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.
After being roundly criticized by media and politicians across the state, Sioux City NBC affiliate KTIV has agreed to air the first of three Republican gubernatorial debates on its Web site.
The station originally planned to tape the debate Wednesday and broadcast it the following weekend. No media or members of the public would be allowed to be in attendance. The Sioux City Journal, in an editorial published on its Web site Thursday afternoon, called on all three gubernatorial hopefuls to boycott the debate. The paper even went so far as to offer to hold a debate of its own the same day and time.
“Our stations originally planned to tape the debate on April 7 to air on April 10,” said Jerry Watson, regional vice president of Quincy Newspapers Inc., which owns the station. “Because the debate was a cooperative event involving three Iowa television markets, a number of issues had to be addressed. First, was the candidates’ availability and second was time periods available to air the program on three NBC affliliates. We did not want to pre-empt NBC’s new, popular show ‘Minute to Win It.’ In the end, we felt Iowans should be able to view the debate live as it happens and on the air the very same evening.”
The debate will air live online Wednesday at 1 p.m. and then be broadcast from 7 to 8 p.m. on KTIV, KWWL of Waterloo and KTTC of Rochester, Minn. The debate has also been made available to Iowa Public Television.
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