Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 8 and October 9
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, October 8, and Sunday, October 9.
It may start out frosty, but temperatures will climb into a pretty nice weekend. According to the National Weather Service there will be widespread frost in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday, mainly before 9 a.m. But it will be sunny, with an eventual high near 62 degrees. On Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 39 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny, with a high near 72 degrees. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a high near 43 degrees.
A Cedar Rapids couple will donate $2.1 million to seven Linn County nonprofits, United Way of East Central Iowa, one of the beneficiaries, announced Friday.
The couple, Mike and Jo Cambridge, ran a staffing business called Cambridge TEMPositions in Cedar Rapids for more than 30 years before they retired in 2014. In 2015, the couple donated $4.5 million to five Catholic schools and churches.
The seven nonprofits that will receive funds, along with United Way of East Central Iowa, are Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Foundation 2 Crisis Services, Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa, Mercy Medical Center Foundation, the Salvation Army of Cedar Rapids and Willis Dady Homeless Services.
Each nonprofit will receive $300,000 over the next three years.
So somebody decided that doing an active shooting drill on election day might be a bad idea.
Kirkwood Community College officials on Friday notified the campus they’re postponing an active shooter drill previously planned for Election Day, Nov. 8 — a delay that came after some faculty and staff voiced concern about the drill’s timing and potential to disrupt voting.
In the Friday “special update” announcing the active threat drill would be moved, Kirkwood Public Safety officials said they’re working with the Cedar Rapids Police Department to find an alternative date.
The entities originally picked Nov. 8 for the drill on Kirkwood’s main Cedar Rapids campus solely because it worked for everyone’s schedules according to a Kirkwood spokesman.
Kirkwood’s Cedar Rapids campus hosts two polling places, and its Iowa City campus hosts one polling place.
A $5 million grant will aid an overhaul of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, the state announced Friday, the same day former President George W. Bush was in Cedar Rapids to help raise funds for the museum’s renovation.
The grant was issued by the state’s economic development agency through a program that promotes tourism. The grant is funded by federal pandemic relief funding, which Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds originally opposed.
Herbert Hoover is the only U.S. president born in Iowa. The museum features information about Hoover and his wife, First Lady Lou Henry Hoover.
The Hoover Presidential Foundation is in the midst of a $20 million capital campaign to renovate the museum’s permanent galleries and exhibit galleries. The project will include the addition of 2,250 square feet of updated and interactive displays, and a modernized visitor experience.
Former President Bush was scheduled Friday to receive a humanitarian award and headline a fundraiser for the museum. The event was not open to the media, per an agreement with Bush’s staff.
