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.
As political strategists stamp out 2010 game plans, they would do well to keep an eye on Iowa and one former state legislator, according to The Sacramento Bee editor Dan Morain.
The politics of Sandy Greiner, a former Iowa representative and current president of the nonprofit group American Future Fund, will benefit in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that loosened corporate purse strings for individual candidates, Morain said.
From the Sacramento Bee:
… Entities like Greiner’s operate in the shadows. Their donors are anonymous. The power behind them is rarely apparent. It’s impossible to track the exact amounts they spend on campaigns in any timely fashion.
[The] Supreme Court decision opened the way for corporations and unions to spend directly on federal campaigns, which means that groups like Greiner’s will be infused with yet more money. Unless federal law is changed, they and their donors will remain hidden from the voting public. …
Pundits from the left fret that the ruling will alter democracy as we know it. From the right, proponents say the ruling reaffirms the First Amendment by granting corporations the rights as individuals.
Both views contain truth. Here’s another truth: The public will never know how much corporations or unions give to political groups such as Greiner’s. So long as donors want anonymity, the federal system provides ways to spend money without ever being publicly identified.
American Future Fund is a nonprofit corporation similar to the Sierra Club or the National Rifle Association. Such groups file tax returns publicly. But there is no requirement that they identify donors.
Anonymity is one reason people give to such groups. They don’t want the “annoyance” of being publicly identified, Greiner said. …
The American Future Fund, based in Des Moines, is a 501(c)4 nonprofit that advocates for conservative issues. In 2008 it garnered headlines by spending millions in competitive senate races around the country.
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