The Gazette Daily News Podcast

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, December 29th.

I always open these news updates with the weather, but it just so happens it’s also the most impactful thing that will happen today. The National Weather Service has declared a Winter Weather Storm Warning for much of Iowa starting Tuesday afternoon and heading into Wednesday morning. The heaviest snow, with a band of 6 to 9 inches expected, is forecast to fall in the area along, and to the north of, a line stretching from Centerville to Sigourney to Iowa City. At its peak, the storm is expected to drop as much as 1 to 1.5 inches of snow per hour.

If that all wasn’t enough, with the temperature set to rise from a high in the mid 20s during the day into an area above freezing overnight, freezing rain could join in on the party. Road travel will be extremely risky during this time, even if snowfall is less than expected; so, if you need to make a car trip, plan it closer to noon on Tuesday than midnight on Wednesday.

The United States Congress voted to increase the size of stimulus checks to Americans from $600 to $2,000 on Monday. The vote came under what is called a “suspension of rules” to amend the already passed legislation, limiting debate and requiring a two thirds majority for passage. That two thirds majority was reached with 44 Republicans joining Democrats for a 275-134 vote.

Now it remains to be seen whether this will be taken up by the Republican controlled Senate, where Republican senators, including two key incumbents involved in competitive elections in Georgia, could be placed in the uncomfortable position of either voting against a popular increase of the payments or voting for increasing the national deficit. Approving stimulus checks of $2,000 would cost $464 billion, the Joint Committee on Taxation said Monday. This would be in addition to the $900 billion package President Donald Trump signed into law on Sunday. Trump has lobbied for the increase as well, referring to the $600 payments as insufficient.

A new Johnson County center intended to improve urgent mental health care and crisis intervention services is days away from completion. Matthew Miller, project manager for the GuideLink Center at 300 Southgate Ave. in Iowa City, told the Gazette the project is “about 95 percent complete.”

When the GuideLink Center opens it will be home to sobering and crisis stabilization units, as well as a low-barrier shelter. Police officers and sheriff’s deputies have been training in crisis intervention since 2015 to better recognize when someone is having a mental health issue or other crisis on calls. But even with that training, those calls still often result in someone going to jail or the emergency room. The GuideLink Center is planned as a long-sought-after third option.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com).

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Monday, December 28th.

After some rain and snow flurries Sunday, Monday is looking to be calm and just below freezing. According to the National Weather Service it is predicted to be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 28 degrees. There will be a low of 15 degrees Monday night, with increasing clouds.

In general, the week’s weather is predicted to have high temperatures hover in the 20s and 30s. There is predicted to be a chance for snow on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Iowa Hawkeyes Football did its part, not cancelling once due to COVID-19 symptoms during its entire season. Its final two opponents, however, were not so obliging. After having its final game of the season against the University of Michigan canceled, Iowa will now not be playing against University of Missouri in the Music City Bowl. The bowl had been scheduled to take place this Wednesday before the Tigers bowed out due to concerns of the spread of the virus.

Speaking of COVID-19, President Donald Trump has signed a $900 billion pandemic relief package promising cash to businesses and individuals. It also averts a government shutdown. Trump announced the signing in a statement Sunday night.

The bill includes $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities such as money for cash-starved transit systems, an increase in food stamp funding, and restoring unemployment benefits that expired over the weekend.

The bill was passed last Monday, but Trump objected to several elements of it, especially zeroing in on the direct payments of $600 to Americans. He said that the amount was “a disgrace” and was lobbying for the amount to be raised to $2,000. He said Sunday he only signed the relief package with the understanding that the senate would consider his proposed high to direct payments, but it remains unclear whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will let such an idea go to a vote. If there is a direct payment to Americans, $600 is the likely amount out of this bill.

The main result of congress taking so long to pass the bill and the president waiting a weekend to sign it is that many Americans will be without unemployment benefits that the bill provides until the funding can be reinstated.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com).

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday December 26th and Sunday December 27th.

Time to enjoy a brief break from below freezing this weekend. Well, more like at freezing.

According to the National Weather Service, there should be a high of 32 degrees with sunny skies in the Cedar Rapids area Saturday. This will come with calm winds. Then it will be a bit cloudier Saturday night with a low around 23 degrees. On Sunday there will be a chance of snow, with a 20 percent chance of flurries a slight chance of snow showers after 1 p.m. Otherwise there will be a high above 34 degrees. The chance for flurries will continue Sunday night until 7 p.m., and there will be a low of around 17 degrees.

Iowa reported 1,470 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Friday and five deaths, according to Iowa Department of Public Health data analyzed by The Gazette. State hospitalizations were at 600 on Friday, down from 625 on Thursday. Friday’s tally was the lowest recorded since 596 hospitalizations were recorded Oct. 28.

Two men with Iowa connections were among those pardoned by President Donald Trump before Christmas.The pair, Jesse Benton and John Tate, worked for Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s 2012 caucus campaign, and were among those pardoned Wednesday night by the president. They had been charged with corruption in a scheme to funnel $73,000 to Kent Sorenson, then an Iowa state senator, to switch his allegiance from Minnesota Sen. Michele Bachmann to Paul in the final days of the caucus campaign.

A Cedar Rapids resident was injured Friday afternoon in a head-on collision near Alice and Center Point Roads near Toddville in Linn County.

According to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, emergency personnel were called at 1:52 p.m. to 3460 Alice Rd. They found a southbound vehicle had crossed the centerline into northbound traffic and collided head-on with a northbound vehicle.

The southbound driver was identified as Jennifer Buelow, 33, of Center Point. The northbound vehicle was driven by Kelly Burk, 55, of Cedar Rapids. Burk was transported to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Buelow faces charges of operating while intoxicated, use of electronic communication device while driving and other traffic charges.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com).

Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon https://www.thegazette.com/topic?eid=121774andename=Alexaandlang=en (Alexa) enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?"

If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, December 25th.

Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating! And for those of you who do not, it’s Friday, so that’s still pretty good.

After dropping about 40 degrees in one day, we’re bouncing back about halfway Friday, with weather briefly above freezing again coming this weekend. According to the National Weather Service, it should be sunny with a high near 24 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will still be quite chilly, with wind chill values as low as 15 degrees below zero. The low will be around 18 Friday night, with decreasing winds and cloudier skies.

Iowa reported 1,424 new, confirmed COVID-19 cases Thursday and 71 additional deaths, according to data analyzed by The Gazette. The new numbers bring the state’s total of cases so far to 272,446 and the death toll to 3,739. State hospitalizations were at 625 at 11 a.m. Thursday, down from 644 on Wednesday at the same time. Intensive-care patients being treated for the novel coronavirus went from 139 to 127

A day after President Donald Trump called for COVID-19 payments to be increased to $2,000 while suggesting he might not sign the $900 billion economic relief package passed by congress, congress went ahead and sent him the same bill again. In what amounted mostly to political theater, House Democrats attempted to pass an increase of direct payments to Americans from $600 to $2,000, as the president suggested. This was blocked by House Republicans. House Republicans then suggested that foreign aid be removed, an idea also suggested by the President. This was then blocked by Democrats.

Trump now can consider whether he will sign the bill or not, which is also coupled with funding for the federal government. If he decided to veto the bill, it likely would result not only in a delay in direct aid, but also a partial government shutdown. Also at stake with the bill: Unemployment benefits for 14 million Americans will expire on Saturday. An eviction moratorium protecting as many as 30 million Americans is set to expire at the end of the year.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Rose wrote in a ruling Thursday that athletes with the University of Iowa’s women’s swimming and diving team have some standing to prove that the university’s athletic program was not in compliance with Title IX equality regulations when it decided to eliminate the scholarship sports this past fall, and, further ,that it may not have been in compliance even before that. The judge issued an injunction blocking the university from eliminating the program this week, with the intent of stopping the university until a full trial can be held on the merits of the case.

The Iowa athletic department cut three men’s sports in addition to women’s swimming and diving: men's gymnastics, men's tennis and men's swimming. The move was done in anticipation of projected lost revenue due to a disrupted football season from COVID-19. Attempts by the men’s teams to get their teams reinstated, including independent fundraising drives, have so far fallen on deaf ears.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com).

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, December 24.

Yesterday I told you there would be a drastic drop in temperature, with a predicted high Thursday of 14 degrees. Would you believe it if I told you that was overly optimistic?

The new predicted high for Thursday will be 8 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. According to the National Weather Service, flurries will end by 9 a.m. After that, it will be sunny, with wind speeds of 15 to 20 mph dropping the expected wind chill to -15 degrees during the day. At night it will drop to a low of 4 degrees, but then the wind will slow down a bit, bringing the new wind chill to -10 degrees.

Iowa on Wednesday reported 2,002 new COVID-19 cases and 15 confirmed deaths from the disease. The new cases were identified from 4,821 tests, for a positivity rate of 41.94 percent. The number of people being treated for the disease in the hospital and in intensive care continued to slowly decline.

A pair of shootings with serious injuries were reported in Cedar Rapids in the last few days. Police are investigating after an 18-year-old woman was found shot and seriously wounded Tuesday afternoon at an apartment in southwest Cedar Rapids. According to the Cedar Rapids Police Department, officers were called at 3:25 p.m. to a second-floor apartment at 2110 Westdale Drive.

When they arrived, officers said they found a woman inside the apartment with life-threatening injuries. Emergency medical care was provided at the scene, and the woman was transported to a local hospital.

On Wednesday afternoon, a 4-year-old boy, also from southwest Cedar Rapids, was transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries. Police said at 2:42 p.m. they responded to the scene after a report of the shooting incident at 208 Seventh St. SW. Authorities say they believe this shooting was accidental. Investigation continues into both incidents.

The delay in census data may require a special session this year for the Iowa Legislature. Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said uncertainty over when U.S. Census Bureau 2020 population numbers will be released, due to coronavirus-related delays, may move back the timetable by which the Legislature considers plans for redrawing the boundaries of congressional and legislative districts in Iowa. If officials in the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency do not get official population data until April 1, it’s unlikely new maps can be produced for lawmakers’ consideration before their scheduled April 30 adjournment target.

Every 10 years after the census, the boundaries of congressional and legislative districts are redrawn to reflect population changes. Iowa is expected to retain four congressional seats nationally. However, state House and Senate districts will be redrawn to reflect where population has grown and declined. Since 1981, Iowa has used a non-partisan process for drawing election districts that is considered a national model because it is designed to eliminate gerrymandering, a process politicians and political parties use to draw districts to their benefit.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com).

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, December 23.

We’ve got one more day of unusually high temperatures before all that falls off a cliff. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a high of 45 degrees early on Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area before it falls back to a high near 31 for the rest of the day. Accordingly, while there will be a chance of rain before 4 p.m., this will turn into a chance for snow after that. It will be windy as well, with wind speeds as high as 20 to 25 mph.

As a preview, the predicted high for Thursday is 14 degrees.

Iowa on Tuesday reported 1,272 new cases of the coronavirus and 64 additional deaths, according to Iowa Department of Public Health data analyzed by The Gazette.

The positive tests were found among 4.197 individuals who were tested, for a 30.3 percent positivity rate. People hospitalized or intensive care for the disease stayed roughly the same.

Although Iowa is receiving roughly 20 percent fewer doses of COVID-19 vaccines than projected in its first batch, the lower allocation will not alter the state’s schedule for getting the vaccine to residents and staff of long-term care facilities like nursing homes, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday

Despite the reduction, Reynolds said Tuesday during a news conference that more than 8,400 hospital workers in Iowa already have received the COVID-19 vaccine, and that the state does not have to delay its plan to begin offering doses next week to long-term care residents and staff. With the recent federal approval and this week’s arrival in Iowa of Moderna’s vaccine, the state will be able to distribute vaccines to rural areas. The Moderna vaccine does not require super-cold storage, as does Pfizer’s, and comes in smaller shipments, making it easier to distribute in smaller numbers.

The United States Congress had passed a $900 billion economic relief package tied to COVID-19 on Monday, but on Tuesday night President Donald Trump called the bill a disgrace. He focused particularly on direct payments of $600 to adults in the United States, arguing that this should be elevated to $2,000 and suggesting he might not sign the bill unless changes are made.

Officials have approved a minimum-wage increase for Mercy Medical Center and MercyCare Community Physicians employees beginning the first of the year. The minimum wage will increase to $15.25 per hour. Eligible employees also will see a 2 percent general wage increase throughout the fiscal year, starting in January. Mercy officials say the wage increase and raises were prompted by the “extraordinarily challenging year” faced by employees at Mercy, as many have been on the front lines responding to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic and dealt with the effects of the derecho that tore through the community in August.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com).

Congress passes COVID relief bill, Iowa Hawkeyes suspend football activities because of COVID outbreak, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics prepare to receive the Moderna vaccine.

This is John McGlothlen with the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Monday, December 21st.

The weather today will be mostly sunny, with a high near 40. Also breezy, with a northwest wind 15 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Tonight will be mostly cloudy during the early evening, then becoming clear, with a low around 22.

After not confirming any additional COVID-19 deaths over the last two days, the state Sunday morning verified 138 more, bringing the total number of people in Iowa whose deaths have been attributed to the respiratory disease to 3,589. https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/health/iowa-coronavirus-cases-deaths-daily-update-december-20-20201220 (Of the newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths), 82 were of people over the age of 80; 48 were between the ages of 61 and 80; seven were between the ages of 41 and 60 and one was between the ages of 18 and 40.

Authorities Sunday identified a man found dead after a fire damaged a six-unit apartment building and displaced tenants. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office said the fire was reported just after 10 p.m. Friday in https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/public-safety/fairfax-man-killed-in-apartment-fire-20201220 (the 300 block of Vanderbilt Street in Fairfax). Smoke and flames were visible as crews arrived. The sheriff’s office said the man was found in an upstairs unit and pronounced dead. He was identified as Ronald D. Weston, who records show turned 44 earlier this year. The cause of the fire remained under investigation and the State Fire Marshal’s Office was assisting.

For the first time in Iowa State history, the Cyclones are headed to a New Year’s Six bowl. No. 10 Iowa State will play Pac 12 Champion No. 25 Oregon on Jan. 2 https://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/iowa-state-cyclones/iowa-state-to-play-oregon-in-programs-first-ever-new-years-six-bowl-20201220 (in the Fiesta Bowl). The Cyclones have had arguably the best season in school history, going 8-1 in the Big 12 and making the conference championship game for the first time in school history.

Kirk Ferentz will coach virtually this week, after his positive COVID-19 test, as the Iowa Hawkeyes prepare for the Music City Bowl. Missouri (5-5) will be the opponent Dec. 30 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. ESPN will have the telecast. Tickets will be available to the general public for the game, which kicks at 3 p.m., through https://www.eventticketscenter.com/transperfect-music-city-bowl-iowa-hawkeyes-vs-tbd-nashville-12-30-2020/4558855/t (Ticketmaster), with a seating capacity of around 14,000 fans.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday December 19 and Sunday December 20.

This weekend’s weather will look to continue our brief trend at or above freezing into the middle of next week. After that, it’s going to get really cold again.

But, living in the present, the National Weather Service predicts that on Saturday there will be a high of 34 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Despite some patchy fog Saturday morning, it should be mostly cloudy throughout the day. Then, on Sunday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 36 degrees. Low temperatures for both days will be in the mid to low 20s.

For the first time in more than a month, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported no new coronavirus-related deaths in the 24-hour period ending at 11 a.m. Friday. The last time that happened was Nov. 7.

And Friday’s zero deaths followed the 100 deaths reported Thursday. To date, 3,451 Iowans have died of COVID-19, according to deaths confirmed by the Iowa Department of Public Health. Of those, 242 Iowan deaths from the virus were reported since Monday.

In positive news, the number of Iowans hospitalized with the virus continues to decline. On Friday, 701 Iowans were hospitalized, down from the 746 reported Thursday. The number of patients in intensive care dropped from 146 to 136.

As expected, Moderna’s vaccine for COVID-19 was approved for use by the FDA on Friday. This vaccine joining the already approved vaccine created by Pfizer and BioNTech should increase the rate that the vaccine can be disseminated nationwide, starting with hospital workers and nursing home residents.

With the nation struggling with the pandemic and a shaky economy, enrollment across Iowa’s public, private and community colleges this fall dropped 4.7 percent compared to a year ago — nearly double the 2.5 percent decline nationally in postsecondary enrollment.

Fall 2020 college and university enrollment in Iowa dropped across all sectors, with community colleges taking a 5.8 percent hit and nonprofit private campuses collectively losing 3 percent of their total enrollment, according to Iowa College Aid, a state agency charged with making college accessible for Iowans.

Iowa’s first poet laureate, Marvin Bell, died this week. He was 83. Bell was the first poetry editor of the Iowa Review literary journal and taught poetry for many years at the University of Iowa’s nationally revered Writer’s Workshop. His works spans 45 years and 21 books of poetry, as well as letters, essays and interviews.

I would like to close out this briefing with a poem https://poets.org/poem/dorothy (he wrote to his wife, Dorothy).

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, December 18th.

Say goodbye to a lot of that snow... with a small chance it gets replaced later on. According to the National Weather Service, the high temperature should reach 40 in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. With this warm air will come a more active wind, blowing at 10 to 15 mph and gusting as high as 25 mph. There will be a slight chance of rain and snow before 10 p.m., then a slight chance of snow after that. Otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 27 degrees.

COVID-19 vaccine news has been largely positive this week, but it hasn’t been without setbacks. Iowa is among the states saying their allocations of the game-changing COVID-19 vaccinations in the coming weeks will be less than projected — prompting worries about potential delays for inoculating thousands of health care workers and nursing home residents. The first U.S. doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were administered Monday nationwide, including at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The pace is expected to increase next week, assuming Moderna gets federal authorization for its vaccine as a panel recommended Thursday.

Iowa public health officials said they initially were told to expect a total of 172,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines within the first three weeks of availability this month. But in a statement Thursday, Iowa officials say that now has been lowered to 138,300 doses — a nearly 20 percent reduction.

100 more deaths from COVID-19 were reported in Iowa, bringing the state’s death toll to 3,451.

Google has engaged in monopolistic practices that allow it to collect vast amounts of personal data from consumers, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and attorneys general from 37 other states and territories asserted in a lawsuit Thursday, the latest in a bipartisan effort of government officials to take on Big Tech.

The lawsuit, led by Democratic Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Republican Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, contends Google has “methodically undertaken actions to entrench and reinforce its general search services and search-related advertising monopolies by stifling competition.”

It comes just a week after https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/facebook-lawsuit-antitrust-anti-competitive-iowa-20201209 (Iowa joined the federal government and 47 other states in an antitrust lawsuit against another technology behemoth — Facebook) — alleging it also illegally vanquished competitors and left the public with fewer options for protecting personal privacy.

Not all of Iowa’s congressional delegation is ready to call Joe Biden the president elect. Congressman-elect Randy Feenstra said Thursday to do so, given the historic number of early and absentee ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election and President Donald Trump’s legal challenges to the election’s outcome. Feenstra is replacing Rep. Steve King in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, by far the most conservative district in a state that voted handily to re-elect President Trump. Feenstra said he is looking forward to Jan. 6, when Congress will receive the Electoral College results.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers. Are you looking for a job? https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com) is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at https://www.corridorcareers.com/ (CorridorCareers.com).