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.
The former human resources manager at Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville that was raided by federal authorities in May 2008, entered a guilty plea in federal court today.
Elizabeth Billmeyer, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit and one count of knowingly accepting false resident alien cards. Billmeyer was charged on March 31, following information that she had conspired for more than five years with two other employees at Agriprocessors to employ illegal immigrants for commercial advantage and private financial gain. It was also during that time, according to court records, that Billmeyer accepted alien resident cards that she knew to be fraudulent.
Billmeyer remains free on bond pending sentencing. She faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, a $200 special assessment and six years of supervised release following any prison term. Billmeyer is also one of the Agriprocessors employees named in a state case that alleges more than 9,000 violations of child labor laws.
The case is one of many in the wake of a federal immigration enforcement effort at the plant last year that netted 389 workers. Two individuals that worked under Billmeyer in the human resources department, Laura Althouse and Katrina Freund, have already made guilty pleas. Other supervisors and members of management at the plant await their day in court. Sholom Rubashkin, son of the company founder and day-to-day executive in Postville, is scheduled for trial in September on numerous charges relating from immigration conspiracy to bank fraud.
The future of the plant remains in turmoil as creditors and potential buyers hash out a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale.
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