Farm Bill Follies By G. Tracy Mehan, III, The American Spectator24 June 2013  The farm bills now before Congress… attest, if nothing else, to the inertia of politics. There is no “public interest” (a phrase often meaningless in Washington) in having government subsidize farmers. Food would be produced without subsidies. — Robert Samuelson, author and economics journalist [...]

State Clean Water Mandates Urged By The Gazette (Iowa)2 July 2013  Bill Stowe, leader of the Des Moines Water Works, discusses water-quality issues during a news conference outside the Iowa Capitol Building. Sen. Dick Dearden, D-Des Moines, (left) and Josh Kublie, campaign coordinator with Environment Iowa, and members of his statewide, citizen-based advocacy group listen [...]

Our Planet Is Exploding With Ocean Dead Zones By Dina Spector, Business Insider26 June 2013 NASA Red circles show the location and size of marine dead zones worldwide. Black dots indicated observed dead zones, but their size is not known. The world's oceans are exploding with dead zones, regions where the water is so depleted [...]