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.
The Iowa Association of Business and Industry has released its 2009 legislative scorecard, with 27 Republicans in the House and three in the Senate receiving perfect scores.
The grades were based on legislator’s votes on nine bills in each chamber. In the Senate, they ranged from a bill that “streamlines the Iowa Values Fund” to bills altering the state’s workers compensation system.
In the House, bills included numerous union-backed pieces of legislation, including the controversial prevailing wage bill.
Republican Sens. Randy Feenstra of Hull, Kim Reynolds of Osceola and Ron Wieck of Sioux City scored 100 percent.
Overall, the highest scoring Democrat was Rep. Brian Quirk of New Hampton, who scored a 57 percent, and Reps. Larry Marek of Riverside and Dorris Kelley of Waterloo, who scored 55 percent.
In the Senate, Democratic Sens. Tom Rielly of Oskaloosa, Rich Olive of Story City and Swati Dandekar of Marion each scored 44 percent.
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