Hello from lovely Lubbock, Texas!  I’m here for the always fantastic Texas State Bar Agricultural Law CLE for attorneys.  A huge thanks to course directors, Trace Blair and David Waggoner, for all of their hard work to make this such a great conference.  As always, I’ve enjoyed great presentations, visited with old friends, and even drummed up some new topics for the blog and guests for upcoming podcasts.  Stay tuned for that!

Here are some ag law stories in the news this week.

*  Federal court finds FAA registration requirement for hobby drones illegal.  The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with a hobby drone user and held that the FAA may not require registration of drones used for hobby purposes.  [Read Order here.]  The decision was based on a law enacted in 2012, which prohibited the FAA from imposing additional regulations on model aircraft.  Although the court (and even many drone groups) believed that the requirement may be a good idea and helpful to ensure safety, the court noted that Congress would need to repeal the prior law before it could enact this type of requirement on hobby drone users.  [Read article here.]

* Texas legalizes using hot air balloons to hunt feral hogs and coyotes.  Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction.  On Wednesday, Texas lawmakers passed a bill authorizing landowners or their agents to hunt hogs and coyotes via hot air balloon. [Read bill text here.] The bill is now headed to Governor Abbot’s desk.  [Read article here.]

* Ag leases topic of my recent podcast appearance.   For the first time, I found myself on the other side of the podcast microphone and was a guest this week on Paul Goeringer’s Maryland Risk Management Podcast.  Our topic was one near and dear to my heart, agricultural leases.  Check out the podcast episode here.  Thanks for having me on your show, Paul!

* Texas Corn Producers’ Report discussion on Syngenta litigation.  Last week, I was a guest on the Texas Corn Producers’ Report with James Hunt to discuss the current status of the Syngenta Viptera/Duracade (MIR-162) litigation.  To listen to the 15-minute report, click here.