(Radio Iowa) – After years of study and decades of debate, the fate of Iowa’s bottle deposit law is still being discussed by lawmakers. There are two vastly different bills in the Iowa House this year. One bill would KEEP the nickle deposit on bottles and cans, but send two cents of that to redemption centers rather than just a penny. The other bill would get rid of the “bottle bill” altogether in 2023. Mary Ann Renner has owned and operated redemption centers in Maquoketa and Tipton for 22 years.

“I’ve got family that live in Illinois and Wisconsin and we went over for a wedding last fall and we were just literally shocked at what the roadways looked like,” she said. “Are we really going back 40 years to that, the litter and the garbage in the roadways?” Lee Colins, the operator of the Can Dough redemption center in Ottumwa for the past eight years, says some people in her area depend on the money they get from returning the empties.

“I have homeless that come in daily, line up,” she says. “They have the cans to buy their food, whatever they need — shelter, diapers.” Bottle bill advocates say because of the bottle bill, about three-quarters of the empty cans and bottles that had pop, beer or wine get returned for the deposit. Grocery and convenience stores argue the cans and bottles are often filthy and shouldn’t be handled in a place that sells food. Brad Epperly, a lobbyist for the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, says the current system is not convenient for consumers, either.

“It’s not convenient to store them separately, stick them in a bag, drive them in your car to where you buy your food and then return them and stand in line with a ticket,” Epperly says. “It’s much more convenient to toss them in your recycling bin, so the question here is not just: ‘How great the bottle bill is?’ The question is: ‘Is that the best way that we should be recycling in the state?'” Representative Megan Jones, a Republican from Sioux Rapids, says the Bottle Bill helped teach generations of Iowans how to recycle, but she says the empties taken to grocery stores are now a public health issue.

“People are putting their kids in the same carts that someone just had their cans and bottles that were covered in crickets, frogs and chewing tobacco,” Jones says. “It is disgusting. It is gross and we owe our kids better.” It’s unclear what, if anything, legislators may decide to do on this topic — and this Friday is the deadline for committee passage of policy bills, or the legislation is dead for the year.

Members of the Audubon and Coon Rapids-Bayard School District Boards of Education have voted to continue a sharing agreement for the services of Superintendent, Human Resources, Transportation Director and Elementary School Counselor. The Audubon School Board approved a Memorandum of Understanding for the Superintendent and sharing agreement for the other positions, during their meeting Monday evening.

The contract for Superintendent Eric Trager is for three years, whereas the other posts are on a year-by-year basis. In other business, activity, the Board set March 11^th during their regular meeting to hold a public hearing for the School Calendar. And, the Audubon School Board approved will offer their non-certified staff health insurance, including to their associates and cooks, in hopes of attracting and retaining quality people.

The Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton School Board, Monday, held a Public Hearing with regard to a proposed 2020-21 School Year Calendar. Superintendent Trevor Miller said there were some questions raised during the hearing. Including about having the Monday after Easter off, instead they have Good Friday off, as well as the Thursday before, because that is a Professional Development Day. The District will have more hours than the State Minimum 1,080, with the flexibility to allow for snow days, moving forward. The Board approved the Calendar, which has school starting Aug. 24, 2020, and ending May 21, 2021.

The Exira/EHK Board also approved an 80/20 Superintendent sharing agreement with the IKM/Manning School District. The one-year agreement stipulates Mr. Miller will serve four days in the IKM-Manning District and one-day in the Exira-EHK District, while getting all the work done by serving different hours and through the use of technology. And, they approved Personnel transfers, hires and resignations. Brittany Williams is transferring from 1st grade Teacher to 3rd grade, which opens up the 1st grade position that’s been posted on various educational employment websites.

Special Education teacher Bev Ohlinger is going to retire. She came to the district from Tri-Center last year. Kathy Blazek was hired as a half-time, long-term substitute in the Elementary, covering Special Education; Dave Burkett’s contract was renewed as a para educator in the Elk Horn Building; and many contract renewals mean Athletic personnel will be returning for the upcoming school year. Miller says the District is in the processing of looking for a K-8 Guidance/P.E. position, a High School Business position, and a Middle School Special Education position.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (Sioux City Journal) — A northwest Iowa man has been given 11 years in prison for the drunken driving death of a cousin last year. The Sioux City Journal reports that Darrick Toel was sentenced Monday. He’d pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while driving recklessly and to operating while intoxicated. Authorities estimate Darrick Toel was speeding at 90 mph July 1 on a rural highway just northeast of Sergeant Bluff when he lost control of his car and struck a tree. Toel’s passenger, 37-year-old Ryan Toel, of Struble, died two days later from his injuries.

The Harlan Police Department reports two recent arrests. Last Thursday (Feb. 13), 43-year old Alejandro Isidoro Hernandez, of Harlan, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault, and Child Endangerment. His initial court appearance was set for Feb. 24th. And, on Feb. 11th, 38-year old Matthew James Baucom, of Harlan, was arrested and charged with Disorderly Conduct.

(Radio Iowa) — While freedom of religion is a protected constitutional right thanks to the First Amendment, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says that freedom is under attack here in the U-S and abroad. Grassley, a Republican, says religious discrimination endangers innocent lives in cultures and societies around the world but the work to halt the intolerance and violence has to start in America. “You can see what happens to Jewish places of worship,” Grassley says. “I suppose we have some anti-Muslim, then we have some anti-Christian attitudes in the United States. That all has to be overcome.”

He’s calling on the U-S to help people in countries like Russia, Bangladesh and Sudan who live under authoritarian regimes and face persecution for their religious beliefs.  Grassley says, “Through various U.N. resolutions and the United States setting a moral standard for the rest of the world and demanding more religious freedom where it doesn’t exist in the world is our goal.”

Grassley says the U-S should use proposed and future trade agreements to pressure nations like China, North Korea and Pakistan to allow their citizens to practice their chosen religions and worship without fear. He says the U-S has built into its negotiations demands for improvements to working conditions and for the environment, so why not religious freedoms? “Like the USMCA and what we were negotiating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership before we pulled out,” Grassley says, “I think the same focus on religion is helpful to make sure that the moral standard we set on the environment and labor carries over to other freedoms as well.”

Grassley was asked if President Trump might consider including religious freedom issues in his talks with China. Grassley responded, “I don’t think so. I think the president’s mostly concerned about economics.”