Gazette Daily News Briefing, February 11
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, Feb. 11.
Friday’s weather will be a good example of when you’re about to make a seasonal transition and the weather can’t quite make up its mind. According to the National Weather Service the day will start relatively warm, but windy, with a high near 40 mph and wind speeds of up to 35 mph. There will also be a chance of rain or maybe snow depending on the temperature around noon. Then Friday night the cold air will return, dropping the low to 7 degrees, with wind chill values as low as -10. This will lead into a colder weekend, with the 40s returning next week.
In some good weather news, the risk of spring flooding on the Mississippi River, as well as its tributaries, including the Cedar and Iowa rivers, is near to being below normal, the National Weather Service reported Thursday.
The Cedar River at Cedar Rapids has a 5 percent likelihood of reaching major flood stage of 16 feet this spring, compared with the 7 percent historical average, the National Weather Service reported.,
The river is 15 percent likely to reach minor flood stage of 12 feet at Cedar Rapids, which is below the historical risk of 25 percent. The Iowa River at Iowa City historically has a less than 5 percent chance of reaching its major flood stage of 26 feet and its minor flood stage of 23.5 feet.
It was a busy day in the Iowa Capitol.
A proposed ban on transgender girls competing in girls athletics in Iowa passed out of an education subcommittee for consideration of the education committee. House File 2309 says sports teams either have to be for biological males, females or co-ed
The Iowa House also approved a 2.5 percent increase in state aid to K-12 schools Thursday, a number which educators and Democrats called “woefully inadequate.” Democrats had proposed a funding increase of twice that much, saying that if Iowa can afford a $300 million corporate tax cut, which is being proposed in tax plans by the governor and Republicans in the Senate, then they should be able to afford $300 million for increased school funding.
The 2.5 percent was passed by House Republicans, anyway, in a 57-39 vote. Majority Republicans also added $19.2 million in one-time funds to help schools with inflationary pressures.
In the Iowa Senate, a hearing was held on a bill that would enable parents to start legal proceedings against schools or educators who distribute books or materials the parents deem obscene.
Sen. Jake Chapman, from Adel, said the intent of the bill is to empower parents to remove content from schools that they find objectionable when their requests to school boards and school districts fall on deaf ears.
In its current form, which will come up for consideration in a Senate Judiciary Committee, a fine of up to $500 per day could be assessed against an instructor if a judge found that the material in question was obscene or pornographic.
The fate of the bill, however, remains unclear, as Republican leaders in both the House and Senate have expressed reservations about criminal penalties being levied against educators.
Finally, another longtime theater group has fallen victim to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the curtain fell on the final show for the Cedar Rapids Follies on March 31, 2019, it never went back up due to COVID-19 and rising production costs for the volunteer-driven production.
Beginning in 1980, it was an annual effort that took more than 100 volunteers onstage and many more behind the scenes who typically spent their winters rehearsing, sewing and creating the scenery needed to create an original show from a new script every year.
Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop.
