Gazette Daily News Briefing, June 29
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 29.
According to the National Weather Service it will be a partly sunny day in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday, with a high near 92 degrees. There will be widespread haze again, mostly before noon. There will be chances for showers and thunderstorms both in the morning and in the evening hours heading into Friday.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued an update late Wednesday extending the haze air quality advisory. The advisory stated that fine particulate levels near or above EPA health standards are expected to remain elevated Thursday and persist in Eastern Iowa through Friday.
Iowa state officials have reversed course and will apply for federal assistance to provide food for Iowa school children from low-income families during summer break, following weeks of lobbying by anti-hunger advocates.
Alex Carfrae, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, told The Gazette late Tuesday the state will participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s summer program this year. The deadline for states to apply is July 14.
Earlier this month, a department official told a member of the Iowa Hunger Coalition that Iowa was not going to participate in the summer Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer — or P-EBT — program this year, according to an email obtained by The Gazette.
That would have meant forgoing a potential $28.2 million, or $120 per eligible child, in federal food aid for an estimated 235,000 children who would have received free or reduced-price school meals this past school year.
Tuesday’s announcement comes after Iowa Democratic lawmakers last week implored Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to apply for the federal assistance, and after weeks of lobbying by members of the Iowa Hunger Coalition.
A North Liberty man, who was convicted of sexually abusing a boy over a year or so when the boy was 5 or 6 years old, was sentenced to 80 years in prison this week.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Andrew Chappell, during Monday’s hearing, ran four of the sentences for 38-year-old Thomas Dean Jesse, consecutively, and the others were run concurrently for a total of 80 years. Jesse was convicted of one count of lascivious acts with a child and 40 counts of second-degree sexual abuse.
Chappell said Jesse must serve 70 percent of three of the sentences before being eligible for parole.
Jesse was charged in January 2022 after a relative saw his laptop with videos that depicted dozens of acts of Jesse sexually abusing a 5- or 6-year-old boy
Iowa will receive $35 million in federal infrastructure money for bridge and road improvements across the state, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday.
The funding will be split among three projects:
•$24.8 million to replace nine bridges across the state
•$10 million to rebuild Main Street in Cedar Falls between University Avenue and Sixth Street
• And $300,000 to evaluate approaches to improving infrastructure connecting downtown Clear Lake to Interstate 35.
