Friday, March 15, 2024

Interior Dept. proposes restrictions on mining, energy work, grazing in 'sagebrush sea' to protect greater sage-grouse

Bureau of Land Management map; for a larger version, click on it. For more maps and the whole plan, click here.
The bird's mating dance (Photo by Bob Wick, BLM)
The Bureau of Land Management proposed Thursday to save the greater sage-grouse "by limiting oil and gas drilling, mining, livestock grazing and other activities across much of the American West," reports Maxine Joselow of The Washington Post. That "sets up a fierce clash with the fossil-fuel industry, which has long seen the bird as a barrier to extracting some of the richest oil and gas reserves in the region."

The BLM's draft plan "outlines several alternatives for managing nearly 67 million acres of the birds’ habitat across 10 Western states," the Post reports. "The 'preferred alternative' would restore some restrictions on drilling and other activities that the Obama administration imposed in 2015, although it would maintain some elements of the Trump administration’s 2019 strategy." Those plans weren't fully implemented because of court action.

The greater sage-grouse — known for its mating dance — numbers as many as 200,000 and is not listed as threatened or endangered but there were once a million. In 2015, the Fish and Wildlife Service, another arm of the Interior Department, said that was unnecessary because the Obama-era plan would protect it enough. "Since then, congressional Republicans have inserted provisions into must-pass spending bills to prevent a future listing," the Post reports. "Much of the birds’ habitat, known as the 'sagebrush sea,' has been destroyed by huge wildfires and an invasive plant called cheatgrass. Climate change has hastened the habitat loss, since fires have spread more easily through a warmer, drier landscape parched by a two-decade megadrought.”

Publicly at least, energy groups took a wait-and-see attitude, noting variations among areas, while "Conservation groups offered a mixed reaction to the draft plan," the Post reports. "Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, called it the 'last best hope' to save the sage grouse. But Vera Smith, senior federal lands policy analyst at Defenders of Wildlife, said the proposal does not go far enough. . . . . Although sage grouse regulations have rankled the oil and gas industry, they could also curtail clean-energy projects essential to the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels. Such projects include wind farms, solar installations, and mines for minerals used in electric vehicles and other green technologies. That poses a conundrum for the Biden administration, which has set a goal of permitting 25,000 megawatts of renewable energy on federal lands by 2025 — a key pillar of its climate agenda."

In a 'win for American farmers, ranchers and consumers,' the USDA finalizes rules regarding 'Product of U.S.A.' labels

The final rule will help consumers know where their food
comes from. (USDA photo via Michigan Farm News)

Finding meat and poultry produced solely on U.S. farms in today's grocery store is tricky, if not impossible, because of loopholes in the Department of Agriculture's labeling rules. But those rules are set for a long-awaited change, reports Claire Carlson of The Daily Yonder. "Starting in 2026, 'Product of U.S.A.' labels will be allowed only on meat and poultry products made from animals that were 'born, raised, and slaughtered within the United States.' Experts say it will significantly help U.S.-based producers' bottom line."

For years, the biggest meat producers, such as Cargill, J.B.S., Tyson and National Beef, have used labels that could lead consumers to think American farmers produced the meat. Carlson explains, "These corporations produced cheaper products by outsourcing to countries with fewer health and safety regulations for their workers and animals, then labeled the meat as 'Product of U.S.A.,' because they package it within the United States, they said. American producers were unable to compete with these cheap prices or distinguish their American-made products from the outsourced meat products, according to advocacy groups."

Marty Irby, board director for the non-profit research group Organization for Competitive Markets, told Carlson, "[Product of U.S.A. loopholes] enabled [the meat packers] to be able to sell cheap beef to consumers and make people think that they were actually buying an American made product." Carson adds, "Small farmers and ranchers in rural America especially felt the brunt of this. The number of U.S. farmers and ranchers has been in decline in recent years as big corporations merge producers in the meat, poultry, and egg markets . . . . From 2022 to 2023, farm incomes dropped by $41.8 billion, according to USDA data." Joe Maxwell, co-founder of the advocacy group Farm Action and a long-time farmer, told Carlson, "[The regulation] is a huge win for America’s farmers, ranchers, and consumers."

More Americans are opting out of Covid-19 vaccinations; survey shows the choice can be based on political views

Pew Research Center graph
It has been four years since the U.S. rolled out lockdowns and mask mandates to slow the spread of Covid-19. Many Americans, both Republican and Democrat, received the country's first Covid-19 vaccine in fairly equal numbers. However, after that initial jump-off point, Covid-19 vaccines have become more partisan, and many Americans seem less concerned about the virus despite its continuing presence in the population.

"A new Pew Research Center survey finds that just 20% of Americans view the coronavirus as a major threat to the health of the U.S. population today, and only 10% are very concerned that they will get it and require hospitalization," report Alec Tyson and Giancarlo Pasquini for the Pew Research Center. "This data represents a low ebb of public concern about the virus that reached its height in the summer and fall of 2020, when as many as two-thirds of Americans viewed Covid-19 as a major threat to public health."

While it's hard to explain why so many U.S. citizens seem indifferent to the disease, vaccination numbers speak to an overall lack of public interest. "Just 28% of U.S. adults say they have received the updated Covid-19 vaccine, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended last fall to protect against serious illness," Pew reports. "This stands in stark contrast to the spring and summer of 2021, when long lines and limited availability characterized the initial rollout of the first Covid-19 vaccines. A majority of U.S. adults (69%) had been fully vaccinated by August 2021."

Historically, political affiliation hasn't been a factor in vaccination status. A Pew survey from 2023 reported: "Robust public confidence in the value of childhood vaccines for MMR, with no decline in the large majority who say the benefits outweigh the risks compared with surveys conducted before the coronavirus outbreak." The Covid-19 vaccination does not have that kind of unilateral support, but instead vaccine choices fall along party lines. Tyson and Pasquini write, "Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents remain more likely than Republicans and GOP leaners to say they've received an updated Covid-19 vaccine (42% vs. 15%). This 27-point gap in recent vaccination is about the same as in January 2022."

The gap is even more distinctly party-affiliated among Americans 65 and older, who are ironically more at risk of dying from the disease. Pew reports, "In the current survey, 66% of Democrats ages 65 and older say they have received the updated Covid-19 vaccine, compared with 24% of Republicans ages 65 and older. This 42-point partisan gap is much wider now than at other points since the start of the outbreak."

Tyson and Pasquini add, "Still, the virus continues to circulate widely in the United States, with wastewater data suggesting that cases in the early part of 2024 were among the highest they have been since the first omicron wave in 2022."

Many retirees are moving to southern Appalachia, and local governments are struggling to cope with their needs

The Appalachian Mountains in Georgia.
(Photo by Jairph, Unsplash)

Once known for its rustic beauty, moonshine stills and impoverished residents, southern Appalachia's population is expanding as baby boomers from around the country relocate from more expensive regions. "The boomer migration to North Georgia, East Tennessee, the Carolinas and western Virginia is reshaping housing prices, traffic patterns, restaurant options and how local governments cope with something they haven't had to handle before: explosive growth," reports Cameron McWhirter of The Wall Street Journal. "Each year since 2020, an average of 328,000 people from other parts of the U.S. moved to the five-state region, according to Hamilton Lombard, a demographer at the University of Virginia.

Dawson County, Georgia, is the region's leader in population growth, which "saw a 12.5% increase from 2020 to 2022, reaching just over 30,000, according to estimates by the Census Bureau. . . . In Dawson, the population aged 65 or older reached 21% of the county in 2022, up from 14.1% in 2010. Many moving to the region are wealthier," McWhirter writes. "Dawson's home prices rose 46% compared with 39% nationally, according to Lombard's analysis of Zillow housing prices. Other Appalachian areas like Dawson saw similar spikes, the analysis showed."

In Dawson County, not everyone agrees on how to manage regional growing pains. McWhirter reports, "When Billy Thurmond was a boy, most roads here were made of dirt. Now 64, Thurmond, chairman of the Dawson County Board of Commissioners, said he is regularly stopped at the local Walmart and asked about development and traffic issues. There's a twist: Many of those complaining are people who moved to the county in recent years."

Northern Georgia isn't alone in facing conflicts stemming from exponential growth. McWhirter explains, "From April 2020 to July 2022, the population in counties in southern Appalachia designated retirement or recreational areas grew by 3.8% — more than six times the national average, according to Lombard." Expanding towns face constant change as their governments, medical and emergency services, and recreational and retail offerings work to accommodate newcomers. "The influx of wealthier, older Americans has created challenges for governments working to expand services, including broadband, water and wastewater services, roads, health services and housing."

To explore the southern Appalachian population growth graphed by the numbers or to learn why these baby boomers are known as "halfbacks," click here.

Rural residents with diabetes are more likely to suffer from disease complications -- lack of access to care could be why

Diabetes requires continuous care.
(Photo by T. Barbhuiya, Unsplash)
Past studies have shown that rural Americans are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, and they experienced more struggles trying to manage the disease than their more urban counterparts. In a new study, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine took a closer look at rural residents experiencing diabetes complications such as heart and kidney problems. Their research, which was published in the journal Diabetes Care, showed that these rural populations are at significantly higher risk of suffering from end-stage kidney disease, heart failure and heart attacks, all of which could caused by a lack of access to medical care.

The study's corresponding author, Rozalina McCoy, told UM news: "Those who live in rural areas have a greater risk of experiencing eight out of the eleven complications that we measured compared with those living in cities. . . .They were 15 percent more likely to have dangerously low blood sugar levels, which clearly indicates that their diabetes is not being managed properly."

The study's co-author, Elsa Davis, added, "While our study didn't address why these differences exist, we do know that people living outside of city areas are less likely to receive care from diabetes specialists, to receive diabetes self-management education, and to be monitored for diabetes complications."

While the study encompassed varying degrees of rural populations, it "relied on insurance information to identify diabetes complications," UM reports. "If people could not access medical care, that complication would not be captured. Dr. McCoy noted that this finding further underscored the barriers to care in remote areas: patients are likely having high blood sugar emergencies and heart failure but cannot get to the emergency department or hospital to have them diagnosed and treated." Study authors added that further research should investigate reasons why these disparities exist.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

In East Palestine, Ohio, residents and officials now know the 'controlled burn' was not neccesary

Vinyl chloride is used to make
PVC piping. (Wikipedia photo)
More than a year has passed since the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which left the community of 5,000 facing the aftermath of a chemical explosion followed by a "controlled chemical burn" of vinyl chloride that at the time was presented as the "least bad" of two options. However, area residents and Congress discovered last week that Ohio decision-makers didn't have all the facts needed to avoid the burn.

"The decision to blow open five tank cars and burn the toxic chemical inside them after a freight train derailed in Eastern Ohio last year wasn't justified, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress," reports Josh Funk of The Associated Press. "But she said the key decision-makers who feared those tank cars were going to explode three days after the crash never had the information they needed."

The East Palestine train derailment.
(Wikipedia photo)
The company Oxy Vinyl made the vinyl chloride inside the five cars, and its experts told "contractors hired by Norfolk Southern railroad that they believed that no dangerous chemical reaction was happening, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said. But Oxy Vinyls was left out of the command center," Funk explains. While vinyl chloride is a flammable gas, it needs a specific combination of heat, air, light, and a contact catalyst to start a fire or explode. Homendy testified that the Oxy Vinyl's experts did not believe this combination or "polymerization" was occurring. "However, that information was never relayed to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the first responders in charge, she said."

DeWine's spokesperson, Dan Tierney, said a lack of information made the burn seem like the only safe option. He told Funk: "The only two scenarios that were ever brought up were a catastrophic explosion occurring, where shrapnel would be thrust in all directions to a one-mile radius, or averting that through a controlled vent and burn. Nobody ever brought up a scenario where if you just did nothing, it wouldn't explode."

East Palestine is in Columbiana
County, Ohio. (Wikipedia)
Area residents now face the heartbreak of knowing the burn was not needed, and some suspect Norfolk Southern pushed for the burn versus waiting for the cars to cool so that more costly delays could be avoided. Funk reports, "Misti Allison, who lives with her family about a mile away from the derailment site, said the findings reaffirm what she believed to be true all along: that the vent and burn did not need to happen." She told Funk, "Norfolk Southern was putting profits over people to get the train tracks up and running as fast as possible and to destroy whatever evidence was left."

Vinyl chloride does not occur naturally and is a category 1A carcinogen. The National Cancer Institute notes that "vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer (hepatic angiosarcoma), as well as primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma), brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia." 

Music archive of more than 90 million physical tracks needs a new home, but moving will cost $10 million

At one time, most music lived somewhere tangible -- on a record, 8-track, cassette or CD, and while Spotify and Apple Music may make that storage seem like history, lots of music still needs a place to live. "The ARChive Of Contemporary Music is looking for a new, permanent home. The not-for-profit music library holds over 90 million physical tracks, making it the world's largest physical archive of contemporary music," reports Rachel Roberts for Music Tech. "ARC is in need of financial support to find a new home for its recordings." The property ARC is currently occupying is no longer zoned for commercial offices.

Founded in 1985 by B. George and David Wheeler (1957-1997), ARC "preserves copies of each version of every recording, in all known formats, and has electronically cataloged more than 700,000 sound recordings and digitized 400,000," Roberts writes. "ARC also houses more than three million pieces of attendant support material including photographs, videos, DVDs, books, magazines, press kits, sheet music, ephemera and memorabilia."

ARC's current home in Duchess County, N.Y. is "on land that hotelier Andre Balazs donated," reports Melissa Newman of Billboard. B. George told Newman, "We could be forced to move at any time. Without a new home, more than three million recordings and millions of historic materials spanning all cultures and races could disappear forever."

"Over the decades, ARC, whose board members have included the late David Bowie, Nile Rodgers, Martin Scorsese and Q-Tip, has proved an invaluable resource," Newman adds. "It provided research and music for such films as Goodfellas, That Thing You Do, Philadelphia and Ken Burns' Baseball documentary, as well as supplying publishing information to BMI and the Harry Fox Agency. In recent years, ARC has focused on digitizing its collection."

With all that history, moving ARC will be a costly undertaking. "George estimates it needs $10 million to relocate, and he would like to stay in the area as 'access is important,'" Roberts reports. "It has already received an anonymous donation of $1 million to fund the move."

Opinion: Why prescription drugs have little to do with the current illicit drug epidemic in the United States

The 1990s marked a time in U.S. medicine where doctors were taught to give narcotics.
(Graphic via Life and Limb blog, Edwin Leap)

Emergency physician Edwin Leap explains that U.S. doctors in training during the 1990s were instructed to treat pain with pills. He said a medical career taught him how misdirected those practices were. He adds that the nation's current addictions and overdoses aren't centered on prescription drugs anymore; they're all about super cheap, available and deadly fentanyl -- other opioids are almost an afterthought. An excerpted version of his commentary from MedPage Today is included below.

"When I was in my residency training, from 1990 to 1993. . . . We were told, over and over, that we should treat pain aggressively and should not be afraid to give narcotics to patients in pain. Who were we to judge someone's pain, after all? The young man who fell onto his knees at work, with a normal blood pressure and heart rate, looking about the room, might well categorize his pain a '10/10,' and we should honor that, respect it, and treat it."

Pain medicines such as hydrocodone and oxycodone (Oxycontin) were first marketed to doctors as a miracle for patients in pain. Given their addictive nature, it didn't take long for the drugs to take hold. Leap writes, "Much of our work as physicians was a balancing act between trying to show genuine compassion, mandated compassion, and appropriate skepticism about pain scales and the lies concocted in pursuit of drugs."

Given doctors' role as the prescription writers who "started" patients on the path to addiction, physicians are now forced to take additional narcotic treatment training. "I have to take a new 8-hour class on proper prescribing habits and pain management," Lead adds. "[But] nobody really argues with me about pain pills anymore. . . .We're only supposed to give a 3-day supply. We tell people that, and they shrug."

The likely reason a 3-day narcotic supply isn't a problem is the availability of fentanyl. "It's just so easy to get the stuff. It's inexpensive, and it's everywhere. It's in drug houses and gas station parking lots. It's in high schools and college campuses," Leap writes. "It's in prisons and homeless encampments. In fact, according to independent journalist Jonathan Choe, it can sometimes be found for 50 cents per dose in homeless camps."

U.S. physicians have little to do with fentanyl's street dominance. Leap writes, "The flood of illegal fentanyl precursors from China, which then become fentanyl and began flowing across the Southern border, continues unabated. . . . It's all rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic until someone gets a handle on the crisis from a geopolitical standpoint. And yes, that means dealing with the border as well. . . . I'm not blaming one political side or another. I'm just saying that if it isn't taken seriously, then the deaths will keep skyrocketing."

This piece was originally published on Leap's blog, Life and Limb.

'On the Front Porch' hosts author Carol Graham to discuss the dramatic impact of hope -- or the lack of it


Why are there pockets in the United States with a striking number of "deaths of despair"? How is despair defined? What are some possible shifts in approach and policy that might taper and prevent the onset of despair?

This Thursday, March 14, at 4 p.m. E.T., Professor Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution will join Tony Pipa from Reimagine Rural and Brent Orrell of the American Enterprise Institute in a deep-dive discussion of her new book The Power of Hope: How the Science of Well-Being Can Save Us from Despair, which incorporates hope as a metric of economic and social well-being.

Register here to participate in person at AEI or online.

On Thursday, April 4 at 10 a.m. E.T., author, speaker and researcher Elizabeth Currid-Halkett will join On the Front Porch for a discussion of her book, The Overlooked Americans, which focuses on surprising successes in American small towns and how that influences the country. Register here to join the conversation.

Quick hits: Are media outlets ready for an 'extinction-level event'? A new National Park; the best rural water

Photo by Yosh Ginsu, Unsplash
Are media outlets ready to rethink and reinvent themselves to survive? That's a big question with so many possible answers. In her commentary for The New Yorker, Clare Malone recounts the rise and fall of U.S. news outlets and asks, "Is the Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event?" Malone writes, "Even as outlets have tried to complement news coverage with other offerings, they've faced a fresh dilemma: news subscriptions —the great hope of media — are now directly competing with entertainment ones."

Wikipedia map
America's National Parks are a source of national unity alongside land and historic preservation. The Amache National Historic Site officially opened as the newest national park this year. Amache is in southeastern Colorado, one mile outside of Granada. "It was one of 10 incarceration sites used to detain thousands of Japanese-Americans during World War II," reports Lauren Penington of The Denver Post. The park is meant to remind us of past injustices and provide a place of reflection and healing for our country's past mistakes.

With all the twists and turns life can throw at us, sometimes words of wisdom can give us peace and reassurance that this, too, shall pass. Progressive Farmer's "Faith" section reaches out this week with quotes to ponder and embrace, such as this one from Martin Luther King Jr.: "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

Kobu photo, Unsplash
Water, water everywhere, and the best sips are in Columbus, Wisconsin. "Many people know Wisconsin for its milk or beer, but did you know that the state is also home to some of America's best-tasting water? Earlier this year, Columbus Utilities in Columbus, a small city northeast of Madison, won the gold medal at the National Rural Water Association's 25th Annual Great American Water Taste Test," reports Claire Reid of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The taste test and awards ceremony took place at the NRWA's annual Rural Water Rally in Washington, D.C."

As younger Americans weigh the costs versus benefits of a college degree, some opt to work for companies that offer great-paying jobs that don't need a degree. "Walmart is giving bigger bonuses and adding stock awards to their annual pay packages, pushing the total compensation for the best ones to more than $400,000 a year," reports Sarah Nassauer of The Wall Street Journal. "The retail giant has thousands of store managers who act as midlevel executives. Each can often oversee a store with 350 workers and $100 million in annual revenue. Many start as clerks and climb the ranks without college degrees."
Case backlogs are a major source of criminal trial delays.
(Tingey Law Firm photo, Unsplash)

The case backlog in U.S. courts increased during the pandemic years, but the shortage of attorneys and judges pre-dates Covid-19. "The pandemic worsened problems that already had caused state and local court delays, legal experts say. The hurdles include insufficient funding, judicial vacancies, lawyer shortages and delays processing digital and physical evidence," reports Amanda Hernández of Stateline. In rural Vermont, "There were over 35,500 pending cases statewide, according to data from the Vermont Judiciary. About 42%, or 15,294 of those pending cases, are criminal cases. That's double the amount of pending criminal cases pre-pandemic."

Friday, March 08, 2024

Report for America will no longer work with newspapers owned by hedge funds; it's 'not a model we support'

Report for America journalists report on under-covered
places and issues. (RFA photo)
Report for America supports local newsrooms struggling to cover their community's issues by recruiting and matching hardworking journalists with papers in need and then subsidizing reporters' salaries. 

But the initiative, which is part of the nonprofit media organization The GroundTruth Project, has taken a stand on which organizations it wants to support. "It has decided to stop working with one growing category of newspapers — those backed by hedge funds or private-equity firms," reports Jeremy Barr of The Washington Post. Kim Kleman, Report for America's Executive Director, told Barr, "Hedge fund ownership of local newsrooms is not a business model we support. America has seen the results: an axing of staff and also local news coverage."

Report for America's choice means "some major chains — including Gannett and Tribune Publishing — will no longer receive new reporters from the Report for America corps, though those currently placed in newsrooms will be able to finish their service," Barr explains. "Some journalists and industry-observers cheered the decision. American University journalism professor Margot Susca said 'it was a long time coming.'"

Still, the decision sparked controversy because some journalists felt the removal of Report for America reporters would further damage the profession and the quality of news coverage. Barr reports, "[They] expressed concern that journalists working at hedge fund-associated newspapers would be hurt by the disappearance of corps members, who fill staffing gaps and report on under-covered issues and communities."

As news outlets wrangle with shrinking profits and staff, Report for America journalists are in high demand. "To date, Report for America has placed 607 journalists in some 339 newsrooms, including nonprofit organizations, locally owned businesses and public media outlets," Barr reports. "Some 15 percent of those corps members have worked at news organizations owned by or associated with hedge funds, including 21 current journalists."

Join Solutions Journalism Network's second Rural Cohort; deadline to apply is March 19

When it comes to societal problems, journalists are some of the most strategically placed professionals to expose what's gone wrong. At the same time, they are uniquely positioned to find answers to those problems. If you're a community journalist who wants to add solution-seeking depth to your reporting tools, consider signing up for the Solutions Journalism Network's next Rural Cohort. The deadline to apply is March 19. 

The Rural Cohort is a six-month program designed especially for the challenges of rural-serving newsrooms. Its goal is to support and train newsrooms seeking to learn solutions journalism and put it into regular practice. 


This isn't a program designed to add work to a newsroom's already full plate. Instead, cohort members will learn how to convert some of the vital and valuable coverage they're already doing into a solutions framework. Examples: county commission agendas, school board meetings, press releases and regular beat coverage.


Adrianna Adame
Last year, SJN trained its first cohort of rural journalists who learned how to incorporate a solutions lens into their reporting. With that new view, these reporters developed stories with added depth and meaning for their audiences. One example is Adrianna Adame, the education reporter for Buffalo's Fire, an Indigenous digital outlet based in North Dakota. She covered graduation rates this year, digging into how a local Native high school has become an example for other schools.

The non-profit Solutions Journalism Network defines its focus as "'rigorous, evidence-based reporting on the responses to social problems, the mission of which is 'to transform journalism so that all people have access to news that helps them envision and build a more equitable world,'" writes Lauren Kessler for Nieman Storyboard.  

The growth of smaller banks and credit unions is outpacing the rest of the industry

Small banks often offer more personal service.
(Photo by Stoica Ionela, Unsplash)
As bigger banks consolidate into mega-banks, an opposing trend is emerging -- smaller banks are attracting new customers and deposits. "While the biggest banks are getting bigger, the smallest are growing too. Community banks, which typically have less than $10 billion in assets and a concentrated footprint, grew deposits by about 1% in the third quarter from a year earlier," reports Imani Moise of The Wall Street Journal. "Credit unions grew deposits by a similar amount. Their loan books grew by 10% and 9%, respectively. Both far outpaced the broader banking industry, according to federal data."

Bank customers opting for smaller banks or credit unions find that "making a switch not only gets them more face time with bankers, but they are also earning more and paying less," Moise explains. "People wanting a smaller bank have an ever-smaller number to choose from. Bank mergers are expected to accelerate this year as lenders seek safety in size after a series of regional bank failures in 2023."


The current market has been tough on mid-sized banks, but smaller banks offer local convenience and more personal customer service for consumers and small-business owners. "Even the biggest banks acknowledge that people like to do some banking in person," Moise reports. "PNC plans to add new branches this year after closing more than 200 last year."


Particularly if problems arise, smaller banks have staff available to solve problems in-person. "Laurie Matta, the chief financial officer for the city of Clarksville, Tenn., decided to move the city’s bank accounts from the U.S.’s fifth largest lender, U.S. Bank, after a mix-up during the pandemic," Moise adds. "It took six months and many unsuccessful attempts to get the bank to correct the error, even though it shared an office building with city hall. . . . She moved the accounts in 2022 to Legends Bank, which is down the street."

Hot dog! After 140 years, a new, meatless hot dog will be on the shelves later this year.

Hot dogs are part of American culture.
(Kraft Heinz photo via Scripps News)
Hot dogs. Poor people created them. Rich people found a way to charge $15 for them. They're high culture, they're low culture, they're sports food, they're kids' food. . . . You can love them, you can hate them, but you can't avoid the great American hot dog. ~ Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus

Even though Loftus traveled America snarfing down hot dogs from coast to coast, she didn't get to try Oscar Mayer's newest weiner. "For the first time in 140 years, Oscar Meyer will be making meatless dogs," reports Justin Boggs of Scripps News. "The hot dog maker's parent company, Kraft Heinz, announced a new line of plant-based hot dogs and sausages soon hitting store shelves. The company says it projects plant-based meat alternatives will go from an $8.3 billion market in 2023 to $19 billion by 2030."


While some plant-based "meat" companies have struggled to make a profit, "Kraft Heinz says the Oscar Mayer NotHotDogs and NotSausages will have a 'smoky, savory taste, meaty color, and thick, juicy bite,'" Boggs writes. Lucho Lopez-May, CEO of the Kraft Heinz Not Company, told Boggs: "We know people are hungry for plant-based meat options from brands they know and trust."


Oscar Mayer will showcase their new dogs at the Expo West event in Anaheim, California this month. "The company said major retailers will receive product shipments later this year," Boggs reports. "According to a 2022 poll by the Vegetarian Resource Group6% of the U.S. adult population considers themselves vegan or vegetarian. In 2015, a similar poll found that 3.4% of Americans said they never eat meat, indicating that there is a growing number of Americans opting not to eat meat."

Wednesday, March 06, 2024

Rural Texas legislators who opposed governor's push for school vouchers fall to big-spending campaign against them

Texas House roll call board (Texas Tribune/Eddie Gasper)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his Republican allies succeeded in purging at least seven members from the state House in Tuesday's primary elections. Their main targets were rural Republicans who helped defeat Abbott's legislation that would have provided taxpayer support for private education. Now the House will "become more receptive to school vouchers," report Zach Despart and Renzo Downey of the Texas Tribune. But "It was not clear on Tuesday if that effort had paid off," writes David Goodman, Texas bureau chief of The New York Times. Some race are in runoffs.

Abbott's campaign was funded by huge contributions from right-wing interests inside Texas and out of it. Former president Donald Trump and Lt. Gov, Dan Patrick "endorsed challengers in dozens of races citing the incumbents’ disloyalty to the party," the Tribune reports.

The anti-voucher incumbents were targets of heavy advertising that put them in "Wanted" posters and called them "liberals" but rarely if ever mentioned the school issue. One of them, Rep. Glenn Rogers, said in a column in The Community News of Aledo that "Abbott has defiled the Office of Governor by creating and repeating blatant lies about me and my House colleagues, those who took a stand for our public schools. I stood by the governor on all his legislative priorities but just one, school vouchers. For just one disagreement, and for a $6 million check from Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvanian TikTok investor, and voucher vendor, Abbott went scorched earth against rural Texas and the representatives who did their jobs -- representing their districts."

Before the election, The Community News published an interview with Rogers, and said it had twice given opponent Michael Olcott the same opportunity but received no response. The weekly didn't endorse in the race, but in a Feb. 21 column, Editor-Publisher Randy Keck said anti-Rogers mailers lied about his voting record. "You may be reading this thinking I am advocating to vote for Rogers, but I’m not," he wrote. "You should vote based on who you think would best represent you in the Texas House of Representatives. But you should not vote based on the character assassination of a good man."

Geologic naming body rejects Anthropocene proposal

Sediment history from Crawford Lake, Ontario, is part of 
the Anrthropocene epoch proposal. (Wikipedia photo)
"Monday night, the group of scholars responsible for delineating the past 2.6 million years of geologic history rejected a proposal that would mark the start of the Anthropocene epoch in the mid-20th century, when global trade, nuclear weapons tests and rampant fossil-fuel consumption radically altered the Earth," reports Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post.

"But Anthropocene advocates — including two leading members of the panel that just voted — say the decision by the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy violated the rules for naming new geologic time spans. Subcommission chair Jan Zalasiewicz and vice-chair Martin Head on Wednesday called for an investigation into the voting process that could lead to the decision being overturned.

"The contested vote, which was first reported by The New York Times, has exposed a deepening rift in the hidebound world of stratigraphy — the science of measuring geologic time. Researchers overwhelmingly agree that people have transformed the climate and put ecosystems in peril. But most members of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy felt this 'Age of Humans' should not be rigidly defined as an epoch — a stretch of geologic time that typically spans thousands or even millions of years."

The International Commission on Stratigraphy could overturn the decision, sending it to the International Geological Congress. But they could also define the Anthropocene "as a geologic event — a looser term that can describe phenomena that unfold in multiple places at different times," Kaplan notes.

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

Short on volunteer firefighters, smaller communities look to farmers to assist with handling fires and rescues

The shortage of volunteer firefighters is a national
problem. (Graphic by Adam Dixon, Ambrook Research)
When fires start in rural places, emergency service volunteers may not respond immediately, so many areas rely on farmers to help handle fires. "The extra support is essential in (Chief Chris) Rohwer's small rural community of Pitsburg, Ohio, where field fires are the 'bread and butter' of his department — and where all-volunteer staffing is extremely low," reports Nora Neus of Ambrook Research. Rohwer told him: "We've got a lot of local farmers that have gone out on their own and started putting some type of water storage tank, either in their pickup or on a trailer. So they can at least try and get that knocked down while we're being dispatched."

Nationally, the number of volunteer firefighters is at an all-time low. Small fire departments also face limited budgets for updated equipment and response systems. Neus writes, "Firefighters around the country say farmers can — and should — set themselves up for success, knowing that when they call 911, help may be a ways away. . . . Rural fire departments also may not have expensive equipment specific to farm operations, for example, grain bin rescues."

Dan Neenan is director of the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety and has been a volunteer firefighter since 1991. He gave Neus his recommendations for ag rescues: "So talk with your local folks and see as far as ag rescue equipment, what do they have? What might they need? Not looking for you to fund it for 'em, but if you got together with some other folks in the farming community, maybe [you] can do a fundraiser to get that grain rescue tube." Neus adds, "Neenan also recommends farmers or firefighters enter a contest his organization is running to give away dozens of rescue tubes."

Fire prevention is one of the best ways rural communities can help their fire departments -- keeping fires from starting in the first place. "Neenan recommends keeping an eye on wet hay that can overheat and start a fire," Neus reports. "Neenan has one other bit of advice: Farmers should get to know their local fire departments before an incident takes place, even if they aren't able to volunteer themselves. . . . At the end of the day, it is crucial for farmers and rural firefighters to rely on each other."

Texas Panhandle wildfires leave scorched homes and animals in their wake. The land is now 'like a moonscape.'

Fire perimeters last updated March 1 at 9:50 a.m. C.T. Historical fire perimeters, 1960 to March 2023.
(Map by Renée Rigdon, CNN, from National Interagency Fire Center data)

Last week's cluster of Texas Panhandle wildfires left a swath of scorched earth, animals and homes across what would become a land mass bigger than the state of Rhode Island. Known as the Smokehouse Creek Fire, its "flames moved with alarming speed and blackened the landscape across a vast stretch of small towns and cattle ranches," report Sean Murphy and Jim Vertuno of The Associated Press.

Hemphill County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Kendall "described the charred terrain as being 'like a moonscape. ... It's just all gone,'" Murphy and Vertuno write. "Kendall said about 40 homes were burned around the perimeter of the town of Canadian, but no buildings were lost inside the community. Kendall also said he saw 'hundreds of cattle just dead, laying in the fields.'"

The fire has claimed 50 lives and "has now torched more than 1 million acres in Texas alone, making it the largest fire on record in the state," report Joe Sutton, Steve Almasy, Holly Yan, Robert Shackelford and David Williams of CNN. "The blaze had also charred more than 31,500 acres in Oklahoma. . . . Altogether, the fire is among the largest in the Lower 48 since reliable record-keeping began in the 1980s."

While the fire's origins remain unclear, "strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm temperatures fed the blazes," the Post reports. Texas A&M Forest Service spokesperson Adam Turner told CNN, "Wind was coming straight out of the north and made just this massive wall of fire moving across the landscape." A lawsuit filed by a woman whose home was destroyed by the fire claims that "an improperly maintained power pole fell and started the fire," CNN reports, "The Texas A&M Forest Service is investigating the fire and has not announced a cause."

Many Panhandle fires continue to burn. "The Texas A&M Forest Service said that the Roughneck Fire's forward progression had been halted, and it was 50% contained as of yesterday afternoon," CNN reports. Containment in Oklahoma showed good progress; Oklahoma Forestry Services spokesperson Keith Merckx told CNN, "The Smokehouse Creek Fire perimeter looks good and will be turned back over to local departments on Tuesday."

Lead-tainted applesauce entered the U.S. food system and poisoned children -- here's what parents should know

Cinnamon believed to be deliberately tainted with lead
poisoned more than 400 kids. (Photo by rens d, Unsplash)

Even with multiple safeguards, lead-tainted applesauce entered the U.S. food supply in pouches and poisoned more than 400 children, Christina Jewett of The New York Times reports. "Their median blood lead levels were six times higher than the average seen during the height of the Flint water crisis, the Centers for Disease Control said. . . .The cinnamon in the applesauce was believed to have been intentionally contaminated, possibly to add to its value as a commodity sold by weight."

Jewell points out that while this type of poisoning is rare, parents need to know how children can be exposed and what lead poisoning symptoms look like.

Lead exposure can happen from drinking water flowing through old lead pipes or lead-based paint often ingested as chips. Fruits and vegetables that grow in lead-tainted soil can also be a cause. Jewett writes, "A study about baby foods found that sweet potatoes had some of the highest levels of lead among the products tested."

The 2023 lead applesauce outbreak was caused by cinnamon added to the sauce in Ecuador. An in-depth investigation by the Times and the nonprofit health newsroom The Examination show "the tainted applesauce sailed through a series of checkpoints in a food-safety system meant to protect American consumers," Jewett writes. "Food importers, which are required to vet foreign food, let the applesauce enter the country."

While lead occurs as an element in nature, it is a neurotoxin that can have devastating effects on brain development. A challenge for parents and caregivers is recognizing lead exposure. "High levels of lead can result in stomach pain, vomiting, fatigue, learning difficulties, developmental delays and even seizures," Jewett reports.

Hanging on to the local grocery store is important to rural residents and economies

Brian Horak at Post 60 Market in Nebraska.
(Photo by Kevin Hardy, Stateline)

What knits small towns together? Schools and the local newspaper may come to mind, as does the local grocery store, which many smaller communities are working to save. "Preserving grocery stores has been a perennial challenge for rural communities. Small, often declining populations make it tough to turn a profit in an industry known for its razor-thin margins," reports Kevin Hardy of Stateline. "Increased competition from online retailers. . . have only made things tougher."

Community involvement and investment, however, are working to give some local grocery stores a fighting chance. In Emerson, Nebraska, pop. 824, Post 60 Market "opened four years after the closure of the town’s only grocery store," Hardy writes. "Some 110 community members bought shares, which funded the transformation of a shuttered American Legion post into a brightly lit store packed with fresh and packaged foods."

Proposed legislation in Nebraska aims to "provide some relief for stores like Post 60 Market," Hardy reports. "If passed, the new law would provide grants and loans for small grocers. In neighboring Kansas and Iowa, lawmakers have introduced bills with similar goals, following the lead of states — including Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota and Oklahoma — that have enacted laws setting up special funds to boost rural grocery stores."

Jillian Linster, interim policy director at the nonprofit Center for Rural Affairs, told Hardy, "After the pandemic, we have seen a lot of these local grocery stores just struggling to keep the doors open with all the economic and workforce challenges we face in the current economy and the competition from the big-box retailers."

Kathryn Draeger "says rural communities need more than just dollar stores and gas stations," Hardy adds. "As the director of regional sustainable development partnerships at the University of Minnesota, Draeger works with grocery stores across the state. Aside from the health benefits of fresh food, she said rural stores are key to building more resilient supply chains since they can procure products from a variety of small vendors."

Next week is Sunshine Week. Get ready to showcase how journalism works to preserve open government.

Sunshine Week begins this Sunday, March 10, with multiple ways to highlight how journalists support open government as watchdogs and First Amendment advocates. As Americans face another election cycle, it's an impactful time to remind all citizens that good reporting dynamically supports our democratic process.

Among Sunshine Week's tools, are a social media kit, logos, and timely promotions. If you are writing a news story, editorial or column about freedom of information, tips from the Society of Professional Journalists are also available.

The week's offerings include in-person and online events and activities, including a Sunshine kick-off by the Department of Justice and a panel discussion to raise awareness of Sunshine Laws sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Kansas City/Jackson-Clay-Platte Counties.

Sunshine Week was launched in 2005 by the American Society of News Editors, now the News Leaders Association. This year's events are supported by a growing list of partners, including Brechner Freedom of Information Project, Muckrock, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Friday, March 01, 2024

Different views on a new book, White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy, attracting national attention

 Penguin Random House

A new book, White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy, is getting a lot attention nationally -- both positive and negative. In his opinion essay for the New York Times, Paul Krugman writes positively about the book and explores how technology and connection grew cities while rural Americans lost jobs, dignity and their place in the national dialogue.

When progress benefits one region and destroys another, anger and resentment are natural outcomes. Krugman writes, "It can be devastating economically and socially for those who find themselves on the destruction side of the equation. This is especially true when technological change undermines not just individual workers but whole communities. . . .This isn't a hypothetical proposition. It's a big part of what has happened to rural America."

The continuum of white rage is "laid out in devastating, terrifying and baffling detail" in the book, Krugman adds. 

The technology Schaller and Waldman point out isn't limited to the Internet, cell phones and global competition. It's the advances in farming technology and worldwide shifts in energy production. "American farms produce more than five times as much as they did 75 years ago, but the agricultural workforce declined by about two-thirds over the same period," Krugman writes. "[Due to] technologies like mountaintop removal, coal mining as a way of life largely disappeared long ago, with the number of miners falling 80 percent even as production roughly doubled."

Schaller and Waldman's book discusses
Jason Aldean's controversial song and video.

Jeffery H. Bloodworth takes a much different view of the book's main points and conclusions. In his opinion piece in The Daily Yonder, Bloodworth writes: "Rather than listen and understand complicated, three-dimensional rural Americans, they stereotype. Their analysis is an amalgam of our collective ills. Unwilling to reach across the divide, Schaller and Waldman gorge themselves on the negative and nihilistic. Then they regurgitate every rural, red America stereotype imaginable."

Bloodworth writes that many concerns of rural voters do involve economic issues, but reaches a very different conclusion that the book's authors. He writes: "Kirkus Reviews neatly summarizes their argument, “A view of rural America as a font of white privilege—and of resentment that the privileges aren’t greater.”

Bloodworth responds that the problems are grounded more in the huge declines in social interactions among people, a concern addressed more than two decades ago in Robert Putnam's book, Bowling Alone, and made much worse by smartphones and social media. Bloodworth writes: "Mr. Schaller and Waldman, rural whites aren’t a threat to American democracy. A rural-urban economic divide, cable news, doom scrolling, and 'bowling alone' endanger it."

For more on the topic, the 2017 story "For the rural right, the key's what 'feels true'," by Christina Pazzanese of The Harvard Gazette offers another exploration.

To read an excerpt of Schaller and Waldman's book, click here. For Waldman's recent column on the topic, go here. UPDATE: For a rip-snorting riposte from Pulitzer Prize-winning Editor Art Cullen of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in northeast Iowa, click here.