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.
Effectively ending his chances of ever being elected president, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw published an Op-Ed in yesterday’s New York Times in which he proposes consolidating government services in rural parts of the country. Regarding Iowa in particular, here is what Brokaw has to say:
Iowa, next door, is having its own struggles with maintaining population, especially among the young. As the Hawkeye State’s taxpayers grow older and less financially productive, the cost of government services becomes more expensive.
Yet Iowa proudly maintains its grid of 99 counties, each with its own distinctive courthouse, many on the National Register of Historic Places — and some as little as 40 miles away from one another. Each one houses a full complement of clerks, auditors, sheriff’s deputies, jailers and commissioners. Is there any reason beyond local pride to maintain such duplication given the economic and population pressures of our time?
The answer to Brokaw’s question may very well be “no,” but that doesn’t mean he will get his way anytime soon. In many small towns across Iowa, local pride is all that keeps communities going. If you shut down the courthouse and a few schools in one of the smaller county seat towns here, many fear the town could evaporate in a matter of only a few years.
Consolidation has always looked good on a balance sheet, but finding the political will to implement it is immensely difficult. A few towns would almost certainly die, and no politician wants to be responsible for that.
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