From the KCRG-TV9 Newsroom:
Dozens of people gathered and marched to the federal court house in Cedar Rapids yesterday afternoon to protest the deportation of West Liberty resident Pascual Pedro and detained Muscatine resident Noel Lopez. Pedro was deported after he went to Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices for his yearly check-in. Father Guillermo Trevino is Pedro’s confirmation sponsor. Trevino says Pedro will speak about his experience today during an online news conference. Protestors were also calling for the release of Lopez whose sister says a warrant for his arrest was issued after he was stopped as a passenger in a traffic stop.
Monday night’s fatal shooting at a Manhattan skyscraper led to the cancellation of a major event in Cedar Rapids. A groundbreaking ceremony for QTS’s new data center was originally scheduled for Tuesday morning. That New York City shooting occurred in the same building that houses Blackstone asset management company, which is the parent company of QTS. QTS canceled the event out of respect for the victims. No word yet on when the groundbreaking could be re-scheduled.
An iPhone crash alert led authorities to a crop duster plane crash in northwest Iowa. The Plymouth County sheriff’s office says it got the alert on Monday, and responded to a rural area between Le Mars and Akron. Deputies say the pilot had tried to do an emergency landing in a field. But the crop duster hit a rut and it overturned. The pilot was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Yesterday marked one year since Iowa’s abortion law went into effect. The law bans abortions after cardiac activity is detected. This is usually around six weeks into a pregnancy and when most patients don’t know they’re pregnant. The Iowa Abortion Access Fund says more people are leaving the state to get help since the law went into effect, but also say the number of abortions is not going down. In a statement yesterday, Governor Reynolds says abortions in Iowa are down by nearly 60 percent, calling it a victory for life.
