This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 19th.

Wednesday will be rainy again. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy all day Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area, with the chance for rain ramping up especially from mid morning until about 3:00 p.m. The early afternoon rainfall could come in the form of a thunderstorm. In one change, the temperature will begin showing its trend of ramping up, with a high of 73 degrees.

Starting Wednesday, eight women and seven men — 12 jurors and three alternates — will weigh murder charges against a farm laborer accused of fatally stabbing a University of Iowa student nearly three years ago while she was out jogging in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa.

Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 26, is accused in the death of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts in July of 2018. Opening statements are scheduled for Wednesday morning at the Scott County Courthouse. The trial is expected to last through next week.

After two days of work, a prosecutor and Bahena Rivera’s defense attorney on Tuesday afternoon finished choosing the panel from a pool of 183 prospective jurors after questioning them on their knowledge of the case, their opinions of his guilt and other subjects.

The mayors of Iowa City and Coralville lifted mask mandates in their communities on Tuesday.

While the mandates have been lifted, the city leaders said those not vaccinated against COVID-19 should continue to wear masks and social distance in public.Masks are still also required for all people in certain situations, such as public transit.

The mandates had required that people wear face coverings over the nose in mouth while in a public place when 6 feet of social distancing was not possible. Iowa City and Coralville join Cedar Rapids this week as one of several communities nationally relaxing mask mandates after the CDC revised its recommendations last week.

The CDC change and new guidance from the state of Iowa also has several school districts scrambling to evaluate their mask and quarantine guidelines with barely any time left in the school year. Students will continue to wear masks through the end of the school year in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

Students attending summer school and teachers, while interacting with these students, also will maintain mask wearing protocols. In an email to families Tuesday, Superintendent Noreen Bush said that with only 13 days left of school, the district is choosing to maintain its mask policy through the end of the school year.

A University of Iowa doctor and clinical professor was practicing landing and takeoff techniques when he was involved in a fatal plane crash earlier this month.

According to an aviation accident preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, Dr. Dale Bieber, 73, contacted The Eastern Iowa Airport control tower around 3:52 p.m. May 2 and informed personnel there that he was going to perform “touch and go maneuvers” at the Green Castle Airport. In a touch and go landing, the pilot prepares to land, briefly touches down and then takes off without coming to a stop.

A witness described Bieber touching down but then losing control as he attempted to ascend again, leaving the runway into a field and colliding with a power pole.

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 18th.

Tuesday looks to be a rain-filled day. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a 60 percent chance of showers after 5 a.m. Tuesday morning in the Cedar Rapids area. Then the chance for showers will increase in the late morning into the early afternoon with a chance of thunder storm after noon. The chance of rainfall during this chunk of the day is listed at 90 percent. Tuesday night there will be a chance for, you guessed it, more showers and thunderstorms, with the chance for precipitation dropping down to 50 percent. The high temperature during all this should be around 66 degrees.

A significant overhaul of state tax policy and mental health funding is in the works, as Republicans in control of the state lawmaking process appear to have finally reached agreement on a variety of funding streams and policies.

The agreement that has proved elusive for weeks at the Iowa Capitol surfaced late Monday, when Republicans announced a compromise with other Republicans that signals the end of the 2021 legislative session is near. The Iowa Senate moved quickly, debating and passing the sweeping legislation Monday evening, mere hours after it was introduced.

The tax reform would do many things, but here are a few highlights: It would eliminate triggers that were a compromise trying to prevent the lowering of taxes before it reached certain revenue goals, it would shift mental health funding from property taxes to state funding, and it would eliminate a property taxes backfill, that was another compromise, providing $152 million in backfill to cities when Republicans cut property taxes previously. In an even shorter summary, it simplifies some funding streams, puts the onus on cities to raise local property taxes, and allows Republicans to give tax cuts sooner than they otherwise would have.

Transamerica Corporation, one of the largest employers in Cedar Rapids, is under review by the Iowa Insurance Division for a rash of complaints related to the company’s taking over customer service for Vanguard Annuity in December.

People who complained to the Insurance Division or the Iowa Attorney General said they couldn’t get through to https://www.transamerica.com/individual/ (Transamerica), an investment, retirement and life insurance company, to check on their investments, make transfers or seek payouts after the death of a loved one. Although customer service complaints aren’t unusual — especially for a large multinational company — gripes about Transamerica went up in January after https://investor.vanguard.com/annuityfaq (Transamerica took over customer service fo)r the Vanguard Variable Annuity block of business, said Chance McElhaney, spokesman for the Iowa Insurance Division.

The Iowa AG’s office reported having six complaints about Transamerica since Dec. 1. The Iowa Insurance Division would not say how many formal complaints it has received, but said office staff also has fielded phone calls about Transamerica that did not turn into formal complaints.

The Mollie Tibbetts murder trial began Monday with jury selection attempting to narrow down a jury from 175 people. Prosecutor Scott Brown warned prospective jurors that some of the evidence would be grisly, as it pertains to the stab wounds suffered by Tibbetts, causing her death in 2018. Cristhian Bahena Rivera is on trial for the death of Tibbetts after he led authorities to her body in a cornfield a month after she disappeared while jogging in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with thought-provoking local, and national speakers-- all ready to engage you on a variety of important and...

We’ll have a 40% chance of showers today in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be cloudy, with a high near 68.

Iowa surpassed 6,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths over the weekend. While the deaths surpassed another grim milestone, the seven-day average of cases hit 237, the lowest since April 20, 2020.

An Indiana man has been arrested in connection with a shooting death in Iowa City last month. The Iowa City Police Department said 29-year-old Renard Winfield Jr. of Gary, Indiana, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting of 31-year-old Tommy Curry. In a criminal complaint, police said Curry thought he was going to be meeting with a woman he had been texting with for months the night of April 28. Instead, police said Curry was killed by Winfield, who had been posing as a woman (i.e., "catfishing").

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, May 15th and Sunday, May 16th.

There will be a chance for showers pretty much all weekend, but it appears it will be spotty. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 60 percent of precipitation in the early morning hours Saturday, a 30 percent chance of showers in the mid afternoon, and a 10 percent chance of rain Saturday night. In between all that it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 65 degrees.

Sunday it should be warmer, with a high near 73 degrees and partly sunny skies. There also will be sporadic showers, with a 30 percent chance of rain after 1 p.m. and a 40 percent chance Sunday night.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Brad Hart on Friday again eased the city’s mask mandate, effectively repealing the order for fully vaccinated people based on recent changes to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance on curbing the spread of COVID-19.

The modified CDC guidelines and city mask mandate advise that fully vaccinated people may take off masks while indoors and resume most pre-pandemic activities without physically distancing themselves from others. Masks still should be worn on public transit and in certain other crowded indoor settings, the CDC recommends. Full vaccination is considered to be two weeks after a vaccine regimen is completed.

These changes are in addition to other recent updated guidance that fully vaccinated people may gather or conduct activities outdoors without masks. Hart on May 3 https://www.thegazette.com/local-government/cedar-rapids-mayor-brad-hart-modifies-city-mask-mandate-in-line-with-new-cdc-guidance/ (modified the city’s mask mandate) in line with those revisions.

The Iowa Department of Public Health, as has been its custom, has stepped further along than what the CDC has recommended. On Friday it sent out a letter to educators suggesting that masking should not be required in schools, although it did urge schools to have masks on hand in case students decided they wanted to wear them. Also, the department loosened its quarantine requirements for students who test positive for COVID-19, saying that those who come into contact with them should not be required to quarantine, and also appeared to give some wiggle room for what parents should do when students are found to be positive with the virus.

The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday unanimously rejected the appeal of a man who said the state should refund a $465 fine he paid for a speeding ticket on the heels of an earlier high court ruling that said commercial vehicle patrol officers could not issue such tickets.

The high court’s ruling likely means the state is off the hook for refunding millions of dollars in fines collected from tens of thousands of drivers wrongly ticketed over several years by Motor Vehicle Enforcement officers employed by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Finally, I am happy to report that a 7-year-old orange tabby cat that was https://www.thegazette.com/news/mans-tale-of-how-his-cat-ended-up-in-the-cedar-river-is-all-wet-police-say-after-rescue/ (tossed into the Cedar River) on Monday from the Third Avenue Bridge is resting comfortably at Cedar Rapids Animal Care and Control, according to the shelter’s program manager, Ronnie Schlabs.

The cat, named Julie Ann by her former owner who was arrested and charged with animal abuse, spent most of her first day in the animal shelter’s care at a vet’s office, where she was treated for hypothermia and checked for injuries, according to Schlabs. The cat spent several hours at the vet being warmed with a heating pad and snuggled in extra blankets until her temperature returned to normal.

The Iowa Ideas 2021 virtual conference will be here before you know it, and we would like you to be our guest on the house. The Gazette is providing free access to this two-day gathering with more than 50 sessions- filled with...

In today's episode: Rain is coming, but not until Friday night; the CDC has eased mask restrictions for those who have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19; more vaccination has begun on the 12-15 age group; a Iowa state representative denied copying his homework from Heritage for America; and another man has pleaded guilty in a fatal meth theft.

Today's news: It will be cloudy without a chance for rain, Linn County voters may give a casino another go, a police shooting was ruled justified, and a man was caught dumping his cat into the river.

Frost and then sun in the forecast, the Mollie Tibbetts will be broadcast, City of Cedar Rapids invests in study of traffic stops, and Iowa continues to rank high in having too many puppy mills.

News for Tuesday: The FDA on Monday expanded use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to children as young as 12. Gov. Kim Reynolds removed the chief executive of the state’s nursing home for veterans. She also signed new bills into law, including one that allows parents to teach their kids driver's ed. And the community voted: Find out what Marion's new mascot will be (if the school board approves).

This is John McGlothlen with the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, May 10th.

Our weather in the Cedar Rapids area today will be mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Winds from the northwest 5 to 10 mph becoming northeast in the afternoon. Tonight should be partly cloudy, with a low around 38.

In a Saturday evening forum on diversity, Cedar Rapids mayoral candidates were split on the issue of whether systemic racism exists in law enforcement. Former Mayor Ron Corbett, the moderator of the first candidate forum of the campaign cycle leading up to the Nov. 2 election, asked all three candidates about a November Gazette article profiling Cedar Rapids police Officer E.J. Merriweather. In the article, the Black officer said he does not believe systemic racism exists, though he believes there are racist people. The candidates were asked if they concur. Advocates for Social Justice board Vice President Amara Andrews said she “unequivocally” disagreed, citing an ACLU study showing that a Black person in Iowa is 7.3 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person. And, she noted, that of 219 sworn personnel in the Cedar Rapids Police Department, there are four Black officers, according to the department’s 2019 annual report. Mayor Brad Hart said “there’s just not a way” to give a yes or no answer. Adding, “If he’s talking in the country, it’s clear that some of the 18,000-plus police departments in the country still have systemic racism.” Mayoral candidate Tiffany O’Donnell, Women Lead Change CEO, said, “Nationally it’s clear that we do have systemic racism.” But about Cedar Rapids police, she said, “I’m proud to know many of our officers. I respect and admire the work that they do here and they put their lives on the line every day, and I’m just grateful.”

More than half of Linn County’s age 16 and up population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to public health data released Sunday. In the Corridor, Linn and Johnson counties continue to show vaccination rates higher than the statewide average. As of Sunday, more than 1.14 million Iowans were fully vaccinated, an increase of over 12,000 people from the day before. That represents about 45.66 percent of Iowans old enough to be eligible. That rate now has crossed 50 percent in Linn County, where 90,591 people age 16 and up were fully vaccinated as of Sunday. The comparable rate is higher — over 57 percent — in Johnson County, where 71,028 people were fully vaccinated as of Sunday.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, May 8 and Sunday, May 9.

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend!

I bear bad news if you were hoping for a sunny and warm holiday weekend. According to the National Weather Service, rain will be likely in the Cedar Rapids area Saturday, with the probability of rainfall increasing greatly after 5 p.m. There will be increasing cloudiness as the day goes on, with a high temperature of about 59 degrees. Also increasing will be the wind, rising to 15 to 20 mph with gusts of 35 mph as Saturday gives way to Sunday.

Rain and possibility a thunderstorm will continue into Sunday, with the rainfall mostly ceasing by 7 a.m. Sunday. There will be some chance of scattered showers on Sunday, but otherwise it will be cloudy and windy with a high near 57 degrees.

The Iowa Department of Corrections is seeking a vendor to review all parts of its prison system, from staffing and inmate classification to the safety of buildings where more than 8,000 criminal offenders are housed.

The request for proposals, which closed Wednesday, says the vendor that is chosen will provide a final report by Dec. 1. But the Corrections Department won’t confirm whether the findings will be available to the public.

The institutional review follows the https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/anamosa-inmates-used-prison-hammers-to-kill-two-employees-in-failed-escape-attempt-agent-says/ (March 23 attack) in which two offenders at the Anamosa State Penitentiary are accused of bludgeoning to death correctional Officer Robert McFarland and nurse Lorena Schulte in an escape attempt.

It was also determined this week that those two inmates will be tried separately.

Thomas Woodard, 39, will remain set for trial June 22 because he demanded a speedy trial.

Michael Dutcher, 28, will be tried at a later date to be determined by the court, according to a Friday status conference in Jones County District Court.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to charges of two counts of first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and attempted murder.

The three candidates who have launched their bids for Cedar Rapids mayor will be pressed Saturday on their visions to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the city in the first sponsored forum of the campaign cycle.

The African American Professionals of the Iowa Corridor will host a forum from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Coe College’s Sinclair Auditorium, 1220 First Ave NE. All three candidates — Advocates for Social Justice board Vice President https://www.thegazette.com/government-politics/community-leader-amara-andrews-to-run-for-cedar-rapids-mayor/ (Amara Andrews,) Mayor https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/cedar-rapids-mayor-brad-hart-seeking-reelection-20210126 (Brad Hart )and nonprofit Women Lead Change CEO Thttps://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/tiffany-odonnell-women-lead-change-ceo-kgan-anchor-cedar-rapids-mayor-20210321 (iffany O’Donnell —) will participate.

The livestream of the event will be available at the AAP Iowa Facebook page.

A seven-month process, in which Marion High School has tried to identify a new nickname for its athletics teams, is expected to reach a conclusion in the coming days.

“We will have the final vote completed by Sunday night, with board approval Monday night,” athletics director Mike Manderscheid wrote in an email to The Gazette on Thursday.

The three candidates to replace the long-standing Indians nickname and mascot are Storm, Wolves and no nickname at all. Red Storm and Red Wolves were finalists in a previous district-wide survey, in which voters chose Mavericks.

In March, https://www.thegazette.com/iowa-prep-sports/marion-independent-restarts-mascot-search-after-learning-mavericks-racist-history/ (the decision to adopt Mavericks was overturned )because the district learned the origin of the term Maverick is from Samuel A. Maverick, an early 1800s Texas rancher and slave