Gazette Daily News Podcast, October 27

It will be another pleasant fall day on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 58 degrees. On Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 37 degrees.

Art Sathoff, the recently retired superintendent of the Indianola Community School District, was named Wednesday as the interim superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

The vote was 6-1, with Dexter Merschbrock opposed. He did not give an explanation from the dais of his vote.

Former Superintendent Noreen Bush, 51, died Sunday. She was diagnosed with cancer more than two years ago. Friends and colleagues said Bush was a “rock star,” “leader among leaders” and a “model for doing what’s right for kids.”

Bush went on family medical leave in September. The school board approved her resignation letter last month, effective June 30, setting in motion a superintendent search process.

Former president Donald Trump is coming to Iowa next month to campaign for the Republicans on the ballot, and, presumably, himself.

Trump plans to hold a campaign rally at Sioux City’s Gateway Airport on Thursday, Nov. 3 — just five days before Election Day, the Trump campaign announced Wednesday.

Trump plans to deliver remarks in support of his effort to advance his agenda and to energize voters to support Republican candidates Trump has endorsed, including Grassley and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, the Trump campaign said.

Trump’s last visit to Iowa was just more than a year ago: he endorsed Grassley — to a mixed reaction from the crowd gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds — during a rally last October.

This time, Trump will be speaking in the hometown of Mike Franken, the Democratic opponent who is running closer to Grassley than any of Grassley’s previous six re-election opponents, according to polling and fundraising. A recent Mediacom/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll said Franken was within 3 percentage points of Grassley, who won his previous six re-election bids by an average of 35 points.

Navigator Heartland Greenway this week became the second developer of a carbon dioxide sequestration pipeline to ask Iowa regulars to allow it to use eminent domain to force landowners to sell it easements for the underground hazardous pipeline route.

In a filing Tuesday with the three-member Iowa Utilities Board, Navigator asked for a permit to build its C02 pipeline from Northwest to Southeast Iowa for 811 miles.

Early this year, another CO2 pipeline developer — Summit Carbon Solutions — also asked regulators to allow it to use eminent domain to build its pipeline through 30 Iowa counties in Northern and Western Iowa, according to its permit application.

Developers of CO2 pipelines stand to get billions of dollars in tax subsidies.

Iowa law gives the Iowa Utilities Board authority to allow eminent domain for things like electric transmission lines and underground pipelines. To be granted this power, municipal governments or private companies must show their projects serve a public use. If the power of eminent domain is granted, a county compensation commission determines fair market value for the properties.