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 Federal Election Commission will hold an open meeting Thursday to discuss a complaint filed by Des Moines-based American Future Fund that seeks to overturn state laws that restrict robo calls.
In October, the group’s political action committee asked the FEC to issue an advisory opinion on whether state laws restricting robo calls should apply, or whether they are pre-empted by a less restrictive federal law. Ten states have laws that govern automated phone calls. Minnesota, for instance, requires campaigns to use live operators to introduce automated calls and get the consent of the person answering the phone to play them.
Several state attorneys general have urged the FEC allow the state statutes to stand, and last month they were successful. The FEC lissued two draft opinions — one that said it was not the federal government’s responsibility to govern state election laws and another that refused to issue a formal opinion on the idea. American Future Fund filed another brief asking the agency to reconsider.
As pointed out by the liberal blog Talking Points Memo, American Future Fund is being represented by Jason Torchinsky, who was also behind the American Center for Voting Rights.
That was the bogus “voting-rights” group that was set up by GOP operatives in 2005 to “give ‘think tank’ academic cachet to the unproven idea that voter fraud is a major problem in elections,” as election law expert Rick Hasen has written.AFFPA also has ties to DCI Group, the notorious Republican consulting firm that has represented the Burmese junta and helped create “Smokers Rights” groups on behalf of RJ Reynolds.
Torchinsky works for Holtzman Vogel PLLC, D.C. law firm that was instrumental in the establishment of both the American Future Fund and its state-level counterpart, Iowa Progress Project (formerly Iowa Future Fund).
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