The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making loans to Martinsville-based South Central Indiana REMC and Linden-based Tipmont REMC.

The counties the loan will serve include Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Lawrence, Monroe, Scott and Washington.

In a statement, USDA secretary Sonny Perdue says McKinney will "wake up every morning seeking to sell more American agricultural products in foreign markets."

Anne Hazlett helped create Indiana's Office of Community and Rural Affairs.

The department is reorganizing its trade and rural development programs, while the White House takes aim at those issues in its own way.

The USDA expects farmers in Indiana and nationwide to plant more soybeans than ever this year, while corn acreage looks to hold steady.

Despite Indiana's opioid crisis and reported need for such programs, many of the USDA's plans won't come to the state in the near future, in part because of a technicality about how Indiana manages homes owned by the USDA.

The allegations include repeated failures to provide adequate veterinary care to animals and to handle animals carefully, as well as physical abuse.

Purdue University says federal statistics show popcorn production in the state fell by 29 percent last year.

Staffers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services agency will hold a demonstration Thursday evening north of downtown Indianapolis of the pyrotechnics, lasers and recorded bird warning calls they uses to drive away pest birds.