Gazette Daily News Podcast, February 2

There will be a small chance for snow Wednesday, but it shouldn’t be too much to worry about, as it appears a large storm will be dipping south slightly and missing most of us. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of snow before 7 a.m. on Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area. After that it will be cloudy, with a high near 16 degrees. Wind chill values will vary between -5 and -10 degrees. On Wednesday night it will be mostly cloudy with a low around 3.

Summit Carbon Solutions wants permission to use eminent domain to build a carbon dioxide pipeline through 30 Iowa counties in Northern and Western Iowa, according to a permit application filed with the Iowa Utilities Board.

This means the Ames-based company doesn’t have all the voluntary easements from property owners to build 681 miles of pipeline, and now is asking the board for permission to use private property with payment, but against owners’ wishes.

The board will decide whether the CO2 pipeline — designed to transport the greenhouse gas from ethanol and fertilizer plants to an underground sequestration site in North Dakota — fulfills a public use necessary to qualify for using eminent domain.

Members of the billionaire Sackler family that own Purdue Pharma are close to a deal to increase their contribution to the OxyContin maker's sweeping opioid settlement that includes Iowa, court papers show.

The family and a handful of state attorneys general that have been opposing the settlement are nearing a deal that would provide a "substantial" additional contribution on top of the $4.325 billion the company's owners already pledged, according to the court documents.

Purdue's settlement would allow the company to resolve trillions of dollars in claims against it over its role in the opioid crisis. The deal calls for handing nearly all of the drugmaker's assets over to the states, cities and counties suing it for its handling of OxyContin, and would provide billions of dollars to addiction abatement initiatives.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller estimates Iowa could receive about $25 million to address opioid abuse.

According to the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, State officials are working to determine whether groundwater contamination occurred when an unattended fuel station in Eldora leaked an estimated 7,500 gallons of gasoline into the ground last week.

Workers excavated concrete and soil throughout the weekend at the Fast Stop on the east side of town that is operated by agricultural cooperative AgVantage Farm Supply, said Carl Berg, an environmental specialist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

“They haven’t hit groundwater yet,” Berg told the Capitol Dispatch on Monday. “It just all depends on the geology and the location of the leak. … If it’s not contained, it can be significant.”

If the fuel reaches groundwater, it might travel away from the site and contaminate a larger area, he said.

Chuck Swanson, executive director of Hancher Auditorium since 2002, announced his retirement Tuesday.

The 68-year-old Swanson expects to step aside this summer after embarking on a farewell trip to Broadway with donors in June, then working on a legacy video project capturing the voices of what the University of Iowa performing arts and education venue has meant to people over the years.

Swanson told the Gazette that Hancher has been his passion, but it feels like the right time to let someone else take the reins at the nationally respected venue as it moves to a self-sustaining funding model that will not rely on funding from the university to pay its employees.

Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop.