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.
Democratic voters frustrated with the legislative pace in the nation’s capitol during 2009 might want to look away: This year, many experts are predicting, the fragile economy and looming elections will likely make it even tougher for party leaders to make good on their many campaign promises.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. (WDCpix)
Proposals taking on climate change, immigration reform, the foreclosure crisis, and bank regulatory reform all remain high on the Democrats’ legislative wish-list. But the combination of heightened unemployment and thorny mid-term elections will make it more difficult, in 2010, to unite Democrats behind those proposals, for fear the votes will haunt moderates on the campaign trail.
Although Congress is on the brink of passing the most sweeping health-care reforms in four decades — representing both the Democrats’ top domestic priority and a major victory for party leaders — most of those changes won’t take effect for several years. As a result, many experts anticipate that health care — despite having dominated Congress for much of last year — will have less an influence on November’s elections than the economy.
“Americans won’t be able to test the veracity of these wildly divergent claims [about the health care bill],” Robert Reich, former secretary of Labor under President Clinton, wrote on his personal blog Tuesday. “So don’t count on health reform to help Dems next November — nor harm them, either.”
Instead, Democratic leaders will likely focus their energies this year trying to improve the economy (where unemployment remains in double digits) and safety measures in the wake of a near terrorist attack in Detroit on Christmas Day.
Read more at The Iowa Independent’s sister site, The Washington Independent.
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