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NC court OKs big fight: 800K tobacco growers, $340M, 1 case
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina's Supreme Court is setting up a whopper of a lawsuit to settle claims by 800,000 past and present tobacco farmers in five Southeastern states for a piece of $340 million.
The state Supreme Court said Wednesday it was impractical for courts to handle hundreds of thousands of individual lawsuits in the fight over the reserve funds held by a North Carolina-based tobacco marketing cooperative.
The decade-long lawsuit involves money collected by the Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corp. Tobacco growers across North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia paid into the cooperative over six decades dating back to the mid-1940s.
Membership has dropped 99 percent since U.S. taxpayers quit underwriting tobacco crop prices in 2004.
The lawsuit now returns to a state trial court in Raleigh.
Devils Lake operation to turn cow manure into products
DEVILS LAKE, N.D. (AP) -- A company that plans to turn cow manure into a range of products is getting ready to set up shop in Devils Lake.
The Devils Lake Journal reported hat Bio Fiber plans to turn what it calls "agripulp" into products including structural materials, flower pots, and pellets for bedding and heating.
The operation will be housed in the former Ultra Green building. That company processed wheat straw into materials such as bowls and plates before shutting down in July 2015. City officials have been seeking a new occupant for months.
Bio Fiber's lease is for five years, after which the company will have the option to buy the building from the city.
Chronic wasting disease found in eastern Iowa deer farm
INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) -- Iowa officials have confirmed a case of chronic wasting disease at a deer farm in Buchanan County.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship reported the case Tuesday and says it has quarantined the site in eastern Iowa.
The disease was detected as part of the state's voluntary monitoring program for the disease. The program requires surveillance and testing of all farmed deer and elk at least a year old that die. Test results must be shared with the department.
Following discovering of the Buchanan County case, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says it will increase testing of wild deer in the area.
The disease attacks the brains of deer and elk and is always fatal. No human cases have ever been recorded.
Report: Oversight needed at Nebraska animal research center
CLAY CENTER, Neb. (AP) -- A recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture says a federal livestock research facility near Clay Center should improve oversight of animal welfare and be more transparent with its research.
The Lincoln Journal Star reported that the department's Office of Inspector General found no evidence of systemic animal abuse in its audit of the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, but criticized the facility for not prioritizing animal welfare policies.
The report calls on the USDA's Agricultural Research Service to establish new policies and oversight for treatment of research animals as well as a formal process for reporting abuses.
The Nebraska research center sits on 33,000 acres of a former World War II-era naval munitions depot between Hastings and Clay Center.
USDA designates drought disaster areas in 4 states
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 29 Louisiana parishes and 10 counties in Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas, as drought disaster areas. That makes farmers and ranchers eligible for low-interest emergency loans from the Farm Service Agency, if they can prove sufficient losses to drought.
Thirteen Louisiana parishes are primary disaster areas; the other 16 parishes and 10 counties are adjacent to them. Two other Mississippi counties are eligible for disaster aid because they're adjacent to some of the dozens of Tennessee counties also declared disaster areas Friday.
The parishes declared primary disaster areas are Concordia, East Carroll, Grant, LaSalle, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Ouachita, Rapides, Sabine, Vernon, West Carroll and Winn.
Adjacent Louisiana parishes are Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Caldwell, Catahoula, De Soto, Evangeline, Lincoln, Madison, Pointe Coupee, Red River, Richland, Tensas, Union, and West Feliciana.