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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Congress Keeps the Mega-Farm Gravy Train Flowing

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Friday, December 14, 2007   

Washington, D.C. - After months of debate, hearings and discussions, Congress is putting the final touches on the 2007 Farm Bill. However, one of the key reforms many family farmers were banking on failed to pass. The Grassley-Dorgan amendment would have reined in subsidies for mega-farmers by capping payments at $250,000 per farm. Chuck Hassebrook with the Center for Rural Affairs says controlling farm payments is an issue that isn't going away.

"Overwhelming majorities of farmers, overwhelming majorities of rural Americans, and overwhelming majorities of all Americans want a stop to farm programs that provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to mega-farms and destroy family farming."

Hassebrook says this would have been the single most effective thing the Senate could have done to revitalize family farms and rural communities.

"What this means is that we will continue to have a farm policy in America that destroys family farming. We will continue to have a policy in America of refusing to invest in the future of rural America and instead allowing small communities to die."

Hassebrook blames the defeat not on southern Senators but on certain Plains states Senators who undermined the effort.


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The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

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Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

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The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

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New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

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Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

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