Iowa, Cedar Rapids | featured news

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Capitol Police officer was killed Friday after a man rammed a car into two officers at a barricade outside the U.S. Capitol and then emerged wielding a knife, marking the second line-of-duty death this year for a department still recovering from the Jan. 6 insurrection.

DES MOINES — Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed legislation to eliminate a requirement that Iowans obtain a permit to acquire or carry handguns and loosen other state restrictions.

The state’s decision to allocate one-shot COVID-19 vaccines to colleges and other groups is “heartbreaking” to local public health officials who have been “requesting, even begging, for several weeks” to receive doses to administer to vulnerable populations, Linn County Public Health stated this week.

NORWAY — The congregation at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Norway is celebrating Easter Sunday as a community — a year after the coronavirus pandemic sidelined most Easter celebrations — under their reinstalled bells damaged in the derecho.

Iowa on Friday reported 612 new COVID-19 cases and three new, confirmed deaths.The new numbers bring state totals to 352,262 cases and 5,754 deaths since last March, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.The new cases were identified in 2,813 coronavirus tests, for a one-day positivity rate of 21.8 percent.

On an unseasonably warm Saturday morning for mid-March, Emily Michener sat down at a table inside a 21.5-foot Springdale comfort travel trailer that sleeps five.Outside, her husband, Nick, received a walk-through tutorial from delivery coordinator Rich Matzen inside the showroom at US Adventure RV in Davenport.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Construction is underway at Eastern Iowa Airport on its $21 million renovation to relocate two taxiways and expand the space between the taxiways and the terminal.

IOWA CITY — The role of the city attorney is vast, particularly in communities as large as Iowa City.Broadly, city attorneys represent city departments and staff, the city council and boards in legal matters. Those can range from employment and property law to economic development to planning and zoning.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Appointment slots are still open on a mass COVID-19 vaccine clinic that will take place next week in Cedar Rapids, which aims to reach vulnerable populations in the area.

IOWA CITY — If Ben Koch hadn’t seen “bright pink” out of the corner of his eye. he might not have saved a life.Koch, 22, a University of Iowa student, was driving his UI CAMBUS route along Grand Avenue on Aug. 28, 2020, when he’d stopped at Riverside Drive to turn left.