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.
Approximately one out of every 20 children in Iowa (5.2 percent) is uninsured, according to a report released Monday by Families USA.
Iowa's Children's Health Insurance Program -- hawk-i.
The national organization for health care consumers found that the vast majority of the state’s 38,000 uninsured children (97.7 percent) come from families where at least one parent works, and approximately three-quarters of uninsured children (75.3 percent) live in households where at least one family member works full-time, year-round.
Nearly half of those children come from families with incomes below twice the poverty level, or $35,200 for a family of three in 2008, and are likely eligible for Medicaid or hawk-i.
The report, “Left Behind: Iowa’s Uninsured Children,” uses data from 2005 to 2007. It does not factor in the recent economic downturn that most expect could drive up the number of uninsured.
Nationwide, an estimated 8.6 million children lacked health insurance in 2007. Last year, Congress voted to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which would have expanded health coverage to about 4 million uninsured children nationally. President George W. Bush vetoed the measure, which is set to expire in March.
“The children’s health legislation vetoed by the President would have provided much-needed relief to uninsured children in Iowa and across the nation,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, in a press release. “Unfortunately, the minority of congressional members who voted with the President made it impossible to override the veto.”
There are currently more than 50,000 children enrolled in hawk-i, the SCHIP program in Iowa.
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