Tennessee botches lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike

Christa Gail Pike, 50, was scheduled for death by lethal injection in Tennessee on Sept. 30 for murdering and carving a pentagram into her JobCorps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995 in Knoxville. But Pike’s execution failed, with the media hearing her loudly snoring behind the curtain for nearly 40 minutes after being dosed with pentobarbital.

Pike survived two doses. At 7:46 p.m. on Sept. 30, prison officials closed the curtains to the media. They were reopened three minutes later, to Pike snoring, and closed again at 8:06 p.m., reports Tony Gonzalez, Catherine Sweeney and Tasha A.F. Lemley for Louisville Public Media. "At that time there was an announcement to escort media witnesses out of the area."

The Tennessee Department of Corrections issued a statement saying every protocol was followed, and Gov. Bill Lee said a third party would investigate what happened. This isn't the first botched execution in Tennessee. The lethal injection of Tony Carruthers was called off in 1994 after Tennessee executioners failed for over an hour to place an IV to administer pentobarbital.

According to Billy Witz and Emily Cochrane for The New York Times, Pike’s lawyers "called for Gov. Bill Lee to reduce her sentence to life in prison, calling the botched attempt to end her life with two doses of pentobarbital "cruel and torturous." Pike likely survived because the drug was degraded or did not enter her bloodstream. Slemmer’s mother wants to move forward with the execution.

Data centers in Texas fund community projects in rural areas that oppose them

Data center companies in rural Texas are donating to and investing money in community projects ranging from improving water infrastructure to hosting dinners commemorating first responders reports Jayme Lozano Carver for The Texas Tribune.

By reviewing public records and news releases, the Tribune estimates data centers have invested $343 million across the state this year — much of it going to communities that oppose data centers. Since not all donations are public, the estimate is likely an undercount.

In Turkey, Texas, QTS Data Centers provided $250 million for upgrades to the city’s water system. Rowan Digital Infrastructure gave Temple, Texas, $38 million after a devastating tornado. The company gave $25 million to the South Temple Water Infrastructure Capital Program, $10 million for water system infrastructure, and proposed $3 million to rebuild Sammons Community Center, which was destroyed by a tornado.

 

Other multi-million dollar projects are at Texas State Technical College and in small towns like Haskell, Vernon, Bell County and Ellis County. Because of the state's tax exemption program for data centers, Texas will forgo at least $3 billion in sales tax revenue over the next two years.

 
"There is no question that these data centers are an opportunity for rural communities that are living in the margin,” said Suzanne Bellsnyder, an editor and publisher of two Texas Panhandle newspapers and a Substack focused on rural issues. “Most infrastructure resources are paid with tax dollars, and there’s not a ton there.”

Rural voters are mixed on Trump's immigration policies, but some feel he has gone too far

Feelings about the Trump administration's immigration reform are mixed in rural areas, according to a new poll from KFF Health News and The Associated Press. Of the 2,000 rural people polled in August, about one-third said immigration enforcement had been positive for their communities, and another third said it had been negative. 

But even with these results, KFF Health News and the AP report that "many rural voters also say immigrants are a key part of their local economies, and some believe Trump’s immigration actions have gone too far." Laura Leigh Taylor is once such Trump voter, who now says she regrets her vote because his policies forced the deportation of her friend's father. 

Results of the poll also found that three-quarters of rural voters want midterm candidates to talk about immigration because it's "extremely" or "very" important to them. A significant portion of rural voters don’t think "Trump’s immigration policies have helped their communities," but the poll found "they are also less likely than the general public to say that Trump has overstepped in his efforts."

Rural voters, however, are keenly aware that immigrants help sustain local industries such as manufacturing, healthcare and agriculture. KFF Health News and the AP report that "the vast majority of rural voters see immigrants in the country legally as an important part of their local economies."

Texas utilities are lagging in mandatory submission of wildfire prevention plans, while January deadline looms

Only eight of 160 utility companies in Texas have filed mandatory wildfire prevention plans with the state, reports Jayme Lozano Carver for The Texas Tribune. This news comes after a "chaotic wildfire season" during which the state responded to more than 1,200 fires, including the Ross Fire, which became the second largest wildfire in North Texas history. 

House Bill 145 requires utilities to file plans with the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) by January 2027. They must include "emergency protocols in the case of a wildfire, utility operating plans during high-risk weather conditions, management of grass, shrubs and other vegetation in areas that are at risk of wildfires, inspection of poles and other electric equipment and identified areas of wildfire risks within a utility’s service territory." 

PUC Director Connie Corona told Carver that nearly 140 of the remaining 160 utilities have indicated "they are in the process of preparing their plan." The PUC has also offered template plans to smaller utilities that might not have resources to invest in developing their own plans. But Rep. Ken King, who has led efforts to mandate the plans, told Carver the lack of actual plan filings leaves him "very, very disappointed." 

"When eight out of 160 have complied, and we’re sitting here in September, that doesn’t sound like a very good response to me," King said. "I think it’s imperative for anybody that has not filed that report to realize January is coming. You will file that wildfire mitigation plan, and if you’re dragging your feet, there’s no excuse good enough for me."

Food safety and related illnesses are hot topics for midterm debates

Debates leading up to midterms can be messy, and this year, those debates are becoming a food fight — about grocery prices, which is a more typical debate, but also about whether it's safe to eat those groceries.

Cyclosporiasis ravaged lettuce supplies and stomachs this summer. Thousands of pounds of meat were recalled alongside ever-changing beef import regulations. And as Stephanie Armour for KFF reports, some food safety scientists blamed outbreaks on federal cuts to public health.

"Democrats have come out on the offensive, saying voters worried about the safety of the U.S. food supply should oust Republicans in the midterm elections," Armour writes. "The Trump administration has countered by accusing Democrats of scaremongering over food safety to score political points."

There have been 200 food recalls this year, similar to recalls this time last year. But this year's recalls are part of a broader trend with total recalls up by 21% since 2021. Epidemiologists say a better measure of safety is how many people are getting sick.

 
"Concern about food safety has especially taken hold now, public health leaders say, because the administration is portraying itself as a safety crusader while cutting staffing and funding for federal agencies responsible for surveillance and inspection," Armour writes, noting how the cyclospora outbreak made it harder for people to consume fresh foods, which has been the recommendation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

Local law enforcement ICE arrests in three Appalachian states hit record-high numbers this summer

Some rural places are benefiting financially from a large number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests because of revenue generated from incarcerating people in their local jails. In Kentucky, “four county jails earned $2 million or more by holding people for ICE during (President) Trump’s second term, as of April 2026,” Morgan Watkins reports for Louisville Public Media.

A review by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom analyzed ICE open-records data requested by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, and University of California, Los Angeles.

 
They found that ICE arrests by local law enforcement in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia have increased since last year. They were up by 18% in Kentucky in June 2026, 30% in Tennessee in May, and 87% in West Virginia in January. These increases happened following “Operation Country Roads,” a federally assisted crackdown resulting in 650 arrests. 

Watkins reports that ICE conducts arrests in three different ways: taking custody of immigrants who are already in jail or prison for non-immigration reasons, through street arrests, and through 287(g) programs, which deputize local law enforcement officers as immigration agents. Tennessee’s state government incentivizes local officers if they sign up. More officers in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia have signed up in the first nine months of 2026 than in all of 2025.

Immigrants aren't just taken into custody, Watkins writes, they are held in local jails as de facto detention centers. Watkins reports that in Kentucky "ICE earnings help offset the sizable costs of running their jail.”

CDC warns of increase in human and animal rabies cases; USDA to drop vaccine sachets for wildlife in October

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will distribute roughly 6.5 million oral rabies vaccine sachets via airplanes, helicopters and motor vehicles throughout the Southeast in October, reports Mary Van Beusekom for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. The fishmeal-coated sachets will be deployed in hopes wild animals will consume them and become immunized against rabies.

The Centers for Disease Control warns of a nationwide increase in animal and human rabies cases this year. A Health Alert Network advisory was issued after the CDC saw a 17% increase in questions about human rabies exposures from July to August, and an increase of PEP use at eight state health departments. PEP stands for "post-exposure prophylaxis," a $14,000 treatment administered after suspected rabies exposure.

"According to weekly pharmacy data as of September 2, 2026, utilization for the two rabies vaccines and the two rabies immunoglobulins licensed in the United States has increased by an estimated 33% and 76%, respectively, compared with the same time period last year," the advisory notes.

In Brown County, Minnesota, one such case resulted in the death of an infected cow, two barn cats who were euthanized, PEP recommendations for nine people and the observation of more than 40 cattle, a horse and three dogs last month.

The distribution of vaccine sachets is part of an ongoing USDA program. This year, it will target portions of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia to counter the spread of raccoon rabies — the most common transmitter of the disease in those regions. Past distributions were “successful in targeting canine rabies in coyotes and a variant of the disease in gray foxes.”

Challenges of mail delivery in rural Alaska prevented some in-person absentee ballots from being counted in primaries

In the small southwest village of Naknek, Alaska, Sallyann Hughes sent an in-person absentee ballot 13 days before last month’s primary election. She then received a letter saying her ballot had not arrived in time.

Hughes' absentee ballot was one of 75 cast by rural voters in western Alaska that “arrived too late to be counted in last month’s primary election,” Becky Bohrer reports for The Associated Press.

  

The state accepts absentee votes postmarked by Election Day up to 10 days after the election, but that delay isn’t always enough. Many Alaskan communities aren’t connected to main road systems, and they often have to wait for air travel to transport their ballots.

"The Alaska Division of Elections blamed a 'mail delivery delay’ that affected voters in seven communities, with Kotzebue, Igiugig and Naknek combining for 62 of the ballots," Bohrer reports. "But a spokesperson did not provide more details on the nature of the delay. Absentee in-person ballots are sent to regional offices — in this case, Nome — for review."

The U.S. Postal Service finalized a rule in 2025 stating that postmarks don’t necessarily reflect the date the agency first took hold of a piece of mail, but the day it was handled in a processing center. A spokesperson said any number of factors could delay mail.

Native American voter advocacy group, Get Out the Native Vote, said the delayed ballots "represent a measurable loss in participation," contributing to voter apathy, or the perception that one’s vote doesn’t matter. The group supports a decision made by the Division of Elections to reroute western Alaskan absentee ballots from Nome to Anchorage, the state’s largest city.

Even before Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion care lagged behind in rural communities

Filmmaker Emma Dessau grew up in urban New Jersey with access to sex education and Planned Parenthood, and an understanding that Roe v. Wade was a sacred law. When Dobbs v. Jackson overturned abortion as a constitutional right in 2022, Dessau followed in the steps of others — taking to the streets, posting on social media and donating to charities, she writes for The Daily Yonder.

When she met Caitlin Gaffin, co-founder of Holler Health Justice in West Virginia, she realized Roe was never enough for many rural communities.

Dessau began producing a documentary about Holler Health Justice in 2018. That year — before Roe was overturned — the West Virginia legislature removed Medicaid coverage for abortions, in a state where nearly 30% of people use Medicaid for health care.

"The protection of Roe didn’t make abortion affordable or accessible in West Virginia. It didn’t increase the number of safe clinics in remote hollers or expand the availability of sex education resources," Dessau writes. "After Roe fell, Holler Health Justice adjusted to the new harrowing reality, but its core mission remained the same."

The film underscores the reality of anti-abortion sentiments in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson. Abortion clinics disappeared due to budget cuts while Crisis Pregnancy Centers popped up, intercepting funding from low-income families and creating abstinence-only sex education programs.

"The mission of Holler Health Justice is not to prove that mutual aid is a replacement for the health and safety services provided by state and federal governments," Dessau writes. "Rather, its work is borne from a tradition of everyday people filling in the gaps when their homes and lives are seen as sources to extract and divest from, not invest in."

Newly proposed EPA rule would exempt offshore fishing vessels from pollution requirements

A proposed rule from the Environmental Protection Agency would exempt certain offshore seafood processing vessels from the Clean Water Act’s pollution discharge permitting requirements, reports Katie Reuther for KUCB. The Clean Water Act's requirements limit how much pollution permitted vessels can release into waters and in which bodies of water they can do so.

Under the Sept. 4 proposal, a vessel that is three miles offshore in federal waters and not attached to the seabed would be exempt.

"That means that most offshore seafood processors would no longer have to keep track of their pollution release,” Reuther writes. “However, an EPA spokesperson said in an email that other federal rules would still apply to offshore processors."

Because pollution emissions from these vessels would not be held to the same monitoring standards as they are now, the information available for public review may be reduced, Reuther writes.

The rule would apply nationwide, but would primarily affect 80 permit holders in Alaska, Washington and Oregon. If enacted, the EPA estimates it could save processors $1.7 million and the agency $50,000 in pollution monitoring and administrative costs.

Submissions for public comment are available here through Oct. 19.

BUILD America 250 Act proposes rural transportation federal funding cuts

Many people can't drive in southern Idaho, but the Living Independent Network Corp works to fill the gaps when public transportation is limited — and for most of rural America, it usually is.

The Living Independent Network receives $100,000 from the state annually, made possible through federal funds, reports Benton Graham for Grist. The money allows riders to pay for “bare-minimum lifeline service,” but their access is expected to worsen at the end of this year when federal money runs out.

Transportation programs authorized in 2021 by the Biden Administration's $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will expire at the end of this year. Lawmakers are fleshing out the BUILD America 250 Act, which would reauthorize those programs, but with $16.5 billion less in funding.

Advocates say the Biden Administration's legislation failed to broaden transportation access, but BUILD would be a significant step back. It would authorize only $103.3 billion over five years, opposed to the baseline $119.9 billion under the Jobs Act. This rate is not adjusted for inflation, and BUILD would actually need an additional $24 billion to match previous funding. 

Under BUILD, rural Idaho and Maine are estimated to see the nation’s largest drops in federal funding, falling 18% and 16% respectively. This could leave those with disabilities socially isolated, irregular transport services and families without options, leaving them to pay for a car, more gas, repairs or insurance. 

“The Biden infrastructure bill was not the high water mark,” Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director at Riders Alliance, said. “We could do much better than that in a variety of different ways, and we shouldn’t hold up bipartisanship as a core value of how we fund transportation when we have such sharply diverted views of the role of government to invest in people and communities.”

Rural hospitals struggle to keep up as electronic health records advance

Many rural hospitals and clinics rely on older electronic health record (EHR) systems to store patient documents and hospital data, but because larger hospitals tend to use more updated systems, the older platforms can’t communicate with “modern application programming or advanced data-sharing capabilities,” Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder.

The inability to securely share medical records between older vs. modern systems is called the “interoperability crisis,” and it’s stretching rural hospital staff to their thinnest. Only 64% of rural hospitals have adopted newer EHR systems, compared to 74% of urban hospitals.

Rural hospitals typically have only one to two technology workers, they may lack reliable broadband infrastructure, and upkeep of digital systems is expensive. Rural hospitals and communities that have been marginalized also consistently receive less federal funding than their urban counterparts. These disparities can "put rural healthcare facilities at a disadvantage," Carey writes.

Those gaps will cause "fragmented care," or lead to increased costs when physicians have to repeat tests and scans because they can’t access prior diagnostic images or results,” said Angela Chubb, senior manager of quality and regulatory advisory services at Nordic, a global health and technology consulting company.

The technology gaps also mean rural hospitals must work harder to recoup insurance reimbursement. Newer electronic health record systems allow more efficient data transfer among various state and national organizations for funding review. But data managers in many rural hospitals said providing those reports with smaller staffs and with less technological resources requires more labor. Often, the same information has to be re-formatted multiple times for different organizations’ standards.

Chubb told Carey that policy makers need to communicate with rural hospitals to better understand the solutions that will work in specific rural areas. “All rural communities ... are different. They all function based on their needs, based on their community needs, based on their provider needs, their demographics, their locations. It’s really how can these organizations structure the process that makes sense for them.”

Rural voters believe the economy is worse now than before Trump’s second term

More than half of rural American voters believe the economy is worse off now than when President Donald Trump began his second term, according to a new poll by The Associated Press and KFF.

The sample of 2,000 bipartisan rural voters reported holding negative views of national and local economies, citing concerns about the cost of groceries, gasoline and healthcare. A larger share than the average voter worried about affording such necessities, reports Ali Swenson, Sarah Jane Tribble and Linley Sanders for the AP and KFF.

Though rural voters have supported Trump in recent elections, these "findings suggest that many rural voters have not turned on Trump but that they also largely do not think he has delivered the economic renaissance he promised in his campaign,” Swenson, Tribble and Sanders report.

Only 4 in 10 rural voters approve of Trump’s economic performance, attributing economic downturns to his handling of the Iran War. Many say their local economies have worsened with the national economy. Rural Republicans have a more optimistic economic view, but “rural voters overall don’t perceive much positive impact from the administration’s healthcare policies even as they have been a top priority for Republican leaders."

Despite Trump’s approval of the Rural Health Transformation Program last year, which recouped from Medicaid cuts, the survey revealed that 60% of ruralites heard nothing about the program at all. Many voters still believe Trump aims to deliver on his promises, but polling shows his standing is slipping. Some 48% of rural voters approve of him — more than the average voter — but that number has fallen from 56% rural approval in earlier surveys.

Rural vet shortage could increase risk of food-borne illness in U.S. produced meat

Food-animal veterinarians remain scarce in rural areas, and that could mean less oversight of meat production in the U.S., increasing the risk of food-borne illnesses, according to a recently released report from the USDA. Brandon Genetin, James C. Davis and Grace Grossen write in the report that "shortages of food-animal veterinarians ... represents a significant concern for both public health and food security."

It's big news given that the U.S. is just now easing some restrictions on beef imports due to screwworm concerns, and that food-borne illness broadly has been a national concern for months. Screwworm is one of the diseases that could run rampant if the rural vet shortage continues, the report notes. 

The new report, "Food-animal Veterinarians and the Persistence of Rural Shortage Areas," states that veterinarian shortages "can weaken disease prevention, slow emergency response, and heighten risks to both livestock and consumers, creating potential supply chain disruptions." 

Rural food-animal vets are "the frontline defense against diseases and illnesses that can devastate herds," Genetin, Davis and Grossen write in the summary of the report. "When fewer veterinarians are available, infectious diseases such as avian flu and bovine tuberculosis can spread more easily and be detected later, increasing the likelihood of major outbreaks."

Florida's orange growers hope disease-resistant trees will revitalize the decimated industry

Flordia's orange growers are buying DNA-altered trees and inoculating their existing groves to ward off the devastating and incurable "citrus greening" disease that has ravaged the state's orange groves for the past 20 years. Julie Wernau reports for The Wall Street Journal that the EPA has approved both technologies this year, and growers have already ordered hundreds of thousands of resistant trees. 

"Citrus greening" causes oranges to drop from branches before they are ripe and turns them bitter. Florida's orange production has fallen by 95% since the disease was discovered. Wernau reports that 60,000 orange grove acres went out of production last year, which was 26% of Florida's remaining groves. Almost half a million acres are dormant now, while other groves have been transitioned into cattle ranches. 

Florida's state government created a two-year $330 million fund that will help growers buy inoculated and DNA-altered trees in an effort to revitalize the industry, Wernau reports. But, she writes, the new trees will take two years to start producing, and "the question is whether Florida's citrus industry can hang on that long."  

Applications are now open for Report for America host newsrooms; rural newsrooms encouraged to apply

Applications to become a host newsroom for Report for America (RFA) are now open for 2027-2028. RFA "recruits, trains, and supports" journalists to work in newsrooms across the country, "focusing on under-covered communities and issues." Rural newsrooms are highly encouraged to apply. 

This year, RFA is expanding its support for newsrooms who want to add photography, visual journalism and sports reporting positions, but it also support a wide range of other positions that will help local newsrooms maintain "more consistent, high-quality local reporting" on any topic. Reporters are placed in newsroom for two-year contracts. 

RFA offsets the salary of newly placed reporters up to 50%, or up to $27,500, in the first year, and up to 33% in the second year. Reporters with more than six years experience will be subsidized up to $30,000. The organization's Local News Sustainability team also works directly with host newsrooms on fundraising and other revenue opportunities to "strengthen long-term financial sustainability" of local news. 

RFA will host several information sessions to learn about the program, which can be found here. Questions about the program can be sent to recruitment@reportforamerica.org. To apply to become a host newsroom, click here. 

Rural communities can learn how to push back on data center construction from resistance to factory farms

The fight about construction of data centers continues across the country, and communities pushing back
on such construction could have a lot to learn about how to resist from the roll out of factory farms almost 40 years ago, Raj Patel and Jim Goodman write for Barn Raiser (republished by Next City). The push for factory farms looked similar to the fight about data centers now, and they write that those similarities might help rural residents resist data center construction more effectively. 

"By the time neighbors organized [against concentrated animal feeding operations], right-to-farm laws and state preemption had severed the ground from under them," the reporters write. And "while CAFOs crept into rural America, data centers are arriving as a land rush. This speed is both terrifying and an advantage." Terrifying because 67% of the 1,500 proposed data centers are in rural areas; an advantage because "CAFO country" has been here before, and the lessons they learned can help other rural places now.

Patel and Goodman have recommendations about what issues rural residents should focus on in hearings with their local elected leaders: water, power, money and democracy. They write that asking questions about those things will provide them with the most salient information. It's a lesson they say came too late for farmers. 

"Everything CAFO country learned, it learned too late, after the wells were ruined, after the smell lowered adjacent property values and health outcomes, after the statutes were written. Data centers are arriving early enough that the questions can still be asked in time."

McConnell casts deciding vote on Farm Bill, which has been stalled by Democrats due to SNAP cuts

Mitch McConnell returned to the Republican-led Agriculture Committee this week after his medical absence, and cast the deciding vote to advance the farm bill to the full Senate. This vote came on Tuesday, Sept. 15, after Democrats blocked the current version of the farm bill in August, reports Frida Garza for Grist. 

The absence of McConnell and Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville stalled the bill's progress, but once they returned, their votes advanced it. Democrats oppose the proposed farm bill because it doesn’t reverse the $186 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) signed into law by the Trump Administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“Changes to SNAP are typically implemented through the farm bill, which historically was passed every five or so years,” Garza writes. This is the fourth year the bill has not been renewed. “Democrats in the Senate Agriculture Committee have refused to support a farm bill that doesn’t restore SNAP funding; they have also pushed for a delay in a crucial change to SNAP that would increase states’ administrative costs for running the food assistance program.”

The proposed bill does neither of these things. To win on the Senate floor, Republicans will need 60 votes — they hold 53 seats, and will need to convince several Democrats to join them. Garza writes that it is unlikely the farm bill will be passed this year.

 

Many people with low-income rely on SNAP, and many farmers rely on a customer base who pays with SNAP benefits. The current iteration of the farm bill may leave states with higher administrative costs for SNAP. States will have to rethink their budgets, possibly ending up with less overall funding for agriculture, education, transportation or other programs.

Measles deaths continue to climb, and rural areas are not immune; cases in rural Pennsylvania are an example

This year is the deadliest yet from measles since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000. In Pennsylvania, four people have died from measles as of Sept. 15, 2026, and nearly 700 have been infected, reports Dani Blum for The New York Times. 

In Pennsylvania's rural Mifflin County, an unvaccinated 18-year-old died from measles-related neurological complications. Another county reported the death of a 40-year-old woman, later confirmed as unvaccinated. Last month, state health officials reported the deaths of two infants who contracted the virus.

Measles fatalities are typically one to three deaths for every 1,000 cases. Blum writes that this statistic suggests Pennsylvania’s case count is higher than what is being reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not recorded any deaths from measles this year.

“The Pennsylvania deaths have been embroiled in political controversy, with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. disputing whether measles directly caused some of them,” Blum writes. “Last month, Dr. Erica Schwartz, the new director of the C.D.C., directed agency staff to not include the first two deaths in the national tally, going against the agency’s typical practice of accepting data reported by states.”

The virus is most dangerous for children, adults over 20 and those who are immunocompromised. “Roughly one in five unvaccinated people who contract measles in the United States is hospitalized.” Measles-related pneumonia and immune amnesia are among the deadly symptoms.

Trump shifts funds from National Parks to projects in Washington

Funding U.S. National Parks Service projects has not been a priority for the Trump Administration, which has siphoned money from the USNPS for several Washington, D.C., projects, including the unveiling of gold leaf statues, reopening ornamental water fountains and repairing the Lincoln Memorial pool. This spring, the Trump Administration used at least $67 million generated by park entrance fees to fund such projects, reports Maxine Joselow for The New York Times. 

About 1,500 projects at more than 200 sites nationwide were deemed “low priority,” while projects in Washington were added to a list of White House priorities. There is currently a $24 billion backlog of deferred maintenance projects across the parks.

Staff cuts and funding shifts have left 433 USNPS sites in turmoil, with 20% of the parks being significantly understaffed. A proposal to sell a small parcel of Yosemite’s land to a private developer has become a bipartisan issue, Joselow writes. “Polling shows that Americans of all stripes and political persuasions overwhelmingly love their parks.”

Trump has taken other actions that affect the parks, including putting his face on park passes and ordering the removal of exhibits that "inappropriately disparage Americans,” as was the case for one exhibit about slavery and a sign about climate change.

Fran P. Mainella, a Republican who led the Park Service under President George W. Bush, said that Trump may not realize the value of parks to the public and the economy, and said there needs to be a way to better tell Trump that story. The parks and politics are no strangers; the Bush Administration was accused of promoting religious and conservative content at the parks.

Nonetheless, “Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican who leads a subcommittee on national parks, said in an interview that Mr. Trump ‘has been an incredible supporter of the parks.’ He dismissed reports of funding and staffing issues at parks as ‘fear-mongering’ by the president’s critics before the midterm elections.”