Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 30 and July 31
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, July 30 and Sunday, July 31.
Temperatures will inch up this weekend, but will still remain quite pleasant. It’d be a good idea to get out and enjoy the weather before the heat returns with a vengeance next week. On Saturday it will be sunny with a high near 86 degrees.On Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 62 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny again with a high near 87 degrees. A light wind from Saturday will increase just barely up to 5 to 10 mph on Sunday. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 70 degrees.
A federal class-action lawsuit brought by youth basketball players who were potential sex abuse victims of former Iowa Barnstormers basketball coach Greg Stephen reached a settlement Friday that will establish a fund of over a $1 million for the athletes.
Guy Cook, lead attorney for an unnamed former Barnstormers Basketball of Iowa player who filed the suit in 2020, said the fund will be established for select former youth athletes affiliated with the Barnstormers and coached by Stephen from 2005 through 2018, and “fell victim to Stephen’s illicit acts of secretly procuring nude images of players.”
The settlement is pending court approval. The trial was set to start Monday in U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa in Davenport.
Stephen, 44, of Monticello, was sentenced in 2019 to 180 years in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count each of possession of child pornography and transportation of child pornography.
A Cedar Rapids man accused of killing a woman April 10 at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge likely will face updated charges because a man seriously injured that night died late last week.
Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said 31-year-old Marvin Cox, of Cedar Rapids, who was shot in the head, died from his injuries Sunday, July 24, and criminal charges against Timothy Rush, 32, will be updated.
Rush is accused of fatally shooting Nicole Owens, 35, his girlfriend and mother of his 1-year-old daughter, and of shooting and seriously injuring Cox, who had been on life support since the shooting.
Marie Mulkey, Cox’s mother, told The Gazette after the shooting that she had been spending every day with her son in the hospital.
The other man charged in the shootings, Dimione Walker, is accused of fatally shooting Michael Valentine, 25.
10 people were shot in total by the two gunmen.
The Cedar Rapids Police Department has identified the man killed in a stabbing Wednesday as 52-year-old Christopher Anson.
Police were called Wednesday afternoon to the 1500 block of Fifth Avenue SE, where they found Anson, of Cedar Rapids, on the floor of an apartment building common area with a stab wound in his chest.
Police began CPR, but Anson was declared dead at the scene.
Two males were transported to the police department for interviews, according to a news release.
Police said the attack was not random and the public is not considered at risk. The investigation continues, police said, and no further details will be released at this time.
Have a good weekend everyone.
