* Cedar Rapids area weather today

* Linn County jail inmate death

* Cedar Rapids' new flag revealed

* Motorcyclist from Marion killed in crash

* Iowa football

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19.

Well the chance for rain came and went Friday with no real rain to speak of. And this weekend, there’s more sunny weather on the menu. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 85 degrees. On Saturday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 63 degrees. On Sunday it will be sunny again with a high near 89 degrees. On Sunday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 67 degrees. When comparing the two days, Sunday will obviously be a bit warmer, and it will also be a bit windier.

The Iowa Attorney General’s Office has determined the Aug. 31 fatal shooting of a Jones County man by police was justified because the man would not put down a knife and charged officers.

But the family of Jeremy Berg, 45, say the knife was a pocket knife and the officer should have just let Berg run away.

Berg died of multiple gunshot wounds inflicted by officers during the standoff at his grandparents’ farm near Martelle. The professional tree trimmer suffered from depression and methamphetamine addiction and Fensterman https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/man-fatally-shot-by-police-near-martelle-struggled-with-depression-drug-addition-mother-says/ (told The Gazette Sept. 2) she thought it was possible he wanted officers to kill him.

The five officers involved in the shooting were on administrative leave during the investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Last week the state Department of Public Safety https://www.thegazette.com/news/state-identifies-5-officers-involved-in-fatal-shooting-near-martelle/ (named the officers:)

Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent in August — a level that was well below the national rate and the number of Iowans who were thrown out of work a year ago during the economic throes of COVID-19 pandemic.

Iowa’s jobless rate one year ago was 5.2 percent.

The number of unemployed Iowans increased by 300 in August to 67,900 — still 18,100 lower than the year-ago level of 86,000. The total number of working Iowans decreased by 1,600 to 1,592,200 in August — a figure that was 43,700 higher than one year ago.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is working with the city of Solon to open a satellite office in the former Solon City Hall — as both the sheriff’s office and the city continue to grow.

Mayor Steve Stange shared the update during a joint meeting between the Solon City Council and the Johnson County Board of Supervisors on Thursday evening.

Stange said the former city hall, at 223 S. Iowa St., is mainly being used to store records and not in a way that “could better the city.”

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

This has become a rare occurrence this summer, but there may be a bit of rain Friday afternoon. According to the National Weather Service there is a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, mostly between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. When it is not raining, it should be mostly sunny for much of the day, with a high near 80 degrees. On Friday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 53 degrees.

A redistricting plan released Thursday would, among other things, make major changes to Iowa’s four congressional districts, including putting Linn and Johnson counties into a new 1st District.

Currently, Linn is in the 20-county 1st District that includes Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Waterloo and Marshalltown. And Johnson County is in the 24-county 2nd District.

At the state level, an early comparison of the proposed map with the current map suggests 61 of the 150 incumbent state lawmakers would be in a district with another incumbent.

Iowa legislators will meet in special session Oct. 5 to vote yes or no on the proposed map. If approved, the map goes to Gov. Kim Reynolds for her signature.

If not, the Legislative Services Agency will draw a second map subject to a yes-or-no vote without any changes. If lawmakers reject that map, a third map will be produced. It can be amended by the Legislature.

More and more school districts are implementing mask mandates this week. In a contentious meeting Thursday, the Linn-Mar school board voted to require students in prekindergarten through sixth grades to wear masks to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 among students who do not yet have the option to be vaccinated.

The vote was 6-1, with school board member Rachel Wall voting no, stating she was in favor of requiring masks for all students through 12th grade.

School board members agreed that since students 12 and older are eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19, they can continue to make their own choices about whether to wear a mask. A COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been approved for children under 12 years old.

According to the Associated Press, the Biden administration on Wednesday began notifying governors and state refugee coordinators across the country about how many https://interactives.ap.org/embeds/5nF9C/1/ (Afghan evacuees) from among the first group of nearly 37,000 arrivals are slated to be resettled in their states.

Iowa is expected to take 695 arrivals.

States with a historically large number of Afghans who resettled in the United States over the past 20 years — including California, Maryland, Texas and Virginia — again are welcoming a disproportionate number of evacuees, according to data analyzed by the AP.

A young male was shot at multiple times outside a church in southwest Cedar Rapids Wednesday.

A bullet hit a window at St. Ludmila Catholic Church, 211 21st Ave. SW, just before 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, but the young male was not injured, Cedar Rapids police said.

Two people got out of a vehicle near the church and fired several shots at the young male, who was walking on J Street SW, police said.

The shooters and the young male who was targeted left the area before officers arrived. None of those individuals have been identified, and police are investigating.

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, Sept. 16.

Thursday’s weather will again be sunny, but with a bit more wind-- potentially a preview of rain to come on Friday.

According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 85 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A south wind will blow from 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Thursday night the skies will be clear, with a low of 61 degrees.

Nearly 12,000 Iowans — or the equivalent to the population of Oskaloosa — tested positive for the coronavirus this past week.

In total, the state added 11,723 new COVID-19 cases, https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/maps-and-charts-coronavirus-in-iowa/ (according to a Gazette analysis of state data). The seven-day average of new cases this week was 1,675 — the highest since Jan. 11, when the seven-day average was 1,715.

This week’s jump also is a 40 percent jump over the previous week’s 8,404 new COVID-19 cases, according to the https://coronavirus.iowa.gov/ (Iowa Department of Public Health numbers).

Children aged 17 and younger was once again the age group with the most new infections reported over the past seven days, remaining at 29 percent of this week’s new cases from the week before.

It is no coincidence that this is also the least vaccinated age group, as the vaccine has not yet been approved for those younger than 12. Iowa only reached a 50 percent vaccination rate this week, with 60 percent of those 12 and older having received the full vaccine regimen.

Speaking of vaccines, Raytheon Technologies, the parent company of Cedar Rapids’ largest employer Collins Aerospace, will require all U.S. employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

With about 9,000 employees in Cedar Rapids and Coralville, Collins Aerospace is the largest employer in the Corridor.

Employees have until Jan. 1 to be fully vaccinated, a Raytheon spokeswoman told The Gazette.

In greener pastures, Iowa City’s new medical marijuana dispensary will open by Oct. 1 on Highway 1, in a strip mall between Harbor Freight and La Regia Taqueria.

Iowa Cannabis is connected with Cannabis and Glass, a large recreational marijuana store in Spokane, Wash. Owner Aaron Boshart told The Gazette in December 2019 that profits from the Washington state stores help support Iowa operations as it is difficult to make a profit under Iowa’s stringent medical marijuana laws.

More than 6,000 Iowans have qualified to be in the https://idph.iowa.gov/Portals/1/userfiles/234/Files/05_2019%20OMC%20Patient%20FAQ.pdf (medical marijuana program), which addresses a dozen conditions including Parkinson’s disease, cancer and autism.

There was a sentencing Wednesday for the other inmate involved in a failed escape attempt at the Anamosa State Penitentiary that ended with two people dead.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Fae Hoover sentenced 28-year-old Michael Dutcher, as part of his plea agreement, to two life sentences without parole and 25 years each for attempted murder and second-degree kidnapping charges.

His plea followed the guilty plea last month of https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/evil-inmate-gets-two-life-terms-for-killing-anamosa-prison-officer-and-nurse/ (inmate Thomas Woodard), 34, to the same charges.

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 15th.

Wednesday’s weather will be both pleasant and uneventful. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 79 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with sunny skies. The wind will even calm down to a gentle 5 mph. On Wednesday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 54 degrees.

Several urban school districts in Iowa have already jumped at the chance to institute mask mandates.

A day after a federal judge’s ruling temporarily blocked a law passed by the Iowa Legislature banning mask mandates, mask mandates have been instituted in the school districts in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City.

The Cedar Rapids Community School District announced Tuesday it is reinstating a mandate that all students, staff and visitors starting Wednesday wear face coverings in its schools to mitigate the surging spread of COVID-19.

In Iowa City schools, masks will be required in the buildings and outdoors on school property if social distancing is not possible. Students actively participating in athletic competition — whether indoors or outdoors — are not required to wear a mask. Students on the sidelines or bench, however, are required to wear a mask.

An Iowa prisoner charged with bludgeoning to death an Anamosa prison guard and nurse as part of an escape attempt plans to plead guilty to the charges Wednesday

28-year-old Michael A. Dutcher had https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/inmate-charged-with-killing-anamosa-prison-officer-nurse-will-claim-self-defense/ (said previously) he would claim at trial the slayings were in self-defense or defense of others.

But court filings Monday show Dutcher now plans to plead guilty Wednesday to the charges in the trial information, which are two counts of first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and attempted murder. The plea hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Jones County Courthouse in Anamosa.

Fellow prisoner Thomas Woodard pleaded guilty as charged for his role in the killings and was https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/watch-live-inmate-thomas-woodards-sentencing-for-killing-anamosa-prison-workers-robert-mcfarland-a/ (sentenced last month) to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

University of Iowa Health Care, at the same time its moving swiftly to erect a $395 million 469,000-square-foot campus on a 60-acre site in North Liberty, is looking to expand its footprint in Coralville near its popular Iowa River Landing clinic.

The university on Wednesday will ask for Board of Regents permission to spend nearly $1 million on a 29,971-square-foot plot of land within the IRL district along east Second Street.

The hospital told the Regents in its request that it wants the additional land for both additional services and the potential for more parking.

With the Iowa Supreme Court’s blessing, state lawmakers will meet Oct. 5 to begin their part of creating new congressional and legislative election districts to reflect population changes shown in the latest 2020 census that arrived too late to meet constitutional deadlines.

The state constitution calls for the Iowa Legislature to approve a redistricting plan by Sept. 1 and for the plan to be enacted by Sept. 15. If the deadlines are not met, the constitution shifts redistricting responsibilities to the Iowa Supreme Court.

But with the ruling, the court gave lawmakers some room to work with.

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, September 14th.

After some spotty showers clear out early Tuesday morning, the rest of the day will remind you a lot of last week’s weather. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Tuesday with a high near 81 degrees. The winds should be moderate, at 10 to 15 mph. Tuesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 54 degrees and calming wind.

It is too soon to tell how long it will last, but a judge’s ruling will shake up school masking policy in Iowa for this week at the very least.

A federal judge ordered Monday that the state of Iowa immediately halt enforcement of a new law that prevents local school boards from ordering masks to be worn in classrooms to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Judge Robert Pratt said in an order signed Monday that the measure passed in May by Republicans in the Iowa Legislature and quickly signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds substantially increases the risk of children with existing health conditions of contracting COVID-19.

Two things happened after this ruling was revealed late Monday afternoon.

Almost immediately, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds vowed to appeal the ruling, saying she will use every legal means at her disposal to try to restore the law banning mask mandates in Iowa schools.

Not long after that, several urban school districts announced that they will mandate masks or will at least consider it. Des Moines declared that they will mandate masks, the Iowa City School District indicated that they will likely adopt a mask mandate, and the Cedar Rapids school district dipped its toe into the water, indicating interest in instituting a masking mandate but wanting to check with state officials first.

After University of Northern Iowa and Des Moines Area Community College in 2020 debuted a streamlined path for DMACC students seeking a four-year UNI degree, the pair have announced a new “tuition equality” initiative allowing the students to get their Panther degrees for a Bears tuition rate.

The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines Catalyst Circle is making the initiative possible through a $250,000 grant to fund scholarships for DMACC graduates seeking UNI degrees.

The need-based scholarships “will effectively allow students to complete a UNI degree for the cost of DMACC tuition,” creating “one of the most affordable” paths to a four-year degree in Iowa.

The grant-supported scholarships will help bridge an average tuition gap of about $1,000 per semester for UNI@DMACC students — at a time of increasing need, as COVID has cramped family finances and forced tuition increases across Iowa’s public universities.

Also in high education, the University of Iowa has made among the biggest year over year gains nationally in the “2022 U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges” rankings made public today.

The UI had slipped last year from No. 84 among national universities to No. 88. But it jumped five spots to No. 83 in the new rankings — earning it recognition from U.S. News, which in its 37th year of ranking colleges evaluated 1,466 bachelor’s degree-granting institutions on 17 academic quality metrics.

Among only public and not private schools, the UI inched up one spot to No. 33 from No. 34, where it had been for two years.

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* Cedar Rapids area weather today

* Police chase in Iowa City ends at University of Iowa President's Residence

* Hawkeyes win over Cyclones and AP's ranking

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, September 11, and Sunday, September 12.

We are in a hot to cool to back to hot again cycle. This weekend falls squarely under the hot again category.

According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 94 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area, with mostly sunny skies and a moderate wind of 10 to 15 mph. On Saturday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 69 degrees. On Sunday it will be mostly sunny again, with a high near 90 degrees. On Sunday night there is predicted to be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms, but otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 63 degrees.

As a result of an increased number of patients — partially driven by a surge in COVID-19 admissions — Cedar Rapids hospitals are limiting elective surgeries and procedures.

Both UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital and Mercy Medical Center confirmed Friday their facilities are preserving capacity because of high patient counts in recent weeks.

St. Luke’s is limiting surgeries that require an inpatient hospital stay to 10 surgeries per day.

Elective surgery is a procedure scheduled in advance because it does not involve a medical emergency.

Enrollment across all three of Iowa’s public universities dropped again this fall, according to new numbers made public Thursday, showing a slide beginning in fall 2017 and https://www.thegazette.com/education/university-of-iowa-reports-shrinking-enrollment/ (worsening )when COVID-19 upended the higher education experience.

The University of Iowa reported a total enrollment this fall of 29,909 students — down 539, or 2 percent, from last fall’s 30,448. It’s down 7 percent from 2017’s 32,323.

Iowa State University reported a total enrollment of 30,708 students — down 1,117, or 4 percent, from last fall’s 31,825. It’s down 15 percent from 2017’s 35,993.

And the University of Northern Iowa reported a total enrollment of 9,231 students — down 291, or 3 percent, from last fall’s 9,522. It’s down 22 percent from 2017’s 11,907.

Speaking to Iowa’s growing need for affordable housing to help meet workforce demands, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday a $100 million infusion to increase the state’s housing stock and protect Iowans’ ability to live in or near the communities where they work.

That allocation — made possible through the American Rescue Plan pandemic relief act and local fiscal relief funds — will add to the $230 million over five years the Iowa Legislature already passed earlier this year to help overcome the state’s housing shortage.

While Iowa today is in a “strong economic position” after the shock of 2020, Reynolds said, the state needs more “high-quality attainable housing” if it’s to keep up with its employment opportunities. Specifically, Iowa is expected to need another 47,000 homes by 2030 — including 10,586 for Iowans earning $38,450 a year or less.

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

If you enjoyed the cooler weather this week then I have some bad news for you. It’s going to get a bit hotter on Friday on the way to a plain hot Saturday, just in time for a rivalry game. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny with a high near 83 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. A south wind of 5 to 10 mph will pick up a bit during the day. On Friday night it will be mostly clear, with a low around 59 degrees.

President Joe Biden announced sweeping new federal vaccine requirements Thursday affecting as many as 100 million Americans in an all-out effort to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant.

The expansive approach he announced mandates that all employers with more than 100 workers must require their employees either be vaccinated or be tested for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.

The move will be instituted by the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

In Iowa, all 99 counties now are in the red zone of high virus transmission rates. That’s not yet the case with all counties in neighboring states Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois, according to federal data.

Still, Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday she trusts Iowans — not the government — to make health care decisions and criticized Biden’s move as an overreach.

Children aged 17 and younger made up 29 percent of the positive COVID-19 cases reported in Iowa this past week and remain the top age group for positive cases.

Also, the percent of positive cases among Iowans 17 and younger -- 22 percent of reported cases this past week -- has been steadily increasing over the past month, https://www.thegazette.com/coronavirus/ (according to a Gazette analysis of state coronavirus data.)

Statewide, 8,404 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the past week, according to Wednesday numbers released by the Iowa Department of Public Health. That compares to 8,308 cases the previous week.

Hospitalizations for the virus are also up, although there was not the 100 patient jump seen each of the previous two weeks. Iowa health data shows that unvaccinated people make up 80 percent of 578 people currently hospitalized with the disease, and nearly 90 percent of those in intensive care for COVID-19.

The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has released the identity of the man and woman who died Wednesday https://www.thegazette.com/crashes/2-killed-in-collision-with-dump-truck-near-walford/ (after a collision with an oncoming dump truck).

In a release, the sheriff’s office says the driver in the vehicle was Leo Alan Ray, 35, of Cedar Rapids, and his passenger was Stacey Lynn Watts, 35, also of Cedar Rapids.

Ray and Watts were killed Wednesday after crashing into an oncoming dump truck after fleeing from a Linn County deputy on Highway 151 north of Walford.

A deputy activated the squad car’s emergency lights and attempted to stop the vehicle after receiving the report of a domestic disturbance in the vehicle with the woman attempting to jump out.

When Ray failed to stop, the deputy determined the driver was driving too recklessly and stopped the pursuit near the Highway 151 intersection with Wright Brothers Boulevard. The collision happened soon after, according to the sheriff’s office.

The driver of the dump truck was unhurt.

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On today's podcast:

Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday that she’s committing $100 million in federal COVID relief funding to help overcome the state’s housing shortage.

Not-for-profit organizations in the Cedar Rapids area would receive 8 percent of net revenue from any casino potentially developed in Linn County, under an agreement announced Wednesday.

Students who take college credit courses in high school are more likely to enroll in postsecondary education after graduation and earn a college degree or credential, a new Iowa Department of Education report released Wednesday found.

The Iowa Department of Public Health updated some of its COVID-19 data on the state’s website Wednesday. In Iowa hospitals, there are 578 COVID patients, with 79.4 percent of those patients unvaccinated. In Iowa’s ICUs, 88 percent of the 158 COVID patients are also unvaccinated. The state also reported 30 more deaths since Sunday, for a total 6,337 COVID deaths.

Today will be sunny, with a high near 78 and northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Thursday night will be mostly clear, with a low around 51 and a north wind around 5 mph.