Gazette Daily News Briefing, June 8
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 8.
It will be another sunny, mild day on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 81 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Thursday evening it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 53 degrees.
With somewhat unusual timing, Iowa Senate Democrats elected a new leader Wednesday night.
Republicans and Democrats in the Iowa Legislature typically elect their respective leaders shortly after elections every two years.
But on Wednesday night, Senate Democrats met and elected Dubuque Sen. Pam Jochum as their new leader, in the process ousting previous leader Sen. Zach Wahls, of Coralville.
Senate Democrats on Wednesday night did not address the reason for the change.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch, Iowa Field Report, and Iowa Starting Line reported Wednesday that many Senate Democrats were upset that Wahls, as caucus leader, recently fired two longtime staffers, Erik Bakker and Deb Kattenhorn.
Wahls, 31, was first elected to the Iowa Senate in 2018, and in 2020 was elected leader of the minority-party Senate Democrats, who are outnumbered in the chamber by Republican supermajority, 34-16.
Swimmers at Noelridge Aquatic Center in northeast Cedar Rapids were taken into safe housing on-site Wednesday after reports of shots being fired nearby.
Police received a report of shots fired in the 4000 block of Richmond Road NE at 4:41 p.m. Wednesday, according to a news release. Officers arrived on scene and witnesses described three minor males involved in an altercation that ended in a single gunshot being fired.
The release states the individuals fled before officers arrived. No injuries or property damage had been reported as of Wednesday evening.
Noelridge Aquatic Center, which is about a block from the location of the shots fired, was “secured by staff,” and swimmers were taken into safe housing on site until police indicated all was clear, the release states. The pool was scheduled to reopen at 6:30 for normal operations.
A Cresco man was arrested Wednesday on charges he sexually abused multiple Boy Scouts over a decade while serving as a troop leader in Cresco.
James Hughes, 73, is charged with four counts of third-degree sexual abuse and six counts of lascivious conduct with a minor, according to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
The investigation started March 18, 2021, when a Boy Scout filed a report of sexual abuse with the Cresco Police Department. The police department requested the Iowa DCI help with an investigation, which led to the discovery of several other instances of sexual abuse between Hughes and other juvenile Boy Scouts, authorities said.
According to criminal complaints, Hughes committed sexual abuse or misconduct against five boys, each between the ages of 13 and 16 at the time. The abuse spanned between 2008 and 2018, the records show.
