CAMPAIGN FOR RURAL PROGRESS
Minnesota StarTribune
Nineteen rural Minnesota hospitals band together to survive and thrive
June 27, 2024
“Nineteen independent hospitals across Minnesota are banding together as the newly named Headwaters Network to maintain local control of health care at a time when many rural U.S. providers are folding into large conglomerates or closing.”
Leaders recently announced the network “as a way to pursue cost-saving opportunities not available to individual rural hospital and clinic providers.”
“The network hired Cibolo Health to manage its efforts, hoping the company can replicate its success with a group of North Dakota hospitals named the Rough Rider Network.”
“The collaboration was born out of a support group of chief executives during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Headwaters members could save money by buying bulk medical supplies and pharmaceuticals together, or by sharing virtual access to specialists in mental health or other areas they can't afford or recruit on their own.”
“A main goal is to pool their performance data so they're large enough to pursue value-based contracts with insurers, where they can make more money if their patients stay healthy and avoid preventable diseases.”
“Providers with only 1,000 patients in an insurance network are too small for such programs, partly because their results can be badly distorted when one patient gets sick.”
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POLITICS AND ELECTIONS
The Conversation
Nevada is a battleground state – and may be a bellwether of more extreme partisanship
July 8, 2024
Nevada has always been a solidly purple state, with politicians of all stripes elected to the governorship, U.S. Congress, and the state legislature.
That has “led some to label it a battleground state for the 2024 presidential election.”
“However, as a longtime Nevadan and a scholar who studies political systems, I have seen Nevada become more polarized along party lines. Will this growing polarization move the state away from its historic political evenhandedness?” So writes Thom Reilly, professor and co-director at the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy, at Arizona State University’s School of Public Affairs.
Nevada Current
Refusal to certify Washoe County election results meant to sow distrust, advocates warn
July 10, 2024
“A Nevada county’s rejection of the official results of two primary election recounts that yielded few changes from the original count should be seen as an attempt to spread misinformation and sow distrust in the democratic process, say voting advocates.”
“Washoe County Commissioners on Tuesday voted 3-2 against certifying the results of an official recount of two races from Nevada’s June 9 primary.”
“The board’s three Republicans, Commissioners Michael Clark, Jeanne Herman and Clara Andriola voted against certification while Democratic Commissioners Alexis Hill and Mariluz Garcia voted in favor of certification.”
“Clark and Herman have now twice voted against certifying the results of Washoe County’s primary election. The duo also voted against certifying the county’s original canvas two weeks ago.”
“Counties are required by law to canvas election results within five business days of the completion of a recount.”
Stateline
Man sentenced to prison for threatening life of former Michigan clerk
July 10, 2024
“An Indiana man who threatened to kill then-Rochester Hills Clerk Tina Barton, a Republican, days after the 2020 election has been sentenced to federal prison.”
“On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Laurie Michelson ordered 38-year-old Andrew Nickels of Carmel, Ind., to 14 months in prison following his guilty plea earlier this year to one count of making a threatening interstate communication, which carries a maximum five-year penalty.”
Carmel isn’t rural, but rural counties tend to be more distrustful of election results and election workers in such counties are often more likely to say they’ve been threatened.
Votebeat Wisconsin
Wisconsin election officials get some clarity on which tasks they’re allowed to outsource
June 27, 2024
“Wisconsin election officials welcomed a clarification from the state attorney general [recently] on the scope of a constitutional amendment limiting who can conduct elections. But some local clerks and legal experts aren’t convinced that it’s enough to curb confusion over the measure or the risk of disruptive lawsuits.”
“The short text of the amendment states, ‘No individual other than an election official designated by law may perform any task in the conduct of any primary, election, or referendum.’”
“The opinion from Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, held that clerks can continue working with private vendors on tasks like ballot design, despite a conservative group suggesting — and clerks fearing — otherwise.”
AGRICULTURE
Tennessee Lookout
Tennessee’s largest companies secure sales tax exemptions for everything from jet fuel to water
July 10, 2024
“Each of Tennessee’s nearly 2,200 industrial chicken barns produce about 200,000 six-pound birds each year, a process that collectively consumes more than one billion gallons of water across all the barns annually.”
“The typical Tennessean uses around 30,000 gallons of water per year, costing between $300 to $600 annually depending on where one lives. Everyone pays a local sales tax of at least 2%, and a state rate of 7%, on the water.”
“But the tax bill on water for chicken barns, which in Tennessee are typically controlled by subcontractors for food giants like Tyson Foods, is zero.”
“Tennessee lawmakers have touted the state as one of the lowest-taxed in America, with its lack of income tax and relatively low property and business taxes.”
“But the reality is more complicated, according to Amy Gore, a policy and research director with the Nashville-based think tank ThinkTennessee and author of a recently published report on how Tennessee’s working families are ‘paying more than their fair share’” because of the state’s emphasis on collecting taxes through sales taxes.
AVIAN FLU
Axios
Health officials pitch anonymous bird flu testing
July 10, 2024
“Public health officials seeking a better view of how bird flu is spreading in cows have a new pitch for resistant dairy farmers: anonymized testing.”
“Many farmers are refusing to test their herds, fearing the economic consequences, while concern builds that the relatively benign virus could morph into a much bigger risk to humans.”
But “the idea has limitations, starting with the difficulty of zeroing in and addressing transmission at the source.”
Stat
New study sparks debate about whether H5N1 virus in cows is adapted to better infect humans
July 8, 2024
According to a newly published study, cows that are infected with the avian flu virus may be creating strains more likely to infect humans.
Cow udders (along with pig stomachs) have receptors that are uniquely suited to creating more human-adapted viruses.
“The result is sure to stoke fears that the H5N1 virus now circulating in dairy cows has already adapted toward spreading more efficiently in humans.”
“Complicating this picture is the fact that other scientists, who have examined these same molecules that the bovine H5N1 virus uses to infect cells, have gotten different results.”
The result is “already courting controversy among the world’s leading flu researchers.”
CLIMATE CHANGE
The New York Times
As Climate Toll Grows, FEMA Imposes Limits on Building in Flood Plains
July 10, 2024
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency will take new steps to ensure that the structures it funds — including schools, hospitals, police stations, libraries, sewage treatment plants and bridges — are protected from flooding.”
“The agency said Wednesday that projects constructed with FEMA money must be built in a way that prevents flood damage, whether by elevating them above the expected height of a flood or, if that’s not feasible, by building in a safer location.”
“The rule also makes it clear that building decisions must reflect risks now and also in the future, as climate change makes flooding more frequent and severe.”
“Climate resilience experts have long called for FEMA, along with other federal agencies, to ensure that federal tax money isn’t wasted on vulnerable projects.”
It’s unclear the effect this will have on rural America. Rural homes in flood plains are at a higher risk than usual of uncompensated damage, but land in safer areas is often more expensive, and sometimes inaccessible otherwise.
In eastern Kentucky, for example, where flash floods have been a massive problem, people are often unable to move higher up a mountain because coal companies own them, even though some of that land has never been used for mining.
Grist
Climate change has forced America’s oldest Black town to higher ground
July 10, 2024
“Princeville, North Carolina, the oldest community in the United States founded by formerly enslaved people, has been trapped in a cycle of disaster and disinvestment for decades.”
“The town of around 1,200 people sits on a plain below the banks of the Tar River, and it has flooded more than a dozen times in the last century. The two most recent hurricane-driven floods, in 1999 and 2016, have been the most devastating in the town’s history.”
“Princeville’s fate is becoming clear — for better and for worse. The town has just received millions of dollars in new funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to build a new site on higher ground, offering hope for a large-scale relocation.”
But “a long-awaited levee project that promised to protect the town’s historic footprint has stalled out, making relocation harder to avoid as another climate-fueled hurricane season begins.”
CRYPTOCURRENCY
The Texas Tribune
Texas leaders worry that Bitcoin mines threaten to crash the state power grid
July 10, 2024
“Noise pollution is not the only reason that Bitcoin mining may be keeping Texans up at night. [There’s] a growing tide of cryptocurrency mining facilities opening across the country, but especially in Texas, where taxes are low, land is plentiful and mining companies can take advantage of the state’s deregulated energy market.”
These mines are typically built in rural areas.
“As electricity demand rises, ordinary Texans can end up paying the price on their monthly utility bills.”
CYBERSECURITY
Route Fifty
Tribal governments receive first-ever cyber grants
July 8, 2024
“Since the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021, states have received hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding for cybersecurity, out of a pot of $1 billion to be distributed over four years. Now, for the first time, tribal governments are getting a piece of that pie.”
“In a joint announcement last week, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said they awarded $18.2 million under the Tribal Cybersecurity Grant Program to 32 tribal nations.”
“It is the largest number of awards the federal government has provided under a single grant program to tribal governments, according to DHS.”
“The grants come as tribes are facing a growing number of cyber threats that are also increasing in complexity.”
FARM BILL
Michigan Advance
‘Frustrating’ partisan stalemate: the new normal for farm bills?
July 8, 2024
“The stalemate over the current farm bill may be solidifying a new era in farm politics as it joins the last three farm bills in a trend of delays and partisan division — a contrast from the legislation’s history of bipartisanship.”
“The current farm bill process, already nearly a year behind schedule, is at an impasse as Democrats and Republicans clash over how to pay for the bill and whether to place limits on nutrition and climate programs. The previous farm bill expired in September 2023 and has been extended through the end of this September.”
“Historically, farm bills were completed within a few months of their expiration date. Ten of the 13 farm bills since 1965 were enacted by December 31 in the year of their expirations. But three of the four farm bills since 2008 went beyond that date.”
The last three bills – including the 2018 bill, which is the one recent version that passed on time – each had partisan disagreements about spending.”
“The trend represents a change in how the once-bipartisan legislation is viewed.”
The Progressive Farmer
Farm Programs, USDA Would Shrink Under Project 2025 Goals for Ag
July 8, 2024
“Democrats have ramped up criticism of Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project, an effort driven by the Heritage Foundation to lay out an agenda for Trump if he wins the presidency. The report has been out there for months, but liberals are now attacking it so much that Trump now claims he has nothing to do with it.”
“Nearly everything in Project 2025's agricultural chapter runs counter to the $1.5 trillion farm bill proposal the GOP-led House Agriculture Committee passed out of committee in May. And very little in the Project 2025 USDA chapter meshes with the two, separate Senate Agriculture Committee ‘frameworks’ for a farm bill.
“The agricultural chapter also reads a Republican Study Committee budget recommendation, which calls for similar cuts farm programs.”
GUNS
The Associated Press
Milk, eggs and now bullets for sale in handful of US grocery stores with ammo vending machines
July 9, 2024
“A company has installed computerized vending machines to sell ammunition in grocery stores in Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas, allowing patrons to pick up bullets along with a gallon of milk.”
“American Rounds said their machines use an identification scanner and facial recognition software to verify the purchaser’s age and are as ‘quick and easy’ to use as a computer tablet.”
“Advocates worry that selling bullets out of vending machines will lead to more shootings in the U.S., where gun violence killed at least 33 people on Independence Day alone.”
“The company maintains the age-verification technology means that the transactions are as secure, or more secure, than online sales, which may not require the purchaser to submit proof of age, or at retail stores, where there is a risk of shoplifting.” That said, vending machines can generally be broken into or hacked.
“The company has one machine in Alabama, four in Oklahoma and one in Texas, with plans for another in Texas and one in Colorado in the coming weeks.”
“Much of the early interest for the machines has been in rural communities where there may be few retailers that sell ammunition.”
HEALTH CARE
Modern Healthcare
Hospital-At-Home Receives Positive Opinions In New Survey
July 8, 2024
“More than half of people surveyed would feel just as safe getting hospital-level care at home as they would in a facility, according to the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.”
“Healthcare systems across the country are placing big bets on hospital-at-home programs, pushing access to more rural communities and lobbying state Medicaid programs to reimburse for the service.”
The New York Times
F.T.C. Slams Middlemen for High Drug Prices, Reversing Hands-Off Approach
July 10, 2024
“The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday sharply criticized pharmacy benefit managers, saying in a scathing 71-page report that ‘these powerful middlemen may be profiting by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies.’”
“The regulator’s study signals a significant ramping up of its scrutiny of benefit managers under the agency’s chair, Lina Khan. It represents a remarkable turnabout for an agency that has long taken a hands-off approach to policing these companies.”
“The F.T.C. has so far stopped short of bringing a lawsuit or other enforcement action against a benefit manager. But the industry fears that the report could lead to a formal investigation into its practices or to a lawsuit accusing benefit managers of anticompetitive conduct.”
“The agency’s findings could also fuel legislative efforts in Congress and in the states to impose limits on the industry.”
Independent rural pharmacies are more likely to shutter because of PBM pricing.
The Wall Street Journal
How Drug Middlemen Keep Beating the System
July 10, 2024
“Drug middlemen, known as pharmacy-benefit managers, have accomplished something rare in Washington: Their business practices have led to a bipartisan consensus of sorts around the need for more regulation.”
“Yet successfully cracking down on the tactics that drive health costs higher won’t be easy. That is because PBMs operate in a highly complex and opaque world where key information is kept from the public.”
Ohio Capital Journal
Checking in on Ohio nursing legislation as lawmakers break for summer recess
July 10, 2024
“Shortly before Ohio lawmakers left for summer recess, the House passed a bill aimed at reducing violence in health care settings. To the Ohio Nurses Association, it’s an important step toward improving safety. It’s also doesn’t address what the nurse union sees as a much greater threat — lack of adequate staffing.”
“A measure to address staffing levels faces significant pushback from the Ohio Hospital Association, and it has yet to clear its House committee. At least so far, there are no sessions on the Ohio House calendar for the remainder of the year.”
“Both measures would also need to get a vote in the Ohio Senate which is on recess until after November’s election.”
Sponsors Rep. Andrea White, R-Kettering, and Rep, Rachel Baker, D-Cincinnati, “contend the threat of being harmed at work is encouraging workers to leave the industry.”
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
The Daily Yonder
White-Nose Syndrome Threatens North American Bat Populations
July 10, 2024
“White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease affecting bats, highlights the threats posed by invisible infections.”
“The disease has killed more than six million bats in less than a decade, and it’s considered one of the current greatest threats to North American bat populations, along with climate change, habitat loss, declining food sources, and collisions with wind turbines.”
“But scientists say that it’s likely the disease is spreading primarily from bat to bat.”
Bats are a critical part of agriculture, not just because they pollinate plants, but because they eat enough pests to save American farmers more than $1 billion each year in pesticides and crop damage.
LABOR
Ohio Capital Journal
Increasing the minimum wage will save 4,000 Ohio lives, study says
July 8, 2024
“There may be some drawbacks, but increasing Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 an hour would save 4,000 lives and create a $25 billion benefit to the state economy by 2036, according to a study released last month by Scioto Analysis.”
“A group proposing to increase the minimum wage from the current $10.45 an hour to $12.45 and then to $15 did not submit petitions last week for the November ballot, and is now looking to bring the proposal to voters in 2025.”
“The cost-benefit analysis by Scioto found that such an increase would reduce suicides, homicides, infant mortality and low-birthweight babies — phenomena that are associated with economic stress.” All of those except homicides are major health care issues in rural America.
However, “the proposed increase in Ohio … would cost an estimated 73,000 jobs from employers who are likely to calculate that they can’t afford to pay the extra money.”
“It also found that 89,000 fewer Ohioans would get associates and bachelors degrees, if national estimates are correct that increases in the minimum wage correlate to a 4% decrease in college enrollment.”
MINING AND DRILLING
The Daily Yonder
How We Owned a Mine, or A Brief History of Kentucky’s Mining Cooperative
July 10, 2024
“A Hungarian immigrant created a collectively owned coal mine that, for a brief moment, proved an alternative to ruthless and exploitative mining operations of Appalachia in the early 20th century.”
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
The Associated Press
Support for legal abortion has risen since Supreme Court eliminated protections, AP-NORC poll finds
July 9, 2024
“A solid majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban as a rising number support access to abortions for any reason, a new poll finds, highlighting a politically perilous situation for candidates who oppose abortion rights as the November election draws closer.”
About 6 in 10 people polled support legal abortion for any reason, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
In June 2021, about 5 in 10 people felt the same.
“Americans are largely opposed to the strict bans that have taken effect in Republican-controlled states since the high court’s ruling two years ago.”
“They are also overwhelmingly against national abortion bans and restrictions. And views toward abortion — which have long been relatively stable — may be getting more permissive.”
“Likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has declined to endorse a nationwide abortion ban, saying the issue should be left up to the states.”
“Even that stance is likely to be unsatisfying to most Americans, who continue to oppose many bans on abortion within their own state, and think Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to abortions nationwide, according to the poll.”
The 19th
RNC approves platform that would give rights to fetuses, endangering abortion, IVF
July 8, 2024
“The Republican Party on Monday adopted a ‘Make America Great Again!’ policy platform ahead of its national convention that does not call for a federal ban on abortion, but supports states establishing fetal personhood through the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which grants equal protection under the law to all American citizens.”
“If established by legislation, fetal personhood would have the practical effect of prohibiting abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Its impact could become national if courts affirm state-level laws that extend the application of the 14th Amendment to fetuses.”
The Washington Post
These GOP women begged the party to abandon abortion. Then came backlash
July 10, 2024
“Republican leaders have struggled with how to address abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, faced with dueling political realities: While outlawing abortion has been an animating moral cause for the party for generations, new abortion restrictions are deeply unpopular.”
“After appointing three conservative justices who helped topple Roe, former president Donald Trump has sought to distance himself from the issue, saying as little as possible and ultimately punting the question to the states.”
But “Christian conservatives, a key part of the party’s base, have continued to pressure Trump and other Republicans to crack down, arguing that fighting abortion is a core tenet of the Republican platform — and that the battle should continue until abortion is eradicated nationwide.”
“Those tensions will be on display at the Republican National Convention next week. Members of the RNC platform committee voted Monday to replace the party’s current abortion platform, which calls for national restrictions, with one that reflects Trump’s leave-it-to-the-states approach.”
“Those changes, widely expected to be ratified by the national party in Milwaukee, would offer a new road map to Republicans running in competitive congressional races, granting them permission to deprioritize an issue that has long had a place at the heart of the party.”
SAFETY NET PROGRAMS
The Colorado Sun
Colorado dropped people from Medicaid at a rate comparable to red states, alarming advocates for the poor
July 9, 2024
“Colorado stands out among the 10 states that have disenrolled the highest share of Medicaid beneficiaries since the U.S. government lifted a pandemic-era restriction on removing people from the health insurance program.”
“It’s the only blue state in a cluster of red states with high disenrollment rates — a group that includes Idaho, Montana, Texas, and Utah — in the Medicaid ‘unwinding’ underway since spring 2023.”
“During the unwinding Colorado has seen a bigger net drop in enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program than any state except Utah.”
“Colorado also is the only state that had all the policy ingredients in place to cushion the fallout from the unwinding … But it seems the cushion hasn’t been deployed.”
“The administrators handling the bulk of the Medicaid redeterminations in Colorado … say that the major issues involve outdated technology and low rates of automatic renewals. Both create obstacles to enrollment that undercut the state’s progressive policies.”
But “state officials … say the drop in enrollment is a sign that they did a good job enrolling people at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondly, they say Colorado’s economy is doing well, so more people can get insurance through their jobs.”
TAXES
Stateline
Gas taxes can’t pay for roads much longer, but Amazon deliveries might
July 10, 2024
“For decades, states have relied on gas taxes to provide much of the money to maintain roads and bridges. But as cars become more fuel efficient, and some Americans switch to electric vehicles, state leaders say the gas tax won’t pay the bills for much longer.”
“At the same time, many cities have seen their streets crowded with delivery trucks from Amazon and other companies, as consumers increasingly opt to have products delivered to their homes. In a few states, lawmakers think fees on those deliveries could be part of their road-funding solution.”
It’s unclear whether such companies will be charged in any way for subcontracting many of its rural deliveries to the U.S. Postal Service.
WILDFIRES
The Conversation
Wildfire smoke linked to thousands of premature deaths every year in California alone
July 8, 2024
“In a new study published in the journal Science Advances, we found that wildfire smoke likely contributed to more than 52,000 premature deaths across California alone from 2008 to 2018, with an economic impact from the deaths of more than US$430 billion.”
Most fires are rural, and though the smoke can travel hundreds or thousands of miles, it’s certainly traveling to nearby rural areas, which are disproportionately vulnerable to wildfires in general.
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