Gazette Daily News Podcast, March 25

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26.

Our weekend weather looks cool and a bit wet. According to the National Weather Service, snow in the early morning should cease by 8 a.m. on Saturday in the Cedar Rapids area. It will eventually become sunny, with a high near 49 degrees. On Sunday there will be a slight chance of snow early, but it will be sunny again with a high near 44 degrees.

Three years after Iowa sidestepped traditional competitive bidding to hire a cloud computing company with little state government experience, the state has ended its contract with Workday.

After delaying the project last year because of “implementation issues,” the Department of Management and Office of Chief Information Officer decided the Workday platform won’t meet the state’s needs, according to a news release Friday.

The state now has signed a contract with CGI — its former vendor — to take over upgrading the financial management platform to a cloud-based solution. The project will start April 1, with an estimated completion in March 2024.

The Governor’s Office did not immediately respond to a question about how much money already had been spent on the failed implementation. The news release also did not say how much CGI will be paid through the new contract.

Cedar Rapids schools interim Superintendent Art Sathoff is stepping down next Friday, and incoming Superintendent Tawana Grover will begin April 3 — three months early — pending board approval.

The Cedar Rapids school board is expected to accept Sathoff’s resignation Monday in a board meeting. In that same meeting, Grover will be named interim Superintendent effective April 3. She will drop the “interim” title and start as superintendent July 1, according to board documents.

Grover, 47, was named the next superintendent of the school district in January, becoming its first female Black leader.

Caitlin Clark spearheaded the Iowa Hawkeyes to a telling 13-0 third-quarter run, propelling third-ranked squad to an 87-77 NCAA women’s basketball regional-semifinal win over the Colorado Buffaloes on Friday at Climate Pledge Arena.

Iowa (28-6) advances to the Elite Eight for the fifth time in program history, the first since 2019. The Hawkeyes will face Louisville (26-11) — a 72-62 winner over Mississippi — in a regional final at 8 p.m. (CT) Sunday.

The victor advances to the Final Four next week in Dallas.