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 director of the renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa and author Lan Samantha Chang was asked to provide a perspective on the economy for The New York Times — and it isn’t a happy tale.
Chang gives national readers a cold a snowy view of local residents gathered outside the Johnson County Crisis Center for the weekly emergency assistance lottery, then summarizes the situation in Iowa.
…[M]ore than two years into the recession, things in our area are not looking up. Our economy never hit rock-bottom as in other parts of the county. The local unemployment rate is still lower than the national average. But as the national economy shows signs of hope with the approach of spring, our area is slow to respond to change.
State revenues are down even more sharply than expected. The legislature has made staggering cuts to the budget, and there’s talk of more. In our state university town, this means construction projects stalled or halted. Closing restaurants and businesses. Fewer hours of seasonal and part-time work at factories, big-box stores and even fast-food places. Many workers in our town are struggling this winter. Some are trying to get by on half as many hours as usual.
In the past year, according to Beth Ritter Ruback, the director of communications and fund development at the Crisis Center, visits to the Food Bank and Emergency Assistance program have grown 25 percent. Each week, there are new faces at the center, and many clients struggled to get by for months before coming for help. …
The Times commissioned the story as a one segment of a four-part perspective, each from different points across the nation, in conjunction with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates.
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