Gazette Daily News Briefing, August 23
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 23, 2023.
The heat continues. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Wednesday with a high near 103 degrees. Heat index values could rise as high as 115.
Expect the extreme heat to hang around at least through Thursday.
The meteorological reason behind the heat wave is similar to that behind the heat dome that trapped much of the nation in late July. There’s a high-pressure air mass currently centered over southern Iowa that encompasses most of the central U.S. It’s trapping hot summer air underneath, scorching communities.
Eastern Iowa schools are preparing for the extremely hot temperatures — announcing early releases and stocking water bottles on buses — as students start heading back to school Wednesday.
Cedar Rapids Community Schools will be dismissing middle and high school students at 10:50 a.m. and elementary school students at 11:50 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday. College Community and Linn-Mar school districts will have a three-hour early dismissal both days.
Iowa City Community Schools are planning no early dismissals.
Outdoor events are also experiencing delays. Taste of Iowa City, an annual culinary street event hosted by the Iowa City Downtown District, is postponing the popular celebration. Originally set for Aug. 23, will now be held on Tuesday, Aug. 29, from 4 to 8 p.m.
Iowa will receive more than $171 million in additional payments from tobacco manufacturers under a new agreement announced Tuesday by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird that resolves an 18-year legal dispute.
Bird announced Iowa is set to receive an additional $136 million in April 2024, with the rest disbursed annually from 2025 to 2029.
Under Iowa law, 78 percent of the payments will pay down the State’s debt to bondholders and the remainder will be deposited in the State Treasury's Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund.
The settlement resolves a long-standing dispute between the state and tobacco companies over annual payments owed under a 1998 agreement among 46 states and four major tobacco industry manufacturers.
Iowa was one of nine states that was still litigating its dispute in slow-moving arbitration over the payments, which had been unresolved for more than 18 years.
A North Liberty teenager cited for a traffic violation in a May 22 crash that resulted in the death of an Iowa National Guard soldier is asking the court to waive his personal appearance at his trial set to start next week in Johnson County.
Jonathan J.F. McCaffery, 17, waived his right to appear during the bench — or non-jury — trial, which he can do for a simple misdemeanor. He previously pleaded not guilty to failure to yield to a pedestrian in the right of way, according to court documents.
McCaffery will appear next Tuesday through his attorney, Joseph Moreland, at trial, according to the motion filed Friday.
McCaffery, who was 16 at the time of the crash, goes by the name Jack. He is the son of University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery.
