Tuesday Morning Read: Gordmans stores staying open, cutting amphitheater losses, Wellmark leaving Iowa exchange

GORDMANS STORES STAYING OPEN — All of Gordmans Iowa stores are slated to remain open, but under new hands, even as the Omaha, Neb.-based retailer has sought bankruptcy protection. Texas-based Stage Stores announced last week it will acquire at least 50 Gordmans stores through the retailer's bankruptcy auction. Those stores include Gordmans stores in Cedar Rapids and Coralville, as well as seven others throughout the state. Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/business/gordmans-iowa-stores-to-stay-open/

CUTTING LOSSES AT AMPHITHEATRE — Financial losses at the McGrath Amphitheatre and other performance spaces in Cedar Rapids highlight the cost of hosting entertainers like Nelly, Weird Al Yankovic and Willie Nelson in a mid-sized city. Cedar Rapids officials thought the amphitheater could break even financially — essentially a pay-for-itself amenity for taxpayers — when it opened in 2013. Instead, the venue has been running in the red to the tune of $55,000 a year on average. Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/government-politics/cedar-rapids-officials-look-to-curb-mcgrath-amphitheatre-losses/

WELLMARK LEAVING IOWA EXCHANGE — High costs and the Affordable Care Act's still-uncertain-political future have pushed Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield to decide to withdraw from Iowa's insurance exchange as well as no longer sell ACA-compliant plans come Jan. 1, 2018. The Des Moines-based insurer has lost about $90 million through the individual market in Iowa while those enrolled with those plans saw a nearly 43 percent premium increase this year. Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/health-care-medicine/wellmark-to-leave-iowa-exchange-stop-selling-obamacare-compliant-plans/

IOWA SPRING FOOTBALL PODCAST — Getting back on the same page with Land of Ten's Scott Dochterman for some #oniowapod podcasting. This edition talked areas of need for spring. Read (and listen) more: https://www.thegazette.com/sports/oniowapod-lets-get-all-up-in-iowa-spring-football/

QUOTABLE — 'Black people are far too often perceived as threatening simple because they are black. Stand your ground gives legal sanction for racism, We must not legislate evil.' Rev. Erin Gingrich of the First Unitarian Church in Des Moines, at a Statehouse news conference on House File 517, a new gun measure that would, among other things, establish stand-your-ground immunity