Gazette Daily News Podcast, April 22
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, April 22.
We will be getting the wet part of spring some more on Friday, but at least now it will be joined by the warm part of spring. Showers and possibly a thunderstorm will visit the Cedar Rapids area, mainly before noon, then there will be a chance for showers and thunderstorms after noon. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. The high temperature is expected to be 71 degrees, with a low clocking in at a balmy 61 degrees.
Sixty-four years after joining the prestigious Association of American Universities — an invitation-only member group of North America’s most elite comprehensive research universities — Iowa State University announced Thursday it’s leaving the group.
“The decision to end AAU membership is driven by Iowa State's commitment to its mission, strengths and impact,” according to the ISU Provost Office. “While the university's core values have not changed since joining the association in 1958, the indicators used by AAU to rank its members have begun to favor institutions with medical schools and associated medical research funding.”
Iowa’s Board of Regents, lawmakers and university executives — in appealing for state appropriations — have for years touted the state’s position of having two AAU research universities, considering its modest population, at ISU and the University of Iowa. In pleading for legislative funding, regents, UI and ISU have in the past warned of the threat of losing AAU status — which comes with international prestige, helpful in recruiting both faculty and students, and access to AAU grants and funding.
Cities will have fewer options to regulate where fireworks can be sold under legislation signed into law Thursday by Gov. Kim Reynolds, who approved more than two dozen measures.
Under the new law, cities including Cedar Rapids and Iowa City will no longer be able to restrict firework sales to only certain zoning categories, like industrial, a regulation the cities made in response to citizen complaints and a rise in injuries.
Republicans who called for the new measure said it stops cities from attempting to, in effect, ban fireworks sales.
City officials said the law will make it more difficult to prevent fireworks from being sold in potentially dangerous locations.
With COVID-19 activity on the rise in Eastern Iowa as a result of a new coronavirus subvariant, a local public health expert is again emphasizing the importance of vaccinations and other safety measures to protect others.
Johnson County has seen elevated transmission rates and growing case counts in recent weeks as a result of BA.2, a subvariant of omicron that is rapidly spreading across the United States, according to Dr. Dan Diekema, epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Fortunately, Diekema said, the rate of increase in the community is not as steep as it was during the omicron surge, which peaked in mid-January.
“I don’t think anyone expects it to reach anywhere near the level’s of the (omicron) surge we saw back in January, and in part, that’s because the immune response from infection or from vaccination seems to be cross-protective between (omicron) and BA.2,” Diekema said.
He added, “So we are seeing an increase, but it’s not exponential. It’s of concern, but not at the same rate that we saw with (omicron).”
