Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 3 and July 4
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday July 3 and Sunday July 4.
Happy 4th of July Weekend!
The weather should be pleasant for your holiday weekend as well. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 88 degrees on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area, with the temperature dropping down to 65 Saturday night and the skies remaining mostly clear. On Independence Day Sunday there will be a high near 90 degrees with sunny skies. There will be a moderate wind on Sunday and a small chance for showers and thunderstorms Sunday night.
According to the Associated Press there was the second court setback in a week for renewable fuels, as a federal appeals court Friday threw out a Trump-era Environmental Protection Agency rule change that allowed for the sale of a 15 percent ethanol gasoline blend in the summer months.
The decision deals a blow to the ethanol industry and corn farmers. They had anticipated increased demand through year-round sales of the higher blend.
Most gasoline sold in the United States is blended with 10 percent ethanol. Corn farmers and ethanol makers have pushed for the government to allow widespread sale of a 15 percent ethanol blend.
As a busy travel weekend is here, Iowa traffic enforcement officials are pitching a highway safety message to drive home the stakes of safe driving.
So far this year, there have been 144 people die in traffic crashes on Iowa roadways heading into three of the deadliest months historically during the peak summertime travel period.
A coalition of enforcement, transportation and safety groups are making a concerted effort in the second half of 2021 to make this the first year in nearly a century that deaths due to motor vehicle crashes stay below 300. The last time that happened was in 1925 when Iowa recorded 261 traffic fatalities.
The Iowa State Patrol is also trying to curb a behavior picked up by some motorists during the pandemic, leading to an increased number of traffic stops where the driver was going faster than 100 mph.
A decade in the making, Marion’s long-awaited Seventh Avenue streetscape project is beginning this month.
The $6.9 million Uptown project is expected to begin on July 13 in the 1200 block of Seventh Avenue and proceed west, a city news release said.
The project is being funded by local-option sales tax dollars and bonding through the city’s capital improvement program.
The project will include the reconstruction of the street and sidewalks as well as the replacement of underground utilities, sanitary sewer, storm sewer and water main on Seventh Avenue and side streets between Eighth and 12th streets and Sixth and Eighth avenues.
A Solon man was seriously injured Friday night after falling out of a truck he was driving in northern Linn County.
A Linn County Sheriff’s Office news release said Trent Vincent, 36, fell out of his truck while driving in the area of Paris and Valley Farm Roads northwest of Central City and north of Pinicon Ridge Park.
The truck ran over Vincent, who lost his phone when he fell. Vincent managed to get back into his truck and drive himself to Central City for help shortly before 7 p.m., the news release said.
Center Point Ambulance Service took VIncent to Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.
The investigation is continuing.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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