Rural

A 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? [node:read-more:link]

Minnesota 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. [node:read-more:link]

A 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 [node:read-more:link]

Heavy 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. [node:read-more:link]

In 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. [node:read-more:link]

Rural 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. [node:read-more:link]

America’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. [node:read-more:link]

Lancaster, 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. [node:read-more:link]

McKay, 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. [node:read-more:link]

A 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. [node:read-more:link]