Federal plan to provide internet access to more rural areas might include satellite service, which has fans and critics

A new bill would allow satellite internet in rural
areas. (Adobe Stock photo)

Despite bipartisan congressional support for all Americans to have access to speedy internet, discussions on how to get the job done have fallen along party lines, with many Republicans bemoaning the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program as too slow and overly attached to using fiber technology. "New legislation looks to address those complaints," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. "The legislation would amend the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and loosen several requirements."

Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican, "introduced the Streamlining Program Efficiency and Expanding Deployment for BEAD Act, known as the SPEED for BEAD Act," Teale explains. The bill "would clarify that any technology, including satellite internet, can be used to help close the digital divide, and would eliminate what Hudson called 'burdensome' regulations."

While several trade groups "expressed their support for the bill. . . . not [everyone is] convinced that changing BEAD at this stage is the right course of action," Teale reports. "With every state and territory having had their deployment plans approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and several states ready to distribute grant funding and deploy infrastructure, some warned that a change now could delay the program further."

Others insist that spending federal dollars on satellite internet will enrich satellite owners while providing only sub-standard internet access. When Evan Feinman, who had directed BEAD for the past three years, quit, he sent "a blistering email to his former colleagues on his way out the door warning that the Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich Elon Musk’s satellite internet company with money for rural broadband," reports John Hendel of Politico.

Feinman’s "lengthy email, totaling more than 1,100 words is a sign of deep discomfort about the changes underway that will likely transform BEAD," Hendel writes. Feinman warned, "'Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington.'"

High beef prices could spike further if agricultural tariffs go into effect. Imports are holding beef costs in check.

The price for an all-American beef burger has
continued to climb. (Adobe Stock photo)

Got milk? Yes. Got beef? Well, that depends on how much you want to spend. American "beef has been rising in price for years now . . . And [with] proposed tariffs, it may be about to get much worse," reports The Economist. "Since January 2020, the average price of a pound of beef mince has risen from $3.90 to $5.60. That is a 45% increase, almost double the general inflation rate."

Rising beef prices stem from Americans' high demand for beef and a shrinking domestic supply. U.S. livestock herds are smaller than they were a decade ago, but American beef consumption has remained steady or, in some cases, increased. The imbalance has led suppliers to import beef to meet demand without further price escalation. The Economist reports, "Last year imports totaled 2 million head of live cattle. . .a record high."

While imports helped put the price brake on current beef costs, the Trump administration's tariffs could cause prices to rise again. The Economist explains, "On April 2nd, [Trump said] he will be imposing hefty new tariffs on agricultural imports. That will probably include beef. Farmers, he said, should 'get ready' to grow food to sell to Americans, and 'have fun.'"

If hefty import tariffs are levied on beef, the cost of meat is expected to spike, leaving U.S. farmers more likely to "sell down their stocks" rather than grow their herds, the Economist reports. Steve Sunderman, a rancher in northeast Nebraska, told the Economist, “We’re trying to be in a rebuilding phase for the herd. So it’d be a great thing for price, but probably a horrible thing for the industry."

Opinion: New USDA leader says she has plans to trim the department and refocus it to help U.S. farmers and families

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said she
aims to 'get back to basics.' (USDA photo)

The Department of Agriculture traces its humble beginnings back to 1862, when it opened with a commissioner and nine employees. Since then, it has grown into "29 sub-agencies with nearly 100,000 employees, and it reported its total outlays last year at $228.3 billion," writes Sierra Dawn McClain in her opinion for The Wall Street Journal. "Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins aims to get back to basics."

At the time the USDA was created, "more than half of all Americans worked on farms," McClain explains. Since the 1860s, the number of U.S. citizens who "work in agriculture has shrunk to less than 2%, but the USDA reaches into every farm, national forest, rural town, grocery store and school cafeteria."

Secretary Rollins sees herself as a bureaucracy trimmer and "says her broader mission is the 'restoration of rural America,'" McClain writes. "The government tends to ignore farmers, she says, except to impose 'burdensome and costly regulations that hamper innovation.'. . . She wants to ease off, and her plan to lower egg prices, announced in these pages, exemplifies her approach — offering services to farmers without rushing to add new requirements."

Rollins also plans to remake the Forest Service, a "USDA sub-agency that manages 193 million acres of land. The service faces a fiscal crisis that Rollins attributes to unprofitable forest-management practices and Biden-era wage and workforce increases," McClain writes. Rollins told her, “This is the classic case of government gone awry." 

As far as entitlements such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Rollins aims to "reduce fraud, establish stricter work requirements for SNAP recipients and re-evaluate the Thrifty Food Planants," McClain adds. "She wants to make sure the program continues 'serving the families that need it the most,' and she says she grew up in such a family: She and her two sisters were raised by a single mother making $5 an hour." She told McClain: “I will do everything I can to make sure that the people that truly need that will get it."

To read more about USDA plans for bird flu management, tariff responses and Rollins' approach to working with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary at Health and Human Services, click here.

Job cuts at USDA reduced staff dedicated to stopping noxious plants and invasive species from entering U.S.

Sniffing dog at work.
(USDA photo)

The federal "Department of Government Efficiency" has eliminated agricultural jobs it considers unnecessary, but the cuts could allow noxious plants and invasive bugs from foreign countries to gain a foothold in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Dog Detection Training Center is one area that received significant cuts, which could prove troublesome.

Derek Copeland, who lost his job during DOGE's cuts, worked to "prepare beagles and Labrador retrievers to sniff out plants and animals that are invasive or vectors for zoonotic diseases, like swine fever," reports Kate Knibbs for Wired. "Copeland estimates the NDDTC lost about a fifth of its trainers and a number of other support staff when 6,000 employees were let go."

Before his termination notice, "Copeland had just spent several months training the only dog stationed in Florida capable of detecting the Giant African land snail, an invasive mollusk that poses a significant threat to Florida agriculture," Knibbs writes. He told her, “We have dogs for spotted and lantern flies, Asian longhorn beetles. I don’t think the American people realize how much [stuff] people bring into the United States.”

The staffing cuts translate into years of lost education and training to protect American crops from invasive pests. Mike Lahar, the regulatory affairs manager at U.S. customs broker Deringer, told Knibbs, “These aren’t your average people. These were highly trained individuals — inspectors, entomologists, taxonomists.”

Allowing potentially harmful bugs and plants into the U.S. could be one harmful after-effect of DOGE's massive staffing cuts, and ports teaming with rotting food could soon be another. "Supply chain experts warn that the losses could cause food to go rotten while waiting in ports and could lead to even higher grocery prices," Knibbs explains. U.S. grocery supply chains are already suffering from tariff whiplash and persistent food inflation woes.

Kit Johnson, the director of trade compliance at the U.S. customs broker John S. James, "predicts prices and waste to increase. But what raises the most alarms for him is the increased likelihood of invasive species slipping through inspection cracks," Knibbs reports "He says the price of missing a threatening pest is 'wiping out an entire agricultural commodity,' an event that could have 'not just economic but national security impacts.'"

Quick hits: Medical flights increase; inflation navigation; rethinking grass-fed meat; NASA astronauts splash home

When every minute matters, a medical helicopter
can be a rural patient's best option. (WSAZ photo)

As more rural hospitals close, medical helicopter services are more likely to be called for emergency medical treatment. "Over the past decade, demand for air ambulance services has grown more than 50%. One factor experts say is a rising number of rural hospitals shutting their doors," reports Blair Miller of WSAZ in West Virginia. "As rural hospitals close and demand for medical flights grows, the healthcare industry faces another hurdle, a shortage of medical pilots."

Since late January, measles infections have spread from Texas to New Mexico to Oklahoma. As of late March, 321 people have contracted the disease, including a child who died from the infection. Even though most infections occur in unvaccinated people, it's still prudent to understand how the disease spreads and who may need a measles, MMR, vaccination, or vaccination booster, reports The Conversation. "In a Q&A, Daniel Pastula, a neurologist and medical epidemiologist, explained how and when you should take action." MedPage Today also offers measles vaccination guidance.

Some Americans skip the expensive
snacks. (Adobe Stock photo)

Amid increasing food costs and health care worries, many U.S. consumers are dropping some of their expensive habits, leaving convenience store sales feeling the pinch. "Convenience-store sales fell 4.3% by volume in the year ended Feb. 23, as consumers cut back on snacks and cigarettes due to rising prices and health concerns," report Jesse Newman and Laura Cooper of The Wall Street Journal. "The change in behavior is hurting U.S. sales of Doritos, Twinkies, Heath bars and Newports. . . . Lottery ticket sales remain strong."

At the time Isaac Newton pondered the idea that "what is up, must come down," he was observing an apple fall from a tree branch. Had he been watching U.S. food costs, he might have come to a completely different conclusion. "The USDA states that food costs have climbed over the past few years and will continue to do so in 2025," reports CaLea Johnson of Mental Floss. "More specifically, food-at-home prices (grocery store or supermarket food purchases) are expected to increase by 1.3%." To see which states people spend the most on groceries, click here.

After years of touting grass-fed burgers as healthier for the planet, some ranchers and conservationists may want to rethink their sales pitch. "A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences challenges found that cattle raised only on pastures do not have a smaller carbon footprint than feedlot cattle, which are quickly fattened on corn and other grains," reports Anna Phillips of The Washington Post. "This held even when the researchers took into account that healthy pastureland can help capture more carbon by pulling it out of the air and storing it in roots and other plant tissues."

NASA astronauts return home to Earth after an extended stay in outer space. (NASA photo)

Steven Speilberg's alien darling, E.T., was famously stranded on Earth and couldn't stop begging to phone home. NASA astronauts had a similar, but opposite problem. They were stuck in space wanting to get back home to Earth. "Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore set off to spend eight days at the space station. The trip lasted nine months," report Kenneth Chang and Thomas Fuller of The New York Times. SpaceX and the Coast Guard members met the astronauts as they "splashed down in calm, azure waters off the coast of the Florida Panhandle. . . . A pod of curious dolphins also greeted the astronauts."

Mexican produce suppliers and U.S. grocers tap dance around tariffs to keep aisles stocked and prices steady

Trade with Mexico keeps fresh produce on American
grocery store shelves. (Adobe Stock photo)

Supermarket produce aisles are suffering from a bad case of tariff whiplash, leaving suppliers juggling orders to avoid levies and grocers searching for ways to hold costs down. "Companies that import and distribute tomatoes, broccoli and other fruits and vegetables are canceling orders and sometimes replacing them within days," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "Supermarkets and retailers are monitoring consumers’ tolerance for higher prices. . . and considering bigger changes in their supply chains."

The Trump administration's see-saw approach to tariffs is "becoming a day-to-day factor for businesses that rely on cross-border commerce," Thomas writes. "American consumers expect to see fresh produce in stores year-round, and for avocados, broccoli, peppers and mangos, that means buying from Mexico and South American countries."

Despite the scale of Mexican produce sales to the United States -- worth roughly $20 billion annually -- suppliers operate with razor-thin profits, which leaves "little room for sellers to absorb higher costs without passing them along to customers," Thomas explains. "That leaves retailers and suppliers to determine whether consumers can stomach still-higher prices after inflation fatigue has eroded sales at supermarkets and restaurants over the past year."

To hold prices steady, grocers are reworking their supply chains. "Grocery giant Kroger said it is attempting to shift its purchasing of produce and other products to avoid the Trump administration’s tariffs, and ward off further price increases in its stores," Thomas reports. California grocer, Dynasty Farms is "considering moving its broccoli production to the U.S., where the company operates farms from California’s Salinas Valley to Scottsdale, Ariz."

As measles spread in west Texas, the state's 'lackluster investment' in rural health care systems is exposed

Measles is a highly contagious disease
caused by a virus. (Adobe Stock photo)

As the number of diagnosed cases of measles continues to climb, the outbreak in rural west Texas has exposed a health care system that is unprepared to handle even a smaller-scale contagion, reports Pooja Salhotra of The Texas Tribune. "Aging infrastructure, a dearth of primary care providers and long distances between testing sites and laboratories plague much of rural Texas, where the measles outbreak has concentrated."

A few years back, rural Texas was ravaged by Covid infections. Like Covid, the recent measles outbreak is "revealing how a lack of public health resources leaves rural communities vulnerable," Salhotra explains. "What’s left are local leaders forced to scrape together the few tools they have to respond to an emergency, contending with years of lackluster investment from the state and federal level to proactively prevent emerging public health threats."

A lack of hospitals, physicians and dilapidated facilities are just some of rural Texas' health care woes. "Some 64 Texas counties don’t have a hospital, and 25 lack primary care physicians," Salhotra reports. "Swaths of Texas have scant resources for public awareness campaigns. And they lack sufficient medical staff with expertise to provide the one-on-one education needed to encourage vaccination and regular visits to the doctor."

To slow the spread of measles, "rural health care teams have cordoned off spaces to conduct measles testing," Salhotra writes. They've "used social media to blast residents with information about vaccination efficacy and schlepped throat swabs across counties to ship them to a state lab in Austin — the only public state facility that was conducting measles testing until the Texas Tech University Bioterrorism Response Laboratory, part of a national network of CDC-funded labs, began measles testing" recently.

The primary goal of public health is prevention; however, "it’s emergencies that spur the most action, particularly in rural communities," Salhotra explains. "It was only after a school-aged child died from measles that state and federal support intensified."

Currently, Texas "spends less on public health per person than the vast majority of other states, according to the State Health Access Data Assistance Center, whose analysis shows Texas spent $17 per person on public health in 2023. A decade earlier, the spend was $19," Salhotra reports. "The low levels of state funding particularly hurt rural communities that have higher rates of uninsured Texans and more senior citizens with greater health needs."

Scientists and technical staff who inspect imported items for invasive pests have been fired from USDA

The firing of plant protection workers can lead to economic
 consequences. (Photo by Ante Hamersmit, Unsplash)

Nearly 6,000 workers were recently cut from the USDA, including highly trained scientists and technical staff who screen imported items.

According to Suzy Khimm’s article for NBC News, “the firings have dealt a serious blow to the federal inspection process required for imported food, plants and other organic matter — a program that the agency calls “essential” to preventing infestations and disease outbreaks from crippling America’s trillion-dollar agricultural economy.”

Jonah Ulmer, who was the “government's foremost authority on tiny invasive pests,” was among the 145 people fired from plant protection.

Ulmer told NBC News about the importance of the job. “The one that you identify as a nonquarantine pest, and it comes in the country and wreaks havoc? The impacts of that could be millions or billions of dollars in economic damage.”

Khimm wrote that this effort could lead to economic consequences for farmers and consumers.
To read more about the potential impacts visit NBC News.

Retelling the history of land-grant universities and sharing their contributions is key to their survival

Gary Steinhardt taught and researched soil science issues
at Purdue and Purdue Extension. (Farm Progress photo)

Land-grant universities sit at the heart of farming research and Extension Services, but to keep them alive, their history and contribution need retelling, writes Tom J. Bechman of Farm Progress. "Education at a land-grant university helped make Gary Steinhardt who he is today. . . . He spent roughly half of his final Purdue Agronomy Department seminar explaining the history and mission of land-grant colleges and the Extension Service."

Steinhardt explained to Bechman why he felt driven to retell the land-grant success story: “We are at a point in the history of the land-grant system where we need to be careful. Some in the academic world don’t appreciate what it can accomplish. There is still a tremendous need to tell the public about research done through land-grant universities. Otherwise, education does not get passed along.”

Funding may always be a challenge for Extension Services, and "current upheaval due to efforts to cut federal spending may only intensify the fight for Extension dollars," Bechman explains. "But the threat Steinhardt refers to is within university systems. Is there still support among university leaders for practical, applied research that can be passed along to farmers and families, and to youth through 4-H? When an Extension person like Steinhardt retires, will that position be replaced?"

Steinhardt's seminar showcased the creation of land-grant universities and reviewed why they were established. A few of his highlighted events are shared below:

Land Ordinance of 1785. "Money from the sale of Section 16 in each township was reserved to fund schools," Bechman writes. "Money from land sales also helped start universities, including Miami University in Ohio, Indiana University, the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin."

Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and Industrial universities. "This act of the Confederation Congress declared 'schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged,'" Bechman adds. "In the mid-1800s, Jonathan Baldwin Turner promoted 'industrial universities' that could teach working-class people, like those in agriculture."

Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862. Bechman explains, "In the middle of the Civil War, this act of Congress specified how public lands could be donated to 'provide for colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, including military tactics.'"

To read more about land-grant development in the United States, click here.

Six months after Hurricane Helene, North Carolina is still trying to measure the loss while pushing recovery efforts

Flooding from Hurricane Helene wiped out homes and roads.
 (Adobe Stock photo)

North Carolina lawmakers are pushing Hurricane Helene recovery efforts forward despite not knowing the extent of Helene's damage or how much and when federal aid will be available. Brady Dennis of The Washington Post reports, "Officials seem determined to move quicker after Helene and avoid the mistakes of the past, even as North Carolina faces the most massive disaster recovery in its history."

Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina six months ago, leaving a swath of decimation caused by extreme rain, flooding and mudslides. More than 100 people died and thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed. Flooding "wiped out bridges, roads, businesses and farms," Dennis reports. The storm left "an estimated $60 billion of economic ruin in its wake."

State officials still don't know how much federal aid will "ultimately arrive and in what quantity, even amid President Trump’s promises to speed help to the region," Dennis adds. "FEMA has helped more than 157,000 families and distributed $402.5 million to storm victims in North Carolina. . . . But the larger sums of funding meant to fuel long-term rebuilding that often follow large-scale disasters, historically takes months, if not years, to be fully implemented." 

The storm's scope of catastrophic damage explains why recovery has been slow. "Disaster recovery is almost always frustrating, tedious and too costly for most states and localities to bear without a significant assist from the federal government," Dennis explains. "Lawmakers continue to hash out the final details of the state’s most recent — though almost certainly not its last — Helene aid package. If passed, it will include more than $500 million to help struggling farmers, jump-start a home building program and repair private roads and bridges."

Even with that progress, the state will need billions to get back on its feet. Gov. Josh Stein’s deputies admit "that serious hurdles remain," Dennis reports. "Among them: the staggering damage Helene inflicted, the lack of data in some counties about the actual number of damaged and destroyed homes and the difficulties posed by rebuilding amid mountainous terrain."

Flora & Fauna: Bald eagle vs. Canadian goose; ping! It's a whale; a woolly devil; feathered roommates; bird hitchhikers

A Canada goose and a bald eagle battled in Burlington, Ont.
The goose survived. (Photo by Mervyn Sequiera via CBC)

A bald eagle swooped down on a Canadian goose that looked like an easy meal. A battle ensued. "Mervyn Sequeira — who watched and photographed a 20-minute battle between the two birds — the goose held its own," reports Aura Carreño Rosas of CBC News. "Sequeira and his family witnessed a rare event — a fight between the national bird of the U.S. and the iconic Canadian animal. Sequeira told Rosas, "When we thought that it was really over for the goose, strangely, the bald eagle just gave up and left."

A marine AI tool is doing something humans can't do. "This is WhaleSpotter, an artificial intelligence-powered whale detection system that aims to transmit real-time alerts to ships to prevent them from colliding with whales — a threat that leads to the injury or death of thousands of whales each year," reports Ashley Braun of bioGraphic. "While the AI system is designed to filter out false alarms — such as signals from birds, breaking waves, and boats—the aim is for ship captains to receive zero false alerts, so that every ping truly requires their attention."

The first photo of the woolly devil made a stir among
botanists. (Photo by Deb Manley via Atlas Obscura)

Big Bend National Park has bragging rights to a "devilish" discovery. "This tiny, fuzzy sunflower relative has been hiding in plain sight — it represents the first new genus identified in a U.S. national park in nearly 50 years," reports Andrew Coletti of Atlas Obscura. "The Big Bend species has been given the scientific name Ovicula biradiata. Informally, it’s become known as 'the woolly devil,' for its fur and the 'devil horn'-like rays protruding from its flowers."

Maple seeds are made to get around -- even if that means flying in the rain. "When wind or other disturbances detach winged maple seeds called samaras from their parent tree, they spin through the air – and can even spin when it’s raining," reports Andrew Dickerson for The Conversation. "The samaras’ spinning movement, called autorotation, keeps them in the air for longer so they travel farther. My colleagues and I filmed raindrops as they crashed into autorotating samaras. The samaras shed drops by shattering them, flinging the drops off, or rolling out of the way – like they’re turning away from a punch."

Spike is a 'small but mighty' Eastern Screech Owl.
(Fontenelle Forest photo via M. Stewart)

It's hard to match the curious cuteness of screech owls -- especially when they have heart-tugging stories. Meet Spike and George. "Spike was found trapped in a train car, during which he sustained brain damage that made it impossible for him to survive in the wild. But since finding his new home at Fontenelle Forest, one of Nebraska's oldest conservation organizations, Spike has been thriving," reports Sydney Wingfield for Martha Stewart magazine. "Spike is an excellent roommate to George, another owl who arrived at the conservation 12 years ago after his nest tree was mistakenly cut down. While George is notorious for being a picky roommate, he and Spike have proven to be a perfect match."

Flower mites hitch rides on hummingbirds. (Pixabay public domain photo via Physics.org)

Hummingbirds may seem like an odd choice for a taxi, but tiny bugs can hop on for a ride. "Flower mites spend their lives slurping nectar and nibbling pollen in flowers throughout the tropics. To travel from one blossom to another, these tiny, eight-legged creatures hitch rides on the beaks of hummingbirds, taking shelter in the birds’ nostrils during flight," reports Douglas Main of The New York Times. "When a speedy hummingbird arrives at a flower to drink nectar, mites run toward its beak to get onboard before eventually transferring to another blossom." The mini stowaways are blind and can't jump. Main explains how they "hummingbird hitchhike" here.