Gazette Daily News Podcast, January 19

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, January 19th.

Wednesday will unfortunately begin the very cold portion of the week. According to a forecast from the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny and cold in the Cedar Rapids area with the temperature falling to 4 degrees by 11 a.m. Wind child values will be as low as -15, with a wind of 15 to 25 mph gusting as high as 35 mph. If that wasn’t bad enough, it will drop down to -8 degrees Wednesday night.

UIHC needs to find itself a new CEO.

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Chief Executive Officer Suresh Gunasekaran — just three years after arriving to lead the state’s largest teaching hospital — is leaving to head the No. 9-ranked University of California San Francisco Academic Health System. His departure was announced by the university on Tuesday evening.

Gunasekaran will be leaving at the end of February to start March 1 as CEO of the UCSF Academic Health System. Gunasekaran started at UIHC on Nov. 19, 2018, following a national search to replace UIHC CEO Ken Kates, who had retired. Before joining UIHC, Gunasekaran was chief operations officer for the University of Texas Southwestern Health System in Dallas.

We don’t know what the Democratic campaigns for governor have raised, yet, but we know now that if they want to raise more than their Republican rival, Kim Reynolds, they will have to set a record.

Gov. Reynolds’ campaign announced it raised nearly $3.8 million in 2021 and finished the year with nearly $4.8 million in its account. The campaign said both would be state records: the former being the most raised in a year preceding an election, and the latter the most ever for a statewide campaign.

Reynolds has not yet officially declared her campaign for re-election, although she is widely expected to run for another four-year term. Democrats running to face Reynolds include two candidates from Des Moines: businesswoman Deidre DeJear and lawyer Kim West.

A Tama County grand jury Monday did not indict a Tama County sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Chelsea man after the man fired his handgun during an October standoff, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

According to an account from authorities, the Tama County Sheriff’s Office received calls at about 7:27 p.m. Oct. 28 reporting gunshots being fired near 1001 Station St. in Chelsea. When officers arrived, they found Dewey Dale Wilfong III, 28, displaying a handgun toward others in a “threatening manner.”

Several law enforcement agencies from the surrounding area responded to the scene, and a standoff escalated to the point where Wilfong discharged his handgun. A Tama County sheriff’s deputy, who is not identified in the news release, fired one round, striking Wilfong in the upper torso.

Wilfong was taken to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, where he was pronounced dead.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation conducted an independent investigation into the shooting and a case was presented to a grand jury for possible charges, which they then indicated did not merit going to a jury trial.

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