Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 1
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, October 1.
Your first day of October will come with a slight chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3 p.m. and a 40 percent chance after 7 p.m. Besides that it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 82 degrees. In the evening it will get gradually more cloudy, with a low around 64 degrees.
Investigators searching for an Iowa boy who vanished in May days before his 11th birthday said Thursday they have found human remains matching his description in a nearby cornfield.
The remains were discovered by a farmer working in a field a few miles outside Montezuma, where 10-year-old Xavior Harrelson was reported missing May 27 from the trailer park where he lived.
The farmer called the Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office to the scene, according to Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Assistant Director Mitch Mortvedt.
Mortvedt told The Gazette that Xavior’s family has been notified of the possible development. Despite the remains having clothes similar to those worn by Xavior when he went missing, positive identification may take more than a month.
A University of Northern Iowa biology professor who this month imposed a mask mandate in his class and threatened lower grades for students who did not wear masks has been relieved of his in-person teaching duties for the rest of the semester and won’t be eligible for any merit pay this year.
Professor Steve L. O’Kane — who is 64 and has been at UNI for 26 years — will be allowed to continue teaching his online courses this semester, according to a disciplinary letter shared with the Gazette.
The Board of Regents and the University of Northern Iowa have instituted policies preventing mask mandates.O’Kane says that he feels it is his responsibility to institute mask mandates anyway.
O’Kane told The Gazette he holds no animosity toward the UNI administrators who penalized him. And — even if regent and campus policies remain unchanged — he’ll impose another mask mandate in his class if given the chance to teach in-person in the spring semester.
A driver was extricated from a car and taken to a hospital after his car, going the wrong way on Interstate 380, collided with a semi-trailer truck early Thursday.
The 23-year-old male driver, who has not been identified, was taken to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital after the 1:40 a.m. crash.
His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, police said.
Police said the driver was going the wrong way on the interstate’s southbound lanes near the Seventh Street exit to downtown Cedar Rapids.
No passengers were in the man’s car. The truck driver was uninjured.
The Cedar Rapids Gazette hosted a mayoral forum Thursday night. If, by chance, you did not catch it live, you can watch it on thegazette.com. There also will be coverage in Friday’s paper.
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