Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 11
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 11.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 90 degrees. There will be a slight chance of rain before 7:00 a.m. The more likely chance for rain will be late Tuesday night into Wednesday, where rain chances will climb to 80 percent.
The Iowa Capitol will be ground zero for state abortion policy Tuesday. Advocates on both sides of the issue plan to fill the Capitol as lawmakers consider legislation to severely restrict abortion access in the state.
Iowa lawmakers meet today in a special session to consider a bill that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. It includes exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape in cases that are reported within 45 days, and incest in cases that are reported within 140 days.
It also includes exceptions for miscarriages, a fetal abnormality that would result in the infant’s death, and for when the mother’s life is threatened.
Maggie DeWitte, executive director of the anti-abortion group Pulse Life Advocates, said she’s thankful Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republicans responded to calls to act quickly on new abortion restrictions “to save more and more unborn children’s lives and protect women from the harm of abortion.”
Opponents, including physicians, argue politicians should not be making medical decisions for patients, and that the law ignores well-established medical standards.
With under two years to go until the 2025 deadline that Iowa set for itself to get at least 70 percent of its workforce some form of education or training after high school, a new Gallup poll out today reveals confidence in higher education has plummeted — especially among Republicans.
Where 57 percent of Americans had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education in 2015 today that confidence score has slid 21 percentage points to just 36 percent.
The doubts and differences between 2015 and 2023 are strongest among Republicans, with just 19 percent expressing a great deal or a lot of confidence in higher ed today — down 37 points from 56 percent in 2015.
“Americans’ confidence in higher education, which showed a marked decrease between 2015 and 2018, has declined further to a new low point,” according to a Gallup statement. “While Gallup did not probe for reasons behind the recent drop in confidence, the rising costs of postsecondary education likely play a significant role.”
Kim Reynolds’ ascension to governor of Iowa and her first election victory are all thanks to Donald Trump, the former president asserted Monday in a social media post.
In his post, Trump noted that he “opened up the governor position” for Reynolds in 2017 by selecting former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as his ambassador to China, then claimed credit for her election victory a year later.
Trump’s post came after the New York Times published an article over the weekend describing apparent strains between Reynolds and Trump’s campaign. The Times reported that Trump and his campaign feel Reynolds is betraying her pledge to remain neutral in the Republican presidential primary by being friendlier to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his campaign.
Trump posted his thoughts Monday on Truth Social, the social media site that was created for him after he was suspended from Twitter in 2021 for spreading misinformation about the 2020 presidential election that he lost.
Trump wrote: “I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won. Now, she wants to remain ‘NEUTRAL.’ I don’t invite her to events! DeSanctus down 45 points!
