Cedar Rapids, Linn County | featured news

Hang up. Dial. Busy signal. Hang up. Dial. Busy signal.For five hours, Eileen Beran punched the buttons on her phone over and over again, trying to connect with the local public health department to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine for her and her husband, William Beran.

Keesha Burke-Henderson spent only a few years living and working in the Cedar Rapids community. But she made quick work of doing her part to strengthen it.

In the nearly 10 weeks since the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Iowa, 146,050 people in the state had completed receiving both of the required doses as of Sunday morning, state records show.That was an increase of 2,384 people over the total reported a day earlier by Iowa public health officials.

CEDAR RAPIDS — If another try for a casino in Iowa’s second-largest city is to be in the cards again, local officials first must decide when to ask Linn County voters to renew their permission to allow gambling.

A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Thursday after breaking bones in a man’s face during a vicious assault last June and posting part of the videorecorded attack on Facebook.Christopher E. Curley, 28, on June 16 entered another man’s home by opening an unlatched window in the 1200 block of 19th Avenue SW, according to a Linn County criminal complaint.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 574,835 vaccinations for the coronavirus had been administered as of 11 a.m. Saturday.The state also recorded 494 new COVID-19 cases statewide for the 24-hour period as of 11 a.m. Saturday. No new deaths were listed on the department’s website and as analyzed by The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS — Authorities are investigating an early morning incident at the Rodeway Inn where one woman was killed, another woman was injured and the male suspect was shot and injured by a Cedar Rapids police officer.

CEDAR RAPIDS — An owner of two Hiawatha vaping and tattoo shops, who unintentionally alerted authorities to his firearm and drug crimes by reporting a handgun had been stolen, was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in federal prison.

The Iowa Cannabis Co. has obtained a license to manufacture medical marijuana products at 5137 18th Ave. SW, the former site of Star Food Service Equipment & Repair in Cedar Rapids.

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson said Friday she will vote against the COVID-19 relief bill making its way through Congress if it includes a hike in the federal minimum wage to $15.