Gazette Daily News Podcast, July 21

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 or wherever else you find your Podcasts.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 21.

Yesterday I mentioned that there likely wouldn’t be any sign of rain until the end of the week. Well, that’s sort of still true, if by the end of the week you substitute in the end of Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area. This chance will go down as the evening progresses. Besides that, it should be mostly sunny, with a high near 86 degrees.

Police are investigating after a 15-year-old girl was found dead with gunshot wounds in a vehicle Tuesday morning in southwest Cedar Rapids.

According to the Cedar Rapids Police Department, officers were called just before 6:30 a.m. to the Hawthorne Hills apartment complex — in the 2200 block of C Street SW — for reports of a single-vehicle crash.

When they arrived, police said they found a vehicle with extensive damage and a teenage girl in the driver’s seat. Police said the girl was dead and had what appeared to be gunshot wounds.

The name of the girl is being withheld pending notification of the family.

The investigation is ongoing, police said, adding that the preliminary investigation indicates the shooting likely was a targeted incident.

Deficits that the University of Iowa and Iowa State University projected for their athletics operations over the last pandemic-plagued season were not as steep as feared, according to newly released Board of Regents budget documents.

To be sure, the Hawkeyes and Cyclones did lose millions in the fiscal year that ended June 30, the records show. Still, Hawkeye income was $35.8 million above expectations and Cyclone income was $15 million better than anticipated.

University of Northern Iowa Athletics, which is not self-sufficient like at the larger schools, ended fiscal 2021 about $3 million over budget. That UNI positive balance in large part came thanks to a spike in support from the main campus — which increased its athletics funding from a budgeted $3.2 million to nearly $8 million.

More than 40 percent of Alliant Energy’s power sold in Iowa during 2020 came from renewable sources, according to a report released Tuesday, as the company continues toward its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The 43.8 percent of Iowa power from utilities in 2020 was up from 26.5 percent in 2019 and 9.9 percent in 2018. The company announced goals last year to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and eliminate use of coal by 2040.

Alliant also unveiled its plans to plant 1 million trees — or about one tree per customer — in Iowa and Wisconsin over the next decade.

The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man who was killed Monday in a two-vehicle wreck near Central City and Alburnett as 62-year-old Larry Hullerman, of Waterloo.

The sheriff’s office said Hullerman was pronounced dead at the scene Monday morning after the vehicle he was driving was struck by a vehicle that had run a stop sign at Central City and Alburnett roads.