Rainfall becomes windfall: California’s winter storms have bolstered state reservoirs, and the Department of Water Resources expects to give drought-stricken public water agencies 30 percent of the water supplies they requested rather than the 5 percent previously allocated. (Department of Water Resources)
Welch joins Senate Ag: Democrat Peter Welch, who succeeded Pat Leahy as U.S. senator from Vermont, will also succeed him as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. (VTDigger)
‘We have to act’: California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his administration is investigating the mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay where seven farmworkers were killed in a mass shooting earlier this week, after investigators discovered the “squalor” the workers had been forced to live in. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Four Illinois reps on House Ag: First-term Reps. Jonathan Jackson, Nikki Budzinski, and Eric Sorensen of Illinois are among the new Democratic members of the House Agriculture Committee. Republican Mary Miller is returning to the panel. (FarmWeek Now)
DOE boosts aviation biofuel: AVAPCO, which will build a demonstration plant to convert biomass into sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel, won $80 million of $118 million awarded by the Energy Department to accelerate the production of sustainable biofuels. (Department of Energy)