Gazette Daily News Briefing, February 18 and February 19
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, February 18, and Sunday, February 19.
We’re going back to sunny, warmer, and mostly boring weather in a good way for this weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 39 degrees on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area. On Sunday it will be partly sunny, with a high near 41 degrees. It looks like it will hover above freezing for highs through most of next week, although there may be some snow toward the end of the week.
The head of Iowa's Department of Education, which sets standards for K-12 schools and oversees the state’s community colleges, is stepping down next month to pursue other opportunities, the Iowa Governor’s Office announced Friday.
Ann Lebo leaves the department shortly after Republican state lawmakers and Gov. Reynolds approved a new $345 million private school financial aid package, and with dozens of public education-related bills swirling through the Iowa Legislature.
Lebo’s resignation from the $150,300-a-year job is effective March 14, almost three years to the day since she became the state’s director of education, according to the governor’s office.
Reynolds’ office and Department of Education did not respond by Friday evening to questions from the Gazette regarding who would lead the department following Lebo’s departure. They also did not immediately respond to requests for a copy of Lebo’s resignation letter.
A former Iowa Board of Parole member is suing the state, Gov. Kim Reynolds and a former chair, alleging the board made illegal decisions to release people from prison.
Kathleen Kooiker, of Osceola, who served on the board from 2018 to 2021, said in the lawsuit she was wrongfully discharged from the paid position when she complained to the governor about former chair Helen Miller’s decision to let alternate board members make parole decisions.
Kooiker took her concerns to John Lundquist, an attorney with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, who instructed her to call the Department of Corrections and stop those parole proceedings and explain what happened, the suit states.
According to the suit, Miller refused to tell the Corrections Department or the parolees about the error and instead ordered vice-chair Norm Granger to help her retroactively add their votes to the decisions made by the illegal panels.
Kooiker wrote to Reynolds in July 2020 to report Miller’s alleged actions, but did not hear back. Reynolds did not reappoint Kooiker when Kooiker’s term expired in 2021, despite reappointment being common among other board members, the suit states. Kooiker again wrote to Reynolds in March 2021, but there was no response.
Kooiker is asking the court to require the state to pay her damages equivalent at least to three times the annual wages and benefits she received as a board member. Kooiker’s salary for fiscal 2020 was $84,365.
Two people were injured in a shooting Friday morning in Cedar Rapids, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
Police were called to the 3000 block of J St. SW at 4:32 a.m. Friday, where they found one man and one woman with gunshot wounds. Both were treated on-scene and taken to the hospital for further care.
The conditions of the victims are not currently known, the release states.
