Gazette Daily News Podcast, April 28

Today's weather: Expect showers and thunderstorms into the evening with a high near 72 and an 48.More testing has increased the total number of coronavirus cases by 392 to 5,476 in 85 of Iowa's 99 counties. The total death count is 127.Governor Kim Reynolds has begun lifting coronavirus restrictions in 77 Iowa counties, allowing restaurants, malls, and many other locations to start opening up at 50 percent capacity starting Friday.Different midwest governors are handling the state's re-opening on different schedules. Iowa and Nebraska are both starting to ease restrictions, while Wisconsin and Illinois are both extending their shelter-in-place orders.Iowa has seen a 48 percent drop in tax revenue over the last 5 weeks, and while not all of it is due to the coronavirus pandemic, the closure of restaurants, bars, and other public areas certainly has an impact. State reserves and rainy day funds should allow continued operations without any major impact, but this is obviously at least a partial factor in the urgency to open back up.Garden sales and compost pickups are still happening with social distancing, but with some small changes. Compost is still available for free from the Solid Waste Agency by mount trashmore, but mulch will cost $40 a ton and is only available to commercial account holders.Kirkwood elementary school has reached settlement with a teacher who was dismissed for their comments about antifa on social media. Jeff Klinzman will be paid $25,000, but will not be teaching in a Kirkwood classroom again.

Backyard Abundance, Indian Creek Nature Center, Linn County Master Gardeners, Matthew 25, and Noelridge Greenhouse Mother's Day Showcase also all have their own policies, so be sure to check before going to pick up any plants, compost, mulch, or other needs.

This episode was produced and recorded by Stephen Colbert. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa to 'enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying 'Alexa, what's the news?"