Gazette Daily News Podcast, March 18
Rain is likely for much of Friday. According to the National Weather Service it will be a cold day Friday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 40 degrees. There will be a 100 percent chance of rain during the day with almost an inch of rain predicted. Friday night into Saturday morning the rain will taper off, with a slight chance for some snow. The low is predicted to be around freezing.
Republican state lawmakers on Thursday repeated their warning that they are prepared to pass changes to Iowa’s recycling law this year rather than wait for beverage distributors and grocery stores to reach a compromise agreement.
Senate Republicans advanced the proposal, Senate File 2122, during a meeting Thursday of the Senate’s tax policy committee. The newly amended bill would increase the fee paid by distributors to support redemption centers. It would also soften the requirements for where redemption centers must be located.
Under Iowa’s current recycling law, consumers pay a 5-cent deposit on all purchases of carbonated beverages in bottles and can. The deposit can be refunded by returning those bottles and cans to redemption centers or some retail stores.
The nonprofit Friends of Coralville Lake is moving forward with its action plan to raise awareness and explore solutions to the problem of increased sedimentation that eventually could close off the lake to recreation.
The preliminary plan will look at what solutions are available to address the sedimentation, followed by a feasibility study to see if there’s community interest in pursuing it.
The action plan and feasibility study will be funded though the federal American Rescue Plan Act pandemic aid. The Johnson County Board of Supervisors on Thursday unanimously approved the grant agreement.
Organizers say there is no quick fix to the sedimentation problem, but there are potential solutions — such as buffer strips, silt traps and dredging — which the group is in the early stages of exploring, as well as the impacts of these solutions.
The Iowa City Police Department has responded to several vehicle burglaries in the past couple weeks. Police advise keeping doors locked and valuables out of sight.
The burglaries have mostly been happening at city parks, police said. Some of the break-ins involved smashed windows, but in some cases the car doors had been left unlocked.
This is the second spike in Iowa City car burglaries this year, police said. Several break-ins also happened the last couple weeks of January as well.
One gun was stolen out of a car during that series of burglaries, police said. None of the more recent break-ins have led to stolen guns.
Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop.
