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.
The chief executive with an Iowa-based ice cream company that tossed portions of its wealth behind Bob Vander Plaats and an affiliated social conservative political action committee have the taxpayers to thank for likely making such contributions possible.
Think Progress, a liberal advocacy group, reported Monday that in 2004, the Wells Dairy received nearly $16 million in government subsidies:
… In 2004, Wells Dairy received a total of $15,718,550 in government loans, grants, infrastructure bonds and tax credits, and promised to construct a new corporate headquarters in Iowa, preserve existing jobs, and add another 129 jobs. Wells accepted the subsidies, built the headquarters, but did not expand employment. As a result, the company returned $1,251,414 of the $15,718,550 to Iowa taxpayers as part of an agreement. …
Wells Dairy is owned an operated by Mike and Cheryl Wells, and sells its products under the Blue Bunny Ice Cream label. Mike Wells has served as president and chief executive of Wells Enterprises since November 2007, which holds Blue Bunny as its signature brand. Prior to his election as president, Wells had served as chief operations officer, co-president of demand, supply and logistics, and executive vice president of sales, marketing and transportation. Wells was founded in 1913 and began producing ice cream under the Blue Bunny label around 1935. It continues to be owned and managed by members of the Wells family, and is the largest such family-owned ice cream producer in the nation.
When it was revealed that the Wells family had made significant donations to both Vander Plaats’ political campaigns and the Iowa Family Center PAC, Blue Bunny and Wells Enterprises, facing a boycott of their products, attempted to separate their actions from those of its leaders by issuing the following statement:
Blue Bunny and Wells Enterprises have never donated money to Bob Vander Plaat’s (sic) political campaign. Everyone, including our employees, has a right to support political activities within their role as a private citizen. What our employees support personally is in no way an endorsement by our brand or our company.
The Family Leader, a religious conservative organization — the reincarnation of the Iowa Family Policy Center, is led by Vander Plaats. And both the organization and Vander Plaats personally have rallied against subsidies on the grounds that such reaches of government create undue burdens on American families. Yet, as Andy Kopsa reported for The Iowa Independent in April 2010, the Iowa Family Policy Center (IFPC) took in more than $3 million in federal funding, In 2007 alone, federal government subsidies amounted to roughly half of the organization’s income, and most was funneled into programs that provided marriage mentoring services while the group worked actively against civil marriage for homosexuals.
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