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 lawyer at a Decorah law firm who is under fire for unusual requests he made in an employment ad says he had every right to ask prospective job applicants for personal details.
Trial Lawyers for Justice, a multi-state law firm of which Decorah-based attorney Nicholas C. Rowley is a principal, ran an advertisement through the Minnesota State Bar Association seeking “a brilliant hardworking lawyer” with an interest in legal research. In addition to the traditional requirements related to application, the ad requested interested persons also e-mail a “personal story of who the applicant is, what his or her political beliefs are, and what they believe about justice and personal injury litigation along with a recent personal and/or family photograph.”
The ad caught the eye of Elie Mystal, editor of the blog Above the Law, who implied that the requested information might be related to discrimination.
Rowley responded at length to a request from Mystal, asserting that the additional information, although a litmus test of sorts, was not exactly as it had been portrayed:
…I am a person who wants to put a picture to a life story and policitcal belief and a face, a feeling, and voice and then make the decision whether to invest the time to get together and talk and try to connect with that person.
AND, if a person is the type that would pessimistically look at the advertisement of the position and get OFFENDED or turned off then that is a person who I don’t want because they are angry and negative minded, AND if a person is too lazy to do all I ask then they are not somebody I want to waste any time with.
Lastly, if one auditions for a part in a movie or play, or television show is a photograph not a pre requisite. Maybe it is because you want to see who is going to be playing the part. Maybe you want somebody who is male, female, gay, straight, fat, skinny, light hair, dark hair, bald, red eyed, or a combination or all of the above. Maybe it has something to do with discrimination and exclusion or maybe it is all about INCLUSION…
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