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.
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania) appeared at a convention of progressive bloggers today and was encouraged by his audience to correct statements made by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) at town hall meetings this week.
After some prodding, Specter agreed to call Grassley today. Later, The Washington Independent’s David Weigel learned that Grassley did not answer Specter’s call, and the Pennsylvania senator who recently switched parties to become a Democrat was forced to leave a voicemail.
But it didn’t end there.
Specter decided to send a public message to Grassley via the micro-blogging site Twitter:
Called Senator Grassley to tell him to stop speading myths about health care reform and imaginary “death panels.”
Grassley has since fired back over Twitter (no word on whether he has also returned the phone call), telling Specter that he never used the term “death panel” but ignoring the larger point:
Specter got it all wrong that I ever used words “death boards”. Even liberal press never accused me of that. So change ur last Tweet Arlen
Both Grassley and Specter are up for re-election in 2010, and both have been threatened from the base of their respective parties over the health reform debate. Specter already faces a Democratic primary challenger, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pennsylvania). Conservatives in Iowa have threatened a similar move against Grassley if he supports Democratic efforts to create a public health insurance option.
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