What We Learned This Week - "Money, So They Say"

A new Iowa large livestock operation, clean water rule went into effect with the support of farm groups.  The 2014 U.S. Capitol Christmas tree was cut Wednesday from the Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota  and will be sent on its way on Sunday with a "drink" from the Mississippi River's headwaters.  Activists want more Upper Mississippi River dam operations closed to slow the upstream movement of Asian carp. Joni Ernst is the GOP's Senate nominee in Iowa: one of two states never to have sent a woman to Congress or elected a female governor.  Louisiana has sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the state's $3 billion cost of repairing Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet damaged wetlands.  The Louisiana U.S. Senate race is almost certain to go to a December 6 runoff election between incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) and Rep. Bill Cassidy (R).  If it does, here's how an SEC championship football game on that day could determine the balance of political power in the U.S. Senate. Coming in at a total contributions' price tag of around $4 billion, the 2014 U.S. midterm election is going to be the most expensive in history.  Spending for over 2.2 million political ad airings this election cycle has topped $1 billion. That money is paying for the elected to make their way to the nation's capital, and be counted among "some of the hardest working men and women in Washington, D.C."  Also making it's way to the Capitol Hill as the 2014 Christmas tree, but at a much lower cost, is a white spruce cut from the the Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota. The USDA and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation plan to provide $40 million for Gulf of Mexico coastal restoration on private lands.  And last but not least, it's a great time to be white and male in Washington, DC.