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Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Small Farmers Are Struggling With Trumpian Chaos—and Bracing for More
Fielding phone calls from concerned growers has become a commonplace occurrence for Nick Levendofsky, the executive director of the Kansas Farmers Union. The upheaval in the U.S. Department of Agriculture since President Donald Trump took office in January has left many farmers with unfulfilled contracts and broken commitments. Grants that once offered vital financial lifelines have been frozen. Programs that once provided assistance and aid have been eliminated. Uncertainty about the future has become the bumper crop. 'It's just been a barrage from the very beginning,' said Levendofsky of the changes made by the Trump administration. 'We were getting phone calls from not just members of ours, but farmers and ranchers in general, saying, 'What do we do?'' He recalled a recent conversation with the owner of a vineyard in northeastern Kansas who had been promised a loan to build solar panels and an electric vehicle charger. But with USDA freezing funding for the renewable energy projects guaranteed by the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, the farmer was stuck with the bill for the already completed project. 'He had a $55,000 USDA-guaranteed loan that now USDA said, 'We're not going to pay,'' said Levendofsky. In April, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release the previously authorized frozen funds. That same month, however, the USDA canceled the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, a separate grant program intended to promote sustainable farming and forestry practices. The administration repackaged that grant as 'Advancing Markets for Producers,' with existing agreements under review. The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, or MOFGA, was among the organizations affected by these changes. The group had a multiyear grant from the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, said executive director Sarah Alexander. Along with another Maine-based group, MOFGA was slated to work with 200 farms in the state to assess whether they met certain criteria to receive funds for improving climate resiliency. 'That money has gone away, and that's been really devastating,' said Alexander. 'That's a really direct impact that's both on our budget and work this year with our staff's [ability] to provide direct training and technical assistance to those farms, but then also the farms ultimately losing out on that money.' The USDA announced in March that it would issue up to $10 billion in relief for commodity producers for the 2024 crop year, and the White House has mulled additional financial assistance for farmers to mitigate potential effects from tariffs. During Trump's first term, USDA doled out roughly $23 billion in aid to farmers amid retaliatory Chinese tariffs on certain American imports, including wheat, soybeans, and corn. Given the current uncertainty surrounding the tariffs that Trump can and may impose—and the status of ongoing trade negotiations with China—it's unclear what kind of financial assistance farmers can expect this time around, if any. But Erin Foster West, policy director at the National Young Farmers Coalition, said that programs intended to help commodity farmers have less of an impact for smaller-scale producers. Meanwhile, the USDA has eliminated the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, which connected small farmers to community food pantries and anti-hunger organizations, as well as the Local Food for Schools program, which allowed schools and childcare facilities to purchase food from local farms. West said that the LFPA had been particularly helpful for members of her organization at the beginning of their careers. 'Many were using that as sort of a bridge as they were growing or expanding, and didn't expect to have that forever but expected to have it for maybe a few more years,' said West. 'Now it feels like the rug has just been pulled out from underneath them without any notice, without any support, without any communication.' Producers also highlight the stalling of farm bill negotiations in Congress as a major source of worry. Typically approved every five years, the farm bill governs the country's nutrition, agricultural, conservation, and forestry policy and is historically passed on a bipartisan basis. However, the 2018 farm bill has been extended twice—most recently at the end of last year—and discussions among lawmakers on crafting the new measure have been largely stagnant. Meanwhile, some of the agenda items that would typically be included in the farm bill are instead being addressed by the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, the massive Republican legislative package including tax breaks and dramatic cuts to government spending. The bill, which narrowly passed in the House last week, slashes nearly $300 billion from nutrition programs, but includes roughly $60 billion for farm safety-net programs. The measure—which is moving through a process known as 'budget reconciliation' to avoid the 60-vote threshold for approving legislation in the upper chamber—is now under consideration in the Senate. The changes to SNAP include tightened work requirements, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated would lead to more than three million recipients losing their benefits in an average month. The bill would also push more of the cost of SNAP onto states, which the CBO estimates could lead to reduced or loss of benefits for around 1.3 million people. Alexander argued that the farm bill was the preferred venue for hashing out nutrition and farm policy. 'They are two sides of the same coin because the food that we're producing in this country should be what is feeding our citizens,' she said. 'SNAP at its essence should be supporting what our farmers are producing.' Farmers and their communities are thus concerned not only about changes in the USDA, but how that upheaval might be compounded by changes to SNAP. Nichelle Harriott, policy director at HEAL Food Alliance, a coalition of organizations that work directly with farming and food systems, said that member groups were now floundering amid the uncertainty on the executive and legislative level. 'We have a member in Georgia, for instance, who the entirety of their work is to ensure that vulnerable children in their communities have access to healthy nutrition. And of course, with the absence of federal funding to do that work—as well as the impending cuts of SNAP—they are really seeing increasing challenges,' said Harriott. If would-be SNAP recipients do not have the benefits to spend at their grocery stores, she said, and small producers also cannot share their crops, there will be 'a lot of ripple effects in local communities.' Levendofsky expressed frustration that many of the people who would be most affected by this double whammy of changes live in rural areas—both producers and SNAP recipients. Rural Americans have consistently higher rates of food insecurity, and non-metro areas have higher rates of participation in SNAP than their urban counterparts. 'We're hurting the very people who have voted for so many of these folks in Congress, and even folks that voted for this administration,' said Levendofsky. 'I'm nervous about what's coming because I think, especially, the folks that supported this administration in the last election didn't feel like they were going to be affected. I think they probably felt like this was, you know, a 'safe' bet or vote for them, and that it wasn't gonna be a problem. Well, it's about to be a problem.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How one school district worked with researchers to stop restraining kids
The Maine Department of Education touts the approach taken by the Topsham-area school district, MSAD 75, to reduce the use of restraint and seclusion. Amy Hall, left, special education director, and Samantha Lapointe, elementary special education coordinator, helped implement the alternative approach. (Troy Bennett/Maine Morning Star) About a decade ago, a Maine school district became concerned about how often staff members physically restrained students who were acting out and put them in seclusion rooms, especially the district's 500 or so special education students. Those tactics are only supposed to be used in emergencies under state law, but at the time, Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 75 recorded 176 restraints and 152 seclusions on just 15 students, according to district-level data shared with Maine Morning Star. Staff were routinely scratched and bruised in the process, said Amy Hall, the district's special education director. 'We started to get very concerned about the level of staff injuries, student injuries, and just the level of crisis we were dealing with in our schools,' Hall said. So in 2018, the district decided to pursue an alternative. Today, because staff members now view student behavioral issues as a problem to prevent and solve, rather than an infraction to punish — and because of a significant investment in training to execute that shift in mindset — the 2,350-student district's use of restraint and seclusion is down to the single digits: two restraints and seven seclusions in the 2022-23 school year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Maine Department of Education is touting that success story in the hope that more districts will sign onto MSAD 75's approach and rely less on restraint and seclusion — when a staff member temporarily immobilizes a student and places them alone in a room until they calm down. Research has shown that the tactics 'are not effective in altering a student's behavior and that the experience of being restrained and secluded can be traumatizing and cause lasting effects for students,' according to the Maine DOE website. The state and some school districts have worked to reduce their use for years due to staff and student injuries. The model MSAD 75 turned to was developed by a Maine-based nonprofit, Lives in the Balance, that works nationally and has been adopted by a handful of other districts — including the much larger Fairfax Public Schools in Virginia — to dramatically reduce their use of restraint and seclusion. But despite that model's success, it has not been widely adopted across Maine, according to Ben Jones, director of the organization's legal and policy initiatives. Although Lives in the Balance has offered free technical assistance to districts since 2022 through a state Department of Education partnership, Jones said only two districts have followed up on the offer. Sarah Wilkinson, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Southern Maine who recently co-authored a report on student behavior, said the state is failing to provide adequate assistance to districts to make sure these tools can be implemented properly. 'Any one of these programs would decrease the behavioral crises, and then need for seclusion or restraint. But part of the issue there is that the state doesn't really have the infrastructure to support implementation,' Wilkinson said. In response to questions about state support, Chloe Teboe, a spokesperson for Maine DOE, said the department provides resources such as monthly office hours, one-on-one consultations, mentoring and regular training, available for districts that want them. 'What works in Falmouth isn't going to work in Machias or Fort Kent, and that's where folks at the district level need support to implement these approaches in a way that works for their population,' Wilkinson said. Since 2021, Maine has limited the circumstances under which school staff can restrain and seclude students through a change in state law that aimed to nudge districts away from their frequent use. But recent complaints of worsening student behavior since the pandemic led to an effort to loosen those restrictions, which disability rights advocates fear could result in a spike. The Topsham-area district, MSAD 75, is seeing that same increase in extreme behavior among younger students, Hall said, but relaxing the law on restraint and seclusion is not the answer. 'The mental health needs of our population of students have increased, while restraints and seclusions have dramatically decreased,' she said. Instead, Hall advocates for educators to rethink how they view behavior. Most kids will do well in school if they can. Problems with behavior often signal a response to an underlying problem that educators need to uncover and address, she said. 'If a kid is not doing well, then we need to shift the way that we're working with that student,' Hall said. 'Once we get to a restraint or in a seclusion, you're way too late.' The founder of Lives in the Balance, Ross Greene, a child clinical psychologist and former Harvard Medical School faculty member, came up with the model based on a mindset shift that MSAD 75 adopted. Greene's approach helps schools address what he calls 'concerning behaviors' without resorting to punitive measures, based on the idea that when children struggle with frustration, refuse to follow instructions, or can't keep up academically or socially, their response is to act out. 'I get it, those behaviors are dangerous and scary and disruptive, but they're communicating the exact same thing — they're having difficulty meeting a particular expectation,' he said. Rather than respond with punishment or continue to demand compliance, educators can work with the child to identify and address the underlying problems. By temporarily adjusting expectations and focusing on solving problems, educators can prevent behavioral issues from escalating and build students' skills so they can meet expectations in the future, Greene said. 'The problem is that a lot of adults, not just in schools, see a kid who's having difficulty meeting an expectation as being noncompliant, and what they do is they shoot for compliance,' he said. Greene's Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model has been studied in students with significant behavioral challenges, including nonverbal students and students with oppositional defiant disorder, and those studies have found the model leads to notable improvements. One district that's advocating to loosen the state's restraint and seclusion law, MSAD 11 in Gardiner, said it considered Greene's model but worries that the approach is not enough to address increased reports of aggressive student behavior. 'Given that we've almost never experienced the type of dysregulation we're seeing in very early learners, I am not confident that only going down the proactive pathway is a solution to the current context and climate that we are in,' said Angela Hardy, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. In the upcoming school year, Hardy said the district will try to implement some strategies that worked for MSAD 75 and that Greene advocates for, such as designing a learning environment that helps prevent incidents. A special education teacher at the time, Samantha Lapointe started thinking that restraints and seclusions were no longer an option when MSAD 75 first made the change, even though the law permits their use in emergencies. 'It's hard to imagine how you would do business without those tools, until you commit to thinking about not having them,' said Lapointe, who is now the district's elementary special education coordinator. 'That leads to a lot of thinking about what to do instead — and that leads you into new territory, right around what new skillsets need to be stronger, what prevention strategies need to be stronger.' Classroom design is one element of prevention, Lapointe said. The idea is to minimize any danger in case a student acts out — and reduce the need for staff to physically intervene. She started working with students on the floor, then brought in a sofa. When the school got new furniture, she requested two heavy, communal tables instead of individual desks that students could easily move or overturn. The tables also had to be low to the ground so students climbing atop them would not be in danger. And Lapointe hung all the posters high enough so elementary students couldn't rip them off the walls. Staff also locked the closet that stored toys and activities. 'I've still had kids climb on tables, and I've had to ask myself, how dangerous is this really?' she said. 'Is it an extreme, imminent risk of harm if they fall? You should be constantly weighing out what really constitutes danger to the extent that you would need to go hands-on.' The other piece was training ed techs — aides who often work one-on-one with students — in the new approach. 'Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand,' Lapointe said. 'The way you talk to kids matters a lot.' Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand. The way you talk to kids matters a lot. – Samantha Lapointe, MSAD 75 elementary special education coordinator If a student tries to leave the classroom, for example, instead of stopping them, staff can start a conversation by asking them where they're going, what they need to leave for and what their plan is after leaving, she said. Meanwhile, she also trained her staff to ask themselves: 'What can I tolerate? Why can't they leave the classroom? What's the worst that's going to happen?' 'The level of thinking and intentional decision-making needs to be very high, and that's one thing also that I train my staff in: intentionality,' Lapointe said. 'You must ask yourself, before you say anything, before you do anything: What is it you're going to say or do and why? What outcome are you hoping to get?' That's the kind of training Maine teachers are asking for and largely not receiving, said Wilkinson with the University of Southern Maine. 'Teachers or ed techs will report, 'We've been safety-care trained, we've had de-escalation training' … all of these things that really only happen when a behavior gets to a certain point,' Wilkinson said. 'That means that the behavior has to get to that point before they have the skills to deal with it. Teachers are not reporting that they're confident with all of the things you would do before the behavior escalates.' Even in the Topsham-area district, the training in Collaborative and Proactive Solutions isn't complete. Lapointe said it's now a priority to expand beyond special education to general education classroom teachers and higher grades. The Topsham-area district combines Greene's model with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS — a research-based model used in schools across the country that's built around positive reinforcement of good behavior and gradually increasing levels of intervention and consequences for kids who misbehave. This is how the combination of the two models could look. In the library, the expectation for all students is that they keep their voices low and read, Hall said. PBIS lays out a system to reinforce positive behavior, often through small rewards, and address infractions. But Greene's approach would come into play if a student can't keep quiet in the library, she said. It may be that the child can't focus, keep still, has sensory issues, or is too stimulated in that setting. Instead of punishing the child, teachers try to problem solve: They might offer them headphones, move their reading time to a quiet classroom, or even allow the child to leave the library, Hall said. Moving away from demanding compliance from students helps educators understand and work with them to solve the issue underlying the behavior, instead of an outburst or aggression stemming from it, she said. 'Instead of just asking them to do the same thing over again and sustain in an environment that they can't, you try to figure out what's behind the behavior,' Hall said. 'We still have rewards, and kids still have consequences, but the consequences just aren't, 'We're going to put you in a seclusion room.' Because that's not a consequence, that's a crisis response.' The series was produced as a project for the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism's National Fellowship Fund for Reporting on Child Well-being. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Maine Morning Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maine Morning Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lauren McCauley for questions: info@
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
How one Maine district worked with researchers to stop restraining kids
The Maine Department of Education touts the approach taken by the Topsham-area school district, MSAD 75, to reduce the use of restraint and seclusion. Amy Hall (left), special education director, and Samantha Lapointe (right), elementary special education coordinator, helped implement the alternative approach. (Photo by Troy Bennett / Maine Morning Star) About a decade ago, a Topsham-area school district became concerned about how often staff members physically restrained students who were acting out and put them in seclusion rooms, especially the district's 500 or so special education students. Those tactics are only supposed to be used in emergencies under state law, but at the time, Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 75 recorded 176 restraints and 152 seclusions on just 15 students, according to district-level data shared with Maine Morning Star. Staff were routinely scratched and bruised in the process, said Amy Hall, the district's special education director. May 21: Restraint and seclusion are only supposed to be used on students in emergency situations. Accounts from families and educators show how districts' interpretation of state law vary widely and how traumatic the experiences can be. May 22: State data reveals only a fraction of Maine's schools and districts are consistently reporting incidents of restraint and seclusion in violation of state law. Even with the underreporting, Maine schools are relying on these practices thousands of times per year. May 23: How one district worked with researchers to change its approach to student behavior and significantly reduced the use of restraint and seclusion 'We started to get very concerned about the level of staff injuries, student injuries, and just the level of crisis we were dealing with in our schools,' Hall said. So in 2018, the district decided to pursue an alternative. Today, because staff members now view student behavioral issues as a problem to prevent and solve, rather than an infraction to punish — and because of a significant investment in training to execute that shift in mindset — the 2,350-student district's use of restraint and seclusion is down to the single digits: two restraints and seven seclusions in the 2022-23 school year. The Maine Department of Education is touting that success story in the hope that more districts will sign onto MSAD 75's approach and rely less on restraint and seclusion — when a staff member temporarily immobilizes a student and places them alone in a room until they calm down. Research has shown that the tactics 'are not effective in altering a student's behavior and that the experience of being restrained and secluded can be traumatizing and cause lasting effects for students,' according to the Maine DOE website. The state and some school districts have worked to reduce their use for years due to staff and student injuries. The model MSAD 75 turned to was developed by a Maine-based nonprofit, Lives in the Balance, that works nationally and has been adopted by a handful of other districts — including the much larger Fairfax Public Schools in Virginia — to dramatically reduce their use of restraint and seclusion. But despite that model's success, it has not been widely adopted across Maine, according to Ben Jones, director of the organization's legal and policy initiatives. Although Lives in the Balance has offered free technical assistance to districts since 2022 through a state Department of Education partnership, Jones said only two districts have followed up on the offer. Sarah Wilkinson, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Southern Maine who recently co-authored a report on student behavior, said the state is failing to provide adequate assistance to districts to make sure these tools can be implemented properly. 'Any one of these programs would decrease the behavioral crises, and then need for seclusion or restraint. But part of the issue there is that the state doesn't really have the infrastructure to support implementation,' Wilkinson said. In response to questions about state support, Chloe Teboe, a spokesperson for Maine DOE, said the department provides resources such as monthly office hours, one-on-one consultations, mentoring and regular training, available for districts that want them. 'What works in Falmouth isn't going to work in Machias or Fort Kent, and that's where folks at the district level need support to implement these approaches in a way that works for their population,' Wilkinson said. Since 2021, Maine has limited the circumstances under which school staff can restrain and seclude students through a change in state law that aimed to nudge districts away from their frequent use. But recent complaints of worsening student behavior since the pandemic led to an effort to loosen those restrictions, which disability rights advocates fear could result in a spike. The Topsham-area district, MSAD 75, is seeing that same increase in extreme behavior among younger students, Hall said, but relaxing the law on restraint and seclusion is not the answer. 'The mental health needs of our population of students have increased, while restraints and seclusions have dramatically decreased,' she said. Instead, Hall advocates for educators to rethink how they view behavior. Most kids will do well in school if they can. Problems with behavior often signal a response to an underlying problem that educators need to uncover and address, she said. 'If a kid is not doing well, then we need to shift the way that we're working with that student,' Hall said. 'Once we get to a restraint or in a seclusion, you're way too late.' The founder of Lives in the Balance, Ross Greene, a child clinical psychologist and former Harvard Medical School faculty member, came up with the model based on a mindset shift that MSAD 75 adopted. Greene's approach helps schools address what he calls 'concerning behaviors' without resorting to punitive measures, based on the idea that when children struggle with frustration, refuse to follow instructions, or can't keep up academically or socially, their response is to act out. 'I get it, those behaviors are dangerous and scary and disruptive, but they're communicating the exact same thing — they're having difficulty meeting a particular expectation,' he said. Rather than respond with punishment or continue to demand compliance, educators can work with the child to identify and address the underlying problems. By temporarily adjusting expectations and focusing on solving problems, educators can prevent behavioral issues from escalating and build students' skills so they can meet expectations in the future, Greene said. 'The problem is that a lot of adults, not just in schools, see a kid who's having difficulty meeting an expectation as being noncompliant, and what they do is they shoot for compliance,' he said. Greene's Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model has been studied in students with significant behavioral challenges, including nonverbal students and students with oppositional defiant disorder, and those studies have found the model leads to notable improvements. One district that's advocating to loosen the state's restraint and seclusion law, MSAD 11 in Gardiner, said it considered Greene's model but worries that the approach is not enough to address increased reports of aggressive student behavior. 'Given that we've almost never experienced the type of dysregulation we're seeing in very early learners, I am not confident that only going down the proactive pathway is a solution to the current context and climate that we are in,' said Angela Hardy, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. In the upcoming school year, Hardy said the district will try to implement some strategies that worked for MSAD 75 and that Greene advocates for, such as designing a learning environment that helps prevent incidents. A special education teacher at the time, Samantha Lapointe started thinking that restraints and seclusions were no longer an option when MSAD 75 first made the change, even though the law permits their use in emergencies. 'It's hard to imagine how you would do business without those tools, until you commit to thinking about not having them,' said Lapointe, who is now the district's elementary special education coordinator. 'That leads to a lot of thinking about what to do instead — and that leads you into new territory, right around what new skillsets need to be stronger, what prevention strategies need to be stronger.' Classroom design is one element of prevention, Lapointe said. The idea is to minimize any danger in case a student acts out — and reduce the need for staff to physically intervene. She started working with students on the floor, then brought in a sofa. When the school got new furniture, she requested two heavy, communal tables instead of individual desks that students could easily move or overturn. The tables also had to be low to the ground so students climbing atop them would not be in danger. And Lapointe hung all the posters high enough so elementary students couldn't rip them off the walls. Staff also locked the closet that stored toys and activities. 'I've still had kids climb on tables, and I've had to ask myself, how dangerous is this really?' she said. 'Is it an extreme, imminent risk of harm if they fall? You should be constantly weighing out what really constitutes danger to the extent that you would need to go hands-on.' The other piece was training ed techs — aides who often work one-on-one with students — in the new approach. 'Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand,' Lapointe said. 'The way you talk to kids matters a lot.' Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand. The way you talk to kids matters a lot. – Samantha Lapointe, MSAD 75 elementary special education coordinator If a student tries to leave the classroom, for example, instead of stopping them, staff can start a conversation by asking them where they're going, what they need to leave for and what their plan is after leaving, she said. Meanwhile, she also trained her staff to ask themselves: 'What can I tolerate? Why can't they leave the classroom? What's the worst that's going to happen?' 'The level of thinking and intentional decision-making needs to be very high, and that's one thing also that I train my staff in: intentionality,' Lapointe said. 'You must ask yourself, before you say anything, before you do anything: What is it you're going to say or do and why? What outcome are you hoping to get?' That's the kind of training Maine teachers are asking for and largely not receiving, said Wilkinson with the University of Southern Maine. 'Teachers or ed techs will report, 'We've been safety-care trained, we've had de-escalation training' … all of these things that really only happen when a behavior gets to a certain point,' Wilkinson said. 'That means that the behavior has to get to that point before they have the skills to deal with it. Teachers are not reporting that they're confident with all of the things you would do before the behavior escalates.' Even in the Topsham-area district, the training in Collaborative and Proactive Solutions isn't complete. Lapointe said it's now a priority to expand beyond special education to general education classroom teachers and higher grades. The Topsham-area district combines Greene's model with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS — a research-based model used in schools across the country that's built around positive reinforcement of good behavior and gradually increasing levels of intervention and consequences for kids who misbehave. This is how the combination of the two models could look. In the library, the expectation for all students is that they keep their voices low and read, Hall said. PBIS lays out a system to reinforce positive behavior, often through small rewards, and address infractions. But Greene's approach would come into play if a student can't keep quiet in the library, she said. It may be that the child can't focus, keep still, has sensory issues, or is too stimulated in that setting. Instead of punishing the child, teachers try to problem solve: They might offer them headphones, move their reading time to a quiet classroom, or even allow the child to leave the library, Hall said. Moving away from demanding compliance from students helps educators understand and work with them to solve the issue underlying the behavior, instead of an outburst or aggression stemming from it, she said. 'Instead of just asking them to do the same thing over again and sustain in an environment that they can't, you try to figure out what's behind the behavior,' Hall said. 'We still have rewards, and kids still have consequences, but the consequences just aren't, 'We're going to put you in a seclusion room.' Because that's not a consequence, that's a crisis response.' The series was produced as a project for the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism's National Fellowship Fund for Reporting on Child Well-being SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Citing Maine Morning Star reporting, Pingree presses EPA on PFAS grant terminations
Rep. Chellie Pingree outside the U.S. Capitol. (Rep. Chellie Pingree via Facebook) Citing Maine Morning Star's reporting, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine pressed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on conflicting statements about why it cut grants for forever chemical research in Maine. Earlier this month, the EPA terminated all of the grants it had awarded for research into reducing per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as PFAS, in the food supply, including to three Maine-based teams led by the Mi'kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe and the University of Maine. The three grants for Maine projects amounted to almost $5 million. The termination notices read, 'The objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.' In a statement to Maine Morning Star, the EPA Press Office equated the grants to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion measures. However, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin publicly stated the grants were important and already congressionally appropriated when questioned by Pingree. Overall, the agency has highlighted combating PFAS contamination as a priority in recent weeks. Despite saying PFAS contamination is a priority, EPA cut millions in funding for research in Maine In a letter to Zeldin on Thursday, Pingree requested he address these inconsistencies and clarify EPA priorities by May 30. 'Do you and the EPA consider tribes – which are sovereign governments to which we have trust and treaty responsibilities – 'DEI?' If so, under what basis do you make that claim?' one of Pingree's questions to Zeldin in the letter reads. When asked why the grants no longer aligned with agency priorities, the EPA Press Office sent a statement on May 16 to Maine Morning Star, which read:, 'As with any change in administration, the EPA has been reviewing all of its grant programs and awarded grants to ensure each is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with administration priorities. Maybe the Biden-Harris administration shouldn't have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and 'environmental justice' preferencing on the EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment treating tribes and Alaska Natives as such.' Pingree and several of the researchers pushed back on this response, pointing out that the research objectives do not involve DEI or environmental justice and are about protecting public health. PFAS have been linked to long term adverse health outcomes, such as cancers and weakened immune systems, and their pervasiveness in agriculture is not fully understood. The statement is also directly at odds with the response Zeldin gave to Pingree about the grant terminations during an Appropriations subcommittee hearing on May 15. After Zeldin told the subcommittee that addressing PFAS contamination is a priority for the agency and him personally, Pingree asked, 'Since these grants are consistent with the EPA priorities, do you know why they were terminated?' Zeldin responded, 'It's an important program. It's something that's congressionally appropriated. The agency's going through a reorg, so the way that the program and these grants are administered are going to be different going forward. But these are important grants. I look forward to working with you, and your team as we're able to continue that good work going forward.' In light of these conflicting responses, Pingree asked Zeldin in her letter to confirm that addressing PFAS is a priority for the agency. 'If PFAS is a priority, which I believe you have stated many times, please provide more information about why the above listed grants were terminated,' the letter reads. 'They are not 'DEI' grants and they meet a key priority of the Agency so I would like some clarity as to the exact reasoning for these grant terminations.' The grantees have 30 days from their termination notices to make the case that their work is in compliance with the EPA's priorities. The team headed by the Mi'kmaq Nation filed its appeal on Wednesday. If the agency determines the grants are in line with agency priorities, Pingree also requested information on how and when the awards will be reinstated. Referring to the agency's work as a whole, Pingree additionally pressed Zeldin about the agency's plans for PFAS research beyond these grants. 'Without grants that fund research and scientific advancement for PFAS remediation, how will the EPA make determinations about effective remediation for PFAS in agriculture, water systems, and contaminated lands?' she wrote in the letter. Read more about the grants here. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Yellow Nets $14M in Terminal Sales, Sets Up Saia to Further Expand US Footprint
Yellow Corp. is selling off another 10 terminals as the former less-than-truckload (LTL) company continues to liquidate its real estate. Private sales of the terminals generated $14.25 million for the administrators handling the company's bankruptcy proceedings. More from Sourcing Journal Trucking Capacity Tightens as Tariffs Derail Early 2025 Momentum Layoffs Coming for Trucking, Retail Ahead of Projected Recession, Report Says Trump EO Reinforces English Lanugage-Proficiency Requirement for Truckers Three of the terminals will be acquired by Saia, a longtime Yellow rival that already bought 28 locations from the insolvent company during its first two real estate auctions in late 2023. In a series of moves announced on May 5, the Johns Creek, Ga.-based trucking firm is scooping up three terminal leases for $6.5 million—a 72-door center in Orlando, Fla.; a 54-door location in Deer Park, N.Y.; and a facility with 21 doors in Calexico, Calif. The deal will not be approved before May 29, according to a bankruptcy court filing. Approval for the deal had been held up by insurance provider Chubb Cos. before legal paperwork was amended. Judge Craig Goldblatt will review the amended agreement on May 29. Saia acquired 17 service centers for $235.7 million in the first auction in December 2023, which netted $1.88 billion for Yellow as the company's administrators sought to pay off its pre-bankruptcy debt. Later that month, Saia won 11 sites for a combined $7.9 million. That second auction saw 23 properties awarded to new bidders for $82.9 million. As of April, Saia operates 213 terminals, having opened 21 of the terminals it bought from Yellow last year. The trucking company has acquired the second-most of Yellow's terminals since they've been put on the market, with Saia's now-31 facilities only falling behind the 36 scooped up by Estes Express Lines. XPO acquired 28 sites. According to Saia CEO Fritz Holzgrefe, the company's revenue growth was concentrated in its newer markets. 'We're beginning to see the benefit of a national network that allows us to serve our customers' needs more immediately than has been the case in the past, evidenced by our shipment growth in those new markets,' said Holzgrefe during the company's earnings call on April 25. The company expects to open five or six more of the locations in 2025, Holzgrefe said in a February earnings call. The bankruptcy court approved the sale of seven terminals outside the Saia transaction, all to companies that haven't made purchases of Yellow real estate before. One 80-door terminal in Pontiac was sold to trucking company Moon Star Express for $10 million. That deal was the most valuable of the transactions, and was approved May 14. The remaining six deals were relatively small in comparison. Baldor, a Maine-based specialty foods distributor, bought an 18-door terminal in Westbrook, Maine, for $1.6 million. An affiliate of Northland Towing, Borg Enterprises, is acquiring a 27-door terminal in Fargo, N.D., for $1.6 million. Gale Group acquired a terminal in Hubbard, Ohio for $140,000; while Midas Vantage Partners Management bought a service center in Mobile, Ala. for $480,000. United Holdings Group grabbed an Atlanta, Ill. terminal for $450,000, while Goodland Partners obtained a site in Goodland, Kan. for $25,000. Throughout the rolling private sale process, other trucking firms including LTL players like Knight-Swift, A. Duie Pyle, TFI International, ArcBest's ABF Freight and R+L Carriers have struck deals to buy Yellow's terminals. Yellow's estate has sold more than 180 terminals for more than $2.2 billion since it first got the nod to liquidate its assets in late 2023. With the recent terminal sales, as well as the offloading to Saia pending approval, Yellow has roughly 79 combined owned and leased terminals still under its estate. The company filed for bankruptcy in August 2023, less than a week after officially ceasing operations. On the surface, the firm's downfall was rapid as its 22,000 Teamsters employees threatened strike action, spooking many Yellow customers to shift freight to other LTL carriers. The strike never occurred, but it was too late for the century-old carrier. Fallout over who is getting paid, and how, has held up the bankruptcy process for nearly two years. While Yellow agreed with many of its creditors on an amended Chapter 11 plan that would substantially reduce billions in claim amounts by its pension funds, its largest shareholder still hasn't backed a deal. In late April, hedge fund MFN Partners asked the bankruptcy court to convert the trucking company's Chapter 11 plan to a trustee-controlled Chapter 7 liquidation. MFN has argued that Yellow has spent too much money as it works to sell off assets and resolve litigation, and that it needs an independent trustee to oversee the remainder of the proceedings. According to the asset management firm, Yellow spent $10.9 million in fees across March and April. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
