Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 30 and October 31
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 30, and Sunday, October 31.
October’s last weekend will end with sunny skies, and the warmest weather we should see for a little bit, so don’t be afraid to get out and enjoy yourself. On Saturday it will be partly sunny, with a high near 55 degrees. A north wind will blow from 5 to 10 mph. Saturday night it will be partly cloudy and a little windier, with a low temperature around 41 degrees. It will be windier still Sunday, and that wind appears to be cold, as the high temperature will drop down to 51 degrees with sunny skies. Sunday the temperature will drop still further, with a low around 31 degrees.
Thankfully Halloween night should not feature the miserable rain that Iowa traditionally offers trick-or-treaters, but warm costume ideas will be welcome ones.
The week concluded with some drama for the Cedar Rapids Mayoral race right before election day next Tuesday.
Entrepreneur Steve Shriver said Friday he quit as chair of Amara Andrews’ campaign for Cedar Rapids mayor over “strategic differences” after her team acknowledged it coordinated with a political action committee to send a mailer to voters criticizing rival Tiffany O’Donnell, claiming she has touted herself as a Reagan Republican while hiding more extreme conservative views. Shriver said this is an example of the pernicious side of politics that he doesn’t want to be a part of.
This is a continuation of an open debate among candidates about whether party affiliation should be brought into the mayoral race at all. Andrews, billing h erself as a progressive Democrat, has argued partisan views should be a part of the race, while O’Donnell and incumbent Mayor Brad Hart, both Republicans, argue the mayoral position is nonpartisan.
I will leave it to you to decide why they are squabbling about party affiliation in a city that tends to favor Democrats. In the meantime I suggest you check out thegazette.com to see where all 4 mayoral candidates stand on issues that might affect you directly. If you click Elections at the top of the main page it will take you to our elections coverage, with the latest coverage as well as candidate profiles. Finally, whomever you favor, please vote in your local elections on Tuesday.
Iowa business leaders said Friday they are concerned that expanding exemptions from workplace COVID-19 vaccination requirements — and protecting jobless benefits for those who refuse to follow a mandate — may result in unintended consequences or added costs related to the surprise changes enacted by the Iowa Legislature and signed into law Friday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The swift arrival of House File 902 and its passage during Thursday’s one-day special legislative session added to the frustration and confusion that Iowa employers already were facing due to vaccination mandates that now are in conflict with the new state requirement that they exempt employees who claim a medical or religious exemption.
While business leaders are not fans of federal mandates in general, they are concerned about the Iowa laws for two main reasons: one, workers who opt to take the unemployment they now qualify for instead of complying with getting vaccinated could make the already challenging effort of finding employees even harder; two, a new layer of complexity when it comes to new exemptions raises the probability a business will make a potentially harmful mistake.
Gov. Reynolds took the action on the same day that Iowa joined nine other states in a lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for all workers employed by a federal contractor, which is one-fifth of the nation’s workforce.
A Tama County man is dead after being shot by an officer in Tama County on Thursday.
The Tama County Sheriff’s Office received calls of shots being fired near the 1000 block of Station Street in Chelsea about 7:27 p.m. Thursday. Several law enforcement agencies responded, the Iowa Department of Public Safety said in a news release.
When officers arrived, they saw Dewey Dale Wilfong III, 28, walking around the area with a handgun, according to the news release.
A Tama County deputy fired one round, striking Wilfong in the upper torso, officials said. He was transported to a Cedar Rapids hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Officials did not provide more details about the shooting. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct an independent investigation.
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