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severe drought in 2011 and 2012, and California, which is still in a drought.
• Most of the disaster relief programs will remain available until early next year for those filing for losses from 2011 until early 2014. But the USDA will stop accepting applications for Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program, known as ELAP, on Aug. 1.
• The other programs, including one for livestock losses suffered due to drought or adverse weather, and a tree assistance program, will continue to take retroactive applications until next year. The programs will provide the same relief for future disasters until the farm bill expires in 2018.
• Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the progress report released Wednesday showed that the relief programs were moving smoothly. At the request of President Barack Obama, he said, he expedited USDA's implementation of the program, with applications accepted in April, just 60 days after the farm bill was signed into law.
• Vilsack said the agency had set ambitious goals and that it was now operating efficiently to deliver relief.
• "Farmers and ranchers who waited two and a half years for a farm bill are now getting some relief," Vilsack said.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- BNSF Railway is regularly hauling three trains a week loaded with crude oil through the Sioux Falls area, but those are the only shipments of crude from North Dakota's Bakken region crossing the state, according to records released Wednesday.
• The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources posted records online Wednesday with details of crude oil shipments moving through the state, which The Associated Press had previously requested be released.
• BNSF is hauling three trains a week with more than 1 million gallons of crude oil apiece through Minnehaha County, according to the records. Three trains a week also pass through four northwest Iowa counties, the railroad disclosed.
• Canadian Pacific said it isn't carrying crude oil through South Dakota.
• The U.S. Department of Transportation ordered railroads in May to give state officials specifics on oil train routes and volumes so emergency responders can better prepare for accidents. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has said that a pattern of fiery accidents involving trains carrying crude from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana had created an "imminent hazard" to public safety.
• Most notable of those was an oil train derailment last July in Lac-Megantic, Que

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