HPAI hits California flock: An outbreak of bird flu this week at a Central Valley broiler breeder farm with 33,900 birds is the largest in the nation since June 9. More than 40 million birds in domestic flocks have died in outbreaks this year. (USDA)
Chipotle workers form union: On Thursday, by an 11-3 vote, employees at a Chipotle Mexican Grill in Lansing, Michigan, voted to unionize. It will be the first union at the fast-food chain, which has about 3,000 restaurants across the country. (Washington Post)
End of free lunch: This fall, after two years during which school meals were free for all students, schools will again need to certify which students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals and which must pay. (NPR)
Ag groups get a say: Overturning a district court decision, the U.S. appeals court in San Francisco ruled that a coalition of agricultural groups can intervene in a legal battle over endangered species protections for the gray wolf. (DTN/Progressive Farmer)
Cutting emissions: Emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, from Corn Belt fields during fallow seasons could be reduced in most cases if farmers applied nitrogen fertilizer in the spring rather than in the fall, said researchers. (University of Illinois)
USDA pulls report: On the day it introduced a new sales tracking system, the Foreign Agricultural Service retracted its Weekly Export Sales report, widely followed in commodity markets, because of malfunctions that affected “physical dissemination of the data as well as data quality.” (USDA)