Official guidance on gun-safety law upsets rural politicians; Democrat says bureaucrats don't understand rural America

New gun safety law doesn't fund archery programs.
(Photo by Annie Spratt, Unsplash)

In a case of unintended consequences, the first gun-safety legislation in decades is hitting some bumps. "As the law is implemented, a rift has emerged between the Biden administration and rural-state Democrats. They’re at odds over guidance issued by the Department of Education which states that a pot of federal dollars would be prohibited from going to school archery and hunting programs," reports Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico. "It also has agitated Republicans who helped negotiate the gun safety legislation." Both sides say the Education Department is misinterpreting Congress’ intent and the White House is ignoring the issue.

The conflict further separates Democrats, "now cutting at a longtime intraparty divide between Democrats from states with a long heritage of hunting and the more progressive corners of the party that back strict gun control measures," Haberkorn writes. "Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, one of the most vulnerable Democrats in a red state, has introduced a bipartisan bill to restore the funding, which he hopes will be added to a government spending bill. He said the administration 'has this one flat-out wrong' and chastised 'D.C. bureaucrats who don’t understand rural America.'"

Haberkorn reports, "The Education Department has stressed that the law doesn’t prohibit shooting or archery programs from being supported through other sources of funding. . . .  Several Democrats expressed hope that the Education Department would change its tone once lawmakers clarified what their intention was with the bill."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the chief negotiators on the gun safety bill, "acknowledged the administration is reading the letter of the text correctly but called it an unintended consequence that should be repaired," Haberkorn adds. "He said he hopes bipartisan legislation to repair the language can be included in an upcoming government funding bill."

Young heavy drinkers are more likely to carry handguns

Photo by Tom Def, Unsplash

A young person in rural America who drinks heavily is 43% more likely to carry a handgun in the following year, according to a study conducted in seven states over 15 years and published in The Journal of Rural Health.

The study defined "heavy drinking" as consumption of five or more alcoholic drinks in a row at least once in the two weeks before the question was asked of 2,002 youth, aged 12 to 26, from 12 rural communities in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Survey responses were collected annually from 2004 to 2019 starting with children who were in fifth or sixth grade, as part of the university's national Community Youth Development Study (CYDS).

Lead author Alice Ellyson, an acting assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington, told The Rural Blog that no Southern states were included in the study because the Southern communities that participated in the survey consortium that helped develop the CYDS "chose not to continue as part of the community-randomized trial portion where we obtained our data for this study."

The university says, "Recent evidence suggests that rural adolescents may start carrying a handgun earlier and carry with a higher frequency and duration than their urban counterparts. Handgun-carrying is associated with bullying, physical violence, and other risk factors for violence. Understanding youth behaviors associated with carrying a firearm has significant safety implications. In 2020, suicide and homicide were among the leading causes of death among U.S. individuals ages 12-26 years. About 91% of homicides and 52% of suicides among this age group involved a firearm."

Communities That Care is a program for preventing these behaviors and their consequences in rural areas. It has no communities in Southern states, "but they would be very willing for that to change," Ellyson told The Rural Blog.

Why are so many Americans behind bars? It's complicated.

The Conversation Chart by Jeffrey Bellin, from CC-BY-ND data

In a country known as "the land of the free," it's hard to reconcile how so many people end up behind bars. "The U.S. continues to imprison a higher percentage of its population than almost every other country. The U.S. incarcerates 530 people for every 100,000 in its population, making it one of the world's biggest jailers," reports Jeffrey Bellin for The Conversation, a platform for journalism by academics.

"As a former prosecutor and a researcher who studies the criminal justice system, I have found that understanding how the U.S. incarceration rate grew over the last few decades is the key to understanding its root causes," Bellin explains. "I think the public debate can improve if people develop a better understanding of how mass incarceration arose and its tenuous connection to crime."

Incarceration rates intertwine with spikes in serious crimes such as homicides and longer sentences, Bellin notes. "Over time, this led to today's aging prison population and many people being held long past the time they would have been released at other times in this country's history. . . . The number of people incarcerated in state prisons for homicide increased by over 300% between 1980 and 2010. . . . But the scale of the increases for other offenses, like drug crimes, is even larger – rising 1,147% over this time frame.

"Substantially reducing prison and jail populations will require a better understanding of the link between incarceration and crime. It is not simply the case that incarceration goes up because people commit crime; instead, the story is much more complicated," Bellin explains. "That is because we use incarceration for two purposes: to obtain justice on behalf of victims and to try to change people's behavior."

Bellin points out two types of cases in the nation's criminal courts. The first type involves violent crimes such as murder or sexual assault. The second type "are cases like drug offenses and weapons possession, which are not typically about obtaining justice for victims but are supposed to further policy goals like preventing drug use." Over the last several decades, courts have increased sentence years and the number of actions that can lead to prison time. The result is massive incarceration.

Is there a solution? Bellin writes, "Substantial progress at reducing the incarcerated population will require reversing both trends. First, returning sentence lengths for all offenses, including serious violent crimes, to their historical norms. And second, resisting this country's growing habit of relying on incarceration as a tool for achieving policy goals."

Flora and fauna: Terrier sniffs out turtles; mow less and pick more flowers; vultures threaten livestock; snap-pea science

Dory searches a leatherback nesting site for the exact location of eggs.

(Walt Disney World Resort courtesy photo via National Geographic)

One terrier can sniff out turtles in a single bound. She "identified 560 sea turtle nests from three species," reports Elizabeth Ann Brown of National Geographic. Named "Dory," this pup's success rate is considered "shocking. . . and could be a game changer." Dory has joined the ranks of "'conservation sniffers' who help scientists get a more complete picture of sea turtle nesting habits."

Did you know that the snap pea was invented? "You'd be forgiven for thinking that sugar snap peas have occurred naturally forever," reports Korsha Wilson of Saveur. "But this specific breed was invented by Dr. Lamborn in 1979, after years of trying to create a commercially viable snow pea with a smoother, straighter pod."

Wildflowers attract insects and butterflies. (Courtesy
photo, Natalie Gilliard via The Washington Post)

Mow. Water. Mow. Water. The cycle can take a toll on summer hours. One couple solved their mowing angst by planting a wildflower garden, reports Cathy Free of The Washington Post. "Growing a wildflower meadow or planting other alternatives to grass is part of a movement to use fewer resources, foster community relationships and help reverse the loss of insects."

Over the past few decades, the eastern monarch population "has dropped precipitously." What were once vast butterfly flocks have dwindled -- "at least somewhat connected to the loss of milkweed plants, where the butterflies lay their eggs," reports Ethan Freedman of Ambrook Research. "The benefits of new habitats planted near agricultural fields might outweigh the risk of pesticide exposure in monarch butterflies — but don't assume that's true for all insects."

Scarabaeus viette (Wikipedia)

This little six-legged creature is a hard-working farmers' helper. "The formidable dung beetle is one of many insects that help process cow pies and maintain balance in your pasture," reports Michael Johnson of Ag Week. "The presence of beetles, which eat and carve out caverns through the drying dung, means that the dung is being processed. . . . That's important on these pastures. . . . Rancher Thomas Stattelman understands that microorganisms are important. He does not use any commercial fertilizer and has not sprayed any chemical on the pastures in the last six years. He said he uses no fly control, either."

Black vultures will kill and eat newborn livestock.
(Photo by Noppadol Paothong, Mo. Dept. of Conservation)

Often considered bug and seed-eaters, many birds are actually carnivores. "Ranchers across the Great Plains are battling black vultures, a federally protected bird that has a reputation for killing newborn livestock," reports Xcaret Nuñez of KOSU in Oklahoma. "While the birds play a major ecological role, their expanding population is becoming a big nuisance for producers. . . . Black vultures aren’t an easy bird to scare away, and because they’re protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, producers can’t legally kill the scavenger bird without federal permission."

National Farmer's Day is Oct. 12; recognizes U.S. farmers for the food and fiber they produce, and role in economy

National Farmer’s Day is Oct.12, a day set aside to honor and thank U.S. farmers who spend long days planning, fertilizing, plowing, planting and harvesting our food. While only 2% of our population are farmers, that 2% feeds America and countries far beyond its borders. Farmers’ contribution to the economy extends well beyond food --  farmers keep many other industries alive, including transportation, grocery services, pharmaceuticals, forestry and fisheries.

Paying tribute to your local farmer can be as simple as a personal thank you at your local orchard or farmers market, making a donation to your local Future Farmers of America chapter, or taking out a "Thank You" ad in your community newspaper.

Supporters of the event say where and how you shop can also help local farmers:

• Buy fruits and vegetables from farmers markets. You may be able to meet the local farmers who grow your food while picking up the freshest produce, eggs, and meat. A farmers markets directory is here.
• Visit pick-your-own farms. They offer everything from vegetables to apples to pumpkins. Pick-your-own flower farms are also popular in many towns. Find a pick-your-own farm in your area.
• Consider joining a community-supported agriculture farm share next year. As a CSA member, you will receive a basket of freshly picked food every week for a true farm-to-table experience. Find a local CSA.
• Look out for local small-town festivals. By attending everything from persimmon festivals to pawpaw festivals to garlic festivals, you’re supporting farming communities.

She taught about race, was made to stop and now wonders how she will continue to teach with trust and 'authenticity'

Mary Wood's students reported her for a lesson on racism.
(Photo by Will Crooks, The Washington Post)

Seeking to have her all-white class understand more about racial history and identities, teacher Mary Wood of Chapin, South Carolina, had her students read a book "that dissects what it means to be Black in America. . . . Her students reported her for "[making] them ashamed to be White, violating a South Carolina proviso that forbids teachers from making students' feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress' on account of their race," reports Hannah Natanson for The Washington Post.

The book was Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, which Wood paired with educational videos. Natanson writes, "Reading Coates' book felt like 'reading hate propaganda towards white people,' one student wrote. . . . At least two parents complained. . . . Within days, school administrators ordered Wood to stop teaching the lesson. They placed a formal letter of reprimand in her file. It instructed her to keep teaching 'without discussing this issue with your students.'" Wood completed the semester "feeling defeated and betrayed — not only by her students but also by the school system that raised her. The high school Wood teaches at is the same one she attended."

Chapin is about 25 miles northwest
of Columbia, S.C.  (Wikipedia map)

A local newspaper reported Wood's censure, and the conflict spread. "At school board meetings and online Facebook groups, the citizens of wealthy, White and conservative Chapin debated whether Wood should be fired," Natanson reports. "Republican state representatives showed up to a June meeting to blast her as a lawbreaker. The next month, a county NAACP leader declared her an 'advocate for the education of all students.'"

South Carolina is one of 18 states "to restrict education on race since 2021, according to an Education Week tally. And at least half the country has passed laws that limit instruction on race, history, sex or gender identity, per a Washington Post analysis. Wood is not the first teacher to get caught in the crossfire: The Post previously reported that at least 160 educators have lost their positions since the pandemic due to political debates," Natanson adds.

Wood now wonders if she can trust her students and the system that told her to teach an authentic curriculum that helps young adults enter a challenging world. "And for Wood, teaching authentically means assigning writers like Coates—voices unfamiliar, even disconcerting, to students in her lakeside town," Natanson writes. "Because of what happened last year, though, Wood now worried anything, from the most provocative essay to the least interesting comment about her weekend, might be resisted, recorded and reported by the children she's supposed to teach."

You can do more than just observe bird migration season; resources are available to help with conservation efforts

Blue-winged Teal (Photo by Sharif Uddin, Macaulay Library via CornellLab)

As bird migration season takes flight, there are many resources for helping and enjoying birds during this magnificent phenomenon.

CornellLab offers recorded educational webinars and an interactive game with their Merlin Bird ID Trivia: Fall Migration Edition. "Can the app outperform an experienced birder and you, our audience?. . . .Our panelists share their advice on how to identify tricky birds based on calls and appearance—plus provide insights into birding during the migration season."

The American Bird Conservancy website has a plethora of information, tips and delightful photos of our feathered friends, many of whom are struggling to survive. "The great streams of migratory birds that once filled North America's skies are dwindling as habitat loss, climate change, and other threats take their toll. The declines cast doubt on the continued survival of these birds and the greatest wildlife phenomenon in the Western Hemisphere," according to the website.

To help birds year-round, these resources provide information about planning bird conservation efforts:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology: This institution, part of Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has all kinds of bird-related resources.
National Audubon Society: A premier national nonprofit for conservation and policy and just birding. It has a network of local and regional affiliates.

Peregrine Falcon
(Photo by Marky Mutchler)

The Great Backyard Bird Count: Join the world in connecting to birds – Feb. 16–19, 2024.
Christmas Bird Count: A long-standing tradition in many places that can give a sense of population trends. Organized by National Audubon. To find local/regional birding and conservation groups: start here. (Note: The listing for some states is incomplete.)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: The federal agency most active in bird conservation. Find a refuge near you and talk to the staff. You can also reach out to managers of your state, local and private wildlife refuges.
National Wildlife Health Center: This unit of the U.S. Geological Survey is an authoritative source on bird disease.
North American Bird Conservation Initiative: The consortium of researchers, government agencies and conservation groups that produced the 2022 report mentioned above.
Ducks Unlimited: Yes, its members do hunt ducks, but the group works very hard for conservation. Check with your local chapter and talk to them about migratory birds.
State conservation agencies: The terminology varies, but a good directory can be found here.
People who maintain local backyard bird feeders: One way to find them is to go to a hardware store where feeders and seeds are sold. 

Op-ed argues that the popular narrative about rural Californians is false; in fact, rural communities are doing well

Lounging dairy cows in Kern County (Photo by Brian van der Brug, L.A. Times)

Many rural Californians don't fit the current narrative of conservative, angry Americans who feel left behind. Elizabeth Currid-Halkett and Marley Randazzo encourage readers to take a closer look at how rural is socially and politically defined and what that might mean more broadly for rural America in their Op-Ed for the Los Angeles Times, "Rural California isn't what you think it is."

A popular rural narrative, they contend, is that rural Californians voted for Trump in 2020, because "they are poor, angry and feel left behind by the political establishment and educated urban elites." But, scrutiny dispelled much of this storyline. "In fact, many rural areas in California are doing well economically. Also, their vote for Trump is misunderstood. With Trump again a viable presidential contender, politicians, policymakers and the public should shift their lens upon rural areas."

A more "nuanced" approach that reconsiders what many thought was rural California or even rural America would bring more understanding. "Rather than dismissing rural Americans and assuming their politics, we ought to take the time to understand these complex communities. Our country's future depends on it," Currid-Halkett and Randazzo write.

They note researchers and government policy writers use dozens of ways to define rural; however, "most folks think of places beyond the city limits, layered with farms, dirt roads and humble main streets," but in California, that's not the case. "Much of Fresno County may appear to Angelenos as rural with its expansive farmland. However, Fresno has an urban population of about 900,000, meaning the county qualifies as a medium-sized metropolitan area according to Department of Agriculture standards."

Nor does living in rural California mean barely scraping by. "Our analysis of recent census data reveals that rural Californians are substantially more likely than their urban counterparts to own their own home and be employed," Currid-Halkett and Randazzo add. "Rural California's unemployment rate is 3% compared with 4.2% for metro areas. Against the backdrop of a housing crisis, homeownership in rural California is more than 70%, while just 55% for our cities."

Political opinions about rural residents are also riddled with misconceptions. "Although Trump won 10 of California's 13 rural counties in 2020, the data show that some rural margins were razor thin," they note. "Over the past five years, one of us spoke to dozens of Americans, finding that not only are rural Americans not angry at liberal elites living in cities but that they share many of the same values. When asked about democracy, equality, immigration and other important issues of our time, rural Americans were in line with what their urban counterparts expressed. They conveyed, however, a wariness toward being told what they should think and say."

Flooding can cause caskets to float away and headstones to disappear as climate change hits cemeteries

A coffin juts out of a riverbank.
(Courtsey photo by Judy Blair Berry)

Climate change can mean prolonged or repeated flooding in some areas unprepared for submersion; graveyards and cemeteries are experiencing unearthed remains and floating caskets, reports Dinah Voyles Pulver of USA Today. "Thousands of graves have been disturbed in cemeteries nationwide in the past 30 years. Flooding, erosion and other climate-related weather disasters have been reported in at least 21 states and 15 countries over the past three decades. Coffins have washed away, and bones have been exposed in big cities and tiny hamlets."

Cemeteries have long struggled with neglect and upkeep expenses, but extreme weather has amplified the problem. Judy Blair Berry and her husband told Pulver of a prime example. The couple was "motoring along the Pearl River in Copiah County, Mississippi, when she looked up from the boat to see a casket jutting out of the bank above the river. Pieces of gravestones lay scattered on the shore. . . . Mississippi, and its neighbors to the north are among the states in the eastern half of the United States experiencing more rainfall extremes since the 1990s, including increases in the number of days with more than an inch of rain."

Families have had to rebury loved ones, and state and local governments, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and cemetery associations "are already spending millions to preserve cemeteries and build seawalls, and relocate or rebury remains," Pulver reports. "Perhaps nowhere have the effects of climate change had more impact on cemeteries than in Louisiana. At least 11 hurricanes have pummeled the Bayou State since 2002, disturbing thousands of graves and washing away hundreds of vaults and caskets. . . . At least a dozen cemeteries in southern Louisiana parishes have succumbed to rising seas and sinking land, The Associated Press has reported."

Pulver explains, "Water can infiltrate a burial site in several ways, and each type of casket, whether it's sealed, unsealed or inside a vault, can develop issues. . . . Options are available to help protect cemeteries and have been used at some locations in the U.S., including adding seawalls and stabilizing shorelines. A more complex and expensive step also has been needed in some cemeteries: moving the graves to safer locations."

Emergency medical services aren't considered 'essential' in some states; 4.5 million people live in 'ambulance deserts'

Many states have yet to declare EMS as an 'essential service.'

(Photo by Ian Taylor, Unsplash)

If you're having an emergency, you can call 911, but that doesn't mean there's an ambulance or paramedics nearby to come to your aid. "Most states don't declare emergency medical services to be an 'essential service,' meaning the state government isn't required to provide or fund them," reports Nada Hassanein of Stateline. "Now, though, a growing number of states are taking an interest in recognizing ambulance services as essential. . . .Experts say the momentum might be driven by the pandemic, a decline in volunteerism and the rural health care shortage."

Smaller towns and out-of-the-way places face the most complex struggles. "The lack of EMS services is acute in rural America, where EMS agencies and rural hospitals continue to shutter at record rates, meaning longer distances to life-saving care," Hassanein writes. Longtime paramedic Brenden Hayden, chairperson of the National EMS Advisory Council, a governmental advisory group within the U.S. Department of Transportation, told Hassanein: "The fact that people expect it, but yet it's not listed as an essential service in many states, and it's not supported as such really, is where that dissonance occurs."

EMS services struggle partially because "there isn’t a sole federal agency dedicated to overseeing or funding EMS, with multiple agencies handling different regulations, and some federal dollars in the form of grants and highway safety funds from the Department of Transportation," Hassanein explains. "By contrast, police departments are supported and receive funds from the U.S. Department of Justice along with local tax dollars, and fire departments are supported by the U.S. Fire Administration, although many underserved areas also rely on volunteer firefighters to fill gaps."

"About 4.5 million people across the United States live in an 'ambulance desert,' and more than half of those are residents of rural counties, according to a recent national study by the Maine Rural Health Research Center and the Rural Health Research & Policy Centers," Hassanein adds. "The researchers define an ambulance desert as a community 25 minutes or more from an ambulance station."

What's going on with the latest Covid-19 vaccines? Here are answers to frequently asked questions.

Updated Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have rolled out to pharmacies. The Food and Drug Administration approved the mRNA vaccines for everyone 6 months and older. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13-1 to recommend that everyone 6 months and older should get the shots, and the CDC endorsed that recommendation.

Lori Robertson and Catalina Jaramillo of FactCheck.org, a service of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Robertson and Jaramillo compiled a list of common questions and answers about the vaccines, and here's a condensed version of their report:

How are these updated shots different from the last one? All of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines — the originals, the bivalent boosters and the latest updates — use the same mRNA technology to trigger an immune response to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The spike protein is what the virus uses to enter cells.

The difference between the versions of the vaccines is in what type of spike protein they prompt the body to make. The mRNA in the 2023-2024 vaccines instructs cells to make the spike protein of omicron variant XBB.1.5. The variant became a concern at the end of last year, when the CDC projected it made up 40.5% of new CCovid-19 cases in the U.S., a figure that rose to nearly 90% by early March.

Who is eligible to get an updated vaccine? Everyone 6 months of age and older is eligible for these vaccines.The FDA said those age 5 and older can get a single dose of either mRNA vaccine if at least two months have passed since the prior Covid-19 vaccine dose. Unvaccinated people can also get a single dose. Children ages 6 months through 4 years who previously were vaccinated are eligible to get one or two doses, depending on which vaccines they have received and when. Children in this age group who haven’t been vaccinated against Covid-19 can get three doses of the latest Pfizer vaccine or two doses of Moderna’s. . . . Those who are immunocompromised can also receive additional doses.

What evidence supports the use of the updated vaccines? The FDA said it approved and authorized the latest formulas of the vaccines based on its evaluation of manufacturing data and data showing the immune response to these vaccines against prevalent variants is similar to that of previous versions of the vaccines against prior variants.. . . . The FDA is using a similar approach to the annual influenza vaccines, which are tweaked each year to combat the influenza strains expected for that season. Flu vaccines are approved each year without clinical studies because the changes, compared with prior vaccines, are small and because it wouldn’t be possible to test the vaccines each year in people before the flu season.

How effective are they? We don’t have vaccine effectiveness data for the updated vaccines specifically, but data on similar, previous vaccines show they were quite effective at preventing severe disease. And the research. . . .by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech shows the updated version increases neutralizing antibodies against the new and emerging variants.

How safe are they? Moderna’s clinical trial for the latest vaccine showed that the percentage of participants reporting mild side effects, such as pain, swelling, headache, fatigue and muscle aches, was similar to or, in many cases, lower than the reporting rates for the prior Covid-19 vaccines. But, the safety evaluation of this formula is based on hundreds of millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines administered over the past few years.

Are the shots still free, and where can I get one? The vaccines are no longer provided by the federal government for free, but private insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid, and some CDC programs will cover them.

For more detailed explanations and questions, read the full article here. 

When Americans no longer trust each other, the problem can be deadly. It hits rural areas the hardest, study shows

An unhealthy mistrust has spread across the U.S.
(ProMarket photo, University of Chicago)

Not being able to trust our neighbors or our country's leaders not only feels rotten, it can lead to physical illnesses. "People died in the pandemic because they didn't trust the government or their neighbors to do the right thing," reports Frank Morris of KCUR in Kansas City. "And it's not getting better. Today, distrust is making people sicker, especially where health care is fragile across giant swaths of rural America. . . . Tom Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said while the worst of the pandemic has passed (for now), the United States' deadly epidemic of mistrust is raging unchecked."

Bollyky was the lead author of a large study published in The Lancet this year, "taking a fine-grain look at Covid death and infection rates across the United States and the many factors that contributed to the differences," Morris writes. Bollyky told him: "This pandemic has been less about the microbe spreading around and more about the people to which it's spreading. It's about us, and how we feel about each other, and how we hang together as a community."

Morris reports, "Covid death rates varied wildly between states. The government tracked these rates as deaths per million people. New Hampshire lost 218 residents per million to Covid during the research period. New Hampshire has the highest rate of interpersonal trust in the U.S., as measured by long-running surveys testing trust between individuals. . . . Covid-19 was almost twice as deadly in Missouri as it was in New Hampshire. Almost a dozen other states fared even worse, partly due to distrust."

The pandemic years didn't just erode interpersonal trust, it decreased Americans' faith in vaccines overall. Brock Slabach, chief operations officer at the National Rural Health Association, told Morris, "And then, to add insult to injury, we have lower rates, for example, of childhood immunization that directly comes out of the pandemic and mistrust in vaccines generally. And so we're going to see childhood diseases that we thought we'd eradicated returning."

During and continuing after the pandemic, patient-doctor trust plummeted, and that distrust could make the next pandemic worse. Slabach told Morris: "Through the pandemic, we've added this issue of mistrust in the very professionals that for centuries we've valued as an important source of information for health and healthcare. . . . If we have another health crisis, this will come right back because we've not addressed some of the underlying issues. And so we're still going to be facing higher rates of disease, higher spread of death because of this misinformation and the lack of trust that we have in those areas of our system that know what to do in response."

Loneliness has increased across the U.S.; it shortens life expectancy, but there are solutions

Loneliness can lead to premature death.
(Photo by Andre Frueh, Unsplash)

Loneliness is a feeling as old as time, but it can lead to poor brain health and shorter life expectancy. According to America's top public health official, Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, loneliness is "as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and more lethal than consuming six alcoholic drinks a day," opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof writes for The New York Times as part of a series titled "How America Heals," aimed at finding ways to fix this problem.

Chronic loneliness cuts deeper than sadness; researchers have linked it to strokes, heart disease, dementia, inflammation and suicide. Kristof writes, "It's also more dangerous than physical inactivity, obesity and air pollution, Murthy says. . . . It breaks the heart literally as well as figuratively." The physical and societal problems that result from loneliness are so harmful Murthy issued a rare advisory in May with a framework to rebuild social connection and community in the United States.

Research also shows Americans have been growing lonelier. A majority of adults (58%) report experiencing loneliness, according to a Morning Consult survey commissioned by The Cigna Group, a health insurance company. Why did loneliness increase? Kristof says the trends toward larger homes and longer working hours have left less time to share meals, and he notes studies that show social media has led to people being more lonely. Pets and talking robots have been suggested as solutions, he writes, but "It seems that there's something to be said for friends who are living, breathing human beings."

Kristof writes that there are ways to build connections that bind us together, including some approaches taken in the United Kingdom, which he says "is the pioneer of these efforts, having established the post of minister for loneliness in 2018. Britain oversees public-private partnerships that collectively knit millions of people together with programs like nature walks, songwriting workshops and community litter pickups.

"That's because if the researchers are correct, social isolation probably kills far more people in the West each year than terrorists and murderers, and it costs the public enormous sums in unnecessary health costs," Kristof writes. "Countermeasures can make a huge difference: One review of 148 studies concluded that social connections increase the odds of an individual's surviving over roughly the next seven years by about 50 percent."

Surgeon General Murthy offered a strategy to address loneliness that begins with building infrastructure that enables social connection: physical infrastructure such as parks and libraries, and social infrastructure to weave together volunteers or enthusiasts with similar interests. Britain can serve as a model for this, Kristof writes. He cites a town that has trained more than 1,100 volunteers to be "community connectors" who engage people and encourage them to join events or participate in programs. "Solutions to loneliness are like that — little nudges to encourage us to mingle the way we evolved."

Family-based residential addiction treatment centers are successful, but the model struggles to be viable

Despite successes, these centers struggle.
(Photo by Jordan Whitt, Unsplash)

Even with higher success rates, family-based residential addiction treatment centers remain the exception; centers in rural areas are rarer still, with waiting lists ranging from two to six weeks, reports Christina Saint Louis of KFF Health News. Recovering Hope Treatment Center in eastern Minnesota's Kanabec County is the state's only rural residential treatment center and "one of only five providers in the state that offer family-based residential treatment, allowing women to enter the program while pregnant or to bring one of their children younger than 5 with them for the duration of their stay."

Research supports the success of family-centered approaches to addiction treatment, but costs, lack of funding and staffing struggles prevent the model from becoming the standard of care. "And because of that complexity, families in rural areas are less likely to find such a residential treatment program in their communities," Saint Louis writes. "Meanwhile, maternal opioid-related diagnoses have increased nationwide. From 2010 to 2017, the rates of women with those diagnoses at delivery increased by 131%, and babies born with withdrawal symptoms increased by 82%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The increases disproportionately affected rural areas."

Women receiving residential treatment tend to have Medicaid, which has lower provider reimbursement rates, contributing to centers limiting or reducing services to cut costs. Saint Louis adds, "Women in the center's residential program previously spent up to an average of 40 days in high-intensity care at the beginning of their treatment, but that time span is now closer to 30 days to contain costs due to those low reimbursement rates."

Family-based care allows children to stay at the center but adds child care and schooling limitations, according to Ashley Snyder, a licensed drug and alcohol counselor at Recovering Hope. Snyder told Saint Louis, "If you don't provide family services, the parents run the risk of losing their kids."

As an indicator of how tough establishing a residential addiction center is, North Dakota's state Department of Health and Human Services has been "trying to establish a family-based residential treatment option like Recovering Hope since 2020. The state has been without one since April 2019, when its lone provider shut down," Saint Louis reports. "The department has issued three requests for proposals seeking providers to offer a treatment model that allows children to live with a parent undergoing residential treatment but didn't receive any responses."

Deadline today to qualify for a subsidized reporter from Report for America, who could be a local recruit

By Al Cross

Director emeritus, Institute for Rural Journalism, University of Kentucky

Report for America has become well known for sending promising young journalists to news outlets all over the nation, including rural areas. But did you know that a news outlet selected for the program may recommend a preferred candidate for consideration as their reporter or photographer?

We learned about that possibility during the webinar we hosted with Earl Johnson, RFA's vice president for recruitment. It could appeal to rural news outlets that may want their journalist to have some familiarity with the region.

Johnson said local news outlets may be aware of good reporter candidates who have served as interns or worked previously in their newsroom, or perhaps for other outlets, who could be good reporters for them. In such cases, he said, if selected as a host newsroom with RFA, the news outlet may recommend a reporter as a preferred candidate to fill their corps member position.

The preferred candidate would still be required to apply to RFA and be selected for the program. This approach allows newsrooms to partner with RFA to identify the best reporter candidates from rural communities. Preferred candidates can include current part-time newsroom staffers—journalists the newsroom has wanted to bring on full time but hasn’t been able to—but they can’t be current full-time staffers.

RFA says successful newsroom applicants get:
● Service-minded reporters, photographers and videographers
● Diverse, hand-picked candidates from a pool of early-career and experienced journalists
● Subsidized salary support for the reporter: 50% the first year (up to $25,000), 33% the second year
● Local fundraising coaching and resources, including the opportunity for fiscal sponsorship to accept donations
● Extra training and mentoring for journalists

For more information, contact the recruitment team at recruitment@reportforamerica.org

How low will it go? Farmers worry over Mississippi River levels and fear repeat of last year's crop-transportation crisis

Towboats line the shore near Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio
flows into the Mississippi. (Photo by Chris Kenning, USA Today)

As the Midwest grain harvest nears, farmers are hoping for higher water levels on the Mississippi River. But as time goes on, that does not look likely, and farmers fear a repeat of last year's expensive crisis. "Last fall, drought led to about 40 days of critically low water in parts of the Mississippi that hadn't seen it in years –grounding barges, stalling traffic, blocking river ports at the height of harvest season and causing an estimated $20 billion in losses, according to AccuWeather," reports Chris Kenning of USA Today. "As this year's harvest approaches, the river is again on the decline."

How far the river will drop is uncertain, but "Mississippi water levels have been falling since June. The Ohio River, which usually has more volume than the Mississippi at their confluence, "dropped almost 10 feet in the last two weeks of August. Levels are predicted to fall farther in the coming weeks," Kenning writes. Margy Eckelkamp of Farm Journal reports, "Most notably, fewer barges are being connected to form a single unit. And barges are being loaded to lighter weight." Soy Transportation Coalition Executive Director Mike Steenhoek told Eckelkamp: "When you start diminishing both the depths that barges can sink to and the number of barges you can put together, that changes the economics of barge transportation, which certainly impacts our competitiveness. . . . It's a movie sequel that none of us wanted to watch."

"With 61% of the Midwest classified as abnormally dry or in drought as of late August, most of the Mississippi is expected to face low water in September that will most likely affect industry and navigation, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System," Kenning reports. "That's worrying farmers who ship grains such as soybeans on the river to New Orleans and, from there, around the globe – relying on lower costs that help keep it competitive for the global export market. They fear another year of backups and spiking costs that eat into profits."

The forecast doesn't look hopeful. David Welch, a National Weather Service hydrologist at the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center, told Kenning, "Right now, there's no rainfall in sight that will turn things around." Kenning notes that nearly 60% of U.S. grain exports use barges, which are "less expensive than trains, can each carry 70 semi-trucks worth of grain. Industry officials said it's a key reason U.S. soybeans are globally competitive. Last year, stymied barge traffic meant nearby granaries filled up, leaving some farmers scrambling for more expensive or distant storage options."

Using data and art, new study helps to determine how much people are willing to pay for improved watershed quality

Researchers used visual and textual descriptions when asking survey participants
about watershed quality. (University of Wisconsin illustration; click on it to enlarge)

How much are people willing to pay for a healthier watershed? More than researchers thought, a new study from the University of Wisconsin found. UW researchers teamed up with the Environmental Protection Agency to develop and use "a method to gauge the value of improvements in watersheds protected by the federal Clean Water Act. Their results, which surveyed thousands of residents of three major river watersheds in the United States, were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," reports Chris Barncard of UW News.

Daniel Phaneuf, a UW professor of agricultural and applied economics and an author of the new study, told Barncard, "From the perspective of economics, human well-being can be generated by a lot of different things. At a fundamental level, we're interested in measuring how much households are willing to trade off spending on other things in order to have better environmental quality."

To design practical research tools, study researchers worked with ecologists using data from 19,000 sites across three river basins— the Upper Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee rivers--their goal was to clearly "show" study participants what scientists meant by watershed "improvement." Phaneuf told Barncard: "We wanted this to be meaningful and understandable to everyone, so we didn't use technical terms like 'biological condition gradient.' We worked with ecologists and graphic artists to create ways to represent these differences in biodiversity and visual conditions and the sort of human activities — like boating, swimming or finishing — each level of the BCG may actually represent."

"Along with watershed maps, the researchers took visual and textual descriptions of the stepwise differences in levels of ecological integrity to a survey group of 2,000 households across the river basins, presenting each one with maps describing current conditions in watersheds both in their area and farther away and maps describing improvements from potential remediation projects in those areas," Barncard explains. "They asked an overarching question for each cleanup scenario: How much more would you be willing to pay in taxes every year — ranging from $20 to $750 — to make this improvement happen?"

The healthier the watershed improvements would be, the more residents were willing to pay. "Respondents were willing to pay about $300 annually for one-level improvements in BCG in a nearby watershed, pushing closer to $500 if the changes would meet a Level 2 designation—a swimmable waterway just one step away from a natural state," Barncard reports. Phaneuf told him: "That's not so much of a surprise. People put a lot of value on the watersheds they get to see and enjoy. What may be a surprise, though, is that people are willing to pay even when it's not in their backyard. That is something that the EPA is quite interested in."

The 'rock-and-roll president' may surprise you

Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter and Gregg Allman, Feb. 2, 1976.
(Photo by Jerome McClendon, Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Which president loved rock and roll the most? Bill Clinton? Barack Obama? Some say it was Jimmy Carter.

"Before Bill Clinton wailed on a saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show or Barack Obama invited Stevie Wonder and Prince for a private show at the White House, Jimmy Carter stood in a field, hands on his hips, clad in a T-shirt promoting the Allman Brothers Band's Win, Lose or Draw album," recalls Melissa Ruggieri for Oxford American. "It was July 1976, and Carter, feathered hair blowing in the wind, was gunning for the presidency. But there he was supporting a quintessential Southern rock band, one of his favorites, in front of the traveling national press corps."

Carter was an original diehard fan. Ruggieri writes, "Prior to a 1975 Allman Brothers benefit concert for Carter's campaign, the presidential hopeful introduced the band to a crowd in Rhode Island by remarking, 'Anybody who wants a president who doesn't like music like this, and who doesn't like people who make music like this, should just simply vote for another man,'" Ruggieri writes. "So much about this peanut farmer from teeny Plains, Georgia, was an anomaly from the start: Georgia had never produced a successful presidential candidate, and the humble Carter had never held a national office, making him a mystery to much of the country. . . . Publicly embracing the sweet and sour songs of a group of long-haired Southern firebrands wasn't a typical move for a politician.

"Maybe it wasn't apparent at the time, but Carter was positioning himself as the rock-and-roll president, the one history will remember as not only a connoisseur of the rock music of his home state, but also as a student of Bob Dylan's lyrics, a devotee of Willie Nelson's warble, an admirer of Aretha Franklin's searing soul, and a scholar of Dizzy Gillespie's mesmerizing bebop," Ruggieri writes. "While the Allmans and Carter shared an everlasting mutual affection, the band wasn't the only Southern mainstay to play at the White House. In 1978, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, the soft-rock toe-tappers 'Imaginary Lover' and 'So Into You,' performed at a cookout on the South Lawn. Johnny Cash and his family visited frequently."

"Carter's affiliation with musicians was never about a photo opportunity or a cynical underground ploy to court voters. . . . His allegiance was born out of devotion to the art," Ruggieri writes. "Carter, the Allmans, and others were small-town Southern men bringing their messages to the national stage. America took notice. . . . At the end of the Rock & Roll President documentary, Carter sits pensively in his home in Plains, circa 2018, while Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Simple Man' plays in the background. It's a fitting coda. . . . 'Music,' he says, 'is the best proof that people have one thing in common.'"

Reflecting on the pandemic as Covid-19 comes back, Iowa editor writes: 'This is a lot for any nation to absorb'

Art Cullen

As U.S. pharmacies roll out updated Covid-19 booster vaccines, it might be a good time to look at how much the pandemic still alters daily life around the planet. The trauma and changes brought on by Covid-19 still cast a long shadow, Iowa editor Art Cullen writes for his Storm Lake Times Pilot.

"It's impossible to forget: I was on the phone one dank morning in the spring of 2020 with brother John, who lives just a block east. We were isolating at home, trying to figure out what to do with the newspaper. Should we just shut it down? . . . We decided we couldn't quit. . . . . We're okay now, but the thought of it still traumatizes me. . . . People were dying every week. Some businesses never came back.

"We're still living it. The latest iteration of Covid spreads as classes resume. The psychological trauma persists. Friendships eroded through isolation and political extremity. Eating habits changed from dine-in to carry-out. Church attendance dropped even farther. . . . Shocks to the food system continue to ripple. . . The pork and poultry industries are beset by trouble as supply chains work out the huge whipsaws of the past four years. Food prices have moderated but continue to fire inflation sparked by the pandemic shutdown.

Cullen writes that changes go well beyond the United States. "The pandemic rewired world trade. China is reeling. Brazil has become the most-favored soybean trader with Asia. . . . These are huge changes that have not been fully digested. . . . 

"This is a lot for any nation to absorb. We are still working through it. . . . Early polling that confirms a general angst over everything — call it the blues or clinical depression. . . . The pandemic casts a shadow over our personal lives, our communities and politics. Supply shocks, inflation, rewriting world trade, and unkinking food supply chain links all are moving parts in this complex machinery. . . . American resilience is amazing. Democracy and justice have prevailed so far," Cullen writes.

"Still, we are not post-pandemic. It colors everything. Gov. [Kim] Reynolds last week rejected the idea of any more lockdowns. 'My answer—not on my watch,' she said. Not that anybody in Iowa was actually suggesting another shutdown. It just shows how the trauma of it still animates us."