Debbie Bruell
Farmers and ranchers in Colorado need to be at the table when decisions are being made regarding agriculture in our state. They are the ones who understand the everyday reality of growing crops and raising livestock. They have critical insights into how to be good stewards of the land and animals.
All too often, rural communities are left out of the process of designing laws aimed at rural communities. The proposed PAUSE Act, Colorado Initiative 16, is a case in point.
PAUSE was initiated by animal welfare activists seeking to protect farm animals from unnecessary suffering and exploitation. The lack of input from the ranching community into this initiative is evident. PAUSE is based on inaccurate information about raising livestock, outlaws practices that actually benefit animals, and could have a significant negative impact on ranchers’ ability to earn a living in Colorado.
By Jerry Underwood April 18, 2021
Valerie Gray s 22 years at the helm of the Chambers County Development Authority have seen a transformation of the rural Alabama county s economy. (contributed)
Few people understand the mechanics of rural economic development better than Valerie Gray, the executive director of the Chambers County Development Authority. After all, she and her team helped engineer a reversal of the county’s fortunes after its traditional industry imploded.
Gray has led the CCDA for more than 22 years. During her tenure, she has overseen a transformation in the east Alabama county’s economy
, which has evolved from its textile industry roots into a diversified mix of auto suppliers and other industrial operations.
Lesotho Teams Innovating After Bridge Collapses on Lone Road to Mountain Health Center
Community members helping PIH staff carry patients over a footbridge to reach facility that serves 8,500 people in isolated region
Posted on Mar 3, 2021 Community members young and old walk past fuel cylinders on the crumbled Mants’onyane bridge in rural Lesotho, where the Jan. 27 collapse has cut off access to Methalaneng Health Center. The center serves 36 communities totaling about 8,500 people. PIH teams have had to constantly innovate to maintain services and supplies at the health center.
Photo by Mpho Marole/PIH
The collapse of a bridge on the lone road to an isolated health center high in the mountains of Lesotho has Partners In Health teams finding innovative ways to maintain care, including carrying patients on stretchers over a narrow footbridge during rainy season, sometimes at night, and sometimes including pregnant women who need transportation to the district hospi
âEverybody in the south that I talk to is talking about what happened in Georgia,â said Oleta Fitzgerald, a Mississippi organizer who runs the Southern Black Womenâs Rural Initiative, which targets barriers faced by southern Black women. âItâs like weâve been electrified.â
Mobilizing voters in the south is not easy, Fitzgerald and other organizers said. Many southern states, including Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas, make it difficult to cast a ballot with strict voter ID laws and draconian restrictions on voting by mail.
White Republicans hold the levers of power in state houses and governorâs mansions. And gerrymandered electoral districts have helped entrench Republican power and Jim Crow-era laws disenfranchising people with felony convictions leave swaths of the Black voting population unable to vote.