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.
If you thought that the health care reform bill was so expertly thought through as to prevent health insurance companies from engaging in the same end run around regulation practiced by the credit card companies, then Dan Froomkin has some news for you: You’re naive. Far be it from insurance companies to spend the next [...]
Subprime and even prime adjustable rate mortgages were one of the many triggers of the collapse of the housing market because, when the introductory rates ended, lenders often significantly and suddenly raised rates and thus monthly payments for many borrowers. Economists have been predicting that a new raft of rate adjustments in 2010 — when [...]
A new report from the Treasury Department — the last of its kind — shows that despite all the regulation-avoiding PR campaigns, new loans at the nine largest banks that still owe bailout funds to the government dropped by 35 percent in January.
Pallavi Gogoi at Daily Finance, who watched payday lender regulations die in the U.S. Senate, asked payday lenders how they liked the rules under which they are forced to operate for military personnel. Under those rules, members of the military cannot be charged more than 36 percent interest on any loan. She heard the most [...]
For many people, payday lenders and check-cashing outfits are the scum of the financial-sector earth; they’re called usurious, compared to illegal loan sharks and may finally be subject to at least some federal regulation (if not enforcement). But G.D. at Post Bourgie has an interesting defense of the so-called “fringe” banking services: At least they’re [...]
With the news that Citibank screens some of its clients for “objectionable content” — and applies that screening process to gay-themed businesses — many LGBT business people and Citi customers are probably wondering where their business is truly welcome. Luckily, Jeremy Quitner of The Advocate has a great run-down of banking programs designed to cater [...]
The on-again, off-again immigration reform effort is apparently on again, with a new provision intended to regulate Americans’ access to the job market — and increase government’s access to Americans. According to The Wall Street Journal, a new plan being pushed by U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., would require that all [...]
When the stimulus was the talk of the town, some women piped up to note that the stimulus funds were seemingly targeted at male unemployment, only to be told that men were disproportionately unemployed. And while there’s been plenty of reporting on how the stimulus has given short shrift to African-Americans, J. Goodrich at Alternet [...]
Of all the interesting tidbits in Brett Arends’ article in The Wall Street Journal about how to decide whether to walk away from your mortgage, his admission that the middle class is the only part of America adhering to standards of personal financial responsibility might be the most shocking.
Whirlpool should be used to protests after plant closures by now. After shutting down factories and laying off workers in Newton, Iowa, Herrin, Ill., and Searcy, Ark., in 2006, in LaVergne, Tenn., and Reynosa, Mexico in 2008, and in Fort Smith, Ark., and Evansville, Ind., in 2009 and 2010 as part of its latest round [...]
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