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erate, which an extension does not provide, said Doyle Johannes, an Underwood, N.D., farmer and president of the North Dakota Farm Bureau.
• "It's very disappointing to get an extension when we needed a new farm bill," he told Agweek.
• Some agriculture leaders fear that federal budget pressures will prompt Congress to make much steeper farm bill cuts, including cuts to crop insurance subsidies.
• "We're worried about (possible) cuts to crop insurance. We're going to try to protect it," Keith Alverson, a Chester, S.D., farmer and a member of the National Corn Growers Association's board of directors, told Agweek.
• Johnson said his group also will push the new Congress "to ensure that a farm bill can be completed as expeditiously as possible."
•

• The Associated Press
• Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and stories that will be talked about today (times in EST):
• 1. HELP MAY BE ON THE WAY FOR STORM VICTIMS
• Congress plans to vote at noon on a $9.7 billion aid package for businesses and homeowners devastated by Superstorm Sandy.
•
• 2. HEY YOU, HANDS OFF MY SUPERSIZE SODA
• An AP poll finds that Americans blame too much screen time and cheap eats for fueling the nation's fat epidemic, but most balk at the feds limiting food choices.
•
• 3. EXPERTS PREDICT MODEST HIRING REPORT
• At 8:30 a.m., the government issues its December jobs report, which economists forecast will show that employers added 155,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is projected to remain at 7.7 percent.
•
• 4. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS SAID TO BE INVITED TO NEWTOWN
• The former Arizona congresswoman, critically wounded by a gunman two years ago, is planning to meet with victims' families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, a Connecticut official says.
•
• 5. WHY FATAH RALLY IS SIGNIFICANT

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