Gazette Daily News Briefing, August 15
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 15, 2023.
It'll be cool again Tuesday, without the chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny during the day in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 80 degrees.
Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted in Georgia on Monday, accused of scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
According to reporting from the Associated Press the indictment details acts by Trump and his allies to undo his key defeat in Georgia: lobbying Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes to keep Trump in power, pushing claims of voter fraud, and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to appoint a new slate of electoral college favorable to Trump.
Other defendants included former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced efforts to undo Trump’s election loss in Georgia.
It’s the fourth criminal case to be brought against the former president and the second this month to allege that he tried to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
Henry Dinkins’ son testified in court Monday that he saw his father shoot Breasia Terrell.
That assertion was made for the first time Monday in a Scott County courtroom after the 11-year-old boy returned to the witness stand for a second day and told defense attorney Chad Frese that he saw his father shoot and kill Terrell.
Dinkins is charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder of Terrell, who was 10 years old when she disappeared on July 10, 2020. Remains of her body were discovered in a DeWitt pond in March 2021.
Identified in court as D.L., the boy is Breasia Terrell’s younger half brother and was 8 at the time of her death. Throughout the testimony, D.L. offered some contradictory answers and appeared confused at times.
When Frese asked if D.L. was telling the truth about seeing Breasia's murder, the boy answered, "Everything I say is true."
The trial continues on Tuesday.
The Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is testing the new facial recognition technology at 25 U.S. airports, including those in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.
Other airports testing the technology include Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco.
Depending on how the testing goes, TSA has plans to use the technology at 400 airports nationwide.
At those 25 airport security lanes, you might be asked to look into a camera that takes your photo. You also will scan your driver's license or other photo identification. The software compares the snapshot of your face to your ID photo to verify that the two match.
Other checks are happening, too, including making sure your ID is legitimate and whether you belong to a special screening status, such as TSA PreCheck or requirements for extra security measures.
