Timber giant doubles down on AI expansion plans to maximize profits

Weyerhaeuser plants more than 190 seedlings a 
minute. (Photo by Steven Kamenar, Unsplash)

Weyerhaeuser plans to use AI to amplify its forestry knowledge, building forests with greater scientific accuracy to maximize tree harvests and profits with fewer employees.

With AI efficiencies, company executives aim to "boost annual profits by $1 billion — roughly double 2025’s — by the end of the decade, independent of any increase in lumber prices," reports Ryan Dezember of The Wall Street Journal.

The AI rollout may sound like a science fiction novel written by a tree farmer, but Weyerhaeuser has already launched AI initiatives that will create a digital version of its "timberlands" with the help of satellites and drones. Dezember explains, "It will let Weyerhaeuser know the size and species of each tree, and how far it is from others."

The digital map will help manage tree growth and planned thinning. Dezember reports, "Weyerhaeuser trained an AI model to pore over drone footage and calculate seedling survival rates," replacing work that foresters would normally do. "For a company that plants more than a $100 million seedlings a year, or 190 a minute, the savings add up."

Another initiative will deploy autonomous skidders that drag felled trees with the help of a remote-working employee. "It isn’t just skidders heading toward autonomy," Dezember writes, "The whole logging process — from feller-bunchers that cut and stack tree trunks to delimbers that shear off the branches — could be operated by one person on-site with remote help from others."

Rural communities battle over massive solar installations on privately owned farmland

Massive solar installations have some rural communities
in an uproar. (Photo by Andres Siimon, Unsplash)

Some farmers believe leasing crop land for solar panel installations is a way to secure a steady income in a profession marked by unpredictability. But other farmers, landowners and community members see long stretches of solar panels on rich farmland as a wasteful tragedy worth fighting over.

In Richland, Michigan, more than 2,200 acres of farmland were leased to Consumers Energy by Liberty Farms without a word of input from the community, writes Chris Bennett of Farm Journal. But once neighbors were informed, an uproar ensued, and many community members are actively working to prevent the project from moving forward.

Kate Smit's farm sits adjacent to the land Liberty Farms leased to Consumers for its 461,000-solar-panel installation. She told Bennett, "We want to stall the Consumers’ solar project until we can get a bill passed in our state senate, so that townships and counties have to vote if a solar panel company wants in." 

Smit told Farm Journal that she believes that massive solar leases like the one she's fighting in Kalamazoo County are happening all over Michigan and the Midwest.

Bill Peter, who lives two miles from Smit, doesn't consider solar installations to be earth-friendly. He told Bennett, "There’s nothing green about this green energy. I’m not sitting quietly while 450,000 solar panels permanently replace the best farm soil around.”

For many residents in rural communities, resistance to industrial solar installations persists, despite their strong beliefs in private property rights. Ed Yelton, a cattle producer in Dearborn County, Indiana, said solar and AI data center projects belong in a separate category.

Consumers' proposed installation in Richland isn't a done deal yet. Bennett explains, "The Richland Township planning commission has not yet approved Consumer Energy’s application."

USDA breaks ground on New World Screwworm sterile fly facility in Texas. So far, efforts have kept NWS out of U.S.

The NWS blowfly has not crossed into the U.S.
(USDA photo)

As part of U.S. efforts to keep the aggressive New World Screwworm out of the country, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins celebrated the groundbreaking of the USDA's domestic sterile fly production facility last week at the Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas, reports Jennifer Carrico of Progressive Farmer.

The new facility will add to the USDA's ongoing arsenal aimed at keeping the blowfly and its flesh-eating larvae from entering the U.S. from Mexico and infecting livestock, other warm-blooded wildlife, pets and even humans.

"Rollins said a year ago, the models showed NWS would have moved into the U.S. by now, but it has not and keeping the pest out has been a huge undertaking for all involved," Carrico writes. "Since last July, USDA has monitored over 7,000 fly traps on the border and has collected over 51,000 fly specimens, with all being negative for NWS."

Sigrid Johannes, senior director of government affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, told reporters, "The facility in south Texas will help give us a high enough inventory of sterile flies to fight NWS and hopefully eradicate it."

As NWS has moved closer to the U.S., with the closest case just 90 miles away, treatment has been top of mind for U.S. livestock producers. 

The flesh-eating larvae are not "a food safety concern, but rather an animal welfare concern. There would also be immediate trade implications for live animals," Carrico explains. The USDA also has a "Screwworm Response Playbook that outlines science-based strategies for officials at the federal, state, and local levels with how to coordinate response operations."

Robotics in rural Alabama obstetrics care gets mixed reviews

36 of Alabama's 54 counties lack any obstetrics care.
(Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko, Unsplash)

People are conflicted about part of the Alabama Rural Health Transformation Program, which aims to add robotic ultrasound machines in rural areas of the state, reports Liz Carey for The Daily Yonder. Many experts agree that the state's biggest obstacles to ensuring healthy pregnancies, babies and moms is access.

Alabama has the highest maternal mortality rate in the U.S., with 41 of its 54 counties lacking labor and delivery services and 36 counties without any obstetrics care.

While the new robots address a lack of technical support in rural healthcare, the real issue, medical care access, isn't addressed by robot-providing ultrasounds, according to an OB/GYN in Jasper, Alabama.

“There may be a case where a mom may have low fluid, and that patient needs to go to a hospital,”  LoRissa Autery told Fox54 News. “But if you’re in a part of the county that doesn’t have a hospital that has obstetrical services, now you have to drive an hour to an hour and a half to receive those services from a physician that did not do the ultrasound.”

New technology can help provide access to care, but to do so, it requires basic healthcare infrastructure and reliable broadband internet access, Katy Kozhimannil, a professor and co-director of a rural health research center at the University of Minnesota, told the Yonder.

The Alabama's plan also outlines programs to supply emergency labor and delivery carts to rural hospitals, pair patients with specialty providers, and distribute equipment upgrades and minor building renovations, reports Carey.

Some state and federal officials have praised the plan, while others have given it mixed reviews, Carey adds.

Q&A: Rural places have always played a part in U.S. immigration and deportation

Brianna Nofil

When the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency began conducting large immigration raids outside metropolitan areas in 2025, there was not enough housing space for detainees, so U.S. Immigration Services worked to address the issue by partnering with rural law enforcement. The partnership isn't new -- USIS has long relied on rural towns to help it jail and deport illegal immigrants.

In her Q&A with Betsy Froiland of The Daily Yonder, historian and author of the 2024 book The Migrant’s Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration, Brianna Nofil "shares her research on how immigrant detention infrastructure has impacted small towns across America." An edited version of their interview is shared below.

Q: Can you begin by sharing how rural places initially became involved in the conversation of immigrant detention?
A: Almost from its inception, the U.S. Immigration Service relied on rural communities to help it arrest and deport illegal migrants. When USIS stepped up its deportation efforts in the early 1900s, its leadership discovered that USIS lacked enough housing for all its detainees. Nofil explains, "So they began talking to sheriffs. They say to these local sheriffs, ‘listen,' immigration law enforcement isn’t your job, but if you are willing to rent us some beds in your local jail, we will pay you for that.'"

At that time, many rural sheriffs didn't have strong feelings about immigration; however, they did "see an opportunity to make some money," Nofil adds. "So some rural communities start renting jail beds to the Immigration Service. This gives the Immigration Service flexibility. Migrant routes are constantly changing. . . .Control of local rural jails allows them to pivot infrastructure as the movement of people changes."

Q: Does immigrant detention change in rural places by the end of the 20th century?
Yes. In the 1980s, USIS "decided to build the first immigration prisons, co-run by the Immigration Service and the Bureau of Prisons, from the ground up. So they’re no longer just borrowing infrastructure: they’re actually building permanent deportation infrastructure," Nofil told the Yonder. "There are massive internal battles about where they should put the first site because it’s going to set the tone for what this new detention system is going to look like."

In the end, USIS decides on rural Oakdale, Louisiana. Nofil explains, "They figure their work would be more distant from legal aid, even more out of the limelight. They’re quite explicit about the value they see rural space having in terms of limiting both public attention and migrants’ access to assistance."

Q: How have different rural communities been impacted by these detention sites economically?
At least in the beginning, when ICE really needs a location, some towns do reap some economic benefits, but the benefits don't always last. Nofil adds, "This is not something that any community can reliably bank on because they’re basically being asked to predict future federal behavior and future global migration flows, which is impossible. That makes it a particularly treacherous industry to link a community’s financial future to."

Read the entire interview here.

Survey: Rural voters, especially women, are 'deeply worried about the rising cost of living'

Graph by Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder, from Lake Research and the Center for Rural Strategies data

The fight for rural votes during this year's midterm Senate elections could be decided by American voters seeking economy-stabilizing policies from Washington, and by women voters, who are acutely aware of rising living expenses, a new survey shows.

"Rural voters across Senate battleground states are deeply worried about the rising cost of living, and while that concern cuts across party lines, a new poll suggests it is especially pronounced among women," reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder.

The survey was conducted by Lake Research Partners and the Center for Rural Strategies, which publishes The Daily Yonder, included interviews with 600 rural voters in 13 states where the Senate seat tug-of-war is playing out. "It paints a picture of a partisan rural electorate, but one that is aligned on economic anxiety," Melotte writes. "The poll revealed a consistent gender gap in how rural voters experience economic strain."

Fifty-five percent of rural voters said "the rising cost of living is one of their top concerns," Melotte explains. "That includes about 60% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans. Women were more likely than men to cite the issue as one of their main concerns – 58% compared to 52%."

Graph by Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder, from Lake Research 
and the Center for Rural Strategies data

When it comes to stretching family budgets nearly "a quarter of rural women said they were ‘very worried’ about having to choose between necessities like medical bills and food or utilities, compared to only 17% of rural men," Melotte reports.

Pollster Celinda Lake told Yonder Radio, "People were adamant about protecting social security benefits, increasing local manufacturing jobs, cracking down on price gouging, and making healthcare more affordable . . . There is a very, very strong proactive issue agenda in rural America.”

Grocers and SNAP recipients face perplexing set of rules restricting 'junk food' purchases

In Idaho, candy is banned, unless it contains flour or requires 
refrigeration. (Photo by Denny Mueller, Unsplash)

States that no longer allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program money to pay for "junk food" have left retailers and SNAP recipients confused about which foods are allowed for purchase with SNAP dollars, reports Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post. The new rules may disproportionately impact rural residents, who are more likely to participate in SNAP than their urban counterparts.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his supporters have led the charge to keep highly processed foods off of American tables, beginning with the SNAP program. Roubein explains, "They argue federal dollars shouldn’t help people buy products increasingly linked to poor health and obesity. Trump administration officials have pushed states to bar the use of food stamps for soda and candy."

In response, 10 states received federal waivers to restrict SNAP food choices and rolled out their own unique set of restrictions. "In Iowa, anti-hunger advocates recently sought to highlight how some cold sandwiches and granola bars may not qualify," Roubein reports. "In Idaho, legislators had attempted to clarify the state’s candy ban, since it allows KitKats and Twix because they contain flour."

The fact that each state has its own rules "has led to a complicated and at times counterintuitive maze of new restrictions, according to more than two dozen interviews with trade groups for independent grocers and convenience stores, store owners, anti-hunger advocates, SNAP participants and others," the Post reports.

Fearing the loss of their SNAP licenses, some grocers have banned additional products from SNAP purchases to ensure compliance, Roubein explains. But that change has left SNAP-spending customers not just trying to figure out what their state allows, but also what the store they are shopping in allows.

While most anti-hunger activists oppose the restrictions as further marginalizing and punishing people for "being poor, nutritionists and nutrition advocates have mixed opinions," the Post reports. "Others say they have long sought to test SNAP changes, and want to see data showing whether the new rules impact consumer behavior and improve health." States with restriction waivers have two years to pilot their programs.

If you have health insurance or not, these tips can help lower medical bills

Discussing financial concerns during a medical visit can lead to cost-saving options. 
(National Cancer Institute photo, Unsplash)

Over the past five years, insurance premiums, deductibles, co-insurance and drug costs have all surged, leaving many Americans with medical debt or choosing to forego needed treatment or medication because it's too expensive. 

But there's a healthier approach to medical treatment that can lead to substantial cost savings -- talking to your doctor about your costs and the need to seek budget-friendly options whenever possible, write professors Helen Colby and Deidre Popovich for The Conversation.

"Why don’t more people have conversations about cost? One study shows that cost conversations occur in only about 30% of medical visits," Colby and Popovich explain. Talking to your doctor about costs "can be crucial when a recommended procedure has multiple alternatives. . . . Speaking up about price can help patients stay healthier and avoid the all-too-common trade-off between medical care and household expenses."

Instead of delaying treatment or going through with a treatment and then worrying about its cost when the bill arrives, Colby and Popovich suggest ways to ask your medical provider for help and flexibility to lower costs. 

Ask for a generic drug or an alternative medicine if no generic is available. They write, "Research on physician–patient cost conversations shows that switching to lower-cost, clinically similar alternatives within the same drug class is a common strategy for reducing out-of-pocket spending without compromising care." 

Ask your doctor or pharmacist whether any manufacturer coupons or co-pay assistance programs are available. Sometimes, being willing to have your medicine shipped by mail can also save money.

Seek out information about hospital programs or charity options that help cover costs. While some aid options may be linked to Medicaid programs, many are administered by state and county groups. "Patients can often find these programs through hospital or health system websites, which typically include financial assistance or 'charity care' pages," Colby and Popovich add. "Nonprofit organizations and patient advocacy groups may also offer or list assistance tailored to specific conditions or medications."

Don't be afraid to ask, "What will this cost me, and are there other options?" they advise. "This question also opens the door to alternatives. . . . A brief, honest conversation about cost can lead to more affordable and more sustainable care." 

Data center developers often target tribal lands for rich resources and less oversight

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation's Mound building, which houses the National 
Council. (Photo by Amanda Rutland, Muscogee Nation, ZUMA)

Tech companies seeking sprawling lands for hyperscale data centers often zero in on tribal lands. "Companies attempting to construct data centers on Indigenous lands likely see it as an opportunity not just to access large plots of land, but also to use tribal sovereignty to bypass cumbersome state regulations that tribes don’t have to follow," reports Cheyenne McNeill for Mother Jones.

Some generative AI developers may see Native Americans as easy targets to ply with promises of good-paying jobs and improved economics. "Activists say those benefits rarely materialize," McNeill explains. "Instead, data centers bring a threat of land loss and displacement that feels all too familiar for Indigenous people."

According to Honor the Earth, a national organization that "has been leading the fight against data centers, there are currently at least 106 proposed data center projects near or on Native lands," McNeill writes. "In western New York, a proposed $19.46 billion data center project would sit adjacent to the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s territory, threatening an old forest that tribal citizens use for hunting, fishing, and gathering traditional medicine."

Because many tribes don’t have the "legal codes or regulatory bodies in place yet to regulate utilities," data center operators would have far less oversight during all stages of a build and then after, McNeill explains. "Tribal nations also need to consider whether they will be able to hold companies responsible for harm or depleted resources on their lands and whether they’ll have oversight of data centers."

Money comes into play as well. Data center developers and owners have plenty of it, and tribes often don't, which can make it hard for tribal nations to pursue litigation if developers and owners don't keep their promises.

Activists and tribal leaders want their members to remember that what happens on their land should reflect their tribe's values. McNeill writes, "One of those calls came from James Floyd, the Muscogee Nation’s former Principal Chief, who said every aspect of [his tribe's] data center proposal seemed in opposition to traditional Muscogee values."

Sprawling visa scandal continues to embarrass small towns in Louisiana. Three law officers are among the defendants.

Authorities uncovered the alleged scheme while investigating 
a 'pattern of inconsistencies in U-visa applications.' (HS photo)

Three lawmen, an elected marshal, a Subway shop owner and foreign nationals with cash and a bent for staying in the U.S. allegedly spent nearly a decade manufacturing false police reports of burglaries to help foreign nationals stay in the U.S. 

Most recently, a federal judge "delayed a March trial date and hasn’t set a new one," reports Joe Barrett of The Wall Street Journal. "Locals wish the whole thing would blow over."

Residents from a smattering of small towns in southwestern Louisiana had "endured an 'unusual concentration of armed robberies of people who were not from Louisiana,' then-acting U.S. Attorney Alexander Van Hook said at a news conference last summer."  

"He then delivered the punchline: 'In fact, the armed robberies never took place.'"

How does that happen? It went something like this: The Subway shop owner, Chandrakant 'Lala' Patel, would "allegedly connect with crime 'victims' looking to stay in the U.S.," Barrett writes. "He would then turn to one of the law-enforcement officials to draw up paperwork for crimes that never happened." The foreign nationals, who posed as crime victims, would then apply for U visas, which "allow certain crime victims to remain in the U.S."

Authorities allege the scheme worked for almost a decade and netted the five men $5,000 per foreign national "helped" by the crime reports, which in turn allowed hundreds of foreign nationals to stay in the U.S. based on false claims. Barrett reports, "Investigators with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spurred the multi-agency probe in July 2024 after uncovering a pattern of inconsistencies in U-visa applications."

Meanwhile, residents in the rural towns of Oakdale, Glenmora and Forest Hill, where the indicted men live or worked, have been shocked by the allegations. Barrett adds, "Months later, locals still talk about the scandal in hushed voices, wary of drawing more attention to their towns."  

Drug cartels turn to a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than fentanyl, 'killing hundreds of unsuspecting drug users'

The chemical makeup of carfentanil. The drug is legally used to  
anesthetize large animals such as elephants and rhinoceroses. 

Carfentanil is a deadly "weapons-grade" synthetic opioid that illicit drug makers are adding to other drugs as a potent substitute for fentanyl. The drug, which authorities say is "10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl, has seen a drastic resurgence across the U.S., killing hundreds of unsuspecting drug users," report Hallie Golden and Jim Mustian of The Associated Press.

Carfentanil's presence in illegal drugs sold in the U.S. has surged since the Chinese government's more recent "crackdown on the sale of precursors used to make fentanyl," AP reports. "Those regulations are likely prompting traffickers in Mexico to use carfentanil to boost the potency of a weakened version of fentanyl."

The sheer potency of carfentanil is what makes it so dangerous for anyone who takes drugs not prescribed by their doctor. Frank Tarentino, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief of operations for its northeast region, which stretches from Maine to Virginia, told AP, "You’re talking about not even a grain of salt that could be potentially lethal. This presents an extremely frightening proposition."

While some Mexican drug cartels may be making carfentanil in their own labs, others are purchasing it from darknet marketplaces. Regardless of where it originates, it's making its way onto American streets. Golden and Mustian write, "In 2025, DEA labs identified carfentanil 1,400 times in U.S. drug seizures, compared with 145 in 2023 and only 54 in 2022."

Russia used an aerosol form of carfentanil as a chemical weapon to subdue Chechen separatists in 2002, AP reports. It is legally used to anesthetize large animals, such as elephants.

Michael King Jr., founder of the Opioid Awareness Foundation, told AP, “It’s like a biological weapon. If the world thinks we had a problem with fentanyl, that’s minute compared to what we’re going to be dealing with with carfentanil.”

Policy experts say 10 rural hospitals in Virginia are 'at risk' of closure. What does that mean?

A rural hospital can be listed as 'at risk' and never close.
(Canva photo via Cardinal News)

As rural hospitals across the U.S. grapple with fewer federal Medicaid reimbursement dollars, some, including 10 in Virginia, have been flagged as "at risk" of closure, reports Emily Schabacker of Cardinal News. But the formulas used by policy centers to determine financially strained hospitals can't predict which hospitals will close.

For instance, the Public Citizen, a non-profit that tends to lean left, released an analysis that looked specifically at "Medicaid policy changes tied to the federal funding bill," Schabacker explains. Based on their focus, Public Citizen policy experts "identified 10 Virginia hospitals as at risk of closure," including six in Southwest and Southside Virginia:

• Buchanan General Hospital, Grundy
• Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital, Tazewell
• Twin County Regional Hospital, Galax
• Dickenson Community Hospital, Clintwood
• Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital, South Boston
• Centra Southside Community Hospital, Farmville
• VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital, Tappahannock
• Bon Secours Southern Virginia Regional Medical Center, Emporia
• Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, Woodbridge
• VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital, South Hill

While not all policy centers will focus on Medicaid payment changes to determine a hospital's future financial difficulties, most centers will consider past financial standing, operating margins, and whether the hospital was already operating at a deficit before the Medicaid cuts were announced. 

According to Michael Shepherd, an assistant professor with the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan, "Each research group uses slightly different methods to evaluate hospital finances," Schabacker reports.

Shepherd said he’s "concerned that reports like the one from Public Citizen border on being alarmist," Schabacker adds, "signaling with too high a degree of certainty that hospitals with negative operating margins will close as Medicaid changes take shape."

Financial vulnerability doesn't mean that "the hospital is going to close tomorrow, but it could over the next few years," Shepherd told Cardinal News. "There is some uncertainty there. Not every hospital that’s at risk of closing will close. The truth is somewhere in the middle.”

Commentary: Why one journalist traded covering national news for a small-town newspaper in Big Sky Country

After he left a national media career to become editor of the Glasgow Courier in Glasgow, Montana, this journalist began to see his writing and the news differently, writes Skylar Baker-Jordan, reflecting in The Daily Yonder on his journey to a new career in the "middle of nowhere."

"Within my first few hours of being in Valley County, I learned people are hungry for local news. A new face in Glasgow, a town of 3,202 people, folks immediately asked what brought me, a born and bred Appalachian, to the high plains of Montana," Baker-Jordan writes.

Once Glasgow residents learned Baker-Jordan was the Courier's new editor, he was inundated with town gossip, juicy conflicts and events the paper needed to investigate. He writes, "That thirst for local news is not unique to Glasgow, but it is increasingly difficult to quench. . . More than 130 local papers ceased publication in the past year alone."

As smaller newspapers close, fewer towns can rely on local reporting, which the "middle of nowhere" towns need more than most. Baker-Jordan adds, "Moving here was my chance to use my talents in the service of a community that needed an editor to help its local paper avoid this fate."

Baker-Jordan didn't decide to switch careers in an instant, but over time, while he was working as an editor at 100 Days in Appalachia, a nonprofit newsroom managed by and for Appalachians. He writes, "Suddenly, I was writing about and reporting on regional matters I’d long overlooked, and the response was overwhelming. In my entire career, the most gratitude I received from readers – the highest volume of responses – was to stories I wrote about local and regional matters."

He began to think about his past journalistic efforts differently. Baker-Jordan explains, "The sheer vitriol of the partisan press began to make my screeds feel less like a righteous contribution to public discourse and more like the very thing eroding trust in media and our civic institutions writ large."

Baker-Jordan doesn't see his new editing gig or his town as lesser than his career in the bigger national news arena. He writes, "Small towns deserve to see themselves reflected and taken seriously every bit as much as large urban areas or Congress and Wall Street. They deserve reporters and editors who are dedicated to telling their stories, to establishing a public record of their history and people."

Live, virtual panel discussion on the link between agricultural sprays and cancer cases in the Midwest, May 7

Are chemical crop treatments causing cancer in the communities where they are used?

A live virtual panel event on May 7 from 11 a.m. to noon. will explore what current data and reporting reveal about potential links between agricultural sprays and cancer diagnoses. The conversation will cover what research indicates, clinical insights and lived experience. The event is free. You can register here.

The discussion panel includes journalists, researchers, a physician and a cancer survivor who will discuss the growing body of data examining the potential link between pesticide use and cancer outcomes.

The panel will flesh out what's known about the possible connection, present what remains unclear, and examine how chemical crop treatments and severe health conditions often play out in rural communities.

The conversation will connect data, policy and personal impact to better understand what’s driving cancer risks in farm belts across the U.S. Time for a Q&A with the audience also will be included.

Current panel lineup:

• Dr. Richard Deming, MercyOne Cancer Center
• Kerri Johannsen, Iowa Environmental Council
• Amanda Starbuck, Food & Water Watch
• Carey Gillam, The New Lede
• Lisa Lawler, Iowa cancer survivor
• Ben Felder, Investigate Midwest (moderator)

“We selected these panelists to help better understand what the latest data and reporting are showing and where we go next,” said Lauren Cross, assistant editor for the event's sponsor, Investigate Midwest.

Quick hits: USDA plans fertilizer production in U.S.; farmers' 'stops' that aren't seasonal; curiosity builds community

Brooke Rollins

The Department of Agriculture plans to use tariff dollars and trade renegotiation resources to help fertilizer production in the United States. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the "USDA is focused on helping move fertilizer supplies more quickly, but cautioned it will take time for crop nutrient prices to begin falling," reports Kim Chipman of AgriPulse. "Rollins said she hosted a meeting with executives of four top fertilizer companies and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett." The Trump administration hopes to roll out its full plan to move fertilizer production back to the U.S. sometime this week.

The University of Maine's Fort Kent campus will provide dorms,
 a lounge and a cafeteria for recovering teens. (UofM photo)

Just like some adults, preteens and adolescents can end up with severe drug and alcohol addictions that can end in an overdose or many failed recovery attempts. Recovery advocates in the tiny town of Fort Kent, Maine, will "use new funding to try a novel solution to the problem: a public boarding school for high schoolers in recovery," writes Lanan Cohen for The Hechinger Report. The new approach will "focus on abstinence and mental health to help students overcome their substance abuse problems." Educators hope the boarding school structure will allow students time to solidify new choices and coping strategies while remaining in school.

Graphic by A. Dixon, Offrange

It's not a farmers market. It's a farmers "stop," and it's open all year long. Farming advocates hope the concept continues to catch on. "The Argus Farm Stop model is built on a consignment basis with a 70/30 split: Farmers set their own prices and keep 70% of every sale, while Argus retains 30% to cover operating costs," reports Heidi Roth for Offrange. "A café inside each location accounts for roughly a third of sales but about half the profit, effectively subsidizing higher farmer payouts while creating a community hub where farmers can gather, and customers can meet producers." Not all farmer stops have the same elements, but all aim to support local farmers while fostering community spirit.

Musical talent from far-flung places often took center stage at the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. "The festival is rich with rural tradition, pulling in rural musicians from across the states and every continent except Antarctica (as far as I know)," reports Phillip Norman of The Daily Yonder. "I caught an ambient country jam by Setting in the backroom of Boyd’s Jig and Reel Scottish Pub, and hit the Knoxville Art Museum to witness the electric saxophone wizardry of Sam Gendel. . . . Big Ears is a festival for music nerds who are interested not only in how a concert sounds, but also how it reflects the lived experiences of the people making the music."

Beth Howard (Illustration by N. Nichols)

As an activist and community organizer for Appalachia and the broader South, Beth Howard hopes her memoir, Song for a Hard-Hit People: A Memoir of Anti-Racist Solidarity From a Coal Miner’s Daughter, helps readers see Southern differences through a lens of curiosity that they can apply to their daily interactions with other people, writes Nhatt Nichols of Rural Assembly. Howard said, "I think one of the biggest lessons for me when I was learning to organize is the importance of listening and asking really good, open-ended questions." Nichols adds, "Howard advocates for getting out into your community and finding other people who are doing organizing work that resonates with you, and offering to lend a hand, to learn more about your community without centering your own ideas."

Inflation surged in March due to Iran war and tariffs

War-related price pressures worsened inflation in March, which the Federal Reserve was already struggling to regulate, reports Colby Smith for The New York Times.

The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, rose to 3.3% in March, making the Federal Reserve cautious of cutting interest rates. This is the highest monthly gain, 0.9%, since the post-pandemic inflation surge in June 2022.

The Consumer Price Index rose to 3.3% in March 2026. (Click to enlarge)

“Core” inflation, which doesn’t include volatile food and energy prices, rose to 2.6%, an increase from 2.4% last month, which isn’t as alarming to the Federal Reserve.

Policymakers worry that rising energy prices will “spill over into other sectors, affecting inflation more persistently,” Smith reports.

The Federal Reserve is also worried about businesses and manufacturing companies scaling back on hiring to offset rising input costs, potentially threatening the labor market, reports Smith.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics data listed below illustrates how commodity prices reacted to the war before last week's temporary cease-fire.

• International oil benchmark rose 50%, now down to 30% higher than prewar
• Gas prices rose 40% since February
• Energy index rose 11%
• Fuel oil rose 30.7% over the last month
• Other motor fuels including diesel rose 30.8%
• Airfares rose 2.7%, up 14.9% from a year prior

Excess inflation in the core goods category can be explained by recent tariffs, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve.

“Without evidence that inflation is in retreat, the Fed will likely find it hard to justify cutting rates below the current 3.5 percent to 3.75 percent level,” Smith reports. “What could prompt them to act sooner, however, is if the labor market deteriorates rapidly.” 

Maine's bill to pause larger data center projects awaits governor's approval; ban would be the first of its kind in U.S.

Maine's data center bill would pause planned projects in two rural
towns for 18-months. (Photo by Troy Mortier, Unsplash)

If Maine's new data center bill becomes law, the state will become the first in the country to push pause on large data center construction. 

"The Maine Senate took a final vote on April 14 to enact first-of-its-kind legislation banning large data centers in the state until November 2027," reports Julia Tilton of The Daily Yonder. The bill would halt data centers that require 20 megawatts or more of power, including two already planned in the rural towns of Jay and Limestone.

The Maine legislation "would also establish a study group to examine the impact of such facilities and recommend legislative guardrails," reports Jenna Russell of The New York Times. Maine lawmakers have already made data centers "ineligible for certain business tax exemptions." 

Maine Gov. Janet Mills has yet to sign the bill into law, and it's unclear whether she will, given that it would mean halting data center plans already in the works. "On April 10, the governor said that a data center proposed at a retired paper mill in Jay, Maine, must be exempt from the ban while speaking to the press at an event in Bangor, Maine," Tilton explains. "An amendment with that carve-out failed to pass the legislature." The current bill doesn't include any exemptions. 

Like many New England residents, Mainers already deal with a fragile grid and pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country. Advocates of the ban say the moratorium is needed to prevent further increases in electricity costs and to protect communities from environmental hazards associated with AI data centers, such as noise and excessive water use, Tilton reports. Advocates also point to the relatively few jobs data centers produce, even as they gobble up vast resources.

Mills, who is facing a heated Democratic primary race for the U.S. Senate, has "ten days to veto the legislation, sign it into law or allow it to become law without her signature," Russell reports. "President Donald Trump has threatened to sue states and withhold funding if they pass laws restricting the AI growth."

When dialysis treatment centers close, rural patients have no choice but to drive further for care

After the Chadron dialysis center closed, Pieper's 
treatment travel time tripled. (KFF Health News photo)

Rural residents who require dialysis treatment to stay alive are having to drive longer distances for care as smaller hospitals and clinics shed unprofitable services to stay afloat, reports Ariella Zionts of KFF Health News.

When Chadron Hospital shuttered its dialysis center, which served Nebraska residents in the state's far western panhandle, Mark Pieper became one of the many displaced patients who would have to find another dialysis center for treatment.

Because the human body cannot survive without kidney-like functions that filter toxins, remove excess fluid and balance electrolytes, dialysis cannot be rescheduled or skipped. When faced with the closure of their dialysis center, renal patients like Pieper have two choices: Travel for treatment or die.

"Pieper eventually found treatment in Scottsbluff, which, with about 14,000 residents, is the biggest city in the rural Panhandle region," Zionts writes. "The hour-and-a-half drive will triple his time on the road to more than nine hours each week."

Chadron Hospital discontinued its dialysis service despite the $219 million in federal money Nebraska will receive this year from the Rural Health Transformation Program. But RHTP awards aren't meant to "help existing services stay afloat," Zionts explains. Instead, they are earmarked to help rural medical centers "explore new, creative ways to improve rural health." Only 15% of RHTP funds can be used to pay for patient care.

Chadron Hospital was "losing $1 million a year on its dialysis service due to low reimbursement rates that didn’t cover operational costs," Zionts reports. Nephrologist Mark Unruh said the "dialysis closure in Chadron reflects a wider trend of staffing and funding challenges."

Preventing kidney failure is one of the best ways rural areas can change what rural dialysis patients like Pieper are facing now, Unruh told KFF Health News. "He pointed to a tele-education program that helps primary care doctors in rural and other underserved areas prevent end-stage renal failure."

A small town in western Mass. may be the 'canary in the coal mine' for cash-strapped municipalities across the U.S.

Anti-override activists insisted South Hadley town officials need
to address inefficiencies instead of raising taxes. 

After weeks of intense debate and campaigning, residents of South Hadley, Massachusetts, shot down a proposed 50% property tax increase, reports Scott Calvert of The Wall Street Journal. “South Hadley is a warning sign for financially strained municipalities across the U.S."

By 65% to 34% vote, residents from this small community rejected a "measure to allow the western Massachusetts college town to raise $11 million in new property taxes through what is called an override," Calvert explains. "A $9 million proposal also failed."

Override proponents said the town needed the cash infusion to address its current $3 million deficit, fund school operations and address rising costs. Calvert writes, "Override foes said a hefty property tax jump would overburden residents, particularly seniors."

Rudy Ternbach, who led the anti-override group Alliance for Fair Taxes, told the Journal, “Voters do not want to try and fix the government by increasing taxes on those least able to pay. They want more efficiencies in government and less taxes.”

South Hadley’s financial squeeze, partially due to a 42% increase in healthcare costs and declining state aid, may be part of a national trend, Calvert reports. Many municipalities are draining the last of their pandemic aid even as costs continue to rise.

Ternbach wants the town to "extract more money from Mount Holyoke College. . . which is largely tax-exempt," Calvert writes. "Both sides in the override debate want the college to do more."

Without additional taxes, local officials say, "there will be deep cuts: no school sports or extracurriculars and slashed Advanced Placement offerings, along with hits to police and public-works staffing," Calvert adds.

Chris Morrill, an expert in public finance, told Calvert, "It’s really a preview of what communities across the country are going to face. I think South Hadley’s perhaps the canary in the coal mine.” 

Ag round-up: Nearly 70% of farmers can't afford fertilizer; union and JBS reach deal; real help for stressed farmers

Share of farmers unable to afford all required fertilizer. (American Farm Bureau Federation graph)

Nearly 70% of American farmers report they can't afford all the fertilizer they need this season because of increased input prices due to the war in Iran and an already stressed farm economy, according to an April survey of 5,700 farmers by the American Farm Bureau Federation. "Farmers in the Southern region reported the greatest difficulty securing fertilizer, with 78% unable to afford all needed inputs this season," reports Faith Parum of AFBF. "Producers in the Northeast and West also reported significant challenges, with 69% and 66%, respectively, unable to afford all required fertilizer, compared to 48% in the Midwest.”

In an effort to drill down into why fertilizer prices have increased so dramatically since 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is "working with the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission on ongoing investigations into fertilizer and other agricultural input costs," reports Chris Clayton of Progressive Farmer. USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden has "continued his criticisms about concentration in the fertilizer industry, calling out The Mosaic Company for announcing it will close phosphorus mines in Brazil. . . . Vaden argued the global market is signaling a need for more supply -- not less. He questioned why a major producer would scale back output under those conditions."

The Greeley plant can process roughly 6,000
cattle per day. (Photo by L. Angharad) 

The local union representing roughly 3,800 beef plant workers in Greeley, Colorado, and meatpacking giant JBS announced a new labor contract agreement early this week, reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. Beef plant workers went on strike on March 16, "seeking higher wages and other workplace changes. . . . The Colorado plant can slaughter about 6,000 cattle a day, representing roughly 5% of U.S. beef-processing capacity." The new agreement includes worker wage increases through 2027 and protects employees from having to pay for their own required protective equipment. The last slaughterhouse strike happened at a Minnesota Hormel plant in 1985. 

Despite the multiple pain points for American soybean farmers in 2026, some of the rising input costs and sinking soybean prices have evolved over the past several years -- only to be exacerbated by tariff levies and the war with Iran, report Eric Ferkenhoff of Lee Enterprises and Josh Kelety of The Associated Press. "Costs, such as equipment, have crept up over time while soybean prices have stayed low." Doug Bartek, a fifth-generation farmer, told reporters, "Our biggest struggles are our inputs, be it fertilizer, seed, chemical or parts. There has been so much drastic markup in all of these. And I just kind of feel like the farmer’s kind of painted in the corner." Many Midwest soybean producers share Bartek’s worries.

Real Farmer Care wants to give farmers the means to
care for themselves. (Graphic by A. Dixon, Offrange)

Are you a farmer in need of some downtime? Do you know a stressed-out farmer who might be forgetting to care for themselves because they're tending to everything else? If either answer is yes, consider nominating yourself or another farmer-in-need-of-care for one of Real Farmer Care's $200 microgrants, writes Nicole Caruth for Offrange. "Think a stress-relieving massage, a pair of sturdy work boots, or just a dinner outing with friends. The grants are small, but can potentially have a big impact." From squeezing tariffs to eye-popping fertilizer costs, U.S. farmers are having a rough year. The brief nomination form is here. 

A prairie town in Oklahoma is slated to become the country's biggest aluminum producer

The Inola smelter is expected to produce 750,000 tonnes 
of aluminum per year. (Modern Metals photo)

"Hay Capital of the World" is how many residents of Inola, Oklahoma, describe their small town of roughly 1,800 people. But these locals could "soon have another moniker to consider: America’s Aluminum Epicenter," reports Ryan Dezember of The Wall Street Journal. The prairie town was "selected as the site for the first new aluminum smelter in the U.S. since 1980. Construction is expected to cost more than $4 billion and begin by year-end. It is expected to employ about 1,000 workers once complete."

Over the past 50 years, the U.S. relinquished its dominance in primary aluminum production to China, as American producers closed their smelters amid rising electricity costs. Dezember adds, "A smelter can consume as much power as a large U.S. city."

Currently, U.S. businesses import most of their aluminum. The country has "just four smelters [that] make the primary aluminum necessary in many defense and aerospace applications," Dezember writes. "The planned smelter would more than double the U.S.’s smelting capacity."

 

Before choosing the Inola site, Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) and Chicago-based Century Aluminum, the two companies behind the smelter project, considered "45 sites in more than two dozen states," Dezember reports. "Electricity costs, which make up more than one-third of production expenses, were paramount."

McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, in green, is the 
most westerly inland river system in the U.S. (ODOT map)

In addition to affordable electricity from natural gas and hydropower, the Inola location offered "business-friendly regulation, an ice-free port deep inland, as well as an aerospace industry and other big aluminum consumers," Dezember explains. The Inola smelter site is also near the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which connects New Orleans to the Great Plains by way of the Mississippi River.

EGA and Century Aluminum say the smelter "will take at least three years to build," Dezember reports. Once completed, the smelter is expected to run for decades.