Gazette Daily News Briefing May 30
This is Zack Kucharski from The Gazette, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday May 30th.
It'll be sunny again with a High of 92 today. Tonight it’ll remain clear and dip to 63 degrees, before jumping to 91 degrees Wednesday with a chance of showers.
One person was injured — but no deaths have been confirmed — when a six-story downtown Davenport apartment building partially collapsed Sunday evening after occupants said they had been complaining about conditions there for months.
Davenport city officials said in a news release the property owner was served Monday with an order to demolish the unstable building, which is expected to start today. The Davenport Apartment Building, 324 Main St., once housed the Davenport Hotel but has been converted into about 84 units with apartments and commercial spaces.
Residents were not being allowed back inside to remove their belongings, due to the building’s instability. Several tenants have been moved into temporary housing and the rest are staying with friends or family.
Iowa Gov. Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for Scott County in response to the partial collapse of the building. The governor's proclamation activates the Iowa
Individual Assistance Grant Program and the Disaster Case Management Program for residents impacted by the collapse.
The tally of tenured and tenure-track faculty across Iowa’s public universities has continued the drop it started a decade ago, declining 10 percentage points in as many years.
Ten years ago, 3,531 regents faculty were tenure-eligible, amounting to 63 percent of the 5,637 faculty total. Last year’s tenured and tenure-track count fell to 3,009 across the three universities — or 53 percent of the 5,635 faculty total.
Where the University of Iowa in the 2012-13 academic year reported a majority of its faculty had tenure or were on a tenure track — at 54 percent — UI tenure-eligible faculty today are in the minority, at 44 percent.
Congressional Republicans on Monday were pushing right-wing lawmakers to get behind a compromise to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending restrictions — as the White House wrangled progressives.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s vote counters were making calls on the Memorial Day holiday to stem defections from GOP conservatives who wanted far more cuts and a much smaller increase in the debt limit.
On the other end of the political spectrum, President Joe Biden’s allies are pushing liberals to swallow painful concessions on social programs in exchange for a two-year reprieve on the debt.
McCarthy admitted the agreement required concessions from both sides, dashing hopes from the far-right Freedom Caucus that he would hold out for major cuts in spending.
In sports, The Iowa Hawkeyes are an NCAA baseball tournament team, as expected. Iowa (42-14) is part of a four-team regional at Terre Haute, Ind., that includes top-seeded host Indiana State, third-seeded North Carolina and fourth-seeded Wright State. The Hawkeyes are the regional’s No. 2 seed and will play a first-round game against UNC Friday night at 6 (ACC Network).
That’s all for now. Have a great Tuesday. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.
