Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 31
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 31, 2023.
Bundle up for your trick-or-treating. According to the National Weather Service there will be scattered snow showers, mainly before noon. It will also be cold and windy, with a high near 38 degrees and winds of 20 to 25 mph gusting as high as 40 mph. It will be mostly cloudy during the morning, then the sky will gradually clear.
New research shows that black individuals make up 4 percent of Iowa’s population but account for 25 percent of its incarcerated population — confirming that the state is one of the worst in the nation for racial disparities in who gets locked up.
The Iowa data from the Prison Policy Initiative also shows Black individuals are sent to prison at a rate of 9.1 times higher than white people in the state, Wanda Bertram, communications strategist with the initiative, told The Gazette. The nonprofit, non-partisan organization provides research about criminal justice reform and mass incarceration in the United States.
A plan created by the ACLU projected Iowa and others could “dramatically” reduce its prison population with a few “sensible” reforms, including decriminalizing drug possession; expanding social services and treatment for mental health and substance use; reforming the pretrial system to enhance constitutional protections and eliminating “wealth-based discrimination” by restricting cash-only bails; and enacting parole reform to expand access to early release.
Iowa lawmakers and Gov. Kim Reynolds worked together to pass significant social justice legislation in 2020, but a year later no bills for racial equity were brought forward, including banning racial profiling by police, which had been proposed by Reynolds.
Reynolds established a committee to discuss social justice proposals between 2020 and 2021. The committee met five times and made three recommendations for reforms to collect data on race and ethnicity from law enforcement stops; analyze and study the data, and provide annual reports on the findings; and ban disparate treatment in law enforcement activities and the delivery of police services.
Another report, filed in December 2020 by the state human rights department, also recommended steps be taken to end racial profiling, and also recommended legislators examine policies designed to eliminate racial disparities in the adult and juvenile criminal justice systems.
None of these recommendations made it into bills in 2021 or after.
Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz will not be retained after the 2023 season, interim athletics director Beth Goetz said in a news release Monday.
“Our intention is for him to be with us through the bowl game, but this is his last season with the program,” Goetz said in the release. “Making this known today is in the best interest of the program and its loyal fans; it provides clarity during this pivotal time in the schedule.”
Brian Ferentz, in a statement to ESPN on Monday, said he has “always considered and will always consider it an honor” to represent Iowa as a player and coach.
Why did Goetz decide to let Brian Ferentz go? Well the offense’s stats may give a clue.
Iowa ranks dead-last nationally by a wide margin in yards per game with 232.4. The Hawkeyes’ 4.12 yards per play is the worst among Power Five teams, with the next-worst team averaging 4.69 yards per play.
The dire lack of production from Iowa’s offense is not a new problem in Iowa City.
The Hawkeyes finished 110th, or worse nationally, in each of the previous two seasons in completion percentage, yards per play, third-down efficiency and yards per game.
Kirk Ferentz, as usual for game weeks, is scheduled to have a news conference Tuesday afternoon. This just might come up.
