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.
During a Saturday morning interview in the fall of 2003 — just months before John Edwards finished a strong second in the 2004 Iowa caucuses — I interviewed Elizabeth Edwards at Inspired By Coffee on Highway 30 in Carroll.
As she asks the press and public for distance and decency in the wake of revelations about her husband’s infidelity, I recall Elizabeth Edwards’s response from five years ago to a question about allegations that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger mistreated women.
Elizabeth Edwards
There is, of course, a canyon of a difference between groping unwilling women on movie sets — as Schwarzenegger was alleged to have done in a swirl of sensational stories before his election in 2003 — and cheating on one’s wife with a willing partner as John Edwards admits to doing. But in an interview with me in 2003, Elizabeth Edwards had strong words about how women should be treated by men that seem strikingly applicable to her husband today.
I asked Mrs. Edwards about her reaction to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s election as a Republican governor of California in the wake of news reports about the action movie star’s mistreatment of women. The L.A. Times has published stories with allegations that Schwarzenegger “groped†and “humiliated†women on movie sets and in other locations over three decades.
The allegations didn’t factor heavily into voting as Schwarzenegger cruised to victory.
“It concerns me greatly,†Mrs. Edwards said. “I think what we look for in leaders are a number of things, but I think that a basic prerequisite is somebody who has respect for women, for the various races that make up our nation. That lack of respect is something that people ought to take into consideration.â€
Mrs. Edwards said Schwarzenegger’s dismissive attitude about the serious claims amounted to “further denigration†of the women.
“The Schwarzenegger campaign, one of the things that bothered me tremendously is his saying, ‘Well, we’ll talk about this after the election,’ instead of saying, ‘This is something that I understand,’†Mrs. Edwards said. “If he truly understood it was important, if he truly respected women’s rights, he would have said this is an important claim, and I feel that it is fair to address them.â€
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