MONDAY, FEB. 11, 2019  |  IN THIS ISSUE 
 
The race is on among the state's retailers, restaurants and horse racing facilities to get a future piece of legal sports betting action, Radio Iowa reports. House and Senate committees reviewing bills that would legalize sports betting heard from interested stakeholders last week, including the Iowa Lottery, Casey's General Stores and representatives of the state's restaurant and grocery industries, all of which argued that they would be uniquely positioned to help Iowans place their bets. The Iowa Gaming Association, which represents the state's casinos, meanwhile, argued against the involvement of the lottery system, citing "risk and volatility." Legislators said they will take what they heard and develop new bills in the House and Senate that would be reintroduced in the coming weeks, the Des Moines Register reports.
 
Less than a month after aluminum manufacturer Arconic Inc. rejected a $10 billion leveraged buyout by private equity firm Apollo Global Management, the company has announced plans to split in two. Bloomberg says Arconic will separate into businesses making aerospace components and aluminum sheet, with one of the units to be spun off. The company, which has major operations in Davenport, has struggled since its 2016 split with Alcoa, battling operational shortfalls, numerous CEO changes and volatile aluminum prices, Yahoo Finance notes. Arconic's shares closed down about 3.4 percent on Friday.
 
A stalled plan to build affordable infill housing on vacant city lots in Waterloo is back in motion, the Courier reports. The city first approved a contract in 2012 to develop single-family homes on city-owned land on former Waterloo school sites, but developers struggled to follow through after the state rolled back tax credits for enterprise zones in favor of a workforce housing tax credit that is first-come, first-serve, the paper previously reported. With affordable housing credits back in place, developer John Rooff, a former Waterloo mayor, says he's now ready to move forward. An amended contract with the city calls for up to 14 new houses to begin construction this year, with dozens more possible in the future.

Get ready to pay more for those household staples: The Wall Street Journal reports that makers of goods ranging from diapers to toilet paper are set to raise prices again this year in a bid to offset higher costs and boost profits. Church & Dwight recently bumped prices on some of its Arm & Hammer and OxiClean products, while Procter & Gamble's series of rolling price increases on select products will be in place this month. The price increases are mostly playing out in companies' favor, the Journal noted, with dollar volumes growing and consumers remaining confident. P&G, in particular, reported strong organic sales growth in its Q4 earnings report in January, and raised its organic sales target for the year.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for January this Wednesday. Morgan Stanley analysts say they expect CPI to rise 0.06 percent after a 0.06 percent drop in December, Yahoo Finance reports, with food prices up and oil prices down.

The fight to define "meat" is intensifying, with beef and farming industry groups persuading legislators in a dozen states to introduce laws that would make it illegal to use the word "meat" to describe plant-based or lab-made foods, the New York Times reports. The growing campaign comes as startups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods continue to make strides in producing plant-based burgers that taste like real beef. Missouri last year passed a law banning the use of meat-like names on products that don't come from livestock, while Nebraska is considering its own law this year, the Hill reports. JanLee Rowlett, government and regulatory affairs manager for the Iowa Cattlemen's Association, told the Telegraph Herald the labeling issue "is definitely an interest we have. We have a lot of cattlemen here who are really watching this issue and policy and making it a priority."
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CommuteYour Morning Commute
Roads are looking clear this morning, aside from some congestion on I-380, but watch for the next winter storm, starting this afternoon. See the DOT's interactive road conditions map here. 
 
Links as of 7 a.m.