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.
Politico published an article Wednesday detailing the early moves by potential Republican 2012 presidential candidates to curry favor with elected politicians in the first three nominating states: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Politico highlights two members of Iowa’s delegation who have received the most attention to date: U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and U.S. Rep. Steve King. Both said they intend to endorse a candidate sometime next year.
“I’m not going to do anything until I see how much time they’re going to put in Iowa because that’s what the people of Iowa demand,” Grassley told POLITICO. “The second [consideration] is whether or not when they’re done with Iowa, they got money to go on. Because I can back the very best candidate and they can win Iowa, with or without Chuck Grassley. But if they can’t compete in New Hampshire, what good does it do?”
Grassley and King represent diverging strains of the Republican Party, with Grassley coming from the more traditional wing and King as a standard bearer for the far-right, tea-party attitude that defined the GOP in the last election. But both have received visits in Washington by former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, who has traveled frequently to the first-in-the-nation state in 2010.
Patrick Caldwell covers Iowa for The American Independent.
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