Gazette Daily News Briefing, March 22
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, March 22.
It will be even warmer on Wednesday, and with that may come an overnight thunderstorm. But, before that, it will be cloudy with a scant chance of rain.
According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy, with a high near 56 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday. There may be some patchy fog before 8 a.m. After 10 a.m. there will be a 20 percent chance of rain. Rain won't get really likely until late Wednesday night into Thursday morning, when a thunderstorm will possibly also arrive.
At least 30 Iowa schools, including schools in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, received phone calls warning of school shootings Tuesday morning– calls the state public safety department quickly determined were fake.
There was no evidence of any active threats in the state, Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens said Tuesday morning during a news conference at the department’s offices in Des Moines.
Bayens said the calls appeared to be coming in staggered — rather than many at once, had similar messages, and the caller’s voice was similar, leading him to believe the calls were all being made by the same person. Baynes said the caller or callers appeared to be using sophisticated technology that makes it difficult for law enforcement to track the call’s origin. He said the technology throws off phone call tracing programs by pinging around to a variety of locations, including internationally.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday that banning gender-affirming care for Iowans under the age of 18 is “in the best interest of the kids,” and her heart goes out to the children.
Echoing arguments made by some Republican lawmakers during debate, Reynolds on Tuesday said she does not believe the science is settled on the long-term impacts of gender-affirming care.
Reynolds discussed the proposed gender-affirming ban, which needs only her signature to become state law, and other topics during a news conference Tuesday at the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
It was Reynolds’ first formal news conference in eight months.
Reynolds scheduled the news conference, along with the state public safety department, to discuss a new state program for Iowans to anonymously report concerns about potential threat of school violence. She then fielded a handful of questions on other topics.
Moody’s Investors Service again has downgraded Mercy Iowa City Hospital’s credit rating following what it calls “severe cash flow deterioration, from historically weak levels, which has resulted in material and rapid cash burn” for the hospital.
Of Moody’s 21 long-term rating categories Mercy has been downgraded three spots from B1 to Caa1, putting it just four ranks from the lowest rank of C, according to a Moody’s report released last Thursday.
In alerting employees to the Moody’s downgrade last week, Mercy Iowa City Acting President and CEO Mike Trachta in an email said the change was based on “past financial performance.”
“While this decision is disappointing, our focus must remain on providing high-quality care and improving business operations,” Trachta wrote. “Our patients, their families and community need the type of medical care only provided at a community hospital like Mercy Iowa City.”
Moody’s is esteemed internationally for its credit ratings, risk analyses and bond research. A negative credit rating indicates that a debt an institution has is rated as being risky. As a result, a bad rating may make securing future funding more difficult, among other challenges.
