Fines for heat death: Oregon’s work safety agency fined a nursery and its labor contractor $6,300 for the death of a 39-year-old farmworker, Sebastian Francisco-Perez, who died while working on an irrigation crew during a heat wave last June. (Capital Press)
Winter wheat is dry: As spring approaches, drought of varying intensity covers 73 percent of U.S. winter wheat territory, including 91 percent of Kansas, the top-producing state. (USDA)
Cotton in Kansas: Although still a minor crop, cotton is becoming more common in Kansas, where plantings increased 12-fold from 2015 to 2020, fueled in part by climate change and in part by growers looking for an alternative to wheat and corn. (Kansas News Service)