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.
IowaPolitics.com, a subscriber-based service for political news in the Hawkeye State, has been acquired by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a conservative nonprofit based in North Dakota and Virginia.
“We are honored to be working with the terrific staff at IowaPolitics. Their dedication to uncovering the truth and keeping their elected officials accountable has made them a truly remarkable news organization,” said Jason Stverak, president of the Franklin Center and former executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party.
The Franklin Center maintains news operations in more than 40 states, including the Watchdog.org network of local political news sites that Laura McGann of The Washington Monthly called “the clearest illustration of the promise and peril of the new breed of conservative muckraking.” However, the organization maintains all of its sites hold reporters to the highest journalistic standards as laid out by the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists.
“IowaPolitics.com is in good hands. I’m confident from what I’ve seen at the Franklin Center’s Wisconsin operation that IowaPolitics.com will provide robust, independent coverage of news events,” said Jeff Mayers, president of WisPolitics Publishing, the company that sold IowaPolitics to the Franklin Center.
The Franklin Center says IowaPolitics will “continue to provide regular coverage of the Iowa legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government, including agencies and other governmental entities, from the state capital of Des Moines.” In an interview with the Washington Examiner last year, Stverak said his organization and its affiliate news sites can’t be dismissed as “right-wing media.”
“With any news organization, you have to judge them on the news content,” he said. “Any organization that puts out content, that’s how the organization should be judged. We only have one bias here and that’s for a more open government. We don’t care if there’s a Republican or a Democrat in office. We care about the people.”
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