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.
Opposition from state and local election officials might delay action on a voting equipment bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Dave Leshtz, a staff member for U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, says the congressman is getting many calls about HR811, which Loebsack co-sponsored. “They’re still working on that so that states would not have to bust their budgets to comply,” Leshtz told the Johnson County Democratic Central Committee on Thursday. Leshtz was also confident the concerns of disability advocates would be met.A House vote on the bill sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., was expected this week. But now the bill could be delayed or pulled entirely. HR 811 would require a voter-verified paper record for every vote cast nationwide beginning in 2008. It also would mandate routine random audits in most federal races and would designate paper ballots as the ballots of record for audits or recounts.
The question seems less about the goals than about speed of implementation and funding. The National Conference of State Legislatures sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter calling the bill “overly pre-emptive of state laws governing election administration.” The letter also complained of being saddled with an unfunded federal mandate.
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