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.
Members of the group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement will meet with officials from Hy-Vee Inc. tonight to demand the company’s grocery in a poor neighborhood in Des Moines not only remain open but also remain a full-service location.
The West Des Moines-based grocer announced last year that its Harding Hills store would probably close in late 2009 after a new store opens a few miles away in Beaverdale. Store patrons and activists said the closing of the store, at 3330 Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, would leave north-central Des Moines residents without a nearby grocery store. Hy-Vee officials have said the Harding Hills operation is not profitable.
After pressure from Iowa CCI, the company relented, saying it would keep the location open as a scaled-down version of its current form similar to one of the company’s stores in Lincoln, Neb., that serves a neighborhood where a full-sized store closed. The Lincoln store is slated to be about one-fourth the size of a regular Hy-Vee.
The decision was seen as a victory for Iowa CCI and its members, but tonight, the group is planning to demand the company not reduce services. In a press release, the group said it isn’t fair to remove services, like a pharmacy, out of a community.
Hy-Vee’s current plans call for closing the store for at least a month for remodeling and removing the services of the pharmacy, butcher and deli. CCI members and Hy-Vee shoppers plan to push Hy-Vee to keep these vital services to the community.
The meeting is scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. at the Des Moines Public Schools Professional Building, 3330 Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
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