Rural

From work to income to health to social mobility, the year 2000 marked the beginning of what has become a distressing era for the United States.  From peak to trough, the collapse in work rates for U.S. adults between 2008 and 2010 was roughly twice the amplitude of what had previously been the country’s worst postwar recession, back in the early 1980s. In that previous steep recession, it took America five years to re-attain the adult work rates recorded at the start of 1980. This time, the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

San Bernardino County could pay $48 million for the property of one of the few remaining Chino dairy farmers after the family complained in a lawsuit that most of their spread, located under a landing pattern for Chino Airport, had been turned into a no-build zone without compensation. The lawsuit, which went into private arbitration, claimed that the county had, bit by bit over the past 25 years, turned most of the 58 acres of dairy land owned since the 1960s by Jim and Annie Nyenhuis into a runway protection zone. [node:read-more:link]

League of Conservation Voters' voting scorecard shows record disparity on green issues, with GOP campaigns increasingly funded by fossil fuel company contributions. House Republicans cast pro-environmental votes just 5 percent of the time in 2016, while their Democratic colleagues tallied a 94 percent voting record, according to the League of Conservation Voters. That makes the 114th Congress the most politically polarized in the 46-year history of LCV's Scorecard, the new numbers released Thursday show. [node:read-more:link]

In a decade it has increased by 14 percent, or about a third of a mile. The loss of isolated forest patches has seen forests move farther on average from any given point in the continental US. In a new PLOS ONE study, Giorgos Mountrakis and colleagues looked at data from 1990 to 2000 and found that the shifting distance was more pronounced in rural areas than in urban settings, as they are at higher risk of losing forested patches. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a disabled Michigan girl whose school refused to let her bring her service dog to class, making it easier for students like her to seek redress for discrimination in federal court. The justices ruled 8-0 that Ehlena Fry, 13, and her parents may not be obligated to go through time-consuming administrative appeals with the local school board before suing for damages for the emotional distress she said she suffered by being denied the assistance of her dog, a goldendoodle named Wonder. [node:read-more:link]

Flood events are becoming more intense across the United States, affecting the physical and economic stability of communities and threatening human lives and delicate ecosystems. Every part of the country is vulnerable to losses from increased flooding; in the past five years, all 50 states have experienced flood events. Federal, state, and local entities share the responsibility for weather-related disaster preparedness and response. This series of fact sheets examines the flood risks, mitigation efforts, and associated costs for states. [node:read-more:link]

In a new study of groundwater conditions in dairy farm-intensive Kewaunee County, researchers found higher levels of well contamination from cattle during wet weather events — when manure, rain and melting snow can seep quickly into the ground. But the results also show that cattle in this northeastern county are not the only source of tainted drinking water. Human waste from sanitary systems is also polluting wells. The study is the latest research on factors affecting groundwater pollution in a region where tensions over large-scale farms are the greatest in Wisconsin. [node:read-more:link]

Nationwide, the “muni bond” market has funded $1.65 trillion worth of projects for cities and other governments over the past decade. The borrowed money has paid for schools, roads, water and sewer systems, airports, bridges and other vital infrastructure. “These aren’t shiny baubles. These are essential infrastructure,” said Democratic Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, who is in his second term. [node:read-more:link]

Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon has risen this century - destroying an area of rainforest 14 times larger than Los Angeles - with small farmers behind most of the cutting, according to a new analysis of satellite maps. Small farmers account for about 80 percent of Peru's forest loss, the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), a Washington, D.C.-based research group, said on Wednesday. [node:read-more:link]

Tourism officials in Oregon and Montana are courting a trade show for outdoor retailers that is leaving Utah after the state's stance on public lands sparked some brands to boycott the biannual event. Outdoor Retailer organizers made the decision after Utah Gov. Gary Herbert refused to rescind his call for the reversal of a new national monument designation.  Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario said the industry is all about defending public lands and cannot stand by Utah's decision. The event has grown from 5,000 people at the first show in 1996 to about 29,000 last summer. [node:read-more:link]