Gazette Daily News Podcast, June 30
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 30.
It will be the hottest day for the next week on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it should be mostly sunny with a high temperature near 93 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be breezy, with a 10 to 20 mph wind gusting as high as 30 mph. On Thursday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 69 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance for showers and thunderstorms early Friday morning.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wednesday that she is not planning to call a special legislative session this year to pass abortion restrictions, but she suggested she may consider it if her attempt to bring back enforcement of Iowa’s so-called “fetal heartbeat” law fails.
Reynolds, a Republican, announced this week plans to challenge a 2018 district court decision that halted enforcement of the law, which would ban abortions after cardiac activity is detected in a fetus — usually around six weeks. Her announcement came after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a federal right to an abortion and allowed states to limit abortions.
She’s also asking the Iowa Supreme Court to reconsider a recent ruling that overturned a previous ruling saying the state constitution guarantees the right to an abortion. While a win for Iowa Republicans, the ruling, which came before the U.S. Supreme Court decision, still left room for courts to strike down some restrictions.
“We’ve got two laws in place, and so we’re going to move forward with that and wait and see what the ruling is based on that, and then we’ll reassess after that point,” she said at an event in Wright County.
The second man arrested in the deadly shooting at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge in April remains in an Illinois prison on a parole violation and Illinois authorities have refused to return him to Iowa, despite a signed waiver of extradition.
Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said Tuesday his office is taking all the “legal avenues” to bring Dimione Walker, 29, of Cedar Rapids, back to Iowa to face pending charges of first-degree murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent and felon in possession of a firearm.
The office is now obtaining a governor’s warrant and is working with Iowa and Illinois coordinators to expedite Walker’s return.
Timothy Rush also has been charged and is accused of fatally shooting Nicole Owens, 35, his girlfriend and mother of his 1-year-old daughter, and seriously injuring Marvin Cox, who was shot in the head at Taboo on April 10, along with causing injury to several other people.
Rush was working security at Taboo the night of the shooting, his lawyer said in April during a bail review hearing.
Rush has pleaded not guilty to 15 charges in Linn County District Court.
Coronavirus hospitalizations continue to decline in Iowa as cases hold steady.
As of Wednesday, 162 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That’s a decline from 184 patients last week and 186 the week before.
The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 3,988 new cases of COVID-19 in the past seven days, an uptick compared with 3,919 new cases reported last week.
In total, 9,688 Iowans have died as a result of COVID-19 during the pandemic.
