In this episode of River to RIver, host Ben Kieffer talks with University of Iowa Professor Dan Diekema about the latest variant of COVID-19 spreading in the United States. Samantha Hernandez from the Des Moines Register shares how a small-town library caught in a national debate over LGBTQ-themed books is again without a director and operating under reduced hours. Gazette reporter Trish Mehaffey reports a Coralville man received a $390,000 joint civil settlement from Iowa City and Coralville after he was wrongly accused of drunken driving without any evidence of alcohol or drugs in his system.
Later in the episode, Iowa Capital Dispatch reporter Robin Opsahl tells us about Governor Kim Reynolds' press conference with state health and safety officials to warn Iowans about the growing threat of fentanyl and counterfeit pills. And we hear another installment of What Dennis Found in the Basement in which Dennis Reese and historian Tim Walch remember "The Happiness Boys," a popular radio program of the early 1920s. Closing out the hour, Studio One host Tony Dehner shares new tracks from the Midwest and beyond to groove into the weekend.
Guests:
- Dan Diekema, University of Iowa clinical professor of Internal Medicine-Infectious Diseases
- Samantha Hernandez, Des Moines Register education reporter
- Trish Mehaffey, The Gazette courts reporter
- Robin Opsahl, Iowa Capital Dispatch reporter
- Tim Walch, historian
- Dennis Reese, retired IPR midday host and historian
- Tony Dehner, Studio One host
