Rural

Hundreds of fish have washed ashore along Florida's Space Coast beaches, a week after the first signs of a toxic algae outbreak were reported. The dead fish, mostly mullet, were found this week from Melbourne Beach to Satellite Beach on the state's east coast.Despite the fish kills, water samples this week along the Space Coast showed a decrease in the algae known as red tide.The red tide began last October off southwest Florida after Hurricane Irma swept up the state. It has killed massive numbers of fish, along with scores of sea turtles and the state's beloved manatees. [node:read-more:link]

“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it,” said Ronald Reagan. “But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. [node:read-more:link]

Almost anyone spending time outdoors knows about the link between ticks and Lyme disease. But there may be far more lurking in tick bites than previously thought – a cocktail of bacteria and viruses that may uniquely affect each bite victim and inhibit the remedies meant to cure tick-borne diseases. “Climate change is expanding tick ranges, and we’re spending more time in tick habitats all the time,” said Catherine Hill, a Purdue professor of entomology and vector biology. [node:read-more:link]

Beyond the boarded-up buildings and patchwork fences that others view as eyesores, Huron Mayor Rey Leon sees potential in this tiny central California farm town that has been mired in poverty for decades.Leon, 45, was a reluctant and unlikely leader for one of the state’s poorest cities. [node:read-more:link]

The state of Hawaii and the Trust for Public Land have closed on the acquisition of 2,882 acres of forest and fallow lands near the Helemano Military Reservation in Central Oahu from the Dole Food Co. The $15.16 million purchase price was funded by a half dozen public and private sources: $1.5 million from the Hawaii State Legacy Land Conservation Fund; $5 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Legacy Program; $2 million from the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

In a first for the Bay Area, developers hoping to break ground on a new housing complex next year are wooing potential residents by offering a quirky but increasingly popular perk. It’s not a golf course, health club or even a pet spa — the big draw will be a farm, and access to all the tomatoes, zucchini and kale you can eat. [node:read-more:link]

Life for many disabled Iowans now features fewer outings, longer commute times and tighter living arrangements as a result of a state Medicaid policy change that affects their transportation to jobs and day services, a Des Moines Register investigation has found. The findings come less than a year after the Iowa Department of Human Services replaced a longtime "waiver" program used to pay for these transportation services. [node:read-more:link]

In many ways the programs of the USDA serve as a validation of the list of basic goods and services set forth by Reinert. In his discussion of the merits of providing unrestricted cash transfers directly to people for the purchase of food compared to providing conditional cash transfers that set restrictions on the items that can be purchased we found Reinert speaking directly to most of us.He writes, “[A] way of enjoying oneself is to purchase things other than food even when your diet is far less than ideal. These could include televisions, festivals, videogame parlors, and much more. [node:read-more:link]

Ohio’s lowest-performing districts, with a performance index score under 70, had eight times as many low-income students on average as districts with scores over 100. Low income is defined as “economically disadvantaged” students with family income below 185 percent of the federal poverty level — $38,443 for a family of three. “There is stuff we know to do, and it takes money,” Fleeter said, pointing to universal preschool, summer programs and extended school days. “We need to get outside the box that school is six hours a day for 180 days of the year and it starts when you turn 5. [node:read-more:link]

Over the past few decades tornadoes have been shifting — decreasing in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas but spinning up more in states along the Mississippi River and farther east, a new study shows. Scientists aren't quite certain why. Tornado activity is increasing most in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa and parts of Ohio and Michigan, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Climate and Atmospheric Science. There has been a slight decrease in the Great Plains, with the biggest drop in central and eastern Texas. [node:read-more:link]