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 across-the-board budget cuts proposed by Gov. Chet Culver has “short-changed Iowa’s school children and relegated us to more years of fighting for what we are worth,” the union representing Iowa’s teachers said today.
Chris Bern, president of the Iowa State Education Association, said the cuts impact all programs equally without taking into consideration priorities that are important to keep the state moving forward.
“Our members, who are also members of the communities suffering in these tough economic times, appreciate the difficult economic choices that have to be made,” Bern said in a statement. “But our members also understand that cutting all education expenditures so drastically actually hurts the economies in every community in the state.”
The union, which represents Iowa’s 34,000 educators, has been a longtime supporter of Culver, himself a former high school teacher. But Bern said the cuts announced Thursday disproportionally affect education and will have negative ramifications for years to come.
“Our professional educators have worked for decades to reach 25th in the nation in average salary and we were on a path to reaching that goa,” Bern said. “In a simple across-the-board slice of the pen, the Governor has short-changed Iowa’s school children and relegated us to more years of fighting for what we are worth.”
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