Gazette Daily News Podcast, June 21

There will be a slight chance for rain Tuesday evening, but besides that it will be another hot, muggy day. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4 p.m. getting slightly more likely toward 10:00 p.m. Otherwise it will be sunny and hot, with a high near 96 degrees and heat index values as high as 104. The low will be about 69 degrees.

Insurance and investment services company Transamerica filed a notice with Iowa Workforce Development saying it will eliminate 40 positions as of Aug. 15.

The company began paring away at its Cedar Rapids employee count back in 2018 when it outsourced parts of its business to India-based Tata Consultancy Services. At that time it shifted 882 jobs to Tata.

Transamerica, with offices on C Street SW in Cedar Rapids, is a subsidiary of AEGON, a Netherlands-based life insurance company headquartered in the Netherlands.

It placed the site of its former Edgewood Road and 42nd Street NE offices on a two-day auction through California-based Ten-X beginning this week, after being unable to find a buyer since March 2021. The starting bid was set at $1.75 million.

Officials for Transamerica did not respond for comment when asked by the Gazette about the latest position changes or how many employees it still has in Cedar Rapids.

According to the Associated Press, President Joe Biden said Monday that he will decide by the end of the week whether he will support a federal gasoline tax holiday, possibly saving U.S. consumers as much as 18 cents a gallon.

The administration is increasingly looking for ways to spare the public from higher prices at the pump, which began to climb last year and surged after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Gas prices nationwide are averaging just under $5 a gallon, according to AAA.

Prior to its invasion of Ukraine, Russia provided as much as 12 percent of the world’s oil supply, but the conflict led the United States and Europe to boycott Russian oil exports.

Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel help to pay for highways, which is why even if it were approved, it would likely only be a temporary holiday to help lower prices through peak travel months.

The Cedar Rapids City Council has given a green light to continued operation of the city’s automated traffic cameras, extending the city’s contract for the system’s operation through June 30, 2027.

The council’s agreement with Beverly, Mass.-based Sensys Gatso USA, approved this past Tuesday, extends the current agreement, which would have expired at the end of this month.

The city uses 15 traffic cameras to enforce speed violations at four locations along Interstate 380 and to monitor red-light and speeding violations at five intersections in the city. The camera locations are posted on the city’s website.

To date, the traffic camera program has generated $7.43 million in revenue in fiscal 2022, which ends June 30. The traffic cameras have experienced their own speed bumps in the past, with some state lawmakers trying to ban their use, but they have the support of the Cedar Rapids city government for the moment.