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.
National Democratic political consultant Tracy Sefl is calling on 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls to pay attention to sluggish flood recovery in Cedar Rapids.
Sefl writes in the Huffington Post:
Thousands of homes have been demolished, making for an eerie hopscotch pattern of blue lights. Looters have ransacked many of the abandoned homes, removing copper pipe and other salable materials. Some abandoned properties sat empty and dark. Others assaulted the senses: windows blown out, exteriors blackened by rot, debris strewn across lawns. The scene screamed “New Orleans,” but without the accompanying charitable service projects and celebrity commitments.
[...]
As a schoolchild, I remember well the tornado sirens, the heat waves, the icy blizzards and the rarest of rare snow days. But this flood has proven to be something different, something insurmountable — which makes Cedar Rapids every presidential candidate’s Katrina.
Floods submerged much of Eastern Iowa in 2008 and recovery has been slow in some places, particularly in residential areas of Cedar Rapids. Families in the area report the process for getting a buy-out for their ruined properties is murky and, even after they’re approved, they sometimes have to wait months until they receive payment. And that has lead to finger-pointing among flood victims and city officials about whether the city or federal officials are to blame for the delay.
Sefl — an Iowa native who has worked for the Democratic National Committee and John Kerry’s 2004 campaign — urges non-Republicans to engage in the 2012 caucus season in hopes of pushing forward disaster relief policy.
For 2012, Iowa Democrats and Independents should cross party lines and force the GOP hopefuls to see Cedar Rapids as it is today. Any viable presidential candidate must substantively answer questions about the plight of the state’s second largest city; the federal funding dilemmas and buck-passing; employment and housing struggles; too many hungry children; the importance of arts and culture to a community. And all of this must happen in addition to discussion of the familiar macro struggles of economic recovery, lost manufacturing jobs, declining educational systems, and the state’s brain drain.
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