Rural

The New Hampshire Legislature is considering a bill that would make trespassing fowl a violation, not for the chicken, but for its owners. [node:read-more:link]

After a dramatic drop early last year, the number of Central American children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally has been rising sharply since April. Advocates say the increase is being driven by fears of gang violence at home — fears that outweigh heightened concerns about deportation under the Trump administration.“The reality is these children are not necessarily coming to the U.S., they’re just trying to get away from their home country,” said Catherine Hulme, project manager and attorney for unaccompanied children at the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland in Baltimore. [node:read-more:link]

Over the past decade, out-of-state drug companies shipped 20.8 million prescription painkillers to two pharmacies four blocks apart in a Southern West Virginia town with 2,900 people, according to a congressional committee investigating the opioid crisis. [node:read-more:link]

Sixty percent of macaques that ate venison infected with the prion that causes chronic wasting disease developed CWD, prompting a warning from the Canadian government last year that eating meat from infected deer, elk or other cervids could cause the disease in people. The macaques consumed the human equivalent of one 7-ounce steak each month for three years, and Mark Zabel, associate director of Colorado State University's Prion Research Center, said that neither freezing nor cooking destroys the prion. [node:read-more:link]

Nationwide, premiums for average-priced policies — according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis — offered on and off the health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act rose by more than a third compared with 2017. The biggest statewide hikes were in Iowa (88 percent), Utah (78 percent), New Hampshire (78 percent), Wyoming (72 percent), and Virginia (66 percent). [node:read-more:link]

More types of health-care providers—not just doctors—will now be able to apply to prescribe an effective but potentially addictive medicine for treating opioid addiction, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced Tuesday. The rule change was intended to help more Americans, particularly those living in rural areas that lack doctors, get treated for opioid use disorders. "This action provides more treatment options for addicts in rural parts of the country," the DEA said in a press release. [node:read-more:link]

Under North Carolina's STOP Act, doctors across the state are changing the way they prescribe opioids. According to Associate Doctor Kara Duffy with Atlantic Animal Hospital, veterinarians are now following suit. [node:read-more:link]

one recent action by the Interior Department drew unprecedented protest from a bipartisan group of top officials who go all the way back to the Nixon administration: a new legal opinion that attempts to legalize the unintentional killing of most migratory birds. Under the new interpretation, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act forbids only intentional killing – such as hunting or killing birds to get their feathers – without a permit. The administration will no longer apply the act to industries that inadvertently kill a lot of birds through oil drilling, wind power and communications towers. [node:read-more:link]

A new bill introduced in the House and Senate would support efforts to advance rural broadband and precision agriculture across the country. The Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018 would require the Federal Communications Commission to set up a task force to evaluate the effectiveness of existing rural broadband programs, identify gaps in coverage, and develop policy recommendations to address those gaps.The task force also would have to come up with specific actions the FCC, USDA and other agencies can take to fill the coverage gaps. [node:read-more:link]

Gov. Scott Walker is proposing a new $50 million annual investment in rural economic development projects. [node:read-more:link]