Gazette Daily News Podcast, April 16

Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to 'enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying 'Alexa, what's the news?"

For Thursday's weather we should see a combination that weather forecasters usually refer to as wintry mix. One part of that mix? It will remain chilly, with a high of 42 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area according to the National Weather Service. The other part will come with increasing clouds after 3:00 p.m. and with those clouds will come a chance for rain, and later, as the temperature drops, a chance for more snow late Thursday evening.An outbreak of the Covid-19 coronavirus at a Tyson Foods pork plant in Columbus Junction, which resulted in 148 positive cases of the disease, has resulted in the deaths of two people the company announced on Wednesday. The plant has been idled since April 6, when Tyson announced more than two dozen workers were infected. Iowa's total death toll from the disease as of Wednesday as 53 dead and 1,995 infected. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wednesday she is talking with her team about how she can reopen the many businesses in the state that have remained closed due to social distancing, perhaps starting with the less densely populated areas of the state that have seen fewer cases. She cautioned that all indicators are that Iowa's peak with the disease would likely not arrive until the end of April at the earliest.

University of Iowa Health Care has started treating severe cases of COVID-19 with donated plasma from recovered patients as part of a newtrial to determine whether the donor antibodies can help fight the disease.

So far, 11 recovered patients have donated plasma for the UIHC trial, and five patients have received the plasma via transfusion as part of their COVID-19 care at UI Hospitals and Clinics, officials announced Wednesday. University officials said it is too soon to know if the patients there are seeing benefits from the treatment.

Longtime local radio sports personality Scott Unash is leaving KGYM in Cedar Rapids on a full-time basis to become race director at Hawkeye Downs race track.

Unash has been a play-by-play voice for football and prep basketball games for over three decades, beginning his career at KOUR-AM in Independence, then coming to Cedar Rapids to work for KCRG-AM.

Unash has been a play-by-play voice for football and prep basketball games for over three decades, beginning his career at KOUR-AM in Independence, then coming to Cedar Rapids to work for KCRG-AM.

Unash has two decades of experience at Hawkeye Downs as track announcer. He will focus on logistics and operations for weekly race nights, enduro events, private track rentals and new racing/auto-related events.

Unash will still appear on KGYM radio including with play-by-play action.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers.  Are you looking for a job? CorridorCareers.com is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at CorridorCareers.com.