There's a new giant pumpkin world record holder; TikTok expands the contests' appeal

As fall festivities kick into full gear across the country, many rural towns are rolling out the scales for their annual pumpkin weigh-offs, and one Rhode Island farmer has reason to celebrate his giant gourd growing efforts, writes Victor Mather of The New York Times. Farmer Ron Wallace's pumpkin just weighed in at 3,156 pounds, smashing the previous record of 2,856 pounds, according to Guinness. 

Pumpkin weighing contests are an American tradition, with contest going back as far as 1900, when the top weights were around 400 pounds, Mather writes. Changes in soil, pruning and pest control, along with genetic changes in seeds, has bulked them up over time. And now, thanks to social media, giant pumpkin farmers have grown in popularity, too. 

One such giant gourd grower, Sarah Whitty in Maine, goes by Pumpkinista on TikTok, and spent the  season this year posting updates about the slow and careful process of growing giant vegetables. Her videos where she details the behind-the-scenes of gourd growing have garnered her nearly 300,000 followers. Her 170-pound giant marrow named Secretariat claimed the North American and U.S. record this year, reports local news station, KTVB7. 

She is one of dozens of giant pumpkin and vegetable growers gaining in popularity on TikTok, including other growers with large followings, GourdFather and bigpumpki. The new giant pumpkin record holder, Farmer Wallace, told Mather the annual pumpkin growing contests captivate for a simple reason: "A giant pumpkin brings a smile to everybody’s face, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from, what nationality you are," he said. "Giant pumpkins don’t care about any of that," and that when someone sees the giant pumpkins, "everybody is just in awe." 

A federal program that helps landowners restore forests after a disaster has run out of funding

The Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP), an initiative in the Federal Farm Service Agency, has received more requests for aid than it can pay for. Congress created the program in the 2008 Farm Bill, and it provides disaster relief to private, nonindustrial land owners, or reimburses them up to 75% of the cost of restoring damaged woods. 

"Almost two years ago, Congress appropriated $357 million for the program 'to remain available until expended,'" Vivian La reports for Grist. Much of that money was granted to landowners devastated by 2024’s hurricane season, and more recently, to Michigan property owners affected by 2025’s ice storm. Work can include clearing trees to prevent fire risk, replanting or managing invasive species.

Residents say dealing with the federal program "has been mired in delays, confusion about eligibility, and what’s been described by landowners and foresters as little communication from federal officials."

Many homeowners cannot wait for restoration to come, and sometimes, they cannot afford to begin efforts themselves. If they do, they may be disqualified from the program in the future. Tony Fox, a forester in Lake City, also said the EFRP is "a little unfair to the folks at the FSA" because it lumps a forestry program in with a primarily agricultural agency.

As weather conditions become more intense with climate change, foresters stress the importance of the program. U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, a Republican who represents all of northern Michigan, said, "If Washington calls this emergency relief, it needs to act like it’s an emergency."

Californians are using AI to scour hours of footage looking for wildfires and hoping to prevent their spread

Californians hope artificial intelligence and solar-powered cameras installed in remote areas will help spot wildfires before they get out of control, reports John Branch of The New York Times. The cameras will be placed in some of the most fire-prone areas of rural California, and will be pointed at "the blind spot that local fire officials wanted to see."'

"These are the fire spotters of today — remote, high-tech cameras attached to communication towers, old lookouts or purpose-built tripods on high vantage points," Branch writes. The cameras — being installed by ALERTCalifornia — "have become a vital tool for firefighters and a ubiquitous presence in emergency coverage." 

ALERTCalifornia installs the cameras, and AI scours the footage, often finding wildfires before 911 calls are made, Branch reports. Officials use the feeds to monitor fires and coordinate teams to get to the scene. Live-feeds of the footage are publicly available on ALERTCalifornia's website. The organization is a "public safety program" based at the University of California San Diego specifically focused on technological responses to and prevention of wildfires.

"This system has changed the world of response," Napa County deputy fire chief, J.C. Greenberg told Branch. “We have instant visibility and instant information that we need to make response decisions.”

Rural hospitals often lose maternity care after being bought

The Fitzgibbon Hospital in Marshall, Missouri mirrors an unfortunate national trend: “Rural hospitals are more likely to lose maternity care after they are acquired.” Fitzgibbon, which delivered 252 babies in 2025, filed for bankruptcy and was sold to a new owner, Strawberry Fields REIT, and a new operator, American Medical Administrators, Meg Cunningham reports for The Beacon.

In April, the hospital filed for bankruptcy protection, leading to the sale of its facilities. “Just nine days after the sale closed in early September, Fitzgibbon’s new operator announced the hospital would end labor and delivery services at the end of the month.” More than half of Missouri’s counties have no labor and delivery care. As larger hospitals absorb the responsibility of providing maternal services, ruralites will have to drive two or more hours to receive care.

During the sale, offers to buy the Fitzgibbon went up to $14.5 million, but ultimately, the administration accepted Strawberry Fields and American Medical Administrators’ offer of $10 million because the groups had expressed interest in continuing care using Medicaid. Medicaid covers 47% of births outside of metropolitan areas in the state.

The sale was not finalized at its Aug. 31 deadline because the new owners raised concerns about Fitzgibbon’s operating costs. To avoid closing the hospital, Fitzgibbon sued to force the sale through, then alleging American Medical Administrators had proposed cutting services, reducing outpatient care and backing away from Medicare commitments.

Dr. Abdullah Arshad, the chief medical officer at American Medical Administrators, said it later became clear the hospital couldn’t sustain maternal care after reviewing costs. The hospital will have the emergency equipment to handle a birth, and will staff a 24/7 OB-trained nurse, which Arshad said is rare in rural hospitals.

Study says urban trees are more resilient than rural trees

Trees in urban areas are actually thriving better than those in rural areas, Matt Simon reports for Grist. Trees in urban cities are vulnerable to vandalism, pests and diseases, and the heat island effect — the phenomenon of cities being warmer than rural areas at night because concrete traps heat. But a new study led by ecologist Zhengfei Guo at the University of Hong Kong shows they are more resilient to stresses like extreme heat than their country counterparts.

The study shows that urban trees lose less green vegetation, recover faster from losses and experience longer growing seasons. Researchers said this may be because urban trees are better tended to, or because there are surprising advantages to how cities are structured. They add that urban areas are harsher in terms of pollution and air quality, but crews in cities consistently tend to intentional green spaces and advocate for ways that residents can keep them healthy.

Cities tend to funnel water into sewers as quickly as possible to prevent flooding and pooling on top of concrete. When rainwater cascades, the only place it can collect, if not on concrete, is in green spaces. For hydrated plants, high heat due to the heat island effect can provide extended growing seasons, although such heat is harmful to human health.

“Urban vegetation is often pampered compared to what’s growing wild in the countryside,” Simon writes. “This is an advantage in the long term, but doubly so during relentless droughts and increasingly miserable heat waves. While rural trees desiccate, their compatriots in cities are regularly attended to.”

Jin Wu, coauthor of the study, said that even though urban trees are resilient to extreme environments now, they won’t always be. Cities are already taking steps to stock up on native seed species and saplings that fare well in heat in other parts of the world, and cities like Los Angeles are reimagining their water systems.

Six dead after Hurricane Isaias strikes U.S.; cleanup impacts areas devastated by 2024's Hurricane Helene

Four deaths, including those killed when trees fell on their homes, were reported out of Alabama and Florida after category two Hurricane Isaias made landfall, according to a report by The Guardian.

Isaias made landfall in Florida on Friday, Oct. 9, with maximum winds of 105 mph, before being downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone. 

“The storm felled trees and ripped the roofs off buildings. Alabama, Florida and Georgia all declared states of emergency ahead of its arrival, while both Florida and Alabama issued mandatory evacuation orders to thousands of people,” reports Madeline Halpert for the BBC.

 
Cleanup of Hurricane Isaias is under way, spanning areas of North Carolina previously devastated by Hurricane Helene in 2024. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state, with help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, “is ready to submit a major disaster declaration to get people back on their feet,” Katie Streit reports for Spectrum News.

 

“Once complete and when the power’s back up, counties can begin doing their own individual damage assessments, which they then submit to the Florida Division of Emergency Management,” DeSantis said. “And then the state will then conduct our own damage assessments. We definitely are going to qualify for that.”

Rural communities use telehealth less, but not because they don’t want it

Rural communities face a higher chronic disease burden — whether in the form of high blood pressure, diabetes, COPD or lower back pain — but they aren’t using telehealth as much as their urban counterparts. 

Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder the results of a study by Elevance Health Public Policy Foundation that found only 4.6% of chronic care visits in rural areas were executed via telehealth, compared to 7.5% in urban areas, no matter the insurance type. Since an initial telehealth surge during the COVID-19 pandemic and a spike in 2022, rates have been down everywhere. Rural communities are consistently at the tail-end. 

The study didn’t look at the causes for this gap, but “it does show that more needs to be understood in terms of how rural communities use telehealth.” Medicare clients, who are mostly elderly, use telehealth the least. 

But Dr. Sira Haeni, a maternal fetal medicine specialist and the CEO of Ouma Health, a maternity telehealth practice with clients in all 50 states, said he doesn’t see a gap; many of his patients prefer telehealth to avoid long driving times to and from a city. He thinks underutilization of the technology in rural areas is because of broadband access.

“If you look at the independent research on this, broadband itself explains a lot of this utilization gap, and the counties that lack the broadband access oftentimes have the lower utilization,” he said. “It’s not so much that the rural patients don’t want to access telehealth, it’s just that they can’t access telehealth. As a country, we’ve failed rural America in terms of getting the broadband access that was promised to them over the last few administrations.”

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."