After years of rejection, court battles and delays, a four-state transmission line that would connect western Kansas wind farms to the eastern power grid gained approval from the Missouri state agency that regulates public utilities. [node:read-more:link]
A starving whale with 40 kilos (88 pounds) of plastic trash in its stomach has died after being washed ashore in the Philippines, activists said Monday, calling it one of the worst cases of poisoning they have seen. Environmental groups have tagged the Philippines as one of the world's biggest ocean polluters due to its reliance on single-use plastic.That sort of pollution, which is also widespread in other southeast Asian nations, regularly kills wildlife like whales and turtles that ingest the waste. [node:read-more:link]
The above selected quotes from my column over the past 28 years imply that the dairy farm situation seems to have not changed all that much: Too much milk, farms leaving dairying and those that remain producing even more milk. Of course, there were the good times for dairying when the producer price rose for a period of time before again sinking—it is often claimed that dairying has a 3-4 year cycle of ups and downs. [node:read-more:link]
Senate Bill 1738 would create a first-degree misdemeanor for leaving pets restrained or unattended during a natural or manmade disaster. [node:read-more:link]
When pigs on the Xinda Husbandry Co. [node:read-more:link]
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, D, on Wednesday signed into law a bipartisan bill that would require Dominion Energy to excavate all the coal ash at their coal plants in the state, over 27 million cubic yards. The bill, first introduced in January, will also require that at least a quarter of the waste be recycled. The remaining ash would have to be moved into fully lined basins to prevent further groundwater contamination. [node:read-more:link]
The Minnesota House voted to hold drug manufacturers responsible for the state's growing costs for dealing with the opioid crisis.The bill passed 94-34 after around four hours of debate that split mostly along party lines. It would support a wide range of prevention, education, intervention, treatment and recovery strategies. The state would pay for them by sharply raising its currently low annual registration fees for pharmaceutical manufacturers and drug wholesalers that sell or distribute opioids in Minnesota. [node:read-more:link]
uring Dairy Farmers of America’s (DFA) annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo., the cooperative reported that net sales fell by $1.1 billion, a decrease of 7.5% from 2017. For 2018, net sales were totaled at $13.6 billion. The previous year net sales equaled $14.7 billion. According to DFA, the decrease is largely attributed to lower milk prices. The all U.S. milk price was 8.2% lower than the previous year averaging $16.20/cwt paid in 2018 compared with $17.65/cwt in 2017. [node:read-more:link]
There were no good choices for John Remus, yet he had to choose. Should he try to hold back the surging Missouri River but risk destroying a major dam, potentially releasing a 45-foot wall of water? Or should he relieve the pressure by opening the spillway, purposely adding to the flooding of towns, homes and farmland for hundreds of miles.Mr. Remus controls an extraordinary machine — the dams built decades ago to tame a river system that drains parts of 10 states and two Canadian provinces. [node:read-more:link]
Thursday's report said extreme precipitation could rise 10 to 40 percent in southern Wisconsin, the feeder system to many Illinois waterways. In Machesney Park, ducks swam past mailboxes nearly at eye level. Displaced residents returned to survey their homes with chest-high waders. [node:read-more:link]
