Gazette Daily News Podcast, June 3

Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?

If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 3.

Another sunny day is on the way Thursday, with it being a little bit warmer than Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 84 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area Thursday. The wind will hover at 5 to 10 mph all day.

State Rep. Todd Prichard announced Wednesday that he is stepping down as leader of the Iowa House Democrats. Prichard, 47, a Charles City lawyer, was reelected to his fifth term in the House in 2020. He did not indicate whether he’ll seek a sixth term in 2022.

Prichard led Iowa Democrats during three years of increasing Republican domination, as Iowa voters handed the opposing party control of virtually all levels of government. He criticized Republicans for lack of cooperation during this last legislative session and Gov. Kim Reynolds for a lack of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. But this, like most things Iowa Democrats did over the last year in particular, was an exercise in futility.

The Iowa Board of Regents appears to be responding to concerns levied against them by Republican lawmakers regarding the protection of free speech, particularly conservative speech. During the first meeting Wednesday of the Board of Regents’ new free speech committee plans were revealed to systematically address free speech concerns and to ensure a welcoming campus community.

The free speech committee was formed by the Regents after they were lambasted by Republican lawmakers after a series of free speech incidents between student groups and campus administrators.

The Iowa State Patrol has released the names of the three family members — two from North Liberty and one from Amana — who were killed in a car-semi crash last week in Fayette County.

The three — Terri Westfall, 65, and Ashleigh Rensing, 18, both of North Liberty, and Alli Olsen, 9, of Amana — died in the 2:30 p.m. Friday crash on Highway 150, north of West Union, according to the Iowa State Patrol.

A fourth family member, Seth Olsen, 15, of Amana, was seriously injured and taken to Gundersen Palmer Lutheran Hospital and Clinics in West Union. The Patrol said Westfall was driving north in a 2010 Chevrolet Impala when the car crossed the centerline and collided head-on with a southbound semi-trailer truck

After a weekend of little luck, authorities said they are re-evaluating their search for Xavior Harrelson, the 11-year-old boy who disappeared from a Montezuma mobile home park last week.

Xavior was last seen around 11 a.m. Thursday in Montezuma, wearing a red T-shirt, blue pajama pants and black high-top shoes, according to the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office. He has brown hair and blue eyes, is about 4-foot-8 and weighs 100 pounds.

Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said Xavior left his home in the Spruce Village Mobile Home Park and has not been seen since. The boy’s mother thought Xavior had gone out to play with friends, he said.

The mobile home park is less than a mile from Diamond Lake County Park, which features more than 660 acres of wooded land, a 90-acre lake and roughly 120 campsites. Since the boy’s disappearance, Mortvedt said authorities have deployed people, dogs, horses, all-terrain vehicles, drones, aircraft, heat sensors and divers. Now, Mortvedt said, authorities are working on developing new leads.

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 timely Iowa-issues. Join us October 14th and 15th for this can’t miss, idea-exchange experience. Learn more and register for the event at iowaideas.com.