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.
Higher education officials in Iowa talked about inconsistencies in the way the state’s universities enforce open records law, but they say those conversations are off limits to the public.
Earlier this year, The Iowa Independent reported that the University of Iowa and Iowa State University had disclosed different amounts of information to nearly identical records request. Asked for information about employees on paid leave, ISU offered dates of the leaves, salaries earned by those employees, and even general details about their violations. U of I, however, revealed far less: The number of faculty on paid leave and their aggregate salaries since being on leave.
E-mails obtained this week show that after The Iowa Independent’s inquiry Board of Regents General Counsel Tom Evans contacted U of I officials asking about their process for releasing information about employee paid leave:
Please advise the Board Office of your institutions procedures for tracking paid administrative leave for faculty and staff as well as open records protocol for release of information for faculty/staff (i.e. what data you release) on paid administrative leave.
U of I General Counsel Carroll Reasoner directed one of her staff lawyers to make contact with Evans, but the e-mails cut off there.
What officials said after that, staff members say, is not public information.
“It is a legal communication between General Counsel Evans and Counsel Porter and is privileged in its entirety,” Regents Assistant Counsel Aimee Clayton wrote in an e-mail.
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