedic Clinic, relocated from its 33,000-square-foot Iowa City space, and a 36,000-square-foot ambulatory surgery center — would put it adjacent to the upcoming UI Health Care development, which drew vocal opposition from community health care providers earlier this year. Steindler, in the application, said it expects an “argument will be made that Mercy Hospital Iowa City is dependent upon Steindler Orthopedic Clinic surgeons and the impact on Mercy Hospital Iowa City will be significant if Steindler Orthopedic Clinic surgeons are no longer doing outpatient orthopedic surgeries at the hospital.”...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, October 13. It looks like another rainy day is on the menu Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. The rain will start early, with showers and storms likely before 8 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Then there will be showers and possibly a thunderstorm possible between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. The possibility of rain will continue into Wednesday afternoon but decrease as the day goes on, ending with a mostly clear evening. The high is predicted to be near 71 degrees, with a low around 48 degrees. More than 10,000 Deere & Co. workers are on the verge of strike with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday night. The strike would affect workers in three states, including thousands in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. Contractors, suppliers and other companies that do business with Deere would also become increasingly affected the longer a strike lasts. Workers say the agriculture manufacturer isn’t offering adequate wage and benefit increases as the company enjoys record profits. They also said they have experienced mandatory overtime, an increasing workload and lack of support from managers. A 24-year-old Marion woman was arrested Monday after officers found four dead cats in her apartment, which she had not visited in weeks, according to court documents. Officers were called to Rebecca Pisarcik’s apartment in the 700 block of Bentley Drive at 5:36 p.m. Monday about reported animal neglect. They were told they would find a dead cat in the apartment, and officers confirmed they could see one through Pisarcik’s apartment window, according to an arrest report. As she was not home, they contacted her at work — and Pisarcik returned home a short time later. She gave them consent to go into her apartment, and they found the remains of four cats that “apparently died from neglect.” They were in varying stages of decay. One “barely alive” cat “showed obvious signs of malnourishment.” That surviving cat was taken to Cedar Rapids Animal Care & Control. Pisarcik told investigators they were her cats but she hadn’t been home in about two weeks. Local nonprofits soon will have an opportunity to tap into a city funding stream that dried up for a couple of budget years in the COVID-19 pandemic as Cedar Rapids allocates its share of federal stimulus money. The City Council on Tuesday approved a resolution authorizing city staff to create a grant program for nonprofits that would have received a slice of the city’s hotel-motel tax revenue in fiscal 2021-- but did not-- as the pandemic upended travel worldwide, reducing the cash Cedar Rapids reaped from a tax on overnight guests. This program will use a maximum of $750,000 of Cedar Rapids’ nearly $28.2 million allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act relief funds. In the past, organizations that have received a share of the tax funds included the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Brucemore, Indian Creek Nature Center and the African American Museum of Iowa, to name a few of the cultural attractions, recreation programs and institutions that have benefited from the tourism tax. Recent rainfall slowed fieldwork but Iowa farmers still have harvested nearly one-third of corn for grain and more than half of soybeans, according to the latest Iowa crop report released Tuesday. Farmers had nearly five-and-a-half days that were suitable for harvesting soybeans and corn, fall tillage and applying fertilizer during the week ending Oct. 10, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported. Ninety-five percent of the corn crop has reached maturity, eight days ahead of the five-year average. Close to one-third of corn for grain has been harvested — also eight days ahead of normal. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa,
On today’s episode: Construction of Cedar Rapids’ Flood Control System in the northwest quadrant will come sooner than expected Drew Blahnik’s sentencing in Chris Bagley's murder is delayed while the judge decides on Blahnik's lawyer's motion for a new trial Cedar Rapids Community School District Superintendent Noreen Bush is named Iowa Superintendent of the Year. The Iowa Heartlanders ECHL hockey team hold their first practice at Coralville's Xtream Arena, gearing up for their preseason game against Kansas City this weekend.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Oct. 11th. According to the National Weather Service, we can expect showers and possibly a thunderstorm today. The high will be near 65. Winds from the northeast 10 to 15 mph then from the northwest in the afternoon, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Rainfall amounts up to one inch are possible. Then tonight, a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10 p.m., then a slight chance of showers between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. The low should be around 52. Former President Donald Trump came to Iowa Saturday for a rally attended by thousands at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. It was his first public appearance in Iowa since just before the 2020 election. During more than two hours of remarks at Saturday night’s rally, Trump showed no indication he has any intention of relinquishing his assault on those 2020 election results with his false claims of voter fraud. Early in his remarks he claimed that the election was “rigged.” Gov. Kim Reynolds, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, U.S. Reps. Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker all spoke earlier in the event. The Hawkeyes moved to No. 2 in the Associated Press Poll following their nail-biting 23-20 win over Penn State Saturday. It’s their highest ranking in the AP Poll since the 1985 season when Iowa was ranked No. 1 for all of October. With 6:26 left in the game, Spencer Petras threw a touchdown pass to Nico Ragaini who, despite being hit by an Penn State linebacker, landed on the inside of an end zone pylon for the score. Get hot takes, newsletter exclusives, weekly food reviews and more in our weekly Hawk Off The Press newsletter. Sign up today at thegazette.com/hawkoffthepress
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 9, and Sunday, October 10. This weekend could be the last one in a while with highs in the 80s, as temperatures are looking to be dropping significantly in the week to come. According to the National Weather Service, clouds will gradually increase as the day goes on Saturday, with a high near 80 degrees. Despite the cloud cover, there will be no rain projected for the Iowa vs. Penn State game. There will be some rain predicted for Sunday, with a 20 percent chance of showers, increasing to 40 percent overnight into Monday. When not raining, it should be mostly cloudy on Sunday with a high near 82 degrees. A judge Friday extended his order preventing Iowa officials from enforcing a law that bans local school districts from implementing mask requirements until a federal lawsuit challenging the law can be heard. U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt previously had issued a temporary restraining order preventing Gov. Kim Reynolds and Department of Education Director Ann Lebo from enforcing the law that Reynolds signed in May. The order entered Friday issues a preliminary injunction that continues to prohibit the state from enforcing the law until the court case can be decided. Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday pledged again to fight against the ruling. At least two dozen Iowa school districts have implemented mask requirements since Pratt's initial order Sept. 13. Eastern Iowa’s two largest school districts — Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, representing more than 30,000 students — last month reinstated a mask mandate for students, staff and visitors. With football season in full swing, Iowa sports betting nearly doubled in September, with wagers exceeding $210 million, giving the state a half million-dollar payout. The https://www.thegazette.com/government-politics/iowa-september-sports-betting-soars-to-210-million-in-september/www.irgc.iowa.gov (Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission) reported Friday that the sports betting handle increased 94 percent from $108.4 million in August. The surge was fueled, in part, by the betting on the annual Cy-Hawk football game as well as a full slate of college and National Football League games. The September numbers broke Iowa’s single-month record of $161.4 million set during college basketball’s March Madness, according to the commission’s monthly report. A bail bondsman and the man he was trying to take into custody were injured Friday evening in Cedar Rapids as the bondsman shot the man who struck a bondsman with his car. Police were called at 4:48 p.m. Friday to the Dairy Queen at Wilson Avenue and Bowling Street SW for the report that someone had been shot. There they learned that two bail bondsmen had attempted to take Richard Dean Hamilton, Jr., 40, into custody, as he was wanted on failure to appear warrants related to drug charges, police said. During this attempt, one of the bail bondsmen shot Hamilton, although police did not say why this happened or who did the shooting. Also unclear as of this recording was what happened when Hamilton attempted to escape, as one of the bondsman was struck by a vehicle as he drove away. Hamilton was later located by officers assigned to the PCAT team at a residence in the 2200 block of D St. SW. Both Hamilton and the bondsman were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, October 8. The sporadic rain of Thursday will continue into Friday-- at least until 1 p.m. According to the National Weather Service, showers and patchy fog could greet you Friday morning. Overall there will be a high of 78 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. It should clear up by Friday night, with a low of around 60 degrees. The three-member Linn County Board of Supervisors indicated Thursday that it is leaning toward appointing a county attorney rather than call a special election to replace County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden. Vander Sanden, county attorney for 11 years, https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/linn-county-attorney-jerry-vander-sanden-retiring-at-end-of-year/ (announced this week he will retire at year’s end). Supervisor Ben Rogers, a Democrat, told The Gazette an appointment makes more sense, given the amount of time left in Vander Sanden’s term and given that only one person — First Assistant County Attorney Nick Maybanks — has expressed interest in the job. Special elections not only take additional manpower to hold, but they also are expensive for local governments to hold, another fact cited by Supervisors to explain why they are leaning toward an appointment. Pfizer asked the U.S. government Thursday to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 — and if regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks. Many parents and pediatricians are eager for approval to protect children younger than 12, today’s age cutoff for the vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. The desire stems from not only protecting them from serious illness, but also helping to prevent disruption in school attendance when the virus hits the classroom. Recent data has shown that children below the age of 17 have accounted for roughly 1 in 4 new COVID-19 cases in Iowa in recent weeks. According to the Associated Press, Pfizer says its research shows the younger kids should get a third of the dose now given to everyone else. After their second dose, the 5- to 11-year-olds developed virus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as teens and young adults get from regular-strength shots. Bob Krause of Burlington has announced he’s seeking the 2022 Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. Krause, 71, president of the Veterans National Recovery Center, sees an urgency for the defense of American democracy in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Krause joins former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer, Minden physician Glenn Hurst and Manning cattle farmer Dave Muhlbauer in the race for the Democratic nomination. Grassley is seeking re-election and faces a Republican primary challenge from state Sen. Jim Carlin. Linn County Public Health will receive $250,000 a year for each of the next five years to help the growing efforts of reducing youth gun violence in the community, officials announced this week. The local public health department is one of eight grant recipients across the nation named by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of an initiative to address violence impacting adolescents and teens as well as other factors that put communities at greater risk for violence. Strategies used under this grant will align with an initiative already put into motion through the Creating Safe, Equitable and Thriving Communities Fund — or SET Fund. The fund, established in 2018 and overseen by the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, provides grants to programs that engage with youth on the issue of gun violence. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, October 7. There will be a decent chance for rain Thursday, and some of that rain could come in thunderstorm form. According to the National Weather Service there will be patchy fog before 11 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Then, after 1 p.m. there will be a 50 percent chance of precipitation, with the possibility of thunderstorms. The amount of rain is not expected to be significant except where thunderstorms occur. It will be cloudy all day, with a high of 76 degrees and a low around 60. Heeding mounting pressure from not just directly-affected students but the larger student body and others, University of Northern Iowa late Wednesday revised its discipline of an embattled professor who rebuffed policy by requiring masks — allowing him to continue teaching the class he was removed from last week. Longtime UNI biology professor Steve O’Kane, 64, for the rest of the semester will teach his “plant systematics” course and lab online. As some portions of the lab-based class still must happen in person, UNI announced another “high-qualified professor will handle other classroom duties.” UNI officials didn’t identify that face-to-face professor on Wednesday. O’Kane — who has been at UNI for 26 years — was stripped of his in-person teaching duties and threatened with termination last week after he told The Gazette he had mandated masks in his lab, despite regent guidance barring such requirements. Another week of Iowa COVID-19 data has shown some good trends and bad trends in the state. Starting with the bad, thirty-one long-term care facilities in Iowa have reported an outbreak of COVID-19 among staff and residents, the highest total seen in months. It’s the most outbreaks since Feb. 15, shortly after COVID-19 vaccines became available in the facilities. In comparison, last week, 25 long-term care facilities reported an outbreak in Iowa. About 65 percent of Iowa’s nursing home health care staff was fully vaccinated as of Sept. 15. Iowa also confirmed 88 new deaths from COVID-29 this week, bringing the seven-day daily death average to 13. This is the highest average daily death total since 14 on April 9. In good news, the number of new cases continues to drop, with 9,860 new cases of the virus in the past week, compared to 10,812 cases reported last Wednesday. Hospitalizations, while still at a troubling number with 626 people hospitalized with the disease, at least have not grown worse since last week. As part of the University of Iowa’s deal to settle a lawsuit accusing it of federal gender equity violations, the institution has agreed to pay “reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs” of nearly $400,000 and maintain a women’s swimming and diving team for at least seven more years. In addition the university will hire an outside monitor to report publicly on how the Athletics Department is living up to the Title IX gender equity requirements. Under the deal, the plaintiffs — six female athletes who either demanded their eliminated swimming and diving program be reinstated or asked the UI to add more women’s sports like wrestling — have agreed to drop their lawsuit. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, October 6. There will be a chance for rain Wednesday that will only increase in likelihood as Wednesday approaches Thursday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers after 3 p.m. in the Cedar Rapids area and a 40 percent chance after midnight. When not raining, it should be mostly cloudy, with a high near 79 degrees. The low temperature on Wednesday night will be about 61. Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden announced that he will be retiring after being the elected county attorney for over 11 years. In recent years, the 38-year veteran of the office has faced some challenges over decisions made during his tenure involving shootings by police officers. One such case was https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-agrees-to-pay-8-million-settlement-to-jerime-mitchell/ (Jerime Mitchell), who was shot and paralyzed by former Cedar Rapids police officer Lucas Jones on Nov. 1, 2016. Vander Sanden on Tuesday didn’t mention the Mitchell case or others, but said he has no regrets for the decisions he made and stands by them. Vander Sanden recommended that the Linn County Board of Supervisors appoint assistant Linn County attorney Nick Maybanks to finish out his term, and said Maybank is the only one currently at the office who has expressed interest in running for the position. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will join nine other Republican governors Wednesday in visiting the Texas-Mexico border and holding a news conference to discuss what they term a “border crisis” and the Democratic Biden administration’s response to it. Reynolds’ office did not provide details of the governor’s itinerary other than to confirm she will be part of a tour of the U.S. southern border and will hold a conference call with Iowa reporters afterward in the midafternoon. Asked Tuesday if the Iowa governor’s trip to Texas was considered official state business that would be paid for by state funds, Alex Murphy, the governor’s communications director, confirmed her office considered it an official visit. A plan that would have thrown more than 60 incumbent legislators into election districts with at least one other lawmaker and dramatically changed the state’s four congressional districts was rejected Tuesday by the Republican majority in the Iowa Senate. In Iowa, the https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-redistricting-maps-2021-proposed-redistricting-for-iowas-congressional-legislative-districts/ (proposed maps )are drawn by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency’s legal and data analysts. The boundaries are supposed to be drawn without consideration of political ramifications, such as how new district lines will affect individual lawmakers’ re-election chances or the balance of power. This process has long been considered a model for fairness that national analysts feel should be emulated by other states. State law calls for the maps to be drawn, as much as possible, in square, rectangular or hexagonal shapes so as to avoid irregular-shaped districts. Republican Senators, who voted unanimously against the first draft, cited a desire for a new draft with less irregular districts. Democratic senators, who voted unanimously for the first draft, accused Republicans of tampering with a historically impartial process. The process now returns to the Legislative Services Agency to prepare a second map. Like the first, lawmakers will vote it up or down without amendment. If that is rejected, a third map will be prepared. If they choose, lawmakers can amend that one — essentially drawing their own map. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, October 5. Wednesday and Thursday may bring rain, but Tuesday has another pleasant fall day to offer. According to the National Weather Service it should be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 75 degrees. On Tuesday night it will remain mostly cloudy, with a high around 59 degrees. Police Chief Wayne Jerman told reporters Monday that three days after gunfire erupted at a birthday party in a Cedar Rapids hotel and left six people wounded, witnesses are mum and victims aren’t helping investigators identify who shot them -- and several of them even have disconnected their phones. Police were called about 10:30 p.m. Friday to a report of shots being fired at the Ramada by Wyndham hotel at 525 33rd Ave. SW. There, police found three people who had been injured - one of them seriously - and the victims were taken to hospitals. Another three people, including a teenage boy, also were wounded and taken to the hospital by personal vehicles. Jerman said the investigation has been seriously hampered by a lack of witnesses coming forward. Investigators are attempting to download surveillance video from the Ramada, but have encountered technical difficulties. Jerman said he expects to have the evidence by Tuesday at the latest. Most of the shooting victims have been discharged from the hospital, Jerman said. It’s “very concerning” that one of the victims — a 13-year-old boy — has not yet spoken with police about the incident, Jerman said. Police are trying to contact his parents. Harvest was underway this past week for most Eastern Iowa farmers. With market prices for a bushel of corn topping $5 and soybeans approaching $13 per bushel, Iowa farmers who were whipsawed by global trade uncertainties, COVID-19 impacts and a swath of a rare crop-flattening derecho are looking favorably at a bounce-back year with expectations they’ll finish No. 1 nationally in corn production and second to Illinois in soybean production again when the dust settles on the 2021 harvest in October. The latest crop projections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture peg Iowa’s soybean yield at 58 bushels per acre, up from three previous years but below the 60.5 bushels an acre state record for 2016. For corn, the August estimate expected yields to average 193 bushels per acre — below the 2018 record of 204. The University of Northern Iowa faculty union Monday filed a complaint against the Board of Regents and UNI for reprimanding their tenured peer for rebuffing regent guidance by requiring masks in class and threatening lower grades if students didn’t comply. In addition to a prohibited practice complaint filed with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, the union — called United Faculty — also is helping professor Steve O’Kane appeal https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/uni-professor-who-mandated-masks-removed-from-class-threatened-with-termination/ (discipline levied against him). That discipline stripped him of in-person teaching duties this fall; landed him a “needs improvement” rating, resulting in no merit pay; required he complete faculty obedience training; and threatened termination if he doesn’t comply in the future. None of O’Kane’s students complained about his masking or grading policies — because all wore masks and no grades were impacted. The University of Northern Iowa on Monday didn’t immediately respond to a Gazette inquiry about the union allegations. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
On today’s episode: Hawkeyes move to https://www.thegazette.com/hawkeye-football/iowa-moves-to-no-3-in-ap-poll/ (No. 3 in AP Poll), Cedar Rapids police seek more info on https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-police-seek-leads-in-hotel-shooting/ (Friday's shooting that wounded six) at a southwest quadrant hotel, and Iowa lawmakers start special session Tuesday for https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-redistricting-maps-2021-proposed-redistricting-for-iowas-congressional-legislative-districts/ (redistricting).
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 2 and Sunday, October 3. There will be a small chance for rain all weekend, but, mostly, it will feel like fall. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers after 3 p.m. Saturday. Besides that it will be cloudy, with a high near 80 degrees. On Sunday there will be a chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a chance of precipitation listed at 40 percent. It will be mostly cloudy on Sunday with a high near 76 degrees. “Multiple” people were shot and injured Friday night at the Ramada by Wyndham hotel in southwest Cedar Rapids, authorities said. Cedar Rapids police provided few details, but said those injured were taken to the hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries. Police received a report about 10:30 p.m. about gunshots at the hotel, 525 33rd Ave. SW. In a short news release, police did not say if the shooting took place inside or outside the hotel, how many people were hurt or whether a suspect had been detained. The department said the investigation is ongoing. Cedar Rapids Mayor Brad Hart challenged his three rivals to share who’s bankrolling their campaigns weeks before a legal deadline requires it, and he got one candidate to take him up on it. Women Lead Change Chief Executive Officer Tiffany O’Donnell reported Friday having raised nearly twice as much as Hart, the incumbent, so far. https://www.scribd.com/document/529014728/Brad-Hart-campaign-donations (Hart’s release of his information), promised in a virtual forum hosted by The Gazette, was his effort to show “broad local support” and appeal across political parties. His campaign urged the other mayoral hopefuls to “join them in being fully transparent with the voters by releasing donor information” from the beginning of the year through the end of September by Oct. 8. The state’s deadline for candidates to file the information is Oct. 28, five days before the Nov. 2 election. So far, O’Donnell reported having raised $113,285 from 262 contributions, while Hart has raised $62,780 from 192 donors. The majority of donors for both candidates hail from Cedar Rapids. Former Vice President Mike Pence will be in Iowa City on Nov. 1 to speak at the Young America’s Foundation’s campus lecture series. Pence, the foundation’s Ronald Reagan Presidential Scholar, https://www.yaf.org/events/vice-president-mike-pence-at-the-university-of-iowa/ (will speak 7 p.m. in the Iowa Memorial Union Main Lounge). Ticketing information will be released in the coming days. In addition to visiting the UI, Pence will speak at Texas A&M and a number of other college campuses. His lecture will be sponsored by the UI Young America’s Foundation chapter. The foundation, founded in 1960, has several high school and college chapters that advocate conservative ideas through activism and speaker events. Iowa City Pride has waited months to host its 50th anniversary in person — and that time is finally here. The longest-running LGBTQ Pride celebration had to postpone its milestone anniversary last year and shift its events online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Saturday’s celebrations kick off at noon with a Unity March instead of the event’s usual parade. People can begin gathering as early as 10 a.m., and there will be poster boards and markers for anyone wanting to make signs. The march will begin at College Green Park at the corner of College and Johnson streets and wrap up at the corner of Linn and Washington. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, October 1. Your first day of October will come with a slight chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3 p.m. and a 40 percent chance after 7 p.m. Besides that it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 82 degrees. In the evening it will get gradually more cloudy, with a low around 64 degrees. Investigators searching for an Iowa boy https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/xavior-harrelson-has-been-missing-for-a-month-authorities-silent-on-investigation/ (who vanished in May days before his 11th birthday) said Thursday they have found human remains matching his description in a nearby cornfield. The remains were discovered by a farmer working in a field a few miles outside Montezuma, where 10-year-old Xavior Harrelson was reported missing May 27 from the trailer park where he lived. The farmer called the Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office to the scene, according to Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Assistant Director Mitch Mortvedt. Mortvedt told The Gazette that Xavior’s family has been notified of the possible development. Despite the remains having clothes similar to those worn by Xavior when he went missing, positive identification may take more than a month. A University of Northern Iowa biology professor who this month imposed a mask mandate in his class and threatened lower grades for students who did not wear masks has been relieved of his in-person teaching duties for the rest of the semester and won’t be eligible for any merit pay this year. Professor Steve L. O’Kane — who is 64 and has been at UNI for 26 years — will be allowed to continue teaching his online courses this semester, according to a disciplinary letter shared with the Gazette. The Board of Regents and the University of Northern Iowa have instituted policies preventing mask mandates.O’Kane says that he feels it is his responsibility to institute mask mandates anyway. O’Kane told The Gazette he holds no animosity toward the UNI administrators who penalized him. And — even if regent and campus policies remain unchanged — he’ll impose another mask mandate in his class if given the chance to teach in-person in the spring semester. A driver was extricated from a car and taken to a hospital after his car, going the wrong way on Interstate 380, collided with a semi-trailer truck early Thursday. The 23-year-old male driver, who has not been identified, was taken to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital after the 1:40 a.m. crash. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, police said. Police said the driver was going the wrong way on the interstate’s southbound lanes near the Seventh Street exit to downtown Cedar Rapids. No passengers were in the man’s car. The truck driver was uninjured. The Cedar Rapids Gazette hosted a mayoral forum Thursday night. If, by chance, you did not catch it live, you can watch it on thegazette.com. There also will be coverage in Friday’s paper. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, September 30. There will be a chance for rain Thursday, although it appears to be much more likely on Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 10 percent chance of showers in the Cedar Rapids area after 4 p.m. and a 30 percent chance after 7 p.m. Besides that it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 85 degrees. Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 64 degrees. The availability of intensive care unit beds in Iowa is at the lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March of 2020. As of Wednesday, 163 ICU beds were available statewide, an all-time low according to new coronavirus data from the Iowa Department of Public Health. A week ago, there were 182 available beds. In slightly more positive news, while the state still continues to pile on new cases, the rate appears to have stabilized for the moment. Iowa reported 10,812 new COVID-19 over the past week, compared to the 12,163 new cases reported last Wednesday. The state’s seven-day positivity rate was 9.5 percent, slightly lower than last week’s 9.6 percent. Although the ICU bed situation remains dire, the number of people hospitalized with COVID dropped slightly. In total, 624 people were hospitalized with the virus as of Wednesday, compared to the 638 hospitalizations reported last week. Given the staffing concerns at a University of Iowa hospital facing the confluence of surging patient demand and a frazzled workforce, administrators announced Wednesday they’re doubling extra shift premium pay for inpatient nurses and respiratory therapists over the next seven weeks. According to a message from UI Health Care’s Chief Nursing Executive Kimberly Hunter and Human Resources Associate Vice President Jana Wessels, the extra shift premium differential will increase from $15 to $30 an hour beginning Sunday and going through Nov. 21. The boost in pay comes as health care employee burnout has emerged as among the biggest challenges of this wave of COVID-19 infections. The prolonged stress has led health care providers to struggle to adequately keep staff. An out-of-state company hopes to become the newest insurer for Iowans under the state’s Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program, also known as CHIP. The Dayton, Ohio-based health care company CareSource announced its intent to submit a bid for consideration to join Iowa’s $6 billion program as state officials conduct their search for another managed-care organization later this year. MCOs are private insurance companies that deliver health care services to poor and disabled Iowans through a contract with the state. Medicaid health benefits in Iowa currently are administered by two managed-care organizations — Amerigroup and Iowa Total Care. Even after a sometimes tumultuous five years of the privatized Iowa Medicaid program, CareSource officials say they are excited to help Iowa “re-imagine what Medicaid can do for Iowans.” A former Eldridge police officer has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl while on-duty. 24-year-old Andrew Patrick Denoyer resigned Monday and was taken into custody Tuesday night by agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Denoyer was booked into the Scott County Jail with a $10,000, cash-only bond. The assault happened May 1, while Denoyer was employed and on-duty as an Eldridge police officer, according to an arrest affidavit. He's charged with third-degree sexual abuse, a Class C felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of 10 years. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 29th. Wednesday might be the last day in the week with no chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 86 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 63 degrees. The forecast looks like it will get cooler, and potentially wetter, as the week continues on. According to the Associated Press, a federal judge has extended a restraining order for 14 more days blocking an Iowa state law that prohibits mask mandates, allowing schools to mandate masks in the meantime as a result. The order, issued late Monday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt, extends his initial order from Sept. 13 until Oct. 11, which means school districts may impose mask mandates and the state cannot stop them. Pratt concluded in his order that enforcement of the law continues to pose a threat to the health of children. Documents filed in the case claim that nearly a quarter of Iowa public school students are in districts that have experienced significant COVID-19 outbreaks this year. On the positive news front, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have proved “highly effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19” among health care workers in “real-world” settings, according to a new national study that involved over 300 University of Iowa Health Care workers. The project, co-led by UI professors of emergency medicine Nick Mohr and David Talan, involved 4,931 health care workers from 33 medical centers — including UI Hospitals and Clinics — between December 2020 and May. Findings, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2106599?query=featured_home (published Sept. 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine), showed a two-dose regimen of the Pfizer vaccine to be 89 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 and the Moderna version to be 96 percent effective. The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday adopted a plan committing Iowa’s second-largest city to action to do its part in slowing global warming, with targets to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to enhance community resiliency to the consequences of human-caused global warming. The https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/as-climate-crisis-worsens-cedar-rapids-unveils-its-action-plan/ (Community Climate Action Plan) outlines steps that residents and neighborhood groups, industrial partners, businesses and city officials can take to engage in local climate action, with an eye toward equity to uplift those who will disproportionately bear the consequences of a warming planet. These goals include increased walkability and easy access to city amenities and green space. City officials lauded the plan as a likely model for other communities to use. The Iowa State Patrol is seeking additional information from the public after a pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run incident on Interstate 80 in Iowa City on Monday afternoon. According to the patrol, at 4:14 p.m., an “unknown vehicle” struck a pedestrian in a travel lane of eastbound Interstate 80 in Iowa City under the Dodge Street overpass at mile marker 246. The report stated the incident remains under investigation. The Iowa State Patrol asks anyone who was a witness or has any related information to contact the agency. The name of the person killed has not yet been released. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, September 28th. Expect the sunny and pleasant weather to continue Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 86 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with a mild wind. On Tuesday night it should be clear skies, with a low around 58 degrees. According to an Associated Press report, nearly one in every four Iowa public school students attend districts that have experienced significant COVID-19 outbreaks so far this year, according to a federal lawsuit seeking to prevent the state from enforcing a law banning mask mandates in schools. Furthermore, the information indicates 11 school districts, including Waterloo, Sioux City and Muscatine, reported more positive cases in the first month of the school year than during the entire previous year. The data was included in court documents made public Monday by lawyers for 11 parents and the disability rights group the Arc of Iowa, who are suing the state. The legal battle continues after a federal judge issued a temporary injunction against Iowa’s law against mask mandates in schools on Sept. 13. In an effort to reduce arrests and improve relations with the community, police officers in Cedar Rapids schools will not be involved in enforcing school rules or discipline, will wear “soft” uniforms to appear more approachable, and must allow parents or guardians to be present if their children are questioned by officers in school. On Monday night the seven-member school board unanimously approved the revisions to an agreement between the Cedar Rapids Community School District and the city of Cedar Rapids and its police department. Also under the amended agreement, full-time officers have been removed permanently from McKinley and Roosevelt middle schools. Anticipating the change, the district https://www.thegazette.com/k/cedar-rapids-schools-accept-responsibility-for-two-police-officers-ousted-from-middle-schools/ (removed them before the first day of school) Aug. 23. Full-time school resource officers will remain at Kennedy, Jefferson, Washington and Metro high schools and Polk Alternative. The state ended fiscal 2021 with a general-fund surplus of nearly $1.24 billion, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Monday — much more than earlier forecast and money she has indicated could lead to further tax cuts. When the 2021 legislative session ended in May, the Legislative Services Agency estimated the surplus for fiscal 2021 would be $487.6 million. On Monday, the governor said the balance was almost $1.239 billion instead, and “that’s on top of the $1 billion in cash reserves and our emergency funds.” During a political fundraising event over the weekend, Reynolds expressed pride in the accomplishments and told her Republican supporters the surplus likely would mean more tax cuts proposed in the future. “This is why we cut taxes this year and eliminated the inheritance tax,” she said. “This is your money, not the government’s. And I will never forget that. Republicans in the Legislature will never forget that, which is why we will continue to cut taxes in Iowa.” Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Sept. 27th. According to the National Weather Service, today’s weather in the Cedar Rapids area today will be sunny with a high near 88. Light and variable wind coming from the north 5 to 10 mph by afternoon. Tonight it should be clear, with a low around 55. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office said two people died Sunday afternoon when their vehicle was struck by a train near Fairfax. A Union Pacific train was traveling east and the vehicle, with a male driver and a female passenger, was traveling south at the crossing. Both in the vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene. Names are being withheld pending notification of family. The Iowa Hawkeyes continue to be ranked fifth in the Associated Press’ Top 25, after their 24-14 win Saturday over Colorado State. It was the Hawkeyes’ 10th consecutive win and they are now 4 and 0 for the season, with an Oct. 1st road game against undefeated Maryland. Get hot takes, newsletter exclusives, weekly food reviews and more in our weekly Hawk Off The Press newsletter. Sign up today at thegazette.com/hawkoffthepress
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 25th, and Sunday, September 26th. The next two days should make for a beautiful fall weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Saturday with a high near 73 degrees. A moderate wind of 5 to 15 mph will blow throughout the day. Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 45 degrees. Sunday will be similar to Saturday, but a bit warmer, with a high near 84 degrees and a low coming in around 56 degrees. 88-year-old Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, announced Friday he will seek re-election to an eighth six-year term on the 2022 elections. The second-oldest member of the Senate, Grassley has held elective office continuously since 1959, when he was elected to the Iowa House. He has served in the U.S. Senate since 1981, holding major committee assignments — including as chairman of the powerful Senate finance and judiciary committees — and formerly serving as the chamber’s second-highest presiding officer. He famously has established the “full Grassley,” a tour of Iowa’s 99 counties that he makes every year. Grassley, who would be 95 at the end of his term if reelected, said he intends to serve a full term. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina was 100 when he left the Senate in 2002. A federal judge this week ruled all former and present members of an Iowa youth basketball program the Iowa Barnstormers — who were potential victims of sexual misconduct by former coach Greg Stephen between 2005 and April 5, 2018 — can join a federal class action lawsuit filed last year. U.S. District Judge John Jarvey had denied a previous class action certification in May, allowing Guy Cook, lead attorney for an unnamed former Barnstormers player, to alter who would be included in the lawsuit. Cook told the Gazette there may be more than 400 potential victims of Stephen over his time with the team. The unnamed player is suing the former coachhttps://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/adidas-added-to-class-action-suit-against-former-barnstormers-coach/ (, Barnstormers, team sponsor Adidas and the Amateur Athletic Union) for being negligent in hiring and supervising Stephen and inadequate policies to protect “vulnerable youth athletes from the despicable conduct” of Stephen. Stephen was caught with hidden equipment that he used to take photos and videos of Barnstormer players while they were naked, and he also used catfishing methods to obtain other explicit photos from players. He was sentenced in 2019 to 180 years in federal prison. A fourth version of a proposed housing development near Hickory Hill Park will be coming before the Iowa City Planning & Zoning Commission in October. The updated proposal for rezoning the 48-acre plot northeast of the park, 1439 E. Bloomington St. in northeast Iowa City, is scaled back from previous plans and devotes nearly three times more land to the park. The proposal includes a 120-bed senior living facility and 38 acres of land dedicated to the city for public open space and the expansion of Hickory Hill Park, according to a Sept. 13 letter from Axiom Consultants to neighbors and the city. The previous versions of the plan have nearly been approved by the full Iowa City City Council, but angry public sentiment has led to it getting stymied on numerous occasions. Due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in its dormitory-style cell blocks, the Linn County Correctional Center is https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/linn-co-jail-releasing-inmates-due-to-rising-covid-19-cases-in-its-dormitory-style-cells/thegazette.com/guest-columnists/linn-county-sheriff-making-the-jail-safer-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/ (releasing a number of inmates) who have tested negative for the virus. According to a news release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office,...
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 24. We could see a little bit of rain and some slightly warmer temperatures on Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for scattered showers in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly between 2 p.m and 7 p.m. Other than that it will be increasingly cloudy as the day goes on, with a high near 79 degrees. On Friday night a slight chance of rain will remain, but the clouds will gradually clear, with a low of around 43 degrees. Two big announcements came down for University of Iowa athletics on Thursday, and they happen to be related to each other. First, the wrestling crazy university housed in a wrestling loving state announced that now women will be able to get in on the fun. Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta announced Thursday that Iowa would become the first Power Five conference school to add women’s wrestling. Iowa is the third D-I school to start a women’s wrestling program, joining Presbyterian (S.C.) College and Sacred Heart (Conn.) University. The University of Iowa wrestling program has enjoyed dominance in the last 50 years rivaling any other program in any other sport, and the sport enjoys the outsized popularity in the state that you would expect with such success. This made it a natural fit for a program for women’s wrestling as well. But that’s just part of the story. In that same press conference Barta disclosed that the school had settled a Title IX dispute with women student athletes who were suing the university, alleging unequal access to sports based on gender. The student athletes chose to sue after the athletic department decided to eliminate women’s swimming and diving and three other men’s sports during the challenging COVID-19 athletic year. Barta said that as part of the settlement, the university was agreeing to add another sport for women, and they chose to add women’s wrestling. The women’s swimming and diving program was also previously reinstated after a judge indicated the students had a good case against the university. The three men’s sports-- swimming and diving, tennis and gymnastics-- remain cut at this time. Changes to the flow of traffic at the Interstate 80-380 interchange are coming next week. The biggest change for drivers will be the permanent closure of the westbound I-80 ramp to southbound Highway 218. The closure will take effect at 11 p.m. Monday, the Iowa Department of Transportation District 6 office said in a https://www.news.iowadot.gov/newsandinfo/2021/09/westbound-i-80-to-southbound-us-218-ramp-to-permanently-close-monday-sept-27.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery (news release). Traffic will be detoured to exit 237, Ireland Avenue, to circle back onto I-80 eastbound and to the Highway 218 southbound ramp at exit 239. The ramp closure will allow for construction of new bridges and roadway and a new ramp, the DOT said. The detour will remain in place until the new ramp opens, which is anticipated in late 2023. Facing up to 20 years in prison in connection with a 2011 fatal stabbing of a cabdriver, a Cedar Rapids man wants the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on whether judges can — as they have so far — order him to take antipsychotic medication against his will so he can be mentally competent to stand trial. The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a federal district judge’s order to involuntarily administer medication to Johnathan Dewayne Mitchell, 43, to maintain his competency for his long- awaited trial. However, Mitchell asked U.S. District Chief Judge Leonard Strand to stay — temporarily hold — the medication order, pending a review of that decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Strand issued a stay last week. The stay follows years and back and forth legal wrangling around his mental competency....
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, September 23. It should be another sunny and pleasant day Thursday. According to the National Weather Service the high in the Cedar Rapids area will be near 73 degrees, with a calm win. The sky will remain clear Thursday night, with a low around 49 degrees. The COVID-19 situation in Iowa continues to worsen, although thankfully not yet at exponential levels. As of Wednesday, 638 people were hospitalized with the COVID-19, the most since Dec. 23 when 644 people were hospitalized, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Additionally, 161 patients were in intensive care units — the most since Dec. 15 — and 74 patients were on ventilators to help them breathe. In addition, the number of available intensive care beds in Iowa is at its lowest level since March 2020, with 182 beds available across the state. In an abrupt development and without explanation from her, Dr. Caitlin Pedati’s resignation as Iowa’s Department of Public Health was announced Wednesday. One of the central figures in the state’s ongoing response to the pandemic, Pedati plans to leave in late October, according to a news release from the state, which included comments from Gov. Kim Reynolds and interim state public health Director Kelly Garcia, but not Pedati. When asked, the state public health department did not say why the announcement didn’t contain any comments from Pedati. A department spokeswoman would not make her available for an interview, saying Pedati’s focus is “working with her team to prepare for this transition.” The announcement said Pedati plans to pursue new career opportunities A 21-year-old Mount Mercy University student died this week from COVID-19, according to a https://www.mtmercy.edu/news-events/news/2021/09/ashley-hudson (campus letter) from university President Todd Olson. Ashley Hudson — who Olson said was an “aspiring kindergarten teacher and had dreams of becoming a Mount Mercy graduate” — died Monday as a result of COVID complications. Mount Mercy held a vigil at the campus’ Chapel of Mercy on Monday, also providing grief counselors for anyone needing them. Three semi-trailer trucks collided Wednesday morning on Highway 151 near Springville, sending one driver to the hospital with injuries. Linn County deputies were called to the crash just after 7 a.m. near the highway’s intersection with Wendling Lane. Deputies reported Michael Lacourciere, 60, of Morton, Ill., was driving west, with his semi pulling an oversized load, when he failed to notice a construction zone that narrowed the highway to one lane. Lacourciere stopped his semi in the roadway, pulled onto the shoulder and began to back up. This brought westbound traffic to a stop, deputies said, causing a semi, driven by Gary Schulte, 60, of New Vienna, to run into the back of another semi driven by Wayne Myhre, 64, of Bloomington, Wis. The collision pushed Myhre’s semi into a third semi, driven by Ronald Fagan, 64, of Onslow. Myhre was taken to the hospital for treatment of what were believed to be non-life threatening injuries. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon https://www.thegazette.com/topic?eid=121774&ename=Alexa&lang=en (Alexa) enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 22.
Appropriately enough, it is going to feel a lot like fall on the first day of fall.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 69 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The wind will range from 5 to 15 mph. Wednesday night will be clear, with a low around 43 degrees.
Another area school district is adding a mask mandate.
Masks will be required to be worn by College Community School District students and staff in kindergarten through sixth grade in a move unanimously approved Monday by the school board.
Board President Randy Bauer said he personally is not in favor of a mask mandate. “But we need to protect those young kids,” he said. A COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been approved for children under 12 years old.
College Community joins a large number of school districts instituting masking mandates, more commonly in urban areas in Iowa.
The Iowa Economic Development Authority announced Tuesday it was awarding several Corridor communities over $11 million in workforce housing tax credits — out of $29.9 million granted across the state — to help bring new housing units online.
The 49 projects in Iowa that received the tax credits will help with the construction and rehabilitation of 1,944 new housing units, according to the authority.
Cedar Rapids was awarded $4,499,659 for five projects, which will help build 436 new units:
Despite a setback, combat veteran U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst continues to push for a memorial on the National Mall to honor the men and women who have served in the nation’s longest war, the Global War on Terrorism.
Ernst, an Iowa Republican who commanded 150 troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom asked for unanimous consent to proceed with building the memorial to honor the service members killed in combat there, including former Iowan Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, she said during Senate debate Monday.
However, West Virginia Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin objected, raising concern about building the memorial on the National Mall. Manchin, who chairs a committee overseeing national monuments, called for it be built in a “high profile” area, but not on the mall.
On Tuesday Sixth Judicial District Judge Fae Hoover sentenced Nicholas J. Hallman, 27, of Cedar Rapids to 22 years in prison for the armed burglary and kidnapping of a woman and her boyfriend, Antonio Hill, on Oct. 27 of last year, and in a separate burglary conviction for a previous incident Aug. 2.
Hallman previously pleaded to a lesser charge of second-degree burglary for the Aug. 2 incident, in which he broke into the same former girlfriend’s residence but that time assaulted her mother, according to a complaint.
At the hearing, he also pleaded in the Oct. 27 incident to second-degree burglary, false imprisonment, intimidation with a dangerous weapon and domestic abuse assault while displaying a dangerous weapon.
According to a criminal complaint from Oct. 27, Hallman, armed with a gun, broke into the woman’s residence on Center Point Road NE about 6:15 a.m. Oct. 27 and confronted Hill and fired his weapon into a wall behind Hill.
Hallman then kidnapped the woman and forced her into a vehicle, the complaint stated. He directed others in the vehicle to take them to 5239 Midway Dr. NW, where he forced the woman into a bedroom and assaulted her “while he interrogated her about other relationships.”
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, September 21.
The rain that came and went Monday night was the herald of a cold front, and that means much cooler temperatures on Tuesday. In fact, the contrast might be downright chilly compared to our warm weather lately. According to the National Weather Service, the day will start out cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area and gradually become sunnier. The high temperature should be around 67 degrees. It will also be a bit breezy, with a wind of 15 mph gusting as high as 30 mph. Dare I say it? Could it be sweatshirt weather?
According to the Associated Press a lower dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine — one-third the amount given to adults and teens — is safe and triggered a robust immune response in children as young as 5.
The finding, announced by the companies on Monday, has been eagerly anticipated by many parents, doctors, and policy makers. It is a crucial step toward the two-shot coronavirus vaccine regimen becoming available for younger school-aged children, perhaps as soon as the end of October.
A person was found dead early Friday outside a University of Iowa residence hall.
UI police responded at 4:21 a.m. Friday to a report of a person found unresponsive by Burge Residence Hall, on the east side of campus, according to spokeswoman Hayley Bruce. Officers arrived one minute later and found the person was dead, Bruce said.
Foul play isn’t suspected, and officers said there is no danger to the public. But other details were not released.
Iowans have started weighing in on a plan to redraw the lines of the state’s congressional and legislative boundaries and, for the most part, they like it — or at least the process.
Speakers who participated in a virtual public hearing Monday evening on the proposed redrawing of Iowa congressional and legislative districts had little to say about the plan. Rather they praised the nonpartisan redistricting that many called a model for the once-a-decade process carried out in all 50 states.
The plan was developed by the Legislative Services Agency according to standards laid out in the Iowa Constitution and state law. Unlike many states, where border changes are made for political advantage, the Iowa process ignores the political ramifications of redrawing the four U.S. House districts as well as Iowa’s 50 Senate and 100 House districts. It instead intends to reflect population changes in the 2020 census and make equally divided districts based on where people live.
This hearing was part of public comment before the Iowa Legislature considers it for approval.
Leslie Knope eat your heart out. The Cedar Rapids Parks and Recreation Department recently earned an accreditation that places it among the nation’s top park and recreation agencies.
The Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies and the National Recreation and Park Association awarded this accomplishment Sept. 9
Under the accreditation process, the city Parks and Recreation Department had to demonstrate compliance with 154 standards and document all policies and procedures. This process helps identify efficiencies and heighten areas of accountability
In the state of Iowa, only the park and recreation department in Davenport has also achieved this distinction.
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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Sept. 20th.
For our weather in the Cedar Rapids area today, according to the National Weather Service, we have a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. Winds from the south, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight, a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm between 7 and 1 a.m. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. The low should be around 55.
According to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, an inmate being held at the jail in a federal drug case died Friday night despite lifesaving efforts after he complained of chest pains. Inmates in a dormitory-style cell notified authorities shortly before 9 p.m. Friday that another inmate needed medical attention. 39-year-old Marshall Mosby, of Dubuque, said he was having chest pains, but soon became unresponsive “and staff began lifesaving measures, including CPR, and applying a heart monitor equipped with defibrillation capabilities.” Other rescuers from Area Ambulance and a sheriff’s crew performed advance lifesaving until Mosby was declared dead, about a half-hour after the incident began. Sheriff Gardner said jail staff had last checked on him just about 15 minutes before the emergency began. An autopsy will be conducted.
The City of Cedar Rapids revealed the new, redesigned flag Saturday at the downtown public library. The “History and Progress” design option rose to the top of four options in a city survey asking residents to rank different blue, green and white choices. The city received 2,624 responses to the online survey, which ended in August. The blue backdrop represents the Cedar River flowing through the city and splitting at May's Island. On the left side, the green comes to a rounded point in the center, representing May's Island as well as the city’s green space and recreational areas. The white symbolizes Cedar Rapids’ homes, businesses and infrastructure.
According to the Iowa State Patrol, a Marion man was killed Saturday in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash in Clayton County. About 12:30 p.m., 62-year-old Barry Woodson of Marion was traveling north on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, near the Mississippi River on Great River Road, when he lost control of his motorcycle. Woodson entered the ditch and crashed into an overhead tree branch, causing fatal injuries.
The Iowa Hawkeyes are still ranked fifth in the Associated Press’ Top 25, after their 30-7 win over Kent State. They host Colorado State on Saturday. And Iowa State remained at No. 14 following their 48-3 victory at UNLV Saturday night.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19.
Well the chance for rain came and went Friday with no real rain to speak of. And this weekend, there’s more sunny weather on the menu. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 85 degrees. On Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 63 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny again with a high near 89 degrees. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 67 degrees. When comparing the two days, Sunday will obviously be a bit warmer, and it will also be a bit windier.
The Iowa Attorney General’s Office has determined the Aug. 31 fatal shooting of a Jones County man by police was justified because the man would not put down a knife and charged officers.
But the family of Jeremy Berg, 45, say the knife was a pocket knife and the officer should have just let Berg run away.
Berg died of multiple gunshot wounds inflicted by officers during the standoff at his grandparents’ farm near Martelle. The professional tree trimmer suffered from depression and methamphetamine addiction and Fensterman told The Gazette Sept. 2 she thought it was possible he wanted officers to kill him.
The five officers involved in the shooting were on administrative leave during the investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Last week the state Department of Public Safety named the officers:
Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent in August — a level that was well below the national rate and the number of Iowans who were thrown out of work a year ago during the economic throes of COVID-19 pandemic.
Iowa’s jobless rate one year ago was 5.2 percent.
The number of unemployed Iowans increased by 300 in August to 67,900 — still 18,100 lower than the year-ago level of 86,000. The total number of working Iowans decreased by 1,600 to 1,592,200 in August — a figure that was 43,700 higher than one year ago.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is working with the city of Solon to open a satellite office in the former Solon City Hall — as both the sheriff’s office and the city continue to grow.
Mayor Steve Stange shared the update during a joint meeting between the Solon City Council and the Johnson County Board of Supervisors on Thursday evening.
Stange said the former city hall, at 223 S. Iowa St., is mainly being used to store records and not in a way that “could better the city.”
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 17.
This has become a rare occurrence this summer, but there may be a bit of rain Friday afternoon. According to the National Weather Service there is a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, mostly between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. When it is not raining, it should be mostly sunny for much of the day, with a high near 80 degrees. On Friday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 53 degrees.
A redistricting plan released Thursday would, among other things, make major changes to Iowa’s four congressional districts, including putting Linn and Johnson counties into a new 1st District.
Currently, Linn is in the 20-county 1st District that includes Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Waterloo and Marshalltown. And Johnson County is in the 24-county 2nd District.
At the state level, an early comparison of the proposed map with the current map suggests 61 of the 150 incumbent state lawmakers would be in a district with another incumbent.
Iowa legislators will meet in special session Oct. 5 to vote yes or no on the proposed map. If approved, the map goes to Gov. Kim Reynolds for her signature.
If not, the Legislative Services Agency will draw a second map subject to a yes-or-no vote without any changes. If lawmakers reject that map, a third map will be produced. It can be amended by the Legislature.
More and more school districts are implementing mask mandates this week. In a contentious meeting Thursday, the Linn-Mar school board voted to require students in prekindergarten through sixth grades to wear masks to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 among students who do not yet have the option to be vaccinated.
The vote was 6-1, with school board member Rachel Wall voting no, stating she was in favor of requiring masks for all students through 12th grade.
School board members agreed that since students 12 and older are eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19, they can continue to make their own choices about whether to wear a mask. A COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been approved for children under 12 years old.
According to the Associated Press, the Biden administration on Wednesday began notifying governors and state refugee coordinators across the country about how many Afghan evacuees from among the first group of nearly 37,000 arrivals are slated to be resettled in their states.
Iowa is expected to take 695 arrivals.
States with a historically large number of Afghans who resettled in the United States over the past 20 years — including California, Maryland, Texas and Virginia — again are welcoming a disproportionate number of evacuees, according to data analyzed by the AP.
A young male was shot at multiple times outside a church in southwest Cedar Rapids Wednesday.
A bullet hit a window at St. Ludmila Catholic Church, 211 21st Ave. SW, just before 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, but the young male was not injured, Cedar Rapids police said.
Two people got out of a vehicle near the church and fired several shots at the young male, who was walking on J Street SW, police said.
The shooters and the young male who was targeted left the area before officers arrived. None of those individuals have been identified, and police are investigating.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, Sept. 16.
Thursday’s weather will again be sunny, but with a bit more wind-- potentially a preview of rain to come on Friday.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 85 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A south wind will blow from 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Thursday night the skies will be clear, with a low of 61 degrees.
Nearly 12,000 Iowans — or the equivalent to the population of Oskaloosa — tested positive for the coronavirus this past week.
In total, the state added 11,723 new COVID-19 cases, according to a Gazette analysis of state data. The seven-day average of new cases this week was 1,675 — the highest since Jan. 11, when the seven-day average was 1,715.
This week’s jump also is a 40 percent jump over the previous week’s 8,404 new COVID-19 cases, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health numbers.
Children aged 17 and younger was once again the age group with the most new infections reported over the past seven days, remaining at 29 percent of this week’s new cases from the week before.
It is no coincidence that this is also the least vaccinated age group, as the vaccine has not yet been approved for those younger than 12. Iowa only reached a 50 percent vaccination rate this week, with 60 percent of those 12 and older having received the full vaccine regimen.
Speaking of vaccines, Raytheon Technologies, the parent company of Cedar Rapids’ largest employer Collins Aerospace, will require all U.S. employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
With about 9,000 employees in Cedar Rapids and Coralville, Collins Aerospace is the largest employer in the Corridor.
Employees have until Jan. 1 to be fully vaccinated, a Raytheon spokeswoman told The Gazette.
In greener pastures, Iowa City’s new medical marijuana dispensary will open by Oct. 1 on Highway 1, in a strip mall between Harbor Freight and La Regia Taqueria.
Iowa Cannabis is connected with Cannabis & Glass, a large recreational marijuana store in Spokane, Wash. Owner Aaron Boshart told The Gazette in December 2019 that profits from the Washington state stores help support Iowa operations as it is difficult to make a profit under Iowa’s stringent medical marijuana laws.
More than 6,000 Iowans have qualified to be in the medical marijuana program, which addresses a dozen conditions including Parkinson’s disease, cancer and autism.
There was a sentencing Wednesday for the other inmate involved in a failed escape attempt at the Anamosa State Penitentiary that ended with two people dead.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Fae Hoover sentenced 28-year-old Michael Dutcher, as part of his plea agreement, to two life sentences without parole and 25 years each for attempted murder and second-degree kidnapping charges.
His plea followed the guilty plea last month of inmate Thomas Woodard, 34, to the same charges.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 15th.
Wednesday’s weather will be both pleasant and uneventful. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 79 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with sunny skies. The wind will even calm down to a gentle 5 mph. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 54 degrees.
Several urban school districts in Iowa have already jumped at the chance to institute mask mandates.
A day after a federal judge’s ruling temporarily blocked a law passed by the Iowa Legislature banning mask mandates, mask mandates have been instituted in the school districts in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City.
The Cedar Rapids Community School District announced Tuesday it is reinstating a mandate that all students, staff and visitors starting Wednesday wear face coverings in its schools to mitigate the surging spread of COVID-19.
In Iowa City schools, masks will be required in the buildings and outdoors on school property if social distancing is not possible. Students actively participating in athletic competition — whether indoors or outdoors — are not required to wear a mask. Students on the sidelines or bench, however, are required to wear a mask.
An Iowa prisoner charged with bludgeoning to death an Anamosa prison guard and nurse as part of an escape attempt plans to plead guilty to the charges Wednesday
28-year-old Michael A. Dutcher had said previously he would claim at trial the slayings were in self-defense or defense of others.
But court filings Monday show Dutcher now plans to plead guilty Wednesday to the charges in the trial information, which are two counts of first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and attempted murder. The plea hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Jones County Courthouse in Anamosa.
Fellow prisoner Thomas Woodard pleaded guilty as charged for his role in the killings and was sentenced last month to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
University of Iowa Health Care, at the same time its moving swiftly to erect a $395 million 469,000-square-foot campus on a 60-acre site in North Liberty, is looking to expand its footprint in Coralville near its popular Iowa River Landing clinic.
The university on Wednesday will ask for Board of Regents permission to spend nearly $1 million on a 29,971-square-foot plot of land within the IRL district along east Second Street.
The hospital told the Regents in its request that it wants the additional land for both additional services and the potential for more parking.
With the Iowa Supreme Court’s blessing, state lawmakers will meet Oct. 5 to begin their part of creating new congressional and legislative election districts to reflect population changes shown in the latest 2020 census that arrived too late to meet constitutional deadlines.
The state constitution calls for the Iowa Legislature to approve a redistricting plan by Sept. 1 and for the plan to be enacted by Sept. 15. If the deadlines are not met, the constitution shifts redistricting responsibilities to the Iowa Supreme Court.
But with the ruling, the court gave lawmakers some room to work with.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, September 14th.
After some spotty showers clear out early Tuesday morning, the rest of the day will remind you a lot of last week’s weather. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Tuesday with a high near 81 degrees. The winds should be moderate, at 10 to 15 mph. Tuesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 54 degrees and calming wind.
It is too soon to tell how long it will last, but a judge’s ruling will shake up school masking policy in Iowa for this week at the very least.
A federal judge ordered Monday that the state of Iowa immediately halt enforcement of a new law that prevents local school boards from ordering masks to be worn in classrooms to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Judge Robert Pratt said in an order signed Monday that the measure passed in May by Republicans in the Iowa Legislature and quickly signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds substantially increases the risk of children with existing health conditions of contracting COVID-19.
Two things happened after this ruling was revealed late Monday afternoon.
Almost immediately, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds vowed to appeal the ruling, saying she will use every legal means at her disposal to try to restore the law banning mask mandates in Iowa schools.
Not long after that, several urban school districts announced that they will mandate masks or will at least consider it. Des Moines declared that they will mandate masks, the Iowa City School District indicated that they will likely adopt a mask mandate, and the Cedar Rapids school district dipped its toe into the water, indicating interest in instituting a masking mandate but wanting to check with state officials first.
After University of Northern Iowa and Des Moines Area Community College in 2020 debuted a streamlined path for DMACC students seeking a four-year UNI degree, the pair have announced a new “tuition equality” initiative allowing the students to get their Panther degrees for a Bears tuition rate.
The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines Catalyst Circle is making the initiative possible through a $250,000 grant to fund scholarships for DMACC graduates seeking UNI degrees.
The need-based scholarships “will effectively allow students to complete a UNI degree for the cost of DMACC tuition,” creating “one of the most affordable” paths to a four-year degree in Iowa.
The grant-supported scholarships will help bridge an average tuition gap of about $1,000 per semester for UNI@DMACC students — at a time of increasing need, as COVID has cramped family finances and forced tuition increases across Iowa’s public universities.
Also in high education, the University of Iowa has made among the biggest year over year gains nationally in the “2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges” rankings made public today.
The UI had slipped last year from No. 84 among national universities to No. 88. But it jumped five spots to No. 83 in the new rankings — earning it recognition from U.S. News, which in its 37th year of ranking colleges evaluated 1,466 bachelor’s degree-granting institutions on 17 academic quality metrics.
Among only public and not private schools, the UI inched up one spot to No. 33 from No. 34, where it had been for two years.
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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Sept. 13.
For our weather in the Cedar Rapids area today, according to the National Weather Service, we have a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8 a.m. Partly sunny today, with a high near 83. Winds from the east, 5 to 15 mph, then coming from the south in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Tonight, we’re expecting a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 1 a.m. and a low around 69.
An Illinois man faces a series of charges, including eluding police and drunken-driving, after police allege he crashed his car onto the lawn of the University of Iowa President’s Residence early Saturday after a short, high-speed chase. Ira J. Wright IV, 18, of Vernon Hills, Illinois, was taken into custody around 1:30 a.m. A passerby caught the arrest on video, which can be seen at thegazette.com.
The Iowa Hawkeyes beat the Iowa State Cyclones, 27-17, at the Cy-Hawk football game Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames. While Iowa forced four turnovers, Iowa State wasn’t able to force any. In the new Associated Press Top 25, which came out Sunday afternoon, Iowa is No. 5, the highest September ranking in 36 years.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 11, and Sunday, September 12.
We are in a hot to cool to back to hot again cycle. This weekend falls squarely under the hot again category.
According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 94 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area, with mostly sunny skies and a moderate wind of 10 to 15 mph. On Saturday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 69 degrees. On Sunday it will be mostly sunny again, with a high near 90 degrees. On Sunday night there is predicted to be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms, but otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 63 degrees.
As a result of an increased number of patients — partially driven by a surge in COVID-19 admissions — Cedar Rapids hospitals are limiting elective surgeries and procedures.
Both UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital and Mercy Medical Center confirmed Friday their facilities are preserving capacity because of high patient counts in recent weeks.
St. Luke’s is limiting surgeries that require an inpatient hospital stay to 10 surgeries per day.
Elective surgery is a procedure scheduled in advance because it does not involve a medical emergency.
Enrollment across all three of Iowa’s public universities dropped again this fall, according to new numbers made public Thursday, showing a slide beginning in fall 2017 and worsening when COVID-19 upended the higher education experience.
The University of Iowa reported a total enrollment this fall of 29,909 students — down 539, or 2 percent, from last fall’s 30,448. It’s down 7 percent from 2017’s 32,323.
Iowa State University reported a total enrollment of 30,708 students — down 1,117, or 4 percent, from last fall’s 31,825. It’s down 15 percent from 2017’s 35,993.
And the University of Northern Iowa reported a total enrollment of 9,231 students — down 291, or 3 percent, from last fall’s 9,522. It’s down 22 percent from 2017’s 11,907.
Speaking to Iowa’s growing need for affordable housing to help meet workforce demands, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday a $100 million infusion to increase the state’s housing stock and protect Iowans’ ability to live in or near the communities where they work.
That allocation — made possible through the American Rescue Plan pandemic relief act and local fiscal relief funds — will add to the $230 million over five years the Iowa Legislature already passed earlier this year to help overcome the state’s housing shortage.
While Iowa today is in a “strong economic position” after the shock of 2020, Reynolds said, the state needs more “high-quality attainable housing” if it’s to keep up with its employment opportunities. Specifically, Iowa is expected to need another 47,000 homes by 2030 — including 10,586 for Iowans earning $38,450 a year or less.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 10.
If you enjoyed the cooler weather this week then I have some bad news for you. It’s going to get a bit hotter on Friday on the way to a plain hot Saturday, just in time for a rivalry game. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 83 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. A south wind of 5 to 10 mph will pick up a bit during the day. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 59 degrees.
President Joe Biden announced sweeping new federal vaccine requirements Thursday affecting as many as 100 million Americans in an all-out effort to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant.
The expansive approach he announced mandates that all employers with more than 100 workers must require their employees either be vaccinated or be tested for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.
The move will be instituted by the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
In Iowa, all 99 counties now are in the red zone of high virus transmission rates. That’s not yet the case with all counties in neighboring states Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois, according to federal data.
Still, Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday she trusts Iowans — not the government — to make health care decisions and criticized Biden’s move as an overreach.
Children aged 17 and younger made up 29 percent of the positive COVID-19 cases reported in Iowa this past week and remain the top age group for positive cases.
Also, the percent of positive cases among Iowans 17 and younger -- 22 percent of reported cases this past week -- has been steadily increasing over the past month, according to a Gazette analysis of state coronavirus data.
Statewide, 8,404 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the past week, according to Wednesday numbers released by the Iowa Department of Public Health. That compares to 8,308 cases the previous week.
Hospitalizations for the virus are also up, although there was not the 100 patient jump seen each of the previous two weeks. Iowa health data shows that unvaccinated people make up 80 percent of 578 people currently hospitalized with the disease, and nearly 90 percent of those in intensive care for COVID-19.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has released the identity of the man and woman who died Wednesday after a collision with an oncoming dump truck.
In a release, the sheriff’s office says the driver in the vehicle was Leo Alan Ray, 35, of Cedar Rapids, and his passenger was Stacey Lynn Watts, 35, also of Cedar Rapids.
Ray and Watts were killed Wednesday after crashing into an oncoming dump truck after fleeing from a Linn County deputy on Highway 151 north of Walford.
A deputy activated the squad car’s emergency lights and attempted to stop the vehicle after receiving the report of a domestic disturbance in the vehicle with the woman attempting to jump out.
When Ray failed to stop, the deputy determined the driver was driving too recklessly and stopped the pursuit near the Highway 151 intersection with Wright Brothers Boulevard. The collision happened soon after, according to the sheriff’s office.
The driver of the dump truck was unhurt.
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On today's podcast:
- Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday that she’s committing $100 million in federal COVID relief funding to help overcome the state’s housing shortage.
- Not-for-profit organizations in the Cedar Rapids area would receive 8 percent of net revenue from any casino potentially developed in Linn County, under an agreement announced Wednesday.
- Students who take college credit courses in high school are more likely to enroll in postsecondary education after graduation and earn a college degree or credential, a new Iowa Department of Education report released Wednesday found.
- The Iowa Department of Public Health updated some of its COVID-19 data on the state’s website Wednesday. In Iowa hospitals, there are 578 COVID patients, with 79.4 percent of those patients unvaccinated. In Iowa’s ICUs, 88 percent of the 158 COVID patients are also unvaccinated. The state also reported 30 more deaths since Sunday, for a total 6,337 COVID deaths.
Today will be sunny, with a high near 78 and northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Thursday night will be mostly clear, with a low around 51 and a north wind around 5 mph.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 8.
Wednesday’s weather will bring with it cool air from the north that will stay with us until the temperatures rebound a bit this weekend. According to the National Weather Service the high will be near 76 degrees with sunny skies in the Cedar Rapids area. The change in weather will also come with some wind, as a 5 to 10 mph wind will increase up to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
A hot, dry summer — particularly in northern Iowa — has created favorable conditions for more harmful algae blooms in Iowa lakes.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reported 24 swim advisories at state park beaches this summer because of microcystins, toxins generated by harmful algae. These toxins, if ingested, can cause gastroenteritis, allergic responses and potentially-fatal liver damage.
This is double the 12 microcystin advisories in 2020.
Iowa’s Board of Regents unanimously approved Tuesday the construction of a $395 million University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics site in North Liberty starting as soon as this month.
UIHC had focused discussion on the $230 million health care facility that needed state approval, board documents released Friday outlined the full 469,000-square-foot scope of the project at the corner of Forevergreen Road and Highway 965.
A 300,000-square-foot portion will feature up to 48 beds, 21 emergency care rooms, 16 operating rooms and two more procedure rooms, along with laboratories, a pharmacy and other amenities. Community health care providers — including Mercy Iowa City, Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids and UnityPoint Health — unsuccessfully opposed the new hospital, arguing that it will drive them out of business and potentially increase the cost of healthcare for local consumers.
A judge Tuesday found an Iowa City man guilty of second-degree murder and six other charges for intentionally driving the wrong way and crashing into another car in 2019 on Interstate 80 during an attempt to kill himself but instead causing another man’s death and badly injuring four.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Jason Besler, following a non-jury trial in July for Stephen Lucore, 34, announced his verdict Tuesday. He found Lucore, originally charged with first-degree murder, guilty of second-degree murder, homicide by vehicle, serious injury by vehicle, willful injury causing serious injury and three counts of willful injury causing bodily injury.
According to a criminal complaint, Lucore drove his Hyundai Sonata the wrong way about 9:30 p.m., June 16, 2019, on I-80 and caused a head-on collision with a Honda Pilot driven by David Sawyer, 31, of Frisco, Texas.
Sawyer's passenger, Robert Sawyer, 64, of Nocona, Texas, died in the crash.
Depending on how the judge runs the sentences — consecutively or concurrently — Lucore could face up to 75 years in prison.
Battles between top ten ranked college football teams do not happen often in Iowa. But this Saturday that will be something that has never happened, a game between two top 10 ranked in state rivals.
For the first time, the football teams of Iowa and Iowa State will both be in Associated Press’ Top 25 when they play each other for the 68th time.
Not only that, but both are in the top 10 as they approach Saturday’s meeting in Ames. They’ve never even been in the top 10 at the same time. Iowa State’s No. 7 preseason ranking was its all-time high in the poll.
Iowa State is No. 9, Iowa No. 10.
If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s newly dubbed Hawk Off the Press newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
On today's podcast:
- More than 90 percent of the 137 COVID-19 patients in Iowa’s intensive care units are not vaccinated against the virus, according to the latest numbers from the Iowa Department of Public Health.
- A hot, dry summer — particularly in northern Iowa — has created favorable conditions for more harmful algae blooms in Iowa lakes.
- Cedar Rapids Willie Ray Fairley is taking Willy Ray’s Q Shack and a crew of volunteers to Louisiana to help victims of Hurricane Ida.
- ESPN’s College GameDay will be in Ames on Saturday when No. 7 Iowa State and No. 17 Iowa face off.
Tuesday will be mostly sunny, with a high near 84. It will be breezy, with winds 10 to 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Tuesday night will be clear and still breezy, with a low around 52.
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your Labor Day update for Monday, Sept. 6.
For our weather in the Cedar Rapids area today, according to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny, with a high near 82. Calm winds, then winds from the west around 5 mph in the afternoon. Tonight is expected to be mostly clear, with a low around 64.
A driver was killed and a passenger was injured early Sunday morning in a single-vehicle rollover crash in Jones County. According to an Iowa State Patrol crash report, at about 2 a.m., a not yet identified 44-year-old driver from Anamosa was traveling south in a Ford Explorer on River Road near Monticello when the vehicle entered the west ditch and rolled several times before striking a utility pole and coming to rest on its top. The driver was ejected and died at the scene. A 42-year-old unidentified passenger from Monticello was transported to a residence by the Jones County Sheriff’s Office.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Labor Day Weekend.
Your Labor Day weather forecast is fairly simple as forecasts go: it is going to be sunny and pleasant all three days.
According to the National Weather Service the last remnants of rainy Friday will fade away Saturday morning in the form of some lingering patchy fog. After that it will start cloudy, but become gradually sunny, in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 76 degrees. The low is predicted to be 55 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny with a high near 82 degrees and a light wind. On Labor Day it will be sunny again, with a high near 82 degrees. Another trend for the weekend will be that each successive day will have slightly warmer nights, and slightly calmer winds.
Collins Aerospace will lay off 37 employees in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 1, according to a notice filed with the state this week. Collins is the largest private employer in the area.
The layoffs will be in Collins Aerospace’s Cedar Rapids-based Mission Systems unit.
The notice of layoffs comes about a month after Collins Aerospace boasted “much, much better” second quarter results than anticipated during its parent company Raytheon Technologies’ quarterly earnings call.
It will be Collins Aerospace’s fourth mass layoff in Iowa since last September. About 180 employees in Cedar Rapids, Decorah and Bellevue have been affected.
Just days after the state approved a hard-fought certificate for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to erect a new facility in North Liberty, the Iowa the Board of Regents has called a special meeting to consider giving the go-ahead to start construction as soon as next month.
The UIHC proposal includes more than the $230 million, 300,000-square-foot hospital that dozens of smaller community health care providers had opposed. Documents made public Friday show an additional 169,000-squre-foot academic, research and clinics building that will bring the North Liberty campus’ footprint to 469,000 square feet.
The additional Building will drive the project’s total projected cost to $395 million — more than UI Health Care’s relatively-new 14-story Stead Family Children’s Hospital total cost after its budget ballooned to $392.7 million.
Late on Sept. 10, 2020, an Iowa City police officer went to the Delta Delta Delta sorority and took a report of a sexual assault the woman said had occurred five days earlier during a party at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity — or FIJI, according to search warrant documents.
Officers never arrested or filed charges against the students alleged to have committed the assault. And earlier this week, an online petition began circulating spelling out the attack and demanding justice.
The petition, which as of Friday had nearly 109,000 signatures, accuse Iowa City police of gathering evidence of a planned drugging and assault — including DNA, videos and photos — but failing to file charges or prosecute.
This week, days of protests broke out on the University of Iowa campus over the alleged incident and a lack of criminal charges since then. The Johnson County Attorney’s Office and Iowa City Police Department indicated after the protests that they are looking into the incident more closely, but no formal changes have been made, yet.
College football has finally returned to Iowa. If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 3.
Friday will bring with it a chance for rain much of the day. According to the National Weather Service, rain will be likeliest between 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday, but there will be a chance for showers and thunderstorms throughout the day and into Saturday morning. It will also be a bit chilly compared to just last week, with a high predicted at a very fall feeling 71 degrees. Interestingly enough, this high will only be 9 degrees higher than the low temperature of 62 degrees, as warmer air moves back into the area Friday night.
Gov. Kim Reynolds gave an update Thursday to Iowans on the worsening COVID-19 pandemic in the state. Her comments included more calls for people to get vaccinated — but no new policy changes, and she defended a state law that prevents schools from requiring students to wear face masks even as cases among children are now surging.
After months of decline following the winter spike, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are once again rising in Iowa and many other areas of the country. Both measures are higher than they have been since January, which was the tail end of the pandemic’s worst and deadliest stretch so far.
Iowa is averaging nearly 1,500 new COVID-19 cases per day — 15 times the rate just two months ago. And 524 people are being treated for COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals, more than seven times as many as just two months ago. Two main factors are driving this latest surge: the delta variant, which spreads faster than the virus’ original strain; and the number of Iowans who have not been vaccinated.
Police are looking for a 44-year-old man they believe shot and killed a man Saturday in southwest Cedar Rapids.
Warrants for first-degree murder and going armed with intent have been issued for the arrest of Nestor Lagunes Dominguez. Police said he is a suspect in the fatal shooting of Jose Florentino Ramirez Landin, 40, in the 4000 block of 21st Avenue SW.
Witnesses said they had been cooking out with Landin when a man — later identified as Lagunes Dominguez — arrived in a vehicle with another person.
After talking to the two, Landin walked away from them between two garages, and Lagunes Dominguez followed him, witnesses told police. They then heard several gunshots.
A Solon man who was converting “fuel filters” into illegal silencers for firearms was sentenced last week to 30 months in federal prison.
In a hearing in federal court, U.S. District Judge John Jarvey also ordered Christopher Allan Hay, 49, to serve three years of supervised release after prison.
Hay pleaded guilty in April to being a drug user in possession of firearms and ammunition, and possession of unregistered firearms.
According to court documents, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in San Francisco and Chicago located suspicious packages sent from China and addressed to Hay.
The packages contained 14 “fuel filters,” which have no filtering capability and are easily converted into firearms silencers.
Law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Hay’s residence, where they found 37 firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and four filters/silencers, one of which was attached to a firearm. They also found 813 grams — almost 2 pounds — of marijuana.
Two of Hay’s firearms were determined to be fully automatic machine guns, which Hay admitted he illegally converted, court documents stated
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, September 2.
Thursday’s weather will be mostly pleasant again, with some development toward rain on Friday. According to the National Weather Service, a partly cloudy sky will grow increasingly cloudy during the day Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area. The high temperature will be 84 degrees, with the temperature dropping to 59 degrees Thursday night. There will be a slight chance for rain late Thursday night, with the chance increasing into Friday.
Iowa now updates its COVID-19 numbers weekly, and the state saw another big jump in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the last week. According to state health data, 560 Iowans were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday night. This is another leap of about 100 more people hospitalized with the virus, the second straight week with an increase of this size and a continuation of an overall rapid spread of the disease since the highly contagious delta variant of the virus became the dominant strain in Iowa.
To put this jump into perspective for Iowa trends, there have been more new people hospitalized for the virus in the last two weeks than there were hospitalized for the virus, in total, at the beginning of August. It is the highest number since the last peak began to recede late last year.
Also of note, there were 8,308 new reported cases of COVID-19 across the state in the past week, the highest number of new reported cases since the beginning of the year. Representing the biggest majority, 22 percent of these new cases, were kids below the age of 17, many of whom are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. Meanwhile those experiencing serious symptoms, including hospitalization and death, are still mostly above the age of 40, according to state numbers.
One positive note that ties these two negative trends together is that the vaccines are being shown to be largely effective at slowing COVID-19 down, at least at the moment. Nationally the vast majority of those hospitalized are not vaccinated, and the school population where the spike is being seen in Iowa at the moment is also a population that has largely not been vaccinated. The challenge is to either increase masking to slow down the spread or to get more people vaccinated. Or, ideally, both.
Unfortunately, Iowa’s government has made it illegal to mandate masking in schools, and the FDA has not approved vaccination for people below the age of 12. So we likely will be seeing the numbers continue to go up for a bit here.
Speaking of Iowa’s Government, according to the Associated Press, sixty Iowa Republican legislators are asking the Iowa Supreme Court to overturn a 2018 ruling that declared abortion a fundamental right under the state Constitution.
Attorneys for conservative groups opposing abortion filed a brief with the court Monday on behalf of 22 senators and 38 House members, all Republicans. The groups include Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom and Iowa-based The Family Leader.
In June 2020, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill requiring a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland sued, and a judge struck the law down this June, citing the 2018 ruling.
Iowa Republicans started a process to amend the constitution to remove the idea of a right to an abortion this past legislative session. But it will have to be passed again and then voted on by Iowa voters. The effort is part of an overall offensive by conservatives to not only overturn Roe V. Wade, but to establish a framework in the states that will prohibit abortion should that law fall.
There was some concern for flooding in Northern Iowa this week after 10 to 15 inches of rain fell across north-central Iowa last week, causing the Turkey and Wapsipinicon rivers to swell
The Turkey River at Elkader crested Monday at 22.79 feet — roughly 3 feet above major flood stage — but by Tuesday morning had fallen to a normal level. These raising waters caused some minor disruptions, but with the rain taking a break for at least a week afterward, the rivers should be lowering to a more manageable level soon.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 1.
Wednesday will bring sunny and pleasant weather to the middle of your week. According to the National Weather Service there should be a high near 81 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with sunny skies. Wind speeds will be 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Wednesday night it will be mostly clear and calm, with a low around 55 degrees.
After hearing hours of ardent testimony about how a new $230 million University of Iowa Health Care facility in North Liberty would affect patients, community hospitals and UIHC’s mission, a state council Tuesday reversed a prior decision and this time approved the project to proceed.
Having narrowly denied the application in February — with three members voting against the 300,000-square-foot facility at Forevergreen Road and Highway 965 and two voting for it — the five-member State Health Facilities Council this time around, without discussion, voted 4-1 for the project.
Representatives from other local hospitals, particularly Mercy Iowa City, again spoke fervently against the project at the meeting. The new addition, they argued, would be devastating to smaller hospitals like Mercy, and as a result, would lead to reduced choice.
With Tuesday’s approval, UIHC has the state permission it needs to proceed in building a facility with capacity for 48 beds less than 10 miles from its main campus in Iowa City. The project, which will require additional regent approval, is scheduled to debut in 2025.
Linn County will accept 144 emergency sirens from the Duane Arnold Energy Center and pay $175,200 a year to maintain them.
Members of the county Emergency Management Commission approved the plan Tuesday night, despite a push from Linn County Supervisor Louis Zumbach for the cities to pay for their share of the sirens rather than the county covering the full cost.
NextEra Energy Resources, owner of the now-retired Duane Arnold Energy Center, said earlier this year it would donate 144 Whelen outdoor sirens and four control stations — together worth more than $1 million — to the Linn County Emergency Management Agency.
The sirens once were required in a 10-mile radius of the nuclear power plant, opened in 1974, to warn residents of a potential exposure to radioactive materials. But since the plant stopped production in August 2020, NextEra no longer needs the siren network.
Officials said the sirens will now be put to use for less radioactive threats, such as storms.
All that rain that moved northward over the last week is making its way toward Cedar Rapids, but, in this case, it is heading down river.
The city of Cedar Rapids Public Works Department is taking steps to address minor flood stage river levels on the Cedar River.
The Cedar River is projected to crest overnight between Thursday and Friday at under 11 feet, which is below minor flood stage and will have minimal impacts to the public, according to a news release. The National Weather Service reports that the river reached 6.2 feet at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Flood response measures include the closure of low-lying roads and parks, including Otis Road SE, Robbins Lake off of Ellis Road NW, and the Manhattan Park pavilion.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 31.
After thunderstorms pass through overnight, there will be a chance for thunderstorms Tuesday morning, but the likelihood is not particularly high. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 81 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 58 degrees.
The U.S. Education Department announced Monday it’s investigating five Republican-led states including Iowa that have banned local school boards from enacting mask requirements in their districts, saying the policies could discriminate against students with disabilities or health conditions.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights sent letters to education chiefs in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. Those states have barred schools from requiring masks among all students and staff.
In her reply, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a similar statement to what her administration has said earlier, saying she will fight against a federal masking mandate and accusing President Joe Biden of trying to pick fights with states to change the subject from bad news he has received about Afghanistan and border security.
A 40-year-old man who was shot over the weekend near an apartment building in southwest Cedar Rapids is dead.
The Cedar Rapids Police Department said Jose Florentino Ramirez Landin, 40, was shot multiple times near an apartment building at 4012 21st Ave. SW.
Officers and emergency personnel responded about 11:30 p.m. Saturday after a 911 caller reported hearing multiple gunshots and seeing someone down on the ground.
Police said Landin was declared dead at the scene.
Based on the preliminary investigation, police said Landin was in a parking lot with other people when a vehicle with more people arrived. A short time later, gunfire was heard. Investigators are still working on gathering evidence but have enough of a picture of the event to determine that that shooting was targeted and not a random attack on Landin.
Collins Aerospace, the largest employer in Cedar Rapids, will acquire digital flight-tracking platform FlightAware, it announced Monday afternoon.
FlightAware will be part of Collins Aerospace’s Cedar Rapids-based avionics division. FlightAware will remain based in Houston, Collins Aerospace spokeswoman Pam Tvrdy-Cleary said.
“FlightAware’s flight tracking and data platform, the largest in the world, has the potential to deliver new capabilities and innovations across our entire business,” said Dave Nieuwsma, the head of Collins Aerospace’s avionics division, in a news release.
FlightAware, founded in 2005, uses data from air traffic control systems and its own monitoring stations in 195 countries to provide global flight-tracking data, according to its website.
Just a few days away until college football returns to Iowa. If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Aug. 30th.
For our weather in the Cedar Rapids area today, according to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 83. Calm winds, then, in the afternoon, from the north around 5 mph. Tonight we have a 20 percent chance of showers after 1 a.m. It should be partly cloudy, with a low around 61.
Cedar Rapids police said a shooting Saturday night in the Westdale neighborhood left a man with life-threatening injuries. At 11:30 p.m., a caller reported hearing numerous gunshots and seeing someone down on the ground at 4012 21st Ave. SW. Police said they found the injured man, secured the scene and interviewed witnesses for the active investigation.The shooting victim’s name is being withheld.
Looking at the latest CDC COVID Data Tracker, for the 7-day period ending Saturday, Aug. 28th: 98 Iowa counties are showing either a high level of community transmission or substantial community transmission. One county was in the substantial category while 97 were in the high transmission category. Only Adair County was in the moderate category.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 28, and Sunday, August 29.
So Friday was a day of thunderstorms as was foretold, but most of these storms headed northward, with the heaviest rain in north central Iowa.
For your weekend forecast there will still be a chance of isolated showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area for much of Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. But for most of the day it will be sunny, with a high near 93 degrees. The heat index could reach as high as 101 degrees. On Sunday the chance for thunderstorms will come to an end in the morning, and it will be a little bit cooler, with a high near 88 degrees. Next week is predicted to be cooler in general.
Marion police said they were investigating the death of an infant Friday after emergency responders were called to an apartment building on 10th Street and Boyson Road the day before.
First responders attempted to resuscitate the infant on Thursday at Azure Apartments but were unsuccessful, and the baby was pronounced dead, according to Marion police.
Although police confirmed the death is being investigated, no further details were provided Friday.
The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday issued an order requiring individuals entering any Iowa courthouse must wear a face covering, regardless of vaccination status.
In the order, Chief Judge Susan Larson Christensen said the court is balancing the need to take measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus with “its commitment to conduct the important work of the courts.”
The court, Christensen said, has reviewed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding the wearing of masks in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission.
As of this week, the entire state of Iowa now has high or substantial community transmission of the virus, according to the CDC. More than 7,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Iowa in the past week, state officials said Thursday.
Pat Garrett, spokesman for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, said Friday the Supreme Court order “doesn’t change the legislation the governor signed into law, ” referring to a bill passed in May by Iowa lawmakers and signed by Reynolds that bars schools, cities and counties from mandating masks.
Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks called on President Joe Biden to resign in the aftermath of a terrorist attack near the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
“Joe Biden’s withdrawal of Afghanistan has been a failure and has ended with needless deaths and injuries,“ Miller-Meeks, a U.S. Army veteran and member of the House Homeland Security Committee, tweeted late Thursday. ”Joe Biden should resign as Commander-In-Chief!“
Miller-Meeks added that National Security adviser Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also should “hand in their resignations.”
Miller-Meeks on Friday introduced legislation that would prohibit the distribution of federal funds to Afghanistan until all Americans and U.S. allies have been safely evacuated from the country.
It’s only a week away until college football returns to Iowa. If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 27.
Friday is the day of thunderstorms. According to the National Weather Service, there were likely thunderstorms before you woke up today. There might even have been thunderstorms that woke you up. There will be a chance for thunderstorms again before 2 p.m. Friday, although more of the scattered variety. There will again be a chance for thunderstorms Friday evening and a chance for thunderstorms Friday night into Saturday morning, although these will be less likely still. When it is not severe thunderstorming, it should be mostly cloudy, edging toward partly sunny, with a high of 94 degrees. There is an off chance we will get missed by any and all thunderstorms, but it will definitely be hot, with a heat index as high as 105 degrees.
Thomas Woodard was sentenced Thursday to two life sentences for bludgeoning correctional Officer Robert McFarland and registered nurse Lorena Schulte to death as part of a failed escape attempt.
Woodard, 34, declined to make a statement during the sentencing hearing, as family members shared the horrible impact he has had on their lives. He appeared to have little or no reaction to the emotional family statements, but did pay attention to each of the 11 family members who spoke.
Avoiding a trial, Woodard had pleaded guilty as charged to two counts of first-degree murder and one count each of attempted murder and second-degree kidnapping.
Woodard, already serving time for robbery, made the rare straight-up pleading to all offenses charged on the condition he could serve his prison terms in Nebraska. Prosecutors said he would have been sent out of state to another prison regardless because he had killed Iowa correctional employees.
Inmate Michael Dutcher, 28, also charged in the fatal attack, has a bench trial set for Sept. 21 in Jones County District Court.
The bishop of the Iowa Area of the United Methodist Church is asking the organization’s churches in the state to stop chartering Boy Scout troops because of sex abuse lawsuits by former scouts.
Bishop Laurie Haller told church leaders in a message this week they should not renew chartering agreements with troops at least until the Boy Scouts of America emerges from federal bankruptcy proceedings.
Breaking ties is intended to protect the churches from further liability, now that the United Methodist Church has learned Boy Scouts of America doesn’t have enough insurance to cover sponsoring churches, the letter states.
Haller recommends churches do not start or renew chartering agreements with Boy Scout troops. Rather, the churches may sign a facilities use agreement with the troops until Dec. 31.
For the second time, Iowa State University has exceed its “Forever True, For Iowa State” fundraising campaign goal by bringing in $1.542 billion by June 30 — thanks to 532,377 gifts from more than 96,000 donors.
The Ames campus and its philanthropic foundation in September 2016 went public with a goal of raising $1.1 billion by June 30, 2020. Two years ahead of schedule, ISU in October 2018 announced it already reached that mark and was moving its target to $1.5 billion by summer 2021.
Even with the complicating COVID-19 pandemic, ISU announced Thursday the successful end to its nine-year campaign, thanks to donors from all 50 U.S. states and 49 nations.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, August 26.
We’re looking at another day of sunny and muggy weather potentially leading to rain. According to the National Weather Service forecast it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday with a high near 91 degrees. The heat index could reach as high as 100 degrees. Thursday night into Friday morning there will be a chance for storms, with some potentially heavy rainfall. Right now there is a prediction of a 70 percent chance of rain and 1 to 2 inches of rainfall possible in some areas.
Forty-two Iowans died as a result of COVID-19 in this most recent month, the state Department of Public Health reported Wednesday. The state said all deaths occurred between July 24 and Aug. 22.
The number of new cases and hospitalizations and deaths due to the infection are far less than at peak last winter. However, it is clear Iowa is experiencing a third surge of the disease that’s being fueled by the more contagious delta variant despite the widespread availability of a free vaccine to ward off the worst symptoms
These deaths came even before the recent spike in hospitalizations for COVID-19, which jumped again this week to 472. This is the highest number of people hospitalized for the disease since the end of the second peak last year. It was a jump of about 100 people from the previous week.
The Iowa Department of Public Health stressed the importance of getting vaccinated. It said that 79 percent of the people hospitalized Aug. 25 with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 had not been vaccinated. It also said that 86 percent of the COVID-19 patients in intensive care were not vaccinated before becoming infected.
The number of inmates held in Iowa prisons crept up last fiscal year but the population was down significantly from the record count of a decade ago as COVID-19 has forced policymakers to adjust to changing dynamics the virus has created within institutional settings.
New data released by the Iowa Department of Corrections shows 7,744 inmates were housed in the state's nine correctional institutions.
Inmate numbers dropped below 8,000 for the first time in 20 years last fiscal year when COVID-19 moved into Iowa in March 2020, causing the Iowa Board of Parole to accelerate releases as a way to help manage a prison population that was susceptible to the spreading coronavirus.
Delays in court hearings, trials and procedures due to COVID-19 concerns also impacted prison numbers.
An Iowa City Democrat who unseated a 20-year incumbent in last year's primary for a state representative seat now has her sights on Congress.
University of Iowa law professor and Rep. Christina Bohannan announced earlier this week that she will run for southeast Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, a seat now held by freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, in the 2022 midterm elections.
Miller-Meeks, of Ottumwa, won last year's election for Iowa's open U.S. House seat by a mere six votes, the narrowest margin of victory in a House race in almost 40 years
Bohannan unseated 20-year incumbent Vicki Lensing in the June 2020 Democratic primary and was unopposed in November’s general election for the Iowa House District 85 seat.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 25.
Tuesday’s humid weather turned into heavy rain and sometimes dangerous conditions. Wednesday could provide a repeat of this pattern.
According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near 90 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday. There will be a 30 percent chance of rain, primarily after 4 p.m., with some storms having the potential for heavy rain. Then Wednesday night the chance for rain will continue at roughly the same probability, although more likely it will be rain again.
Severe thunderstorms swept across Central and Eastern Iowa on Tuesday, bringing hail and high winds that damaged buildings and snapped trees.
According to National Weather Service storm reports, the bad weather in the state spanned from as far west as Story City north of Des Moines to as far east as Bellevue on the Iowa-Illinois border.
Early storm reports showed widespread winds, ranging from 40 to 70 mph, as well as hail raging in size from a quarter inch to 1 inch in diameter. The most damaging storms appear to have hit northeastern Iowa, at, and to the north of, Manchester.
Parents expressed worries for the safety of their children and others Tuesday as students in Iowa City schools finished their second day of classes without a face mask requirement.
During a school board meeting, the board was presented with a petition signed by over 1,000 community members, medical providers and parents asking the Iowa City Community School District to require masks in schools to help protect against the spread of COVID-19. The petitioners did so while conceding that the board’s hands are likely tied by a state law passed in May prohibiting masking mandates.
Iowa City School Superintendent Matt Degner said the district is aware of the concerns and is working on solutions to keep students safe.
Leadership is changing at the Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City.
Andre Perry, executive director for 11 years, has resigned to pursue new projects. His final day is Sept. 13, but he will help finalize fall and spring programming already underway, and will continue as executive director for the upcoming Witching Hour festival and Mission Creek festival in 2022.
Perry has led the nonprofit arts presenter through growing from an $800,000 budget in 2010 to a $1.9 million budget in 2019. He also founded Mission Creek and Witching Hour festivals, showcasing high-profile and emerging artists, as well as local musicians, authors, poets and creators.
Beer afficionados, your choices at Kinnick Stadium this football season won’t be limited to mass-produced corporate brew.
The University of Iowa announced in June that it would become the eighth Big Ten Conference school to sell beer and wine at its sporting events. Iowa senior associate athletics director Matt Henderson spoke Tuesday about what fans can expect, alcohol-wise, at Kinnick.
Eastern Iowa beermakers Backpocket, Big Grove and SingleSpeed will be sold at Iowa Hawkeyes football games, starting with the Sept. 4 season-opener.
For those with more mainstream tastes. Bud Light, Busch Light, Coors Light, Michelob Ultra and Bud Light Seltzer also will be available. Wine will also be available.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 24.
There will be a slight chance for rain again on Tuesday, mostly on Tuesday evening. According to the National Weather Service forecast, it will be sunny and hot in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 96 degrees. Heat index values could be as high as 105 degrees. A 20 percent chance of rain Tuesday night could turn into a 40 percent chance early on Wednesday morning. And that rain chance will continue for much of the week.
The Iowa State Fair did not set record numbers this year, although it did draw an admirable crowd considering we are still in the midst of a pandemic. The annual extravaganza of farm animal exhibits, grandstand entertainment, and a wide variety of foods fried up and served on a stick did attract 1,094,480 this year according to unaudited numbers released by the state. Last year’s state fair was canceled due to the pandemic.
The Iowa State Fair is the single largest event in the state of Iowa and one of the oldest and largest agricultural and industrial expositions in the country.
The Cedar Rapids Community School District is considering removing school resource officers from middle schools and ensuring that the officers in high schools not be involved in enforcing school rules or discipline, among other recommendations being considered by the school board.
The proposed changes come as the district and Cedar Rapids Police Department set joint goals of reducing arrests and charges filed of all students by 50 percent or more, and of bringing a 50 percent or greater reduction to the skewed number of arrests of Black students.
Before this school year, the district had school resource officers — city police officers serving a different role — at two of its six middle schools: Roosevelt and McKinley. Officers departed those schools before the new academic year started Monday.
Tyson Foods received $537,337 in tax credits from Iowa Economic Development Authority last week to upgrade its slaughtering process at its Columbus Junction facility.
The $15.4 million project will replace the process of electrically stunning pigs before slaughter with the use of carbon dioxide to kill them.
The carbon dioxide process “results in superior meat quality and avoids the contamination associated with ingesta that is common with traditional stunning systems,” according to an IEDA document.
The U.S. gave full approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, a milestone that may help lift public confidence in the shots as the nation battles the most contagious coronavirus mutation yet in the Delta variant.
The vaccine made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech now carries the strongest endorsement from the Food and Drug Administration, which has never before had so much evidence to judge a shot’s safety. More than 200 million Pfizer doses have already been administered in the U.S. since emergency use began in December.
U.S. vaccination rates bottomed out in July, but as delta fills hospital beds, shots are on the rise again. Pfizer’s shot still has emergency authorization for 12- to 15-year-olds, and it remains to be seen when it will be approved for younger children.
School started in Iowa without a mask mandate on Monday.
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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Aug. 23rd.
For our weather in the Cedar Rapids area today, according to the National Weather Service, we have a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1 p.m. It will be mostly sunny, with a high near 93. Heat index values will be as high as 102. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph. For tonight, again a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 1 a.m., with a low around 71.
The University of Iowa celebrated this year’s convocation and “president’s block party” Sunday. The University’s new president, Barbara Wilson, welcomed the new students at an outdoor event from the steps of the Old Capitol at the center of campus. Acknowledging the pandemic that upended last academic year and persists today, Wilson committed to charting a new course of in-person collegiate experiences under continued precautions — but said she needs student buy-in, with students making sure they are vaccinated and wearing masks inside classrooms and office hours. She told the students, “Our job is to be healthy Hawkeyes.”
Looking at the latest CDC COVID Data Tracker, for the 7-day period ending Saturday, Aug. 21, all 99 Iowa counties are showing either a high level of community transmission or substantial community transmission. Nine counties were in the substantial category while 90 were in the high transmission category.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 21, and Sunday, August 22nd.
There will be a chance for rain both Saturday and Sunday, but in both cases the rain will likely be while you are asleep. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, it could rain in the early morning hours on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area, but this will likely clear up by 7 a.m. Then it will be mostly cloudy for much of the morning before clearing, with a high of 88 degrees. On Sunday it should be sunny with a high of 87 degrees for much of the day. Then in the evening into the morning hours on Monday there will be a chance for rain predicted again.
Thanks for the gesture, but our hands are tied. Officials with both Iowa City schools and the University of Iowa on Friday said they can’t require face coverings in their buildings or on their properties despite a new Iowa City mask mandate that specifically identifies public school and UI academic spaces as being included.
The UI and the Iowa City Community School District — which start their fall semesters Monday — both strongly encourage vaccination and masking, regardless of vaccination status, in accordance with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But — given action taken by the Iowa Legislature, Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Board of Regents in May — officials said they can’t enforce Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague’s emergency order, issued Thursday evening, requiring masks in all classrooms, stores, restaurants, and churches through Sept. 30.
Soon the Iowa Cannabis Co. will be able to manufacture and sell medical marijuana products in Iowa City.
The Iowa Department of Public Health has allowed the company to transfer its license to manufacture medical marijuana products from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City, where the firm also will open a dispensary for consumers this fall.
The manufacturing site under consideration is in an industrial zone on the south end of Scott Boulevard on Iowa City’s southeast side.
Iowa Cannabis’ Iowa City dispensary — one of five in the state — was supposed to open by July 1, but the state gave the company an extension to start selling products Oct. 1. The company will open a dispensary in Council Bluffs at the same time and has operated a Waterloo dispensary since 2018.
Iowa Cannabis is connected with Cannabis & Glass, a large recreational marijuana store in Spokane, Wash. Owner Aaron Boshart told The Gazette in December 2019 profits from the Washington state stores help support its Iowa medical marijuana operations. Iowa’s medical marijuana laws remain quite strict and antagonistic at the moment, making success in the marijuana business here a tough challenge compared to other states.
A Sheffield man who was the “enforcer” for the northern Iowa chapter of the Sons of Silence motorcycle club, also classified as a gang, was sentenced this week to 10 months in federal prison.
Justin Carlson, 38, pleaded guilty March 19 in U.S. District Court to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
During the plea and sentencing hearings, Carlson admitted he and other members of the club and an affiliated group confronted a motorcyclist, who was an off-duty police officer, in April. They claimed the officer needed permission from the Sons of Silence to wear one of the patches he had on the back of his jacket.
In a search of Carlson’s home, officers recovered his Sons of Silence motorcycle vest, which had brass knuckles in the pocket, numerous items of the club’s paraphernalia and two firearms.
U.S. District Chief Judge Leonard Strand sentenced Carlson to the 10 months and also ordered him to serve two years of supervised release following prison.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 20.
Friday will be yet another steamy day, but there could be some rain at the end of it for a change up. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high temperature near 92 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with sunny skies. On Friday night into Saturday showers and thunderstorms are predicted to be likely, with a chance of precipitation listed at 60 percent. Rainfall is not expected to be significant except where thunderstorms develop.
Defying state law and an Iowa Board of Regents directive, Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague issued an emergency order Thursday evening requiring masks in all classrooms and other gathering spots including stores, restaurants and churches in the city.
His order comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rates Johnson County as having a high rate of coronavirus transmission and as thousands of college students stream into the community this week.
Both the Iowa City Community School District and the University of Iowa resume classes Monday for the fall semester. In his order requiring face masks for everyone in gathering spots in Iowa City — with some exceptions — Teague includes “public school buildings” and “University of Iowa academic buildings and business offices.”
His local order contradicts a state measure adopted in May and quickly signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds that prohibits local school boards from enacting mask mandates in schools.
“It’s against the law and it’s not enforceable,” Pat Garrett, spokesman for Reynolds, said Thursday night about Teague’s order. “COVID-19 has been around for over a year; Iowans know how to protect themselves and their families.”
Gov. Reynolds spoke out Thursday morning after receiving pressure from the federal government against the state’s law prohibiting mask mandates in schools. The Biden administration is arguing that such mandates could lead to a violation of the Civil Rights Act by putting some students in harm’s way. Reynolds said her government is prepared to go to court to defend the law, and criticized President Biden for having his priorities in the wrong place.
Meanwhile, Nearly 400 people are being treated for COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals — the most since January.
According to data from the Iowa Department of Public Health released Thursday, 396 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized across the state, up from 355 the week before. School is set to start next Monday, with no masking or vaccine requirements in place.
A 45-year-old Iowa City man was arrested on child pornography charges Wednesday after federal agents used a tactical vehicle to break through the side of his house.
Christopher Michael Wilson was formally charged in U.S. District Court with one count each of receiving child pornography and possession of child pornography, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Jackson of Iowa’s Southern District ordered Wilson to remain in temporary custody pending a detention hearing, as requested by a federal prosecutor, set for Monday in Davenport.
FBI agents used a tactical vehicle to ram into the side of the house where Wilson, according to state court records. An FBI spokesperson wouldn’t provide further information about why the vehicle was used.
If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, August 19.
It will be another hot one Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 91 degrees. The wind will be calm, hovering around 5 mph.
Amid the deadly Delta variant surge, federal health officials announced Wednesday that they will be recommending COVID-19 vaccination boosters to Americans starting next month.
The recommendation, which only applies to Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, comes as new studies show the vaccine’s ability to protect against less serious disease declines over time. The intent is to boost the protection against severe illness and hospitalizations.
The Biden administration and other federal health officials recommended that all Americans aged 18 and older who have received a two-dose vaccine series from Pfizer and Moderna should get a third coronavirus shot eight months after their second dose.
Much like flu shots, health officials say COVID vaccine boosters could be recommended regularly as the virus changes and bounces throughout populations from one part of the globe to the other.
Female inmates at a central Iowa state prison have been enlisted in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the state Department of Corrections, women incarcerated at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville are being paid to assemble COVID-19 at-home test kits.
The voluntary program is a joint project in which Iowa Prison Industries will assist the Iowa Department of Public Health and State Hygienic Lab with assembling the test kits and preparing them for shipment.
Iowa Prison Industries officials estimate the female inmates — who normally produce other products for Iowa Prison Industries — can assemble 25,000 test kits per week for shipment across Iowa. It’s possible to scale up production of 100,000 per week, if needed to boost the state's testing stockpile, they said.
Police arrested a 13-year-old boy and cited a 20-year-old woman Tuesday night in connection with a drive-by shooting in southwest Cedar Rapids.
Cedar Rapids police said officers were on patrol just after 11 p.m. when they heard several gunshots coming from the 600 block alley between 16th and 18th avenues SW.
Officers immediately responded and saw a dark-colored sport utility vehicle with no headlights heading east in the alley before entering Sixth Street SW.
Police said officers initiated a “high-risk” traffic stop in the 500 block of 16th Avenue SW. Additional officers arrived, and multiple people were removed from the SUV.
After the traffic stop, police arrested a 13-year-old boy on suspicion of discharging a firearm at an occupied residence in the 600 block of 16th Avenue SW. The boy had been a passenger in the SUV.
The driver of the vehicle — identified as 20-year-old Kiara Dana Lyn Peoples — was cited for unsafe entry onto a roadway and failure to use headlamps when required.
If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 18.
The increasing heat is going to continue into Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area. According to the National Weather Service patchy fog before 8 a.m. will give way to sunny skies with a high near 90 degrees. A calm wind of 5 mph will continue into Wednesday night, with mostly clear skies and a low around 67.
Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Tuesday that state and federal officials are working to resettle Afghan refugees fleeing the rapid collapse and takeover of their country by the Taliban.
Grassley said Tuesday during a stop in Davenport that Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has “made very clear today that in the spirit of (former Iowa Gov.) Bob Ray taking Vietnamese refugees, that Iowa would be very open to Afghan refugees."
Reynolds said Tuesday her office was working with federal officials to help relocate eligible Afghan refugees in Iowa who worked for the U.S. government. They and others have been fleeing a country gripped in chaos following the withdrawal of U.S. troops after a 20-year presence and billions spent to equip and train Afghan security forces who proved ultimately ineffective.
Iowa’s Field of Dreams will be hosting another baseball game in 2022, and it will again feature a Chicago team.
The Chicago Cubs will take on the Cincinatti Reds on August 11 at the 8,000-seat ballpark that Major League Baseball built specifically for these games.This year’s inaugural game was a huge success nationally, with just short of 6 million people tuning into the Fox game telecast. The Chicago White Sox defeated the New York Yankees in dramatic fashion, 9-8,
While the pandemic and its safety precautions are on the minds of the thousands returning to Iowa’s universities this week, UI students who spoke with The Gazette said they’re hoping to move past the distanced, amended and sometimes compromised college experience of the last year.
As of Tuesday morning, just shy of 2,800 new and returning UI students had moved into the campus’ 10 residence halls since early move-in began over the weekend, with nearly 1,000 more expected on Tuesday alone. After new student move-in continues Wednesday and Thursday, and returning students are designated to arrive Saturday, the UI is expecting about 5,675 students to live on campus this year.
Thousands have been moving in at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, too, as the fall semester at the three schools starts Monday.
Masks and vaccines, while encouraged, aren’t mandated — despite faculty calls at all three campuses for such requirements. Courses are being offered in person to the same degree they were before the pandemic — again, despite faculty calls for more flexibility in allowing online courses.
A judge has denied an appeal from a landlord whose rental unit registration was suspended by the city for four nuisance properties in southeast Cedar Rapids — upholding a city Housing Board of Appeals’ decision made last year.
Charles Davisson, who lists the four disputed properties under Property Holders LTD — along with 34 others — asserted the city violated his due process rights because he didn’t receive adequate notice of the nuisance violations, and some of the notices weren’t sent to his correct business address.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Fae Hoover, in her ruling filed last month, said the housing board didn’t take any illegal action or violate Davisson’s due process rights. The board gave him notice of the suspension proceedings and he had an opportunity to address the board on the allegations, she found.
If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 17.
Tuesday’s weather will feature the pleasant, yet rain free, trend of recent days. According to the National Weather Service it should be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 89 degrees. It should get hotter as the week goes on, with a chance for rain at the end of the week.
Faculty across Iowa’s three public universities are expressing disappointment that this fall’s COVID-19 conditions aren’t as improved as hoped and are urging administrators to make the tough call to backpedal on promises that this would be a more normal semester.
Faculty at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa have written the Board of Regents, sent demands to administrators, and launched petitions advocating mask and vaccine mandates. They’ve also asked that high-risk employees be allowed to work from home — despite regent rules.
Additionally, University of Northern Iowa professors through their United Faculty union have filed a complaint against the Board of Regents with the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration for “failure to provide a safe work environment.”
Following the governor’s lead in barring K-12 schools from mandating masks, the board hasn’t backtracked on its prohibition against mask and distancing mandates or vaccine requirements on campus; and it hasn’t reimposed emergency waivers for staff such as those involving family care leave and catastrophic illness.
Most students have already moved back onto campus. The school year starts on August 23.
Linn County residents will have more opportunities to provide input regarding the county’s allocation of $44 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Two more forums are planned for 5:30 to 7 p.m. Aug. 23 at the Jean Oxley Linn County Public Service Center and 6 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26 at the Lynn Dunn Memorial Building on the Linn County Fairgrounds.
Funds provided through the American Rescue Plan Act are meant to support economic recovery from losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The forums aim to help explain the purpose of the American Rescue Plan and identify broad priorities to guide the use of these federal funds in Linn County.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is seeking information regarding a boating incident over the weekend on the Cedar River that left one man seriously injured.
The Cedar Rapids Police Department identified the man as Isaac Allen Blazek, 41, of Cedar Rapids.
Police said Blazek was thrown from an inflatable inner tube and struck the back of a docked pontoon boat, suffering a serious head wound.
The DNR said the inner tube Blazek was riding was being pulled by a green and white personal watercraft on the Cedar River on Sunday afternoon near Mohawk Park in Cedar Rapids when the incident occurred.
Blazek was transported by air ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. There is no available update on his condition, the DNR said.
The DNR declined to give more details as to how or why the wreck occurred, citing the ongoing investigation.
If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 14 and Sunday, August 15.
Besides the fact that our area desperately needs rain that it’s not going to get, this weekend is going to be pretty nice weather wise. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Saturday with a high near 83 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny again, with a high near 84 degrees. The evenings will be clear, with calm winds and lows in the fifties.
The superintendent of the Boys State Training School in Eldora resigned last week amid an investigation at the school.
Wendy Leiker, who was appointed to the job Aug. 28, 2020, was not asked to resign, but “offered her resignation in the course of an investigation,” Iowa Department of Human Services Spokesman Matt Highland said in a statement Thursday.
DHS Director Kelly Garcia said at a meeting Thursday she had appointed Jason Sodders, a deputy to Leiker, as interim superintendent at the residential school for delinquent boys ages 12 to 18.
Police are investigating reports of multiple gunshots fired Friday afternoon in southeast Cedar Rapids.
Officers responded just after 2 p.m. to the 1500 block of Eighth Avenue SE where they found a 2011 GMC Terrain sport utility vehicle damaged by gunfire. Police said the vehicle was parked and unoccupied.
Spent shell casings were located. No injuries were reported.
Based on the preliminary investigation, police said a red, newer model Ford Mustang with two occupants — believed to have been involved — headed north on 15th Street SE.
Police located the unoccupied car a short time later.
Old MacDonald’s Farm in Bever Park closed for the season Friday because of a shortage of seasonal staff.
All of the animals at the farm will be returned to their owners.
Movie Night and Goat Yoga classes are canceled. The waterfowl exhibit will stay open daily through Oct. 6. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids has adjusted its visitor guidelines, effective as of Friday, as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are rising due to the spread of the Delta variant, officials said in a news release.
Among the new guidelines: all inpatient admissions will be tested for COVID-19, patient visitation hours will be limited to 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m, and most areas will return to a maximum of one visitor at a time.
At Iowa Hawkeye Media Day Friday players and coaches stressed the importance of being dialed in on day one. The season starts with a nationally ranked Big Ten opponent in Indiana on September 4, and things don’t get any easier with nationally ranked rival Iowa State the following week.
As a developmental program at heart, Iowa has traditionally had slow starts to seasons as it seeks to figure itself out. Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said the process remains the same, just the urgency is a little different.
“This is the start of camp, and what's really important about it is now for us to figure out what our identity is going to be, see how it shapes and see how guys are moving along,” Ferentz said. “And it's day to day, I can assure you that, like it is every year. It's a process, and there are good days, bad days.
If you want to hear more about this, and you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 13.
The weather for the next 7 days will shift from blazing hot with a chance of rain, to mild and sunny but sadly bereft of precipitation.
If you get out to mow the charred remains of your late summer lawn it should be sunny with a high near 85 degrees. According to the National Weather Service forecast this will continue into Friday night, with mostly clear skies and a low around 57 degrees.
Iowa’s population grew 4.7 percent from 2010 to 2020, according to Census Bureau data released Thursday, with nearly 80 percent of the growth happening in the state’s four largest counties -- while 68 counties posted population losses.
Overall, census data showed Iowa grew by 144,014 people since the 2010 count, exceeding the 4.1 percent increase of 120,031 in the first decade of the 21st Century.
Growth was concentrated in and around the urban centers of Polk, Johnson Linn, Johnson and Scott counties. The fastest growing county was Dallas, west of Des Moines, with an increase of 50.7 percent (33,543). Johnson was the state’s second-fastest growing county, at 16.8 percent (21,972 people).
Some local notes of interest. Tiffin had the highest rate of growth in the state -- 131.7 percent. Growth in its Johnson County neighbors of 53.1 percent in North Liberty and 48.2 percent in Solon helped fueled the county’s growth rate. Coralville’s and Iowa City’s population grew at lower rates, but well above the state average.
To the north in Linn County, the rate of growth was spurred by Palo, Fairfax and Cedar Rapids.
The least populous county is Adams County, in southwest Iowa, which has 3,704 people. It also saw a decline of 8.1 percent, or 325 people.
Just for fun I looked into Adams County a bit. My favorite two towns are the former coal mining town known as Carbon, which had a population of 34 people as of 2010. The other is the county seat of Corning, known for being the birthplace of late night legend Johnny Carson.
A group is taking shape to lead the charge to encourage Linn County voters to back a measure that allows gambling within the county and leaves the door open for a casino in the Cedar Rapids area.
If passed, the measure would permanently authorize gaming and allow Cedar Rapids to again seek permission from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to operate a licensed casino. The Linn County Board of Supervisors in July approved placing the referendum on the Nov. 2 ballot.
Anne Parmley, previously the senior vice president of client services at Pearson, will serve as board president of the Linn County Gaming Association. The volunteer-led team sets the vision to support community not-for-profit partnerships to serve county needs and will focus on encouraging passage of the gaming referendum.
Iowa is the only state that requires licensed casinos to contribute a share of their revenue to local charities and community projects. The association would serve as the not-for-profit organization tied to any casino in Linn County.
Tim Anderson hit a two-run, walk-off home run to give the Chicago White Sox a 9-8 win over the New York Yankees in a nationally televised game at Iowa’s Field of Dreams site. This came after two-run homers by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the top of the ninth turned a 7-4 New York deficit into an 8-7 lead.
Iowan baseball fans were happy to hear before the game, the first of its kind at the site, that Major League Baseball will return again to the site for another matchup next year.
If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, August 12.
Thursday should be the last day of the week with both intense heat and a chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service the high will be 94 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with a heat index value as high as 101 degrees. There will be a 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5 p.m. and a 30 percent chance before 1 a.m. Friday. Besides that it will be mostly sunny for the majority of the day.
According to weekly figures released Wednesday by the state, over the past week, Iowa added an average of almost 700 new COVID-19 cases per day — the highest daily average recorded since last February. The number of people hospitalized with the disease also shot up to 355, the highest total since the beginning of the year.
The increased numbers come with the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19. Nationally the variant has wreaked havoc in areas with low vaccination rates, as the overwhelming majority of those who are hospitalized have not received a full vaccine regimen.
Parents and health officials staged a protest outside the state capitol building Wednesday, pleading with Gov. Kim Reynolds to reconsider a law signed this Spring that prohibits schools from mandating masks in schools. They argued that local school boards and governments should have local control over mask mandates. Gov. Reynolds countered that she considers the parents to be the ones with local control, and that they should decide what to do when it comes to masking.
Iowa’s public universities are also not allowed to require masking on campus. However, all three state universities have issued guidelines to students encouraging them to get vaccinated and to wear masks while on campus.
School begins in Iowa on August 23.
Food stamp use in Iowa jumped in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, but then continued a seven-year decline other than a slight bump following the August 2020 derecho.
State officials characterize it as a “gradual, but steady decline” that may reflect Iowa’s strong economy and tight labor market.
From June 2020 to June 2021, statewide enrollment in SNAP — Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps — has fallen by 23,437 people or nearly 7.6 percent from 308,277 recipients to 284,790.
Cedar Rapids police are investigating after two animals were taken Tuesday afternoon from Old MacDonald’s Farm at Bever Park.
Cedar Rapids police said Sully the Russian tortoise and Ginny the African pygmy hedgehog were taken from the barn sometime between 12:30 and 4 p.m. They think whoever took the animals then released them inside Bever Park.
Police said the suspect or suspects would have had to jump the 6-foot-tall fence that surrounds the barn before removing the animals. The barn door was left slightly ajar because of the hot weather.
The tortoise was found unharmed Wednesday afternoon in the park, about 100 yards from the barn, police said. The hedgehog has not yet been found.
If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 11.
Wednesday’s weather will continue the theme started on Tuesday: it’s going to be hot, it’s going to be humid, and there will be a chance for rain.
According to the National Weather Service there will be a 30 percent chance for showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, although this will primarily be before 8 a.m. Then it will be mostly sunny and dangerously hot. The high temperature will be 97 degrees, with heat index values as high as 106 degrees.
Eastern Iowans looked back Tuesday on the one-year anniversary of the derecho wreaking havoc on property, power lines, and acres of devastated tree canopy. They also used the occasion to announce some new initiatives that could help as people continue to recover from the storm.
The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday approved a $1 million allocation to help low- to moderate-income households grappling with storm damage repair their homes.
The council authorized a $1 million grant of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to the Housing Fund for Linn County’s PATCH Program, a locally administered initiative that has helped homeowners repair their derecho-damaged homes since it launched soon after the storm.
As for the aforementioned tree canopy, officials announced on Tuesday that private investors have contributed over $1 million to a Cedar Rapids campaign to replenish the trees that the derecho’s hurricane-force winds destroyed.
Corporate and individual donors have raised over $11 million since this spring for the city of Cedar Rapids’ ReLeaf public-private partnership with Marion-based nonprofit Trees Forever to replant trees across the city. The city already has committed to providing $1 million a year for 10 years, and Trees Forever is looking to meet that contribution with $5 million in private funds.
The derecho’s ferocious winds downed an estimated 70 percent of Cedar Rapids’ tree canopy, leaving crews to spend over 10 months clearing approximately 4 million cubic yards of tree debris from along streets as officials began to pursue long-term replanting efforts.
A proposal that would send over $4.2 billion in federal funding to Iowa for road and bridge construction and repairs received a split vote Tuesday from the state’s two U.S. senators in Washington, D.C.
Republican Chuck Grassley voted for, and Republican Joni Ernst against, the overall $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which had strong bipartisan support: it passed the Senate by a 69-30 vote, with 19 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.
The bill now heads to the U.S. House, where it faces an uncertain future, where work remains to be done on the final passage of a bill.
Grassley said he has heard often from constituents about the need to improve infrastructure and although the bill is imperfect, he found it more palatable than earlier versions proposed by Democrats. Ernst said that she could not support the bill over concerns it would add to the National Debt.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 10.
Exactly one year after the derecho hit Eastern Iowa there are showers and thunderstorms in the forecast. But don’t worry. There’s little to indicate that it will be likely to be anywhere near the same kind of storm.
What it is likely to be is hot. On Tuesday the National Weather Service is predicting a high near 92 degrees with a heat index as high as 103 degrees. It will be mostly sunny for most of the day with a small chance for showers and thunderstorms.
In the overnight hours Tuesday into Wednesday showers are predicted to be likely, although precipitation is not expected to be significant except where thunderstorms develop.
As the first day of school approaches Aug. 23, the Cedar Rapids Community School District is strongly encouraging students and staff to wear masks indoors and get vaccinated if eligible. It also has extended the deadline for students to enroll in the Cedar Rapids Virtual Academy, an online learning option for K-12 students. The Iowa City School District also extended its virtual learning option enrollment window last week as administrators try to plan for the highly contagious Delta variant to arrive in the district while having their hands tied by state law when it comes to masking in district buildings.
Students or staff who test positive for COVID-19 will be required to isolate for 10 days, and the district will not conduct contact tracing for people who come in contact with someone who tests positive, following guidance from the Iowa Department of Public Health.
The deadline for the Cedar Rapids Virtual Academy has been extended to Aug. 16 at noon. The original deadline was Aug. 2.
After receiving 178 applications from companies to expand rural broadband access in Iowa, the state is hoping to bring coverage to as many Iowans as possible in the largest state-assisted broadband program to date.
The push is the latest of the Empower Rural Iowa grant program, which has given millions of dollars to providers in past years to build broadband infrastructure in hard-to-serve places.
The applications for the $100 million in state funding cover a large swath of the state, Iowa’s deputy Chief Information Officer Matt Behrens said.
Providers applied to build broadband infrastructure in places the state deemed to be lacking broadband access. A map laid out by the Office of the Chief Information Officer in July denotes the areas eligible for state funding.
After months of delays, the long-awaited new Marion Fire Station is now complete.
The new station at 1000 Irish Dr. is the city's third and will serve as the fire department’s headquarters.
The station is the city’s first new station since 1991, when Marion was around half the size it is today.
The new station has been designed to keep firefighters safer as they wake up for calls and return from battling fires. According to the National Fire Prevention Association, cancer and cardiac arrest are the leading killers of firefighters.
The station is divided into different “zones” based on risk of contaminant exposure. When firefighters return from fires, they can be covered in soot that contains carcinogens.
I mentioned the derecho at the beginning of this, but if you have the chance I highly recommend you check out the work done by the Gazette’s reporters and photographers looking both back and forward a year after the derecho ravaged Eastern Iowa. The coverage is also available on thegazette.com so enjoy it however you like.
Stay cool and remember to hydrate. The next few days are going to be sticky.
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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Aug. 9th.
According to the National Weather Service, we’ll have a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8 a.m. It will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 89. Winds from the south, 5 to 10 mph, then from the west in the afternoon. A heat advisory will be in effect from noon to 8 p.m. for the southern part of the state, for all counties south of Johnson County. Tonight in the Cedar Rapids area, we’re again expecting a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 a.m. and a low around 72.
Looking at the latest CDC COVID Data Tracker, for the 7-day period ending August 7, there are 89 Iowa counties showing either a high level of community transmission or substantial community transmission. Linn County remains in the former category and Johnson County in the latter.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, August 7th and Sunday, August 8th.
We could see some rain Saturday and Sunday. According to the forecast from the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance for showers and thunderstorms all day on Saturday. Otherwise, it will be partly sunny, with a high near 88 degrees. The chance for rain will become more pronounced on Saturday night into Sunday, rising to a 50 percent chance overnight and a 70 percent chance on Sunday. As for Sunday, it is expected to range from partly sunny to mostly cloudy, with a high near 89 degrees.
Avoiding a murder trial, an Anamosa State Penitentiary inmate admitted Friday to bludgeoning correctional Officer Robert McFarland and prison nurse Lorena Schulte to death with a hammer during a failed prison escape last spring.
Inmate Thomas Woodard, 34, admitted that he intentionally struck McFarland, 46, of Ely, at least twice to the back of his head and struck Schulte, 50, of Cedar Rapids, at least twice to her face and head. He wouldn’t admit that he had an intent to kill Schulte. He said his intention when attacking Schulte was to try to keep her from calling for help.
Woodard, who was serving time at Anamosa for robbery, pleaded guilty to all the charges against him: two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and second-degree kidnapping. He faces two life sentences without parole and up to 50 years on the other two. His only condition for pleading to the charges was that he be sent to a Nebraska prison to serve his terms.
Another inmate who attempted to escape, Michael Dutcher, is accused of the same charges. He has asked for a non-jury trial, which hasn’t been scheduled yet. Dutcher plans to claim self-defense or that he acted in defense of others.
Following a denial in February and an unexpected delay over the summer, University of Iowa Health Care’s revamped application to build a $230 million facility off Interstate 380 in North Liberty is set to have a second shot this month before the State Health Facilities Council.
On May 20, UIHC resubmitted an application to build “one of the most expensive proposed projects in council history” after the five-member appointed group on Feb. 17 — following seven hours of testimony — narrowly voted 3-2 to deny permission to build.
In its reapplication the university hospital is attempting to argue for a narrower purpose for the location that fits its research mission. The original proposal was strongly opposed by other hospitals in the area, as they argued an expanded UIHC would hurt competition, and in the case of Mercy Iowa City, potentially put them out of business.
The new Sixth Avenue in Marion, a road project over a decade in the making, is now fully open to traffic.
The city held a ribbon cutting Friday morning to celebrate the opening of the road that runs between two roundabouts at Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street and at 26th Street, the former Marion Iron site.
The plan, set into motion in 2009, was to build a street along the right of way so downtown traffic would be balanced between Sixth and Seventh avenues, creating a more pedestrian-friendly Uptown.
In addition, properties that once housed warehouses and industry were removed and are now in a position to become a mix of commercial and residential.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 6th.
There will be a slight chance for rain Friday, but mostly it will be sunny and a bit warmer than it has been previously this week. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny with a high of 89 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area Friday. There will be a 20 to 30 percent chance of rain throughout the day, but this is expected to be the exception even if it does appear.
Iowa received 3.98 inches of rain in July, slightly less than normal, according to the latest Water Summary Update.
However, the continued lack of rainfall led to the expansion of drought conditions and the return of the extreme drought classification for the first time since April.
About 75 percent of the state is rated in some level of drought, with severe drought covering over one quarter of Iowa, and extreme drought covering almost 7 percent.
The extreme drought designation covers the largest area of the state in nearly a year.
The rise of the contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 led to more masking edicts Thursday.
As the rate of COVID-19 transmission worsened Thursday from “moderate” to “substantial” in Johnson County according to federal data, Iowa City announced that anyone going inside a city-owned facility now must wear a mask regardless of vaccination status.
The directive follows a similar one issued Tuesday by the city of Cedar Rapids. There the virus transmission rate is even worse. Linn County is rated “high” by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on the number of new cases per capita.
Earlier this year, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that prohibited local governments from enforcing mask mandates indoors. But the law does not prohibit cities from requiring masks in their own facilities.
Concerned parents and educators pleaded Thursday with the Iowa State Board of Education to ask the governor to rescind a new law banning school districts from requiring masks in classrooms as COVID-19 cases again are spreading quickly just as the academic year nears.
In late May, the Republican-led Legislature adopted House File 847, which among other things prohibited locally elected school boards from mandating their students or staff wear masks in district facilities. The bill’s managers said they brought the measure forward because hundreds of constituents had asked to be freed from governments imposing on their freedoms. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds immediately signed the bill into law.
UnityPoint Health, one of the largest health care providers in Iowa, announced Thursday that its 33,000 employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by November or face being out of a job.
UnityPoint Health — which operates St. Luke’s Medical Center in Cedar Rapids and other facilities across Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin — now joins several other health care systems nationwide that recently made the decision to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations among their staffs.
The West Des Moines-based health system announced its employees — whether they provide direct patient care or not — be vaccinated by Nov. 1. Employees who choose not to be vaccinated will be subject to voluntary resignation or termination.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, August 5.
We could get some much needed rain Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it should be partly sunny Thursday with a high near 82 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. There will be a slight chance for showers and thunderstorms Thursday morning that will increase as the day goes on. Rainfall totals are not expected to be significant, except in the areas where thunderstorms develop.
Iowa added an average of 510 COVID-19 cases a day over the last week — the highest average since last April and even higher than the same time a year ago when vaccines were not yet available here, according to weekly figures released Wednesday by the state. The number of virus patients being treated in Iowa hospitals rose, too, from 157 to 201. It marked the first time since April 24 that hospitalizations exceeded 200.
In some good news, the rate of vaccination seemed to have increased slightly as well. The number of fully vaccinated Iowans rose by 11,308 over the past seven days, for a total of 1,490,392. That marks 55.69 percent of Iowans over age 12 being fully vaccinated, or about 47.24 percent of Iowa’s total population.
It remains to be seen how the numbers will change as schools are set to reopen and the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 is the dominant strain in Iowa.
There were two high profile departures in Iowa’s health industry announced Wednesday.
Sean Williams will resign as Mercy Iowa City’s president and chief executive officer effective Sept. 30, the hospital said Wednesday.
Mike Trachta, MercyOne System vice president of network affiliates and Mercy Iowa City chief operating officer, will serve as acting president of the hospital.
Mercy Iowa City is seeking to leave the statewide MercyOne network in search of a larger partner. The move comes after years of financial struggles for the hospital.
After three years as part of University of Iowa Health Care’s new administrative team, Chief Financial Officer Bradley Haws on Friday is leaving UIHC for the same position at Emory Healthcare — which is part of Emory University in Atlanta.
That has UIHC relying again on interim leadership while a search committee launches a national hunt for Haws’ successor. All this while UIHC attempts to navigate a complicated post pandemic financial world.
A Cedar Rapids man who drowned in the Cedar River last month while swimming has been identified as Clifford Deon Jones.
A 911 call was placed just before 5:30 p.m. July 16 by the 44-year-old man’s teenage son, who reported his father had been swimming in the river, but then went underwater and did not resurface.
The son told emergency responders that he and his father had been walking their dogs near First Street and O Avenue NW and they both went into the water to cool off.
Firefighters launched three boats, and after 30 minutes of searching, found the man’s body in about 10 feet of water, 15 feet from the shore, the news release stated.
Police have determined the death to be an accidental drowning.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 4.
We will have one more day of pleasant, sunny weather before a chance of storms and heat arrive on Thursday.
According to the National Weather Service it should be mostly sunny Wednesday with a high near 83 degrees. Wednesday night it will be mostly cool with a low around 62 degrees.
Although the State of Iowa is issuing no new restrictions due to the updated CDC guidance about COVID-19, local schools and governments are slowly enacting increased masking.
As of Tuesday, all visitors to buildings owned by the city of Cedar Rapids — including the library and City Hall — now are required to wear face masks inside as COVID-19 transmission rates climb again, fueled by the Delta variant. Experts worry that the highly contagious Deltra strain of COVID-19, spreadable even by those who have gotten vaccinated, could cause a surge in infections.
It should be noted that full vaccination has been shown to prevent serious symptoms of COVID-19 even in the rare cases that an infection still takes place.
The city of Cedar Rapids announced the requirement as the Linn County area now is coded as “red” in CDC criteria to signify a high level of community transmission of the virus. Such areas are considered to be those with over 100 cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period. Most of Iowa is now at least at this level or worse.
This is not the case, at the moment, for Johnson County to the south, which has a moderate transmission rate that would not require masking according to the CDC.
Still, the Iowa City School District on Tuesday night planned ahead for the worst. Iowa City students will be required to wear masks on school buses this fall, in accordance with federal law, but cannot be required to wear masks in classrooms due to state law.
As the Delta variant of COVID-19 surges in Iowa, the Iowa City Community School District also is extending its registration deadline for its new online learning program. Families will have through Aug. 9 to register their child for the 100-percent virtual academy.
Court documents show one of the Anamosa inmates charged with killing a prison guard and a registered nurse during a botched escape in March will plead Friday in Jones County District Court.
Thomas Allen Woodard, 39, is charged with first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and attempted murder. He was set to stand trial Sept. 21 in Linn County District Court, after a judge granted a change in venue, but a hearing had previously been set for Friday because Woodard asked the court to move his trial out of Linn.
Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown declined Tuesday to make public the plea agreement, in case the defendant would change his mind.
Jordan Bohannon was hospitalized in May with a serious injury after he was assaulted in front of DC’s bar in downtown Iowa City. On Tuesday it was revealed in an Associated Press report that his attacker may have been a former Iowa State Cyclone football player.
Former Cyclone football player Nicholas Kron faces an assault causing bodily injury charge for allegedly attacking Bohannon. Kron turned himself in on Saturday, was booked into the Johnson County Jail, and was released about 20 minutes later.
Bohannon filed a lawsuit against Kron a few days earlier, alleging that the former Cyclone defensive end “brutally, unlawfully and intentionally" assaulted him.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 3.
The pleasant weather should continue Tuesday. The National Weather Service is predicting it to be sunny with a high near 82 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area, with a calm wind. Tuesday night it should be mostly clear, with a low around 60 degrees. Enjoy the weather while you can, because hotter and more volatile weather looks to be on tap starting Thursday night.
Health officials in Eastern Iowa are encouraging residents to follow new federal health guidelines that advise Americans — even those who are fully vaccinated — to wear masks in certain situations in areas with high levels of virus transmission.
These urgings come despite Gov. Kim Reynolds’ rejection of the new federal advisory this past week. Gov. Reynolds insisted that any mandate to mask would detract from the state’s vaccine efforts. The governor is correct that vaccination is the most effective way to protect yourself and others from the disease, but she has offered few new ideas to combat Iowa’s stalled vaccine efforts, with about half of Iowa residents fully vaccinated at this time.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance recommending people in counties with “substantial” or “high” levels of community transmission of COVID-19 wear masks in public indoor settings. This includes those who have been vaccinated.
According to the Associated Press, a judge on Monday rejected a request for a new trial for the man who was convicted in the 2018 killing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts.
The ruling by Judge Joel Yates now establishes that sentencing can proceed for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who was convicted in May of first-degree murder. Rivera faces life in prison.
Rivera’s attorneys had called for a new trial after witnesses came forward with testimony that supported the contention by Rivera that he may have been framed for the killing. However, the testimony from the new sources contradicted Rivera’s account of events.
A Cedar Rapids cyclist was seriously injured last week when he was struck by a vehicle while riding in Quasqueton.
According to the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office, Mark Johnson was riding his bicycle just after 8 a.m. July 28 in the southbound lane in 2800 block of Quasqueton Avenue when he was struck by a southbound van driven by Brent Meyers of Denver, Iowa.
Johnson was airlifted to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City with serious injuries, but is expected to survive, the sheriff’s office said. Meyers was not hurt.
The incident remains under investigation.
Iowa’s proportion of energy created by clean energy is the highest in the country, according to a recent report.
According to an American Clean Power Association report released Monday, about 57.6 percent of electricity generated in Iowa came from renewable sources, according to the report.
Kansas was the next highest state with 43.4 percent, followed by Oklahoma with 35.5 percent, South Dakota with 32.9 percent and North Dakota with 30.8 percent.
Iowa is one of 10 states to have more than one-fifth of its electricity come from wind turbines.
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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, August 2nd.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has issued an Air Quality Advisory until noon Monday for all of Iowa. The smoke plume from the Canadian wildfires that entered Iowa Thursday, continues to impact the state. Until the plume clears around noon on Monday, fine particulate levels above the EPA health standard are expected, and sensitive groups - like the elderly, those with respiratory or heart disease, and children - should limit prolonged outdoor exertion until air quality conditions improve. Our high temperature in the Cedar Rapids area today is expected to be near 79 with sunny skies, and tonight should be mostly clear with a low around 58.
A 22-year-old Marion man was killed in a collision with a semi tractor-trailer Saturday on Highway 1 in Linn County. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office said that Kyle Goodell was driving a 2004 Toyota Camry, crossed the centerline, south of Light Road in Mount Vernon, and struck a semi shortly before 10 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Three people were arrested Saturday afternoon after a shooting that left three people, including two of those arrested, with non-life-threatening injuries. Officers were dispatched to a disturbance involving a firearm in the 1900 block of Bever Avenue SE. The people involved are related to each other or had a former relationship, police said. Lamel Lamont Brandon, 45, was arrested on charges of felon in possession of a firearm, going armed with intent and intimidation with a weapon. Darius Lamel Howard Brandon, 27, was arrested on a charge of going armed with intent. He suffered a graze wound and was evaluated at a hospital. The Brandons were accused of intending to use a firearm against Jeremy Dell Hepker, according to criminal complaints. Hepker, 36, was charged with going armed with intent and intimidation with a weapon. He suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to a hospital by ambulance. A 25-year-old woman suffered injuries in the incident and was transported to the hospital.
The top-seeded Marion Indians defeated No. 3-seed Dubuque Wahlert, 7-6, in a Class 3A championship game thriller Saturday at University of Iowa’s Duane Banks Field. Marion came away with the top prize in its sixth overall state appearance and fourth trip in the last five seasons.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 31 and Sunday, August 1.
Most of the rain appears to have gone to the west of the Cedar Rapids area, but at least the cool air it brought with it will stay. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance of rain on Saturday morning. The haze from the west coast forest fires will also linger on Saturday, with some areas of smoke. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy with a high near 80 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny, with a high near 82 degrees.
A spokesperson for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds indicated Friday that the governor has no intention to offer $100 incentives to Iowans to entice them to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19. President Joe Biden floated the idea as an effort to break through to the population of Americans that has resisted getting vaccinated.
Some areas in the country, including some Iowa counties, are seeing the return of increasing COVID-19 positive rates due to a highly transmissible strain known as the Delta variant. These high areas of rapid spread are most prevalent in areas that have low vaccination rates.
CDC documents reported on by the Washington Post on Friday stated that research has shown the delta variant can cause infections that are more contagious than the common cold, flu, smallpox and the Ebola virus, and is considered as prolific in spreading as the highly contagious chicken pox. Researchers are also concerned that this variant may infect people who have been vaccinated, which are referred to as breakthrough infections, but all indications are that even in these cases the vaccine prevents more serious symptoms.
As a federal ban on pandemic-related apartment evictions is expected to expire Saturday, Linn County and the city of Cedar Rapids are working with local groups to stall evictions and keep people housed here.
The eviction moratorium that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention enacted last September has prevented millions of tenants from being evicted while facing financial hardship and job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the ban comes to an end, tenants who have fallen behind on rent payments now may face eviction. So local officials have put in place programs intended to prevent people from experiencing homelessness.
Starting Monday, Linn County is partnering with Iowa Legal Aid to maintain a physical presence at the Linn County Courthouse through its help-desk program. Iowa Legal Aid will provide legal assistance, as well as rent and utility assistance through Waypoint Services, on the spot to help prevent evictions
North Liberty-based South Slope Cooperative Communications will begin construction on a fiber network in Oxford in August, the company said Friday.
The network will be built within Oxford’s city limits before expanding into the surrounding area.
South Slope will use a federal grant and loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Reconnect Program worth $5.4 million to build the network.
South Slope continues to expand its fiber offerings into rural areas in response to an exploding demand for broadband as a result of the pandemic changing the way Americans work and seek entertainment.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 30.
The weather is going to be a bit weird Friday. Widespread haze caused by massive forest fires on the west coast could thicken into areas of smoke after 4 p.m. When the sun does poke its way through, it is expected to be partly sunny, with a high near 81 degrees. Showers and thunderstorms are likely Friday night into Saturday morning, but rainfall is not expected to be significant except in areas of thunderstorm development.
Jury deliberations that appeared headed for a mistrial instead brought emotions of relief for Chris Bagley’s family Thursday, as a jury eventually found Drew Blahnik guilty of his killing.
The jury deliberated for nearly three days before finding Blahnik, originally charged with first-degree murder, guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder in the 2018 killing. Jurors also found him guilty as charged of obstruction of prosecution and abuse of a corpse.
About an hour after they started Thursday morning, jurors sent a note to 6th Judicial District Judge Christopher Bruns, saying they were deadlocked because one juror wasn’t following the court’s instructions and the law. They said they took a vote and it was 11-1.
They initially said further deliberations wouldn’t help. But Judge Bruns, after talking with defense lawyers and prosecutors, sent a note back telling the jurors to continue deliberations to reach a unanimous verdict. The jury informed the court attendant it had a verdict after 3:30 p.m.
Iowa City police charged Andre Roberts Jr., 19, of Cedar Rapids after police said he fired several shots at the Iowa City Pedestrian Mall on July 25.
He was charged with attempted murder, use of a dangerous weapon in the commission of a crime, intimidation with a dangerous weapon and carrying dangerous weapons while being ineligible to do so.
Police said the shooter fired several shots in an alley behind the Fieldhouse bar at about 1:10 a.m., striking a 24-year-old woman and 17-year-old man. Both sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.
The shooting occurred hours after the Iowa City Downtown Block Party concluded.
Police said the investigation into the shooting continues as it searches for others involved.
On Thursday night Joe Wieskamp and Luka Garza became the first two Iowa Hawkeyes drafted by NBA teams in the same year since 1998. Both were taken in the second round of the NBA Draft.
Wieskamp, a 6-foot-7 forward, decided to turn professional after his junior season with the Hawkeyes. He was taken by the San Antonio Spurs with the 41st pick of the draft.
Garza, the National Player of the Year in his senior season after surprising some by spurning the NBA to return to Iowa City, went 52nd, to the Detroit Pistons.
Iowa has not had a player selected in the first round since Ricky Davis, also in 1998.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 29.
Another sunny, hot day Thursday, with the wind picking up slightly.
According to the National Weather Service, it should be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 92 degrees. A wind of 10 mph could gust as high as 20 mph. Storms and thunderstorms may arrive on Friday and Saturday, but this far out predictions tend to be less accurate.
Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday again urged Iowans to get vaccinated as the best defense against COVID-19 and its variants, but expressed frustration with changing federal mask guidelines she said are “counterproductive” in conveying a consistent message.
Speaking to reporters, the governor said she has not seen data to support new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending that even vaccinated people who live in communities with elevated transmission rates again wear masks indoors. Many — but not all — counties in Iowa are rated as having substantial or high rates of virus transmission.
According to state data released Wednesday, Iowa has seen an average of 308 new COVID-19 cases a day over the last week — the highest it has been in over two months. CDC data indicates nearly half of Iowa’s 99 counties are facing substantial or high COVID-19 spread. Over a million people are expected to attend the Iowa State Fair next month, where there are no mask or vaccine requirements.
The Iowa Board of Regents unanimously approved tuition increases Wednesday for students at Iowa’s three state universities, citing the need to maintain quality, affordable and accessible education despite stagnant state funding.
Starting this fall, Iowa resident undergraduate students at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University will pay 3.5 percent more in tuition and resident and non-resident undergrads at the University of Northern Iowa will pay 1.5 percent more, according the final vote on tuition increases.
The Board of Regents also voted Wednesday to name the field at Kinnick Stadium after Duke Slater.
Slater was a tackle for Iowa from 1918 to 1921, leading the Hawkeyes to a conference title and a mythical national championship in his final year. He was the first Black student-athlete in school history to earn All-America honors. He later earned a UI law degree while playing in the NFL and became one of Chicago’s first Black judges.
Slater, who died at 67 in 1966, was recently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of its 2020 centennial class and already had been named to the National Iowa Varsity Club Hall of Fame and Iowa Sports Hall of Fame. In 1951, he was the first Black player inducted into the National Football Foundation’s College Hall of Fame.
The city of Cedar Rapids is asking residents to help select a new city flag as a symbol of community pride.
Residents may view four flag designs and read the symbolism descriptions before ranking their top choices at cityofcr.com/cityflag through Aug. 31. The option residents rank highest will become the new official city flag.
I can’t really describe the flags to you very well in this medium, except that all 4 designs are blue, green, and white; all of them have a single star; and all were vetted by members of the North American Vexillological Association.
The city’s old flag design became the source of negative attention after podcaster Roman Mars featured it as an example of what not to do in flag design in his TED talk on the aforementioned topic.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 28.
Wednesday is set to be the hottest day in an already hot week. According to the National Weather Service, it should be mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 96 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Heat index values could reach as high as 105. Wednesday night it will stay mostly clear, with a low around 76 degrees.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed course Tuesday on masking guidelines, recommending that even vaccinated people return to wearing them indoors in parts of the country — including some counties in Iowa — where the Delta variant of the coronavirus is fueling surges.
Citing new information about the variant's ability to spread among vaccinated people, the CDC also recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at K-12 schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status and regardless of the rate of community spread.
Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds rejected the guidance soon after it was issued, criticizing the Democratic Biden administration for confusing and unnecessary messages.
"The Biden Administration's new COVID-19 guidance telling fully vaccinated Iowans to now wear masks is not only counterproductive to our vaccination efforts, but also not grounded in reality or common sense," Reynolds said in a statement.
She did not explain how asking people to wear a mask discourages vaccinations. But she added she was concerned the federal guidance could result in mask mandates for schools. Reynolds signed a law in May that prohibits local officials from requiring masks be worn in schools or businesses.
Iowa ranks lower than the national average when it comes to the rate of vaccinations, with about 47 percent of the population, or 1.47 million Iowans, fully vaccinated. Like many states, vaccination interest here has stagnated.
After twice voting to support a controversial housing development proposed near Hickory Hill Park, the Iowa City Council reversed course Tuesday night and rejected a rezoning that would have allowed homes and a senior living center and added land to the park.
A reversal on the third consideration of the Hickory Trail Estates development came after council members heard and read an onslaught of opposition to the project, although it had been scaled back from its initial proposal.
Council members heard an hour of public comment from residents Tuesday evening, with all who spoke aside from the developer in opposition. The project was proposed by developer Joseph Clark, Nelson Development and Axiom Consultants. Residents have cited concerns that the development’s proximity to the park would disrupt the ecosystem and aesthetics of the park.
Hickory Trail Estates was to include 41 lots of single-family housing and a senior living facility, and add 14 acres to the nearby Hickory Hill Park.
A mine resistant ambush protected vehicle, shared by Johnson County law enforcement agencies, will remain an option for the Iowa City Police Department, for the moment, as the Iowa City Council considers alternatives to the armored transport vehicle.
The vehicle, known as an MRAP, was purchased by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in 2014.
Residents have decried the use of the vehicle, saying its use is unnecessary and a needless militarization of the police. Local law enforcement has pushed back, saying that they need an armored vehicle option to help protect officers in dangerous situations.
The Johnson County Board of Supervisors has also directed Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel to consider an alternative option to the MRAP.
The council asked city staff to communicate with the county government on their plans for exploring an alternative option, and will revisit the topic at its next work session on Aug. 17.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 27.
Tuesday’s weather will fit the mold for most of this week: sunny, humid, and hot. According to the National Weather Service we can expect a high of 94 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with sunny skies. The sky will remain clear Tuesday evening, with a low of 73 degrees.
After more than a half-year of decline, the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Iowa has been increasing in recent weeks despite widespread availability of a vaccine.
With large public gatherings such as RAGBRAI and the Iowa State Fair looming — and another school year set to start in roughly two months — public health officials are expressing concern that the trend could worsen.
Their message echoes in unison: If you have not already, get the COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly all new hospitalizations from COVID-19 — more than 97 percent nationwide — are of unvaccinated individuals, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After a good start, Iowa’s vaccination efforts have stalled in recent months, lingering at 55 percent for those age 12 and older.
The emergence of the COVID-19 Delta variant has added to public health officials’ consternation. The new variant appears to be even more transmissible than the original virus, and appears to be having a greater impact on young people.
Linn County Public Health is offering $50 Walmart gift cards to residents receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at walk-in clinics taking place this week.
Public health officials are offering the COVID-19 vaccine to eligible residents aged 12 years and older at five Cedar Rapids Community School District schools through Friday.
The gift card offer one of the first major incentive programs offered locally since the shots became widely available earlier this year.
All occupants safely escaped a North Liberty fire on Sunday.
According to a city news release, the North Liberty Fire Department was called to a fire at 2:13 p.m. Sunday at 1557 Burr Dr. Authorities said neighbors had discovered a fire outside of the home and alerted the residents.
Crews knocked down the fire, which sped through the eaves and into the attic of the townhouse. It was brought under control within 26 minutes of firefighters arriving on scene. A cat was also rescued.
Iowa announced contract extensions for nine of its head coaches on Monday.
The nine coaches receiving contract extensions were men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery, wrestling coach Tom Brands, women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder, soccer coach Dave Dilanni, field hockey coach Lisa Cellucci, softball coach Renee Gillispie, baseball coach Rick Heller, women’s golf coach Megan Menzel and women’s tennis coach Sasha Schmid.
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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, July 26th.
For our weather today in the Cedar Rapids area, we’re expecting it to be sunny with a high near 90. Winds from the south around 5 mph eventually. Then tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 68.
Iowa City police are investigating after gunfire erupted early Sunday on the Pedestrian Mall in Iowa City. Police said shots were fired around 1:10 a.m. after a fight broke out among several people in an alley behind the Fieldhouse bar - just hours after the Iowa City Downtown Block Party wrapped up. Police said one person fired several shots with a handgun into the crowd and a 24-year-old woman and 17-year-old boy were struck. They both sustained what appear to be non-life-threatening injuries. No arrests have been made. Police released a video of the incident and are asking for help identifying those involved. The video can be viewed at thegazette.com.
A motorcyclist was seriously injured Saturday in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 30 in southwest Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids police said they and firefighters were dispatched at 5:19 p.m. to Highway 30 westbound, just east of the Williams Boulevard SW exit. First responders found an unconscious 52-year-old man about 30 feet down the embankment. The man received emergency medical care and was transported to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital with “serious, potentially life-threatening injuries.”
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday July 24 and Sunday July 25.
It’s going to be a hot weekend. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5 p.m. on Saturday, but besides that it will be sunny and muggy both Saturday and Sunday. The high on Saturday is expected to be 94 degrees, with a heat index near 103 degrees. On Sunday the high is expected to be 92 degrees, with sunny skies.
One week after the first-degree murder trial began in Linn County District Court, prosecutors Friday rested their case against Drew Blahnik, 34. He is accused of stabbing to death Chis Bagley inside a trailer in December 2018 in a revenge plot hatched by a drug dealer named Andrew Shaw who was angry that Bagley had robbed him. Shaw is now in jail on separate drug-related charges.
Blahnik testified to stabbing Bagley, but said that he had stabbed him to death in self defense during a dispute because he thought Bagley was armed with a gun. When asked why he needed to stab Bagley more than a dozen times if it was self defense, Blahnik said he was familiar with instances where stabbing someone does not fully incapicitate them.
The defense will start presenting its case Monday.
A Coralville City Council member will seek to become the community’s first female mayor.
Meghann Foster announced Friday that she is running for the open mayor seat in the fall election.
Coralville Mayor John Lundell announced this week he will not seek a fifth term.
A 20-year Coralville resident, Foster was elected to the city council in 2017. She is the community engagement coordinator for the Domestic Violence Intervention Program and an educator at the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
A woman was shot during a dispute involving a group of people Thursday evening.
Police say they were called to the 1100 block of Arthur Street — in southeast Iowa City, south of Muscatine Avenue — at around 11:25 p.m.
According to police the shooting grew out of a dispute involving a group of people when one person shot at several others, striking the woman. Witnesses reported seeing people leave the scene in separate vehicles after the shooting.
The woman was taken to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. She is not cooperating with police in the investigation at this time.
Big Ten football media days continued on Friday, and Iowa received five first-place votes and was picked No. 2 overall in the Big Ten West in a preseason Big Ten media poll from Cleveland.com. Wisconsin received 29 first-place votes at No. 1 and Northwestern ranked No. 3.
When asked about COVID-19 vaccination rates, Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said that about 70 percent of his players are vaccinated, and he is vaccinated as well. However, despite health concerns and the inconvenience of players missing time, he said he will not be requiring the vaccine.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 23.
There could be a hazy start to your Friday morning. According to the National Weather Service there could be widespread haze and the smell of smoke tied to wildfires on the west coast. Afters this, it should be sunny and humid, with a high of 91 degrees.
Former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer said Thursday that she still sees “a lot to fight for” and this time she hopes to take the fight to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley.
Finkenauer launched her Democratic campaign on Thursday, challenging for a senate seat in 2022. Grassley, her presumptive opponent, has not said yet whether he’ll seek an eighth term in 2022, but if he does he will likely be the favorite in the coming race.
Earlier this year Jim Carlin, a Republican state senator from Sioux City, announced he would be running for Grassley’s spot, but this also will likely be affected by Grassley’s decision.
Finkenauer was defeated after one term in congress last year in Iowa’s northern 1st congressional district. It was a historically bad election year for Democrats, with a bungled Iowa Caucus to start the year and election defeats at nearly every level. Finkenauer hopes she can be part of a return to success for Iowa Democrats in what has traditionally been considered a swing state.
Finkenauer joins two other Democrats who want their party’s Senate nomination in the statewide race — Manning farmer and cattleman and former county Supervisor Dave Muhlbauer and Glenn Hurst of Minden.
According to the Associated Press, one of two Iowa prison nurses fired for giving dozens of Fort Madison inmates large overdoses of the coronavirus vaccine is appealing her termination, arguing she is “blameless" for the mix-up.
The Iowa Department of Corrections fired Amanda Dodson, a registered nurse at the maximum-security Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, after an investigation found 77 inmates received shots containing up to six times the recommended dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
Dodson’s termination letter, obtained by the Associated Press through an open records request, blamed her for “improper COVID vaccination procedures” that resulted in inmates receiving overdoses on April 20. Although some inmates suffered negative symptoms, all of them eventually recovered without long term effects.
The union helping Dodson with her appeal said that the mixup occurred when the prison abruptly switched from the Moderna vaccine to the Pfizer vaccine, without properly training staff about the change in dosage.
We’ll end with some good news.
Marion’s cost of recovery from last year’s derecho is $11 million less than an earlier estimate.
In late January, the city estimated the cost of derecho cleanup would be up to $43 million.
This week, a new estimate put the cost at around $32 million. City officials said Thursday that they are considering borrowing less money than they initially planned, which will help their financial flexibility long term.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 22.
The chance for rain has passed, but what remains is heat and humidity. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny and humid Thursday with a high near 89 degrees. Adding to this will be hazy skies Thursday night and Friday morning as the smoke from several west coast wildfires is reaching midwestern states.
A teenage girl who took advanced classes and played on her high school basketball team was found dead this week with a bullet wound in a crashed car she had borrowed while visiting her older sister in Cedar Rapids.
Cedar Rapids police on Wednesday identified Tyliyah Whitis, 15, of Peoria, Ill, as the teen who was discovered Tuesday morning in the one-car crash outside the Hawthorne Hills apartment complex in the 2200 block of C Street SW. Police said Whitis had been shot at least once and the vehicle had sustained significant damage.
Cedar Rapids public safety spokesperson Greg Buelow said the cause and manner of death has not yet been determined — that will come from the State Medical Examiner’s Office following an autopsy. But police are investigating the death as a homicide.
Whitis’s sister, T’yanna Nesby, told the Gazette that Whitis was a straight A student back in Peoria, who worked two jobs and wanted to one day start her own business.
Forty Iowans, including some from the Cedar Rapids area, had to undergo treatment for rabies after they were potentially in contact with a rabid bat at a zoo in Omaha.
More than 180 individuals were advised to receive the rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, which contains the rabies vaccine, after a wild bat was found near a person attending one of the Henry Doorly Zoo’s multiple overnight campouts at the aquarium earlier this month.
A total of 186 overnight campers, including youth and adult groups, were contacted by the Nebraska public health department, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
Public health officials in Nebraska recommended all campers who stayed at the zoo overnight June 29, June 30, July 2 and July 3 receive the treatment.
As it promised, University of Iowa Health Care plans to reward more than 12,000 employees it required over the last year to either forfeit raises, absorb pay cuts, shed earned vacation time or take unpaid leave to ease its budget woes in the worst throes of COVID-19.
The one-time lump sum payments — coming Sept. 1 if approved next week by the Board of Regents — will vary in amount depending on the eligible worker’s base salary as of June 30, 2021, according to documents made public this week.
In total, UIHC expects to pay out $26.6 million to over 12,000 eligible employees based on a projected hospital operating margin of over 7 percent for the budget year that ended June 30.
Luka Garza has been selected as the 2020-21 Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year, the league announced Wednesday.
Garza is the fifth Hawkeye chosen as the male winner in the past 35 years, joining wrestlers Brent Metcalf (2008), Barry Davis (1985) and Ed Banach (1983), as well as football player Chuck Long (1986).
Minnesota senior diver Sarah Bacon was recognized as the Female Athlete of the Year.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 21.
Yesterday I mentioned that there likely wouldn’t be any sign of rain until the end of the week. Well, that’s sort of still true, if by the end of the week you substitute in the end of Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area. This chance will go down as the evening progresses. Besides that, it should be mostly sunny, with a high near 86 degrees.
Police are investigating after a 15-year-old girl was found dead with gunshot wounds in a vehicle Tuesday morning in southwest Cedar Rapids.
According to the Cedar Rapids Police Department, officers were called just before 6:30 a.m. to the Hawthorne Hills apartment complex — in the 2200 block of C Street SW — for reports of a single-vehicle crash.
When they arrived, police said they found a vehicle with extensive damage and a teenage girl in the driver’s seat. Police said the girl was dead and had what appeared to be gunshot wounds.
The name of the girl is being withheld pending notification of the family.
The investigation is ongoing, police said, adding that the preliminary investigation indicates the shooting likely was a targeted incident.
Deficits that the University of Iowa and Iowa State University projected for their athletics operations over the last pandemic-plagued season were not as steep as feared, according to newly released Board of Regents budget documents.
To be sure, the Hawkeyes and Cyclones did lose millions in the fiscal year that ended June 30, the records show. Still, Hawkeye income was $35.8 million above expectations and Cyclone income was $15 million better than anticipated.
University of Northern Iowa Athletics, which is not self-sufficient like at the larger schools, ended fiscal 2021 about $3 million over budget. That UNI positive balance in large part came thanks to a spike in support from the main campus — which increased its athletics funding from a budgeted $3.2 million to nearly $8 million.
More than 40 percent of Alliant Energy’s power sold in Iowa during 2020 came from renewable sources, according to a report released Tuesday, as the company continues toward its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The 43.8 percent of Iowa power from utilities in 2020 was up from 26.5 percent in 2019 and 9.9 percent in 2018. The company announced goals last year to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and eliminate use of coal by 2040.
Alliant also unveiled its plans to plant 1 million trees — or about one tree per customer — in Iowa and Wisconsin over the next decade.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man who was killed Monday in a two-vehicle wreck near Central City and Alburnett as 62-year-old Larry Hullerman, of Waterloo.
The sheriff’s office said Hullerman was pronounced dead at the scene Monday morning after the vehicle he was driving was struck by a vehicle that had run a stop sign at Central City and Alburnett roads.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 20.
This week should remain free of rain until the weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high of 90 degrees. Tuesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 68.
A Cedar Rapids man already convicted of his role in the 2018 fatal stabbing of Chris Bagley testified Monday for the prosecution — telling jurors about how defendant Drew Blahnik carried out the killing on behalf of their mutual drug dealer as revenge for robberies.
Drew Wagner told the jury that he and Blahnik intended to confront Bagley at the mobile home of a mutual acquaintance due to Bagley robbing drugs and money from a Cedar Rapids drug dealer named Andrew Shaw. After a scuffle, Wagner said he held Bagley as Blahnik stabbed him to death. The stabbing was chaotic enough that Wagner was stabbed in the hand during the incident.
Wagner has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter for his role in the stabbing. His testimony will continue on Tuesday.
Shaw has been convicted in federal court of marijuana trafficking. The charges stemmed from the Bagley investigation, but Shaw has not been charged in this case. He remains in federal prison.
One person died and another was injured in a two-vehicle crash Monday morning in Linn County near Central City and Alburnett.
An unidentified male driver was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. His identity is being withheld pending notification of the family.
The sheriff’s office said Eric Caryl, 42, of Coggon, was driving south on Alburnett Road when he “failed to stop at the stop sign” at Alburnett and Central City roads and crashed his vehicle into another that was headed east on Central City Road and driven by the male occupant.
Police found more than 50 shell casings when responding to a shots- fired incident early Sunday in Iowa City.
According to the Iowa City Police Department, officers were called just after 4 a.m. to the 500 block of South Scott Boulevard for reports of multiple gunshots.
Iowa City Police Capt. Denise Brotherton, commander of the Field Operation Division, said 911 dispatchers at the Johnson County Joint Emergency Communications Center fielded “five or six” 911 calls reporting gunfire.
Investigators said evidence indicated more than 50 shots had been fired from multiple weapons.
The initial investigation indicates the shooting was coming from more than one direction, Brotherton said.
Police said vehicles and buildings in the area were damaged, but thankfully no injuries were reported. Brotherton said investigators still are working to determine the total extent of damage.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, July 19th.
Today in the Cedar Rapids area, we’re expecting it to be mostly sunny with a high near 87. And tonight should be mostly clear, with a low around 66. Looking ahead, each day’s high is forecast to be at or above 90.
A woman has been charged with reckless use of a firearm causing bodily injury after a man was shot early Saturday morning, according to a Linn County criminal complaint. Cedar Rapids police said they were dispatched at 3:55 a.m. to the 1600 block of F Avenue NW, with information that a man had been shot. Officers found the man suffering from a non-life-threatening gunshot wound just above his hip. First responders provided medical aid before the man was transported to a hospital. Diana Depolis was taken into custody at the scene and charged with reckless use of a firearm causing bodily injury, a Class D felony when not a serious injury, and carrying a dangerous weapon while intoxicated, a serious misdemeanor.
Speakers at a rally hosted by the Marion Alliance for Racial Equity said Saturday the city has changes to make to be more equitable and welcoming to people of color. The rally was attended by several dozen people lined up outside the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection near Butterfield Park. Speakers included Marion Alliance members, local faith leaders and students from Linn-Mar High School. Marion Alliance co-founder Janessa Carr, who spoke at the rally, told The Gazette the purpose of the event was to promote unity and understanding in Marion — while also raising attention about ongoing issues of inequity. The Marion Alliance for Racial Equity formed in July 2020 in the wake of nationwide protests against police violence and systemic racism. This was the first event the Marion Alliance has held this year. The group has worked with the Cedar Rapids Advocates for Social Justice and on the city’s Community Equity Task Force, but Carr said rallies are an important way to take the message public and keep pressure on local officials.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18.
Whether you are going to Latino Fest in Iowa City, the Bluegrass Festival in Kalona, or Solon Beef Days this weekend, the weather should be about as nice for getting out to do things we have seen in awhile. According to the National Weather Service Saturday should be sunny, with a high near 83 degrees. A northeast wind will blow at around 5 mph. Sunday it should also be sunny, with calm winds and a high of 86 degrees.
In her opening statement as the Drew Blahnik murder trial began Friday, Assistant Linn County Attorney Jennifer Erger told a jury that a missing person case became a homicide case after Chris Bagley was killed in December 2018.
Erger told the jury that an autopsy revealed that Bagley had been stabbed 17 times. Blahnik is accused of stabbing Bagley to death as he was held by another man because Bagley had stolen money and drugs from a local drug dealer. Drew Wagner, the man who was holding Bagley according to the prosecution, has already pleaded to a lesser crime and is cooperating against Blahnik. For his part, Blahnik admitted to the stabbing, but said it was done in self defense.
The trial is expected to continue next week.
A man died Friday evening in the Cedar River, where he had been swimming.
Cedar Rapids firefighters were called to the river shortly before 5:30 p.m. near First Street and O Avenue NW.
Witnesses told firefighters a man had entered the water to swim and had begun to struggle, “then went under the water and did not resurface.”
Firefighters launched three boats and, after 30 minutes of searching, found the man’s body in approximately 10 feet of water, 15 feet from the shore, the news release stated.
After nearly four years fighting certain religious student organizations on its campus over who can and can’t be leaders, the University of Iowa on Friday lost again in federal court — with a panel of U.S. appellate judges blasting the institution for clear viewpoint discrimination.
“What the university did here was clearly unconstitutional,” according to a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. “It targeted religious groups for differential treatment under the human rights policy — while carving out exemptions and ignoring other violative groups with missions they presumably supported.”
The InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship — at the center of Friday’s opinion — sued the UI in 2018 on the heels of an earlier lawsuit from another UI student organization named Business Leaders in Christ, or BLinC.
That first lawsuit stemmed from the university’s decision in 2017 to deregister BLinC for barring an openly gay member from becoming a leader because he refused to affirm the group’s belief that same-sex relationships are against the Bible.
BLinC in its lawsuit accused the university of selectively applying its human rights policy, pointing out many other UI groups — including Muslim groups, ethnic groups, political groups, fraternities and sororities — restrict leadership and membership based on gender, ethnicity or ideology.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 16.
After a rainy week, Friday will begin a stretch of days with no chance of rain. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny Friday with a high near 81 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with near 61 degrees.
More than 12 tornadoes carved paths across Iowa as severe storms Wednesday evening left flattened crops, broken trees and battered buildings in their wake, the National Weather Service reported Thursday.
The weather service dispatched two survey teams to assess the damage and determine how severe the tornadoes were -- one assessing Calhoun and Hamilton counties and another assessing Bremer and Butler counties. But it said more survey teams could be added.
Of the tornado reports made Thursday afternoon by the weather service -- showing the findings of some but not all of the assessments -- all were rated EF1 or lower, with maximum winds in the 86 to 110 mph range. Several were rated as unknown -- they touched down too briefly to leave significant damage. The severity scale for tornadoes goes from EF0 to EF5, which is the worst with winds of over 200 mph.
Two Iowa murder trials were prominent in the news Thursday.
On the day Cristhian Bahena Rivera had been scheduled to be sentenced after being found guilty of the murder of Mollie Tibbetts, lawyers discussed new evidence that had been presented by the defense. Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown said during a hearing that a 21-year-old man's alleged confession that he helped kill Tibbetts after she was kidnapped and held at a house used for sex trafficking wasn't credible.
“No evidence supports it. None. Zero,” Brown said.
He told the court that information about the 21-year-old from two witnesses who came forward late in Behena Rivera's trial independently of one another was inconsistent with Bahena Rivera's own courtroom account of what happened. Bahena Rivera testified that he had been kidnapped the night of the murder and forced by two men to find Tibbetts out jogging, where he was then framed for her murder. The other witnesses claimed that Tibbetts had been held at the house and was only murdered after the publicity about her disappearance grew too intense.
Back in Cedar Rapids, a jury has been selected and the murder trial will begin for Drew Blahnik.
Drew Blahnik, 34, of Cedar Rapids, is charged with first-degree murder, accused of fatally stabbing Bagley, of Walker, on Dec. 15, 2018, because Bagley had robbed a local drug dealer of drugs and money. The drug dealer, Andrew Shaw, has been accused by police of running a large marijuana operation, and he is serving time for charges separate from the murder.
Two people from Missouri died when a small plane crashed into a cornfield in Muscatine County in Eastern Iowa, authorities said.
The single-engine Piper went down Wednesday afternoon about 4 miles north of Muscatine, Sheriff Quinn Riess said.
Daniel Slack, 68, and Sharon Slack, 69, of El Dorado Springs, Mo., died in the crash.
Daniel Slack was superintendent of schools in Deerfield, Kan., from 2015 until he retired last year, KSNW-TV reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 15.
After storms made their way mostly through central and Northern Iowa Wednesday, Thursday will be potentially another stormy day.
According to the National Weather Service, storm activity will be most likely between 2 and 8 p.m. Thursday, with an overall chance of precipitation at 60 percent. When it is not raining it should still be cloudy, with a high temperature of 81 degrees.
A judge said Wednesday he’ll delay sentencing the man convicted of killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts in 2018 after defense attorneys argued authorities withheld information about investigations into a nearby sex trafficking ring the lawyers say could have been involved in the fatal stabbing.
Lawyers for 26-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera, filed a motion late Tuesday asking 8th Judicial District Judge Joel Yates to delay the hearing on sentencing and on their motion for new trial based on evidence involving sex trafficking “trap houses and kidnappings” in or near Poweshiek County. The hearings were set for Thursday, but the defense lawyers said they needed more time to prepare.
At trial, Bahena Rivera testified in his own defense that he was kidnapped by two masked men who forced him to drive to where Tibbetts was jogging in Brooklyn, Iowa. One of them killed her, he testified, and put her body in the trunk of the car Bahena Rivera was driving. His defense attorneys have asserted that there are witnesses that support this story, including a witness who said Tibbetts had been killed by human traffickers who then framed Bahena Rivera.
The prosecution maintains that Bahena Rivera’s account is totally fictional, and the defense is cobbling together different witness accounts in an effort to craft a case.
Several people were pulled from apartment windows and balconies Wednesday morning when a blaze erupted in a first-floor apartment at 1407 Third Ave. SE.
The Cedar Rapids Fire Department said firefighters were called to the three-story apartment building at 7:39 a.m.
When they arrived, firefighters found light smoke pushing from a first-floor apartment.
According to the fire department, while one fire crew deployed hose lines to combat the blaze, other crews used fire escape ladders and deployed ground ladders to windows and balconies to help those on the second and third floors escape the building. Firefighters removed several people using ladders and fire escapes.
Firefighters said the apartment where the fire ignited received “major damage.” The rest of the building received minor smoke damage.
With new COVID-19 cases rising again in the United States and many still hesitating to get vaccinated, University of Iowa researchers are aiding national efforts to curb the disease with tools like an experimental nasal vaccine and gathering information to increase youth inoculations.
In partnership with the University of Georgia, a University of Iowa team recently published promising findings showing a single-dose inhaled COVID-19 vaccine fully protected mice against lethal infections and also blocked animal-to-animal transmission. Those findings — published this month in the journal “Science Advances” — could lead to a clinical trial in humans this fall.
Unlike the vaccines in circulation that require injections, this vaccine is a nose spray like those used to prevent flu. It uses a harmless virus to deliver the coronavirus spike protein aimed at stimulating a protective immune response. That harmless virus is similar to common cold viruses and doesn’t cause serious illness.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 14.
Tuesday gave us a break from the rain, but a one day break might be all we get. According to the National Weather Service rain, potentially in heavy amounts, is likely to fall in the Cedar Rapids area before Wednesday is done. A 30 percent chance for showers and thunderstorms are predicted for the area starting primarily after 3 p.m. Before that it should be partly sunny with a high near 90 degrees. On Wednesday night it will become windier and mostly cloudy, with a chance of precipitation at 70 percent. Up to 1 to 2 inches of rain could fall in total if conditions align for it.
A transportation commission has established a buffer zone that would allow for the eventual widening of Interstate 380 to six lanes between North Liberty and Cedar Rapids.
The Iowa Transportation Commission on Tuesday approved a Corridor Preservation Zone along I-380. Iowa Department of Transportation district transportation planner Cathy Cutler said the zone helps the DOT work with developers to ensure they don’t build in an area needed to widen the interstate.
Cutler said a section that would widen I-380 near North Liberty is planned for a 2024 start.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a nightmare for university operations and budgets in Iowa, but recent numbers suggest it has been a boon for some researchers.
Both University of Iowa and Iowa State University this week reported new external funding records for the budget year that wrapped June 30.
The University of Iowa — involved in coronavirus vaccine and treatment trials that have benefited the world — reported double-digit percentage spikes in several funding categories, starting with its 23 percent jump in total external funding, from last year’s record-setting $666.2 million to $818 million for fiscal 2021.
Iowa State University — the state’s other top-tier public research campus — soared past its previous total external funding record of $509.2 million in 2018 with a reported $559.1 million in the 2021 budget year. Iowa State also reported a COVID-19 related boost to their funding totals.
A former Cedar Rapids school counselor was convicted Tuesday in federal court on a charge of enticing a 14-year-old student to have sex with her.
46-year-old Miranda Bohlken Breeden, of Monticello, pleaded guilty to one count of enticement of a minor.
During the plea hearing, Breeden admitted that she used a cellphone to entice the 14-year-old boy to engage in an illegal sex act between November 2019 and January 2020. She also admitted that based on the sex act she would have been charged with third-degree sexual abuse in state court.
District officials last September confirmed she was placed on leave Jan. 22 and terminated July 31. She had been employed by the district since Aug. 12, 2019.
The school district confirmed to investigators that Breeden was the counselor for the 14-year-old during the time she was employed.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday July 13.
If you have something you absolutely must do without a chance for rain Tuesday is looking like your best shot before the end of the week rolls around. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 85 degrees. A southwest wind will blow from 5 to 10 mph. Tuesday night will also be mostly clear, with a low around 67 degrees.
Drought conditions persist in some parts of Iowa, but substantial weekend rainstorms “took the edge off” concerns over developing corn and soybean crops, state officials said Monday. In fact, some parts of Iowa got more rain over the weekend than they did during the entire month of May
State Climatologist Justin Glisan said a majority of Iowa’s reporting stations observed above-average rainfall, with parts of southern Iowa measuring amounts from 1 to 3 inches above average.
Weekly precipitation totals in inches ranged from 0.14 at Waterloo to 4.8 in Adair County. The statewide weekly average precipitation was 1.89 inches, while the normal is about 0.8.
More rain is expected later this week.
Iowans later this week will have access to free, at-home COVID-19 testing kits as state officials begin transitioning its Test Iowa program to a self-administered model.
With these kits, Iowans can collect their own saliva and mail the sample directly to the State Hygienic Lab for testing, the Iowa Department of Public Health announced Monday. Results will be emailed to participants with 24 hours after it is received by the state lab.
These kits, available this coming Friday, can be sent directly to a participant’s home for free or picked up from a designated site.
State officials said the Test Iowa website will be updated “to facilitate the process for requesting test kits and will feature a test kit site locator tool.” It will include a list of approximately 125 pickup sites across the state.
According to the Associated Press, agreements released Monday show Iowa is donating the use of state troopers and their equipment at “no cost to Texas” to pitch in along the U.S. border with Mexico.
The agreements show Iowa troopers, members of an Iowa State Patrol tactical team that responds to high-risk situations, command staff and an investigator will be part of the deployment. The total number is redacted from the documents, but Iowa officials have said previously they expect to send 25 to 30 officers from the Iowa Department of Public Safety for a two-week mission this month.
The smaller of two utility-scale solar energy projects being proposed in Linn County has formally applied for permission to build a 640-acre facility nearly 3 miles west of Coggon and supply enough electricity to meet the needs of over 16,000 homes on average.
Coggon Solar LLC, a partnership between Clenera and Central Iowa Power Cooperative, filed an application last Friday, the county announced Monday. I approved and built, the plan calls for generating 100 megawatts, for 35 years. Coggon Solar already has signed long-term leases with property owners to obtain the land required for the project, the application states. The land use now is farming.
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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, July 12th.
Today, we’ll have a slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m. It will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Winds from 5 to 10 mph are expected from the northeast. The chance of precipitation is 30%. Then tonight, we’re expecting a 10% chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7 p.m. and a low around 63.
A mixed martial arts fighter hanged himself in the Linn County Jail shortly after he had agreed to plead guilty to federal child pornography charges, according to authorities and court records. Travis Jon Fulton of Parkersburg, who went by “The Ironman” on the MMA fighting circuit, was identified Sunday as the inmate who about 4 a.m. Saturday was found unresponsive in a cell at the Linn County Jail, where he had been held on federal charges since Feb. 19th. Court records show initially he was indicted on charges he enticed a girl under age 18 to engage in sexual behavior that he photographed over the span of several years. In March, a federal grand jury expanded the indictment to add another victim, also a girl under 18. Besides the felony sexual exploitation charges, records show Fulton also faced charges of receiving and possessing child porn.
A driver died Sunday afternoon in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 151 near Stone Road in Linn County. Linn County sheriff’s deputies and the Marion Fire Department responded around 3:35 p.m. Deputies discovered a white 2006 Mercury Mountaineer upside-down in water under a bridge that is under construction. Witnesses reported seeing the vehicle, which was eastbound on Highway 151, leave the roadway and crash into the water. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver’s name is being withheld until next of kin can be notified.
An Ohio woman is charged with sexual abuse after police say she established an online relationship with a 15-year-old Marion boy and had sexual relations with him on two occasions. 23-year-old Lena McGill, of Toledo, Ohio, traveled to meet the teenager in Marion twice in April, according to Marion Police. McGill helped him run away from home and they traveled to Missouri together, according to police. McGill dropped the boy off at a Walmart in Festus, Mo., and he was returned to Marion. Investigators recovered text messages, phone numbers and written correspondence that corroborated the teen’s account of events.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday July 10 and Sunday July 11.
The chance for more rain will continue into this weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with a high of 75 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday. There will be a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms all day, with a 50 percent chance for rain for much of it. The prediction Sunday is for more of the same, with a higher probability of significant rainfall. The chance for rainfall on Sunday will still hover around 50 and 60 percent all day. The high on Sunday is also expected to be 75 degrees with cloudy skies.
Firefighters rescued two children and four dogs Friday morning from a house fire in southwest Cedar Rapids.
Firefighters were called just before 10:30 a.m. to 1825 D St. SW. When they arrived, responders found a fire on the front porch of a 1.5-story residence. Firefighters said the fire caused a window to fail, filling the residence with hot smoke.
As the fire crew was knocking down the fire, two high school-age youths made their way through the smoke to the front door. According to the fire department account, the teens who escaped indicated there were two children still on the second floor of the residence and an adult in the basement. The teens also reported there were dogs and cats inside, but they did not know how many. The children were saved from the second floor, and firefighters later determined that the adult they mentioned had been at work at the time of the fire.
The residence suffered heavy fire damage to the front porch and minor smoke and water damage to its interior.
Staff at MercyOne facilities across Iowa are required to get the COVID-19 vaccine by this fall, diverging from other local hospitals when it comes to mandating shots for employees.
Employees, contractors and anyone conducting business in certain MercyOne health care facilities are required to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 by Sept. 21.
That includes hospitals and associated medical clinics at MercyOne Dubuque, MercyOne Dyersville, MercyOne Clinton, MercyOne North Iowa and MercyOne Western.
The mandate comes from MercyOne’s parent company, Trinity Health. The Catholic not-for-profit health system based in Michigan operates 90 hospitals across 22 states, including Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota.
Iowa gamblers ended fiscal 2021 with a record-breaking flurry, setting new all-time marks for betting on casino, sports and lottery games that taken together topped $3.2 billion.
Iowa’s 19 state-licensed casinos reported adjusted gross revenue of nearly $1.58 billion via their slot machines and table games and a separate sports wagering handle of over $1.2 billion that netted them nearly $90 million in receipts for the 12-month period ending June 30, according to state Racing & Gaming Commission data posted Friday.
Favorable weather, availability of COVID-19 vaccinations and more discretionary money earmarked for entertainment as Iowa’s farm and overall economy rebounded were all factors contributing to a turnaround from last year’s 20 percent revenue decline, he said.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 9.
The forecast calls for likely rain Friday. Now the last time I said rain was likely was Wednesday, and we didn’t really get any rain. But I’ll have you know the chance for rain is a whole 10 percent higher this time.
According to the National Weather Service showers and thunderstorms are likely, mainly after 1 p.m. The high temperature will be a pleasant 76 degrees. The skies will be cloudy. There is a chance for rain also listed for Friday night into Saturday morning. The chance for rain all day is around 70 percent.
Much of the state could still use a lot more rain. While recent rains appear to have brought much-needed relief to some parched areas of Iowa, overall conditions continue to deteriorate, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday.
Iowa's most-recent map shows 83 percent of the state in some form of dryness or drought, with slightly more than a third of Iowa experiencing severe drought — mostly in the state’s northwest and north central counties.
The driest conditions now cover all or parts of 45 counties with two-thirds of the state rated in severe or moderate drought and 22 counties reporting normal conditions.
How far do you think $72 million would go in Linn County? Under the American Rescue plan, the nationwide $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan passed in March by Congress, Cedar Rapids will receive over $28 million and Linn County will receive $44 million. They’re received half the money so far and the other half will arrive next year.
Thursday, city and county officials at a news conference outlined potential uses for the infusion of funding, including providing more housing, developing the workforce, aiding flood protection and creating a new westside library — as well as making up for government revenue lost in the COVID-19 pandemic.
City officials said they would also turn to the public for suggestions of how to spend the money. Eligible spending for the federal aid, according to the bill, falls into three general categories: response to the health emergency or its economic impacts; lost government revenue; and investments in water, sewer or broadband.
Cedar Rapids police have a new tool to help them stem the gun violence that has plagued the community for the past decade.
That tool is the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network — or NIBIN for short. It’s a federal system that allows investigators to compare ballistic evidence against a national database of spent shell casings that have been collected from crime scenes across the country.
The Cedar Rapids Police Department is the third municipal agency in Iowa to acquire its own system — Des Moines was first, followed by Davenport — joining the ranks of roughly 250 local-level agencies across the country. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation crime lab also has one of its own.
Three office buildings formerly occupied by Transamerica on Edgewood Road NE, just south of Highway 100, will be demolished, contractor D.W. Zinser told The Gazette Thursday.
David Zinser, D.W. Zinser president, said interior work on the demolition already has begun.
Exterior demolition is likely to begin July 19, Zinser said, and be complete near Halloween.
“It will be quite the spectacle,” Zinser said.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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Wednesday marked the end of Iowa’s daily COVID-19 updates. The Iowa Department of Public Health is moving to weekly reports on virus cases, deaths and vaccinations, with statewide numbers updated every Wednesday.
Iowa added 105 new COVID-19 cases for the 24-hour period ending at noon Wednesday. The next updates will come July 14.
The state also will transition COVID-19 reporting to the Iowa Department of Public Health website, decommissioning the state’s coronavirus website, coronavirus.iowa.gov, by late summer.
Data on long-term care facility outbreaks, serology, occupation, underlying health conditions and Test Iowa assessments will no longer be reported on the website.
All of the Test Iowa sites — where Iowans could get free COVID-19 tests during the pandemic — will be closed by July 16. The drive-thru testing site in Linn County closed June 24.
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation on Wednesday identified the 31-year-old man and 27-year-old woman whose bodies were found at the Pleasant Creek State Recreation Area north of Palo last week.
Cody Michael Rhodes and Courtney Lynn Rhodes’ bodies were found inside a parked vehicle at 10:45 p.m. Friday. An obituary posted by a funeral home in Marshalltown stated the two were married, had two children and lived in Gladbrook — a Tama County city of 900 about 75 miles northwest of Cedar Rapids.
Autopsies were performed over the weekend, and the cause and manner of death have not yet been determined.
E-commerce giant Amazon will increase its presence in Iowa, with plans to build a 2.9-million-square-foot fulfillment center in Davenport, creating more than 1,000 permanent jobs.
The fulfillment center will be Amazon's second and its largest in the state. Plans are to build it just north of Interstate 80 and west of the Davenport Municipal Airport, and it is expected to be operating next year.
The company opened a 640,000-square-foot fulfillment center outside of Des Moines in December.
Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance official Ron Corbett said city and airport officials have held discussions with Amazon and other e-commerce and distribution businesses over the years in hopes of attracting one of them to property near The Eastern Iowa Airport or elsewhere in Cedar Rapids.
Cedar Rapids resident Nikole Villanueva unseated seven-day “Jeopardy!” champ Courtney Shah on Wednesday’s episode.
Both women answered the Final Jeopardy clue correctly in the Rock Bands category, which was: “In 2017, this band whose singer goes by a nickname became the first to have No. 1 albums in the U.S. in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.” The correct response “Who is U2?”
Villanueva wagered $11,500 and ended up with the day’s high total of $23,300, which is hers to keep. She will face two new opponents on Thursday’s episode.
Thursday will be partly sunny, with a high near 76, according to the National Weather Service. Thursday night will see scattered showers and thunderstorms heading into Friday morning, with a low around 61.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 7.
Rain will likely make its return Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service, showers and thunderstorms are most probable between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area. The high will be near 82 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. Rainfall is not expected to be significant except in areas of thunderstorm development. The chance of precipitation overall for Wednesday is predicted at 60 percent.
The Linn-Mar School Community and Christian Life Church in Cedar Rapids joined the Jaramillo family in mourning the loss of 11-year-old Michael Jaramillo over the weekend. Michael was fatally injured after a boat on the Raging River amusement park ride at Adventureland turned over. His brother, David, was also seriously injured by the accident and is currently in a medically induced coma and is listed in critical condition.
A GoFundMe has been started for the Jaramillo family, as the father, a semi driver, has also had work disrupted by the tragedy. As of early Wednesday morning it had raised almost $28,000.
Adventureland said the ride has been closed after the accident and that the park is cooperating with an investigation by state inspectors.
A controversial Iowa City housing development near Hickory Hill Park advanced Tuesday for the second time — but now by just a one-vote margin on the Iowa City Council.
Mayor Bruce Teague and council members Laura Bergus, Susan Mims and Janice Weiner voted for the proposal to rezone the tract. Council members Mazahir Salih, Pauline Taylor and John Thomas voted against it. The proposal needs to pass a third time before the rezoning takes effect.
The project — Hickory Hill Trail Estates — is a proposed rezoning of 48.75 acres northeast of Hickory Hill Park to low-density single-family housing. Led by Joe Clark and Nelson Development, the project initially was shot down by the planning and zoning commission, which cited conflicts with the comprehensive plan and Northeast District plan. Dozens of residents wrote in opposition to the project.
Some residents and council members were concerned Tuesday about the amount of buffer between the development and the 185-acre park, which many cited as a tranquil retreat that a busy neighborhood would disrupt.
State officials are being tight-lipped about the planned deployment of Iowa State Patrol troopers to assist law enforcement efforts at the U.S.-Mexico border, declining to identify how many have volunteered and when they might be traveling to Texas or Arizona to conduct an undisclosed assignment.
Iowa Department of Public Safety officials were not aware, a spokeswoman said Tuesday, of any previous Iowa State Patrol deployments outside of the state since Iowa in 1997 joined the Emergency Management Assistance Compact — an agreement between states that the Republican governors of Texas and Arizona cited in their call last month for other states to send assistance to the border.
Several Republican governors, including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, announced they would sent troopers from their states to help protect the border — noting the “rise in drugs, human trafficking and violent crime has become unsustainable.” But Iowa officials will answer few questions beyond that about the deployment. They cited safety concerns for the officers as at least part of the reason they are reticent to provide the public with more concrete information.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 6.
It’ll be another sunny day Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 90 degrees. On Tuesday night there could be a slight chance for severe showers and thunderstorms, although this is much more likely on Wednesday.
It was another loud Independence Day weekend, and not everybody was happy about it. Cedar Rapids police received 477 fireworks-related calls for service between July 2 and the morning of July 5.
Calls for service peaked on the Fourth of July, when Cedar Rapids received 234 fireworks-related calls, or almost one call every six minutes.
The preliminary numbers were down from 2020, when Cedar Rapids received 587 calls for service between July 2 and July 4. Cedar Rapids public safety spokesman Greg Buelow said the two years have been noticeably worse partly because the pandemic cancelled many public fireworks shows, especially in 2020.
Cedar Rapids also had 10 fireworks-related fires between July 2 and July 5 at 7 a.m., a dramatic increase from the four fires between June 1 and July 8 in 2020.
According to the Associated Press, Adventureland Park in Altoona said one person died and three others were injured after an accident on the Raging River on Saturday night.
The Altoona Police Department on Monday said 11-year-old Michael Jaramillo died Sunday from his injuries. The department said another minor remains in critical condition and that the others suffered only minor injuries.
The Raging River has been a featured attraction at the park since 1983. The ride uses a conveyor belt to move rafts through a simulated river rapids. The accident happened when a boat carrying six people flipped over.
In 2016 a worker named Steve Booher was swept off his feet by the Raging River starting unexpectedly, and he was then wedged into the mechanism of the ride, which slammed his head several times before he could be pulled out. Booher, 68, later died of head injuries.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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This is John McGlothlen with the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, July 5th.
Today’s weather in the Cedar Rapids area will be sunny, with a high near 92. Winds will be from the southwest, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight, we’re expecting it to be partly cloudy, with a low around 70.
Authorities are investigating the deaths of two individuals discovered in a car Friday night at the Pleasant Creek State Recreation Area north of Palo. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, a park ranger discovered the bodies -- described only as a male and female --- about 10:45 p.m. Friday when staff was conducting routine patrols of the park. The car was parked in the first parking lot on the north side of the dam, which closes at 10:30 p.m. The Iowa DNR said in a news release that “authorities believe this is an isolated incident and do not believe the public is in any danger.” The state park remained open. Officials from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which is investigating, declined to comment Saturday. Officials did not say how the two died.
Four people were hospitalized after a raft overturned Saturday on a ride at Adventureland Park. Six people were on a raft on the Raging River when the accident happened around 7:30 p.m. KCCI-TV reported that three were transported in critical condition, and one was hospitalized. Adventureland officials said in a Facebook post that the ride had been inspected on Friday and was found to be in sound working order. It will remain closed for a thorough inspection. The Raging River, which first opened in 1983, had just reopened for the season.
Construction will begin tomorrow on the Edgewood & Ellis intersection in northwest Cedar Rapids. Improvements will include patching and milling the pavement, asphalt overlay and minor work to the storm sewer. Edgewood Road will remain open to traffic but will be reduced to one lane during construction, which is expect to last into the fall. Turn restrictions will be in place at the intersection. A temporary traffic signal will operate on Edgewood Road, south of the construction zone, at River Bluffs Drive. In 2017, the Iowa Department of Transportation reported that Edgewood Road was second-busiest street in Cedar Rapids. Collins Road was No. 1.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday July 3 and Sunday July 4.
Happy 4th of July Weekend!
The weather should be pleasant for your holiday weekend as well. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 88 degrees on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area, with the temperature dropping down to 65 Saturday night and the skies remaining mostly clear. On Independence Day Sunday there will be a high near 90 degrees with sunny skies. There will be a moderate wind on Sunday and a small chance for showers and thunderstorms Sunday night.
According to the Associated Press there was the second court setback in a week for renewable fuels, as a federal appeals court Friday threw out a Trump-era Environmental Protection Agency rule change that allowed for the sale of a 15 percent ethanol gasoline blend in the summer months.
The decision deals a blow to the ethanol industry and corn farmers. They had anticipated increased demand through year-round sales of the higher blend.
Most gasoline sold in the United States is blended with 10 percent ethanol. Corn farmers and ethanol makers have pushed for the government to allow widespread sale of a 15 percent ethanol blend.
As a busy travel weekend is here, Iowa traffic enforcement officials are pitching a highway safety message to drive home the stakes of safe driving.
So far this year, there have been 144 people die in traffic crashes on Iowa roadways heading into three of the deadliest months historically during the peak summertime travel period.
A coalition of enforcement, transportation and safety groups are making a concerted effort in the second half of 2021 to make this the first year in nearly a century that deaths due to motor vehicle crashes stay below 300. The last time that happened was in 1925 when Iowa recorded 261 traffic fatalities.
The Iowa State Patrol is also trying to curb a behavior picked up by some motorists during the pandemic, leading to an increased number of traffic stops where the driver was going faster than 100 mph.
A decade in the making, Marion’s long-awaited Seventh Avenue streetscape project is beginning this month.
The $6.9 million Uptown project is expected to begin on July 13 in the 1200 block of Seventh Avenue and proceed west, a city news release said.
The project is being funded by local-option sales tax dollars and bonding through the city’s capital improvement program.
The project will include the reconstruction of the street and sidewalks as well as the replacement of underground utilities, sanitary sewer, storm sewer and water main on Seventh Avenue and side streets between Eighth and 12th streets and Sixth and Eighth avenues.
A Solon man was seriously injured Friday night after falling out of a truck he was driving in northern Linn County.
A Linn County Sheriff’s Office news release said Trent Vincent, 36, fell out of his truck while driving in the area of Paris and Valley Farm Roads northwest of Central City and north of Pinicon Ridge Park.
The truck ran over Vincent, who lost his phone when he fell. Vincent managed to get back into his truck and drive himself to Central City for help shortly before 7 p.m., the news release said.
Center Point Ambulance Service took VIncent to Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.
The investigation is continuing.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 2.
Judging by my neighbors frantically mowing their lawns Thursday night and then running outside to shoot fireworks, the 4th of July weekend has already begun for some. Whatever your plans are, Friday’s weather looks pleasant, with mostly sunny skies and a high near 84 degrees in Cedar Rapids predicted by the National Weather Service. The sky will remain mostly clear Friday night, with a low around 61 degrees.
Intermittent rains and cooler temperatures in recent weeks have led to an improved crop-growing outlook for Iowa, although much of northwest and north-central Iowa still face severe to moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions. This is according to the latest findings from the U.S. Drought Monitor issued on Thursday.
Slightly more than one-third of Iowa showed severe drought compared to 44 percent last week.
Still, 80 of Iowa's 99 counties are experiencing some form of drought, ranging from abnormally dry to moderate or severe.
Enrollment at Iowa’s public universities is down this summer after a pandemic-plagued fall and spring — dragging Iowa State University’s numbers to their lowest level in at least a decade and resurrecting University of Iowa summer counts not seen since Must See TV was still on television.
Fewer summer students on campus means fewer tuition dollars — aggravating pandemic-driven budget concerns and worsening enrollment losses that all three of the public universities experienced in the 2020-21 academic year.
This all comes as the Board of Regents has announced plans to consider raising tuition at all three public universities.
A controversial rezoning that would expand Hickory Hill Park but allow a housing development and senior living center nearby is headed for its second consideration and vote Tuesday.
During a June 15 meeting, the Iowa City Council voted 6-1 in favor of the proposed rezoning of 48.75 acres of land northeast of Hickory Hill Park from interim development single-family to low-density single-family. The rezoning will allow for a housing development envisioned to have 41 lots and senior living facility.
After an hour of public input critical of the proposed development near the park, city councilors said they were beholden to city code and obligated to vote in favor.
The project — Hickory Trail Estates — has had a long road to get to this second vote. The first iteration of the project went before the city’s planning and zoning commission and failed to get adequate support. A second iteration also did not receive enough support. A third version of the proposal was approved by planning and zoning and then moved along to the council.
The quest to create a town center in Hiawatha is picking up steam after early stumbles.
With a library expansion, a new plaza under construction in front of City Hall, and multiple large, mixed-use developments in the works, the city of 7,300 is preparing for future growth.
In 2019, the city approved a $72 million mixed-use development project that would’ve been the biggest private investment in the city’s history. Hiawatha Midtown, planned for 155 Robins Road, was planned to have town houses, condos and apartments as well as commercial space across over 7 acres. But the project was scrapped when grant funding and some private funding didn’t materialize.
Now in 2021, new, smaller mixed-use projects are in the works to help establish the heart of Hiawatha.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 1.
Your July will begin with no predicted chance of rain. According to the National Weather Service, the Cedar Rapids area should be sunny with a high near 86 degrees. On Thursday night it should be mostly clear, with a low around 59.
More than 10 months after last summer’s derecho pummeled Cedar Rapids with hurricane-force winds, downing most of the city’s tree canopy, the city announced it has finished picking up about 4 million cubic yards of tree debris.
That’s enough debris to fill the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium — to the brim — more than six times. Still, there remains clean up and replanting work to do. The city has committed to plant about 2,800 trees within the next three years through the Growing Futures initiative, a partnership with Trees Forever that allows area teenagers to help plant and grow trees along the city right of ways.
Mercy Iowa City officials said Wednesday the hospital will leave its affiliation with the statewide MercyOne health network.
Mercy Iowa City’s board of trustees instead has opted to align with a larger organization “that can fully integrate Mercy Iowa City” by offering broader access to infrastructure services, better purchasing power and overall greater clinical and operational support in the long-term, according to an internal memo obtained by The Gazette.
Mercy Iowa City had struggled economically even before the pandemic hit, which challenged hospitals all over the country by both requiring the installation of preventive measures against the disease as well as delaying several procedures that help generate the hospital revenue.
Hospital officials did not include further details on the third-party adviser or on the organizations they are considering as prospective partners.
The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a 2019 law that blocks federal funds from Planned Parenthood to provide young Iowans with sex education curriculum, overturning a district court decision that ruled that law unconstitutional.
With a 6-1 vote from the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the state, the justices said Wednesday it decided the law preventing Planned Parenthood of the Heartland from receiving two federal grants allocated to support sex education and related services to youths does not violate the provider’s equal protection rights.
A previous ruling by a Polk County District Judge, who issued a permanent injunction on the law, has been reversed and remanded, the Supreme Court said Wednesday.
Linn County supervisors on Wednesday rejected a proposed 18-month moratorium on utility-scale solar projects, clearing the way for a proposed $800 million project near the closed Duane Arnold nuclear plant to make an applicationn.
Supervisor Louie Zumbach, a Republican, proposed and voted for the moratorium, with Democratic Supervisors Ben Rogers and Stacey Walker opposed.
The 2-1 vote followed about two hours of public comment — with most speakers opposing the moratorium. This came after months of meetings about the solar farm NextEra Energy is proposing to build in Palo near the Duane Arnold Energy Center it owns and is decommissioning.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 30.
It will be mild and muggy again Wednesday with a chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service there will only be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area, with the weather calming Wednesday night. Another similar weather day Thursday, we will likely have a pleasant, and rain free, July 4th weekend to look forward to.
Iowa Lottery officials say they are on track to smash all of their annual records, having already surpassed $417 million in sales of instant scratch and lotto products with a month still left in the current fiscal year.
The lottery's previous best sales year was in fiscal 2019 when the operation's nearly 2,400 retail outlets sold $390.8 million for the full 12 months.
The total may be an anomaly, however, as officials attributed the success of the lottery to housebound Iowans looking for a release during the dark days of the pandemic.
The Iowa City Downtown Historic District is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The official designation was made on May 27.
Listing in the National Register of Historic Places is an honorific designation with economic benefits, such as eligibility for tax credits. The National Register does not protect properties from demolition, nor does it regulate changes made to a building.
Since 2017, the city of Iowa City has been working with architectural historian Alexa McDowell of AKAY Consulting on an update to the city’s historic survey of the Downtown. Progress on this project is ongoing, but the national designation came as a result of this work.
The Iowa City Police Department is investigating a drive-by shooting that injured one person Monday.
Officers responded to a 911 call around 10:59 p.m. Monday for a report of a woman who had been shot in the 700 block of Michael Street.
Witnesses reported the woman was struck in a drive-by shooting as she was sitting in her vehicle in the nearby parking lot. Police said the woman was taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say they do not believe the shooting to be random, and said there is no further danger to the public associated with this shooting.
One of the inmates charged with killing an Anamosa prison officer and a registered nurse in March waived his right for a jury trial Tuesday and a judge will decide his verdict.
Michael Dutcher, 28, filed a written waiver to have a bench or non-jury trial and also confirmed that decision to 6th Judicial District Judge Fae Hoover during Tuesday’s hearing in Linn County. The bench trial remains set for Aug. 3 in Jones County District Court.
A few weeks ago, the other inmate charged in the killings, Thomas Allen Woodard, 39, who has a trial set for Sept. 21 that was already moved to Linn County, asked the court if the trial could be moved again to different county because there also may be conflicts in Linn, considering jurors who live close to the jail may be exposed to media accounts of the slayings.
The two inmates are accused of killing correctional officer Robert McFarland, 46, of Ely, and nurse Lorena Schulte, 50, of Cedar Rapids, during what authorities said was a failed attempt to escape from the Anamosa State Penitentiary on March 23.
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 29.
Rain looks to be in our near future again, and there will likely continue to be at least a chance for rain all week until Friday. According to the National Weather Service, showers and thunderstorms will be likely Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly after 2 p.m. It will be cloudy with a high near 82 degrees. Rainfall totals are not expected to be heavy except in isolated areas.
The rain that has fallen in the past week has been a welcome sight for Iowa farmers. According to the Iowa Department of Agriculture, precipitation totals ranged from slightly more than one-quarter of an inch in Sheldon to 8.1 inches in Cedar Rapids over the past week. The statewide weekly average precipitation was 2.13 inches, almost double the weekly normal of 1.09 inches.
Monday’s report followed last week’s updated assessment by the U.S. Drought Monitor that much of Iowa continued to face moderate to severe drought conditions, but timely and beneficial rains have at least stabilized crop conditions. About 44 percent of the state reported severe drought — mostly in northern and central Iowa — with more than 90 percent of the state considered abnormally dry.
Despite the volatile growing conditions, about 60 percent of Iowa’s corn crop was rated in good to excellent condition in Monday’s weekly crop progress and condition report. Also, soybean emergence was virtually complete with 19 percent of soybeans blooming and 58 percent of the overall crop rated in good to excellent
This past Sunday marked one month since 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson disappeared from a mobile home park in Montezuma. Authorities have kept silent about the investigation for more than two weeks, releasing no new information.
A benefit concert is planned for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Poweshiek County Fairgrounds at 425 East St. S in Grinnell. People are encouraged to wear orange — Xavior’s favorite color.
Organizers say proceeds from the concert — which includes a silent auction and concession sales — will go to a reward fund set up earlier this month at Montezuma State Bank for information leading to the discovery of Xavior’s whereabouts. As of noon Monday, the fund had raised more than $25,000, a bank employee said.
Authorities say Xavior was last seen at the Spruce Village trailer park, where he lived with his mother, on the northwest edge of Montezuma. He disappeared after leaving home about 11 a.m. May 27.
The mobile home park is less than a mile from Diamond Lake County Park, which features more than 660 acres of wooded land, a 90-acre lake and roughly 120 campsites.
For 14 years, the Rummage in the Ramp program in Iowa City has provided a place for apartment-dwellers to get rid of unwanted furniture and household objects, then sold in a giant rummage sale with proceeds going to local nonprofits.
But as the pandemic forced the cancellation of the program for summer 2020 and summer 2021, the city is offering a new donation program for this year’s moving season. The new pop-up donation drive will be held at several locations around Iowa City. The next drives are scheduled for July 10 and July 31. The July 10 event will be held at the Market Street parking lot near the Bluebird Diner. You can find more information about what items are acceptable to donate at the City of Iowa City website.
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This is John McGlothlen with the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, June 28th.
Showers and thunderstorms are likely today, mainly between 7am and 11am in the Cedar Rapids area. The high will be near 79 and chance of precipitation is 60%. We’re expecting new rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts are possible in thunderstorms. Tonight we have a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms with a low around 68.
Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Cedar Rapids on Saturday for the return of the Freedom Festival parade. Umbrellas were perched above many in the crowd. Others wore raincoats and ponchos as light rain misted over the parade. The rain picked up occasionally, but several spectators said it didn’t ruin the experience.
Fireworks sales boomed last Fourth of July in the pandemic and some vendors say sales this year might be even better — despite several local governments reminding consumers they face hefty fines for setting them off in those cities. The State Fire Marshal’s Office reports it has granted more licenses — 583 this year compared with 553 in 2020 — for sales of fireworks from stores, tents and stands in Iowa. In some areas of Iowa, including Coralville, that means consumer fireworks are sold at retailers including Hy-Vee, Target, Walmart and Thiesen’s in addition to temporary tents. But some communities — including Cedar Rapids and Iowa City — limit where in the cities the explosives can be sold. According to a list kept by the State Fire Marshal’s Office, only three fireworks vendors in Cedar Rapids and none in Iowa City have state licenses. In Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, the use of fireworks is not permitted and violators can face fines — up to $855 in Cedar Rapids and $520 in Iowa City.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, June 26, and Sunday, June 27.
It rained a bit more this week. And this weekend has a good chance of keeping that trend going.
According to the National Weather Service, showers will be likely before 3 p.m. Saturday, then a variety of scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible after that. Overall chance for precipitation for the Cedar Rapids area will be 60 percent. When rain is not falling, it is expected to be mostly cloudy, with a high near 82 degrees.
On Sunday there will be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms, primarily before 1:00 in the afternoon. After that it is predicted to be partly sunny, with a high near 83 degrees.
Cedar Rapids city officials said Friday they will press on with “transformational” downtown projects encompassed in a proposal they put forward for funding help from a competitive state program. They will do so despite only being awarded $9 million, $30.5 million short of its request.
Six Iowa communities had vied for a share of $100 million through the competitive Reinvestment District program after seeking a combined $151.6 million from the board. Although Cedar Rapids requested the most of the group, they were not only awarded the least of all six cities, each of those cities were awarded more than they originally asked for, with the city of Ames receiving double its original proposal at more than $20 million.
The work that the city is looking to do includes an entertainment complex at the site where the city wanted to build a casino before being told no by the state, a hotel renovation at an historic site, a downtown high rise building, and bypass and recreation opportunities added to the 5-in-1 dam on the Cedar River.
Iowa on Friday reported 46 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, the lowest number reported since March 28, 2020, at the start of the pandemic.
Of those hospitalized, 18 were in intensive care units, and 12 were on ventilators to help them breathe. Previous numbers have indicated that the vast majority of those being hospitalized for the disease were never vaccinated. On that note, Iowa’s adult vaccination continues to stagnate, sticking at around 53 percent as of Friday.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Texas was a victory “for the people of this country who’ve been dealing with an unsafe and unsecure situation at the border,” Rep. Ashley Hinson said Friday.
The Friday visit was long overdue, according to the 1st District congresswoman, who has been calling on the vice president to get a firsthand view of the situation created by the administration’s immigration policies.
Hinson has used repeated criticism of Harris to her profile nationally as she gears up for reelection next year. Given that the southern border has befuddled multiple administrations in a row, it is unlikely it will not be solved anytime soon, as Vice President Harris acknowledged during her visit to El Paso Friday.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 25th.
We have entered into a cooler and wetter cycle, with Friday likely seeing a little rain. According to the National Weather Service, besides some isolated showers after 3 p.m. it should be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area Friday with a high near 86 degrees. Friday night will have a higher chance of isolated showers, with more than a half of inch rain possible overnight.
Up to 30 Iowa State Patrol officers will be redeployed for about two weeks to the U.S.-Mexico border to help law enforcement and border security efforts there, Gov. Kim Reynolds and the state Department of Public Safety announced Thursday.
Reynolds said she approved the action in response to requests from Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact between states.
Neither the department nor the governor’s office responded to questions after the announcement Thursday of whether the border duties would require any special training or what powers Iowa troopers have outside the state.
Iowa Economic Development Authority staff are recommending a state panel provisionally award $9 million to Cedar Rapids to fuel “transformational” developments in the urban core, according to documents released Thursday — far less than the $39.5 million the city had sought from the board to boost downtown growth.
The authority’s board is scheduled to make provisional awards Friday, allocating $100 million to six Iowa communities under the state’s Reinvestment District program. Under the agency staff’s recommendations, Cedar Rapids — despite requesting the most — would receive the smallest award of all communities, which asked for a combined $151.6 million through the competitive program.
Roman Catholic priests who victimized Iowa children decades ago cannot be prosecuted despite a new law eliminating the statute of limitations for child sex abuse, the state attorney general says.
The law, signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds last month, does not apply to cases in which the statute of limitations has already expired, Attorney General Tom Miller’s office said in its report Wednesday that found the amount of abuse in the Catholic Church “overwhelming.”
At least nine retired or defrocked priests and one retired nun have recently been accused of decades-old abuse in Iowa and are still alive, according to summaries of victims' complaints received by Miller's office. They include the Rev. Jerome Coyle, who allegedly admitted in 1986 to sexually abusing dozens of Iowa boys before church officials transferred him to New Mexico.
The 20-year-old Cedar Rapids man charged with killing his parents and sister last week wants to prevent prosecutors from accessing his medical records and any statements he made to emergency responders and other medical personnel who treated his foot for a gunshot injury that day.
Alexander Ken Jackson was charged with three charges of first-degree murder in the fatal shootings of his father, Jan Perry Jackson, 61; his mother, Melissa Ferne Jackson, 68; and his sister, Sabrina Hana Jackson, 19, on June 15 inside their northeast Cedar Rapids home.
Jackson’s defense attorneys are attempting to resist the prosecution’s request for information about the injuries, citing health privacy rights.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 24th.
It will be a return of a chance for rain Thursday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a good chance for rain Thursday morning and a good chance for rain Thursday evening. The chance for thunderstorms will increase after 11 a.m. The temperature is predicted to be near 85 degrees, the skies should be mostly cloudy, and the chance of rain is 70 percent for much of the day.
Citing “overwhelming” incidents of abuse and an "extensive" cover-up that spanned decades, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller issued a report Wednesday detailing 50 complaints his office received about allegations of sexual impropriety by Catholic clergy, non-clergy or spiritual leaders — including 17 victims who had not previously come forward to report abuse to authorities.
The report concluded the Catholic Church in Iowa has had a "long, painful history of abuse by priests and a cover-up by officials" but has taken steps recently to implement reforms and respond to victims.
None of the complaints involving Catholic clergy fall within the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, the report said. The allegations ranged from the 1930s to 1997.
According to Miller, his office looked into 50 complaints of sexual abuse and misconduct reported to the Attorney General’s Office. Of those, 45 complaints were against Catholic clergy or others involved in the Catholic church and five were about non-Catholic pastors or spiritual leaders. The complaints made accusations against 36 Catholic priests or brothers.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley punched back at recent polling suggesting nearly two-thirds of Iowa voters think it’s time for a new face to represent them in the U.S. Senate.
An Iowa Poll found that only a third of voters are ready to re-elect Grassley — who hasn’t said whether he will seek an eighth term in 2022. Sixty-four percent said it’s time for an unknown and unnamed “someone else” to replace the Republican senator.
He says he’s less concerned with what the polls say than he is with what Iowans tell him at his 99 county meetings each year where “sometimes I bring up to them whether or not I should run.”
Danny Homan, the leader of Iowa’s largest public employee union who has been an outspoken critic of the state restricting collective bargaining rights and leaving his union’s prison employees in jeopardy from understaffing, announced Wednesday he plans to end his 16-year run as president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61 next month.
In a statement, Homan, 68, an AFSCME employee for over 33 years and president since 2005, said he plans to retire at the end of his term and a new president will be elected at the union’s upcoming convention July 24.
In another return to normalcy, Linn County LIFTS (LIFTS) will resume collecting bus fares on July 1. LIFTS suspended fares on March 18, 2020, as one of many safety measures put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Passengers are still required to wear face masks per federal TSA rules. Additional enhanced safety measures include disinfecting buses nightly, extra cleaning during the day, and installing bus operator cabin partitions throughout the entire fleet.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 23rd.
Wednesday’s weather looks to offer a break from rain, for the most part, before a chance for storms returns on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service, rain should mostly cease by 8 a.m. Wednesday morning in the Cedar Rapids area, giving way to eventually sunny skies. The high temperature is predicted to be near 85 degrees, with a moderate breeze.
Officials released more information Tuesday about the Linn County Deputy shot in the line of duty Sunday night. They identified the deputy as 38-year-old William Halverson and listed him in serious but stable condition at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
36-year-old Stacey Donahue, of Chicago, is accused of shooting 10 rounds at Halverson after shutting two Casey’s employees into a cooler during a robbery. Halverson was struck several times but was wearing a protective vest. Donahue was apprehended after a 14-hour manhunt when he was spotted nearby by a KCRG-TV crew.
The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday approved the city’s standard tax incentives for FedEx to locate a massive $108.6 million warehouse and distribution center in the city’s southwest quadrant that will create 434 mostly part-time jobs — offering an estimated $6.1 million tax rebate over 10 years.
The council approved a term sheet outlining the scope of the project and tax reimbursements on the proposal for an approximately 479,000-square-foot warehouse, which Indianapolis-based developer Scannell Properties. Construction is anticipated to start by Aug. 1 and end by Sept. 30, 2022.
City Economic Development Analyst Caleb Mason said the development allows FedEx Ground Package System to expand its ground service network and its local footprint, as well as provide direct support to its hub in St. Paul, Minn.
A district court judge in Cedar Rapids has blocked a law signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds last year that requires a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion, marking another setback for attempts by the governor and Republican lawmakers to enact more abortion restrictions in Iowa.
Late Monday, 6th Judicial District Court Judge Mitchell Turner issued a ruling that declared the 2020 law unconstitutional. Abortion rights advocates had asserted it placed an undue burden on women seeking the medical procedure.
According to the ruling, the passage of this law violated the single subject rule, as the abortion requirement had been tacked on as an amendment to another bill passed by the Iowa Legislature. In addition, the legislative process left no opportunity for constituents to provide input on or be fairly informed before the legislation was passed by state lawmakers in the final hours of the Legislative session.
The Governor’s Office made it clear on Tuesday the state intends to appeal the District Court decision to the Iowa Supreme Court.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, June 22nd.
There will be a chance of more rain the next few days, and we certainly still need it. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers after 4 p.m. Tuesday. Then showers and thunderstorms are likely Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Before all that rain business happens it should be another nice, sunny day, with a high of 80 degrees.
Climate experts say that despite some rain over the weekend a significant part of the state of Iowa remains in drought conditions, some of them extreme, as corn and soybeans enter a developmental phase. In some good news, climatologists are predicting that July will bring with it some cooler air, and with that some potentially strong storms.
An overnight manhunt for an assailant authorities say shot and wounded a Linn County deputy responding to an armed robbery at a Casey’s General Store in Coggon ended quietly Monday afternoon after a TV news crew spotted the suspect walking less than a mile away.
The deputy, whose name was not released, was described as in serious but stable condition despite being struck with several rounds by the robber. This marked the first time in nearly five decades that a Linn County deputy was shot in the line of duty, said sheriff’s Second Deputy Chad Colston.
Authorities identified the gunman as Stanley L. Donahue, 36, of Chicago. He faces charges of attempted murder, first-degree robbery, willful injury, disarming a peace officer and possession of a firearm as a felon, the sheriff’s office said. He was being held in the Linn County Jail.
After a shooting Sunday night triggered a manhunt, a KCRG-TV crew noticed a man matching Donahue’s description and alerted police.
Students going to state schools will likely be paying higher tuition this year. Two months before the fall semester starts at Iowa’s public universities, the Board of Regents this week will hold a first consideration of raising tuition at all three of its institutions — with the University of Iowa and Iowa State University proposing a 3.5 percent hike for state resident undergraduates.
The University of Northern Iowa, which for the past two years has kept tuition rates frozen, is seeking a 1.5 percent increase for both resident and non-resident undergrads.
All three campuses held tuition and fees flat during the unprecedented 2020-2021 academic year compromised by the pandemic. The pause came despite the regents rolling out a five-year tuition plan in 2018 promising stepped annual increases at the UI and ISU of at least 3 percent, possibly more.
We’ll close with some good news and bad news on the COVID-19 front in Iowa.
In good news, Monday featured the lowest hospitalization numbers for people being treated for the disease since the pandemic started in March of 2020.
In bad news, Iowa health officials are indicating that parts of Iowa may never reach herd immunity. This is especially true of rural counties, where demand for vaccines is low despite efforts to reach out to the public.
Experts have placed estimates for the threshold needed to reach herd immunity somewhere between 70 percent and 90 percent of the population. The overall rate of immunization in Iowa for those above the age of 12 is 52 percent at the moment, but some counties in Iowa are as low as 30 percent.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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This is John McGlothlen with the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, June 21st.
Today’s weather for the Cedar Rapids area will be mostly sunny, with a high near 71. It’s expected to be breezy with winds from the northwest, 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Tonight should be clear, with a low around 49.
An Iowa City man has been charged with attempted murder after intentionally shooting a man, striking him in both legs, police said. Mason Chance Edwards, 23, confronted the man June 9th at a residence in the Western Hills Mobile Estates in Coralville over a previous incident and had a concealed firearm, according to police. Another person blocked Edwards going into the room the man was in, but Edwards reached around the person and shot the man. Edwards was arrested Friday and has been charged with attempted murder, going armed with intent and carrying weapons. He is being held at the Johnson County Jail on $100,000 cash or surety bond. Attempted murder is punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
A Cedar Rapids firefighter and two employees suffered minor injuries in a fire at a PMX Industries warehouse Friday night, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Fire Department. Firefighters were dispatched at 9:45 p.m. to a warehouse on Willow Creek Drive SW. Crews found smoke and flames coming from pallets containing shavings of zinc, copper and other metals. One of the PMX employees who suffered minor injuries was taken to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's Hospital, and the other refused transport to a hospital. The injured firefighter was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital. The release said the fire was unintentional.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of Saturday, June 19 and Sunday, June 20.
As a reminder, Father’s Day is Sunday, so you still have some time to plan for that if you forgot. I’m not implicating myself here or anything.
After a Friday where storms mostly stayed south of Interstate 80, forecasters are predicting a chance for rain again. According to the National Weather Service it should be sunny for much of the day Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 88 degrees. Then Saturday night into Sunday there will be an increasingly likely chance for rain, with the rainfall being most likely after 7 a.m. Sunday morning. Then there will be a chance of rain again on Sunday night. When it’s not raining Sunday, it should be mostly cloudy, with a high near 90 degrees.
A man was taken to the hospital with what police described as life threatening injuries Friday night after he was struck by a car on Highway 100. Cedar Rapids Police arrived on the scene of the call around 11:32 p.m. Officers were directed to a collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian on Highway 100 west of its exit to Interstate 380. The person struck by the vehicle was hospitalized for life-threatening injuries.
The driver of the vehicle that struck the man stayed on the scene. That person was treated for injuries as well, although these were described as not life threatening.
The Cedar Rapids City Council is slated Tuesday to consider financial incentives for an immense FedEx warehouse and distribution facility proposed for the fast-developing southwest quadrant — a $108.6 million investment that would create 434 mostly part-time jobs.
The council will review a proposed term sheet outlining the scope of the project and tax reimbursements on the approximately 479,000-square-foot warehouse, which developer Scannell Properties is looking to build at 1035 Commerce Park Drive SW. Construction would be expected to start by Aug. 1 and wrap up by Sept. 30, 2022.
This is the second project exceeding a $100 million investment that Cedar Rapids has pursued in the last year. Global aerospace company BAE Systems is building a $139 million, 200,000-square-foot classified defense aerospace facility in the southwest quadrant as well.
According to the Associated Press, a divided Iowa Supreme Court on Friday banned police from searching people’s uncollected trash without a warrant, outlawing an investigative technique that had been used for decades.
The court ruled 4-3 that officers commit an unreasonable search and seizure under the Iowa Constitution when they look for evidence of crimes in trash left for collection outside homes.
The judges determined that searching through trash without a warrant is the same as trespassing on private property.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes.