Washington Cell Phone Bill & Tax Credit Extension

Washington Cell Phone Bill & Tax Credit Extension plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. An Illinois Republican and a North Dakota Democrat have introduced a multi-year extension of ethanol tax breaks. John Shimkus and Earl Pomeroy hope to avoid another tough battle to renew ethanol tax credits for a while - and give the industry enough time to commercialize ethanol from cellulose. Congressman John Shimkus. SHIMKUS: It just extends the ethanol tax credit multi-year, also bringing in the cellulosic component. Again the key is it's multi-year to provide some certainty. Washington Governor Christine Gregoire has signed into law Senate Bill 6345 that will make it a primary offense to use a cell phone without a hands free device. Offenders can be pulled over for this offense beginning June 10th. If you get caught, it's a stiff $124 fine. Texting will result in the same fine if caught although dialing is not considered texting. It also outlaws any cell phone use -- even with a headset -- by a driver with a learner's permit or an intermediate license, which is given to drivers under 18 years old. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Talk till your blue in the face, some people just don't want to hear the truth. Either they can't handle it, or the truth would get in the way of their own personal agendas. In the case of anti-meat activism it's generally the later. But when countries get in on the act by promoting "meatless Mondays", as Canada has now chosen to do, anti-meat rhetoric has definitely gone from mildly annoying and irritating to a very real matter of concern. It's high time that these zealots be held accountable for the propaganda they push. The foundation for their anti-meat campaign is based on a five year old U.N. report that inaccurately claimed livestock producers were responsible for eighteen percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Experts today from several different government agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, stand firm in their findings that all of agriculture contributes only 5.8 percent of GHG and the livestock portion of that number is less than three percent. So how do anti-meat activists manage to convince so many people, even countries? They just seem to have better marketing. Let's face it, if Sir Paul McCartney says it, it has to be fact, right? Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.