Drought Update & Striking Down Ruling

Drought Update & Striking Down Ruling plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

While the northwest has been seeing some rain in the last few days last years drought has been continuing through most of the winter months but now according meteorologist, Brad Rippey, that may be changing.

RIPPEY: If you look at some of the overall D4 coverage, we talk about these storms especially in the central and southern plains really hitting the core drought areas, if you look at D4 coverage, exceptional drought coverage, we saw tremendous decreases in the coverage in Oklahoma and Kansas. Oklahoma on February 19th, 42% of the state was in D4, that has now decreased to 12%. And certainly for the hay and drought, cattle and drought and winter wheat and drought the D4 coverage of those 3 commodities dropped appreciably.

The Washington Supreme Court has struck down a requirement for a two-thirds majority vote in the Legislature to pass a tax increase. A divided high court ruled 6-3 Thursday that an initiative requiring a two-thirds vote was in conflict with the state Constitution. And that lawmakers and the people of Washington would need to pass a constitutional amendment to change from a simple majority to a supermajority.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

The USDA’s MyPlate guidelines encourage everyone to eat more lean meats, fruits, veggies, low fat dairy, and whole grains. If you, like a lot of people, want to follow these recommendations and provide nutritious meals and snacks for your family, but aren’t sure what foods fall into those categories, or maybe you just don’t have a clue when it comes to finding nutritious recipes that meet the USDA MyPlate guidelines, the USDA, Let’s Move, and the Partnership for a Healthier America have a collection of MyPlate based recipes on a new online pin board. There you can find hundreds of nutritious and delicious recipes. While the “Groovy Green Smoothie” recipe might at first raise some eyebrows, upon further inspection it really sounds quite tasty, loaded with fruits and yogurt and a secret ingredient. You’ll have to check it out for yourself. Better yet, check it out with your kids and let them get in on the act of picking recipes to try and helping cook them up with you in the kitchen. Kids love to help out in the kitchen and are more apt to eat meals that they themselves had a hand in making. So, make meals together, make it fun, and make it healthy.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.