Texas Rural Reporter - News clips 4.15.2024
#TXLEGE
Rural Water Association lauds King as water champion
The Texas Rural Water Association presented Texas State Representative Tracy O. King with the TRWA Rural Water Champion Award for his lifetime achievement in the Texas House. This honor is given to individuals who have gone above and beyond to preserve and enhance the quality of life for all rural Texans.
Bridging the gap: Bringing your state government to Far West Texas
As a lifelong Texan, I’ve witnessed the unique challenges faced by families in our rural communities, such as limited access to essential services like unemployment and childcare, as well as insufficient support in accessing resources for business development and assistance for veterans, to name a few.
Gov. Abbott looks to oust incumbent House member in northeast Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott is looking to oust another Texas House member who voted against school vouchers when the May runoff occurs. Incumbent Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston, will face political newcomer Chris Spencer in House District 1 in northeast Texas.
POLITICS
Influential conservative PAC targets Phelan, other House Republicans
The conservative attack on Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is getting reinforcements from a high-profile national group that typically focuses on congressional races. Club For Growth, a political action committee that raises money for hard-right federal candidates, on Tuesday announced it had spent $4 million on a TV ad targeting five Texas House Republican incumbents facing runoffs.
About 40% of Texas election administrators leave their job each presidential election cycle, report finds
Before every election, Roxzine Stinson prints out a sheet of paper with the phone numbers of state legislators, the secretary of state’s office and political party chairs. If any voter complains about an election issue, Stinson gives them a copy. “If they get too vocal and tell us we don’t know what we are talking about, we just hand them that,” said Stinson, who has served as Lubbock County’s elections administrator since 2022.
Partisanship in rural, suburban and urban communities
Voters’ partisanship has long varied by the type of community they live in. Those in urban counties mostly align with the Democratic Party, while the reverse is true among those in rural counties. In suburbs, where a majority of Americans live, voters’ partisanship is fairly evenly divided. There have been only modest changes in these patterns in recent years. Over the past two decades, however, voters in rural counties have become increasingly Republican.
The Only Thing Worse Than Taking Rural Voters for Granted … is dismissing them as out of reach for Democrats.
Donald Trump often tells rural folks that he loves them. Contrary to myth, not all of them love him back. According to The Rural Voter, a new book by the political scientists Nicholas Jacobs and Dan Shea, only about one in 10 rural people are what they call “rabble-rousers”—the kind of MAGA die-hards who tweet incessantly or raise a stink at school board meetings, often with an intimidating edge. While more conservative on average than urbanites, rural Americans are far from monolithic—racially, culturally, or politically. Even among rural conservatives, about a third are less fans of Trump than they are people who’ve come to mistrust Biden.
Ethics Commission Takes Aim at Paid Influencer Ads
Last week, the Texas Ethics Commission took the first step in adopting rulemaking that would require social media influencers to include political advertising disclosures when they are paid to post political advertising online. While the Texas Election Code generally requires paid political advertising that appears on an internet website to include a disclosure statement that includes the name of the person who paid for the advertising, current Texas Ethics Commission rules carve out some exceptions to this.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
PERRYMAN: Eclipse Economics
Get ready for a big show (where you literally see nothing) with a huge audience! On Monday, April 8, a total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The path of totality (where the sun is fully hidden) enters Texas around Eagle Pass and crosses to the northeast, exiting near the northeast corner. About 12 million Texans reside in the path of totality, which includes the major metropolitan areas along the I-35 corridor.
Finding the “Silver Lining” in Cotton Gin Waste
Cotton gin waste, also known as cotton gin trash, is a byproduct of the cotton ginning process and occurs when the cotton fibers are separated from the seed boll. For cotton gin waste, the treasure is its hidden potential to transform silver ions into silver nanoparticles and create a new hybrid material that could be used to add antimicrobial properties to consumer products, like aerogels, packaging, or composites.
Texas volunteer fire departments receive $1.3M in grants through assistance program
Following a meeting Tuesday, Texas A&M Forest Service awarded 74 grants, totaling approximately $1.3 million to the Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program. “Grant funding from the program will help Texas rural volunteer fire department recipients from this allocation purchase equipment such as dry hydrants, fire and rescue equipment, personal protective equipment and training aids,” the forest service said.
Texas emerges as top solar and wind producer
Texas is a top producer of solar power and wind energy in the country, per a new Axios Generate analysis. Energy from wind and solar installations nationwide is expected to outpace coal-fired electricity this year. And solar power helped keep the lights on during January's Arctic blast in Texas.
Livestock Marketing Information Center: Second Quarter Weakening Continues
Some feeder cattle and calf markets have softened following the futures selloff triggered apparently by the news of HPAI infections in cattle. Still, many regional markets have remained firm through the same period. The sharpest drops are in some of the smaller and most volatile cash markets for the smallest animals. Likewise, live cattle futures have retreated substantially in the same window while fed cattle cash market prices are only off modestly. The disease news has slowed and modestly reversed the likely and anticipated cash market strengthening.
EDUCATION
A&M student’s research shows rural Texas students aren’t ready for jobs in space field
Rural Texas high school students don’t have as much access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses that would help them get into college programs at places like Texas A&M University and then pursue jobs in the state’s space industry, according to research from an A&M graduate student. Keilly O’Reilly, who is working toward a master’s degree of international affairs at A&M’s Bush School of Government & Public Service, shared her findings at the Texas Lyceum’s annual Public Conference (PubCon), “Mission Control: Texas’ Leadership in Space, Technology, and Innovation” at the Space Center Houston on April 5.
New Farm Bill Curriculum Available to High School Students
Oklahoma State University Extension has launched a curriculum to educate high school and 4-H students about the Farm Bill. “There are bits and pieces of policy curriculum taught in high schools,” said Amy Hagerman, OSU Extension specialist for agriculture and food policy. “But a Farm Bill-centered youth curriculum didn’t exist in the country.”
HEALTH
Commissioner Miller Awards $23 Million to Rural Hospitals
Today [April 9, 2024], Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and the Texas Department of Agriculture’s State Office of Rural Health (SORH) announced a substantial investment of $23,885,000 in funding for broadband infrastructure improvement grants through the Broadband Development Office at the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. This initiative is specifically tailored to fortify connectivity in rural Texas hospitals, enhance healthcare accessibility, and elevate the quality of life within rural communities across the state. Rural communities often face challenges in accessing critical healthcare services, and the lack of reliable broadband infrastructure has been a longstanding barrier to progress. The funding will be made available to all rural Texas hospitals.
Drones can be a lifeline for rural and suburban health care
As a physician serving a diverse community with many homebound patients, I see firsthand how time and access are the critical elements of health care today. For many patients, distances to pharmacies or wait times for transport of medical supplies can be detrimental to their care.
Doctors in rural Texas facing challenges as Covid cases explode
Texas is one of the fastest-growing coronavirus hot spots in the nation, and rural areas are facing major challenges in obtaining the resources needed to keep the virus under control. Dr. Ivan Melendez, the Hidalgo County Health Authority, and Dr. J.P. Schwartz, the Presidio County Health Authority, tell Ali Velshi about how they have been managing. Dr. Melendez says the pandemic has brought medical professionals “down to our knees.”
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