I have been to several farm calls in the past few weeks with this weed (pictured below). I have seen 7 fields between last year and this year that appear to have bad infestations of this new watergrass species (Echinochloa spp.).
I visited a field with leafhopper damage. What was interesting about this field, is that the leafhopper causing the problem was not the aster leafhopper, which is the common one we have in rice.
I got a report from a PCA early in the week of blast infections detected near Maxwell. Blast can occur at any time during the development of the crop. When it infects leaves, it is called leaf blast.