Rural

Law enforcement and veterinary officials are planning an outreach campaign to educate veterinarians about a new frontier in the opioid epidemic: people so desperate for drugs that they take medication that had been prescribed to pets. “The misuse of pet medication has serious safety implications — for people and animals,” said Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan, in a letter that will be printed in the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association newsletter this week. [node:read-more:link]

Some roads in Montpelier, Vermont, have gotten a bit rumbly. Faced with decaying pavement and a long list of capital projects to be funded, officials in Vermont’s capital decided in 2009 to grind up some of the city’s streets and combine the asphalt with underlying gravel. Since then, just over of a mile of Montpelier’s streets have been converted, said Thomas McArdle, the city’s public works director. Residents largely have embraced the change, he said, and it’s projected to save Montpelier at least half of what it would have spent to pave and maintain the roads over the next 20 years. [node:read-more:link]

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the United States, approximately three million high school graduates, and more than a million college graduates, will make up a massive “youth workforce” entering the job market in 2017 - this is particularly relevant as America’s workforce potential is certain to be highlighted this Friday at the inauguration of America’s 45th President, and as a new Congress and administration make a renewed commitment to prioritizing job creation across the country.  Although 32 percent of people’s first jobs are in the retail industry, the nu [node:read-more:link]

Google stunned a few communities last June with the announcement that they were taking a break from fiber deployments and considering building hybrid wired/wireless networks. Suddenly, people started to publicly question whether fiber is the Holy Grail that communities assume it to be.  Wireless in broadband has been deified, vilified, misunderstood, hyped to holy heaven, and in some circles, just plain ignored. To many, fiber can do no wrong, only become faster. Then came gig fiber. No, wait, now there’s gig wireless. [node:read-more:link]

I learned about Peter Crabtree’s work when my co-worker, Tim, yelled to me across the office, “Hey, Shawn, come look at these.” On his screen were black-and-white photographs of small-town newsrooms — the cluttered desks, a news staffer taking notes with a phone cradled under her chin, inexpensive wood paneling, police scanners, a writer intently looking at a computer as if her words might pop up on her screen any moment. We scrolled through Crabtree’s photographs and fell to telling stories about our own experiences in newsrooms. [node:read-more:link]

Sen. Eric Brakey wants to allow the unlicensed ownership of hedgehogs as pets. Rep. Mattie Daughtry is seeking legislation that would regulate rabbit production for local consumption. Rep. [node:read-more:link]

This all-volunteer fire station and the two others in Shippensburg, a factory and university town of about 5,500 people in a central Pennsylvania valley, are vestiges of the past. Firefighters sit around on weekdays playing rummy, and people gather for bingo Friday nights. Yet, the stations are much quieter than they were decades ago, when they felt like the center of the town. And as the community’s interests have shifted from the fire stations, the number of volunteers has fallen.  “Everybody has other things occupying their time,” said Shippensburg Fire Chief Randy O’Donnell. [node:read-more:link]

In the coming weeks, swarms of sterile screwworm flies will blanket parts of the Middle Keys, an army of millions manufactured in Panama to combat an outbreak of the flesh-eating pest attacking the islands’ beloved Key deer. No screwworms have been detected on the mainland, but because so little is known about the dog — a German shepherd — or where it came from, officials want to act aggressively to prevent the spread of the grisly outbreak that has ravaged endangered Key deer. Since September, at least 135 deer, part of the last herd on the planet, have died in the Lower Keys. [node:read-more:link]

An unusual type of contagious foot disease may be affecting Kansas’ deer population at a higher than average rate, and the cause isn’t yet known.  Tim Donges, president of the Quality Deer Management Association’s Bluestem branch, said reports of foot rot have been coming in at an alarming rate in recent weeks. [node:read-more:link]

Fighting fire and going green. The City of Dubuque is planning to install solar panels on five of the city's six fire stations. The city says using solar energy will help cut electricity costs by more than 30%. The City Council unanimously approved a contract with Eagle Point Solar to install the solar arrays. [node:read-more:link]