Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 22
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, October 22.
The sun should return Friday, but not the warmth of earlier in the week. According to the National Weather Service, the cold air could result in some patchy frost Friday morning in the Cedar Rapids area, but it will not linger long. The high is expected to be 55 degrees with sunny skies. Widespread frost is predicted for the weekend and rain appears likely on Sunday.
Round two of Iowa politicians politicking about redistricting appears to be going similar to the way round one went.
The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency released a second plan Thursday after the first plan was unanimously rejected by Iowa Senate Republicans. The second plan addresses what was one of the stated concerns of those Senators, removing some of the irregular shapes found in the first plan. Using population numbers from the census, the agency is guided by law to, as much as possible, create districts that are square, rectangular or hexagonal so as to avoid irregular-shapes. The agency is also supposed to create these districts without political ramifications in mind.
Political ramifications, however, are never far from a politician’s mind. Just like with the first plan, Iowa Democrats declared public support for the plan. Also, just like the first plan, Iowa Republicans were not so hasty, leaving open the possibility that they could reject the second plan. It should be noted that this map will leave the status quo closer to the current boundaries than the first map did, which might appeal to Republicans enough to pass it, as they hold majorities in every level of Iowa government.
Lawmakers will meet Oct. 28 to make a decision on accepting this second plan. If the second map fails to gain approval, the agency has 35 days to submit a third map, that lawmakers can then offer edits to.
Discovered Sunday night with a gunshot wound in a crashed car, Marine Gabriel Heefner is “fighting for his life” in intensive care, his father told the Gazette. Meanwhile Iowa City police continue to investigate the shooting.
Police said Heefner’s vehicle left the roadway and crashed into the median just west of Sycamore Street. The 20-year-old Heefner was found in it, shot in the head. According to his father, Heefner had been visiting his grandparents in Iowa City and on his way to pick up food when the shooting occurred. The bullet entered through the driver’s side window, which was slightly open.
Iowa City police said Tuesday evening they have identified a person of interest in the shooting, but an arrest has not been made and this person’s name has not been made public.
According to reporting from the Ames Tribune, two Iowa State University crew club members were participating in their first practice on the water when they drowned in March.
The revelations come as part of an investigation into the incident. It is believed that the inexperience of the members and the fact that the pandemic had kept the crew off the water for 18 months led them to disregard some red flags, such as a wind speed that was slightly higher than advisable in the club’s own rules.
Yaakov Ben-David, 20, and Derek Nanni, 19, died after the boat they were in capsized on Little Wall Lake, about 20 miles north of the university’s campus in Ames. Three other members made it to shore, two of them with help from bystanders.
Iowa State has previously announced it was suspending the club for at least the remainder of the current school year to give the club time to implement necessary health and safety measures.
Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?
If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.
