Gazette Daily News Briefing, January 19
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, January 19.
It may not be a very fun commute Thursday morning. The rain and snow from Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area will mostly subside by noon Thursday. Before that, the National Weather Service says there could be a bit more snow, some areas of freezing fog from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., and some areas of fog before noon. Things will finally calm down a bit Thursday afternoon, with cloudy skies and a high of 34 degrees.
The next superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District is expected to be announced next week, school board President David Tominsky said Wednesday.
Educators and district residents want to see the next superintendent be someone with experience in leading a diverse school district, be good at relationship building and have a proven track record of student achievement, according to survey data collected by Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates — an Illinois firm helping to identify candidates to become the next superintendent.
Tominsky said the board is not releasing the names of the three finalists — who will go through second interviews with the board this week before an announcement is expected Jan. 26 — and could not say if the candidates are from Iowa or out of state. “Protecting the identity of the candidates is extremely important. It allows us to consider the best possible candidates,” he said.
Iowa House lawmakers for a third time have moved forward legislation that would prevent a defendant from using a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity as a mitigating factor if charged with a violent crime or assault.
The legal strategy asks a jury to find that a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity/expression is to blame for a defendant’s violent reaction, including murder.
The so-called “gay panic defense” has been used successfully in other states, Keenan Crow of One Iowa told a subcommittee that voted unanimously Wednesday to move the bill to the full House Judiciary Committee.
Subcommittee member and freshman Rep. Sami Scheetz, D-Cedar Rapids, said he was “shocked” to learn such a defense could be used in legal proceedings, and voted to advance the bill.
Perpetrators who use the legal strategy claim a defense of diminished capacity. They argue that learning another person's sexual orientation or gender identity — in a non-violent sexual advance or come-on from a LGBTQ-plus person — led to a loss of self-control and the subsequent assault.
The legislation was approved unanimously by the House in 2020, but the Legislature suspended its session a week later because of the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers again unanimously approved the bill in 2021, but it was never taken up by the Senate.
By 2025, University of Iowa Health Care expects to have a new primary care location up and running in southeast Iowa City — addressing a “health care access gap” in that part of town.
Citing an analysis of local health care needs, UIHC officials said Wednesday that southeast Iowa City has the fewest primary care options in the community, despite being the “most densely populated.”
“Many residents must travel outside of their immediate community to access care,” according to the news release promising forthcoming details on the project — which will add to UIHC’s growing list of health care facilities under construction.
UIHC recently has laid out more than $1 billion in new construction projects underway or upcoming — including a $525.6 million hospital in North Liberty; a $95 million vertical expansion of its existing inpatient tower; a $24.6 million renovation of its emergency room; and an $8 million conversion of its south wing into inpatient rooms.
