James Gragg leased four acres of his farmland in Rosemark, Tennessee, to Crown Castle to build a cell tower, but with the lease’s April 2022 expiration, the company “now refuses to surrender the premises and remove its structures,” alleged Gragg’s Jan. 5 complaint in Tennessee Circuit Court in Shelby County, removed Thursday (docket 2:24-cv-02087) to U.S. District Court for Western Tennessee in Memphis. Gragg seeks possession of his property, the restoration of his land and compensatory damages, said his complaint. Crown Castle “has ignored the notice to vacate” and has continued to use and profit from the premises without a “valid lease,” thereby depriving Gragg of his “real property,” it said. His complaint alleges unlawful detainer, ejectment and mesne profits. Crown Castle “specifically reserves its rights to assert any defense,” said its notice of removal.

A half-dozen Democrats asked the USDA to certify that Mexican avocado orchards exporting to the U.S. are not on illegally deforested land. Their letter, which they publicized on Super Bowl Sunday, peak avocado consumption time, said they read an article in The New York Times that showed avocado growing in Michoacan and Jalisco "has had a catastrophic impact on the environment and local communities.

Exporters are reporting container costs changing from week to week due to attacks by Houthi rebels on commercial cargo ships moving through the Red Sea, said Eric Bartsch, the secretary of the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council and the American Pulse Association. Bartsch, speaking during a Feb. 7 Federal Maritime Commission hearing on Red Sea shipping disruptions (see 2402070078), said many of pea, lentil and pulse exporters are small businesses, and 65% of their crops are exported.

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will seek unanimous consent (UC) for five committee-passed kids’ online safety bills, he told reporters Tuesday.

SpaceX landed a potentially massive contract with John Deere in part because rival satellite operators don't have sufficient capacity online yet, Quilty Space blogged Thursday. John Deere announced last month it had selected SpaceX to provide connectivity to a projected hundreds of thousands of pieces of farm equipment. Quilty said also helping SpaceX's bid was that some satellite system operators would struggle to meet the regional demand requirements of both North America and Brazil with their current capacity. It said other heavy equipment manufacturers might not follow Deere's lead but instead stick with their current connectivity because Deere was likely able to get particularly advantageous pricing.

The FCC Precision Agriculture Task Force met Wednesday, welcoming new members and discussing the group's mandate as it kicked off its third and final term (see 2308210069). The commission gave it the task of identifying gaps in broadband availability on agricultural land, as well as providing recommendations for rapid deployment and data collection.

The State Department approved two potential military sales, to Greece and Croatia, worth more than $9 billion combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Jan. 26.

A rebar exporter received a specific subsidy from the Turkish government’s tax exemption program for companies that engage in foreign exchange, the U.S. and countervailing duty petitioner said Jan. 29 in response to that exporter’s motion for summary judgment. They also said the exporter provided unreliable benchmark value data, justifying the Commerce Department’s use of data from the petitioner, the Rebar Trade Action Coalition, instead (Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret v. U.S., CIT #23-00131).

The FCC’s 70/80/90 GHz order, approved by commissioners ahead of last week’s open meeting (see 2401240077), saw a noteworthy change with the agency now seeking comment in a Further NPRM on the potential inclusion of ship-to-aerostat transmissions as part of maritime operations. The FNPRM also seeks comment on including fixed satellite service (FSS) earth stations in the light-licensing regime for the 70/80 GHz bands, though that was in the draft. The order was posted in Monday’s Daily Digest.