Gazette Daily News Briefing, January 30
This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, January 30th.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly cloudy through mid morning today in the Cedar Rapids area, then becoming sunny and cold, with a high near 6. Wind chill values as low as -15. Winds from the northwest around 10 mph. Then tonight, partly cloudy, with a low around -9. Wind chill values, again, as low as -15.
For its 50th year this summer, RAGBRAI will head back to Coralville as one of its overnight stops on the 500-mile ride. Since a pair of newspapermen challenged each other to ride their bikes across the state in 1973, what has evolved into the internationally-known Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa has included Johnson County among its overnight stops on eight occasions. But Coralville officials felt especially compelled to bid for a featured role in this year’s July 22-29 route — given the 50th year of RAGBRAI aligns with a meaningful occasion for the city: its 150th anniversary. The city got its wish Saturday when RAGBRAI announced its 2023 route will weave through Coralville on July 28 — marking the city’s sixth time as an overnight host. The full RAGBRAI route will start July 22 along the Missouri River in Sioux City and make overnight stops in Storm Lake, Carroll, Ames, Des Moines, Tama-Toledo, and Coralville. The route’s final day will take riders to Davenport and its banks of the Mississippi River on July 29 — the same place the first cross-state expedition wrapped five decades ago.
Two dogs were killed in a Cedar Rapids house fire Saturday and a cat was rescued, according to the Cedar Rapids Fire Department. At 9:31 a.m., fire crews were dispatched to the 1600 block of A Avenue NW for a report of smoke and flames at a one-story house. Firefighters forced entry into the home, found the fire in a kitchen area and extinguished the fire. No people were found in the home at the time of the fire but two dogs were killed. A cat was rescued from the home, according to the news release.
In Iowa men’s basketball, Kris Murray scored 24 points, Ahron Ulis added 16 and Iowa defeated Rutgers 93-82 on Sunday. The Hawkeyes, boasting the conference's top offense for five years running and averaging 80.7 points per game this season, became the first team to score 80 points on the Scarlet Knights this season. Rutgers entered with the Big Ten's stingiest defense, yielding 58.1 points to its opponents. Murray sank 8 of 16 shots with a 3-pointer and made 7 of 9 free throws for Iowa. He added six rebounds. Ulis made 5 of 9 shots with two 3-pointers. Tony Perkins totaled 11 points and seven rebounds, while Connor McCaffery scored 11 and handed out six assists. Patrick McCaffery, playing for the first time since Jan. 1, came off the bench to score nine on 3-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc.
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🎹 Podcast music: “Dubstep” by Emily McGlothlen
