Washington, D.C.

Missouri River plan allows barge traffic

The Army Corps of Engineers on Friday completed a new plan for operating the Missouri River, though it anticipates court challenges.

The new plan gives preference to barge shipping downriver over creating an ebb and flow to protect dwindling fish and bird populations.

The new plan also limits releases from upstream dams when water drops in the three big reservoirs in Montana and the Dakotas. That will shorten the shipping season on the lower Missouri in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.

Wichita

State testing adjusts to mad cow changes

Days after the Agriculture Department unveiled its plan for expanded surveillance for mad cow disease, Kansas officials say they’re scrambling to figure out how to find and test enough at-risk cattle.

Under the new testing, Kansas — the nation’s second-largest cattle producer — has been ordered to test more than 7,000 animals for mad cow disease, state Livestock Commissioner George Teagarden said. To him, that 47-fold increase over the 150 animals Kansas screened last year “will be a challenge.”