Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 21
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 21.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny on Friday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 82 degrees. On Friday evening it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 59 degrees.
After a rocky start to 2023, Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City has again closed temporarily.
A sign noting the closure is now taped to the front of the restaurant’s door at 214 N. Linn St., and Google results now list the restaurant as “temporarily closed.”
Citing staffing issues, the undated sign says the diner will be closed “until further notice,” with “hope to reopen again real soon.”
It is unclear when the restaurant closed again. A representative for Hamburg Inn could not be reached.
Hamburg Inn reopened Feb. 22 with limited hours, after several weeks of closure starting in early January.
Monica Vernon announced Thursday she is stepping down as executive director of The District: Czech Village and New Bohemia to spend more time with her family.
The District board is launching a search for a new leader after the departure of Vernon, who has led the organization since 2019. Her resignation takes effect Sept. 21.
The timeline to hire her replacement isn’t set, but Vernon said the district hopes to have someone hired in late September or early October.
Vernon, a former Cedar Rapids City Council member, said she has no plans to seek elected office again, but her experience on the council helped her strengthen The District’s partnership with the city of Cedar Rapids and other major area partners.
A Cedar Rapids man pleaded guilty Thursday to vehicular homicide in a 2022 fatal crash, which killed a 77-year-old Cedar Rapids woman and seriously injured a Marion woman.
Zawadi Christophe, 19, also pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle-operating while intoxicated, serious injury by vehicle-OWI and serious injury-reckless driving.
In the fatal crash plea, Christophe admitted to being under the influence of alcohol or drugs and driving recklessly when he unintentionally caused the death of Judy Hoover, of Cedar Rapids, and seriously injured Joanne Swenka, 73, of Marion,.
Driving on First Avenue in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 24, 2022, Christophe rear-ended a vehicle, driven by Swenka and with Hoover as a passenger. The crash caused the vehicle to veer into oncoming traffic, where it was hit by a pickup driving east.
Last year, Swenka’s family told The Gazette she and Hoover were driving home from bingo that night at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids.
