Southern Florida orange farmers turn to other tropical fruit trees to diversify crops

U.S. grown mangoes may taste better.
(Graphic by Adam Dixon, Offrange)

Florida's famed orange production started in the 1830s, when farmers began shipping their citrus nationwide by rail. The state's orange industry continued to flourish until the mid-2000s, when Huanglongbing, a bacterial disease, decimated groves throughout the state. Since then, orange growers have been working to diversify their crops by replacing orange trees with other tropical fruits that thrive in the region's hot, humid climate.

The work of botanists at the University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC) is helping citrus growers go beyond oranges by teaching farmers how to grow other tree crops. "South Florida can support the kinds of fruits usually only found in the tropics," reports Diana Kruzman for Offrange. Consumer interest and advances in plant breeding have the region's tropical fruit business "booming."

Even with the steep dip in crop yields, oranges remain Florida's top fruit crop, but the "tropical fruit industry, which consists of higher-value crops like avocados and mangoes, as well as more niche fruits like starfruit and guava, isn’t far behind," Kruzman explains. TREC researchers are "working to introduce other varieties of tropical fruits, such as papayas and dragonfruit."

Meanwhile, farmers are tasked with developing bigger consumer markets for their growing list of exotic fruits. "So far, many customers have come from immigrant communities around the U.S. who already know about niche tropical fruits and are willing to pay a premium to ship them quickly," Kruzman adds. 

Domestic mango growers already have one marketing advantage -- their mangoes are likely to taste better because they aren't subject to USDA fruit screenings. Kruzman explains, "All mangoes shipped into the U.S. must be disinfected to prevent foreign pests or diseases from entering the country. . . .That process involves either boiling the fruit or zapping it with radiation, which tends to leach out nearly all of its flavor."

Disease with no cure threatens Fla. citrus industry

A tree infected with citrus greening.
(Jason Henry, NYT)

Florida's citrus industry could be wiped out if a cure isn't found for a disease that has cost the state $4.5 billion and 8,000 jobs since 2006, reports Lizette Alvarez for The New York Times. The disease, called citrus greening, is spread by a tiny insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, and starves trees of nutrients, causing fruit to turn bitter and fall from trees before it's ripe. The disease has also been reported in Texas, California and Arizona.

All 32 citrus-growing counties in Florida have been infected by the disease, reports Alvarez. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has downgraded the state's largest crop, oranges, for five straight months, and this year's harvest is down 10 percent from initial estimates. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said, “If we don’t find a cure, it will eliminate the citrus industry.” (Read more)

Florida tomato growers drop opposition to funding wage increases with money from tomato buyers

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has dropped its opposition to passing along higher wages from grocery stores and restaurants to migrant workers, starting a program to increase wages for tomato pickers. The exchange had challenged agreements between the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and companies such as Burger King, Subway, McDonald's and Whole Foods that would pass along an extra penny per pound from such companies as wage increases, Elaine Walker of The Miami Herald reports. Those agreements had never been implemented because the growers refused to participate. (See our most recent item from September.)

"This is an opportunity to partner with our customers and meet their social accountability needs,'' Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the FTGE, which represents growers of about 75 percent of the tomatoes grown in Florida, told Walker. Under the new program "each restaurant or retail chain will decide on a weekly 'supplemental wage' payment to be made to the grower based on the amount of Florida tomatoes it purchased," Walker writes. "The payment will also include an additional 15 percent for administrative, insurance and payroll tax expenses."

Growers will then divide the total money among the migrant workers on the payroll for that week. "Two years ago, the (growers) testified before the U.S. Senate that the penny-per-pound raise was not just impossible, but illegal," Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the workers' group, said in a statement. "Today they are embracing the program and calling it their own. But while a wage increase is important, it can't be a license for continued labor abuse." Benitez was not convinced the new program was a cure-all: "The growers' code leaves the foxes squarely in charge of the henhouse, and sadly, Florida tomato growers have never demonstrated the ability to police themselves.'' (Read more)

Cookes expand newspaper holdings from Fla. Keys by buying 13 Cox papers in North Carolina

In a testament to the relative health of the community newspaper business, Cox Enterprises Inc. will sell three daily and 10 weekly newspapers in North Carolina to Cooke Communications LLC, a privately held firm headed by John Kent Cooke, son of the late billionaire Jack Kent Cooke, for an undisclosed price. (UPDATE, July 27: Tom Heath of The Washington Post estimates a sum of $30 million to $35 million.)

The dailies are The Daily Reflector of Greenville, circulation 21,000; the Rocky Mount Telegram, 14,000; and The Daily Advance of Elizabeth City, 10,000. The weeklies are the Beaufort-Hyde News of Bellhaven, the Bertie-Ledger Advance of Windsor, The Chowan Herald of Edenton, the Duplin Times of Kenansville, The Enterprise of Williamston, the Farmville Enterprise, Perquimans Weekly of Elizabeth City, the Standard Laconic of Snow Hill, the Times-Leader of Ayden-Grifton and the Weekly Herald of Robersonville.

Cooke's eldest son, John Kent Cooke Jr., "will move to the Greenville area to become president of Cooke Communications North Carolina and publisher of The Daily Reflector," the Telegram reports. His company "owns The Key West Citizen – 8,900 circulation daily, 9,749 Sunday – a number of weekly newspapers stringing the Florida Keys and Internet publishing business floridakeys.com." The elder Cooke was "part owner of the Los Angeles Daily News, the Washington Redskins and The Chrysler Building in New York City, among other businesses."

(Neil Johnston of Cox, John Kent Cooke and John Kent Cooke Jr. in the Reflector newsroom. Reflector photo by Greg Eans) The elder Cooke told Reflector employees, "Newspapers are not dead. They’re not even ill. ... I’m not worried in the least about the future of this business, particularly here in North Carolina. It’s going to be difficult at times, but we will be successful because we have the same attitude that the Cox people have and that is we’re going to concentrate on our local news,” the Reflector reports. Meanwhile, "Paul A. Clarin, who has served as Cooke Communications corporate chief financial officer since 2001, has been named publisher of The Key West Citizen and accompanying weekly community newspapers in the Florida Keys." Heath writes, "Because there are no local TV stations, Cooke has the turf to himself. He said his 425 employees, including reporters and editors, can outhustle the radio stations and anyone else trying to muscle in." And he quotes leading industry analyst John Morton: "Going forward, it's going to be the smaller papers that do reasonably well."

Atlanta-based Cox said last year that it would sell most of its newspapers in Colorado, North Carolina and Texas, The Associated Press notes. The company announced last week that it would sell the Grand Junction Sentinel and the Waco Tribune-Herald, and is still trying to sell others in Texas. It previously sold the Lufkin Daily News and The Daily Sentinel of Nacogdoches. UPDATE, Aug. 5: Cox takes its Austin paper off the market.

Bill to stop use of mountaintop-removal coal in North Carolina is withdrawn after hearing, protest

The proposed Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act, introduced in the last two sessions of the North Carolina legislature, got a committee hearing yesterday but was then withdrawn. State Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Greensboro, "said she'd work on a resolution to encourage Congress to restrict or ban the mining practice," reports John Murawski of The Raleigh News and Observer.

Harrison's decision came after several legislators said the "bill would not stop the controversial mining practice but would only divert coal mined that way from North Carolina to markets like Europe and China," Murawski reports. The bill had grabbed attention from other coal-producing states. Representatives from the coal associations of West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky attended the hearing to voice their opposition. (Read more)

The day before, protesters in Charlotte marched on Duke Energy's headquarters, complaining about the company's environmental practices. "Duke opposes a state ban on imports of mountaintop coal," wrote Bruce Henderson of The Charlotte Observer. A Duke spokeswoman told him, "We are sensitive to the issue, and we are reviewing it." On other fronts, the company has taken steps to be more "green." (Read more) For a report on the hearing, from Jordan Schrader of the Asheville Citizen-Times, click here.

The protest was partly intended to show people in non-coal states how the coal that produces their electricity is extracted. That point was made in a St. Petersburg Times column by Robert Trigaux, who noted that local utilities Progress Energy and TECO, formerly Tampa Electric Co., have operated mountaintop-removal mines. TECO still does, and says reclaimed sites have provided needed land for public projects and other development. To read the column, click here.

Rural tourism shows off agriculture, natural beauty

Summer is nearly upon us, making the air ripe for tourism, but what will drive tourists to your rural community? Tourism has the potential to stimulate rural economies, create additional jobs, and showcase the wonders, diversity and beauty of rural communities. (Tourists walk in a rural landscape in a photo by Turismo Rural)

"One travel trend in tourism these days is outdoor activities and going to rural areas," Keystone Heights, Fla., Mayor Mary Lou Hildreth told the Bradford County Telegraph. "People want to ride in the country and find quaint, out-of-the-way places." Hildreth recently attended the Enterprise Florida conference where she participated in several segments on rural tourism. "Along with a miniature canoe paddle, some plastic alligator beads and mounds of printed materials, the mayor also brought back ideas for making Keystone Heights more attractive to a potential tourist dollar," James Williams writes for the Telegraph. "Areas designated as 'rural areas of critical economic concern' qualify for more funds such as grants and other public investments through the Rural Economic Development Initiative. That would include funds for rural and eco-tourism."

A busload of diverse individuals toured northeast Solano County, Calif., allowing participants to enjoy the sights, smells and tastes of local agriculture. The Solano County Agriculture Advisory Committee sponsored the Savor Solano field trip, which "took riders on a tour of rural Vacaville, Dixon and Winters, and showed off some of the region's most relied-upon ag industrial processing plants," writes Danny Bernardini for The Reporter. "After meandering through the back roads, the tour stopped at two of the area's processing plants. Superior Farms, the sole lamb processing plant on the west coast, and Campbell's Soup Co. both had short presentations for the group."

Solano County is not the only community taking steps toward enhancing rural tourism opportunities. "Chambers County [Texas] has the potential to grow into a nature- and agri-tourism powerhouse if it takes steps to protect its natural resources today, according to a national nonprofit conservation organization," Amy Condon writes for The Progress. "Organized by The Trust for Public Land (TPL), experts - in farmers markets, wildlife and nature tourism, corporate habitat conservation, and conservation funding - spent last week meeting with Chambers residents, businesses, and farmers and ranchers in workshops to explore strategies to address a series of questions raised through TPL's Chambers County Greenprint for Growth process."

Chambers is the first Rural County Demonstration Project in Texas undertaken by TPL. The Chambers County Greenprint goals include: maintaining rural character and creating more public access for nature-based recreation. "Part of the Greenprint process involved last week's Strategy Exchange to answer questions that cannot be addressed through mapping but help achieve the Greenprint's overall goals." The Strategy Exchange generated a series of recommended actions, including "diversifying agricultural and tourism activities for sustainable economic development, constructing an inventory of existing nature-based tourism opportunities" and "providing resources to landowners interests in creating nature-based experiences." A grant from the Coastal Coordination Council primarily funded the Chambers County Greenprint for Growth and Conservation Project. To learn more about it, contact Linda Shead. For more information on promoting tourism in rural America visit the National Agricultural Library Rural Information Center.

Another fast-food chain agrees to pay tomato pickers more, but growers' group still opposed

Florida tomato pickers could see their pay nearly double following an agreement between their organization and Miami-based Burger King, the second-largest U.S. hamburger-restaurant chain.

"Under the deal with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Burger King agreed to pay 1.5 cents more per pound of tomatoes it buys from Florida growers, with a penny of that going to the workers," report The Courier-Journal and The Associated Press. "Louisville's Yum! Brands was the first restaurant company to agree to pay slightly more for the tomatoes used by its chains, following a lengthy boycott of its Taco Bell chain. McDonald's also agreed to a similar deal last year. ... Those deals have existed on paper only because the industry group representing Florida tomato growers refused to allow its members to participate." (Read more)

The previous agreements added a penny a pound. To encourage the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange to accept the latest deal, Burger King agreed to pay 1.5 cents more per pound, with the extra half-cent to cover administrative costs and any additional payroll taxes. The exchange still opposes the deals. "It says no legal avenue exists to ensure the raise is passed on to workers, who it estimates make an average of $12.50 per hour. The coalition estimates workers earn 45 cents per 32-pound bucket," the Miami Herald reported. (Read more) Burger King said the deal would cost it $320,000 a year.

Parched Georgia wants to tap into Tennessee River by correcting error in states' boundary

Georgia, withering from drought, wants to correct a 190-year-old mistake and move its border with Tennessee a mile north so it can freely draw water from Nickajack Lake. A Georgia legislative committee approved a bill this week calling for creation of a boundary line commission, but officials in Tennessee scoffed at the idea, reports the Chattanooga Times Free Press: "They have criticized the effort as a veiled attempt by a thirsty Atlanta, unwilling to control reckless sprawl, to get access to the bountiful Tennessee River," which the Tennessee Valley Authority impounded to create the lake in the 1930s.

Georgia state Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, "said he believes resolution of the border issue will open the way to discussions about water sharing," the Times Free Press said in a staff report this week. Last fall, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen "said he has no interest in seeing Tennessee River water diverted to relieve drought-parched metro Atlanta and northern Florida," wrote TFP Nashville reporter Andy Sher. "I would have a real problem ... with a wholesale transfer of water out of the Tennessee watershed into Florida," Bredesen told him. "I just think it's one of the very important natural resources that we have in Tennessee, and (we) should be very, very cautious about allowing it to be degraded in any way." (Read more)

Atlanta's situation became more dire this month, with a federal appeals-court decision "curtailing Georgia's access to Lake Lanier – metro Atlanta's primary water source — in the future," wrote Dan Chapman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The suit was filed by interests downstream on the Chattahoochee River, as far as Florida.

The border between Georgia and Tennessee is supposed to be 35 degrees north latitude, the horizontal gray line on this Encarta map, centered on the aptly named (from Georgia's viewpoint) community of New Hope, Tenn. The shallows of Nickajack Lake are tantalizingly close to the northern border of Georgia -- about 150 feet, by our reckoning of a satellite photo. A major water intake would probably require deeper water, but no more than 1,000 feet north of the border. The Journal-Constitution used this satellite photo and red lines to show its somewhat different concept of the current and proposed border.

Seems to us there are other ways to solve the problem than moving a long-established border. In another story, Chapman said a 2004 TVA study found "Metro Atlanta could receive 264 million gallons a day — triple the average amount used daily by the city of Atlanta last December — with minimal impact on the river."

C. Bart Crattie, a surveyor who lives on the Georgia part of Lookout Mountain, told Pam Sohn of the Times Free Press that most of Tennessee's borders were incorrectly drawn to the state's advantage. “Tennessee made out like a bandit on all of its surveys,” he said. “On the Kentucky line, it’s off in some places by as much as 9 miles in Tennessee’s favor.” (Read more) The two states settled that error in the 1830s by allowing Kentucky to make land grants in the slice of Tennessee that should have been in Kentucky.

McCain wins rural Florida; Obama's campaign touts his own rural strength, a milestone of recognition

As Arizona Sen. John McCain rode a strong rural vote in Florida to become the Republican front-runner for president, Democrats looked ahead to Super Tuesday next week and advisers to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama touted his rural strength. (Associated Press photo by Charles Dharapak, via The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla., in Polk County, which McCain carried)

In the networks' exit poll, 11 percent of Florida Republicans were classified as rural, those voting at precincts outside metropolitan areas. McCain won 40 percent of that segment, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got 27 percent. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee got 20 percent of the rural vote and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani got 9 percent. Romney and McCain were statistically even among urban Republicans, but McCain beat him 36-30 in suburbs, which provided 64 percent of the exit poll sample.

UPDATE, Wed., Jan. 30: When the actual vote is divided by metropolitan-area and city boundaries, McCain did better in urban areas (36.2 percent) than rural (34.3 percent), reports the Daily Yonder, which focuses on "exurban" voters, those "partly rural communities around the edges of cities." Such communities "are more conservative than either more rural communities or cities." Romney won those areas, and they are where Huckabee did best.

"One thing for sure, the exit-poll designations of what is rural, urban and suburban don't conform with the votes on the ground," the Yonder says. "Exit polling in Florida said Clinton won 45 percent of the urban vote. She pulled 50.4 percent on the ground. Exit polls said Obama won 40 percent of the urban vote. He won 33.6 percent of the vote in urban counties." (Read more)

Florida was not a good measuring stick for Democrats because the candidates did not campaign there, with no delegates at stake because the state scheduled the primary before national Democratic leaders wanted. In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Obama's campaign manager cited his candidate's rural and small-town performance in other states "for the first time in the campaign," Al Giordano writes in The Field. "We think we’re going to do very well in rural areas on February 5 and that’s going to make a difference in delegates," David Plouffe said.

Plouffe said Obama "did much better in the northern and rural districts" of Nevada than Clinton did. However, Clinton's campaign has said she won rural Nevada, apparently based on the networks' caucus-entrance poll, which had her winning the sample rural precincts 44 to 42 percent (within the poll's margin of error). But as Giordano notes, "Plouffe’s statements today mark a milestone in the efforts of rural voters to be recognized for their true worth as an important group of voters." (Read more)

Amateur breeding, slow economy, expensive hay, lack of slaughterhouses mean neglect for horses

"Across the U.S., the number of horses whose owners won't or can't properly care for them is mushrooming," Paulo Prada reports for The Wall Street Journal. "Spurred by retiring baby boomers and their penchant for second homes in the country, horse ownership boomed in the U.S. over the past decade," to over 9 million head, up by half in a decade. "Along with the boom came backyard breeding, as owners without the discipline or financial muscle to obtain award-winning genes settled for whatever nature produced."

"As the horse population soared -- and the economy ceased to gallop -- selling the animals became more difficult. Some owners could no longer afford their investment. . . . The price of hay, the main source of horse nutrition, has more than doubled over the past year," but at the same time the last three horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. closed, exacerbating the situation. "Now, some unwanted American horses wind up at Mexican and Canadian slaughterhouses. But others linger and starve, often ending up at rescue homes and other charities."

"You've got all these owners out there who thought it would be easy to keep a horse, and their incomes aren't keeping up with even their own cost of living," says Morgan Silver, founder of the Horse Protection Association of Florida (which provided this photo of her with Princess, a horse she rescued). She works around Ocala, "a hotbed of mateur breeding," Prada writes. The Indiana-based Equine Rescue League, which operates in five states, says it took in 186 horses in 2007, up 232 percent from the previous year. (Read more)

Florida tomato workers who got help from Yum! and McDonald's get back of hand from Burger KIng

"A group of farmers who persuaded McDonald’s and Taco Bell to have their tomato suppliers pay their pickers more have seen their effort stall as Burger King has refused to do the same," reports The New York Times. "The main group of Florida tomato growers — calling the farmworkers’ tactics 'un-American' — has threatened a $100,000 fine against growers that cooperate with McDonald’s or Yum! Brands, the parent of Taco Bell, to pay their pickers more."

Lucas Benitez, a co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, told reporter Steven Greenhouse, "The only way you can describe this industry is the way it was described 40 years ago: It’s a harvest of shame." The vice president for food safety and regulatory compliance at Burger King, Steve Grover, said, "We’re being asked to do something that we have legal questions about. We want to find a way to make sure that workers are protected and receive a decent wage."

The workers wanted Burger King to follow the lead of McDonald's and Yum! and pay pickers 77 cents, up from 45 cents, for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes. "A bigger obstacle to the coalition’s efforts is the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, a cooperative representing 90 percent of the state’s growers," Greenhouse reports. "It has threatened large 'noncompliance penalties' for any growers that share information about wages or tonnage picked with third parties like McDonald’s. Florida grows 85 percent of the nation’s winter tomatoes." (Read more)

GateHouse Media purchases 14 dailies, three non-dailies from Morris Publishing Group

A deal between two community newspaper chains will make 17 newspapers in eight states change hands. GateHouse Media Inc. announced late Tuesday its purchase of 14 dailies, three non-dailies and a commercial printing operation from Morris Publishing Group. The sale totals $115 million, reports Editor & Publisher.

The 14 daily newspapers, mainly in the rural Midwest, range in size from the 4,700-circulation York (Neb.) News-Times to the 21,000-circulation of The Grand Island (Neb.) Independent. Here is the complete list of the dailies and their circulations:

• Dodge City (Kan.) Daily Globe, 9,700
• The Newton Kansan, 7,647
• The Morning Sun, Pittsburg, Kan., 10,312
• Hillsdale (Mich.) Daily News, 7,285
• The Holland (Mich.) Sentinel, 18,345
• Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post, 8,171
• The Examiner, Independence, Mo., 14,022
• The Grand Island (Neb.) Independent, 21,204
• York (Neb.) News-Times, 4,695
• The Daily Ardmoreite, Oklahoma, 9,753
• The Shawnee (Okla.) News-Star, 8,830
• Yankton (S.D.) Daily Press & Dakotan, 7,855
• The Oak Ridger in Tennessee, 7,554
• News Chief in Winter Haven, Fla., 9,817

The deal also includes three non-dailies:

• La Estrella (Spanish counterpart of Dodge City Daily Globe)
• The Girard (Kan.) City Press, 1,300
• Vermillion (S.D.) Plain Talk, 1,630

Morris Publishing CEO William S. Morris IV said the sale is "in line with our strategic plan to focus on our larger markets and will enable us to pay down our existing bank debt." Before the sale, the Augusta, Ga.-based Morris Publishing owned and operated 27 daily newspapers, while the Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse, one of the nation's largest community newspaper chains, owned and operated 86 dailies. "This is an excellent acquisition opportunity for GateHouse," GateHouse CEO Mike Reed said in a statement. "These are strong local media franchises in small markets, many of which are near existing GateHouse properties and offer compelling synergy opportunities." (Read more)

Rural school enrollment up 15 percent last year, with a 55 percent jump in minority students

Enrollment in rural schools is up 15 percent since last year, and minority enrollment is up 55 percent, says the latest report from the Rural School and Community Trust. The jump in enrollment reverses year-by-year trends, yet rural schools, specifically in the South, continue to receive less funding per pupil.

The report also highlights what it calls the "priority states where rural schools produce the worst student achievement outcomes." The report, called "Why Rural Matters 2007: The Realities of Rural Education Growth," was written by Jerry Johnson, the trust's policy research and analysis manager, and Marty Strange, the trust's policy director.

The report ranked states according to 23 factors in five gauges: importance of rural education, socioeconomic challenges, student diversity, policy context and educational outcomes. Based on that, the report found 13 priority states that rank low across these factors: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. These states "serve student populations with the severest socio-economic challenges — especially high poverty levels — and they operate with less money than rural schools in other states," the report says.

The lack of funding and a rise in English Language Learner students, who require more teaching resources, have made difficult situations worse. The report concludes that in those priority states, "poverty, fiscal incapacity, low levels of adult education, and low levels of student achievement run in the same mutually reinforcing circles in states in these regions, many of which are as fiscally challenged as their citizens and schools."

Not surprisingly, one of the report's policy recommendations is a priority for the trust: "Keep schools small. Research shows there are academic benefits for students attending small schools in small districts." Other recommendations:

• Keep schools small. Concentrate resources in high poverty areas. The cost of teaching low-income children rises disproportionately as the poverty rate increases; more student support per pupil in schools with high poverty rates is needed.
• Maximize rural school effectiveness and efficiency with technology. Distance learning has been proven to be effective in meeting needs of rural communities.

To download the full report, go here. (Free subscription required.) To read the report overview, see summaries and compare state-by-state results on a clickable map, go here.

Fla. paper founded to advocate better growth management wins battle with election agency

A Florida Panhandle newspaper founded to advocate better management of growth in rural, coastal Wakulla County, and published occasionally, has won its legal battle with the Florida Elections Commission -- but no reimbursement of $80,000 in legal fees for its American Civil Liberties Union attorneys.

Responding to a complaint, the commission said in 2005 that the Wakulla Independent Reporter might have to report its finances if deemed to be an "electioneering communication," not a "newspaper" as defined in the law. "Investigators questioned [Publisher Julia] Hanway's failure to print the name of a publisher or to include obituaries, wedding announcements and ads from local businesses," and said the paper was campaigning against certain county commissioners, writes Lucy Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times.

The commission found no probable cause to believe that the paper knowingly broke the law, but Hanway and the ACLU "took the state to federal court, charging a violation of the First Amendment," writes Jim Ash of the Tallahassee Democrat, published in the county just north of Wakulla. "Regulators vigorously fought the suit, but dramaticaly changed course and acknowledged that Hanway was publishing a newspaper after they lost an initial round in court." In his order dismissing the case last week, federal judge Robert Hinkle said the commission's executive director “saw the light only on the courthouse steps, indeed, only in the courtroom itself.” (Read more)

Morgan said the case "effectively shut down" the Reporter for more than a year, and openly questioned the judge's denial of legal fees in the first sentence of her story: "Sometimes a courtroom victory leaves one wondering about the cost of justice." She quoted Hanway as saying, "It's a mystery to me how Hinkle could have come up with this determination, because the FEC would never have relented if I had not had attorneys who were willing to fight the FEC's original decision." She told Morgan the next Reporter "will be out shortly." (Read more)