Today’s focus for recommended reads is looking at news around the state. Here are some interesting and informative pieces from various outlets:

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that Dysart has quite the uncommon public art going in — a painting that will make it look like drivers are going into a gorge. Longtime writer and editor Melody Parker writes: “It’s actually an anamorphic illusion that distorts perspective and gives the appearance of dimension. In other words, the pavement painting looks real enough you’ll think you could plunge over the edge and be swallowed up in the depths.” The idea came up after a state assessment of the city, which does not have an art center. It sounds like it’s been a community project.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette offers a good primer on the state’s new voter ID rules in this piece, “Iowa primary voters will be asked for ID as new law gets soft rollout.”

At a time when unemployment is low and businesses look for ways to recruit and retain workers, a company in Omaha is combining offices with some floors of apartments in a mixed-use building downtown, writes the Omaha World-Herald.

The Des Moines Register came up with this little piece that brings the royal wedding from the weekend to Iowa: “This Iowa couple looks just like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.” If you thought you saw Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Des Moines, you’re not alone. She writes: “A Johnston couple are pretty convincing doppelgängers, and they’re turning heads — even at their local Hy-Vee.”