Gazette Daily News Podcast, Oct. 20
Good morning! This is Katie Brumbeloe with The Gazette digital news desk, and here’s your daily update for Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Winter still is two months away on the calendar, but snow arrived Monday morning in Iowa in a hurry.
Within just a few hours, the National Weather Service reported 9 inches in Polk City near Des Moines and 5 inches in northeast Cedar Rapids. A little farther south, the reported snowfall was less — like 2 inches in North Liberty.
But the snow won’t stick around for long. The forecast calls for chances of rain today with a high of 48 and increasingly warmer temperatures through Thursday — where the forecast predicts a short-lived high in the 70s.
Winter does not arrive — at least not on the calendar — until Dec. 21.
Iowa reported its second-highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in a 24-hour period Monday as the total number of positive cases nears 108,000.
According to data from Iowa Department of Public Health, 480 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized as of 11 a.m. Monday, marking the second-highest number of hospitalizations seen in a 24-hour period in the state since the beginning of the pandemic.
The highest number of hospitalizations in a 24-hour period was 482, recorded just five days earlier on Oct. 14.
Iowa added 523 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the state’s total to 107,580. There were also eight new deaths statewide, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,536.
The state auditor and federal inspectors have determined Gov. Kim Reynolds’ decision to use $20 million of coronavirus relief money for a new computer system was “not allowable” and could result in Iowa losing the money if it’s not shifted this year.
If the funds are not redeployed, they will have to be repaid to the federal government, State Auditor Rob Sand wrote in an Oct. 16 letter to the Iowa Department of Management.
In July, Reynolds announced she had transferred $91 million of Iowa’s $1.25 billion from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES Act, to the Office of the Chief Information Officer for technology upgrades. Included in this was $20.1 million to replace the state’s budget, accounting and human resources computer system with a cloud-computing system by a vendor called Workday.
Richard Delmar, deputy Inspector General for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, also wrote a letter to the Iowa Department of Management on Oct. 16, echoing the state auditor’s findings, saying the upgrades are not necessary to address the public health emergency and were already planned before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
The University of Iowa Athletic Department has spent more than $230,000 since June putting about 180 COVID-19-positive student-athletes up in hotel rooms and paying for their food.
The total includes $192,713 on 1,665 nights in an undisclosed Iowa City area hotel between June 1 and Sept. 30, according to data the Athletics Department provided after a Gazette request.
The UI paid another $40,983 on per diem payments for student-athlete food while they were in hotel isolation.
UI Housing and Dining has made 250 to 300 residence hall rooms across campus available for students to use for quarantine and isolation. But Andy Peterson, a UI pediatrician and head team physician, said the Athletic Department decided to have most student-athletes stay in the hotel because they live off campus with other student-athletes.
Female athletes pushing for the University of Iowa to reinstate the recently cut women’s swimming and diving program have expanded their demands in an amended Title IX complaint, asking now that a court also force the Hawkeyes to add more women’s sports teams, including wrestling and rugby.
The new demands expand on those outlined in an original Title IX complaint filed last month on behalf of four UI female swimmers who learned in August the campus will cut men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, and men’s gymnastics after this academic year.
Two new plaintiffs were added to the original complaint — Abbie Lyman, an Iowa freshman who wrestled in high school and competed at the state level but said she “found no institutional support for it at the University of Iowa”; and Miranda Vermeer, an Iowa senior who played rugby in high school and became president of a UI women’s rugby club, which she said has “minimal” UI support.
The demand for more UI women’s sports comes as the Athletics Department warns its deficit from COVID-19 this year could range from $40 million to $60 million.
In addition to its new plaintiffs, the amended Title IX complaint also gained two new defendants: UI Athletics Director Gary Barta and UI President Bruce Harreld, who recently announced plans to retire.
Have a wonderful day!
