Cedar Rapids, Linn County | featured news

DES MOINES — Measures seeking to bolster gun rights, provide tougher “back the blue” law enforcement protections and lower the penalty for possessing small amounts of marijuana passed under the wire Wednesday in advance of a bill-killing legislative “funnel” deadline.

The Cedar Rapids Police Department is looking for the public’s assistance in finding a missing 15-year-old.According to an operation quickfind document released Wednesday night, Bradley Wilcox, 15, was last seen around 5 p.m. Wednesday night in the area of 5th Avenue SE.

IOWA CITY — Early into the pandemic last spring, University of Iowa Health Care undertook the monumental task of moving its operation for cleaning, inspecting, packaging, and sterilizing instruments — nearly 10 million a year — off site to a central location on the UI Oakdale Campus in Coralville.

A new partnership between Iowa Workforce Development and the Secretary of State’s Office is intended to expedite businesses’ reinstatement process from several weeks to “just a few days,” according to an IWD news release Wednesday.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he thought FBI Director Christopher Wray was “pretty forthcoming” during Wray’s testimony Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee about intelligence leading up to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan.

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Eastern Iowa Health Center has announced a dedicated phone line for people 65 and older to call and schedule an appointment for a coronavirus vaccine.The federally qualified health center in Cedar Rapids is offering two doses of the Moderna vaccine to qualifying older Iowans.

IOWA CITY — A fatal shooting took place last month in the apartment of a locally prominent Black Lives Matter movement leader who is now in jail on unrelated charges, records show.

Environmental groups spoke out this week against a third attempt to open an 11,600-head cattle feedlot near Monona. The public meeting Monday was over the nutrient management plan submitted by Supreme Beef, owned by Mike Walz, Dean Walz and Jared Walz.

COVID-19 has now killed more than 5,500 people in Iowa since the virus appeared in the state last March.The state reported three new, confirmed deaths during the 24-hour period ending at 11 a.m. Wednesday, bringing Iowa’s death toll to 5,501. The three deaths occurred between Feb. 1 and Feb. 4 and were all of individuals over the age of 80.

DES MOINES — Iowans will not have to pay state income taxes on the temporary federal unemployment compensation they received during the pandemic, under a bill passed unanimously by the Iowa House on Wednesday.