Gazette Daily News Briefing, September 12 and 13
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of September 12th and September 13th.
So I promise that Saturday will be the last rainy day of the week and you will finally get a look at the sun again this weekend. But first, more rain.
According to the National Weather Service, there will be a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mostly before 11:00 a.m. Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area. The chance for rain will then decrease as the day goes on. It will be cloudy to start, but even that will subside, leading to a gradually sunny day with a high near 71 degrees. However, there still is an outside chance of more rain in the area before Saturday comes to a close.
Sunday: I give you a mostly sunny day with a high near 76 degrees. Even the wind will be calm, with a northwest wind hovering around 5 mph.
According to the Associated Press, Iowa officials have granted the Iowa City Community School District a two-week extension to continue teaching all classes online as it seeks to avoid the spread of the coronavirus among students and staff.
Now that the district has the option of continuing online-only classes until Oct. 6, the school board is scheduled to meet next week to discuss how it will proceed.
The Iowa City School District suffered a setback earlier in the week, when a judge ruled against their attempt to wrestle back local control in court. They were challenging the edict from Gov. Kim Reynolds that at least half of of instruction must be delivered in person.
Gov. Reynolds indicated Friday she may take early action next week to lift her order that closed all bars, taverns, breweries and nightclubs in six counties due to spikes in coronavirus cases.
The governor last month invoked a new public health emergency proclamation that closed businesses serving alcohol in Black Hawk, Dallas, Johnson, Linn, Polk and Story counties until at least Sept. 20.
Restaurants in those counties that serve alcohol were allowed to remain open but had to stop serving alcoholic beverages after 10 p.m.
Reynolds said the action was required to slow the spread of COVID-19 — especially among people in the 19- to 24-year-old age range.
The University of Iowa has received scores of complaints about students violating COVID-19 guidelines, and dozens have been reprimanded or warned that subsequent violations could result in more serious sanctions, including suspension.
So far this semester, which started Aug. 24, the UI Office of Student Accountability has received 109 reports of “failure to social distance”; 106 reports of “failure to wear a face covering”; 35 reports of guest policy violations; and six reports of students failing to comply with quarantine and isolation.
The UI on Friday added another 111 student virus cases, after reporting 52 more on Wednesday and 174 on Monday. The campus also reported another two new employee cases, bringing that total to 23 since Aug. 18. The student-employee combined total is now 1,755.
