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.
The Nation has published its annual list of “Most Valuable Progressives,” and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement made the grade.
The list, complied by Nation staffers, Washington watchdogs and grassroots activists around the country, aims to honor individuals and organizations that “may not get enough recognition but that are having a demonstrable effect — in Washington and around the country.”
From the magazine:
Most Valuable Grassroots Advocacy Group: Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
For three decades, Iowa CCI has built and maintained remarkable rural-urban coalitions to fight factory farms, urban blight and abuses of Latino and Asian immigrants. In the current financial crisis, the group has ramped up its activism on behalf of banking reforms that free up credit for small farms, businesses and families while cracking down on payday loan operations. When the American Bankers Association held its annual convention in Chicago, National People’s Action called for protests that declared, “We didn’t break the banks–the big banks broke us!” Iowa CCI, long a backbone member of the NPA coalition, showed up in force. Viewers of Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! got a flavor of the group’s in-your-face activism as Iowa farmer Larry Ginter brought activists from across the country to their feet with his cry, “If you are from rural America and tired of bank greed, stand up! If you are from urban America and you’re tired of bank greed, stand up! If you think it’s time to put people first and hold banks accountable, stand up!”
The nonprofit group, formed in 1975 by a group of ministers in Waterloo who felt Iowa needed an organization to fight for social justice issues, today boasts nearly 3,700 dues-paying members from 97 of Iowa’s 99 counties. It has grown from an annual budget of $45,000 to $1.2 million, with most of its money coming from churches and foundations such as the Ford Foundation. About half of the budget goes to staff salaries, which are modest.
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