Ag Docket Blog

March 19, 2015 | Roger A. McEowen

We’ve received a lot of questions recently involving how to treat unharvested crops at death for tax purposes.  It’s a great question.  We’ll develop a technical piece for TaxPlace on the topic, but here we go over the basic issues that arise and the general rules.

March 18, 2015 | Kristine A. Tidgren

Readers interested in the new Des Moines Board of Water Works federal lawsuit may have followed another federal lawsuit last year, the "California egg case" as it was often called. These readers may be wondering, “What ever happened to that egg case?” The answer is that it’s still winding its way slowly through the federal court system. The status of Missouri v. Harris, No.

March 16, 2015 | Kristine A. Tidgren

The Des Moines Board of Water Works Trustees has filed its complaint against the Supervisors of Calhoun, Sac, and Buena Vista Counties in their capacities as trustees of Iowa drainage districts.

March 13, 2015 | Kristine A. Tidgren

The Iowa Utilities Board ruled this week that Dakota Access, LLC, substantially complied with Iowa law when it notified landowners of its plans to seek a permit to build an oil pipeline across their property.

March 12, 2015 | Roger A. McEowen

We had an interesting question come into the office recently.  The question involved the tax treatment of a biofiltration system for a farmer.  I wasn’t familiar with the concept so I did a little research to find out exactly what a biofiltration system is.  Basically, biofiltration removes contaminates (such as nitrates) in water by metabolizing microorganisms as the water flows past.

As threatened in January, the Des Moines Board of Water Works Trustees voted today to proceed with a federal Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen lawsuit against the supervisors of three Iowa Counties.

March 9, 2015 | Kristine A. Tidgren

The legal wrangling over the validity of local ordinances seeking to stop the growing of Genetically Engineered Organisms (GMO) continues in Hawaii. At the center of the litigation is United States Magistrate Judge Kurren, who, last Thursday, ruled that a state court action seeking a declaration that a Maui County GMO ban is legally valid was properly removed to federal court.

March 6, 2015 | Kristine A. Tidgren

State laws differ in the protections they grant to landowners facing eminent domain.

March 5, 2015 | Kristine A. Tidgren

Last fall, we fielded a number of calls at the Center from Iowa landlords whose tenants failed to make their rental payments on time. In most of these cases, the tenant was offered the right to make the yearly payment in two installments, one at the beginning of the lease term and the other six months later.

March 3, 2015 | Roger A. McEowen

A recent decision by the Illinois Court of Appeals involved a small farm that a town tried to zone out of existence.  The case involved the town's ability to zone agricultural activities and the state's right-to-farm law.  The plaintiff, a small town of 230 people, sued the defendants, a married couple, for violating a town ordinance which declared commercial farming within the town boundaries

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