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.
One of the primary arguments for complete indoor smoking bans is that employees of restaurants and bars that permit smoking are at risk for the effects of secondhand smoke.
That fails to take into account the obvious fact that millions of employees smoke themselves and may desire to work in a place where they can do so.
Americans can choose to work in smoking or nonsmoking environments.
Using the workplace-protection theory, the strongest leg the smoke-ban zealots have to stand on, government should be far more interested in the health consequences of geographically isolated residents of coal-mining parts of the nation, but we aren’t banning the electricity they pull from the earth in spectacularly risky conditions.
To be consistent, those so worried about workplace safety, and how their own purchasing or lifestyle decisions affect employees, should live by candlelight so we can shut down coal mines and eliminate the often-fatal working conditions so painfully revealed in the mine accidents of recent years.
One more thing about choice.
A hidden element in what is now a global debate about smoking is this: If smokers can’t seek refuge in a bar, they are more likely to light up at home around kids, who have no choice in the matter.
The marketplace is moving us to a largely smoke-free environment. Why not allow a few bars out by the freaking airport or in forlorn small towns to allow their patrons to smoke? And, yes, there is a rural-urban element to this, as the impetus for the Iowa ban comes from Iowa City and Des Moines — even if some rural legislators voted for it.
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