Gazette Daily News Podcast, March 31

Snow is likely Thursday morning. And if that has you feeling down I can report that this will be the coldest day of the week, so it’s all up from here.

According to the National Weather Service overnight rain could become snow after 4 a.m. on Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area and this should continue into the afternoon. It will be cloudy with a high near 39 degrees. The total chance of precipitation is 70 percent, with less than a half inch of snow possible. It will be windy during the day with wind gusts as high as 30 mph, before calming down Thursday night.

A federal judge has ruled the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics not only violated wage laws by paying workers late, but it did so intentionally and must pay “liquidated damages” to over 8,000 current and former UIHC employees.

The lawsuit contended UIHC was compensating employees for overtime or extra time hours later than the Iowa wage law allows.

Although attorneys for the state argued that UIHC shouldn’t have to pay affected employees additional damages because it eventually paid them what they earned, U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Rose wrote in her ruling Tuesday that UIHC must be penalized to stop future infractions.

Several UIHC employees filed the initial lawsuit in 2019, and Judge Rose last year certified it as class-action, granting class status to three groups — including employees who worked for UIHC since fall 2017 and weren’t paid until more than 12 days after the end of the period in which they earned their wages, as required by state law.

For the first time since the pandemic began in Iowa two years ago, area hospitals are reporting having zero COVID-19 patients on certain days as the latest coronavirus surge continues to wind down in Iowa.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state ticked up to 74 people in the past week, up from the previous week’s total of 67, according to federal data.

That compares to the seven-day peak of 991 hospitalizations reported Jan. 19 during the height of the omicron surge.

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care also ticked up to 15 in the past seven days, compared to 11 in the previous week. But reaching zero COVID-19 patients, even for one day, marks a major milestone for health care providers who have been on the front lines of the pandemic for the past two years.

The state of Iowa is trying to do its part as Ukraine continues to resist an invasion from Russia, announcing Wednesday it is shipping unused protective helmets and vests from state and local law enforcement agencies to the embattled country, where they will be donated with the hope of helping Ukrainian military forces and citizens.

During a news conference at Camp Dodge, where Slyvka spoke, Iowa officials said the state public safety department oversaw the collection of donated gear from its own reserves as well as 18 local law enforcement agencies around the state, and will send 146 protective helmets and 714 ballistic vests to Ukraine.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state stands ready to accept Ukrainian refugees and has notified the federal government. She said she does not have a projected timeline for when the federal government might ask Iowa to house Ukrainian refugees.

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 you can order online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop.