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.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is siding with the president and immigrant-rights advocates in the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Arizona’s controversial immigration law.
The group says Arizona’s law violates the constitution and calls for Iowans to be wary of enacting similar legislation.
“An Arizona-type law would be wrong for Iowa, and now that the federal government has taken action, Iowans must ask themselves whether they’re willing to engage in protracted and expensive legal battles with the federal government,” CCI’s Vanessa Andrade said in a press release.
Arizona’s law calls for state law enforcement to question the immigration status of any suspected of being in the country illegally. Proponents say Arizona is strictly enforcing existing federal law, but opponents say the move ventures too far towards racial profiling and violates the constitution’s federal supremacy clause.
Numerous other states have considered moves to intensify immigration enforcement and at least one Iowa Republican has called on Iowa to do the same. But the movement has made little headway in Iowa. Gov. Chet Culver told MSNBC earlier this year he didn’t think the state’s immigration situation necessitated further immigration legislation.
And Republican gubernatorial challenger Terry Branstad says he supports Arizona’s law but hasn’t indicated he’d push for similar legislation if elected.
“We’re not Arizona. We’re not a border state,” Branstad said in a debate during his GOP primary campaign. “We ought to do something that fits the needs of our state, Iowa.”
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