Mass firings and federal cuts have many public health officials in Mississippi watching Washington with growing concern as they prepare for the avian flu. An upheaval in the federal government instigated by the Trump Administration is paralyzing key agencies and offices meant to coordinate and direct a unified national response.

The post As Mississippi Prepares for Avian Flu, Federal Chaos Looms Large appeared first on Mississippi Free Press.

In a video on her store’s Facebook page in late March, Oak Grove shop owner Jill Easley announced she would be closing her storefront earlier than planned — later that day.

Easley decided to shut down her store in downtown Oak Grove after more than eight years on South Broadway. She relocated her business to a different vintage store in Blue Springs.

“Such a blessing to be in downtown Oak Grove for the last eight and a half years,” Easley told her Facebook followers. “I have truly enjoyed getting to know each and every one of you, hearing a little bit about your life and your story, and I will miss that the most out of everything that has happened in the last eight years. I will miss all of you.”

“Closing” was written in large letters above the shop’s door in late February, after Easley made the call to move the store. She said a lack of foot traffic made it difficult to reach profit margins in her store, which stocked home goods, jewelry and more.

While the store is in the center of the town of nearly 10,000 and sits on the town’s main thoroughfare, it also happens to be along a state highway. Route F, known as South Broadway through town, connects U.S. 50 to Interstate 70 and is a popular route for tractor-trailers as they traverse the area.

The Missouri Department of Transportation has authority over the highway and made the call to expand it to mostly five lanes in 2011. Through the downtown district, the highway shrinks to three lanes as drivers pass by a handful of retail spaces, insurance offices, hair salons and other service businesses.

“There’s just not a lot of foot traffic,” Easley told The Beacon. “That is one issue with having this be such a thoroughfare.”

“It makes me sad,” she said. “I know there’s just not a lot of shopping down here and out this way. But then it makes it too easy to shop on Amazon.”

Easley was a member of Oak Grove’s Chamber of Commerce and part of a group of small-business owners who wanted to start up a downtown revitalization project.

The group worked on staging events to encourage people to shop downtown. Ultimately, without lots of community buy-in, they struggled to get the effort off the ground.

“We were like, ‘You know what, we own these businesses down here. This should not be our responsibility,’” she said.

Oak Grove’s dilemma

The shop owners weren’t alone in their aspirations for downtown.

Oak Grove Mayor Dana Webb has been looking for ways to make it more welcoming to pedestrians since she was elected in 2020.

“I think we got the expansion several years too early,” Webb said of the project, which she wishes had more beautification measures built-in during the time of construction. “I don’t think our town was big enough at that time for it.”

Oak Grove advocates had previously explored joining Missouri Main Street Connection, a nonprofit that provides resources to towns across Missouri that want to launch revitalization efforts. But they ran into the same problem back then: a lack of community buy-in.

A few years later, the group of business owners approached Webb to see if their efforts overlapped with the city’s priorities. But between complicated building leases and the highway, the group ran into roadblock after roadblock.

“Businesses need eyes,” said Kennedy Smith, the former director of National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center and a current researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “They need traffic and visibility, so if cars are going through downtown at 40 miles per hour, people aren’t going to see anything.”

The speed limit drops as cars travel through the heart of Oak Grove. Slower traffic can reduce some crash risk and improve pedestrian safety.

“There’s just so many what-ifs,” Webb said. “I hope someday that they have engineers, a team or a board, somebody that starts to look a little bit ahead for pedestrians.… If you go to other states or other countries, you see people walking. We don’t see people walking here. If you do, it’s odd.”

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, a pedestrian hit by a vehicle traveling 32 miles per hour has a 25% risk of death. That risk increases to 50% when the vehicle is going 42 miles per hour. The World Health Organization recommends that the maximum road travel speed should be about 20 miles per hour in areas where bicyclists and pedestrians share the space.

“The key thing is that the interests of transportation engineers and people who are interested in healthy, vibrant downtowns are not necessarily the same thing,” Smith said.

Beautification projects, like adding trees, flowers or benches, were the first projects Webb brought to MODOT for its approval. She also wanted ways to make sidewalks feel more enclosed and less noisy for pedestrians, in an effort to limit perceived exposure to traffic and large trucks.

The city first asked if it could plant trees along the sidewalks throughout downtown. That plan was rejected due to driver safety considerations — if Oak Grove wanted trees, they had to be under 4 inches in diameter in case a car crashed into them.

Then, the city asked if it could put trees in large pots. That was also rejected for safety. They returned with other requests: shrubs, flowers or benches. They were all turned down.

“MODOT sometimes views a road going through a town as getting people from A to Z,” said Matthew Randall, the city administrator in Oak Grove. “When you live in the town, the road is your town. It’s integral to your city.”

They’ve had luck with some projects, while others haven’t gotten off the ground as quickly as they would like, Randall said.

“Just being downtown, the heavy commercial traffic and tractor-trailers definitely have a negative impact on the experience,” Randall said.

How MODOT works with Missouri cities on projects

MODOT’s area engineers are integral links between communities and the state. They help coordinate projects and maintain infrastructure across Missouri. Usually, they are the ones who make the requests to MODOT on behalf of cities for the projects they want to pursue.

“There’s a number of places where the state highway may function more as the main street of a community,” said Eric Schroeter, the deputy director and chief engineer at MODOT. “We have to balance all of that out – not only is it somebody’s main street, but it’s also a link in a transportation system that has to help people get places, and goods and products move around as well.”

MODOT is in charge of the seventh-largest highway system in the country, but ranks 48th nationally in funding per mile. MODOT only pays for projects that relate specifically to their domain. Everything else falls to the cities.

Officials in Oak Grove and other Missouri towns are thankful for MODOT’s collaboration and the easy access they have to their area representatives. Lebanon, Missouri, launched its downtown revitalization project officially in 2019. The town’s main street intersects with state Route 5.

“The highway intersection, it can be a little dicey,” said Sarah Angst Stewart, the executive director of Downtown Lebanon. “It’s not dangerous, it’s just a little more challenging for a person who is not used to walking near semi trucks blowing by.”

Lebanon has been working with MODOT over the past decade to improve walkability throughout downtown. The public works department meets with the state on a monthly basis to talk about future projects and address concerns as they arise.

“There are challenges involved with having a highway where there are pedestrians,” Angst Stewart said. “MODOT has put an effort into making sure that it is more pedestrian friendly.”

Since putting a concerted effort into downtown revitalization plans, the mix of businesses in downtown Lebanon has started to shift.

“This is probably every rural downtown. It’s the cheapest rent because it’s a lot of stuff packed close together, in older buildings that haven’t had a lot of love and attention,” she said.

But the exact opposite has started to happen in Lebanon. What was once a downtown that was heavily saturated with insurance companies, accountants and attorneys is now home to new retail and dining.

“It’s really cool to see. I don’t know if it’s finally the right time,” Angst Stewart said. “What’s happening is this resurgence of small-town downtowns. Where do you find that real community? It’s downtown.”

In the four years that Lebanon has invested in having a director for the downtown district, the area has doubled its taxable sales from $5 million in 2019 to $10 million in 2023.

“By just focusing on it, that is a lot of tax revenue that can then go back to our local economy and fund things like our police, fire and capital improvements,” she said.

Up north in Chillicothe, the town has reaped the benefits of long-term planning and making a name for its history. The city is the home of sliced bread, which was invented there in 1928. U.S. 65 runs north-south through Missouri and is Chillicothe’s main street.

“Highway 65, or Washington Street, is the heart of that artery that fuels our town,” said Amy Supple, Chillicothe’s tourism director. “(People) get to travel right through the heart of our community, so they’re not bypassed. It’s not an exit sign that they see.”

In the early 2000s, business owners, the tourism organization and the main street organization put their heads together to find ways to diversify downtown. What resulted was a 30-year strategic plan, and the organization set short-term priorities to reach long-term goals.

A long-term plan is crucial for investment in infrastructure, said Chris Hess, the executive director of the Pioneer Trails Regional Planning Commission, which coordinates efforts across Johnson, Lafayette, Pettis and Saline counties in Missouri.

“Funding follows planning,” Hess said. “The knee-jerk reaction for funding does not end well very often. We’re thinking about what can drive the economics. Do we see a population boom coming up? Is there potential for expansion in this area?”

That’s part of what Oak Grove is trying to assess. The city’s population is growing. In 2010, the town had about 5,000 residents, according to the census. Today, the town is pushing toward a population of 10,000.

For now, Oak Grove has negotiated with MODOT that the city will take control of the parking spaces that line the downtown district. And they’ll keep trying to work with the state to make the area more inviting to potential visitors, despite its popularity for commercial truck drivers.

“We haven’t really talked to them in detail about that aspect of the pedestrian versus the car versus the connectivity,” Webb said. “Because we’re pretty much just stopped at the driver effect.”

The post Revitalizing a rural downtown is difficult enough. It’s even harder when the state owns the main road.  appeared first on The Beacon.

A first-of-its-kind pilot to electrify homes on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard is set to finish construction in the coming weeks — and it could offer a blueprint for decarbonizing low- and moderate-income households in Massachusetts and beyond. The Cape and Vineyard Electrification Offering is designed to be a…

The “Hands Off” event, located in Oakridge, was a peaceful protest against the way President Donald Trump is dismantling many federal agencies and programs near and dear to Oakridge residents. Photo by Neil Friedman

By GEORGE CUSTER/Editor/The Herald  —  It was the perfect day to mow the early spring grass, go for a hike or a bike ride, maybe have lunch outside. It was that kind of day in Oakridge. Those chores and thoughts of having fun outdoors took a back seat for around one hundred people who had other plans. 

A “Hands Off” event, its purpose being ” …a mass mobilization to rally those who do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies” (1) took place in front of the Hitching Post building on Highway 58 Saturday at 11 a.m. Similar events transpired at over 1,400 locations across the United States. There were similar protests in Eugene, Florence, Newport, Salem, and Portland, as well as other locations throughout Oregon and the rest of the country. There were similar protest events around the world.

The Oakridge event was peaceful. Dozens of passing cars, trucks and semis honked approval of the protesters who lined the highway holding up signs that indicated their concerns over political abuse. There were few, if any, motorists who seemed to appear to be opposed to the rally.

Several speakers engaged the assemblage with speeches denouncing the current administration’s actions. The

speakers spoke from a tailgate of a pickup truck adorned with American flags. Holly Olson, one of the rally’s organizers, spoke first announcing many of the grievances that seemed to be in concert with those in attendance and denounced the administrations’ power grab.

“We are protesting with our fellow Americans the destructive agenda that is coming from our White House and is undermining our democracy” Olson said.

We are here because our Administration is trampling on our civil rights by making decisions without the approval of congress.  We have 3 branches of Government that all check and balance each other.  It is that way in the constitution to make sure we don’t have a KING.  But rather to have a government that is OF THE PEOPLE, by the people and for the people. WE are here to exercise our 1st Amendment right to free speech and the right to peacefully protest.”

Michelle Emmons, local activist and Oakridge resident of fifteen years, spoke on the need for unity and the need for freedom. “I believe in America, that’s why I’m here.” When asked why she felt the protest was important, she stated “I feel like this is important because often times in small communities the messaging can be a little bit diluted…so showing up in person to be able to exercise our right to protest the removal of our freedoms and to actually utilize our first amendment right, I think is an important way of saying ‘Hey, things matter, there is solidarity, we see what is happening and it’s OK for you to have a voice and it’s OK for us to have a voice…’ “

Iris Barratt spoke on the assault against our grass roots foundations.  She said, “We are patriots, protesters and peacemakers.” She enjoined the protesters in chants to slogans confirming the belief in a grass roots movement. 

Alissa Mayer said “You are here because no matter who you voted for or which party you’re registered with, you believe that our constitution should be protected, that nobody is above the law, that an un-elected billionaire and a small group of clearly incompetent and underqualified individuals should not be making decisions about our national security or how our tax dollars are spent…”.

She continued “Today is an opportunity for us to stand with our fellow Americans, friends and neighbors who are struggling to pay rent, pay medical bills, and put food on the table for their families – I’m sure you know someone in our community who relies on a monthly social security check to make ends meet? I DO – A single-mom who works her ass off but still needs SNAP to be able to feed her kids? I DO – A veteran who put their life on the line to protect your freedom, and who deserves quality medical care from the VA? I DO.

Ms. Mayer went on to recite Timothy Snyder’s 20 Lessons  from his book On Tyranny. Snyder is a Yale professor and considered America’s most famous (living) historian of 20th-century Europe.

Oakridge City Administrator James Cleavenger spoke on the problems that the city is, and will face, should the current trend of government cuts continue.

Guen DiGioia said that she came to the rally to let people know that Oakridge has already lost a million dollars in this administration that was going to fire and smoke hardening for homes. Also, the money was to provide firewood to heat peoples’ homes. “I need people in Oakridge to realize that it’s happening now, not about happening over the years”.

Curt Harville carried a sign that read “Hands Off VA”. He said additionally that the reason he was at the protest was “to keep your hands off everything that doesn’t belong to you. This is ours. It’s our country and it’s our time to step up and do something”. 

Benjamin Dover, who wore a confederate flag draped across his shoulders said, when asked why he was at the rally, that he was “just a troll”. A young person standing alongside of Dover cursed Oakridge, calling it a “s**t town”. He indicated that, although they have been living in Oakridge for a short time, that they plan to move soon. 

1. Handsoff2025.com

 

 

 

 

The post Oakridge area residents rally at “Hands Off” event to show dissatisfaction with current Trump administration appeared first on Highway 58 Herald.

A harmonious, almost jubilant tone pervaded the crowd on April 5 as more than 1,000 community members rallied in downtown Redding to show their opposition to the policies of President Donald Trump. The event was one of at least 1,200 “Hands Off” protests held across the United States. 

Friends greeted friends, coworkers mingled, and faith families caught up as they joined in solidarity against the policies of the new federal administration. Many said they were encouraged by the number of people who attended. Shasta Scout’s count estimated the crowd at 1,200, which is three times the number who showed up to a similar protest in February. 

A woman who asked to be identified only by her first name and last initial said she found the size of the crowd “very heartening”. Katy R explained that her perspective has been influenced by being raised by parents in the legal profession.

“Dinnertime conversations were about no one being above the law,” Katy R said, “whenever a situation came up (they told us) to make sure we relied on the facts and to be very careful about passing judgment and again that no one is above the law, even the president.”

She said she was surprised and encouraged to see so many she recognizes in the community including doctors, nurses and lawyers.

“So for those that like to think that the only people out here are rabble rousers,” Katy continued, “I am seeing lots of people who truly care about this country.”

Protester Demetrius Dumdum helped lead chants during Shasta County’s 2020 protest over George Floyd’s murder. He was out again yesterday with a megaphone, rallying the crowd. In a conversation with Shasta Scout, Dumdum said he and others were protesting against threats to jobs, Social Security, other government programs, and the well-being of veterans, immigrants and people of color.

“I personally feel that they are doing this on purpose”, Dumdum said, referring to recent actions by President Trump and others in the federal administration that have affected the economy. “They want to collapse and crash the economy… it makes it easier for them to get a deeper grip on America.”

But Dumdum also emphasized how proud he felt of the community, especially older residents, for coming out to protest. 

“I know we live in MAGA country”, he continued, “but it’s okay to come outta your houses and say how you feel. Stand on business. Because it’s going to affect everybody. Even those people who are MAGA. A lot of people are already regretting their vote.”

While Dumdum did not choose to obscure his identity at the protest, he said he was concerned about the possible effects that speaking out could have on his professional life. Other protesters who spoke with Shasta Scout did so only on the condition of anonymity.

Some, including a woman who asked to use the pseudonym Ms. Patriot, also wore a mask. Patriot said she’s been impacted by seeing videos of American residents who have been arrested by immigration police.

“I’ve been following closely the stories of doctoral students who have been absconded from their homes and the streets by people who are hiding their identities and it is terrifying to me that the rule of law has been overridden in this country.”

Patriot said she thinks many Americans are currently experiencing something called “betrayal blindness,” a psychological phenomenon which involves choosing to “not know” something you’re aware of, in an attempt to maintain loyalty to an individual or institution. 

“This nation knows that masked people are stealing folks from the streets,” Patriot continued, “but everyone is moving around as if that’s not happening.”

While these kinds of arrests by the federal government have focused so far primarily on those who support Palestinian liberation, Patriot said, she believes it’s only a matter of time before the administration broadens its net to arrest those who protest Trump and his unofficial right-hand man Elon Musk.

“Right now I think we are very close to massive amounts of people, Patriot continued, “who are protesting against this administration… being called terrorists and being absconded by this administration. It’s just a matter of time… I am very frightened.”

A single counter-protester provided the only counter-narrative. Ken Michaud, who applied to become Shasta County’s top election official last year, said he believes within a few years his fellow community members will see what Trump’s done for them.

“I’m just here to support the Trump administration,” Michaud said. “You know it’s not a short-term thing, obviously people are going to take hits, but in the long run the policies are good. Two or three years from now everyone is going to say ‘oh yea, I see what he’s doing.’”

Global tariffs implemented by Trump earlier this week, Michaud said, are “negotiation tactics” that are “for the good of everyone”.

Despite being outnumbered 1,000 to 1 at the protest Michaud said he felt safe and did not experience harassment.

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Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.

MENDOCINO CO., 4/5/25 – Protests took place across Mendocino County on Saturday, including in Fort Bragg, Gualala, Point Arena and Ukiah as part of an orchestrated day of protest called Hands Off!  

The event was organized by Indivisible, a progressive movement generated in response to the 2016 election of Donald Trump, MoveOn, a grassroots political action group formed in 1998, and other activist groups.  

The protests in Mendocino County were meant to demonstrate opposition to the Trump Administration, Elon Musk, recent tariffs that have touched off a trade war, mass layoffs of federal workers, and other actions of the new administration.  

Two reporters from The Mendocino Voice covered the protests, Susan Nash in Fort Bragg and Sydney Fishman in Ukiah. 

In Fort Bragg, a noisy crowd took off on an unplanned march

The crowd in Fort Bragg was estimated at nearly a thousand people, with dozens more drivers honking their horns in support as they drove by the city’s Town Hall. Wandering musicians and a moving street play of masked men taking Lady Liberty away in chains created a festive atmosphere alongside heartfelt demands for action. 

Fort Bragg resident Bob Kelsey came out with a “Hands Off Our Democracy” sign because he is “pretty upset with the government right now,” he said. That sentiment, and some creative sign-making, were evident along the crowded sidewalks and street corners, with some protesters picking their pet issue (“Hands Off Libraries”) and others using a broader brush (“Hands Off Every Damn Thing”). 

“Don’t blame me, I voted for the prosecutor, not the felon,” said one sign. Another was more predictive: “American will be Trump’s 7^th bankruptcy.”  

Even penguins made it into the mix. “Send Trump to Heard Island,” said one sign, referring to an uninhabited Australian territory that is a marine reserve for penguins and other wildlife that was included in Trump’s tariff announcements earlier this week. 

Well-known local artist John Hewitt worked on a new watercolor from the vantage point of the Fort Bragg Town Hall green. “I’m capturing the mood,” Hewitt said. 

And the mood was patriotic. American flags were everywhere, from big ones on the back of pickup trucks to the upside-down version that is the universal sign of distress. Although Mendocino’s voting population is far from monolithic (of 62,651 registered voters, 25,483 are registered Democrat, 12,577 Republican, and 22,688 people decline to state), no counter-protesters appeared, and only a few drivers yelled out obscenities.  

The crowd finished the event by transforming itself into a march around a two-block radius, behind a banner reading, “The Future is in our Hands.”   

In Ukiah, demonstrators leaned on music and signs to signal their displeasure 

Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Mendocino County Courthouse in downtown Ukiah.  

The sidewalks along South State and East Perkins streets were packed with people holding signs, flags, and other colorful emblems to show their displeasure with the Trump administration.  

Attendees included teachers, veterans, medical professionals, high school students and other activists. Some older demonstrators, drawing on their experience protesting during the 1960s and ’70s, wore colorful outfits and peace sign necklaces.  

One elderly protester held a sign reading, “Keep your tiny, filthy hands off the American people.”  

Cars drove past the event honking in solidarity, with some drivers displaying signs in the rear windows of their vehicles.  

At the height of the event, as many as a thousand protesters crowded the streets surrounding the courthouse, with some sitting on chairs and blankets, playing instruments and treating the demonstration like a festival. 

“My husband is a veteran — they are at the top of my list,” said Buffy Edwards. Edwards has lived in Mendocino County for about 45 years. “If veteran benefits have not been cut, then they are going to be cut. Trump is not for the veterans; he doesn’t have a clue when it comes to that stuff. He is firing generals, and no one in his family has served.”  

Another protester, whose husband was also a veteran, noted that going to the protest was one of the only ways to make her feel like she was creating change.  

“This was one way I could try to help,” said Clare, who declined to give her last name due to possible backlash. She moved to Mendocino County from Georgia 50 years ago. “My husband was a Vietnam veteran, and right now, jobs that would have helped veterans are being cut.” 

She said she feels hopeful that young activists will be able to bring about change in Mendocino County and beyond.  

“I feel like the whole situation is unreal, but I do feel hope, that somehow things will get better,” she said. “Young people just need to keep their eyes open and listen to whatever is going to be beneficial.”  

Lynda McClure, a member of the Mendocino Women’s Political Coalition, a group dedicated to getting more women engaged in politics and policymaking, and an activist for several decades who has attended many rallies, said this was one of the largest demonstrations she had witnessed in Ukiah. 

She said without continued activism, there will be no change in how the government operates. “As it’s always been, it takes the people of this country to make our government get back on track. We have to do it,” she explained. “We are in a monumental time, and I am very encouraged today by people coming out.”  

She added that she’s particularly hopeful because of the actions she’s seeing in other states in the Midwest and South. 

“I am encouraged by the vote in Wisconsin for the liberal woman judge,” she noted. “There’s a shift going on in Florida, with marches going on there. I am encouraged by the direction that some parts of the country seem to be moving.”  

A small group of counter protesters showed up at the beginning of the event, including one Trump supporter holding a sign reading “Let’s Go Brandon,” an anti-President Joe Biden slogan.  

Demonstrations were held all over Northern California, including Eureka, Oakland, San Francisco, and Santa Rosa. According to the Associated Press, more than 1,200 events took place across the country.  

Lin Due and Sarah Stierch contributed to this story.

The post ‘Hands Off!’ protests draw hundreds across Mendocino County to oppose Trump, Musk   appeared first on The Mendocino Voice | Mendocino County, CA.

MONTPELIER — Thousands of people crowded the Statehouse green and overflowed onto the street below the golden dome on Saturday for the largest planned demonstration in Vermont against President Donald Trump since he took office again.

Geri Peterson, an organizer of the Vermont rally with the decentralized activist network 50501, said the expected turnout for the rally in Montpelier was 6,000 people, but that crowd amassed to an estimated 10,000 people.

“This is a bipartisan moment where we need Republicans and Democrats. It’s everybody that needs to be fighting against the oligarchy that’s trying to take over our country,” Peterson said. “Trump support is eroding as a direct reflection of the fact that the American public does not support any decisions he’s made since becoming president.”

From Bennington to Newport, Vermonters gathered at more than two dozen planned demonstrations around the state under the “Hands-Off” banner, a national effort to mobilize peaceful protests against the Trump administration and the president’s policies.

Peterson said the “Hands-Off” satellite rallies in Vermont and around the country may indicate an “inflection point” for the support of the president. She added that recent political actions also demonstrate this shift, such as New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker’s 25-hourlong speech rebuking Trump’s actions and the Senate voting in favor of a measure to call off some of Trump’s tariffs on Canada, with some Republican support. 

Among the crowd in Montpelier, Rose Loiselle, a University of Vermont Medical Center nurse from South Burlington, said she was motivated to protest because she was concerned about the threats to public health care and to democracy. 

“I’m grateful for the numbers coming out to show that we do not agree with what’s happening to our country and our constitution,” Loiselle said. 

The lineup of speakers at the Montpelier rally included former Gov. and U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Kunin; U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt.; Lt. Gov. John Rodgers; Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast; state Treasurer Mike Pieciak; and other Vermont activists and organizational leaders. 

Welch spoke to his concerns about the threats to democracy, deportations without due process, threats to Medicaid and Social Security funding, and the dismantling of federal agencies and departments during Trump’s second term. 

“This president we have is on a lawless rampage, shredding the Constitution,” Welch said. “We are here today standing up for hope and democracy.”

Standing at the podium, Rodgers spoke to what he said were nonpartisan concerns regarding the Trump administration’s actions, such as cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and recently imposed tariffs on Canada, which he said will negatively impact Vermonters.

“As a Republican who supports women’s rights, the LBGTQ community, local farmers and loggers, our manufacturers and other great Vermont businesses, the free press, the United States Constitution and the rule of law, I am appalled at what the Trump administration is doing to our state and our country,” Rodgers said, according to his notes, provided to VTDigger by a 50501 organizer. “It is time that the Republicans in Congress stand up for their constituents instead of following the will of their president.”

Kunin stood before the crowd with a hopeful message for Vermonters coming together to protest on the rainy spring day. 

“We still have a big battle ahead, and we have to persevere,” Kunin said “You have to have imagination. You have to have optimism to believe that things can change, and you could be the agent of change.”

Ram Hinsdale said she was concerned about the rollback of abortion rights and voting rights as well as attacks on immigrants and transgender people. She encouraged those at the rally to organize in their communities and connect with neighbors. 

“We will continue to demand our country back because, let’s be clear, it has never been more consequential to exercise our freedom of speech than it is right now,” Ram Hinsdale said. “While we demand hands off our rights and our dignity, we must also be hands on with our communities.”

In Brattleboro, U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., addressed roughly 1,500 people who marched from downtown’s Centre Congregational Church to the nearby Common.

“Many of us are feeling angry. We’re feeling anxious, and we’re worried about the state of our nation,” Balint said before traveling to another rally in Middlebury. “I know all too many folks are feeling paralyzed by the sheer number of things that are coming at us. But we can’t let it stop our courage.”

In Rutland, an estimated 600 to 700 people held signs along the central corner of Main and West streets. Organizer David Coppock said protests for other causes typically draw no more than 25 to 50 locals.

“I’ve never seen anything here on this scale before,” Coppock said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Thousands of people protest Trump presidency at rallies around Vermont.

MIWISCONSIN Media & Community Inc. somos el primer medio hispano nonprofit en el Midwest.

En medio de cambios inesperados pero anunciados durante la campaña, los granjeros de Wisconsin están mostrando su preocupación según lo dijo durante la entrevista, Frankie Rodríguez, dueño y presidente de una de la agencias que buscan trabajadores para las granjas y fábricas, AgroStaff y  Labor One Staffing.

Desde el 2023 se ha visto un notable aumento en la llegada de trabajadores inmigrantes desde Nicaragua, Venezuela, Honduras y México, agregó Rodriguez. “La mano de obra latina ha sido esencial para sostener el crecimiento del sector agrícola en el estado, que es el segundo mayor productor de leche en Estados Unidos.”

Según las cifras expuestas durante varias entrevistas, UW-Madison Extensión estima que el 70% de la mano de obra es inmigrante. 

Uno de los principales retos para los trabajadores agrícolas es el acceso a vivienda. “Hay poca oferta y muchos requisitos como verificación de crédito o número de seguro social, que la mayoría no tienen”, enfatizó Rodríguez. Además, la imposibilidad de obtener licencias de conducir sigue siendo una queja común entre los trabajadores y los rancheros, que temen por la seguridad de sus empleados.

Durante la entrevistas Frankie dió varios consejos para los trabajadores de las granjas. 

Mire la entrevista completa >>

The post Los granjeros de Wisconsin estan preocupados. appeared first on MIWISCONSIN: Conectando los latinos en USA en español | News in spanish.

The six-person staff of Wyoming Humanities got word early this week that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE was examining the National Endowment for the Humanities — the 60-year-old federal organization that funds a network of humanities councils in every state.  

Then a strange email arrived in the inbox of Wyoming Humanities Executive Director and CEO Shawn Reese. His email service even flagged it as dangerous spam and “quarantined” the missive as a phishing attempt. 

On Friday morning, he retrieved the email out of its quarantine hold and read it. “Basically it says our federal funding is cancelled as of April 2,” Reese said.  

“NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda,” the letter reads.

NEH funding makes up some 80% of Wyoming Humanities budget, Reese said, and pays for operating expenses at the nonprofit, which promotes and supports humanities programs across Wyoming. These include grants for traveling theater performances, community conversations with authors on Wyoming topics or celebrations like the Teton Powwow and Native American Showcase in Jackson. 

The cut may mark the end of a five-decade affiliation Wyoming Humanities has enjoyed with the National Endowment for the Humanities. And while Reese says his organization will be able to continue awarding grants through at least June 2026, other financial headwinds related to state support are combining with this one to force the nonprofit to rethink its future.

“It’s a scenario that we’ve been thinking about even before any of these federal changes,” he said. “We’re trying to imagine, how do we as an organization continue to move forward and advance a very important mission and support this network of community organizations that are doing important work for the state of Wyoming?”

It’s still too early for all the specifics, but Reese expects Wyoming communities to feel impacts. A popular traveling exhibit program affiliated with the Smithsonian will end, he said. The cuts also will affect direct federal grants to other initiatives unrelated to Wyoming Humanities — such as a grant the Meeteetse Museums secured to install a solar array that was also just terminated. 

Reese hopes the challenge will galvanize creatives to find innovative ways to keep the arts alive. 

“We all know that arts and culture are important in our communities,” Reese said. “They’re intrinsically important. So we can’t wallow in despair. We have to harness our creativity, and that’s what this sector is about.”

Humanities organizations

The National Endowment for the Humanities was founded in 1965, under the same legislation as the more well-known National Endowment for the Arts. The Humanities Endowment is the only federal agency dedicated to funding the humanities and has awarded more than $6 billion in grants to museums, historical sites, universities, libraries and other organizations, according to its website.

A significant piece of its overall funding, 40%, goes to state humanities councils like Wyoming’s. Those councils act as umbrellas, partnering with other organizations to support cultural events or awarding grants to projects. 

Those federal funds cover the staff expenses, travel, marketing and other operational costs for Wyoming Humanities. Since 2012, the nonprofit also has secured about 10% of its funding from the state. 

That source is how Wyoming Humanities funds grants. These include the “Community Culture” grant, which awards up to $10,000 for oral histories, publications and community initiatives aimed at shedding light on histories or ideas that bring a community together. 

Wyoming Humanities also awards smaller “Spark Grants” of up to $2,000 for short-term cultural projects such a storytelling circle at the Big Horn Folk Festival or a panel discussion with tribal members and Wyoming lawyers to discuss the Apsaalooke religious connection to Heart Mountain near Cody. 

Grants won’t be impacted in the short term, Reese said, because the organization has secured state funding through June 2026, and it has socked away enough reserve funds and has enough additional revenue from other supporters to be able to pay for administration and staffing for now. 

What will be affected by federal funding changes, Reese said, are events that Wyoming Humanities co-sponsors and things like a partnership with the Smithsonian Institute to bring traveling exhibits through the state. “We’re going to have to discontinue that,” Reese said.

When Wyoming Humanities received the notification, Reese said, he quickly submitted a drawdown for March expenses, though he isn’t sure it will be honored. 

“I’m not sure who is left at NEH to process those requests,” he said. Agency staff were notified late Thursday that they were being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately, NPR reported.

In addition, Reese isn’t confident Wyoming lawmakers will continue state support. Had the 2025 supplemental budget been approved, Wyoming Humanities would have become part of the regular state budget, he said. But it didn’t pass, meaning the group will need to ask the Legislature for future support.

“Based on the budget discussions during this general session, I don’t expect that funding would continue in future,” he said. 

With all the uncertainties, it’s time to huddle together with other humanities organizations, he said. “How do we reimagine the collaboration and the vision for Wyoming’s cultural sector? More than 14,000 people are employed in the sector. It’s significant, and it serves an important purpose for Wyoming. So yeah, we have [a] lot of soul searching going on.”

Direct impacts 

Meeteetse Museums, which runs three museums in a historic building in the small town of 314 people, is among the organizations that lost direct NEH funds this week. 

The Meeteetse Museum District received a $120,000 grant from NEH in 2024 to replace its roof and install solar panels. The museum raised a match to the NEH funds to replace its leaking roof and save its collections, according to the museum. But the solar installation part has yet to happen, said Executive Director Alexandra Deselms.

“We are currently in the middle of arranging to install solar panels to cut our utility costs so that we can have more financial resources to do other things,” she said Friday. She found out in a Wednesday email that the grant has been terminated. 

The museum had planned to spend about $9,000 on the final payment for the solar installation, she said, and had already submitted a downpayment and signed the contracts. Now staff is mulling a plan B.

“We do have a little bit of time to get a little more funding and approach a few donors to help save the project,” Deselms said. “But we’re kind of in limbo at the moment trying to figure out how all this is going to work.”

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the humanities sphere right now, Deselms said.

“I think we’re all really nervous,” she said. The NEH along with the Institute of Museum and Library Services  — one of the federal agencies slated to be dismantled under a Trump executive order — are the primary federal funding agencies for a number of museums and libraries across the country, including in Wyoming.

The two agencies “support arts and culture and humanities and just our communities in general,” Deselms said. “So it’s really scary to think about how that’s going to continue to impact us.”

The post Wyoming Humanities hit with DOGE funding freeze appeared first on WyoFile .

A major storm took hold across swaths of the central and southern United States on Wednesday unleashing extreme flooding and huge tornadoes from Arkansas up to Michigan. And conditions are expected to worsen on Friday as soils become saturated and water piles up: The National Weather Service is warning of a “life-threatening, catastrophic, and potentially historic flash flood event,” along with a risk of very large hail and more twisters. Eight people are so far confirmed dead, while 33 million are under flood watches across 11 states.

While scientists will need to do proper research to suss out exactly how much climate change is contributing to these storms, what’s known as an attribution study, they can say generally how planetary warming might worsen an event like this. It’s not necessarily that climate change created this storm — it could have happened independent of all the extra carbon that humanity has pumped into the atmosphere — but there are some clear trends making rainfall worse.

“In a world without the burning of fossil fuels, this event would happen once in a lifetime — that’s kind of what the National Weather Service is saying,” said Marc Alessi, a climate science fellow at the Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists. “But with the burning of fossil fuels, with more heat-trapping emissions, with a warming planet, this event will become more frequent.”

Rainfall is changing because Earth sweats. When the sun evaporates water off Earth’s surface, that moisture rises into the atmosphere, condenses, and falls as rain. But greenhouse gases trap heat up there, so the planet sweats more in response. In other words, it strikes an energy balance.

A warmer atmosphere also gets “thirstier”: For every 1 degree Celsius of warming, the air can hold 6 to 7 percent more water. That means more moisture is available to fall as rain: This weekend, the slow-moving storm is forecasted to dump as much as 15 inches of rainfall in some areas. “The sponge, which is the atmosphere in this case, will become bigger, which allows the sponge to hold more water and carry it from oceans farther inland,” Alessi said. “That could be tied into this event here.” 

The body of water in question here is the Gulf of Mexico. An outbreak of tornadoes and heavy rain is typical for this time of year as warming waters send moisture into the southern and central United States. And at the moment, the Gulf of Mexico is exceptionally warm. “There’s a lot more fuel for these rain-producing storms to lead to more flooding,” Alessi said. (The influence of climate change on tornadoes in the U.S., though, isn’t as clear.)

So a warmer Gulf of Mexico is not only producing more moisture, but the atmosphere is also able to soak up more of that moisture than it could before human-caused climate change. Indeed, the U.S. government’s own climate assessments warn that precipitation is already getting more extreme across the country, as are the economic damages from the resulting flooding. That’s projected to get worse with every bit of additional warming.

The problem is that American cities aren’t built to withstand this new atmospheric reality. Urban planners designed them for a different climate of yesteryear, with gutters and sewers that whisk away rainwater as quickly as possible to prevent flooding. With ever more extreme rainfall, that infrastructure can’t keep up, so water builds up and floods. And with storms that last for days, like those tearing through Arkansas and Kentucky right now, soils get saturated until they can hold no more water, exacerbating flooding even more. On Thursday, rescue crews in Nashville, Tennessee were scrambling to save people trapped by surging water levels. 

Now scientists will have to pick through the data to figure out, for instance, how much additional rain the storm dropped because of the sponge effect and warming of the Gulf of Mexico. But the overall trend is abundantly clear: As the planet warms, it doesn’t always get drier, but wetter, too.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Did climate change supercharge the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ storm pummeling the central US? on Apr 4, 2025.