Iowa City Considers Ban on Happy Hour

The Iowa City city council will consider a ban on happy hours at a January 2009 meeting. The ordinance comes amid a wide-ranging examination of the city's take on alcohol. The happy-hour ban would require any bar or restaurant with a liquor license or beer or wine permits to have a written schedule of prices -- filed with the city clerk -- in effect for at least a week, which means drink prices couldn't change by the day or hour. The city has been considering banning price specials, and the council has said it wants to address underage drinking and binge drinking. Previous steps, like outlawing two-for-one specials, have been sidestepped -- instead of charging $2 for two beers, bars could drop the price of each beer to $1. The council meets on Jan. 5.

Source: The Associated Press