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.
Rumors of Gov. Chet Culver’s temper are nothing new, but according to Cityview gossip columnist Civic Skinny, the recent discovery of worker abuse at Henry’s Turkey Service in Atalissa has pushed that temper into overdrive.
The newspaper received an e-mail from “a friend under the Golden Dome” detailing a testy exchange between Culver and U.S Sen. Tom Harkin. Apparently Culver was upset at Harkin’s comments at last week’s hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee wondering how state inspectors had allowed the Atalissa situation “to go on year after year after year.” The two Democrats had some less than cordial words, and eventually Culver apologized, several sources said.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg, according to Cityview –
The e-mail goes on: “Culver’s blow-up with Harkin is one in a series of recent eruptions that have some of us in the Statehouse wondering if he’ll make it through November of 2010, or self-destruct. While his overly defensive shouting at [Register columnist David] Yepsen when he released his budget in January is one public example, what is going on behind closed doors, over the phone and via e-mail is said to be worse. He’s desperately looking for a pound of flesh over Atalissa….Morale in his own office seems to be at an all-time low because…there is no collegiality between him and his staff, just the barking of orders and threats. And while he has some good veterans around him, he all but ignores people who might have advice based on experience for people who simply respond ‘how much?’ when he yells “shit.’”
In February, Culver issued an executive order creating the Dependent Adult Task Force. Its mission is to investigate Henry’s Turkey Service, a company that for the 34 years brought dozens of men with mental retardation from Texas to work for West Liberty Foods. The company acted as landlord, caregiver and employer, with the men living in a “bunkhouse” with no heating system and boarded-up windows, and paid them as little as 44 cents an hour. State and federal officials are investigating for possible labor law violations.
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