Gazette Daily News Podcast, January 25

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This is John McGlothlen with the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Monday, January 25th.

Eastern Iowa will get walloped with as much as a foot of snow, strong wind and freezing rain as a storm parks for hours over the area today. The National Weather Service said the storm would reach Interstate 80, Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities between 2 and 4 p.m. The snow is expected initially to be heavy and wet. But later, as temperatures drop toward evening, it will turn fluffy — increasing drifting and decreasing visibility. The weather service said, 'Travel could be very difficult to impossible.' Snowfall totals are expected to be heavier south of Highway 30: Washington may see 8 to 12 inches; Iowa City 7 to 11 inches; and Cedar Rapids 6 to 11 inches, forecasters predicted. Our high temperature will be near 27, with a northeast wind 10 to 20 mph, and gusts as high as 30 mph. Then a low around 20 tonight.

A mom and her son are accused of biting and punching police officers who were breaking up a fight Saturday afternoon at the southwest side Walmart Supercenter. According to a police account and criminal complaints, Timothy Dwayne Christmas, who turned 18 last week, and his mother, Kevett'a McPhan, 37, were both arrested. The incident began at 3:11 p.m. Saturday when a Cedar Rapids officer there was alerted about two people arguing and chasing each other in the store. The officer was talking with one of those involved in the parking lot outside when the other — identified as Christmas — approached and tried to start a fight there, authorities said. The officer kept the two separated and called for backup. Christmas went back in the Walmart, where responding officers followed moments later. A Walmart employee told police that Christmas punched him in the face when he had asked the teen to leave the store, police said. Officers found Christmas and were arresting him when authorities said he assaulted several of them. According to a criminal complaint, he shoved one, tried to head-butt another and bit the left thumb of another, causing it to bleed. McPhan — his mother — also became involved, punching another officer in the chest. Christmas faces charges of assault on a police officer causing injury, two counts of assault on a police officer, assault and interference with official acts. McPhan faces charges of assault on a police officer and interference with official acts.

Continuing a downward trajectory from a pre-Thanksgiving spike, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Iowa reached a low Sunday not seen in about four months and finally dipping below last summer's worst surge. The number of people being treated for the respiratory illness in Iowa hospitals declined from 419 to 382 in the 24-hour period ending at 11 a.m. Sunday. Those in intensive care inched up from 76 to 79, while those placed on ventilators dropped from 38 to 36. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state has been ticking down since an alarming spike of 1,527 patients reported Nov. 18. The 382 patients reported Sunday morning is the lowest level since 376 on Sept 29. The decline from the spike now puts the number of COVID-19 patients below the worst of last summer, when hospitalizations in Iowa reached 417 on May 7.