News from rural America.

A planned high-voltage line in Texas is proving divisive, a new poll shows North Carolinians are pessimistic about the economy, the Trump administration’s next budget could devastate tribal higher ed and a tall ship flotilla sails the Eastern Seaboard.

TRANSCRIPT

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

Communities along a planned Central Texas high-voltage line fear it comes with lots of risk and little benefit.

A 200-foot-wide easement would run through rural properties, but with no planned substations, none of the electricity would reach local consumers.

Mia Surratt of Burnett County says landowners would pay the cost to benefit distant oil fields and data centers.

It's changing the infrastructure for your county and for your neighbors.

It destroys history for the area.

It can affect our taxes.

Texas lawmakers fast-tracked new transmission lines, cutting approval time from a year to six months, reducing input from local governments and residents.

More than a thousand parties are still asking to have their concerns considered.

Rancher Susan Warren says that's in spite of the tight time frame and a highly technical, divisive process.

This is just really difficult because you're paying one neighbor against another.

I'm thinking, what happened?

What our forefathers fought for and our freedoms and our voices.

As the economy bogs down, rural North Carolina voters say they feel deeply pessimistic and they want more government help. 55 percent told the poll commissioned by Rural Strategies their top concern is rising costs.

Strategies President Dee Davis says the pessimism caught them off guard.

They were full of doubt, uncertainty.

That was a little surprising.

We're not used to seeing this much pessimism.

In 2023, 42% of voters said the government should get out of their way.

Davis says now only a third agree.

People are admitting they need government support and high cost of living are really influencing rural voters.

Tribal colleges are raising alarms about the Trump administration's 2027 budget blueprint.

If approved by Congress, education officials warn a number of schools will close.

Cheryl Crazybull with the American Indian College Fund says the proposed cuts don't line up with the administration's promised support for rural America, where tribal colleges and universities serve entire communities.

They're training teachers, health care workers, a lot of agriculture workers.

So they're doing a lot of things that shore up rural communities.

Historically, funding for tribal higher ed has enjoyed strong bipartisan support.

Memorial Day marks the start of summer and includes celebrating America's 250th anniversary on July 4th.

Ahead of that, Sail 250, a flotilla of 60 international tall ships, is traveling to port cities along the eastern seaboard.

Spokesman Chris O'Brien says one stop is Cape Charles, Virginia.

The ships are the goodwill ambassadors of their countries.

They serve to bring people together.

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.