The new license plate design picked by voters at this year’s Iowa State Fair will start showing up in a handful of counties in the next few weeks. Iowa Department of Transportation spokesperson, Andrea Henry, says the new plates went into production this week and will go out to the counties which need a new supply. “We have an automatic inventory reordering system that tracks the number of plates each county treasurer has,” Henry says, “but we do have a list of eight counties who will be receiving them first. Those are: Crawford , Palo Alto, Carroll, Clinton, Emmet, Fayette, Hancock and Muscatine counties.”

The plates will feature the new design — which is a reboot of the old plates — and will be made of a new material. “We are actually using a new high-definition sheeting which is a new product that our vendor has out that provides better reflectivity for the plates themselves,” Henry says.  She says license plates are replaced for each vehicle very ten years. “So it depends on where you are at in that ten-year cycle. So, say if you just received a brand new plate last year — you will not receive another new plate for another nine years,” she says.

Henry says if you don’t want to wait a long time for the new design, you can get it for a small fee. “If anyone would like the new plate and are really anxious to do that, they can request that from the county treasurers and it just costs five dollars and they can get that new design and the brand new plate,” Henry says. The selection of the new plate design created some controversy in the state. The D-O-T created the design in house to save money and the three final designs were criticized as unimaginative, which prompted the D-O-T designer to speak up.

(Radio Iowa)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Cedar Rapids officials say an autopsy shows a man whose body was found outside a building died of natural causes. The body was spotted around 2:45 p.m. Sunday near an empty commercial building that is used to handle overflows from a homeless shelter. Authorities have identified the man as 77-year-old Joseph Botello.

ORANGE CITY, Iowa (AP) — A northwest Iowa library is shifting how it categorizes books after some residents pressed for segregating materials containing LGBTQ themes. The Orange City Public Library’s board decided Tuesday to experiment with grouping books by subject and subcategory rather than alphabetical order by an author’s name. The library’s board president, Jared Weber, says the changes may start with a trial run on a few subjects over the summer and expand to the rest of the library if patrons like the new system.

The Sioux City Journal reports the move comes a month after some community members circulated a petition calling on the library to label and separate materials involving LGBTQ issues. The petition also asked the library to seek public input before acquiring new materials on LGBTQ topics. The library board will vote next month on revising the library’s policy to require an additional check on acquisitions.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office reports three men were arrested on assault charges over the past week. On Tuesday (March 20), Deputies arrested 20-year-old Justin Andrew Dickinson, of Harlan, on four active warrants from Shelby County District Court. Three warrants are for failure to appear in district court with a cash or surety bond amounting $30,000. The fourth warrant was for charges of domestic abuse causing serious injury, and held under additional $10,000 bond.

Last Thursday (March 15th), Shelby County Deputies arrested 36-year-old Werner Esquivel Y Esquivel ,of Harlan, on charges of domestic abuse assault with injury. Esquivel was brought to the Shelby County Jail without incident and held without bond pending initial appearance. He was seen the following morning by the magistrate and held under a $600 bond. Esquivel’s bond was later posted and he was transferred into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security Immigration Customs Enforcement.

Also on March 15th, 59-year-old Randy Lee Sorensen, of Irwin, was arrested and charged with assault on peace officer and interference with official acts. Sorensen was transferred by Irwin Rescue to Myrtue Memorial Hospital, and after being released medically was transferred to the Shelby County Jail without incident and held under $3,000 bond. A few days later, Sorensen posted bond and was released from custody.

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman says Gronewold, Bell, Kyhnn & Co. P.C. CPAs have released an audit report on Cass County, Iowa for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017. The reports shows the County had local tax revenue of $30,897,717 for the year ended June 30, 2017, which included $3,032,484 in tax credits from the state.  The County forwarded $22,709,120 of the local tax revenue to the townships, school districts, cities and other taxing bodies in the County.

The County retained $8,188,597 of the local tax revenue to finance County operations, a 4.8 percent increase from the prior year.  Other revenues included $5,379,201 from the state, including indirect federal funding of $1,523,236, charges for service of $358,113, and $237,849 for the use of money and property.

Expenditures for County operations totaled $13,692,779, a 4.4 percent increase from the prior year.  Expenses included $5,298,103 for roads and transportation, $298,552 for mental health, $2,625,127 for public safety and legal services, $2,122,837 for capital projects, and $1,282,313 for administrative services.

A copy of the audit report is available for review in the office of the Auditor of State and the office of the Cass County Auditor.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A man has been accused of punching a woman, hitting her with a baseball bat and burning her while holding her at his Dubuque home. Court records say 43-year-old Lonnie Vandamme Jr. is charged with assault, false imprisonment and related crimes. Dubuque County Jail records say Vandamme remained in custody Wednesday, pending $50,000 cash bail.

Court records say she told police the beatings occurred Wednesday and Thursday last week after they argued. She said he also menaced her with a knife and threatened to kill her. Records say she suffered burns, a broken eye socket, a broken rib and severe body bruising. Vandamme is scheduled to be in Dubuque County Court on Thursday.

It appears the state’s 40-year-old “bottle bill” will remain intact for another year. There was a hearing Tuesday morning on a House bill that would have repealed the law, but Republican Representative Guy Vander Linden of Oskaloosa made it clear the bill was going nowhere. “This bill is dead, but it was dead before we came in the room and I just wanted to make that absolutely clear, because even the proponents have what they think is a better idea,” Vander Linden said. “The purpose of the meeting was to get everybody in the room and, hopefully, clear the air a little bit and come to a better understanding.”

Consumers pay a nickel deposit on bottles and cans of beer, soft drinks and wine and they can get the deposits back by returning the empties. Grocery stores object to being forced to redeem the cans and bottles, arguing the empties are filthy and pose a health hazard. A bill to repeal the state’s bottle deposit law and expand recycling programs across the state is still pending in the Iowa Senate.

(Radio Iowa)