Hilarious posters advertise national parks with verbiage from bad reviews; pre-order the book coming out July 13

Less-than-glowing reviews of Grand Canyon and Isle Royale national parks (Amber Share posters)

Visitors hit state and national parks in record numbers during the pandemic, many of them first-timers who simply wanted to get out of the house. One wonders whether any of them left the negative Yelp reviews for the parks featured in a series of satirical posters.

More terrible reviews, for Sequoia & Kings Canyon and Crater Lake national parks

Artist Amber Share created the project, called Subpar Parks, after reading a slew of terrible reviews from unimpressed visitors such as one for Yellowstone National Park that said "Save yourself some money, boil some water at home."

The project has one poster for each national park, and it's a real treat to read. You can purchase prints on Share's website, or pre-order the book coming out on July 13.

Posters for Capitol Reef and Cuyahoga Valley national parks

Study: Court fines and fees, which some states use to fund their judicial systems, disproportionately hurt the rural poor

A recently published study exposed what authors say is an "unhealthy conflict" in judicial systems, "between using fines and fees as both a source of revenue and punishment, and said they imposed an inequitable burden on the rural poor and communities of color," Andrea Cipriano reports for The Crime Report, a publication of the Center on Media, Crime and Justice in the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.

The study, published in the Idaho Law Review, noted that Idaho funds its judicial system largely through penalties and fines. Commissioned in 2019 by the Idaho Legislature Office of Performance Evaluations, the study is the latest in a decade of research showing that "has documented how skyrocketing court fines and fees cause harm to those least able to pay them, and make future justice involvement more likely," Cipriani reports. "The study recommended that Idaho abolish juvenile court administrative fees as a first step towards reform."

"For people caught up in the criminal system, fees simply operate as another layer of punishment on top of fines," the study said. "Enforcing monetary sanctions with the threat of additional fines, fees, and jail time merely recriminalizes financially precarious people, without any legitimate policy goal or discernible benefit to the state. . . . Mostly white and rural states like Idaho regularly impose substantial monetary sanctions on people without the means to pay them." Idaho has more than $195 million in uncollected court debt.

The authors found that, in effect, "Idaho is trying to squeeze 'blood from a turnip' — essentially forcing people to give money that they don’t have, Cipriani reports. "Worsening the problem, the escalating fees have contributed to overzealous policing, prosecution and punishment, the study said."

Progressives' push for renewable-energy measures in Biden policy worries moderate Democrats from major oil states

Progressive Democrats are urging President Biden to include in his infrastructure agenda steps to encourage use of renewable fuels, but "The more the progressives succeed, the more moderate Democrats in energy-producing states become vulnerable to losing seats that are crucial to the party’s hold on Congress, current and former House members say," Siobhan Hughes and Aaron Zitner report for The Wall Street Journal. 

Last week Biden announced he had made a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure deal with a bipartisan group of centrist lawmakers. However, "on a separate track, Democrats are advancing a second bill—without Republican input—that among other goals aims to eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions from electric power generation by 2035," Hughes and Zitner note. "The Democrats have a similar target of 2050 for other emissions sources, including factories, trucks, automobiles and homes. That is a political headache for moderates such as Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D., Texas), who in 2018 flipped a Republican-held House seat. Ms. Fletcher’s Houston-area House district ranks second in the nation for employment tied to the oil and gas industries, according to the American Petroleum Institute."

In January Fletcher and three other House Democrats from Texas wrote to Biden asking him to nix an executive order suspending new petroleum leases on federal public lands and waters. "Texas is the nation’s top producer of natural gas, according to U.S. government statistics, and gas production is a key economic driver in the country as a whole," Hughes and Zitner note. "A fracking boom in recent decades enabled the U.S. to tap into vast new sources of domestic energy. Gas displaced coal in 2016 as the biggest source of U.S. electricity and helped the U.S. become a net fuel exporter for the first time since the 1950s. Natural gas not only fuels power grids but is used in factories and homes by businesses and consumers alike. Revenues from natural gas production contribute to federal, state and local government budgets. And gas industry jobs pay about twice as much as the U.S. average."

New federal model for rural hospitals could help some of them stay afloat, but it could take a while to catch on

Last year Congress passed a measure to help rural hospitals stay afloat, and now they're urging the Biden administration to implement it.

Rural hospitals have been struggling financially for years, with more than 130 closing since 2010. "Those closures have devastated local communities, resulting in long drives for emergency care, worse health outcomes for residents and job losses for the surrounding area," reports Alexandra Ellerbeck of The Washington Post. "An influx of federal aid to rural hospitals during the pandemic has not been enough to halt the trend. Last year was a record year for closures, even as rural communities relied on their hospitals more than ever for Covid-19 care and vaccination outreach."

Surviving rural hospitals rely on Medicare reimbursements, but in order to receive it they must maintain expensive inpatient beds so they can still be classified as hospitals, Ellerbeck reports. But many rural hospitals don't need the beds, since locals tend to go to bigger, urban hospitals for inpatient procedures. The average rural hospital makes about 80 percent of its patient revenue from outpatient procedures.

That's where the new measure comes in, which establishes a new category called the rural emergency hospital. "The new model, which will go into effect in 2023, is aimed at maintaining at least some access to care, especially in places where the local hospital might otherwise close," Ellerbeck reports. "It will allow existing small rural hospitals and critical access hospitals to forgo inpatient care and convert into a new type of stand-alone emergency room and outpatient service center that can quickly transfer patients, if needed, to the closest trauma centers."

Earlier this month, the program's sponsor, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., sent an open letter to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, asking that she spearhead the implementation of the new measure as soon as possible.

Some hospital administrators told Ellerbeck they aren't sure the new model is generous enough to be worth it, since converting has costs. The new model could help rural hospitals, though, said George Pink, a rural health expert at the University of North Carolina. He told Ellerbeck it adds a middle ground between inpatient hospitals and primary-care facilities. 

About 68 hospitals in the U.S. would likely convert to the new model, but it could take a while for the notion to catch on, according to preliminary research from Pink and other UNC researchers. "Brock Slabach, of the National Rural Health Association, said that rural emergency hospitals may come to play a bigger role over the long-term," Ellerbeck reports. "The last time Congress created a new category for rural health care, with critical access hospitals in 1997, few hospitals adopted the new designation right off the bat. Now, there are 1,300."

Wide range of researchers warn social media, other poorly understood new tech could endanger democracy, health

In a newly published paper, 17 researchers from widely different fields say academics should study the impact of new technology—like social media—on society as a "crisis discipline" tantamount to the way scientists try to protect endangered species or stop global warming. 

"The paper argues that our lack of understanding about the collective behavioral effects of new technology is a danger to democracy and scientific progress," Shirin Ghaffary reports for Vox. "For example, the paper says that tech companies have 'fumbled their way through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, unable to stem the 'infodemic' of misinformation' that has hindered widespread acceptance of masks and vaccines. The authors warn that if left misunderstood and unchecked, we could see unintended consequences of new technology contributing to phenomena such as 'election tampering, disease, violent extremism, famine, racism, and war.'"

One of the authors, Carl Bergstrom, studies infectious disease epidemiology. "My sense is that social media in particular — as well as a broader range of internet technologies, including algorithmically driven search and click-based advertising — have changed the way that people get information and form opinions about the world," he told Ghaffary. The paper, he said, is "a call to arms. It’s saying, 'Hey, we’ve got to solve this problem, and we don’t have a lot of time.'"

Remote work as rescue for rural economies draws doubts

West Virginia and other heavily rural states are hoping to lure remote workers to live in rural areas. And while recent studies from Apple and Google have raised hopes about such workers revitalizing rural economies, "new evidence raises questions about the true potential of the remote-work-driven renewal storyline," write researchers from the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.

Anecdotal evidence seems to show that, while many tech firms are moving inland, they're mostly going to metropolitan areas with existing tech centers rather than truly new places. On the worker side, "The current narrative is that the widespread shift to remote work amid the Covid-19 pandemic has created a massive pool of footloose workers who are rapidly exiting the big coastal tech hubs and heading for the heartland, where they will boost the inland economy," the researchers write.

"Plenty of anecdotes and commentators have pushed this narrative over the past 15 months," but an April data analysis based on U.S. Postal Service data found that, while there was an uptick in migration from big cities, the numbers were modest and most people moved only a short distance to a nearby county, not to the nation's heartland, the researchers report.

"Given that, 'attraction' strategies seem like a long shot for the places most in need of growth as the pandemic eases and remote work declines. Communities across the country should instead focus on the kind of basic block-and-tackling that will lead to more robust growth overall and a higher quality of life for residents," the researchers report. "This includes the harder work of building authentic growth sectors; developing a skilled and diverse digital workforce; deploying robust transportation infrastructure for local residents; and enacting policies that support workers and their families, such as investment in education, accessible child care, and universal paid sick and family leave. New and better place-based and place-conscious federal policies would also help, such as the creation of sizable regional tech hubs in new places, or new investments in the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions (MSIs)."

Postal Service's money-saving plan could slow delivery by a day; see how your Zip code would be affected

Where mail delivery would slow the most (Washington Post map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version, which allows you to enter any Zip code and see the effect of the plan)

Many Americans might have to wait longer for their mail if the U.S. Postal Service's strategic restructuring plan is approved, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

"The new delivery regimen, for which the agency seeks regulatory approval, disproportionately affects states west of the Rocky Mountains and the country’s mainland extremities, including large swaths of southern Texas and Florida," Jacob Bogage and Kevin Schaul report for the Post. "The new plan eliminates most air service and adds four- and five-day standards, increasing the time it takes the average letter to get delivered to some parts of the country by a day."

Officials in both parties said they worry about how the new standards would slow mail delivery to rural communities, though a USPS analyst said in written testimony to the Postal Regulatory Commission that the changes would affect urban areas and rural areas about equally; the Post’s analysis found the same thing. Still, some lawmakers say they're concerned because rural residents tend to rely more on mail service.

"I’m telling you that the mail, in my opinion, in my state has not gone by where the Pony Express is. It is really important," Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., told the Post. "So what are you trying to do here? I mean, you’re trying to just eliminate rural America, is that what the goal is? Because where I come from . . .  people still depend upon the mail."

The Post has an interactive feature where you can plug in your Zip code and see how the slowdown will affect your area.

July 4 cookout prices about the same as last year; cattle farmers say they're not profiting from higher beef prices

Americans will pay about the same as they did last year for favorite Independence Day cookout foods, but 8 percent more than in 2019, according to a new American Farm Bureau Federation analysis. The average cost of a cookout for 10 people is $59.50 this July 4, down 16 cents from 2020.

"AFBF’s summer cookout menu consists of cheeseburgers, pork chops, chicken breasts, homemade potato salad, pork & beans, strawberries, potato chips and fresh-squeezed lemonade with ice cream and chocolate chip cookies for dessert," AFBF reports. "The year-to-year direction of the market-basket survey tracks closely with the federal government’s Consumer Price Index report for food at home. Both the index and the market basket remain relatively flat compared to year-ago levels."

Strawberries saw the largest year-to-year price increase: Two pints costs $5.30, a 22% increase from 2020 that analysts chalked up to high demand and poor weather that hurt crops. A two-pound bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts is $6.74, up 1% from 2020, and two pounds of ground beef is $8.20, down 8% from 2020, AFBF found. The AFBF prices come from Bureau of Labor Statistics food price data and more than 160 volunteer rural shoppers across the country.

Changes in meat prices are "more nuanced" than those of other foods, according to AFBF economist Veronica Nigh: "Beef and pork processing plant disruptions that occurred in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic have been resolved, leading to lower retail ground beef and pork chop prices in 2021 compared to 2020. . . . However, consumers looking a bit farther back to compare prices are seeing higher prices for ground beef, pork chops and chicken breasts compared to pre-pandemic (2019) prices. That’s due to continued strong demand for American-grown beef and pork from both U.S. and international consumers."

Though ground-beef prices are down a little from last year, the year-to-year figures fail to register a dramatic drop in beef prices last year that was followed by recently surging prices. Cattle farmers complain that, despite the high demand, they're barely breaking even or even losing money. 

"Since mid-March — as restaurants reopened, global demand accelerated and grilling season started — wholesale beef prices have shot up more than 40 percent, with certain steak cuts skyrocketing more than 70 percent, according to the Department of Agriculture," Julie Creswell reports for The New York Times. "Grocery stores, aware that consumers can easily grab a pack of chicken or pork instead, have increased prices for ground beef 5 percent and steaks more than 9 percent from a year ago, according to NielsenIQ. Some restaurants, facing a quandary as diners return in certain parts of the country, are slightly raising prices while others are removing beef from the menu."

Many farmers and lawmakers blame meat processors Cargill, JBS, Tyson Foods and National Beef, which account for more than 80% of the processed beef in the U.S. "On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will hold a hearing on transparency and pricing in the cattle market," Creswell reports. "The hearing follows numerous lawsuits filed in recent years by grocery chains, ranchers and others that claim the meatpackers have colluded to increase the price of beef by limiting supply." 

Processing, transportation and packaging are major components of the cost of foods, AFBF notes. Farmers only get from 2%-35% of every marketing dollar. 

U.S. hog prices down as China quashes African swine fever

Though beef prices have soared in recent months, pork prices are down because of China's cooling interest in hog exports.

"Prices for hogs in the U.S. are tumbling in the wake of China’s announcement that the country’s herds have recovered from the African swine fever," Kirk Maltais reports for The Wall Street Journal. "Through last week, the most-active hog futures contract trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has fallen nearly 17 percent, bringing the price down to 99 cents a pound—the first time it has fallen under a dollar since March. Futures posted a slight rebound Monday, rising 3% to $1.03 a pound. U.S. prices for pork cutouts—parts of the pig such as loin or ribs—have posted a steep dive in recent weeks. Loin prices have fallen 15% in the past 10 days, while ribs have declined more than 31%. Pork butt—commonly used for pork barbecue—has declined 14%, while pork bellies, used to make bacon, have dropped 18% in that time."

A 2018 outbreak of African swine fever forced China to cull about 40% of its hog population. "The nation’s agricultural ministry now says that its hog herd is back to more than 98% of its pre-disease levels—which was roughly 420 million head," Maltais reports. "The recovery comes well ahead of schedule, as China wasn’t projected to complete this rebuild until 2023." U.S. pork exports to China are expected to sharply decrease in the second half of 2021. Some analysts expect the trend to drag down demand of U.S. grains, as hog producers use less feed.

California drought may have big consequences for the state's farmers — and American consumers

Water shortages brought on by the drought presage big changes for California farmers and American consumers nationwide. "By 2040, the San Joaquin Valley is projected to lose at least 535,000 acres of agricultural production. That’s more than a tenth of the area farmed," Somini Sengupta reports for The New York Times. "And if the drought perseveres and no new water can be found, nearly double that amount of land is projected to go idle, with potentially dire consequences for the nation’s food supply. California’s $50 billion agricultural sector supplies two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts and more than a third of America’s vegetables — the tomatoes, pistachios, grapes and strawberries that line grocery store shelves from coast to coast ... Glimpses of that future are evident now. Vast stretches of land are fallow because there’s no water. New calculations are being made about what crops to grow, how much, where. Millions of dollars are being spent on replenishing the aquifer that has been depleted for so long."

In Central Valley, the state's most profitable agricultural area, years of over-reliance on aquifers is compounding water shortages. "Across the state, reservoir levels are dropping and electric grids are at risk if hydroelectric dams don’t get enough water to produce power," Sengupta reports. "Climate change is supercharging the scarcity. Rising temperatures dry out the soil, which in turn can worsen heat waves. This week, temperatures in parts of California and the Pacific Northwest have been shattering records."

Agri-Pulse's Food & Ag Policy Summit West on July 12 will focus on California agriculture's drought woes. The seminar, which will take place in Sacramento and online, will feature lawmakers and industry experts. Click here for more information.

Most internet service providers aren't participating in new federal discount program for low-income people

The Federal Communications Commission's new Emergency Broadband Benefit offers a discount for low-income residents, but many rural folks' internet providers aren't participating in the program. 

EBB gives people in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, or certain other benefit programs "a $50 discount on their monthly internet bill, or $75 if they reside on tribal lands," but fewer than half of the nation's internet providers are participating, Adilia Watson reports for The Daily Yonder.

"According to BroadbandNow, a company that finds and compares internet providers, there are 2,782 internet service providers in America," Watson reports. "Only about 1,100 are participating in the EBB program, according to an FCC spokesperson. An FCC Fixed Broadband Development map allows users to find providers all the way down to a town or city level."

Manistee County (Wikipedia map)

Watson focuses on the lack of participation by internet service providers in Manistee County, Michigan, which got $13 million in federal funds in 2019 to help those providers improve and expand local broadband service, according to the Manistee County Advocate.

Another possible issue: The program has no minimum speed requirement for broadband providers, so the government could end up subsidizing sub-par internet. The FCC defines broadband speed as 25 megabytes per second download and 3 Mbps upload.

House sends Biden measure to reverse Trump's weakening of Obama rule aimed at methane from oil and gas wells

The House voted 229-191 Friday to reinstate rules "aimed at limiting climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas drilling, a rare effort by Democrats to use the legislative branch to overturn a regulatory rollback under President Donald Trump," reports Matthew Daly of The Associated Press.

The Trump-administration rule relaxed a 2016 Obama-administration rule. The resolution, passed under the Congressional review Act, now goes to President Biden, "who is expected to sign it," Daly reports. "Twelve Republicans joined 217 Democrats to support the measure."

Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, said the legislation "will restore common-sense safeguards to limit methane pollution from oil and gas production. It’s a modest and straightforward step in the right direction, but it’s a very important one."

But Republicans said the resolution unfairly punishes oil and gas companies that are working to reduce emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases. Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-N.M, said it would "nickel and dime the most essential business in my district" and maybe put them out of business.

However, the oil and gas industry "largely supported the Obama-era rule," Daly notes. "Oil giant BP said Friday it supports direct federal regulation of methane emissions. . . . The American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s top lobbying group, said it will work with the Biden administration to support direct regulation of methane from new and existing sources."

Pandemic crisis is over but the political division it worsened remains; rural writer looks for kindness where she can find it

Item: Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Mexico named kindest states: "Researchers surveyed thousands of people from all states and backgrounds on what acts of kindness they would be willing to do."

Teri Carter

"Unkindness involves a failure of the imagination so acute that it threatens not just our happiness but our sanity." ― Adam Phillips, On Kindness

By Teri Carter

The board meeting to approve or disapprove a motor sports venue is barely underway when my friend turns to the man behind us to whisper sternly, “Sir, excuse me. Sir, you are being unkind.”

We are in the basement of the Anderson County extension office for a meeting of the Board of Zoning Adjustments. The chairs are mostly full and the microphones aren’t working. You can feel the tension amongst neighbors, those for and against a proposed track which will feature tractor pulls, truck pulls, and more. Folks are speaking out of turn, in violation of the rules, including a gentleman who is not only talking but approaching the board chairman and refusing to sit. It is this elderly man behind us who is making fun of until my friend shushes him.

In the end, the board approves a conditional use permit and that’s it. It’s over. The woman who owns a wedding venue near the proposed track rushes out a side door, in tears. Another woman whose house stands a half mile from the track looks bereft, defeated. “Our house will shake,” she tells me. We disperse, mostly in silence. Neighbors with nothing more to say to one another.

Sadly, this was not an anomaly. Two days earlier I’d attended a packed-to-capacity library board meeting. The pastor of a small church had voiced his opposition to the library’s Pride Month display—two tiny tables in the back of the room—prompting an outcry. And like the gathering to witness the vote on the motorsports venue, there we all were, crammed into the library, nerves on edge, neighbors at odds.

Call me naive (really, go ahead) but this is not the way I envisioned re-entry into small town life after four years of political division and a year-plus of pandemic separation. It all feels heavy. What happened to taking the temperature down? Surely we missed one another, didn’t we? We would come out of this more generous, more gracious, more kind, right?

I am reminded of a paragraph from the final pages of Wendell Berry’s “The Memory of Old Jack”: “He walks with the effort of a man burdened, a man carrying a great bale or a barrel, who has carried it too far but has not yet found a place convenient to set it down. Once he could carry twice this weight. Now half would be too much.”

Had these last years been too much? What were we all carrying in those meetings? What is still weighing us down?

On the road out of town, on my way home from the zoning fracas, I spot a friend on his porch. He is a new friend, one I don’t know well, but I whip my car into his driveway and walk right on up. He calls for his wife to come out, “Teri’s here!” and returns to the swing. His wife offers me a chair. Their two dogs wag their tails and beg for pets. And it is in that moment I realize, I am not solely in search of community. I am in search of kindness.

For the next hour, we visit on their front porch like our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents used to do. Every now and again a car or truck drives by. Rarely does anyone wave. The couple tells me how someone “just this week” slowed their truck and yelled “F*** Biden!” The wife takes in a big, visible breath. “We talk about moving,” she says, “but where would we go? I mean, we love South Carolina but then we think, they may not want us there either. And I love this house!” We all laugh, but it is more a laugh of uncertainty than joy. I know it well. Being a Democrat in Anderson County, where your neighbors still fly giant Trump flags and randomly yell obscenities at you or your house, can weigh a person down.

As dusk settles along the tree tops, I stand. Time to let these nice people get back to their evening. On the 10-mile drive home, I keep an eye out for deer and I think about the kindness of most speakers at the library and of my friend in the zoning meeting, the friend with the courage to shush the elderly bully behind us and the temerity to walk up there, to gently and with no drama get the out-of-order gentlemen to take his seat.

That’s a start, I think. That, and front porches.

Teri Carter lives in Central Kentucky. This was first published in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Senate passes bill to help farmers, forest owners get paid in private markets for taking steps against climate change

By an overwhelming bipartisan vote, the Senate has approved legislation "intended to encourage greater use of farming and forestry practices that prevent greenhouse gas emissions and remove planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reports John Flesher of The Associated Press.

The bill, sent to the House 92-8, authorizes the Agriculture Department to help farmers and forest owners "earn payments through private markets for planting offseason cover crops, reducing tillage and taking other steps to lock up carbon in soils and trees," Flesher reports.

"Federal policies have long supported environmentally friendly practices such as planting buffer strips to prevent soil and nutrient erosion that feeds harmful algae blooms in waters. Some of those actions also work against climate change. Pulling marginal lands out of crop production, for example, can make way for carbon-absorbing grasses, trees and wetlands."

The private markets have been created by companies that buy credits for carbon and other greenhouse gases stored in farmlands and forests, "working through brokers who contract with farmers to use the best-management practices," Flesher notes. The USDA program "would certify those who provide technical assistance to farmers entering carbon markets — and third-party experts who verify that the emission-preventing steps are taken."

Some Republicans say the measure would interfere with private markets, and some climate-change activists say voluntary actions aren't enough, "But the bill drew support from other environmentalists — and farm groups which which they are often at odds," such as the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Have poultry in your backyard? Beware of Salmonella

Getty Images photo via CDC

Outbreaks of Salmonella bacteria among backyard poultry have affected almost 500 people and caused more than 100 hospitalizations in 46 states, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"One in three sick people is a child younger than 5 years," the CDC warned Thursday. "Don’t let young children touch chicks, ducklings, or other backyard poultry."

Poultry can carry salmonella "even if they look healthy and clean," the CDC said. "These germs can easily spread to anything in the areas where the poultry live and roam. You can get sick from touching your backyard poultry or anything in their environment and then touching your mouth or food."

The CDC said owners of backyard poultry should:

• Wash your hands
  • Always wash your hands with soap and water immediately after touching backyard poultry, their eggs, or anything in the area where they live and roam.
  • Use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not readily available. Consider having hand sanitizer at your coop.
• Be safe around backyard flocks
  • Don’t kiss or snuggle backyard poultry, and don’t eat or drink around them. This can spread Salmonella germs to your mouth and make you sick.
  • Keep your backyard flock and supplies you use to care for them (like feed containers and shoes you wear in the coop) outside of the house. You should also clean the supplies outside the house.
• Supervise kids around flocks
  • Always supervise children around backyard poultry and make sure they wash their hands properly afterward.
  • Don’t let children younger than 5 years touch chicks, ducklings, or other backyard poultry. Young children are more likely to get sick from germs like Salmonella.
• Handle eggs safely
  • Collect eggs often. Eggs that sit in the nest can become dirty or break.
  • Throw away cracked eggs. Germs on the shell can more easily enter the egg through a cracked shell.
  • Rub off dirt on eggs with fine sandpaper, a brush, or a cloth. Don’t wash them because colder water can pull germs into the egg.
  • Refrigerate eggs to keep them fresh and slow the growth of germs.
  • Cook eggs until both the yolk and white are firm, and cook egg dishes to an internal temperature of 160°F to kill all germs.

Call your health-care provider right away if you have any of these severe symptoms:

• Diarrhea and a fever higher than 102°F
• Diarrhea for more than three days that is not improving
• Bloody diarrhea
• So much vomiting that you cannot keep liquids down
• Signs of dehydration, such as:
  • Not urinating much
  • Dry mouth and throat
  • Feeling dizzy when standing up

Biden announces plan to improve firearms enforcement, says it won't affect responsible gun owners

Gun deaths by county type (Washington Post chart; click on image to enlarge it)

President Biden announced a plan to improve enforcement of gun laws Wednesday, in response to soaring violent-crime rates and gun deaths. The plan "includes a new Justice Department policy that will allow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to revoke federal licenses of gun dealers the first time they violate federal law," Joey Garrison reports for USA Today. "Violations could include selling firearms to a prohibited buyer, failing to run required background checks or falsifying firearm transaction forms or other records."

In 2020, cities saw a bigger spike in gun deaths than suburbs did, and rural areas had a small increase. Rural gun deaths are more likely to be from suicide, but the trend holds true even when suicides are excluded. "Through the first 172 days of 2021, gun violence killed 9,420 Americans, an average of 55 people a day, according to data collected by the Gun Violence Archive, a research nonprofit. The figures include homicides and accidental gun deaths but not suicides," Garrison reports.

Biden said the new plan won't affect responsible gun owners, and "painted the gun reform plan as a common-sense solution to the crime issue," Maeve Sheehy reports for Politico. "He pointed out that the Second Amendment always restricted who could own a gun and what type it could be." Biden said "Folks, this shouldn’t be a red or blue issue. It’s an American issue. We’re not changing the Constitution. We’re enforcing it, being reasonable."

Infrastructure deal has $65 billion for broadband, but nothing for water and sewer work or 'human infrastructure'

President Biden and a bipartisan group of centrist senators announced on Thursday a $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal that would be "the first major increase of federal public works spending since President Barack Obama’s 2009 economic rescue plan," Jonathan Weisman, Emily Cochrane and Jim Tankersley report for The New York Times.

"It would include some existing infrastructure programs, but also provide $579 billion in new money over eight years to patch cracking highways, rebuild crumbling bridges, speed rail traffic and more equitably spread high-speed internet access," the Times notes. "The plan would also pour billions of dollars into waterways and coastlines washing away as a warming planet raises sea levels, and $7.5 billion into financing a half-million electric vehicle charging stations, all part of Mr. Biden’s climate pledges."

Biden wanted to raise corporate taxes to pay for the plan, but the deal avoids raising taxes. It would be paid for by repurposing unspent pandemic relief funds, selling petroleum reserves, and $140 billion to be generated by a $40 billion hike in the Internal Revenue Service enforcement budget.

The compromise required big concessions from Democrats, and "its passage through Congress was thrown in doubt later Thursday, after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized a two-track plan to pass a second spending bill later," likely with only Democratic votes, Reuters reports. Biden said he would not sign the bipartisan bill unless the other bill also come to his desk.

Here's how major parts of the deal compare to the American Jobs Plan that Biden unveiled in March:

• The new agreement calls for $65 billion for broadband expansion to rural and other underserved areas, rather than the $100 billion Biden proposed.
• Biden's proposals to modernize drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems were eliminated from the deal.
• Also eliminated was "human infrastructure": $400 billion for Medicare to fund home care for seniors and the disabled, and $200 billion for free universal preschool and other childcare.
• Biden's proposal had included $213 billion for affordable housing, but that funding was not included in the compromise. It could be included in the Democrats' budget package.
• The compromise has a $49 billion increase in public-transit funding, compared to the $85 billion Biden originally proposed.
• Passenger and freight rail would get $66 billion in new funding, down from the $80 billion proposed by Biden, the leading fan of passenger rail.
• Electric vehicle technology would get $15 billion, not the $174 billion Biden wanted.

USDA releases thousands of historical watercolors of American fruit and nut cultivars for free download

Arkansas Black apples paintings from 1895 to 1921. More than half the images in the USDA archive are apples.

Between 1886 and 1942, the Agriculture Department commissioned artists to document quickly changing fruit and nut cultivars across the United States at a time when color photography wasn't widely available, Sebastian Smee reports for The Washington Post. A recently published book features many of them, but the USDA has also made the more than 7,500 paintings in its Pomological Watercolor Collection available to the public, downloadable in high resolution to capture every gorgeous detail.

Yenjerto bananas; most bananas sold
today are Cavendish (USDA image)

The most striking aspect of the collection is the "extraordinary diversity" of the cultivars. That's comforting at a time when broad cultural forces often drive us toward homogeneity, in cuisine and elsewhere, Smee writes: "You probably won’t find Arkansas black apples, Coloway mulberries or Belle Angevine pears in your local supermarket ... So to be reminded, as this book does, of the astonishing diversity to be found in a sphere that uniquely combines nature and culture is uplifting. Long live the Fraud plum, the Golden Gate strawberry, the Memory grape, the Chinese Shaddock pumelo, the Wagner avocado, the Paradise banana, the Dancy tangerine and the Lisbon lime. Let their irregular shapes, their unique aromas, their blushing colors and their gorgeous names remind us of all that we stand to lose if we don’t value precisely what is strange, singular, foreclosed upon and factored out." Read more here.

Quick hits: Rural libraries could become telehealth hubs; book details Black Appalachians' coal camp experiences

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

A new book details the overlooked experience of Black Appalachians in coal camps. Read more here.

Commentary: Rural libraries could use newly available funding opportunities and technologies to become a major player in providing telehealth access. Read more here.

Many rural high-school students want to take Advanced Placement courses, which can award college credit, but school staffing, budgets, and broadband access can make that difficult. Read more here.

More states are considering and passing bills to grant overtime pay to farmworkers. Read more here.

Federal judge blocks USDA debt relief for minority farmers

A Florida federal court issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday blocking the Biden administration's program to forgive agricultural debts to farmers of color. 

"The program was already temporarily on hold, due to a separate restraining order in a case by a white farmer in Wisconsin. However, even if that Wisconsin order is reconsidered or even reversed in July, when a ruling is expected, this new nationwide injunction would still keep the program on hold for some time," Laura Reiley reports for The Washington Post. "The Florida case is considered the first nationwide preliminary injunction, said lawyers for the group Pacific Legal Foundation, which filed the lawsuit in May" for white Florida farmer Scott Wynn, who says he also needs debt relief and is being discriminated against him due to race.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard wrote in her decision that Congress "must heed its obligation to do away with governmentally imposed discrimination based on race," but "also made clear that the Agriculture Department could continue to prepare to deliver the debt relief until the program is found to be “constitutionally permissible," Reiley reports. 

At Rural Health Journalism Workshop, Vilsack makes case for extending pandemic-related food programs

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made the case for more federal support for nutrition programs June 23 in the virtual Rural Health Journalism Workshop of the Association of Health Care Journalists, Melissa Patrick reports for Kentucky Health News.

Vilsack said he hopes that two pandemic measures, the one-year summer food program for children and universal access to free or reduced-price school lunches, will be continued permanently through the Biden administration's $1.8 trillion American Families Plan pending in Congress. "We know these nutrition programs do make a difference in terms of health and educational outcomes," he said.

Also, Vilsack said the USDA is looking at the formula for calculating benefits in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. "There are significant gaps and barriers to accessing full and complete food security during an entire month," he said. A USDA study released the same day found that nearly nine of 10 SNAP participants face such barriers.

Vilsack, a former Iowa governor in his second stint as secretary, noted that Congress has the last word on many changes USDA is considering and that the "onus is on us" to make the case for them.

"We know from studies, that SNAP does reduce poverty. We know that it does improve health outcomes. We know that it reduces obesity rates among children of low income families. We know that it provides a better opportunity for these youngsters to be better learners, which results in higher graduation rates," he said, adding that SNAP helped farmers and rural economies.

Vilsack touched on several other topics at the workshop, including issues around climate change, rural hospitals, and meat-industry safety standards. This item may be updated.

An epicenter of the Delta variant in the West shows its threat; hospitals are filling up there and in rural Missouri

The threat of the stronger Delta variant of the coronavirus among unvaccinated Americans is being illustrated in several states and areas such as Grand Junction, Colorado, which has become an epicenter of its spread in the rural West.

Mesa County (Wikipedia map, adapted)

“At this point nationally, we see that about 10% of cases are due to this Delta variant, but here in Colorado it’s about 40%, and here in Mesa County it’s approaching 100%,” State Epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy told locals on a Tuesday visit to Grand Junction. “In addition, it causes more severe illness, so we’re seeing double the hospitalization rate with this Delta variant.”

"State officials have targeted the county in their efforts to step up vaccination rates. But while they have identified a variety of ways, they are still looking for more," reports Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. "Gov. Jared Polis came to town Tuesday to ask area medical officials and business leaders for ideas on how to do more, especially now that the Delta variant of the virus accounts for nearly all of the new infections."

Polis told the locals, “Mesa County is an epicenter for the Delta variant, and we also have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the state . . . We want action before it hurts the economy and hurts more people or fills up your hospitals, which are already rapidly approaching being full.”

Only 40 percent of Mesa County's eligible residents are fully vaccinated, and 44% are partially vaccinated. The county's hospitals are 95% full, Dasha Burns of NBC News reports from Grand Junction: "It seems like a case of deja vu," resembling the crisis of the early pandemic.

Elsewhere, "The new strain is already taxing hospitals in rural Missouri, and caseloads and hospitalizations are on the rise in states such as Arkansas, Nevada and Utah, where less than half of the eligible population has received a vaccine," The Washington Post reports.

Vaccines work against the Delta variant, but not enough people are vaccinated, physician and medical-school professor Dhruv Khullar warns in The New Yorker: "People who’ve been fully vaccinated can, by and large, feel confident in the immunity that they’ve received. But those who remain susceptible should understand that, for them, this is probably the most dangerous moment of the pandemic."

New rural coronavirus cases fall to 14-month low

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, June 13-19
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version

Last week, new rural coronavirus infections fell to the lowest level in 14 months and Covid-19-related deaths fell to the lowest rate in a year, Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder.

Rural counties saw 14,200 new coronavirus cases from June 13 to 19, a 15 percent decrease from the week before and nearly 95% lower than the pandemic's January peak. "The last time there were so few new cases in a one-week period in rural counties was mid-April 2020, when more than half of the nation’s 1,976 rural counties still hadn’t reported their first case," Murphy and Marema report. Rural deaths fell 25% from the week before to 395.

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

Ike Adams, chronicler of Appalachian culture, dies at 72

Ike Adams

Funeral services were held Wednesday evening for Ike Adams, whose byline was familiar to readers of many newspapers in Appalachian Kentucky and beyond. He died Friday, June 18, at 72, of complications from Parkinson's disease.

Adams often "worked as a grant writer, especially for the Christian Appalachian Project and fundraising events," his widow Loretta wrote in his obituary for The Mountain Eagle in his native Letcher County. He also had been development and marketing executive for the Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises, which serves housing needs in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. It's based in Berea, 10 miles east of Paint Lick, where he lived.

Adams' humor-laced newspaper column was usually about the simple treasures of Appalachian culture, such as wildlife, fishing, gardening, heirloom vegetables and storing potatoes. But he also wrote about Appalachian books and good causes, and his long article for FAHE about Appalachian housing in 2001 was produced with the deep knowledge of someone who grew up in the region and had become familiar with the facts and figures needed to get grants.

Reviewing the 2006 novel Dark and Bloody Ground, by Roberta Hayes Webb, Adams wrote, "The reading experience is an emotional roller coaster ride that comes as close to capturing the Appalachian experience as anything I’ve ever read. Readers familiar with and appreciative of our culture will find themselves at home — but do keep a box of tissue handy and be equally prepared to run to wherever you go when you’re terribly frightened."

"Ike loved writing because he loved people," Loretta Adams wrote in what served as his final column. "He felt an intense obligation to the papers and to the folks that followed his columns. He loved writing about his family and friends in eastern Kentucky and growing up on Blair Branch. Those tales were most often filled with humor and love for those mountains and the people who lived there."

Memorial gifts may go to the American Diabetes Association or Hospice Care Plus. Memories and condolences can be posted on his tribute page at www.ramsey-young.com.

Scientists seeking answers in mysterious bird deaths in South and Midwest, ask public to clean bird feeders

Sick blue jay (Ky. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources)

"Hundreds of birds are dying without explanation in parts of the South and Midwest. Wildlife experts in at least six states and Washington, D.C., have reported an increase in sick or dying birds in the past month. The most commonly afflicted birds are blue jays, common grackles and European starlings," Deon Hampton reports for CBS News. "Symptoms include crusty or puffy eyes, neurological signs of seizures and an inability to stay balanced. Experts said the birds have been behaving as if they are blind and exhibit other abnormalities, such as not flying away when people get close."

Wildlife officials in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, Washington D.C., and West Virginia are working together to figure out what's going on. "Some theories about what's causing the birds to become sick and die include a widespread infectious disease, the cicada outbreak and pesticides," Hampton reports. 

In the meantime, "wildlife experts are asking the public to report any suspicious bird deaths. They also urge bird lovers to remove their bird feeders since birds often exchange germs," Hampton reports. "Bird feeders and baths should also be cleaned immediately with a 10 percent bleach solution, and people should avoid handling birds, officials said."

States using federal relief/stimulus money to address park maintenance backlogs made worse by pandemic visitors

"Nearly every state saw a surge in visitors to its state parks during the pandemic, which brought attention to the maintenance and upgrades necessary to deal with the record crowds," Alex Brown reports for Stateline. "Now, with state budgets suddenly flush with billions of dollars in federal relief and longstanding parks issues getting newfound attention, many governors and lawmakers of both parties are directing massive investments toward their state parks." 

State and national parks typically have large maintenance backlogs that were made worse by the pandemic. Many visitors to state and national parks have been first-timers who don't know park etiquette, and many visitors (new or not) have sprayed graffiti on natural formations, left human waste and trash all over the place, and damaged soil by going off designated trails. 

But parks haven't had the funds to deal with that backlog. "State park leaders say their agencies are among the first to be targeted for budget cuts during tough economic times. "Between 2008 and 2019, spending on state park operations fell from $3 billion to $2.5 billion nationwide, according to the Property and Environmental Research Center, a Montana-based free market environmental think tank," Brown reports. "State park leaders across the country say it will take anywhere from a year and a half to five years to complete the projects their states are now funding. But they expect the legacy of that work to extend further." One noted that many state parks still have buildings and trails built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

AppHarvest stakes 2 more greenhouses in Appalachian Ky.

Tomatoes growing at AppHarvest's flagship site in Morehead (Image from WKYT-TV )

AppHarvest, the company building huge, high-tech greenhouses in Kentucky to grow vegetables and fruits, wants to have 12 sites by the end of 2025, and new locations announced Monday near Somerset and Morehead "will put the company nearly halfway there," Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A 30-acre greenhouse near Somerset will grow strawberries and a 15-acre one in Morehead will have leafy greens."

The venture-capital company, which went public in February, has grown by leaps and bounds since forming in 2017. Its 60-acre flagship site in Morehead has been growing tomatoes since 2020, and there are two other sites under construction: a 15-acre facility in Berea that will grow leafy greens and a 60-acre facility in Richmond for vine crops, Chris Radcliffe reports for Business Lexington.

AppHarvest employs nearly 500, mostly at its Morehead site; those under construction will employ hundreds more. Co-founder Jonathan Webb has said that bringing high-paying jobs to Eastern Kentucky, which has suffered a steep decline in coal jobs, is a key goal of the company. None of the sites are in the state's eastern coalfield, but are close to it, and are in "official Appalachia."

Webb also emphasizes environmental sustainability. "AppHarvest uses recycled rainwater to grow vegetables and fruit with 90 percent less water than field agriculture, producing more food with fewer resources, according to the company," Estep reports.

Another goal: bringing large-scale produce production back to the U.S. and protecting it from drought. Much of the nation's produce comes from California and Mexico, which are frequently hit with droughts. "Imports of strawberries to the U.S. have increased 70% in the last four years," Estep reports. "There is an opportunity for AppHarvest to replace some of those imports, Webb said."

Fed chair and other economists point to falling lumber prices as evidence that inflation isn't a big threat to the economy

Lumber prices skyrocketed over the past year, with futures exceeding $1,600 per thousand board feet in early May. "But since then, the prices of those same plywood sheets and pressure-treated planks have tumbled, as mills restarted or ramped up production and some customers put off their purchases until prices came down," Matt Phillips reports for The New York Times. Lumber futures "are down more than 45 percent from their peak, slipping below $1,000 for the first time in months. That’s still high — between 2009 and 2019, prices averaged less than $400 per thousand board feet — but the sell-off has been gaining momentum over the last few weeks. The price has fallen in 11 of the last 12 trading sessions, including a 0.5 percent drop to settle at $900.80 on Friday."

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and other economists say the lumber market illustrates why they're not worried about sustained price increases for other goods such as cars and groceries. Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, told Phillips: "Many of the extreme price spikes we’ve seen in recent months are likely to reverse for Econ 101 reasons."

The lumber market's cooling off "offers lessons that are likely to guide policymakers as they run the economy at full throttle, accepting what they regard as a temporary bout of inflation in hopes of generating more than 10 million new jobs," David Lynch reports for The Washington Post. "Lumber’s wild gyrations show that today’s hiring troubles and shipping delays reflect short-term reopening kinks, not a lasting shift that will push prices higher and higher."

Study says farm consolidation hurts rural areas by limiting opportunities for young farmers, limiting soil conservation

Change in cropland held by large farms. Union of Concerned Scientists maps; click to enlarge.

For decades, rural population has shrunk along with the number of farms and farm families, as farms have gotten bigger. That has changed the landscape of rural America, in many ways not for the better. Now a study from the Union of Concerned Scientists analyzes the change in another way.

Researchers studied farm consolidation trends between 1978 and 2017 and concluded that "rural communities are at risk," Grace Connatser reports for the Wisconsin State Farmer. "The study found that half of the Midwest's midsize farms have disappeared in nearly four decades – nationally, nearly 700,000 – while large farms have increased in scale by about 100 million acres in the same timeframe. A midsize farm is between 50 and 999 acres, while a large farm is 1,000 acres or more."

Those midsize farms are historically the "backbone of the rural economy," said study author Rafter Ferguson. Larger farms aren't a problem in and of themselves, but their proliferation makes it harder for smaller, beginning farmers to compete and be profitable, the study says: "The energy, innovation, and initiative that new practitioners bring are crucial to the future of any profession—and farmers are no different. Our food system is going to be facing huge challenges over the coming decades, and we need an expanding, diversifying, creative community of farmers to meet those challenges. Consolidation operates in exactly the wrong direction."

The study also sees environmental impacts: "Because more farmland in larger farms tends to be rented rather than owned, there is less incentive to invest in measures to improve farmland for the long term by building soil health. In short, when farms grow bigger and farmers grow fewer, bad things happen."

"Ferguson called for a leveling of the playing field for smaller farms compared to large farms because of the challenges associated with trying to run them," Connatser reports. "He said many federal policies in the past have done more to help large farms than small ones."

Many superintendents quitting after pandemic school year; rural districts may have a harder time finding replacements

A wave of school superintendents are "leaving their posts, far more than in a typical year, a result of the extraordinary challenges of keeping kids learning after schools closed in spring 2020 and serving as crisis managers for months on end while dealing with pandemic pressures on their own families," Joe Heim and Valerie Strauss report for The Washington Post. "The departures are from the top spots in large cities . . . but also in many midsize and smaller districts in suburban and rural areas," according to the American Association of School Superintendents.

Some superintendents are moving to other districts, some have been forced out by school boards, and some are retiring, often with years left on their contracts. "The turnover this year has been unprecedented, superintendents say, with the usual job responsibilities and tensions exacerbated by crisis management and debates with communities and school boards over when and how to reopen schools during the pandemic. Conflicts over equity and education that addressed racial issues also boiled over, with superintendents often feeling the brunt of the disputes," Heim and Strauss report. "Changes in district leadership can always be problematic, but never more so than now, as plans are being made to reopen schools fully in the fall at the same time that a new coronavirus variant known as delta is becoming more common in the United States and is, according to President Biden, 'particularly dangerous' for young people."

Rural school districts may be particularly vulnerable after a superintendent departs, since not many potential replacements are eager to step up. It takes a special skill set, a tolerance for extra-long work days, and a love of small towns to be a rural superintendent. But, though rural principalships have some of the highest turnover rates in education, rural natives tend to stick around longer in rural education jobs. Rural educators and administrators are frequently graduates of the schools they work for as adults, or graduates of other rural schools.

Study finds three essential elements state governments need to effectively expand high-speed internet in rural areas

States all over the country have created programs aimed at expanding broadband connectivity; the most successful ones have three core components, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts study.

The first is a dedicated broadband office, meaning a centralized entity with a full-time focus on expanding broadband access, including distributing funds and working with local governments to plan and build capacity and support.

Providing planning and technical assistance for local and regional entities is the second element, the study says. That includes strategic planning with defined goals, cultivating stakeholder buy-in and identifying existing assets. Technical support should encompass network design, business planning, and more.

Competitive grant programs are the third key element the study highlights. Such programs provide internet service providers with limited subsidies to expand service to rural and underserved areas. Well-designed grant programs should ensure that applicants' proposals meet local needs, reduce deployment costs in high-cost areas, and (ideally) match funds from the applicant with eligible partners, such as local governments, to cover the project's costs.

Former U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico nominated for USDA undersecretary of rural development

Xochitl Torres Small

Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico has been nominated as the Agriculture Department's undersecretary of rural development.

When President Biden announced her nomination on Friday, he cited her previous work in economic development in rural communities New Mexico, Algernon D'Ammassa reports for the Las Cruces Sun News.

"Throughout her career, Torres Small has employed her experience organizing in vulnerable, rural communities to achieve lasting investments that combat persistent poverty," said a White House statement.

The granddaughter of migrant farmworkers, she eventually became an attorney focused on water issues before winning a seat in Congress on her first run for public office. She served on the agriculture committee during her single term from 2019 to 2021.

"If confirmed, Torres Small would be in charge of a mission area with wide-ranging responsibilities, including rural electric cooperative loans, broadband expansion, community development and infrastructure funding, value-added producer grants, and funding for renewable energy and biofuel projects," Jacqui Fatka reports for National Hog Farmer. "The rural development undersecretary position was previously eliminated under a restructuring of USDA when establishing the trade undersecretary but re-established under authority in the 2018 Farm Bill."

Pandemic roundup: Delta variant likely to dominate soon; public-private partnership gets ruralites vaxed in Ohio

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

The delta variant will likely become the dominant coronavirus strain in the U.S. in the coming weeks, according to a new analysis. Read more here.

In Athens County, Ohio, pop. 65,000, the health department has gotten nearly 25,000 locals vaccinated through a partnership with Ohio University and the Athens City School District. Read more here.

In California's Salinas Valley, once a Covid hotspot, more than two-thirds of farmworkers are vaccinated against the coronavirus thanks to efforts public-private partnerships. Read more here.

State and local governments in the South are trying to get more people vaccinated; that takes overcoming economic barriers to access, like a lack of transportation, and fighting misinformation that makes many wary of vaccines. Read more here.

For some people, grief for a loved one who died from Covid-19 is complicated by misinformation and attitudes about the virus among family and friends. Read more here.

In a recent American Medical Association webinar, the chief medical officer of the Marshfield Clinic Health System in Wisconsin discusses challenges to vaccinating rural communities. Read more here.

Millions of Americans racing to get federal rental assistance before moratorium expires; see county-level map

"Millions of Americans are in a 'race against the clock' to receive rental assistance before the end of the month, when a federal eviction moratorium designed to help people cope during the coronavirus pandemic expires," Amanda Holpuch reports for The Guardian. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eviction moratorium ends on 30 June, and some states will still have local renter protections in place. But in the vast majority of states, rental assistance – an essential lifeline for millions – could arrive too late, according to housing advocates."

Some rural households may have a leg up in beating the clock: because of the way the assistance is being allocated, rural white residents are more likely to get emergency rent assistance, according to a USA Today analysis. See your state and county's rent debt on this interactive map by the University of Southern California's Equity Research Institute.

In mid-May, 7.49 million American adults said they were behind on rent or mortgage payments and weren't likely to be able to make the next month's payment, according to a Census Bureau survey. "So far, the eviction moratorium has kept many of these families housed. There were 1.55 million fewer eviction cases last year than would be filed in a typical year, according to an estimate by the Eviction Lab," Holpuch reports. "Without the moratorium, they will need access to the $46.55 billion in rental assistance allocated by the government to help renters and landlords – though its distribution got off to a slow start."

On President Trump's last day in office, the Treasury Department issued guidelines requiring applicants to provide more documentation to prove they qualified for the program. That made it more difficult for many to access the program. The Biden administration revised the guidelines in March and in May issued new rules that made application easier, Holpuch reports,

First-of-its-kind interactive map from feds shows gaps in broadband service, in some cases at the neighborhood level

Screenshot of the Indicators of Broadband Need interactive map. Click the image to enlarge it.

The Biden administration's first-of-its-kind interactive map shows the rural-urban broadband gap in sharp relief from different perspectives and sources that you can choose. The county-level map, a product of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, allows users to explore different datasets about broadband access and toggle layers to show data about racial minorities, tribal lands, poverty, and more.

Broadband datasets include average download speed, smartphone usage, and overall internet access. NITA also offers state governments more in-depth tools for analyzing broadband access.

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel lauded the project: "Broadband is no longer nice to have. It’s need to have. To ensure that every household has the internet access necessary for success in the digital age, we need better ways to accurately measure where high-speed service has reached Americans and where it has not."

Surveyed rural bankers still optimistic about economy but worry about drought, inflation and federal bank regulations

Creighton University chart compares current month to last month and year ago; click here to download it and chart below.

A June survey of rural bankers in 10 Midwest states that rely on agriculture and energy found they still have strong expectations for the economy, but are concerned about cybersecurity, inflation, drought, and more. The Rural Mainstreet Index is a survey of bankers in about 200 rural communities with an average population of 1,300 in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

The overall index remained above growth-neutral for the seventh straight month, falling to 70 on a scale of 100 from last month's record 78.8. For the first time since it began in 2013, the index recorded nine straight months of farmland prices above growth-neutral. Almost half the bankers reported that their local economy expanded from May to June. Federal stimulus/relief funds, strong grain prices and expanding exports played a big role, writes Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who compiles the index. 

Despite recent job gains, overall non-farm employment in the surveyed states is 2% lower than pre-pandemic levels. Employment in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska exceeds pre-pandemic levels.

Bankers raised other concerns about the future (see chart below). The largest share, about one-fourth, predicted rising government regulations as the greatest threat to bank operations in 2021-22. A downturn in farm income was a close second, followed by cyberthreats.