Gazette Daily News Briefing, November 14

The Gazette Daily News Podcast

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 14, 2023.

It will be increasingly cloudy and warmer on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 67 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. The low will come in around 43 degrees.

Police released the identities of the two pedestrians hit by a car Sunday as they were crossing Memorial Drive SE in Cedar Rapids

Bonnie Stover was killed Sunday afternoon just outside of her home by a driver police say was drunk and fled the scene. Shawn Stover, her husband of 35 years, was also hit in the roadway and was hospitalized for his injuries.

Members of the Stover family told the Gazette that Bonnie Stover worked at Linn Area Credit Union and volunteered at various organizations throughout Cedar Rapids

“She does not deserve this. She seriously was like a saint. I’ve always said that she was like a saint on this earth. She was the nicest person,” said Molly Stover, one of her daughters.

Police said the crash was caught on video surveillance and they were able to identify the sport utility vehicle involved. Investigators found it parked about a mile away, at the home of Kyle Kubite, 45, of 2232 Pine Ave. SE.

Kubite was arrested on counts of vehicular homicide while intoxicated, leaving the scene of a personal injury accident and leaving the scene of a fatality accident. He remained Monday in the Linn County Jail.

Local auto salvage company Sunline has cleaned out its property on Sixth Street SW and moved hundreds of cars onto the Hawkeye Downs parking lot, making way for the old property’s sale to Copart, an insurance auto auction.

Roger Cassill, owner of both Hawkeye Downs and Sunline, said Monday he sold the old 40-acre Sunline property at 4400 Sixth St. SW to Copart to be one of its major locations in the Midwest. Copart currently has Iowa locations in Des Moines and Davenport. The sale closed Oct. 31, Cassill said, after the process started about a year ago.

The rezoning took place as Hawkeye Downs looked to refresh its property and explore new ways to draw residents and visitors to the racetrack. It has received thousands of dollars from the city over the years through hotel-motel tax funds the city reaps from overnight guests — for instance, $35,000 last November.

The city also in 2022 awarded the organization $50,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds as part of money given to nonprofits to support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cassill said there are plans going through the architectural stages for the front side of Hawkeye Downs, on the northeast side of the property. There are plans to develop the land with multiple buildings and a new expo center “to dress that up,” he said.