(Radio Iowa) – The battle over Iowa’s so-called “bottle bill” which set the nickel deposit fee on cans and bottles with carbonated and alcoholic beverages in 1979 will again be waged in the 2021 Iowa legislature. House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, says he hears about it constantly. “The question of tackling the Bottle Bill has 100 different opinions on what that looks like,” Grassley says. Michelle Hurd, president of the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, says the law is not being uniformly enforced, as some businesses that sell beverages do not accept empties and paying back the deposit fees. “Forty years ago you might not have had ‘Dollar’ stores that sell beverage that are contained in the bottle deposit law or maybe hardware stores,” Hurd says. “They’re now directly across the street from your hometown grocer, competing, and not playing by the same rules or being held to the same standard.”

The number of redemption centers which also accept empties has dwindled significantly over the years. The one-cent-per-container fee for processing the empties set 40 years ago has never changed. Troy Willard, owner of the Can Shed redemption centers in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas, is a member of the Iowa Recycling Association.  “There certainly needs to be more money in the system to make it a viable financial model,” he says. “That’s the only way that redemption centers are going to make it.”

Increasing the deposit fee and applying it to water bottles and other beverage containers that aren’t subject to the deposit now are among options lawmakers have discussed. Grassley says getting the empties out of grocery stores is the pressing issue he’s hearing the most about.  “That doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be a way to redeem them,” Grassley says. “Just I think Covid really brought that to our attention, when it comes to sanitary conditions within the stores.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, Governor Reynolds suspended bottle and can redemption at grocery stores for a few months.

A man from northwest Iowa was arrested after a citizen reported a stolen vehicle at around 9:48-a.m., Wednesday. According to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, 31-year-old James David Geopfert, of Rockwell City, was arrested in Anita, after he allegedly took a 2003 Ford F-150 pickup from 62180 Great River Road. Another vehicle, a 1995 Buick, was abandoned at the scene of the stolen pickup.The Buick had been reported stolen from Manson, Iowa.

The pickup was recovered undamaged a little after 10-a.m., at Murphy’s in Anita.  Geopfert was being held in the Cass County Jail on a Class-D Felony charge of Theft.  His bond was set at $5,000.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports the driver of a semi tractor-trailer was transported by private vehicle to a hospital, Tuesday, following an accident about 2 1/2 miles southeast of Essex. The incident occurred at around 12:54 PM in the 1500 block of 170th Street, where the tractor and trailer were in a ditch, with grain spilling out of the trailer.

Photo courtesy the Page County Sheriff’s Office

An investigation determined the driver, 63-year-old Brian Ray Walker, of rural Essex, was operating a 2006 Freightliner Semi tractor pulling a grain trailer loaded with corn, westbound on 170th. Walker stated that he glanced down at his phone that was between the seats of the Semi tractor and looked up. The passenger side steer tire on the semi tractor dropped off the lip of the road and the vehicle started into the north ditch. The vehicle continued into the ditch headed westbound. The vehicle then rolled one time before coming to rest on its wheels. Walker exited the cab of the semi by his own means.

The Semi tractor and trailer are owned by Class Farms INC. of rural Essex.  Damage to the semi tractor / trailer is estimated at over $50,000. No citations were issued.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Lottery has introduced a new scratch ticket that spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says is unlike anything they’ve done before. “It’s a scratch ticket — but it is transparent, it’s see-through, you can see through the ticket,” Neubauer says.”It’s a concept that a few other lotteries around the country have done, and when we were talking with our ticket printers and they showed us the idea, it’s like, ‘that’s really cool’, we’ve never seen that before.”

The ticket is part of what is called the Cash game, and Neubauer says it will probably be more known for the material it’s on. “It’s just a different printing technique and it’s a different ticket substance that these tickets are printed on. I think if people just go into the store and say ‘hey I want the clear ticket’, you don’t even have to know the name of the game. I am pretty sure the clerks will know what one that is,” according to Neubauer.

While the ticket is clear — you can’t turn it over and see the prize before you scratch it. “The actual section on the ticket where you play — that part is not see through — the rest of the ticket is see-through, not the particular section,” Neubauer says.”but you play it just like you would a normal…it’ll be fun to see people’s reaction to that.”

Scratch tickets continue to be the top seller for the Iowa Lottery as sales of lotto tickets dropped during the pandemic.