Gazette Daily News Briefing, August 18
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 18, 2023.
The haze is returning Friday and lingering into the weekend. According to the National Weather Service there will be widespread haze before 8 a.m. in Eastern Iowa. Besides that it will be sunny with a high near 84 degrees.
In addition to the lingering haze, it’s also going to be hot, with temperatures forecast in the mid- to upper 90s Saturday through at least Tuesday and possibly later into next week.
Though temperatures are expected to be in the mid- to upper 90s in the Cedar Rapids area, the high humidity will push the heat index, or the “feels like” temperature, above 100 degrees.
The University of Iowa could soon receive “some feedback” from the NCAA about the “reinstatement process” for athletes caught up in this summer’s sports gambling investigations, interim athletics director Beth Goetz said Thursday.
“We're optimistic that we are just hopefully days away, perhaps, from getting some feedback at least initially on what that means for our student-athletes who currently are here and have remaining eligibility,” Goetz said in a news conference.
What exactly that “feedback” will entail is unclear.
The NCAA released updated guidelines earlier this summer suggesting athletes who bet on their own team or own school “will potentially face permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports.”
Those who bet on a different team in their sport could potentially lose eligibility for 50 percent of a season, according to the guidelines
It was the first news conference for the 49-year-old athletics director — the only woman AD in the Big Ten.
Goetz said she wants to be “great partners” with the Swarm Collective, which raises money via name, image and likeness for Hawkeye football and basketball athletes. This is a sharp contrast from predecessor Gary Barta’s frosty relationship with the collective.
Goetz wishes she “knew the exact answer” to what athlete compensation will look like down the road, but she thinks “college athletics needs to evolve.”
“We can provide greater resource, greater revenue opportunities — whether that's within or outside the athletic department — and still embed this experience with the components that tie it to education and make it different than pro sports,” Goetz said.
The deep-fried bacon brisket mac-n-cheese grilled cheese sandwich — a gooey, crispy, dense bomb of flavor from What’s Your Cheez — this week won the Best New Food award at the State Fair.
More than 8,000 people voted from three options to crown the winner, and 47 percent of votes were for the deep fried sandwich.
The other top options were the “Iowa Twinkie” from Watcha Smokin’ BBQ & Brew — a bacon-wrapped stuffed jalapeno pepper — and the “Grinder Ball” — a blend of bacon balls and mozzarella cheese, wrapped in bacon.
