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 Des Moines Register showered more poll numbers on readers today, and the news is better for Democrats than it was over the weekend.
Though each Iowan seems to have his or her own ideas for how money should be cut from the budget, few blame the Democrats for overspending on their key priorities over the past few years.
In all, majorities support Democrats’ expansion of health insurance coverage for children, spending on public schools, repairing roads and bridges, raising teacher pay, and developing renewable energy. A plurality supports expanded free preschool.
On most budget items, pluralities of Iowans agree with the idea of cutting everything by an equal amount, except when it comes to health insurance for low-income residents and the Iowa State Patrol, which majorities say should be spared from cuts. This seems to conform to Gov. Chet Culver’s decision to make an across-the-board budget cut now and use the beginning of the legislative session next year to restore some funding for key priorities.
That said, Iowans have mixed feelings about the decisions that have been made to cut the state budget. Though only 19 percent of respondents said they were “Very Confident” or “Mostly Confident” about the budget-cutting decisions, 44 percent were “Just Somewhat Confident.” 35 percent were not confident.
(Incidentally, it seems strange that this question had three positive responses and just one negative response. These responses may fit people’s opinions best, but they also can also be confusing to interpret. The Register story itself seems to add up “Somewhat Confident” and “Not Confident” to demonstrate a disapproving majority, but “Somewhat Confident” doesn’t sound very disapproving to me. It was the closest thing to a middle ground that pollsters offered, and it implies slight approval, not disapproval.)
You can read the Register’s write-up of the poll here.
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