Trump administration wants to rescind 'Roadless Rule'; changes could threaten millions of acres of protected land

Kootenai National Forest in Montana is used as a conservation site for grizzly bears. Certain parts of the forest are designated growing areas for bear foods such as salmonberries and thimbleberries. Up in Alaska breathes “the northern lung of the planet,” or the Tongass National Forest, the biggest in the United States.

Both of these forests are protected under what's known as the Roadless Rule, a 2001 ruling protecting land, often without roads, from further development, reports Ilana Newman for The Daily Yonder. In August, the Trump Administration filed a proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement to rescind the Roadless Rule. Many people in rural communities say the Roadless Rule protects their economy and way of life. 

The ruling applies to 59 million acres of public land, spanning the Western U.S. and Alaska to New England and Appalachia. The Roadless Rule protects lands without roads, but “there are plenty of primitive roads in what is known as inventoried roadless areas, or the land that is protected by the Roadless Rule,” Newman writes. “What the Roadless Rule does is prevent any additional development, road building, or logging in those areas.”

As of Aug. 18, the filing of the proposed rule opened a 30-day public comment period. Rescinding the ruling would allow local hands to better manage forests for wildfire risk, according to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

Many rural commenters from Alaska, Appalachia, Montana, New Mexico and Washington disagree. Forests such as the Kootenai and Tongass are threatened by logging and loss of conservation land. Locals in Washington cite concerns of fires igniting adjacent to roads; and in parts of Appalachia, drinking water could be contaminated by roads built on inventoried land. In New Mexico, rescinding the rule raises fear of opportunities for exploitative mining.

Coal is still declining despite the Trump Administration's efforts to save it

The coal industry remains in decline despite the Trump Administration's efforts to rescue it. Curtis Tate reports for WEKU (republished by Kentucky Lantern) that electric generation from coal is expected to decline 8% in 2026 and another 6% in 2027, according to the U.S. Energy and Information Administration. 

The Trump Administration has rolled back Biden-era environmental protections, canceled tax credits for wind and solar, and removed regulations on power plants to try and boost the industry, but Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis analyst Seth Feaster told Tate those efforts have "fallen flat." Coal just can't compete in today's energy landscape, Feaster said. 

"One, it’s not competitive,” Feaster said. “Two, there’s a lot of other stuff being built right now, particularly solar, and still some wind, but solar all over the country.” Renewable energy, plus natural gas, "are expected to meet the growing electricity demand the government forecasts this year and next year. Solar generation surpassed coal for the first time in May."

Tate reports that Kentucky lost more than 300 coal jobs in the first six months of 2026, leaving less than 3,000 coal miners in the state — a 14% drop from the first quarter of 2025. 

Tobacco used to be king in Kentucky; now farmers worry their way of life is dying

About 30 years ago, tobacco was king in Kentucky agriculture, but thanks to declining rates of smoking, overseas competition, and increasing rates of vape and e-cigarette usage, the crop is scarce now, and the tobacco farmers still hanging on worry their way of life is dying, Liam Niemeyer reports for the Kentucky Lantern. 

In the 1990s, almost 60,000 Kentucky farms were growing tobacco, but that number has plummeted to less than 1,000 now, Niemeyer reports. In Clark County alone, 700 of the 962 farms in the county grew tobacco in 1978. There are less than 10 tobacco growers left. Farmers like Kenneth Anderson, who now leases his land to a much younger tobacco farmer, "wonder what’s been lost — community, culture and learned practices and knowledge handed down by generations — as the number of tobacco farmers continues to dwindle in the state." 

Niemeyer reports that perhaps the final death nell for the crop came in 2004 when Congress ended "the federal price support program for tobacco farmers that had been in place since the Great Depression." Farmers received $9 billion in buyout payments at the time; Kentucky farmers got $2.5 billion of that. 

University of Kentucky agriculture economist Will Snell said "the roughly 20 years since the buyout in Kentucky agriculture" has been "the largest 'structural change of any ag economy of any state.'" Kentucky lost 80% of its tobacco market share and about 90% of its tobacco farmers from the shift.

The farmers lament not just the business side of tobacco farming, but the loss of culture that comes with the shifts, Niemeyer reports. Eighty-year-old Bath County farmer Robert Bach "still keeps a few burley tobacco plants growing in his backyard garden, even though his wife says they take up too much room," he writes. "'It’s just part of Kentucky history. It’s just it’s hard to give history up for me anyway.'"

The Congressional Black Caucus Institute launches initiative to engage rural Black voters for midterms

Black federal lawmakers launched a multimillion-dollar effort called “SO VOTE” to register and mobilize low-propensity young voters from majority-Black and rural communities across the South, Midwest and West.

The effort launched on Tuesday, Sept. 15, and was developed by The Congressional Black Caucus Institute. The goal of the campaign is to reach Black and brown communities who are often “sidestepped” by major political parties, reports Matt Brown for the Mississippi Free Press.

“SO VOTE” comes after years of “disappointment and frustration among some in the Black Caucus at the broader Democratic Party’s efforts to court Black, rural and younger voters.” The initiative may be in response to Republican redistricting in multiple states, said Mississippi Democrat Rep. Bennie Thompson.

Officially, “SO VOTE” is a nonpartisan engagement effort. Still, the Black Caucus targets regions “where Black voter turnout could prove key to whether a Democratic candidate prevails in closely divided House districts,” Brown writes.

The Black Caucus plans to spend $4.5 million in the midterm election cycle, having already raised nearly $1 million toward blending old engagement tactics with new technology. Outreach in rural, minority communities will be conducted in-person and online; campaigns will convene at local civic groups, churches, sororities and fraternities, and will utilize content creators and geo-targeting ads.

“These Southern states are trying to minimize Black political participation and ultimately Black political strength,” Thompson said. “So what we have to do is take that low-propensity voter and elevate their participation so they become an additional voice to be reckoned with.”

CDC declares cyclospora outbreak over

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the cyclospora outbreak over as of Friday, Sept. 11, with a majority of cases linked to Taylor Farms’ iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico. Roughly 13,000 cases across 21 states were linked to Taylor Farms, mostly from mid-June to mid-July, reports Alice Callahan, Caroline Hopkins Legaspi and Christina Jewett for The New York Times. Two patients have died, with 570 hospitalized.

“In its announcement on Friday, the C.D.C. said that there is no longer a risk of people getting sick with cyclospora from Taylor Farms’ iceberg lettuce, and that fewer than two infections per day occurred in August, on average,” the authors write. “The C.D.C. generally deems a food-borne outbreak to be over when the agency determines that new illnesses are no longer being reported, and that the product causing the illness has been cleared from shelves.”

Cyclospora is a parasite that can cause weeks-long diarrhea; it can take up to two weeks after consuming the parasite to become ill. The last lettuce recall had a best-by date of Aug. 3, and it may take six weeks for the CDC to report a case after a patient becomes symptomatic.

The Food and Drug Administration is still investigating the root of cyclospora. “Last month, the agency sent inspectors to the Taylor Farms processing center and lettuce farms in northeastern Mexico,” the authors write. “In a letter to produce industry leaders on Friday, acting deputy commissioner for food at the F.D.A. Donald Prater urged companies to invest more in cyclospora prevention and to follow food safety regulations.”

Investigations into outbreaks not linked to Taylor Farms are ongoing. Four other sources comprise 231 cases. More than 16,000 total cases have been confirmed since May 1, 2026, compared to 2025’s 1,180 cases from May through August.

Proposed EPA rule could eliminate restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants

The Trump Administration is proposing new Environmental Protection Agency rules that would "no longer limit the planet-warming pollution that power plants pump into the air while burning coal and gas," Maxine Joselow and Lisa Friedman report for The New York Times. 

If implemented, the rule would also prevent future administrations from regulating emissions from power plants.

Industrial power plants are the second largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, which raises temperatures and exponentially increases the risk of climate disasters. Joselow and Friedman report that scientists have said that "industrialized nations must sharply cut emissions to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change."

Many experts have opposed the move, noting that "if the U.S. power sector were its own country, it would be the fifth-largest climate polluter in the world after China, the entire United States, India and Russia."

Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, told reporters that the proposed change would be "another nail in the coffin for this administration’s commitment to protecting people and tackling the climate crisis." He said the EPA "is ending its legal and moral responsibility to end climate pollution."

One Western city hopes to reduce deadly wildlife-human interactions

As natural habitats for wildlife continue to shrink, wildlife-human interactions continue to rise, causing big problems for fish and wildlife departments most often tasked with alleviating the problems such interactions can cause (e.g., property damage, crop destruction, livestock loss, human casualties). Emily
Senkosky reports for High Country News about how one Western town is trying to prevent the problems before they start. 

Neighborhoods in Bozeman, Montana, have expanded their way outward into surrounding wild areas, and wildlife-human interactions have increased as a result. "The city’s south side is home to an estimated 60 to 80 deer per square mile, and bears and mountain lions visit Bozeman trails, green spaces and backyards," Senkosky writes. 

Noah Starling is a wildlife technician with Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks service, and told Senkosky that a big part of his job is to "euthanize animals whose behavior poses a risk to public safety." Drivers hit so many deer in the winter of 2022 that Starling was euthanizing up to six deer per day. He euthanized three bears on a single day in 2023. He enrolled in a master's program at Montana State University's to study human-wildlife interaction, spurred by his experiences. 

Starling is creating an interactive map of Bozeman and Gallatin County showing where human-wildlife conflicts are most likely in the hope that city, county and state officials can work together to reduce the number of fatal encounters for wildlife. “This is a tool that I hope will give decision-makers a way to know where conflict is occurring,” said Starling. “We can’t stop the increase of humans, but we can help increase knowledge.”

McClatchy lays off 30% of its unionized, local journalists

Newspaper publisher McClatchy, which owns several local newspapers throughout the United States, laid off more than 90 journalists and media workers across 17 publications on Sept. 10. Those laid off account for 30% of McClatchy’s unionized workers, according to The News Guild.  

The layoffs impact several local papers that serve as watchdogs for rural interests, regions and governments. Laying off staff at larger newspapers leaves fringe suburban and rural areas at risk of becoming news deserts. 

Affected newsrooms include the Bellingham Herald, The Olympian, Tacoma News Tribune and Tri-City Herald (Washington); Bradenton Herald (Florida); Centre Daily Times (Pennsylvania); Charlotte Observer (North Carolina); Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas); Fresno Bee, Modesto Bee and Sacramento Bee (California); Idaho Statesman (Idaho); Kansas City Star (Missouri and Kansas); Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky); Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald (Florida); and The State (South Carolina). 

“The departure of these talented reporters, visual journalists and writers will immediately leave gaping holes in local coverage for dozens of communities across the United States,” The News Guild writes. “They lost their jobs, cut by a company that should spend as much time figuring out how to use high-skilled employees as it does replacing their work with AI.” McClatchy, a subsidiary of the Chatham Asset Management hedge fund, launched a new A.I. "tool that can summarize articles and create different versions for different audiences" at the beginning of this year, Joe Sonka reported for Kentucky Public Radio.

The Idaho Statesman lost 10 of its 18 journalists, for example. The Lexington Herald-Leader, one of Kentucky’s two remaining statewide newspapers, laid off half of its staff, including its only environmental reporter for Eastern Kentucky. The cut leaves the paper with only two reporters who currently cover state and city government.

The State lost its only environmental reporter, who covered the entirety of South Carolina. The Centre Daily Times frequently reported stories that would become national headlines, as was the case with their coverage of Penn State's off-campus cocaine ring. After staff cuts, they were left with five reporters. 

Supreme Court blocks Trump Administration's newly proposed vote-by-mail restrictions

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the Trump Administration's newly proposed vote-by-mail restrictions in a ruling on Monday, reports Hansi Lo Wang for NPR. Such restrictions would have hit rural voters hard because they rely on early voting and vote by mail, according to a report from the nonpartisan policy group Secure Democracy USA.

The proposed rules would have required states to "turn over lists of voters' names and addresses and have certain specific barcodes on ballot envelopes in order to have them delivered" by the USPS. 

The measure had been blocked already by two federal judges, and now "a majority of the Supreme Court decided to keep that injunction in place," ruling that "the Trump administration was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge," Wang reports. "Several Republican state election officials," also "signed on to a Supreme Court brief, warning that any attempt to carry out the USPS plan now 'will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays, and confusion for both voters and election officials.'"

"Voting by mail has already begun in states including Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin, with more soon to follow — including Western states such as Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, where elections are held primarily or fully with mail ballots," Wang reports. The USPS plan is paused for the midterms, but  Wang writes that "the legal fight will likely continue over how the agency may try to implement it for future federal elections."

What began as a newspaper editor's joke, became an international tourism draw for an 800-person Nevada town

Virginia City, Nevada, population 800, boasts a rich history of silver and gold mining that drew thousands to the town in the 1800s. But today, it's known more for something wholly unexpected in the American West: An annual weekend camel race. 

The town "looks like a film set of the Old West," reports Fil Corbitt for NPR's All Things Considered. "The sidewalks are wooden and the old storefronts are occupied by candy shops, souvenir emporiums and saloons. Off of the main street, at the base of a steep desert hill pocked with old mine shafts, dust whips through the fairgrounds." He asks Joe Hendricks, who owns the camels that will run the races, what it's like to ride them: "It feels like you're on a camel." 

Fair enough for a town whose history is likely more synonymous with riding horses. It's serious business in Virginia City, even if the origins of the races might not have been. It all began in the 1950s with editor of the local newspaper, Bob Richards, who "was nursing a hangover at The Delta Saloon," Corbitt reports. "He later recounted that he and the bartender were randomly joking about some nonexistent Labor Day camel races. When he went back to the paper, called the Territorial Enterprise, he found that he had space to fill and decided to write a joke story about the fictional race."

Such exaggerations were nothing new for the Enterprise, which, coincidentally, was the first place Samuel Clemens used his pen name, Mark Twain. Year after year, Richards would "recount" tales of the nonexistent camel races, and in 1960, the editor of the San Fransisco Chronicle upped the ante by offering to really bring the camels, and so, the Annual International Camel & Ostrich Races were born. 

This year marked the 67th running of the camels, and you can watch and read more about them from local TV news station, KOLO-8, and The Comstock Chronicle, the Enterprise's modern descendent.

Chronic illness rates in rural Texas linked to food insecurity

A lack of transportation, educational resources and fresh food contributes to rural Texas' increasing number of food deserts, which already span 58 counties. A recent study conducted by the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI) “found that food insecurity is a major factor fueling the chronic illness problem in rural Texas,” reports Liz Carey for The Daily Yonder. 

Food insecurity is defined by an inability to access fresh food, and it drives obesity, an underlying element in many chronic illnesses. Inaccessible fresh food is also associated with coronary heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure. 

PCCI found that 192 census tracts in Texas rank highly for obesity. Likewise, in East Texas, their data found 33 supermarkets — including discount stores — meeting the nutritional needs of more than 150,000 residents. Only 182 hospital beds are available for 100 miles. 

“I don’t want people to see food insecurity as a social challenge. When I say food insecurity can lead to obesity, it’s not just talking about people not having nutritious food to eat. They don’t have access to food. They can’t afford the food,” said Lance Rather, senior director at PCCI. “And it’s like a domino effect. It can also lead to people just going for fast food, or people going for shelf-stable food rather than fresh foods, and those choices can accumulate over time and lead to obesity.

Outside of physical health disparities, food insecurity can lead to social isolation, stigma, depression and increased stress and anxiety —- all of which are other social determinants of health. 

Education and awareness are key to addressing chronic health issues in rural areas. “Community-based organizations (CBOs) and community health workers can provide rural residents with information about how to access education and resources that will help them have a healthier diet,” Carey writes. “Using the information within the study, community-based organizations can make better decisions on how to most effectively use their limited resources.”