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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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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.

VA Planting Seeds for the Future at Local Farms

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Monday, July 14, 2008   

Crozet, VA – Virginia is planting the first seeds to preserve its farms. Thanks to a recently adopted program, the state will protect farmlands by offering growers more than $4 million in matching funds for conservation easements. Gov. Tim Kaine spoke at a ceremony to celebrate the first farm to close on an easement using state money, the Clayton Family Farm in Crozet.

"When people don't go into farming as their parents and grandparents did, it's usually because they are making a decision that economically, this is going to be tough. These financial programs do make it possible."

Kaine says he's committed to protecting farmland for future generations, but some say that in order for the program to be successful and inspire local governments to make the financial match required, the Virginia General Assembly will need to devote more funding in the coming years.

Virginia has lost more than 60,000 acres of farm and forest land to development in each of the last 10 years. Kaine likens farmland conservation events like the one in Crozet to ground-breaking festivities for a big commercial building or other economic development.

"We invite a lot of people to come, we clip a ribbon, and we talk about how great it is that we brought this many jobs to this community. We ought to be treating conservation events exactly the same, because they are every bit as important."

Details on the conservation easement program are available at www.vdacs.gov or www.governor.virginia.gov.




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