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.
Iowa Democratic Party Chariman Scott Brennan and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin yesterday called on the presidential campaign of John McCain to stop two robo calls in Iowa that they call “sleazy” and “tasteless.”
One call discusses McCain’s opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, and his thin ties to William Ayers, a former Vietnam-era radical who advocated violence against the government who is now a college professor in Chicago.
The other call criticizes Obama and congressional Democrats for their response to this summer’s massive flooding around the state, saying that while McCain came to Iowa to survey the damage, “Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid sent Congress home for summer vacation, leaving us stranded.”
“Iowans deserve a campaign focused on the issues and John McCain is only offering false claims of guilt by association and extremely misguided attempts to politicize the Iowa floods,” Brennan said.
In June, both McCain and Obama had planned to visit flooded areas, but Gov. Chet Culver requested both campaigns avoid the areas so that local emergency workers and law enforcement could concentrate their efforts on the disaster in progress.
Obama cancelled his trip while McCain ignored the request and toured the town of Columbus Junction.
“I strongly urge Sen. McCain to immediately cease all robo calls into Iowa,” Harkin said. “These robo calls are both false and offensive.”
Brennan also called on Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley to denounce the calls, but in a statement to the Sioux City Journal, Grassley said he had not heard the calls but that the Democrats are also guilty of negative campaigning.
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