Gazette Daily News Podcast, August 24

It will be another sunny day on Wednesday, with a possibility for some rain coming early on Thursday morning. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 86 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 66 degrees. There will be a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, primarily after midnight and into the early morning hours on Thursday.

A $312 million plan to improve Cedar Rapids secondary schools includes building a new aquatic center to replace the three pools in the district’s high schools, and a new 1,200-student middle school.

In a presentation to the school board on Monday, district officials proposed reducing the number of middle schools in the district from six to four, renovating and adding additions or new construction, and making improvements to the district’s four high schools over the next seven to 10 years.

The plan hinges on voters approving a $312 million general obligation bond in a referendum scheduled for March 7. If the bond is approved, the district’s property tax levy — which is currently zero — would increase to $2.70 per $1,000 of taxable valuation.

This is the first general obligation bond ask the Cedar Rapids Community School District has made in 22 years. The last ask was in 2000 for $46 million, which passed.

A retired University of Iowa music professor has been indicted in federal court on charges of distributing methamphetamine that resulted in a death and of possessing child pornography.

John Robert Muriello, 65, of Iowa City, is accused of buying drugs from a supplier in California and of having 12,000 photos and 3,183 videos on his electronic devices, many of them of minor boys, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in June.

Muriello was indicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute meth that resulted in serious bodily injury or death and one count of possession of child pornography.

He is being held without bond in the Muscatine County Jail. His trial is set for Dec. 5 in Davenport.

Muriello is listed on the university’s website as an emeritus professor of voice and opera. The university placed Muriello on leave in May 2021 and he retired on July 1 of this year. On May 28 of 2021 Iowa City police obtained a search warrant for Muriello’s home after an overdose death two weeks earlier triggered a drug investigation.

A school bus for the Bennett Community School District in Cedar County crashed with another vehicle Tuesday morning — the first day of school — sending both drivers and one child to the hospital.

The crash occurred at the intersection of Hwy 130 and Washington Avenue, between Bennett and New Liberty, according to a news release from the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office.

There were six children on the school bus at the time of the crash.

The release did not specify what led to the crash, but stated there is an ongoing investigation.

The Bennett Community School District released a statement Tuesday thanking the emergency responders who reported to the scene. The district said all students were “accounted for and tended to.”