Gazette Daily News Podcast, December 29

It will be a bit like early spring weather Thursday, with drizzle, fog, and warm air. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy with a high near 45 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday. There will be areas of fog throughout the day, and a chance for drizzle, primarily after 5 p.m. On Thursday night there will be a 20 percent chance of rain, with a low around 29 degrees.

A person was found dead late Tuesday inside a North Liberty mobile home where crews were called to fight a fire.

According to the North Liberty Fire Department, crews were dispatched shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday to 95 Golf View Court. A police officer who was first to arrive saw flames at the front door and at a back window. Fire crews found a fire in the living room, which they quickly extinguished.

An occupant and three dogs were found inside, all dead, authorities said. The name of the occupant has not yet been released. The Johnson County Medical Examiner and the State Fire Marshal’s Office were called to the scene.

A cause for the fire has not yet been determined.

Two years ago, University of Iowa Health Care co-led a study researching the benefits of new COVID-19 vaccines.

But a lot has changed since that study’s publication — with individual immunity waning, COVID variants mutating and boosters arriving — prompting UIHC this month to announce it’s working with UCLA on a second version of the “Preventing Emerging Infections through Vaccine Effectiveness Testing” study, called “PREVENT.”

The PREVENT II research — co-led by UI’s Carver College of Medicine and University of California, Los Angeles, with a $13.6 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — aims primarily to evaluate the ongoing effectiveness of vaccines and specifically boosters.

On the COVID-19 front, Iowa on Wednesday reported 2,148 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, a 39 percent decrease from last week’s 3,493 cases.This is the first significant drop of recent weeks, which had been featuring increasing numbers each week. Whether or not this is another peak for the latest spike in cases will likely have to wait until the results of holiday travel bear out over the next few weeks into the return of school.

The nation’s largest e-cigarette maker, Juul Labs Inc., will revamp its advertising and retail practices in Iowa and pay $5 million over a four-year period in order to resolve potential violations of state law.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced the settlement Wednesday to resolve potential violations of Iowa’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Miller alleges that Iowa youth under the age of 21 were targeted by the company's products and became users in violation of state law.

As part of the agreement, Juul will send $1.25 million each year to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. The funding will be used to provide resources and education to Iowa youth under the age of 21 targeted by the company's products who became users, including assistance in quitting e-cigarette use.

The company, for its part, still officially denies any wrongdoing.