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.
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Christian Fong should stop running a radio advertisement that is “materially false and misleading,” Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan said Monday in a statement.
“We are calling on Fong to take down this ad on his own before any other action is taken,” Kiernan said in a press release without going into detail about further action that could be taken.
Fong launched his statewide radio ads Monday. The point of contention is over a claim Fong makes in the ad regarding Gov. Chet Culver’s $830 million I-JOBS infrastructure bonding program. In the ad, Fong says state government “borrowed almost a billion dollars to pay its bills.”
The I-JOBS money is directed at infrastructure projects like the Iowa Veterans Home; bridge and road repair; flood recovery; and affordable housing grants, among other things. None of the money is slated to go towards ongoing expenses, and Kiernan said the money is not being used to balance the state’s budget.
“To suggest money borrowed for the I-JOBS initiative means the budget is out of balance is false,” Kiernan said. “It’s like telling Iowans who have home mortgages that their personal finances won’t be balanced for 30 years. It makes no sense.”
Kiernan said the IDP last week contacted television stations to stop a television ad that had been airing in support of the Republican candidate for Iowa House in the upcoming District 90 special election in southeast Iowa.
The ad in question was paid for by conservative tax watchdog Iowans for Tax Relief. It made the claim that liberal billionaire George Soros was helping fund Democratic candidate Curt Hanson’s campaign. Norm Sterzenbach, the IDP’s executive director, said the ad was up for a couple of days before the party contacted local television stations and asked that it be taken down because the Soros claim is not true.
“The stations asked us to prove it was not true, and we did so by providing records and affidavits,” he said. “They then took the ad down.”
The party could go a similar route with this ad.
“The fact is, Iowa’s bills are paid,” Kiernan said. “We had a balanced budget for the fiscal year just ended and will have one for the coming year.”
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