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.
U.S. Rep. Steve King is urging is Senate colleagues to oppose President Barack Obama’s nominee for legal counsel to the State Department, saying he “threatens America’s independence.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12 to 5 Tuesday morning in support of Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh. His statements suggesting that the United States needs to adhere more vigilantly to international law have sparked outrage from conservative lawmakers, and only one Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, voted to support his nomination in committee.
“Harold Koh believes that Americans should be subject to the views of foreign and international bureaucrats,” King said. “He supports customary international law, a direct assault on the sovereignty of the United States.”
King went on to call Koh an “anti-free speech radical,” saying he will place foreign courts and globalism before the U.S. Constitution.
A letter to the Senate committee from the Coalition to Preserve American Sovereignty pointed to Koh’s past statements regarding the Iraq War as a violation of international law and that decisions made by the International Criminal Court matter in America as reasons to oppose his nomination.
In late March, Fox News host Glenn Beck said Koh supported Muslim Shari’a Law over the Constitution, a charge later debunked.
His defenders say his views are not out of the mainstream. He supports voluntary U.S. participation in bodies like the International Criminal Court and has argued that international human-rights standards should influence U.S. law. Even some conservatives say they will support him based on Koh’s belief in strengthening Congress’s role in treaty approval and in greater congressional say over foreign and national security policy.
Koh’s nomination will now go before the full Senate. He is expected to be confirmed.
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