A farm bill deal. Senate leadership came to terms late last night on an agreement covering the number of amendments to be allowed for the Senate farm bill. They agreed on 20 amendments each for Democrats and Republicans. Jim Wiesemeyer looks at what happened to bring about this deal that will now let work on the Senate farm bill proceed. It's in his Inside Washington Today column on the Pro Farmer page.

Japan and beef. Japan is willing to allow in U.S. beef from animals up to 30 months of age instead of the current 20 month limit, according to USDA officials. But those same USDA officials are all but rejecting the offer as they say it falls short of the total access they expect from all trade partners.

Neb. researchers 'puzzled' by DDG/E. Coli work. Today's Omaha World-Herald quotes University of Nebraska researchers as saying they are "puzzled" by the research released earlier this week by Kansas State University that indicated cattle fed DDGs are twice as likely to carry the E. Coli bacteria in their systems. This development underscores the need for additional research on this front.

First rust find in Brazil. EMBRAPA, the Brazilian government crop research agency, has confirmed the first case of Asian soybean rust for the 2007-08 crop in an area of Mato Grosso near Paraguay. The first spotting of rust is later than recent years as soybean planting was delayed due to dry conditions.

'A day that will live in infamy.' Hard to believe that it was 66 years ago that the attack on Pear Harbor took place. And, the age of those surviving the attack has advanced to the point where some say they're unable to take part in observations in Hawaii marking the tragic event. One can only hope that even as the first-hand survivor numbers dwindle, the gravity of what happened won't be lost.