Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 6
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for October 6, 2023.
A chance for rain in the morning, and quite a bit cooler. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 30 percent chance for rain in the Cedar Rapids area Friday morning. The high temperature will crest at 56 degrees with a stiff breeze all day.
A teenager has been charged in connection with threats to Cedar Rapids schools circulating on social media that led to classes across the district being canceled Monday.
Cedar Rapids police announced Thursday night they had worked with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation to arrest a 14-year-old. Authorities said the teen is from Cedar Rapids, but did not say if the teen is a student in the Cedar Rapids Community School District nor say what charges he or she faces.
The district had notified parents last Sunday that district schools would be closed Monday because of the threats, which they did not describe. Cedar Rapids schools reopened Tuesday, although many students — about 40 percent — stayed away.
The district also imposed temporary new rules because of the threats: Students are not allowed to bring backpacks, bags or purses unless they are clear and see-through. Lunchboxes are allowed but will be examined by staff. High school students are not allowed to be released for lunch.
The district said Thursday after the arrest that it would continue with the safety protocols for Friday, but intended to lift them next week.
More than three-fourths of Linn County is now engulfed in exceptional drought — the most severe drought condition — according to a Thursday U.S. Drought Monitor report.
This is the driest the county has been in the history of the U.S. Drought Monitor, which began in 2000. This is also the first year there has been exceptional drought in Eastern Iowa at all.
The average temperature in Cedar Rapids throughout September was 5 degrees higher than the historical norm, according to the National Weather Service Quad Cities bureau. The city received just over an inch of rain that month — 2.33 inches less than normal.
The swath represents the only patch of exceptional drought in Iowa and the Midwest at large. It currently makes up about 3 percent of Iowa’s land. Exceptional drought has historically been contained to central and west Iowa — not Eastern Iowa.
About a quarter of the state is still covered in severe drought, stretching from the northeast corner down to the southeast corner. Northeast Iowa, where exceptional drought plagued farmers and ranchers last month, has improved. The rest of the state is experiencing severe or moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions. None of Iowa is drought-free.
Collins Aerospace, which employs about 9,000 people in Iowa, will lay off 68 employees in Cedar Rapids.
According to a state notice, the layoffs will occur Oct. 13.
A company spokesperson confirmed last month that Collins was planning layoffs across the company -- not in one specific division or location -- totaling less than 1 percent of its total workforce. One percent of its 7,000 employees in Cedar Rapids would be 70 people.
“Collins Aerospace is implementing actions to align its cost structure with the ongoing aerospace recovery,” Erin Callender, director of global media relations for Collins, said last month.
