Face to face: Sen. Bill Cassidy is getting pushback on health care and other issues at a town hall taking place today in Covington. More than 200 people jammed a meeting hall to question Cassidy as dozens more had to wait outside. Cassidy had supporters who applauded when he said former President Barack Obama’s health care law isn’t working. But he met jeers from others skeptical of his promise that a bill he is pushing with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine will improve coverage.
Yield loss: Louisiana rice planting—estimated at 400,000 acres—is 8% less than last year’s crop of 432,168 acres, the LSU AgCenter says. Dustin Harrell, the AgCenter rice extension specialist, told farmers at a rice field day in Vermilion Parish that the 2017 crop got an early start because of warm weather. Some rice was planted in February, and rice in those fields have already headed. “We’ll probably be two weeks earlier on our harvest,” he adds. Flooding after planting caused some problems that could result in yield losses. Fertilizer also may have been lost from high water if nitrogen was applied on flooded fields, Harrell says, adding that a new product will be on the market in 2018 that will prevent nitrogen losses better than Agrotain. Read more.
Showdown: ExxonMobil shareholders today pushed the company to share more information about whether regulations designed to reduce climate change will hurt the oil giant’s business. The Associated Press reports investors holding 62% of shares voted at the company’s annual meeting favored more disclosure around the impact of global policies aimed at limiting global warming to 2 degrees centigrade. The vote is a defeat for Exxon and a victory for environmentalists and shareholder activists, who saw support for their proposal grow from 38% a year ago. Read more.
