Some of the most common occupations in the United States have low wages, unpredictable hours and few benefits, says a report by the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most workers who participate in food stamps, formally named the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are in service, administrative support and sales occupations, it says.

The North Carolina state House voted, 74-40, to override Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of a bill limiting the liability of large livestock farms when they are sued for noxious odors or runoff, said the Port City Daily. "Only time will tell how this legislation plays out...the bill must still pass in (the) Senate before it becomes law."

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says that removing burdensome environmental permit regulations is high on his list of ways to improve the U.S. manufacturing climate. Ross plans to present the list to President Trump in May.

California, New Mexico, New York and Washington State have sued the Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management in an attempt to stop new coal leases on public lands.

President Trump asked the Senate to put former Wisconsin Rep. Mark Green in change of the U.S. Agency for International Development and to formally name Christopher Giancarlo, now the acting chair, as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Green is former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania and a member of the board of the Millennium Challenge Corp., a U.S. foreign aid agency focusing on global poverty.

A U.S. district judge in California ruled that the EPA violated the Endangered Species Act when it issued 59 registrations from 2007-12 that allow use of neonicotinoid insecticides in agricultural, landscaping and ornamental uses. District Judge Maxine Chesney issued a mixed verdict that upheld some the issues raised by beekeepers and environmental groups but denied others.

In his first foreign speech since leaving office, former President Obama said agriculture is the second-largest source of greenhouse gases and it is feeling the effect of global warming. "We've already seen shrinking yields and rising food prices," Obama said at the Seeds and Chips conference in Milan, according to the New York Times.

U.S. commercial fishing profits and jobs were down in 2015, due mostly to environmental issues, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association in its Fisheries Economics of the United States report. Earnings for 2016 have not yet been released.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flies to Alaska today for a meeting of the Arctic Council — a multi-government group that includes Canada, Russia and five other Arctic nations. Under the Obama administration, the U.S. chaired the council for two years and made climate change in the region a central issue.

Scott Gottlieb, a deputy FDA commissioner during the George W. Bush era, will assume the top job in the agency following a 57-42 confirmation vote in the Senate that broke mostly along party lines. Republicans, who provided all but six six of the votes for Gottlieb, said the physician and political conservative will bring the steady hand of experience to an agency with responsibilities ranging from testing medical devices to assuring the safety of a large part of the U.S. food supply.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed a bill that would limit the liability of large livestock farms when they are sued for creating a public nuisance due to odors or manure runoff. His veto may not be the end of the story because hog farmers are encouraging the legislature to override the veto.

The job went to Sonny Perdue of Georgia, although Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley loudly advocated for a northerner to be agriculture secretary under President Trump. Grassley told a crowd of Iowans that his doubts were erased went he met Perdue, who repeated for the crowd his bona fides in the three major U.S. crops, grown predominantly in the Midwest and Plains.

Tyson Foods is the second U.S. poultry processor to report contact by the Florida attorney general's office in an investigation of the former Georgia dock pricing system, reports the news site Just Food. The wholesale chicken price index was abandoned last year after reports indicated it set prices higher than other indices, "suggesting there may have been over-inflation at the supermarket prices for chicken," said the site, based in Britain.

During the first day of his tour of Bears Ears National Monument, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke disagreed with Utah officials who have claimed that Native Americans who support the monument are manipulated by special interest groups, says The Salt Lake Tribune.

In a move meant to stem government regulation, the EPA is cutting academic scientists from its scientific review board and replacing them with industry representatives, while the Interior Department prepares for a review of the scientists on its own advisory council.

Following through on his confirmation-hearing pledge, EPA head Scott Pruitt has recused himself from several cases against the agency that he pursued while Oklahoma attorney general.