Rural News Clips, Oct. 25, 2024
Rural News Clips, Oct. 25, 2024
New nonprofit aims to empower supporters of local renewable energy projects; Grants nearly doubled for deadly rural roads after USA Today investigation
CAMPAIGN FOR RURAL PROGRESS
Inside Climate News
A New Nonprofit Aims to Empower Supporters of Local Renewable Energy Projects
Oct. 24, 2024
“A large majority of people tell pollsters they support renewable energy. But when ordinances and projects come before local governments, opponents show up more often than supporters.”
“Greenlight America, a new national nonprofit, wants to change this. I spoke with its co-founders this week in one of their first interviews about their mission and strategy.”
“The group launched last year, has raised $5 million and has a staff of about 20. It is incorporated in Washington, D.C., with employees all over the country.”
POLITICS AND ELECTIONS
Politico
Harris’ secret weapon to unlock the Rust Belt
Oct. 25, 2024
“Since being passed over by Harris in her search for a running mate, [Pennsylvania Gov. Josh] Shapiro, who is widely rumored to harbor presidential ambitions of his own, has become one of her most prominent surrogates, barreling across the country from the Midwest to the Deep South to the small towns and cities of his own critical battleground state.”
“ And while he is rallying voters on her behalf, he is also lobbying her — privately urging Harris to take up one of his policies aimed squarely at working-class voters in Pennsylvania.”
“Dan Kanninen, Harris’ battleground states director, said recently that Shapiro’s victory in the 2022 gubernatorial contest is one of the races that ‘guides some of the strategy’ for the vice president.”
“Part of Shapiro’s strategy in his 2022 campaign was reassuring voters he’d govern as a moderate — and, in his telling, laboring to prove to people who believe that Democrats look down on them, perhaps because they work with their hands or live in a rural town, that he respects them.”
The Nevada Indpendent
GOP asks Nevada poll observers to ensure voting machines are operating accurately
Oct. 24, 2024
“Republicans in Nevada are asking poll observers to complete a more than 15-item checklist on topics such as ensuring that voting machines are sufficiently secured and not connected to the internet, even though the poll watchers are not legally entitled to receive much of this information.”
“Critics say it invites harassment against workers and sows distrust. State law does not explicitly entitle poll watchers to receive much of this information.”
Votebeat Wisconsin
Printing problem gums up early voting in Wisconsin
Oct. 24, 2024
“Voting delays caused by printing issues persisted across Wisconsin on Thursday morning, the third day of early in-person voting, as election officials implemented workarounds to mitigate long waits at some polling sites.”
“The root cause of the printing issue isn’t clear yet, but the result is that the labels workers stick on absentee ballot envelopes, typically before voters mark their ballot, could take as much as 15 minutes each to print. Election workers or voters can handwrite most of the information that’s usually on the printed label, but that could introduce some inaccuracies.”
The Progressive Farmer
DTN/Progressive Farmer Surveys Farmers' Concerns and Preferences on 2024 Election
Oct. 25, 2024
“The survey of 1,393 rural Americans shows nearly 70% say they support former President Donald Trump. Another 19% say they support Vice President Kamala Harris. There were 9% of rural residents who were undecided, and a wild card 2% say they back Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has since ended his campaign and is supporting Trump.”
“The Pulse of Rural America poll shows Trump's backing among rural voters continues to strengthen. As many as 90% of poll respondents are farmers, ranchers or rural landowners.”
“Assuming that high input costs and low commodity prices are the biggest challenges for farmers, increased regulations also emerged as a top issue for 30% of survey respondents. This is followed by 26% citing concerns about "more extreme weather events." After that, 18% of those surveyed identify "a weak farm safety net" as their biggest challenge. The lack of affordable land came in next for 16% of poll respondents. Another 10% say their biggest challenge is the lack of affordable labor in rural America.”
AGRICULTURE
Investigate Midwest
Syngenta spent decades attempting to quiet health concerns about its profitable herbicide.
Oct. 23, 2024
“A former Florida rancher battling Parkinson’s disease reflects on years of using paraquat, as thousands of lawsuits claim the herbicide contributed to their illness and new documents shed light on the ongoing legal fight.”
ARTS AND CULTURE
The Daily Yonder
Q&A: Highlighting Art from ‘Outside the Center’, with Curator Samantha Sigmon
Oct. 25, 2024
“An exhibition at Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston, Maine, centers art from rural America.”
AVIAN FLU
Kaiser Health News and the San Francisco Chronicle
Exclusive: Emails Reveal How Health Departments Struggle To Track Human Cases of Bird Flu
Oct. 25, 2024
“Bird flu cases have more than doubled in the country within a few weeks, but researchers can’t determine why the spike is happening because surveillance for human infections has been patchy for seven months.”
“Hundreds of emails from state and local health departments, obtained in records requests from KFF Health News, help reveal why. Despite health officials’ arduous efforts to track human infections, surveillance is marred by delays, inconsistencies, and blind spots.”
“Several documents reflect a breakdown in communication with a subset of farm owners who don’t want themselves or their employees monitored for signs of bird flu.”
“Other emails hint that cases on dairy farms were missed. And an exchange between health officials in Michigan suggested that people connected to dairy farms had spread the bird flu virus to pet cats. But there hadn’t been enough testing to really know. Researchers worldwide are increasingly concerned.”
The New York Times
As Bird Flu Spreads, Additional Human Infection Is Reported in Missouri
Oct. 24, 2024
“A Missouri resident who shared a home with a patient hospitalized with bird flu in August was also infected with the virus, federal officials reported on Thursday.”
“But symptomatic health care workers who cared for the hospitalized patient were not infected, testing showed. The news eased worries among researchers that the virus, H5N1, had gained the ability to spread more efficiently among people.”
“Still, the number of human cases is rising in the United States. California said this week that it had confirmed 15 human cases of bird flu … There are 31 confirmed cases in the country, but experts have said the figure is likely to be an undercount.”
“Except for the two people in Missouri, all infections have been linked to exposure to infected poultry or cattle … Investigators do not know how the Missouri patient and the household member became infected.”
CHILD CARE
Alabama Reflector
Alabama sees 17% rise in vacant child care slots, but crisis persists
Oct. 25, 2024
“The Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) Thursday reported a 17.34% increase in vacant licensed child care slots statewide over the last year, but officials acknowledged that a persistent child care crisis remains.”
“Rhonda Mann, executive director of VOICES for Alabama Children, said in a statement that families in many parts of the state are still facing a lack of child care slots due to accessibility and affordability issues.”
“These might include working families needing regular care but living in rural areas; working families with infants; special needs children, and parents who work non-traditional hours,” she said.
“Mann said that the child care needs of these special groups won’t be easily addressed since these families are spread throughout the state instead of concentrated in one area.”
EdSurge
Despite Historic Funding, Early Childhood Educators Continue to Struggle, Report Finds
Oct. 15, 2024
“Despite the historic funding that was funneled into the field in the wake of the pandemic, early care and education continues to be one of the most beleaguered occupations in the United States.”
“Early childhood educators earn, on average, $13.07 per hour, a wage that puts them in the bottom 3 percent of workers nationally.”
“That’s according to findings from the 2024 Early Childhood Workforce Index, a report that typically comes out every two years.”
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Wired
In the Kentucky Mountains, a Bitcoin Mining Dream Turned Into a Nightmare
Oct. 21, 2024
A soured bitcoin mine deal in rural Kentucky playing out in court “is just one in a series of fights between Chinese companies and the owners of industrial facilities in the rural US over failed bitcoin mining partnerships.”
“What looked to facility owners in Kentucky like an irresistible opportunity to tap into a new line of business in an otherwise fallow period has turned into a nightmare. They claim to have been saddled with unpaid hosting fees and energy bills worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, with few options for recovering the money. The Chinese parties have been left equally displeased.”
“The bitcoin mining game—a race between computers to win the right to process a bundle of transactions and claim a crypto reward—is dominated by large corporations that own and operate industrial-scale facilities. But in 2021 and 2022, smaller-scale operations began to proliferate in the US countryside wherever there was available power, including in Kentucky.”
Though the American market proved more expensive and bureaucratic than some Chinese businesses expected, says [one expert], problems were also caused by the hubris of facility owners, some of whom found themselves in over their heads.”
It’s very difficult for American companies to recover their money from bitcoin mine deals gone south.
DISASTERS
Reuters
Baxter expects to restart IV fluids line at hurricane-hit plant within next week
Oct. 24, 2024
“Medical device maker Baxter said on Thursday it expects to restart the highest-throughput intravenous solutions manufacturing line at a hurricane-hit plant in North Carolina within the next week.”
“The temporary closure last month of the Marion site, which makes 60% of the nation's supply of IV fluids and peritoneal dialysis solutions as per the American Hospital Association, had triggered a shortage of intravenous products.”
“Earlier this week, the company said it aimed to restore the number of new patients who can start using its peritoneal dialysis solutions to pre-Hurricane Helene levels by the end of the year.”
Baxter has said it targets to return to 90% to 100% allocation of certain IV solutions by the end of 2024.”
The shortage is undoubtedly hurting rural America, since rural providers are more likely to be at the end of the line for medical supplies.
DRUGS AND ADDICTION
Roll Call
Medicaid limits access to life-saving doses of addiction care
Oct. 24, 2024
“Consensus is growing around the idea that for some patients higher doses of a gold-standard opioid addiction treatment drug may be better than lower doses at keeping patients healthy and in treatment, especially for those who use fentanyl.”
“But whether someone can access higher doses of buprenorphine — which works by curbing cravings and withdrawal from opioids — depends on where they live.”
“In most states, Medicaid — the largest payer of substance use disorder treatment in the U.S. — caps the doses it will pay for at arbitrary levels, typically at no more than 24 milligrams.”
“In some states, like Tennessee, that level is as low as 16 milligrams. With ‘underdosing,’ patients may experience symptoms that could push a person back toward the drugs they’re trying to quit, risking overdose or even death.”
GUNS
JAMA Network
Study: Firearm Experiences, Behaviors, and Norms Among Rural Adolescents
Oct. 24, 2024
The study sought to find out what experience typical rural teens had with firearms and their perceptions of firearm-related social norms. The reason: rural teens are at a high risk for firearm-related injury or death from accident or suicide, but most prevention efforts are informed by research on urban teens.
They studied 93 4-H members in counties or reservations in rural Washington state.
They found that rural teens are increasingly carrying handguns, increasing their risk of injury and death. “This cross-sectional study demonstrated that rural adolescents desire to be engaged on this topic, and future youth participatory research is crucial for developing culturally and developmentally relevant firearm injury prevention programs.”
HEALTH CARE
South Carolina Daily Gazette
USC plans to build $350M hospital for patients with brain and nervous system diseases
Oct. 25, 2024
“The University of South Carolina plans to build a highly specialized hospital promising ‘world-class treatment’ and rehabilitation for strokes, dementia and other diseases affecting the brain and nervous system.”
“Also in the works nearby is USC’s $30 million Brain Health Center, an outpatient treatment and research facility expected to open in fall 2025.”
The center will help treat Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.
“That project also involves at least six satellite clinics in more rural areas of the state to diagnose patients and increase access.”
IMMIGRATION
ProPublica
What Happened in Whitewater
Oct. 24, 2024
In recent years, immigrants from Central America have comprised a growing percentage of the population in the town of Whitewater, Wisconsin, pop. 15,000.
Police Chief Dan Meyer wrote a letter to President Biden in late 2022, seeking more resources to help the immigrants safely settle and live, and to help the town’s infrastructure to grow to accommodate them.
It wasn’t a politically motivated letter, nor did it villainize the immigrants, but within days it went viral with conservatives citing it as an example of how immigrants had overrun the town.
ProPublica went to Whitewater to conduct in-depth interviews to see what life is like in Whitewater for immigrants, how longtime residents really feel about the immigrants, and more.
INFRASTRUCTURE
USA Today
Grants nearly doubled for deadly rural roads after USA TODAY investigated
Oct. 25, 2024
“Rural towns plagued by deadly roads have won nearly $350 million this year to make them safer, a dramatic turnaround for communities that a USA TODAY investigation found had been left out of earlier rounds of federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grants.”
“That’s according to a USA TODAY analysis of more than $1 billion in new grants the U.S. Department of Transportation announced last month.”
“It’s a sharp departure from the first two years of the program, during which most of the cash awarded in the Safe Streets program landed in more affluent counties with lower fatality rates, the investigation found. What’s more, the agency had struggled to gather enough applications to use all the grant money it had on hand.”
“So far this year, department staff have awarded grants for traffic safety projects to over 200 rural communities.” The article has a list with some highlights.
POLLUTION
Ohio Capital Journal
Another private equity group is buying an Ohio coal plant. Will anything change?
Oct. 25, 2024
“Another private equity group is in the process of buying a coal-fired generation plant along the Ohio River that is estimated to be the nation’s most deadly via pollution.”
“The prospective owners boast of a focus on helping fossil fuel plants make the transition to sustainability. But it’s unclear that anything will change at the 50-year-old facility.”
“Because the plant is estimated to produce the deadliest emissions in the United States — and because it has a $40 million liability to clean up toxic coal ash — watchdogs are concerned about ongoing health threats. They’re also worried that taxpayers will have to pay for any cleanup.”
“Private equity groups have long been accused of the most ruthless moneymaking. They often buy assets in deals that quickly recoup their investments, then frequently sell off the most valuable parts of an enterprise, and then walk away either by selling or declaring bankruptcy. Whether people needlessly lose jobs or consumers lose choices is not a consideration, critics say.”
“Such firms are heavily invested in fossil fuel-powered electricity generation.”
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Ohio Capital Journal
Ohio’s six-week abortion ban overturned by Hamilton County judge
Oct. 24, 2024
“A Hamilton County judge has permanently overturned Ohio’s six-week abortion ban that had been tied up in court since its inception in 2019, but was put into effect for several months after Roe. v. Wade was overturned.”
“Hamilton County Judge Christian A. Jenkins had already temporarily stopped enforcement of the law when the case entered his courtroom in the fall of 2022 several months after the Dobbs decision overturning national abortion rights established in Roe.”
“Thursday’s decision means the law is struck down unless the Ohio Attorney General decides to appeal the decision.” The state has up to 30 days to decide whether to do so.
STUDENT DEBT RELIEF
Route Fifty
State legislators question effectiveness of federal student loans and policies
Oct. 24, 2024
“Americans owe about $1.6 trillion in student loans, 42% more than a decade ago.” Rural Americans are more likely than their metro peers to carry burdensome student debt, often without a degree to show for it.
“Now a bipartisan group of state legislators is calling for a closer partnership between states and the federal government to help solve these and other big problems with higher education—like ensuring students understand the consequences of taking on student loans, simplifying the loan process and guaranteeing graduates have the skills to fill local jobs.”
“In a report released earlier this month offering federal policy recommendations, the group said it was time for states to come off the sidelines.”
WATER RIGHTS
Inside Climate News
Federal Court Ruling on a Reservoir Expansion Could Have Big Implications for the Colorado River
Oct. 25, 2024
“A federal district court judge ruled last week that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Protection Act and the Clean Water Act when it approved expanding a Colorado reservoir.”
“But a footnote to that decision is even more significant, experts and environmentalists say, with potentially far-reaching impacts on water management in the West and current negotiations to cut back use of the declining Colorado River.”