Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Iowa Reps. Leonard Boswell (D-Des Moines) and Tom Latham (R-Ames) are listed among a group of more than 100 members of the U.S. House who secured earmarks for clients of a lobbying firm under investigation by the FBI for possible illegal campaign contributions.
The PMA Group managed to secure more than $100 million in 2008 spending bills, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania) is drawing the most fire for his relationship with the group, as he has received more than $134,000 in campaign donations from the group’s political action committee and its employees since 2001.
Last week federal agents raided the firm’s Virginia headquarters. Since then the firm’s political action committee has been shuttered.
But a recent story in Congressional Quarterly magazine shows Boswell helped secure $1.6 million in earmarks for the firm in the fiscal 2008 defense appropriations law, which was enacted in 2007, although he never received donations from PMA Group’s political action committee.
Latham helped secure $5.15 million in earmarks in the same spending bill, and has received $4,500 from the PAC since 2001. He received no money from the group during the 2008 election cycle.
Boswell and Latham are part of a bi-partisan group of lawmakers who lent their names to earmark requests for PMA clients in the fiscal 2008 Pentagon spending law. The group is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.
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