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 U.S. House’s version of the defense bill has a provision that could jeopardize a hard-won effort to repeal the military’s ban on open gay service: a second engine for the F-35 fighter jet. Obama has publicly threatened to veto the bill because of the engine, and he has the backing of his defense secretary, [...]
In a big setback for U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy’s, D-Pa., efforts to insert amendments overturning the military’s ban on open gay service in this year’s defense authorization bill, Igor Volsky of ThinkProgress has obtained letters from the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force urging legislators [...]
The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee will begin to mark up the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill at 1:30 p.m. CST. Until members emerge late Wednesday night, it’s a black box of information for determining the contours of the half-trillion-dollar-plus piece of legislation, including the fate of U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman’s, I-Conn., amendment to repeal [...]
U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., has released the text of a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. It’s short and straightforward, and only takes effect after the Pentagon working group on implementing a repeal delivers its recommendations in December and the president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff give [...]
On Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee will mark up the 2011 Defense Authorization, and U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., plans to introduce an amendment repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He’ll be followed by U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., an Iraq war veteran, who said Monday he would introduce a complementary amendment into the House’s version of the bill when it receives a full floor debate later this week. If passed, it would allow the Pentagon a few months’ worth of a grace period so an internal review due in December can guide how the implement overturning the ban.
So Solicitor General Elena Kagan will be President Obama’s second Supreme Court nominee. The emerging conventional wisdom is that Kagan, a rare nominee for the high court who hasn’t been a judge, is a very smart blank slate. On at least one category of issues that Kagan will face — the intersection of national security and [...]
“It’s going to be a nightmare for the government if they have to constantly close the hearing to talk about things that are embarrassing to the government,” says David Frakt, former defense counsel for a juvenile held at Guantanamo Bay.
The U.S. military discharged 443 people last year for being gay. That statistic comes from Servicemembers United, which opposes “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and seeks its repeal. It’s lower than in previous years: There were 627 such discharges in 2007, for instance.
Lt. Dan Choi — the West Point graduate, Iraq veteran, Arabic linguist and arguably most forceful advocate for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — had a simple question for Defense Secretary Robert Gates after Gates’ announcement of changes to the implementation of the ban on open gay military service. “Why would anybody believe this is, [...]
In a major victory for opponents of the military’s ban on open homosexual service, Defense Secretary Robert Gates significantly revised how the Pentagon will implement the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, effectively making it difficult to remove a soldier, sailor, airman or marine who does not out himself or herself as gay.
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