Gazette Daily News Briefing, August 27
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 27.
Friday is the day of thunderstorms. According to the National Weather Service, there were likely thunderstorms before you woke up today. There might even have been thunderstorms that woke you up. There will be a chance for thunderstorms again before 2 p.m. Friday, although more of the scattered variety. There will again be a chance for thunderstorms Friday evening and a chance for thunderstorms Friday night into Saturday morning, although these will be less likely still. When it is not severe thunderstorming, it should be mostly cloudy, edging toward partly sunny, with a high of 94 degrees. There is an off chance we will get missed by any and all thunderstorms, but it will definitely be hot, with a heat index as high as 105 degrees.
Thomas Woodard was sentenced Thursday to two life sentences for bludgeoning correctional Officer Robert McFarland and registered nurse Lorena Schulte to death as part of a failed escape attempt.
Woodard, 34, declined to make a statement during the sentencing hearing, as family members shared the horrible impact he has had on their lives. He appeared to have little or no reaction to the emotional family statements, but did pay attention to each of the 11 family members who spoke.
Avoiding a trial, Woodard had pleaded guilty as charged to two counts of first-degree murder and one count each of attempted murder and second-degree kidnapping.
Woodard, already serving time for robbery, made the rare straight-up pleading to all offenses charged on the condition he could serve his prison terms in Nebraska. Prosecutors said he would have been sent out of state to another prison regardless because he had killed Iowa correctional employees.
Inmate Michael Dutcher, 28, also charged in the fatal attack, has a bench trial set for Sept. 21 in Jones County District Court.
The bishop of the Iowa Area of the United Methodist Church is asking the organization’s churches in the state to stop chartering Boy Scout troops because of sex abuse lawsuits by former scouts.
Bishop Laurie Haller told church leaders in a message this week they should not renew chartering agreements with troops at least until the Boy Scouts of America emerges from federal bankruptcy proceedings.
Breaking ties is intended to protect the churches from further liability, now that the United Methodist Church has learned Boy Scouts of America doesn’t have enough insurance to cover sponsoring churches, the letter states.
Haller recommends churches do not start or renew chartering agreements with Boy Scout troops. Rather, the churches may sign a facilities use agreement with the troops until Dec. 31.
For the second time, Iowa State University has exceed its “Forever True, For Iowa State” fundraising campaign goal by bringing in $1.542 billion by June 30 — thanks to 532,377 gifts from more than 96,000 donors.
The Ames campus and its philanthropic foundation in September 2016 went public with a goal of raising $1.1 billion by June 30, 2020. Two years ahead of schedule, ISU in October 2018 announced it already reached that mark and was moving its target to $1.5 billion by summer 2021.
Even with the complicating COVID-19 pandemic, ISU announced Thursday the successful end to its nine-year campaign, thanks to donors from all 50 U.S. states and 49 nations.
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