A proposal to try to regulate and tax electronic cigarettes and other so-called “vaping” products sold ON-LINE to Iowans has emerged at the statehouse. Senator Charles Schneider, a Republican from West Des Moines, says those sales are happening now. “We want to make sure that sellers of vaping products are verifying that the purchasers of those products are at least 18,” Schneider says, “and they ought to be paying sales tax to the state.”

The proposal is included in a massive bill that deals with more than 50 OTHER subjects. Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, suggested this is a “secret plan,” inserted in the bill at the last minute to try to avoid scrutiny. (We’re) looking at pretty big policy idea about a really addictive substance that we think now it’s great to sell online in Iowa,” Bolkcom said, “so the process has been a joke.”

The Department of Revenue is still analyzing data to determine how much new sales tax revenue the proposal might generate.

(Radio Iowa)

Nominations are being accepted starting this (Tuesday) morning for the 2017 edition of Iowa’s best breaded pork tenderloin. Kelsey Sutter, spokeswoman for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, says competition is intense for the title and last year generated nearly two-thousand nominations. Sutter says, “We’re going to judge the top five with the most nominations in each of our eight districts, so a total of 40 restaurants across the state of Iowa.”

2016 Best Pork Tenderloin – Nick’s in Des Moines

This marks the 15th year for the contest and Sutter says they always get plenty of calls from the state’s restaurant owners who want to get into the running. “We always just tell restaurants to communicate with their customers to nominate you,” Sutter says. “We did design a poster that’s downloadable from our website for restaurants to print off and display at their establishments to encourage nominations from their customers.”

That website is Iowa-pork-dot-org. Nomination forms can also be found there. Sutter says they’ll spend the summer judging pork tenderloins across the state and begin narrowing down the field in September. “We’ll judge the top five with a panel of judges that consists of representatives from our association as well as culinary instructors at culinary institutes here in the state,” Sutter says. “Then, during October Pork Month is when we’ll announce the top five and the first- and second-place winners.”

The deadline for nominations is June 7th. Last year’s winner was Nick’s in Des Moines. Previous, area winners include: Larsen’s Pub, in Elk Horn (2007); Dairy Sweet, in Dunlap (2005), and Darrell’s Place, in Hamlin (2003).

(Radio Iowa)