Gazette Daily News Briefing, November 14 and November 15
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of November 14 and November 15.
There will be a chance of rain Saturday before settling back into cold and sunny weather on Sunday. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a high near 51 degrees and a moderate wind Saturday afternoon in the Cedar Rapids area. Showers and thunderstorms will become increasingly likely from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday evening. The low on Saturday will be 35 degrees.
On Sunday, the 15-25 mph wind will remain, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Despite the sunny and clear skies it is predicted to be chilly against, with a high of 45 degrees and a low of 30 degrees. It is then predicted to heat up again slightly as next week goes on.
Iowa closed out its worst week of the COVID-19 pandemic so far by again breaking records for single day positive cases and hospitalizations. 5,096 people were positively diagnosed with COVID-19 in a 24-hour period ending at 11 a.m. Friday, the first time that number has exceeded 5,000 in the state.
The positive numbers will likely continue to rise as the disease continues to spread and the state, under the direction of Gov. Kim Reynolds, expands its testing capability. The concerning trend not tied to increased testing, however, is hospitalizations, where Iowa hit a new peak on Friday, with 1,227 hospitalized for treatment of the disease. Patients in intensive care units with COVID-19 also crept upward, with a record 240 COVID-19 patients being treated in the ICU.
In response to growing cases, this week many school districts in the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids area applied for waivers allowing them to teach virtually through the end of November, skipping over the Thanksgiving Holiday that many experts fear will lead to an even more accelerated spread of the disease. City governments are also starting to react and services are changing in response: for example, the Cedar Rapids Public Library will be closing Monday and resuming curbside service.
In a narrow 4-3 ruling, the Iowa Supreme Court on Friday overturned the first-degree murder conviction of a Marion man who authorities say stabbed his former girlfriend 26 times and concealed her body in a roll of carpet for four days.
The court ruled that Gregory Davis, 30, who had claimed insanity or diminished responsibility, will receive a new trial because the trial judge didn’t give an instruction to the jury for the insanity defense with the first-degree murder charge, but the instruction was included with lesser charges jurors could consider also.
The error allowed the jury to wrongly conclude that the insanity defense didn’t apply to first-degree murder, according to the court ruling. Davis’ defense attorney provided ineffective assistance when he failed to object to 6th Judicial District Judge Sean McPartland’s decision to leave out that instruction, the ruling states. Davis had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Crews will begin the final pickup of nonorganic storm derecho debris — such as shingles, fences and siding — next week in Cedar Rapids.Residents should have all such debris placed on the curb — separate from tree debris — by Sunday, according to a city news release.
This is the final pass for nonorganic debris, though no cutoff date has been set for pickup of the tree debris left by the Aug. 10 derecho.
So far, crews have picked up about 2.81 million cubic yards of tree debris.
