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’s often outspoken and controversial 5th District Congressman has once again gotten the attention of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert.
U.S. Rep. Steve King took the floor of the House this week to speak against the Claims Resolution Act of 2010, a piece of legislation that provided settlements to several American Indian tribes and black farmers who were bilked by federal agencies. King has been especially vocal in his criticism of the $1.3 billion settlements for Pigford, which was originally a class action lawsuit brought by black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for discrimination. Offering such payments, according to King, is essentially “modern day slavery reparations.”
The floor speech was highlighted by Colbert Thursday night.
“It seems like today everyone gets to claim they’re a victim except the most persecuted minority: The majority — white people,” Colbert said to open the piece, “The Word,” a regular feature of the show.
A video clip of that portion of The Colbert Report appears below.
King, along with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn), contend that the Pigford settlements are rife with fraud, despite the fact that a Federal Bureau of Investigation report found only three out of 15,000 claims processed in the first round of Pigford were fraudulent.
King and Colbert had a minor run in earlier this year while the Comedy Central star appeared before King’s Congressional committee on behalf of the United Farm Workers Union.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word – The Great White Wail | ||||
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