Gazette Daily News Briefing, June 28
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, June 28.
According to the National Weather Service haze will return Wednesday, otherwise it will be mostly sunny with a high near 88 degrees. There will be a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly after 2 p.m. The haze and rain chances will linger into the evening, with a low of around 70 degrees.
Expect the haze to linger until at least Thursday, when northeast winds will push the worst of it back into Wisconsin
Making good on a vision announced more than a year ago, a swath of land in northwest Cedar Rapids near downtown may soon be earmarked for a potential casino — should a state panel ever award a license to operate a gaming facility there.
The Cedar Rapids City Council next month will consider an option-to-purchase agreement through Dec. 31, 2025, with the Cedar Rapids Development Group, the city’s preferred casino developer, as well as preliminary terms of the potential facility.
If approved, this deal would set aside city-owned property between F and I Avenue NW and First and Fifth Streets NW to be purchased and redeveloped into a casino and entertainment complex.
State lawmakers last year enacted a two-year moratorium blocking new casino licenses until June 2024, thwarting the hopes of a gaming facility for Cedar Rapids at the site of now-demolished Cooper’s Mill.
A Cedar Rapids woman was arrested and charged with first-degree arson after a fire broke out Monday in her apartment.
Meredith Hendricks, 33, had her first appearance in court Tuesday and was being held in the Linn County Jail on a cash-only $50,000 bail.
Cedar Rapids firefighters were called just before 8 p.m. Monday to the fire at 2939 12th Ave. SW. Firefighters found a small fire contained to a single room in a second-floor apartment. Occupants were able to evacuate safely and no injuries were reported, according to the fire department
Hendricks’ apartment was the one on fire and she was still on scene when first responders arrived. According to a criminal complaint, police officers spoke with Hendricks and she admitted she had lit some papers on fire in her bathtub in order to dispose of them, and then smoked methamphetamine with another resident of the apartment complex. The complaint doesn’t say whether she was smoking in her apartment at the time of the fire or if she had left to smoke elsewhere.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has completed the second leg of her two-week overseas trade mission, stopping in Kosovo before traveling to Israel.
Reynolds previously stopped in Italy, where she met with Italian officials to discuss future trade opportunities and met with Italian owners of Wells Enterprises in Le Mars; SPAL Automotive, which has a sales and distribution center in Ankeny; and Maschio Gaspardo, an agricultural manufacturer with a branch in DeWitt.
While in Kosovo, the governor met with President Vjosa Osmani, the chairman of the Assembly of Kosovo and several ministers to discuss a state partnership with Kosovo and the Iowa National Guard and opportunities for commercial partnerships, Reynolds’ office said.
