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.
Hoping to nullify the Supreme Court’s recent decision freeing corporations to spend infinitely on federal elections, U.S. Reps. Donna Edwards, D-Md., and John Conyers, D-Mich., Tuesday introduced a constitutional amendment “permitting Congress and the States to regulate the expenditure of funds by corporations engaging in political speech.”
“The ruling reached by the Roberts’ Court [sic] overturned decades of legal precedent by allowing corporations unfettered spending in our political campaigns,” Edwards said in a statement. “Another law will not rectify this disastrous decision. A Constitutional Amendment is necessary to undo what this Court has done.”
It’s not only House leaders eyeing that option. Testifying before the Senate Rules Committee this morning, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also promoted that idea.
“We need a constitutional amendment to make it clear once and for all that corporations do not have the same free speech rights as individuals,” Kerry said.
For campaign finance reform supporters, it’s exactly the right move.
“The court’s overreach is so shocking, and the certain consequences so damaging, that we must have a constitutional corrective,” Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, said in a statement. ”The First Amendment was never intended to protect the likes of ExxonMobil, Pfizer or Goldman Sachs, nor should it.”
U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, introduced similar legislation immediately following the court’s decision. That bill would disallow a corporation or labor organization from using any operating funds or any other funds from its general treasury to pay for an advertisement in connection with a federal election campaign, regardless of whether or not the advertisement expressly advocates the election or defeat of a specified candidate.
Boswell’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether he supports the new legislation.
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