Trump administration to reimagine Endangered Species Act, removing protections for at-risk species

The Endangered Species Act is credited with saving the American alligator, bald eagle, grizzly bear and nearly 300 other species from permanent extinction, but last month, the Trump administration put that law in danger. The administration has proposed changes in the act's enforcement, including deciding that razing habitat where endangered or threatened species live, breed and eat will no longer incur federal penalties, Grist staff reports. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service implements the Endangered Species Act and determines which species are "threatened" or "endangered." When a private or federal development project may harm a species, developers must consult with the service or receive a permit before construction. The interpretation of "take" and "harm" in the law means that any attempts to kill or capture an at-risk species are penalized, including attempts to degrade their habitats.

In an internal memo, the Trump administration proposed changing this understanding of "take" to mean only intentional attempts at killing an animal, which would disregard the unintentional damage to habitats that threaten species survival. According to Grist reporters, this would remove protections from some of the first animals who received them under the Endangered Species Act, and would further harm animals who never received any protections at all. Harm may come in the form of human development and unregulated pollution on at-risk animals’ land.

According to the Grist report, the following species may struggle in light of the changes:

• North Atlantic right whale
• Eastern massasauga rattlesnake
• Bull trout
• Florida panther
• California sea otter
• Rusty patched bumble bee
• Eastern hellbender
• Red-cockaded woodpecker
• Palila
• Chinook salmon

Experts warn that bipartisan legislation meant to counter Medicaid cuts won't do enough to offset the loses

The $50 billion fund created in 2025 to counter Medicaid cuts from the One Big Beautiful bill (OBB) will not be enough to save rural hospitals or "prevent the overwhelming health care harms" caused by the bill, writes Dustin Pugel of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. In fact, the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) was "never intended to be a replacement for lost Medicaid funds." 

For example: Pugel writes that Kentucky’s 2026 RHTP award is $212.9 million, but "the estimated cuts to Kentucky’s Medicaid program in rural areas is $10.9 billion over the next decade." So, even if Kentucky gets the same amount of RHTP funds every year for five years, "funding from that project will make up for less than 10% of the cut to Medicaid in rural Kentucky," Pugel writes. 

Pugel writes that rural hospitals are disproportionately affected by the policy changes, and most of the RHTP initiatives can't be used to help them. Liz Carey of The Daily Yonder, though, reports that several "Congress members from all over the country, and from both parties, have introduced legislation aimed at helping rural hospitals" in addition to the RHTP. 

One such effort is the Rural Health Agenda, a package of bills being advanced by Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn. The Rural Health Agenda includes at least four pieces of legislation that would help support rural hospitals through reimbursement and Medicare changes, and create a new loan program through the USDA. 

Straight of Hormuz closure raises fertilizer prices for farmers, food shortages could happen as a result

Many farmers stock up early on fertilizer for next spring’s growing season. Last year, farmers who bought fertilizer in the fall were able to avoid the higher prices fertilizer saw in spring 2026, which rose when President Trump authorized the Iran war. This year, farmers won’t be able to avoid higher prices, Neal Burnette-Irwin reports for RFD-TV News.

“Fertilizer prices went up a lot this spring, but the one ... benefit to farmers is a lot of farmers had their fertilizer purchased earlier last fall before the prices really went up,” which helped them avoid impacts of higher prices in 2026, said Gregg Ibendahl, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University.

Since prices increased significantly this spring, they are likely to rise even more going into fall 2027, which means that this time around, there will be no cheaper season that farmers can use to "stock up."

One-third of the world’s fertilizer shipments pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which is currently closed due to the war, reports Josie Fischels and Xavier Walton for News Nation. “ICC Secretary-General John Denton says available fertilizer capacity has fallen nearly 40%, taking roughly 2.7 million tons off the market.”

 
Ibendahl said farmers will have to pay. Fischels and Walton estimate that farmers will pay 15.3% more on fertilizers this year. The high prices may mean food shortages in the coming months because high fertilizer and fuel costs are limiting what farmers can provide this season.

Mini solar-powered boats use ultrasound to kill bacteria in rural water systems

Small yellow vessels topped with solar panels — akin to a toy boat in appearance — float on the surface of Lake Paradise’s reservoir in small-town Mattoon, Illinois. They are called Solarafts, reports Ilana Newman for The Daily Yonder, and they are making waves — literally.

The rafts use solar-powered ultrasonic waves to kill cyanobacteria in water. On the surface, this bacterium is known as blue-green algae. If unchecked, it can produce a toxin deadly to humans: microcystin. Mattoon issued a “do not drink” order in July 2025 after toxins grew out of control when Solarafts were down. The toxin blooms from heat, slow-moving water, low turbidity or too many nutrients — say, from agricultural or wastewater sectors.

"'A harmful algal bloom is not algae,' said Amy Weckle, a program manager for the Illinois Water Resources Center (IWRC). The misnomer is confusing, she said, because algae is beneficial and feeds aquatic species, while cyanobacteria, one of the oldest organisms on earth, is the actual cause of what is referred to as harmful algal blooms.”

 
The rafts are produced by Hydro-Bioscience and use ultrasound to break open the membranes of bacteria and kill them in a way that Todd Austin, the company’s customer accounts manager, likens “to an opera singer breaking a glass — at a certain frequency of sound, the glass will break.” The company aims to support rural water districts by keeping their resources and limitations in mind.

 
Treating water with ultrasound is a modern upgrade from treating it with chemicals, like carbon. In 2025, Mattoon went from using 150 to 600 pounds of carbon a day. Solarafts reduce chemical use by about 50-60%, which lowers the cost of keeping drinking water sources clean.

Rural character of towns across the U.S. is literally becoming a chicken fight; roosters bring noise complaints

A fight over the character of rural towns has been playing out across the U.S. and it all comes down to one of the most ubiquitous of barnyard animals: the not-so-humble rooster. "It all stems from a collision: more people adopting chicks and more people moving within earshot of them," reports Rukmini Callimachi for The New York Times. 

Town and city councils from New Hampshire, Indiana, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Washington state and Louisiana have been met with complaints and ordinance-change proposals since the COVID-19 pandemic led to a boom of "backyard homesteaders," Callimachi writes. The vice president of a mail-order hatchery told her that "people [were] panic-buying chickens like they did toilet paper" at the time. A second wave of chicken collecting came in 2022 when egg prices rose sharply. 

Callimachi reports that 8.5 million households owned backyard chickens by 2025 — up by 50% since 2018. But many of the hen hobbyists didn't understand that it's incredibly difficult to determine the sex of chicks. Many times, people don't know they've adopted a rooster until they starte crowing early in the morning. 

This was the case for Nixon, a Vermont rooster named for the former president "because he was a jerk," according to his owner. Nixon mostly minded his own yard in Pittsfield, Vt., but one day began traveling to the neighbors where he'd wake them up at 3 a.m. The neighbor took the fight to the town hall, where Callimachi reports the "private spat became a fight over the town's character," and after four meetings, the board didn't pass an ordinance for that reason: they wanted to protect that character. 

Sadly, the decision didn't help Nixon, who was literally "taken to the woodshed" by his owner after the town council asked him to handle the issue privately, Callimachi reports. And while other towns have passed noise ordinances and enacted new fines, Mayor Lee Dragna of Morgan City, Louisiana — who faced a rooster fight after egg prices rose — told Callimachi they came to a different solution: Band them, and wait them out; roosters typically only live three to four years. 

A voice for animal rights and Bluegrass music: Derby-winning breeder Arthur B. Hancock III dies at 83

Arthur B. Hancock III passed away on Sept. 18 at 83. His grandfather established the thoroughbred breeding operation Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. Hancock strayed away from the family business, pursuing a passion for Bluegrass music, but revisited horse breeding in 1972 — purchasing Stone Farm and raising three Derby winners, reports Joe Drape for The New York Times.

In his youth, Hancock expected the Claiborne Farm to be passed down to him; instead, it was given to his younger brother. Hancock’s father did not view him as “serious enough,” given his penchant for country music, drinking and gambling.

He went on to produce four original albums covered by Bluegrass stars. “Time (Old Faithful Friend of Mine)” was recorded by Ray Price in 1972, and “Nashville on My Mind” by Grandpa Jones in 1974. Hancock is to be “inducted posthumously into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame next month.”

Hancock’s purchase of Stone Farm after his father’s death produced Derby winners like 1982’s Gato Del Sol, Sunday Silence, an unwanted colt with a crooked leg who would win the 1989 Derby and inspire Hancock to stop drinking, and 2000’s Fusaichi Pegasus.

Outside of music, he and his wife, Staci Hancock, voiced an unpopular opinion: Horse-racing was too full of performance-enhancing drugs and suffering. They started the Water Hay Oats Alliance, an antidrug, anti-slaughter coalition, and lobbied. “The group was instrumental in establishing federal oversight of thoroughbred racing.”

Community colleges serve rural areas to meet North Carolina's higher education recipient goal of 2 million

With an increasing number of job shortages and a growing aging population, rural counties in North Carolina are hoping a statewide push to educate youth through community colleges and trades will save local industries, and keep their communities alive.

 

North Carolina’s legislature set a goal in 2019 to “have 2 million 25- to 44-year-old residents with degrees or industry-recognized credentials in the state by 2030,” reports Kate Denning for Carolina Public Press and Rural News Network. One initiative, myFutureNC, is credited with helping reach this goal by supporting work-based learning and career planning for many rural students.

In October, an estimated 277,000 students are needed to enroll in higher education programs and enter the labor force to meet that goal. MyFutureNC adjusts that number when people move or age in or out using census records, FAFSA completion, pre-K enrollment records and chronic absenteeism rates. With the Workforce Act of 2026, the state gave myFutureNC $8 million to continue its programs.

 
MyFutureNC reports that the state has a 95% high school graduation rate — the highest in the South. Still, there is work to be done. Reading rates for both school children and higher education students are especially low. Stanly Community College in Albemarle is introducing context-based programs, where courses like ENG111 focus on career-related readings. Re-enrollment programs aim to reintroduce education to many ruralites, offering daycares and guaranteed quick advising appointments.

U.S. Supreme Court takes up a number of cases that could impact rural places

The U.S. Supreme Court was back in session on Monday, and several cases that impact rural places and people are on the docket, reports James Romoser of The Wall Street Journal.

First up was a case about "whether local governments can sue oil companies for damages to their communities allegedly caused by climate change. Dozens of such lawsuits are percolating around the country, threatening the energy industry with billions of dollars in potential liability," Romoser reports. 

He writes that "this term centers more on the sorts of traditional culture-war schisms that have defined the court’s shift to the right over the past two decades" — issues that have been hot-button in rural areas, and in rural elections in recent years. The cases will be about "guns, religion and transgender minors," Romoser writes. 

One case is about whether state and cities can ban AR-15 assault rifles and similar automatic weapons. Another is about whether Colorado can refuse state funds to religious preschools that won't accept children from LGBTQ+ households, and another is about "the ability of transgender children to access gender-affirming care." Romoser also writes that the court is deciding whether to take a case about the rights of medical care for transgender prisoners, and another about requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in Texas schools.  

SNAP enrollment has dropped sharply since 2025, rural areas likely more affected

Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) has dropped by 13% since June, writes Tracy Roof for The Conversation, and rural areas could feel the decline sharply. About 36.4 million people were enrolled in the program in 2026, down from 42 million in 2025. Roof writes that dropping enrollment could be due to the Trump administration's "tax-and-spending package the president signed into law in July 2025." 

That law "caused some immigrants residing legally in the country ... to no longer be eligible for SNAP benefits," and "more people enrolled in SNAP now may only get up to three months of benefits if they don't work, engage in training programs or volunteer at least 80 hours a month," Roof writes. Those work requirements used to end at age 54, but that has been raised to 64, and "parents of older children ages 14-17 are now expected to meet these work requirements."

Rural places are likely to suffer more from lack of enrollment, according to a 2025 report from the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). Rural areas have higher rates of enrollment in SNAP overall, with one in seven rural households relying on the program, compared to one in eight in urban areas. Rural poverty and food insecurity rates sit at around 15% each, higher than the 11% and 12% national averages.

"These elevated rates reflect deeper structural issues: limited job opportunities, aging infrastructure, higher costs of living, and a shrinking share of the national economy," Gina Plata-Nino reports for FRAC. She writes that a Biden administration law "attempted to tackle" such issues, but it will take years to see results, adding that "rural communities remain vulnerable, especially as key industries like agriculture, mining, and manufacturing shrink due to automation."

'Dangerously' high measles cases in rural New York force governor to declare state of emergency

Measles cases have "increased dangerously" in rural New York, spurring Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a statewide public health emergency, Joseph Goldstein reports for The New York Times. As of Oct. 3, 108 measles cases had been reported in the state, the most since 2019, and most of those cases are in the rural Finger Lakes region. In counties with the most cases, fewer than 80% of children have been vaccinated by age 2. 

Houchul's declaration will make it easier for midwives, pharmacists and other health care workers to administer measles shots. Hochul said the declaration would "strengthen our ongoing efforts to confront this disease," and that "no one should get seriously ill or die from a vaccine-preventable disease." 

Goldstein reports that the U.S. is facing a "resurgence in measles, driven by declining vaccination rates, with case counts soaring in 2026." There have been nearly 4,000 cases recorded in 2026 so far, "by far the highest in more than 30 years." He writes that South Carolina and Utah have been "especially hard hit," and that Pennsylvania has had more than 1,000 cases and five deaths from measles this year.

Measles is highly contagious, and can cause swelling in the brain that leads to blindness. Babies who are too young to be vaccinated are at high risk for the disease. Measles had been largely eradicated from the U.S. 25 years ago, but fears about the MMR vaccine causing autism have led to decreased vaccination rates, even though many scientific studies have debunked those claims. 

Tennessee botches lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike

Christa Gail Pike, 50, was scheduled for death by lethal injection in Tennessee on Sept. 30 for murdering and carving a pentagram into her JobCorps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995 in Knoxville. But Pike’s execution failed, with the media hearing her loudly snoring behind the curtain for nearly 40 minutes after being dosed with pentobarbital.

Pike survived two doses. At 7:46 p.m. on Sept. 30, prison officials closed the curtains to the media. They were reopened three minutes later, to Pike snoring, and closed again at 8:06 p.m., reports Tony Gonzalez, Catherine Sweeney and Tasha A.F. Lemley for Louisville Public Media. "At that time there was an announcement to escort media witnesses out of the area."

The Tennessee Department of Corrections issued a statement saying every protocol was followed, and Gov. Bill Lee said a third party would investigate what happened. This isn't the first botched execution in Tennessee. The lethal injection of Tony Carruthers was called off in 1994 after Tennessee executioners failed for over an hour to place an IV to administer pentobarbital.

According to Billy Witz and Emily Cochrane for The New York Times, Pike’s lawyers "called for Gov. Bill Lee to reduce her sentence to life in prison, calling the botched attempt to end her life with two doses of pentobarbital "cruel and torturous." Pike likely survived because the drug was degraded or did not enter her bloodstream. Slemmer’s mother wants to move forward with the execution.

Data centers in Texas fund community projects in rural areas that oppose them

Data center companies in rural Texas are donating to and investing money in community projects ranging from improving water infrastructure to hosting dinners commemorating first responders reports Jayme Lozano Carver for The Texas Tribune.

By reviewing public records and news releases, the Tribune estimates data centers have invested $343 million across the state this year — much of it going to communities that oppose data centers. Since not all donations are public, the estimate is likely an undercount.

In Turkey, Texas, QTS Data Centers provided $250 million for upgrades to the city’s water system. Rowan Digital Infrastructure gave Temple, Texas, $38 million after a devastating tornado. The company gave $25 million to the South Temple Water Infrastructure Capital Program, $10 million for water system infrastructure, and proposed $3 million to rebuild Sammons Community Center, which was destroyed by a tornado.

 

Other multi-million dollar projects are at Texas State Technical College and in small towns like Haskell, Vernon, Bell County and Ellis County. Because of the state's tax exemption program for data centers, Texas will forgo at least $3 billion in sales tax revenue over the next two years.

 
"There is no question that these data centers are an opportunity for rural communities that are living in the margin,” said Suzanne Bellsnyder, an editor and publisher of two Texas Panhandle newspapers and a Substack focused on rural issues. “Most infrastructure resources are paid with tax dollars, and there’s not a ton there.”

Rural voters are mixed on Trump's immigration policies, but some feel he has gone too far

Feelings about the Trump administration's immigration reform are mixed in rural areas, according to a new poll from KFF Health News and The Associated Press. Of the 2,000 rural people polled in August, about one-third said immigration enforcement had been positive for their communities, and another third said it had been negative. 

But even with these results, KFF Health News and the AP report that "many rural voters also say immigrants are a key part of their local economies, and some believe Trump’s immigration actions have gone too far." Laura Leigh Taylor is once such Trump voter, who now says she regrets her vote because his policies forced the deportation of her friend's father. 

Results of the poll also found that three-quarters of rural voters want midterm candidates to talk about immigration because it's "extremely" or "very" important to them. A significant portion of rural voters don’t think "Trump’s immigration policies have helped their communities," but the poll found "they are also less likely than the general public to say that Trump has overstepped in his efforts."

Rural voters, however, are keenly aware that immigrants help sustain local industries such as manufacturing, healthcare and agriculture. KFF Health News and the AP report that "the vast majority of rural voters see immigrants in the country legally as an important part of their local economies."

Texas utilities are lagging in mandatory submission of wildfire prevention plans, while January deadline looms

Only eight of 160 utility companies in Texas have filed mandatory wildfire prevention plans with the state, reports Jayme Lozano Carver for The Texas Tribune. This news comes after a "chaotic wildfire season" during which the state responded to more than 1,200 fires, including the Ross Fire, which became the second largest wildfire in North Texas history. 

House Bill 145 requires utilities to file plans with the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) by January 2027. They must include "emergency protocols in the case of a wildfire, utility operating plans during high-risk weather conditions, management of grass, shrubs and other vegetation in areas that are at risk of wildfires, inspection of poles and other electric equipment and identified areas of wildfire risks within a utility’s service territory." 

PUC Director Connie Corona told Carver that nearly 140 of the remaining 160 utilities have indicated "they are in the process of preparing their plan." The PUC has also offered template plans to smaller utilities that might not have resources to invest in developing their own plans. But Rep. Ken King, who has led efforts to mandate the plans, told Carver the lack of actual plan filings leaves him "very, very disappointed." 

"When eight out of 160 have complied, and we’re sitting here in September, that doesn’t sound like a very good response to me," King said. "I think it’s imperative for anybody that has not filed that report to realize January is coming. You will file that wildfire mitigation plan, and if you’re dragging your feet, there’s no excuse good enough for me."

Food safety and related illnesses are hot topics for midterm debates

Debates leading up to midterms can be messy, and this year, those debates are becoming a food fight — about grocery prices, which is a more typical debate, but also about whether it's safe to eat those groceries.

Cyclosporiasis ravaged lettuce supplies and stomachs this summer. Thousands of pounds of meat were recalled alongside ever-changing beef import regulations. And as Stephanie Armour for KFF reports, some food safety scientists blamed outbreaks on federal cuts to public health.

"Democrats have come out on the offensive, saying voters worried about the safety of the U.S. food supply should oust Republicans in the midterm elections," Armour writes. "The Trump administration has countered by accusing Democrats of scaremongering over food safety to score political points."

There have been 200 food recalls this year, similar to recalls this time last year. But this year's recalls are part of a broader trend with total recalls up by 21% since 2021. Epidemiologists say a better measure of safety is how many people are getting sick.

 
"Concern about food safety has especially taken hold now, public health leaders say, because the administration is portraying itself as a safety crusader while cutting staffing and funding for federal agencies responsible for surveillance and inspection," Armour writes, noting how the cyclospora outbreak made it harder for people to consume fresh foods, which has been the recommendation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

Local law enforcement ICE arrests in three Appalachian states hit record-high numbers this summer

Some rural places are benefiting financially from a large number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests because of revenue generated from incarcerating people in their local jails. In Kentucky, “four county jails earned $2 million or more by holding people for ICE during (President) Trump’s second term, as of April 2026,” Morgan Watkins reports for Louisville Public Media.

A review by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom analyzed ICE open-records data requested by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, and University of California, Los Angeles.

 
They found that ICE arrests by local law enforcement in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia have increased since last year. They were up by 18% in Kentucky in June 2026, 30% in Tennessee in May, and 87% in West Virginia in January. These increases happened following “Operation Country Roads,” a federally assisted crackdown resulting in 650 arrests. 

Watkins reports that ICE conducts arrests in three different ways: taking custody of immigrants who are already in jail or prison for non-immigration reasons, through street arrests, and through 287(g) programs, which deputize local law enforcement officers as immigration agents. Tennessee’s state government incentivizes local officers if they sign up. More officers in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia have signed up in the first nine months of 2026 than in all of 2025.

Immigrants aren't just taken into custody, Watkins writes, they are held in local jails as de facto detention centers. Watkins reports that in Kentucky "ICE earnings help offset the sizable costs of running their jail.”

CDC warns of increase in human and animal rabies cases; USDA to drop vaccine sachets for wildlife in October

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will distribute roughly 6.5 million oral rabies vaccine sachets via airplanes, helicopters and motor vehicles throughout the Southeast in October, reports Mary Van Beusekom for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. The fishmeal-coated sachets will be deployed in hopes wild animals will consume them and become immunized against rabies.

The Centers for Disease Control warns of a nationwide increase in animal and human rabies cases this year. A Health Alert Network advisory was issued after the CDC saw a 17% increase in questions about human rabies exposures from July to August, and an increase of PEP use at eight state health departments. PEP stands for "post-exposure prophylaxis," a $14,000 treatment administered after suspected rabies exposure.

"According to weekly pharmacy data as of September 2, 2026, utilization for the two rabies vaccines and the two rabies immunoglobulins licensed in the United States has increased by an estimated 33% and 76%, respectively, compared with the same time period last year," the advisory notes.

In Brown County, Minnesota, one such case resulted in the death of an infected cow, two barn cats who were euthanized, PEP recommendations for nine people and the observation of more than 40 cattle, a horse and three dogs last month.

The distribution of vaccine sachets is part of an ongoing USDA program. This year, it will target portions of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia to counter the spread of raccoon rabies — the most common transmitter of the disease in those regions. Past distributions were “successful in targeting canine rabies in coyotes and a variant of the disease in gray foxes.”

Challenges of mail delivery in rural Alaska prevented some in-person absentee ballots from being counted in primaries

In the small southwest village of Naknek, Alaska, Sallyann Hughes sent an in-person absentee ballot 13 days before last month’s primary election. She then received a letter saying her ballot had not arrived in time.

Hughes' absentee ballot was one of 75 cast by rural voters in western Alaska that “arrived too late to be counted in last month’s primary election,” Becky Bohrer reports for The Associated Press.

  

The state accepts absentee votes postmarked by Election Day up to 10 days after the election, but that delay isn’t always enough. Many Alaskan communities aren’t connected to main road systems, and they often have to wait for air travel to transport their ballots.

"The Alaska Division of Elections blamed a 'mail delivery delay’ that affected voters in seven communities, with Kotzebue, Igiugig and Naknek combining for 62 of the ballots," Bohrer reports. "But a spokesperson did not provide more details on the nature of the delay. Absentee in-person ballots are sent to regional offices — in this case, Nome — for review."

The U.S. Postal Service finalized a rule in 2025 stating that postmarks don’t necessarily reflect the date the agency first took hold of a piece of mail, but the day it was handled in a processing center. A spokesperson said any number of factors could delay mail.

Native American voter advocacy group, Get Out the Native Vote, said the delayed ballots "represent a measurable loss in participation," contributing to voter apathy, or the perception that one’s vote doesn’t matter. The group supports a decision made by the Division of Elections to reroute western Alaskan absentee ballots from Nome to Anchorage, the state’s largest city.

Even before Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion care lagged behind in rural communities

Filmmaker Emma Dessau grew up in urban New Jersey with access to sex education and Planned Parenthood, and an understanding that Roe v. Wade was a sacred law. When Dobbs v. Jackson overturned abortion as a constitutional right in 2022, Dessau followed in the steps of others — taking to the streets, posting on social media and donating to charities, she writes for The Daily Yonder.

When she met Caitlin Gaffin, co-founder of Holler Health Justice in West Virginia, she realized Roe was never enough for many rural communities.

Dessau began producing a documentary about Holler Health Justice in 2018. That year — before Roe was overturned — the West Virginia legislature removed Medicaid coverage for abortions, in a state where nearly 30% of people use Medicaid for health care.

"The protection of Roe didn’t make abortion affordable or accessible in West Virginia. It didn’t increase the number of safe clinics in remote hollers or expand the availability of sex education resources," Dessau writes. "After Roe fell, Holler Health Justice adjusted to the new harrowing reality, but its core mission remained the same."

The film underscores the reality of anti-abortion sentiments in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson. Abortion clinics disappeared due to budget cuts while Crisis Pregnancy Centers popped up, intercepting funding from low-income families and creating abstinence-only sex education programs.

"The mission of Holler Health Justice is not to prove that mutual aid is a replacement for the health and safety services provided by state and federal governments," Dessau writes. "Rather, its work is borne from a tradition of everyday people filling in the gaps when their homes and lives are seen as sources to extract and divest from, not invest in."

Newly proposed EPA rule would exempt offshore fishing vessels from pollution requirements

A proposed rule from the Environmental Protection Agency would exempt certain offshore seafood processing vessels from the Clean Water Act’s pollution discharge permitting requirements, reports Katie Reuther for KUCB. The Clean Water Act's requirements limit how much pollution permitted vessels can release into waters and in which bodies of water they can do so.

Under the Sept. 4 proposal, a vessel that is three miles offshore in federal waters and not attached to the seabed would be exempt.

"That means that most offshore seafood processors would no longer have to keep track of their pollution release,” Reuther writes. “However, an EPA spokesperson said in an email that other federal rules would still apply to offshore processors."

Because pollution emissions from these vessels would not be held to the same monitoring standards as they are now, the information available for public review may be reduced, Reuther writes.

The rule would apply nationwide, but would primarily affect 80 permit holders in Alaska, Washington and Oregon. If enacted, the EPA estimates it could save processors $1.7 million and the agency $50,000 in pollution monitoring and administrative costs.

Submissions for public comment are available here through Oct. 19.

BUILD America 250 Act proposes rural transportation federal funding cuts

Many people can't drive in southern Idaho, but the Living Independent Network Corp works to fill the gaps when public transportation is limited — and for most of rural America, it usually is.

The Living Independent Network receives $100,000 from the state annually, made possible through federal funds, reports Benton Graham for Grist. The money allows riders to pay for “bare-minimum lifeline service,” but their access is expected to worsen at the end of this year when federal money runs out.

Transportation programs authorized in 2021 by the Biden Administration's $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will expire at the end of this year. Lawmakers are fleshing out the BUILD America 250 Act, which would reauthorize those programs, but with $16.5 billion less in funding.

Advocates say the Biden Administration's legislation failed to broaden transportation access, but BUILD would be a significant step back. It would authorize only $103.3 billion over five years, opposed to the baseline $119.9 billion under the Jobs Act. This rate is not adjusted for inflation, and BUILD would actually need an additional $24 billion to match previous funding. 

Under BUILD, rural Idaho and Maine are estimated to see the nation’s largest drops in federal funding, falling 18% and 16% respectively. This could leave those with disabilities socially isolated, irregular transport services and families without options, leaving them to pay for a car, more gas, repairs or insurance. 

“The Biden infrastructure bill was not the high water mark,” Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director at Riders Alliance, said. “We could do much better than that in a variety of different ways, and we shouldn’t hold up bipartisanship as a core value of how we fund transportation when we have such sharply diverted views of the role of government to invest in people and communities.”

Rural hospitals struggle to keep up as electronic health records advance

Many rural hospitals and clinics rely on older electronic health record (EHR) systems to store patient documents and hospital data, but because larger hospitals tend to use more updated systems, the older platforms can’t communicate with “modern application programming or advanced data-sharing capabilities,” Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder.

The inability to securely share medical records between older vs. modern systems is called the “interoperability crisis,” and it’s stretching rural hospital staff to their thinnest. Only 64% of rural hospitals have adopted newer EHR systems, compared to 74% of urban hospitals.

Rural hospitals typically have only one to two technology workers, they may lack reliable broadband infrastructure, and upkeep of digital systems is expensive. Rural hospitals and communities that have been marginalized also consistently receive less federal funding than their urban counterparts. These disparities can "put rural healthcare facilities at a disadvantage," Carey writes.

Those gaps will cause "fragmented care," or lead to increased costs when physicians have to repeat tests and scans because they can’t access prior diagnostic images or results,” said Angela Chubb, senior manager of quality and regulatory advisory services at Nordic, a global health and technology consulting company.

The technology gaps also mean rural hospitals must work harder to recoup insurance reimbursement. Newer electronic health record systems allow more efficient data transfer among various state and national organizations for funding review. But data managers in many rural hospitals said providing those reports with smaller staffs and with less technological resources requires more labor. Often, the same information has to be re-formatted multiple times for different organizations’ standards.

Chubb told Carey that policy makers need to communicate with rural hospitals to better understand the solutions that will work in specific rural areas. “All rural communities ... are different. They all function based on their needs, based on their community needs, based on their provider needs, their demographics, their locations. It’s really how can these organizations structure the process that makes sense for them.”

Rural voters believe the economy is worse now than before Trump’s second term

More than half of rural American voters believe the economy is worse off now than when President Donald Trump began his second term, according to a new poll by The Associated Press and KFF.

The sample of 2,000 bipartisan rural voters reported holding negative views of national and local economies, citing concerns about the cost of groceries, gasoline and healthcare. A larger share than the average voter worried about affording such necessities, reports Ali Swenson, Sarah Jane Tribble and Linley Sanders for the AP and KFF.

Though rural voters have supported Trump in recent elections, these "findings suggest that many rural voters have not turned on Trump but that they also largely do not think he has delivered the economic renaissance he promised in his campaign,” Swenson, Tribble and Sanders report.

Only 4 in 10 rural voters approve of Trump’s economic performance, attributing economic downturns to his handling of the Iran War. Many say their local economies have worsened with the national economy. Rural Republicans have a more optimistic economic view, but “rural voters overall don’t perceive much positive impact from the administration’s healthcare policies even as they have been a top priority for Republican leaders."

Despite Trump’s approval of the Rural Health Transformation Program last year, which recouped from Medicaid cuts, the survey revealed that 60% of ruralites heard nothing about the program at all. Many voters still believe Trump aims to deliver on his promises, but polling shows his standing is slipping. Some 48% of rural voters approve of him — more than the average voter — but that number has fallen from 56% rural approval in earlier surveys.

Rural vet shortage could increase risk of food-borne illness in U.S. produced meat

Food-animal veterinarians remain scarce in rural areas, and that could mean less oversight of meat production in the U.S., increasing the risk of food-borne illnesses, according to a recently released report from the USDA. Brandon Genetin, James C. Davis and Grace Grossen write in the report that "shortages of food-animal veterinarians ... represents a significant concern for both public health and food security."

It's big news given that the U.S. is just now easing some restrictions on beef imports due to screwworm concerns, and that food-borne illness broadly has been a national concern for months. Screwworm is one of the diseases that could run rampant if the rural vet shortage continues, the report notes. 

The new report, "Food-animal Veterinarians and the Persistence of Rural Shortage Areas," states that veterinarian shortages "can weaken disease prevention, slow emergency response, and heighten risks to both livestock and consumers, creating potential supply chain disruptions." 

Rural food-animal vets are "the frontline defense against diseases and illnesses that can devastate herds," Genetin, Davis and Grossen write in the summary of the report. "When fewer veterinarians are available, infectious diseases such as avian flu and bovine tuberculosis can spread more easily and be detected later, increasing the likelihood of major outbreaks."

Florida's orange growers hope disease-resistant trees will revitalize the decimated industry

Flordia's orange growers are buying DNA-altered trees and inoculating their existing groves to ward off the devastating and incurable "citrus greening" disease that has ravaged the state's orange groves for the past 20 years. Julie Wernau reports for The Wall Street Journal that the EPA has approved both technologies this year, and growers have already ordered hundreds of thousands of resistant trees. 

"Citrus greening" causes oranges to drop from branches before they are ripe and turns them bitter. Florida's orange production has fallen by 95% since the disease was discovered. Wernau reports that 60,000 orange grove acres went out of production last year, which was 26% of Florida's remaining groves. Almost half a million acres are dormant now, while other groves have been transitioned into cattle ranches. 

Florida's state government created a two-year $330 million fund that will help growers buy inoculated and DNA-altered trees in an effort to revitalize the industry, Wernau reports. But, she writes, the new trees will take two years to start producing, and "the question is whether Florida's citrus industry can hang on that long."  

Applications are now open for Report for America host newsrooms; rural newsrooms encouraged to apply

Applications to become a host newsroom for Report for America (RFA) are now open for 2027-2028. RFA "recruits, trains, and supports" journalists to work in newsrooms across the country, "focusing on under-covered communities and issues." Rural newsrooms are highly encouraged to apply. 

This year, RFA is expanding its support for newsrooms who want to add photography, visual journalism and sports reporting positions, but it also support a wide range of other positions that will help local newsrooms maintain "more consistent, high-quality local reporting" on any topic. Reporters are placed in newsroom for two-year contracts. 

RFA offsets the salary of newly placed reporters up to 50%, or up to $27,500, in the first year, and up to 33% in the second year. Reporters with more than six years experience will be subsidized up to $30,000. The organization's Local News Sustainability team also works directly with host newsrooms on fundraising and other revenue opportunities to "strengthen long-term financial sustainability" of local news. 

RFA will host several information sessions to learn about the program, which can be found here. Questions about the program can be sent to recruitment@reportforamerica.org. To apply to become a host newsroom, click here. 

Rural communities can learn how to push back on data center construction from resistance to factory farms

The fight about construction of data centers continues across the country, and communities pushing back
on such construction could have a lot to learn about how to resist from the roll out of factory farms almost 40 years ago, Raj Patel and Jim Goodman write for Barn Raiser (republished by Next City). The push for factory farms looked similar to the fight about data centers now, and they write that those similarities might help rural residents resist data center construction more effectively. 

"By the time neighbors organized [against concentrated animal feeding operations], right-to-farm laws and state preemption had severed the ground from under them," the reporters write. And "while CAFOs crept into rural America, data centers are arriving as a land rush. This speed is both terrifying and an advantage." Terrifying because 67% of the 1,500 proposed data centers are in rural areas; an advantage because "CAFO country" has been here before, and the lessons they learned can help other rural places now.

Patel and Goodman have recommendations about what issues rural residents should focus on in hearings with their local elected leaders: water, power, money and democracy. They write that asking questions about those things will provide them with the most salient information. It's a lesson they say came too late for farmers. 

"Everything CAFO country learned, it learned too late, after the wells were ruined, after the smell lowered adjacent property values and health outcomes, after the statutes were written. Data centers are arriving early enough that the questions can still be asked in time."

McConnell casts deciding vote on Farm Bill, which has been stalled by Democrats due to SNAP cuts

Mitch McConnell returned to the Republican-led Agriculture Committee this week after his medical absence, and cast the deciding vote to advance the farm bill to the full Senate. This vote came on Tuesday, Sept. 15, after Democrats blocked the current version of the farm bill in August, reports Frida Garza for Grist. 

The absence of McConnell and Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville stalled the bill's progress, but once they returned, their votes advanced it. Democrats oppose the proposed farm bill because it doesn’t reverse the $186 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) signed into law by the Trump Administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“Changes to SNAP are typically implemented through the farm bill, which historically was passed every five or so years,” Garza writes. This is the fourth year the bill has not been renewed. “Democrats in the Senate Agriculture Committee have refused to support a farm bill that doesn’t restore SNAP funding; they have also pushed for a delay in a crucial change to SNAP that would increase states’ administrative costs for running the food assistance program.”

The proposed bill does neither of these things. To win on the Senate floor, Republicans will need 60 votes — they hold 53 seats, and will need to convince several Democrats to join them. Garza writes that it is unlikely the farm bill will be passed this year.

 

Many people with low-income rely on SNAP, and many farmers rely on a customer base who pays with SNAP benefits. The current iteration of the farm bill may leave states with higher administrative costs for SNAP. States will have to rethink their budgets, possibly ending up with less overall funding for agriculture, education, transportation or other programs.

Measles deaths continue to climb, and rural areas are not immune; cases in rural Pennsylvania are an example

This year is the deadliest yet from measles since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000. In Pennsylvania, four people have died from measles as of Sept. 15, 2026, and nearly 700 have been infected, reports Dani Blum for The New York Times. 

In Pennsylvania's rural Mifflin County, an unvaccinated 18-year-old died from measles-related neurological complications. Another county reported the death of a 40-year-old woman, later confirmed as unvaccinated. Last month, state health officials reported the deaths of two infants who contracted the virus.

Measles fatalities are typically one to three deaths for every 1,000 cases. Blum writes that this statistic suggests Pennsylvania’s case count is higher than what is being reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not recorded any deaths from measles this year.

“The Pennsylvania deaths have been embroiled in political controversy, with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. disputing whether measles directly caused some of them,” Blum writes. “Last month, Dr. Erica Schwartz, the new director of the C.D.C., directed agency staff to not include the first two deaths in the national tally, going against the agency’s typical practice of accepting data reported by states.”

The virus is most dangerous for children, adults over 20 and those who are immunocompromised. “Roughly one in five unvaccinated people who contract measles in the United States is hospitalized.” Measles-related pneumonia and immune amnesia are among the deadly symptoms.

Trump shifts funds from National Parks to projects in Washington

Funding U.S. National Parks Service projects has not been a priority for the Trump Administration, which has siphoned money from the USNPS for several Washington, D.C., projects, including the unveiling of gold leaf statues, reopening ornamental water fountains and repairing the Lincoln Memorial pool. This spring, the Trump Administration used at least $67 million generated by park entrance fees to fund such projects, reports Maxine Joselow for The New York Times. 

About 1,500 projects at more than 200 sites nationwide were deemed “low priority,” while projects in Washington were added to a list of White House priorities. There is currently a $24 billion backlog of deferred maintenance projects across the parks.

Staff cuts and funding shifts have left 433 USNPS sites in turmoil, with 20% of the parks being significantly understaffed. A proposal to sell a small parcel of Yosemite’s land to a private developer has become a bipartisan issue, Joselow writes. “Polling shows that Americans of all stripes and political persuasions overwhelmingly love their parks.”

Trump has taken other actions that affect the parks, including putting his face on park passes and ordering the removal of exhibits that "inappropriately disparage Americans,” as was the case for one exhibit about slavery and a sign about climate change.

Fran P. Mainella, a Republican who led the Park Service under President George W. Bush, said that Trump may not realize the value of parks to the public and the economy, and said there needs to be a way to better tell Trump that story. The parks and politics are no strangers; the Bush Administration was accused of promoting religious and conservative content at the parks.

Nonetheless, “Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican who leads a subcommittee on national parks, said in an interview that Mr. Trump ‘has been an incredible supporter of the parks.’ He dismissed reports of funding and staffing issues at parks as ‘fear-mongering’ by the president’s critics before the midterm elections.”

Trump administration wants to rescind 'Roadless Rule'; changes could threaten millions of acres of protected land

Kootenai National Forest in Montana is used as a conservation site for grizzly bears. Certain parts of the forest are designated growing areas for bear foods such as salmonberries and thimbleberries. Up in Alaska breathes “the northern lung of the planet,” or the Tongass National Forest, the biggest in the United States.

Both of these forests are protected under what's known as the Roadless Rule, a 2001 ruling protecting land, often without roads, from further development, reports Ilana Newman for The Daily Yonder. In August, the Trump Administration filed a proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement to rescind the Roadless Rule. Many people in rural communities say the Roadless Rule protects their economy and way of life. 

The ruling applies to 59 million acres of public land, spanning the Western U.S. and Alaska to New England and Appalachia. The Roadless Rule protects lands without roads, but “there are plenty of primitive roads in what is known as inventoried roadless areas, or the land that is protected by the Roadless Rule,” Newman writes. “What the Roadless Rule does is prevent any additional development, road building, or logging in those areas.”

As of Aug. 18, the filing of the proposed rule opened a 30-day public comment period. Rescinding the ruling would allow local hands to better manage forests for wildfire risk, according to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

Many rural commenters from Alaska, Appalachia, Montana, New Mexico and Washington disagree. Forests such as the Kootenai and Tongass are threatened by logging and loss of conservation land. Locals in Washington cite concerns of fires igniting adjacent to roads; and in parts of Appalachia, drinking water could be contaminated by roads built on inventoried land. In New Mexico, rescinding the rule raises fear of opportunities for exploitative mining.

Coal is still declining despite the Trump Administration's efforts to save it

The coal industry remains in decline despite the Trump Administration's efforts to rescue it. Curtis Tate reports for WEKU (republished by Kentucky Lantern) that electric generation from coal is expected to decline 8% in 2026 and another 6% in 2027, according to the U.S. Energy and Information Administration. 

The Trump Administration has rolled back Biden-era environmental protections, canceled tax credits for wind and solar, and removed regulations on power plants to try and boost the industry, but Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis analyst Seth Feaster told Tate those efforts have "fallen flat." Coal just can't compete in today's energy landscape, Feaster said. 

"One, it’s not competitive,” Feaster said. “Two, there’s a lot of other stuff being built right now, particularly solar, and still some wind, but solar all over the country.” Renewable energy, plus natural gas, "are expected to meet the growing electricity demand the government forecasts this year and next year. Solar generation surpassed coal for the first time in May."

Tate reports that Kentucky lost more than 300 coal jobs in the first six months of 2026, leaving less than 3,000 coal miners in the state — a 14% drop from the first quarter of 2025. 

Tobacco used to be king in Kentucky; now farmers worry their way of life is dying

About 30 years ago, tobacco was king in Kentucky agriculture, but thanks to declining rates of smoking, overseas competition, and increasing rates of vape and e-cigarette usage, the crop is scarce now, and the tobacco farmers still hanging on worry their way of life is dying, Liam Niemeyer reports for the Kentucky Lantern. 

In the 1990s, almost 60,000 Kentucky farms were growing tobacco, but that number has plummeted to less than 1,000 now, Niemeyer reports. In Clark County alone, 700 of the 962 farms in the county grew tobacco in 1978. There are less than 10 tobacco growers left. Farmers like Kenneth Anderson, who now leases his land to a much younger tobacco farmer, "wonder what’s been lost — community, culture and learned practices and knowledge handed down by generations — as the number of tobacco farmers continues to dwindle in the state." 

Niemeyer reports that perhaps the final death nell for the crop came in 2004 when Congress ended "the federal price support program for tobacco farmers that had been in place since the Great Depression." Farmers received $9 billion in buyout payments at the time; Kentucky farmers got $2.5 billion of that. 

University of Kentucky agriculture economist Will Snell said "the roughly 20 years since the buyout in Kentucky agriculture" has been "the largest 'structural change of any ag economy of any state.'" Kentucky lost 80% of its tobacco market share and about 90% of its tobacco farmers from the shift.

The farmers lament not just the business side of tobacco farming, but the loss of culture that comes with the shifts, Niemeyer reports. Eighty-year-old Bath County farmer Robert Bach "still keeps a few burley tobacco plants growing in his backyard garden, even though his wife says they take up too much room," he writes. "'It’s just part of Kentucky history. It’s just it’s hard to give history up for me anyway.'"