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.
The number of people filing new claims for jobless benefits fell to 11,000 to 445,000 this week, the Labor Department reported this morning. Economists had expected claims to remain around 455,000. But, alas, it is not all sunshine and roses in the labor market.
Initial claims need to fall into the 300,000 range to create a drop in the unemployment rate. The four-week average — a more stable indicator, since the weekly claims tend to jump around — remains above 450,000, at 455,750. That means claims need to subside substantially to imply real economic improvement.
This amounts to another worrying indicator in advance of tomorrow’s major jobs report, when the Department of Labor will release the September unemployment rate. Most economists expect the rate to remain where it is or possibly to inch higher, due to employers’ hesitancy to hire. Yesterday, an independent jobs report indicated that private-sector employers shed workers last month, rather than adding them. The government, too, likely shrank payrolls, as state and local governments fired employees to close their budget gaps.
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