Gazette Daily News Podcast, November 2

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Voters have a final opportunity today to cast their ballots in Iowa’s city and school board elections.

At stake in the Cedar Rapids area: Voters will cast ballots for mayor and other : Who serves on city councils and school boards seats. Also on the ballot , whether Linn County communities can keep paying for infrastructure with a sales tax, if the door remains open to apply again for a Cedar Rapids casino, and the fate of other local ballot questions.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Today’s forecast is mostly sunny with highs in the mid-40s. Voters must show an approved identification like a driver's license, voter ID card, passport or military ID.

Check back at thegazette.com/election-results for election results soon after polls close.

Alliant Energy plans Tuesday to file a proposal with the Iowa Utilities Board to buy a large-scale solar project near Palo from NextEra Energy. The utility company wants to develop that project into the state’s largest solar and battery storage facility.

The plan calls for NextEra to continue developing 200 megawatts of solar energy and 75 megawatts of energy storage as the first two phases of a planned solar project near the site of the decommissioning Duane Arnold Energy Center.

Alliant would buy the completed project from NextEra, adding another 200 megawatts of solar at a later date, Alliant announced Tuesday morning.

By locating the project at the former Duane Arnold site, Alliant can use power transmission infrastructure already there, the company said.

Once all the new Palo projects are operational, combined with Alliant Energy’s existing 1,300 megawatts of wind generation in Iowa, nearly 50 percent of the company’s total resource mix in the state will be from renewable resources, the company said.

Alliant is on pace to meet this milestone by 2025. The company wants to be at net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Monday marked the deadline for all UnityPoint Health employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. More than 98 percent of staff at the health system’s Cedar Rapids hospital are compliant with the policy, meaning they are fully vaccinated or have been approved for a religious or medical exemption.

Employees who fail to be vaccinated and don’t meet the criteria for an exemption will be placed on administrative leave starting Tuesday.

Workers are being placed on administrative leave instead of being fired while the company considers exemptions recently made possible under a new state law. Signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds last week, the law allows Iowa workers to seek medical and religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

MercyOne, which operates the other major hospital in Cedar Rapids, pushed back its vaccine requirement to Nov. 12 to allow employees who were denied exemptions more time to seek a waiver under the new law.

The 2021 Iowa high school state volleyball tournament started Monday and runs through Thursday at Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids. Monday’s action saw a stunning upset: Tenth-ranked Johnston overcame two match points in the fourth set, erased a 12-10 deficit in the fifth and shocked No. 1 Iowa City Liberty.

Follow our live coverage at thegazette.com/volleyball throughout the week with the pairings, schedules, scores, photos and more for all five classes.

According to the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities’ bureau: Tuesday will be sunny, with a high near 45. Tuesday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 26. It will get increasingly warmer as the week goes on, but the highs will mostly stay in the high 40s and low 50s and the lows staying below freezing for most of the week.