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.
State Rep. Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines, has introduced legislation that would raise the minimum wage in Iowa.
This bill, House File 130, would increase the state minimum hourly wage to $7.50 as of Jan. 1, 2012, and $8 as of July 1, 2012. The last time the Iowa legislature increased the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 was in 2007, when Gov. Chet Culver was in office.
Last week, when state Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Indianola, tried to force a debate in the Senate on legislation passed by the House to amend the constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages or civil unions, Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, likened it to a past Democratic struggle in the Senate.
Gronstal said he appreciated Republicans’ frustration on the inability to force a debate, saying it was similar to the way Democrats tried unsuccessfully for years to bring forward a proposed increase in the state’s minimum wage under Republican control.
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