Gazette Daily News, February 9
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, February 9.
It will be very cold again Tuesday, but at least there shouldn’t be more snow. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a high near 5 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area Tuesday with mostly cloudy skies. Wind chills again will be in the 30 degree below zero range. This chilly weather should remain for at least the next week, before we hopefully grind our way to some slightly warmer temperatures.
State officials say January in Iowa was marked by above-normal precipitation and above-average temperatures — an unusual feature for a month that usually is the driest of the year.
Technical staff from state and federal agencies that compile a monthly water summary report that temperatures in January averaged 4 degrees above normal for the month, with 1.27 inches of precipitation — a total that was 0.35 of an inch above normal. However, abnormal dryness and drought conditions remained generally unchanged through January. Under the snow, the shallow soils are dry enough that there is the potential for drought issues later this spring, according to Tim Hall, coordinator of hydrology resources for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds did not directly consult her own public health department before lifting Iowa’s remaining COVID-19 mitigation strategies-- including a partial face mask mandate and social distancing guidelines -- just in time for Superbowl Sunday.
During a weekly briefing on the state’s pandemic response, Democratic lawmakers asked Iowa Department of Public Health Director Kelly Garcia whether Reynolds consulted the agency before the governor on Friday lifted the state’s remaining pandemic mitigation strategies.
Garcia told the legislators the department was not consulted on the decision — that the governor made that decision on her own. The Governor’s Office replied that Gov. Reynolds merely followed past precedent in reducing restrictions as hospital rates have gone down.
The governor’s decision has led to alarmed feedback from Democratic lawmakers and from the mayors of Iowa’s largest cities, including Cedar Rapids, who pledged to stick to their mask mandates. Several area restaurants told the Gazette Monday that they plan to keep their safety restrictions in place for the time being.
The state has reached a $350,000 settlement agreement with a University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics patient who sued two years ago after she said hip surgery left her with “femoral nerve palsy” — a sort of nerve dysfunction causing “weakness, numbness, and tingling pain.”
The UI Physicians group will pay the full amount to Erin Jacobson, of Linn County, pending approval from the State Appeal Board. That board, so far this budget year, has agreed to pay from its general fund nearly $2.8 million for settlements or judgments associated with the state Board of Regents, including UI Hospitals and Clinics.
Research published one year ago in the scientific “Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery” found femoral nerve palsy — which it describes as a “serious neurological complication” — can follow total hip arthroplasty, the same procedure Jacobson underwent, if retractors are wrongly positioned.
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