Gazette Daily News Podcast, April 24

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It was a long week, but you made it to Friday! Have a cookie.Now that I think of it, have some ice cream, too.

Showers are likely before 10:00 a.m. this morning in the Cedar Rapids area, according to the National Weather Service. It should be cloudy during the day with a windspeed of 10 mph. Then there will be a chance of some light rain again Friday night. The weekend is looking sunny and mild, with some chance for high winds Saturday.

From 'Dude, Where's My Car?' to 'Hey Governor, have you heard about this coronavirus testing?' Iowa native Ashton Kutcher has come a long way.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday that the state's $26 million contract with Utah companies to increase coronavirus testing was developed after she got unsolicited advice from Kutcher. Reynolds had been talking to Kutcher to ask him to do a public service announcement related to the pandemic, when Kutcher mentioned he had a friend involved in the Utah testing effort launched this month and wanted to know if there would be any interest from Iowa. A spokesperson for Kutcher clarified that his venture capital firm, A-Grade Investments, has no financial interest in the companies.

Gov. Reynolds said Thursday at her daily press conference that she would like to open the state back up for business 'sooner rather than later' and increased testing could allow some of Iowa's sparsely populated counties who have few to no COVID-19 cases to ease their way back into a sense of normalcy. Most businesses in the state have been hindered either somewhat or totally in the past month after they closed in an effort to slow the spread of the virus that travels via respiratory droplets. As usual, Reynolds would not give an exact timeline for when this reopening would take place.

As of Thursday, there were 3,924 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, and 93 deaths from the disease. Another telling statistic that was released Thursday was updated unemployment claims. In Iowa, nearly 233,000 jobless benefit claims have been filed over the past five weeks.

Who knows what the NFL season is going to look like at this point, but we now know where a very large Iowa Hawkeye is going to play in it. Star tackle Tristan Wirfs could be blocking for Tom Brady as he was selected with the #13 pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the prestigious first round of the NFL Draft.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers.  Are you looking for a job? CorridorCareers.com is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at CorridorCareers.com.