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Illinois Ameren customers should see savings from new energy bill
News Gazette | Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Energy NewsThe typical Ameren Illinois residential customer will pay about $1.93 less per month for power after a far-reaching energy bill goes into effect June 1, 2017, according to an analysis of the Future Energy Jobs bill by the Illinois Commerce Commission. Eventually, however, rates will start to increase beyond today's levels around 2023, according to the ICC model.The energy bill, promoted for almost two years by Exelon Corp. to preserve its nuclear plants in Clinton and the Quad Cities, was approved by the Illinois Legislature on Thursday.
Michigan needs $59B more for infrastructure to fulfill new 20-year improvement vision
| Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Rural NewsMichigan became the first state in the U.S. to develop a full list of infrastructure recommendations when Gov. Rick Snyder unveiled that report. More than 100 recommendations across four areas - water, transportation, energy and communications - resulted from months of work by the 21st Century Infrastructure Commission. "This is not an answer by itself, but a road map," Snyder told a crowd gathered at Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, in addition to viewers at satellite locations in the state.
State Medicaid Expansion impacyon Health Insurance Coverage at the County Level
University of New Hampshire, Carsey School | Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Rural NewsCounties and states with large shares of uninsured risk having to contend with a range of health and economic impacts, such as reduced workplace productivity, unsustainable demands on emergency departments, higher tax burdens resulting from uncompensated care costs, and deteriorating health care quality due to reductions in public spending. In 2013, before the implementation of major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, 41 million U.S. adults age 19–64 had no health insurance. Coverage varies considerably by geographic location.
Hog Prices Join Corn and Wheat at Ten-Year Lows
Farm Doc Daily | Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Agriculture NewsIt is interesting to be an observer of agricultural price movements. However, for many producers of agricultural commodities, prices are a key driver of their financial wellbeing. Wide ranging price movements over time can vastly alter their financial conditions. It is clear that the financial impacts of price movements affect many agricultural input businesses as well. What can happen to prices of agricultural commodities in a decade, and why look at the last decade?
Rabobank: Avian influenza poses threat to global poultry trade
Meat + Poultry | Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Agriculture NewsIn its latest poultry industry report, the Rabobank International Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory’s Q4 Poultry Quarterly report signalled challenges to an otherwise positive global poultry outlook in the year, due to global reports of avian influenza (AI) outbreaks reminiscent of similar incidents in 2015. Trade of meat and breeding stock are at risk during a period when tailwinds for poultry were resulting in positive momentum at a time when seasonal vulnerability for AI outbreaks are more likely given the onset of the winter season.
Extreme downpours could increase fivefold across parts of the US
Science Daily | Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Rural NewsAt century's end, the number of summertime storms that produce extreme downpours could increase by more than 400 percent across parts of the United States — including sections of the Gulf Coast, Atlantic Coast, and the Southwest — according to a new study.
Anthrax found on Indiana cattle farm
Indy Star | Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Agriculture NewsThe Indiana Board of Animal Health has issued an advisory after one bull on a southern Indiana beef cattle farm was infected with anthrax. A veterinarian collected tissue samples for laboratory testing after the animal died unexpectedly. Only a single, mixed-breed bull died; other animals in the herd have not shown signs of infection, Fox59 reported.The infected animal was incinerated on-site, and the farm was placed under a 30-day quarantine and observation order by the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH)
Farm Incubator Program in the Upper Peninsula
Michigan State University Extension | Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Agriculture NewsThe Michigan State University Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center (UPREC) is home to an exciting program designed for those interested in starting a small farm business. The North Farm, located on the state’s oldest operating research station, was reopened in 2014 as an education and research facility focused on northern climate organic vegetable and fruit production. The flagship program for this facility is the Apprentice Farmer Program (AFP), which serves as a business incubator for farming entrepreneurs.
N.H. Dairy Farmers Task Force Moooves Forward on Plans to Offer Drought Relief
New Hampshire Public Radio | Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Agriculture NewsHampshire’s struggling dairy farmers may soon get some help from a relief program in the works at the Statehouse. Backed by the majority leaders in both the New Hampshire House and Senate, the Joint Dairy Farmers Task Force moved Monday to aid farmers affected by this year’s drought.The program is aimed at dairy farmers who have suffered financial losses from “unreasonably low” milk prices, and meager feed crops.Nineteen of New Hampshire’s 120 dairy farms stopped producing milk this year.This isn’t the first time the state has helped out the dairy industry.
How a Texas community saved its hospital — and vice versa
Athena Insight | Posted onDecember 7, 2016 in Rural NewsIn the early 2000s, no one in Jacksboro, Texas thought much of Faith Community Hospital, the fifty-year-old hospital in the center of town. The building was substandard. Staff morale was low. Patients preferred to drive thirty miles or more to Fort Worth or Wichita Falls for care. And when the hospital flunked a Medicare inspection due to mold and asbestos, voters rejected a bond issue to build a new hospital by a 3-to-1 margin.Then, in 2010, Frank Beaman came to town, taking on the role of Faith’s CEO with a keen understanding of what was at stake.