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 anti-gay marriage group National Organization for Marriage will be holding rallies in 22 cities this summer — including Des Moines and Sioux City — with the goal of building public opposition to same-sex marriage.
The organization, which spent nearly $100,000 into an Iowa House special election in September, announced last year that it would launch a new initiative called The Reclaim Iowa Project. The goal is to force Iowans to pass a state constitutional amendment reversing the unanimous ruling of the Iowa Supreme Court that the state’s Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, has pledged his support for the initiative and lent his voice to a robocall for the organization.
It also targeted 33 members of the Iowa House with an e-mail campaign hoping to convince them to allow a vote on a constitutional amendment. The effort failed to garner enough support to force a vote on the issue.
NOM spent millions in Maine and California in campaigns to overturn gay marriage laws.
The state’s largest LGBT-rights organization, One Iowa, is hoping to counter NOM’s efforts in the Hawkeye State. The group is using video from a recent speech in Ames by NOM President Maggie Gallagher to raise money to “educate voters about the freedom to marry.”
A recent poll commissioned by Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI-TV found a majority of Iowans support marriage rights for same-sex couples.
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