Gazette Daily News Podcast, October 5

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, October 5.

Wednesday and Thursday may bring rain, but Tuesday has another pleasant fall day to offer. According to the National Weather Service it should be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 75 degrees. On Tuesday night it will remain mostly cloudy, with a high around 59 degrees.

Police Chief Wayne Jerman told reporters Monday that three days after gunfire erupted at a birthday party in a Cedar Rapids hotel and left six people wounded, witnesses are mum and victims aren’t helping investigators identify who shot them -- and several of them even have disconnected their phones.

Police were called about 10:30 p.m. Friday to a report of shots being fired at the Ramada by Wyndham hotel at 525 33rd Ave. SW. There, police found three people who had been injured - one of them seriously - and the victims were taken to hospitals. Another three people, including a teenage boy, also were wounded and taken to the hospital by personal vehicles.

Jerman said the investigation has been seriously hampered by a lack of witnesses coming forward.

Investigators are attempting to download surveillance video from the Ramada, but have encountered technical difficulties. Jerman said he expects to have the evidence by Tuesday at the latest.

Most of the shooting victims have been discharged from the hospital, Jerman said. It’s “very concerning” that one of the victims — a 13-year-old boy — has not yet spoken with police about the incident, Jerman said. Police are trying to contact his parents.

Harvest was underway this past week for most Eastern Iowa farmers. With market prices for a bushel of corn topping $5 and soybeans approaching $13 per bushel, Iowa farmers who were whipsawed by global trade uncertainties, COVID-19 impacts and a swath of a rare crop-flattening derecho are looking favorably at a bounce-back year with expectations they’ll finish No. 1 nationally in corn production and second to Illinois in soybean production again when the dust settles on the 2021 harvest in October.

The latest crop projections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture peg Iowa’s soybean yield at 58 bushels per acre, up from three previous years but below the 60.5 bushels an acre state record for 2016. For corn, the August estimate expected yields to average 193 bushels per acre — below the 2018 record of 204.

The University of Northern Iowa faculty union Monday filed a complaint against the Board of Regents and UNI for reprimanding their tenured peer for rebuffing regent guidance by requiring masks in class and threatening lower grades if students didn’t comply.

In addition to a prohibited practice complaint filed with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, the union — called United Faculty — also is helping professor Steve O’Kane appeal discipline levied against him. That discipline stripped him of in-person teaching duties this fall; landed him a “needs improvement” rating, resulting in no merit pay; required he complete faculty obedience training; and threatened termination if he doesn’t comply in the future.

None of O’Kane’s students complained about his masking or grading policies — because all wore masks and no grades were impacted.

The University of Northern Iowa on Monday didn’t immediately respond to a Gazette inquiry about the union allegations.