The Iowa Independent’s parent nonprofit, The American Independent News Network, was accepted into the Association of Alternative Newsmedia as the group’s first web-only news outlet following a vote of approval during its annual membership meeting held in New Orleans last month. ANN, formerly the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, includes papers like City Pages and the Village Voice among its members.

“We are thrilled to welcome The American Independent News Network as our first online-only member,” Tiffany Shackelford, the executive director of AAN, said in a statement. “Its independent voice is an excellent example of the tireless and compelling journalism other online news organizations should aspire to replicate.”

Shackelford added: “We look forward to accepting more online-only news outlets.”

AINN, with its eight state and national affiliates, enters the AAN fold after it received the two-thirds votes necessary to gain admission into the alternative press trade group formerly known as the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. The organization approved the name change the same day it accepted AINN. Only 30 percent of news outlets that apply for membership with AAN are selected.

Comprising 130 publications that report in every major metropolitan area of the United States, AAN maintains a combined weekly circulation of over 6.5 million as well as an active readership of nearly 17 million in the U.S. and Canada.

Several members of the AINN editorial team are alumnae of AAN publications, including its executive editor, Blake de Pastino, who reported for publications in the New Times network.

It used to be that answering a question posed by one of Iowa’s lesser known publications following a small town event held little danger of negative national attention. Tim Pawlenty is learning that is no longer the case.

On Wednesday, The Iowa Independent highlighted an brief exchange in the town of Boone between Pawlenty and Douglas Burns of the Carroll Daily Times Herald.

When asked by Burns what the penalty should be for women who have abortions or doctors who provide them if such services are made illegal, Pawlenty initially said there should be no criminal penalty involved. His state spokesman later phoned the Carroll paper to clarify that the former Minnesota governor meant to say there should be no criminal penalty for women who have abortions, but that doctors providing them should bear a criminal burden.

The apparent inconsistency of believing abortion should be criminalized, yet not being willing to immediately say that there should also be a criminal penalty, also caught the eye of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who discussed both the original reporting from the Carroll Daily Times Herald and the follow-up piece posted by The Iowa Independent on her Thursday show.

Watch it:

“People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses or the problems of modern society.”

Way back in the early 1800s, long before Iowa became a state and before the nation turned its eyes to the first-in-the-nation caucuses, Iowans understood the value of a single voice in a crowded room as well as the miracles that can evolve from a group of citizens working toward a common goal. Today, and in that same spirit, The Iowa Independent is pleased to unveil a new community collaboration project, Factbook.

Although the typical process for special or topic-centric projects launched by news organizations is information gathering and distribution, Factbook is different. That is, we don’t simply want to feed you what we know.

We want to build something with you.

At its core, Factbook is an Iowa-centric wiki, a software platform that lends itself to community collaboration. Our staff has given it a start — planted some seeds, if you will — and we will continue to nurture and cultivate the project for years to come. While there is no doubt that each of us already connected to Factbook have certain expectations and excitement about what it will be a month or a year from now, we also understand that opening it up to the larger community inherently means that this is no longer all about us or our goals. This truly is about what you and the community as a whole thinks is important, deserves highlighting or needs to be preserved.

For today, check out our beginning stem of information on the 2012 candidates, look for upcoming political events in the calendar, or see if your favorite candidate is trending up or down in the archive of our exclusive Power Rankings. But after you’ve had an opportunity to look around, go ahead and set up your own account on the system and start adding what you know to the mix.

Along the way, if you have any problems or suggestions, be sure to let us know.

The judicial retention forum sponsored by Simpson College and The Iowa Independent will be broadcast across the state by Mediacom Communications on Friday, Oct. 29, at 10:30 a.m. and Sunday, Oct. 31, at 2:30 p.m. According to the company, it will air on MC22 “network-wide,” which means throughout Iowa with the exceptions of Council Bluffs and Sioux City, markets the cable company does not serve.

It will also be available “On Demand” on Friday, Oct. 29, which means Mediacom digital customers can access it at any time that day for free by simply going to to the on demand menu and clicking “My Government” followed by “Political Junkies.”  It will be listed under “Jud Retention.”

The panel discussion, the last time the opposing sides of the issue will face off before the Nov. 2 election, focused on the retention vote for three Iowa Supreme Court justices who joined in the unanimous 2009 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. The panelists were:

• Bob Vander Plaats, a former gubernatorial candidate who founded Iowa for Freedom, a group aiming to convince Iowans to vote “no” on retaining the three Supreme Court justices.
• Nathan Tucker, a Davenport attorney, constitutional scholar and author of “We the People:  The Only Cure for Judicial Activism.”
• Mark McCormick, a former associate justice of the Iowa Supreme Court who is now a shareholder with the Des Moines law firm Belin McCormick.
• Robert Allbee, a former associate justice of the Iowa Supreme Court and former chief judge of the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Listen to the interview here.