Gazette Daily News Podcast, April 28

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, April 28.

We will now begin our rainy part of the week, although it will be of the scattered variety. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance for scattered storms and showers Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area. When it is not raining, it is predicted to be mostly cloudy with a high of 67 degrees. This chance of rain will carry on into Wednesday night and then into Thursday beyond. The chance for rain is listed at 30 percent for Wednesday for most of the day.

No you weren’t just hearing things. Low-flying jets that rumbled Thursday night around Cedar Rapids — causing many to take to social media to wonder what the roar was — were a pair of F-16 Fighting Falcon military aircraft on a training mission from a Wisconsin Air National Guard unit.

At least two Eastern Iowa television stations reported last week that the 115th Fighter Wing based in Madison did not have jets in this area last Thursday when the craft were seen and heard. However, in an email Tuesday afternoon to The Gazette, the unit’s public affairs office confirmed that indeed it did. The unit described the activity of the planes as “routine.”

Only 19 of Iowa’s 99 counties want all the COVID-19 vaccines they are entitled to next week, public health officials said Tuesday, even as the state relaxes its rule on how many of those doses must end up in arms.

The decline in demand has been both swift and steep.

It was only a few weeks ago that the scarcity of vaccines led Iowans to liken the difficulty in getting an appointment with the “Hunger Games” in leaving vulnerable people behind. Vaccine helpers sprang up to give advice, write computer programs and volunteer to snag appointments for friends. But then in late April, 43 Iowa counties declined all or some of the COVID-19 vaccines doses they were allotted to get. Tuesday, that number nearly doubled to 80 counties declining doses for next week. Iowa health officials said this is a trend they are seeing in other states as well that they are still working to come up with a strategy for.

Iowa is nearing one million people who have completed the COVID-19 vaccine regimen. Iowa ranks 14th in the nation in its vaccination rate according to CDC data.

The 2021 legislative session is going to go into overtime as top Republicans try to hammer out differences that are holding up adjournment.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, said lawmakers will be at the Statehouse in May to complete their work given that agreements between the House and Senate have been elusive in cutting taxes and funding several priorities that have dogged legislators most of the 107 days they have been at the Capitol.

Both chambers also still have major work to do to pass an $8 billion-plus state spending plan for fiscal 2022.

A trial date has been set for two prison inmates accused of using a hammer to kill a prison nurse and correctional officer during an escape attempt last month from the Anamosa State Penitentiary.

Michael Dutcher and Thomas Woodard Jr. are scheduled to go on trial June 22 in Jones County for the March 23 deaths of nurse Lorena Schulte and correctional officer Robert McFarland

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