Gazette Daily News Briefing, June 3
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 3.
It looks to be another sunny day on Friday, with a chance for rain returning on Saturday. According to the National Weather Service, the high temperature will be close to 79 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with sunny skies. The skies will remain mostly clear Friday night, with a low around 53 degrees.
A man shot two females to death and then apparently killed himself Thursday night outside a church in Ames, authorities said.
Details were scarce about the shooting Thursday night, as police did not have much information to release about the victims or the motive for the shooting. They did confirm that the shooting happened outside the Cornerstone Church, a megachurch on the outskirts of Ames.
A news conference about the shooting is planned for Friday morning.
After state lawmakers last week passed a last-minute two-year moratorium on new casino licenses, state gaming regulators on Thursday voiced concern the move would introduce politics into Iowa’s gaming operations.
Commissioner Lance Horbach, a former Republican lawmaker from Tama, said the point of commissions is to keep politics out of decisions.
“My concern is if this is signed, politics is now in Iowa’s gaming industry,” Horbach said, according to audio of the commission’s meeting.
Commissioner Daryl Olsen, a Republican from Audubon, said commissioners were “surprised” and “disappointed” with the moratorium.
The members of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission opted to wait to see if Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signs the bill before deciding what’s next for a Linn County casino application.
There have been multiple initiatives and votes for a Cedar Rapids casino in the last decade, with all of them ending in defeat. Organizers had hoped to pitch their latest $250 million vision for a casino and entertainment complex before the gaming regulators this week, but these plans were derailed by the moratorium.
Collins Aerospace and two other companies have been chosen to design NASA’s next-generation spacesuit.
Collins Aerospace, Cedar Rapid’s largest employer, said on its website the suits could be worn by astronauts “when working outside the International Space Station and — within the next decade — on the moon.”
The suits, according to the website, will “offer enhanced mobility and weigh less than the current generation spacesuits, allowing for increased mission times. The suits are also designed to accommodate nearly every astronaut body type and can rapidly incorporate new technologies.”
The suits will be engineered and designed in Windsor Locks, Conn., and assembly, maintenance and testing of the suit will be completed at its Houston Spaceport facility, Jessica Napoli, external communications senior manager, told the Gazette in an email.
