Gazette Daily News Podcast, November 16

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, November 16th.

Tuesday will offer a break from our recent cold trend. According to the National Weather Service we can expect mostly sunny skies with a high near 58 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. On Tuesday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 40 degrees. Enjoy it while it lasts, however, as the rest of the week after Wednesday looks like it will be returning to late November reality.

An Iowa City man was sentenced to 60-years in prison Monday for killing a man and injuring several others when he attempted to kill himself by driving the wrong way on Interstate 80 in 2019.

34-year-old Stephen Lucore was found guilty of several charges, including second degree murder and homicide by vehicle, for the death of Robert Sawyer, 64, of Nocona, TX. Members of the Sawyer family, including David Sawyer, who was driving the vehicle Lucore collided with, were in attendance Monday and pleaded for justice.

The state of Iowa spent about $12.3 billion in federal funds in fiscal 2020 that represented about a $3 billion increase — much of which was tied to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act — according to an audit issued Monday by State Auditor Rob Sand.

Sand said about $2.3 billion of the 32.7 percent spike in federal aid the state received during the 2020 fiscal year came from the CARES Act, while changes in non-CARES and non-loan programs included an increase of about $518 million in funding for Medicaid expenditures.

Sand critiqued Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for using funding to pay her personal staff, which he described as having too many people. He suggested that the justification for using the federal funding was not properly done, and some money might need to be returned.

A spokesperson for the governor said that her staff has spent much of its time since the pandemic began dealing with the after effects of the pandemic, so using recovery funds to pay them is appropriate, and the U.S. Department of Treasury has signed off on this use.

Iowa will receive roughly $5 billion over five years in new federal funding from the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law Monday.

The new federal funding for roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects will provide a revenue boost similar to when the state raised its fuel tax by a dime a gallon in 2015, according to Iowa’s Department of Transportation director.

Stuart Anderson, director of the Iowa Department of Transportation’s transportation development division, said the funding boost represents a 25 percent increase in the first year, and increases to a 35 percent boost by the fifth year.

“That definitely will mean more funding is available for construction work,” Anderson said.

The U.S. Senate passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure funding bill in August and the U.S. House passed it last weekend. Of Iowa’s senators and representatives, only Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democratic Representative Cindy Axne voted in favor of the bill.

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