Plans are being laid in Washington to repeal the Affordable Care Act as soon as Donald Trump takes the presidential oath of office. Hidden inside the law is a little-known provision unrelated to the health insurance expansion that helps rural hospitals across America stay open.  It’s called the 340B drug discount program. The ACA made 1,100 rural hospitals eligible and it requires drug companies to supply these remote providers with discounted medications. [node:read-more:link]

Repeal of the Affordable Care Act could cost more than 2.5 million jobs, and many would come from the nation’s hospitals and health systems, new reports and industry lobbies say.  The ACA’s subsidized private individual coverage and expanded Medicaid benefits have turned patients who couldn’t afford care into paying customers, allowing hospitals to hire more nurses, medical technicians, doctors and other caregivers to treat millions of newly insured Americans.   “Given that our hospitals already operate with no margin on average, it's hard to see how they could avoid layoffs if repeal incre [node:read-more:link]

The Obama administration has increased protection for a humble bumblebee.  The rusty-patched bumblebee, once common across the continental United States, has been designated an endangered species by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the country’s first bumblebee, and the first bee from the lower 48 states, to be added to the register. [node:read-more:link]

ith its large crop this season, the Michigan apple industry set new shipment records from mid-October through Christmas and is claiming the title of second-largest apple producer away from New York. Michigan may have beaten New York this season in apple production, but it might be just temporary. Both states are upping their game in competition with Washington. [node:read-more:link]

Washington state vegetable farmers Burr and Rosella Mosby shifted in their seats and furrowed their brows as they listened to a panel discuss immigration issues during a session at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention.  USDA economist Tom Hertz was providing some troubling numbers for the Mosbys and other farmers who depend on workers to plant, prune, pick and pack their crops. “We hand-harvest everything,” Burr Mosby said.  Mexican immigration to the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

December 25, 2016, marks the 70th anniversary of the release of It’s a Wonderful Life. This film is far more than a charming, nostalgic, and magical look at a different time in small-city America. [node:read-more:link]

Once-bustling Renwick, Iowa, lost its grocery, hardware store, school and Ford dealership years ago, but when its sole bar closed last June, it seemed to some residents there wasn't much of a town left. So a group of seven friends and spouses who had met for beers at the bar for decades took matters into their own hands. One of them bought the place and the others pooled their money to fix it up, showing up after work to replace floors and walls on steamy summer nights before reopening in September as the Blue Moose Saloon. [node:read-more:link]

Urban-based conservation groups need get out of their isolated circles and do a better job of including rural communities in their efforts to protect public lands, says the director of a hiking-trail association in southern Oregon. [node:read-more:link]

Several consumers can proceed with a lawsuit alleging they were deceived by vegetable oil labeled as “100 percent natural” despite containing genetically engineered ingredients.  In 2015, a federal judge in California agreed to certify the lawsuit against the Conagra food company as a class action, allowing other consumers to be included in the litigation. However, the case was put on hold while Conagra challenged the class certification before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. [node:read-more:link]

Farmers have put a tremendous amount of hope into the new presidential administration, one that built its candidacy on throwing out the political party which had "Hope" as a central theme.  That's really the only way to interpret the results of the latest DTN/The Progressive Farmer Agricultural Confidence Index, based on responses from 500 farmers from across the United States. Answers farmers gave to an early December survey produced an Ag Confidence Index of 98, up considerably from the 72 rating in August, and up from the 75.1 rating farmers set in December 2015. [node:read-more:link]