Gazette Daily News Briefing, April 6
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, April 6.
Thursday will have a bit of a chill to it, but it will be sunny. This will set a sunny, and increasingly warm, trend for the next week. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 52 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The wind will calm down a bit as well, sticking at 5 to 15 mph with mild gusts. Thursday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 31 degrees.
Mercy Iowa City held a series of “all staff” meetings Wednesday to announce upcoming changes for the 234-bed hospital — including a new chief executive, another operations improvement consultant and a plan to end its relationship with partner MercyOne.
Mercy Iowa City’s 13-member board appointed Tom Clancy, who serves as chair of the board, to take the reins as Mercy's new CEO tasked with turning the hospital’s fortunes around after recent financial hardships.
In his email, Clancy acknowledged fiscal challenges facing the hospital and said the board has hired ToneyKorf Partners to develop and implement a plan to help Mercy “improve its operations.” ToneyKorf is a New York management and advisory firm specialized in “helping health care organizations address complex and critical challenges.”
MercyOne will continue to serve Mercy patients during the transitional period as it has before. Mercy Iowa City considered seeking a new partner before, but did not find a partner organization that matched its needs, pulling back to MercyOne in 2022.
A Cedar Rapids man already in prison on a burglary conviction now faces a murder charge in a 2020 fatal shooting.
Damontie Haggstrom-Wells, 20, has been moved from prison to the Linn County Jail to face charges of first-degree murder, first-degree attempted burglary and going armed with intent, in the May 22, 2020, shooting of Daniel Spangler, according to a news release from Cedar Rapids police.
Spangler, 69, was found dead in his home in the 500 block of B Ave NW that day after police were asked to do a welfare check.
Iowa was one of only four states to turn down $3 million in federal money for planning to prevent climate change after a state official advised against it because there were “strings attached.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offered each state $3 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to come up with a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create green energy jobs, lower energy costs for families and reduce air pollution, among other objectives.
Governors had until last Friday to file notice they planned to apply for the grants. Iowa, Florida, Kentucky and South Dakota were the only states that declined to participate, the EPA confirmed Wednesday.
Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Economic Development Authority, told the finance authority board Wednesday she recommended Gov. Kim Reynolds not seek the federal money, saying there were “strings attached.”
