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Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

IA: Environment

Farmers apply fertilizer, including nitrogen, before spring planting so the seed and the growing plant have nutrients available throughout the season. (Adobe Stock)

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Plan pays IA farmers to reduce excess nitrogen use

A farm group is helping Iowa agriculture producers find ways to reduce the amount of nitrogen they use on their crops. Excess nitrates can wind up …

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California could buy tax credits from large-scale livestock producers in Iowa to offset California diesel emissions. The new regulations rate Iowa's livestock operations 'cleaner' than diesel. (Adobe Stock)
Iowa CAFOs could cash in on California emissions credits

Iowa factory farms could cash in on new proposed carbon emissions tax-credit rules in California. The new emissions standards would allow …

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The Wildlife Disease Surveillance for Pandemic Prevention Act seeks to create a Wildlife Disease Surveillance Program though the Wildlife Health Office at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (Adobe Stock)
Wildlife disease measure could benefit IA ag industry

Wildlife advocates are asking Congress to pass bill that would help states track diseases killing wildlife across the country. In Iowa, the measure …

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The Iowa Environmental Council is calling on the Department of Natural Resources to add better protections for the state's air, soil and groundwater quality in new regulations for concentrated animal feeding operations. (Adobe Stock)
Environmental advocates want tougher CAFO rules

After a two-and-a-half-year process, time is winding down for the public to comment on new rules for concentrated animal feeding operations in Iowa…

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Bald eagles sit 3 to 3.5 feet tall and weigh eight to 15 pounds. Their eyes are five to six times more powerful than a human's. (Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources)
Iowa uses public's birds-eye view to monitor bald eagles, amphibians

Iowa wildlife officials are asking outdoor enthusiasts to cast a birds-eye view on bald eagle nests to help track their health, and are also on a …

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Rural advocates are pushing for more protection for independent producers in the next Farm Bill. (Adobe Stock)
Rural groups push for environmental protections in next Farm Bill

Even though the current Farm Bill has been extended for a year, rural advocates are speaking up about protecting independent and family farms when …

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Iowa has warmed 0.5 to 1 degree in the last century, and floods are becoming more frequent. In the coming decades, the state will have more extremely hot days, which may harm public health in urban areas and corn harvests in rural areas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. (Adobe Stock)
State skips climate-change grants, Iowa cities reap $3 million instead

A handful of Iowa's biggest cities has been awarded $3 million to work on solutions to climate change at the local level. The climate pollution …

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The USDA says producers can increase their environmental stewardship activities through the department's Conservation Stewardship Program. (Adobe Stock)
Family farm advocates suspect profit motive behind some 'conservation' practices

Midwest family farm advocates have sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, opposing recent additions to conservation practices they said …

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Cedar Rapids, in eastern Iowa, had only 15.5 inches of rain in all of 2022, which is about half of what it would normally get by early October. (Adobe Stock)
IA implements first-ever drought plan

The State of Iowa has just put its first-ever drought plan to work to help it manage one of the longest and most severe dry periods in recent history…

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Rural Webster County, Iowa, uses money offered by the state to test water wells. Some 43 million Americans rely on private wells for their water, but many don't have those wells tested for water quality. (Tony Leys/KFF Health News)
Rural IA boosts efforts to test private wells

By Tony Leys for KFF Health News.Broadcast version by Mark Moran for Iowa News Service reporting for the KFF Health News-Public News Service Collabor…

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Nine states in the Upper Midwest make up 32% of total installed wind capacity nationwide, according to the Clean Grid Alliance. (Adobe Stock)
Big Push for Wind as Rural Iowa Economic Development

Green energy advocates are pushing wind power as an economic development tool in rural America. Iowa is among the nation's leaders in wind energy …

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With 23.6 million hogs in Iowa, the state continues to dominate the nation's hog production industry. Minnesota and Nebraska rank a distant second and third with 8.6 million and 8.3 million hogs respectively, according to Iowa Source. (Adobe Stock)
Advocates Blast EPA Over 'Inaction' on Confinement Rules

Clean-water activists are angry over a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to sidestep action on threats to water posed by factory …

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