Rural News
West Virginia to distribute 8,000 overdose reversal kits in West Virginia
West Virginian Register Herald | Posted on February 9, 2017In an effort to prevent opioid overdose deaths, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) plans to distribute more than 8,000 naloxone rescue kits. The state-level naloxone distribution project is a partnership of DHHR’s Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities (BBHHF) and Bureau for Public Health (BPH). The project is being funded primarily through a $1.07 million federal block grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment. The grant is being managed by the BBHHF, and is being administered by the BPH as part of its statewide harm reduction efforts. West Virginia ranks No. 1 in the nation for drug overdose deaths.
Minnesota Moves To Shore Up Health Insurance Market
NPR | Posted on February 9, 2017Amid the uncertainty about the future of the Affordable Care Act, states still have to manage their insurance markets. Most states have muddled through the 2017 enrollment season without making changes. Minnesota, for its part, took three unusual actions that are worth a closer look. In January, Minnesota:passed a one-time bailout for some consumers in the individual insurance market dealing with skyrocketing premiums;rejected an attempt to let insurers offer cheaper, bare-bones coverage;laid the groundwork for a sort of homegrown "public option" insurance plan.
British Columbia Forbids Cosmetic Tail Procedures
Veterinary Practice News | Posted on February 9, 2017The College of Veterinarians of British Columbia has voted overwhelmingly to ban cosmetic tail docking of dogs, horses and cattle. The Vancouver-based licensing body declared cosmetic ear cropping of dogs to be unethical about a year ago. Cosmetic tail docking and cosmetic tail alterations, such as nicking and blocking horses, came up during an update of the Canadian group’s bylaws in November, said President Brendan Matthews, DVM. More than 91 percent of voting members opted to make both practices unethical.
House panel OKs higher pay out for deer, elk damage
Capital Press | Posted on February 6, 2017Lawmakers are considering legislation to double the maximum payout for crops lost to deer and elk and also compensate farmers for damage by the ungulates to fences and irrigation systems. Instead of $10,000, a Washington farmer could receive up to $20,000 a year under a program administered by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. House Bill 1399 also would raise the damage threshold for filing a claim to $1,500 from $1,000. Farmers who have worked with WDFW to prevent damage by deer and elk are eligible to file claims. The compensation program also covers commercial crops, pastures and Christmas trees, but it does not pay for damages to other property.
Proliferation of bird flu outbreaks raises risk of human pandemic
Reuters | Posted on February 6, 2017The global spread of bird flu and the number of viral strains currently circulating and causing infections have reached unprecedented levels, raising the risk of a potential human outbreak, according to disease experts. Multiple outbreaks have been reported in poultry farms and wild flocks across Europe, Africa and Asia in the past three months. While most involve strains that are currently low risk for human health, the sheer number of different types, and their presence in so many parts of the world at the same time, increases the risk of viruses mixing and mutating - and possibly jumping to people. "This is a fundamental change in the natural history of influenza viruses," Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease specialist at University of Minnesota, said of the proliferation of bird flu in terms of geography and strains - a situation he described as "unprecedented".
What all those dead trees mean for the Sierra Nevada
LA Times | Posted on February 4, 2017The U.S. Forest Service estimates that since 2010, more than 102 million drought-stressed and beetle-ravaged trees have died across 7.7 million acres of California forest. More than half of those died last year alone. Exacerbated by anti-wildfire policies that produced a crowded forest more vulnerable to drought, the massive dieback is unprecedented in the recorded history of the Sierra. The beetle epidemic is transforming the 4,500-foot to 6,000-foot elevation band of the central and southern range for decades to come, if not permanently. The sheer scale of mortality means that outside of developed areas, it’s likely that most of the tree corpses will be left to topple over. It will takes centuries to replace the legions of majestic old pines that have succumbed — if that is even possible in a warmer future that promises to alter the forest in ways ecologists can only guess.
Ag Grapples With Health Care Tab
DTN | Posted on February 4, 2017During year-end meetings with farm clients, Minneapolis-based consultant Rod Mauszycki, heard farmers pose a question the veteran tax adviser had never heard before, "What's the penalty for not carrying health insurance next year?" "Many farm families are getting charged $20,000, $30,000, or even close to $40,000 in premiums and out-of-pocket costs before their insurance kicks in," said Mauszycki, a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen LLP's agribusiness and cooperative group. "The federal penalty of $1,000 to $2,000 is relatively minor. If they don't get sick, they just saved $20,000 to $40,000." "Now is a difficult financial time for U.S. agriculture when farmers are breaking even at best," he added. "Banks are pressuring them to cut expenses or pay down debt, so some farmers are deciding to put their business needs before their personal needs."
Printed human body parts could soon be available for transplant
The Economist | Posted on February 2, 2017Every year about 120,000 organs, mostly kidneys, are transplanted from one human being to another. Sometimes the donor is a living volunteer. Usually, though, he or she is the victim of an accident, stroke, heart attack or similar sudden event that has terminated the life of an otherwise healthy individual. But a lack of suitable donors, particularly as cars get safer and first-aid becomes more effective, means the supply of such organs is limited. Many people therefore die waiting for a transplant. That has led researchers to study the question of how to build organs from scratch. One promising approach is to print them. Lots of things are made these days by three-dimensional printing, and there seems no reason why body parts should not be among them. As yet, such “bioprinting” remains largely experimental. But bioprinted tissue is already being sold for drug testing, and the first transplantable tissues are expected to be ready for use in a few years’ time.
Tenth District Manufacturing Activity Expands
Kansas CIty Fed | Posted on February 2, 2017–The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the January Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that Tenth District manufacturing activity continued to expand moderately with strong expectations for future activity. “We had another solid composite index reading in January, and firms’ expectations for future activity were the highest in more than twelve years,” said Wilkerson. The January survey incorporates new seasonal adjustment factors, so historical indexes differ slightly from previously-released numbers. The new seasonal factors will be used throughout 2017.
Maine’s efforts to help rural towns didn’t work.
Bangor Daily News | Posted on February 2, 2017Maine is the most rural state in the country, but it doesn’t have an organization devoted solely to helping rural communities. There are various groups focused on particular aspects of rural development but not one to tie all the efforts together, even as rural parts of the state continue to struggle with population and job losses. Maine could look to a neighbor and nearly equally rural state, Vermont, to see what a centralized body dedicated to tackling uniquely rural challenges has done for the state’s communities. Since 1992, the Vermont Council on Rural Development has helped communities identify their goals and create plans to achieve them, and connected them with potential funding sources and expert advice. “We don’t come in with our own agenda. It’s about helping communities become collective teams for action,” said Paul Costello, who has served as the executive director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development since 2000. He will give the keynote address at a summit called Rural Maine’s Next Economy on Friday, Feb. 10, at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. The Vermont council starts the community-building process with public forums where residents and local leaders can share their general ideas for directions for the town. After organizing the ideas into themes, the larger community comes together, often in a town-meeting style gathering where the council can put the big ideas up on the wall and ask residents about their priorities.