Biden bid to save prairie chickens could spark oil-patch fight

A lesser prairie chicken
(USFWS photo by Greg Kramos)

"The Biden administration called for new protections under the Endangered Species Act for an iconic bird of the Great Plains on Wednesday, a move with major consequences for the oil and gas industry," Joshua Partlow and Juliet Eilperin report for The Washington Post.

"U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials proposed listing as endangered a portion of the lesser prairie chicken’s population living in Texas and New Mexico, whose range overlaps with the oil- and gas-rich Permian Basin," the Post reports. "The agency stopped short of awarding the same protections to the birds’ northern population, in Oklahoma and Kansas, on the grounds that their numbers had declined less drastically. The decision, one of nearly two dozen new conservation measures the administration has adopted in the past four months, underscores President Biden’s push to unravel his predecessor’s environmental policies."

The move echoes the years-long battle over the sage grouse, a similarly oddball-looking cousin of the lesser prairie chicken that also nests on prime drilling land.

Study identifies areas with significant potential to reduce downstream water pollution from nitrogen fertilizers

Regions are ranked by total nitrogen surplus. (Civil Eats map, University of Vermont data, Rural Blog label)

Nitrogen pollution from fertilizer is a significant—and difficult to solve—environmental issue: runoff contaminates drinking water and causes dead zones and toxic algae blooms in lakes and oceans, and nitrogen released into the air as the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

A new study from the University of Vermont's Nutrient Cycling and Ecological Design Lab, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, "identified 20 nitrogen 'hotspots' across the U.S. The clusters of counties not only represent areas where a large proportion of surplus nitrogen is being applied; they are also places where researchers say there is significant potential to reverse the trend—to the benefit of farmers, local residents, and the environment," Lisa Held reports for Civil Eats. "The study comes at an opportune time, as the Biden administration turns its focus to agriculture’s role in fighting climate change, and conversations about scaling up and targeting farm conservation programs are increasing."

The study identifies regions and ranks them by total nitrogen surplus. The first three are not surprising; they are in the corn-and-soybean-growing areas of the Midwest most often identified with nitrogen pollution. Less often identified with the problem are No. 4, the lower Ohio and mid-Mississippi river valleys, and No. 5, which includes parts of four northern Rocky Mountain states.

Federal Reserve reports, graphs show farm economy robust

Farm loan repayment rates (Federal Reserve charts)

Farm loan repayment rates, along with the U.S. agricultural economy in general, are improving rapidly, according to the latest Federal Reserve bank surveys on farm credit conditions in the first quarter of 2021.

Farm income 

"Following multiple years of weakness and growing financial stress, bankers reported that farm income was higher than a year ago for the second consecutive quarter and demand for farm loans was subdued," Nathan Kauffman and Ty Kreitman report for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. "Interest rates on farm loans remained at historic lows, and along with better financial conditions; supported widespread increases in farmland values."

The figures track with independent research from Creighton University agricultural economist Ernie Goss, whose Mainstreet Rural Index has found record economic confidence among Midwestern rural bankers in recent months. Booming farmland prices have also boosted the farming economy, Goss and the Federal Reserve agree.

Decline in local news coverage is bad for democracy, can increase polarization; research discusses ways to mitigate it

The decline of local newsrooms may be increasing political polarization and harming the fabric of American democracy, research indicates. Government aid could help small news outlets stay afloat, and focusing on local issues in the opinion section may help not only reduce polarization, but increase readership, Louisiana State University political-communication professor Joshua Darr writes for FiveThirtyEight in a wide-ranging piece that includes some of his own research.

"The local news business was devastated by Covid-19, even though consumers wanted more of its product," Darr writes. "Visits to local news websites spiked by 89 percent from February to March 2020, but newspapers did not profit from having more readers: Ad revenues for the largest newspaper publisher in the nation, Gannett, dropped 35% from 2019 to 2020. Journalists were laid off, furloughed or forced to accept early retirements or pay cuts. The pandemic, however, merely accelerated a crisis in local journalism" caused by several factors. Darr focuses on the results, citing research.

The decline of local news "has been linked to more corruption, less competitive elections, weaker municipal finances and a prevalence of party-line politicians who don’t bring benefits back to their districts," Darr reports. It also makes small-town residents getting their news mainly from national outlets that are often more partisan, making them more likely to vote for one party or the other. 

Editorial practices can help tamp down polarization. In 2019, the editor of The Desert Sun in Palm Springs ran only local and regional political content on the opinion page for a month, with no mention of then-President Trump or the upcoming elections. Darr and others surveyed locals and wrote a book about the experiment. Not only did the new policy slow political polarization, it nearly doubled online readership of the opinion section, he reports. 

"The economics of local news makes experiments like The Desert Sun’s difficult to replicate, however," Darr writes."The market is simply not providing local newspapers the resources they need to deliver the civic benefits they’re capable of, which raises the question as to what extent the government should step in to help. People have long debated whether freedom of the press means freedom from government assistance, but on this point, history is clear: Government policies like tax breaks and exemptions from some labor laws and minimum wage and overtime rules have benefited newspapers since the 18th century." One other way, already in place: preservation of laws requiring paid public notices.

A recently introduces bipartisan bill may help smaller news organizations. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and John Kennedy, R-La., are co-sponsoring the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which would give news organizations a temporary anti-trust exemption to collectively negotiate with tech companies "with the aim of helping smaller local publications earn back the much-needed online advertising dollars currently going to Facebook and Google," Darr notes.

Investigation finds more than 80 dams could flood communities with toxic waste if they failed

Where a dam failure would pose a significant risk to communities due to toxic waste sites, according to Undark analysis

An investigation has identified more than 80 dams in 24 states that could flood local areas with toxic waste if they failed. The risks these dams pose to toxic waste sites are mostly unrecognized by government agencies, according to interviews with dam safety, environmental and emergency officials, leaving communities nationwide vulnerable to such disasters, James Dinneen and Alexander Kennedy report for Undark.

Read more here.

Small Business Administration offers pandemic-recovery grants up to $5 million to local governments, businesses

A new Small Business Administration initiative, the Community Navigator Pilot program, will provide millions in grants to eligible organizations, including state and local governments, to speed post-pandemic economic recovery. "State and local governments are among the entities eligible to apply for the SBA’s Community Navigator Pilot program, which will offer $100 million in grants to agencies that develop a system to deliver services to underserved small businesses," Andrea Noble reports for Route Fifty. "The program offers eligible organizations, including governments, grants from $1 million to $5 million."

The government has already provided targeted relief from the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program and other programs, but many businesses could use advice and support in navigating the new economy, Bruce Strong, the state director of the Minnesota Small Business Development Center Network, told Noble. Even businesses that got PPP loans could benefit from a navigator program to ensure they use and document the funds properly, he said.

The program will award grants to up to 100 programs. The application deadline is in July, and the SBA expects to announce the awards in August. Click here for more information.

Free webinar at 1 p.m. ET Thursday, June 3, will show how rural employers can strengthen local vaccination rates

A National Rural Business Summit webinar on Thursday, June 3, will discuss how major rural employers and small businesses can engage with employees and residents to play a meaningful role in increasing the rural coronavirus vaccination rate. Strategies include sharing fact-based information, sharing personal vaccination stories, and supporting community vaccination efforts.

The free webinar will begin at 1 p.m. ET and is presented by the Rural Assembly in partnership with the Health Action Alliance, The Daily Yonder, the National Rural Health Association, The Rural America Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations. Click here to register.

In related news, a new episode of the Rural Assembly's Everywhere Radio show is all about how to overcome vaccine hesitancy in rural America. Host Whitney Kimball Coe, director of the Rural Assembly, talks with Jeff Eastman, CEO of Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit that provides free health care to those in need. Listen to the episode here.

Country music bucks pandemic bust in music industry

Canceled concerts and slightly lower music streaming rates during the pandemic torpedoed a five-year trend of rising revenues in the music industry, "but two genres have been spared the Covid crunch: children’s music and country," Lucas Shaw reports for Bloomberg. "Country in particular has thrived. U.S. residents have listened to an average of 11.1 percent more country since mid-March—an increase of 127 million streams a week. And while growth in kids’ music has subsided as more people return to work, country has only accelerated. Country music streaming climbed 22.4% in the final full week of May."

There are a few theories for country music's increased popularity. "Some have argued it is comfort food at a time when people are craving any form of succor,:" Shaw reports. "An executive at Pandora, the online radio service, noted country music is a perfect complement to drinking, (Alcohol sales have also soared during the pandemic.) . . . The simplest explanation may be the most boring: country fans are learning to stream." Though country music is the third-most popular genre in the U.S., country listeners have been more apt to buy CDs and less likely to use streaming services than consumers of other genres.

"But as Spotify has progressed from popularity to ubiquity, and tech giants Apple, Amazon and Google pumped streaming services through smart speakers, people of all ages and demographics have embraced streaming. Country has crept into the top 3 among people who use free streaming services," Shaw reports.

New rural coronavirus infections fall for sixth straight week, but rural Covid-19 death rate rises for second week in a row

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, May 23-29
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version

Rural America saw 21,179 new coronavirus infections last week, May 23-29, an 18 percent decrease from the previous week's 25,876 and the sixth consecutive week of declining cases. But "new Covid-related deaths in rural counties grew by about 25%, from 681 two weeks ago to 849 last week," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. "Deaths have grown by 40% over the past three weeks in rural counties, while climbing only 4% in metropolitan counties." The nationwide rural Covid-related death rate last week was 38% higher than the metropolitan rate.

That said, new rural infections last week were the lowest in nearly a year and down 91% from their January peak, and new rural deaths were still about 80% below their mid-January peak. "Half of the nations’ 1,976 rural counties saw decreases in infections last week. About a quarter of rural counties had an increase in cases, while another quarter had little change," Murphy and Marema report.

Click here for more data, charts and regional analysis from the Yonder, including an interactive county-level map.

Land investors predict rural real estate boom will continue post-pandemic, but a rural broadband and tech gap persists

Pew Research Center chart showing home broadband connection as of Feb. 8, 2021

The pandemic prompted many city dwellers to move to rural areas, and that trend will likely continue after the pandemic, according to a new survey from those interested in rural real estate. LandThink, an affiliate of real-estate site LandFlip, asked readers in April if they believed the rural real estate trend will continue post-Covid; 77.6 percent of respondents said yes.

Respondents cited factors such as the increasing popularity of remote work as reasons buyers may want to—or at least now be able to—move to a rural area. Growing rural broadband access is helping make that possible, according to an April Pew Research Center report. 

However, as Pew notes, a rural tech gap persists: as of 2020, 95% of urban Americans use the internet, compared to 94% of suburbans and 90% of rural Americans. And as of Feb. 8, only 72% of rural respondents said they had home broadband service, compared to 77% of urban respondents and 79% of suburban respondents. Rural residents were the most likely to report relying on a smartphone instead of home broadband in 2021, with 17% of rural respondents reporting so, compared to 16% of urban dwellers and 12% of suburbanites.

JBS, top U.S. beef processor, deals with ransomware attack

Five of JBS's largest U.S. beef plants have stopped processing after a ransomware attack on Sunday, halting nearly one-fifth of the nation's beef production capacity. JBS is the world's largest meat processor; in the U.S. it's the top beef producer and the second-largest pork and poultry producer.

Company officials believe the attack to be "an extortion attempt perpetrated by a criminal group likely based in Russia," Hamza Shaban reports for The Washington Post. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the attack and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reached out to several major meat processors to alert them of the situation. Officials are assessing the cyberattack’s effect on the nation’s meat supply ... as the administration works to mitigate its impact," according to a White House spokesperson.

JBS detected the attack on its networks in North America and Australia on Sunday, and said their backup servers weren't affected, and there's no evidence hackers compromised or misused data tied to customers, suppliers, or employees, Shaban reports. A security firm is helping the company restore its systems; the work "may delay certain transactions with customers or suppliers," JBS said in a press release. 

"The cyberattack is the latest to target a crucial supply chain or large institution," Shaban reports. Less than a month ago, the federal government paid hackers, likely from Russia, $4.4 million after a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline. Rural utilities and local governments are often vulnerable to hackers because of inadequate cybersecurity. 

Stories for S.C. accountability journalism project uncover corruption, misspending in local governments

Two rural South Carolina dailies have exposed questionable local tax expenditures; the stories are the latest products of an investigative reporting partnership with The Post and Courier in Charleston and 16 rural newsrooms across the state. 

The first story digs into questionable spending by the Wagener fire department that has prompted investigations by county and state officials as well as federal scrutiny. As part of a larger investigation into the town's mismanagement of taxpayer money, the Aiken Standard "has uncovered hundreds of pages of records that shed fresh light on money issues that have roiled Wagener’s fire department and divided the town," Dede Biles reports for the Standard, which is owned by The Post and Courier. "The fire department dispute is just the latest in a string of controversies arising from the town’s finances in recent years. Among other things, the town has found itself on the defensive for failing to properly insure town hall, neglecting to pay Wagener’s federal taxes on time and improperly using state money intended for crime victims to shore up other budget holes."

The second story details how local officials charged with renovating a rural school "flouted South Carolina procurement law while awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in work, keeping the public, potential contractors and even state regulators in the dark," Matthew Hensley reports for the Index-Journal in Greenwood.

The Post and Courier launched the "Uncovered" project in February, noting that expanding rural news deserts and weak ethics laws have allowed local-government corruption to go undetected.

Covid roundup: Many rural health-care workers wary of vaccination; some states ban schools from requiring masks

Here's a roundup of recent news about the pandemic and immunization efforts:

A survey finds many rural health-care providers are hesitant about vaccination. Read more here.

According to a new survey, the two biggest factors that affect a person's willingness to get the coronavirus vaccination are the convenience of getting a shot and whether or not a vaccine will be required for everyday activities. Read more here.

A New York law firm closely tied to the anti-vaccine movement has bolstered local efforts across the nation to fight coronavirus immunization mandates. Read more here.

Moderna says clinical trial data shows its coronavirus vaccine strongly protects kids as young as 12. The company will submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration and other regulators early next month in an effort to obtain emergency authorization to administer its vaccine to 12-to-17-year-olds. Read more here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating many reports of youths who had mild heart problems after vaccination. It's unclear whether the vaccine(s) caused the heart problem, called myocarditis, which is mostly mild and tends to go away on its own. Read more here.

CDC data shows that only about 10,000 Americans were infected with the coronavirus after being fully vaccinated, and only 2% of those died. Over 130 Americans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Read more here.

Little-known illnesses are turning up in Covid-19 long-haulers. Read more here.

A rural church choir in Washington state tries to regroup more than a year after experiencing one of the pandemic's first super-spreader events. Read more here.

A package explores how local nonprofits tried to combat anti-vaccine conspiracies running rampant among farmworkers in northern California's wine country. Read more here.

Outer Cape Cod vaccination efforts focus on vulnerable groups and making the tourist season safer. Read more here.

A doctor from rural New York says he feels "tired but inspired" as the pandemic slows down, and also feels cautiously optimistic about the Biden administration's attention to rural needs. Read more here. 

Republicans in Michigan's Senate advanced a bill last week that would bar state or local health officials from requiring coronavirus vaccinations for children, though the officials say no such mandate is being considered. In recent months, Michigan has had some of the highest new rural coronavirus infection rates in the nation. Read more here.

Iowa and Texas have banned school districts from requiring students to wear masks on campus, and other states and communities are considering similar moves. Read more here.

The Daily Yonder looks back at Grant County, Washington, one of the first places in rural America to have a major encounter with the coronavirus. Read more here.

The Yonder also has a piece about a rural county at a far reach of Minnesota that has had no Covid-19 deaths as of May 24. Read more here.

Schools across the nation are trying tactics such as pep rallies and free prom tickets to get students vaccinated. Read more here.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced recently that it will allocate $4.8 billion for coronavirus testing for uninsured Americans. Read more here.

High HIV case rate in Miss. blamed on rural stigma, lack of broadband/telehealth and reticence to discuss sexual health

New HIV diagnoses are declining in the U.S., mostly because the preventive drug PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is being used more widely. But diagnoses have remained high in Mississippi, especially in rural areas, because of stigma and lack of telehealth or broadband, Sarah Fowler reports for The Washington Post.

Those factors contribute to an overall increase in rural HIV cases, according to a May 2020 report by the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services. Black and Latino Americans are also at a higher risk of becoming infected. 

Mississippi, which is largely rural and has the largest Black population percentage of any state, finds itself at the crosshairs of both trends. "Despite a recent push to install broadband across the state, many still don’t have reliable Internet access. Without it, telehealth services aren’t an option," Fowler reports.

Another problem is that health-care providers are often uncomfortable having frank conversations about sexual health with patients. As Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi's chief health officer, told Fowler: "People don't want to talk about sex in the South."

Summer safety tips for rural children, at work or at home

This summer, many rural youngsters will be working on farms, caring for younger siblings, or just staying home alone as parents work. The Progressive Agriculture Foundation offers some health and safety tips:

• Parents must establish safety rules and boundaries for children who are old enough to stay home alone. That includes being careful about what they share on social media, since posts may alert others that they're home alone.
• Make sure teens who are babysitting younger siblings know what to do in an emergency.
• Identify a trusted neighbor who can stop in periodically and check in on kids at home.
• If children will be preparing meals while parents are away, make sure they understand how to safely use kitchen appliances such as the stove, the microwave, and knives. Adults should also make sure kids know how to prevent fires and burns and what to do if one should occur.
• Kids also need to be reminded about the risks and safety precautions involved with farming equipment, how to appropriately use personal protective equipment while completing some tasks, and the importance of staying hydrated and taking breaks on hot days.
• Adults should warn youth of the dangers of "cutting corners" to get a task finished more quickly, or looking at one's phone while working.
• No matter what youth are doing outside, adults should remind them to wear sunscreen and reapply every two hours, or more often if swimming or sweating.

PAF runs a program called Safety Day, the largest rural health-and-safety program in North America. Click here to see if a Safety Day workshop is happening soon near you.

U.S. News picks best mountain towns in America to visit

Time-lapse photo shows traffic at junction of Parkway (US 441) and East Parkway (US 321) in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

U.S. News and World Report has published a list of "Best Mountain Towns to Visit in the USA", based on what it says is its analysis of "a wide collection of . . . expert and user opinions."

Eight Rocky Mountain ski towns made the top 20, but the No. 1 choice was Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in Southern Appalachia, the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation's most-visited national park. No. 2 was Bar Harbor, Maine, which isn't really a mountain town because it's on the Atlantic Ocean, but it's on Mount Desert Island and is in the shadow of Cadillac Mountain (which, at 1,530 feet above the sea, doesn't fit the standard definition of mountain, 2,000 feet).

Next are Telluride, Colorado.; Breckenridge, Colo.; Jackson, Wyo.; Park City, Utah; Aspen, Colo.; and Hot Springs, Arkansas, in the Ouachita Mountains but only 600 feet above sea level. No. 9 is Juneau, Alaska, another coastal town but truly mountainous; No. 10 is Mammoth Lakes, California, in the Sierra Nevada.

Nos. 11-21 are Big Sky, Montana (not a town but a resort area); Estes Park, Colo.; Taos, New Mexico.; Homer, Alaska (on Kachemak Bay, across from the south end of the Kenai Mountains); Stowe, Vermont; Helen, Georgia; Hood River, Oregon, where the Columbia River enters the Cascade Mountains; Sun Valley, Idaho; Big Bear Lake, Calif., in the San Bernardino Mountains; Burlington, Vt. (elevation 200, on Lake Champlain, but near the Green Mountains); and Bryson City, North Carolina, on the other side of the Smokies from Gatlinburg.

Postal Service, lifeline for rural papers and their audiences, raising newspaper rate nearly 9%; stamps will be 58 cents

Public agencies often release bad news late on Friday afternoons, to limit questions and coverage. If it's a Friday that starts a holiday weekend, the news must be especially bad. That's what rural newspaper people thought when they saw the U.S. Postal Service announce a nearly 9 percent increase in the main lifeline to their audiences.

The rate hikes will take effect Aug. 29. The cost of mailing a First Class letter will go to 58 cents, from the current 55 cents. "For community newspapers using Periodicals mail to reach readers, the average rate increase will be nearly 9%," the National Newspaper Association said in a news release. "The rate increase is part of a new USPS business plan that also includes a weakening of service standards for mail that is moving across the country."

The rates must clear the Postal Regulatory Commission, but it has already granted the Postal Service the authority to eliminate an inflation-based limit on rates, NNA notes: "It gave USPS a new set of parameters that allows it to charge more for mail that remains in the postal system while digital technology provides new competition for delivery of messages and advertising."

NNA said the announcement was "grim news for community newspapers that have been fielding months of complaints that subscribers are not receiving their copies on time."

Chair Brett Wesner said, “Nothing about this scenario is good. These increases will require many newspapers to increase subscription prices to cover this new cost, and readers will think we have lost our minds to charge more when USPS cannot get the paper to so many on time.”

Wesner added, “The increase in the stamp cost will be felt most in a rural economy. People in small towns across America send checks through the mail to pay their bills. The stamp goes up and delivery goes down. I fear that just as economic hopes have started to rise for people returning to work, faith in the Postal Service’s ability to serve the nation will put a damper on commercial activity for many of us.”

Recent newspaper closures are mainly small-town weeklies

A farewell video from the Gallatin North Missourian begins with loading of paper rolls onto its press.

The pandemic has caused the closure of 70 newspapers in the United States, and "the newsrooms that are closing are mostly weeklies in small communities," reports Kristen Hare of The Poynter Institute, with the latest glimpse from Penny Abernathy of the University of North Carolina.

"Some report they’re merging with nearby publications. But that 'merger' means the end of news dedicated to those communities, the evaporation of institutional knowledge and the loss of local jobs," Hare writes. "At least 14 of the newsrooms now gone are owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. Several are owned by Forum Communications Co." of Fargo. "And a few are — were — owned by local families." Her post concludes with a list, giving details about the papers.

Abernathy's research has found that the vast majority of papers closing since 2004 have been weeklies, but most were in suburbs. The next most common category were in towns that are not county seats. But in the last two years, more county seats have been losing their papers. In some cases, Like the CNHI markets of Morehead and Monticello, Ky., papers from adjoining and nearby counties have started weeklies, but in those two cases they have not yet reached the level of quality that CNHI offered.

Abernathy, who is moving to a visiting professorship at Northwestern University, told Hare the pace of closures has been about 100 a year, but has accelerated. “Between places switching to online only and those that are merging, this is a really sharp increase, and not surprising, either.”

The latest paper to close, today, is the Gallatin North Missourian, whose retirement-bound owners announced May 5 that they would close the paper if they didn't find a buyer. They didn't, and the paper's closure is unusual because, unlike most weeklies, it has its own press. Here is its own obituary; its last post is a farewell video that ends with the press stop for the last edition.

On the brighter side, Loyd Ford of The Lake News in Calvert City, Ky., announces on his Facebook page that his non-county-seat weekly is starting its 38th year. He concludes, "It is a high honor to be able to publish a newspaper here. Thanks for sticking with us."

Wendell Berry Farming Program graduates its first class

Berry Farming Program graduates and faculty members (Photo provided)

The Wendell Berry Farming Program, a tuition-free college degree program named for the author, poet, farmer and conservationist, graduated its first cohort of 12 students in Kentucky May 15.

Berry gave the graduates "a stirring assessment of the consequences to our country when millions of people have moved from farms to urban areas in a single lifetime," a news release reports. "Sharing his belief in the fundamental laws of nature and human nature," Berry said “If the land is to be used by people, then it must be used by people who love it. Who are culturally prepared and instructed to use it lovingly. And whose cultures, therefore, are sustained economically.”

Wendell Berry

Speaking at Henry County High School, Berry, 86, told the graduates, “I believe that you, along with all the rest of us, are called to take good care of our country. Which in the foreseeable future will mean both using it well and, so far as we can, healing the wounds we have given it.”

"The graduates plan to follow Berry’s advice: Some will return to family farms to revitalize the land, manage forests, grow crops and raise livestock using sustainable methods," the release reports. "Others will apply their education to establish new enterprises that focus on connecting people with food and farms."

The Berry program "is a partnership between The Berry Center of New Castle, Ky., and Vermont’s Sterling College, a small liberal-arts college committed to using education as a force to advance ecological thinking and action," the release says. Graduates earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Tuition is replaced by grant support from the NoVo Foundation, co-founded by Peter Buffett (youngest son of billionaire Warren Buffett) and his  wife Jennifer, and gifts from other foundations and individuals. Students pay room, board and fees.

Sterling President Matthew Derr said in the release, “The Berry Center’s generational, local understanding of this place and its people has been critical to the success of this program. It’s so clear that we share a sense of trust, friendship, and commitment to community with all of those here in Kentucky.”

Graduate Lizzie Camfield of Campbellsburg, Ky., said her graduation plans include starting her own family farm and continuing the small-batch fermented hot sauce business she established as her capstone senior project. “Without this program, I would never have felt empowered enough to pursue farming as a career,” Camfield said. “I love Kentucky, but I didn’t consider it a place where I could make a life and a living, especially farming. Now I have a whole different perspective and I treasure it more than ever.”

Rural coronavirus vaccination rate grew at half the urban rate last week, reflecting a widening gap

Rural/urban vaccination rates are compared to national average. Rates are adjusted to account for vaccinations not assigned to specific counties. Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

The coronavirus vaccination rates in metropolitan counties grew at twice the pace of rural vaccinations last week, May 17-23.

Rural counties saw 394,000 residents become fully vaccinated, bringing the rural rate to 30.2 percent. That’s a 0.9 percentage-point increase from the previous week’s 29.3%, Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder.

Meanwhile, “Metropolitan counties reported an additional 5.3 million completed vaccinations last week, representing a 2.1-percentage-point increase from the week before. The metropolitan rate of completed vaccinations was 37.4% as of May 23,” Murphy and Marema report. “The gap between the national rural and metropolitan vaccinations rates has been growing since the Daily Yonder began analyzing vaccination data five weeks ago. Last week, the metropolitan rate was 7.2 percentage points higher than the rural rate, an increase from 6.1 percentage points two weeks ago.”

Click here for more data, charts and regional analysis from the Yonder.

Retired rural editor ruminates about what Memorial Day meant for the Greatest Generation

Mychal Wilmes

An essay from retired Agri News managing editor Mychal Wilmes takes a look at Memorial Day and what it meant for Americans in a rural Midwestern town during World War II. 

The newly created federal War Production Board held a well-attended meeting at the high school urging local farmers to increase food production for the war effort, and local Extension Service experts and mechanics showed farmers how to better repair their implements, Wilmes writes for Ag Week.

"The war, which would claim the lives of 6,300 Minnesota and 1,929 North Dakota service members, remained front and center in hearts and minds. Farmers and their families were indeed part of what is called the 'Greatest Generation,'" Wilmes writes. "They reached adulthood in pre-World War I, cheered the Doughboys who boarded trains that eventually took them to European battlefields, and believed the conflict would lead to the end of all war."

Black vultures bedevil farmers, but are protected by treaty, so farmers are supposed to get permits to kill them

Vultures surrounded a cow with a newborn calf in West Kentucky. They were chased off in time. (Photo via Farmer's Pride)

Though black vultures play an important role in the food chain as scavengers, they’re also predators, and bedevil livestock producers by killing or maiming healthy animals. Laws intended to protect birds are complicating the situation, Toni Riley reports for The Farmer’s Pride in Kentucky:

Bourbon County farmer Cyndi Steele found she had to apply for a permit to allow her to kill more vultures than the law normally allows. Vultures are protected by the international Migratory Bird Treaty Act, but in 2015 Kentucky launched a pilot program that allowed each farmers to get a permit to dispatch five vultures, in order to protect their livestock. The state caps total allowed kills at 1,500.

"Steele said a representative of the federal agency told her to stay home and protect her livestock. Producers told her to use the common practice of 'Shoot, shovel and shut up.' The problem finally resolved itself when she purchased new guard dogs, a solution she said was expensive but effective," Riley reports. "The purchase made sense, however, when she compared the cost to losing $10,000 worth of show and breeding animals over a six-week period."

Riley notes, "The black vultures . . . are not the same birds commonly known as turkey vultures. Black vultures are pack hunters and like a fresh kill, while the turkey vulture is content with carrion or a carcass. The black vulture is smaller and stockier and has a black head and white tips on its wings. In-flight it flaps more and doesn’t glide like the larger turkey vulture with its longer wingspan."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a program offering permits for killing black vultures. It began in 2015, "with Kentucky being allocated 350 'takes,' with five per producer," Riley reports. "The number of individual takes had to be quickly amended to three because the number of permit requests was great. Since then, the number of takes allowed in Kentucky has increased to 1,500."

Documentary on rural soldier's heroism and campaign to get him the Medal of Honor is returning to TV this weekend

Lt. Garlin Murl Conner

A year ago today, on Memorial Day 2020, Kentucky Educational Television premiered a documentary about a soldier from one of the most isolated places in America who repeatedly put his life on the line for his country – but quietly returned to his very rural life and wasn’t fully honored for his heroism until 73 years later.

"From Honor to Medal: The Story of Garlin M. Conner," will air again on KET's Kentucky Channel at 8/7 p.m. ET/CT Monday, May 31, and is available online at www.ket.org.

The hour-long documentary tells the story of one of the most decorated soldiers of World War II, who received the nation’s highest military decoration only after a 20-year campaign by his widow and friends.

Their campaign ended in June 2018, at the White House, when then-President Trump presented the medal to Pauline Conner, who still lives on their small farm near Albany, just down the road from their son Paul. Soon she plans to deliver his military memorabilia to the Third Infantry Division museum at Fort Stewart, Ga., where there is a Murl Conner Room, next to the Audie Murphy Room.

The two soldiers are a study in commonality and contrasts. Murphy, a son of Texas sharecroppers, won the Medal of Honor for his heroism in northeastern France on Jan. 26, 1945. He returned to the U.S. as perhaps the most decorated American soldier of the war, and became a major movie star.

Conner, who knew Murphy, earned the medal the day before and just a few miles away, but in the fog of war only got the Distinguished Service Cross. He returned to a creekside farm in Southern Kentucky's Cumberland River valley with no electricity or running water. Like most soldiers, he rarely talked about his exploits, which included suffering many wounds and earning four Silver Stars.

Only after Conner died in 1998 was his story told – first by a rank stranger who became his greatest advocate and inspired others to join his campaign to get Conner the Medal of Honor. Led by a neighbor who wouldn’t take no for an answer, they struggled for 20 years to break through Army bureaucracy, losing at every turn – but remaining inspired by Conner’s examples of determination and resolve.

Conner, fresh out of a hospital for a serious wound, volunteered to be a forward observer for artillery that was needed to stop a German attack – an attack that came so close he finally called in artillery on his own position. His commanding officer said he should receive the highest possible medal, but the officer was wounded the next day and didn't follow up.

The follow-up came decades later, from Richard Chilton, a Green Beret veteran from Genoa City, Wisconsin, who met Conner and learned his story while researching the service of his uncle, who died at Anzio under Conner’s command; and from Walton "Chip" Haddix of Albany, Ky., who took up the campaign begun by Chilton and wouldn't take no for an answer. The Army finally relented.

The documentary was produced by Lexington filmmaker Jeff Hoagland and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. It was sponsored by private donors and the Veterans Trust Fund of the Kentucky Department for Veterans Affairs, a state agency that assisted the Conner team's legal efforts at the direction of then-Commissioner Heather French Henry, whose cause was veterans when she was Miss America.

Trailers for the documentary are online at honortomedal.us, along with information about Murl Conner and some of the major players in the effort to get him the Medal of Honor. The program has been aired by public TV stations in other states; check local listings for broadcasts outside Kentucky. DVDs of the documentary are available from the Institute for $29.95, by emailing al.cross@uky.edu.

Corn, wheat and soybean prices were at 8-year highs last week, but seem to have hit 'market top,' analysts say

Last week, corn, soybeans and wheat were all selling at or near the highest prices in eight years. This week, the market fell, "with virtually no change in fundamentals except some improvement in soil moisture levels in the western Corn Belt," Ray Grabanski reports for Successful Farming. "However, the market rallied $1 to $2 from March 30 to May 12 with no change in fundamentals, so it’s likely to drop $1 to $2 by the time we are done, too, with virtually no change in fundamentals. That is simply what market tops look like and how they behave, and this most certainly now can be called a market top in all three major grains: wheat, corn, and soybeans. If a major crop problem develops this summer yet (like a drought), we could rally back up to new highs or the old highs." (Corn and soybean prices are up today.)

There's no sign of any major crop problems right now, especially since recent rainfall has reduced drought-affected areas of the Corn Belt and the forecast continues to call for normal or above-normal precipitation and cooler temperatures across the Midwest, Grabankski reports.

"Crop conditions yesterday continue to show an early planted crop (corn 90% planted, 10% ahead of normal), with winter wheat continuing to improve with above-normal yield potential. However, the first ratings of the year show a hard red spring wheat crop that is the lowest rated ever (even lower than 1988) at only 45% rated good/excellent," Grabanski reports. "Barley is also poorly rated at only 47% rated G/E (vs. 67% last year), mostly due to a lack of soil moisture in the west resulting in poor germination. Soybeans are 75% planted (21% ahead of normal), oats 95% planted (5% ahead), barley 91% planted (4% ahead), and HRS wheat is 94% planted (9% ahead). Yet, while HRS/barley is poorly rated now, recent rains will likely improve those ratings as it has already in pasture conditions (28% rated G/E this week, an improvement of 3%)."

Report correlates high rates of uninsured population with higher coronavirus infections and Covid-19 deaths

In communities with high rates of uninsured people, residents are much more likely to get the coronavirus and die from it than those in communities with fewer uninsured residents, according to a new Families USA report, "The Catastrophic Cost of Uninsurance: Covid-19 Cases and Deaths Closely Tied to America's Health Coverage Gaps."

Some top findings of the report:

• From the start of the pandemic through the end of August, every 10 percent increase in the proportion of a county's residents who lacked health insurance correlated with a 70% increase in coronavirus cases and a 48% increase in Covid-19 deaths.
• Nationwide, more than 40% of Covid-19 infections and about 30% of Covid-19 deaths are linked to health-insurance gaps.
• During the period studied, health-insurance gaps were linked to about 2.6 million Covid-19 cases and 58,000 Covid-19 deaths. 
• If the same correlation between health insurance and Covid-19 remained unchanged until after the period covered in the study, then by Feb. 1, 2021, health-insurance gaps would be associated with an estimated 10.9 million Covid-19 infections and 143,000 Covid-19 deaths.
• In 2019, nearly 30 million Americans under age 65 were uninsured; that number has grown an estimated 15.3 million during the pandemic because of job losses.
• Non-white Americans were nearly twice as likely as white Americans to lose health insurance, and Latinos were three times as likely.
• All states saw an increase in Medicaid enrollment during the pandemic.
• In 11 states, Covid-19 cases linked to health-insurance gaps comprised at least 50% of the state's total Covid-19 infections during the period studied.
• In 10 states, health-insurance gaps were linked to at least 40% of the state's Covid-19 deaths.
• Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Georgia led both lists, in order from highest percentage to lowest.

Hospital closures and the pandemic hurt rural Blacks hard

Hospital closures during the coronavirus pandemic have exacerbated rural health-care inequalities, especially in Black-majority areas, where such hospitals have been more likely to close. 

"A record 19 rural hospitals closed in 2020, according to research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — more than in any other year," Olivia Goldhill reports for Stat. "Communities close to these shuttered hospitals similarly experienced disproportionate fatalities, according to a Stat analysis: Covid-19 death rates in counties where hospitals closed were 37 percent higher than in their states overall. Looking at the most rural counties — those with fewer than 50,000 residents and at least 50 miles from a major city — the death rates were 66% higher than in their states. Seven of the eight hospital closures in counties where the fatality rate was at least 80% higher than their state’s were in such rural counties."

The communities where rural hospitals close often have significant Black populations. They're also "predominantly clustered across the South and Southeast where, more than a half-century since health care segregation officially ended, plenty of hospitals outside of Black communities have yet to earn the trust of African American patients, erecting another barrier to care," Goldhill reports. Another barrier to access: some people would have to cross state lines to access the closest hospital, which can cause billing headaches and eligibility problems.

Stat illustrates the trend with the story of a Black family in Dawson, a town of 4,000 or so in southwest Georgia, and how a hospital closure, trust issues and more contributed to a local woman's death. Southwest Georgia is predominantly Black and rural, and has been hit hard by the pandemic and hospital closures. Dawson is the seat of Terrell County, where 1 in 10 have been infected.

A study done just before the pandemic said Georgia had the fourth highest percentage of rural hospitals in danger of closing, at just over 41%. Southern states and those with large rural populations make up most of the top 10, and the researchers noted that hospitals are likely in worse financial shape now. A more recent analysis found that about 40% of rural hospitals are now in danger of closing.

Paxton Media buys Landmark Community Newspapers

Map by The Rural Blog denotes newspaper ownership and company headquarters towns.
See last paragraph for an UPDATE on the newspapers in Grayson County.

This story has been updated.

One of America's larger community newspaper companies is buying the other.

Paxton Media Group of Paducah, Ky., announced Tuesday that it is buying Landmark Community Newspapers LLC, a chain of 44 weekly and two daily newspapers based in Shelbyville, Ky.

Landmark has 19 papers in Kentucky, including The News-Enterprise, the daily in the Hardin County seat of Elizabethtown. Its other daily is the Citrus County Chronicle in Crystal River, Fla. Paxton has 18 Kentucky papers, with dailies in Owensboro, Madisonville, Hopkinsville and its headquarters city of Paducah, where the family-owned company has its only television station. With the purchase, it will have 119 publications in 14 states, according to a story in its papers.

"PMG believes strongly in the value of local newspapers and the vital role they play in the communities that they serve," said Jamie Paxton, PMG president and CEO. "We appreciate Landmark choosing us to be the new stewards of these important community assets."

Landmark's papers have been for sale for more than 13 years. The Norfolk-based Batten family sold its dailies in that city, Greensboro, N.C., and Roanoke, Va., years ago. The community-newspaper company has been based in Shelbyville since its founding in 1968 by a group of eight weekly newspaper publishers and the Battens' purchase in 1973. The company also has publications in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Indiana and Iowa.

The purchase price was not revealed, but the transaction is one of the largest involving community newspapers in some time, said Lewis Floyd of Business Valuation Consulting, a newspaper and business broker who specializes in small papers.

“Paxton has been interested in acquiring newspapers as part of our strategy given the conditions and the nature of the newspaper industry,” said Mike Weafer, publisher of the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer and group publisher for the company's Kentucky-Indiana region. “Acquisitions strengthen us and help us to persevere, so it is part of an overall strategy to continue to acquire newspapers.”

Paxton's purchase "continues an ongoing effort at PMG to acquire community newspapers in the company's existing geographic footprint," said its story, which quoted no one from Landmark. A version of the story in the Chronicle quoted Publisher Gerry Mulligan: “Paxton Media is a strong newspaper company that brings years of expertise to our company.” Landmark has eight papers in Florida.

The story said PMG will officially take over the Landmark papers on June 8, "but there will be a transition period to PMG regarding systems and procedures, Weafer said."

The deal is likely to means the end of one paper, because the companies have weeklies in Leitchfield, Ky., an unusual if not unique situation for chain-owned weeklies. Many years ago Landmark bought The Record, a locally owned competitor to the Grayson County News-Gazette, to make it part of a cluster with its Elizabethtown daily. It gained the local circulation lead and thus the public-notice advertising, and the News-Gazette changed hands more than once before Paxton bought it in in 2017, along with two other papers. Its circulation is now less than 1,000, in a county of 26,000 people, but Paxton now owns the market. It announced June 24 that the papers would be consolidated under the name Grayson County News, the name of the paper that merged with The Leitchfield Gazette in 1977.

Senate's bipartisan $300 billion infrastructure proposal includes new rural surface transportation grant program

"Lawmakers on a Senate committee that deals with infrastructure on Saturday released a bipartisan, $303.5 billion draft proposal to reauthorize the main federal program that provides funding for highways, roads and bridges," Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. "In addition to supplying bedrock federal dollars for roads, the legislation would provide new grant funding in a number of areas—including for electric vehicle infrastructure, efforts to make the nation's infrastructure more 'resilient' to extreme weather, climate change and natural disasters, and for projects in rural regions."

The current package that governs infrastructure spending will expire Sept. 30. The Biden administration is trying to get support for a much broader infrastructure package that will cost about $2 trillion and include funding for areas like water utilities and broadband, but has been unable to get Republican support thus far, Lucia reports.

The bipartisan bill would cover five fiscal years, from 2022 to 2026, and would greenlight a more than 34% increase in funding compared tot the last such authorization. Democrats highlighted parts of the bill meant to reduce emissions, build resilience and improve pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure," Lucia reports. "Republicans touted provisions in the draft bill plan intended to provide funding to rural areas and to give states flexibility with federal guidelines. Notably, the bill would establish a rural surface transportation grant program, with a total of around $2 billion in grants available over the five years covered by the bill."

University, Kentucky Chamber of Commerce sponsoring series of discussions to bridge state's rural-urban divide

The political divide between rural Republicans and urban Democrats is seen in many states. In Kentucky, the last three legislative elections have relegated Democratic legislators to almost entirely urban enclaves and made them a largely inconsequential minority. But Republicans represent several urban areas, and there are still substantial numbers of Democratic voters in rural areas.

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the public-policy school at the University of Kentucky say they will try to "find new ways to bridge Kentucky’s urban-rural divide" with a series of webinars called the Kentucky Public Policy Roundtable Series.

The first one will be a panel discussion about the health disparities between rural and urban Kentucky, and differences in health-care access and delivery, at noon ET June 8. Future programs will address the rural-urban divides in education (July 15) and economic development (Aug. 10).

“We are very excited to partner with the Chamber on this important initiative,” said Ron Zimmer, director of the university's Martin School of Public Policy & Administration. “We have an outstanding faculty and a network of distinguished alumni across the state and nation with expertise in important public policy areas affecting urban and rural issues.”

Kate Shanks, vice president of public affairs at the Chamber, said “We look forward to not only engaging in these roundtable discussions but also serving as a resource for policy-makers and other interested parties. Our goal is that these sessions will lead to better understanding of these important issues and help develop Kentucky-specific solutions.”

Panelists for the first event will be:

• Mark Birdwhistell, UK Health Care chief of staff and vice president for health services administration
• Larry Gray, president of Baptist Health Louisville and former president of Baptist Health Corbin
• State Sen. Ralph Alvarado of Winchester, chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and a physician
• State Rep. Kim Moser of Taylor Mill, chair of the House Health and Family Services Committee and a former nurse

Both legislators are Republicans. Chamber Senior Policy Analyst Charles Aull will moderate the discussion. He said it will include the opportunity for questions from participants. The webinar is free; to register, click here.

New rural coronavirus cases at lowest level since last June, but rural Covid-related deaths up about 10% from last week

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, May 16-22
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version

The 25,876 rural coronavirus infections in the week of May 16-22 marked an 18 percent decline from the previous week's 31,683. It was the fifth consecutive week of decreases, and the lowest level seen since June 2020. "New infections in rural counties have decreased for nine out of the last 12 weeks and are down about 90% from their peak in mid-January," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder.

Meanwhile, new Covid-related rural deaths grew from 613 two weeks ago to 681 last week, a roughly 10% increase. "Despite the increase last week, Covid-related deaths in rural counties have also fallen nine out of the last 12 weeks and have declined by 85% since their peak in early 2021," Murphy and Marema report.

Click here for more charts and analysis from the Yonder, including a county-level interactive map. 

Virus outbreak at Smithfield plant was worse than known, killed two, Midwest Center reveals via OSHA documents

Milan, in Sullivan County (Wikipedia)

"The Covid-19 outbreak at Smithfield Foods' Milan, Missouri, plant — the focus of a worker safety lawsuit that garnered national attention last year — resulted in two worker deaths and was worse than previously thought," according to newly obtained documents from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Madison McVan reports for the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.

It's been difficult to get clear numbers about infections at the plant. Early on, the Sullivan County Health Department told a local TV station that there were 14 cases, and later a local hospital told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch there were 35 cases tied to the plant, but since then the news media hasn't been given updates, McVan reports. A health-department administrator told the Midwest Center that it doesn't track coronavirus cases by employer. 

OSHA "found the total number of cases was likely more than double what has been previously reported. By the end of May 2020, at least 77 workers were presumed to be positive for the virus, and more than 300 were either suspected to have the virus or had been in close contact with a positive case. Also, at least two workers at the plant died from the virus last year, according to the OSHA inspections obtained by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting," McVan reports. "Smithfield, which employs about 1,100 people at its Milan facility, told OSHA inspectors the company determined that the employees who died had contracted the virus from close contacts outside of work, rather than in the plant."

Smithfield Chief Administrative Officer Keira Lombardo said in a statement that the company has spent more than $800 million to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and has seen a "sustained period of extremely low reported cases across our employee workforce." 

The real case numbers are likely much higher than even the OSHA reports found, said Axel Fuentes, executive director of the Rural Community Workers Alliance. The group advocates for better working conditions for Smithfield employees and has been in contact with Milan plant workers during the pandemic. The group sued Smithfield last spring, claiming the company's pandemic safety measures were inadequate. "The judge dismissed the case, ruling that it was OSHA’s job, not the court’s, to ensure that Smithfield was adequately protecting its employees," McVan reports. "OSHA inspectors found few issues with the virus mitigation measures at the plant during in-person inspections that took place in May and November 2020. OSHA closed the investigations without issuing any penalties."

Some workers told the Midwest Center they thought Smithfield's safety measures didn't go far enough, and said the production line moved so quickly that they couldn't step away to cough or sneeze. But "Smithfield didn’t start distributing masks to its employees in Milan until mid-April 2020, after hundreds of employees at its Sioux Falls plant had already tested positive," McVan reports.

There are no federal emergency standards to protect meatpackers during a pandemic, which Fuentes said makes it harder to hold employers accountable. The day after his inauguration, President Biden ordered OSHA and other federal agencies to come up with emergency standards by March 15, but the agency has yet to publish one. "On April 26, OSHA said in a press release that it had sent a draft of the standard to the White House for review. It’s unclear how long that process could take," McVan reports.

The Midwest Center has done an outstanding job reporting on the meatpacking industry during the pandemic. Click here for a recent package that looks back on how the pandemic has affected workers, what's happening now, and what they predict for the future.

June 10 webinar to provide overview of non-profit that studies economic issues in rural health care

At noon on Thursday, June 10, the Rural Health Information Hub will host a free webinar to provide an overview of the University of Kentucky's Center for Economic Analysis of Rural Health, a non-profit that aims to increase awareness of economic impacts of health care at the rural, state, and national level. The webinar will also introduce CEARH's upcoming webinar series meant to help familiarize attendees with economic development topics.

Click here for more information about the webinar, or to register. A recording will be available afterward.

Drones will soon deliver coronavirus vaccines in rural areas

Draganfly photo

Coronavirus vaccination rates are lower in rural areas, partly because some don't want to get the shots, but also because some live in areas so remote that it's difficult to drive to vaccination sites. "Drone companies are positioning themselves to deliver refrigerated medical products to those people. If the plans don’t pan out in time to combat the coronavirus crisis, then they hope to be set up to assist swiftly in the world’s next big health scare," Dalvin Brown reports for The Washington Post.

One such company, Draganfly, will begin test flights in Texas next month in partnership with Texas-based health-care supply chain management company Coldchain Technology Services. Another drone company, Volansi, has been ferrying other refrigerated medicines and vaccines from Merck in North Carolina since October, Brown reports.

Why use drones? They tend to be faster and cheaper that trucks or helicopters to carry smaller payloads to remote locations, Coldchain executive director Wayne Williams told Brown. 

"Unmanned aerial vehicles are shaping up to assist during the pandemic in other ways, too," Brown reports. "Draganfly developed a system that can measure people’s vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure from a drone. Drones from the Chinese manufacturer DJI have been used to monitor social distancing in Elizabeth, N.J., over the past year. Meanwhile, more than a few firms have announced disinfecting drones to spray potentially contaminated zones from above."

Economists say ending extra unemployment pay will hurt rural areas; employers claim benefits discourage work

Republican governors in at least 22 states plan to end pandemic-related federal unemployment assistance as early as next week, and that is causing some concern about the rural impact.

"The governors argue that the benefits discourage people from taking jobs. But economists say cutting off federal aid affects people’s livelihoods—especially for people of color and residents of rural areas saddled with slow job growth, lackluster transportation options and limited opportunities," Aallyah Wright reports for Stateline. "Montana was the first state to announce it would end the program, on May 4, cutting off the benefits June 27. Other states followed suit, including Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. All are led by Republican governors."

If those states follow through on pulling the aid, nearly 2 million workers could lose almost $11 billion in benefits, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by left-leaning nonpartisan think tank The Century Foundation. But if all states continue allowing the federal unemployment funds through their current expiration date of Labor Day, almost 16 million workers nationwide would receive $100 billion. Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, told Wright that states have never before accepted federal funds and then turned them down.

"Some governors and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—which also called for an end to the $300 weekly extended benefits—opposed the extra support because, they said, benefits would disincentivize people to go back to work in industries such as food service and hospitality," Wright reports. "However, there is no evidence that federal pandemic unemployment benefits had a substantial effect on employment after the $600 benefits expired in July 2020, according to a February 2021 study by a researcher with the National Bureau of Economic Research. More than half of people who received a $600 federal unemployment check returned to work before the supplement expired," according to a paper from the University of Chicago's Becker Friedman Institute for Economics.

Politicians' views on the extra aid mainly fall along party lines. Arkansas state Sen. Ronald Caldwell framed it as a question of equity. It's unfair, he said, that farmworker jobs remain unfilled while teachers and first responders must work. "We can’t stick our head in the sand and continue on with people having grocery shelves stocked and other things that have to be done," he told Wright. 

In Georgia, Democratic state Rep. Kim Schofield said jobs are going unfilled partly because employers don't pay a living wage. "We need workplace salaries to match the 21st century workplace," Schofield said. “"There are larger companies who have made billions on the backs of workers. They can now give incentives back to workers, on-site child care, or raise some of the wages up to $15 and start there."

Stettner, of The Century Foundation, told Wright that the industries experiencing the biggest shortages, such as leisure, hospitality and trucking, don't often provide job security for workers, and argued that ending benefits for all won't address those longstanding issues.