Gazette Daily News Briefing, January 9 and January 10
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday, January 9 and Sunday, January 10.
Cloudy, calm, and fairly cold. That’s the weather we have on tap for this weekend. According to the National Weather Service, it is predicted to be a high of 26 in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday with cloudy skies. The low is predicted to be 20 degrees. On Sunday it will go from cloudy to mostly cloudy, with a high of 28 degrees. The low is then predicted to drop to 18 degrees.
In Washington D.C., politicians continued to issue proclamations in reaction to the mob incursion into the Capitol building on Wednesday. The siege on congress was conducted by people who attended a rally for President Donald Trump trying to hold out his election hopes by forcefully stopping the ratification of the electoral votes. That was not successful.
Perhaps most devastating to the president Friday was the decision by Twitter to ban him from the platform for the foreseeable future. Trump is also now banned on Facebook, Instagram, and his videos are on a short leash on YouTube. According to Twitter, this was to stop the President of the United States from inciting more violence. Trump’s rise to political prominence relied heavily on his presence on social media, particularly on Twitter.
Trump vowed that he would not be silenced, and told supporters he would be launching his own outlet. Until then, what will become of him in the meantime has yet to be decided.
Iowa on Friday reported 2,057 new coronavirus cases and 59 confirmed deaths from COVID-19.
The new numbers, analyzed by the Gazette at 11 a.m. Friday, bring the state’s totals to 293,454 cases and 4,124 deaths since the start of the pandemic last March. Hospitalizations for the virus continue to hover around 600 people.
The daily positive case number is one to watch, as it can be an indicator of trouble to come. Cases have increased daily for almost two weeks now, reversing a trend where they had been dropping until right before the holiday.
Also growing in Iowa? Sports gambling.
Legal sports wagering in Iowa topped the $100 million plateau in December, marking the third month in a row for record-setting growth.
And industry officials expect betting activity will continue to grow, given the upcoming Super Bowl and NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournament and a change in Iowa law that makes online wagering easier.
Sports wagering topped $104.8 million in December — making Iowa the eighth state to surpass $100 million in wagers in a single month. More than $78 million of those bets were placed online.
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