Cash crop

 

Iowa ranks No. 2 in total agricultural subsidies, but a growing number of farmers question where the money is going

 

During a time of increasing federal budget deficits and anger over governmental spending, one of the top conversations stretching across both the rural and urban United States is the issue of farm subsidies. But for a growing number of Iowa farmers, it’s not a matter of whether or not the federal government should continue to shell out billions of dollars in subsidies, but more importantly, who should receive the funds?

United States farm subsidies are government payments given to farmers and agribusinesses to supplement their income and manage the supply and pricing of specific commodities. President Roosevelt created farming subsidies during the 1930s to help struggling family farms during the Great Depression.

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Culver’s done; a U of Iowa fan is tasered; Michael Mauro gets a lift


This weekend’s Iowa Poll is the death knell for the Culver campaign, important Democrats quietly concede. It closed doors and checkbooks, they say.

For weeks, Culver folks have been cornering White House operatives — in Washington and at Iowa functions like the Harkin Steak Fry — asking for fly-in help from Big Names in Washington, starting with President Obama. Wait till the next poll comes out, the Culver folks were told. Big Names don’t want to waste valuable time and appearances on sure losers, they were bluntly told. Well, the poll is out, and it shows Chet Culver still trailing Terry Branstad by seven furlongs. Culver has gained nothing in the past seven months — he was down by 20 points in February, and he’s down by 19 now. So don’t expect any campaign appearances here by anyone who’s important or who even thinks she’s important. As proof: Obama is in Des Moines this week, but the White House has made it clear there will be nothing political and the meetings will be private.

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Musselwhite’s autobiographical new album, ‘The Well,’ runs deep

 

To fully appreciate the depth of Charlie Musselwhite’s autobiographical new album, “The Well,” is to understand the miles the 66-year-old blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter has logged during his colorful life and almost 50-year career.

Musselwhite’s travels read like a history book of popular American music. Born Jan. 31, 1944, into a blue-collar family in the rural hill country of Kosciusko, Miss., he was surrounded by blues, hillbilly and gospel music. Raised in Memphis, he worked as a ditch digger and moonshine runner and began to play harmonica and his father’s guitar. He also attended parties hosted by Elvis Presley and hobnobbed with local musicians like Johnny Cash, Johnny Burnette, Furry Lewis, Will Shade and Gus Cannon.

Accordion to legend

 

The accordion is music’s metaphor for confusion. It was adored by Tchaikovski and Charles Ives, as well as by John Mellencamp, Tom Waits, They Might Be Giants, Weird Al Yankovich and subway buskers worldwide. The accordion is the main instrument of folk music from valenato and cumbia in Colombia, to baião and forro in Brazil, sevdalinka in Bosnia, zydeco in Louisiana, tejano in Texas and Mexico, tango in Argentina and Viking metal in Scandinavia. Yet many Americans still think it begins and ends with Myron Floren and “The Lawrence Welk Show.” That’s a tough mental block to chip. Between two wildly successful books (“The Shipping News” and “Brokeback Mountain”), E. Annie Proulx wrote “Accordion Crimes.” That book traced a cursed accordion from 1890 Sicily through New Orleans, Texas, Maine, Minnesota and Prank, Iowa, to its end in 1886 Florida. Despite its epic scale, it was Proulx’s biggest flop.

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