Skip to content Skip to navigation

Rural

Why bulldoze one of the wildest places on Earth?

For six decades, the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, tucked along the coast of the Bering Sea, has been protected as one of the wildest nature spots on Earth, remote enough to escape development. But that isolation has been shattered. Seven noisy helicopters swooped down 80 times over two days in July to land on the narrow isthmus where animals nest, feed and migrate. [node:read-more:link]

How Commerce Secretary Ross got the science behind the census so wrong—and why it matters

A decision this week by a federal court to block the U.S. government’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census is more than a political setback for Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and President Donald Trump. It also represents a strong vote of confidence in the U.S. statistical community and the value of research. On 15 January, U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York declared that Ross had been “arbitrary and capricious” in deciding last year to add the citizenship question. [node:read-more:link]

Federal judge links PG&E's uninsulated power lines to California wildfires

The federal judge overseeing Pacific Gas & Electric's probation related to the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion issued a preliminary finding on Thursday concluding the utility's equipment was a factor in sparking wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that devastated parts of Northern California.The ruling could lead to additional scrutiny or oversight for the utility, which announced Jan. 14 that it would file for bankruptcy protection due to mounting wildfire liabilities. U.S. District Judge William Alsup gave PG&E and the U.S. Justice Department until Jan. [node:read-more:link]

In Puerto Rico, time measured before and after Maria

Veterinarians adjusting to post-hurricane life face serious pet overpopulation problem.  People and their pets fill the lobby waiting their turn to be called into a back area. There, teams of veterinarians and veterinary technicians studiously probe and examine the nervous cats and dogs. They then take the animals to another room where they are sedated and prepped for surgery by one of five veterinarians operating in assembly line–like fashion. [node:read-more:link]

Washington state wants to add firefighters and training academy to beef up wildfire response

Citing the devastation and expense of fighting Washington’s wildland blazes, state Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz proposed a “groundbreaking strategic plan” Thursday to prevent and respond to wildfires. Franz’s 10-year plan would add 30 full-time and 40 seasonal wildland firefighters to the agency and add two helicopters to the state’s aerial firefighting resources, with one to be assembled from parts the state already has on hand, a practice DNR has used in the past. The proposal would create a wildland fire-training academy for different agencies to use. [node:read-more:link]

Black Southerners Are Bearing the Brunt of America’s Eviction Epidemic

A long understudied facet of the American housing market, evictions have hit no area of the country harder than the South, a region home to most of the top-evicting large and mid-sized U.S. cities, according to a list released by Princeton’s Eviction Lab. Last year Eviction Lab debuted what’s thought to be the nation’s largest eviction database, revealing that U.S. property owners had submitted at least 2.3 million eviction filings in 2016. [node:read-more:link]

PETA, Other Organizations Respond to Video of Local Farm Employee's Actions

A Marinette County farm is receiving backlash after a video surfaced of an employee using an electrically heated hot iron to burn the horn buds of the heads of calves. The video shows an employee using the hot iron on approximately 12-week-old calves without giving the calves an anesthetic or giving them pain relief afterwards. During the incident, the calves were kicking their legs, bellowing, flinching and attempting to pull their heads away from the hot irons. The employee also used metal restraints on them. [node:read-more:link]

Free college tuition starts now for Cleveland students as Say Yes to Education arrives

College will be free for virtually all Cleveland school district graduates starting with this year’s senior class, after the much-anticipated launch today of the Say Yes to Education college scholarship and student support program in the city. A team of city, county, philanthropic and Say Yes leaders announced the scholarships at a rally at John Marshall High School to cheering students this morning, pledging that the ever-increasing cost of tuition will no longer block Cleveland school district graduates from attending college. [node:read-more:link]

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Rural