Gazette Daily News Briefing, June 10
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 10.
Friday there will be a chance of rain in the morning and a chance of rain in the evening, with a cloudy day in the middle. The National Weather Service predicts it to be mostly cloudy with a high near 74 degrees, with the low coming in at around 56 degrees. The chance for rain will top out at 50 percent.
The committee investigating the violent rioters that stormed the nation’s capitol building on January 6, 2021 made the case both that the incident should not be downplayed and began their case connecting it to then President Donald Trump and his associates.
The first of several hearings was held on primetime television Thursday night, and in a sense was designed with a television audience in mind, with the first hearing recapping the events of the day with video and the panel speaking with a capitol police officer about her experiences that day.
The panel laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump Thursday night, saying the assault was hardly spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
The riot left more than 100 police officers injured, many beaten and bloodied, as the crowd of pro-Trump rioters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged into the Capitol. At least nine people who were there died during and after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police.
The next hearing will be at 9 a.m. on Monday.
Iowa’s first medical marijuana manufacturer and distributor is changing its name, planning a $10 million expansion in Iowa and moving into other states where it can legally sell recreational pot.
MedPharm Iowa will become the much less medical sounding, Bud & Mary’s Cannabis Co., showing a shift in the company’s focus from just medical marijuana allowed in Iowa to recreational marijuana products allowed in some other states.
Bud & Mary’s will break ground next week on a $10 million expansion of the Des Moines manufacturing facility to “allow for a 3x increase in cannabis production for the Iowa program in order to meet increasing patient needs.”
The company will continue to make and sell the same products, including Batch cannabis vapes, which, since their release in March, “are on track to be Iowa’s most popular medical cannabis product in 2022,” a company news release states.
Matt Gatens, a productive and popular basketball player when he was at Iowa and a former high school basketball star in Iowa City, has been hired as an assistant coach to Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeyes men’s basketball staff.
Gatens replaces Kirk Speraw, who announced his retirement from coaching last month.
Gatens was a four-year starter for the Hawkeyes from 2009-12. His final two seasons were McCaffery’s first two as Iowa’s head coach, while his first two are part of a Hawkeye basketball era that fans try to actively forget.
Gatens was a two-time All-Big Ten selection, two-time team captain, two-time academic all-conference honoree, and recipient of the 2012 Chris Street Award.
