Gazette Daily News Briefing, August 1
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 1.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 89 degrees. There will be a 30 percent chance of rain Tuesday night into Wednesday. The low will settle in around 69 degrees.
The National Weather Service has confirmed that tornadoes passed through the area on Friday night.
According to data posted Monday, an EF-1 tornado with peak winds estimated at 90 mph struck Andrew in Jackson County at 8:41 p.m. Friday. At EF-1, tornadoes are rated “moderate” on a scale that goes from EF-0, with wind gusts of 65-85 mph, up to EF-5, with gusts of 200 mph or more.
A second tornado was confirmed to strike Clinton at 9:16 p.m. Friday. The storm, with peak gusts estimated at 75 mph, was rated EF-0. It was on the ground for two minutes, leaving a path of almost 1.5 miles before crossing the Mississippi River and dissipating over Illinois, the National Weather Service said.
Damage was also caused by intense straight line winds that preceded the storm’s arrival..
Roosevelt Middle School could remain as a sixth-grade center and a new seventh-and-eighth grade school would be built to replace Taft Middle School under proposed changes to a combined multimillion dollar facility plan in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
New changes proposed Monday night, however, address concerns Cedar Rapids City Council members expressed last week in a joint meeting. City leaders said the original proposal would close too many middle schools on the west side of the city.
The change would increase a combined $445 million in school bond referendums an additional $56 million — a number Cedar Rapids school board members said they are unsure about bringing to taxpayers.
The decision, however, may not need to be made for another six years since Roosevelt and Taft are not a part of the facilities addressed in the first half of the bond referendum — $220 million — that could go to voters as soon as this November.
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has been ranked in the top 50 nationally in two medical care specialties for the second year in a row in the U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Hospitals” list made public Tuesday.
UIHC's ophthalmology ranking improved to No. 6 from No. 7, and its ear, nose and throat ranking moved up to No. 28 from No. 31.
However, UIHC's ranking is lower than it was a decade ago, when it was ranked in the top 50 in nine specialties.
Outside of the top 50, UIHC lost some ground this year. It achieved "high performing" recognition for six of its specialties last year, but this year it only received high performance in five specialties.
Although none of Iowa's other ranked hospitals placed in the top 50 in any specialties, MercyOne in Des Moines received high-performance marks for 14 of 21 considered procedures and conditions.
