Gazette Daily News Briefing, September 15
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 15, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny on Friday with a high of 81 degrees. On Friday evening the low will be 59 degrees, and a chance for showers and thunderstorms will increase as we head into the morning hours on Saturday.
Collins Aerospace, the North Carolina-based company that employs 9,000 people in Iowa, will lay off less than 1 percent of its total workforce.
The news was confirmed by a company spokesperson this week, who said the layoffs will be made across the company — not in one specific division or location.
Collins, an RTX business, employs about 80,000 people worldwide, of whom 7,000 are based in Cedar Rapids. One percent of the company’s workforce would be about 800 positions.
Erin Callender, director of global media relations for Collins, said the layoffs are part of an alignment effort.
“Collins Aerospace is implementing actions to align its cost structure with the ongoing aerospace recovery,” Callender said in an email. She could not comment on when the layoffs will happen, or how many employees in Iowa may be affected.
According to reportin g from the Associated Press, an Iowa police officer died after being shot while trying to arrest a man who was later captured in Minnesota, officials said on Thursday.
Algona Police Officer Kevin Cram was shot just before 8 p.m. Wednesday as he tried to serve an arrest warrant on 43-year-old Kyle Ricke.
Cram, a 33-year-old husband and father who had been an officer in Algona since 2015, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Cram was on patrol in Algona, a town of about 5,300 residents, when he learned of an active arrest warrant for Ricke on a charge of harassment, Mortvedt said. The officer saw Ricke and told him he would be arrested. That's when Ricke shot him, Mortvedt said.
In a move to expand equitable access to trees and green spaces nationwide, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday announced an award of $6 million toward Cedar Rapids’ effort to reforest the city after the 2020 derecho toppled most of the city’s tree canopy.
Vilsack, along with other federal officials, announced the major grant on a visit to Greene Square in downtown Cedar Rapids.
Cedar Rapids is among 385 recipients of $1.13 billion in U.S. Forest Service grants that will help communities grow tree cover in urban spaces and provide Americans with the health benefits that trees offer.
The funding, made available through the $740 billion Democrat-backed Inflation Reduction Act that took effect in August 2022
Vilsack told reporters the combination of community leadership, nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations and other partnerships behind ReLeaf Cedar Rapids made it a compelling application within the state of Iowa and a fitting location to spotlight in unveiling the grants.
The grant goes a long way toward the $37 million Cedar Rapids city officials and non profits are looking to secure to fund a 10-year plan to plant 42,000 trees
