Gazette Daily News Briefing, June 18
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 18.
It will be hot again Friday with a chance for showers and thunderstorms. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Friday in the Cedar Rapids area, primarily after 4 p.m. Until then it will be partly sunny, with a high near 90 degrees.
A chance for rain will continue into the weekend, although it appears as if it will be scattered.
Government safety inspectors will not be looking into the death last week of an experienced Quad Cities scuba diver who failed to surface from a dive to repair a broken cable at the bottom of a million-gallon anaerobic digester where cattle manure and food waste generate biogas.
Bob Baenziger Jr., 54, of East Moline, died around 10 a.m. June 8 when he was unable to return to the top of the liquid in the tank at Sievers Family Farm in Stockton. Because Baenziger was a self-employed contractor, he was exempt from Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspections, Iowa OSHA Administrator Russell Perry said. And the farm, which has 10 or fewer employees, also doesn’t fall within the purview of the worker safety agency.
Hundreds of farmers and farmworkers die each year from work-related injuries. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the farm fatality rate in 2017 was 20.4 deaths per 100,000 workers. Transportation incidents, including tractor rollovers, are the leading cause of farm deaths.
Iowa government officials confirmed Thursday that they will continue to report positive COVID-19 tests on its coronavirus website following the closure of its Test Iowa sites.
On Wednesday, state officials announced they were closing the $26 million free coronavirus testing program by July 16. Test Iowa, which launched in April 2020, conducted free COVID-19 tests across 17 drive-through and clinic sites.
Test Iowa sites will stagger closures over the next five weeks, according to state officials.
Though the Test Iowa sites are going away, COVID-19 test results from other entities — which must be reported to the state public health department — will continue to be included in the daily updates to the state’ website.
State officials also announced the Iowa Department of Public Health and the State Hygienic Lab are finalizing plans to provide at-home test kits for free to Iowans after the Test Iowa program ends.
The Iowa City Shelter House on Thursday broke ground on a “Housing First” project that will provide permanent, supportive housing for the city’s homeless population.
This is the second such project for Shelter House. The first, Cross Park Place, opened in 2019 at 820 Cross Park Ave., south of Highway 6.
The new building, at 501 Southgate Ave., adjacent to Shelter House, will have 36 apartments, adding to the 24 units at Cross Park Place.
Construction of the three-story building is expected to take about a year.
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