Gazette Daily News Podcast, September 2

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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, September 2.

Thursday’s weather will be mostly pleasant again, with some development toward rain on Friday. According to the National Weather Service, a partly cloudy sky will grow increasingly cloudy during the day Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area. The high temperature will be 84 degrees, with the temperature dropping to 59 degrees Thursday night. There will be a slight chance for rain late Thursday night, with the chance increasing into Friday.

Iowa now updates its COVID-19 numbers weekly, and the state saw another big jump in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the last week. According to state health data, 560 Iowans were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday night. This is another leap of about 100 more people hospitalized with the virus, the second straight week with an increase of this size and a continuation of an overall rapid spread of the disease since the highly contagious delta variant of the virus became the dominant strain in Iowa.

To put this jump into perspective for Iowa trends, there have been more new people hospitalized for the virus in the last two weeks than there were hospitalized for the virus, in total, at the beginning of August. It is the highest number since the last peak began to recede late last year.

Also of note, there were 8,308 new reported cases of COVID-19 across the state in the past week, the highest number of new reported cases since the beginning of the year. Representing the biggest majority, 22 percent of these new cases, were kids below the age of 17, many of whom are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. Meanwhile those experiencing serious symptoms, including hospitalization and death, are still mostly above the age of 40, according to state numbers.

One positive note that ties these two negative trends together is that the vaccines are being shown to be largely effective at slowing COVID-19 down, at least at the moment. Nationally the vast majority of those hospitalized are not vaccinated, and the school population where the spike is being seen in Iowa at the moment is also a population that has largely not been vaccinated. The challenge is to either increase masking to slow down the spread or to get more people vaccinated. Or, ideally, both.

Unfortunately, Iowa’s government has made it illegal to mandate masking in schools, and the FDA has not approved vaccination for people below the age of 12. So we likely will be seeing the numbers continue to go up for a bit here.

Speaking of Iowa’s Government, according to the Associated Press, sixty Iowa Republican legislators are asking the Iowa Supreme Court to overturn a 2018 ruling that declared abortion a fundamental right under the state Constitution.

Attorneys for conservative groups opposing abortion filed a brief with the court Monday on behalf of 22 senators and 38 House members, all Republicans. The groups include Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom and Iowa-based The Family Leader.

In June 2020, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill requiring a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland sued, and a judge struck the law down this June, citing the 2018 ruling.

Iowa Republicans started a process to amend the constitution to remove the idea of a right to an abortion this past legislative session. But it will have to be passed again and then voted on by Iowa voters. The effort is part of an overall offensive by conservatives to not only overturn Roe V. Wade, but to establish a framework in the states that will prohibit abortion should that law fall.

There was some concern for flooding in Northern Iowa this week after 10 to 15 inches of rain fell across north-central Iowa last week, causing the Turkey and Wapsipinicon rivers to swell

The Turkey River at Elkader crested Monday at 22.79 feet — roughly 3 feet above major flood stage — but by Tuesday morning had fallen to a normal level. These raising waters caused some minor disruptions, but with the rain taking a break for at least a week afterward, the rivers should be lowering to a more manageable level soon.

There are just two days away college football returns to Iowa. If you love all things Iowa Football, don’t miss Leah Vann’s Talkin Hawks Newsletter. In her weekly email you’ll get exclusive Hawkeye coverage, trivia, food reviews, podcast highlights and more. Sign up today at the thegazette.com/hawks