Gazette Daily News Briefing, November 12
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, November 12.
We’re going to get a little winter preview on Friday. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a 50 percent chance of snow in the Cedar Rapids area Friday with accumulation of less than a half an inch possible. The high temperature will be 36 degrees, with cloudy skies and winds that could gust more than 30 mph. It looks like the snow will be most likely in the morning, but will be a lingering possibility throughout the workday.
Friday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 30 degrees.
Initial plans for a mixed-use development at the former Transamerica site that sparked widespread concerns among residents is back on the Cedar Rapids City Planning Commission agenda for consideration after the developer pulled it last month to gather more input first.
The commission will consider Cedar Rapids-based Hunter Companies’ preliminary plat for the 51-acre site on Edgewood Road and 42nd Street NE, where former Transamerica office buildings were demolished, at its Nov. 18 meeting.
Residents were concerned primarily about excessive traffic off Edgewood Road and 42nd Street NE, a busy intersection with many nearby businesses, schools and other facilities.
Hunter Companies has not said what it intends to build at the Transamerica site. But it has built other mixed-use projects in Cedar Rapids, including Northtowne Market across from Target on Blairs Ferry Road NE, which includes restaurants such as Moe’s Southwest Grill and Jimmy John’s as well as elevate salon and spa.
An Iowan serving a 25-year prison sentence for rigging lottery computers to win jackpots for himself, friends and family is suing the state of Iowa, claiming he was pressured four years ago to plead guilty to crimes he did not commit.
Eddie Tipton, now in prison in Clarinda, wants the court to halt all restitution he's been ordered to pay until a trial is held, during which he said he will present documents and other evidence to persuade the court to reverse his sentence.
During a 2017 court appearance, Tipton admitted to tampering with what were supposed to be random number generators to enable his co-conspirators to claim jackpots in Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Kansas. It was Tipton's job to write software that is supposed to randomly pick numbers for lottery computers used for various games by 37 states and territorial lotteries.
Despite pleading guilty, his lawyer’s request for leniency was denied by the judge. Tipton was also ordered at the time to pay $2.2 million in restitution.
ITC Midwest has given $200,000 to the ReLeaf Program, a public-private partnership between nonprofit Trees Forever and the city of Cedar Rapids, to support tree replanting in Cedar Rapids after the 2020 derecho.
The ReLeaf initiative aims to replenish the urban forest after the 2020 storm’s hurricane-force winds toppled about 70 percent of the city’s tree canopy. The organizations involved in the partnership are working to develop and implement a long-term effort that will help reforest public spaces and provide outreach for tree planting on public and private property in Cedar Rapids.
ITC Midwest is a regional subsidiary of the ITC Holdings Corporation, the largest independent electricity transmission company in the United States.
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