Gazette Daily News Briefing, November 27
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 27, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Monday with a high near 27 degrees. A west wind of 10 to 15 mph could gust as high as 25 mph. On Monday evening it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 10 degrees.
Just one year into the public portion of the University of Northern Iowa's $250 million comprehensive fundraising campaign, the Cedar Falls campus already is most of the way to its goal — putting it more than two years ahead of schedule.
But UNI doesn’t plan to wrap its Our Tomorrow fundraising push early — before 2026, when the campaign’s finale is supposed to converge with UNI’s sesquicentennial — especially since unforeseen circumstances have added new projects and fundraising needs.
“The goal is certainly to exceed $250 (million),” UNI President Mark Nook told The Gazette, noting the campus hasn’t set a new specific goal. “We may in the future. But for now, we will run the campaign through June of 2026. And we're using that because 2026 is our 150th anniversary.”
The campaign is funding scholarships, additional majors at UNI, faculty initiatives and research, and the renovation of noted campus spaces, such as the Campanile, the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, and the UNI-Dome.
A residence on M Avenue NW had “major” damage after an early morning fire on Sunday.
According to a Cedar Rapids Fire Department media release, firefighters were dispatched at 3:48 a.m. to a residential fire at the 500 block of M Ave NW.
Upon arriving at the scene firefighters reported flames showing from the front of the house. They pulled one water line, and then another, before bringing the flames under control, according to the release.
A search of the interior of the home was done before an all clear was reported, according to the release. No residents appeared to be home at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported. Damage to the residence was listed as “major” in the release but no other information was given.
The fire remains under investigation.
According to reporting from the Waterloo Courier, no one was injured on Saturday evening when there was an explosion at a POET bioethanol plant that sent a fireball into the sky.
Emergency responders were called at around 4 p.m. after the resulting boom caused by the explosion.
Butler County Emergency Management Coordinator Chris Showalter told the Courier that the fire had mostly resolved itself by the time fire crews had arrived. The fire remains under investigation, but Showalter said the current speculation is that combustible dust somehow exploded.
