Gazette Daily News Briefing, August 7
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 7, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service showers should clear up before 9 a.m. on Monday. Despite that, it will be mostly cloudy still with as hgh near 81 degrees. On Monday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 62 degrees.
One person was injured Saturday in what appeared to be a targeted shooting at Hannah Park in Marion.
Marion police responded to the shooting at approximately 4:35 p.m., and found a victim who’d sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to a news release from the police department.
Police report the investigation is ongoing and there is no threat to the public.
A judge has ruled against Palo-area residents who filed a lawsuit last year opposing the rezoning of land for two industrial-scale solar projects.
The lawsuit argued the Linn County Board of Supervisors did not follow county land-use policies and used illegal spot zoning to rezone nearly 2,000 acres to allow for a renewable energy project near the decommissioned Duane Arnold nuclear plant.
Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Lars Anderson denied those claims.
“The (county’s) Comprehensive Plan provides for preservation of agriculture as well as protection of resources, under which the development of renewable energy is appropriate,” Anderson wrote in the July 20 decision.
Anderson said the 1,934 acres rezoned for the Duane Arnold solar project didn’t constitute spot zoning because it wasn’t a “small island” of land and because the new uses fit with the county’s goals to provide “protection and enhancement of the health and safety of all Linn County residents though the use of renewable energy.”
The Palo decision signals the Duane Arnold Solar Project may soon be able to move forward.
A newly released New York Times/Sienna College poll of Iowa Republicans shows former President Donald Trump with a commanding lead, but less dominant than national polls.
The survey of 432 likely Iowa caucusgoers was taken before a third indictment against Trump was made public Tuesday, charging him with federal crimes connected to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The new poll suggests more Iowa Republican voters are open to alternatives to Trump, but still overwhelmingly back him.
Trump carried the support of 44 percent of Iowans polled — 10 percentage points lower than the support he holds with Republicans nationwide.
