Slashing Medicaid may no longer be an option for some GOP lawmakers. Where will tax-cut funding come from?

Millions of Americans rely on Medicaid for health
care coverage. (Photo by S. Andrews, Unsplash)

Republican lawmakers from districts with large numbers of Medicaid enrollees spent part of last week lobbying against slashing Medicaid funding, reports Amanda Seitz of The Associated Press. "Republicans, who already have ruled out massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare, are turning their attention to siphoning as much as $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade to help finance $4.5 trillion in tax cuts."

Unlike years ago when Medicaid was considered health care coverage for only the poorest Americans, the popular program now covers more than 70 million Americans who rely on it for everything from nursing home care to emergency room visits. Seitz writes, "GOP pressure over Medicaid is mounting, with some state party leaders joining the calls to preserve the program."

Last week, President Donald Trump promised to leave Medicaid untouched; however, the problem of funding Trump's promised tax cuts remains. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he's targeting "fraudulent or wasteful" Medicaid spending "although it’s unlikely to deliver the savings Republicans seek," Seitz reports. Additional cost-saving could come through work requirements.

Even without axing program funding, Republicans could save money by reducing coverage benefits, but those limitations could spark voter backlash. "Democrats warn that reductions are inevitable and could be dire," Seitz reports. "Starting Monday, TV ads will caution people across 20 congressional districts that hospitals are at risk of closing and millions of people could lose coverage if Republicans cut Medicaid 'to fund massive tax cuts for Elon Musk and billionaires.'"

Nationally, Medicaid has wide-ranging support. Seitz reports, "Fifty-five percent of Americans said the government spends too little on Medicaid." Drew Altman, president of the health care research firm KFF, told Seitz, “It’s now a very popular program that touches a very broad cross-section of American society. Roughly half of the American people say that they or a family member have at one time been served by the program.”

To see where Medicaid enrollees live, click here.

Despite the death of an unvaccinated child from measles, many community members continue to resist vaccinations

Measles can spread with 'extraordinary efficiency, hanging in the air for hours even after a carrier leaves a room.' (NPR graphic from The Lancet created by Alice Design from The Noun Project)

Despite a measles outbreak, including the death of an unvaccinated child in Gaines County, Texas, anti-vaccination proponents in Seminole, Texas, a small town just 80 miles from Lubbock, resist the measles vaccine for adults or children.

"The life-threatening measles outbreak in West Texas starkly illustrates the stakes of slipping immunization rates and the ascension of vaccine skeptics," report Fenit Nirappil and Elana Gordon of The Washington Post. "And it has revealed how fear and the scientifically false claims of the anti-vaccine movement have seeped into communities. . .hardening attitudes about vaccines. . . in the face of a dangerous, preventable disease."

The measles outbreak in Texas is the state's "worst measles eruption in three decades, which has surged to 146 known cases, with the true toll likely much higher, exposing how under-vaccinated communities are unnecessarily vulnerable to one of the world’s most contagious diseases," the Post reports. The child that died was "6 years old and otherwise healthy."

The initial outbreak began in West Texas and rapidly spread from there. Nirappil and Gordon explain, "It spread across nine West Texas counties and crossed the border into New Mexico. . . . The outbreak spurred hundreds in the region to vaccinate themselves and their children as the threat of the virus became immediate. But it has made others dig in their heels, arguing that measles is no worse than chicken pox or the flu."

Even though science does not support the belief, anti-vaccination advocates believe immunization reactions are more dangerous than the diseases the shots prevent. The Post reports, "Medical experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say harm from vaccines is rare and is vastly outweighed by the risk of preventable disease. Two doses of the measles vaccine are 97% effective against the virus."

And while many children readily recover from a case of measles, it can have dire outcomes. "As many as 1 in 20 develop pneumonia, according to the CDC. One in 1,000 experience swelling of the brain, which can leave a child deaf or with an intellectual disability," Nirappil and Gordon add. "For every 1,000 children with measles, one or two die."

Measles can spread with "extraordinary efficiency, hanging in the air for hours even after a carrier leaves a room," the Post reports. "If it infiltrates a community with pockets of unvaccinated people, it’s like throwing a torch into a parched forest and igniting a wildfire."  

U.S. is suffering from a chronic disease endemic, but its prevalence and challenges are more extreme for rural folks

Chronic illness are prevalent across the U.S.
(Adobe Stock photo)

A lack of health care access, poverty and limited fresh food options means many rural Americans face a more intense battle combating chronic illnesses, many of which have become alarmingly common in the U.S. Eli Saslow of The New York Times reports, "Americans now spend more years living with chronic disease than people in 183 other countries in the World Health Organization — a reality that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. framed as a 'national crisis' in his first weeks as health secretary."

The daily work life of Sam Runyon, a traveling home health nurse in West Virginia, highlights how prevalent chronic health issues are in some rural communities. "All 31 patients in her caseload were under 65 years old, and yet each had at least one of the chronic diseases that had become endemic in the United States," Saslow writes. Runyon treats patients throughout Mingo County, "where the average life expectancy has been dropping steadily for a decade to 67 years old."

The prevalence of chronic disease deaths isn't unique to rural residents. "Death rates are up 25% nationally from diabetes, 40% from liver disease, 60% from kidney disease, 80% from hypertension and more than 95% from obesity," Saslow explains. However, rural residents can lack treatment options and financial resources that help counter chronic disease progression.

Joe Miller, 48, is one of Runyon's patients fighting chronic illness, poverty and a poor lifestyle history that can be common in many rural communities. Saslow writes, "Joe was lying shirtless on his bed, immobilized from hip pain as his pit bull chewed his socks. On his night stand was a bowl of macaroni and cheese, a box of salt. . . . [His wife] was dead of a heart attack in her 40s, and he was struggling with depression and closing in on 300 pounds with dangerously high cholesterol. . ."

Like many small towns, there is only one grocery store in Mingo County and produce is expensive, but ultra-processed foods such as soda and frozen pizza are plentiful. Health problems like Joe's have become more common among working-class Americans who are "dying at higher rates than they were 20 years earlier," Saslow adds. "People in the country’s poorest places were now almost twice as likely to develop chronic disease as those who lived in wealthy, urban centers on the coasts. . ."

The national broadband buildout is running behind schedule; much of the program is still in the planning stages

Broadband builds in remote places are lagging behind
schedule. (Adobe Stock photo)

Many rural communities still lacking reliable, fast internet have plans to address the need through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, known as BEAD. But the "massive federal program meant to expand broadband access to underserved areas across the country is falling behind schedule, state broadband officials and experts say, even as Trump administration actions create further uncertainty about its funding and rules," reports Madyson Fitzgerald of Stateline. 

The BEAD program is in its third year, but much of it remains in the planning stages. The 1,200-resident community of Alpine County, California, "is still waiting to see how BEAD funds will help residents, who most rely on phone lines to connect to the internet and can’t afford high-speed connections," Fitzgerald explains. "They lack internet speed for tele-medicine, banking and tax filing."

When U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was confirmed in February, "he supported the goals of BEAD but wanted to make sure it was done efficiently and effectively' and sidestepped questions asking him to commit to sending money out to states," Fitzgerald reports. "Griffith said he’s hopeful the money will still flow, noting that most of BEAD’s funds will go to rural areas, many of which tend to elect and support Republicans."

The program still has a bank of glitches to work through. "Officials in some states have run into snags with challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map," Fitzgerald explains. "Through the map challenge process, local governments, internet service providers, nonprofits and other groups can help determine whether a particular location actually has internet service."

Affordability also is an issue. "The BEAD program also mandates state broadband officials include a low-cost service option for low-income households," Fitzgerald reports. "But industry groups have pushed back, calling the rule 'completely unmoored from the economic realities of deploying and operating networks in the highest cost, hardest-to-reach areas.'"

Individual states are helping to expand broadband with their own laws. "As of Feb. 24, lawmakers in 43 states had filed a total of 300 bills regarding broadband access, infrastructure, affordability and more, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures broadband legislation database," Fitzgerald adds. "Lawmakers in 10 states have filed legislation to expand broadband access to rural areas."

High school shop classes are back and in high demand. The training offers students hands-on exploration.

Many high school shop classes now offer
welding. (Photo by J. Thomas, Unsplash)

High schools around the United States are ramping up their shop classes to help students explore professional trade careers. The hands-on shop class offerings can range from wood to metals to machinery and are designed to let high school students learn what manual work has to offer.

The shift has school districts from big cities to small towns finding innovative ways to "revamp high-school shop classes for the 21st century," reports Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "They are betting on the future of manual skills overlooked in the digital age, offering vocational-education classes that school officials say give students a broader view of career prospects with or without college."

For decades, high schools cut classes and staffing for trade-based learning, which left many trade businesses hurting for skilled labor. To address the shortfall, "local governments, school districts, businesses and voters are investing in shop classes," Chen explains. "Ohio and other states offer schools financial incentives for classes that lead to industry certifications in such high-demand jobs as pharmaceutical technician and pipe fitter."

In Sutherlin, Ore., a small town of 8,524, almost half of its high school students are enrolled in Josh Gary’s woodworking class. "When Gary took over the shop class in 2014, he had 30 students and little equipment," Chen reports. "He bought used tools on Craigslist with his own money and raised funds selling picnic tables he made with students."

With the renewed interest in trade professions, Gary's shop classes "feature laser cutters and computer-assisted routers that enable high-level detail work," Chen writes. "Last year, Sutherlin High opened a $750,000 metal shop. A $375,000 state grant paid for new tools, and $50,000 from Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, a program launched by the tool-retailer’s founder, bought a pickup truck for use by the classes."

Expanded shop classes can let students try out a trade without paying for an expensive vocational program. The classes also give students who don't want to attend college a path for career development. Staci Sievert, a teacher at Seymour Community High School in Seymour, Wis., told Chen, "I just felt like we were shortchanging our kids, our community and our families if we weren’t raising the bar in tech ed." More than 20% of jobs around Seymour are in manufacturing.

The 'demise' of plow-based farming is coming as farmers use healthier ways to grow food

Jesse Stubs plowing, prepares soil to plant corn on newly-terraced land in Flint River Farms, Ga.,
in May 1939. (Marion Post Wolcott, Library of Congress Prints &Photos via the Post)

The enduring match of farms and plows seems destined for a breakup as more farmers incorporate no-till farming practices. "The demise of the plow and other tools that turn the soil is a rare good-news story in these depressing times for Planet Earth," writes Dana Milbank in his Washington Post opinion. "Modern, mechanized tillage [is] an ecological disaster, killing all that was alive in the soil while worsening erosion and runoff."

Over the past five decades, farmers realized how much harm tilling was doing and began to step away from their plows. Milbank explains, "In 1973, 82.2% of U.S. cropland was managed by conventional tillage, and only 2% was managed by 'no-till' methods, with the remaining 15.8% using reduced tillage. Half a century later, only 27% of U.S. cropland uses conventional tillage, with 38% now using no-till and 35% using reduced tillage."

Part of the shift to no-till includes a change in farming culture. Milbank adds, "If Big Ag destroyed the soil with its heavy use of chemicals and monster tilling equipment, the new agriculture is about building soil health so that it can nurture as it once did." The no-till resurgence takes its lessons from "traditional farming methods that existed for centuries before chemical fertilizers and pesticides. . . . and newer technologies, such as drilling seeds into the soil to preserve the soil’s structure."

John Piotti, head of the American Farmland Trust, which has been working on regenerative practices with big and small farmers and food companies including Land O’Lakes and General Mills, told Milbank, "It’s a very good trend — an excellent trend . . . . It’s really about whether we’re going to have a planet we can live on.”

As egg prices continue to climb, one U.S. egg producer reports an 82% increase in revenues. What's going on?

Revenue increases at Cal-Maine has some lawmakers
and consumer advocates calling for an investigation.

Bird flu may not be the only reason U.S. egg prices are climbing. The massive profit increases at Cal-Maine, the country's biggest egg producer, suggest another reason for soaring egg costs. The company's snowballing revenue has some lawmakers and consumer advocates asking for an investigation into egg pricing practices.

"There is at least one winner in the current shortage," report Danielle Kaye and Julie Creswell of The New York Times. "Cal-Maine Foods, which controls about a fifth of the egg market reported that its revenues jumped to $954 million in the quarter that ended in late November from $523 million from the prior year — an increase of 82%."

Cal-Maine has quietly consolidated portions of the egg industry, which has helped increase its profits. "Cal-Maine has acquired more than two dozen companies since 1989. It and four other large producers control roughly half of the egg market in the United States," Kaye and Creswell explain. "The company’s net income surged more than 500% to $218 million, from year-earlier levels, thanks to higher prices, the lower cost of feed and acquisitions of other operators."

Meanwhile, U.S. consumers continue to pay more and more for a dozen eggs. "The concentration of egg production in fewer hands is raising concerns, stoked by previous findings," the Times reports. "Two years ago, the largest producers were found liable for inflating prices in the 2000s. Now, some lawmakers are calling for federal regulators to investigate the industry."

Alvaro M. Bedoya, a Democratic commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, told the Times, "I don’t know what’s happening in the egg industry, but it sure as hell seems we should be looking into it and see if there’s anticompetitive conduct that is hurting consumers." Kaye and Creswell add, "Similar pleas from advocacy groups and lawmakers were made to the F.T.C. under the Biden administration."

Read about the egg price-fixing case filed in 2011, which went to a jury, here.

In flood-torn Appalachia, building or rebuilding housing is a complex problem with a long history

Percentage of renters considered housing cost-burdened.
(The Conversation map, from U.S. Census 2023 data)

As parts of Appalachia are left ravaged by more than one “thousand-year flood," residents remain in their communities, but many people still can't find housing or rebuild, writes Kristina P. Brant for The Conversation. "The floods have highlighted the resilience of local people to work together for collective survival in rural Appalachia. But they have also exposed the deep vulnerability of communities, many of which are located along creeks at the base of hills and mountains with poor emergency warning systems."

Persistent poverty, a lack of decent housing and a history of unequal land ownership leave many Appalachian residents with few options when faced with a natural disaster. Brant explains, "When I first moved to eastern Kentucky in 2016, I was struck by the grave lack of affordable, quality housing. I met families paying $200-$300 a month for a small plot to put a mobile home. Others lived in 'found housing' – often-distressed properties owned by family members."

Eastern Kentucky’s 2021 and 2022 floods "turned this into a full-blown housing crisis, with 9,000 homes damaged or destroyed in the 2022 flood alone," Brant writes. "With a dearth of affordable rentals pre-flood, renters who lost their homes had no place to go. And those living in 'found housing' were not eligible for federal support for rebuilding."

Corporations own large tracts of Appalachian land that could be used for housing, but the property remains undeveloped. Other large parcels are "owned by families with deep roots in the region. People’s attachment to a place often makes them want to stay in their communities, even after disasters," Brant adds. "But it can also limit the amount of land available for rebuilding. People are often hesitant to sell land that holds deep significance for their families, even if they are not living there themselves."

Even after major government funding was secured to rebuild on "higher ground" after the 2022 flood the extreme housing shortage continues. Brandt writes, "When I conducted interviews during the summer and fall of 2024, many of the mobile home communities that were decimated in the 2022 flood had begun to fill back up. These were flood-risk areas, but there was simply no other place to go."

Its goal was to create a modern farm to feed the world, but despite $500 million in funding it just feeds part of an island

Due to a lack of farming expertise, Sensei spent millions building its greenhouses.

Larry Ellison wanted his techno-savvy farm, Sensei Ag, to feed millions -- even in hard-to-farm places like Africa. But eight years and more than half a billion dollars later, the venture has failed to grow its Hawaiian greenhouses into a model that would modernize agricultural practices, reports Tom Dotan of The Wall Street Journal.

The cutting-edge technology Sensei boasts is rarely used, and the company has been "beset by problems typical to tech startups, including executive changeovers, shifting goals, and bad Wi-Fi," Dotan explains. Sensei leadership's lack of agricultural expertise has been costly and caused delays. "Some of its top executives are tech veterans who have no commercial agricultural experience."

Ellison, who is co-founder of software giant Oracle, has "called the project, and the island more broadly, part of a grand experiment in sustainability," Dotan writes. "Far from feeding the world, its crops of lettuce and cherry tomatoes are only enough to supply the few groceries and restaurants on the island of Lanai and [other] spots around Hawaii."

Even though Sensei has plenty of funding and technology expertise, the concept struggled to gain momentum. "Employees said Ellison vacillated on which crops to grow," Dotan explains. "One early idea was to repair the land by growing crops with minerals that would fertilize the soil— for example, by growing cabbages and feeding them to goats to make fertilizer. That idea was abandoned for cost."

Sensei set lofty targets, but its leadership failed to consult Hawaiian farmers or agriculture experts, which cost the company millions of dollars and stalled development. "Ellison hired an Israeli firm to build the greenhouses, and although Israel is considered a leader in greenhouses, the structures were designed for that country’s desert climate and weren’t built to handle Lanai’s high humidity or gusts of up to 80 mile-per-hour winds," Dotan reports. "Ellison said the structures would cost $12 million, but they ended up costing closer to $50 million."

Given its lack of success, "Sensei has moved away from its original mission to feed the world," Dotan adds. The company has restructured its goal to support farming with state-of-the-art software.

Rural round-up: USDA plan to lower egg prices; cuts to rural education research; relief payments to farmers; USFS firings

Photo by J. Egger,
Unsplash

As egg prices keep pecking at American pocketbooks, Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has a 5-part plan to lower egg prices. Rollins writes, "Avian flu can still penetrate [almost any] facility; it is transmitted through wild birds that often enter through perimeter gaps that need to be fixed. . . . The USDA has developed a successful pilot program. . . to identify and implement more safety measures. . . . Second, we will make up to $400 million of increased financial relief available to farmers whose flocks are affected by avian flu, and we will assist them in receiving faster approval to begin safe operations again after an outbreak. . . ." Read all of Secretary Rollins' strategy here.

President Donald Trump's first campaign and term may have helped bring rural needs for investment and support to the forefront, but the current Trump administration "could bring that progress to a sudden halt," reports Nick Fouriezos for The Daily Yonder. "The first cuts were reportedly aimed at the Institute of Education Sciences, the Department of Education's independent research and evaluation arm, with at least 170 contracts shuttered. . . . The National Rural Higher Education Research Center just opened in September, after being awarded a 5-year, $10 million grant through the IES. . . . Led by MDRC, which conducts nonpartisan research to improve the lives of low-income Americans, the center is conducting eight major studies in rural areas across 10 states and 25 colleges."

Outdoor Recreation Roundtable photo

The wave of U.S. Forestry terminations put a precious rural resources at risk. "About 3,400 U.S. Forest Service employees within their probationary period have been fired due to Trump’s reforming the federal workforce executive order," reports Ilana Newman of The Daily Yonder. "National forests are vital to rural economies. The outdoor recreation industry contributed 1.2 trillion dollars to the American economy in 2023. . . . A source revealed that seasonal firefighters may be in the next round of terminations."

Sections of Appalachia were doused with rain last week, leaving parts of Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee soaked and flooding -- again. The region's repeated natural disasters have caused heartbreak and extreme financial distress for many residents, but they have also helped Appalachian communities rely on one another. "Willa Johnson, a lifelong eastern Kentuckian, lived in McRoberts when the 2022 flood overturned her life," reports Katie Myers of Grist. "Johnson and others throughout the area feel their experience has prepared them to face future disasters with strength, and, when other rural communities go through the same experience, understand what they face and how best to help them."

In late December, Congress passed the American Relief Act, which earmarked $9.8 billion in agriculture relief payments to farmers, with a 90-day window for the Department of Agriculture to issue the checks, reports Tyne Morgan of Farm Journal. "With less than 30 days left before the deadline, farmers are asking one question: When will those payments be released? . . . .  On Thursday Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins confirmed payments will be released before the March 21 current deadline. She also outlined the timing of the $1 billion just announced to combat avian flu. Rollins is schedule to give another keynote talk today. To watch Farm Journal's most recent update interview with Rollins, click here.

Many rural residents drive almost an hour to get to a hospital for surgery, study finds

Rural Medicare patients 'typically drive 55 minutes
to a hospital.' (Adobe Stock photo)

When rural folks need surgery, long-distance drives come with the territory. "Forty-four percent of rural Medicare patients must drive an hour or more for surgery, a recent analysis finds," reports Erin Blakemore of The Washington Post. "The study shows that patients in rural areas typically drive 55 minutes to a hospital — far longer than their counterparts in more populous areas."

While rural Americans have historically struggled to have medical care access that's equal to urban residents, their plight has worsened since 2011. Blakemore explains, "The number of rural Medicare beneficiaries who traveled more than 60 minutes for their procedure rose from 36.8% in 2010 to 44.1% in 2020. . . . Among non-rural Medicare beneficiaries, travel times were lower, with a median of 20 minutes’ travel in 2010 vs. 23 minutes in 2020."

Rural hospital closures could be contributing to the problem, and "high-risk operations are increasingly centralized, the researchers note, which may have contributed to the rise in travel minutes for rural patients who must go farther for such procedures," Blakemore adds. "In a related study from the Annals of Surgery, researchers found that 98.7 million Americans — nearly 1 in 3 — lacked access to 'timely, high-quality, affordable surgical care' in 2020."

The U.S. is expected to face a nationwide surgeon shortage over the next decade, making the lack of local surgical care for rural residents an area of "growing concern," write Brittany A. Long and Michael J. Sweeney for The National Library of Medicine. "When considering the existing barriers to surgical healthcare in rural communities, there is a sense of urgency to identify innovative approaches that will promote a sustainable surgeon workforce."

Rash of federal firings will hurt rural communities' economic health and development possibilities

Map by Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder, from Bureau of Labor Statistics data

The Trump administration's federal employee purge has plunged several sectors into chaos and disarray. Some firings include rural workers employed by public land agencies. "In a radical move to stave off perceived bureaucratic bloat, the administration has laid off thousands of federal employees," reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder. "Over a quarter million federal employees are stationed in rural counties across the country."

By cutting federal payrolls, the Trump administration hopes to fund part of its "proposed $4.5 trillion in tax cuts," Melotte explains. "The firings will hurt many rural communities that rely on the federal government for a large share of their economic base."

The loss of government jobs is particularly harmful to rural communities because federal positions generally pay better and will be more difficult for individuals to replace. Melotte reports, "In 2023, wages in rural private sector jobs were $50,600 per job, on average, compared to $79,300 per job in the federal government. . . . Federal jobs only make up 1.6% of the total rural workforce, but in many rural communities, they are one of the largest employers.

Explaining the domino effect federal firings could have on rural communities, Megan Lawson, from Headwaters Economics, told Melotte, "Especially in the West, where many federal layoffs are affecting public land agencies, these employees will not be able to manage our natural resources and serve the public. Our gateway communities whose economies depend on natural resources or recreation on federal land will feel the ripple effects when the resources and their visitors aren't being managed well. It's unclear how quickly these effects will be felt."

Nationwide, the tally of federal wages paid to rural employees is substantial. "Federal wages accounted for $21 billion in non-metropolitan, or rural, counties in 2023," Melotte adds. So far, the Trump administration fired more than 1,000 Department of Veteran Affairs employees and cut 3,400 Forest Service jobs.

Opinion: People are getting married less often and having more children outside of marriage -- especially in rural areas

Rates for unmarried women and children out of
marriage are increasing. (photo by Thiago Cerqueira)

In an effort to prioritize "spending and infrastructure for communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average,” new guidelines from the Transportation Department have been issued by the Trump administration, according to a Washington Post opinion piece by Shelley Clark, a professor of sociology at McGill University, and Matthew Brooks, an assistant professor of sociology at Florida State University. 

Clark and Brooks said that the new guidelines would seem to be aimed toward Trump supporters in rural areas including “large traditional families.” However, their research shows that the appeal of having a large traditional family is not as popular as it once was. 

“Between 1988 and 2018, the proportion of rural women who were married fell from 55% to 33%… By 2018, rural women were more likely than urban women to be in an unmarried, cohabiting partnership (19% vs. 14%),” according to Clark and Brooks. They also said that the rates for women who have never been married has increased for both rural and urban women.

With the number of unmarried and divorced women rising, Clark and Brooks have tracked that the number of children born outside of marriage has also been on the rise. That is occurring at a time when the overall average number of children being born per woman has declined; and the number of rural children living with married parents has declined at twice the rate of urban children.

While Clark and Brooks said that rural transportation would be very beneficial due to the need to “travel greater distances to access necessities,” their research indicated “that using marriage and family size as the criteria for transportation funding is likely to disadvantage rural regions.”

“These rapid transformations in both marriage and non-marital childbearing help explain why many rural residents and politicians are inclined to think the traditional family is under threat,” according to Clark and Brooks. They also suggested that policies should be based on data about needs rather than “stereotypes about small-town family life.”

A new proposal to cut down on medical research costs could lead to less medical research

Less funding could lead to less
medical research. (CDC photo)

The Trump Administration proposed to reduce the size of medical research grants conducted by institutions, including hospitals and state universities.

If it goes through, indirect medical research funds would be reduced to a set 15%. However, the proposal has been “put on hold by a federal court,” according to an article by Emily Badger, Aatish Bhatia, Irineo Cabreros, Eli Murray, Francesca Paris, Margot Sanger-Katz and Ethan Singer at The New York Times.

The Times reported that in 2024, $32 billion was spent on medical research, with $23 billion having gone toward direct costs and the remaining $9 billion toward indirect costs. These indirect costs include laboratory upkeep, access to hazardous materials disposal, utility bills and administrative staff. The term itself isn’t very descriptive, but recipients say the costs are necessary for research operations.

A set 15% for the indirect costs would reduce overall funding by $4 billion to $5 billion a year according to the Times. The Times reports, “The White House said the savings would be reinvested in more research, but the rate cuts would open up sizable budget holes in most projects at research institutions.”

Heather Pierce, senior director for science policy at the Association of American Medical Colleges, told the Times, “‘A slash this drastic in total research funding slows research’… And slower scientific progress, she said, would affect anyone who depends on the development of new treatments, medical interventions and diagnostic tools.”

The battle over a chicken vaccination puts egg and poultry industries at odds

Chicken vaxing could help egg producers but harm
poultry industries. (Adobe Stock photo)

American poultry and egg businesses can't agree on a strategy to contain bird flu while protecting incomes. "The chicken and egg industries are at odds. The argument isn’t over which came first but about bird flu vaccinations," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "Egg companies are calling for a stronger government response to the bird flu outbreak. . . . They are also petitioning regulators to greenlight a vaccine that could be administered on farms, a sharp reversal from their position a few years ago."

Chicken companies, such as Purdue and Tyson, are not on board with a large-scale flock vaccination because it would put their $5 billion chicken export revenue at risk. Thomas explains, "Countries that import chicken products would cut off purchases of American poultry. Each country would need to sign off on the U.S.’s vaccination strategy before accepting imports again."

Despite the debate, the Department of Agriculture issued a "conditional approval to animal-health company Zoetis for its bird flu vaccine for poultry," Thomas reports. "The next step in the process would be getting commercial approval. Even if that happens, it will still take time to sort out trade ramifications, ramp up production and develop a distribution. For now, the vaccine "is not authorized for use on farms, and poultry producers can’t buy it."

In the coming week, the USDA is expected to "roll out a comprehensive strategy to combat bird flu, the agency representative said, adding that the administration is committed to safeguarding poultry farms and keeping egg prices affordable for families," Thomas adds. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Fox News, "This is going to take a little while to bring these prices back down."

Although a chicken vaccine would help the egg industry, delayed chicken exports would produce a chain of costly international and domestic trade problems. Thomas explains, "A backup in exports could lead to production cuts from major chicken companies, resulting in fewer grain and soybean purchases for livestock feed from farmers."

Opinion: AI doesn't make writing better. 'Letting a robot structure your argument. . .is dangerous.'

Photo by Robert Rieger, Connected Archives
via The New York Times

Nobody ever asks me about language. They ask the DeLillos and the Updikes and the Styrons, but they don’t ask popular novelists. Yet many of us proles also care about the language, in our humble way, and care passionately about the art and craft of telling stories on paper.
-- From On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Now ask yourself: Could artificial intelligence ever make that observation? What does a robot know about language? Very little, and yet, no matter who is writing, a robot is reworking words and removing human originality from the page. In her opinion essay for The New York Times, Margaret Renkl eschews AI as a better way to write. Edited portions of her essay are shared below.

"Letting a robot structure your argument, or flatten your style by removing the quirky elements, is dangerous. It’s a streamlined way to flatten the human mind, to homogenize human thought. We know who we are, at least in part, by finding the words — messy, imprecise, unexpected — to tell others, and ourselves, how we see the world. The world which no one else sees in exactly that way.

"Sure, there’s a difference between writing a poem and cleaning up a garbled email, between writing a love letter and a Google ad. For some tasks, employing an A.I. assistant might save time without levying a commensurate cost in humanity. Maybe. . . .I’m still not sure."

Sometimes the need for a perfect word can send a writer on a deep dive for the exact word a phrase or verse needs. Renkl shares, "I was outside. . . sitting with my thesis director, the poet James Dickey. I remember that particular meeting because of one ill-chosen word. In a poem that was otherwise finished, a single adjective was clearly wrong. We batted alternatives back and forth across the desk, but none was right.

"Hours later, the right word came to me, popping up out of the depths while my mind was occupied with something else. It was so apt. . . I opened the phone book, and looked up Mr. Dickey’s number. When he answered, I said, ‘Pale.’ The word is ‘pale.’. . .Mr. Dickey was overjoyed about that word, every bit as jubilant as I was. If only for a moment, the world made a kind of sense it hadn’t made before."

''No robot may harm a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm' reads Isaac Asimov’s first law of robotics. But what if the existence of robots itself is what robs us of our humanity? Is that not a way of bringing humans to harm?"

Quick hits: A 'new' Robert Frost poem; the penny's top advocate; the little farmer from the Super Bowl ad

The newly discovered poem by Robert Frost was written
in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1918. (Adobe Stock photo)

Laced with nature, deep and succinct -- Robert Frost's poems are a rich read. And it so happens, there's a previously unpublished poem by Frost to enjoy, reports Jay Parini for The New Yorker. "I opened “Nothing New” and saw at once that it was indeed something new. It was originally inscribed inside a copy of Frost’s second collection. . . that was found in a retired educator’s home library. . . It’s a good poem, short and aphoristic, from a period when Frost, writing at the height of his powers, had a special affection for poems of this kind: brief, rueful, tight, focused."

Taking truckloads of books to rural hither and thither after Hurricane Helene became this traveling librarian's mission. "In the 1930s, women employed by the Works Progress Administration rode pack horses through the mountains of eastern Kentucky, bringing books to rural residents in hard-to-reach places," reports Anya Petrone Slepyan of The Daily Yonder. "Nearly a century later, Kirsten Crawford Turner is carrying on that tradition, with the help of a truck and a U-Haul rather than a horse and saddle bags." Turner told Slepyan, "It started with one box of books on my porch. Now I have thousands." 

Weller would like to give every American
a penny for their thoughts. (A.S. photo)

 

Almost everyone despises pennies. "Except this guy," writes Joseph Pisani of The Wall Street Journal. "Mark Weller has been on a roll for three decades, arguing for the one-cent coin’s existence every chance he gets. When the penny is slighted in newspapers, it’s Weller who writes letters to the editor." Weller runs a pro-penny group and he keeps Congress abreast of all the benefits the penny affords. "He’s been to Capitol Hill countless times to convince Congress to keep the penny, which the U.S. Mint has been producing since 1793."

Fake meat is made of plants, which people are encouraged to eat. But it's also an ultra-processed food, which people should avoid. What's the low-down? Alice Callahan of The New York Times reports, "Here’s what we do — and don’t — know. . . . While it’s clear that eating red meat and processed meat is associated with health risks like heart disease, some types of cancer and earlier death, we really don’t yet know how fake-meat alternatives might affect our health in the long term."

Else M. Rike still uses a calculator
to do taxes. (Adobe Stock photo)

Even if you love your job, would you do it if you lived to be 100? Probably not. But that's not true for everyone. "Else M. Rike will be 101 years old on March 24 but doesn’t expect to take a day off to celebrate. She will be too busy preparing tax returns," reports James R. Hagerty for The Wall Street Journal. "Active tax professionals over 90 years old are rare but can be found here and there. . . .William D. Brew, who lives in Henderson, Nev., and will be 102 in March, continues to prepare taxes for a handful of clients. . . Wes Cobb, 94, a retired IRS agent in Keene, N.H., invites clients to spread out their tax materials on his kitchen table."

She's the Little Potato Farmer who could. She's also a little famous after a Super Bowl ad spotlighted her family's potato farm, which grows potatoes for Lay's potato chips. Her father, Jeremy Pavelski, is a fifth-generation farmer from Hancock, Wisconsin, reports Tyne Morgan of Farm Journal. "The Super Bowl commercial . . . was inspired by Pavelski’s story, after he hosted a farm tour for Frito Lay one day." Morgan adds, "The group was especially touched by Pavelski’s 7-year-old daughter, who is passionate about the potatoes her family produces."

Medicaid cuts will hurt rural Americans. If Congress doesn't shrink Medicaid, how can $4.5 trillion in tax cuts be made?

Republican lawmakers had planned to
cut Medicaid to help balance tax cuts.

The health of many rural Americans depends on Medicaid coverage, but that safety net seems to be threatened as Republican lawmakers plan to slash Medicaid spending to pay for President Donald Trump's planned massive tax cuts. Meanwhile, during a recent interview, Trump insisted that Medicaid isn't on the federal budget chopping block, reports Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times.

"Trump said Tuesday night on Fox News that he wouldn’t make cuts to Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program that mostly covers poor Americans," Sanger-Katz writes. "But making substantial cuts to Medicaid is a key part of congressional Republicans’ plan to extend the tax cuts."

Small Towns/Rural Areas include non-metropolitan counties with no urban areas of at least 50,000 residents. (Georgetown University map, from 2022-2023 American Community Survey data)

Medicaid decisions matter for small-town America where in 2023, 40.6% of children were enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP compared to 38.2% in metro areas. Lawmakers' suggested reductions would also hurt rural non-elderly adults covered by Medicaid. Mike Johnson, the House Speaker, "has been hard at work on a major bill that can balance various priorities of Trump and his caucus," Sanger-Katz explains. "The budget Johnson negotiated calls for around $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid. . . . Trump’s comments may make that carefully negotiated package moot."

Over the past four years, Trump repeatedly promised to leave Medicare relatively untouched. "But he has always been more open to changes to Medicaid, which has become the biggest health insurance program in the country," Sanger-Katz reports. Since Trump's first term, the program has grown to cover 72 million Americans, including 7.2 million low-income seniors.

If Republican lawmakers move to shrink Medicaid spending, the fallout won't only impact individuals and families. It will complicate state budgets that are dependent on federal Medicaid dollars. Sanger-Katz adds, "Cuts would put fiscal pressure on Republican governors, not just poor patients who need help paying for their health care."

If Congress leaves Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security spending at their current levels, it's unclear how Johnson can produce a budget that includes Trump's "desire for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts," Sanger-Katz reports. "Hitting the target without Medicaid cuts would mean revising the bill’s language as well as enormous cuts to remaining programs."

U.S. postmaster general plans to step down; his planned changes could have impacted rural communities the most

After four difficult years, DeJoy is stepping down
from his post. (Adobe Stock photo)

 

Earlier this week, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced plans to step down "capping a contentious tenure since his 2020 appointment during the first Trump administration," reports Ester Fung of The Wall Street Journal. "The U.S. Postal Service didn’t provide a date for DeJoy’s exit." His resignation comes as the USPS continues to roll out its 10-year turnaround plan. 

With only modest improvements, increased debts and persistent delivery problems at the Postal Service, some lawmakers have regularly grilled DeJoy for what they see as a failed strategy. Fung reports, "The Postal Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees the Postal Service, last month criticized his plan as having 'overly optimistic and unsubstantiated financial projections for cost savings' and said it could hurt rural communities."

DeJoy has repeatedly defended his plans and pointed out that "when he first arrived at the Postal Service, it was in 'devastating condition' and resistant to change, and faced excessive regulatory oversight," Fung adds.

Some of DeJoy's restructuring plans were successful, "including consolidating routes, replacing aging vehicles and improving working conditions in several facilities," Fung explains. "The agency has also taken market share in small packages from private-sector rivals such as FedEx and UPS as it ferries more parcels over longer distances, not just for final-mile deliveries."

Even with improved small package revenues, the Postal Service continues to lose money. Fung adds, "In 2024, the agency reported a net loss of $9.5 billion, which, after adjusting for workers’ compensation and retirement liabilities, resulted in a controllable loss of $1.8 billion." The Postal service does not rely on federal funding to pay its bills. Instead, it depends on the sale of postage, products and other services to cover its costs.

DeJoy's exit may not come as a surprise. "The Trump White House had been considering replacing DeJoy, according to two people familiar with the matter," Fung adds, "though the postmaster general is typically chosen by the board and not the president."

Opinion: Services for Kansas rural communities get chopped by D.C. 'wrecking crew'

An old barn stands on an abandoned homestead in
southwest Kansas. (Photo by Kevin Hardy, Stateline)

Rural communities often count on the Department of Agriculture for housing, food, economical and educational support. In rural Kansas, those foundational community pillars are being pulled apart, writes fifth-generation Kansan Christy Davis in her opinion for the Kansas Reflector.

"I worked for two and half years to rebuild what the first Trump administration tore down," Davis writes. "And now I have an unparalleled (and unenviable) perspective as I watch the second Trump administration, in just a few short weeks, dismantle the federal programs that feed, house and employ his rural constituents."

The historical and ongoing impact of USDA Rural Development programs in Kansas is "hard to overstate," Davis explains. "The programs make investments that the private sector can’t do alone. With grants, direct loans and loan guarantees, RD offers workable financing for roads, water systems, sustainable energy, broadband, telehealth, hospitals, clinics, housing and businesses in rural America."

"To ensure that farmers have equitable access to critical programs, USDA’s Farm Service Agency and National Resources Conservation Service have long had offices in nearly every Kansas county, staffed with hundreds of Kansans who can help farmers apply," Davis writes. "Trump’s policies are devastating to the 2% of rural Americans engaged in farming. But what about the other 98%? The system is failing the communities that have already suffered decades of disinvestment."

"I am proud of the progress we made for rural Kansas in my short tenure. But I’m confounded at how quickly and easily the 'wrecking crew' has reversed it," Davis writes. "I am a huge advocate for making it easier to remove and replace ineffective employees and retain the best. The new administration’s approach to civil service has had the opposite effect. . . .Those who accepted DOGE’s recent buyout offers were top performers and seasoned employees."

New Mexico is an example of the battle over local law enforcement's role in federal immigration crackdowns

A marched outside the N. M. State Capitol. N.M. has about 60,000
undocumented immigrants. (Photo by A. Slepyan, The Daily Yonder)

On Jan. 21, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy guardrails that prevented immediate raids in schools, hospitals and churches.
For local law enforcement officers, the change means they could be relied upon to conduct searches in their own communities. Not all law officers see that as part of their oath, reports Anya Petrone Slepyan of The Daily Yonder.

Sheriff Steve Miera, a 30-year law enforcement veteran in Taos, New Mexico, doesn't plan on doing federal immigration work. He told John Miller of the Taos News, "I have a sworn obligation to uphold the Constitution of the U.S., the laws of the state of New Mexico, and the laws of the county of Taos," Slepyan writes, "But that obligation does not include enforcing federal immigration policy, he said."

In sprawling rural Taos County, avoiding ICE entanglements is also a matter of limited financial resources and labor. Slepyan adds, "According to Miera, it would require over 100 deputies to adequately cover the county. But his office regularly employs only around 15 deputies to cover over 2,200 square miles."

Taos County's refusal to direct resources to support ICE actions is far from singular. "As the Trump administration implements increasingly restrictive immigration policies, enforcement efforts that rely on local and state cooperation are facing challenges in states, municipalities, and counties across the country," Slepyan explains. "Taos County, in northern New Mexico, has become one such battleground."

Miera's decision to leave federal agents to enforce federal law is "supported by a series of guidances issued by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez in response to a flurry of executive orders regarding immigration enforcement," Slepyan reports. "The guidance also specifies that under the reserved powers clause of the 10th Amendment, the federal government cannot 'force state employees to enforce federal law.'"

Meanwhile, the question of local law enforcement as a coordinating arm of federal immigration operations has "reached the New Mexico state legislature, with Democrats and Republicans each attempting to direct the responses of sheriff and police departments statewide" through various bills, Slepyan reports. 

Sales are brisk at this little-known clearinghouse that sells eggs by the billions

 ECI trade currency is eggs.
(Eggleston Farm Fresh Foods photo)

A big hot spot for egg sales isn't at the grocery store. It's at a New England clearinghouse affectionately known as the "Wall Street of Eggs," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "From an office building in New Hampshire, roughly a dozen people facilitate the trading of billions of eggs a year, a task that shapes what Americans pay per dozen at the supermarket or for omelets at diners."

Who knew? Very few. Thomas explains, "The Egg Clearinghouse, or ECI, is little known outside the industry: It operates an online marketplace that allows participants to place bids on eggs listed for sale and see the results of trades. Only ECI members — farmers and egg buyers — are allowed to trade."

Given the plummeting numbers of egg-laying hens due to bird flu deaths, the business is a seller's market. "Last year marked the company’s busiest, trading over 2.6 billion shell eggs and 39 million pounds of egg product valued at more than $600 million." ECI doesn't dominate the "broader egg market. . .but plays a crucial role in providing eggs for those in need or having trouble getting them, and how they are priced."

ECI operations are similar to stock exchanges, using eggs as their currency. It was created "as an alternative way to price and trade the commodity versus larger exchanges that operated in New York and Chicago," Thomas explains. "ECI began brokering trades in 1971 and its board was made up of industry executives including Fred Adams Jr., the founder of the largest U.S. egg producer, Cal-Maine."

The notion of egg trading is unique among food commodities which generally don't rely on "little-known exchange service to determine their value," Thomas reports. "All trades are blind, and only after a deal does ECI allow the parties to know each other’s identity."

Even as egg prices climb, American consumers continue to pay the painful cost per dozen. "Consumers on average are paying about $5 a dozen, a record high and double the price from roughly a year ago, according to the Labor Department," Thomas writes. "Demand has remained steady despite the high sticker prices, prompting some restaurants to add surcharges for egg dishes and consumers to step up purchases of liquid eggs or substitutes."

To read more about the egg "stock market," read the full story here.

Hundreds of rural hospitals are 'vulnerable to closure' and 46% operate in the red, new report finds

Many rural hospitals have dropped some type of
inpatient care to save money. (Adobe Stock photo)

Despite some limited improvements, the newest statistics on rural hospitals from healthcare advisory firm Chartis are startling. "The group’s latest report on the state of rural healthcare providers found that 46% of rural hospitals are operating at a loss while 432 hospitals are deemed 'vulnerable to closure,'" reports Dave Muoio for Fierce Healthcare. The 2024 report from Chartis "outlined 50% of rural hospitals operating in the red and 418 hospitals at risk of closure."

A rural hospital's median operating margin and Medicaid expansion status are among the factors Chartis used to determine financial health. "Nationwide median operating margin for rural hospitals currently sits at 1%, with 16 states having medians below 0%," Muoio writes. "In the 10 non-Medicaid expansion states, which hold 30% of all rural hospitals, 53% of rural hospitals [operate] in the red, with a median operating margin of -1.5%."

Rural hospitals that aren't in the red have often shuttered their obstetric units and shed inpatient care or other services to stay solvent. "Inpatient care access has ended across 182 rural communities since 2010, due to either closures or transitions," Muoio explains. "Between 2011 and 2023, 293 rural hospitals stopped offering obstetrics services. . . . A similar trend was evident regarding chemotherapy. . . from 2014 to 2023, 424 rural hospitals ended the service."

The report highlighted the "key hurdles for rural hospitals, such as a 2% Medicare reimbursement cut that 'will cost rural hospitals more than $509 million this year and result in over 8,000 jobs lost,'" Muoio reports. "Chartis’ dire national snapshot comes shortly after a Wipfli survey found sparks of optimism among rural healthcare organization leaders. . . .[But] some of their views may have already changed in light of recent weeks’ political developments."

A whirlwind of policy changes and funding cuts have left rural America on shaky ground: 'Billions are at stake.'

As USDA funds are frozen, U.S. farmers face uncertainty
and possible big financial losses. (Adobe Stock photo)

A whirlwind of policy changes from the Trump Administration has left many people in rural America unprepared to navigate agricultural spending cuts that target farming income and investments.

"Billions of dollars in funding are at stake," report Linda Qiu and Julie Creswell of The New York Times. "One executive order targets. . . money for farmers to conserve soil and water and to complete energy projects. Other directives touch on grants to states and producers. Another temporarily left hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food and supplies sitting in ports and has stopped future purchases of grains and goods."

The loss of income and promised funds from the Department of Agriculture puts farmers and farming communities in a "potentially precarious position," the Times reports. "Even as courts have halted many of the orders, rural communities are reeling from the effects, setting off confusion and panic among one of President Trump’s core constituencies."

Once inaugurated, Trump "ordered an indefinite pause on funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. . . . Though a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze the funds, it is unclear when and whether it will follow suit," Qiu and Creswell explain."Asked if it would release the money, the USDA did not directly respond, saying only that it had ordered 'a comprehensive review' of its contracts, work and personnel.'"

When farmer pocketbooks took a hit from Trump's first-term tariff wars, the administration tapped the USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation and sent checks to farmers to cover losses. That isn't happening now. "Trump has also paused payments made by the CCC," Qiu and Creswell add. "It is unclear how much of the funding has been frozen."

When U.S. farmers overwhelmingly voted for Trump, it's unlikely they thought his policy changes could force some farms into bankruptcy -- but that could happen. The Times reports, "If funds remain frozen, that could affect more than 25,000 conservation contracts worth $1.8 billion funded by the climate change law, potentially involving thousands of farmers nationwide."

Thousands of federal agriculture probationary employees terminated. USDA warns, 'This is just the beginning.'

(Photo by Chris Clayton, DTN)

In an effort described as "optimization," thousands of Department of Agriculture employees were fired last week, reports Chris Clayton of Progressive Farmer. "The job cuts were part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reduce the federal workforce. The administration moved to terminate most of the estimated 200,000 probationary employees."

Federal firefighters escaped termination, but "3,400 Forest Service employees were let go," Clayton writes. In response to questions, the USDA released a statement that "explained the cuts as part of a plan to 'optimize its workforce by eliminating positions that are no longer necessary. . . . Per the President's directives, Secretary Rollins will lead a new era of USDA to ensure that it is the most efficient, nimble, and innovative department . . .'"

In addition to labor cuts, the USDA "terminated 78 contracts, which totaled more than $132 million," Clayton reports. "The USDA's press office added, 'This is just the beginning. Over the next few days and weeks, Secretary Rollins will have the opportunity to review thousands of contracts, grants, cooperative agreements and spending across the agency to ensure that every dollar is being spent as effectively as possible to serve the people, not the bureaucracy.'"

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told Clayton, "This administration has abused the probationary period to conduct a politically driven mass firing spree, targeting employees not because of performance, but because they were hired before Trump took office. . . . There is no evidence these employees were anything but dedicated public servants."