Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 13
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, July 13.
According to the National Weather Service patchy fog before 8 a.m. will give way to a sunny day in the Cedar Rapids area. The high will settle in at 86 degrees. On Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 67 degrees.
A North Liberty teenager was cited Monday for a traffic violation in a crash at the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Kennedy Parkway in Iowa City, which resulted in the death of an Iowa National Guard soldier who was out for a jog on May 22.
Iowa City Police identified Jonathan J.F. McCaffery, 16, of North Liberty, as the driver of a 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe that struck Corey Hite, 45, of Cedar Rapids at 4:16 p.m. on May 22. McCaffery, who goes by the name Jack, is the son of the University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery.
Following a “thorough investigation, and after consultation with the Johnson County Attorney's Office,” the teen was cited Monday with failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, a simple misdemeanor.
Under Iowa law, there is an enhancement for this misdemeanor when it results in a death, which includes a $1,000 fine, a driver's license suspension of up to 180 days, or both, police said.
Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith said this is a pending case and she couldn’t talk about the facts of the case.
In a statement distributed Wednesday by an Iowa City law firm, Fran and Margaret McCaffery — Jonathan McCaffery’s parents — called the crash, which happened just after their son left school, a “tragedy” that has “devastated” their family.
“Investigators have told us that it was an unavoidable accident with no evidence to suggest distracted driving,” the McCafferys’ statement says. “The pedestrian, who was jogging at the time of the accident, was waved in front of our son’s passing vehicle by the driver of another vehicle.”
The McCafferys’ statement says they refrained from releasing a statement before this week out of respect for the Hite family and “to allow the Iowa City Police Department to conclude its investigation.”
New restrictions on abortion in Iowa will not be signed into law until Friday, but challengers are not waiting.
The Republican-led Iowa Legislature during a special session passed a new version of a bill late Tuesday that bans abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy.
Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will sign the bill into law at a political event hosted Friday by the Christian conservative group The Family Leader. She is scheduled to deliver remarks and sign the bill at 2:15 p.m. Friday.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the Emma Goldman Clinic and the ACLU of Iowa announced Wednesday they already challenged the pending new law in district court. A hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday in Polk County District Court on their petition to temporarily block the law from taking effect.
The legislation would go into effect upon Reynolds’ signature unless the court grants a temporary injunction that would prevent enforcement of the law.
