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.
A legislative push to overturn the Iowa Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage is likely to begin Monday, according to the state’s largest gay-rights organization.
After numerous meetings at the Capitol Thursday, Brad Clark, campaign director for One Iowa, told The Iowa Independent that he expects Republican lawmakers in the Iowa House to attempt to bring about a vote on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage by invoking Rule 60, which allows a majority vote on the floor of the House to pull a bill out of a committee even if the committee has not approved it.
Democratic leadership has repeatedly promised that the legislature would not discuss gay marriage this session. Gay-rights advocates have long believed conservative lawmakers would attempt some procedural move to force a vote on the issue in spite of Democratic opposition.
In the closing days of the 2009 legislative session, Republicans in both the House and Senate made numerous attempts to force a vote on a constitutional ban on gay marriage, including attaching it to a tax proposal and the state’s Health and Human Services budget. Democrats successfully blocked the efforts.
This would mark the first formal attempt to overturn the Court’s ruling of the 2010 legislative session.
“They can attempt to invoke Rule 60 after a bill has been filed for 18 days,” Clark said. House Joint Resolution 2001, which would amend the state’s constitution and define marriage as between one man and one woman, was filed Jan. 12 will reach the 18-day threshold Friday.
Clark said he is optimistic the effort will fail, saying Republicans will have to reach 51 votes in order to bring the bill to the House floor. There are 56 Democrats in the Iowa House and only 44 Republicans, meaning at least seven Democrats would have to support the move for the effort to succeed.
“And in theory, Democrats could just not vote,” Clark said, thus denying the GOP the majority it needs and the symbolic victory of getting Democrats on record as casting a vote on gay marriage.
State Rep. Michael Reasoner, D-Creston, sponsored the legislation banning gay marriage. He did not respond to a request for comment by The Iowa Independent.
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