A rural Minnesota town works to manage effects of ICE raids on local community

A group of concerned Willmar residents gather to discuss
recent ICE activity. (Photo by B. Froiland, The Yonder)

What would you do if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended on your small town? Residents of Willmar, Minnesota, are working on an answer.

The town might have only 21,000 people, but as ICE has fanned out in Minnesota's bigger cities, such as Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., it has also taken to raiding in smaller towns like Willmar, which has a racially diverse population, including many Somali and Latino residents.

A group of Willmar residents, who have been working together to prevent community ICE arrests, recently met at a local Mexican restaurant to discuss ICE actions and possible ways to help threatened neighbors, reports Betsy Froiland of The Daily Yonder. "The residents around the table were high school students and business owners, children and parents, white neighbors witnessing the terror in their community and neighbors of color living it."

One Willmar resident told the group, “You see things in the news and you think, ‘that’s never going to happen here,’ Froiland reports. “And then you’re witnessing it firsthand.”

The ongoing ICE presence is also having a chilling effect on the town's economy. Froiland explains, "With people too afraid to leave their homes to work or shop, many local businesses are taking a financial hit."

Location of Willmar within 
Kandiyohi County, Minn.

Right now, many Willmar residents are doing their best to look out for one another and provide for residents in hiding. Froiland reports, "They are picking up the pieces after ICE arrests a neighbor, contacting their family, returning their belongings, and arranging care for children and pets left behind."

Other residents have seen their relationships with neighbors fracture. Froiland writes, "While some cross-party relationships remain intact, others have devolved, particularly online, into political sparring about ICE."

The group at the table is trying to figure out how to handle present-day life in Willmar." Julie Vossen-Henslin, another resident in the room, wondered aloud about how the community might recover from an experience like this, Froiland adds. "Then, looking at her neighbors sitting around their big, makeshift table, she answered her own question, 'it starts like this.'"

Substation attacks focus attention on grid's vulnerabilities

A string of attacks with at least two involving gunfire occurred at substations and other power
facilities since mid-October in the U.S. South and Pacific. (Photo by Claudine Hellmuth, E&E News)

Last week's disruptive shooting attacks on two substations in North Carolina, have focused attention on the vulnerabilities of the electric grid. "The incidents in the Carolinas followed attacks at six substations in Oregon and Washington in October and November," reports Miranda Willson of Energy Wire. "Grid security experts said it’s too early to tell whether the incidents were related or unusual in number, but said they showcase a need for the energy industry to be vigilant and prepared."

“It remains troubling and highlights how vulnerable is our critical infrastructure,” Richard Mroz, a senior adviser at the grid security advocacy group Protect Our Power, told Willson in an email. Ross Johnson, a security and intelligence specialist at Bridgehead Security Consulting, told Willson, "It’s a signal-to-noise problem: substation incidents are common, gunfire less so but not unheard of, and until arrests are made we are unlikely to know the motivation."

Willson reports, "There are more than 55,000 substations nationwide ... a key component of the power grid. The incidents come at a time when energy regulators and others say that threats to the power system — be they physical or cyber in nature — are becoming more serious and common."

There have been no identified motives or suspects for the recent attacks. "While some of the incidents involved gunfire," Wilson notes. "It’s unclear if guns were involved in all of the events.

In Oregon, two substations near Portland were targeted in what utilities described as deliberate attacks," Willson reports. "At least four substations in Washington have also been vandalized or targeted."

For 7 deadly years, feds flubbed fentanyl fight, Post reports, naming DEA, DHS, HHS, CDC, White House drug office

Photos of fentanyl victims in the lobby of DEA headquarters (Photo by Salwan Georges, The Washington Post)

"During the past seven years, as soaring quantities of fentanyl flooded into the United States, strategic blunders and cascading mistakes by successive U.S. administrations allowed the most lethal drug crisis in American history to become significantly worse," The Washington Post reports in a long story that begins a massive package on the problem.

"Presidents from both parties failed to take effective action in the face of one of the most urgent threats to the nation’s security, one that claims more lives each year than car accidents, suicides or gun violence," Nick Miroff, Scott Higham, Steven Rich, Salwan Georges and Erin Patrick O'Connor write. "Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49, according to a Post analysis."

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are primarily the responsibility of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which "stumbled through a series of missteps as it confronted the biggest challenge in its 50-year history," the Post reports. "The agency was slow to respond as Mexican cartels supplanted Chinese producers, creating a massive illicit pharmaceutical industry that is now producing more fentanyl than ever. . . . The DEA said it is now taking direct aim at the Mexican cartels and the fentanyl epidemic" but "acknowledged that the government remained too focused on heroin at the onset of the crisis."

Other agencies also fell short. The Department of Homeland Security "failed to ramp up scanning and inspection technology at official crossings, instead channeling $11 billion toward the construction of a border wall that does little to stop fentanyl traffickers," the Post reports. "The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the executive branch office headed by the 'drug czar' and tasked with coordinating the government’s response, spent years fending off elimination and struggled to create an effective strategy to combat the scourge. The office lost its seat in the White House Cabinet and remains sidelined." David King, who runs a federal drug task force in San Diego, told the Post, “Law enforcement did the best it could. We can only do so much. But in Washington, they have been very slow to respond to this and now we are at the confluence of paralysis.”

Another bureaucratic failure: While "Narcotics agents say street-level demand for fentanyl is rising fast because so many new users are getting hooked," the Department of Health and Human Services "has not tracked the rise of fentanyl and does not know how many Americans are using it," the Post reports. That could stem from the fact that fentanyl is being added to other drugs, and is now involved in most overdoses. HHH's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "is unable to track overdose deaths in real-time," the Post notes. "Its published data is one year behind. . . . There is one federal system that collects both fatal and nonfatal overdose data in real-time in several regions of the country. But the system, called ODMAP, is kept from public view. A database launched by the drug czar’s office last week maps some nonfatal overdoses, which can highlight regions where deaths are likely to follow. Without comprehensive data, the federal government is driving blind." John Walters, drug czar for presidents of both parties, told the Post, “This is like tracking the epidemic by visiting cemeteries.”

The Post also has a story on why fentanyl is so deadly and a collection of earlier stories on the opioid epidemic. It promises five more stories, including how "a DEA agent tracked the source of fentanyl in Mormon country" and "Inside the daunting hunt for the ingredients of fentanyl and meth."

DHS stops large-scale immigration arrests at workplaces

Large-scale immigration raids at workplaces, not an uncommon occurrence at meatpacking plants, are no longer part of the Department of Homeland Security's strategy, the agency said Tuesday.

The Biden administration "said it is planning a new enforcement strategy to more effectively target employers who pay substandard wages and engage in exploitative labor practices, reports Nick Miroff of The Washington Post. "Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s memo ordered a review of enforcement policies and gave immigration officials 60 days to devise proposals to better protect workers who report on their bosses from facing deportation."

Miroff notes, "Immigrant advocates and many Democrats who oppose the raids say they punish vulnerable workers, sow fear in immigrant communities and rarely result in consequences for employers. . . . Worksite enforcement practices have flip-flopped between Republican and Democratic administrations over the years. In 2019, the Trump administration swept up 680 workers at seven poultry and other food processing plants in Mississippi, the largest single-state immigration enforcement action in U.S. history. Four managers were later indicted."

According to Mayorkas' memo, "the department’s shift in focus to employers will reduce the demand for illegal labor by delivering stiffer consequences for companies and managers while making it easier for workers to step forward and denounce exploitation," Miroff reports.

New law aims to help local governments switch to more secure .gov URLs, including tech support and fee waivers

"Local governments are in line to get additional federal help shifting to web addresses that end in .gov under legislation that was part of the giant spending and coronavirus relief package President Trump signed into law at the end of the year," Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. "Many local governments around the country still rely on .com, .org or .us addresses. This can make it harder for online users to tell if they’re visiting an official government website, and it creates an opportunity for 'spoofing,' where bad actors create imposter sites."

Spoofing can create all kinds of problems for local governments, which are increasingly vulnerable to ransomware and hackers. "A fake government website might be used to point people to an incorrect polling place on election day, or it might falsely promise to register a person for a coronavirus vaccine appointment if they enter personal information, such as their Social Security number," Lucia writes.

The federal government administers access to the the .gov domain. Local government organizations can claim a .gov URL through the DotGov program for $400, but the cost can be a barrier for small governments, especially when it's far cheaper to buy URLs and hosting space elsewhere, Lucia reports. That's possibly why fewer than 10 percent of all eligible local governments have a .gov web address. Under the new law, the federal government may waive the fees. Also, local governments that move their websites to a .gov address will be eligible for federal grants to cover migration costs. 

The new law transfers oversight of the program from the General Services Administration to the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. It also calls on CISA "to develop an outreach strategy to support local governments in migrating to the .gov domain, and to provide technical information on how to make the switch," Lucia reports.

"It’s unlikely the URL will be a huge help when it comes to shielding localities against some of the serious cyberattacks they’ve faced in recent years, such as ransomware incidents. These episodes commonly arise from phishing, in which public employees are enticed to click on malicious links," Lucia reports. "But it would be possible for federal authorities to implement certain cybersecurity measures that would apply specifically to .gov websites, a potential benefit for local governments, especially those lacking information technology staff."

Here's help for writing about DACA 'dreamers'

Most communities in America, including many rural ones, have young immigrants who have benefited from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy that President Obama established by executive order and that President Trump has abolished -- effective in six months, to give Congress time to enact the policy into law, in what has been called the DREAM Act, for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors.

Nearly 800,000 immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children have registered under DACA. Each one has a story to tell, and some are willing to tell it. Denise-Marie Ordway of Journalist's Resource at Harvard University offers a primer to help reporters, editors and producers tell those stories.

She starts with some helpful resources: A report showing the number of people who requested and were granted or denied DACA from 2012 to 2017; a Q&A from the Department of Homeland Security with a breakdown of how many DACA work permits will expire in 2017, 2018 and 2019; the letter in which Attorney General Jeff Sessions explains his reasons for recommending the program be phased out; and a Q&A from the Department of Education about financial aid for undocumented students.

Ordway also gives summaries and links for research about the program, including state responses and campus responses. Journalist's Resource is a service of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

Obamacare repeal scenario: Name Manchin to Energy, replace him with a Republican senator

Republicans could get the 50th vote they need to pass an Obamacare repeal bill through a political shuffle by President Trump and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice.

Here's the deal: Trump would name Energy Secretary Rick Perry secretary of homeland security, replacing Gen. John Kelly, who recently became Trump's chief of staff. Then Trump would name Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia energy secretary, and Justice would appoint a fellow Republican to fill Manchin's unexpired term.

"Some congressional Democrats think it's possible, even likely," reports Harris Meyer of Modern Healthcare. "If the 49 GOP senators who voted for [Mitch] McConnell's stripped-down repeal bill last month backed the new legislation, the McConnell wouldn't need the votes of the three Republicans—Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John McCain—who voted no last time."

"Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) said Monday morning at a health-care town hall in Chicago that she and other Democrats expect Manchin will be offered the job and he will accept it," Meyer reports. "Then, they expect McConnell to quickly launch a new drive to pass a repeal-and-replace bill. That's what Trump has been needling McConnell to do since the previous bill failed by one vote on July 28, when McCain dramatically turned his thumb down."

There is also the possibility that McCain could resign from the Senate if his brain cancer progresses, Christopher Condeluci, a health-care lobbyist and former Senate Republican staffer, told Meyer. Arizona also has a Republican governor.

"Ron Pollack, chairman-emeritus of Families USA, who helped build grassroots support for ACA's passage in 2010, said he is skeptical about the Manchin replacement scenario, but he cautioned that ACA supporters should remain vigilant," Meyer reports. "Even if Republicans succeed in executing this personnel switcheroo, McConnell wouldn't necessarily have 50 votes he needs to pass either the so-called skinny repeal bill or a broader repeal-and-replace package."

Tom Miller, a conservative health policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, told Meyer, "The next hurdle is finding 50 real votes for skinny repeal when McCain isn't available to bail out up to a half-dozen or more Republican senators who voted for it very reluctantly last time."

The Hill notes, "Manchin was reportedly considered for the job after Trump's election in November." Manchin, who faces a potentially tough re-election battle in 2018, represents a state that has swung sharply Republican, largely because of troubles of its signature industry, coal, during the Obama administration.

Napolitano: Immigration reform will make U.S. safer, while boosting economy

Comprehensive immigration reform will increase border security, bolster the country's economy, and is great for rural America, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a media call Tuesday. She said the bill will boost small businesses and agriculture, where it will put an end to worker shortages; will protect American workers; and is key to deterring illegal migration.

She said the current system is broken, saying "When you fix it, and do it the right way, it is an overall comprehensive agreement that moves us on a path well-suited for rural America in the 21st Century."

The bill will increase the number of agents and technology available at borders, making borders even safer, said Napolitano, who called border cities some of the safest in the country. It will also provide a better verification system, allowing officials to ascertain who has overstayed their visas, while creating a system to better monitor employers and employees. Increasing border security is one of the main issues Republicans are pushing for with the bill.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who introduced Napolitano, said 700,000 of the 1.1 million agriculture workers are not properly documented. He said that without the bill, the U.S. stands to lose agriculture jobs to other countries. Also, he said, immigrants are twice as likely to start a small business, so passing the bill will fill jobs and create more taxpayers, which will help reduce the federal deficit. "It's important for this country to get this done this year, especially for rural American and the farming community," he said.

Only one question from a journalist was allowed on the conference call, which started 10 to 15 minutes late.

Border security becomes focus of immigration debate

As the Senate began debate Wednesday on the immigration bill, which could provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, the focal point turned to border security, which Republicans said must be addressed before they will vote for the bill, Julia Preston and Ashley Parker report for The New York Times. (NYT photo: Sen. Ran Paul, R-Ky.)

“In order to bring conservatives to this cause, those who want immigration reform must understand that a real solution must ensure that our borders are secure,” said Sen. Rand Paul, who, like many conservatives, said he supports the pathway to citizenship for immigrants, but holds border security as the more important issue, reports Preston and Parker.

"The current bill would give the Department of Homeland Security six months to present plans to extend border fencing and achieve effective control of the Southwest border, defined as continuous surveillance along its length and 90 percent effectiveness in stopping illegal crossings," reports Preston and Parker. "Once those plans are presented, illegal immigrants could apply for provisional status. The bill includes $4.5 billion in border financing in the first five years."

"If the security goals had not been met after five years, a commission would be created to ensure border officials met them," reports Preston and Parker. "After 10 years, provisional immigrants could apply for permanent residency — the first step toward citizenship — if the border plans were fully operational, the fencing was completed, mandatory electronic verification for new workers was in place nationwide and an electronic exit system checked foreigners departing through airports and seaports."

Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, filed an amendment that would "require certification from Homeland Security and the top federal auditor that his border goals had been met for one year before provisional immigrants could start the path to citizenship," reports Preston and Parker. (Read more)

Alabama legislature adds public-notice feature to immigration law, keeping its core in face of U.S. suit

The Alabama legislature on Wednesday tinkered with the state’s controversial immigration law, keeping certain portions intact and adding a new provision that would require publication of the names of undocumented immigrants who appear in court, even if they are eventually acquitted of the crime, reports Bryan Lyman of the Montgomery Advertiser. The bill now goes to Republican Gov. Robert Bentley to sign.

The bill kept in place the measure that has generated the most controversy: the requirement that police verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. The law drew a suit from the U.S. Justice Department last year. Politico's Tim Mak provides the legal lay-of-the-land since: "In October, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked parts of the law that would require schools to verify the immigration status of students. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently waiting to rule on a case challenging a similar immigration law in Arizona. That case was heard in April. It was not immediately clear what the legal impact of the tweaks to Alabama’s law will be in regard to the legal action underway against the state."

Farmers who use federal H-2A visa program want relief from mass of governmental 'minutiae'

Farmers nationwide are frustrated with the federal H-2A visa program for seasonal agricultural workers. Most of the complaints center on the amount of what one farmer in Idaho is calling "minutiae" and an abundance of paperwork, reports Sean Cockerham of the Kansas City Star.

It's a growing problem, according to Michaelene Rowe of the Snake River Farmers Association, an Idaho-based group that helps farms with visa issues. Getting a temporary H-2A visa for a foreign farm worker to enter the U.S. is a confusing and painful process for an employer who is trying to follow the rules and only hire legal workers, Rowe said. "This is counterproductive to the national discussion and political rhetoric related to the need to employ only legally documented workers."

Employers say that to use the program they have to deal with multiple agencies, including the Department of Labor, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. Farmers recently sent a letter to six U.S. senators asking for relief. The Labor Department says it has been working with farmers to process applications more efficiently.

Kansas agriculture interests want feds to OK program to place illegal immigrants in jobs

Kansas Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman, right, wants the federal government to start a pilot program that would connect undocumented immigrants who have been in the state for five years with agricultural employers who Rodman says are struggling to find workers. "You've got to listen to your customers," Rodman told Tim Carpenter of The Capital-Journal in Topeka.

The federal Department of Homeland Security "hasn't signaled approval," Carpenter writes, but "Those officials haven't closed the door either." He adds, "A powerful coalition of business interests is preparing to tackle the issue in Topeka," including the state Chamber of Commerce and Farm Bureau.

"This is the same coalition that contributed in the 2011 session to blocking a version of the controversial Arizona immigration measure compelling  police officers to detain individuals they think might be undocumented," Carpenter notes. "The plan is to reach out to experienced, committed workers with no criminal background. A likely candidate would be a person who entered Kansas on a visa that expired years ago." (Read more)

Pa. homeland security watching anti-drilling groups

UPDATE 9/16: Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell termed natural gas drilling protesters' inclusion in the Homeland Security bulletins as "absolutely ludicrous" and said the state would not renew its contract with the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, which supplied to information to state regulators. Rendell, who said he didn't know of the contract until reading Tuesday's Patriot-News story, "said he was 'embarrassed' and 'appalled' that a state contractor tracked 'legitimate protest groups' and that a state agency then disseminated that information to law enforcement around the state," Gilliland reports for The Patriot-News. "Let me make this as clear as I can possibly make it," Rendell said. "Protesting against an idea, a principle, a process, protesting is not a real threat. Protesting is a God-given American right, a right that’s in our Constitution." (Read more)

The Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security thinks anti-natural gas drilling groups may be a threat as they have included the groups' activities in weekly briefings sent to law enforcement agencies. Leaked documents show the department "has been tracking anti-gas drilling groups and their meetings — including a public screening of the film 'Gasland,' a documentary about the environmental hazards of natural gas drilling," Donald Gilliland of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reports. The briefings were also sent to gas companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Information about which meetings protesters were planning to attend was supplied by "the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, a Philadelphia firm contracted with the state Office of Homeland Security to provide information for the intelligence briefings," Gilliland writes. "There’s something dead-fishy here. ... Something is rotten," activist Gene Stilp told Gilliland, calling for a formal House and Senate inquiry into the activities of the Homeland Security Office. State Homeland Security Director James Powers said he's been including the groups in the briefings for over a month because there have been 5-10 cases of vandalism related to the natural gas industry. "I don’t care" which side of the issue someone is on, Powers told Gilliland. "My concern is public safety."

The briefings include lists of public meetings the state thinks anti-drilling activists will attend. In an e-mail to a staffer who leaked the first briefing to a Web site, Powers wrote, "We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale formation natural gas stakeholders, while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies." Powers was non-committal when asked if he would include pro-drilling groups in future briefings. "I’m trying to think ... I see your point," he told Gilliland. "This seems to be a very polarizing issue around the state." (Read more)

Milk security system among projects stemming from rural Ky. congressman's hometown earmarks

A University of Kentucky food engineer stands to benefit from the investment in homeland security as his high-tech "milk-transport security system" nears completion. Fred Payne, who has started a company, TranSecurity Systems Inc. to market his system, began his research with $2.67 million in federal grants from the National Institute for Hometown Security, established by Kentucky Republican Rep. Hal Rogers in his hometown of Somerset, John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. "Other NIHS-funded projects have included research on face recognition, disaster prediction, pedestrian surveillance and trying to reduce the explosiveness of ammonium nitrate fertilizer," Cheves writes.

Payne's idea arose after many food scientists began questioning the safety of the nation's food supply following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Payne and his partners, "including dairy expert Chris Thompson of the UK College of Agriculture, designed a hand-held wireless computer to record a truck's contents and send that information to remote locations; a global positioning system to identify a truck's whereabouts at all times; and secure locks on the dome lid and rear doors, with a key pad to enter access codes," Cheves writes. (Payne, left, and Thompson in Herald-Leader photo by Matt Goins)

NIHS was created when Rogers earmarked $52 million in federal funds for the project, in part to pay for anti-terrorism research at Kentucky universities. Rogers' critics have questioned the decision to establish "his own homeland security agency in a small town with no obvious terrorist targets," Cheves writes, and claim "Rogers is building an empire for himself in southeastern Kentucky using his so-called budget earmarks." NIHS chief executive Ewell Balltrip, a former newspaper editor and publisher in the region, told Cheves that "Politics doesn't have anything to do with what we do," and the organization provides a needed plug for a hole in national security. (Read more)

Administration, senators, journalism groups agree on shield law to protect confidential sources

The Obama administration, journalism groups and key senators in both parties have agreed on who and what would be protected under a federal shield law now awaiting a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The law would protect journalists who refuse to reveal their sources unless the information is necessary to protect national security interests or federal criminal prosecutions, Walter Pincus of The Washington Post reports. New York Democrat Charles E. Schumer, one of the bill's sponsors, said in a statement that the new version "preserves a strong protection for reporters interested in protecting their sources, while also making sure that the government can still do the job of protecting its citizens."

President Obama said he favored a federal shield law during his campaign, but once in office his lieutenants said national-security cases should be exempt from any judicial balancing test between the public's right to know and potential damage to national security. The compromise bill says that to avoid such a test, the government must "show that disclosure of a source of information is necessary to prevent or mitigate a terrorist act or identify a perpetrator," Pincus reports. In criminal investigations, the government must show "by the preponderance of evidence" that information is likely to harm national security. The compromise also expands protection from journalists who have contract with a news organization to anyone whose primary intent is "to disseminate to the public news," the functional test that was an article of faith for many journalism groups. (Read more)

The Society of Professional Journalists said the new version of S. 448 is not perfect, but endorsed it, citing the protection it would provide to the 8,000-plus SPJ members. "As one of the largest journalism organizations in the country, and with the most potentially affected by federal shield law protection, we are not where we had hoped to be with this legislation," SPJ President Kevin Smith said. "However, after meticulously and attentively deliberating the language of the new bill and vetting it via counsel and the SPJ Government Relations Committee in order to completely understand the impact of the legislation, SPJ is supporting this latest compromise." Al Cross, publisher of The Rural Blog and director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, is a member of the committee and a former SPJ president.

Feds withhold list of 'high hazard' coal-ash ponds, say individual communities should be warned

Is there a coal-fired power plant near you? Does it put its ash in a disposal pond? Is that pond one of the 44 identified as "high hazard" by the Environmental Protection Agency? Is your community one of the 26 near those ponds? Answering the last two questions may be difficult, because the Obama administration has declined to release the list, citing Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Homeland Security fears about terrorist attacks on the ponds. But local news media may be in a better position than national media to get answers.

Senators and representatives said yesterday that the administration should release the list. "If these sites are so hazardous and if the neighborhoods nearby could be harmed irreparably, then I believe it is essential to let people know," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. An unidentified EPA official told Dina Cappiello of The Associated Press that the agency intended to release the list until it for a June 4 letter from the Corps and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Army Corps "did not recommend secrecy, but advocated the information be made public judiciously in each community where the coal-ash piles are located," reports Jim Bruggers of the Louisville Courier-Journal, quoting Corps spokesman Gene Pawlik: "We don't release a consolidated list of information ... as a single document." Bruggers adds: "Instead, he said, the Corps recommends making the information available to emergency responders and local officials, and the public through community meetings." Eric Halpin, special assistant for dam and levee safety for the Corps, told AP that federal policy says "you shouldn't make it easy for the bad guys to do their jobs" by releasing lists.

"A Homeland Security Department spokeswoman said late Friday that the Corps position was not the final word on the matter and could be reversed. A final recommendation will be made by the FEMA administrator after a review by the National Dam Safety Review Board," Cappiello reports. "The sites have existed for years with little or no federal regulation. And oversight at the state level varies, with some treating coal ash ponds like dams used for power generation and flood control and others not regulating their construction or siting at all." (Read more) For example, Indiana officials declined to tell The Courier-Journal if any sites in that state are on the list, but Kentucky has its own rating system that "considers ash ponds at four power plants to be high hazard, meaning they could cause death or serious damage if they fail," Bruggers writes.

Is the administration really following a strategy of releasing the information to individual communities? Seems to us that local news media should find out, by asking EPA headquarters or regional offices if their communities are among the 26 at risk.

Report on militia groups as potential terrorists triggers national backlash

The Missouri Information Analysis Center, "which opened in 2005, is a 'fusion center' that combines resources from the federal Department of Homeland Security and other agencies," writes T.J. Greaney of the Columbia Daily Tribune. "It was set up to collect local intelligence to better combat terrorism and other criminal activity." But a report issued to law enforcement officers about militia groups has created a national backlash.

"The report gained national attention in recent weeks after it was leaked to the public," reports Greaney. "Portions of the report say that members of third-party political groups or supporters of third-party presidential candidates might be terrorists." Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder "expressed outrage at the report, saying there was no mention of radical environmental groups or radical religious groups other than Christians." It appears that the report took a narrow view of who should be considered a terrorist and who should not. (Read more)

Weekly newspapers covered Agriprocessors Inc. and its big immigration raid differently than dailies

The weekly Postville Herald-Leader in Iowa faced an unexpected challenge last May when the town suddenly became the center of a then-record immigration raid and a symbol for the nation's immigration debate. An article in Grassroots Editor, published by the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, highlights the work of the Herald-Leader and other weeklies in covering the raid at Agriprocessors Inc. and its aftermath.

Agriprocessors was a story years before the raid. The company began in 1987, and, by 1996, had become the "world's largest kosher slaughterhouse." With the resulting "influx of Hasidic Jews and an international workforce, the town came to be seen as an experiment in multicultural living," writes Patricia Berg. "In a region almost entirely populated by Christians descended from German and Norwegian immigrants, Postville had suddenly become a mosaic of Anglo Christians, Jews, Latinos and Eastern Europeans." University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom wrote a book about it, Postville.

With this year's raid, however, Postville was national news, with major dailies focusing on Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and immigration policy. Local weeklies not only had to report that story, but also lived the story, as friends and neighbors were arrested and deported. "Even a few miles down the road their perspective is different from mine, because they don't live right here," said Sharon Drahn, editor of the Herald-Leader. The dedication required to report on many of the stories still emerging from the raid is also much harder on local staff. Janell Bradley, owner and editor of three area weeklies, says that she has begun studying Spanish three nights a week, so that she is no longer dependent on interpreters.

Gerald Blue, editor of the Fayette County Union, 15 miles from Postville, says that weeklies' proximity to the story has enabled them to report areas of progress. "The dailies chose to ignore anything that was positive" about Agriprocessors, he said. He says that while daily papers did not report on company changes for the better, such as a new staffing agency, the weekly papers did. (Read more)

The high cost of immigration enforcement

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, taxpayers paid $5.2 million through Aug. 21 for the May 12 raid of the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, reports William Patroski of The Des Moines Register.

The cost of the raid, $13,396 for each of the 389 illegal immigrants taken into custody, has sparked fresh debate about immigration reform. Scott Frotman, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, told Patroski, "It raised serious due process issues, and it may have compromised federal investigations into labor abuses by the company's management."

On the other side of the debate some feel that failure to enforce immigration laws will simply be an impetus for more illegal immigration. U.S. Rep. Steve King, a very conservative Iowa Republican, told Patroski, "If we start saying, 'Well, it costs too much money to enforce the law,' then we will see more and more of these radical, pro-illegal immigration activists drive more wedges between us and make it harder to enforce the law." (Read more) For earlier posts on aid on The Rural Blog about the raid, click here, here and here.

Latest big immigration raid hits S.C. chicken plant

The House of Raeford Farms plant in Greenville, S.C., was the site of the latest in a string of federal raids aimed at detaining and deporting undocumented workers. Ames Alexander of The Charlotte Observer writes "authorities determined that 777 of 825 workers at the plant had apparently submitted false documents to get their jobs."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been investigating hiring practices of the company for some time. "Over the summer, ICE arrested 11 plant supervisors at their homes and charged them with immigration violations," writes Alexander. "Current and former supervisors told the Observer that some House of Raeford managers knew they employed illegal immigrants. They said the plant prefers undocumented workers because they are less likely to question working conditions for fear of losing their jobs or being deported."

ICE officials said they would continue their investigation "to determine who allowed illegal immigrants to work at the plant, known locally as Columbia Farms," adds Alexander. "Investigating the employers, they said, is as large a priority as identifying illegal workers." (Read more)

The immigration raid in South Carolina is the latest of several in recent months. To see other stories on illegal worker raids click the following links about raids in Mississippi and Iowa.