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Published on:

24th Feb 2023

Gazette Daily News Briefing, February 24

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, February 24.

Friday's weather will be pretty calm. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of snow after 2 p.m. Besides that it will be mostly cloudy with a high of 26 degrees and a low of around 17 degrees. One other notable thing is it will finally stop being super windy for a day, so that will be nice.

The Iowa House now may take up a ban on providing gender-affirming care for transgender minors, House Speaker Pat Grassley said Thursday.

His comments came as the House Government Oversight Committee heard testimony from doctors that deal with transgender patients, who said providing gender-affirming care to minors is a methodical and deeply personalized process that involves multiple doctors and the consent of parents.

Grassley did not say what exactly the legislation would entail, but he said it could include a ban on puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries, all interventions that are used with varying frequency on youth whose gender identity does not align with their sex at birth.

The move would contradict the guidance of several major medical groups. However, a wave of similar legislation in Republican-led states has been considered this year, and Utah and Florida are among the states that have enacted such bans.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services will no longer require labs to report COVID-19 test results to the state starting April 1, the department announced Thursday afternoon in a news release.

Since rapid at-home tests have grown in popularity and aren’t required to be reported, the department said the weekly case and positive test counts in the state are “no longer as meaningful as they once were.”

Iowa HHS has required labs to report any processed COVID-19 test result to the state Public Health division and then to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since March 2020.

The department has been releasing the data on a weekly basis since July 2021. Before that, COVID-19 data was updated daily. The state pulled the plug on two state-managed pandemic websites early last year.

A prosecutor will ask a judge to run consecutive sentences — 107 years in total — for a Chicago man who told a deputy he shot 7 times during a robbery that his injuries “should have been worse.”

Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks filed a motion Thursday on his intent to present evidence at the sentencing of Stanley L. Donahue that Donahue told Linn County Sheriff’s Deputy Will Halverson, “It should have been worse than it was,” and cursed him as he was taken out in handcuffs after a jury convicted him of 10 charges Tuesday.

Maybanks, in his motion, said Donahue’s remarks were captured on a video feed posted on The Gazette’s website, which was obtained by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. Donahue’s comments also were heard by “many onlookers in the audience, including Lt. Dave Beuter,” of the sheriff’s office.

The statement is an aggravating factor for the court to consider for sentencing in this case and will be used by the prosecution, along with other factors, to make an argument for stacked sentences, Maybanks said.

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The Gazette, located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has been serving Eastern Iowa since 1883. The Gazette team produces podcasts covering news, sports, opinion, business and other topics. Listen and subscribe today.