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.
Reverend Carol Kress from the First united Methodist Church in Decorah was a featured guest on Radio Australia last week. She was called upon to discuss the financial difficulties faced by immigrant workers from Palau who sought employment at Agriprocessors, an embattled kosher meatpacking plant in Postville.
Kress described what the roughly 160 Palauns were promised when they came to work at the meatpacking plant and then what happened to them as the company continued to financially decline.
“When the Palauns came to Postville, they were promised that their rent would be free for three months,” Kress said during the program. “The rent was deducted from their pay and the company was then to reimburse the landlord and also to reimburse the utility bills. However, the company did not do any of those things and on Nov. 8, when many of the Palauns missed their pay checks, their landlords also missed their rent payments and the utility companies missed their payments and many of the Palauns were faced with being on the street and having their utilities shut off.”
Although all workers from Palau have now left Postville to either return home to or to join families in other stateside locations, there were about 40 who were homeless for a time following the missed paychecks. Many are still owed money for the unpaid wages.
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