Gazette Daily News Briefing, September 3
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, September 3.
Friday will bring with it a chance for rain much of the day. According to the National Weather Service, rain will be likeliest between 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday, but there will be a chance for showers and thunderstorms throughout the day and into Saturday morning. It will also be a bit chilly compared to just last week, with a high predicted at a very fall feeling 71 degrees. Interestingly enough, this high will only be 9 degrees higher than the low temperature of 62 degrees, as warmer air moves back into the area Friday night.
Gov. Kim Reynolds gave an update Thursday to Iowans on the worsening COVID-19 pandemic in the state. Her comments included more calls for people to get vaccinated — but no new policy changes, and she defended a state law that prevents schools from requiring students to wear face masks even as cases among children are now surging.
After months of decline following the winter spike, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are once again rising in Iowa and many other areas of the country. Both measures are higher than they have been since January, which was the tail end of the pandemic’s worst and deadliest stretch so far.
Iowa is averaging nearly 1,500 new COVID-19 cases per day — 15 times the rate just two months ago. And 524 people are being treated for COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals, more than seven times as many as just two months ago. Two main factors are driving this latest surge: the delta variant, which spreads faster than the virus’ original strain; and the number of Iowans who have not been vaccinated.
Police are looking for a 44-year-old man they believe shot and killed a man Saturday in southwest Cedar Rapids.
Warrants for first-degree murder and going armed with intent have been issued for the arrest of Nestor Lagunes Dominguez. Police said he is a suspect in the fatal shooting of Jose Florentino Ramirez Landin, 40, in the 4000 block of 21st Avenue SW.
Witnesses said they had been cooking out with Landin when a man — later identified as Lagunes Dominguez — arrived in a vehicle with another person.
After talking to the two, Landin walked away from them between two garages, and Lagunes Dominguez followed him, witnesses told police. They then heard several gunshots.
A Solon man who was converting “fuel filters” into illegal silencers for firearms was sentenced last week to 30 months in federal prison.
In a hearing in federal court, U.S. District Judge John Jarvey also ordered Christopher Allan Hay, 49, to serve three years of supervised release after prison.
Hay pleaded guilty in April to being a drug user in possession of firearms and ammunition, and possession of unregistered firearms.
According to court documents, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in San Francisco and Chicago located suspicious packages sent from China and addressed to Hay.
The packages contained 14 “fuel filters,” which have no filtering capability and are easily converted into firearms silencers.
Law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Hay’s residence, where they found 37 firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and four filters/silencers, one of which was attached to a firearm. They also found 813 grams — almost 2 pounds — of marijuana.
Two of Hay’s firearms were determined to be fully automatic machine guns, which Hay admitted he illegally converted, court documents stated
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