Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 19
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 19.
It will be mostly sunny Wednesday with a high near 89 degrees. According to the National Weather Service it will become partly cloudy as the day goes on, with a low of around 66 degrees.
Former President Donald Trump made light of his mounting legal troubles and continued his relentless, unproven claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and stolen during a visit to Cedar Rapids Tuesday.
“I didn’t know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries and all of this,” Trump said Tuesday evening during a stop at the monthly meeting of the Linn County Republican Party after taping a town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in downtown Cedar Rapids.
“Now, I’m like becoming an expert. I have no choice. It’s a disgrace,” Trump told about 170 people squeezed into the Elks Lodge on the city’s southwest side. “If you say something about an election, they want to put you in jail for the rest of your life. It’s a disgrace.”
Trump said Tuesday in a post on his Truth Social platform that he has received a letter informing him that he is a target of the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, an indication that he could soon be indicted by federal prosecutors.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled a new logo and marketing plan Tuesday as part of an attempt to draw people to live in Iowa.
The governor also said the executive branch of state government is now operating under its newly restructured and streamlined form, which she signed into law in April.
Reynolds offered the updates during a news conference Tuesday at the Iowa Capitol.
The marketing plan includes a new state logo, which Reynolds said will be used to market Iowa to attract new businesses and residents, will be used by state agencies and will be displayed on welcome signs across Iowa on the two interstates that run through the state and on other roadways. The logo features a landscape scene and the tagline, “Freedom to flourish.”
The new slogan will replace “Fields of opportunities.”
“Iowa’s national profile is on the rise, our reputation is strong, and Americans have taken notice,” Reynolds said, while saying that Iowa’s net migration recently increased for the first time in “a generation.”
Reynolds also told reporters that she will direct the state to appeal that ruling that currently is blocking the recently passed fetal heartbeat bill. She said she believes the bill is constitutional and, despite the Iowa Supreme Court recently ruling against a very similar bill, that the out outcome will be different this time.
Jack McCaffery entered a not guilty plea Monday for a traffic violation in a May 22 crash that resulted in the death of an Iowa National Guard soldier.
McCaffery will have a trial in August. He is the son of the University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery.
McCaffery was cited last week for a traffic violation stemming from a crash at the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Kennedy Parkway in Iowa City on May 22. Investigators say he was driving the vehicle that struck Corey Hite, 45, of Cedar Rapids, who was out for a jog.
A statement released by McCaffery’s parents through a lawyer said that the accident happened when another motorist waved Hite into the path of McCaffery’s vehicle as he was driving home from school
