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.
A Wisconsin man who formerly farmed in Garnavillo was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution to a federal agency this week after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to converting grain that had been mortgaged to the government.
Daryl Ihde, 54, of Glen Haven, Wis., admitted at the plea hearing that he wrongfully sold over $38,000 in corn that was mortgaged to the Commodity Credit Corporation as collateral on a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan.
Commodity support operations are handled primarily through loan, purchase and payment programs. Farmers may receive basic nonrecourse commodity loans on most commodities at a designated rate per unit by pledging and storing a quantity of a commodity as collateral. If a producer does not redeem the commodity by loan repayment time, Commodity Credit Corporation takes title and possession of the commodity that was pledged as collateral for the loan.
Ihde was given five months in jail and ordered to make $38,517 in restitution to the USDA. Following his prison term, he will also serve five months of home detention and an additional three-year term of supervised release.
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