Ohio News
Apr 29, 2021
FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2017, file photo, a farmer harvests crops near Sinsinawa Mound in Wisconsin. A group of Midwestern farmers sued the federal government Thursday, April 29, 2021, alleging they can t participate in a COVID-19 loan forgiveness program because they re white. The group of plaintiffs includes farmers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Ohio. According to the lawsuit, the Biden administration s COVID-19 stimulus plan provides $4 billion to forgive loans for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers who are Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan native, Asian American or Pacific Islander. (Eileen Meslar/Telegraph Herald via AP, File)
By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press
Associated Press
A FARMER HARVESTS crops near Sinsinawa Mound in Wisconsin in early December 2017. A group of Midwestern farmers sued the federal government Thursday, alleging they canât participate in a COVID-19 loan forgiveness program because theyâre white. The group of plaintiffs includes farmers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Ohio. (Eileen Meslar/Telegraph Herald via AP, File)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) A group of Midwestern farmers sued the federal government Thursday alleging they can’t participate in a COVID-19 loan forgiveness program because they’re white.
The group of plaintiffs includes farmers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Ohio. According to the lawsuit, the Biden administration’s COVID-19 stimulus plan provides $4 billion to forgive loans for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers who are Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan native, Asian American or Pacific Islander.
Richard Reeve Created: April 29, 2021 10:46 PM
A group of Midwestern farmers including a Minnesota man is suing the Biden administration.
The five growers claim they re being excluded from a COVID-19 loan forgiveness program because they re white. It s very frustrating because I . it s just not right, said Jon Stevens, from Maple Grove Farms in Rock Creek. The way I understand it . when you filled out your FSA paperwork, you check anything other than white, you re good to go.
The lawsuit, filed in Green Bay, Wisconsin, says the Biden administration s American Rescue Plan provides $4 billion to forgive loans for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers who are Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan Native, Asian American or Pacific Islander.
White farmers aren t eligible for a COVID-19 loan forgiveness program, amounting to a violation of the plaintiffs constitutional rights, the lawsuit contends.
Republican lawmakers across the country are proposing an aggressive culling of voter rolls by checking names against other government databases that may be flawed, meaning eligible voters could be swept out and blocked from voting.
Nationally, at least 50 bills have been proposed that would trim voter rolls more vigorously than in previous legislative sessions, and several have already been signed into law, spurred by record turnout in the 2020 election and allegations, led by former President Donald Trump, that the outcome was somehow rigged.
GOP-led state legislatures in Utah, Iowa, Texas and elsewhere want local officials to check voter names against other official sources, including death records, criminal records, lists from state motor vehicle departments and federal immigration records, and remove questionable names.