The Other Side of Life 24/7: U.S. Top News: Crops continue to bake in searing heat, no relief for weeks

Friday, July 20, 2012

U.S. Top News: Crops continue to bake in searing heat, no relief for weeks

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07/20/2012

Reuters Election 2012 Daily round-up of the day's top news from the campaign trail, the White House and all the politics in between

Crops continue to bake in searing heat, no relief for weeks

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Extreme heat and drought conditions were set to continue baking already scorched corn and soybean crops in America's breadbasket through early August as weather forecasts provided little hope of relief over the next two weeks.

Insight: As crop losses mount, farmers seen quicker to claim

(Reuters) - The drought ravaging America's prime farmland is having an unexpected consequence that could shape the future of agricultural finance: in some cases, farmers who have amped up their insurance coverage may be giving up on their crops early rather than to trying to save them.

Grain prices set records as U.S. drought, food worries spread

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Grain prices pushed to record highs on Thursday as scattered rains in U.S. Midwest did little to douse fears that the worst drought in half a century will not end soon or relieve worries around the world about higher food prices.

Ex-Penn State board chair becomes first trustee to quit after scandal

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - The former chairman of Penn State's board resigned on Thursday, becoming the first trustee to step down following the child sex abuse scandal that tarnished the university's image and marred the legacy of its once-revered football coach, Joe Paterno.

Sex dungeon details emerge in California death of deployed Marine's wife

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A woman killed in California this year while her husband, a U.S. Marine, was deployed in Afghanistan was the victim of television-inspired sadomasochist violence, search warrants filed by police and prosecutors showed on Thursday.

Panetta orders Pentagon to monitor media for information leaks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered senior Pentagon officials on Thursday to begin monitoring major U.S. news media for disclosures of classified information in an effort to stop the release of government secrets after a series of high-profile leaks.

U.S. clinic: Egypt ex-spy chief died of rare disease

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman died from a rare disease affecting the heart and kidneys, according to the U.S. clinic where he was undergoing medical tests at the time.

U.S. whooping cough outbreak could be worst in half century

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The number of U.S. whooping cough cases has risen to around 18,000 in an outbreak that is on track to become the most severe in over a half century and could in part stem from possible waning vaccine protection, health officials said on Thursday.

"America's toughest" sheriff on trial over discrimination claims

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio, who calls himself America's toughest sheriff, was accused of racial profiling as a trial began on Thursday in a class-action lawsuit alleging he discriminated against Latinos in his crackdown on illegal immigration.

Letters reveal a troubling side of Alistair Cooke

Can it really be the same Alistair Cooke whom we hear in a new collation of half a century of Letters, this time focused on race relations? In The Custom of the Country, he acquiesces in the denial of certain inalienable rights for one-tenth of the U.S. population, the black citizens.