Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 18
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 18.
🌞 According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 83 degrees. On Tuesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 59 degrees.
A Polk County District Court judge temporarily blocked enforcement Monday of a new law signed just days earlier by Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds that would ban the vast majority of abortions in the state.
The order means abortion — for now — remains legal in Iowa up until 20 weeks of pregnancy.
District Court Judge Joseph Seidlin — who was appointed by Reynolds — granted a request from Iowa abortion providers to halt enforcement of the new restrictions until its constitutionality can be considered by the courts.
Reynolds signed the bill into law Friday afternoon at the Christian conservative Family Leadership Summit, after it was passed earlier in the week during a one-day special session of the Iowa Legislature. During her remarks, Reynolds called abortion “the most important human rights cause of our time.”
A $220 million bond referendum that would fund a land purchase, construction of a new middle school and renovations to existing buildings could go to voters in the Cedar Rapids Community School District in November.
This would be one of two bond referendums proposed to go to voters that would ensure all buildings in the district are new or recently renovated by 2037, Jon Galbraith, Cedar Rapids schools’ operations director, said during a school board meeting on Monday.
A second $225 million bond referendum could go to voters in November 2029 to build a new middle school to replace Taft and renovate McKinley STEAM Academy.
Wilson, Roosevelt and Harding middle schools would be closed under this plan and the buildings hopefully repurposed by other developers, Galbraith said.
The College Community School District is gauging voters’ interest in supporting a bond referendum this November that would fund a recreation and wellness center — possibly with a pool, pickleball courts and an indoor track.
The school district is exploring the feasibility of building a facility that would be open to the public and operated by the YMCA of Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Area. At the very least, the district plans to take a bond referendum to voters that includes building a pool for its students, Superintendent Doug Wheeler said.
The facility, if approved, could open as early as summer 2025.
The cost of the bond referendum will depend on the scope of the project, but the school’s bonding capacity is just below $40 million, Wheeler said. The facility would be located on the district’s campus across from Prairie Crest Elementary, 301 76th Ave SW, Cedar Rapids.
