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 U.S. House approved the DISCLOSE Act last week. While the legislation would aim to increase transparency of corporate political involvement in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision, it carves out exemptions for a slew political players and interests.
Exemptions for labor unions, for example, have been sharply criticized by the Center for Competitive Politics — a conservative Washington, D.C.,-based organization that lobbies against campaign finance regulation. Specifically, parts of the bill designate exemptions for groups with certain recurring dues (including many unions). And the legislation would restrict political spending by groups owned by a high percentage of shareholders who are not U.S. citizens, but doesn’t specify the same standard for unions.
Iowa’s Congressional Democrats — Dave Loebsack, Leonard Boswell, and Bruce Braley — each voted in favor of the legislation. Republicans Tom Latham and Steve King voted against it.
But the exemptions in the language of the proposed law go beyond unions.
For instance, the bill’s original language included an exemption so specific it applied almost exclusively to the National Rifle Association. Before passage, the scope of that clause was broadened to include groups like the AARP, the Humane Society and the Sierra Club.
Unrest over the exemptions isn’t like to hold any bearing on 2010 elections — Jeff Patch, communications director for the Center for Competitive Politics, points out that the bill’s passage in the U.S. Senate would leave little time for recourse from the courts or the Federal Elections Commission.
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