With efforts to reshape health care seemingly on life support, Congress now confronts tax reform. The stakes are high for the Republican Congress and the Trump administration because another loss or major stall on one of its most important objectives would likely negatively affect its reputation to effectively govern with the electorate. With this stage set, NAAA has been wearing out shoe leather on Capitol Hill over the past several days urging a fair aircraft depreciation schedule for the aerial application industry, holding visits with the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Senate Finance Committee and numerous U.S. Senators and Congresspersons that serve on the tax-writing panels. Read more here. 

Good News for Bees as Numbers Recover 

(Bloomberg) -- The number of U.S. honeybees, a critical component in the agriculture industry, rose in 2017 from a year earlier, and deaths of the insects attributed to a mysterious malady that's affected hives in North America and Europe declined, according a U.S. Department of Agriculture honeybee health survey released Tuesday. 

The number of commercial U.S. honeybee colonies rose 3 percent to 2.89 million as of April 1, 2017 compared with a year earlier, the Agriculture Department reported. The number of hives lost to Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon of disappearing bees that has raised concerns among farmers and scientists for a decade, was 84,430 in this year's first quarter, down 27 percent from a year earlier. Year-over-year losses declined by the same percentage in April through June, the most recent data in the survey. Read more here.