Gazette Daily News Briefing, May 21
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, May 21st.
I feel like the weather forecast for this week has been the same every day, just slightly hotter as the week has gone on. Friday’s weather, as predicted by the National Weather Service and a nagging sense of deja vu you can’t shake, will again feature a chance for rain all day, with a chance for thunderstorms in the afternoon. When it is not raining, it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 80 degrees. The chance for precipitation is listed at 60 percent, going down to 30 percent Friday night.
Local officials for both schools and governments expressed dismay Thursday that the Iowa Legislature had taken away their ability to make their own choices about masking during the waning portion of the pandemic. Despite this, they relented, with the Cedar Rapids School District announcing it would be dropping mandatory masking from its policy and the city of Cedar Rapids formally rescinding its order even though it had already reduced restrictions twice this week.
Whether they are ready or not, it will be business as usual again for Iowa’s universities as well. Iowa’s Board of Regents on Thursday lifted the state of emergency it imposed in March of 2020 and imposed a mandate, effective July 1, that all faculty and staff “return to campus to the extent their traditional (pre-pandemic) employment responsibilities require.”
Regarding mask mandates, Iowa Regents President Mike Richards announced effective immediately no faculty, staff, students, or visitors will be required to wear face coverings — noting exceptions for UI Hospitals and Clinics, campus buses, veterinary medicine facilities, research labs, and other health care settings.
The man charged with killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts in 2018 led investigators to her body and said he killed her — but couldn't remember how, an officer testified Thursday.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera initially denied he had ever seen Tibbetts when he was interrogated a month after her disappearance from her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa, Officer Pamela Romero testified. Bahena Rivera eventually admitted that he had driven past Tibbetts three times while she was out for a run on July 18, 2018, describing her as "attractive" and "hot," Romero said. Within hours, Bahena Rivera led investigators to the cornfield where they discovered Tibbetts' remains, she said.
During questioning at the cornfield, Bahena Rivera told Romero that he followed Tibbetts in his car, got out and started running behind her, the told jurors. Bahena Rivera said that Tibbetts noticed him and attempted to use her cellphone to call police, that she was trying to slap him and was screaming at him.
Bahena Rivera told Romero that he remembered the two started fighting but then he blacked out. He said the next thing that he recalled was driving in his car and seeing the earbuds Tibbetts used while running on his legs, and that her body was in his trunk, Romero testified.
Bahena Rivera's defense worked to cast suspicion on others, including Tibbetts' boyfriend and residents who had been investigated because of their past behavior toward women. The defense attorneys are expected to argue that the confession was false and coerced after hours of interrogation.
The official name of the minor-pro hockey team that will call Xtream Arena home beginning this fall has a new name, the Iowa Heartlanders. The club introduced its name and primary and secondary logos to about 200 or so fans and local dignitaries in a ceremony at the new arena Thursday afternoon.
The team will compete in the ECHL, a 26-team league that spans 19 states and two Canadian provinces. Franchises are affiliated with a National Hockey League club, and, though it’s not official, the Heartlanders almost certainly will be an affiliate of the Minnesota Wild.
Their primary logo is a deer buck, and I enjoy their description of it, declaring that it is, “poised for battle in expression, stance, and thorny detailing, to capture the essence of our strength, determination and work ethic here in Iowa.”
Their secondary logo, which also will be on player jerseys, is a wild prairie rose, the state’s official flower. The club’s season-ticket membership program is named the Rose Club. There was no mascot announced, to my great personal disappointment.
The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com
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