Rural News Clips, Aug. 19, 2024
Rural gun violence up as deer season begins; some rural communities of color find ways to get health care they need; local election officials a bigger threat to voting than machine hacks
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POLITICS AND ELECTIONS
The Wall Street Journal
Trump Sees Opening in Battleground Pennsylvania: Courting Disaffected Democrats
Aug 18, 2024
Trump has often visited smaller cities, small towns and rural areas in Pennsylvania in recent weeks.
“The repeated visits are a clear sign that Trump believes the key to winning Pennsylvania, the nation’s largest battleground state, is to boost support among the working-class voters in deindustrialized and rural areas.”
But “Democrats aren’t ceding blue-collar communities in Pennsylvania, which has hosted multiple visits from the presidential and vice-presidential candidates in recent days as campaign-trail activity has intensified.”
“Democrats have shown signs of progress among blue-collar voters in recent years. While the party has been losing support for many years among white, working-class voters—those without a four-year college degree—Joe Biden in 2020 stanched the bleeding.”
The Associated Press
Walz touts Nebraska roots in visit to his home state where there's a battle over one electoral vote
Aug. 17, 2024
“Tim Walz touted his Nebraska roots Saturday in his first trip back to his home state since becoming the Democratic vice presidential nominee, and drew sharp contrasts between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.”
“Walz stressed that he and Harris believe in helping all Americans succeed — not just the millionaires and billionaires he said Trump and the GOP want to help.”
“It was all part of his appeal for the lone electoral vote in Omaha's swing Second Congressional District that can be split off from the rest of the heavily Republican state that Democrats Joe Biden secured in 2020 and Barack Obama in 2008.”
Reuters
Walz's 'Minnesota nice' image resonates with some voters in Midwestern battleground state
Aug. 17, 2024
“Harris campaign officials are betting Walz's folksy style, Midwestern roots and life story as a former farmer, teacher and National Guard member, will appeal to some of the white men in rural areas who voted for Trump by huge margins in the last two elections - and help deliver the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania for the Democrats.”
Reuters interviewed about 40 voters in northwest Wisconsin, one of the most closely fought areas of the state, about the candidates and their running mates, speaking to Democratic, Republican and undecided voters.”
“Many of those voters said they had made up their minds before Harris tapped Walz as her running mate.”
But a couple of independent voters ‘said Harris' choice of Walz has pushed them toward the Democratic ticket this year.”
“One former Trump voter had a favorable view of Walz but wasn't sure how he would vote. Another handful said they remained undecided.”
“Still, it remains difficult for the Harris campaign to galvanize skeptical voters, even those who dislike Trump.”
“early polls show [Harris] faces more skepticism than Biden among white, working class voters.”
Nevada Current
Lawmakers propose bill allowing rural counties to create their own election departments
Aug. 19, 2024
“Allowing rural counties to create dedicated election departments and charging presidential candidates a filing fee to appear on the primary ballot are among the proposals that will be considered in next year’s legislative session.”
“Rural counties could be allowed to establish dedicated election offices under one [bill draft request] approved by the [Joint Interim Standing Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections]. Only counties with populations of 100,000 or more — Clark and Washoe — are currently authorized to have registrars of voters offices whose top administrator is solely focused on elections.”
“Top election officials in rural counties are clerks who must balance overseeing elections with other duties.”
Votebeat
Election officials like Tina Peters are a more pressing threat to elections than theoretical voting machine hacks
Aug. 19, 2024
“An important lesson became clear last week after a Colorado jury convicted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters of helping conspiracy theorists to breach her county’s voting system in 2021.”
“At the same time the trial was wrapping up, some tech whizzes were gathered in Las Vegas at DEF CON, the annual event where white-hat hackers try to break into all kinds of computer systems, from banking to aerospace, in search of security vulnerabilities.”
Many have hacked voting machines, but the problem is that “Their findings will likely come too late to make any fixes before Nov. 5.”
Also, “while DEF CON can be an interesting academic exercise, letting hackers take their shot at election equipment in a hotel ballroom is not an accurate simulation of how elections are run, or where the vulnerabilities lie.”
“The real, pressing security issues are not the things DEF CON uncovers, but rather the more boring things: chain-of-custody procedures, appropriate training, and adequate oversight.”
AGRICULTURE
South Dakota Searchlight
Commentary: Bayer attempts to leverage rural GOP lawmakers to end glyphosate litigation
Aug. 18, 2024
“With the exception of Illinois and Minnesota, Republicans have partisan control of the farm belt.”
All of which takes us to the ongoing struggles of Bayer to once and for all rid itself of glyphosate lawsuits. Ever since purchasing Monsanto in 2018, glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weed killer, has been an albatross around its neck.”
“The German pharmaceutical company is losing billions of dollars in court verdicts finding glyphosate contributing to non-hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
“The federal courts have consistently ruled against Bayer’s efforts to show such lawsuits are, in fact, preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.”
Bayer is “looking to leverage its relationships with all those GOP lawmakers out in rural America to pretty pretty please prevent people from suing over glyphosate. Full stop.”
“There’s currently a Bayer full court press in the Federal House and Senate agriculture committees to write into the new farm bill language to end glyphosate litigation. Language drafted by Bayer.”
GUNS
US News & World Report
In Rural America, Gun Violence Rises as Deer Hunting Season Begins
Aug. 19, 2024
“Across rural America, the increased presence of loaded guns in homes and vehicles could lead to a spike in gun injuries and homicides at the start of every deer hunting season, a new study warns.”
Researchers concluded that “firearm shootings that injured or killed county residents jumped by an average of 49% during the first week of the season compared to the week before, Sharkey's team reported.”
“That rate was still 41% higher during the second week, but the increase fell to ‘close to zero’ by the third week of deer hunting season.”
Resarchers said that “that the most plausible explanation for the increase in shootings the week after the start of deer hunting season is the heightened presence of firearms in public and private spaces.”
HEALTH CARE AND RURAL HEALTH
The Associated Press
Heart disease is rampant in parts of the rural South. Researchers are hitting the road to learn why
Aug. 17, 2024
“Public health experts from some of the nation’s leading research institutions have deployed a massive medical trailer to rural parts of the South to test and survey thousands of local residents. The goal: to understand why the rates of heart and lung disease are dramatically higher there than in other parts of the U.S.”
“Researchers have multiple theories for the disparity. Hospital closures and physician shortages have left many rural residents with limited access to care.”
“Healthy food, fitness opportunities and public transit are often scarcer. Poverty rates are higher, and fewer people receive health coverage through their employers.”
“In the rural South, poverty rates and the share of people without health insurance are even greater.”
“The researchers aim to test the heart and lung function of roughly 4,600 residents of 10 counties and parishes in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi while collecting information about their environments, health history and lifestyles.”
“They are also giving participants a fitness tracker and plan to survey them repeatedly for years to check for any major medical events.”
Kaiser Health News
Inside the Political Fight To Build a Rural Georgia Hospital
Aug 19, 2024
Hospitals are bound by certificat of need laws, which force “potential builders to apply for permission for new projects.”
“State officials evaluate need based on criteria such as population growth and existing hospital capacity.”
“This year, Georgia lawmakers joined several other states in targeting those ‘certificate of need,’ or CON, regulations for dramatic change. Some states have exempted certain medical providers from the process; others have been more dramatic, including South Carolina, which is sunsetting most of its rules.
Attempts to pave the way for a new hospital in Butts County show how debate over certificate of need laws can intensify as legislatures try to reconcile the often conflicting priorities of politicians, the health care industry, and communities.”
The Associated Press
Rural communities of color across the US find new ways to get the health care they need
Aug. 19, 2024
“It’s more common for people in rural areas to die earlier than urban residents from things like heart disease, cancer and stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
“But hospitals have closed throughout rural America in the last decade, leaving some of the 46 million people who live in these areas fewer options to get the care they need when they need it.”
“Advocates, hospital and health clinic administrators and rural residents say changing disparities in health outcomes and health care services in rural America needs to start at the local level — especially in communities of color that may lack trust in the medical field.”
“More than one-third of the nation’s rural hospitals — about 700 — are at risk of closing because of ‘serious financial problems.’”
And “when a hospital does stay open in a large rural area where few people live, the facility may not see the number of patients it would need to see to be profitable.”
POLLUTION
The New Lede
Movement to limit CAFO pollution seen strengthened by Michigan court ruling
Aug. 12, 2024
“A recent state court decision could transform how animal agriculture is regulated in Michigan, and potentially influence how other state and federal regulators oversee the industry’s mammoth waste stream, according to environmental lawyers and activists.”
“The optimism from environmental advocates comes after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled on July 31 that the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has full authority to require industrial animal agriculture to take much stronger actions to manage the torrent of manure waste polluting waterways.”
“The closely watched case pit the administration of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer against the powerful agricultural industry, led by the Michigan Farm Bureau.”