Gazette Daily News Podcast, Feb. 7

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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, Feb. 7th.

For our Cedar Rapids area weather today, according to the National Weather Service, we can expect a chance of flurries after 7 a.m. It will be a partly sunny day, with a high near 22. Wind chill values could be as low as -10. Winds from the northwest 5 to 10 mph, then coming from the south in the afternoon. For tonight, a chance of flurries before 7 p.m., and partly cloudy, with a low around 13.

The Cedar Rapids Virtual Academy will no longer offer live, daily instruction from district teachers next school year. Instead, virtual learning will be offered to kindergarten though eighth-graders next fall through Edgenuity, a nationally accredited online provider. The district announced the switch — beginning in the 2022-23 school year — in a newsletter to families on Friday. The online classes are offered to families who want a virtual alternative instead of sending their children to in-person classes. Students now enrolled in the Cedar Rapids Virtual Academy have daily, live, online instruction with a district teacher and some independent work. The Friday newsletter did not say how online instruction will be offered to high school students next school year, and district officials could not be reached for comment.

Large landowners in Linn County who are looking this spring to replant trees lost in the 2020 derecho will benefit from the next phase of Marion-based not-for-profit Monarch Research’s Planting Forward reforestation initiative. Monarch Research is offering large private landowners easy access to native Iowa trees to be planted this spring in the 2022 Planting Forward for Woodlands project. Interested landowners have from now until Feb. 18 to order trees at the organization’s website, monarchresearch.org, to meet spring planting timelines. This project is intended for private landowners who lost more than 25 trees during the Aug. 10, 2020, derecho. Monarch Research has earmarked a limited number of trees for these landowners or those with 3 or more woodland acres.

Support for this podcast provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s source for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop.

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🎹 Podcast music: “World” by Emily McGlothlen