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.
Hoping to convince Iowans to oust three state Supreme Court justices up for a retention election this fall, the D.C.-based Family Research Council and New Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage will hold 20 events around the state next week.
Likely 2012 presidential candidate Rick Santorum, U.S. Rep. Steve King, Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins, National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown and other state and national leaders will urge Iowans vote against retaining the three judges who joined last year’s unanimous decision that legalized same-sex marriage. The tour will kick off on Monday, Oct. 25, at the state Capitol and conclude at a Thursday night rally in front of the Iowa Supreme Court building.
Election Day is Nov. 2, just four days after the final rally.
“The Iowa Supreme Court ruled as irrelevant millennia of tradition and the views of a large majority of Iowans that marriage is and always should be between one man and one woman,” Perkins said in a press release. “This is not the court’s role. The legislature makes the law. The governor executes the law. The job of the courts is to apply, not reinterpret, the law.”
The Family Research Council’s Iowa affiliate — the Iowa Family Policy Center — was a leading voice in the efforts to force the legislature to pass a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The group was also a major backer of the gubernatorial campaign of Bob Vander Plaats, who now leads the campaign to oust the judges.
The National Organization for Marriage has already held two rallies in Iowa this summer in opposition to same-sex marriage and spent nearly $235,000 for a TV ad campaign targeting the judges.
King has repeatedly attacked the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling, saying it would turn Iowa into a “gay marriage Mecca.” Last week he publicly called for Iowans to oust the three judges based on that ruling.
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