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.
Of all the possible changes to come out of the election, the biggest potential shift in immigration policy will probably come from which party controls the House. Now that change is official: Republicans will lead the House, meaning immigration legislation will be in the hands of U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, who will chair the immigration subcommittee.
Republican positions on immigration — and particularly the positions of hardliners like King — will be a major change from how current Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other leading Democrats handled the issue. House Republicans have said they will focus on border security and immigration enforcement over potential reform to the legal immigration system.
King tends to be on the extreme end of anti-illegal immigration rhetoric: He favors changes to birthright citizenship to keep U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants from receiving citizenship and argues more states should pass immigration crackdowns like Arizona’s SB 1070. King has pushed for more border enforcement and an electrified fence along the border to keep illegal immigrants out. “We do that with livestock all the time,” he said.
As head of the immigration subcommittee, King wants to call various leading Obama administration officials to hearings to ask them about immigration enforcement and, presumably, imply the administration does not want to deport people.
Of course, King won’t have ultimate power over the House Republicans’ priorities on immigration. The next House Speaker, John Boehner, will set a good deal of the agenda, and is likely to follow some of the plans hinted at in the Pledge to America, a vague but enforcement-heavy document released in September.
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