Rural

Amid a national push for greater police accountability, voters in several major cities have approved measures to create or strengthen civilian oversight of law enforcement.  The trend reflects growing public demand for independent reviews of misconduct claims after deadly police encounters in cities such as Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore and New York spotlighted police use-of-force and interaction with minorities. Voters in New Orleans, Honolulu, Miami and San Francisco passed plans Tuesday to bolster existing civilian oversight programs. [node:read-more:link]

John Price is a Louisiana rancher. But instead of hooves and horns, his livestock have scales and claws, and sometimes they put their food into what's known as a "death roll."  That didn’t seem to faze Price on a sunny October afternoon as he threw open the door to one of the low-slung barns where his animals live, even as he pointed to the scars on his arms and hands he's gotten from them. [node:read-more:link]

A Florida county has cleared the way for the first U.S. test using genetically modified mosquitoes to fight against the species that spreads Zika virus.  Monroe County, Florida, voted to allow a test of GMO mosquitoes created by the British biotech company Oxitec. Oxitec has created genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, adding genes to the same insects that transmit Zika virus. The GMO variety passes on genetic traits to their offspring that cause them to die in the wild, dramatically reducing the overall population of the mosquitoes. [node:read-more:link]

Indiana voters have approved a constitutional amendment to protect the right to hunt and fish. The amendment states that the right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife shall be forever preserved for the public good, subject only to laws prescribed by the General Assembly. Hunting and fishing are popular in Indiana. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates Indiana has about 392,000 hunters and about 801,000 anglers. The amendment's author, Republican Sen. Brent Steele, says he wants to ensure animal rights groups do not endanger those rights. [node:read-more:link]

Montana’s Initiative 177 was soundly rejected by voters in the Gem State on the Nov. 8 ballot. The initiative would have banned trapping on all public lands, including city and county parks, municipal golf courses and more.
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Donald Trump blames Mexico and China for stealing millions of jobs from the United States.  He might want to bash the robots instead. America has lost more than seven million factory jobs since manufacturing employment peaked in 1979. Yet American factory production, minus raw materials and some other costs, more than doubled over the same span to $1.91 trillion last year, according to the Commerce Department, which uses 2009 dollars to adjust for inflation. That’s a notch below the record set on the eve of the Great Recession in 2007. And it makes U.S. manufacturers No. [node:read-more:link]

Exactly how President-elect Donald Trump's policies will affect agriculture remains virtually unknown, a group of panelists said at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual convention here the morning after Election Day. There are a number of questions to be answered that are critical to agriculture. That includes who will be the next secretary of agriculture, what happens with the next farm bill, the fate of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and trade policy in general, the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, and the fate of the waters of the United States, or WOTUS, rule. [node:read-more:link]

This first of a three-part introspective series for communities takes a serious look at why Iowa's rural population continues a downward spiral and the personal responsibility we all have to grow. The article was originally published in the October, 2016 issue of "Iowa County," a monthly publication of the Iowa State Association of Counties.  * Today's column is a "state of the state" of much of rural Iowa, and suggests questions and topics citizens should be discussing among themselves and with their elected officials. [node:read-more:link]

Charges of “terrible” trade deals, the shipping of jobs overseas and the dangers of globalization dominated the presidential campaign. But many states are aggressively courting foreign companies to boost and diversify their economies.  “People make it too complicated,” said Michigan’s Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, a big proponent of foreign — especially Chinese — investment in his state. “Globalization is clearly a huge trend that’s been going on for some time and is only going to continue. [node:read-more:link]

For wildlife in Oregon, the best way to stay alive is to make sure someone wants to kill you.  If the state can make money selling a fishing license or a hunting tag for an animal, it goes to great lengths to keep populations healthy.  Teams of biologists collar hundreds of mule deer with tracking devices that cost almost $1,000 each. State police fly planes over wilderness in the dead of night searching for poachers. In one recent four-year span, Oregon spent upwards of $37 million to improve habitat for mule deer. [node:read-more:link]