Gazette Daily Podcast, October 27

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, October 27.

Wednesday’s weather will be a transitional one between the sun of Tuesday and the rain predicted to come Thursday. According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 58 degrees. A southeast wind of 15 mph could gust as high as 25 mph. There will be a low of 45 degrees Wednesday night, with a possibility for rain as it turns into Thursday morning.

A report of sexual assault at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at the University of Iowa that spawned widespread protests earlier this fall now is at the center of a lawsuit seeking enough money to act as a deterrence to others.

In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Johnson County District Court, UI student Makena Solberg — who names herself in the filing — reports being sexually assaulted by two members of the fraternity, which goes by FIJI, on Sept. 4 into Sept. 5, 2020.

She identified the defendants as FIJI “members, directors or officers” Carson Steffen and Jacob Meloan. She accuses the two men of sexually assaulting her while she was incapacitated and then sharing video and photos of the assault online in a group chat.

A former assistant track coach at Linn-Mar High School and owner of a high school sports photography and video service in Marion was formally charged Tuesday with holding a 17-year-old male student in a school office bathroom and sexually abusing him during a Sept. 27 “training program.”

Kameron Martelle Beets, 29, of Cedar Rapids, is charged with third-degree sexually abuse, third-degree kidnapping, sexual exploitation of a minor, sexual exploitation by a school employee and invasion of privacy.

The criminal complaint was filed Oct. 22 when a warrant was issued for Beets, but he wasn’t arrested until 5 p.m. Monday by Marion and Cedar Rapids police in southwest Cedar Rapids. The complaint was made public Tuesday when Beets made an initial appearance in Linn County District Court.

MidAmerican Energy is adding sun power to its renewable energy portfolio, utility officials said Tuesday.

The Des Moines-based energy company is taking the final steps to flip the switch at its first utility-scale solar energy project located in Waterloo.

In mid-November, MidAmerican will power-up the 3-MW Waterloo solar project, made up of nearly 10,000 solar panels with capacity to serve nearly 650 average Iowa homes.

In addition to the Waterloo solar array, MidAmerican plans to have more projects online this year elsewhere in Iowa that will add 61 megawatts of solar power.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. moved a step closer to expanding COVID-19 vaccinations for millions more children as a panel of government advisers on Tuesday endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer's shots for 5- to 11-year-olds.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously, with one abstention, that the vaccine’s benefits in preventing COVID-19 in that age group outweigh any potential risks — including a heart-related side effect that's been very rare in teens and young adults despite their use of a much higher shot dose.

The FDA is not bound by the panel’s recommendation and is expected to make its own decision within days.

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