The Gazette Daily News Podcast

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 17th.

Your Friday could begin with foggy skies. But, after 9:00 a.m., the sun should take over. According to the National Weather Service, the majority of Friday in the Cedar Rapids area should be mostly sunny with a high near 89 degrees. It will be somewhat windy during the day, with wind gusts of 5 to 15 mph gusting as high as 20 mph. Friday night into Saturday morning could offer a mild chance for rain, with a low of 74 degrees.

Iowa reported 18 new deaths related to COVID-19 in the 24-hour period that ended at 11 a.m. Thursday. That’s the highest total since March, when the state reported 21 deaths. The state also reported its highest number of new coronavirus cases and total number of tests in a 24-hour period since the first cases in the state were reported in early March.

Two Eastern Iowa long-term care facilities were added to the state’s list of facilities with recorded COVID-19 outbreaks. Solon Nursing Care Center in Johnson County reported 12 positive coronavirus cases in the 24-hour period, while Winslow House Care Center in Marion was added to the state’s list with three reported cases and one person having recovered.

As schools reopen soon, Linn County Public Health officials are recommending students and staff wear face coverings or masks and undergo health screenings before entering a school facility or boarding a school bus.

School districts in Linn County turned to local public health officials in response to the Iowa Department of Education’s “scant” guidance, according to John Speer, chief administrator of the Grant Wood Area Education Agency.

The county guidance, published Thursday, differs from earlier guidance from the state that took the form of a two-page document published last month that https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/education/k-12-schools-should-not-require-face-masks-iowa-department-of-education-reopening-guidance-says-20200625 (recommended against requiring face coverings) or health screenings. Earlier this week the Cedar Rapids School District announced that its students will be required to wear face masks or shields if they return to in-person instruction this fall.

After serving just one year as a University of Iowa vice president and provost, Montse Fuentes has been reassigned as “special assistant to the president,” according to a settlement made public Thursday — the second time in under a year the university has struck similar deals to remove key leaders. In her new role, Fuentes will lead a team updating the UI’s 2016-2021 strategic plan and spend time on research. In the special assistant role, Fuentes will continue earning her vice president-level pay of $439,000 and keep receiving regular benefits, according to the agreement, which she and UI President Bruce Harreld signed Wednesday.

Neither she nor the UI would say what led them to make a deal for her to vacate the position.

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, July 16th.

The weather on Thursday should be pleasant and calm. According to the National Weather Service, there should be partly sunny skies in the Cedar Rapids area, becoming gradually sunnier. The high should be 85 degrees with calm winds. Thursday night should have mostly clear skies and a low of around 65 degrees.

Iowa reported 206 new positive coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours ending at 11 a.m. Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the state at that time to 36,036.

Although the positive rate tested versus those tested overall dropped to its lowest level since mid June, hospitalizations in the state continued to slowly rise. The number of patients hospitalized for the novel coronavirus rose by four from 86 to 90, while patients housed in intensive care units dropped by five to 62. Those on ventilators increased by three to 35.

Potentially more storm clouds on the horizon for Iowa’s universities and their budgets. Iowa is seeing a drop in the rate and number of high school seniors filing free applications for federal student aid for the upcoming school year — a probable consequence of COVID-19 and an indication some might be abandoning higher education plans for fall.

Additionally, the percentage of college coeds who already have federal aid and want to renew it next year also is down among eligible students, suggesting a “disproportionate number of low-income students might be choosing not to return to college in 2020-21.”

As of May 31, about 19,000 public high school seniors had filed a FAFSA, down about 4 percent from the nearly 20,000 the previous year.

In another trend, by overwhelming margins, older Iowa voters approve of the state’s move this past spring to send early voting applications to all registered voters ahead of the June primary election and of county-level elections officials to do the same for this fall’s general election. Nearly half of older Iowa voters said they plan to vote early by absentee ballot this fall, according to a poll published Wednesday by the Iowa chapter of AARP and conducted by Selzer and Company.

According to the poll, 69 percent of Iowa voters 50 years of age or older said they approve of Secretary of State Paul Pate’s decision to mail absentee ballot request forms to every registered voter in the state before the June primary election. Just 25 percent said they disapproved of the move. 63 percent of older Iowa voters said they would support county auditors doing that ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, while 31 percent said they would oppose such a move.

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, July 15th.

Rain carrying over from Tuesday night will likely greet you Wednesday morning. According to the National Weather Service, showers and thunderstorms are likely in the Cedar Rapids area before 3:00 p.m. There will still be a chance for rain in the late afternoon and evening hours, as well, but the chances will go down as the day goes on.

Besides that, it is predicted to be cloudy with a high near 79 degrees.

After falling steadily for much of June, hospitalizations for COVID-19 have bounced back in Iowa along with total cases. Hospitalizations rose to 186, the highest since June 18, when 197 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized. ICU patients rose to 67, the highest since June 15, when 71 were in the ICU. And patients on ventilators are up to 32, at its highest since June 18 when 37 were on ventilators. Hospital capacity remains good, with currently 508 ICU beds and 774 ventilators available in Iowa.

Because of their rising numbers of cases, Iowa and Oklahoma have been added to 15 other states by the City of Chicago requiring visitors from these places to quarantine themselves for two weeks after they arrive or face a fine. So add two weeks to whatever Chicago plans you already had made.

Meanwhile, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds reiterated that the goal is still to get students back in schools this rapidly approaching fall. On Tuesday, Reynolds pledged to work with schools to ensure districts are prepared to safely open schools this fall amid the new coronavirus pandemic, and said “the goal should be to get everybody back to school.”

Reynolds said it should be up to the school districts to determine what is best for the students with support from the state. Mike Beranek, the head of Iowa’s largest teacher’s union, the Iowa State Education Association, stressed on Tuesday that teachers are in favor of students and staff returning to school as well, but only if they can be assured it can be done safely.

Facing eight federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Iowa State and the University of Iowa were especially vocal Iowan critics of the rule, as both universities have thousands of international students who could have been affected.

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 Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 14, 2020.

Today’s going to be partly sunny, with a high near 89, with a chance of showers and thunderstorms tonight. The chance of storms will continue into Wednesday.

The number of coronavirus cases in Iowa rose yesterday to 35,502 total cases, and the total deaths attributed to coronavirus stand at 753.

Cedar Rapids schools envision face masks if students return to class. Cedar Rapids schools are planning to require face masks or shields if they return to in-person instruction this fall. Superintendent Noreen Bush on Monday presented a tentative return-to-learn plan to the school board. Under the plan. all district staff members would be provided masks and shields. Elementary school students would be provided face shields, and middle and high school students would be provided face masks. Face shields also would be provided in instances where students or staff are deaf or hard of hearing and need the ability to lip read.

Gov. Reynolds tells Iowans to 'step up' efforts to stop coronavirus spread. With Iowa seeing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, Gov. Kim Reynolds called on Iowans to “step up” their mitigation efforts that previously slowed the spread of the coronavirus and eased the rate of hospitalizations. Reynolds posted an online video praising Iowans for helping to achieve “significant progress” in combating the public health pandemic by making “sacrifices to do the right thing.”

You can also find the rest of our coronavirus coverage at our dedicated coronavirus page, TheGazette.com/coronavirus.

Cedar Rapids Black Lives Matter protesters making 7 demands. 1. Issue: Establish a citizens’ police review board. 2. Issue: Significant investment in diversity, equity and inclusion.3. Issue: Ban the use of police chokeholds.4. Issue: Decriminalize minor marijuana offenses.5. Issue: Impose strict police body camera provisions.6. Issue: Make police negotiations public.7. Issue: Abolish qualified immunity.

Iowa State to trim presidential pay, offer 'voluntary retirement' amid budget cuts.

ISU President Wendy Wintersteen, in announcing deeper across-campus budget reductions, recently reported she’s taking a 10 percent salary cut for the budget year. University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld — whose campus also is facing tens of million in COVID-19 losses — recently announced he’ll take a 50-percent base pay cut for the rest of this budget year, amounting to a one-time savings of $270,416, which he’ll funnel into a Student Emergency Fund.

The Gazette Daily news updates are brought to you in part by Corridor Careers. "Are you looking for a job? 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 CorridorCareers.com."

That’s it for today’s update. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?"

This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk and I’m here with your update for Monday, July 13, 2020.

Today’s weather will see a high near 86. Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low around 66. Tomorrow has a 50% chance of rain in the afternoon, and Wednesday might have some thunderstorms. Otherwise it looks mostly sunny through the weekend.

The number of coronavirus cases in Iowa rose yesterday to 35,006 and the total number of people in Iowa who have died with coronavirus has risen to 749.

Iowa hits record daily high of new coronavirus cases. The state reported a record 769 new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period ending Saturday morning.6,781 tests were conducted within the 24-hour period, 769 were positive and 6,012 were negative, for a 11.34 percent positive rate

Iowa courts to start face-to-face services. The Iowa Supreme Court issued three orders to guide judges and court staffers on how to restart face-to-face court services this week. The orders require many steps to ensure the safety of judges, attorneys, court staff, defendants, litigants and the public — including the wearing of face masks or shields.

You can find this and the rest of our coronavirus coverage at our dedicated coronavirus page, TheGazette.com/coronavirus.

Aerospace project from BAE Systems will locate 650 jobs in Cedar Rapids. BAE Systems is looking to build a $139 million classified defense aerospace facility that would locate 650 jobs in Cedar Rapids, a project that city officials expect to be a boon for economic development here and throughout the state.

The proposal, which the Cedar Rapids City Council will consider Tuesday, would be complete by September 2022. Construction on the 200,000-square-foot facility on 76th Avenue SW and Sixth Street SW would start by October.

The state is sending $307 in food aid to every student at 20 Cedar Rapids schools. The Iowa Department of Human Services will distribute more than $76.2 million in food assistance this month, according to a news release this week from the Iowa Department of Education.

The funds, which can be used to buy groceries, will arrive either in the mail or — if the student’s family received food assistance or SNAP benefits in April, May or June — be added to the household’s EBT card on July 15.

The Gazette Daily news updates are brought to you in part by Corridor Careers. "Are you looking for a job? 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 CorridorCareers.com."

That’s it for today’s update. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of July 11th and 12th

Saturday and Sunday will continue the weather trend of late this week, bringing both cooling weather and a chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service, on Saturday there should be a high near 84 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be partly sunny for much of the day, but showers and thunderstorms are predicted for between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m., with the chance for rain increasing from 30 percent to 60 percent as the day goes on. On Sunday there will be all of the cooling with none of the rain, with a predicted high of 83 degrees and mostly sunny skies with calming wind.

Facing mounting COVID-19 losses, the University of Iowa on Friday announced plans for sweeping budget cuts that temporarily lay off 112 housing and dining workers, freeze pay for about 4,200 other employees, leave 32 positions unfilled and cut President Bruce Harreld’s salary in half for the rest of the year.

Those savings and others are meant to offset tens of millions in losses from COVID-19-related hits, extra expenses associated with bringing students back to campus this fall, cuts in state funding and projected enrollment dips that would curtail tuition revenue.

If that wasn’t enough, in a sign the UI expects funding challenges to endure, the university announced plans to begin weaning its cherished Hancher Auditorium off general fund support, aiming to make the nationally renowned performance venue self-supporting within three years.

Iowa’s coronavirus cases continued to increase Friday, while hospitalizations and deaths from the disease continued their slow climb upward. Linn County reported 34 new coronavirus cases Friday by 11 a.m., the highest single-day increase since May 6, when the increase was 35. Iowa reported 638 new COVID-19 cases over the same time frame, with a total of 33,759 in the state.

Iowa’s increases indicating the severity of the disease in the state were slight, but continued an overall upward trend. One more person was hospitalized, bringing the total number of hospitalizations in Iowa to 169. The number of patients in intensive care units increased from 49 to 54, and those on ventilators increased from 22 to 26.

Iowa’s deaths from the disease reached 748 by the end of Friday.

The City of Cedar Rapids announced a big project Friday that will solidify its standing as a center for the development of radio, GPS, and aeronautical development, particularly for military purposes. First a bit of backstory, BAE Systems, based in the United Kingdom, agreed to purchase Collins Aerospace’s military GPS business in January for $1.925 billion after U.S. Department of Justice regulators https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/regulators-ask-collins-aerospace-to-divest-navigation-business-in-cedar-rapids-20191028 (asked Collins Aerospace to divest the unit )as part of the merger between Raytheon Co. and the owner of what was then called Rockwell Collins, United Technologies Corp. Collins Aerospace, the largest employer in Cedar Rapids, has about 10,000 employees in Iowa. About 675 are in its military GPS operations, which BAE Systems will acquire.

Back to Friday’s news. After considering multiple sites throughout the United States, BAE was convinced, with the help of tax incentives offered by the city, to keep those 650 jobs in Cedar Rapids. These jobs will be located at a new $139 million facility. Construction on the 200,000-square-foot facility near the intersection of 76th Avenue SW and Sixth Street SW would start by October.

The trial for the man accused of killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts — who died two years ago next week — has been reset to January due to delays caused by court rulings and the COVID-19 pandemic. The trial also will now be held in Scott County District Court in Davenport.

The trial for 26-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who is charged...

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, July 10th.

Since when does 90 degrees feel... sort of cool? According to the National Weather Service, not only will the high be in the low 90s Friday with sunny skies in the Cedar Rapids area. The dew point should drop as well, along with a decent wind speed of 5 to 15 mph. Not exactly jacket weather, but a little less merciless than earlier this week.

Former Cedar Rapids Police Sgt. Lucas Jones is appealing his June 18 firing, and with that have come a slew of accusations from both him and his lawyer. Jones was the source of controversy in Cedar Rapids after he shot Jerime Mitchell, a Black man, during a traffic stop in November of 2016, paralyzing Mitchell. A grand jury declined to press charges in this incident, but the controversy followed him. In a previous interview with the Gazette, Jones said that even though police said he was being fired for lying to investigators about why he turned his mic off during a traffic stop a few days before that shooting, he actually felt he was being fired to appease Black Lives Matter protesters. Police have countered that the investigation into Jones began before the protests did.

In more recent developments, Jones and his lawyer before the Civil Service Commission, Skylar Limkemann, say they will argue that Jones was fired as a result of an internal affairs probe they say was started because Jones wrote a memo this past January accusing a fellow police officer of prolonged sexual misconduct involving multiple women. That officer, Linkemann said, is a friend of Cedar Rapids Police Captain Craig Furnish.

Iowa reported 733 new coronavirus cases by 11 a.m. Thursday, the highest single-day jump in new cases since May 1. The state reported testing 8,568 people for COVID-19, with an 8.56 percent positive rate. 8 more deaths were reported Thursday, and hospitalizations continued to slowly climb after dropping steadily from the end of May until the end of June.

The Iowa Supreme Court issued three orders late Thursday to guide judges and court staffers on how to restart face-to-face court services next week in all 99 Iowa counties.

The order requires many steps to ensure the safety of judges, attorneys, court staff, defendants, litigants and the public — including the required wearing of face masks or shields.

“It is so very important that Iowans feel comfortable returning to their courthouses for essential court services that must be done face-to-face,” Chief Justice Susan Christensen said. “We are unwavering in our commitment to provide fair and impartial justice to those who enter our courtrooms and to provide outstanding service to everyone while mitigating the risk of COVID-19.”

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, July 9th.

Your Thursday weather forecast is looking a bit cooler with a chance of thunderstorms. According to the National Weather Service, it should be partly sunny with a high near 90 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. However, showers and thunderstorms are listed as likely after noon, with a chance of precipitation listed at 70 percent. This chance for rain could continue into Thursday night, although the intensity and likelihood of the rain should both drop as the day goes on.

Iowa on Wednesday reported 461 new positive COVID-19 cases. This brought the seven-day rolling average to 443, the highest average since May 7, when the average was 510. Seven new deaths were reported Wednesday, bringing the state’s total to 732.

State numbers released Wednesday showed that despite reopening, the three months Iowa casinos were forced close took a significant chunk out of their revenue. As their fiscal year closed June 30, casinos reported a roughly 20 percent revenue drop from the previous year. This equates to a gap of almost $300 million for the state’s 19 casinos.

While casinos struggled, one silver lining reported was the performance of casinos along the Mississippi River. With the casinos in nearby Illinois still closed for COVID-19 precautions until July 1, these casinos benefited from the lack of competition, as Iowa opened its casinos for socially distanced gambling on June 1.

A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studying the impact of the coronavirus on workers at meat processing plants has found that 87 percent of people infected were racial or ethnic minorities and that at least 86 workers have since died. Iowa officials didn’t participate in the study, potentially skewing the numbers due to the volume of meat processing in the state.

The study examined more than 16,000 COVID-19 cases at 239 plants in 21 states. The data shows 56 percent of coronavirus illnesses involved Hispanic workers, 19 percent were non-Hispanic Blacks and 12 percent were Asians. Although the workforce studied was made up of 39 percent white workers, they accounted for only 13 percent of the cases. The percentage of workers with COVID-19 ranged from 3.1 percent to 24.5 percent per facility.

In its shortened session, the Republican controlled Iowa Legislature passed legislation protecting businesses against lawsuits from employees who had contracted COVID-19 during work.

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, July 8th.

Wednesday looks like it just may be the hottest day of the week. According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny and hot in the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday with a high of 95 degrees. The heat index when humidity is added in could make that 95 degrees feel as hot as 102 degrees. There also won’t be much help from the wind, with wind speeds hovering between 5 and 10 mph.

More details were revealed after a Cedar Rapids woman survived being stabbed multiple times by her husband Monday morning. According to court documents released Tuesday, police investigators believe that 30-year-old Anthony Depolis bought a knife specifically to stab and kill his wife, Diana. Despite suffering a serious stab wound to her neck and defensive wounds on her arms, Diana Depolis was in stable condition on Tuesday. Police say after investigating the crime scene they discovered the knife used in the stabbing, and Anthony Depolis admitted to stabbing his wife. He now faces charges of attempted murder, willful injury and assault while displaying a dangerous weapon (domestic abuse).

After several weeks of increased positive counts for COVID-19 in Iowa, hospitalizations have started to increase as well. Hospitalizations have risen from 134 patients July 3 to 165 patients on Tuesday, with patients in intensive care rising from 41 to 44, and patients on ventilators rising from 15 to 20. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has said the state is monitoring the situation, particularly in the 10 counties that are seeing marked increases in the past several weeks.

If you felt the need to make an angry complaint to police about the amount of fireworks going off last week, you were not alone. Police departments in both Johnson and Linn Counties reported calls for firework complaints that were double, triple, and even quadruple what they see for a usual 4th of July. Coralville Police Chief Shane Kron told the Gazette that anecdotally it wasn’t just the amount of fireworks that was bothering people this year, it was the volume.

“They seemed to be bigger this year,” Kron said. “Everybody that called in talked about huge explosions. These are not people with bottle rockets; this was a lot bigger.”

In 2017 the Iowa Legislature legalized the sale and use of consumer fireworks in Iowa, but allowed local cities and counties to regulate when or if people could set them off in their jurisdiction around the holiday.

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 Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 7, 2020.

Today’s going to be sunny, with a high near 90, but there could be thunderstorms in the early morning and again in early afternoon.Tonight will be clear, with a low around 73. And expect a clear and hot day tomorrow with a high of 93.

The number of coronavirus cases in Iowa rose yesterday to 31,655 and the total deaths attributed to coronavirus increased by 1 yesterday, bringing the total to 722.

Yesterday Iowa reported the highest rate of positive COVID-19 tests in a month. The state public health department reported 412 new positive cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing up the positive rate to over 10% of tests.

Iowa universities see 2,000 fewer students this summer. Roughly 2,000 fewer students are taking courses from Iowa’s public universities this summer than last after the COVID-19 pandemic forced instruction into online-only mode in mid-March. The institutions plan to bring students back to campus for a “hybrid” fall semester — some in-person instruction, with larger classes staying online — but this summer’s 2,226-student enrollment drop could serve as a preview of losses administrators project for the academic year. The drop obviously raises concerns for fall enrollment.

You can also find the rest of our coronavirus coverage at our dedicated coronavirus page, TheGazette.com/coronavirus.

Iowa Catholic bishops ask Trump to stop execution of an Iowan found guilty of the deaths of five people. In a letter to president Trump, Iowa bishops ask to commute the sentence for Dustin Honken from death to life without the possibility of parole. Authorities say that in 1993, Honken, then a methamphetamine drug kingpin killed 5 people, including 2 children, to protect his drug business. The catholic bishops say they “believe that state-sanctioned killing would not deter or end violence, but instead perpetuate a cycle of violence,” and that it would contribute to “a growing disrespect for the sacredness of all human life.”

A Judge has ordered construction of the Dakota Access pipeline shut down. The Dakota Access underground pipeline, which has moved more than a half billion barrels of crude across four states including Iowa since it started three years ago, but now construction must be shut down by August 5th, thanks to an order from a federal judge, acknowledged his ruling would cause major disruptions for Dakota Access and the North Dakota drillers that supply its oil.

He said “Yet, given the seriousness of the error, the impossibility of a simple fix, the fact that Dakota Access did assume much of its economic risk knowingly, and the potential harm each day the pipeline operates, the Court is forced to conclude that the flow of oil must cease,”

The Army Corps referred questions about the ruling to the Justice Department, which didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, including on whether it intends to appeal.

The Gazette Daily news updates are brought to you in part by Corridor Careers. "Are you looking for a job? 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 CorridorCareers.com."

That’s it for today’s update. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?"