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.
In the business of politics, Sen. John McCain’s “Straight Talking Express” failed to meet its own quarterly expectations for the second time in a row, thus prompting the McCain campaign to downsize its Iowa staff. After posting disappointing first-quarter numbers, in which he raised $12.5 million, McCain vowed to improve his fund-raising efforts by shaking up his finance team.
McCain’s staff unveiled its numbers Monday, and not only did the campaign fail to meet its projections, but the posted $11.2 second-quarter numbers took a slight dip compared to the previous quarter. Worse, McCain reported having only $2 million in cash on hand at the end of June, while Iowa poll leaders Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney reported having $18 and $12 million respectively.
And then the hatchet fell in Iowa.
Senior McCain advisers said that roughly half of the campaign’s 16-member Iowa staff had been “impacted by the restructuring.” The Des Moines Register, however, confirmed with Republican sources a set of different numbers on Thursday:
At least 10 McCain staffers working directly on the campaign for the leadoff nominating caucuses have been laid off or have turned down the chance to keep their jobs at lower pay
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