Nationwide: Growing old in rural areas is getting harder due to cuts to local and state governments that fund programs for the elderly.

At least 24 states have cut back on such programs, and hundreds of millions of dollars in additional cuts are possible next year. The difficulties of growing older are especially prevalent in rural America because the most rapidly aging places in the country are not retirement communities but remote rural areas that many young people leave behind.

West Virginia: A federal judge in Maryland stopped expansion of a West Virginia wind farm, claiming its large turbines would kill endangered Indiana bats. Judge Roger W. Titus ruled that Chicago-based Invenergy can finish construction of 40 windmills on an Appalachian ridge in Greenbrier County. But they can’t move forward on the $300 million project, which includes 122 turbines along a 23-mile stretch, without a special permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rhode Island: The Swiss Village Foundation, located on a 45-acre estate in Newport, is the only organization in the country dedicated to conserving rare heritage livestock breeds by freezing their semen and embryos. To date, the foundation has preserved about 45,000 semen and embryo samples from 20 breeds of rare cattle, sheep and goats.

Dr. George Saperstein, the foundation’s chief scientific adviser said, “Heritage breeds have not been continuously ‘improved’ by humans. They have been shaped by natural survival-of-the-fittest forces and can get along without human intervention. Typically, rare varieties exhibit good birthing and mothering abilities. They can thrive on native grasses and other natural forage, and many know how to avoid predators.”

Contact: Virginia Wolking, virginiaw@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1017 for more information.