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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trump shifts funds from National Parks to projects in Washington

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Congressional Black Caucus Institute launches initiative to engage rural Black voters for midterms

Black federal lawmakers launched a multimillion-dollar effort called “SO VOTE” to register and mobilize low-propensity young voters from majority-Black and rural communities across the South, Midwest and West.

The effort launched on Tuesday, Sept. 15, and was developed by The Congressional Black Caucus Institute. The goal of the campaign is to reach Black and brown communities who are often “sidestepped” by major political parties, reports Matt Brown for the Mississippi Free Press.

“SO VOTE” comes after years of “disappointment and frustration among some in the Black Caucus at the broader Democratic Party’s efforts to court Black, rural and younger voters.” The initiative may be in response to Republican redistricting in multiple states, said Mississippi Democrat Rep. Bennie Thompson.

Officially, “SO VOTE” is a nonpartisan engagement effort. Still, the Black Caucus targets regions “where Black voter turnout could prove key to whether a Democratic candidate prevails in closely divided House districts,” Brown writes.

The Black Caucus plans to spend $4.5 million in the midterm election cycle, having already raised nearly $1 million toward blending old engagement tactics with new technology. Outreach in rural, minority communities will be conducted in-person and online; campaigns will convene at local civic groups, churches, sororities and fraternities, and will utilize content creators and geo-targeting ads.

“These Southern states are trying to minimize Black political participation and ultimately Black political strength,” Thompson said. “So what we have to do is take that low-propensity voter and elevate their participation so they become an additional voice to be reckoned with.”

CDC declares cyclospora outbreak over

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the cyclospora outbreak over as of Friday, Sept. 11, with a majority of cases linked to Taylor Farms’ iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico. Roughly 13,000 cases across 21 states were linked to Taylor Farms, mostly from mid-June to mid-July, reports Alice Callahan, Caroline Hopkins Legaspi and Christina Jewett for The New York Times. Two patients have died, with 570 hospitalized.

“In its announcement on Friday, the C.D.C. said that there is no longer a risk of people getting sick with cyclospora from Taylor Farms’ iceberg lettuce, and that fewer than two infections per day occurred in August, on average,” the authors write. “The C.D.C. generally deems a food-borne outbreak to be over when the agency determines that new illnesses are no longer being reported, and that the product causing the illness has been cleared from shelves.”

Cyclospora is a parasite that can cause weeks-long diarrhea; it can take up to two weeks after consuming the parasite to become ill. The last lettuce recall had a best-by date of Aug. 3, and it may take six weeks for the CDC to report a case after a patient becomes symptomatic.

The Food and Drug Administration is still investigating the root of cyclospora. “Last month, the agency sent inspectors to the Taylor Farms processing center and lettuce farms in northeastern Mexico,” the authors write. “In a letter to produce industry leaders on Friday, acting deputy commissioner for food at the F.D.A. Donald Prater urged companies to invest more in cyclospora prevention and to follow food safety regulations.”

Investigations into outbreaks not linked to Taylor Farms are ongoing. Four other sources comprise 231 cases. More than 16,000 total cases have been confirmed since May 1, 2026, compared to 2025’s 1,180 cases from May through August.

Proposed EPA rule could eliminate restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants

The Trump Administration is proposing new Environmental Protection Agency rules that would "no longer limit the planet-warming pollution that power plants pump into the air while burning coal and gas," Maxine Joselow and Lisa Friedman report for The New York Times. 

If implemented, the rule would also prevent future administrations from regulating emissions from power plants.

Industrial power plants are the second largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, which raises temperatures and exponentially increases the risk of climate disasters. Joselow and Friedman report that scientists have said that "industrialized nations must sharply cut emissions to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change."

Many experts have opposed the move, noting that "if the U.S. power sector were its own country, it would be the fifth-largest climate polluter in the world after China, the entire United States, India and Russia."

Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, told reporters that the proposed change would be "another nail in the coffin for this administration’s commitment to protecting people and tackling the climate crisis." He said the EPA "is ending its legal and moral responsibility to end climate pollution."

One Western city hopes to reduce deadly wildlife-human interactions

As natural habitats for wildlife continue to shrink, wildlife-human interactions continue to rise, causing big problems for fish and wildlife departments most often tasked with alleviating the problems such interactions can cause (e.g., property damage, crop destruction, livestock loss, human casualties). Emily
Senkosky reports for High Country News about how one Western town is trying to prevent the problems before they start. 

Neighborhoods in Bozeman, Montana, have expanded their way outward into surrounding wild areas, and wildlife-human interactions have increased as a result. "The city’s south side is home to an estimated 60 to 80 deer per square mile, and bears and mountain lions visit Bozeman trails, green spaces and backyards," Senkosky writes. 

Noah Starling is a wildlife technician with Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks service, and told Senkosky that a big part of his job is to "euthanize animals whose behavior poses a risk to public safety." Drivers hit so many deer in the winter of 2022 that Starling was euthanizing up to six deer per day. He euthanized three bears on a single day in 2023. He enrolled in a master's program at Montana State University's to study human-wildlife interaction, spurred by his experiences. 

Starling is creating an interactive map of Bozeman and Gallatin County showing where human-wildlife conflicts are most likely in the hope that city, county and state officials can work together to reduce the number of fatal encounters for wildlife. “This is a tool that I hope will give decision-makers a way to know where conflict is occurring,” said Starling. “We can’t stop the increase of humans, but we can help increase knowledge.”

McClatchy lays off 30% of its unionized, local journalists

Newspaper publisher McClatchy, which owns several local newspapers throughout the United States, laid off more than 90 journalists and media workers across 17 publications on Sept. 10. Those laid off account for 30% of McClatchy’s unionized workers, according to The News Guild.  

The layoffs impact several local papers that serve as watchdogs for rural interests, regions and governments. Laying off staff at larger newspapers leaves fringe suburban and rural areas at risk of becoming news deserts. 

Affected newsrooms include the Bellingham Herald, The Olympian, Tacoma News Tribune and Tri-City Herald (Washington); Bradenton Herald (Florida); Centre Daily Times (Pennsylvania); Charlotte Observer (North Carolina); Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas); Fresno Bee, Modesto Bee and Sacramento Bee (California); Idaho Statesman (Idaho); Kansas City Star (Missouri and Kansas); Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky); Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald (Florida); and The State (South Carolina). 

“The departure of these talented reporters, visual journalists and writers will immediately leave gaping holes in local coverage for dozens of communities across the United States,” The News Guild writes. “They lost their jobs, cut by a company that should spend as much time figuring out how to use high-skilled employees as it does replacing their work with AI.” McClatchy, a subsidiary of the Chatham Asset Management hedge fund, launched a new A.I. "tool that can summarize articles and create different versions for different audiences" at the beginning of this year, Joe Sonka reported for Kentucky Public Radio.

The Idaho Statesman lost 10 of its 18 journalists, for example. The Lexington Herald-Leader, one of Kentucky’s two remaining statewide newspapers, laid off half of its staff, including its only environmental reporter for Eastern Kentucky. The cut leaves the paper with only two reporters who currently cover state and city government.

The State lost its only environmental reporter, who covered the entirety of South Carolina. The Centre Daily Times frequently reported stories that would become national headlines, as was the case with their coverage of Penn State's off-campus cocaine ring. After staff cuts, they were left with five reporters. 

Supreme Court blocks Trump Administration's newly proposed vote-by-mail restrictions

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the Trump Administration's newly proposed vote-by-mail restrictions in a ruling on Monday, reports Hansi Lo Wang for NPR. Such restrictions would have hit rural voters hard because they rely on early voting and vote by mail, according to a report from the nonpartisan policy group Secure Democracy USA.

The proposed rules would have required states to "turn over lists of voters' names and addresses and have certain specific barcodes on ballot envelopes in order to have them delivered" by the USPS. 

The measure had been blocked already by two federal judges, and now "a majority of the Supreme Court decided to keep that injunction in place," ruling that "the Trump administration was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge," Wang reports. "Several Republican state election officials," also "signed on to a Supreme Court brief, warning that any attempt to carry out the USPS plan now 'will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays, and confusion for both voters and election officials.'"

"Voting by mail has already begun in states including Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin, with more soon to follow — including Western states such as Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, where elections are held primarily or fully with mail ballots," Wang reports. The USPS plan is paused for the midterms, but  Wang writes that "the legal fight will likely continue over how the agency may try to implement it for future federal elections."

What began as a newspaper editor's joke, became an international tourism draw for an 800-person Nevada town

Virginia City, Nevada, population 800, boasts a rich history of silver and gold mining that drew thousands to the town in the 1800s. But today, it's known more for something wholly unexpected in the American West: An annual weekend camel race. 

The town "looks like a film set of the Old West," reports Fil Corbitt for NPR's All Things Considered. "The sidewalks are wooden and the old storefronts are occupied by candy shops, souvenir emporiums and saloons. Off of the main street, at the base of a steep desert hill pocked with old mine shafts, dust whips through the fairgrounds." He asks Joe Hendricks, who owns the camels that will run the races, what it's like to ride them: "It feels like you're on a camel." 

Fair enough for a town whose history is likely more synonymous with riding horses. It's serious business in Virginia City, even if the origins of the races might not have been. It all began in the 1950s with editor of the local newspaper, Bob Richards, who "was nursing a hangover at The Delta Saloon," Corbitt reports. "He later recounted that he and the bartender were randomly joking about some nonexistent Labor Day camel races. When he went back to the paper, called the Territorial Enterprise, he found that he had space to fill and decided to write a joke story about the fictional race."

Such exaggerations were nothing new for the Enterprise, which, coincidentally, was the first place Samuel Clemens used his pen name, Mark Twain. Year after year, Richards would "recount" tales of the nonexistent camel races, and in 1960, the editor of the San Fransisco Chronicle upped the ante by offering to really bring the camels, and so, the Annual International Camel & Ostrich Races were born. 

This year marked the 67th running of the camels, and you can watch and read more about them from local TV news station, KOLO-8, and The Comstock Chronicle, the Enterprise's modern descendent.

Chronic illness rates in rural Texas linked to food insecurity

A lack of transportation, educational resources and fresh food contributes to rural Texas' increasing number of food deserts, which already span 58 counties. A recent study conducted by the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI) “found that food insecurity is a major factor fueling the chronic illness problem in rural Texas,” reports Liz Carey for The Daily Yonder. 

Food insecurity is defined by an inability to access fresh food, and it drives obesity, an underlying element in many chronic illnesses. Inaccessible fresh food is also associated with coronary heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure. 

PCCI found that 192 census tracts in Texas rank highly for obesity. Likewise, in East Texas, their data found 33 supermarkets — including discount stores — meeting the nutritional needs of more than 150,000 residents. Only 182 hospital beds are available for 100 miles. 

“I don’t want people to see food insecurity as a social challenge. When I say food insecurity can lead to obesity, it’s not just talking about people not having nutritious food to eat. They don’t have access to food. They can’t afford the food,” said Lance Rather, senior director at PCCI. “And it’s like a domino effect. It can also lead to people just going for fast food, or people going for shelf-stable food rather than fresh foods, and those choices can accumulate over time and lead to obesity.

Outside of physical health disparities, food insecurity can lead to social isolation, stigma, depression and increased stress and anxiety —- all of which are other social determinants of health. 

Education and awareness are key to addressing chronic health issues in rural areas. “Community-based organizations (CBOs) and community health workers can provide rural residents with information about how to access education and resources that will help them have a healthier diet,” Carey writes. “Using the information within the study, community-based organizations can make better decisions on how to most effectively use their limited resources.”

USDA staff cuts leave farmers unable to obtain loans and grants

Navajo farming couple, Mary and Zachariah Ben, sought a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for
their dream property last fall in Aztec, New Mexico, but quickly learned that only half a dozen loan specialists remained to process claims for the entire state. Approval of their low-interest loan had been on hold since November’s government shutdown, but after learning about the staffing shortages — which would have held up their loan even longer — they turned to private lenders, reports Linda Qiu for The New York Times.

The Bens are not unique. “Across the country, farmers and rural residents describe struggling to obtain the basic services the Agriculture Department is meant to offer, including loans and grants, technical assistance and financing for housing and utilities,” Qiu reports.

This comes after President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency push for USDA employees to voluntarily resign, to “trim a bloated agency” with too many employees hired in the previous administrations. 

More than 20,000 workers of the 110,000 in the USDA left in the first half of 2025. In the division of the Farm Service Agency, which the Bens hoped would approve their loan, there is no staff left in dozens of counties, which Qiu writes has forced “farmers to travel long distances for assistance or to simply give up.”

In the Rural Development subagency of USDA, nearly 1,700 workers — one-third of its staff — have left under the Trump administration. More than 2,700 workers have left the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch helping farmers practice sustainability. Queries wait for weeks, charities that had been approved under Biden are now waiting years for federal funding, and Oui reports that farmers “turn to expensive private consultants for advice.”

It's unclear whether staffing cuts have been a factor in Rural Development cuts, but far fewer loans and grants have been financed in the past year.

Trump’s budget proposed a nearly $5 billion cut to the USDA in the next fiscal year, which Qiu writes will essentially eliminate “programs for beginning farmers, conservation and rural aid.”

What it’s like to be disabled in a rural community as Medicaid cuts hit?

Trillions of dollars will be cut from Medicaid over the next 10 years because of the One Beautiful Bill Act, which will have a major impact on rural families who relied on the program for healthcare. Marsh Naidoo, a physical therapist, advocate and mother of a child with cerebral palsy, sat down with Madeline de Figueiredo of The Daily Yonder to discuss navigating life with her son, Kellen, amid today’s political landscape.

Naidoo, of Dyersburg, Tennessee, said the American healthcare system is extremely complicated to manage with a child who has a disability. “The advocacy part came around when we [realized] that there were so many policies being shaped by legislators who didn’t actually know what it meant to be in the lives of families experiencing disabilities.”

Her community has embraced her son, Naidoo said, but there are still barriers in place. There isn’t always access to efficient healthcare providers when it’s needed, patients are not without the administrative burden of multiple appointments in different locations, and telehealth is not always the answer.

“But the fact is not all rural communities are set up with broadband, nor is internet access always a given,” Naidoo told de Figueiredo. “I also see this in my experience as a healthcare provider. My physical therapy patients would rather come in to see me than communicate through a screen.”

With fiscal cuts for the coming years, Naidoo said families like hers aren’t sure how the loss will affect them. Medicaid is the largest healthcare payer source in the United States, but “Being the richest nation on earth, where 17% of our GDP goes toward healthcare, and not knowing you have healthcare security when you have a child with complex medical needs is frightening.”

Trump deems Digital Equity Act illegal on basis of racially designated grants; new applications will be required

“Rural residents live sicker and die younger on average than people in the rest of the country when they live in counties lacking high-speed internet access and healthcare,” reports Sarah Jane Tribble for KFF Health News. “While 81% of white adults surveyed said they subscribed to broadband at home, only 71% of Black adults and 68% of Hispanic adults said the same.”

Congress allocated $2.75 billion for the Digital Equity Act under the Biden administration in 2021. The money was for skill development under the broader “Internet for All” infrastructure initiative. “The Digital Equity Act lists exactly whom the money should benefit, including low-income households, older people, some incarcerated people, rural Americans, veterans, and members of racial or ethnic minority groups,” Tribble reports.

A few months into Trump’s second term, he called the DEA program “illegal.” This came in the wake of two executive orders dismantling DEI and the 2023 Supreme Court decision invalidating affirmative action.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates sided with the administration in an opinion, stating “that it was unconstitutional for the government to use race or ethnicity as the basis to award money under a program created to expand internet skills and access.”

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration halted DEA grant programs after the decision, heavily impacting the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. The NDIA serves rural and marginalized communities, providing programs where community workers teach internet and technology skills.

With Bates’ decision, federal attorneys said the government would reinstate NDIA competitive grants without racial classifications. A new grant application is expected for release in December, and the NDIA must reapply for the grants they once had.

Farmers, groceries and midterms: Diesel prices hit record-highs, leading to widespread cost increases

Diesel prices in the United States have continuously hit all-time highs in September. As of Sept. 10, diesel costs $5.98 on average, $2.31 more than when the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran in February, reports Tik Root for Grist.

The surge in diesel prices comes just before November's midterm elections, and as domestic inventories are at their lowest since 1982.

Farmers and truckers who use more diesel in autumnal harvest seasons will be significantly impacted. Though most Americans don’t buy diesel, they still pay for it. The cost of diesel used to cultivate crops and transport those harvests to market is linked to the grocery prices one sees at the store.

“Early on, much of the cost increase gets absorbed along the supply chain through existing freight contracts and retailer margins,” David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University, told the Associated Press. “But as contracts reprice and fuel surcharges take hold, more of that cost makes its way to the grocery store.”

This year, the Strait of Hormuz — through which 10% of imported diesel travels — was closed by Iran, which caused prices to surge. The last time gas prices soared this high was when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, which also shut Russia out of the global diesel market. 

Apart from higher prices for farmers and at grocery stores, a challenging winter is likely. Heating oil is essentially diesel, Root writes, and “the millions of U.S. households that still rely on it can expect unprecedented bills.”

Commentary: AI is making food more abstract to restaurant-goers; Wendell Berry said it already was in 1989 essay

Brady Brickner-Wood writes for The New Yorker about how the role of food in our lives is becoming increasingly abstract as restaurants begin to sell from AI-generated menus, presenting never-before-seen “horrors” and “slop.” He compares this new trend to the ways Victorians shot stills of their fruit draped with hunted game, and how advertisements in the 2010s drew in millions for the ‘aesthetic value’ of food rather than its actual quality.

“From Minneapolis to Hexentanzplatz, restaurants are plastering menus and promotional materials with A.I.-generated renditions of shrimp scampi and quiche, chicken nuggets and burritos, Italian subs and bacon, egg, and cheeses,” writes Brickner-Wood. “Anyone with even the mildest case of trypophobia—the sense of revulsion from tiny clusters and holes—should avert their eyes.”

Outrage at the recent “food slop” is a protective instinct, Brickner-Wood explains. AI came for music, art and jobs — food was only a matter of time. Food, however, is a physical necessity sustaining human life, so ‘slop’ offends “the materiality of the living in a way that A.I.’s distortions of words and other inanimate objects somehow do not. These images violate science; they mock life itself.”

Brickner-Wood says this trend of disconnection from the food we eat is a new phenomenon, but Kentucky agrarian champion Wendell Berry proposed in his 1989 essay, "The Pleasures of Eating," that the origins of food for the urban consumer were already abstract. Brickner-Wood simply argues that in the age of AI, food production is abstract to us all, and is no longer real, making it completely disconnected from rurality and the processes of farming. 

As Berry wrote: "When food, in the minds of eaters, is no longer associated with farming and with the land, then the eaters are suffering a kind of cultural amnesia that is misleading and dangerous." Berry, 92, died on Aug. 31. 

Wood explains that many are choosing AI menus to save on costs — it is expensive to take photos, hire a real artist or sacrifice anything from your small business. According to Berry’s interpretation, though, the industrial society is a surrendering of one’s own freedom; it is a relentless system where choice matters less than artificial cravings.

Farmers enter conservation easements to protect their land for the future

John Boyer repurchased 131 acres of his childhood farm in rural East Jordan, Michigan, and entered it into a conservation easement with the Little Traverse Conservancy, hoping to prevent future development from destroying family land, reports Vivian La for Grist. The future rights of his property will belong to the conservancy.

Rising land values, climate change and a non-farming younger generation is changing farmland around the country, forcing farmers to make tough decisions about what to do with their land. Some are consider whether they should protect it. 

Between 2017 and 2022 farmland in Michigan, “where the majority of operations were family-owned, decreased nearly 470,000 acres … ” In that same timeframe, non-traditional farm ownership increased, with the state seeing an additional 22,000 acres of easement-protected land.

Easements allow farmers to own property, sell it to others down the line or transfer it generationally. The conservancy behind an easement acquires land and protects it, holding rights in case of future development. Farmers still own their land, but the conservancy protects it.

“An easement can be a hard decision for farmers because land is typically their greatest asset, something that can pay for retirement or a college fund,” said Joe Graham, chief financial and operating officer for the Little Traverse Conservancy. “We’re offering them another alternative. We’re offering a way to capture some of the equity and the value they have in that land without having to sell it and see it leave their ownership.”

Pressure to preserve farmland could be especially strong in Northern Michigan, La writes. “Farmers there are already confronting the effects of climate change, including more extreme precipitation, crop disease, and temperature swings, but some local farmers said those impacts are relatively easier to deal with than elsewhere in the country.”

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.”