Gazette Daily News Briefing, December 15
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, December 15th.
There will be another day of wintry mix on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a slight chance for snow before noon, and then a chance of snow and rain between noon and 3pm. It will be cloudy with a high near 36 degrees. On Thursday night there will be a 50 percent chance of snow, with a low of around 24 degrees.
One person was killed Wednesday morning in a crash outside Cedar Rapids, at the intersection of Highway 13 and Mount Vernon Road SE, according to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office was called to the scene at 7:47 a.m.
A utility truck headed west collided head-on with an eastbound Subaru Forester turning north at the intersection. Linn Area Ambulance Service took the driver of the Subaru to Mercy Medical Center, where he died.
The Sheriff’s Office identified the driver as Benjamin Sanders, 37, of Cedar Rapids. The driver of the utility truck was uninjured. The incident remains under investigation.
A Marengo man who was intoxicated and crossed the centerline on Highway 151 in Walford, killing a Cedar Rapids man in a head-on crash in 2020, pleaded guilty to lesser charges Wednesday and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Edwin Arenivas, 24, originally charged with vehicular homicide by vehicle while under the influence that resulted in death, pleaded to vehicular homicide — reckless driving — and serious injury by vehicle. During the plea, Arenivas admitted to crossing the center lane while intoxicated March 7, 2020, and striking a vehicle head-on driven by Erik Halvorson, 32. Arenivas also admitted to unintentionally causing Halvorson’s death and driving in a reckless manner.
Halvorson, an electrical apprentice, was on his way to do some overtime work in Amana, his wife, Nikki Halvorson, told The Gazette last year.
COVID-19 cases in Iowa are up for a sixth consecutive week, with 3,704 new cases reported in the past week.
That number represents a 6.8 percent increase over the previous week’s total of 3,469 new cases. The actual total is likely much higher, given the availability of at-home test kits, the results of which are not reported to the state.
Despite the continual increase in numbers, the number of hospitalizations and intensive care patients remained the same over the past week.
Moxie Solar, a North Liberty based solar installation company, closed this month after coming under new management earlier this year.
According to a July article by the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Moxie Solar and several other Iowa solar companies were under investigation by the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. Several of the companies had one or two complaints lodged against them with the office.
Moxie Solar was founded in 2008, with offices in 27 states. It employed 45 people in Johnson County.
