Rural development spending draws critics, then the story about them draws another

"The Obama administration is investing billions of dollars to promote economic development in rural areas by bringing broadband service and small-business financing to regions with chronic poverty and high unemployment," Ron Nixon reports for The New York Times. "But critics say the administration has little to show for its efforts, which highlight the difficulties of creating jobs in remote areas. They say the money has gone to areas where it is not needed, to promote broadband where it already exists and for industrial parks designed to attract business and jobs that may never materialize."

Nixon notes that the rural poverty rate is higher than the national average, but the Daily Yonder notes that Nixon names only two critics: "One is from the conservative Cato Institute, which is philosophically opposed to most government spending and one isn't so much a critic as an analyst," on the topic of broadband. The Yonder also notes that Nixon "mentions one project," a Mississippi industrial park. "We would agree that industrial parks are probably not the best way to spend development money in either rural or urban settings." (Read more)