Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 17
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 17, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there will be patchy frost before 8 a.m. in the Cedar Rapids area. Otherwise it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 63 degrees. On Tuesday evening there will be increasing clouds, with a low of around 67 degrees.
The University of Iowa’s final bid to purchase Mercy Iowa City’s assets during bankruptcy proceedings was $28 million
UI Health Care Vice President for Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson revealed the amount during a Q&A session about the failed bid to acquire Mercy. Jamieson also said that there was an additional commitment from the university to spend at least $25 million on “immediate facility upgrades,” as well as more money to invest in retaining current staff members.
Jamieson, in her Q&A published on the UI Health Care communications site Monday, did not disclose Preston Hollow’s final winning bid. But, referencing Mercy’s bid procedures outlining its obligation to choose the “highest or otherwise best qualified bid,” Jamieson suggested the university made the best offer.
Mercy’s largest bondholder Preston Hollow Community Capital, in a drawn-out auction that spanned nearly a week, outbid the university by leveraging the debt as part of the bid for Mercy. Preston Hollow will be partnering American Healthcare Systems to run the hospital, and they are committing an – as of now undisclosed – amount of investment into the struggling community hospital to help sustain it into the future.
A judge will not transfer the murder and theft cases of a 17-year-old from adult court to juvenile court because, he wrote in a ruling, there wouldn’t be enough time or resources for rehabilitation and it’s not in the best interest of the community or the teen.
Judge Lars Anderson, in his ruling last week to deny the defense’s motion, said Tramontez Lockett, who is charged with the Feb. 18 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Michael Alexander McCune and stealing a vehicle, demonstrated the ability to do well in a structured environment while earlier in the Boys State Training School in Eldora while in juvenile court. But when outside of that, “problems appear to recur.”
The judge also noted Lockett will turn 18 in about nine months.
If Lockett remains in adult court, a judge would have a full range of sentencing options if the teen is convicted of the charges — first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit a forcible felony, first-degree theft and going armed with intent
