The Supreme Court has upheld most of the President’s controversial health care law. The five to four ruling allows the government to continue implementing the law – which doesn’t take full effect until 2014. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson supported the Court’s decision. He said farmers, ranchers and rural residents face significant barriers to obtaining accessible, affordable health care. According to Johnson – the Affordable Care Act contains significant, necessary reforms that help all Americans afford insurance and the preventive care they need and provides resources to rural health care providers – among other things. American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman agrees that farmers, ranchers and rural residents need affordable and accessible health care – but says his group is concerned that mandating individuals and businesses to buy insurance will impose an expense that creates economic hardship – particularly for self-employed individuals and small businesses.

Stallman says Farm Bureau believes a primary goal of health care reform should be to reduce costs for participants. He says the plan the Supreme Court reviewed would impose a new financial burden on Farm Bureau members. Moving forward – Stallman says Farm Bureau encourages Congress and the President to work together to address remaining concerns that affect millions of small business owners and individuals throughout rural America. Johnson says Farmers Union will work with the administration to ensure the law is implemented as written.

(JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.)–The Missouri Corn Merchandising Council (MCMC) and Missouri Corn Growers Association (MCGA) have been named a Bronze winner in the 33rd Annual Telly Awards for the short documentary, Underwater and Overlooked: Crisis on the Missouri River.  The 15-minute film detailing the personal losses caused by the 2011 Missouri River flood was recognized in both the online video-documentary and online video-social responsibility categories.

“This honor for Missouri Corn is a fitting tribute to those growers who stepped in front of the camera to share their story,” says Missouri Corn Director of Communications Becky Frankenbach.  “It’s heartbreaking that nearly a year later many farmers are still struggling to repair the damage left behind.  Our work to ensure flood control is a top priority for Missouri River management is far from finished.”

Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards honor outstanding commercials, video and film productions, and web commercials, videos and films.  Winners represent the best work of respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators and corporate video departments in the world.  This year, nearly 11,000 entries were received from all 50 states and numerous countries.

To find out more about the Telly Awards, visit www.tellyawards.com.  The now award-winning Missouri Corn short film Underwater and Overlooked: Crisis on the Missouri River can be viewed atwww.mocorn.org/flood.  

A St Joseph woman was arrested this morning and led out of a local call center in handcuffs by the FBI.

A U.S. Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Vicky Diane McDonnell with 52 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud, mail fraud, and making false statements.

McDonnell was a part owner and office manager at MPC Billboards Inc. and its sister company Max Pro Consultants in Savannah.

According to the indictment, McDonnell allegedly devised a scheme to defraud the company for approximately $906,415.25.

The indictment asserts that McDonnell fraudulently  wrote  business  checks for  extensive  personal  expenses without the companies’ knowledge or consent.  Prosecutors say some of the checking account records are not recoverable.

From 1998 until 2009,  she also allegedly over-paid herself approximately $392,695.51 in salary.   The grand jury also said McDonnell wrote unauthorized checks to her mother and two of her children.

MPC and Max Pro are owned in part by Fred Ramsey, an on-air host at Eagle Radio in St Joseph.

The House Appropriations Committee met Wednesday to mark up the 2013 Interior and Environment spending bill. The measure includes 28-billion dollars for the EPA and Department of the Interior. That’s a cut of nearly 1.2-billion from current funding and about 1.7-billion less than the Obama Administration requested. The bill would cut EPA spending by 1.4-billion dollars. The 17-percent reduction is aimed at blocking environmental regulations. There are some policy riders that apply to agriculture. Among those – one would prevent the EPA from expanding its authority to regulate navigable waters under the Clean Water Act. Another would restrict the agency from setting air emissions standards for carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane – among other pollutants – that come from livestock operations.

According to Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers of Kentucky – the EPA has overreached its regulatory authority – strangling the U.S. economy and costing jobs. But Ranking Member Norman Dicks of Washington said EPA programs and regulations are not to blame for the recession. He said handcuffing environmental regulations will not get us out of it.

The Committee did not finish its work on the spending bill. They are expected to finish mark up and adopt the fiscal 2013 measure today (Thursday). The additional work is not expected to change the planned EPA spending cuts.

As wildfires rage in the West – the U.S. Forest Service, Interior Department and FEMA have announced that additional resources have been deployed to support state and local partners. The National Interagency Fire Center has raised the national preparedness level to level four – which triggers increased planning for additional resources and greater oversight of resource allocations in order to achieve the most effective deployment. The severity of current fire activity is highlighted by the fact that more than 84-hundred personnel, 578 fire engines and 79 helicopters are operating on wildfires around the U.S. There are currently large wildfires burning in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

The Waldo Canyon fire in the hillsides west of Colorado Springs stretches three directions and has consumed more than 15-thousand acres of forested land since Saturday.

The road to farm bill passage in the Senate was surprisingly relatively smooth. The path in the House will likely prove a bit more challenging. House Republicans are complaining the Senate bill favors Midwestern crops. Southern lawmakers say the bill’s crop insurance and risk management programs aren’t as helpful to rice and peanut growers. They are also asking for deeper cuts to the food stamp and crop insurance programs. House Ag Chair Frank Lucas has promised the House version of the farm bill will cut at least 33-billion dollars from the federal deficit – which is 10-billion more than the Senate-passed measure. He says those cuts will come equally from food stamps and commodity programs. On the other side of the aisle – The Washington Times reports Democrats don’t want safety net programs cut in the face of unemployment.