BUILD America 250 Act proposes rural transportation federal funding cuts

Many people can't drive in southern Idaho, but the Living Independent Network Corp works to fill the gaps when public transportation is limited — and for most of rural America, it usually is.

The Living Independent Network receives $100,000 from the state annually, made possible through federal funds, reports Benton Graham for Grist. The money allows riders to pay for “bare-minimum lifeline service,” but their access is expected to worsen at the end of this year when federal money runs out.

Transportation programs authorized in 2021 by the Biden Administration's $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will expire at the end of this year. Lawmakers are fleshing out the BUILD America 250 Act, which would reauthorize those programs, but with $16.5 billion less in funding.

Advocates say the Biden Administration's legislation failed to broaden transportation access, but BUILD would be a significant step back. It would authorize only $103.3 billion over five years, opposed to the baseline $119.9 billion under the Jobs Act. This rate is not adjusted for inflation, and BUILD would actually need an additional $24 billion to match previous funding. 

Under BUILD, rural Idaho and Maine are estimated to see the nation’s largest drops in federal funding, falling 18% and 16% respectively. This could leave those with disabilities socially isolated, irregular transport services and families without options, leaving them to pay for a car, more gas, repairs or insurance. 

“The Biden infrastructure bill was not the high water mark,” Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director at Riders Alliance, said. “We could do much better than that in a variety of different ways, and we shouldn’t hold up bipartisanship as a core value of how we fund transportation when we have such sharply diverted views of the role of government to invest in people and communities.”

Rural hospitals struggle to keep up as electronic health records advance

Many rural hospitals and clinics rely on older electronic health record (EHR) systems to store patient documents and hospital data, but because larger hospitals tend to use more updated systems, the older platforms can’t communicate with “modern application programming or advanced data-sharing capabilities,” Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder.

The inability to securely share medical records between older vs. modern systems is called the “interoperability crisis,” and it’s stretching rural hospital staff to their thinnest. Only 64% of rural hospitals have adopted newer EHR systems, compared to 74% of urban hospitals.

Rural hospitals typically have only one to two technology workers, they may lack reliable broadband infrastructure, and upkeep of digital systems is expensive. Rural hospitals and communities that have been marginalized also consistently receive less federal funding than their urban counterparts. These disparities can "put rural healthcare facilities at a disadvantage," Carey writes.

Those gaps will cause "fragmented care," or lead to increased costs when physicians have to repeat tests and scans because they can’t access prior diagnostic images or results,” said Angela Chubb, senior manager of quality and regulatory advisory services at Nordic, a global health and technology consulting company.

The technology gaps also mean rural hospitals must work harder to recoup insurance reimbursement. Newer electronic health record systems allow more efficient data transfer among various state and national organizations for funding review. But data managers in many rural hospitals said providing those reports with smaller staffs and with less technological resources requires more labor. Often, the same information has to be re-formatted multiple times for different organizations’ standards.

Chubb told Carey that policy makers need to communicate with rural hospitals to better understand the solutions that will work in specific rural areas. “All rural communities ... are different. They all function based on their needs, based on their community needs, based on their provider needs, their demographics, their locations. It’s really how can these organizations structure the process that makes sense for them.”

Rural voters believe the economy is worse now than before Trump’s second term

More than half of rural American voters believe the economy is worse off now than when President Donald Trump began his second term, according to a new poll by The Associated Press and KFF.

The sample of 2,000 bipartisan rural voters reported holding negative views of national and local economies, citing concerns about the cost of groceries, gasoline and healthcare. A larger share than the average voter worried about affording such necessities, reports Ali Swenson, Sarah Jane Tribble and Linley Sanders for the AP and KFF.

Though rural voters have supported Trump in recent elections, these "findings suggest that many rural voters have not turned on Trump but that they also largely do not think he has delivered the economic renaissance he promised in his campaign,” Swenson, Tribble and Sanders report.

Only 4 in 10 rural voters approve of Trump’s economic performance, attributing economic downturns to his handling of the Iran War. Many say their local economies have worsened with the national economy. Rural Republicans have a more optimistic economic view, but “rural voters overall don’t perceive much positive impact from the administration’s healthcare policies even as they have been a top priority for Republican leaders."

Despite Trump’s approval of the Rural Health Transformation Program last year, which recouped from Medicaid cuts, the survey revealed that 60% of ruralites heard nothing about the program at all. Many voters still believe Trump aims to deliver on his promises, but polling shows his standing is slipping. Some 48% of rural voters approve of him — more than the average voter — but that number has fallen from 56% rural approval in earlier surveys.

Rural vet shortage could increase risk of food-borne illness in U.S. produced meat

Food-animal veterinarians remain scarce in rural areas, and that could mean less oversight of meat production in the U.S., increasing the risk of food-borne illnesses, according to a recently released report from the USDA. Brandon Genetin, James C. Davis and Grace Grossen write in the report that "shortages of food-animal veterinarians ... represents a significant concern for both public health and food security."

It's big news given that the U.S. is just now easing some restrictions on beef imports due to screwworm concerns, and that food-borne illness broadly has been a national concern for months. Screwworm is one of the diseases that could run rampant if the rural vet shortage continues, the report notes. 

The new report, "Food-animal Veterinarians and the Persistence of Rural Shortage Areas," states that veterinarian shortages "can weaken disease prevention, slow emergency response, and heighten risks to both livestock and consumers, creating potential supply chain disruptions." 

Rural food-animal vets are "the frontline defense against diseases and illnesses that can devastate herds," Genetin, Davis and Grossen write in the summary of the report. "When fewer veterinarians are available, infectious diseases such as avian flu and bovine tuberculosis can spread more easily and be detected later, increasing the likelihood of major outbreaks."

Florida's orange growers hope disease-resistant trees will revitalize the decimated industry

Flordia's orange growers are buying DNA-altered trees and inoculating their existing groves to ward off the devastating and incurable "citrus greening" disease that has ravaged the state's orange groves for the past 20 years. Julie Wernau reports for The Wall Street Journal that the EPA has approved both technologies this year, and growers have already ordered hundreds of thousands of resistant trees. 

"Citrus greening" causes oranges to drop from branches before they are ripe and turns them bitter. Florida's orange production has fallen by 95% since the disease was discovered. Wernau reports that 60,000 orange grove acres went out of production last year, which was 26% of Florida's remaining groves. Almost half a million acres are dormant now, while other groves have been transitioned into cattle ranches. 

Florida's state government created a two-year $330 million fund that will help growers buy inoculated and DNA-altered trees in an effort to revitalize the industry, Wernau reports. But, she writes, the new trees will take two years to start producing, and "the question is whether Florida's citrus industry can hang on that long."  

Applications are now open for Report for America host newsrooms; rural newsrooms encouraged to apply

Applications to become a host newsroom for Report for America (RFA) are now open for 2027-2028. RFA "recruits, trains, and supports" journalists to work in newsrooms across the country, "focusing on under-covered communities and issues." Rural newsrooms are highly encouraged to apply. 

This year, RFA is expanding its support for newsrooms who want to add photography, visual journalism and sports reporting positions, but it also support a wide range of other positions that will help local newsrooms maintain "more consistent, high-quality local reporting" on any topic. Reporters are placed in newsroom for two-year contracts. 

RFA offsets the salary of newly placed reporters up to 50%, or up to $27,500, in the first year, and up to 33% in the second year. Reporters with more than six years experience will be subsidized up to $30,000. The organization's Local News Sustainability team also works directly with host newsrooms on fundraising and other revenue opportunities to "strengthen long-term financial sustainability" of local news. 

RFA will host several information sessions to learn about the program, which can be found here. Questions about the program can be sent to recruitment@reportforamerica.org. To apply to become a host newsroom, click here. 

Rural communities can learn how to push back on data center construction from resistance to factory farms

The fight about construction of data centers continues across the country, and communities pushing back
on such construction could have a lot to learn about how to resist from the roll out of factory farms almost 40 years ago, Raj Patel and Jim Goodman write for Barn Raiser (republished by Next City). The push for factory farms looked similar to the fight about data centers now, and they write that those similarities might help rural residents resist data center construction more effectively. 

"By the time neighbors organized [against concentrated animal feeding operations], right-to-farm laws and state preemption had severed the ground from under them," the reporters write. And "while CAFOs crept into rural America, data centers are arriving as a land rush. This speed is both terrifying and an advantage." Terrifying because 67% of the 1,500 proposed data centers are in rural areas; an advantage because "CAFO country" has been here before, and the lessons they learned can help other rural places now.

Patel and Goodman have recommendations about what issues rural residents should focus on in hearings with their local elected leaders: water, power, money and democracy. They write that asking questions about those things will provide them with the most salient information. It's a lesson they say came too late for farmers. 

"Everything CAFO country learned, it learned too late, after the wells were ruined, after the smell lowered adjacent property values and health outcomes, after the statutes were written. Data centers are arriving early enough that the questions can still be asked in time."

McConnell casts deciding vote on Farm Bill, which has been stalled by Democrats due to SNAP cuts

Mitch McConnell returned to the Republican-led Agriculture Committee this week after his medical absence, and cast the deciding vote to advance the farm bill to the full Senate. This vote came on Tuesday, Sept. 15, after Democrats blocked the current version of the farm bill in August, reports Frida Garza for Grist. 

The absence of McConnell and Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville stalled the bill's progress, but once they returned, their votes advanced it. Democrats oppose the proposed farm bill because it doesn’t reverse the $186 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) signed into law by the Trump Administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“Changes to SNAP are typically implemented through the farm bill, which historically was passed every five or so years,” Garza writes. This is the fourth year the bill has not been renewed. “Democrats in the Senate Agriculture Committee have refused to support a farm bill that doesn’t restore SNAP funding; they have also pushed for a delay in a crucial change to SNAP that would increase states’ administrative costs for running the food assistance program.”

The proposed bill does neither of these things. To win on the Senate floor, Republicans will need 60 votes — they hold 53 seats, and will need to convince several Democrats to join them. Garza writes that it is unlikely the farm bill will be passed this year.

 

Many people with low-income rely on SNAP, and many farmers rely on a customer base who pays with SNAP benefits. The current iteration of the farm bill may leave states with higher administrative costs for SNAP. States will have to rethink their budgets, possibly ending up with less overall funding for agriculture, education, transportation or other programs.

Measles deaths continue to climb, and rural areas are not immune; cases in rural Pennsylvania are an example

This year is the deadliest yet from measles since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000. In Pennsylvania, four people have died from measles as of Sept. 15, 2026, and nearly 700 have been infected, reports Dani Blum for The New York Times. 

In Pennsylvania's rural Mifflin County, an unvaccinated 18-year-old died from measles-related neurological complications. Another county reported the death of a 40-year-old woman, later confirmed as unvaccinated. Last month, state health officials reported the deaths of two infants who contracted the virus.

Measles fatalities are typically one to three deaths for every 1,000 cases. Blum writes that this statistic suggests Pennsylvania’s case count is higher than what is being reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not recorded any deaths from measles this year.

“The Pennsylvania deaths have been embroiled in political controversy, with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. disputing whether measles directly caused some of them,” Blum writes. “Last month, Dr. Erica Schwartz, the new director of the C.D.C., directed agency staff to not include the first two deaths in the national tally, going against the agency’s typical practice of accepting data reported by states.”

The virus is most dangerous for children, adults over 20 and those who are immunocompromised. “Roughly one in five unvaccinated people who contract measles in the United States is hospitalized.” Measles-related pneumonia and immune amnesia are among the deadly symptoms.

Trump shifts funds from National Parks to projects in Washington

Funding U.S. National Parks Service projects has not been a priority for the Trump Administration, which has siphoned money from the USNPS for several Washington, D.C., projects, including the unveiling of gold leaf statues, reopening ornamental water fountains and repairing the Lincoln Memorial pool. This spring, the Trump Administration used at least $67 million generated by park entrance fees to fund such projects, reports Maxine Joselow for The New York Times. 

About 1,500 projects at more than 200 sites nationwide were deemed “low priority,” while projects in Washington were added to a list of White House priorities. There is currently a $24 billion backlog of deferred maintenance projects across the parks.

Staff cuts and funding shifts have left 433 USNPS sites in turmoil, with 20% of the parks being significantly understaffed. A proposal to sell a small parcel of Yosemite’s land to a private developer has become a bipartisan issue, Joselow writes. “Polling shows that Americans of all stripes and political persuasions overwhelmingly love their parks.”

Trump has taken other actions that affect the parks, including putting his face on park passes and ordering the removal of exhibits that "inappropriately disparage Americans,” as was the case for one exhibit about slavery and a sign about climate change.

Fran P. Mainella, a Republican who led the Park Service under President George W. Bush, said that Trump may not realize the value of parks to the public and the economy, and said there needs to be a way to better tell Trump that story. The parks and politics are no strangers; the Bush Administration was accused of promoting religious and conservative content at the parks.

Nonetheless, “Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican who leads a subcommittee on national parks, said in an interview that Mr. Trump ‘has been an incredible supporter of the parks.’ He dismissed reports of funding and staffing issues at parks as ‘fear-mongering’ by the president’s critics before the midterm elections.”

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.