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.
Freedom to Marry, a New York-based LGBT-rights organization, plans to hold rallies across the country to counter those planned by anti-gay marriage group National Organization for Marriage (NOM).
Earlier this week, NOM announced it would hold rallies in 22 cities this summer — including Des Moines and Sioux City — with the goal of building public opposition to same-sex marriage. Wednesday, Freedom to Marry announced that it would also hold rallies in those cities with the hope of “spreading the word across the country about the importance of ending exclusion from marriage.”
“As part of Freedom to Marry’s Summer for Marriage, we are working with our supporters, as well as local and state partners, to plan rallies and other events wherever NOM is planning to push discrimination and distort the truth about gay couples and their families,” the group said in an e-mail to the media. “In 17 states and the District of Columbia, we will share our stories and demonstrate how the denial of marriage harms same-sex couples and their families, while helping no one.”
Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Iowa since the Iowa Supreme Court ruled the state’s Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional in April 2009. Since then, NOM has been active in Iowa politics – donating nearly $100,000 to the failed attempt to elect a Republican in Iowa House District 90, launching a series of robocalls featuring the voice of U.S. Rep Steve King, and targeting 33 members of the Iowa House with an e-mail campaign in a failed attempt to convince them to allow a vote on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
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