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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.

Could New Bill be Saving Grace for MN Family Farms?

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Tuesday, June 14, 2011   

WASHINGTON - Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate designed to lower the caps on farm commodity program payments, and limit subsidies to the nation's largest farms.

At the Center for Rural Affairs, executive director Chuck Hassebrook calls the measure critical for the future of the family farm.

"This legislation represents the single most important step that Congress can take to strengthen family-size farms, and that's simply to stop subsidizing mega-farms with unlimited payments, to drive smaller operations out of business."

Hassebrook says the Rural American Preservation Act of 2011 accomplishes that by closing all of the loopholes that have allowed corporate farms to rake in federal funds.

"Those are loopholes that others in Washington know how to close, but have never had the guts to close them, because they were afraid of the political clout of mega-farms."

Hassebrook says limiting subsidies would also save the U.S. government more than $1 billion over the next decade.

Minnesota has an estimated 81,000 farms, down from 103,000 thirty years ago.

The bill's sponsors are Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota.

Read the bill at grassley.senate.gov




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