Texas Rural News Clips 1.8.2024
Happy New Year! We can’t wait to bring you all the news from Rural Texas in 2024! We launch into the new year with a slightly new program that includes Monday news clips on issues impacting rural Texas in the areas of politics, economic development, healthcare, and education and a Friday commentary piece. If you like what we are doing, please become a paid member or share to help us grow our rural Texas network.
#TXLEGE
OPINION: Rep Glenn Rogers - Vouchers are not Conservative
The right of every child to a safe, secure, and quality education has been a core value of Texas since our independence. Following our independence in 1836, Texas has had six different constitutions, with the current Texas Constitution being amended 530 times since 1876. Nevertheless, throughout decades of revision, secession, and reconstruction, our state has never wavered from its promise to provide education to every Texan. Our founders believed that this promise was essential to securing the posterity of our state from generation to generation; however, almost a century and a half later, this value is under attack. Under the guise of promoting choice, proposed school voucher programs are a “trojan horse” attempt to privatize Texas’ education system, and drain our already underfunded public education of necessary resources for millions of children.
COMMENTARY: Don't get confused. Abbott and the school choice coalition killed funding for public schools and teachers
Campaign season is in full force. So, let the games begin with the seriously misleading political messaging floating around, mainly targeted at our Rural Republicans who killed the school voucher proposals. Abbott and his school choice cronies are putting out misinformation on social media (and maybe mailers are coming soon) with this claim — candidate X “voted to stop a bill that included $6 billion in funding for public schools and teacher pay raises, more money for school security, and an end to the STARR test”.
2023 in review with Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan
As we approach the end of a marathon year for the 88th Texas Legislature, Southeast Texans can rest assured that the future of our region is more promising than ever. Through a 140-day regular session followed by four special sessions, I had the honor of leading the Texas House on historic measures that will strengthen our growing state and allow our local communities to thrive.
POLITICS
NRA Executive Wayne LaPierre Resigns at Texas Board Meeting Prior to New York Trial
The National Rifle Association (NRA) saw the retirement of a longtime senior official with Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre announcing his resignation at a Friday board meeting in Irving, Texas. According to a news release, LaPierre cited health concerns as the reason for tendering his resignation from the leadership role. “With pride in all that we have accomplished, I am announcing my resignation from the NRA,” LaPierre stated in the release.
Review: Who Is the Rural Voter? Book Builds on Old Themes to Create New Understanding
In their new book, The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America, Colby College political scientists Nicholas F. Jacobs and Daniel M. Shea set out to describe what differentiates the politics of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan places. Drawing on the largest survey ever conducted with the specific aim of understanding rural voters, they seek to explain the recent rightward shift of the American countryside.
It Is, Once Again, an Election Year.
Happy 2024, Keep it Rural readers! In just under two weeks, presidential caucuses will begin in Iowa, followed up by New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, and Michigan, promising a whirlwind start to this eventful year in politics. Voter behavior in these elections will likely be determined by people’s perception of the economy, which polls show is negative despite an economy that is currently stronger than it’s been in years.
Vouchers, border security, abortion: The issues you heard about in 2023 will continue to be hotly debated in 2024
2023 was a particularly long year in Texas politics. In addition to the regular legislative session that ran from January through May, state lawmakers reconvened during four special legislative sessions — and for Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial. 2024 also promises to be eventful with a presidential election and all of the state’s representatives in the Texas and U.S. houses on the ballot — along with other federal, state and local officials. It’ll be an opportunity for voters to weigh in on how sitting leaders addressed (or didn’t address) the issues that matter to them.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Boosting U.S. Organic Cotton: Texas A&M’s $3.5 million dollar project targets growth
The demand for organic cotton is on the rise in the U.S., yet domestic production falls short, relying heavily on imports. To help address this gap, a Texas A&M Agri Life Research project, funded by a USDA grant, aims to analyze challenges and opportunities for U.S. organic cotton growers. The study seeks to empower producers by enhancing yields, productivity, and sustainability while transitioning more acreage into organic production. The project also hopes to identify alternatives to synthetic herbicides for weed control.
$17.9 million EPA loan to support drinking water in rural Texas
The Sharyland Water Corp will receive a $17.9 million loan from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for infrastructure upgrades that will minimize water loss and deliver safe drinking water for 87,000 residents of Hidalgo County in southeast Texas. The funding comes from the Water Infrastructure and Innovation Act (WIFIA), a long-term, low-cost federal program that has allocated $20 billion in financing to support water and wastewater infrastructure projects since it was enacted in 2014.
Texas Rancher’s Property Rights Case to be Heard by U.S. Supreme Court
Attorney’s representing a Texas rancher are preparing to test the “pottery barn rule” – you break it you buy it – before the U.S. Supreme Court. Richie DeVillier lives on land east of Houston that has been in his family since the 1920s. For all that time the land hasn’t flooded. That is, until the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) began rebuilding Highway 10.
After 100 years in the family, this Texas legacy ranch has hit the market
The Johnson Legacy River Ranch is located an hour from Fredericksburg, Texas, and sits on the bank of the Llano River. The ranch is almost 865 acres. It has been in the same family for more than 100 years and is now on the market. Anders Ranch Realty is handling the $20 million dollar listing.
Where will the most crowded places be for the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024?
Texas could see a million visitors for the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, while half a million could travel to Indiana and Ohio, according to new eclipse visitation estimates from eclipse cartographer Michael Zeiler at GreatAmericanEclipse.com. You may have heard about specific events, cities promoting themselves and beauty spots that would make ideal eclipse-observing locations. But where will people actually go on April 8?
COMMENTARY: Texas needs to work to reduce our great digital divide
In the vast expanse of the Lone Star State, where the skies are big and the opportunities even bigger, there is a gap that threatens the very core of what makes Texas great: the digital divide. As technology advances at an unprecedented pace, a significant portion of the state is being left behind in the race to connect, learn and prosper. Almost 2.8 million households and 7 million Texans lack access to broadband, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
USDA Highlights 2023 Successes in Serving Farmers, Families and Communities
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is marking the end of 2023 by highlighting on-the-ground projects and partnerships that are building economic prosperity for farmers, families, and communities nationwide. Thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda – and its record investments in rural America – USDA has been able to help tens of thousands of farmers continue their operations and increase their revenue, connected rural communities to internet access, advanced efforts to mitigate climate change, made investments that give small businesses a leg up, lowered energy costs and costs for consumers, and more.
Report on the Mental Health Program for Veterans for Fiscal Year 2023
Report on the administration of the Texas Mental Health Program for Veterans. Discusses various program outcomes and services to special populations including rural, female, and incarcerated veterans. Offers recommendations for future program goals.
EDUCATION
How Gov. Greg Abbott lost a yearlong fight to create school vouchers
Sharing the stage at the Brazos Christian School gymnasium in Bryan, Rep. John Raney rose from his seat next to Gov. Greg Abbott during a pro-school voucher rally and lavished praise on the governor’s education agenda. “Gov. Abbott understands the value of a good education and the importance of giving parents control over their children’s education,” Raney said at the March event, adding that the governor “spent nearly every night” helping his daughter do her homework and that the first lady is a former teacher and principal.
A new way to fund Texas community colleges focuses on student success, not enrollment
Texas’ new method for funding community colleges could position two-year, public institutions as major players in training students on skills employers say are missing in the state’s labor force.
House Bill 8’s historic $683 million investment in community colleges rewards schools for getting students to complete a degree or certificate, transfer to a four-year university or participate in college courses as early as high school.
New Report Shows Millions of Rural Students Facing Multiple Crises after COVID
While the entire United States is still reeling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the recovery process has not been even nationwide. Many rural students and communities — especially certain pockets — are facing multiple crises in terms of educational loss, economic outcomes, unemployment and mental health.
A TEXAS TRIO UNVEILS ARTISTIC JOURNEYS
Discover the vibrant world of plein air painting as Arts for Rural Texas presents Plein Air Perspectives: A Texas Trio, featuring the captivating works of Julie Sanderson, Kathy Hammond, and Lisette McClung. These talented artists, fueled by a love for travel, seek beauty in scenes that forge a connection to places and people.
HEALTHCARE
Texas emergency rooms are not required to perform life-saving abortions, federal court rules
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- The Biden administration cannot use a 1986 emergency care law to require that Texas hospitals provide abortions for women whose lives are at risk due to pregnancy, a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled Tuesday. It's one of numerous cases involving abortion restrictions that have played out in state and federal courts after the U.S. Supreme Court ended abortion rights in 2022. The administration issued guidance that year saying hospitals "must" provide abortion services if there's a risk to the mother's life, citing the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1986, which requires emergency rooms to provide stabilizing treatment for anyone who arrives at the emergency room.
Texans receiving federal food assistance caught in crosshairs of congressional funding fight
More than 225,000 low-income Texas women and young children are in danger of losing federal nutrition assistance as Congress battles over government funding, activists and the White House warn. In Texas, nearly 800,000 pregnant women and children under 5 years old rely on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, commonly known as WIC, which helps low-income families access tools to boost infant nutrition. That includes nutrition counseling, help with breastfeeding, fresh produce and other nutrition assistance.
Emergency rooms not required to perform life-saving abortions, federal appeals court rules
Federal regulations do not require emergency rooms to perform life-saving abortions if it would run afoul of state law, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. After the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent hospitals guidance, reminding them of their obligation to offer stabilizing care, including medically necessary abortions, under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
RURAL JOURNALISM
Independent Journalists Work to Fill Rural News Gaps on the Big Island of Hawai’i
Julia Neal is the backbone of the Ka’ū Calendar, a 16-page community newspaper covering local news and events in the southern portion of Hawai’i’s Big Island. Like clockwork for the past 21 years, Neal works late into the night before the first of every month to send the final draft of her independently published newspaper to the printers on the neighboring island of O’ahu.
Community journalists will talk courage, tenacity, innovation and integrity at UT-Austin Feb. 29
Rural journalists in Texas and other states are invited to attend “Courage, Tenacity, Integrity and Innovation in Rural Journalism,” a free, one-day conference at the University of Texas on Feb. 29. The meeting will feature two winners of the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism: 2023 winner Craig Garnett of the Uvalde Leader-News, and Laurie Ezzell Brown of The Canadian Record, who won the award with other family members in 2007.