After 17 days officials say the fire burning at the Iowa City landfill has been completely covered. Crews started the stir, burn and cover operation a week ago in an attempt to get the shredded rubber tires inside the landfill to burn quickly before being covered and contained by clay soil. Officials say the focus will now shift to fire containment and preventing any flare ups as the shredded tires are expected to smolder underground for several days. The landfill is now open to the general public with regular business hours. Officials say folks around the landfill may see smoke periodically but they don't expect the persistent heavy plume of smoke seen over the past two weeks.

The Anamosa State Penitentiary has been placed under tighter security since two inmate brawls. State prisons spokesman Fred Scaletta says the prison went into lockdown after Saturday's fights. He says no serious injuries were reported. Many of the 1,100 inmates at the Eastern Iowa prison are serving long sentences for murder and other violent crimes. Investigators are looking into the cause of the incidents, and Mr. Scaletta says it's too early to say whether they were gang-related. Danny Homan is president of Council 61 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. He says the fights show what can happen when the prisons are overcrowded and understaffed.

The state and many Iowa cities and counties have been topping off salt supplies for winter even before summer officially arrives later this month. The past winter was a mild one, so many of the cities have plenty of salt left over. And they're finding relative bargains when officials go shopping to stock up for the coming winter. For example, the Urbandale City Council has agreed to buy salt for just under $56 a ton from Kansas-based Hutchinson Salt Co., a price that was 14 percent less than the average price the city paid last year. The Iowa Transportation Department says that the state is still buying salt under an old contracted price, but officials say the price will drop under a new purchasing agreement.