AgClips
Recent AgClips
List of per diem paid to lawmakers in different states
KBOI2 | Posted onSeptember 23, 2016 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsHow states compare on taxpayer-funded reimbursements for lawmakers' lodging and food away from home — a payment typically provided on top of lawmakers' annual salaries. They vary from no per diem at all for states like Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Ohio to $249 per day for Alaska. Some are based on length of session, Arizona is $35 a day for the first 120 days and $10 a day thereafter, some are an annual payment - Michigan $10,800 a year.
Despite State Barriers, Cities Push to Expand High-Speed Internet
Pew Charitable Trust | Posted onSeptember 23, 2016 in Rural NewsWebsites take minutes to load and photos take hours to upload at Ryan Davis’ home in the small southern Tennessee city of Dayton. If Davis gets in his car and drives about half an hour south to Chattanooga, though, everything takes under a second. The city-provided fiber optic network there is so fast — up to 10 gigabits per second — that Chattanooga is known as Gig City. Chattanooga wants to expand outside of its current service area to Dayton and other rural spots. But a state law bans cities from doing so, and the U.S.
CRISPR Could Usher In a New Era of Delicious GMO Foods
The Atlantic | Posted onSeptember 23, 2016 in Food NewsA few weeks ago, Stefan Jansson, a Swedish plant biologist, sat down to a plate of pasta with cabbage harvested from his garden. This cabbage was like none any human had eaten before; its DNA had been edited via a much-hyped new gene-editing technique called CRISPR. Jansson’s meal was the first time anyone anywhere had professed to eating CRISPR-modified food—an entirely new category of GMOs. But far from being some bizarre “frankenfood,” the cabbage looked almost exactly the same as unedited cabbage.
Governments of Canada and the United States have finalized a Lake Superior Lakewide Action and Management Plan
Binational.net | Posted onSeptember 23, 2016 in Federal NewsPursuant to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the governments of Canada and the United States have finalized a Lake Superior Lakewide Action and Management Plan (LAMP)which is an ecosystem-based strategy for restoring and protecting Lake Superior water quality. The LAMP documents ecosystem conditions and threats, and presents science and action priorities.
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces USDA Funding for Ohio Hospital
USDA | Posted onSeptember 23, 2016 in Rural NewsAgriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced a $54.6 million Community Facilities program loan to the Fulton County Health Center in Wauseon, Ohio, to renovate a critical access hospital that also offers treatment for substance misuse disorders. "USDA's investment in much-needed medical facilities is bringing state-of-the-art health care to residents in our rural communities," Vilsack said.
China Will Lift Ban on U.S. Beef
Hoosier Ag Today | Posted onSeptember 23, 2016 in Federal NewsFollowing a 13-year ban on U.S. beef exports to China, the Chinese Government indicates the nation will begin accepting U.S. beef from animals less than 30 months of age. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association calls the indication a tremendous opportunity for U.S. cattle producers. The U.S. Meat Export Federation called the announcement a “welcome first step” in restarting beef exports to China. The U.S. Department of Agriculture now must work with China’s Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine to approve the certificates and protocols for exports.
Mycotoxins, disease reported in US corn, wheat crops
Watt Ag Net | Posted onSeptember 22, 2016 in Food NewsThere are new reports of aflatoxin in corn and deoxynivalenol (DON) in wheat in the U.S., according toNeogen’s Mycotoxin Report on September 19. Diplodia ear rot also has been reported in corn in Michigan and Ohio.
Legislative fix in the works that would salvage Pennsylvania horse farms
Penn Live | Posted onSeptember 22, 2016 in Agriculture NewsLegislation to fix an unintended consequence of a law enacted earlier this year to modernize the horse racing industry that has held up Pennsylvania Breeders Fund payouts to the thoroughbred horse breeders and owners won House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee approval. House Bill 2303, sponsored by Rep.
If Field of Dreams needs justice, the Iowa Supreme Court will come
Des Moines Register | Posted onSeptember 22, 2016 in Rural NewsThree hours south of the Field of Dreams, the words of the late W.P. Kinsella were invoked Monday night in front of the Iowa Supreme Court. Kinsella was the Canadian writer whose novel “Shoeless Joe,” a story of a ghostly baseball player written in in 1978 while he was at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in Iowa City, became the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams.” He died Friday at age 81. Monday night wasn’t primarily a eulogy for the man whose fiction in a roundabout way led 150 or so people to watch a real-life court drama in the Grand Theatre in downtown Keokuk, complete with free cookies.
USDA declares most of Massachusetts a disaster area
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/breakingnews/ci_30384155/usda-declares-most-state-natural-disaster-area | Posted onSeptember 22, 2016 in Federal NewsEleven of the state's 14 counties have been deemed "primary natural disaster areas" by the United States Department of Agriculture due to substantial crop losses that began with a February deep freeze and continued though a summer marked by severe drought. Farmers in those counties are eligible for low interest emergency loans from the USDA's Farm Service Agency, the USDA said. Farmers have eight months to apply for a loan to help cover part of their losses.