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.
One of the biggest challenges facing the next generation of Iowans might just be sticking around. That’s because the mass exodus of educated young people in search of better jobs or lives, popularly called the "brain drain," has been in full force. Almost 30,000 people between the ages of 25 and 34 left Iowa from 1995 to 2000, according to the Christian Science Monitor, and that sucking sound terrifies law-makers.In one attempt to halt the drain, the Iowa legislature passed the Generation Iowa bill, symbolically co-sponsored by four representatives who were 30 years old or younger. The bill created the Generation Iowa Commission, a 15-member group of 18 to 35 year olds to strategize on how to keep more young people living and working in Iowa; the commission falls within the Department of Economic Development. Nearly 90 Iowans have applied to be on the Commission, according to the Des Moines Register; applications are due by May 15.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal also called the last legislative session, the “best session ever for young Iowans,” in a recent Democratic press release. Gronstal pointed to the passage of bills that increased teachers’ salaries, promoted an alternative fuel economy, and ended discrimination based on sexual discrimination as ways to appeal to young people.
In an earlier interview, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy urged people to be patient when confronting the issue. “Iowa is still Iowa,” he said. “We’re not New York or Los Angeles, and we shouldn’t pretend to be.” But, he said, investment in alternative fuels would pay off with “high paying, high quality jobs” and that would be “attractive to young people.”
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