Gazette Daily News Podcast, August 18

It will be a little hotter Thursday with a chance for rain in the evening. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 85 degrees. On Thursday night there will be a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Otherwise, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 64 degrees.

Drivers traveling south on Interstate 380 should be prepared for a significant change Friday morning as an old ramp closes and a new flyover ramp opens — a big milestone for the massive reconstruction of the Interstates 80 and 380 interchange.

The existing loop that connected I-380 southbound to I-80 eastbound will close permanently as the new flyover ramp opens. The exit toward I-80 eastbound will now be about half a mile earlier on I-380.

This is the last of the loop ramps to close within the interchange, and it is the second flyover ramp to open. The flyover ramp uses a new, elevated bridge.

The Iowa DOT anticipates some initial confusion with the exit toward I-80 eastbound — Exit 0A toward Iowa City — being about half a mile earlier.

For drivers, that means the exit toward Iowa City will now be before the exit for I-80 westbound. The westbound exit — Exit 0B toward Des Moines — will remain in the same location.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped 24 percent in Iowa in the past week, and the number of new cases also decreased by double-digits.

As of Wednesday, 244 Iowans were hospitalized with COVID, down from the 323 hospitalizations reported the previous week, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In the past week, 4,921 new virus cases were reported, down from the 5,660 cases reported last week, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union confirmed Wednesday that high school students may now earn monetary compensation from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).

Iowa becomes the 15th state to approve high school NIL, which was instituted at the collegiate level nationwide last year.

There are some restrictions on NIL for high schoolers. The compensation can not be tied to specific athletic achievements, the compensation cannot be intended to convince an athlete to attend a particular school, or to remain enrolled at a school. And the compensation should not be provided by the school or an organization associated with the school.

The guidelines, IHSAA executive director Tom Keating said, “aren’t meant to be heavy-handed or punitive in nature. We needed to give students some guidance, some things to think about, as we go forward.