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.
A federal corruption case against former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) had little chance of moving forward, according to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, due to shenanigans by prosecutors under the direction of the Bush administration.
“I think this [situation] says a lot about how bad the Justice Department got under President [George W.] Bush,” Harkin said during a conference call with reporters today. “It became a haven for ideological right-wingers for one thing, and it also became sort of a rogue institution with no supervision, no guidance [and] no direction.”
Stevens, 85, was convicted last fall of seven counts of lying on disclosure forms to conceal $250,000 in gifts and home improvements from an oil industry executive and others. The following week he was narrowly defeated for reelection to a Senate seat he had held since 1968.
This week U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a member of the Obama administration, dropped the corruption case against Stevens, citing previous prosecutors’ neglect to share evidence with the defense. The indictment has been dismissed and the U.S. Department of Justice will not seek a new trial.
The government’s motion to dismiss will be heard on April 7 before U.S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan, who has repeatedly delayed sentencing while criticizing trial prosecutors. Holder made his decision to request dismissal when the new team he assembled in February discovered additional prosecution notes that had not been turned over to Stevens’ defense team.
“You read about what some of these prosecutors did in this case… it was almost like the prosecutors were hoping that they would fail,” Harkin said.
When asked why prosecutors would behave in such a manner, Harkin replied, “Maybe they didn’t want to convict Stevens.”
“When you look at all the nonsense that was going on, it was just inviting the judge to throw the case out,” Harkin said.
“My reading of this case is that Stevens had done a lot of bad things. I think it was clear that he had done a lot of unethical things, and, as the case unfolded, probably illegal things. But I thought the case was just terribly mismanaged.”
Follow Lynda Waddington on Twitter
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter