Gazette Daily News Briefing, December 30
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, December 30.
New Year's Eve... Eve will be pretty uneventful weather wise. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 35 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. On Friday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 26 degrees.
The Iowa River does not show signs of pollution from the Dec. 8 blast at a Marengo workshop that had large stores of petroleum products, officials said Thursday.
The Iowa City Water Division earlier this month took samples of the Iowa River, which is an indirect source of drinking water for the city, after the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reported contaminants from the C6-Zero explosion and fire had run into a stormwater basin in Marengo.
Marengo is upstream of Iowa City.
The State Hygienic Laboratory, in Coralville, analyzed the samples for petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel fuel, and found “no reportable detection of contaminants,” the city reported.
The city will continue to test the river weekly for the next three weeks.
C6-Zero, a company whose business plan was to dissolve used roofing shingles into base ingredients, had an explosion and fire Dec. 8 that injured up to 15 people and caused an evacuation of homes near the Marengo workshop.
Iowa’s medical marijuana program saw growth in 2022 as the number of registered patients increased and as sales rose at the state’s licensed dispensaries.
As of November, the number of cardholders in Iowa’s program stood at 14,466, close to double the 7,865 enrolled patients in December 2021, according to a new report from the Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Board, which administers the program.
More health care providers are certifying patients for the program. As of November, 1,920 practitioners had certified a patient at least once, compared with 1,603 nearly a year ago.
Lucas Nelson, the president of Bud & Mary’s — formerly known as MedPharm — said the growth in patients shows an increased need for access in the state, both in the number of dispensaries and the types of products available. Bud & Mary’s is one of two licensed marijuana manufacturers in Iowa and operates dispensaries in Windsor Heights and Sioux City.
The Friends of Palisades-Kepler State Park hope relatively warm weather on Jan. 1 will mean they can set a record for the number of people attending a First Day hike at the state park in Mount Vernon.
Palisades-Kepler is one of 17 Iowa state parks and recreation areas offering guided tours Sunday as part of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources First Day Hike promotion.
But if you visit any state park starting Friday through Sunday — and log it through the online State Park Passport — you will be entered into a drawing for a free two-night stay at a cabin at Pine Lake State Park near Eldora.
The First Day hikes are intended to get Iowans outdoors on the first day of the year, a time when many people are setting resolutions for health — either mental or physical. Some park staff or volunteers are offering extras, such as birding tips, camp fires, cocoa or s’mores for these family-friendly events.
