  We analyze the spectrum of the "local" Iwatsuka model, i.e. a two-dimensional
charged particle interacting with a magnetic field which is homogeneous outside
a finite strip and translationally invariant along it. We derive two new
sufficient conditions for absolute continuity of the spectrum. We also show
that in most cases the number of open spectral gaps of the model is finite. To
illustrate these results we investigate numerically the situation when the
field is zero in the strip being screened, e.g. by a superconducting mask.
