Farmers are confused by the trade aid distribution method for damages caused by the ongoing trade war with China, according to a Reuters report released on Friday. The report notes that a Texas cotton farmer is receiving $145 an acre for financial damages while Betsy Jensen, a soybean farmer in Minnesota is receiving $35 an acre. Soybean farmers have been particularly hard hit in the dispute. “It makes no sense,” Jensen told Reuters. Payment disparity traces to the system for allocating the funds. (Newsweek)

There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel for U.S. dairy farmers who’ve absorbed a multiyear run of poor margins. Higher domestic dairy consumption and increased export values drove a slight uptick in USDA’s latest dairy price forecast. It pegged the all-milk price forecast for 2019 at $18.30 per hundredweight, up a dime from the previous projection. This despite a 16% decline in U.S. dairy sales to China so far this year compared to a year ago due to the ongoing tariff war. (FarmWeekNow)

The debate over whether Illinois should change its flat income tax to a structure taxing higher rates for higher earners is expected to be expensive as groups on both sides of the issue prepare for November 2020 election. Supporters have said the progressive income tax proposal will bring the state an additional $3.2 billion in tax revenue. Opponents have questioned those revenue projections. The proposed change will appear on ballots in November 2020. Voters will have the final say at the ballot box. (The Center Square)

Congress “ought to take action early this fall” on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) so the trade pact can take effect before the end of the year, said Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley this week. Grassley told reporters that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expects to reach agreement this month with House Democrats on modification of USMCA, opening the door to a vote. “Lighthizer figures this is all going to be done in negotiations during September,” said Grassley. “I’m convinced it will pass” once a House vote is called, he said. (Successful Farming)

President Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday night that he would delay by two weeks the next increase in tariffs on Chinese goods as a “gesture of good will” to advance trade talks. The president acted several hours after a conciliatory Chinese move to grant 16 U.S. products a one-year exemption from Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs. Trump said he delayed his scheduled Oct. 1 increase to Oct. 15 at the request of China’s chief trade negotiator to avoid imposing the tariffs as the People’s Republic of China celebrated its 70th anniversary. (Washington Post)

The Trump administration is expected to announce today its final repeal of the Obama administration’s Waters of the United States rule, which cemented pollution protections for small streams and wetlands after two muddled Supreme Court decisions. The rollback is just the first step in a two-step process that aims to restrict the reach of the Clean Water Act. Today’s step overturns the Obama-era regulation, putting back in place the rules that were on the books prior to 2015. A replacement rule is expected by the end of the year. (Politico)