Gazette Daily News Briefing, the weekend of September 19 and September 20
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of September 19th and September 20th.
The cool and sunny weather trend of the past week will carry on into the weekend. According to the National Weather Service, on Saturday there will be a high of 66 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with mostly sunny skies. The low on Saturday night will be 48 degrees with partly cloudy skies.
On Sunday it will be sunny, with a high near 73 degrees. It will be breezy Sunday, however, with wind speeds of 10 to 15 mph gusting as high as 25 mph.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday from complications of pancreatic cancer. She was 87 years old. A famed women's rights and civil liberty litigator before joining the supreme court in 1993, Ginsburg battled cancer while remaining an active supreme court judge and influential public figure since her first diagnosis in 1999.
Iowa Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley likely would be expected to vote in favor of a replacement for Ginsburg, should this person be considered this year while President Donald Trump can still make the nomination regardless of who wins in November. Grassley is on the record saying he would advise against bringing forth a nominee during this election year, but he also noted at the time that he no longer is at the head of the senate judiciary committee. That position is now held by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. Grassley said he would abide by the decisions of Graham and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said Friday that Trump’s nominee would receive a vote on the senate floor.
Bars in Johnson and Story counties — home to Iowa’s two largest universities — must remain closed another two weeks to help address the continuing high number of new COVID-19 cases there, Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered Friday. Just days before her initial closure order was to expire at midnight Sunday, the governor ordered bars, breweries, nightclubs and similar establishments in the two counties around the University of Iowa and Iowa State University to remain shuttered until 11:59 p.m. Sept. 27.
Reynolds initially ordered bars to close in six counties where coronavirus cases were surging. They included the university communities of Iowa City, Ames and Cedar Falls where students were observed crowding bars just before fall classes started, showing little regard for social distancing and wearing masks except to get past bouncers at the doors. Reynolds lifted the closures for bars in the four other counties earlier this week.
The Iowa City Community School District will shift from online to a hybrid learning model that includes in-person instruction on Sept. 28. The district started classes online Sept. 8 after receiving a two-week waiver from in-person classes from the Iowa Department of Education.The waiver came because COVID-19 case numbers were climbing in Johnson County, mainly because of students returning to the University of Iowa. With the positivity rates dropping, the district has indicated a willingness to return to limited in-person instruction.
Two teens have been arrested in the shooting death of 20-year-old Malik Sheets, who was gunned down at a party in northeast Cedar Rapids exactly three months ago. Christian D. Emedi, 17, and Marshawn L. Jefferies, 16, face charges of first-degree murder and obstructing prosecution, according to police. Emedi is at the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center on unrelated charges and was served with charges Friday in slaying of Sheets, police said. Jefferies was taken into custody in Davenport and transported to the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center.
