Gazette Daily News Briefing, August 5
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 5.
We will get another break from extreme heat Friday before it returns on Saturday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 88 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday, with a light wind. On Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 71 degrees.
An assailant who attacked three members of a Cedar Falls family who were camping last month at Maquoketa Caves State Park shot and stabbed the father, stabbed the mother and shot and strangled their 6-year-old daughter, state autopsy results revealed Thursday.
The state medical examiner, who for the first time disclosed that family members had been stabbed or strangled, ruled the deaths were homicides. The Iowa Department of Public Safety also confirmed their attacker was Anthony Sherwin, 23, of LaVista, Neb., who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the family was attacked early July 22 in their tent. Sherwin was at the park camping with his parents at the time.
Killed were Tyler Schmidt and Sarah Schmidt, both 42, and their daughter, Lula. Their son, Arlo, 9, survived the attack without physical injury but investigators have not said where in the park he was when the attack inside the tent occurred.
Investigators indicated that there are indications for what the motive for the attack was, but they did not disclose them on Thursday.
One of Iowa City’s two female firefighters is suing the city for gender and sexual orientation discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
Sadie McDowell, who has been on unpaid leave since 2021, said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Johnson County District Court she has experienced “inappropriate sexist, sexual and racist comments,” as well as unwanted sexual contact and embarrassing situations, like someone stealing her pants while she was in the shower.
“Throughout her ten-plus years of employment, Sadie heard male firefighters and fire officers make sexually inappropriate comments nearly every single day,” the 19-page lawsuit states.
Saying she has developed mental health conditions including depression and stress-related disorders because of the incidents, McDowell is seeking a jury trial.
The city of Iowa City denied McDowell’s claims in a statement Thursday.
Just in time for the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art’s long-awaited reopening on Aug. 26, its most heralded piece — Jackson Pollock’s “Mural” — is back on campus after a long hiatus.
“Mural” arrived home July 14 after nine years touring museums and entertaining millions in Europe and across the United States. Welcomed by museum Director Lauren Lessing in its 3,200-pound crate, “Mural” has been placed in its new home in the second-floor Chris and Suzy DeWolf Family Gallery.
Displaced by the 2008 flood, like many UI collection pieces, the 8-by-20-foot “Mural” traveled to 14 venues at home and abroad.
The museum will be officially dedicated Aug. 26, kicking off a two-day grand-opening celebration. Its inaugural exhibition, titled “Homecoming,” will display more than 600 works by 500-some artists, including “Mural,” which marks a “pivotal moment in Pollock’s career.”
