First Iowa meat plant deaths from Covid-19 (Associated Press): Two employees at the Tyson Foods pork plant at Columbus Junction, in southeastern Iowa, are the state’s first packing plant workers known to have died from the coronavirus.
Governor expects plan to reopen pork plant (Sioux Falls Argus Leader): South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said she expects a report from the CDC in coming days that will lead to the reopening of a Smithfield Foods pork plant where nearly 600 of 3,700 workers have tested positive for the coronavirus and one has died.
When virus and wildfires mix (Capital Public Radio): Officials say that if a large wildfire forces an evacuation in California, they will put people into hotel rooms to preserve physical distance, and if a mass evacuation is required, they will do temperature and symptom checks on evacuees.
Putting the ‘R’ in reopening (White House): President Trump named all but one of the 53 Republican senators and 23 House Republicans to his 97-member Opening Up American Again Congressional Group.
Suit seeks to protect ag workers (UFW): Labor advocates requested a court injunction to order Washington State to immediately update health and safety standards for agricultural workers and replace “garbled and non-mandatory” guidelines against the spread of the coronavirus.
Conservation on a landscape scale (USDA): The NRCS has awarded $208 million for 48 stewardship projects through a program in which landowners work together to improve water and soil conservation on a watershed or landscape basis rather than working farm by farm.