Nominations sought for the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism by June 15

Tom and Pat Gish

Each year the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues presents the national Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism, named for the couple who exemplified those qualities as publishers of The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., for 52 years.

Nominations for the Gish Award may be made at any time, but the deadline for new nominations to be considered for this year's award is Monday, June 15. The winner will receive the award at an event in Lexington, Ky., on Oct. 22.

To make a nomination, please send a detailed letter explaining how the nominee shows the kind of courage, tenacity and integrity that Tom and Pat Gish demonstrated at their weekly newspaper in the Central Appalachian coalfield. They withstood advertiser boycotts, business competition, declining population, personal attacks, and even the burning of their office to give their readers the kind of journalism often lacking in rural areas, and were the first winners of the award named for them. Tom died in 2008 and Pat in 2014. Their son, Ben, is the editor and publisher of the Eagle and serves on the award selection committee.

Additional documentation may be submitted after the nomination, and may be requested or required. Send your nominating letter, initial documentation and any questions to Institute Director Benjy Hamm at benjy.hamm@uky.edu.

The Institute seeks nominations that measure up, at least in major respects, to the records of the Gishes and other previous winners. Other winners have been the Ezzell family of The Canadian Record in the Texas panhandle; Jim Prince and Stanley Dearman, current and late publishers of The Neshoba Democrat in Philadelphia, Miss.; Samantha Swindler of The Oregonian for her work at The Times-Tribune in Corbin, Ky., and Jacksonville Daily Progress in Texas; Stanley Nelson and the Concordia Sentinel in Ferriday, La.; Jonathan and Susan Austin of the Yancey County News in North Carolina; the late Landon Wills of the McLean County News in Kentucky; the Trapp family of the Rio Grande Sun in northern New Mexico; Ivan Foley of the Platte County Landmark in northwestern Missouri; the Cullen family of the Storm Lake Times-Pilot in northwest Iowa; and Les Zaitz of the Malheur Enterprise in eastern Oregon. In 2019, the award went to three reporters whose outstanding careers revealed much about the coal industry in Central Appalachia: Howard Berkes, retired from NPR; Ken Ward Jr., then with the Charleston Gazette-Mail; and his mentor at the Gazette, the late Paul Nyden. In 2020 the award went to the late Tim Crews of the Sacramento Valley Mirror; in 2021 to the Thompson-High Family of The News Reporter and the Border Belt Independent in Whiteville, N.C.; in 2022 to Ellen Kreth and the Madison County Record of Huntsville, Ark.; in 2023 to Craig Garnett of the Uvalde Leader-News in Texas; in 2024 to Eric Meyer and the Marion County Record in Kansas; and in 2025 to Lisa Stayton and The Mountain Citizen of Inez, Kentucky.

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky, is focused on helping sustain journalism in rural communities in the United States through information, expertise, training, outreach and other programs.

Very rural New Mexico reaps millions in oil revenue

In the U.S., only Texas produces more oil than New Mexico.
(Photo by Laura Mann, Unsplash)

New Mexico's state treasury began reaping millions in oil revenue after global crude supplies were strangled in the Strait of Hormuz. 

Despite the predominantly rural state's dependence on fossil-fuel-generated revenue, the windfall has sparked mixed feelings for "Democrats who oppose the war and would rather reduce their reliance on fossil fuels," reports Morgan Lee of The Associated Press.

The Democratic-led "Land of Enchantment" is second only to Texas for oil production, and the "state’s revenue from taxes, royalties and lease sales helps cover the cost of college tuition, all school meals, health insurance and a new initiative for free universal child care," Lee explains.

Even seemingly small increases in crude oil prices can mean big money for the state. Lee reports, "For every $1 fluctuation in the average annual price of oil, New Mexico sees a roughly $59 million swing in state government income."

The state's treasury automatically channels increases in oil revenue "into a series of trust accounts designed to gradually reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels," Lee writes. Through investments, those trusts "underwrite Medicaid, early childhood education, infrastructure projects and an expansion of mental healthcare" in a very rural state that is "entrenched [with] swaths of extreme poverty and the nation’s highest enrollment rate in Medicaid."

New Mexico isn't the only rural state to see surges in state income because of the war with Iran. Lee adds, "In Alaska, the state forecast an additional $1.05 billion for the current fiscal year and the one beginning July 1."

Opinion: Congress needs to remember 'who they are working for.' A tractor ride with a farmer might help.

Allison Lynch

American farmers have been hard-pressed to be excited about heading out to the fields this spring: "Margins are tight. Profits are thin. Morale is low. It’s time for legislators to ride around in the tractor to remember who they’re working for," writes Allison Lynch in her opinion piece for Farm Progress.

Bob Bishop, a farmer from Leesburg, Ind., gave a candid answer when Lynch asked him about this year's planting season. He told her, "Input costs are driving this farm and agriculture in general. It’s tough right now, It’s tough. The expenses, the input costs, the machinery repairs, the property taxes — everything seems to be going higher, but our revenue generated from grain sales doesn’t seem to be keeping up.”

Still, there are solutions to many farming woes, but they aren't in farmers' hands. Lynch adds, "Industries have to shift, wars have to end, and global trade has to resume. … Hey, Congress. It’s your turn."

What about the soaring fertilizer costs? That started before the war with Iran. Lynch writes, "The Trump administration has recently started sniffing into fertilizer giants, pursuing an antitrust case. Hopefully, this can get the ball rolling on their end. We want to see results back here on the farm."

Many Americans may think that farmers are always getting handouts, but on the farm, that's not how it plays out. Lynch adds, "The farmers can’t win. They’re stuck between corporations that exploit their labor and a population that doesn’t understand them."

Farm is more than "crops and the land and politics," Lynch writes. "It’s about family and legacy." Legislators need to see that point of view. "Call yours. Offer them a ride. Give them the view from the tractor cab."

More selective colleges aim to get rural students who've been accepted to take the leap and enroll

Rural students accepted to selective Amherst College make 
s'mores and discuss their futures. (Photo by Lucy Lu, Hechinger)

Prestigious colleges throughout the U.S. are increasing efforts to convince more rural high school seniors to not only apply for admission but to enroll upon acceptance. Student and family support initiatives are being created to help those seniors take the leap, reports Jon Marcus of NPR in collaboration with The Hechinger Report.

Roughly three years ago, a full-fledged initiative known as the STARS College Network — for the Small Town and Rural Students — was launched by rural-born philanthropist and University of Chicago trustee Byron Trott, who invested $20 million to start the program, Marcus explains. During its first three years, STARS aimed to help more rural students learn what more elite colleges were offering and apply.

Even though more rural high schoolers graduate than their urban and suburban counterparts, getting rural students to consider and apply to colleges like Brown, MIT and Yale is a tall order. "Ninety percent of rural students graduate from high school," Marcus reports. "But only a little more than half go straight to college."

The reasons rural high school graduates avoid colleges, particularly those that are more selective or far away from home, are complex and can range from being scared off by tuition costs to not even knowing where to start applying. Nonetheless, the STARS College Network has made progress. Marcus adds, "As STARS has built momentum, more than 90,000 rural students applied to its member institutions last year, up 15% over the year before."

But STARS leadership saw a gap. Even when rural students were accepted to more elite colleges, they did not enroll. New funding from the Trott family is working to change that. Marcus reports, "Trott's foundation has since injected another $150 million into STARS, which has expanded from 16 member schools to 32."

To encourage accepted students to enroll, some STARS colleges are covering the costs for "prospective students and admitted applicants from rural areas to spend a day or two on their campuses," Marcus explains. "More than 1,000 students took advantage of that opportunity last year."

Not only does adding rural students to a selective college body help rural students and families achieve upward mobility, but it also helps colleges create a more diverse set of opinions and learning experiences for all students. Michael Elliot, the president of prestigious Amherst College in Massachusetts that participates in STARS, told Marcus, "Students growing up in rural areas bring perspectives and experiences that students from urban environments don't have."

The bourbon bubble has burst

Tight budgets and health concerns have slowed U.S.
bourbon sales. (Photo by Thomas Park, Unsplash)

After years of sales growth and production expansion, bourbon distillers and barrel cooperages have seen their businesses shrink as Americans tighten their purse strings, explore sober-curious lifestyles or choose hangover-free options like cannabis and THC beverages, reports Laura Cooper of The Wall Street Journal. "The Trump administration’s trade wars have dented U.S. alcohol exports."

Bourbon's renewed popularity began around 2010, as craft cocktail designers used it as an elevated staple, followed by the pandemic lockdowns, when "Americans heavily stocked their bar carts … with bourbon and other spirits," Cooper explains. "But after peaking in 2022 at 31.2 million nine-liter cases, consumption of American whiskey — including bourbon, Tennessee whiskey, rye and single malts — has slowed."

In Kentucky, where 95% of the world's bourbon is made, the spirit's sinking sales are leading to closed stills, employee layoffs and labor-hour reductions. The state is "awash" with unsold bourbon, Cooper reports. "Kentucky is sitting on roughly 16.1 million barrels of bourbon — the equivalent of around 300 million cases. That’s the largest reserve ever, enough to last as much as 10 years."

Because U.S. law requires bourbon to be aged in new, charred barrels of oak, the bourbon boom became a barrel boom. At its zenith in 2023 and 2024, distillers were "paying upward of $285 per barrel. Since then, prices have dropped significantly, industry players say," Cooper adds. Some large spirit companies have announced plans to sell their cooperages because barrel production isn't needed.

Since bourbon distillers can only use a barrel for bourbon once, when barrels are emptied, they are "often resold to distillers in Scotland or Ireland, where they can find a second act storing scotch, rum or other spirits, over a lifespan of some 80 years," Cooper explains. Used barrels that would have fetched "more than $200 at the end of 2024, now go for around $50, as liquor demand has also plummeted."