Gazette Daily News Briefing, September 14
This is John McGlothlen from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for September 14th.
Expect areas of fog before 9 a.m. today, then mostly sunny with a high near 78, according to the National Weather Service. The low tonight should be around 56.
Dateline NBC this evening will be airing their episode about the 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko, with interviews of Cedar Rapids investigators, Gazette courts reporter Trish Mehaffey, Michelle’s friends and her relatives. The episode will air at 9 p.m. on NBC and is part of Dateline’s Monday Mysteries true crime series. Dennis Murphy reported for the newsmagazine and the episode is titled “And then there were three.”
Iowa has now completed more than 700,000 coronvirus tests. The state's total cases since March 8th had reached 74,420 by Sunday morning. Of the 5,699 test results announced in the 24-hour period ending at 11 a.m., 15.32 percent were positive. Twenty-four counties have 14-day average positivity rates greater than 15 percent.
Kamala Harris on Saturday evening appeared virtually in a prerecorded message, and addressed a field of cars, trucks and SUVs for the Polk County Democrats’ annual Steak Fry fundraiser. The Steak Fry had a new look amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It was held drive-in style at Des Moines Waterworks Park, with attendees sitting in their cars and listening to the speakers, some of whom spoke in person, and others who appeared via video. Applause lines in speeches were replaced by honk lines — people honked their car horns when they heard something they liked. Biden and Harris face the incumbent Republican ticket of Donald Trump and Mike Pence in a state Trump won by nearly 10 percentage points four years ago. Recent polls on the race in Iowa have showed Trump ahead but by a much more narrow margin: an average of just less than 2 percentage points, according to Real Clear Politics’ average of polls here.
