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.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Scott Brennan endorsed Barack Obama for president today. The endorsement leaves Senator Tom Harkin as Iowa’s only remaining uncommitted superdelegate.Two weeks ago, Brennan told Iowa Independent, “I agree with Senator Harkin at this point, why not let the contest play out,” and said it was possible he may not endorse until the nominee was apparent.
In addition to his own convention vote, Brennan will name one “add-on” delegate, who will be officially unpledged but is almost certain to be an Obama supporter. That person is subject to ratification by the state party convention June 14, but that’s highly likely. Supporters of caucus winner Obama are expected to control more than half the convention. Combined with the forces of John Edwards, who endorsed Obama last week, that figure jumps to about 70 percent.
Obama now has seven of Iowa’s 11 superdelegates. In addition to Brennan, those are:
Hillary Clinton has backing from three (using the Clinton campaign’s term) “automatic” delegates:
Boswell’s Clinton support is a new campaign issue, as 3rd Congressional District primary challenger Ed Fallon is urging Boswell to switch his support to Obama.
Obama is scheduled to speak in Des Moines tonight. The campaign is not calling the event a “claim victory” speech, though many observers are interpreting it as such.
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