Telecom and cable industries are doubling back to make already existing state restrictions tougher, reducing the ability of local governments to create competition for telecommunications services. This time incumbents (the telecommunications companies or successors that were in place before telecommunications deregulation) are giving their bills pro-community broadband titles (Virginia Broadband Deployment Act) and paragraphs of complimentary rhetoric that lead to innocuous sounding directives that are actually quite harmful for municipal broadband advocates. [node:read-more:link]

After a couple decades as a commercial photographer, Carl Corey made a pivot to and started shooting personal pictures in a more observational style. His latest project, Americaville, is a quiet saunter across the Great Plains to the Midwest, where Corey now lives. I talked via email to Carl about his work in small towns. [node:read-more:link]

The Environmental Protection Agency has frozen its grant programs, according to sources there.EPA staff has been instructed to freeze all its grants ― an extensive program that includes funding for research, redevelopment of former industrial sites, air quality monitoring and education, among other things ― and told not to discuss this order with anyone outside the agency, according to a Hill source with knowledge of the situation. [node:read-more:link]

Rather than allow a 416-page state plan released in December 2015 to rot on a shelf, a Greenfield-based collaborative has been working to have it seed a bold future for farming and food accessibility in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative is working to promote, monitor and facilitate implementation of the plan, one that was written for and accepted by a state’s Food Policy Council, says collaborative Director Winton Pitcoff. [node:read-more:link]

The single biggest labour challenge for the dairy, poultry and egg commodities will be finding skilled and experienced farm managers, including owner-operators. For these commodities, management and ownership jobs account for almost two-thirds of the current workforce, and between now and 2025, they will account for the majority of the jobs going unfilled due to a lack of domestic workers. [node:read-more:link]

The state Assembly Monday voted to make New Jersey the first state in the nation to penalize veterinarians who declaw cats. Under the proposal, onychetomy -- the medical term for declawing -- would be added to the list of criminal animal cruelty offenses. The Assembly approved the measure by a vote of 43-10 with 12 abstentions. There was no floor debate on the bill.  Some veterinarians have objected to the ban, saying the procedure has evolved in recent years to be less invasive. They also argue the ban may discourage adoptions.  "We are not pro-declaw, we are anti-euthanasia. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to back out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, a $62 billion market for U.S. farmers, provides a fresh threat to a slumping agricultural economy that has grown increasingly dependent on exports. Agricultural groups expressed disappointment over the move and urged the new administration to find alternative ways to boost product shipments to Asian countries. Trump announced the cancellation on Monday, quickly fulfilling a campaign promise. [node:read-more:link]

A west-central Illinois company has withdrawn its notice of intent to build a 20,000-hog-capacity barn.  Carthage, Ill.-based Professional Swine Management LLC withdrew its notice from the Illinois Department of Agriculture last week after meeting with the Fulton County Farm Bureau. Citing “sustained protests” from farmers complaining of potential river and stream pollution from waste at the site, the newspaper stated that Professional Swine Management, which provides comprehensive management to family-owned breed-to-wean and wean-to-finish pork facilities, withdrew its notice. [node:read-more:link]

More than 130 agricultural trade groups and companies have sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in a way that expands on gains it helped the sector achieve. [node:read-more:link]