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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read Bagley's full essay here.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    

(Cup Fabian Barra via Sunsplash)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

   

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coal miners continue to be plagued with black lung disease at high rates, now attributed to smaller, thinner coal seams

Vedrana Filipovic via Sunsplash

Efforts to increase black lung benefits were highlighted in The Rural Blog in a July 14 post, and today we draw attention to a report about a growing number of black lung cases, decades since those benefits were signed into law.

In an Aug. 5 NPR report, Howard Berkes and Justin Hicks cite data in a letter from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), whose researchers “found that working veteran underground coal miners in central Appalachia are suffering from the incurable and fatal lung disease at the highest rates in nearly 50 years.” The research shows that miners in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia with as little as 15 years underground have contracted the disease at rates as high as those of 40 years ago. And 32.5% of those with 25 years in the mines tested positive for black lung in X-rays taken in the last five years. The study said that more than 1,700 died from the disease over the three-year period from 2020-2023.

Clinics in the region note that a spike in claims has come subsequent to recent mine closures, reversing an encouraging decline after Congress stiffened regulations limiting miners’ exposure to coal mine dust. Those regulations are credited with a drop in the presence of the disease that hit a low point in 1999, 30 years after the legislation was enacted. More retiring or laid off miners are now seeking benefits, and the results of their tests are raising concerns.

Industry representatives point to the fact that miners in the study were initially exposed years or decades ago. “These incidences do not reflect the conditions, practices, protections or regulations that are in place today,” said Ashley Burke, a National Mining Association spokesperson.

But miners say that companies have faced thinner seams as they go deeper into the source. “That requires cutting lots of rock, and in Appalachia, that rock typically contains quartz, which is rich in silica,” the NPR report states. “The result is clouds of both coal dust and highly toxic silica dust.”

“It’s like opening your front door and letting the sunshine [in],” one miner told NPR. “And then multiply that by 10 billion times. … It’s like a fog.”

While there is a high rate of compliance with government standards regarding the level of exposure to silica dust, a small level of overexposure still can lead to thousands of miners being at risk, the report states. A 2018 NPR and FRONTLINE investigation reviewed 30 years of data and found 21,000 instances of overexposure. They also found instances of complicated black lung in more than 4,000 miners since 2010.

Agriculture and Homeland Security departments increase coordination to attack screwworm with drones, AI

    

The Department of Agriculture announced this week that
a facility in Texas to produce sterile flies will open seven
months ahead of schedule. (USDA Photo)

Increased efforts by the federal government against the threat of the New World screwworm (NWS), along with other animal health concerns, have resulted in a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The move was announced at an event this week in Texas.

In a subsequent news release, USDA touted several key elements of the agreement, including “Unified Threat Detection” with the use of “unmanned aircraft systems and artificial intelligence.” Other elements addressed information sharing, biosecurity, operational awareness and research and development. The release stated that local, state and tribal partners were involved in the development of the MOU.

Jon Adamy reports in Michigan Farm News that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins also announced on X that a “$750 million sterile fly production facility at Moore Air Base will open seven months early, in spring 2027.” The department says the facility initially “will produce 100 million sterile flies per week,” eventually increasing to 300 million.

The post on X also revealed Rollins’ review of technology supporting 200 DHS drones, over 1,000 drone flights to survey over 22,000 animals. It also noted over 26,000 trail camera observations and monitoring more than 8,000 NWS traps.

In its news release, USDA stated a continued effort between the departments to thwart cattle smuggling from Central America. It is estimated that 800,000 head are smuggled each year. The crime involves about $320 million in illicit trade and can “often bypass sanitary inspection and traceability systems, allowing potentially diseased or unmonitored animals to move undetected across borders.” This further hampers the effort to eradicate NWS, the release stated.   

A century of one family’s reunions reflects the passage of time and the migration of youth from farms across the nation

     

The Putmans still operate dairy farms in New York but
as young members of their family choose other careers
and move away, the farms, and the reunions, have gotten
smaller. (Photo by Austin Santaniello via Unsplash)

The Putmans of upstate New York make the honored practice of getting the family together something more than special, and they have done it for 100 years. New York Times reporter John Leland, who took a road trip to witness the annual event, put it this way: “Lots of families hold reunions. The Putmans make theirs a serious business, with a president, a secretary, a budget, multiple prizes and a written ledger with notes from every year, starting with the second reunion.”

Leland aptly compares the changes apparent from the Putman reunion records to the changes farm families have experienced across America over the last century. And so do the Putmans.

“It is a story of younger people leaving their family farms for job opportunities elsewhere, of farm consolidation and loosening family connections,” Leland writes. In testimony after testimony, Putman family members told Leland of their decision decades ago to leave the family business for something more lucrative. “I knew I didn’t want to milk cows seven days a week,” said one Putman, now 86. “The dairy industry was a tough business, and they weren’t making any money.” In one family, none of the 10 children wanted to milk cows.

The 2025 reunion hosted just 26 members of the family. In years gone by, attendance often exceeded 100. Leland quotes the village historian: “Nobody stays,” she said. “We’re friendly, but there’s nothing to do here, like you can do in a bigger area.”

In a subsequent post in the story’s online reader comments, Leland may have expressed the same feelings as some of the Putmans still coming to the reunion from afar. He wrote:

Sometimes you commit to writing an article and then later think, “What did I get myself into?

That’s how I felt on the six-hour drive upstate. Then the day before the reunion, Janet Newtown showed me the ledger, going back to 1925. The paper was crumbling, and I wore white gloves to touch it. But it was a direct window into a world — not just a family, but a micro-history of small farming in the US, and a way of life for generations.

Sometimes, you’re glad you took that drive.

Solar-energy group that spent $2 million in Tennessee race takes credit for incumbent congressman's 6-point defeat

A rural Tennessee congressman lost his seat in Thursday's Republican primary election, and a solar-energy lobby is taking credit and sounding a warning to those who oppose the industry.

Rep. Andy Ogles
(Photo by Mark Humphrey, AP)

Rep. Andy Ogles of the recently redrawn Fifth District lost "after the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC spent $2 million — more than the combined spending of both Ogles and his challenger Charlie Hatcher," a former state agriculture commissioner, Timothy Cama reports for E&E News, a publication of Politico. Hatcher got 53 percent.

“Our goal is to make sure people choose not to cross the industry,” Tom Matzzie, CEO of solar company CleanChoice Energy and chair of the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition, told Politico. “I think this is by far our biggest step forward in terms of accomplishing our goal, and it definitively sends a signal that our deterrence is real, and that we will get involved.”

The PAC's spending against Ogles “was its biggest since launching earlier this year. It also got the most national attention, assisted by Ogles criticizing the group,” E&E News reports. “The super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, has spent in a handful of races this year, targeting what it sees as the top foes of the renewable energy sector. So far, that has mostly meant opposing the most vocal supporters of quickly ending renewable tax credits in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the signature GOP tax law, with advertising meant to appeal to conservative audiences.” That's a change for Matzzie. who worked for the AFL-CIO and ran MoveOn.org, a progressive group.

E&E News concludes, “President Donald Trump, who had endorsed Ogles in his race and hosted a tele-rally for him, appeared unfazed by the loss Friday, writing on Truth Social that the lawmaker 'had virtually no chance of winning' and calling Hatcher a 'Great "Trump" Candidate.'” The Nashville Banner notes, “Ogles has consistently generated controversy and scrutiny since emerging from a crowded Republican primary in 2022. He has filed incorrect and late campaign finance disclosures, misled the public about his resume and said 'Muslims don’t belong in American society.'”

Fracking brine from Ohio injection wells believed to be surfacing, potentially contaminating drinking water

   

Paul Alain Hunt via Sunsplash

Decades ago, the state of Ohio invited the oil and gas industry to inject wastewater into deep wells, which at the time didn’t seem like a major concession. The need wasn’t overwhelming, and to accommodate the industry the state even got permission from the federal government to regulate its own wells.

When fracking came along, the Buckeye State’s more friendly policies made it the go-to place for burying brine. According to a report in The New York Times, “Ohio has permitted more than 240 injection wells for the disposal of oil and gas waste. By comparison, there are 19 such injection wells in Pennsylvania, and a few dozen in West Virginia, both of which border Ohio.”

Quinn Glabicki further notes in her story that Pennsylvania, which produces more natural gas than any state but Texas, sends about three-fourths of its brine to Ohio, and that “Ohio pumps about 1.4 billion gallons of wastewater underground annually.”

Now there are reports of the toxic waste coming to the surface, traditional oil and gas wells being invaded by fracking brine, and concerns about the potential for contaminated drinking water in the rural communities near where injection is taking place. The industry is pushing back, claiming the state’s regulation is sufficient and that wells complying with those regulations are safe. But geologists say the brine is “migrating” through porous underground material and moving to the surface.

Environmental groups and communities are seeking a moratorium on new injection wells, and for any new wells to be a safe distance from drinking water sources. In Marietta, the county seat of Washington County, tests of the drinking water have indicated it is safe but the water association is concerned that if radioactive waste gets into the system it will be impossible to remove. Ground stability also is a concern. Officials told Glabicki that seismic activity in Washington County is 20 times what it was in 2023, suggesting that underground rock formations are unstable because of the volume of wastewater.

When rainfall gauges were vandalized in Colorado and Kansas, a gang of farmers collected millions, and got caught

Artem Beliaikin via Sunsplash

Raindrops kept falling on the land, but just like the guy whose feet were too big for his bed, nothing seemed to fit …

Some version of the line from that 1969 B.J. Thomas tune — “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” — may have been going through the minds of the National Weather Service staff in Pueblo, Colorado, 10 years ago. In a June report by Chris Bennett in Farm Journal’s AgWeb Magazine, Meteorologist in Charge Jennifer Stark described it like this: “The precipitation data we were seeing made no sense to us. We’d watch radar with storms moving over southeast Colorado, and we had weather stations tabulating data hourly, but they’d often report no precipitation.”

Ahh, but there was someone else singing a stanza of that tune. In fact, a gang of someones. A group of fearless farmers did them some talking with the sun, and said they didn’t like the way he got things done, so they faked the burn.

To the NWS staff, Bennett explained, “rain appeared to fall everywhere” except into their rain gauges. “We started having weather observers calling and saying they were having trouble with their gauges,” Stark said. “Our technicians would go take a look and find unbelievably odd things.” Things like funnels siliconed, bowls tipped, wires cut, parts shotgunned, bolts loosened.

It was all part of a scheme to collect millions of dollars worth of federal crop insurance benefits. After doing about $11,000 in damage to these gauges, across portions to two states, Kansas and Colorado, Patrick Esch and Ed Dean Jagers managed to prove that their properties were suffering from extreme drought and collect $6.5 million. 

Like in all good true crime stories, in the end the duo and their cohorts were caught. They turned on each other. There were bribes and threats in emails and notes from girlfriends. One was wired up. One was imprisoned and then escaped, eventually found dead and rotting under mysterious circumstances. But crime paid for him, or at least for his estate, which got $500,000 in payment for his cooperation.

This was a particularly unusual agricultural fraud scheme but it was not singular. According to Bennett’s report, “crop insurance fraud echoes over certain counties and regions around the nation. Tobacco deception in east Kentucky and North Carolina; prevent plant in the Mississippi Delta; citrus schemes in Florida; and other crops according to locale.”

Higher interest rates, heavier debt and increased costs have Midwest farmers drawing comparisons to 1980s struggles

   

Photo by Jesse Gardner on Unsplash

In a report for Wisconsin Public Radio, Hope Kirwan reminds listeners of an agricultural downturn of 40 years ago when “a decline in crop prices and farmland values, massive amounts of farm debt and high interest rates led to a landslide of farmers forced to leave the industry. By the end of the decade, an estimated 300,000 farms went bankrupt or foreclosed.”

While the comparison is understandable — a conflict with Iran, higher fuel and fertilizer prices — farmers and economists alike recognize that unlike then, the federal government now provides more safeguards, such as crop insurance. But the difficulties still are threatening, as Kirwan reports, “Profit margins for U.S. corn and soybeans have been negative for the past two years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

The WPR report quotes Seth Meyer, an agriculture economist at the University of Missouri, who says today’s safeguards “won’t keep people from exiting” but can allow “a more orderly result. So folks aren’t knocked out by one bad situation, some of which is out of their control.”

One such situation has California lettuce growers plowing their crops back into the ground. The Wall Street Journal reports that the outbreak of the cyclospora virus, even though it has not been connected to domestic production, has instilled so much fear in consumers that “growers can’t afford the expense of picking and storing crops they might not be able to sell.”

In response to the challenges farmers are facing, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced on Tuesday at Minnesota Farmfest that the federal government is implementing “a series of data modernization payment flexibility, and enhanced crop insurance options to benefit farmers.” In a USDA press release, Rollins said, “We’re modernizing how USDA serves farmers, providing common sense flexibility when it’s needed most, and strengthening the risk management tools producers depend on.”

The Wisconsin farmer quoted in the WPR report said he’s hoping to hang in there until commodity prices begin to rise again. “Everything we do is managing risk, and there’s a cost to that,” he said, while expressing optimism.

The California lettuce farmer quoted by WSJ seemed to agree. “You can’t afford to be downcast very long,” he said. “You better pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep pushing forward.”

Nuclear reactors, abandoned industrial sites seen as part of the solution to accommodate data centers in rural America

    

An experimental nuclear reactor in rural Kansas will be
placed one mile underground, avoiding hulking facilities
like the one above. (Unsplash photo by Lucas Lahotsky)

The race to build data centers for artificial intelligence has caused a stir in rural communities across the nation. Companies hoping to build these massive facilities are facing debates in local government bodies about tax revenue and job creation, along with pushback from residents concerned with the potential for rising electric rates, water availability and noise pollution.

Now the debate has expanded to the use of nuclear power. The Wall Street Journal reports plans for a nuclear reactor to be installed a mile underground in the granite near tiny Parsons, Kansas, population 9,600. 

Deep Fission, a company founded by father and daughter entrepreneurs in California, created the experimental process and raised $150 million to make it happen. 

The project is one of many encouraged by the Trump administration to create more nuclear energy to satisfy the country’s “soaring electricity demand, much of it driven by data centers.” The innovation in the Parsons project is that the reactor is deep underground and can become operational fairly quickly.

According to the WSJ report, “The key to the plan is avoiding the need for hulking containment buildings. Instead, the mile-deep hole will provide the necessary pressure, cooling and containment.” A single reactor will serve about 12,000 homes, but the inventors are planning “100 or more,” producing enough power for a data center.

Developers of data centers are facing resistance from rural communities where hundreds of acres of pristine farmland are being proposed as sites. That has the industry looking for alternatives, like abandoned factories. And in Western Kentucky, a former nuclear power plant is being considered for a hyperscale data center.

The Kentucky Lantern reports that the Department of Energy plans to transform a portion of the site near Paducah into a “1.8 gigawatt data center” that is “part of a larger strategy by the Trump administration to turn former Cold-War era federal sites into hubs for data centers and energy production.”

The story by Liam Niemeyer also listed dormant industrial sites across the state being considered for data centers. The list includes a former aluminum smelter, an abandoned steel mill, an electrical transmission infrastructure from inactive coal mines, and industrial parks that have power built in but have not been able to recruit industry to use it.

The director of the Hancock County Industrial Foundation explained the situation there. “Manufacturing is what we’re hoping for (to replace the smelter),” said Mike Baker. He said in 2022, when the smelter closed and 600 jobs were lost, data centers were not on anyone’s radar. “I don’t think anybody even knew what a data center was.” But now, a former industrial site that still has power makes it an attractive possibility for the growing AI industry.

WSJ describes harvesting, production process of lettuce as cyclospora continues to spread in multiple states

   

Most lettuce consumed in the U.S. is produced domestically.
(Photo by Phuc Long on Sunsplash)

All eyes are on lettuce in supermarkets across the country as America deals with the virus known as cyclospora. Thousands of people in multiple states have suffered from the flu-like symptoms, especially severe diarrhea, as officials struggle to identify the source. Shredded iceberg lettuce sold by Taylor Farms to fast food restaurants like Taco Bell has been identified as one source, and health officials in New York City identified a cilantro as one problem there.

Most Americans likely don’t know where the lettuce they purchased came from, unless they have started frequenting farmer’s markets or roadside stands in their communities, avoiding the major chains like Kroger. And many also might assume the leafy green is imported from Mexico. But the Wall Street Journal reports that “the vast majority” of the 10 billion pounds of lettuce we consume is produced in the U.S. Most of that which is imported comes from Mexico because year-round farming is available. 

The Journal breaks down domestic production as 43% head lettuce with leaf and romaine accounting for most of the remainder. Because of the virus, we are being encouraged to be vigilant about peeling off the outer layer and carefully washing what we are about to eat. And the safest advice is to eat greens that are cooked to at least 158 degrees.

But The Journal report describes a harvesting and production process that includes cleaning prior to shipment. “On farms, harvest crews can start at 2 a.m. and work throughout the day. Since produce begins dying soon after harvest, greens are cooled to temperatures just above freezing within hours of being picked. Whole heads of lettuce are typically washed in a chlorine solution and packed in the field.” In facilities near the fields, the lettuce can be cut and blended, then triple-washed and spin dried. All of this happens quickly, with the lettuce shipped within a day.

Temperature-controlled trucks make delivery. Packed lettuce can have a shelf life of up to two weeks, the report states.

The cyclospora outbreak is now the largest ever, according to multiple reports, and links to specific sources continue to elude officials. 

Brookings calls for FEMA reforms to make disaster declaration, response easier for rural areas

   

Courtesy of the Library of Congress (Unsplash)

A recent analysis by the Brookings institution examines the challenges faced by rural communities after a disaster and makes recommendations for improvements in federal assistance. Rural counties were subject to a majority of major disaster declarations, the report said, while being home to just 14% of Americans.

The situation is complicated by a significant shortage of the same resources available to metropolitan areas. Small communities not only are financially strapped but lack the level of emergency preparedness and response necessary to recover. Often, responders serve in multiple roles in the community, like police, fire and ambulance services. Administrations have small staffs and lack experience dealing with complicated federal programs.

The report’s authors, Anthony F. Pipa and Julia Davatzes, point to other notable challenges. “The larger geographic areas of rural communities and lower population densities, for example, translate into longer evacuation times and longer distances for emergency personnel to travel to reach affected individuals. There are rural places that rely on a single egress or ingress route; if damaged, all transit to and from the community is interrupted.” Also, there are generally larger groups of the elderly and the disabled, along with a higher percentage of low-income residents.

In response to these needs, the report calls for reformation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Pipa and Davatzes note that in the years between 2016 and 2025, “rural counties made up almost two-thirds” of those included in major U.S. disaster declarations. They make the following recommendations:

• Ensure new policies are implemented and will improve rural communities' ability to respond and recover from disasters;

• Update the disaster declaration process in consideration of rural assets;

• Adjust cost-share and reimbursement systems with rural capacities in mind;

• Provide additional technical assistance;

• Streamline grant and reporting requirements;

• Make sure rural areas have easy access to FEMA staff;

• Increase research and data transparency.