House Agriculture chair has prostate cancer
Rep. Glenn Thompson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, said on Tuesday that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the second-most common cancer among men. “I will tackle this head-on,” he vowed in a statement.
Time running out for Chesapeake Bay cleanup
At their current pace, the three major states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, responsible for 90 percent of pollution in the bay, will miss their targets for reducing sediment and nutrient runoff by 2025, said the Chesapeake Bay Foundation on Wednesday. Maryland and Virginia need to step up efforts to address agricultural pollution, and "Pennsylvania remains far off track," the foundation said.
As meat plants reopen, Iowa, South Dakota, Pennsylvania and Nebraska are coronavirus leaders
As many as 18 percent of workers in meat and poultry plants are infected with the coronavirus in Iowa and South Dakota, while Pennsylvania and Nebraska account for one-quarter of the Covid-19 cases nationwide, said CDC scientists and state public health officials. The CDC released the report as Smithfield Foods, one of the giants of the meat industry, began to reopen a hog plant that was a coronavirus hot spot three weeks ago.(No paywall)
Amid dairy glut, Lancaster farms risk shuttering
Dairy farmers in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County have fallen on hard times. Facing low prices, overproduction, and falling demand, many dairy farms in the region may close in the coming months.
Trump urges challenge to Senate Ag panelist Bob Casey
Fourth-term Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania says President Trump has encouraged him to run against incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, in 2018.
Rural job growth is less than half of urban. Do elections play a part?
Cities are creating jobs faster than rural areas with a 13.3 percent growth rate in the past year, compared to 4.8 percent in rural counties, says a Daily Yonder analysis of Labor Department statistics. "Unemployment remains a bigger problem in rural counties than metro areas," says the Yonder, which tried to gauge local conditions in battleground states.
Researchers say a fly is turning honeybees into “zom-bees”
To add to the list of woes facing honeybees, researchers have discovered a parasite that burrows into drones, making them act rather like members of the living dead before they die.
Pennsylvania vows to boost Chesapeake Bay clean-up efforts
Two Pennsylvania officials said the state will work harder to reduce pollution runoff into the Susquehanna River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay, reports Lancaster Online. The river is the main source of fresh water for the bay.