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.
A 29-year-old former human resources employee at the beleaguered Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville pleaded guilty to immigration-related charges today in federal court.
Karina Pilar Freund, a resident of Fayette, was convicted of one misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting a pattern or practice of hiring undocumented aliens. Documents filed on Dec. 9 with the court indicated that Freund, while employed in the human resources department at Agriprocessors, aided in the unlawful employment of such individuals, knowing that the people were not authorized to work in the U.S.
A sentencing date has not yet been determined, and Freund remains free on bond until that hearing. She faces a possible maximum sentence of six months in prison or a term of probation of not more than five years. She also faces a fine of up to $3,000 for each undocumented worker involved in the offense.
Fruend was one of five plant employees and members of management named in a Nov. 21 indictment. At that time she had already been facing charges for harboring undocumented aliens for profit, and the indictment added a charge of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit. While the specific terms of the plea agreement she signed today in federal court have not yet been made public, it is likely that these charges will be dropped.
Laura Althouse, 38, who also worked in the human resources department at Agriprocessors, pleaded guilty on Oct. 29 to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens and one count of aggravated identity theft. The indictment of the five employees handed down in late November relied heavily on the testimony of Althouse and former plant supervisors Martin De La Rosa and Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza. They have also been convicted on charges related to immigration.
In addition to the federal charges, Freund and Althouse remain parties in a state criminal complaint that alleges more than 9,000 child labor law violations at the plant. Although Elizabeth Billmeyer, former manager at the Agriprocessors human resources department, has not yet been mentioned by the federal authorities, she is also named in the child labor law complaint that was filed in September by the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
Agriprocessors, which filed in early November for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, only recently resumed limited poultry production at the Postville facility. A sister-site in Gordon, Neb. remains closed.
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