Skilled labor started recruiting from high school shop classes; high school graduates can make over $60,000

Skilled trades can offer training during high school
and a good-paying job upon graduation. (Adobe Stock photo)

Skilled labor training is helping some high schoolers land jobs with big pay before they even graduate. "Companies with shortages of skilled workers look to shop class to recruit future hires," reports Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "Elijah Rios won’t graduate from high school until next year, but he already has a job offer — one that pays $68,000 a year."

While the U.S. shortage of skilled labor has been building over time, baby boomer retirements have pushed trade-based companies that need a pipeline of trained professionals to "turn to creative recruiting strategies," Te-Ping explains. "More businesses are teaming up with high schools to enable students to work part-time, earning money as well as academic credit. More employers are showing up at high school career days." The renewed interest in hiring from the trades has helped revive high school shop programming.

Younger workers generally are more at ease with incorporating technology into their work, which is another reason trade recruiters are stepping up their "shop class" connections. According to the WSJ article, "Employers say that as the skilled trades become more tech-infused, they anticipate doing even more recruitment at an early age, because they need workers who are comfortable programming and running computer diagnostics."

One of the best things employers can do to "get a foot into high schools early on is by offering internships, says Roxanne Amiot, an automotive instructor at Bullard-Havens Technical School in Bridgeport, Conn.," Te-Ping writes. She told the Journal, “I tell them, don’t call me for students when they graduate, grab them now when they’re 16 or 17, or I have nobody to work for you.”

The recruitment opportunities and wages that trade professions offer signal a dramatic shift away from the "college-for-all mindset," according to the article. "[But] it’s important to make sure students are made aware of all their options, says Steve Klein, a researcher who focuses on vocational education. . . . At the same time, as interest in vocational education rises, he worries that sentiment runs the risk of swinging too much in the other direction."

Construction and agriculture industries 'brace' for potential changes to U.S. immigration and tariff policies

Several U.S. sectors are preparing for imminent changes the transition to a Republican president and Congress promise to bring. Stories focused on upcoming changes are excerpted below.

Undocumented workers make up roughly 13%
of the construction industry. (Adobe Stock photo)

President-elect Donald Trump's planned immigration crackdown and tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods will hit the housing market with a "one-two punch," report Elizabeth Findell and Gina Heeb of The Wall Street Journal. "In Texas, California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, immigrants make up more than half of construction trade workers. . . Undocumented workers make up an estimated 13% of the construction industry." Beyond the possible loss of skilled trade workers, "the president-elect’s proposed tariffs of 25% on Canada and Mexico could increase the cost of construction materials."

Once Trump and a solidly Republican Congress are back at work, health officials anticipate the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion will be "back on the chopping block," reports Phil Galewitz of KFF Health News. "More than 3 million adults in nine states would be at immediate risk of losing their health coverage should the GOP reduce the extra federal Medicaid funding that’s enabled states to widen eligibility." Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia all have trigger laws that would swiftly end their Medicaid expansions if federal funding changes.

In 2023, the United States exported 17.83 metric tons
of wheat, worth $6.08 billion. (Adobe Stock photo)

Farmers and meat plants are "bracing" for immigration changes, including possible mass deportations of some current workers, reports Patick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "America’s food-supply chain relies on a predominantly immigrant workforce for some of its most challenging jobs. . . . About two-thirds of U.S. crop-farm workers are foreign-born, and 42% aren’t legally authorized to work in the country, according to a Labor Department report. . . . Having a smaller pool of workers would likely prompt companies to raise wages, but that could result in higher food prices."

If the Trump administration makes good on its promise to levy tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, a trade war is likely; however, the administration may no longer have free rein to tap into the Agriculture Department's discretionary spending to buffer farm losses. "A bipartisan cohort of lawmakers want to rein in a pot of money Trump’s first administration used to compensate farmers decimated by the then-president’s trade confrontation with China," reports Skye Witley of Bloomberg News. "A farm bill package that would require congressional approval of certain Agriculture Department discretionary spending supporting the farm economy" was championed by Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and House Agriculture Chair GT Thompson (R-Pa.)

Brooke Rollins in 2021
(Wikipedia photo)

While many of the incoming administration's actions were anticipated, Trump surprised some lawmakers and agriculture groups when he nominated Brooke Rollins as his Agriculture secretary. "Trump’s decision to tap her came amid bitter infighting over the role among his advisers, family members and powerful agriculture groups, report Grace Yarrow and Meredith Lee Hill of Politico. "Rollins, who grew up on a farm, has less experience in agriculture policy than those on Trump’s shortlist. Rollins is from Texas and has a degree in agricultural development. While some GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill were surprised by the pick, she’s expected to have a fairly smooth Senate confirmation."

Florida lawmakers work to ban local governments from implementing temperature protections for outdoor workers

Summer temps in Florida are regularly in the 90s.
(Photo by Xavier Coiffic, Unsplash)

Some Florida lawmakers are working to pass a bill that removes temperature protection regulations for employees. That same bill also would ban local "living wage" ordinances, which create higher minimum wage standards than the state requirement. "A measure that will ban local governments from passing heat-protection ordinances inspired strong emotions from the public . . . ," reports Mitch Perry for the Florida Phoenix. "The bill also eliminates living wage ordinances that require companies that receive government contracts to pay their employees more than the state's minimum wage (currently $12 an hour)."

This past fall, the Miami-Dade County Commission had planned a vote on a local ordinance that "would protect outdoor workers in the agriculture and construction industries, which, if passed, would be the first law of its kind in the South," Perry adds. "That proposal was introduced after at least two farmworkers died from excessive heat in South Florida earlier last year."

The Florida chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors pushed back against the local heat protection ordinance, saying regulation "inconsistencies" could cause more accidents. Meanwhile, local businesses "lined up behind the provision that would prohibit cities and counties from creating 'livable wage' ordinances for their contractors and subcontractors," Perry explains. "[These] ordinances are now in effect in 11 local governments in the state to combat higher living costs."

North Miami-Dade County Democratic Rep. Dotie Joseph "blasted the proposal, saying that her GOP colleagues were being negligent in taking away Miami-Dade's or any other local government's ability to protect outdoor workers," Perry reports. Joseph told reporters, "When local governments try to do something about it so that it doesn't happen again, here we show up at the state level and say, 'no, we don't mind a couple of more people dying.' That's basically what we're saying, functionally. So we're okay with workers dying."

The U.S. needs 7 million more houses, but who will build them? The construction industry needs trained laborers.

Photo by Arron Coi, Unsplash

As the construction industry struggles to meet the demand for new housing, it faces big obstacles, including a shortage of trained labor. Robbie Sequeira of Stateline reports, "The U.S. construction industry lost nearly 30% of its workforce during the Great Recession of 2008 and had barely recovered before the Covid-19 pandemic hit it again, as outlined by a study shared last spring by economists at the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin. . . . However, the authors attributed much of the shortage to the federal Secure Communities immigration crackdown of the Obama administration."

An estimated 7 million more homes are needed, so the industry must find more trained workers to meet demand. "Employment isn't growing fast enough, said Erika Walter, director of media relations for Associated Builders and Contractors, a national industry group," Sequiera writes. "An analysis released earlier this month by the group found that at the end of November, there were about 459,000 job openings in the industry. The 5.4% job opening rate was the highest since 2000."

To attract new labor, the industry needs to address its hiring practices. Sequeira reports, "According to a 2022 Department of Labor report, many apprentice programs for construction and trade-based skills often have sponsors who do not recruit or hire individuals from underrepresented groups — and may not even be aware of how to recruit members of those groups."

If recruitment and training shortages aren't managed, the shortage will intensify as aging workers retire. Sequiera notes, "More than 1 in 5 construction workers are 55 and older, and much of the workforce will be retiring in the coming decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics." Karl Eckhart, vice president of intergovernmental affairs for the National Association of Home Builders, told Sequiera, "We need to expedite the [recruitment and training] process so we can at least get shovels under the ground."

Several states are intervening to assist in training a new construction workforce, including Montana, New York, Ohio and Maryland. "Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced that 35 Ohio high school programs would receive almost $200 million in grant money to expand training facilities in areas including the electrical trades, welding and carpentry," Sequiera reports. 

Quick hits: Water recycling hits the 'yuck factor;' cows' methane fuels drug maker; construction trainees do fixups ...

Young farmers Rudy Pate, Zoe Kent and Logan Yancey are bullish on opportunities for farmers under 30.
(Chris Withers photo, Coffy Creations photo, Kristen Elizabeth photo, Farm Journal stats from Census of Ag 2017)

Sometimes the news can get you down. Here's an antidote: Three farmers under 30 who've got their giddy-up going and making the rural life their life. This story by Chris Bennet of Farm Journal gives their hard work and entrepreneurial spirit a big yee-haw!

With water shortages and drought plaguing many areas of the U.S., looking at what solutions science is developing is helpful. One innovation that is gaining traction is graywater and blackwater recycling. The process has a major obstacle: the "Yuck" factor.

Photo by Courtney Love, Successful Farming

Cows are versatile creatures, but their manure and burps contribute to climate change. One drugmaker aims to repurpose some cows' methane output. "AstraZeneca is switching to biogas produced from cow manure and food waste in the United States," reports Natalie Grover of Reuters. "Manure from three farms, each with about 900 cattle, will be combined with food waste and placed in an area the size of a big ice-skating rink with apparatus above to capture methane, which will be purified and piped into AstraZeneca's gas grid."

June is the month of weddings, often followed by anxiety-provoking receptions. The best thing a reception can offer might be a D.J. who can crush the tunes, one writes.

The Colorado Partnership for Education and Rural Revitalization is partnering with Southern Colorado colleges to offer construction trainees a four-week apprenticeship that allows participants to earn a certificate in construction while fixing dilapidated properties in the area, reports Dan Boyce of Colorado Public Radio. Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is directing the program's funding, told Boyce, "We're committing to a theory we are testing in the marketplace. If you train people to redevelop these properties, you do redevelop them. You'll sell them, improving the community, and the money will go back into the program, and it will keep sustaining itself."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's monthly outlook says El Niño is here, "meaning El Niño conditions are now present and expected to gradually strengthen into the winter," reports AgWeek. Not all El Niño news is bad, "Agricultural meteorologist Eric Snodgrass says it also tends to bring favorable growing conditions for crops in the Midwest."

Eating too much cotton candy and other sweets does not cause
hyperactivity.(Photo by Robert Clark, Nat Geo Image Collection)

Good news for parents: It isn't sugar that makes kids hyper, so you can quit worrying about the summertime ice cream, popsicles and jello you may be serving. The bad news: It's special events that cause kids to spazz out, reports Jason Bittel of National Geographic. Mark Corkins, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition, told Bittel, "When we look at the times that kids have high sugar intake, it's usually associated with when they're going to be hyper, even if you didn't give them any sugar." Bittel adds, "In other words, being ensconced in a celebratory environment with relatives and friends who children might not see every day is itself a very strong stimulant."

When wildfire smoke makes outside air dangerous, outdoor workers face a Catch-22: keep working or risk their health

A delivery worker sits under the under a bridge in New York.
 (Photo by Amr Alfiky, Reuters, via The Washington Post)

In regions experiencing wildfire smoke, outdoor workers face a dilemma: making a paycheck or staying away from hazardous air. "From dog walkers to delivery drivers, from landscapers to farm laborers, many workers whose jobs require time in the outdoors have plowed on this week, even as smoke from wildfires raging in Canada has created abysmal air quality up and down the East Coast," write Pranshu Verma, Hamza Shaban, Brady Dennis, Jaclyn Peise and Aaron Gregg of The Washington Post. "Their predicament reveals how outdoor laborers, more than any other segment of the workforce, remain vulnerable when it comes to climate change."

Some businesses were able to help their employees take precautions or delay outdoor work until air quality improved. "A restaurant owner in Philadelphia shut down outdoor dining at some locations to keep staff out of harm's way. The city of Allentown, Pa., sent parks and recreation workers home," the Post writes. "Amtrak was among numerous companies that made masks available to workers that wanted them, and said it would delay 'noncritical' work in areas deemed hazardous."

As precautions and shutdowns cost some outdoor workers a chunk of income, "Outdoor work plowed on unabated for many people up and down the East Coast this week, despite the thick, dirty and potentially dangerous air," the Post reports. Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonary medicine physician at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, told the newspaper, "If it is feasible, I would encourage not working outside. . . . If people have to work outdoors, by all means, take the proper precautions to stay safe." The Post adds, "That includes wearing a high-quality, tightfitting mask outdoors, staying hydrated and putting off any jobs that can wait a couple of days. People who drive a lot for work should keep making sure the air conditioner circulates only the inside air, he said."

The intensity of the heat and dangerous air pollutants caught many companies in the Northeast off guard. "Several delivery workers said the turmoil unleashed by the wildfire smoke brought them back to the early, chaotic days of the pandemic when businesses and schools were shuttering, but they were left largely to fend for themselves," the Post reports. "Matt Leichenger, a UPS driver. . . and part-time organizer for the Teamsters union, said his phone was inundated with messages from workers sharing information about the poor air quality. But he said UPS offered little direction to workers on how to protect themselves." Leichenger told the Post, "It felt like the pandemic all over again."

Western states have more wildfire experience; their planning includes wildfire preparation and response protocols. "In recent years, Oregon, California and Washington have adopted rules that require employers to provide protection such as N95 masks to protect workers when wildfire smoke degrades air quality — and, if possible, to move workers indoors in certain cases. But are no such detailed standards at the federal level as yet. Data show that millions of Americans rely on time outside as part of their livelihood," the Post reports. "As climate change fuels more intense wildfires, stronger storms and more crippling heat waves, scientists have warned that outdoor workers around the globe are likely to face more challenging conditions more often. But many governments have resisted taking action, as businesses have fought stricter standards that could make it more expensive to operate."

Federal and state officials erased a Black cemetery; their only public notice was a legal ad too many people missed

Mike and David Moseley at an ancestor's grave
(Photo by Christopher Smith for ProPublica)

Construction site excavators often unearth surprises, but what comes after the find can be more disturbing.

"Nobody working to bring a $346 million Microsoft project to rural Virginia expected to find graves in the woods . . . but surveyors happened upon a cemetery. The largest of the stones bore the name Stephen Moseley in a layer of cracking plaster. Another stone, in near perfect condition, belonged to Stephen’s toddler son," reports Christopher Smith for ProPublica.

"This is not as bad as it sounds," an engineering consultant wrote in March 2014 to Microsoft and an official in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, who was helping clear hurdles for the project — an expansion of a massive data center. "We should be able to relocate these graves." But archaeologists, which federal law required, said the cemetery was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places because it was for "a community of landowners who farmed tobacco in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction," Smith writes. Their report "stressed the cemetery’s significance to African American life and death, citing the fact that Stephen Moseley and his relatives were Black,' and advising: "It is recommended that the area be avoided."

The county and consultants challenged the recommendation. "They sent the report to another archaeologist, seeking a second opinion," Smith writes. "But the archaeologist didn’t go along. . . he rejected the notion that some of the people buried there might be white. 'Jim Crow would not have had whites and blacks buried that closely together,' he wrote. . . . He suggested that the original firm conduct additional historical research. 'More work needs to be done on Moseley family members to identify who’s in the graves,' he wrote in an email to Jones’ boss, who forwarded it to the county. . . . The county and its consultants ignored the advice."

The county and consultants continued to pursue the property for Microsoft. They "ran a legal notice tucked among the ads and classifieds in several weekly print editions of The Mecklenburg Sun," Smith reports. "The second week the notice ran, the paper published a front-page story [about another subject] under the byline Mike Moseley. Moseley is a staff writer. He is also Stephen Moseley’s great-grandson. . . . Mike Moseley would not have been hard to locate, had the county actually tried to find Stephen Moseley’s descendants." Mike Moseley told Smith, “Everyone who works for the county knows me. They know who we are. It’s hard to understand how they didn’t come talk to us.”

When Smith asked Moseley "if he’d seen the notice in the pages of his own newspaper, he responded: 'Do you read the classifieds and the ads? I do not.' . . . Like his nephew, David Moseley heard nothing from the county about the threat to the cemetery. The soft-spoken retired schoolteacher and administrator, who is now 85, grew up on the land adjacent to where Microsoft was building its data center." He told Smith, “Somebody would have called me if they moved the cemetery."

Smith reports, "In the months after the notice that ran in The Mecklenburg Sun, workers kept finding graves, ultimately 37 of them. . . . A crew dug up each of the graves, collecting bones, casket fragments, metal handles and hinges, etched epitaph plaques, a pair of eyeglasses, an ivory comb. The remains and other items were packed in plastic crates and stored in an office. Months later, all of it was reburied in four tightly packed, $500 cemetery plots one town to the north." The county did not reply to Smith's questions about the handling of the issue, Other than County Administrator Wayne Carter saying the newspaper notice was sufficient to comply with the law.

Smith writes: "In Mecklenburg County, before Microsoft took possession of the land — for free, with significant tax breaks, along with state development dollars earmarked for struggling tobacco farming regions — the Army Corps [of Engineers] raised no concerns about the development’s compliance with the [National Historic] Preservation Act. Nor did the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the agency tasked with enforcing state and federal preservation laws, make any effort to step in and protect the site. . . . The Army Corps and the Department of Historic Resources facilitated the cemetery’s legal erasure."

David Moseley and other family members, "still own the eastern 83 acres of the property," Smith writes. "Every so often, David Moseley or another family member gets an offer to buy their remaining land. Sometimes the correspondence is signed by Wayne Carter, the county administrator who oversaw the permitting process for the Microsoft data center. David asked Smith, "If they can find us to buy the land, why couldn’t they find us for the cemetery?”

Fred McGhee, an African American archaeologist, told Smith: “We are among the only developed countries in the world that considers archaeological sites on private property to be private property themselves rather than cultural heritage. Black historic places are some of the first to get maligned.”

Biden's rural points were on broadband, other infrastructure; on some other topics he exaggerated or lacked context

President Biden spoke in front of Vice President Kamala Harris and
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin)

Did President Biden have anything for rural America in his State of the Union speech? And how closely did he stick to the facts?

He used the word "rural" once, in saying the bipartisan infrastructure law is funding projects in all kinds of places: “Urban. Suburban. Rural. Tribal.” Just before that, he mentioned “high-speed internet across America,” and later he said “We're making sure every community in America has access to high-speed internet.” He also announced that all materials in federal construction projects will have to be made in America, including fiber-optic cable that is the standard for high-speed internet.

Another line could be taken as a rural reference: “My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible.”

Rural America is the home of extractive industries, and Biden slammed oil companies, noting their record profits and saying “They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production and keep gas prices down. Instead, they used those record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders.” An ad-lib about oil brought derisive laughter from Republicans: “We’re gonna need oil for at least another decade.” Longer than that.

"Some of Biden's claims in the speech were false, misleading or lacking critical context," CNN's Daniel Dale writes. Biden claimed the infrastructre law "funded 700,000 major construction projects," but the actual number is 7,000. The New York Times' analysis repeatedly cited lack of context.

In his Fact Checker column for The Washington Post, Glenn Kessler writes that Biden exaggerated several points, including deficit reduction, U.S. exports, the nation's infrastructure ranking. the effect of recent tax legislation and the number of jobs being created.

Kessler also looks at Biden's claim that "some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset," explaining that word is "inside-the-Beltway lingo for programs terminating automatically on a periodic basis unless explicitly renewed by law. Last year, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, released a 60-page “11-point plan to rescue America” that offered 128 proposals. Buried on Page 39, in a section on government restructuring, was one sentence: 'All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.' Scott’s write-up — which offered few details and had no proposed legislative language — was almost immediately rejected by most Senate Republicans. Scott also said he was being misinterpreted. 'No one that I know of wants to sunset Medicare or Social Security, but what we’re doing is we don’t even talk about it. Medicare goes bankrupt in four years. Social Security goes bankrupt in 12 years,” Scott said on Fox News last March. 'I think we ought to figure out how we preserve those programs. Every program that we care about, we ought to stop and take the time to preserve those programs.'"

Farm, energy and construction groups sue to block new federal definition of 'waters of the United States'

As expected, the Biden administration's new definition of "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act is being challenged in a federal court.

Farm, energy and construction groups filed suit in the Galveston division of the Southern District of Texas, likely a favorable forum for their argument that the new definition will apply to "staggering range of dry-land and water features—whether large or small; permanent, intermittent, or ephemeral; flowing or stagnant; natural or manmade; interstate or intrastate; and no matter how remote from or lacking in a physical connection to actual navigable waters." The suit claims "Plaintiffs’ members will constantly be at risk that any sometimes-wet feature on their property will be deemed WOTUS."

The suit was filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation its Texas and Matagorda County affiliates, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, Associated General Contractors of America, Leading Builders of America, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Realtors, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Mining Association, the National Multifamily Housing Council, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, the Public Lands Council, and the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association.

The suit notes that the U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case that could determine what wetlands are “waters of the United States,” and complains that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers issued the new definition "rather than await the decision in that case, which will almost certainly provide additional guidance as to the meaning of WOTUS."

Flood roundup: Supply-chain shortages hamper recovery; editorial blasts AT&T; lack of flood-proof building sites noted

It's been almost a month since the record flooding in Eastern Kentucky and surrounding areas, and recovery has been spotty and will take years. Here are some recent items of interest:

Supply-chain struggles with building materials that have plagued the nation since the beginning of the pandemic are making it harder—and more expensive—for Eastern Kentuckians to rebuild after the flood, Chad Hedrick of Hazard's WYMT-TV reports. Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday that the rebuilding would be the most difficult ever in the U.S.

An editorial in The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg rips into AT&T for not only failing to get most residents' phone service back up and running in Letcher County, but for the company's out-of-touch customer service. The paper's staff called AT&T in an attempt to get answers, and was told that flood victims who needed their service restored could contact the company online, call on their cell phones, or visit the nearest retail store. However, the editorial notes, many flood victims live where cell reception is impossible, meaning internet is also a no-go. And since many lost their vehicles in the flood, it's difficult to get to the nearest AT&T retail store 30 or more miles away. Read more here.

So many people were in harm's way during the floods because they live in flood-prone bottomlands. Landholding corporations and government agencies mostly own the higher ground, and they're not leasing it for commercial or residential development. In the case of reclaimed strip mines, their reclamation bonds may not have been released. Companies should be fairly compensated but obliged to allow some development to protect locals from future floods, writes Joe Childers in an op-ed for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Childers was Kentucky coordinator for the 1981 Appalachian Land Ownership Study.

Pilot programs in Iowa and Virginia aim to address rural housing shortages with 3D-printed structures

A 3D house printer in action. (Photo by Today)

A new Iowa State University project aims to help address the state's rural housing shortage with a novel approach: designing 3D-printed houses, ISU assistant professor of industrial design Pete Evans reports for ISU. The ISU College of Design’s 3D Affordable Innovative Technologies Housing Project has received a $1.4 million grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority for the initiative; the project will be fully funded at $2.14 million.

3D printing works in a similar way at any scale: a nozzle on a moveable gantry spits out a material that hardens into the shape you want. Tech labs use plastic filament, but housing "printers" use cement. Building houses by 3D printing "can lower construction risks, reduce material usage and waste, allow faster response to natural disasters, and provide affordable, resilient and sustainable housing," Davis reports.

The notion is rising in popularity worldwide; Politico's Lorraine Woellert reports that manufacturing company Alquist is using the tech to build 200 affordable housing units in rural Pulaski, Virginia, over the next three years.

Rural areas in Iowa and elsewhere have had housing shortages since about 2008, which has contributed to a spike in demand and prices. Addressing that shortage is necessary in order to attract and support more workers, Davis writes.

"Nationwide, rural housing issues are often overlooked," College of Design dean Luis Rico-Gutierrez told Evans. "For Iowa State, they are central to our priorities as a land-grant institution. This funding allows us to address all aspects of the process, from planning to developing new building codes through construction and the impact on the quality of our lives."

The $1.4 million grant will pay for materials and equipment such as a 3D construction printer and the components to operate it, other robotics and mechanical necessities, and web technologies to support the project, Davis reports. Future funding will help project leaders develop a curriculum to train Iowa Central Community College students to operate a 3D construction printer, conduct further research, and bring in companies across the state as partners.

Housing shortage triggers skyrocketing rents, but construction costs slow affordable housing projects

A housing shortage is fueling skyrocketing housing costs in rural areas and elsewhere. But rising construction costs—especially for lumber and petroleum-based products such as asphalt—make it difficult to build more housing and ease the crunch, and federal laws make it hard to apply pandemic aid to the problem, Kristian Hernandez reports for Stateline.

"For developers of market-rate apartments, [cost increases mean] charging higher rents. For those building rent-restricted projects using tax credits or other government aid, the rising costs could quash an entire project. And the construction slowdown is coming at a time when there is a desperate need to increase the nation’s supply of affordable housing," Hernandez reports. "The stock of low-cost rentals has been shrinking for some time: In 2019, there were 3.9 million fewer units renting for less than $600 than there were in 2011, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. The overall rental vacancy rate in the fourth quarter of 2021 was just 5.6%—the lowest figure since the mid-1980s—evidence that there is an extremely tight supply."

Average rents have gone up more than 17% in the past year, and tenants' income hasn't kept pace, and neither have government housing programs, Hernandez reports. About half of the nation's renters are paying more than the recommended limit of 30% of their income in rent, but government rental assistance has remained essentially flat for the past 20 years, according to Ingrid Ellen, director of New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.

Though the federal government has allotted billions in aid for the pandemic, its rules bar the money from being used for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. LIHTC is the largest source of affordable housing financing, and has an outsized impact in poverty-stricken rural areas. "The problem is that, under the current rules, recovery funds must be spent by the end of 2026. That means the money can’t be used for long-term loans to help finance LIHTC developments," Hernandez reports. "Some state housing agencies have found a way around the restriction by mixing federal coronavirus aid and other funds ... Some agencies have been able to use recovery funds to cover up to 75% of the cost of a loan with these workarounds, but the process is complicated and adds costs to a project." A bipartisan bill would let states loan pandemic aid for LIHTC sites.

Infrastructure bill has much for rural America

One square equals $1 billion. (Washington Post chart; click to enlarge)

The $1.2 trillion infrastructure package Congress passed on Friday has much for rural America. Here's some of what we found, and more will likely be forthcoming later as we continue to comb through the gargantuan bill, which has:

• $550 billion in new spending, which is mostly paid for but would add $256 billion to $350 billion to the deficit over the next decade without raising taxes. Most of the funding comes from unspent pandemic relief and tightening enforcement on reporting gains from cryptocurrency investments. (The National Association of Counties has a more detailed breakdown of the bill's funding sources.) Moody's Analytics estimates it could add as many as 660,000 jobs by 2025.
• $110 billion for roads and bridges, with specific earmarks for Appalachian and Alaskan highways (Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, "were instrumental" in crafting the bipartisan package, according to The Washington Post.)
• $66 billion for railroads. Passenger rail gets a lot of that money (the Post says Amtrak's expansion would be the largest ever, but the bill also has funding for freight-train safety.
• $65 billion to expand broadband to under-served communities, including rural areas, including $14 billion for subsidizing internet bills for the poor, and $2 billion for the Agriculture Department's Reconnect Loan and Grant Program for rural areas.
• $65 billion to update power lines and cables and invest upgrades to protect utilities from cyberattacks. It also has funding for renewable energy development.
• At least $55 billion for water infrastructure, including $10 billion to clean up the "forever chemicals" per- and polyfluoroalkyls, and money for drinking water in tribal communities.
• $47 billion for "resilience," mainly for cybersecurity upgrades to infrastructure and for addressing droughts, floods, coastal erosion and other extreme-weather issues.
• $21 billion for cleanup of abandoned wells and mines.
• $10 million over five years for the new Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program through a new Build America Bureau. "The program would provide financial, technical and legal assistance; assistance with development-phase activities; and information on innovative financing practices to rural and Tribal communities. It would sunset after five years," NACo reports.
• $2 billion over five years to fund the newly established Rural Surface Transportation Grant program for road and bridge projects. Under the new program, counties can apply directly to the Transportation Department for projects. The federal government will cover 80% of the costs for approved projects.
• The Digital Equality Act of 2021, which prioritizes federal broadband funding for rural and other underserved communities.
• Additional counties for the Appalachian Regional Commission service area; also, ARC is eligible for new funding initiatives. Manchin's wife Gayle is ARC's federal co-chair.
• Three more years for the Secure Rural Schools program, which the Forest Service funds to make up for losses in timber revenue.

Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler debunks claims that the bill isn't mainly for infrastructure.

Homebuilding rises as lumber prices fall; supply chain shaky

"Homebuilders in the single-family construction market are feeling better, as lumber prices are way down from sky-high levels and buyer demand is growing," Diana Olick reports for CNBC: "Builder sentiment rose 1 point in September to 76, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. It was the first increase in three months. Sentiment stood at 83 in September of last year and then set a record high of 90 last November. It then dropped off dramatically when lumber prices spiked and supply-chain issues hampered construction."

Olick also notes, "Lumber reached more than $1,600 per thousand board feet this spring, but the more recent price has been around $400."

NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke said the construction industry still faces difficulties. He told Olick that, though the cost of softwood lumber and some other building materials has gone down, "delivery times remain extended and the chronic construction labor shortage is expected to persist as the overall labor market recovers."

"The biggest hurdle for builders in the coming months will be affordability, as they are forced to raise prices in order to keep up with construction costs," Olick reports. "Buyers are still getting help from low mortgage rates, but should rates begin to rise, the squeeze on their wallets will intensify."

High lumber prices, which stem mostly from the pandemic and a pest, aren't helping many timber cutters, landowners

Lumber prices have skyrocketed over the past year, due to scarcity caused by tariffs and a Canadian beetle infestation, but the higher prices aren't necessarily being passed on to timber producers. In the U.S., lumber costs 180 percent more right now than it did in April 2020, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The Federal Reserve Board says it's "the sharpest rise since 1946, when the post-World War II housing boom kicked in," David Brooks reports for the Concord Monitor.

The increase has in turn raised the cost of building the average single-family home by almost $24,000, and nearly 81,000 new homes across the U.S. are awaiting construction partly because of the cost of materials. Samanth Subramanian reports for Quartz.

The pandemic is largely to blame. "Early in 2020, sawmills first ground to a halt, anticipating a crash in demand. Then it turned out that people still wanted wood—to repair or renovate their homes during lockdown, or to build new homes outside cities," Subramanian reports. "Interest rates were, and continue to be, low; it was a good time to finance and construct new houses. So the sawmills started up again around July." But many mills had to shut down after employees were exposed to or sickened by the coronavirus, which in turn slowed lumber output and caused shortages.

The high prices have been "a boon for lumber mills, although the pandemic has complicated their ability to take advantage," Brooks reports. "But issues from the global supply chain to manpower limits to tree-species distribution means the benefit so far has been spotty at best, especially for landowners," at least in New England.

Part of the problem is that New Hampshire, and many parts of New England, are home to hardwood trees like cedar. The construction industry uses mostly fast-growing softwoods like pine, including pressure-treated softwoods that can resist rot. With pine in short supply, builders turned to cedar, but cedar mills are running at top capacity and it can take a year and a half to add significant processing capacity, according to industry consultant Eric Kinglsey. Many mill owners are hesitant to add such capacity, he told Brooks, because it may not pay off if the current boom fizzles out too quickly.

Canadian lumber once provided a pressure-relief valve, with the pine forests of British Columbia providing 15% to 17% of the lumber for U.S. markets. These days it's more like 10% or less, due to the mountain pine beetle. Cold winters once kept its population in check, but a warming climate allowed it to live longer and reproduce more quickly starting in the late 1990s, and the insect has destroyed hundreds of millions of acres of forest in British Columbia, Subramanian reports.

That capacity will take decades to rebuild, and the softwood tariff on Canada, which President Trump imposed in 2017, doesn't help matters, says the Wall Street Journal editorial board: "The Commerce Department cut the levy to 9% from 20% in December. But as long as the orders are in place, this lower rate—what importers are mandated to pay in 'duty'—is merely a cash deposit for what is due next year. Lumber buyers know Commerce can make a new finding of a higher duty, which would apply retroactively on Canadian lumber they have already imported. This backward-looking assignment of duties introduces enormous uncertainty, creating an incentive to rely on domestic supply."

In the meantime, the U.S. must find more wood somewhere. One option "is to import more lumber, particularly from Europe, which has stock in surplus," Subramanian reports. "Over the past five years, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic have had to harvest nearly 250 million cubic meters of spruce damaged by another bark beetle infestation, this too brought on by the warming climate. Ironically, if one beetle has depressed wood supplies to the US, another may yet elevate it."

Trump administration proposal would nix federal environmental reviews for most construction projects

"The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled significant changes to the nation’s landmark environmental law that would make it easier for federal agencies to approve infrastructure projects without considering climate change," Emma Newburger reports for CNBC. The administration has argued that the overhaul is necessary to help businesses grow and protect jobs.

Under the White House Council on Environmental Quality's proposed changes to the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act, construction projects that don't have major government funding would no longer require any kind of federal environmental review. The category of NEPA-exempt projects would also be expanded, Newburger reports.

Response to the proposal was sharply divided. Business groups lauded it because they say the law has delayed or blocked projects like oil pipelines, dams, mines, and more. Environmentalists said the changes would hurt wildlife and put more greenhouse gases into the air, Newburger reports. 

"The move is the latest effort by the Trump administration to roll back a slew of environmental regulations in place to curb greenhouse gas emissions and protect natural habitats from drilling and development," Newburger reports. "The changes are expected to be published in the Federal Register on Friday. There will be a 60-day comment period and two open hearings before the final regulation is delivered." If approved, the proposed changes would be the first major overhaul to the rules in more than 40 years. Lawsuits are expected.

Trump administration stops probing most bird deaths, even discourages protective measures and death reporting

Dozens of bird-preservation efforts have been dropped since Trump administration officials changed enforcement policy for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. They called it a clarification, but it has had dire consequences for birds, their advocates say.

"Across the country, birds have been killed and nests destroyed by oil spills, construction crews and chemical contamination, all with no response from the federal government, according to emails, memos and other documents," Lisa Friedman reports for The New York Times. "Not only has the administration stopped investigating most bird deaths, the documents show, it has discouraged local governments and businesses from taking precautionary measures to protect birds."

Essentially, the update ends legal consequences for businesses or other entities that kill birds, as long as the deaths were accidental. "In nearly two dozen incidents across 15 states, internal conversations among Fish and Wildlife Service officers indicate that, short of going out to shoot birds, activities in which birds die no longer merit action," Friedman reports. "In some cases the Trump administration has even discouraged local governments and businesses from taking relatively simple steps to protect birds, like reporting fatalities when they are found."

The Western Energy Alliance, an oil-and-gas trade association, put a bird-law fix at the top of a wish list sent to then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. WEA president Kathleen Sgamma said the Obama administration had "weaponized" the law to hurt the industry. Six months after WEA's memo, the Trump administration announced the change.

FWS spokesman Gavin Shire "said in a statement that other federal laws like the Endangered Species Act remain on the books. The Trump administration, he said, 'will continue to work cooperatively with our industry partners to minimize impacts on migratory birds,'" Friedman reports. Some state and local governments and companies are still acting voluntarily to protect birds. 

"Habitat loss and pesticide exposure already have brought on widespread bird-species declines. The number of adult breeding birds in the United States and Canada has plummeted by 2.9 billion since 1970," Friedman reports.

"Migratory birds are important ecological and economic drivers," Brittany Patterson reports for Ohio Valley ReSource, a public-radio consortium. "Each year, birders spend an estimated $41 billion on trips and equipment. Birds are the proverbial 'canary in the coal mine,' and also literal ones. As ecological indicator species they inform us when environmental conditions have changed."

Land O'Lakes CEO: 'Rural America is the new inner city'

Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford speaks at the Fortune Most
Powerful Women Summit. (Photo by Danuta Otfinowski)

At Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., this week, two CEOs of iconic Midwestern companies spoke about why improving the quality of life in rural America is the best way to alleviate the struggles of the farming sector of the economy, Hadley Hitson reports for the magazine.

"Rural America is the new inner city; we have to be clear about that," said Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford, perhaps recalling a series of stories that The Wall Street Journal did almost two and a half years ago.

"We probably have 4,000 to 5,000 retail outlets in rural communities," Ford said, "so the question is: can we use those platforms to solve bigger problems in the community?"

"She thinks the answer is yes," Hitson reports. "Ford said a majority of her focus now is going toward promoting broadband accessibility for rural America in order to bolster economic development and social equity. Ford is also working to help her farmers obtain affordable healthcare. She said they have enough issues to worry about and healthcare should not be one of them." And because Land O'Lakes is a farmer-owned dairy cooperative, Ford said helping rural America helps her company."

Desnise Johnson, a group president of Caterpillar Inc., agreed with Ford, and said helping rural communities is critical, since the people who work for the company are its lifeblood, Hitson reports.

Ford and Johnson both work for companies that have boom-and-bust cycles, so both say they're always looking for ways to innovate, and both say they're struggling to attract more women. "While women comprise just over 36 percent of the agricultural labor force in the United States today, Johnson is hopeful that number will continue growing," Hitson reports.

'Hemp-wood,' CBD manufacturing plants coming to West Ky.

Graves and Calloway counties (Wikipedia)

Far West Kentucky is shaping up to be a hemp hub, with news that a "hemp-wood" manufacturing plant and a CBD oil plant are coming to the area.

On Monday, a manufacturing plant that turns hemp into a sustainable lumber alternative opened near Murray in Calloway County. The business is the first of its kind in the nation. Greg Wilson, the CEO and founder of HempWood's parent company, Fibonacci LLC, touts the new product as eco-friendly because it causes no deforestation. And, he says, the product is 20 percent stronger than oak and can be used the same way oak wood is used, David Snow reports for The Paducah Sun. The plant is welcome news in Murray, where 600 employees of lawn mower engine manufacturer Briggs & Stratton recently found out their plant is closing in the fall of 2020.

Wilson says he got the idea from working for a bamboo flooring company years ago, according to the company website. "We're taking the plant fiber, or the stalks from a hemp plant after people have already utilized the top of the plant, and then, we are converting that using a bio-based adhesive into a wood composite," Wilson told Snow. "We're taking something that grows in six months and we're able to replicate or outperform a tropical hardwood that grows in 200 years."

"The top of the plant" is the flower buds that contain the heaviest concentration of cannabinoids, the main medically active ingredients of the cannabis plant. Just west of Murray, in the Graves County seat of Mayfield, cannabidiol manufacturer GenCanna is working on a $40 million processing facility that it says will provide more than 80 jobs. The company already owns a 120,000-square-foot facility in Paducah, says The Lane Report, a statewide business publication.

The HempWood plant will use more than $1 million a year in raw materials, all from local farms, and will pay out more than $1 million to workers annually, Wilson said. "Each one of these presses will have 12 people working on it, plus three management positions per shift per press," Wilson told Snow. "Our plan is to eventually move into the building that's being built right next door so we can have two pressing operations going, hopefully turning into two shifts per press, which means having a maximum impact approaching the 50 employee mark."

Federal Reserve economic report shows growth nationally, with weakness in some agricultural areas

"Labor markets remained tight across the United States as businesses struggled to find skilled workers and wages grew modestly, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday in its latest report on the economy," Pete Schroeder reports for Reuters. "The U.S. central bank’s 'Beige Book' report, a glimpse of the economy based on conversations with business contacts across all 12 of the Fed’s districts, found economic activity grew at a slight-to-moderate pace in March and early April. A few districts reported some strengthening in economic growth."

"Reports from the Fed’s contacts suggested sluggish sales for both general retailers and auto dealers into April.Home sales and tourism were bright spots. Agricultural conditions were weak and contacts in several Midwest districts expressed alarm about the heavy snow and subsequent widespread flooding," Greg Robb reports for MarketWatch. "There was some concern in the San Francisco district that the balance sheets of some agricultural producers 'weakened notably' due to low market prices and weak export demand."

Businesses in most districts reported difficulty in finding skilled workers for manufacturing, construction, technical and professional jobs; in response, companies mostly increased bonuses and benefits, but only increased wages a little, Schroeder reports. 

Big impacts on the economy in the past few months included uncertainty over foreign trade and severe weather in the Midwest. The partial federal shutdown at the beginning of the year appeared not to impact things much, Schroeder reports.