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Groups to address reservation's dog overpopulation
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Two nonprofit organizations have secured funds to help address a dog overpopulation problem at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwest South Dakota.
• The organizations say the $24,000 they raised will cover the costs of spaying, neutering or relocating dogs to shelters in South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming and Minnesota.
• Lakota Animal Care has scheduled a spaying and neutering clinic at the reservation for Tuesday and Wednesday. The group also plans on relocating the first 50 dogs to Minnesota shelters.
• The organizations say the money will allow them to host two clinics per month through the rest of the year. They say the clinics will begin in the communities with the greatest need.
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OSHA responds to pressure on small farm inspection
HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bowing to congressional pressure, the Obama administration is assuring Congress and farmers it doesn't want to regulate the country's smallest farms.
• In a letter to Congress dated Feb. 10, a top official with the U.S. Department of Labor wrote to assure members that the agency has no interest in inspecting small farming operations with fewer than 10 employees. The letter also said the agency is formally withdrawing a contentious 2011 OSHA memorandum that many members of Congress, including South Dakota's congressional delegation, said opened the door to regulating small, family-run farm operations.
• Congress has expressly forbidden the Occupation Safety and Health Administration from regulating small farms since 1976. The Department of Labor, which oversees OSHA, has said that the memorandum was never intended to change that practice.
• But the letter from Brian V. Kennedy, an assistant secretary at the Department of Labor, makes clear that the agency felt the need to clarify its policies. It came after months of congressional pressure on the issue.
• "The June 28, 2011 memorandum was intended to provide clarification and not to change OSHA's longstanding policies and proper authority," wrote Brian V. Kennedy, the assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Labor.
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