Gazette Daily News Podcast, May 5

Today's weather has a Showers, mainly before 5pm. High near 50

Tonight sees a continued chance of showers and a low around 42.

Yesterday saw another 534 positive coronavirus cases bringing the total to 9,703 in 91 of Iowa's 99 counties. 4 more deaths brings the total for the state to 188.

Most Iowans approve of Governor Kim Reynold' handling of the coronavirus according to a new poll. The poll shows 54% approve of how she's handled it, while only 46% of the state approve of Donald's Trump's. Reynolds has come under fire as one of the only governors in the country to not issue a stay-at-home order during the pandemic, as well as the fact that she's beginning to open the state up despite numbers still increasing. According to Reynolds, the increases are due to a backlog being cleared by increased testing, and the counties being opened back up are the ones least impacted, as most Iowa cases are in just 4 Eastern Iowa counties. 

Iowa federal court is preparing to bring back juries. Federal court officials have made contingency plans to go forward with grand jury proceedings after May 11 — and possibly trials that are on the docket after June 1 — but there will be safety precautions in place. The plan is to use the largest courtrooms available so the grand jury of 16-20 people can be properly spaced out.

Cottage Grove Place, one of the largest senior living centers in Cedar Rapids, is now the site of a COVID-19 outbreak, making it the fifth long-term care facility in the county. The death of one resident is associated with this outbreak.

In lighter news, If you're doing a lot more Zoom conferences from home during the coronavirus, you can now spice it up by adding a live llama!  Prairie Patch Farm in Cedar Rapids have started offering 'llama bombs' where they'll have a llama join your Zoom call. It's more than just a boring call with a llama, though. Prairie Patch owner Kahle Boutte also gives llama fun facts and other cool llama info. She even dresses them in unicorn horns and other costumes for the 15-30 minute calls.

You can find all this and the rest of our coronavirus coverage at our dedicated coronavirus page, TheGazette.com/coronavirus

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