'Child care is unaffordable for families and not profitable for businesses.' Some communities will vote on changes.

Some communities are asking voters to help pay for
child care. (Shutter Stock photo)

Are U.S. voters ready to help pay for child care services as a part of their community's labor and services infrastructure? Communities in Sonoma County, Calif., St. Paul, Minn., and most of Austin Texas are about to find out, reports Harriet Torry of The Wall Street Journal. The November voting initiatives highlight a problem for urban, metro and rural families -- child care is no longer affordable or not even available due to child care teacher shortages. 

In Austin, classrooms at Ebenezer Child Development Center sit empty because the center's owner, Jordan Maclay, "can’t find enough teachers who can work at the wages she is able to offer," Torry explains. "Maclay is hoping that voters next week will approve an amendment that would raise property taxes by 2.5 cents per $100 valuation throughout Travis County, which includes most of Austin. The state already helps some low-income families pay for daycare. The county money would add to that, with the goal of raising pay and creating new positions for daycare staffers." Voters in Sonoma County, Calif., and St. Paul, Minn., will consider similar ballot initiatives.

Federal lawmakers have tried to remedy the problem, but bills have been stymied, leaving states and counties to grapple with solutions. "Vermont created a new payroll tax, to increase staffing and capacity at daycares. And in Louisiana, taxes on sports betting, cannabis-derived products and casinos raise money for early childhood education," Torry writes. "Florida this year started offering tax breaks to businesses that provide child care for employees."

Child-care centers struggle to make a profit with a business model where oversight is high and ways to cut costs are few. Torry reports, "Daycares are labor intensive. They can’t, for example, hire remote workers. They are also closely regulated, which means they can’t skimp on the number of teachers. Other fixed costs are also high and hard to bring down: the rent or mortgage, insurance, food."

Cynthia Osborne, professor of early childhood education and policy at Vanderbilt University, told Torry, "Child care is unaffordable for families and not profitable for businesses, and child-care educators are the ones really struggling in the middle."

In the end, some parents can't afford to work. Torry adds, "A paucity of child care is a drag on the labor market. About 13% of young children in the U.S. had a family member who had to quit, change or refuse a job because of child care problems, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which examined Commerce and Labor Department data."

Hardwood logging in Appalachia is 'hanging on by a thread.' China, tariffs and U.S. economics all play a part.

A logger in West Virginia posing with a large tulip poplar log.
(National Park Service photo)

Since American colonial times, Appalachians have logged the region's vast forests and run sawmills to prepare cut wood for use, but the industry has been hampered by multiple economic setbacks and faces an uncertain future, reports Paul Kiernan of The Wall Street Journal. "The industry has been in decline for decades. A series of shocks since 2018 has accelerated the decline: a trade war with China, a collapse in exports due to Covid, China’s real-estate slump, and falling U.S. home building." The downturn has had a domino effect on loggers, sawmill workers, truckers and manufacturers.

Once a robust economic sector in Appalachia, logging businesses have closed due to poor market demand and high operational costs. "Roughly two dozen sawmills in the region have gone out of business in the past year or so. . . .The Eastern U.S.’s hardwood production has fallen to its lowest level in records going back to 1960," Kiernan explains. "Workers’ compensation insurance is too expensive for many sawmills to directly employ loggers."

Where two decades ago harvesting hardwood trees was profitable, trade, particularly with China, has decimated U.S. logging businesses and jobs. "Appalachian hardwoods supported thriving manufacturing facilities in nearby towns and cities," Kiernan writes. "North Carolina’s furniture plants, for instance, employed nearly 80,000 workers in 1999, shortly before China’s accession to the World Trade Organization opened the U.S. to Chinese imports. Within 10 years, that number had fallen to 35,000, with most of the jobs shipped overseas."

While some political agendas support protective tariffs, that may not be an easy solution. "Trump says tariffs will bring back manufacturing jobs. Yet the North Carolina furniture business currently employs under 30,000 workers, 20% fewer than when Trump imposed tariffs on China, including on furniture," Kiernan explains. "A worrisome trend for sawmills in recent years is that China has been reducing its imports of finished lumber from the U.S."

Appalachia already has economic worries and the shrinking hardwood industry has added to them. Kiernan adds, "Closing sawmills will accelerate the decline of communities already faced with aging populations and outward migration."

Driverless tractors are already operating on some U.S. farms. Automation offers benefits, but farm workers worry.

A mechanical engineer walks with a sustainable agricultural
robot. (Photo by ThisisEngineering, Unsplash)

The harvest is plentiful and the workers are robots. That's the plan for some U.S. farms. "A growing number of companies are bringing automation to agriculture. It could ease the sector’s deepening labor shortage, help farmers manage costs, and protect workers from extreme heat," report Melina Walling of The Associated Press and journalist Ayurella Horn-Muller. "Automation could also improve yields by bringing greater accuracy to planting, harvesting, and farm management."

Florida farmer Jeremy Ford was tired of wasting water and using fossil fuel-run equipment to care for his crops, so he turned to an automated underground system, "that uses a solar-powered pump to periodically saturate the roots of his crops, saving 'thousands of gallons of water,'" Walling and Horn-Muller explain. "Although they may be more costly upfront, he sees such climate-friendly investments as a necessary expense — and more affordable than expanding his workforce of two."

What about automated harvesting? "On some farms, driverless tractors churn through acres of corn, soybeans, lettuce and more. Such equipment is expensive, and requires mastering new tools, but row crops are fairly easy to automate," AP reports. South Dakota farmer Frank James along with his family members, "swear by tractor 'autosteer,' an automated system that communicates with a satellite to help keep the machine on track. . . [but] requires human oversight to work as it should."

While some agriculture stakeholders have pushed back against automation, some farmers look to the technology's potential to increase profitability and decrease business headaches. Walling and Horn-Muller report, "Will Brigham, a dairy and maple farmer in Vermont, sees such tools as solutions to the nation’s agricultural workforce shortage. Since 2021, Brigham’s family farm has been using Farmblox, an AI-powered farm monitoring and management system that helps them get ahead of issues like leaks in tubing used in maple production."

Robotic farm tools may make caring for crops during extreme heat more efficient without putting human workers at risk. "Extreme heat, drought and intense rainfall have made labor-intensive corn detasseling even harder," Walling and Horn-Muller write. 

Even with its benefits, automated farming may affect farm worker employment. "Automation can be a 'tactic, like a strategy, for bosses, so people are afraid and won’t demand their rights,' said Luis Jimenez, a New York dairy worker. Robots, after all, 'are machines that don’t ask for anything,' he added. 'We don’t want to be replaced by machines.'"

Editor's note: This story was a collaboration between The Associated Press and Grist.

Will this winter be as mild as last winter? Experts give national 2024-2025 outlook predictions.

The 2024-2025 winter outlook map shows the greatest chances for cooler conditions
in the Pacific Northwest. (NOAA map via Dovers)

In most parts of the country, last year's winter was mild. So mild, in fact, Wisconsin snowmobile enthusiasts dubbed it the "lost winter" because there was so little snowfall, reports Cheyenne Kramer of Drovers. "But according to Eric Snodgrass, senior science fellow at Nutrien Ag Solutions, the consensus is that the months ahead are going to look a lot different."

Snodgrass believes that "this winter brings about a 75% chance for La Niña to develop, which is when the trade winds across the equatorial Pacific are strong. With La Niña in the forecast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting wet conditions in the north and dry, warm weather in the south," Kramer adds. "Department of Agriculture meteorologist Brad Rippey says La Niña can also bring chances for extreme cold events."

One of the gains agribusiness advocates hope to see this winter is enough moisture to balance regional droughts. Snodgrass told Kramer, "The best winters for agriculture are the ones we hate and remember as being terrible — we get good, hard freezes and plenty of moisture comes in. If we don’t see that, we get into a situation where we become very dependent on spring rains and may have a conversation about 2025 drought risk.”

The 2024-2025 winter outlook map for precipitation shows wetter-than-average conditions
likely across the Great Lakes region (NOAA map via Drovers)

The increase in droughts across southern U.S. tiers is worrisome, and this winter may not improve that problem. Northern areas are predicted to receive more moisture. Rippey told Kramer, "While much of the north will have the opportunity for relief from this growing drought. . . . We are expecting a generally warmer- and drier-than-normal winter across the entire southern tier of the United States. . . . That does include important winter wheat production areas in the southern Great Plains. There’s not much reserve right now in terms of soil moisture."

If rain and snowfall are to help drought regions, timing is everything. Rippey told Kramer, "It’s important to start getting moisture before it gets too cold. When you go into a cool season like this with limited soil moisture, if the cold air comes in too quickly, you freeze the soils before you get moisture, which can limit the absorption of rain and snow into those soils." Kramer adds, "the timing of when La Niña really starts to take effect will be important as well."

Flora & Fauna: Muppets ponder the Electoral College; a new wildlife corridor; fall in love with moths; banana battle

Most muppets didn't "vote" for the Electoral College.
(Muppet Wiki photo)

Elmo took it upon himself, along with several other muppets who were voting, to try and understand how the U.S. Electoral College works. "Elmo just did some math and Elmo is worried," writes Alexandra Petri of The Washington Post. At first, the Count loved how the College worked, but then he said, "I love counting, but the Electoral College is not about counting! It is about making things not count! The Electoral College belongs in the trash!" Oscar the Grouch had some feelings about that. . .

A critical wildlife pathway that began with "a handful of frustrated hunters and 20 deer imported from South Carolina," is now a reality writes Dan Chapman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "A burgeoning wildlife corridor stretches from Atlanta’s western suburbs to the Talladega National Forest in Alabama, a 30-mile stretch of public and private lands where deer, bear, at-risk bats, and federally endangered fish have more room to roam, and more chances to survive." Read about the corridor's unique beginnings here.

Sugar maples can live to be 300 to 400 years old.
(Adobe Stock photo)

In a forest, all flora and fauna eventually die, but in the case of an old and beloved sugar maple, life went on as saws and woodworking turned the tree into bowls that could be held, used and treasured, writes Daryln Brewer Hoffstot for The New York Times. Tree "turner," Corey Snyder, "presented me with three beautiful, honey-colored bowls: one for our son, one for our daughter, and one for us. . . . One has light streaks of green because of mineral deposits. They are different shapes, sizes and thicknesses. I asked him how he chose what form the bowls should take. 'I let the piece of wood dictate,' he said. . . .The old maple had spoken."

There are roughly 180,000 known moth and
butterfly species. (Princeton U Press graphic)

The world of moths is mysterious and vast. For all of us, there is much to learn and fall in love with. "As humans drop off to sleep, the invisible world of moths comes to life. Across the planet, billions of the insects take flight on their nocturnal errands," report Michael J. Coren and Alice Li of The Washington Post. "Over two nights in the desert, I discovered just how easy it is to fall in love with an unloved insect. And why 'mothing' may be the best way to discover the miracle of biodiversity in your own backyard."

As bananas battle for survival, scientists are working to save them from extinction. "Two diseases threaten to wipe out the banana as we know it, and scientists are racing to breed a fruit of the future," reports H. Claire Brown of The Wall Street Journal. "Chiquita Brands International last month said it bred a new banana called the Yelloway 1 that is resistant to one of the major diseases and shows promise in resisting the second. . . . Using a genetic bank of about 150 banana varieties, the Chiquita team has focused on breeding an edible, disease-resistant banana."

NOAA plans to consider expanding the new Chumash Heritage Marine Sanctuary in the years
ahead, after new infrastructure is built for offshore wind farms. (NOAA photo via NPR)

A new national marine sanctuary isn't just a win for sea creatures and sea lovers, it's the first such designation led by Indigenous people, reports Lauren Sommer of NPR. "More than 4,500 square miles of ocean will soon be protected by the federal government off the Central California coast. The Biden administration is creating a new national marine sanctuary, which will be the third largest in the U.S. . . . The new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary will be managed in partnership with tribes and Indigenous groups in the area, who will advise the federal government."

A simpler assessment tool for newborns exposed to opioids means more mom time and fewer medications

Cailyn Morreale continued using buprenorphine during her pregnancy. Once her baby was born, the two were never separated. (Photo by Taylor Sisk, KFF Health News)

A new approach is helping mothers recovering from opioid addiction and newborns with opioid exposure stay together after birth. Historically, babies born with opioid exposure have been separated from their mothers and received heavy medications in neuro-intensive units, but "research has since indicated that in many, if not most, cases, those extreme measures are unnecessary," reports Taylor Sisk of KFF Health News. "A newer, simpler approach that prioritizes keeping babies with their families called Eat, Sleep, Console is being increasingly embraced."

Over the past decade, how pregnancy pairs with addiction treatment has changed, meaning most women can continue to take addiction-recovery medication throughout pregnancy. For Cailyn Morreale, a West Virginian from rural Mars Hill, the new methods helped her continue her recovery medicine, buprenorphine, and her care team assured her "that her baby would be assessed and monitored using the Eat, Sleep, Console approach," Sisk explains. "Morreale was never separated from her son. She was able to begin breastfeeding immediately. She was told, the trace of buprenorphine in her breast milk would help her son withdraw from it."

The Eat, Sleep, Console method is slowly replacing the older Finnegan Neonatal Abstinence Scoring System, which involved 21 evaluative questions. Sisk writes, "David Baltierra, former director of West Virginia University’s Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, chair of WVU’s Department of Family Medicine, suggests this protocol could simply be called 'parenting.' Baltierra and his colleagues have been training residents to use an Eat, Sleep, Console approach for a decade. . . .The results are persuading more health professionals to adopt the method."

A 2023 study found "babies treated this way were discharged from the hospital in nearly half the time and less likely to receive medication than those receiving Finnegan-based care," Sisk reports. "Matthew Grossman, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine, found a non-pharmacological-first approach works best. He said the Finnegan tool is useful but often too rigid. Under its scoring, one sneeze too many could send a baby to the NICU for weeks."

Research by Leila Elder and Madison Humerick, who each did their residency in WVU’s rural program, "found that median stays for newborns in withdrawal dropped from 13 days in 2016 to three in 2020," Sisk adds. "The simpler treatment also means more babies born in rural communities can receive care closer to home and has reduced the likelihood a mother will be released before her baby is cleared to go home."

A small town in Georgia answers a call to service and saves its volunteer fire department

Asst. Fire Chief Michael Moravek with mascot,
Fire Pup. (Photo by Jennifer King via the Echo)

Across the country, rural fire departments are struggling to attract, train and retain volunteer firefighters. In Oglethorpe County, Georgia, the small unincorporated town of Vesta had a fire department facing closure until they put a call out to the community for help, reports Makenzy Wolford of The Oglethorpe Echo. "Down to three volunteers and battling new state regulations, the station faced the possibility of extinction." That was four years ago. Now the Vesta Volunteer Fire Department is staffed with volunteers thanks to its residents' "overwhelming response."

Vesta Fire Chief Wayne King "wasn't even a volunteer firefighter four years ago," Wolford writes. "He, among the majority of the station’s current volunteers, were unaware the station needed help until Douglas Spencer spoke to the congregation of Vesta Baptist Church. . . . Douglas, along with his wife Nicole Spencer, were two of the remaining firefighters at the Vesta station. When the situation became dire, Douglas went to the church. . . . A dozen members, including King and now assistant chief Michael Moravek, chose public service that night."

Moravek told Wolford, “I’ve always wanted to do this. I’ve been living here for 25 years, and no one’s ever asked. I thought they didn’t need anyone else extra.” Wolford adds, "The once-grim station blossomed in the 3½ years since Spencer’s call to action. Handshakes, hugs and kind words flowed freely Saturday as the VFD hosted its annual barbecue fundraiser on the first day of deer gun season."

Firefighting requires physical stamina, extensive knowledge of fire and bravery, which is part of the reason why getting and keeping volunteers is difficult. Moravek told Wolford, "I was very surprised by the amount of training that we had to go through. Twelve weeks of training at night time. . . . And then it’s a continuous training experience.” Wolford reports, "Training and certification requirements are more involved and strenuous than many anticipated."

Like most rural communities, all of Oglethorpe County's fire departments are staffed by volunteers. Wolford adds, "The issue of staffing, like that Vesta faced, is not only a local problem. . . Nationally, fire departments are struggling to come up with a staff equipped to act as the community’s first line of defense against everyday emergencies."

Opinion: Growing up in Appalachia made navigating college tough. 'I felt compelled to abandon my background.'

Piper Slinka-Petka

An Appalachian student from West Virginia heads off to college at the University of Pennsylvania, dubbed "Penn" by most students, and encounters a community where she doesn't know how or when she will ever fit in and keep up with her urban counterparts. A lightly edited version of Piper Slinka-Petka's story from The Daily Pennsylvanian is shared below.

"During the same conversation, all first-year students find themselves in, state follows directly after name. Penn’s student body, while diverse, leaves many geographical regions underrepresented in their class. . . . When I reveal I am from West Virginia, home to Penn students few and far between, I get one of a few responses:

I haven’t heard that one yet. Are you the only one? (No, I am not.)

Like from the song? (Yes, the very state described by John Denver’s 1971 song, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”)

I have family from Virginia, same thing, right? (Two different states, separated in 1863.)

"Growing up in Appalachia is an identity I spent my adolescence running away from. Portrayal in the media, such as by vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s "Hillbilly Elegy," paints Appalachia as a place for the uneducated, poverty-stricken, and lazy. The misinterpretation of rural America creates a narrative that all people inside of it are 'white, conservative, and dumb.' In conversations with other Penn students, I would explain my rural upbringing, and end with 'but at least I made it out.' I felt compelled to abandon my background to find my new place at Penn.

"It wasn’t the light pollution, lack of nature, or noise that made Penn so different — it was the culture. I found myself struggling to find an anchor with my urban peers. . . . I was always a step behind. My differences were possibly the most apparent at the dining hall. I grew up on simple, hearty foods like pepperoni rolls and baked mac & cheese — nothing like the diverse and unique food options my peers raved about. Penn’s food options felt like an entirely new language.

"The education I received, too, lacked greatly in comparison to my peers. In 2024, West Virginia was ranked the worst state for education. Approximately only 20% of West Virginians over 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher. While I’d been admitted to Penn, I was still the product of a struggling academic system. Even though I already knew my education put me at a disadvantage, I underestimated how much I would feel out of place at Penn. . . . Perhaps even more than educationally, I was lacking socially.

"Coming from a geographically underrepresented area meant I was at a disadvantage in navigating Penn. While my classmates seemed to effortlessly adjust to this new world, I felt lost grappling with new social dynamics, cuisine, and academics. The culture shock was not just locational; it was a reminder of how deeply our backgrounds influence our future. Although I felt the need to abandon my old life for Penn’s new offerings, I couldn't just put West Virginia behind me. I would have to actively work to bridge the gap between my unique upbringing and my new life at Penn. . ."

Free online class on rural mental health is available at eCornell. It's designed for vets and agribusiness partners.

A new online course, “Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in Rural America” aims to help veterinarians, agriculture partners and veterinary students learn about mental health issues in rural communities and how to help, reports The Daily Yonder. The class is supported by Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and NY FarmNet, in partnership with Rural Minds, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting mental health in rural America. People interested in taking the course can access it at eCornell. The course is offered at no charge to participants.

The online course provides "practical tips to help with mental health challenges, including recognizing and responding to warning signs, as well as providing key information on resources such as crisis hotline numbers and local supports," the Yonder staff reports. "Rural communities have disproportionately higher rates of suicide in their population compared to urban areas. Farmers are twice as likely than those in other occupations to die by suicide, according to Rural Minds, and veterinarians also face higher risks of suicide when compared to the general population."

Jeff Winton, founder and chairman of Rural Minds, told the Yonder. "As a dairy farmer, I know firsthand that veterinarians are an integral part of all rural communities. And they may be among the first to see warning signs that a client is experiencing a mental health challenge but may not recognize those same signs in themselves."

Sabato's Crystal Ball predicts the highest-profile issues on state ballots this year

Voters in 41 states will have at least one important item on the ballot this November in addition to all of the local and federal candidates running for office.

According to The Center for Politics – Sabato’s Crystal Ball, “The highest-profile issue on the ballot this year — as was the case in 2022 and 2023 — is abortion. . . .Voters will also be asked about a wide range of election-related issues, including ranked-choice voting, redistricting and non-citizen voting. Other common topics involve proposals on criminal justice, raising the minimum wage, recreational marijuana, and education policy.”

The Center for Politics, which is based at the University of Virginia, provides a guide to all of the ballot measures that can be found here.

The presidential race isn't top dog in Montana; both parties have eyes and ads fixed on the state's U.S. Senate race.

Tim Sheehy

Montana's heated senate race between incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) and first-time Republican candidate Tim Sheehy has put the presidential race in the rearview mirror. "The state is focused on a race that could determine control of the U.S. Senate, and the next president’s ability to get their agenda through Congress," report Rhonda Colvin, Ross Godwin and Whitney Shefte of The Washington Post. "On the ground, it is still a door-to-door, vote-to-vote fight to the finish, with historical levels of ad spending and an intense focus on Native American voters and potential ticket-splitters."

Native Americans comprise the sparsely populated state's largest minority voting block, but many are not registered voters. Ronnie Jo Horse, executive director of Western Native Voice, a statewide social welfare nonprofit, told the Post, "I think they are getting to know their power. We have 37,000 unregistered voters. Once people find that out and know that Montana wins elections on 3,000 votes, you can see their eyes get big and surprised.”

Jon Tester

Tester won the state's last three elections "partly because of support from Native voters and this year, the Montana Democratic Party announced a multimillion campaign focused on keeping their support," Colvin, Godwin and Shefte explain. "But Native turnout in the state has seen a downturn in recent elections" Republicans see Sheehy "as one of their best chances to unseat a Democrat and add to their numbers — and recent polls suggest they have some momentum."

Meanwhile, the intense campaigning has left some voters worn out from constant political chatter. "Montanans have been under a deluge of inescapable appeals for their vote. . . . The total ad spending from both sides in the race since January 2023 and planned until Election Day will come in at $275 million," the Post reports. Ad-weary Montana voter Machaela Goggins told the Post, “It feels like borderline psychological abuse. . . . I think people are just ready to have an answer one way or another."