Friday, January 10, 2025

Rural schools funding bill fails in the U.S. House. The loss will 'create needless pain for rural communities.'

Superior High School in Mineral County, Montana. The county received nearly $900,000 in 2024
from the Secure Rural Schools bill. (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick, the Daily Montanan)

A lack of support in the U.S. House to fund a 20-year-old program will leave rural schools in 41 states without vital money. Western states will likely feel the pinch first. "For years, the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to counties with federal land within their borders," reports Alex Baumhardt of The Daily Montanan. "In the West, the money has largely helped keep county and school budgets whole following reduced logging and a reduction in timber revenue."

Although the Senate reauthorized the bill in November, the House failed to find a compromise to keep the bill funded, and it died without a vote. "Democrat Ron Wyden, who co-authored the original bill in 2000 said the failure to approve the money will create needless pain for rural communities," Baumhardt writes. "Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, a Republican who worked with Wyden to get the bill passed in the Senate, said he shared Wyden’s frustration."

In Oregon, the bill's funding goes to 30 of the state's 36 counties and "typically pays up to $80 million a year for schools and roads in Oregon along with wildfire prevention and conservation work. . . . Oregon has received $4 billion in funding from the bill in the last 24 years," Baumhardt reports. Other states also have received healthy chunks of support. In 2023, "12 counties in Alaska received $12.6 million; 34 counties in Idaho got $25 million; 32 counties in Montana received $16 million; and 25 counties in Washington state received about $18 million."

As the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Crapo plans to revive the bill in early 2025. "He said he’ll push for the bill when he’ll take the reins of the committee under Republican control of the Senate," Baumhardt reports. "Wyden, now Finance Committee chair who will become the ranking member in 2025, said he’ll be pushing for passage, too."

Farmer income declines and U.S. government disaster payments begin; roughly $9.8 billion will be paid out

Approximately $9.8 billion will be paid out to farmers.
(FAPRI and RaFF map via Farm Journal)
As some U.S. farmers tally thousands of dollars in losses, the federal government has responded with disaster aid checks. "America has long provided subsidies to its farmers, dating back to the 1930s as a way to tackle rural poverty when a quarter of the population lived on farms," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "Today, subsidies largely come in the form of insurance. . . . Direct cash payments, while at times controversial, have been used to bolster farmers during agricultural downturns."

U.S. farmers have coped with declining profits and high input costs for the past two seasons. "Net farm income declined 4% this year to $141 billion after falling about 20% last year," Thomas explains. "Weaker prices for commodities such as soybeans and wheat have weighed on farmers’ earnings after growers in the U.S. and elsewhere reared big crops, swelling supplies. Their costs for essentials such as fertilizer and equipment are also higher."

Farm income woes will likely continue in 2025. Thomas reports, "Some of the world’s largest grain shippers and pesticide suppliers are girding for a shrinking farm economy by cutting costs or laying off workers. . . . [The] financial pain on the farm comes after one of the ag industry’s strongest runs on record. . . . In Iowa, the top corn-producing state, farmland values decreased by 3% this year, breaking a five-year streak of rising prices."

President-elect Donald Trump's pledged tariffs on Mexico and China may also hit farmers in the pocketbook. Both countries are "major importers of U.S. crops," Thomas writes. Still, many farmers "believe that Trump's policies may benefit the agricultural economy. . . . In 2018 and 2019, during Trump’s first term, about $23 billion in taxpayer money was paid to farmers to offset the impact of trade disruptions."

The current farm bill extension through Sept. 30 includes "$9.8 billion in market relief payments for 20 covered crops," reports Jim Wiesemeyer of Farm Journal. "According to an analysis by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, the top 10 states based on estimated total payments for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, sorghum, rice, barley, oats, and peanuts are:
  • Texas: $963 million, primarily because of its status as the largest cotton producer
  • Iowa: $846 million, with strong support for corn and soybean farmers
  • Illinois: $790 million
  • Kansas: $787 million
  • Nebraska: $625 million
  • Minnesota: $616 million
  • North Dakota: $597 million
  • South Dakota: $497 million
  • Indiana: $400 million
  • Missouri: $391 million
To get more details on the American Relief Act of 2025, click here. To see the state and crop breakdown and what it means for U.S. farmers, click here.

Not enough child care spots pushes states to help care centers expand; some emphasis is on rural needs.

Helping child care centers expand means more
parents can stay on the job. (Adobe Stock photo)
The lack of available and affordable child care keeps many parents -- mostly women -- out of the U.S. workforce. The need for more spots has pushed state lawmakers to use novel strategies to help child care centers expand.

"Nationally, more than half of all Americans live in 'child care deserts,' and the need for child care is especially great among . . . low and middle-income families, families of color and families living in rural areas," reports Maggie Clark of Stateline. "A child care desert is a place where there are more than three children for every regulated child care spot."

The child care conundrum isn't just an issue for parents. The problem "costs the U.S. economy roughly $122 billion each year in lost earnings, productivity and revenue," Clark explains. "To create more child care slots and reduce prices, lawmakers are increasingly using economic development strategies to help child care businesses expand, similar to the support they’ve offered to attract and expand manufacturing facilities, technology startups or other types of businesses."

Advocates and lawmakers are particularly focused on addressing child care shortages in rural areas. Clark explains, "This year, Oregon is awarding its first batch of $50 million in grants and loans for new construction, expansion and renovation for child care businesses, with priority for child care providers in rural areas."

Lawmakers in Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon and Vermont had "local and state zoning regulations reviewed," Clark reports. They also "set up help centers where child care business owners can get help with navigating permitting and other business rules so that they can expand their businesses and care for more children, which will help more parents stay in the workforce."

States that are working to support child care businesses with infrastructure offerings that other sectors receive "send a powerful message that child care businesses and the people who operate them are valuable to their communities and economies," Clark writes.

Erin Roche, Vermont director of First Children’s Finance, which is helping the state administer its child care infrastructure grant program, told Clark, "It’s a lot about changing our cultural values of thinking of [child care centers] as businesses, and not just something little that mostly women do on the side."

Is the weather really abnormally cold? That depends on which years are used as a baseline for 'normal.'

When winter fills the air with cold and bone-chilling gusts, and ice and snow bow down even the sturdiest looking of evergreen branches, it's easy to think that the weather is so much colder than normal. But is it? Using what's "normal" compared to what isn't normal can be confusing. "While temperature forecasts are important to help people stay safe, the comparison to normal can be quit misleading," writes Richard B. Rood for The Conversation. "That’s because what qualifies as normal in forecasts has been changing rapidly over the years as the planet warms."

Who determines what normal temperatures are? "One of the most used standards for defining a science-based normal is a 30-year average of temperature and precipitation," Rood explains. "Every 10 years, the National Center for Environmental Information updates these normals, most recently in 2021."

Over the past century, the planet's temperatures have increased. Rood writes, "Because global temperatures are warming, what’s considered normal is warming, too. So, when a 2025 cold snap is reported as the difference between the actual temperature and normal, it will appear to be colder and more extreme than if it were compared to an earlier 30-year average."

How U.S. temperatures considered normal have changed over the decades. Each 30-year period is compared to the 20th-century average. (NOAA Climate.gov graphic via The Conversation)
To get a better picture of our warming planet, "NASA scientists use 1951-1980 as a baseline," Rood explains, "The reason becomes evident when you compare maps. For example, January 1994 was brutally cold east of the Rocky Mountains. If we compare those 1994 temperatures to today’s normal – the 1991-2020 period – the U.S. looks a lot like maps of early January 2025’s temperatures: Large parts of the Midwest and eastern U.S. were more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit below normal, and some areas were much colder. . . . But if we compare January 1994 to the 1951-1980 baseline instead, that cold spot in the eastern U.S. isn’t quite as large or extreme."

Despite global warming, cold air outbreaks will continue, "but as the Arctic and the rest of the planet warm, the most frigid temperatures of the past will become less common," Rood adds.

Free virtual discussion covering infrastructure investment opportunities for distressed rural places on Jan. 15

Pipa will be joined by Prof. Stephens, right, for
 discussion on infrastructure in rural places.
Chronic underinvestment in infrastructure plagues distressed rural communities throughout the United States. And while several programs offer solutions specifically for distressed places, these communities have to know what's available and how to apply.

To help, Brookings is hosting a a free virtual session: "Unlocking infrastructure investment in distressed rural places," on Wednesday, Jan. 15, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. E.T. Get the details here.

The session will be led by Tony Pipa, the host of Brookings' "Reimagine Rural" podcast, who will be joined by West Virginia University professor Heather Stephens. The two will talk with leaders of the Appalachian Regional Commission (Gayle Connelly Manchin), Delta Regional Authority (Dr. Corey Wiggins), and Northern Border Regional Commission (Chris Saunders) on the insights offered by an upcoming report from Brookings that tackles the ins and out of investment in distressed rural places.

The experts will share their experiences and thoughts on the best practices for directing investment to distressed rural places.

Viewers can submit questions for speakers by emailing events@brookings.edu or via X (Twitter) @BrookingsGlobal using #RuralInvestment.

Tuesday, January 07, 2025

Syringe exchange programs meant to slow HIV's alarming spread in West Virginia limited by political resistance

Photo by R. Konkathi, Unsplash
Despite federal recommendations and community efforts to stem HIV infections among opioid or methamphetamine users in central Appalachia, the disease continues to spread. Harm-reduction advocates and medical providers cite resistance to syringe exchange programs as the primary obstacle, reports Taylor Sisk of KFF Health News. "The situation likely hasn’t improved, in part because of politicians who contend that such programs encourage illegal drug use."

In 2021, West Virginia's HIV outbreak was particularly concerning to officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sisk writes, "The CDC’s HIV intervention chief called it 'the most concerning HIV outbreak in the United States and warned that the number of reported diagnoses could be just 'the tip of the iceberg.'" 

Rural areas without substance disorder treatment or disease education present a ripe breeding ground where HIV can spread undetected. Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Director Christine Teague "is concerned for West Virginia’s rural counties, most of which don’t have a syringe service program," Sisk adds. "Tasha Withrow, a harm reduction advocate in rural Putnam County, said her sense is that HIV numbers aren’t alarmingly high there but said that with little testing and heightened stigma in a rural community, it’s difficult to know."

Robin Pollini, a West Virginia University epidemiologist who conducts community-based research on injection drug use, told Sisk, “You would think that in a state that had the worst HIV outbreak in the country, we would have a statewide testing strategy." Sisk reports, "Teague would like every rural county to have a mobile unit. . . offering harm reduction supplies, medication, behavioral health care, counseling, referrals, and more."

While disease prevention through syringe exchange programs is well documented, the CDC's health warnings and recommendations for improved access to syringe exchanges have been largely ignored. Sisk reports, "In April 2021, the state legislature passed a bill limiting the number of syringes people could exchange and made it mandatory to present a West Virginia ID."

A made in the USA bicycle is in the works; maker hopes tariffs on Chinese imports will spur American production.

Guardian's USA-made children's bike is
still evolving. (Guardian graphic via WSJ)
Children’s bike maker Guardian Bikes moved its production from China to the U.S. intending to build its bikes with as many American-made parts as possible, reports Natasha Khan of The Wall Street Journal. The company's founder, Brian Riley, hopes "steep tariffs" on Chinese imports pledged by President-elect Donald Trump will make American-made bikes and parts more competitive.

Moving bicycle component production to the United States will still be tough partially because China has dominated the sector for decades. Riley knows the challenges and is still moving in that direction. Khan explains, "For now, components from China represent about 90% of the total cost of Guardian’s parts. By the end of next year, Riley hopes that figure will be about 20%. Guardian is starting production of its own bike frames. . . . As a result of Guardian’s new manufacturing, American-made parts could represent about 60% of the cost."

One of the reasons Riley moved his company to the United States was to build a "safer bike that could prevent the kind of head-over-heels braking accident that had injured his grandfather years earlier," Khan reports. "Many bikes sold at retailers such as Walmart or Target aren’t fully assembled when they are shipped to the retailers from overseas, so manufacturers don’t have oversight on the final assembly. Riley told Khan, "By controlling every aspect of production, we can guarantee the quality of every bike that rolls off our assembly line."

Riley admits that opening a U.S. factory was expensive and time-consuming. "At first, workers were slow to build the bikes, putting together 100 a day. It took time and constant tweaking of the assembly line to improve their speed and efficiency," Khan writes. Riley told her, "We had to bite the bullet. We had to be willing to lose money for a while to get to the other side of the strategy.”

The creation of Guardian's USA-made bike is evolving. "Guardian plans to begin making bike frames at the factory this year, using American steel. . . . Guardian is also considering making rims itself," Khan reports. "The bike maker has approached U.S. suppliers that could provide grips and reflectors."

Riley told Khan, "Everyone says making bikes here is impossible." Kahn adds, "His factory shows it isn’t."

Opinion: U.S. Postal Service should deliver mail, not profits. Privatization 'would be a nightmare for rural Americans.'

U.S. Postal Service history dates back to 1775. Its goal
was to deliver mail. (Photo by Joel Moysuh, Unsplash)
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy deployed plans to make the U.S. Postal Service profitable. But turning a profit isn't the point of mail delivery, write Tribune Phonograph editorial members Kris O’Leary and Brian Wilson. Service is the heart of the USPS, and its lack significantly impacts rural areas.

"The U.S Postal Service should focus on delivering the mail, not delivering a profit," they write. "Privatization of the postal service has been a dream for some who see the opportunity for profit, but it would be a nightmare for rural Americans who would see service cuts, additional delays and increasing costs. These would disproportionally impact rural residents simply due to the economics of having fewer potential customers over a wider area."

In many business ventures, privatization "can be a wonderful thing. . . . . It can bring about innovation. . . and the adoption of new efficiencies," O'Leary and Wilson add. "In a recent interview, President-elect Donald Trump broached the idea of revisiting privatization of the postal service as a potential goal. . . . Trump’s comments come at the same time that Postal Service leadership is under increased bipartisan scrutiny for spiraling increases in rates and ever-diminishing service standards."

In a December congressional hearing, members berated DeJoy for failing to meet service benchmarks and repeated upgrade delays. "Georgia Rep. Rich McCormick, a Republican, lambasted DeJoy," the editorial board writes, "leading to DeJoy covering his ears during the hearing." DeJoy defended his optimization strategies and said lawmaker interference could "end" the Postal Service.

However, profit-margin goals have little to do with the Postal Service's actual purpose. O'Leary and Wilson write, "DeJoy and other postal leadership have lost sight, if they ever had it, of the service that is at the core of the Postal Service. If DeJoy’s version of operational leadership and strategy were applied to highways, we would see interstates being turned into gravel roads."

If the U.S. postal service is privatized, its goal will become profits above all. "It will funnel off large city metro areas that can make money and drop rural areas that cover more land miles than people," O'Leary and Wilson add. "This is most of the U.S. population not living on either population-dense coast. The Midwest could lose any mail or package service if this becomes a reality. . ."

A historic first in Alaska may mean drilling in an untouched national refuge; Native Alaskans want a 'seat at the table.'

Map by Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder, from Bureau of Land
Management data. Click on map to enlarge.


Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is big, beautiful, and rich in natural resources and biodiversity. It has also been the "focal point of more than six decades of drilling controversy," which will come to a tentative resolution when tracts within the region's 19-million-acre expanse open for oil and gas leases this month, reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder. Native Alaskan communities want to be among the decision-makers for the coastal land that "is estimated to contain 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil."

Drilling in ANWR has never been done before. The region is home to "charismatic species like polar bears, wolves, and the caribou that are sacred to the Gwich’in, a Northwestern Alaska tribe," Melotte writes. "Oil and gas operations elicit mixed responses from Alaskan Natives. . . Some worry that drilling activity will hurt vulnerable wildlife and subsistence living, others say the oil and gas industry funds important infrastructure for their communities."

The coastal region, also known as the North Slope Borough, receives 95% of its total budget from oil and gas development taxation. Reservation members also depend on shareholder income regional corporations generate and pay out to Alaskan Natives. The Artic Slope Regional Corporation serves as an example. The company "has over 13,000 shareholders who receive dividends," Melotte notes. "Since its establishment in 1972, the ASRC has distributed more than $1 billion in dividends."

"Many leaders of the Iñupiat, an indigenous people native to Alaska’s North Slope Borough, say that oil and gas operations can be good for native communities if conducted responsibly," Melotte reports. Nagruk Harcharek, president of the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Alaska’s Iñupiat people, told Melotte, "Before oil and gas, you couldn't graduate high school and stay in the North Slope. Now there are K-12 schools in every North Slope village."

Harcharek used a past North Slope drilling project to help explain how Native Alaskans want to be included in drilling activity and practices. Melotte writes, "He said they were consulted 'early and often' in the decision-making process. . . . He said they want to be included before decisions are announced publicly."

Despite Alaska's rich natural resources, many Alaskan Natives live in poverty and still hunt for food, and drilling activities could interfere with their reliance on wild game. "Hunting is more than just a hobby in many native villages with high poverty rates," Melotte writes. "Hunting is a method of survival, said Dr. A.L. Lovecraft, professor of Political Science and director of the Center for Arctic Policy Studies at the University of Alaska. '[Drilling] also comes with all of this other baggage... Problems related to health, indoor health, indoor air quality, outdoor air quality.'"

Quick hits: Wallet-draining breakfast prices; the 'Walmart effect;' rural short story winner; bird flu stats; shouses

Photo by E. Aceron, Unsplash
Budget-busting beef with eggs and coffee breakfasts won't be cheaper anytime soon. "While commodities such as beef and eggs have long been volatile, others such as coffee have jumped in price more recently," report Patrick Thomas, David Uberti and Elizaveta Galkina of The Wall Street Journal. "Average prices for food at home rose in November by the largest annual pace in a year. . . . Store-bought ground [coffee] roasts have jumped 11% in price over the past year to an all-time high." In slightly less of a buzzkill, pork prices have remained steady, and "the average price of white bread is down around 3% over the past year."

Walmart's motto is "save money, live better," but oftentimes, that's not what happens to places after Walmart moves in. "New research suggests that the company makes the communities it operates in poorer — even taking into account its famous low prices," reports Rogé Karma for The Atlantic. "Walmart’s many defenders argue that the company is a boon to poor and middle-class families, who save thousands of dollars every year shopping there. . . .Two new research papers challenge that view." Read the research here.
Haworth's character, Michael, decides to venture home.
(Photo by Julian Scholl, Unsplash)

When one season of life ends, another begins -- or does it? Jeremy Haworth's short story "Blood Brother" explores Michael Riordan's path from retirement boredom to the uncertainty of going home. Haworth writes, "The sudden thought of home occurred to him. . . . Years had elapsed since he had crossed the threshold of the old farmstead. But the twinge in his chest told him time was shortening. The thought of death. . . an instinct to finally lay the ghosts of the past to rest. . ." Hadworth's story is the winner of the second annual “Best in Rural Writing Contest” presented by the rural literary journal The Milk House with support from The Daily Yonder.

The spread of bird flu or H5N1 in dairy cows has put many dairy farmers and consumers on edge. To help measure and mitigate the virus in cow herds, the Department of Agriculture rolled out mandated milk testing in December. The USDA is sharing its testing results with up-to-date graphics of confirmed bird flu cases, also called HPAI, found in U.S. herds. Over the past 30 days, testing found 182 new cases in two states. See the details here.

Shouses don't have to be small. This shouse is located in Okeana, a small unincorporated
community in rural Ohio. (Morton Buildings photo)

Rural landscapes have made room for country-living architecture that goes beyond barn-shaped homes and wood cabins. "Barndominiums" and "shouses" are dotting the countryside in surprising numbers. "Look carefully the next time you’re driving on the back roads of America, and you’re bound to spot a shouse — a hulking rectangular structure. . . . It could easily be mistaken for a machine shed," reports Dionne Searcey of The New York Times. "From the outside, shouses look a lot like the better-known barndominiums, or barndos for short. . . . It’s difficult to trace the genesis of shouses. . ."

'Fancy mechanic' Brienna Hall works for a company few have heard of doing work vital to maintaining all the tech in our lives. "The piece of equipment that the entire world has come to rely on — and Hall is specially trained to handle — is called an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine," reports Ben Cohen of The Wall Street Journal. "It’s the machine that produces the most advanced microchips on the planet . . . maybe the most remarkable thing about these invaluable machines is that they’re all made by the same company: ASML. . . . This one Dutch company is responsible for all of the EUV lithography systems that help make the chips in so many of your devices. Like your phone. And your computer. And your tablet. And your TV. Maybe even your car, too."