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.
Despite cuts to higher education funding from the state in recent years, the Iowa Board of Regents has approved a $4 billion budget — only about 1 percent less than last year’s budget.
The Des Moines Register reports:
The universities had to manage a $17 million cut in state funding and the loss of one-time federal stimulus money. State funding has been slashed 20 percent in the past two years.
The regents are dealing with those cuts by increasing student tuition. Earlier this year, policymakers approved a 6 percent tuition increase for in-state students at all three state universities.
That move is emblematic of dwindling relative support from the state: Even when state appropriations to higher education increase, they don’t grow as fast as students’ burden. For fiscal 2011, students will pay more than 54 percent of universities’ budget, while the state will pick up less than 40 percent.
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