Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 18 and July 19
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of July 18th and 19th.
The weather Saturday is going to be hot, and it is going to feel even hotter. According to the National Weather Service, there should be a high near 94 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area Saturday with a heat index that indicates it could feel as hot as 106 degrees outside. It will be windy, with wind gusts as high as 30 mph. There will be a chance for rain, including a chance of thunderstorms, all day.
Sunday’s weather, by comparison, is predicted to be calm and cool. After a chance for rain, mostly in the morning, the skies will turn partly sunny, with a high near 87 degrees and a calm wind.
Iowa’s public school districts and accredited private schools must “take all efforts” to resume face-to-face education when the new school year begins, Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered in a proclamation Friday that frustrated the state’s largest teachers union and may upend plans Iowa City schools already to offer online learning for the fall.
Schools or school districts that wish to move to remote learning due to public health conditions in their communities must first get approval from the Iowa Department of Education, which will consult with the Iowa Department of Public Health, according to the proclamation. Reynolds said she worries students will lack opportunities to socialize, develop social and emotional skills, eat healthy meals and lose access to other supports if schools do not reopen.
The proclamation follows a tense summer where school district’s protested they were given little guidance how to reopen in the midst of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Guidance given previously by the state recommended against requiring masks in schools, leading districts to seek safety advice elsewhere. Some districts, such as Iowa City, had recently decided to offer courses online for at least part of the fall semester.
This governor’s proclamation comes as Iowa recorded another day with more than 800 additional coronavirus cases, a dubious daily record reached only this week. Although total testing is increasing, the rate of people testing positive versus the overall amount being tested has been rising as well, reaching near 10 percent. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are also on the rise in the state, up to 210 people now, the first time hospitalizations have topped 200 people since the previous high of 203 on June 13.
Citing COVID-19 concerns, legislative leaders on Friday said they will allow Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate to mail absentee voter request forms for the Nov. 3 general election to all of the state’s registered voters. Friday’s unanimous vote was an about-face for majority Republicans who had opposed Pate’s decision to mail the forms to Iowans before the June primary, a primary that saw record turnout numbers.
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