Letting forests burn in a controlled way could be the only way to stop mega-wildfires from continuing

The United States is losing the battle against mega-wildfires, and the only way to reverse course might be through fire itself in the form of prescribed burning, reports Mark Betancourt for Grist. While the nation's wildfires have blazed their way into urban areas in recent seasons, most wildfires burn in the rural West.

"Over the past decade, so-called megafires — characterized not only by their size, often bigger than 100,000 acres, but by their severity, speed, and impact — have become more common. They now account for the bulk of the money spent on firefighting, with the federal government spending 10 times more on suppressing wildfires than it did 30 years ago," Betancourt reports. 

He writes: "This summer’s fire conditions have already been extreme. Nearly 73 percent of the Intermountain West is experiencing severe to exceptional drought, with temperatures breaking records across the country. Add to that last winter’s meager snowpack, which has left forests ready to burn. So far in 2026, the U.S. government has reported more than 53,000 wildfires that have burned over 8 million acres — about 3 million acres more than average over the past decade."

Betancourt reports that many fire scientists say letting smaller fires "run their course" and burn away excess fuel — like dead grasses, underbrush, and small trees — in forests across the West could help prevent future megafires from erupting. "Once the extra fuel is gone," Betancourt reports, "a semblance of balance is restored," which will allow humans to "make friends with natural, lower-severity ground fires by hardening human communities against them and letting them be."

Read more about the practice of prescribed burning, which Betancourt writes has been a part federal policy in some form or fashion since the 1990s, here.

Proposed EPA rule would not require public input before construction of new pollution-causing facilities, most of which are in rural places

A newly proposed federal Environmental Protection Agency plan would eliminate the requirement that states seek public comment before issuing new air pollution permits for AI data centers and other industrial facilities, Matthew Daly reports for The Associated Press. 

If approved, this change would mean the public would have less say in construction of new data centers, which would impact rural areas more than most since the "nation’s largest data centers are being planned in marginalized and vulnerable rural communities," according to Sarah Alexander Melotte of The Daily Yonder. Pew Research found in April 2026 that 67% of planned data centers were in rural areas, with most of those being built in the South and Midwest.

"Critics say the move could thwart local residents from learning about proposed data centers or making their voices heard before projects are approved and construction begins," Daly reports. A former deputy director of EPA’s air quality office told him that "the plan could create 'an unlevel playing field where citizens in one state are kept completely in the dark about new data centers and heavy industrial emissions in their backyards, while neighboring states maintain oversight.'"

The plan could mean that the EPA could fast-track permits without requiring facilities to inform the public about where new facilities are being located. "'Data centers and other industrial sources should not be able to get their air pollution permits in secret,'" Keri Powell, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, told Daly. SELC represents almost 200 "environmental, health and community groups that filed comments with the EPA opposing the plan."

When the last grocery store in Shoals, Indiana, closed, locals pitched in to start their own

In many rural communities, the only grocery mainstay is a Dollar General. Shoals, Indiana, has been on that list for a year since its last remaining grocery store, JayC, closed. Its 670 residents had begun to "fill the gaps" with limited Dollar General inventory, reported Laura Lane for The Daily Yonder. But one resident aims to change that by opening a locally-owned and operated grocery store in the near future.

Lane reports that Kroger, the parent company of JayC, cited a desire to operate more efficiently as the reason for closing the store, but residents say they were not given notice about the closure until “the last minute.”

Ever since, some residents had to “travel 25 miles to Washington or Bedford, cities with big grocery stores and Walmart Supercenters.” Others cannot drive or order a driving service because those don’t exist in Shoals. 

The Dollar General half a mile east of town carries “processed meats like hot dogs, frozen items, milk and cheese, canned goods, and they have limited produce,” a Shoals resident told Lane. “You can get by, but it’s kind of pricey.”

To combat Shoal’s new food desert, Todd Baker, owner of Bo-Mac’s drive-in restaurant on the town’s eastern edge, set up a “Grocery Grab” in the parking lot of his restaurant every Tuesday evening for 12 weeks. 

"Vendors sold Amish-grown produce, local meats, Prairie Farms dairy products and fresh-baked sourdough bread. People came and stocked up." With the popularity of the parking-lot grocery, Baker and local officials are now collaborating to discuss the possibility of opening a small grocery store.

Appalachia sees highest rate of Black Lung Disease in 50 years from silica dust

Appalachia is facing its highest rates of Black Lung Disease since 1978, reports Howard Burkes for The
Daily Yonder (republished from Public Health Watch). The statistics come from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, just as courts stall protections for coal miners.

“If you imagine one out of every three school teachers were getting an incurable lung disease because of something they were exposed to at work, the whole country would put their hands up screaming and stop whatever this exposure was immediately,” said Dr. Drew Harris, a medical director at Virginia’s Stone Mountain black lung clinics, which sees the most patients for black lung care and legal help in the country. “[But] this is largely impacting rural Appalachian folks that don’t have a voice, that don’t have a country to unite behind them.”

A troubling reality is that younger coal miners are falling ill because as Appalachia’s thickest coal seams were mined out, companies looked to smaller seams, which require digging through more rock that tends to be rich in silica. Mining through silica produces highly toxic dust that poses health risks to miners.

“Excessive inhalation of coal mine dust is the sole cause of [black lung] in coal miners,” the new NIOSH research letter said. “Substantial evidence shows that exposure to the respirable crystalline silica component of coal mine dust plays an important role in contemporary disease patterns.”

Even as mining companies comply with silica overexposure regulations 90-97% of the time, any exposure can lead to an influx of cases and lives affected. Stricter regulations for exposure have been suggested by NIOSH since 1974, but no bipartisan action had taken place. 

The Biden administration made exposure limits twice as restrictive and incorporated noncompliance fines in 2024. In response, mining companies sued and federal courts responded. “The Trump administration did not oppose the delay, announcing it too would put enforcement on hold.”

Midwest Native communities oppose newly issued permit for updates on oil and gas line under waterways

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit plan to update an older segment of a pipeline that carries crude oil and natural gas 645 miles from Superior, Wisconsin, through Michigan, to Sarnia, Ontario. The plan faces opposition from indigenous nations in Michigan, whose traditions and burial grounds are in the path of the Straits of Mackinac, reports Vivian La for Grist. 

Owner of the pipeline, Enbridge Energy, “wants to replace a 4-mile segment that lies on the bottom of the ecologically sensitive straits with a new one, buried in a tunnel under the lakebed.” The permit was fast-tracked under an executive order from President Donald Trump last year.

The Michigan native nations affected by the pipeline believe reconstruction would breach their treaty rights, established in the 1836 Treaty of Washington. They  “hold treaty rights to fish and hunt in these waters, rights that predate Michigan’s statehood.

The Army Corps said their plan would cause minimal impacts on the waterway or surrounding lands, and that it would  “reduce the environmental risks associated with the pipeline, such as leaks caused by a direct hit from a boat’s anchor.”

But La reports that previously collected data from the Army Corps said tunnel construction would have adverse impacts on wetlands, vegetation, land use and cultural resources. 

Building of the pipeline has been caught up in state legislation. The Michigan Supreme Court sent permit approval back to regulators for more review after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer sought to shut down the pipeline last year. 

Trump announces temporary pause on beef import tariffs, faces opposition from ranchers

The Trump administration announced a “deal” allowing imports of up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to enter the U.S. market with relaxed tariffs. The announcement came on Aug. 21, and states that, “... foreign beef exporters will provide a 25% discount on beef exports ‘to be passed along to American consumers’ in exchange for tariff relief” for 90 days, reports Emily Chang and Benjamin Siegel for ABC News. 

Ranchers and several Republican lawmakers from farm states oppose the plan. Chang and Siegel report Republican Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy said “... this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people.” CEO of the National Cattleman’s Beef Association Colin Woodall also advocates against Trump’s deal, saying it "sacrifices long-term stability for short-term messaging.”

Many customers have expressed concern over rising grocery prices. Beef and veal prices soared 9.4% in the last month as compared to last year. The U.S. cattle supply has reached a 75-year low, and domestic farmers are struggling with high fertilizer and diesel costs amid ongoing supply issues caused by the Iran war. 

Chang and Siegel report that the White House official who confirmed the 25% discount also told ABC News “that the president will formally sign an executive order on the matter within the next two weeks.”

The White House official told ABC News the administration is working with domestic ranchers to expand production. Trump wrote in a social media post that “This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again.” 

Conference to celebrate International Year of the Woman Farmer and reveal results of women in agriculture study

The Women in Agribusiness Summit will convene from Sept. 22-24 in New Orleans to celebrate 2026 as the

International Year of the Woman Farmer. Farm Bureau News reports that the Summit’s goal for its 15th year is to provide space for individuals in all types of rural communities to connect and collaborate with one another. 

This year, the WIA Summit will feature “panel discussions offering insights on ag markets, sustainability, risk management and several other topics, as well as workshops focused on leadership development and workplace transformation.” 

One panel in particular will share results of an American Farm Bureau Federation study about women in agriculture. The panel is led by Jessica Cabrera, managing director of member engagement at the American Farm Bureau Federation, and features Juliana Farah, president of the Agricultural Sowing Commission of the Sao Paulo State Agriculture and Livestock Federation, and Payal Pathak, director of Athena Tradewinds PVT LTD. 

"The study … identifies the essential roles women play in building a sustainable future for agriculture as well as opportunities for growth, improvement and additional support.” More than 4,000 women from all 50 U.S. states and territories were interviewed. 

Key findings from the study are: 

• Women in agriculture have strong confidence in their ability to balance farm work and family responsibilities

• 90% of women surveyed are interested in taking on leadership roles now or in the near future

• Most respondents have a high level of confidence in their ability to represent agriculture in public or professional settings 

• 9 out of 10 women would feel confident speaking at community meetings about agriculture

In addition, “the study also identifies five key areas where the agriculture sector could increase support: time and caregiving; skill development; leadership involvement; financial future; and overall wellbeing.”

• 52% of all respondents reported interest in training related to farm succession or ownership transition

• 44% are interested in gaining equipment or technical skills training

• Nearly 6 in 10 respondents expressed interest in business and financial management training

• 45% of respondents expressed interest in policy or civic engagement training

• 42% expressed interest in community involvement or advocacy training

Walmart to pay $50 million for its role in bolstering the opioid crisis

The Justice Department announced this week that Walmart must pay $50 million to resolve claims “that its pharmacies filled hundreds of thousands of suspicious prescriptions for opioids,” reports Ishani Desai for The New York Times. 

In 2020, government lawyers alleged that Walmart, the biggest retailer in the country and a mainstay in many rural communities, failed to detect and report ‘shady’ orders, thus fueling the opioid crisis — a crisis that disproportionately impacts rural communities. 

“Over an approximately four-year period, a time during which Walmart shipped an estimated 37.5 million controlled-substance orders to its pharmacies, it reported only 204 suspicious orders to D.E.A. — in other words, almost none,” Desai reports. 

The federal suit cited an instance in which an employee admitted to filling illegitimate and lethal doses of an opioid, and another in Florida of a doctor for whom Walmart filled over 3,500 controlled prescriptions. Workers who flagged such practices “were ignored in part to drive sales.” 

The settlement was announced as a government effort “to hold companies accountable for what it says were their roles in the opioid epidemic.” A Walmart spokesperson said the company was pleased to resolve the case. 

United Houma Nation credits 'good journalism' as reason for $56.5 million federal grant award

The United Houma Nation in South Louisiana is crediting "good journalism" for a newly awarded $56.5 million grant it received from the U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA to help implement a climate "disaster and resilience plan," reports Ottavia Spaggiari of The Margin, a digital-only nonprofit news outlet that covers climate change's impacts on marginalized communities. 

"The funding will assist six hurricane-prone parishes in South Louisiana, including Lafourche Parish, home to the United Houma Nation," Spaggiari reports, writing that the grant comes after the outlet's "in-depth reporting on the United Houma Nation's decades-long fight for federal recognition and how that status gap heightened its climate exposure."

The Margin’s original reporting in 2022 focused on the impacts of Hurricane Ida in August 2021. "The storm left 26 dead, 14,000 displaced, and 75% of the buildings damaged or destroyed in Lafourche Parish, one of the hardest-hit areas and one of the parishes with the highest number of Tribal citizens," Spaggiari reports. 

Tribal citizen Sherry Parfait told Spaggiari: ''That kind of journalism is key to telling the story of the place.'" Spaggiari continues: "[Parfait] explains that deep narrative journalism can help people get a comprehensive understanding of the toll coastal erosion is taking on Tribal communities like the one she grew up in, where hurricanes and climate change have forced dozens of Tribal members to leave."

The grant will help the United Houma Nation create plans for climate mitigation, disaster preparedness and recovery best practices. It will also help to "develop community-led migration strategies" so tribal members can stay on their ancestral homelands after disaster strikes. 

Wendell Berry, champion of natural places and agrarian life, has died at 92

Wendell Berry, Kentucky poet, novelist, essayist and farmer, died at his home in Henry County on
Monday, Aug. 31. He was a naturalist, staunchly advocating for and supporting returning land to its natural state, and encouraged an off-grid lifestyle that would do as little harm to the natural world as possible. He was also a fierce advocate for rural places. 

"Mr. Berry wrote more than 50 volumes of poetry, fiction and argument that championed small family farms, the environment, local foods and interdependent communities, and railed against chemicals, most technologies, agribusiness and distant government," reports Robert D. McFadden for The New York Times.

McFadden continues: "He never became a household name but, as his oeuvre grew over a half-century, advocates of agrarian and ecological causes embraced his work as an eloquent, if sometimes didactic, expression of their own hopes. Some critics likened his landed exhortations to those of Thoreau or Thomas Jefferson."

He studied English at the University of Kentucky, writing at Stanford and taught at New York University for two years before being called back to his Henry County, Ky., homeplace, "an old two-room cabin on the Kentucky River at Port Royal... where his ancestors had lived since 1803," McFadden writes. 

"Returning to his home as a place to write for the rest of his life was a way to insure, to himself, that he would always be bound by the truth, Mr. Berry said in a phone interview in 2018 ...," McFadden writes. "The landscape was there to check me if I was wrong. I could never go away and make up stuff at cocktail parties about the backwoods of Kentucky," Berry said during the interview. "I worked with people here in all walks of life and learned from them. It’s been a very rich experience.”

Oil and gas drilling could increase in Alaska's wilderness under proposed exclusions to environmental laws

Alaska's wild places might be under threat -- with little oversight -- after a move by the Trump
administration to fast-track oil drilling in the National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve. 

Adam Federman reports for High Country News that the administration is issuing a "categorical exclusion" in the National Environmental Policy Act that would allow "new winter exploration and drilling to move forward without any kind of environmental review" by federal agencies or input from the public.  

Drilling in the protected areas has been "well-documented" to heavily disturb wildlife and altar the landscape in harmful ways, Federman writes, and yet the exclusion "could be released as early as this week." 

There is legal basis for seeking such exclusions, but applying it to a delicate ecosystem is uncommon. Jeremy Lieb, an attorney with environmental advocacy group Earthjustice told Federman the exclusions are usually applied where the changes caused by industry won't threaten the natural environment. Lieb said the effects of what's being proposed in Alaska are "well-documented" and are exactly the "kind of actions that should be scrutinized by the land-management agency."

The exclusion is in line with other rules re-written by the Trump administration to make drilling easier in Alaska's protected wilderness, some of which are already affecting local tribal communities, who have been "inundated with new drilling activity," as a result, Federman reports. Such operations also pose risks to workers, and increase the likelihood of oil spills. 

New solar microgrids will help western North Carolina be more prepared for Helene-like disasters

It has been almost two years since Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, causing unprecedented flooding and leaving a large swath of destruction in its wake. Many communities were left in the dark in the aftermath because of blackouts that couldn't be remedied until power lines could be repaired. But a new statewide microgrid solar project aims to prevent such a situation from happening in the future. 

"The state Department of Environmental Quality invested $5 million in 26 microgrid projects last August, in partnership with a coalition of nonprofits dedicated to the expansion of sustainable energy. The goal is to build 24 stationary microgrids and two mobile ones, with five sites announced in June," reports Katie Myers reported for Grist (republished by Next City). 

Solar microgrids can power one or more buildings and can store energy to keep the power on "for days without sunshine," Myers writes. Stationary systems remain in one place, and power "essential infrastructure." Myers writes that one such system powers the entire town of Hot Springs, N.C., and "kept the lights on during Helene." 

The Foothills Project, a nonprofit bringing microgrids to western North Carolina, uses what they call "beehives" -- small, portable systems with batteries that can work in sunny or cloudy conditions. They provide up to 100 kWhs of energy, and could power a building for 10 hours. Myers reports that "Foothills Project is prioritizing installing them outside food banks, fire stations, community centers, and libraries," because they "can store supplies and serve as a hub of community operations during a disaster."

Two solar "beehives" will be ready for use in 2027, and installations at five stationary sites began this summer. 

Data centers threaten Texas' farmland, echoing similar battles across U.S. rural areas

Texas agriculture is facing off against an increasingly heard-about foe: data centers. Construction of the facilities requires large swaths of cheap, open, flat land, and rural Texas has it in spades. Nearly 250 data centers are slated to be built in the state, reports Jayme Lozano Carver for The Texas Tribune.

The story connects with dozens of others from around the country's rural areas, where communities are facing similar pressure from data center developers. Carver writes that a recent Pew Research Center study  found that 67% of data centers nationwide are in rural areas. The tax revenue promised to local governments by such development is increasingly difficult to pass up for many that are struggling to keep essential services going with a declining tax base.

"Texas agriculture has been an illustrious behemoth for decades, generating more than $963 billion in total economic output and driving nearly $15 billion in exports annually. Texas also has more farmland than any other state — 126 million acres as of 2021," Carver writes. Data center development is adding stress to other issues Texas farmers have faced in recent years, such as rising costs of growing crops, drought, and loss of croplands. 

“They’re building them on our most valuable, most fertile farmland,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told Carver. “Once our farmland is gone and paved over, we’ll never farm it again.”

New federal rule would increase water cuts in the Colorado River Basin; Native American tribes say they weren't consulted

Colorado River Indian Tribes say the U.S. Department of the Interior did not provide them with enough notice or allow them sufficient input about its newly proposed plan of "future cuts to Colorado River water deliveries to three lower river basin states," reports Daniel Herrera Carbajal for ICT. 

The plan dictates that California, Arizona and Nevada would take less water from the Colorado River "to stave off a crisis in the river." Arizona and Nevada have taken water usage cuts before, but this proposal "could lead to more significant reductions, impacting agriculture, cities and tribes," according to the ICT report. 

In a release letter earlier this month, The Colorado River Indian Tribes' attorney general, Rebecca Loudbear, wrote that the decision does not "reflect the nature and extent of [The Colorado Indian Tribes's] water rights," because the Tribes "holds water rights to over 23 percent of Arizona’s entire allocation of Colorado River water."

The Tribes is a major shareholder of Colorado River water in Arizona and has "some of the most legally untouchable water rights pertaining to the river." The Tribes, along with the Gila River Indian Community, pledged to "'stand ready" to challenge the plan if it does not meet their needs.

California farmers are 'returning lettuce to the soil,' laying off workers as fears about cyclosporiasis continue

Workers are being laid off, assembly lines have stopped and huge amounts of lettuce and cabbage are being returned to the soil at farms across the country as fears about the spread of cyclosporiasis continue. 

Soumya Karlamangla reports for The New York Times that despite the largest cluster of cases being "linked to iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico," sales of lettuce and other greens from the Salinas Valley in California have "plummeted all the same."

Farmers are making the hard decision to till the unsold lettuce back into the field to use as fertilizer because that is the least costly move they can make if it doesn't sell. One such farm making that hard decision is Church Brothers Farm in the Salinas Valley. Karlamangla reports that the company "lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in discarded greens," and "returned an extra estimated 3.9 million heads of lettuce to the soil over the past six weeks as demand dropped."

The Salinas Valley -- long known as the "Salad Bowl of the World" -- has suffered the most from the downturn in sales. The region grows 70% of the country's lettuce. Though the Centers for Disease Control identified only one source of the parasite, it is investigating six other sites, but has not released names. 

The farmers and experts Karlamangla spoke with agreed that lettuce sales would bounce back, but for now "hand-painted tomatoes and heads of lettuce grace the public trash cans in Salinas."

One reporter's journey through the American West puts her on the frontlines of climate change

Climate change is altering the great American landscape, with rural places often on the frontlines of disasters that are becoming more and more frequent. Grist Editor-in-Chief Katherine Bagley reflects in a new essay on her family's summer roadtrip -- an iconic American tradition that pushes people into this country's many varied rural places -- and the overwhelming scars left behind from the disasters climate change has wrought.

"I had expected to walk away with a better understanding of our public lands, a renewed sense of awe and adventure, and the opportunity to travel as a family in a way I never got to growing up — and the trip did give us those things in spades," Bagley writes. "What I hadn’t expected, however, was to also get a stark glimpse into how climate change is rapidly altering our nation."

She writes of her family's front-row view of the red rings left behind as lakes and reservoirs evaporate, wildfires that were burning acres of land as she and her family tried to leave Moab, Utah -- entry point to the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks -- flooding in Yellowstone, and extreme heat and loss of habitat for native species in Wyoming. 

"As a climate journalist, and scientist by training, I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised," Bagley writes. "For 20 years, I have documented the ever-growing impacts of a warming planet — and summer coincides with the annual period during which these impacts are on full display ... But even knowing that, the scale of devastation underway outside our car windows was alarming."

There are some places keen on educating and combating the effects of climate change across her family's journey -- wind turbines accompanied by wind turbine restaurants in Iowa; rows of EV charging stations at a truck stop; and interactive museum exhibits. But the devastation looms large, and with four in 10 American's saying they are directly impacted by the changes, but feel powerless to stop them, facts such as this are hard to ignore: 

[My children] hit a button [at the Glacier National Park visitors center] and watched as tiny bulbs lit up the mountaintops, signifying the location of the 150 glaciers that existed back in 1850. As the timeline moved from 1900 to 1950 to 1980 to 2000, the lights disappeared faster and faster. Today, the park is home to only 26 ice bodies.

Read Bagley's full essay here.  

LGBTQ+ youth summer camp in West Virginia reduces isolation of many attendees from rural communities

LGBTQ+ youth can often feel isolated in their home communities or schools, and that is especially true for rural LGBTQ+ youth. The ACLU of West Virginia is trying to remedy that isolation with its Appalachian Queer Youth Summit. Gabriella Souza reports for Black By God that the organization has hosted the summit every year since 2020 "after a convening of Appalachian human rights organizations and the realization that queer youth in Appalachia were the most isolated of any group." 

Mollie Kennedy, the community outreach director for ACLU-WV and the camp's director, told Souza that many LGBTQ+ youth in West Virginia “are living in places where there’s no other kid like them in school," and being at camp is often the first time in their lives when they can be around other kids like them without fear of bullying, being made fun of, misgendering or being physically hurt. At camp, she said, "they just get to be kids." 

About 10% of rural youth identified as LGBTQ+ in a 2021 Movement Advancement Project study. An updated MAP study from 2025 shows that the largest percentage of LGBTQ+ youth (38%) lives in the South. A report in 2017 found that West Virginia had the highest per capita rate of transgender teenagers in the county at the time, and a 2022 West Virginia University study found that more than 7% of rural Appalachian youth identified as gender diverse at the time. 

And yet, despite the numbers, LGBTQ+ youth in rural places still feel isolated and singled out. The Appalachian Youth Queer Youth Summit provides a space where LGBTQ+ youth can coexist with others who understand their lived experiences and where they can be themselves without fear. The camp is free for participants, removing financial barriers that some youth might face in attending, especially rural youth who live further from the camp's location in northeastern West Virginia. 

“Until camp, I felt alone pretty much all the time," junior counselor Mykah Smith told Souza. "In my friend group, I’ve always been the gay one and the Black one." But at camp, Smith found peers that came together around "the intersectionality of being queer and Black." She said "it was the first time that people actually listened to me.” 

For locals in East Tennessee, Dolly Parton's death is personal. Here's how local news covered the story.

There are no shortage of tributes and obituaries pouring in from all corners of the country honoring the life and legacy of Dolly Parton this week after news of her death broke on Tuesday. But news of the country music legend's passing hit especially hard in Sevier County, the East Tennessee county where Parton was from. 

She never lost sight of Sevier County over her nearly 70-year career, and contributed millions to the county over decades. She gave money to help start a local hospital in the county, which opened in 2010 with a women's health center named for Parton. She started her beloved Imagination Library in Sevier County, hoping to increase childhood literacy rates there, and her scholarships for high school and middle school students caused the dropout rate to decrease from more than 30 percent to less than 10.

Here's how outlets in Tennessee covered the news this week:

WZTV in Nashville reported that Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters and Mayor-Elect Bryan McCarter declared Aug. 26 a day of mourning in the county.

WATE in Knoxville offered a list of Parton's "major impacts" on East Tennessee, reporting that "her impact on her East Tennessee community and the world beyond is a large reason why she is loved by so many."

The Mountain Press, Sevierville's local newspaper, reported reflections from local city and county officials who had direct ties to Parton outside the connections made through her charitable giving. Pigeon Forge City Manager David Wear told the paper that Pigeon Forge, where Parton's theme park Dollywood is located, has "lost one of our own," and that "Dolly loved these mountains, she loved this community, and she never forgot where she came from." 

And the Knoxville News Sentinel offers a list of Sevier County "landmarks that pay tribute to the Queen of Country back where her story began." Included are a statue of her in downtown Sevierville where a public memorial to Parton began on Tuesday, and several locations in town that Parton frequented or performed. 

New York family-owned, free weekly newspaper survives with hard-working owners, positivity, interaction with readers

    

(Cup Fabian Barra via Sunsplash)

Publisher Mark Frost does everything at The Chronicle in Glens Falls, NY, from writing stories and editorials, to delivering thousands of his free weekly to the racks. He probably would sweep the floor, too, if he could find it under the stacks of papers he has leafed through in his office, or if he could find the time. A photo of Frost in his office, among others, appears in a New York Times story by Erek Wimple, who uses The Chronicle as an example of how some locally-owned newspapers are refusing to die.

Wimple cites the stats: “Though nearly 3,500 newspapers have ceased publication since the mid-2000s, about 2,250 publications like The Chronicle” have held their own. “Large newspaper chains, the ones prone to consolidation, can’t be bothered with them.”

While The Chronicle hasn’t completely escaped potential demise — the pandemic nearly put it to bed — Frost says he has been able to rebound in part by staying connected with his readers. He engages with them when he fills the racks in places where readers, like they used to do in most small towns, stand in line waiting for the newspaper to arrive. Sometimes, however, he has to police the meaning of “free.” He tolerates a reader taking two or three to share with family and friends but when one customer grabbed a handful and told Frost he was “packing some glass,” Frost retrieved them.

Readership has retained its strength because of a focus on the readers, Wimple reports. Schools get heavy coverage, “along with town-hall meetings, local business happenings and, of course, parking.” Even more intensely local news has included such things a “the latest rattlesnake attack” or a “front-page feature on butchering a deer.”

Wimple describes some of the coverage as “boosterism,” noting the “sunny coverage” of restaurant openings as an example, and a tendency to either avoid the negative or move it deep inside the issue. “Our newspaper is more interested in who’s making progress than who’s screwing up,” Frost wrote in 2020. (Wimple researched more than 100 editions of The Chronicle for his report.)

The approach is not appreciated by more traditional journalists. Wimple cites one editor from The Post-Star in Baltimore, where Frost once worked, who said The Chronicle has lost credibility by cozying up to advertisers. But Frost countered that he has lost advertisers because of some coverage. And the paper’s politics are widely seen as middle of the road, or even unrecognizable.

The Chronicle may have a future, too. Frost is 75. He says there have been no offers to buy the paper. But Zander Frost, his 34-year-old son, has taken to the task, at least for now.

Kentucky mother and daughter stand firm against data center; decline $26 million offer for 500 acres of family land

   

The artificial intelligence boom has introduced the potential
for data centers into communities across America, pitting
technology against humanity and neighbor against neighbor.
(Photo by Igor Omilaev via Sunsplash)

The news about controversies surrounding data centers in one state has become so frequent that one outlet has started publishing a regular story updating the proposals in big cities and small. The Kentucky Lantern announced the new feature this week. It not only ticks off the list of recent activity but provides an interactive map of proposals statewide.

The conflict is no more evident than in rural Mason County, near Maysville, where a mother and daughter are fighting off an attempt to buy their land for more than $26 million. In a Wall Street Journal report by Erich Schwartzel, a community became divided when Delsa Bare, 54, and “nearly blind” from diabetes, and her mother Ida Huddleston, 83, were offered the fortune by a company that remains unidentified but is believed to be Meta. 

At first they agreed to the deal but when they learned that their land would be used to build a massive data center, in support of artificial intelligence, they changed their minds. “I believe artificial intelligence will be the destruction of the human race,” Bare told Schwartzel. They were further insulted by the request that they sign a non-disclosure agreement to seal the deal. The loss of the more than 500 acres owned by Bare and Huddleston has thwarted plans for the 2,000-acre project, affecting the futures of people on both sides of the issue.

Schwartzel observes, “Town meetings still start with the Pledge of Allegiance but often end in insults. Sisters have found themselves on opposite sides of the issue. And local officials who normally update constituents on the sideline of a football game now say they are legally barred from sharing what they know.”

Neighbors have filed lawsuits against neighbors, resulting in the company “holding back checks worth tens of millions of dollars to Maysville farmers who’d expected a windfall,” Schwartzel reported. The owner of a bar frequented by less fortunate residents says many in the community need the 400 jobs the data center would bring, not to mention those needed to build it, and Maysville needs the taxes, which could be tripled. One local official says the company has promised an additional $15 million for local emergency services and $80 million to upgrade the water system.

Meanwhile, Bare gets pats on the back from local data center opponents and letters of encouragement from strangers. Despite her eyesight, she was able to guide the reporter around the farm just by the feel of the ground. Schwartzel reported that Bare knows the data center may still be built, perhaps nearby, but she stands by her decision.

“On the Judgment Day, I’m only called to account for what I was supposed to be responsible for,” she told Schwartzel. “That’s the only way it can go on Judgment Day. What were you responsible for?”