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.
Saying he doesn’t believe she will be able to set aside personal biases and prejudices to decide cases in an impartial manner, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley announced Monday he will oppose the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (Photo: Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.com)
In a statement released to the press, Grassley said he had hoped to be able to support President Barack Obama’s nominee to the nation’s highest court, but “after a thorough review of the hearing record and her cases, speeches and writings,” he has decided he cannot.
Grassley has been a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee since 1981, and he has never before opposed a president’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice.
“Only time will tell which Sonia Sotomayor will be on the Supreme Court,” Grassley said in today’s statement. “Is it the judge who proclaimed that the court of appeals is where ‘policy is made,’ or is it the nominee who pledged ‘fidelity to the law?’ Is it the judge who disagreed with Justice O’Connor’s statement that a wise woman and a wise man will ultimately reach the same decision, or is it the nominee who rejected President Obama’s empathy criteria?”
Grassley said Sotomayor’s nomination hearing left him with more questions than answers about her judicial philosophy.”
Grassley joins four other Republican members of the judiciary committee in opposing Sotomayor. One GOP member, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, has said he will support her nomination.
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