Gazette Weekend News Update Podcast, April 11 and April 12

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It's Easter Weekend. And whether that means something deeply religious to you, a great reason to bond with family, or an excuse to eat chocolate eggs, I hope you have a pleasant holiday.

The weather this weekend will be pleasant… if you enjoy rain.

According to the National Weather Service, it will actually be a bit warmer during the day Saturday with a high of 57 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will remain cloudy much of the day, however, and the chance for rain will increase as the day and weekend goes on. Sunday will bring a likely chance of a thunderstorm and then more rain after 10:00 a.m. with a high of 53 degrees. The chance of precipitation on Sunday is listed as a rare 100 percent, so pack your umbrella. Sunday into Monday morning it is predicted to get colder with more rain, and there for a chance of dare I say it, snow.

At her Friday press conference, Gov. Kim Reynolds reassured Iowans that new positive cases of coronavirus are 'plateauing' in the state even though Friday's count included 118 new cases that brought the total to 1,388 and included two more deaths in Linn County. The victims — described as one older adult aged 61-80 years and an elderly adult aged 81 or older — brought the state's overall COVID-19 death toll to 31 and the number of deaths in Linn County to nine.

The latest figures from the state indicate COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in 81 of Iowa's 99 counties. Linn County continued to lead the state with 225 positive cases, followed by Johnson County with 185, Polk County with 147, Scott County with 99, Muscatine County with 80 and Washington and Tama counties each with 70.

President Donald Trump indicated Friday that the general flattening of coronavirus cases in the

United States has him leaning in the direction of easing social distancing recommendations after April 30, which would then put more of the onus on individual state governors to decide how much they want to open their states and how soon. Trump said Friday that he would weigh the advice of health experts who favor lengthening restrictions against the business community that is clamoring for the economy to return to normal. It has been a month since the U.S. blocked travel to Europe after multiple cases started to appear in America. Almost 19,000 Americans have died in that span.

This briefing is sponsored in part by Corridor Careers.  Are you looking for a job? CorridorCareers.com is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at CorridorCareers.com.