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 compromise in the Senate Finance Committee on a bill reforming the nation’s health care system is unlikely to be worked out in September, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Thursday.
In an interview with Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news organization associated with the Kaiser Family Foundation, Grassley said the intensity of criticism at town hall forums across Iowa, coupled with a recent report from the Office of Management and Budget that raised the 10-year tally of federal deficits expected through 2019 to $9.05 trillion, has caused him to doubt a compromise can be quickly found.
Asked whether he thought the six Democratic and Republican negotiators on the [Senate Finance Committee] would be able to cut a deal when Congress returns from its summer recess next month, Grassley replied: “If you asked me that on Aug. 6, I would have said yes, I think so, September. But you’re asking me on Aug. 27 and you’ve got the impact of democracy in America. Everybody’s showing up at town meetings.”
Many health care reform advocates have called for Democrats to abandon work towards a compromise, saying Republicans are not interested in actual bipartisanship and only want to kill the legislation. The calls were amplified last week when Grassley told MSNBC that he would even vote against a bipartisan health care bill he helped craft if he couldn’t get enough Republicans on board.
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