Governor Mark Dayton today made good on a promise to veto a major tax relief bill because it included a 101-million dollar error. The veto set off a flurry of fingerpointing, and new calls for a special session. The tax bill came out of a rushed and chaotic end to the legislative session. It included a one-word mistake that cut by $101 million a fund that pays for the new Vikings stadium. After the veto came a blunt rebuke from the governor.  “My message to legislators today: Come back and finish your work,” Dayton said. [node:read-more:link]

A draft of Utah's lawsuit demanding the federal government turn over 30 million acres to the state is expected to be complete by next week, but Democrats on the commission overseeing the project still want to know more about how $1 million in taxpayer dollars have been spent.  Rep. Keven Stratton, R-Orem, co-chairman of the Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands, said he plans to have a finished draft of the state's potential lawsuit to present to lawmakers when they hold their monthly meetings June 15. It would be up to Attorney General Sean Reyes and Gov. [node:read-more:link]

The disturbing thing about scams is that all too often they work.  Some are easy to spot, like the foreign cousin you didn’t know you had who calls and needs cash wired immediately.  Here in Idaho, the scam of the moment involves politicians trying hard to convince us that states should take control of public lands now managed by the federal government. Like good used car salesmen, the legislators hawking this free-the-public-lands scam want you to believe that the deal is too good to walk away from.  But a look under the hood reveals that the salesmen aren’t telling the whole story. [node:read-more:link]

It turns out that the men and women who graze cattle on America’s public lands are largely a level-headed bunch.  No one paying attention during the 41-day standoff at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon could have missed the deafening silence from about 22,000 public-lands ranchers when Bundy and Co. urged all of them to tear up their federal grazing permits and start demanding the “return” of public lands to “the people.”   Absent any substantive evidence that ranchers are radicalized, opponents of public-land grazing are reprising the argument that ranchers are subsidized. [node:read-more:link]

Wednesday, June 8: The Senate Tuesday approved a major overhaul of Toxic Substances Control Act, sending it the President Obama, who is expected to quickly sign it. The normally divided Congress got together this week to take on a major overhaul of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, giving the Environmental Protection Agency broad new authority to regulate chemicals in millions of products American use every day. “When Americans go to the grocery store and hardware store, they assume products they buy have been tested and are safe; they aren’t,” Sen. [node:read-more:link]

California water regulators will re-examine the way they determine water rights violations in the wake of the State Water Resources Control Board’s dismissal of a proposed $1.5 million fine to a water district east of the San Francisco Bay area.  Officials issued the fine to the Byron Bethany Irritation District at the height of the drought last summer, but the water board on June 7ww affirmed two hearing officers’ earlier ruling that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the district took water it wasn’t entitled to under its century-old water right.  As a result, the board will refine how [node:read-more:link]

New York state lawmakers want to give a helping hand to new farmers.  Lawmakers this week passed legislation that directs the state to make a list of state-owned properties that could be leased or sold to those looking to get into agriculture.The bill also requires the state to create programs to advise new farmers about agricultural taxes, farm financing and other details that could help them enter the industry. [node:read-more:link]

Although growers in Delaware grow numerous fruit and vegetable crops, such as asparagus, broccoli, apples, cabbage cantaloupes, cucumbers, green beans, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, strawberries and tomatoes, the bulk of its production is in sweet corn, watermelons and peaches.  Delaware Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Kee said that, as with the majority of Eastern growing regions, crops are running a bit late due to cold and wet weather in recent months. [node:read-more:link]

The Pennsylvania Agricultural Land Preservation Board safeguarded an additional 1,926 acres on 26 farms in 16 counties through the state’s nation-leading farmland preservation program during Thursday’s June board meeting. Since the program began in 1988, federal, state, county and local governments have invested more than $1.3 billion to preserve 522,545 acres on 4,977 farms in 57 counties for future agricultural production. The board preserved farms in 16 counties including Berks, Chester, Cumberland, Lancaster, and York. [node:read-more:link]