Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 26
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 26, 2023.
Looks like it could be a rainy one Thursday. The National Weather Service is predicting a chance for rain all day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a 90 percent overall chance of precipitation. The high will settle in at around 69 degrees.
U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican conservative who has been a devoted follower of former President Donald Trump, was elected Wednesday as the 56th speaker of the House — reopening the chamber for legislative business after a 21-day paralysis.
Johnson was the GOP's fourth speaker nominee in three weeks, but the only one able to achieve a majority of votes, including from Iowa’s four-member congressional delegation, to clinch the speakership
Superintendent Tawana Grover said Tuesday that the land on which Harding Middle School sits is an “opportunity we should keep our eye on” when it comes to considering where a new 1,200-student middle school could be built under a proposed $220 million bond referendum going to voters in the Cedar Rapids Community School District Nov. 7,
The district, however, has not identified a site for the middle school that would be built on the north side of Cedar Rapids under a facility master plan, Grover said during a forum on the proposed bond. The event was hosted by The Gazette with school district representatives and members of groups that support and oppose the bond.
“The goal is to make sure the school is in proximity to the students,” Grover said.
The two domes at Harding Middle School were closed to students and staff Monday because of the deterioration of several support beams. This displaced students from the school’s gym, cafeteria and performing arts classrooms. Taft Middle School — built in the same style as Harding — is in a similar situation.
Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday defended a new state law that requires schools to pull books with descriptions of sex acts from library shelves as the Iowa Department of Education said it may provide more guidance to schools trying to navigate the restrictions.
Passed by Iowa’s legislative Republicans and signed into law by Reynolds this year, the measure requires that school libraries include only "age-appropriate" material and specifically bans any book that describes or depicts any of a list of defined sex acts.
Reynolds read the list of sex acts written in law that would warrant a removal from libraries, and said the standard should be clear on what is and is not allowed in schools.
Education and library advocates have argued an overly broad interpretation of the law by school districts trying to avoid legal repercussions will lead to schools pulling materials off library shelves that should not be removed, depriving students of the opportunity to read books they otherwise would.
Speaking about the removal of commonly assigned books, Reynolds suggested school districts are implementing broad restrictions because they don’t like the law. She said the books that fall under the definition of a sex act in the law should be clear.
