• Maryland’s General Assembly has passed a bill that calls for a 30% tax credit for the deployment of energy storage technologies that runs from 2018 through 2022. The credit is capped at $5,000 for residential storage projects and at $75,000 for commercial projects with an overall cap on credits awarded of $750,000 per year.The bill now goes to Gov. Larry Hogan (R), but it seems to have garnered enough votes – passing unanimously in the Senate and by 101-11 votes in the House – to avoid or survive a veto.

The Montana Senate killed a measure to allow the sale of raw milk within the state. After more than two hours of debate Tuesday, senators voted down HB 325 by a 28-22 vote. It had passed the House last month with a 69-30 vote. The bill would have allowed cattle, goat or sheep ranchers to sell raw milk and related products directly to consumers or through agricultural shares where people pay an upfront cost in exchange for regular deliveries of goods. Rep. [node:read-more:link]

District crop and livestock producers are struggling to cope with a sharp drop in commodity prices. For agricultural producers across the Ninth District, this has been the winter of their discontent. After reaping handsome profits earlier in the decade, producers are reeling from lower crop and livestock prices, the result of several years of high commodity production worldwide and a strong U.S. dollar that has limited farm exports.Many producers in the district are operating at a loss because revenues are not covering their costs. [node:read-more:link]

Rural hospitals are facing one of the great slow-moving crises in American health care. Across the U.S., they've been closing at a rate of about one per month since 2010. About 14 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural counties, a proportion that has dropped as the number of urban dwellers grows. Declining populations mean a smaller base of patients and less revenue. And the hospitals are caught in a squeeze: Because many patients in the countryside are older and sicker, they require more intensive and often expensive care. [node:read-more:link]

Authorities in Worcester County, Md., are preparing for two public hearings this month on a proposal to tighten poultry house regulations that was introduced in March, according to local reports. County commissioners introduced a bill that would limit the number of chicken houses that can be built on a parcel of land to eight and requires that the houses stand at least 200 feet away from adjacent properties. The proposal also calls for poultry houses to be set away from vegetation surrounding poultry farms. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has thrown out a 2008 final rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that had exempted concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) from reporting when large quantities of hazardous materials such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are released into the air from animal waste. EPA had reasoned that such reports were unnecessary because a federal response was “impractical and unlikely,” the appeals court noted in its ruling. [node:read-more:link]

Governor Ivy said "Rural Alabama is near and dear to my heart. Don't forget I'm from rural Wilcox County. My decision to shutter the Office of Rural Development will refocus rural development efforts into existing agencies." The previous governor, who just resigned, launched the Alabama Rural Development Office in 2011 to "improve and advance education, health care and economic development in rural areas of Alabama." It replaced two other state commissions, the Black Belt Action Commission and the Alabama Rural Action Commission. [node:read-more:link]

Los Angeles Animal Services reported today that multiple dogs recently imported from Asia by a rescue group were infected with canine influenza, but all of the dogs are in quarantine and there have been no further reports of infections. Canine influenza is a highly contagious upper respiratory viral disease in dogs and cats, and typically will cause a persistent cough that can last for 10 to 21 days. Symptoms may also include nasal discharge, fever, sneezing, lethargy and appetite loss. The animals do not usually respond to antibiotics or cough suppressants, according to L.A. [node:read-more:link]

A small-town Iowa newspaper with a staff of 10 people - most of whom are related to each other – has won a Pulitzer Prize for taking on powerful agricultural companies over farm pollution. Art Cullen, who owns the Storm Lake Times with his brother John, acknowledged it wasn’t easy taking on agriculture in a state like Iowa where you see hundreds of miles of farm fields in every direction. The Cullens lost a few friends and a few advertisers, but never doubted they were doing the right thing. [node:read-more:link]

Canada says it’s being wrongly blamed for a decision by a major dairy processor that could put some Wisconsin farms out of business in less than three weeks.At issue are changes in Canadian policy that make it harder for U.S. dairy processors — such as Grassland Dairy Products of Greenwood — to sell ultra-filtered milk, used to make cheese, in Canada.The policies are “choking off sales of American milk to the detriment of U.S. dairy farmers,” said Tom Vilsack, former U.S. Agriculture Secretary and now president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. [node:read-more:link]