Gazette Daily News Podcast, April 16 and April 17

This will be a don’t forget to bring you jacket weekend. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 46 degrees. It will be a bit breezy with wind gusts as high as 25 mph. The low will drop to 28 degrees Saturday night. On Sunday there will be increasing clouds with a high near 44 degrees. After 2 p.m. there will be a 40 percent chance for rain. The low Sunday night will be 33 degrees.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer of Cedar Rapids qualifies for the primary ballot, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday — rejecting a lower court decision and allowing her to continue her campaign for the nomination and chance to face Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.

The court's unanimous decision leaves Finkenauer as the likely front-runner in a race with two lesser-known candidates ahead of Iowa's June 7 primary. The winner will run against Grassley, seeking an eighth term, provided he wins a GOP primary against state Sen. Jim Carlin as widely expected.

The high court rejected a lower court's ruling that found that Finkenauer failed to meet a state law that requires candidates to submit at least 100 signatures from at least 19 counties to qualify for the ballot. The justices agreed that a Polk County judge was wrong when he ruled that three signatures from two counties were invalid, leaving Finkenauer without enough signatures. The ruling noted that under the current laws missing or incorrect dates are not one of the current valid reasons for sustaining an objection to petitions.

A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly drove at and struck a construction worker during a confrontation over a roadway closure.

Bruce Marlon Schutte, 66, faces charges of willful injury causing bodily injury, assault while displaying a dangerous weapon and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.

According to a criminal complaint, Schutte approached a road closed sign in the 2300 block of 18th Street SW in Cedar Rapids Thursday and tried to move it out of the way. He was confronted by construction workers, who he told to move or he would run them over.

Schutte allegedly got back in his car and accelerated toward a worker who had asked him to go a different direction. He hit the worker and sent him onto the hood of his car, injuring the worker’s left knee, hip and elbow. Schutte then left the scene.

A Cedar Rapids man charged with second-degree murder in a fatal shooting at a downtown nightclub was barred from carrying weapons after drunkenly shooting a sawed-off shotgun in 2012 — but continued to carry arms anyway, court records show.

Timothy Ladell Rush, 32, is accused of fatally shooting Nicole Owens, 35, the mother of his child. Another person, Michael Valentine, 25, was also killed in the shooting, which took place early Sunday in the downtown Taboo Nightclub and Lounge. Police have not said who they think killed Valentine and have said they believe a second gunman was involved. But they have not announced any new arrests in the case.

In the 2012 case, Rush, who was intoxicated, lead officers on a foot chase before being caught. He originally was charged with possession of an offensive weapon, interference with official acts and public intoxication. But he later pleaded guilty to only possession of an offensive weapon. He was sentenced to three years of probation, court records show.

Rush was arrested again in 2014, charged in federal court in Iowa with being a felon in possession of a firearm and being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm.

Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and you can order online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop.