Replacing birds with rockets: SpaceX promises to answer concerns of Louisiana residents but has not made solid plans

SpaceX announced plans to build a $100 billion spaceport on the coast of Pecan Island, Louisiana this summer. Plans include a launchpad that would cover 400 acres of marsh to account for 10,000 launches a year — or 30 rocket launches a day, reports Delaney Nolan for The Daily Yonder.

Pecan Island is home to around 300 permanent residents who live only about six miles from the planned launchpads, Nolan writes. SpaceX hosted a forum to engage with the community, who were primarily concerned with environmental damage, property access, bird migration and flood risks. To many of their questions, SpaceX did not have an answer, and in two instances, representatives backtracked.

"Lil Mark" Broussard, a resident of the island, owns a strip of land between the shoreline and the southern border of SpaceX’s property. He asked if he would be able to access this land. Mark Soltys, the principal launch engineer, originally said SpaceX would not deny him access to his land, but he changed his answer during the hearing to "Access is blocked." This is because the expulsion zone as rockets launch would be too large to allow safe, unrestricted access — especially if there are 30 launches daily. 

The expanse of this expulsion area would impact Pecan’s coastline fishing access and its status as a hub for the Mississippi River Flyaway. Katy Groom, SpaceX’s director of environmental regulatory affairs, said native birds will momentarily flush, but will return, but could only tell residents the company would "figure it out" when asked how birds would return between 30 launches a day. 

With marsh land depleted, SpaceX would also have to build a levee/barrier to protect the island, but the question is whether it will surround the community, too. The answer is unclear: A state permit was bought, but has not been used to address flood protection plans. Many are worried about the noise from the launches or possible home damage, but a new Louisiana law means residents can’t sue. "SpaceX cannot be held liable for ‘noise, sonic booms, overflight, vibration, light, heat, exhaust, smoke, odor, visual intrusion, temporary access restrictions, or any other disturbance.'"

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers, dies at 96

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers, and lifelong workers' rights advocate, died from cancer on Oct. 28 at 96, reports Robert D. McFadden for The New York Times. Huerta led strikes and boycotts that would change the lives of thousands of migrant laborers. 

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Huerta protested with the nonviolent tactics promoted by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "She was arrested 22 times, roughed up by strikebreakers and once severely beaten by a police officer, suffering broken ribs and a ruptured spleen that left her disabled for months." She was also mother to 14 children, who were young during the time of her peak advocacy. 

She advocated for immigrants’ and women’s rights, and was an ally to U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, whose assassination she witnessed. In 1962, she and Caesar Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association, which would become the UFW, and protested low wages and abuses like toxic pesticide exposure by California grape growers. Their protests and boycotts amid police harassment culminated in the industry providing first-time benefits to laborers in 1970. 

The groups' efforts led to passage of the 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act in California, the first major farm reform outside of Hawaii, which guaranteed the right to organize a union. Though Huerta continued her activism, she was forced out of the UFW by her male coworkers. 

The NYT investigated Chavez for his abuse of underage girls in 2026. Huerta revealed during an interview with the Times that Chavez had raped her, and that two of her children were the product of his abuse. By her arrangement, the two children were raised by others. Other women at the UFW claimed Huerta rebuffed their complaints of sexism in the workplace. Huerta, fearing nobody would believe her allegations, said, "I never talked about it to anybody, and the reason I didn’t is because I just didn’t want to hurt the movement."

Huerta "was showered with awards, including 15 honorary degrees, and at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, she formally placed Hillary Clinton’s name in nomination for president," McFadden writes. "Her life was extolled in 'Dolores,' a 2017 documentary by Peter Bratt. In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California proclaimed an annual Dolores Huerta Day to commemorate her 'lifelong pursuit of justice.'"

The backyard blight of black walnuts finds a new identity in the kitchen

The large yellow, greenish nuts from the black walnut tree fall throughout summer and fall, often tripping runners, chipping mower blades and staining sidewalks black. Many collect them by the bucket to remove them from yards, sometimes opting to cut down the trees entirely, Jed Portman reports for The New York Times. This is the relationship for many Americans and the eastern black walnut, which has been known to produce about 3,789 nuts in a single season.

While cleaning up after this nut may seem like a chore, it is a "blessing" for many chefs. Nashville chef Sean Brock is known for his southern cuisine, and he has taken to serving his grandmother’s black walnut fudge at Diners, his Los Angeles-based restaurant. 

Brock said the typical, store-bought walnuts are bred to be much softer and more subtle than the black walnut, which provides a blast of wine-like flavor to his dishes. Chef John Shields of Smyth in Chicago said wild-harvested black walnut has "a very strong flavor that stands up to a seared scallop or a piece of lamb in a way other nuts don’t." Describing the flavor can be difficult, but Shields said it’s damp-tasting and young with hints of citrus. 

Others have described the black walnut’s taste as somewhere between menthol and mold. Either way, the two words to remember are bold and wild — at least that’s the opinion of the American Black Walnut Marketing Board and its main benefactor, Brian Hammons of Stockton, Missouri's Hammons Products Co.

"The company is the only remaining large-scale black walnut processor in the world, collecting millions of pounds of wild black walnuts at more than 160 strategically located processing facilities — called 'hulling stations' — across the Midwest and the South. Amateur foragers drop off truckloads of nuts collected from backyards, family farms and suburban side streets, receiving $14 per 100 pounds after hulling," Portman writes. "Hammons then sells them to major retailers, including Kroger, Publix and Walmart."

Black walnuts remain a cultural cache despite their "divisive appeal." For many, their thoughts on the black walnut can be found in the memory of their grandma's fruitcake and walnut cookies, or perhaps they are yet to be cultivated in a world of black walnut, ales, beers, sauces and pastries.

Number of local journalists continues to drop, leaving gaps in coverage of local civic issues

The latest "Local Journalism Index" study from Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News finds that local journalism capacity has continued to drop in 2026. Local journalism equivalents (LJEs) are down by 81 percent since 2002, and about 70 percent of counties in the United States have less than 7.8 LJEs per 100,000 residents, which leaves most Americans "in communities that are, by any reasonable measure, severely undercovered," a release about the report states. 

Other key findings of the report are: A severe lack of coverage of education, healthcare and other civic topics; more focus on crime and sports as newsrooms have shrunk; and higher rates of loneliness in states with fewer local journalists. Also, the report states that fewer local journalists means more direct financial harm to communities, and reporting gaps are linked to other civic gaps. 

"Looking at the state-level data, we see a similar picture: Adequate local news coverage is the exception, not the norm," the release states. "It is difficult to determine to what extent new outlets are filling in the gaps." 

The losses are spread across regions and population growth is not a factor. Two of the states with the fewest number of LJE's per 100,000 are growing in population size. The five states with the fewest LJE's per 100,000 are Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, Texas and Connecticut. The five states with the most LJE's per 100,000 are Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, South Dakota and Wyoming. 

Bird flu cases spike; concerns over spread between humans rise

Bird flu, or H5N1, is rising at poultry farms across the country. The biggest spike of bird flu occurred in 2024, when egg prices soared between $8 and $10 as commercial flocks were depopulated to control the flu. Julia Musto reports for The Independent that 1.32 billion birds have sickened over the past month.

  

Clinton County, Illinois, is facing the biggest outbreak, with 934,600 ill birds and two farms under quarantine. Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota trail behind. 

Humans can be infected if the virus enters the eyes, nose, mouth or is inhaled. It is typically spread through the infected saliva or fecal matter of an ill bird/animal. H5N1 has a 50% mortality rate in humans.

 
The sickness is currently unable to spread from human to human, but scientists say it is only a matter of time. Bird flu can spread to cows from birds, and it is now being tracked in wild birds like geese, mallards, turkeys, pelicans and vultures. It has recently spread to mink and has the ability to spread between minks.

“Mink have similar lungs and airways to people and past research has shown they are susceptible to spreading human viruses, including bird flu.” This could help H5N1 mutate toward human to human spread, which may facilitate a possible pandemic-level spread of bird flu. 

Call for proposals: ISWNE and IRJCI seeking papers about issues affecting community journalism

The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky are seeking proposals "for papers that provide insight and guidance on general issues and/or everyday problems that confront community newspapers and their newsrooms ... particularly those with small staffs and circulations under 10,000," according to a joint release from ISWNE and IRJCI. 

One paper will be selected for presentation at the 2027 ISWNE conference is Indianapolis in July 2027. Proposals will be peer-reviewed by faculty "with expertise in community journalism," and final selection will be made by a panel of working and retired community journalists who will evaluate the proposals based on their "potential value to newsrooms." While all proposals are welcome, those from graduate students, with international focus and/or that reflect an international perspective on community newspapers are especially encouraged. 

Examples of successful proposals could include: legal, political or ethical issues; print/digital integration models; and surveys about staff retention. Papers about Sunshine Law violations or how to train young journalists about how to avoid them, or how to reach new audiences are also highly encouraged. 

All proposals should be emailed to ivy.brashear@uky.edu by Nov. 20, and authors will be notified by Dec. 4 about accepted proposals. The winning author will receive a complimentary ISWNE conference registration and $250 toward travel. The conference is July 21-25, 2027 in Indianapolis. 

For more information about proposal guidelines, deadlines and other details, visit the ISWNE site, here. 

Lack of federal Hurricane Helene disaster relief could impact midterm elections in North Carolina

Voters in western North Carolina are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the federal response to Hurricane Helene, and that could impact the 2026 midterm elections in a big way, reports Katie Myers for Grist. Helene devastated entire communities and caused $60 billion in damage, but as Myers reports, only $10 billion has been provided by the federal government so far. 

"Half of all North Carolinians are dissatisfied with the government’s response, compared to 37 percent who are satisfied, according to a poll commissioned by television stations WRAL and WSOC. In western North Carolina, which bore the brunt of Helene’s fury, just 5 percent said they are 'very satisfied' with how officials are handling things," Myers writes. 

These sentiments are affecting federal elections in North Carolina's U.S. Senate race between former governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and President Trump's point person on Helene recovery, Michael Whatley. Trump has "joked that he wouldn't send North Carolina additional aid if Whatley lost," Myers reports, which means "politicians are treating [disaster] recovery as an electoral issue." 

Myers writes that it's unclear whether slow disaster relief is impacting voters. For some, Myers writes, it's more about climate change than recovery. But numbers show a shift is happening. In NC-11, for instance, the largely rural mountain area went for Trump by nearly 10 points in 2024. But now, Republican Jennifer Balkcom is "running even with Democrat Jamie Ager," and a pro-Trump political action committee just canceled more than $1 million in TV advertising for Balkcom in the district. 

Disinformation spreads quickly after disaster, but one news outlet created a media literacy guide to help

A "perfect storm" of factors is leading to vast disinformation after disasters, and more than becoming conspiracy theories about government interference or so-called "weather weapons," such misinformation could harm recovery efforts and threaten lives, reports Jake Bittle of Grist.

"Extreme weather events are always chaotic, and it’s always been easy for rumors to spread during moments of calamity, but the problem has never been as bad as it is now," Bittle writes. He writes that the problem is "as bad as it is now" because of several factors: "... the information landscape has never been more fragmented — major social media companies have given up on any pretense of fact-checking and content moderation; politicians often distort or politicize disasters; government agencies are short-staffed following DOGE cuts; and generative AI models have created an entirely new and little-understood way to source information." 

But when misinformation spreads after a disaster, it "can lead to lost lives, traumatic displacement, or slow recovery," while also straining "the relationship between public authorities and their citizens." So, what can people do about this? Grist has an answer in a new guide about fact-checking during a disaster, that can help those impacted find accurate information about extreme weather from trusted sources. The guide offers a list of sources and helps people understand how to verify those sources and the information they share. It even helps readers identify A.I.-generated content.