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.
On a 96-0 vote, the Iowa House gave final approval to a bill that would prohibit candidates from paying themselves or their immediate family members using their official campaign accounts.
Senate File 50, which was unanimously passed in the Senate Feb. 4, closes what became known as the “Fallon Loophole.” In 2006, former State Rep. Ed Fallon, D-Des Moines, paid himself a salary out of his campaign account for months after losing the Democratic primary to Gov. Chet Culver.
Critics of the legislation say it makes it more difficult for those without financial means to run for public office. In response to the bill’s passage, Fallon expressed his disappointed.
“The Legislature seems intent on making politics the domain of the rich and powerful,” he said. “Low-income and middle-income people who want to run for office are already at a huge disadvantage. If a candidate receives a modest stipend from his or her campaign account, what business is that to state government? It’s between that candidate and her or his donors.”
Fallon said if legislators were truly concerned about money in politics “they’d pass Voter-Owned Iowa Clean Elections,” a bill that would insititute public funding of state campaigns.
“But apparently, they’re more interested in symbols than substance,” he said.
Those who willfully violate the ban would be guilty of a serious misdemeanor.
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