Rural

Throughout his administration, as part of a push to connect the homeless population to services, Berry had taken to driving through the city to talk to panhandlers about their lives. His city’s poorest residents told him they didn’t want to be on the streets begging for money, but they didn’t know where else to go. Next month will be the first anniversary of Albuquerque’s There’s a Better Way program, which hires panhandlers for day jobs beautifying the city. [node:read-more:link]

Thanks to participants in the Lionfish Challenge and Panhandle Pilot Program — both conducted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission — nearly 10,000 lionfish have been removed from Florida waters so far. Since the May 14 kickoff, 9,216 lionfish have been eradicated from the Gulf. Sixty-eight divers have entered the statewide Lionfish Challenge, which rewards divers for taking 50 or more lionfish. [node:read-more:link]

"The Cooperative is doing it again, but now the light buld is the internet."  said Mr. Creason, 82.  Mr. Creason's experience with the electric co-op puts him at the leading edge of a trend unfolding in hard-to-reach rural spots natinwide. 
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Rural counties have seen a disproportionate jump in deaths from prescription-drug overdoses in the past 15 years, increasing at a pace three times that of the nation’s most urban counties. About three-quarters of all U.S. deaths caused by prescription drugs in 2014 were from opioid pain killers, making prescriptions a major part of the nation’s opioid epidemic. Rural – or “noncore” – counties saw an average increase in prescription drug deaths rates of about 9 percent per year from 1999 to 2014. [node:read-more:link]

Nearly half of Americans believe the nation’s infrastructure has deteriorated over the last five years, according to a new poll from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.  The survey of 2,000 registered voters found that 46 percent think the state of U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Anyone observing America’s ongoing culture wars, especially as they surface in the current presidential election cycle, is forcefully reminded that we are not a country divided by red and blue states; it’s an urban-rural divide that represents the political and cultural fault lines in the nation. The difference is no longer where people live, it’s about how people live: in widely-dispersed, open rural areas with plenty of privacy or in high population density, diverse urban areas where tolerance becomes almost mandatory among its residents. But how far back does the urban-rural divide go? [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture and the overexploitation of plants and animal species are significantly greater threats to biodiversity than climate change, new analysis shows.  Joint research published in the journal Nature found nearly three-quarters of the world’s threatened species faced these threats, compared to just 19% affected by climate change. [node:read-more:link]

A unique community-owned broadband cooperative will free dozens of tiny towns and farms from reliance on slower corporate providers. Today, in this sparsely populated swath of Minnesota, a grassroots, member-owned cooperative spanning more than 700 square miles and four counties is poised to expand high-speed broadband access—without relying on federal funding. After seven years of development led by local leaders and volunteers, RS Fiber, now in its first phase of construction, is expected to deliver high-speed broadband internet to more than 6,000 rural households by 2021. [node:read-more:link]

Over the past four years, Iowa farmers have enrolled 127,005 acres in a federal conservation reserve program designed to sustain butterflies, bees, wasps, birds and bats — with all but 15,000 acres being added in the past year, according to the Iowa Farm Service Agency.  In fact, Iowa has about 40 percent of the nation's total acres of pollinator habitat, the agency said. The federal contracts require the land to be set aside for habitat for 10 or 15 years, with penalties for ending them sooner.  Part of Iowa's adoption comes from a big state and national habitat push. [node:read-more:link]

A report released by the state says immigration boosts Michigan's economy, helping the state emerge from a lengthy recession, and suggests many of the estimated 126,000 undocumented immigrants in Michigan should be made legal.The report "Contributions of New Americans in Michigan" was released by the Michigan Office for New Americans, which Republican Gov. Rick Snyder created in the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. [node:read-more:link]