Rural News Clips, Dec. 2, 2024
Former FCC head: Elon Musk in 'unprecedented' position over rural internet; the affordable housing shortage is reshaping parts of rural America; food bank demand continues to rise
POLITICS AND ELECTIONS
Wisconsin Examiner
Biden administration leaves ‘foundational’ tech legacy, technologists say
Nov. 29, 2024
“As he’s poised to leave office in two months, President Joe Biden will leave a legacy of ‘proactive,’ ‘nuanced’ and ‘effective’ tech policy strategy behind him, technologists across different sectors told States Newsroom.”
The CHIPS Act, the AI Bill of Rights, and expanded broadband internet access are credited as groundwork for tech innovation growth.
AGRICULTURE
NPR
Trump's promised tariffs sow uncertainty for Kansas farmers
Dec. 2, 2024
“President-elect Donald Trump won widespread support in the farm-rich state of Kansas, but some agricultural producers worry his proposed tariffs could result in a trade war that hampers their already struggling industries.”
BROADBAND
Newsweek
Elon Musk in 'Unprecedented' Position Over Rural Internet: Former FCC head
Dec. 1, 2024
“Aformer Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Director, Blair Levin, has expressed concerns about Elon Musk's potential conflict of interest in shaping internet access for underserved regions through his satellite company Starlink, now that he is heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) program.”
“Musk, appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to co-lead a commission aimed at downsizing the federal government, the DOGE, may seek to reduce funding for rural broadband in a move that could benefit Starlink, according to reports.”
“In response to the idea that Musk could leverage DOGE for personal gain and undermine funding for rural broadband services to benefit Starlink, Levin, a telecommunications industry analyst, called the situation ‘unprecedented.’”
CHILD CARE
Idaho Capital Sun
Commentary: Child care is one solution for Idaho’s health care workforce shortages
Dec. 2, 2024
“It’s going to take leaders in child care, education, housing, health care and government coming together to tackle the shortcomings in our system, writes guest columnist Kelly Schmier.”
COMMUNITY
The Daily Yonder
Q&A: How Blending the Personal and the Professional Expands Rural Literacy Rates
Nov. 29, 2024
“Amy McCleese Nichols’ book, ‘Rural Literacy Sponsorship Networks: Piloting Mixed-Methods Mapping for Small Communities,’ is an academic treatise celebrating rural interconnections. Her research reflects one community’s assets, not deficits, in regards to community literacy, and explores collective oral and written communication skill-building in both everyday and educational settings.”
“By mapping the complex ways that literacy professionals, broadly defined, worked together to create an array of literacy opportunities, McCleese Nichols offers a potential technique for articulating a range of rural collaborations.”
Wisconsin Examiner
Wisconsin River Valley nonprofit seeks to solve problems, foster community
Dec. 2, 2024
“In a purple corner of Wisconsin that reflects both the struggles and the promise of the state’s rural communities, a nonprofit group is trying to forge a path beyond isolation and political polarization.”
“River Valley Commons began six years ago with a lecture series to help residents of the village of Spring Green and the surrounding towns build community, expand critical thinking and foster hope and a sense of agency.”
“Today the organization connects disparate groups to address the concerns and needs of residents across a three-county area.”
EDUCATION
The Wall Street Journal
Trump’s School-Choice Agenda Hits Pushback From Red-State Voters
Nov. 29, 2024
“President-elect Donald Trump has made school choice a core tenet of his plan to remake education—but it isn’t clear his voters are on board.”
“School-choice ballot measures lost in three states in the November election, including in two that went strongly for Trump, Kentucky and Nebraska. The results suggest a divide between Republican lawmakers and voters, many of whom have said in opinion surveys that they are generally dissatisfied with what they view as a ‘woke’ agenda in public education but still like their own children’s local schools.”
The Hechinger Report
‘Easy to just write us off’: Rural students’ choices shrink as colleges slash majors
Nov. 26, 2024
“Rural Americans already have far less access to higher education than their counterparts in cities and suburbs. Now the comparatively few universities that serve rural students are eliminating large numbers of programs and majors, blaming plummeting enrollment and financial crises. Many rural private, nonprofit colleges are closing altogether.”
“While large-scale cuts to majors in the years during and since the Covid-19 pandemic have gotten some attention, what many have in common has been largely overlooked: They’re disproportionately happening at universities that serve rural students or are in largely rural states.”
“Even some flagship universities that serve rural places are making big cuts. The most widely reported were at West Virginia University, which is eliminating 28 undergraduate and graduate majors and programs.”
FARM BILL
Oklahoma Voice
GOP governors, including Stitt, urge reauthorization of Farm Bill, call 2018 bill ‘outdated’
Dec. 2, 2024
“Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, along with governors from 16 other states, signed a joint letter Monday urging Congress to reauthorize the Farm Bill and to provide ‘immediate financial assistance’ to the agricultural sector.”
“The Farm Bill was last authorized in 2018, and after failing to reauthorize it on the typical five-year schedule in 2023, Congress extended the 2018 bill through the 2024 fiscal and crop year.”
“The group of GOP governors is asking Congress to pass a new version of the massive bill rather than extend the “outdated” 2018 bill another year.”
FOOD AND HUNGER
Axios
Food bank demand continues to rise
Nov. 28, 2024
“Most food banks are seeing more demand than last year going into the holiday season, according to the nonprofit Feeding America's survey of 157 food banks.”
“Food insecurity has steadily risen since before the pandemic, with 65% of food banks recording an increase in the number of people served in October 2024 compared to October 2023.”
“An average of 20% more people have sought out services from the food banks surveyed.”
HEALTH CARE AND RURAL HEALTH
The Daily Yonder
Lack of Civic Infrastructure Drives Rural Health Disparities
Dec. 2, 2024
“The most recent County Health Rankings report suggests that access to resources like high speed internet and public libraries is part of the reason rural counties aren’t as healthy as metropolitan ones.”
HOUSING
WYSO
From nightclubs to hardware stores, rural counties get creative to address homelessness
Dec. 2, 2024
“Homelessness is on the rise across the state in both urban and more rural areas. However, rural communities often lack shelter spaces and resources to address it.”
“Even if they have them, it is hard to find the resources and manpower to keep them going.”
“So, they’re getting creative. Advocates in North Central Ohio found a solution in a former nightclub.”
Wayne County “has not had a permanent space for an emergency overnight shelter until now. A private donor purchased the vacant bar and decided to lease it to the nonprofit.” There wasn’t enough local, state or federal money to fund it.
NBC News
The affordable housing shortage is reshaping parts of rural America
Nov. 29, 2024
“Since the start of the pandemic, the population in rural areas has been growing for the first time in at least a decade.”
“While the expansion of the suburbs is nothing new, a surge in home prices over the past several years has supercharged the trend, pushing homebuyers across the country further out from city centers to areas … where land is cheaper and more plentiful and local barriers for developers tend to be lower.”
The Daily Yonder
‘The Hornet’s Nest’: How Seven Wealthy Summer Residents Halted Workforce Housing on Mount Desert Island
Dec. 2, 2024
“A debate over a six-unit project in Mount Desert has pitted millionaire summer residents against both the town and a pair of billionaire brothers.”
North Dakota Monitor
Houses ready for delivery to Ellendale under pilot financing program
Dec. 2, 2024
A home-building company and an employer in rural North Dakota are the first to partner through a new state program meant to bring new housing to growing rural communities.
The employer, data center operator Applied Digital, hopes to ensure there’s enough housing to attract workers to its expanding company through R-WISH (Rural-Workforce Initiative to Support Housing).
“The real difference between housing financing programs and R-WISH is the presence of a corporate entity such as Applied Digital to provide some of the capital investment.”
IMMIGRATION
Civic Media
Wisconsin Farmer Talks about Essential Role of Migrant Workers
Nov. 27, 2024
“A Wisconsin farmer paints a revealing picture featuring the essential role of migrant workers in sustaining the rural dairy economy. Hans Breitenmoser believes political rhetoric around mass deportations could devastate communities like his. The Lincoln County farmer joins Dom Salvia, host of The Dom Salvia Show, to discuss why it may lead to farms being shuttered altogether.”
POLLUTION
The Texas Tribune
Texas farmers say sewage-based fertilizer tainted with “forever chemicals” poisoned their land and killed their livestock
Dec. 2, 2024
“The fertilizer was promoted as an environmental win-win for years. An untold number of farmers and ranchers across Texas have spread it on their land.”
RACE
WPLN
In rural West Tennessee, racial healing is a group effort
Dec. 2, 2024
“Though rural America is often used interchangeably with “white” America, the number of people of color living in rural areas has increased in the last decade from one-fifth to about a quarter, according to the Brookings Institution.”
“Growing racial diversity in small towns has led to efforts to improve racial understanding there. The Weakley County Reconciliation Project in Northwest Tenn. is one such group.”
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
The Independent
Missouri’s GOP attorney general plans to enforce some abortion restrictions despite new amendment
Nov. 30, 2024
“Missouri's Republican attorney general says he still considers it illegal to provide abortions after fetal viability, despite a newly approved state abortion rights amendment.”
“There is an exception carved out in the amendment for cases in which a health care provider deems an abortion necessary to ‘protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.’”
“Under the express terms of the amendment, the government may still protect innocent life after viability,” Bailey wrote. “The statutes thus remain generally enforceable after viability.”
“Bailey said his office also will continue to honor a Missouri law requiring parental permission for minors to receive abortions.”
Stateline
Arizona voters said yes to abortion rights, but old restrictions are still on the books
Nov. 28, 2024
“Arizonans overwhelmingly voted to make abortion a fundamental right, but overturning the state’s current 15-week gestational ban — and multiple other anti-abortion laws still on the books — isn’t automatic.”
“Just an hour after she joined Gov. Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Timmer on Monday to certify the results of the 2024 general election, Attorney General Kris Mayes said that officially nullifying the 15-week ban will need to take place in the courts.”
“And, she added, while her office considers the certification of Prop. 139, the abortion rights ballot measure that netted more than 60% of the vote, as sufficient to restore access to the procedure, the reality is that some providers might continue to hesitate until legal protections are more firmly established.”
SENIORS
The Washington Post
Homebound seniors with health problems often have trouble getting care
Nov. 23, 2024
“Across the country, nearly 2 million adults over 65 are completely or mostly homebound, while an additional 5.5 million seniors can get out only with significant difficulty or assistance. This is almost surely an undercount.”
“Almost 40 percent live by themselves.”
“It’s a population whose numbers far exceed those living in nursing homes — about 1.2 million — and yet it receives much less attention from policymakers, legislators and academics who study aging.”
“Older homebound adults are less likely to receive regular primary care than other seniors. They’re also more likely to end up in the hospital with medical crises that might have been prevented if someone had been checking on them.”
UTILITIES
Blue Ridge Public Radio and Grist
Rural water utilities in North Carolina are still reeling from Helene
Dec. 1, 2024
“Repairing municipal water systems leveled by a storm that washed away distribution lines, overwhelmed intakes, and inundated treatment plants is no easy feat. The challenge is acute in mountain communities, where geography is a hassle.”
“Much of the infrastructure required to draw, treat, and distribute water often sits alongside reservoirs, placing them squarely in a floodplain when the torrent arrives and increasing the likelihood of damage.”
“Reaching anything needing attention can take days or even weeks because the lines that carry water to customers meander through valleys, over ridgelines, and along roadways, many of which remain impassable.”
“A lot of these utilities struggled even before Helene. In many Appalachian towns, the companies that once paid to maintain water and sewer systems have shut down or moved on, and shrinking populations generate less revenue to keep things shiny and new. This is endemic throughout Appalachia.”