Rural News
Bill replaces ‘no trespassing’ signs with purple paint
Atlanta Journal Constitution | Posted on February 23, 2017A Georgia lawmaker wants to do away with “no trespassing” signs and instead allow property owners to paint their trees purple.Senate Bill 159, sponsored by freshman state Sen. Lee Anderson, follows the decades-old lead of other states, starting in 1989 in Arkansas. At the time, according to reports, rural property owners wanted an alternative to the “no trespassing” signs that they said were too easily removed, vandalized or just wore out too quickly.Nearly a dozen states have followed suit, including Texas, North Carolina and Illinois. Why purple paint? It wasn’t used by the forestry industry, shows well in the outdoors and is one of the few colors that can be identified by someone who is color blind.
New 5G wireless will increase need for fiber, not reduce it
Daily Yonder | Posted on February 23, 2017Minnesota legislators are now hearing that a market-based broadband solution is near. 5G wireless to the rescue! Learning that public dollars would not be necessary for rural broadband development would be soothing music to elected officials’ ears as other groups line up for funds– roads, schools, health care, tax cuts; the list is endless. After all, many counties and regional entities are growing desperate for broadband and are actively studying the options for spurring broadband delivery to meet at least minimum FCC broadband standards. Alternatives range from subsidizing incumbents to partnering with new or existing broadband cooperatives. While the State of Minnesota is seen as the major finance partner, even townships are writing checks for broadband!
U.S. appeals court upholds Maryland's ban on assault rifles
Reuters | Posted on February 23, 2017A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld Maryland's ban on assault rifles, ruling gun owners are not protected under the U.S. Constitution to possess "weapons of war," court documents showed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided 10-4 that the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, a law in response to the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, by a gunman with an assault rifle, does not violate the right to bear arms within the Second Amendment
Severe flooding hits Southern Idaho hard
Capital Press | Posted on February 23, 2017Heavy rains, warm weather and melting snow have combined to cause widespread flooding across Southern Idaho, with Cassia County taking the brunt of the damage. Canals and creeks are overflowing, roads have been washed out or closed, basements are flooding and water is standing up to 2 feet deep in fields or causing erosion as it runs to lower ground. “It’s pretty devastating for sure. In the Malta area, there’s 100 percent devastation; it’s incredible,” said Joel Packham, Cassia County extension educator. A lot of the area is under water, many houses are being threatened and a lot of fields are going to be effected, he said.
Alfond Foundation vows to pay off students’ debt to draw STEM workers to Maine
Bangor Daily News | Posted on February 23, 2017In hopes of courting more specialists in science, technology, engineering and math to Maine, the Harold Alfond Foundation is rolling out a new grant program to help them pay off college debts. With an initial investment of $5.5 million, the Alfond Leaders competitive grant program will give about 150 recipients up to $60,000 in college debt relief per person over the next three years, the foundation announced Tuesday. The grants will be administered by the Finance Authority of Maine. The grants are open to Maine residents or people who expect to move to Maine after being hired by a company here. Applicants must have outstanding student loan debt and a higher education degree or certificate. They also must be employed or have employment lined up in a STEM role at a Maine-based company.
Webinar on Supporting Entrepreneurial Economies
Aspen Institute | Posted on February 22, 2017Rural America was front and center in the 2016 national election. Media headlines focused attention on our nation’s acute rural challenges – the decline of critical sectors like mining and manufacturing, technology-driven worker dislocation in those industries and agriculture, inadequate job opportunities for dislocated workers, infrastructure challenges, community health crises, and more. But a deeper understanding of rural America reveals a companion picture – one where innovation and collaborative local leadership are turning challenges into opportunities. Rather than wait on solutions from outside, many rural places are building on their existing assets and designing creative economic development approaches that drive toward more broadly shared prosperity while creating and retaining jobs. Webinar is Friday Mar 17.
America's Rural Opportunity: Supporting Entrepreneurial Economies
Aspen Institute | Posted on February 20, 2017America’s Rural Opportunity is a six-part series that invites policymakers, economic and community development practitioners, and business and philanthropic leaders to engage in real dialogue around advancing a rural opportunity agenda. This second America’s Rural Opportunity panel will focus on a group of innovators that drive the American economy – entrepreneurs and the organizations that support them. Particularly in rural communities, entrepreneurs are the engines for job growth and, with support, can become anchors for community economic development. Rural entrepreneurs bring leadership, create wealth that stays in the community, and diversify local economies to create resilience in uncertain economic times. In many rural communities, the legacy of reliance on a single employer or economic sector has stunted the development of an entrepreneurial culture. The panel will highlight how leading rural economic development practitioners take on the task of cultivating entrepreneurs and how the entrepreneurs themselves leverage that support into successful business ventures. Their stories will highlight innovative ways to drive capital and other resources to rural entrepreneurs through public, private, and philanthropic channels.
The Death of the All-American Town
The Wall Street Journal | Posted on February 20, 2017Lancaster, Ohio, was once a thriving city of glass-makers, shoe factories, natural gas operations and more. By way of culture, it had a music festival, a county fair and the Sherman House (birthplace of the Civil War general). Cozily nestled just west of the Appalachian foothills, it had something in addition to its churches, parks, taverns and bowling alleys. Lancaster was a place where company executives lived within a few blocks of workers, where bankers and union reps belonged to the same lodge, where Anchor Hocking, the town’s biggest employer, backed up a semi loaded with frozen turkeys at Thanksgiving, and where, when its plant caught fire, residents chipped in to rebuild it.
Bill pits bears against bees as Maryland lawmakers seek to protect hives
The Baltimore Sun | Posted on February 20, 2017McKay, backed by other Western Maryland lawmakers, is asking the General Assembly to extend the same level of protection to bees that it now gives calves, goats, chickens and other animals. A person defending himself, other people or livestock is exempt from a state law that makes shooting a black bear without a permit punishable by a $1,500 fine and six months in jail for a first offense.
Tree mortality epidemic in California forests keeps spreading
Capital Press | Posted on February 20, 2017A task force set up by Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking solutions as drought, pests and other factors have killed 102 million trees in California forests since 2010. Aerial surveys by the U.S. Forest Service last year found 36 million more dead trees, bringing the number of trees that have died in California forests since 2010 to more than 102 million.