Iowa, Cedar Rapids | featured news

Iowa on Wednesday reported 766 new COVID-19 cases and six new, confirmed deaths, along with a sharp increase in the number of patients on ventilators who are hospitalized with the virus. As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, 190 Iowans were hospitalized with COVID-19 infections. up from 185 the day before, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Toyota Financial Services will relocate its Cedar Rapids customer service center that employs 600 people within the next two years, a spokesman told The Gazette.Toyota will consolidate its customer service centers from six to three locations — Chandler, Ariz., Plano, Texas, and Alpharetta, Ga. The Texas location will cover the central region.

CEDAR RAPIDS — A man already facing a murder charge in Illinois now faces local charges in a fatal May 7 wrong-way crash in the S-curve of Interstate 380.Tyler Lee, 34, of Rockton, Ill., turned himself in about 4 p.m. at the Linn County Jail, shortly after police announced he was being sought.

IOWA CITY — An Iowa City man is accused of robbing a convenience store and Lyft driver within 30 minutes of each other.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will hold a press conference at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday and is expected to provide an update about the April 5 target date for broadly opening up COVID-19 vaccine eligibility. Watch the live stream in the player above, broadcast by Iowa PBS. 

The state’s Commission of Latino Affairs office will host a virtual information session Wednesday about the COVID-19 vaccine for residents whose primary language is Spanish.The Facebook question-and-answer session will start at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

In a company town, where the “company” is the Anamosa State Penitentiary, residents are mourning the deaths of two employees killed by an inmate Tuesday. “It’s just another big place people go to work day in and day out when there are no incidents,” said Dirk Downing, owner of Tyler & Downings restaurant in Anamosa.

CEDAR RAPIDS — The city’s pools will open to the public this summer, but with some modifications to follow public health guidelines and flexibility in case COVID-19 pandemic conditions change.The city said in a news release it will reopen pools in phases, allowing time to assess operations and make adjustments before opening all five pools for daily use.

The U.S. Marshals Service in Iowa partnered with federal, state and local agencies in locating 21 missing juveniles and seven children. The joint operation, called “Operation Homecoming,” focused on recovering vulnerable, critically missing children from across the Iowa, according to a U.S. Marshals Service news release on Tuesday.

IOWA CITY — In the months following protests and civil unrest in Iowa City, the City Council has received 88 recommendations related to policing and public safety from three entities. On Tuesday, council members began taking a high-level look at two sets of those recommendations.