Favorite images from the #HandsOff protest in western #rural #red #NY state. This was a supporter's car :)
The protest/rally had a median age of at least 60, though a few college students also showed up. We're an aging college town in the country. Also extremely Republican, as districts go. More people showed up to this than to any event I remember from the 2016-2020 era. This means about 100 people, maybe.
Our top story: The federal Health Resources and Services Administration designates 192 #Texas counties as mental health provider shortage areas. Nolan County, home to Sweetwater, ranks worse than 155 of those. https://www.texasobserver.org/mental-health-crisis-rural-texas/
“We’re seeing quite a few suicides of people that are struggling economically right now. Things are just hard. It’s a hard place to live.”
Our top story: Rural Texas is facing a mental health crisis. Here's how one town found ways to address the emergency ... https://www.texasobserver.org/mental-health-crisis-rural-texas/
i'm challenging myself to make a teapot every day.
Here's day #15
We had a storm last night here in Kentucky - april showers bring may flowers
This is unfired porcelain. decorated and ready for the kiln!
No tengo gata, por no tener nada, lo que no quita para recibir visitas del vecindario... ;-)
I send thanks to the buyer from Utah who purchased a framed print of
Mule Deer Draw -- https://2-steve-henderson.pixels.com/featured/mule-deer-draw-steve-henderson.html?product=framed-print
May the artwork take you out to a wild and remote place, one where the deer run freely and invite you to do the same.
Rowsley Mill, Derbyshire (1847) by English landscape painter David Cox (1783-1859).
https://stellar-art.pixels.com/featured/rowsley-mill-derbyshire-1847-david-cox-1783-1859.html
Our top story: “They’re not going to know the four-and-a-half, three-and-a-half-hour standoff that happened. They’re not going to know the words that were used that night. They’re not going to know the things that I went through, nor my family went through. Like, nobody will.” https://www.texasobserver.org/mental-health-crisis-rural-texas/
Was the tree lonely, standing all by itself on the hillside, with nary a tree friend beside it?
I don't think so. There was the grass, bushes growing amongst it, the distant forest, the surrounding hills, and all the small animals that stopped to take rest in the tree's shade.
There was always someone to talk to. And then there was that view . . .
Lone Pine greeting card -- https://2-steve-henderson.pixels.com/featured/lone-pine-steve-henderson.html?product=greeting-card
A University, a Rural Town and Their Fight to Survive Trump’s War on Higher Education
—
The administration’s research funding and DEI cuts present an existential threat to regional public universities like Southern Illinois University, the economic backbone of the conservative rural region it serves.
https://www.propublica.org/article/regional-public-universities-trump-funding-dei?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
“People in Sweetwater perceived mental health as, like, you’re lower. They always thought you should just be happy. It was like you had to be a functioning person with depression, and I couldn’t do that every day.” https://www.texasobserver.org/mental-health-crisis-rural-texas/
@ZhiZhu@newsie.socialDirector of federal broadband program quits
https://www.muskwatch.com/i/159516805/director-of-federal-broadband-program-quits
"The director of a massive Dept of #Commerce program to improve #rural broadband access has quit the #government over concerns that the agency would delay the initiative to lavish #Starlink with federal funds...
Feinman urged the #Trump admn against changing BEAD “to benefit [satellite] #technology that delivers slower speeds at higher costs"
![Sub-heading and text:
Director of federal broadband program quits
The director of a massive Department of Commerce program to improve rural broadband access has quit the government over concerns that the agency would delay the initiative to lavish Starlink with federal funds. In a departure email last week, Evan Feinman, who led the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, directed his ire at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” he wrote. Feinman urged the Trump administration against changing BEAD “to benefit [satellite] technology that delivers slower speeds at higher costs to the household paying the bill.”
Lutnick recently said he would overturn BEAD guidelines prioritizing wired internet providers over satellite providers. But the change, according to Feinman, will lead to complications for multiple states on the verge of starting their BEAD-funded projects. “These more-sweeping changes will only cause delays,” he wrote. “Shovels could already be in the ground in three states, and they could be in the ground in half the country by the summer without the proposed changes to project selection.”](https://assets.newsie.social/media_attachments/files/114/207/685/993/738/557/original/ce003ef6b7af87c9.png "Sub-heading and text:
Director of federal broadband program quits
The director of a massive Department of Commerce program to improve rural broadband access has quit the government over concerns that the agency would delay the initiative to lavish Starlink with federal funds. In a departure email last week, Evan Feinman, who led the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, directed his ire at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” he wrote. Feinman urged the Trump administration against changing BEAD “to benefit [satellite] technology that delivers slower speeds at higher costs to the household paying the bill.”
Lutnick recently said he would overturn BEAD guidelines prioritizing wired internet providers over satellite providers. But the change, according to Feinman, will lead to complications for multiple states on the verge of starting their BEAD-funded projects. “These more-sweeping changes will only cause delays,” he wrote. “Shovels could already be in the ground in three states, and they could be in the ground in half the country by the summer without the proposed changes to project selection.”")
I send thanks to the buyer from New York who purchased a framed print of
Waiting -- https://2-steve-henderson.pixels.com/featured/waiting-steve-henderson.html?product=framed-print
It's a gentle moment on the farm, with two friends spending time with one another, though separated by a fence. May the artwork take you to a place and time of peace and well being.
Nubes sobre la arquitectura, de las construcciones a la ribera del río Gévalo.
https://eu.zonerama.com/bobfisherphoto/Photo/4756258/520862786
When painting this abstract landscape painting, I had fun letting watercolor, ink and water flow and playing with the expressive color contrast between the bold red of the barn and the bright greens of the landscape.
@ZhiZhu@newsie.socialTop broadband official exits Commerce Dept with sharp #Musk warning
“Stranding all or part of rural #America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Evan Feinman warned.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/16/official-exits-commerce-department-musk-warning-00232278
" #Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich #ElonMusk ’s satellite #internet company w/money for #rural broadband.
The #technology offered by #Starlink, Musk’s company, is inferior"
@ZhiZhu@newsie.socialUSPS Makes Alarming Deal With Elon Musk’s DOGE
US Postmaster General #LouisDeJoy is welcoming DOGE with open arms.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192777/usps-deal-elon-musk-doge-cuts
"DeJoy said... #DOGE was “an effort aligned” with... shrinking the USPS,
#Musk also believes that the #USPS should be privatized...
#Privatization... would raise prices, hurt postal workers, and negatively impact #rural communities, who are served by USPS thanks to the #Constitution and federal #law."
