Kaine hears from Virginia farmers as Canada trade fight drives up concern

Good morning from The Mercury.

By Shannon Heckt

Just days after failed trade talks between President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney prompted new sweeping tariffs and threats of retaliation, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., sat down with Virginia agricultural and forestry producers Monday to hear how the escalating trade dispute could affect an industry already struggling with rising costs and difficult growing conditions. 

Trump imposed a 50% tariff on a wide range of Canadian products, while Canada has promised similar actions in retaliation, suggesting tariffs on American dairy, steel, agricultural appliances, paper and electronics beginning in September.

By Tommy Turner

I read every noise rule in Virginia that could reach a data center. There are 73 of them across 43 jurisdictions, and the one that stopped me was not a decibel limit. It was a budget line.

It is in a Loudoun County staff report from September 2016. The county was rewriting its noise standards and someone had asked what it would cost to regulate tonal noise, meaning the narrow-band hum that people describe when they complain about a data center, as opposed to overall loudness. Staff answered in the fiscal note. A thousand dollars, for software and training.

The county passed on it.

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By Ashley Murray

With just over two months until the November midterms, a federal district judge in Massachusetts is chastising the Trump administration for sowing confusion and “creating” an emergency by noticing a rule Friday that the U.S. Postal Service will eventually require federally regulated mail-in ballot voting envelopes and state data.

A 95-page notice alerting that the final rule would appear in the Federal Register on Aug. 26 outlined justifications for federal requirements on states to redesign ballot envelopes and provide a list of recipient names and addresses to USPS. The final rule became effective Friday, according to the document.

By Tim Henderson

As more states seek ways to limit immigration enforcement, a Stateline analysis shows one tactic has had an effect: making it more difficult for local law enforcement to hand over people they are holding in city or county jails to federal immigration authorities.

The analysis found that states with strict non-cooperation policies — Oregon, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Washington state — have the lowest rates of immigration arrests in jails.

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