Gazette Daily News Briefing, November 4
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, November 4.
It's going to be rainy and colder on Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for rain virtually all of Friday, with that rain chance carrying over into Saturday as well. The high will drop down to 67 degrees, with a low of 46 degrees.
Police responded Thursday afternoon to reports of a shooting in northeast Cedar Rapids that left one person injured and triggered lockdowns at three area schools while officers investigated.
The shooting was reported at around 3:35 p.m. in the area of Elmhurst Drive and Hazel Drive, near Mount Mercy University, Regis Middle School and Garfield Elementary. Mike Battien, Cedar Rapids Police Department’s public safety spokesman, said one adult male was injured and went to Regis seeking medical help.
The victim was identified by Mount Mercy University as a student who was out for a jog at the time of the shooting. Battien said the student “may have been an innocent bystander.” He was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Battien said police were working to identify the shooter or shooters, and it’s possible people were shooting at each other in the area when the jogger was hit.
A University of Iowa student has been hospitalized after falling out of a sixth-floor window at Mayflower Residence Hall early Thursday.
UI police were called to Mayflower at 4:22 a.m. for a report of a student falling out the window and landing on the hall’s north roof — meaning he fell about five stories, according to UI Public Safety spokeswoman Hayley Bruce.
Initial reports are that the fall was an accident. Students said they were “playing around in a residence hall room when one student leaned back and fell through the screen of an open window,” Bruce said.
The student, who was not identified, was able to speak with first responders when they arrived, and he was transported to UI Hospitals and Clinics for treatment.
More than seven years after a Cedar Rapids contractor first sued the University of Iowa over delayed payment for work on a pair of high-profile projects — Hancher Auditorium and the Stead Family Children’s Hospital — a jury has delivered another blow to the UI, ordering it to pay another $12.8 million to the contractor.
A jury last week deliberated just over an hour before finding the UI in April 2016 wrongfully blocked the American Arbitration Association from refereeing its disputes with Modern Piping on both the Hancher and hospital projects.
The judgment will further swell expenses tied to the 14-story Children’s Hospital — which originally had a $270.8 million price tag but as of today has cost more than $400 million
The latest judgment against UI is essentially a penalty for dragging its feet after losing a ruling against Modern Piping. As a result of the delay, Modern Piping filed a counterclaim seeking compensation for all the costs of the university’s original refusal to arbitrate.
