From the KCRG TV 9 Newsroom:
A witness testified that she heard 15 gunshots the night an Iowa City man was killed in 2021. An Indiana man is charged with catfishing, then killing the man. Renard Winfield Jr. was charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Tommy Curry. Prosecutors say Winfield Jr. pretended to be a woman on a dating website to lure Curry to an Iowa City parking lot where he killed him.
A new downtown trolley could increase foot traffic to four of Cedar Rapids busiest areas–downtown, New Bohemia, Czech Village and Kingston Village. Starting Friday, two shuttles will be available free of charge to take people to those four neighborhoods. The service is offered from 5 in the afternoon until 11 in the evening, Fridays and Saturdays. They’re hoping to improve foot traffic across the city now that businesses have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels. The trolley will run until January 31st, but Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance says it could continue the trolley depending on community feedback.
A new Career Pathways program launching in Cedar Rapids schools next year is drawing concerns and questions from parents. It is a growing trend in Iowa school districts that are called Career Pathways. The idea is to get kids as young as ninth grade into a career path. Cedar Rapids plans to start its program with the incoming freshman class next school year, but it’s not the first in eastern Iowa to offer Career Pathways. Waterloo Community Schools opened the Waterloo Career Center in 2016. The center offers students a hands-on experience to learn more about what they might want to do after high school. Those include programs like electrical, cosmetology and pre-nursing, in addition to traditional high school math, language, science and other classes.
