Gazette Daily News Podcast, May 19

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, May 19th.

Wednesday will be rainy again. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy all day Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area, with the chance for rain ramping up especially from mid morning until about 3:00 p.m. The early afternoon rainfall could come in the form of a thunderstorm. In one change, the temperature will begin showing its trend of ramping up, with a high of 73 degrees.

Starting Wednesday, eight women and seven men — 12 jurors and three alternates — will weigh murder charges against a farm laborer accused of fatally stabbing a University of Iowa student nearly three years ago while she was out jogging in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa.

Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 26, is accused in the death of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts in July of 2018. Opening statements are scheduled for Wednesday morning at the Scott County Courthouse. The trial is expected to last through next week.

After two days of work, a prosecutor and Bahena Rivera’s defense attorney on Tuesday afternoon finished choosing the panel from a pool of 183 prospective jurors after questioning them on their knowledge of the case, their opinions of his guilt and other subjects.

The mayors of Iowa City and Coralville lifted mask mandates in their communities on Tuesday.

While the mandates have been lifted, the city leaders said those not vaccinated against COVID-19 should continue to wear masks and social distance in public.Masks are still also required for all people in certain situations, such as public transit.

The mandates had required that people wear face coverings over the nose in mouth while in a public place when 6 feet of social distancing was not possible. Iowa City and Coralville join Cedar Rapids this week as one of several communities nationally relaxing mask mandates after the CDC revised its recommendations last week.

The CDC change and new guidance from the state of Iowa also has several school districts scrambling to evaluate their mask and quarantine guidelines with barely any time left in the school year. Students will continue to wear masks through the end of the school year in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

Students attending summer school and teachers, while interacting with these students, also will maintain mask wearing protocols. In an email to families Tuesday, Superintendent Noreen Bush said that with only 13 days left of school, the district is choosing to maintain its mask policy through the end of the school year.

A University of Iowa doctor and clinical professor was practicing landing and takeoff techniques when he was involved in a fatal plane crash earlier this month.

According to an aviation accident preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, Dr. Dale Bieber, 73, contacted The Eastern Iowa Airport control tower around 3:52 p.m. May 2 and informed personnel there that he was going to perform “touch and go maneuvers” at the Green Castle Airport. In a touch and go landing, the pilot prepares to land, briefly touches down and then takes off without coming to a stop.

A witness described Bieber touching down but then losing control as he attempted to ascend again, leaving the runway into a field and colliding with a power pole.

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