Gazette Daily News Podcast, April 21

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 21.

One more cold day.

Wednesday will be the last day in our latest cold snap. According to the National Weather Service you could wake up this morning to the sight of frost in the Cedar Rapids area. Then, as the weather warms slightly, there will be a slight chance of some rain in the afternoon. Otherwise it will be partly sunny and breezy for most of the day with a high near 48 degrees. Thursday it is predicted to frost again, but then warm up to 58 degrees.

So, much more like it.

There was relief in Eastern Iowa Tuesday afternoon for advocates of racial justice as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all charges in the death of George Floyd. Floyd’s killing on May 25, 2020, sparked outcry around the world — including in cities in Iowa, where residents protested and made demands for reform to city and school officials.

Amara Andrews, vice president of the board of the Advocates for Social Justice and a Cedar Rapids mayoral candidate, said she was “so emotional and in tears over a correct verdict” when it came down Tuesday afternoon.

“There was so much doubt,” Andrews said. “It’s the verdict that is right, but we’re so emotional over it because for so long we haven’t seen justice served for people — Black and brown men in particular — who have been killed at the hands of police officers.”

Advocates in several of Iowa’s cities pressing for police reform in Iowa stressed Tuesday that while the verdict was a welcome one, it is only a beginning in the change they seek.

Police have identified the 26-year-old man who was fatally shot last Thursday night at a residence in northeast Cedar Rapids.

Police said Davvion Izael Flemings was found lying behind a vehicle in the driveway of a home at 1655 32nd St. NE, next door to a Casey’s at 32nd Street and Center Point Road NE. He had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, police said.

Emergency medical care was administered at the scene, but Flemings was pronounced dead around 10 p.m. Officers were called to the area at 9:38 p.m. for reports of shots fired. While they were en route, 911 received additional calls reporting gunfire and saying people were seen “running from a residence and leaving the scene in a vehicle,” police said.

According to a report from the Associated Press, nearly half of Iowa's counties have rejected new doses of COVID-19 vaccine because of a lack of demand.

State officials said Tuesday forty-three of Iowa's 99 counties declined additional shipments of the vaccines. Of the 43 counties, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified 12 as having a high rates of coronavirus transmission: Clay, Clayton, Dickinson, Emmet, Fremont, Ida, Lyon, O’Brien, Palo Alto, Sac, Taylor and Woodbury. Voter registration information shows that all 12 are heavily Republican counties. Republicans, both nationally and locally, have been more reluctant to accept the importance of getting vaccinated and other preventative measures. This is also true of predominantly rural counties, which many of these also happen to be.

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