Gazette Daily News Podcast, March 4

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Thursday, March 4.

All that snow melting recently may contribute some to the fog during your commute Thursday morning, but besides that it will be another sunny day. According to the National Weather Service, the fog possibility of fog will lessen in the Cedar Rapids area after 10 a.m. Then it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 43 degrees. The low will be 23 degrees Thursday night, with partly cloudy skies.

Demonstrating her faith in the newly approved one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine against COVID-19, Gov. Kim Reynolds was injected with it Wednesday on live television.

Reynolds, along with her husband, Kevin, and state Public Health Director Kelly Garcia received inoculations partway through a news conference at the Iowa PBS studios.

Reynolds said she waited until now to receive a COVID-19 vaccine to defer to other Iowans in populations more vulnerable to the infection's most severe effects. She said she chose to receive the Johnson & Johnson shot to show Iowans it is as safe and effective as the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines already in circulation. While the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was shown in clinical trials to prevent virus deaths and severe symptoms, it has been tested as being less effective in preventing moderate symptoms.

Iowans will not have to pay state income taxes on the temporary federal unemployment compensation they received during the pandemic, under a bill passed unanimously by the Iowa House on Wednesday.

Representatives agreed to add the provision to a Senate-passed measure that exempted federal Paycheck Protection Program grants and loans given Iowa businesses after the pandemic arrived in Iowa last March.

Democrats sought to also exempt state jobless benefits from Iowa income tax, but that effort failed because of its additional cost.

Environmental groups spoke out this week against a third attempt to open an 11,600-head cattle feedlot near Monona.

The public meeting Monday was over the nutrient management plan submitted by Supreme Beef, owned by Mike Walz, Dean Walz and Jared Walz.

The men have been trying to open a feedlot on the site since 2017, but the proposal has met ongoing opposition from some neighbors and environmentalists concerned about the 34.5 million gallons a year of manure coming from the feedlot polluting streams and groundwater.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources in October approved Supreme Beef for 2,700 cattle, but the company wants a larger operation.

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