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 Iowa Civil Rights Commission lacks the power to subpoena people as it investigates discrimination complaints.
Officials from the commission hope to change that by informing Iowa legislators about the problem next year. Gaining the subpoena powers is just one of several legislative priorities commissioners will vote on next month.
Ralph Rosenberg, the commission’s executive director, said there are some misunderstandings about why the commission should be able to subpoena people. It already has the power to subpoena documents, he said. Most other state agencies have the ability to do both, he said.
“This strengthens our ability to determine the merits of a case, and it can go either way,” he said. “But, I think some people think that all this does is strengthen our ability to find that discrimination occurred.”
Alicia Claypool, chairwoman of the commissioners, said the subpoena powers benefit both parties.
“It will be better for the complainant and the respondent if we get this,” she said. “It will just be able to make us do a better job of investigating it.”
The commission hopes to gain the subpoena powers and accomplish other goals, including the following (below the fold):
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