Agriculture Equipment

The Japanese government has decided to accept a request from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that Japan reduce tariffs on agricultural products by an average of 36%, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. Japan will continue to refuse to open its rice market, the paper said.

Pierce College officials are investigating why an $18,000 silo press owned by the campus farm was lent to a private Ventura County ranch for more than two years. Acting on a tip, campus police found the silo press on March 6 in Moorpark, said Capt. Ken Renolds of the Los Angeles Community College Police Department.

Pierce College officials are investigating why an $18,000 silo press owned by the campus farm was lent to a private Ventura County ranch for more than two years. Acting on a tip, campus police found the silo press on March 6 in Moorpark, said Capt. Ken Renolds of the Los Angeles Community College Police Department.

The Japanese government has decided to accept a request from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that Japan reduce tariffs on agricultural products by an average of 36%, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. Japan will continue to refuse to open its rice market, the paper said.

Deere, UAW Reach Tentative Agreement: The farming equipment company and the United Auto Workers union said they reached accord on a tentative contract that affects about 10,500 workers at Deere & Co. facilities in six states. In their joint statement, Deere and the UAW would not reveal the terms of the tentative pact, which was reached late Sunday. The union's local chapters were scheduled to vote on the proposed contract at meetings this weekend.

The trade deal concluded Wednesday among the United States, Canada, Japan, European members of the Group of Seven and other countries in the European Community would slash tariffs on several industrial goods. For some U.S. industries, the elimination of tariffs should boost exports to foreign markets, but in some cases other trade barriers remain. BEER Tariffs on U.S. beer exports now range from 15% in Japan to 24% in Europe, compared with 1.9% for foreign beer coming into the United States.

The embattled billionaire Hunt brothers, struggling to hang onto their empire in the worldwide depression of oil prices, filed for protection in federal bankruptcy court today to shield their oil company from bankers. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition for Dallas-based Placid Oil Co. and its real estate subsidiary was the latest move in years of wheeling and dealing designed to save one of the nation's legendary fortunes, beginning with the 1980 silver debacle.

Californians could soon pay $2 more to register their cars and 75 cents more to buy a new tire as part of a deal -- brokered this week by the Schwarzenegger administration and Democratic lawmakers -- to help fund an expansion of air pollution programs. The package of proposed increases, which still must be approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, would raise about $90 million more a year to help fight smog. It would increase state tire fees to $1.

A day after the once-mighty United Auto Workers union agreed Tuesday to return to work without a contract following a five-month strike, officials at Caterpillar Inc. barred the 13,000 workers from factory gates and said some of them would not be rehired. Caterpillar's action after the UAW's surprise agreement to return to work seemed likely to further poison the atmosphere at the bargaining table, effectively adding a tough new issue to the difficult and prolonged dispute.

There's no use searching the sky anymore. If there is a hopeful cloud, it disappears into the pale blue emptiness, delivering nothing but disappointment. After nine months without substantial rainfall, beyond a brief, teasing splatter here and there, the farmers and ranchers of West Texas have retreated into a stiff-lipped resolve.