Shutdown Leaves Some Alabama Farmers in Limbo
Tuesday marks one month for the partial federal government shutdown, and it’s not just federal workers feeling the pinch. Alabama farmers are also seeing its effects.
Nick McMichen, a fifth-generation farmer in Cherokee County, uses a federal loan program to help sell his cotton. The shutdown put the program on hold, leaving the cotton in a warehouse while he loses money. McMichen adds the government is not producing key farming data he depends on.
“We don’t have access to current information as to the market itself, so we’re not able to make decisions how to market our crops,” McMichen says.
Alabama Farmers Federation’s director of national legislative programs Mitt Walker says another hang up is with a federal program designed to help farmers recoup losses due to retaliatory tariffs. To apply, you have to have finished your harvest.
“And with the extremely wet weather we had this fall, some of our farmers were a little later getting their crops gathered than they would be in a typical year.”
The application deadline was mid-January, but Walker says the U.S. Department of Agriculture will extend it because of the shutdown. The department also opened some Farm Service Agency offices for three days through Tuesday to offer limited assistance.
Walker says if a farmer doesn’t deal directly with the federal government, the shutdown is more of an inconvenience. Nick McMichen says if the government doesn’t reopen in the next few weeks, it’ll really put farmers in a crunch as they plan this year’s crop.
Photo by Joseph Brooke
Sexual misconduct allegations in UN missions topped 100 in 2024
The United Nations has long been in the spotlight over allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially by those based in Congo and the Central African Republic.
Mexico City bans violent bullfighting, sparking fury and celebration
The decision sparked angry protests from bullfighting supporters and matadors, some of whom tried to breach a police barricade at the local Congress.
Louisiana executes Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas in 1st use of death penalty in 15 years
With Hoffman’s execution, Louisiana joins Alabama as the only other state in the U.S. to use the controversial gas method on a person condemned to death.
Federal judge blocks Trump effort to ban transgender troops from military service
The decision by U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes blocks the Department of Defense from carrying through with a policy directive designed to remove transgender service members from the military.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sues Trump administration over canceled contract
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a government-backed overseas broadcaster, sued the Trump administration in an attempt to get it to release funds appropriated by Congress.
Alabama’s celebrity weatherman pleads for the National Weather Service
With the life-saving Weather Service in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and chainsaw-wielding billionaire Elon Musk, weather forecasters like James Spann are speaking out to defend the agency that provides the backbone for their work.
