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.
An expansion of the state’s children health insurance program, changes to sex offender registry and tougher restrictions on pseudoephedrine sales are just a few of the new laws set to go into effect on Wednesday.
Most legislation that was passed during the 2009 General Assembly takes effect July 1, at the start of the 2010 fiscal year.
Iowa House Democratic staff sent out a list of the major new regulation set to be made official:
- Foreclosure protection – Iowans will see expanded services when facing foreclosure, more accurate information from mortgage brokers or bankers and active duty reservists and national guard members will have new protections from foreclosure while serving (House File 706, Senate File 355 and Senate File 364 all passed both chambers unanimously).
- Historic tax credits — $30 million in Historic Tax Credits will be available for communities (Senate File 481 passed the Senate unanimously and the House 89-3).
- Sex Offenders – Sex offenders will be prohibited from being within 300 feet of schools, parks or other places kids gather. The state will also enhance tracking of the most dangerous sex offenders. (Senate File 340 passed unanimously in Senate and 93-3 in House).
- Children’s health care – Health care will be expanded to an additional 30,000 uninsured kids, more low-income women will be eligible for health care during pregnancy and it will be easier for parents to keep their adult children under 25 on their insurance plan (Senate File 389 passed 39-9 in Senate and unanimously in House).
- Wind energy – Schools, hospitals, universities, private colleges and community colleges will be eligible to apply for wind energy tax credits (Senate File 456 passed unanimously in Senate and 94-2 in House).
- Manure application during winter – Animal confinement operations are banned from surface application of liquid manure on snow covered ground from Dec. 21 to April 1, and on frozen ground from Feb. 1 to April 1, unless there is an emergency (Senate File 432 passed 41-7 in Senate and 87-9 in House).
- Electronic logs for pseudoephedrine – Pharmacies will now use electronic logbooks to track pseudoephedrine sales and stop meth makers from “pharmacy shopping” to get enough of the drug to make meth (Senate File 237 passed 44-6 in Senate and unanimously in House).
- Job protection for volunteer emergency providers – Volunteer emergency service providers, like fire fighters and first responders, will have new protections from being fired if they are late or absent due to an emergency (House File 671 passed unanimously in Senate and House).
- Nursing home safety –Nursing homes will face higher fines for incidents resulting in death or severe injury (Senate File 433 passed unanimously in Senate and House).
- Consumer fraud protections – Iowa consumers who are defrauded will have new rights to sue the business that defrauded them, with several exceptions (House File 712 passed unanimously in Senate and 96-1 in House).
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