WASHINGTON – An advocate for Indiana’s cattle producers will head the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency in Indiana, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced.
Julia Wickard is also the former director of the state Commission for Agriculture and Rural Development.
She has been executive vice president of the Indiana Beef Cattle Association and Indiana Beef Council since 2005.
The FSA administers and manages farm subsidy, credit, conservation, disaster and loan programs.
Vilsack also named Philip Lehmkuhler as the Indiana director for rural development at the USDA. Lehmkuhler manages economic development for the Indiana Municipal Power Agency.
The Environmental Protection Agency gave California the green light Tuesday to impose new requirements that could become the national model for fighting tailpipe pollution linked to global warming.
The EPA granted California’s long-standing request – denied by the Bush administration – for a waiver to allow it to pursue more stringent air pollution rules than required by the federal government. It cleared the way to implement immediately a 2002 state pollution law requiring new cars to increase their fuel economy 40 percent by 2016.
President Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to create a new agency to police the fine print on consumer products like credit cards and mortgages and determine what fees, penalties and interest rates are fair.
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency would be in charge of regulating those products in the same way other government agencies regulate the safety of drugs, food and toys.
The agency would be dedicated to protecting consumers when buying mortgages, using credit cards and taking out high-rate "payday loans." It also would monitor terms set on savings, checking and debit card accounts, including overdraft charges.
Gunmen in a green minivan opened fire on a group of teenagers waiting at a bus stop near a Detroit school on Tuesday, wounding seven including two who were in critical condition, authorities said.
Five of the teens had just left Cody Ninth Grade Academy, where they are taking summer classes, when they were shot at the nearby bus stop.
The gunmen exited a vehicle and "asked for a person by name" before they "opened fire at the crowd," said Detroit Public Schools Police Chief Roderick Grimes.
Dunkin’ Donuts has temporarily stopped selling hot chocolate and Dunkaccino brand beverages after learning equipment used at a supplier’s facility might have been contaminated with salmonella.
The Canton, Mass.-based company said Tuesday none of its products was contaminated and the withdrawal of the beverages from its stores was a precaution to ensure customer safety. It has about 6,400 franchised restaurants in the United States and says it serves 3 million customers a day.
Honduras’ ousted president won overwhelming international support Tuesday as he planned a high-profile return to his chaotic country. The politicians who sent soldiers to fly him into exile said he will be arrested for treason if he tries.
The interim leader named by Congress, Roberto Micheletti, warned only an armed invasion could restore toppled President Manuel Zelaya.
The showdown was building to a climax as the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador signed on to accompany Zelaya and the heads of the Organization of American States and the U.N. General Assembly to Honduras on Thursday.
Iran’s ruling clerics closed ranks around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday, hailing him as a "champion" amid signs that he may have begun purging his government of anyone perceived as an opposition sympathizer.
Three senior Oil Ministry officials with loose ties to losing candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi were fired, the independent news agency Fararu reported. All three were prominent members of ex-President Mohammad Khatami’s government and reportedly were allies of another former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Both former presidents were considered to be backers of Mousavi’s bid for the presidency.