Ken Root (Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network, Dyersville, Iowa) has started a new weekend radio show.  He says it is a half hour that is a little lighter than weekday fare and has some humor and some inspiration. On the week that Judge Brett Kavanaugh was being grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ken's song of the week was I Like Beer by Tom T. Hall.

“I retired from the San Angelo Standard-Times and Abilene Reporter-News as agriculture editor emeritus in June 2018 and from Voice of Southwest Agriculture Radio Network in 2010.” On his 76th birthday in August, Jerry Lackey (Emeritus NAFB Member, San Angelo, Texas) agreed to “help out” at Livestock Weekly, a national newspaper known as the Wall Street Journal of the ranching industry. He is still there, working as “acting editor,” following several retirements.

“It has been an exciting ending to 2018 for the KASM Farm Department (Albany, Minnesota),” reports Joe Gill. In November, Joe received the Agriculture Communicator of the Year Award by the Minnesota Farm Bureau Foundation. According to the Minnesota Farm Bureau website, this award is presented because an important mission of Farm Bureau is to inform the public about its policy positions and to tell agriculture’s story.

Illinois Governor-Elect J.B. Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor-Elect Juliana Stratton announced the formation and members of the transition’s Growing Our Agricultural Economy Committee. The committee is the fifth of several working groups of the Illinois transition made up of subject-matter experts who will advise and guide the incoming Pritzker-Stratton administration. The Growing Our Agricultural Economy Committee will be chaired by former USDA Rural Development State Director Colleen Callahan and Former State Senator John Sullivan, and consist of 22 members. “Agriculture accounts for one in 17 jobs in Illinois, and J.B. and I are committed to supporting farmers across our state,” said Lieutenant Governor-Elect Stratton. “This committee will focus on policies that help our agriculture and rural communities thrive — from investing in farm to market infrastructure and expanding access to capital for family farmers to defending agricultural education and growing rural areas in downstate Illinois.” 

Besides his recent induction into the 2018 NAFB Hall of Fame, Don Wick (Red River Farm Network, Grand Forks, ND) also received the Minnesota Farmers Union Ag Communicator of the Year Award.  Both awards were presented at the NAFB 2018 Convention