3% in U.S., many of them young, say they moved due to the pandemic; 6% say it made someone move into their home

"Reports on the exodus of New Yorkers from the locked down city and about the flight of wealthy urbanites to vacation homes in remote locations make it sound as if Americans have eschewed city life in droves," writes Andrea Noble of Route Fifty, reporting that a June 4-10 poll found otherwise.

"Three percent of people surveyed by the Pew Research Center reported having moved permanently or temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic, while 6% said that someone had moved into their home as a result. Another 14% said they knew somebody who had moved," Noble reports. The reason cited most often (by 28%) was to reduce risk of infection from the novel coronavirus; 23% said they moved because their college campus had closed.

"Almost one in 10 adults between the ages of 18 and 29 said they moved, more than any other age group," Noble notes. "The closure of schools and transition for many offices to remote work has increased the appeal for people to leave dense cities for rural retreats and vacation homes. Tourist towns, worried they will become the next outbreak hotspot, have sought to keep vacationers away."

"Of the adults who moved, far more said they relocated to a family member’s home than to a second home or vacation home. Approximately 61% said they relocated to the home of a family member, while 13% said they went to a second or vacation home. It is unclear how many of the moves will be permanent, but only 9% of the people who moved said they rented or purchased a new home."

Exiled to rural northwest Connecticut, NYC brand consultant says her work has gained from the beauty of nature

Rural Intelligence, an online publication for the Berkshires and part of the Hudson River Valley, says it "asked some long-time readers in a variety of fields to reflect on what they miss from their pre-covid lives and how they are compensating for those losses." Here's one of the submissions.

Diane Meier (Photo by Jerry Bauer)

By Diane Meier

I build equity for companies and brands; in part, by reading the culture and understanding the ways assets can be created, ignited, or developed in perception or value. Manhattan embodied my drive. It carried my family’s history. And for decades, the streets of the city were my tea leaves. The material that drove insight. But here we are. Lockdown in the Northwest Corner. Surrounded by beauty and calm and Nature. Yikes.

Was I afraid of what I might lose? Of course. But to my great relief, I’ve found that I’m no less informed and certainly no less effective right here. Quite the opposite. Teams of clients, expanded staff, experts and consultants are available to me, and I to them, from everywhere in the world. And my inspiration flies in on a screen.

Across digital publications and countless platforms, one can’t miss an enormous interest in immune-boosting nutrition, and products that support sustainable practices. There’s more interest in science and biotech than I’ve seen since the invention of the heart transplant. Corporate positioning is now inextricably linked to traceable social responsibility. And when cities erupted just weeks ago, and important brands immediately posted that they “stood with the protestors,” a cultural exhale was equal to thunder. I’ve always known what to make of the signals, but now they’re even more visible and far more diverse, from London and Sydney to Omaha. Suddenly, the streets of New York seem provincial.

To the right of my screen, a full view of our East Field reveals a great horned owl who comes to sit each evening behind a cowlick of grass. Hydrangeas are blooming and trumpet flowers are about to burst. The skies are always changing. The Natural World is just being noticed, now that my gaze can encompass the cultural, the commercial, and the natural by just shifting focus at my desk in the Big Barn.

Ingmar Bergman once said that he couldn’t have a clear thought on the streets of New York. I suspect he would have appreciated the dramas of our hawks and bears, and the views of the field and the Litchfield Hills. And if he was uninterested in reading the cultural messages buried on the small screen, he wasn’t expected to save billion-dollar companies. For those of us who are asked to do just that, the new idea that where we live can deliver the beauty of Nature and the vitality of Commerce is an amazing gift I’m not taking lightly. But in the spirit of what I do –– I know I’m not alone in this revelation, either.

In that regard, I welcome my new neighbors to the world of “Rural Intelligence.” If ever a name were right and proper, it’s found its moment. Realizing this surely has been, at least for me, one of the great gifts in The Great Pause.

Diane Meier is an author and president of Meier, a New York City-based marketing firm. She lives in Northwest Connecticut.

Black progressive who nearly won Senate nod in Ky. says liberals must listen to rural conservatives, find commonality

Charles Booker in Pikeville, Ky. (Lexington Herald-Leader photo)

First-term state Rep. Charles Booker of Louisville, an African American who nearly won the nomination to face Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, told The New York Times that progressives need to "show up and listen" to rural conservatives who like President Trump if they want to build a winning coalition in the Democratic Party.

"What I tell folks is that, honestly, we should take some notes from a Donald Trump — being careful when you do," Booker said in a transcribed interview. "He called out that the system is broken, and he spoke to people that, for a long time, felt like nobody even knew they existed. Now, he was stoking hatred and racism and weaponizing it, but one of the truths there is that the system is broken. And if we go to those places that are deep red, and we show up and listen, but lean into our values, you can build relationships that way."

He prefaced that by saying, "Regardless of what your political ideology is, especially in a place like Kentucky, everybody’s broke and everybody’s struggling and everybody’s trying to figure out how to keep food on the table, keep the lights, take care of their family and protect their livelihood."

Kentucky is only 8.4 percent Black, and has many rural areas with hardly any African Americans, but Booker said he had no problem "building support in rural parts of Kentucky. I spent the majority of my campaign explaining how a Black person can win in rural parts of Kentucky and how the issue of rationing insulin is not partisan. And so when I tell my story of nearly dying from diabetic ketoacidosis, and explaining that’s why I fully support Medicare for all — because nobody should die because they don’t have money in their pocket — people get it."

Booker got 42.6% of the vote in a 10-way primary won by Amy McGrath, who got 45.4% after raising more than $41 million, the most of any Senate candidate this year. "The real determinant in our race was money," he told the Times. Many political observers said Booker would have won if most the votes had been cast on primary-election day; most were absentee due to the pandemic, which also caused the election to be delayed for five weeks. During that period, Booker's campaign caught fire due to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and resulting protests, which in Kentucky focused on a police killing during execution of a no-knock warrant in Louisville.

Timber communities in Oregon suffer as Wall Street funds glean profits and tax revenue from private forest lands

"Falls City is an Oregon town built by the timber industry. Its surrounding forests are still being logged. But Falls City isn't seeing the profits. It's been that way ever since corporate timber changed the rules," says the caption for this video.

Rural logging communities in Oregon are suffering as profits and tax revenue have been siphoned by Wall Street investment funds’ growing control of private forest lands, reports ProPublica, in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting and The Oregonian.

In Falls City, a town of about 1,000 in the Coast Range, "More trees are cut in the county today than decades ago when a sawmill hummed on Main Street and timber workers and their families filled the now-closed cafes, grocery stores and shops selling home appliances, sporting goods and feed for livestock," report Tony Schick of OPB, Rob Davis of The Oregonian, and Lylla Younes of ProPublica. "But the jobs and services have dried up, and the town is going broke. The library closed two years ago. And as many as half of the families in Falls City live on weekly food deliveries from the Mountain Gospel Fellowship."

“You’re left still with these companies that have reaped these benefits, but those small cities that have supported them over the years are left in the dust,” City Manager Mac Corthell told a reporter.

"Wall Street real estate trusts and investment funds began gaining control over the state’s private forest lands" while public attention was focused on environmental rules that limited logging on federal lands, the reporters write. "They profited at the expense of rural communities by logging more aggressively with fewer environmental protections than in neighboring states, while reaping the benefits of timber-tax cuts that have cost counties at least $3 billion in the past three decades. . . . Half of the 18 counties in Oregon’s timber-dominant region lost more money from tax cuts on private forests than from the reduction of logging on federal lands."

Coalfields increasingly rely on federal health programs, but top coal producer, Wyoming, won't expand Medicaid

Coalfield communities increasingly rely on federal health programs as the industry shrivels, Mason Adams and Dustin Bleizeffer report in the third installment of their "Transition in Coal Country" series for the Energy News Network and WyoFile, a Wyoming news nonprofit.

"Coal states that initially rejected Medicaid expansion now see it as a way to help stem some financial losses in healthcare and provide care to residents. Increasingly, the argument that expansion is vital to aiding coal communities’ transition to a sustainable post-coal economy is gaining traction," Adams and Bleizeffer write.

Kaiser Family Foundation map, relabeled  

Some coal states, including No. 1 Wyoming, haven't used the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid, the federal-state program for lower-income people. "Still, shrinking tax revenues, jobs and resources in the industry are forcing the issue in many parts of coal country, and communities are becoming more reliant on — and even warming to — federal health programs like Medicaid," the reporters write.

Wyoming legislative leaders asked members in May to consider Medicaid expansion "in light of the coronavirus pandemic and historic losses in coal," they report, but there was no action. “I’ve been very surprised at the continued resistance to Medicaid expansion,” said Adam Searing, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. “I thought surely this would be the catalyst. But it’s still an uphill battle to overcome this ideological resistance.”

Roanoke-based Adams reports, "Medicaid expansion has remained popular in Kentucky and West Virginia, to the point that no one’s talking about repeal any more. In 2018, incumbent U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, who had famously shot the cap-and-trade bill in a campaign spot eight years earlier, reprised the ad — only now he was shooting a lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The message helped carry the Democrat to victory in what had been Donald Trump’s second-best state just two years prior."

The same day, in referendums, voters in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah approved Medicaid expansion. The next year, a newly Democratic legislature in Virginia did likewise, and in June, do did Oklahoma voters. Missouri has a referendum Aug. 4, with business interests supportive.

Searing said, “One thing that’s struck me is how Medicaid in the last five years or so has become much more popular than it ever was. People are seeing it more like Social Security or Medicare — not so much welfare but a safety-net program.” In Kentucky, the pandemic prompted the state to enact "presumptive eligibility," which waives the usual screening process for two months. “Basically, if you’re uninsured and you’re under age 65, it will get you coverage,” Dustin Pugel, senior policy analyst at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/coronavirus/article244050667.html#storylink=cpy

Rural growth very slow nationally, except in counties next to metro areas, or with good scenery and recreation potential

Counties outside metropolitan areas – the broadest and bluntest definition of "rural" – have fewer births, more deaths and older populations than the rest of the country, and have declined to 14 percent of the national population. However, the counties that border metropolitan areas "seem to fare better in attracting new people and keeping long-time residents," John Cromartie writes for Amber Waves, the publication of the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Nonmetro counties have yet to recover from the Great Recession, which was followed by years in which their overall population declined. "As in previous periods of economic difficulties, such as in the mid-1980s and early 2000s, nonmetro America experienced a steep decline in population growth rates during the Great Recession," Cromartie writes. "Nonmetro population growth fell from a peak of 0.7 percent in 2006-07 to -0.14% in 2011-12. Unlike those previous periods of difficulty, the post-recession population recovery during the 2010s has been quite slow. The nonmetro growth rate has been lower than in metropolitan (metro) counties since the mid-1990s, and the gap widened considerably in recent years."

Much of the eastern U.S. continued to lose rural population in the second half of the decade, but "Notable rebounds are seen in some high-amenity areas, especially those close to large metro areas such as in Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. Renewed population growth on the metro periphery is also noticeable in central Texas, Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest," Cromartie reports. In addition to metro proximity, rural counties that grew have "attractive scenery and recreation potential."

U.S. Department of Agriculture map and chart; to view a larger version of either one, click on it

USDA agency rejects plea from plant-based-diet group for coronavirus testing and reporting by meatpackers

The Food Safety and Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture has denied a petition from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which advocates plant-based diets, asking FSIS to make meatpackers test their products for the novel coronavirus; report infections of workers, their families and FSIS inspectors; and label meat to warn consumers that meatpacking workers have been infected by the virus “and this product has not been certified virus-free.”

FSIS told the group that it hadn't shown people could get the virus from meat, and based on available information, "it seems unlikely" that it "can be transmitted through food." The agency also said it didn't have the authority to take some of the requested actions, and that those actions "would not contribute to FSIS’s public health mission to ensure that meat, poultry, and processed egg products are safe, wholesome, unadulterated, and properly marked, labeled and packaged."

The agency added that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have developed interim guidance for meat and poultry workers and employers. . . . Many of the measures, such as increasing frequency of cleaning and disinfection and providing face masks and/or face shields to employees, would also prevent any potential spread" of the virus to meat products.

China recently blocked imports of meat from three plants in Brazil, citing infection of workers, but there is speculation in Brazil that the Chinese have other reasons and the pandemic is just an excuse.

Judge's order to empty Dakota Access pipeline is latest reversal of efforts to expand U.S. energy infrastructure

Wikimedia Commons map, labeled by The Rural Blog

In the latest and perhaps most surprising setback for pipelines, a federal judge has ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline to be emptied while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts "a more thorough analysis of how a leak . . .could affect Lake Oahe, which collects water from the Missouri River and lies half a mile from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation," The Washington Post reports.

The pipeline opened in 2017 and "carries about half a million barrels of crude oil a day from North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin across 1,100 miles to Illinois," the Post notes. "Several tribes, including the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux, first challenged the pipeline in 2016. While the Obama administration slowed the pipeline’s development as it consulted with the tribes, Trump expedited its construction immediately after taking office."

Earthjustice lawyer Jan Hasselman, "who has led the legal battle on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux, said in an interview, 'I can’t think of another example where a major piece of infrastructure was shut down after being in operation a couple of years'," the Post reports. "Energy Transfer Partners, which owns the largest stake in the Dakota Access line, called the court order 'an ill-thought-out decision' and said it would immediately seek a stay so that oil could continue to flow. If the stay is not granted, company officials said, they will file an expedited appeal."

The ruling and other recent "reversals demonstrate both the enduring power of environmental laws that the Trump administration has been trying to weaken and the tenacity of environmental, tribal and community activists who have battled the projects on forested land and in federal courtrooms," the Post reports. "An April decision by a federal judge in Montana dealt a blow to the Keystone XL pipeline," and "Monday the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s petition to lift the stay."

Charlie Daniels, whose music had broad roots and flowered across genres, dies in Nashville at 83

Daniels in 2019 (Photo by Alan Poizner, the Tennessean)

Charlie Daniels, a versatile musician and songwriter who was one of the rockingest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, died Monday in Nashville of a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83.

Years before the Charlie Daniels Band had a No. 1 hit in 1979 with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” the Wilmington, N.C., native "had long established a remarkable, multifaceted career in Nashville," the Tennessean notes. "As a session musician, he played on three of Bob Dylan’s albums — including the revolutionary 'Nashville Skyline' — as well as recordings for Ringo Starr and Leonard Cohen. He was a fixture of the touring circuit for the next 40 years, became a tireless advocate for servicemen and women, and entered the information age as one of country music's most outspoken conservative voices."

The broad roots of his music were illustrated by the Volunteer Jam, the freewheeling Southern music festival that he started in 1974, featuring Roy Acuff, Stevie Ray Vaughn, James Brown and the Marshall Tucker Band," Bill Friskics-Warren notes in The New York Times. "Modeled after the Allman Brothers, another regular act at the Jam, Mr. Daniels’s band used dual lead guitarists and dual drummers in the service of an expansive improvisational sound that included elements of country, blues, bluegrass, rock and Western swing."

From "Uneasy Rider" and "Long Haired Country Boy," mid-1970s songs that embraced marijuana, Daniels did "Devil" and "In America," the first of many patriotic numbers. He trended toward country and gospel music in his later years, joining the Grand Ole Opry in 2008 and the country hall of fame in 2016. The hall's CEO, Kyle Young, told the Tennessean, "His music fused the immediacy of Southern rock with the classic country storytelling that he heard as a child. He brought new audiences to country music, pointing people to the sources even as he explored the edges."

Deal Funeral Directors of Statesboro, Ga., is handling arrangements and says it is "hosting a register signing Tuesday-Friday 9-3 this week for fans of Charlie Daniels to come by and sign."

As newspapers cut staff, university athletic coverage suffers

Mid-American Conference (colors denote divisions)

Staff declines in community newspapers have led to less coverage of athletic programs in the Mid-American Conference, Nicholas Piotrowicz reports for The Blade in Toledo.

"MAC schools rarely received national media attention, and some of the schools received little attention even from local media," Piotrowicz writes. "But as the years have gone on, the declines in media have only exacerbated the problem for MAC schools, most of which are in small and mid-sized markets that rely upon community journalism.
As those outlets began to struggle, the MAC started to turn into a news desert."

Consolidation of newspapers into regional entities has "almost always" led to less MAC coverage, he writes, quoting Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues (and publisher of The Rural Blog): "Some stuff is going to get left behind, and unfortunately, coverage of the MAC is probably suffering because these papers see their truly local sports — high schools — as being more important than the colleges."

Here's Piotrowicz's scorecard: "In the past 18 months, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Athens Messenger, and Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune laid off full-time reporters covering the MAC. The Daily Chronicle in DeKalb, Ill., lost its Northern Illinois beat reporter, has not re-hired, and has furloughed additional staff."

Penny Abernathy, University of North Carolina professor and the leading researcher on news deserts, told Piotorwicz that ownership matters: "What we have found, given the consolidation in the industry, is there is less attachment to the community where the newspaper is located, especially if you are owned by a chain, particularly a large chain."

Search-and-rescue teams, which rely mainly on rural volunteers, are being stretched thin by the pandemic

The Rocky Mountain Rescue Group in Colorado on a mission earlier this year. (RMRG photo via Stateline)

Search-and-rescue teams, lifelines that are mainly by volunteers in rural areas, are being stretched thin by the coronavirus pandemic, Alex Brown reports for Stateline.

"The pandemic has led some older and higher-risk members to stay home, while others who have lost work or changed jobs no longer have the money or flexibility to deploy. And the need to postpone or cancel in-person training means fewer new volunteers, accelerating a long-term problem," Brown writes. "The pandemic also has forced teams to adjust rescue practices for social distancing and buy protective equipment such as masks."

In some areas, such as southwestern Utah, the need for searches and rescues have increased. “We've been very taxed,” said Sgt. Darrell Cashin, a sheriff-department liaison for the teams. “When covid came out, I really thought our rescues were going to drop through the floor. But we're actually having a record year at this point, with a diminished capacity to respond. It was like the floodgates opened. It's been rescue after rescue after rescue, and it's not stopped.”

Brown reports, "In response, lawmakers in several states are considering proposals ranging from providing state funding for programs and workers’ compensation insurance for volunteers to charging people for their rescues." That would be a case of first impression for most states. "Nearly all search and rescue missions in the United States are handled by volunteer teams, who mostly pay for their own equipment and work under a patchwork of guidelines and government oversight that can vary widely by state," Brown reports.

SAR teams in many areas were already busier than before because outdoor recreation has been increasing lately, Brown notes: "Many of the newcomers to public lands are inexperienced and lack the appropriate gear, skills or fitness for major excursions. SAR leaders say they often have to rescue hikers who become lost when their phone loses its signal or dies, or who try to summit a mountain they saw on Instagram without researching the terrain or weather."

Captive newspaper in retirement community didn't cover national controversy involving 'white power' Trump tweet

The Villages complex is just east of Interstate 75.(Google map)

News coverage of President Trump's tweet of a Florida retiree shouting "white power" was a major national story for a few days, but it wasn't covered by The Villages Daily Sun, the newspaper owned by the huge retirement community where the incident happened.

Villages-News.com, an independent news source serving the community, covered the controversy, beginning with the video that Trump tweeted and continuing with a story about the tweet and another one about Villagers for Trump distancing itself from the man, "who was identified by multiple media sources as a retired Miami-Dade County firefighter." It noted that he yelled the phrase “at Democratic protesters who labeled the parade participants as 'Nazi lovers' and 'cult' members. The protesters also shouted '(expletive deleted) Trump'.”

Villages News also published several letters to the editor, including one from Gary Segal of Pine Ridge, who wrote, "I very much enjoyed the video, but I was wondering why there was no mention of the parade in The Villages Daily Sun, especially the part where several drivers and passengers were yelling, 'White Power!' I think that might be newsworthy."

The Villages Daily Sun has not responded to The Rural Blog's request for comment.

Weekly publisher and county GOP chair takes down cartoon equating mask order with the Holocaust, apologizes

The paper is in Garnett, seat of Anderson County (Google map)

"A Kansas county Republican Party chairman who owns a weekly newspaper apologized Sunday for a cartoon posted on the paper’s Facebook page that equated the Democratic governor’s coronavirus-inspired order for people to wear masks in public with the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust," The Associated Press reports. Gov. Laura Kelly asked the paper to remove the cartoon.

"Dane Hicks, owner and publisher of The Anderson County Review, said in a statement on Facebook that he was removing the cartoon after 'some heartfelt and educational conversations with Jewish leaders in the U.S. and abroad.' the newspaper posted the cartoon Friday, and it drew dozens of critical responses and international attention. A blog post by Hicks on Saturday defending it also drew critical responses."

The cartoon showed Kelly wearing a mask with a Star of David on it, next to a digitally altered image of people being loaded onto train cars, with the caption, “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask ... and step onto the cattle car.” Hicks told AP that he assembled the images and planned to run the cartoon in the paper’s print edition Tuesday. The paper, in Garnett, is the only one in the county.

Hicks said in his statement, “I can acknowledge the imagery in my recent editorial cartoon describing state government overreach in Kansas with images of the Holocaust was deeply hurtful to members of a culture who’ve been dealt plenty of hurt throughout history — people to whom I never desired to be hurtful in the illustration of my point.”

AP reports, "State law allows counties to opt out of her mask mandate, and Anderson County has done so. It has about 7,900 residents in a conservative swath of eastern Kansas, and President Donald Trump carried it with nearly 73% of the vote in 2016. The state health department has reported only four coronavirus cases for Anderson County, all of them since May 8."

Rise in covid-19 cases worries rural hospitals; overall health may have declined as people delayed care for other issues

A rise in covid-19 cases in rural areas is causing concern among rural hospitals and their staffs, amid worries about overall health, Todd Neeley reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

"Cash-strapped and under-equipped since even before the pandemic hit, the new coronavirus forced them earlier this year to adjust their plans and resources to get through the past few months and survive in their communities -- as well as save and serve their patients," Neeley writes in the first of a two-part series. "As states and communities emerge from various restrictions and regulations that may have helped slow or contain the spread of covid-19 for the past few months, the number of cases is growing."

And cases of other diseases and disorders are more serious because many people delayed treatment in the first three months of the pandemic, so overall health may have worsened, Kyle Ulveling, cardiologist and chief medical officer at St. Anthony Memorial Hospital in Carroll, Iowa, told Neeley: "I can easily say the patients I'm seeing in clinic are sicker than they were six months ago."

In the second part of his package, Neeley uses St. Anthony as an example of how rural hospitals have dealt with the pandemic from the start, including increased use of telehealth, financial pressures from shutdown of elective procedures and dealing with coronavirus hotspots at meatpacking plants.

80 groups plan economic transition for coal communities

Eighty national, regional and local groups have proposed a "National Economic Transition Platform to support struggling coal mining cities and towns, some facing severe poverty, in Appalachia, the Illinois Basin, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona and elsewhere," James Bruggers reports for Inside Climate News.

The plan funded by the Just Transition Fund "stresses support for small businesses and payments for workers while transitioning to family-sustaining jobs," Bruggers writes. "It calls for reclamation and reuse of coal sites and new community infrastructure, including public health facilities and schools. Coal companies, under the plan, would be held accountable during bankruptcies."

Some of the groups aren't for the Green New Deal, "the proposed massive shift in federal spending to create jobs and hasten a transition to clean energy that's divided Republicans and Democrats," Bruggers notes, but Just Transition Fund Executive Director Heidi Binko told him they agree on principles of community-based economic development for coalfield communities and their plan could be used as a template for any legislative initiatives aimed at helping them.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline canceled; regulatory doubts cited

Light green area is the George Washington National Forest. (Bloomberg map)

Dominion Energy Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. said Sunday that they are canceling the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, due to delays and concerns over the project's viability.

The companies "spent years fighting regulatory battles that went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled favorably for the companies last month," allowing the line to cross the Appalachian Trail, The Washington Post notes. But the firms "said in a statement that other recent federal court rulings have heightened the litigation risk, extended the project’s timeline and further ballooned the cost of the project, which already risen from an estimated $5 billion in 2014 to $8 billion today."

"They cited a Montana court ruling last month that threw another roadblock in the path of the Keystone XL Pipeline as an example of the continued challenges such projects face," The Wall Street Journal reports. "Utilities and pipeline companies have been trying to expand U.S. pipeline networks for more than a decade to take advantage of the bounty of oil and gas unlocked by the fracking boom. But many of the projects have encountered intense opposition from landowners, Native American groups and environmental activists concerned about climate change who want to keep fossil fuels in the ground."

The pipeline would have delivered gas to the Virginia coast for compression and export.

Interactive map from Harvard uses new coronavirus cases in last seven days to estimate risk level by county

Screenshot of interactive map shows counties' risk indicated by color; for the interactive version, click here.

How much is your county at risk from the coronavirus? A new mapping tool from Harvard University estimates that, based on the number of new cases per 100,000 people in the previous seven days.

“The public needs clear and consistent information about covid risk levels in different jurisdictions for personal decision-making, and policymakers need clear and consistent visibility that permits differentiating policy across jurisdictions,” Danielle Allen, director of Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, said in a news release.

The map is color-coded but interactive, allowing users to see the data behind the colors, which are:

• Green: Less than one case a day per 100,000 people, and containment is on track. Use contact tracing and testing to monitor.
• Yellow: One to nine cases a day per 100,000 people, indicating community spread and the need for rigorous testing and tracing.
• Orange: 10 to 24 cases a day per 100,000 people, showing “accelerated spread,” and stay-at-home orders are advised
• Red: 25 or more a day cases per 100,000, meaning the county is at a “tipping point” and stay-at-home orders are necessary to contain the virus.

Federal report looks at Appalachia's petrochemical potential

Major gas areas and North Central Appalachia's share of U.S. production;
New York has limits on horizontal hydraulic fracturing (from DOE report)

A new Department of Energy report looks at Appalachia's energy resources, the opportunities and challenges they present and "steps that can be taken to increase the positive economic impact from these opportunities in parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky," says the Appalachian Regional Commission.

“Appalachian energy resources are among the most plentiful in the world, and the region stands poised to continue its growth as an energy producer and an important contributor to the world petrochemical market,” ARC Federal Co-Chair Tim Thomas said.

For the full report, "The Appalachian Energy and Petrochemical Renaissance: An Examination of Economic Progress and Opportunities," click here.

Abandoned gas and oil wells leak methane into air, stinking up rural properties and contributing to climate change

"More than a century of oil and gas drilling has left behind millions of abandoned wells, many of which are leaching pollutants into the air and water. And drilling companies are likely to abandon many more wells due to bankruptcies, as oil prices struggle to recover from historic lows after the coronavirus pandemic crushed global fuel demand, according to bankruptcy lawyers, industry analysts and state regulators," Nichola Groom reports for Reuters. 

Many of those wells are located on rural land, especially ones that rely on hydraulic fracturing. 

"Leaks from abandoned wells have long been recognized as an environmental problem, a health hazard and a public nuisance," Grooms reports. "They have been linked to dozens of instances of groundwater contamination by research commissioned by the Groundwater Protection Council, whose members include state ground water agencies. Orphaned wells have been blamed for a slew of public safety incidents over the years."

According to a recent Environmental Protection Agency report, more than 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the U.S. emitted 281 kilotons of methane in 2018. "That’s the climate-damage equivalent of consuming about 16 million barrels of crude oil, according to an EPA calculation, or about as much as the United States, the world’s biggest oil consumer, uses in a typical day," Groom reports. "The actual amount could be as much as three times higher, the EPA says, because of incomplete data. The agency believes most of the methane comes from the more than 2 million abandoned wells it estimates were never properly plugged."

New memoir recounts how Appalachian author broke a generational cycle of abuse

A new memoir, In the Shadow of the Valley (Little A, $24.95), examines what it was like to deal with physical and mental abuse, as well as severe substance abuse, in Appalachian rural Kentucky in the 1980s. Bobi Conn, a debut author, interrogates her own assumptions and attitudes growing up, and narrates how she was able to escape the cycle of abuse and process her haunting past in a book Amazon named a "Best Book of the Month" in the Biographies and Memoirs category.

Conn wrote in the memoir that she rewrote the story many times over the years, and each time saw it more clearly: "With each revision, I understood that although many people had quieted me, even whipped me into silence, I still had words they could not take away from me."

"At times, the narrative is fragmented and disconnected, perhaps due to Conn’s struggle to make sense of it all, but the author is to be commended for her courage and determination to change her life circumstances," according to Kirkus Reviews, which called the book "an inspiration for those attempting to come to terms with abuse."

Appalachian novelist Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne writes: “From the first sentence, I smiled in recognition of a natural storyteller, one 'born and bound to this land,' who is a keen observer and a loving inhabitant of the land of which she writes. This book is a wonder—a dark, tragic Appalachian ballad come to full, lush life."

Studies: Jails a more potent pandemic vector than prisons

The coronavirus has hit U.S. jails and prisons hard, due to high rates of chronic disease and lack of sanitation and social distancing. That has turned communities surrounding prisons into covid-19 hotspots, as workers spread the virus. More than 60,000 prisoners and staff have been infected with the disease, and more than 600 have died, according to the Marshall Project, which tracks such statistics.

Jails may be a more potent vector for the pandemic than prisons, according to two new studies. Jails "mainly house those who are awaiting trial or inmates serving short sentences," Michael Ollove reports for Stateline. "Those facilities tend to have more churn than state and federal penitentiaries, with greater numbers of people entering and leaving ... increasing opportunities for the disease to disseminate."

Jails could increase covid-19 infections in U.S. communities from between 99,000 to 188,000 overall, according to an American Civil Liberties Union study with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Tennessee and Washington State University, Ollove reports. The numbers may be bigger, since the paper was published in April and relied on lower death estimates.

A newly published, peer-reviewed study from Health Affairs buttresses the ACLU study: "The researchers found that cycling through Cook County Jail was associated with 15.9 percent of covid-19 cases in Chicago and 15.7% in Illinois as of late April," Ollove reports. Though the study notes that the data isn't enough to establish clear causal relationship, it fits the hypothesis that arrests and jailing practices further the spread of infection.

"It’s not only released inmates, many of whom end up in crowded homeless shelters, who might carry the virus into communities," Ollove reports. "There are also risks of infection from inmates making court appearances or receiving medical care at hospitals in the community."

Here's a cartoon and an editorial for July 4, or any time

"As much as the news media may rub some the wrong way, it is frightening to think of a society with no free press," says the lobbying group America’s Newspapers. All news media, have a vested interest in helping the public understand the essential role of journalism in a democratic republic. The group offers for the July 4 weekend an opinion piece by CEO Dean Ridings and an excellent editorial cartoon, above.

The editorial concludes, "On this Independence Day, all Americans should renew our commitment to Jefferson’s description of the United States as “a country which is afraid to read nothing, and which may be trusted with anything, so long as its reason remains unfettered by law.”

Series examines transition of coal country economy as coal declines

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Energy News Network and WyoFile chart.
Click the image to enlarge it or click here to view the interactive version.

"Transition in Coal Country", a three-part collaboration of the Energy News Network and WyoFile "examines how the declining coal industry presents immediate and long-term changes for coal communities in Wyoming and Appalachia, how those communities are coping with change, and what they might learn from each other in charting a path to a sustainable future beyond coal," Mason Adams and Dustin Bleizeffer report.

The first part, "What's next for coal country?" discusses the overall state of coal communities' economies and the coal industry, and how market and policy forces have contributed to that, as well as predictions for the future.

The second installment, "Coal country faces a healthcare crisis," shows how the pandemic has hurt rural coal communities already struggling with lack of healthcare resources.

The third part, "Coal communities increasingly rely on federal health programs," explores how the decline of coal has forced conservative politicians to reconsider Medicaid expansion and obliged rural communities to depend more on such programs as well as telehealth care. 

Pandemic lays bare the starvation of America's public-health system, AP and Kaiser Health News report

"The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century," begins a comprehensive story by reporters for The Associated Press and Kaiser Health News.

"State and local government health workers on the ground are sometimes paid so little, they qualify for public aid. They track the coronavirus on paper records shared via fax. Working seven-day weeks for months on end, they fear pay freezes, public backlash and even losing their jobs. Since 2010, spending for state public health departments has dropped by 16% per capita and spending for local health departments has fallen by 18%."

Change in public-health staff per resident, by state, 2010-19

That shows at the Kentucky River District Health Department, where Public Health Director Scott Lockard "is battling the pandemic with 3G cell service, paper records and one-third of the employees the department had 20 years ago," the story reports. "He redeployed his nurse administrator to work round-the-clock on contact tracing, alongside the department’s school nurse and the tuberculosis and breastfeeding coordinator. His home health nurse, who typically visits older patients, now works on preparedness plans. But residents aren’t making it easy on them.

“They’re not wearing masks, and they’re throwing social distancing to the wind,” Lockard said in mid-June, as cases surged. “We’re paying for it.”

In some states, health departments are coronavirus stepchildren. "Melanie Hutton, administrator for the Cooper County Public Health Center in rural Missouri, pointed out the local ambulance department got $18,000, and the fire and police departments got masks to fight covid-19, but “For us, not a nickel, not a face mask. We got five gallons of homemade hand sanitizer made by the prisoners.”

The crisis has been long in the making, the story says: "Over time, their work had received so little support that they found themselves without direction, disrespected, ignored, even vilified. The desperate struggle against covid-19 became increasingly politicized and grew more difficult. States, cities and counties in dire straits have begun laying off and furloughing their limited staff, and even more devastation looms, as states reopen and cases surge."

Study: Patients with underlying health conditions 12 times more likely to die from covid-19

Many rural residents who get covid-19 are at a higher risk of being hospitalized or dying from it, according to newly published data.

Coronavirus patients with underlying health conditions were hospitalized six times more often than otherwise healthy patients during the first four months of the pandemic, and they were 12 times more likely to die, according to federal health data," Kate Queram reports for Route Fifty. "The data, reported by state and territorial health departments and compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, covers more than 1.7 million cases of covid-19 and 103,700 deaths, all between Jan. 22 and May 30. The information shows the disproportionate effect the virus continues to have on different groups, including Black and Latino people, the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions.

The CDC data dovetails with a recently published paper in The Journal of Rural Health that found that rural residents and racial/ethnic minorities are at a higher risk of dying from covid-19, especially those who are both rural and a racial or ethnic minority.

GAO report finds increase in repeatedly flooded properties, suggests changes to flood insurance program

Despite billions of dollars the federal government has spent over the past 30 years on flood mitigation projects, a new Government Accountability Office report says the number of properties damaged by floods more than one time has increased in the past decade, especially in Louisiana, Texas, and Florida.

It also notes that premiums for federal flood insurance "do not fully reflect flood hazards for insured property, leaving the federal government financially exposed to this risk," Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. The report says reducing the flood risk of insured properties and/or increasing premiums will mitigate the program's financial shortfalls, but says "structural reforms" to premium rates will also be necessary.

The flood-insurance program has been struggling for years, but because of big spikes in claims paid due to disasters, not a gradual increase. The Federal Emergency Management Agency' "has borrowed about $36 billion from the Treasury to pay claims during disasters over the past 15 years or so. Congress cancelled $16 billion of this 'debt' in 2017, but about $20 billion remains outstanding," Lucia reports.

The report dovetails with recently released scientific research showing that far more U.S. properties are at substantial risk of flooding than FEMA maps indicate, since FEMA maps don't factor in climate change and don't use the most recent data available.

Chesapeake Energy declares bankruptcy, others may follow since 1/3 of U.S. shale-oil producers 'technically insolvent'

Horizontal hydraulic fracturing pioneer Chesapeake Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to eliminate $7 billion in debt, and others could follow soon, Alexandra Scraggs reports for Barron's.

Lower demand during the pandemic triggered an oil crash that's hitting the fracking industry hard. The U.S. became a top oil producer recently because of the fracking boom, but keeping up with that boom means most fracking companies are heavily leveraged and can't afford a downturn.

But bond yields for Chesapeake have been distressed since August 2019, long before the pandemic, Scraggs reports. She lists 10 other oil and gas companies that could also declare bankruptcy, including drilling equipment maker Forum Energy Technologies.

According to a Deloitte study, one-third of U.S. shale-oil producers are "technically insolvent," with crude oil prices so low, meaning they will have trouble repaying debts. Oil prices have gone up a bit since April, "but the rebound will do little to prevent 15 years of debt-fueled production growth catching up with many shale producers,"  Kevin Crowley reports for Bloomberg.

Medicaid expansion squeaks by in Okla.; ballot initiative process was key in sidestepping state Republican leaders

A ballot initiative to expand Medicaid benefits via federal funding passed narrowly in Republican stronghold Oklahoma, with 50.48 percent voting yes and 49.52% voting no out of more than 673,000 cast. Most of the "yes" votes were concentrated in urbanized areas.

The move could help at least 200,000 lower-income adults, according to The Associated Press.

"Low-income households earning 133% or less than the federal poverty line will now be eligible for government subsidized Medicaid coverage with the state picking up 10% of the cost and the federal government paying the balance," the Tulsa World reports. "Under 2019 poverty guidelines, expanded Medicaid coverage would provide health insurance to a single adult making less than $17,236 annually, or adults in a family of four making less than $35,535 annually."  Oklahoma has the second-highest percentage of the population without health insurance, with 14.2%, or 548,316 individuals, lacking it, the World reports.

The referendum makes Oklahoma the 37th state to expand Medicaid (38th if you count Washington, D.C.). The ballot initiative process may have been a key factor in the vote in Oklahoma and other red states that have expanded Medicaid, enabling voters to make an end-run around conservative state leaders, Glenn Daigon reports for Who What Why.

Part of Roundup settlement could help some Midwestern row-crop farmers hit by dicamba drift stay afloat

"Largely overlooked in Bayer’s $10.5 billion Roundup settlement last week was a $400 million agreement to settle claims of crop damage from dicamba drift, a deal that could help some struggling farmers stay afloat," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture. "Claims from the 2015 to 2020 growing seasons will be covered by the settlement, and farmers not involved in the litigation are still able to submit claims if they provide proof of damage to crop yields and evidence that it was due to dicamba, according to a Bayer spokesperson."

Some rural Californians illustrate political divide in attitudes toward wearing masks in public during pandemic

Despite ample evidence that masks work to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, many refuse to wear them, especially as the pandemic has become increasingly politicized. In rural areas of California, many are rejecting Gov. Gavin Newsom's June 18 order to wear masks while in public.

"Why the split? Some of it’s cultural; as a rule, rural Californians are more suspicious of what they see as government intrusion into their lives," Dale Kasler reports for The Sacramento Bee. "Some of it’s political; rural areas tend to vote Republican, and some residents are taking their lead from President Donald Trump, who has been disdainful of wearing masks. Polls show Democrats are more likely to wear masks than Republicans."

Kasler's interviews with rural residents illustrate some of the reasons. Lorenzo Smith, a retailer in Placerville, pop, 10,389, told Kasler he won't wear them out of principle and because he thinks it's unnecessary. "Most people up here do not like the governor," Smith told Kasler. "The deal is, you have no right to tell me I have to wear a mask. I’m an American. … I refuse to bow to anybody."

Miami entrepreneur, others indicted in alleged $1.4 billion scheme to route lab tests to rural hospitals for higher pay

Miami entrepreneur Jorge Perez and nine others have been indicted for allegedly scamming insurers by fraudulently routing lab services bills through rural hospitals that are allowed to charge higher rates. Perez owned, co-owned, had a financial stake in, or helped manage over a dozen hospitals, but most have since declared bankruptcy or closed.

"The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Florida, alleges Perez and the other defendants sought out struggling rural hospitals and then contracted with outside labs, in far-off cities and states, to process blood and urine tests for people who never set foot in the hospitals. Insurers were billed using the higher rates allowed for the rural hospitals," Lauren Weber and Barbara Ostrov report for Kaiser Health News. "Perez and the other defendants took in $400 million since 2015, according to the indictment. Many of the hospitals run or managed by Perez’s Empower companies have since failed as they ran out of money when insurers refused to pay for the suspect billing. Half of the nation’s rural hospital bankruptcies in 2019 were affiliated with his empire."

The insurers may not be the only possible victims. A former employee at one of Perez's hospitals told KHN that "money was so tight under Perez’s management of her former hospital that the electricity was shut off at least twice and staffers had to bring in their own supplies," Weber and Ostrov report. "She said she is owed about $12,000 in back pay, as well as money for uncovered dental expenses and a workplace injury that would have been covered had employees’ insurance or workers’ compensation premiums been paid."

Nearly 70% more U.S. properties at high risk of flooding than federal government estimates; see county-level data

New York Times maps; click here for an interactive, county-level map.

Nearly 6 million more U.S. properties face a substantial risk of flooding than federal data indicates, according to new peer-reviewed scientific research. That could have big repercussions for rural residents who live near waterways.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which assesses properties' flood risk for the government via the National Flood Insurance Program, shows that 8.7 million properties are at a high risk of flooding. But the new research shows that 14.6 million properties face such risk. "The discrepancy exists, the group says, because it uses more up-to-date climate data, analyzes precipitation as a stand-alone risk, and includes areas FEMA has not," Amy Harder and Maema Ahmed report for Axios. Click here for interactive content from Axios, including ranked states, counties and areas at risk.

Residents of high-risk areas are required to buy federal flood insurance. "When FEMA does issue updated maps, politicians and homeowners often object, hoping to avoid higher federal flood insurance rates," The New York Times reports. Poor, rural residents lose out either way: increased insurance payouts could price them out of their communities, but without insurance, they could be left without help and unable to afford repairs when flooding hits, as happened in Florida after Hurricane Michael.

Recent studies found that the federal government needs to spend up to $12 billion to improve its flood maps. In the meantime, First Street is developing a free online database called Flood Factor aimed at helping real estate agents and prospective buyers get a more realistic idea of a property's flood risk.

First Street is a non-profit research and tech firm that developed its flood model with researchers and hydrologists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University and more.

Nominate an outstanding journalist or news media staffer over age 50 for new Editor & Publisher honor by July 10

For years, Editor & Publisher magazine has published a list of 25 outstanding journalists under age 35, but the publication's leaders apparently believe they've been remiss in not honoring veteran journalists.

So, E&P is seeking nominations for its new "15 over 50" Award. Nominees should be someone who has "spent their career moving the news publishing industry forward by leading, inspiring and motivating others." Nominees must be at least 50 years old as of July 1, and can come from newspapers, TV, radio or online, and can come from sales, editorial, production, or audience development.

Nominations are due July 10. Click here for more information or to submit a nomination.

Funds launched to help local news organizations fund-raise from audiences, increase local coverage of covid-19

Several news-media organizations have launched funds aimed at helping local newspapers more quickly and easily begin fund-raising and accepting tax-deductible donations.

The New England Newspaper & Press Association announced the creation of its News Fund of New England in late April; the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation announced its Wisconsin Community News Fund on June 27. Both seek to help local newspapers stay afloat at a time when advertising revenue has taken a steep dive.

A similar venture has a slightly different focus: the Local Media Association has launched the Covid-19 Local News Fund, which aims to help independent and family-owned news organizations fundraise donations so they can increase coverage of covid-19 issues at the local level.

Ensuring that local news media can provide clear, reliable information about the pandemic is imperative, since conflicting messages about the pandemic from scientists, politicians and social media has likely helped the virus spread. Because the pandemic has become so politicized, Republicans—who are disproportionately rural—tend to take the threat of the virus less seriously, Shefali Luthra reports for Kaiser Health News.

New rural covid-19 cases hit record – and increasing – highs for at least four days straight through June 26

New covid-19 cases in nonmetropolitan counties. Red bars are days in which the record for most new cases was broken.
(Daily Yonder chart; click the image to enlarge it.)

Rural counties saw record numbers of new covid-19 cases for at least four days in a row last week.

"The streak started on Tuesday, June 23, when there were 3,885 new cases of covid-19 in nonmetropolitan, or rural, counties. The figure climbed each day, reaching 4,550 new cases on Friday, June 26," Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder. The previous rural record was 2,655 new infections on June 12.

Covid-19 cases are rising overall in the U.S., but rural cases are increasing at a slightly faster rate than the national average. From June 20 through 26, covid-19 cases increased 9.5 percent, while rural cases climbed 11.9%. Cities with populations between 500,000 and 1 million saw the steepest increases in that time frame, at 13.9%. Click here for more Daily Yonder information and analysis on covid-19 cases, including links to county-level data.

New covid-19 cases in non-metropolitan counties. Red bars are days in which the record for most new cases was broken.

Federal Reserve will start buying bonds from major food and agribusiness firms to prop up the economy

The Federal Reserve will buy bonds from large corporations, including several major food and agribusiness firms, "as part of its broad efforts to prop up the economy and financial markets," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture.

The New York Federal Reserve Bank announced nearly $7 billion in individual corporate bonds and exchange-traded funds from nearly 800 companies. "The program is part of the central bank’s unprecedented efforts to pump money into the economy and keep cash moving through financial markets," McCrimmon reports. "The Fed is buying bonds on the open market from companies that meet its eligibility standards. The purchases will lower borrowing costs for those firms should they seek more credit."

Click here for a full list of companies that will receive help.

Opioid epidemic caused OD deaths on tribal lands to spike; Natives in Okla. 50% more likely to die than non-natives

Native Americans on tribal lands are facing some of the highest per-capita rates of coronavirus infections because of struggles with health disparities, infrastructure and housing problems, isolation and poverty. "But tribal leaders say they have not lost sight of the ongoing devastation caused by prescription opioids," Sari Horwitz, Debbie Cenziper and Steven Rich report for The Washington Post. "As more than 3,000 cities and counties — along with most states — pursue billions in settlement dollars from opioid manufacturers and distributors, tribal leaders are fighting for a fair share of the proceeds through a series of lawsuits filed by Indian tribes. At the height of the opioid epidemic, Native Americans overdosed and died at a rate that rivaled some of the hardest-hit regions in Appalachia. Nationwide, from 2006 to 2014, Native Americans were nearly 50 percent more likely to die of an opioid overdose than non-natives."

Oklahoma was particularly hard hit, with opioid-overdose death rates three times higher than the nationwide rate for non-Natives from 2006 to 2014. "At least 370 Native Americans in Oklahoma overdosed and died — with a death rate roughly equivalent to that of West Virginia, federal data shows. Experts say the number of deaths for Native Americans is likely to be far higher because they are often mistakenly classified as white on death certificates," the Post reports.

Pennsylvania attorney general releases 'scathing' grand jury report on state fracking industry, regulatory industry

"Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Thursday released a scathing grand jury report on the state’s Marcellus Shale natural gas industry that not only outlines health and safety issues caused by hydraulic fracturing, but also takes to task the chief agency in charge of enforcing regulations on the industry," Frank Kummer reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

At a press conference, Shapiro described a "revolving door relationship between the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and the industry, saying officials from the agency 'repeatedly failed to exercise their duties and responsibilities,'" Kummer reports. He characterized their relationship as "too cozy" and said DEP officials who testified to the grand jury were repeating fracking industry talking points. He also noted that an energy company hired seven former DEP employees from the same office.

"The grand jury report was the result of a two-year investigation that included 287 hours of testimony. It examined an industry that has drilled over 12,000 unconventional wells, as well as what the jurors called a 'chemical cover-up' that allows companies to keep secret complex chemical compounds used in the fracking process," Kummer reports.

A 2017 study linked low birth weight and other health problems for infants who lived near fracking wells. 

Rural food banks face new challenges amid pandemic

Food banks across the nation are struggling to keep up with demand as unemployed families seek help during the pandemic. But rural food banks are dealing with "the additional challenges of getting food to those who live in isolated places with fewer volunteers and donations," Emily Ness reports for WDIO-TV in Duluth.

According to the director at Second Harvest North Central Food Bank in Duluth, food must be packed up and distributed instead of allowing people to come in and take it from the shelf, in order to maintain social distancing. That takes more volunteers, and volunteers tend to be senior citizens. But Second Harvest, in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has barred seniors from volunteering during the pandemic. That leaves them with fewer volunteers, Ness reports.

Second Harvest is also spending more money distributing the food in rural areas since there are so many new people who need help from the food bank. That means increased costs for gas and mileage, Ness reports.

Telehealth expansion for pandemic has made mental health care more accessible in some rural areas

Aggressive efforts to expand telehealth care in rural areas during the pandemic are bringing the unexpected side benefit of making mental health care more accessible in some areas, Raga Justin reports for the San Angelo Standard Times. Though Justin's story centers around Texas, the same thing is likely happening in other states.

"In April, Gov. Greg Abbott temporarily waived restrictions on telehealth, allowing mental health care providers and local mental health authorities to broadly expand services and collect reimbursement for online appointments more easily," Justin reports. "The state also implemented a mental health hotline in March that offers free over-the-phone support and provides resources and information to callers who need help."

Andy Keller, president and CEO of Texas-based Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, told Justin that "in some ways, people in rural Texas have better access to health care than they’d ever had before" and noted that expanded telehealth access has lifted barriers to accessing physicians in other parts of the state.

Telemedicine appointments at Texas Tech University's Psychiatry Department—a telemedicine pioneer—have been skyrocketing since the pandemic began, according to department chair Sarah Wakefield.

But lack of broadband access in rural areas has stymied further expansion of telemedicine. About 500,000 Texas households lack broadband access in Texas, and about 440,000 of them are in rural areas, Justin reports.