Gazette Daily News Podcast, August 5

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So you know how the weather this week has been unusually cool and sunny, letting us walk around pretending like this is totally normal and we live in tallcorn San Diego? Well we get to keep that for one more day, two at the most, so enjoy it. According to the National Weather Service, your high for the Cedar Rapids area on Wednesday will be 78 degrees, mostly sunny, with a light southwest breeze. Wednesday night could see a slight chance of rain.

Iowa's recent COVID-19 wave seems to have plateaued, at least for the moment. According to data provided by the state, last week's trend of increasing numbers of people listed as recovered from the disease is continuing into this week. In contract, with the new rate of people confirmed as infected coming in at 250 a day this week, the amount of people testing positive for the novel coronavirus is down compared to last month.

However, hospitalizations remain at a high level for Iowa, with 243 people requiring hospital treatment for the disease. Iowa also is steadily heading toward 1,000 deaths, with 893 people so far have been listed as dying from the disease.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds warned Tuesday that school districts defying her order to provide at least 50 percent in-person instruction for core subjects when classes resume would not meet state requirements for instructional time and would have to make up the time for students to receive credit.

Speaking to reporters, the governor noted most of Iowa's school districts are planning to resume classes in compliance with a directive she said was based on a state law passed unanimously in the last session. The five or so school districts that are looking to provide at least initial instruction via online only instruction, or with a hybrid approach that falls short of the in-person threshold, will be in violation of state law if they defy last week's proclamation, she said.

Yet the Iowa City School District on Tuesday night indicated that they would be doing what they've already said they wanted to do-- delaying school and seeking a waiver to allow the district to proceed with its online only learning plan for the beginning of the school year.  

The Iowa City Community School District's first day of school will be delayed two weeks until Sept. 8 as it awaits word from the state on its request to begin the academic year entirely online.

All the district's school board members voted during a special meeting Tuesday in favor of delaying the first day from Aug. 24 to Sept. 8. Board members and district officials also argued that this two week window will allow the district to better assess safety for their students as 30,000 college students are set to return to Iowa City for the start of the fall semester at the University of Iowa. College-aged students were cited as the most prolific spreaders of the coronavirus during the most recent spike in July in Johnson County.

This week I wanted to take the end of the briefing as an opportunity to thank our listeners. It has been two years now since I started doing these, and with the help of my digital news teammates this year we have made it a daily affair. 

And, while thanking you all, I will invite you all to tell us what you like about our briefing or what you might like changed. Would you like fewer narrators named Stephen, or more? Longer weather segments? More sports? A longer or shorter briefing in general? Send these comments and suggestions, or anything else you would like, to podcasts@thegazette.com.