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.
A source close to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has told CNN that the Minnesota Congresswoman intends to form a presidential exploratory committee in “early summer.”
“If you [debate sponsors] come to us and say, ‘To be in our debates, you have to have an exploratory committee,’ then we’ll say, ‘Okay, fine … I’ll go file the forms,” the unnamed source told CNN Political Producer Shannon Travis Thursday.
CNN is planning one of three presidential debates for early summer.
Meanwhile, CNN has also learned that Iowa Republican state Sen. Kent Sorenson will likely be hired to be Bachmann’s political director for the state – and that Bachmann aides hope to have a complete team together for Iowa by this weekend.
Sorenson announced earlier this month that if Bachmann entered the race, she’d have his support.
The combination of support that Bachmann could garner from both the tea party movement and social conservatives in Iowa was a primary reason she was ranked fifth by The Iowa Independent’s panelists in our first 2012 Power Rankings.
Bachmann is in Iowa Thursday and Friday to participate in a controversial gathering of Iowa pastors known as the Iowa Renewal Project. On Thursday morning, she spent time meeting with state lawmakers in Des Moines. She is also scheduled to be a keynote speaker in Pella and Iowa City next month as part of The Family Leader‘s lecture series.
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