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.
Gov. Chet Culver announced Monday that he has written a letter to Iowa’s congressional delegation requesting quick action for extending the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program and other unemployment provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that expired on April 5.
Around 1,000 Iowans will lose their unemployment benefits every week until an extension is passed. Anyone currently collecting checks in one of the three tiers of benefits available to Iowans (or five tiers nationally) will continue receiving benefits until they exhaust the weeks remaining in that tier. As The Washington Independent’s Mike Lillis points out, if you’re on week 13.5 of Tier II benefits, for example, you won’t be able to apply for Tier III later this week, when Tier II expires. According to Iowa Workforce Development, more than 34,000 Iowans currently receive either Tier I, II, or III benefits.
The nonpartisan Iowa Fiscal Partnership released a study earlier this year showing the economic impacts of stimulus spending for unemployment benefits. Analysts found that direct spending for unemployment insurance included in the federal stimulus, along with ripple effects from that spending, produced $501.7 million increased economic activity and $112.1 million in income in 2009, creating or saving 3,727 jobs.
For the current year, the researchers also found direct and indirect benefits but in lower amounts, $314.6 million activity, $68.6 million income and 2,258 jobs.
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote Monday on U.S. House-passed legislation extending the filing deadline for unemployment benefits through the end of the month, but as of yet it does not include a provision making the extension retroactive.
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