Business News

The Iowa Supreme Court last week backed a jury’s $4.75 million award to a northeast Iowa dairy that for years suffered from stray electrical current in the ground from a nearby natural gas pipeline.

Find your niche, help others find theirs

Koru Berry Farm near Homestead also offers live music events, animals to pet

But it’s expensive, risky, slow in coming

Runoff from fertilized fields threatens marine wildlife, fisheries and water supplies. Government agencies set targets to fix the problem. But despite more than a quarter-century of federal effort and billions in investment, advocates, scientists, and regulators say the basin is “not even close” to those targets.

Just one year away from a 2025 deadline to reduce nitrate and phosphorus entering the Gulf by 20 percent, success seems unlikely.

This summer’s “dead zone,” a low-oxygen area where the river empties into the sea, could span 5,827 square miles across the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana has the power to call for change.

Worsening local effects on health and recreation in states like Minnesota and Wisconsin are spurring action on problems that also cause the Gulf of Mexico’s chronic “dead zone.”