Montana: Like many states, Montana faces a critical shortage of primary care physicians. As Missoulian State Bureau’s Mike Dennison reported, private family doctors are leaving their profession because of financial concerns or are retiring, and fewer medical students are willing to take their places.

Medical students are often wary of committing themselves to a career with such long hours and seemingly few benefits. It takes a lot of money to start and run a private practice and a lot of stamina to spend a day seeing patients and then deal with billing and insurance.

Colorado: San Miguel County, Colorado, and several environmental groups have sued United States federal agencies in an effort to stop the construction of a 6,000 mile “energy corridor” through the West. The environmental coalition alleges the corridor doesn’t do enough to encourage renewable energy and puts public lands and wildlife at risk.

The complaint, filed in a San Francisco federal district court, writes that the Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Dept. of Agriculture, and the U.S. Forest Service created “West-wide Energy Corridors” without considering environmental impacts, without analyzing alternatives to their preferred pathways, and without considering numerous federal policies that support renewable energy development.

Georgia: Pecan scab, the #1 enemy of Georgia pecans, is threatening this year’s pecan harvest. Scab thrives in wet, humid conditions and scars pecan husks, reduces yield and hurts quality. “Any time you have a wet summer like we’ve had, you will end up with pecan scab.” said Bill McWilliams, a pecan farmer in Crisp County, Georgia.

About half of Georgia’s 120,000 acres of commercial orchards are planted in pecan varieties that are susceptible to scab. Some farmers spray to control the scab up to 15 times in the summer months. The cost of spraying steeply cuts into profits as one spray can cost $10 to $14 per acre.

Contact: Virginia Wolking, virginiaw@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1017 for more information or to suggest Across the Nation items.