Podcasts about iowa state patrol

We discuss with Iowa State Patrol Trooper Shelby McCreedy.

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 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 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.

Looks like Iowa State Patrol will be one of the cruisers featured in the American Association of State Troopers' 2024 Calendar! Seems the votes may have spiked after we talked about it...just sayin'!

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.

The Iowa State Patrol is in the running for the prettiest cruisers in the country and need your vote!

We discuss with Iowa State Patrol Trooper Shelby McCreedy.

Protesters flooded the Iowa State Capitol during a one-day special session. A new six-week abortion bill was passed by the Iowa State Legislature and Story County state legislator Beth Wessel-Kroeschell says the law oversteps the boundaries. "It's not our place to decide for someone else whether they should become a parent. Decisions about whether to end a pregnancy or not must be made personally. This legislation will kill women." Several protesters entered the Senate chamber, disrupted the session shouting, and were removed by Iowa State Patrol troopers. The new law will go into effect immediately after it is signed by Governor Kim Reynolds on Friday. On the other end of the spectrum, Iowa County Republican Rep. Brad Sherman says it's just a matter of perspective. "I want to speak up for those unborn babies," Sherman said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sergeant Detective Isaac Short and Lieutenant Justin Kingrey have worked together at the Marion County Sheriff's Office for 8 years. Last year, Isaac and Justin answered God's call on their lives to start a Bible study for First Responders and their spouses. The First Responders Bible Study has attendees from the Marion County Sheriffs Office, Iowa State Patrol, Pella Police Department, Pella EMS, Sheriffs Office Reserves, Knoxville Fire and Rescue, and Jasper County EMS. Together with their wives Michelle Kingrey (MC Dispatch Supervisor) and Bailey Short, Justin and Isaac aim to share God's love, offer community and support, and build up the marriages of the first responders in the group.If you are a first responder who would like to learn more about getting involved with the First Responders Bible Study, email us at celebrate@celebratechurch.com and we will connect you.We also encourage Celebrators to pray for the first responders and reach out to them, letting them know they are covered in prayer and support. Let's go!You can watch the interview as well, right here.

Thisis Zack Kucharski from The Gazette, and I'm here with your update for MemorialDay, Monday May 29th.It'll be sunny again with a High of 86 today. Tonight it'llremain clear and dip to 60 degrees, before jumping to 89 degrees Tuesday asfolks head back to work. It's going to be dry and hot this week, with several90 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 of14 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.

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 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.–

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.–

In the 69th installment of the pod, we catch up with an old friend. Sergeant Vince Kurtz of the Iowa State Patrol stops by for a chat as we relive our radio days! We also hear about how Aaron's poor planning is coming back to bite him (again), Mitch accuses Wayne and Aaron of killing home shows in Northwest Iowa, Aaron ditches out on Wayne's 40th birthday for wealthier friends, and we unveil the sponsor for the 70th episode! Sponsorships are still available, hit us up on the socials. All it costs is $50 and a 12-pack of beer. Because we are classy like that! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dbapod/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dbapod/support

Welcome to the weekend!This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Saturday, January 28, and Sunday, January 29.First comes the snow, then comes the cold. According to the National Weather Service snow is likely in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday. There will be a high near 22 degrees and an 80 percent chance of snowfall. Between 1 and 3 inches of snowfall is the current prediction. On Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 12 degrees. The wind chill will drop to as low as -10 degrees, with wind gusts as high as 25 mph. On Sunday night, the low temperature will settle in at 1 degree. The cold temperatures will continue into the beginning of next week.Four people were killed Friday morning and others were injured when a van they were in went out of control on a highway in northern Iowa.The crash happened a little before 7 a.m. when the driver of a westbound 15-passenger van lost control on icy Highway 20 near the small community of Wellsburg, in northwest Grundy County, according to the Iowa State Patrol.The van entered the median and rolled before coming to rest in the highway's eastbound lanes.One adult and three children under the age of five died. The state patrol noted that none of the van's occupants had been using using seatbelts or child restraint devices at the time of the accident.A proposed $20 million development in North Liberty would bring various amenities to the growing city and create a new entertainment district just north of Penn Street.The proposed development, referred to as Solomon's Landing, includes a 33,600-square-foot indoor recreation center, as well as a 32,909-square-foot bowling entertainment center with an adjacent Pizza Ranch restaurant.During his pitch for the district, Brandon Pratt of Lion Development Group told the North Liberty City Council this week the city needs to be a place where residents can “live, work and play.” He argued that with the support of the city, his development idea could be where the play comes in.The proposed indoor sports and recreation center — called The Palestra — would be used for various indoor sports and community events, Pratt said. The Palestra would be located on the west side of the lot at the corner of Saratoga Place and Hayes Lane.Possible activities include basketball, indoor soccer, football, volleyball, pickleball and wrestling, as well as e-gaming tournaments. Other features could include indoor inflatables, birthday parties and opportunities for seniors to have a place to walk indoors.The bowling facility and Pizza Ranch would be to the east of The Palestra with parking in between the buildings, the site plan showed.Iowa fell to No. 1 Penn State in wrestling Friday night.Iowa won three of the first four bouts, giving Iowa an 11-9 lead heading into intermissionBut Iowa only won one more bout the rest of the way, and Penn State pulled away 23 - 14. The loss snapped the Hawkeyes' 15-dual win streak.

This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, January 16th — Martin Luther King Day.According to the National Weather Service, we'll have showers and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly before 4 p.m., in the Cedar Rapids area today, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4 p.m. The high will be near 54. Winds from the southeast 10 to 15 mph then from the south in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch are possible. Then tonight, a slight chance of showers between 9 p.m. and midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 35.A man was fatally shot after breaking into a Monticello man's home last week, according to Monticello's chief of police. At 1:48 a.m. Wednesday, a man called 911 in Jones County to report someone trying to break in at his home in the 300 block of South Sycamore Street. Before an officer arrived, the resident armed himself with a gun and shot the intruder, who had gotten inside and confronted him, according to the news release. Authorities identified the alleged intruder as 30-year-old Patrick M. O'Brine. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The man and a 10-year-old child at the home were uninjured, police said.A Cedar Rapids woman was killed Thursday afternoon in a collision with a snowplow truck on Interstate 80 in Iowa County. According to an Iowa State Patrol crash report, at about 1 p.m., 64-year-old Joyce R. Baumgarten of Cedar Rapids was driving on eastbound Interstate 80 near mile marker 213 when her Jeep Cherokee struck a slow-moving Iowa Department of Transportation snowplow truck that was on the left shoulder conducting a maintenance project. Baumgarten was killed in the crash. The snowplow truck driver, identified as 52-year-old David Dellamuth of Williamsburg, was taken to a Marengo hospital for injuries.The Gazette now has an online map showing all reported 120 shots-fired incidents in Cedar Rapids for 2022. Go to thegazette.com slash data to see the details. –

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Tuesday, January 10.It'll hover above freezing for much of another day with cloudy skies Tuesday, which will remain a general theme for the week. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 36 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with mostly cloudy skies. On Tuesday night it will be cloudy, with a low of around 28 degrees.Emboldened by six years of conservative reforms under their belts and multiple elections that expanded their majorities in the Iowa Legislature, Republicans kicked off the 2023 state lawmaking session Monday by promising more conservative action — particularly on K-12 education and property taxes.The 90th Iowa General Assembly met for the first time at the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines. In the coming months, legislators will consider hundreds of proposals to make changes to Iowa state law.Republicans pledged action on three main topics: cutting property taxes, routing state funding for K-12 private school student tuition and expanding transparency in K-12 public education.Republicans plan for a third consecutive year to work on legislation that would set aside state funding for private school tuition assistance. Previous attempts were supported by Gov. Kim Reynolds and passed the Senate, but stalled in the House. Some rural Republicans have not supported the idea of diverting money from public to private schools, for fear of how it would affect rural school districts.However, during her successful 2022 re-election campaign, Gov. Reynolds supported challengers to incumbent lawmakers in her own party who did not support the private school tuition assistance bill she wants passed. Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, of Windsor Heights, reiterated the House Democrats' position of putting “people over politics” — a message they unveiled during the 2022 campaign — and urged House Republicans to remember the wishes of their constituents.Konfrst said Democrats will prioritize lowering costs for Iowans, legalizing marijuana, increasing funding for public schools and protecting abortion rights.The two people who died in a 15-vehicle pileup outside Iowa City on Sunday morning have been identified as Junier Caballero Vernero, of Houston, Texas, and David Mosinski, of Wilton.Vernero, 37, was a passenger in a semi-trailer truck, and Mosinski, 57, was the driver of a pickup. Eight other people were taken to a hospital with injuries resulting from the crash, according to Trooper Robert Conrad, an Iowa State Patrol public resource officer.The crash, which involved nine semis and six other vehicles, happened about 5:40 a.m. Sunday on westbound Interstate 80 at the exit for Highway 1 into Iowa City. Iowa State Patrol said the area was fully covered in ice at the time of the crash.

Ep. 1985 Paul Gardner, Iowa State Patrol Trooper Part 2 by Radio on the Go

Ep. 1983 Paul Gardner, Iowa State Patrol Public Resource Officer by Radio on the Go

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. –

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 the 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 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 4th-largest in U.S. history. The biggest prize was a $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 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.–

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.

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

Iowa State Patrol District Four Resource Officer Shelby McCreedy talks about the statewide, speed-focus initiative that runs from September 27th-October 4th.

Iowa State Patrol District 4 Resource Officer Shelby McCreedy talks about the next holiday initiative during Labor Day.

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 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.

An Iowa man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting an Iowa State Patrol trooper last year during a standoff and shootout with police. A list of three Iowa Supreme Court nominees is now with Governor Kim Reynolds. Plus, some companies with large Iowa presences will cover travel expenses for employees seeking abortions in the wake of Friday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave states the ability to ban the procedure.

A federal appeals court has cleared the way for state officials to enforce Iowa's ban on school mask mandates. Governor Kim Reynolds is expected to sign a bill into law that will establish a state mandate for many gas stations to sell fuel with higher blends of ethanol Plus, a jury has convicted a man of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of an Iowa State Patrol trooper last year.

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 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 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). —

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).

Governor Kim Reynolds has signed law that bans transgender girls and women from competing in female sports in Iowa K-12 schools, and at the college level. The man accused of killing an Iowa State Patrol trooper during a standoff in Grundy Center last year will go to trial for murder this spring in Hamilton County. Plus, in increasingly dry southwest Kansas, replacing some crops with cotton could help farmers conserve water and weather drought.

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).

Southern Sense is conservative talk with Annie "The Radio Chick-A-Dee" Ubelis, and Vito Esposito, guest co-host.  Informative, fun, irreverent and politically incorrect, you never know where we'll go, but you'll love the journey!  Southern-Sense.com 1:30pm Libertarian author, and podcast host Tom Mullen, his new book ‘It's the Fed Stupid', 2pm Lt. Col. (Ret) Tony Shaffer, President, Herb London Center for Policy Research, Author, Operation Dark Heart 3pm Jim Renacci, Candidate for Ohio Governor 3:30pm Joel Griffith, Heritage Foundation Dedication: Sergeant James K. Smith, Iowa State Patrol, Iowa, End of Watch Friday, April 9, 2021

We discuss holiday travel and several projects going on with Iowa State Patrol Officer Shelby McCreedy.

Iowa health officials are reporting COVID-19 hospitalizations and test positivity rates have dropped but experts are still warning Iowans to be cautious over the holidays. A review by the Iowa attorney general's office finds that two Iowa State Patrol troopers were justified in an Iowa Falls shooting that left one man dead. Plus, a University of Iowa researcher is eager to see what NASA's new space telescope is able to find at the edges of the universe.

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. Support this podcast

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 —

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... Support this podcast

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... Support this podcast

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... Support this podcast

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) Support this podcast

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.   Support this podcast

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. 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 Support this podcast

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. Support this podcast

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 https://www.testiowa.com/en (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 https://apnews.com/article/tx-state-wire-ia-state-wire-iowa-texas-immigration-48abe85ee633b52c6457665c9c3737f4 (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, thttps://www.linncounty-ia.gov/DocumentCenter/View/16866/Coggon-Solar-LLC-Rezoning-Narrative (he 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. 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 Support this podcast

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 ahttps://www.thegazette.com/local-government/iowa-city-council-to-vote-again-on-contentious-development-near-hickory-hill-park/ ( 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... Support this podcast

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 https://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/stats/daily.pdf (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  Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell... Support this podcast

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 https://www.thegazette.com/news/iowa-attorney-general-report-details-complaints-on-catholic-clergy-sexual-impropriety/ (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 https://www.thegazette.com/news/iowa-attorney-general-report-details-complaints-on-catholic-clergy-sexual-impropriety/ (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 https://apnews.com/article/iowa-us-news-ap-top-news-fort-dodge-ia-state-wire-604b14d73268410b96c9f7bf948c1de1 (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. https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/cedar-rapids-triple-homicide-suspect-alex-jackson-to-be-held-on-3-million-cash-bond/ (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... Support this podcast

304 News 062421 Today Governor Kim Reynolds announced that Iowa State Patrol officers would be deployed to the U.S. Southern Border to aid law enforcement and border security efforts. The governor is responding to a request from Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. Reynolds said the rise in drugs, human trafficking, and violent crime has become unsustainable. Survivors of clergy abuse within the Catholic Church in Iowa are speaking out today after the Iowa Attorney General's office published its investigation findings. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, has responded to the Attorney General's investigation into decades of clergy abuse in the state. Members expect more action from the Church to help with the healing process. The report found there were allegations against three current clergy members. They all fell outside the criminal statute of limitations. SNAP wants those names disclosed

Hay'adaha fulinta sharciga ee maxalliga ah waxay la shaqeynayaan Xafiiska Badbaadada Badbaadada Wadooyinka ee Guddoomiyaha Gobolka si looga caawiyo yareynta qulqulka dhimashada ee wadada Iowa. Waaxda Gaadiidka ee Iowa ayaa soo warisay koror 25-boqolkiiba dhimashada sanadkan marka loo eego sanadkii hore. Ilaalada gobolka Iowa State ayaa u sheegay Des Moines Register inay arkayaan qaar ka mid ah darawalkii ugu halista badnaa ee ururada 85 sano iyadoo ay dadku aad u wadaan xawaare ayna isticmaalayaan telefoonadooda. Laga bilaabo maanta, Waaxda Booliska Magaalada Sioux, Woodbury County Sheriff's Office, iyo Iowa State Patrol ayaa kordhinaya roondooyinka loogu talagalay darawalada naafada ah. Fulinta waxaa loo qorsheeyay inay socoto hal toddobaad. Gudi hawleed ayaa laga soo saaray sanadkan Iowa si ay isugu dayaan oo ay u gaaraan hadaf ka yar 300 dhimashada taraafikada hal sano gudaheed. Baahida Iowans ee tallaalka coronavirus ayaa hoos u dhacday illaa heer laga yaabo in gobolka laga tuuro

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Thursday, June 3. Another sunny day is on the way Thursday, with it being a little bit warmer than Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 84 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area Thursday. The wind will hover at 5 to 10 mph all day. State Rep. Todd Prichard announced Wednesday that he is stepping down as leader of the Iowa House Democrats. Prichard, 47, a Charles City lawyer, was reelected to his fifth term in the House in 2020. He did not indicate whether he'll seek a sixth term in 2022. Prichard led Iowa Democrats during three years of increasing Republican domination, as Iowa voters handed the opposing party control of virtually all levels of government. He criticized Republicans for lack of cooperation during this last legislative session and Gov. Kim Reynolds for a lack of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. But this, like most things Iowa Democrats did over the last year in particular, was an exercise in futility. The Iowa Board of Regents appears to be responding to concerns levied against them by Republican lawmakers regarding the protection of free speech, particularly conservative speech. During the first meeting Wednesday of the Board of Regents' new free speech committee plans were revealed to systematically address free speech concerns and to ensure a welcoming campus community. The free speech committee was formed by the Regents after they were lambasted by Republican lawmakers after a series of free speech incidents between student groups and campus administrators.  The Iowa State Patrol has released the names of the three family members — two from North Liberty and one from Amana — who were killed in a car-semi crash last week in Fayette County. The three — Terri Westfall, 65, and Ashleigh Rensing, 18, both of North Liberty, and Alli Olsen, 9, of Amana — died in the 2:30 p.m. Friday crash on Highway 150, north of West Union, according to the Iowa State Patrol. A fourth family member, Seth Olsen, 15, of Amana, was seriously injured and taken to Gundersen Palmer Lutheran Hospital and Clinics in West Union. The Patrol said Westfall was driving north in a 2010 Chevrolet Impala when the car crossed the centerline and collided head-on with a southbound semi-trailer truck  After a weekend of little luck, authorities said they are re-evaluating their search for Xavior Harrelson, the 11-year-old boy who disappeared from a Montezuma mobile home park last week. Xavior https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/authorities-searching-for-10-year-old-boy-who-disappeared-in-poweshiek-county/ (was last seen around 11 a.m. Thursday in Montezuma), wearing a red T-shirt, blue pajama pants and black high-top shoes, according to the Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office. He has brown hair and blue eyes, is about 4-foot-8 and weighs 100 pounds. Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said Xavior left his home in the Spruce Village Mobile Home Park and has not been seen since. The boy's mother thought Xavior had gone out to play with friends, he said. 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. Since the boy's disappearance, Mortvedt said authorities have deployed people, dogs, horses, all-terrain vehicles, drones, aircraft, heat sensors and divers. Now, Mortvedt said, authorities are working on developing new leads. 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,...

Iowa State Patrol District 4 Resource Officer Shelby McCreedy talks about the current special traffic enforcement and the importance of Iowa’s Move Over law.

This week on DIEOWA, we’re in Muscatine County, where we’re discussing the first instance of an Iowa State Patrolman being murdered in the line of duty. 

This week is National Police Week with Peace Officer Memorial Day on May 15th. President Biden directed entities across the country to fly their flags at half-staff. He also called upon Americans to observe the week with appropriate ceremonies and activities during a year of turmoil. Siouxland Public Media’s Sheila Brummer takes us to one event uniting several generations of law officers for a common cause. A few dozen law enforcement officers, instructors, and police science students left Western Iowa Tech Community College Monday morning on a mission. “It should be roughly 4.62 miles. That is our goal.” A precise distance representing the badge number of a fallen member of the Iowa State Patrol, 4-6-2. “We are here to recognize Trooper Jim Smith and any other officer who has died in the line of duty.” That is second-year police science student Chase Alexander. He joined the group showing solidarity for Sergeant Smith shot and killed during a violent standoff last month in Grundy

This is John McGlothlen with the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, April 12th. Our weather in the Cedar Rapids area today will be sunny, with a high near 58. Winds from the west 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Tonight should be clear, with a low around 36. The University of Iowa has released information on the first of four presidential finalists. Distinguished law professor Hari Michele Osofsky, dean of Penn State Law and of the Penn State School of International Affairs will be visiting this week. Osofsky graduated magna cum laude in 1993 from Yale College with distinction in philosophy and environmental studies majors. She earned her juris doctor in 1998 from Yale Law School. She earned her doctorate in geography from the University of Oregon in 2013, completing her dissertation on “rethinking climate change governance.” She's been in her current position at Penn State University since 2017. Before that, Osofsky held numerous professorships and academic leadership posts. Osofsky is among four candidates from among a pool of 79 applicants that a UI search committee has chosen as finalists to replace outgoing UI President Bruce Harreld. Each finalist is scheduled for a two-day visit to campus this week and next. All the finalists will participate in public forums that will allow limited in-person attendance and will be streamed online. Osofsky will be in town Monday and Tuesday, and her public forum is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Monday. A 27-year veteran of the Iowa State Patrol was shot and killed during a violent standoff at a man's home in Grundy Center. Authorities said Sgt. Jim Smith was killed late Friday night as he and other officers entered the home of Michael Thomas Lang, 41, who fled there after an earlier police pursuit. The standoff ended about midnight Friday when a team of highway patrol troopers in an armored personnel carrier smashed into the home. Lang fired multiple shots at the carrier. Three officers inside the carrier returned fire, hitting the man several times, authorities said. Lang was hospitalized in critical condition Saturday. He was charged with first-degree murder and is being held on $1 million bond.

Are we promoting racism' and Homosexuality's ……? YOU decide   And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). ... He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. President Joe Biden's administration said Friday additional vaccine doses will not be delivered to states seeing surges in COVID-19 cases, despite appeals from local leaders and some health experts. Inside BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors' million-dollar real-estate buying binge Black Lives Matter co-founder buys four high-end homes for $3.2 million in the US alone Patrisse Khan-Cullors, 37, also eyed property in the Bahamas at an ultra-exclusive resort where Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods both have homes, The Post has learned. Luxury apartments and townhouses at the beachfront Albany resort outside Nassau are priced between $5 million and $20 million, according to a local agent. Does his life matter: A 27-year-veteran of the Iowa State Patrol was shot and killed by a man who had earlier assaulted a police officer, Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens said Saturday. Dontae's difficult decisions and catching viewers by surprise with that abrupt sex scene. According to The New York Times, five of All Rise ‘s original seven writers — including the show's three highest-ranking writers of color — will not be returning for Season 2 after clashing with showrunner Greg Spottiswood (who is white) over the series' depiction of race and gender. Sims shares. “We take on Black Lives Matter and other social issues in a way that one would not expect, no matter what side of the political spectrum you fall on in that. I hate to say that it is political — it shouldn't be — but it has been politicized, obviously, Black Lives Matter. Hunter Biden has opened up about his relationship with his sister-in-law and the widow of his deceased brother Beau in a new memoir, saying the affair “came out of a real overwhelming grief.” yes some would say this is okay however she had children's already: so please do not try to justify it with this verse: Deuteronomy 25:5  “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. Reverend Raphael Warnock, the newly elected Democrat senator from Georgia, deleted an Easter tweet from his account after receiving significant backlash online. “The meaning of Easter is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether you are Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others we are able to save ourselves,” said the original tweet, posted to his non-government account Sunday and removed later in the evening. In some people's minds, being homosexual is as much outside one's control as the color of your skin and your height. On the other hand, the Bible clearly and consistently declares that homosexual activity is a sin (Genesis 19:1–13; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26–27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10). This disconnect leads to much controversy, debate, and even hostility. Biblically speaking, there are positive and negative aspects to hatred. It is acceptable to hate those things that God hates; indeed, this is very much a proof of a right standing with God. “Let those who love the Lord hate evil” (Psalm 97:10a). Indeed, the closer our walk with the Lord and the more we fellowship with Him, the more conscious we will be of sin, both within and without. Do we not grieve and burn with anger when God's name is maligned, when we see spiritual hypocrisy, when we see blatant unbelief and godless behavior? The more we understand God's attributes and love His character, the more we will be like Him and the more we will hate those things that are contrary to His Word and nature. The word adultery is etymologically related to the word adulterate, which means “to render something poorer in quality by adding another substance.” Adultery is the adulteration of marriage by the addition of a third person. Adultery is voluntary sexual activity between a married person and someone other than his or her spouse.  

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Tuesday, Jan. 26. Our gentle blizzard will continue into Tuesday morning. According to the National Weather Service, the snow that began in the Cedar Rapids area around 2:00 p.m. Monday and continued overnight will only completely abate around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The high is expected to be 24 degrees, and as one expects when more than a half of foot of new snow falls, blowing snow will be a concern. Exercise caution when traveling through Tuesday evening, when thankfully it will be mostly calm with a low of around 12 degrees. The Iowa State Patrol reported that through the storm on Monday there were 68 crashes covered on Iowa highways, 66 with property damage and 2 with personal injury. There were also 215 calls for motorist assists for the state patrol alone. Linn County residents aged 65 and older can begin receiving a COVID-19 vaccine on a limited basis starting Tuesday, county public health officials announced. Residents interested in getting a shot will have to schedule an appointment — but because availability of the vaccine is very limited at this time, officials warn those appointments will fill up quickly. Beginning Monday, residents who qualify were expected to be contacted by their primary care provider to schedule an appointment to receive the first shot of the vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Providers who will administer these shots include those associated with MercyCare Clinics and UnityPoint Health Clinics as well as “several independent health care providers.” It's unknown when Johnson County will begin administering vaccines to this group. County public health officials told The Gazette that the public should expect information from them sometime this week. Republican lawmakers who control the Iowa Legislature pressed ahead Monday with plans to expand school choice for parents with public funds for private and charter schools and with requiring K-12 schools to offer an in-person instruction option as the state struggles through the pandemic. The measures would enact the full-time, in-person required option in February for the remainder of the school year and, according to an Iowa State Education Association estimate, start the process of funding a $50 million first step in a plan to earmark taxpayer money for students' private-school tuition. The governor's office projects the initial cost at about $3 million. Critics said the bill would siphon away taxpayer money meant to improve education for nearly 500,000 children to benefit a small fraction taking advantage of the limited scholarships to attend private or charter schools — with little public oversight.  This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com). 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.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Saturday Jan. 16 and Sunday Jan. 17. Your weekend weather continues the sporadic precipitation of the last few days. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a chance of snow in the early morning Saturday in Eastern Iowa with a chance for flurries throughout the rest of the day. The temperature will settle into the high 20s, so freezing rain should be off the menu. Sunday the temperature will remain similar and so will the chance for flurries, with things finally calming down Sunday night to mostly cloudy skies. Five days into the Iowa legislative session lawmakers and staff have been alerted that someone “associated” with the House has tested positive for COVID-19. Chief Clerk of the House Meghan Nelson and Secretary of the Senate Charlie Smithson sent messages to lawmakers and staff shortly after 6 p.m. Friday alerting them that someone who had been in the Capitol Wednesday tested positive earlier in the day. The lack of a mask mandate for Iowa legislators created divisions even before the session started. In the House, Democrats have asked that people attending committee meetings in person be required to wear masks. Those proposals have been defeated largely on party line votes. Democrats also have criticized Republicans for not delaying the 2021 session until more Iowans receive COVID-19 vaccinations. The outstanding debt for state and local governments topped $17.9 billion for the fiscal year that ended last June, Iowa's state treasurer Michael Fitzgerald reported Friday. That's a 4.8 percent increase from the previous fiscal year, Fitzgerald said, though Iowa remains among the states with the lowest debt in the nation. “Usually, for Iowa, you'll see 3 (percent) to 5 percent growth in the debt,” he said. “Iowa is a pay-as-you-go, low-debt state, and it's continuing to be that way, but local governments are making some investments. With reports that armed protests are possible, steps are being taken to ensure the Iowa Capitol remains a safe place in the coming days. An FBI memo, obtained earlier this week by ABC News, warns of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals in the days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.According to the report, one group has called for supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump to “storm” government buildings on Wednesday even if Trump won the state — as he did in Iowa. An officer with the state public safety department and the Iowa State Patrol, the agency in charge of protection at the Iowa Capitol, said the department's intelligence division is monitoring social media and other channels for prospective security concerns and is working with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The Iowa National Guard has not been asked to protect the capitol at this time, but they are available if needed. This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com). 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.

This is John McGlothlen with the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, January 4th. For our weather today, there will be some areas of fog before noon. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 33. Winds will be from the south 5 to 10 mph, then from the west in the afternoon. Tonight should be partly cloudy, with a low around 16.  A male victim in a shooting died shortly after his arrival at Mercy Medical Center early Sunday morning. At 2:16 a.m., Cedar Rapids police were dispatched to the hospital where the shooting victim had arrived by private vehicle. Soon after officers arrived, the victim was pronounced dead. His name is not being released pending notification of family. Police said the incident address was unknown and that there is an active investigation. Three law enforcement agencies are investigating after a man was found dead Saturday at a rural Vinton home. Around 9 a.m., Benton County Sheriff's Office deputies conducted a welfare check at the man's home in the 5900 block of 28th Avenue. Deputies found the body of 84-year-old James Howard Bright. Bright's death is being investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Benton County Sheriff's Office, and the Iowa State Patrol. The number of patients being treated for COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals ticked upward Sunday morning, the first time in four days in what has been a downward trajectory. The 577 hospitalizations reported Sunday were up from 572 a day earlier — but still just about 40 percent of the peak seen in mid-November. Nonetheless, it remains higher than the 417 patient peak set during last summer's surge. Sunday marked the 11th day in a row where fewer than 5,000 individual test results were reported. The state's five Test Iowa drive-through locations, as well as the State Hygienic Lab, were closed both Christmas and New Years' days. Of the 2,638 individual tests in the 24-hour period that were reported, nearly 43 percent were positive. Iowa State beat Oregon Saturday in the Fiesta Bowl, 34-17. With the win, Iowa State tied its best-ever season (in 2000) with a 9-3 record. Brock Purdy completed 20 of 29 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed nine times for 39 yards and a score. Running back Breece Hall had 136 yards and two touchdowns, tight end Charlie Kolar had five catches for 53 yards and a touchdown, and receiver Xavier Hutchinson had four catches for 45 yards.  

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Thursday, December 31st. Your last day of 2020 will be chilly, sunny, and calm. According to the National Weather Service, there should be a high near 22 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with partly sunny skies. A calm wind will hover around 5 mph throughout the day. New Year's Eve it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 10 degrees, with wind chill values as low as zero. Combine about 10 inches of snow falling with in an evening with some bad travel decisions and you get Tuesday night in Iowa. The Iowa State Patrol says it handled nearly 100 crashes across the state during the storm from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning. KCCI-TV reported the patrol assisted with 91 crashes and helped 372 motorists Tuesday. That doesn't include other crashes that were handled by local police. There could be more snow on Friday afternoon, but expect only a few inches. The Marion Independent School District is seeking at least 386 signatures from registered voters to pursue a $31 million bond issue for facility projects. The district's school board earlier this month unanimously endorsed a $36 million facilities plan. It includes building an auditorium and outdoor activities complex at Marion Independent High School, making repairs to the high school, building an elementary school and renovating Francis-Marion Intermediate School, including a new secure entrance. If enough signatures for a bond are collected it will go to a bond referendum on a future election date. This will require a 60 percent approval rate to pass. The new Linn County Mental Health Access Center is hoping to be fully operational by early February. The opening originally was scheduled for early this year, but remodeling of the center, at 501 13th St. NW, was delayed by the pandemic and then the Aug. 10 derecho. The center will work with law enforcement, schools and hospitals to provide a place — 24 hours a day, seven days a week — to help people in crisis as an alternative to placing them in jail cells or hospital rooms. Iowa Republican U.S. Rep.-elect Mariannette Miller-Meeks will be provisionally sworn in Sunday with the new Congress pending the outcome of an election challenge from Democratic opponent Rita Hart, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday. Miller-Meeks was certified the winner in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District by just six votes out of more than 400,000 cast. A bipartisan canvassing board of top state officials voted unanimously Nov. 30 to certify the results following recounts in each of the district's 24 counties. Hart is contesting that there are ballots that have not yet been counted that could sway the extremely close election in her favor. This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers.  Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com). 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.