On Monday, the North Charleston Planning Commission will consider a rezoning request that would allow as many as 1,000 residences to be built in a dense community in the middle of an entirely rural area next to the Ashley River Historic District. Unfortunately, the alternative would be even worse.The rezoning request would affect a 4,000-acre tract west of S.C. [node:read-more:link]
During the last six years of her short life, Emma Franchek spent at least half her days in one type of treatment or another, seeking care for addiction and mental illness. Psych wards, detoxes, rehabs, sober houses — none gave Emma lasting help. But she kept trying, until her 4-foot-11 frame, a dancer’s delicate body, was found in a squalid restaurant bathroom in Boston. She had fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and sedatives in her blood. Emma was 24.Now, as he looks back at her experiences, Jim sometimes wonders whether the disease really was too powerful — or the help provided too weak. [node:read-more:link]
A new federal program will allow nonprofit organizations to purchase homes in rural communities for use as transitional housing for individuals in recovery from substance use disorder. The initiative is a joint effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and aims to address the national opioid crisis by providing greater access and support to rural areas, which have shouldered a substantial portion of the epidemic's overdose and death tolls. [node:read-more:link]
I feel conflicted about my role here. Rural places like this one are facing countless questions about the economy, about identity and about the environment. It’s hard to know what we need to be stewards of and sustain, and what we need to let go or confront, to build a strong future. I am what you might call a “homecomer.” Over the last eight years, I have found that my homecoming story is not unique. [node:read-more:link]
The number of kids enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) — two government health plans for the poor — fell by nearly 600,000 in the first 11 months of 2018, a precipitous drop that has puzzled and alarmed many health policy analysts, while several states say it reflects the good news of an improving economy. Enrollment in the two programs decreased by 599,000 children in the 48 states from which the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has data from December 2017 to November 2018, the last month for which numbers are available. [node:read-more:link]
Another federal deadline passed Monday for seven states in the U.S. West to wrap up work on a plan to ensure the drought-stricken Colorado River can deliver water to the 40 million people and farms that depend on it. The states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — have been working for years on drought contingency plans. But Arizona and California have missed two deadlines set by the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
The proposed funding cut from Alaska’s education budget this year, I feel, is a bad idea! As an Alaska resident who has supported the education of our children in our communities, I am speaking up in opposition to this.I am a resident and tribal member of Kwigillingok, I also work at our local school. I am a mother and grandmother, as I raised four children and a grandson who graduated from our school and now have five grandchildren attending school.I have seen the school grow from the first day it opened back in 1976. Back then, it was one classroom with limited educational material. [node:read-more:link]
U.S. wildlife officials plan to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, a move certain to re-ignite the legal battle over a predator that's rebounding in some regions and running into conflicts with farmers and ranchers. Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt was expected to announce the proposal during a Wednesday speech before a wildlife conference in Denver, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Spokesman Gavin Shire said.The decision to lift protections is based on gray wolves successfully recovering from widespread extermination last century, Shire said. [node:read-more:link]
The House voted Friday to require two state agencies to study and develop a proposal for the Legislature by Nov. 15. The bill goes to the Senate after another House vote.Fourteen rural counties have just one health insurer. Their residents face some of the nation's highest premiums.Republican Rep. Marc Catlin, a bill co-sponsor, says it's smart to study what a public option might look like before introducing formal legislation in 2020. [node:read-more:link]
The Rev. Alvin Gwynn Sr. couldn’t believe it. His Baltimore church, Friendship Baptist, got a city water bill charging him $3,000 for using 700 gallons a day — mostly during weekdays when only one person was in the building.The reverend asked for a public works department hearing on the 2014 water bill; there, officials admitted error and promised to adjust the bill. But the next quarter, he got another four-figure bill — the original $3,000 plus another $2,000. [node:read-more:link]
