Babies delivered at rural hospitals can receive specialized neonatal care through a unique telehealth program

A newborn baby's care team can get live, immediate help
from a neonatologist with TeleICN. (Dartmouth photo)

A pregnancy delivery in a rural hospital far away from specialized care poses significant risks for a baby born with complex needs. In Vermont and New Hampshire, Dartmouth Health created TeleICN, a unique telehealth program that connects rural medical providers to neonatologists who can help manage a baby's health during and after delivery, reports Christopher Cheney for Healthleaders.

As more rural hospitals have cut services to save money, many have shuttered their labor and delivery units. In the case of an emergency delivery, EMS will take a pregnant patient to the nearest emergency department, where a rural care team can "connect to the TeleICN program using an iPad or making a phone call," Cheney explains.

Tapping into TeleICN is similar to using FaceTime. The program allows a neonatologist to "talk with the local teams, look at the baby via video, and work with the mom and their family members to make decisions about the next steps in care for babies," Cheney reports. TeleICN can "connect local care teams to a neonatologist virtually on a 24/7 basis, and it serves 16 rural hospitals in New Hampshire and Vermont."

Katelyn Darling, a director at Dartmouth Health, shared the varying levels of care TeleICN often provides, saying, "Sometimes, they know a mom in labor is on the way to their hospital, and they want us to help them prep the care room. Sometimes, they want us in the background to support them. Sometimes, they want us on the frontline making decisions about care."

Because the TeleICN has been so successful, Dartmouth expanded its virtual obstetrics care with its new TeleMFM program. Cheney explains, "The focus is on high-risk obstetrics care and fetal-maternal medicine services, with the goal of reducing the need for patients to travel long distances. … Patients can go to a clinic associated with a rural hospital and get connected to a TeleMFM provider."

Jessica Clem, TeleICN's medical director, told Healthleaders, "What we are trying to do is provide equitable care in New Hampshire and Vermont, particularly for rural communities."

Irked by cars and crowds, rural New Englanders try different coping strategies to manage 'leaf-peepers'

Idyllic autumn scenery draws thousands of tourists 
to New England each fall. (Adobe Stock photo)

As fall blows into rural New England, it brings trees decked out in glorious fall shades and plenty of tourists. Residents and local governments in some of the most popular "leaf-peeping" places have had enough. "Locals are pushing for road closures and parking restrictions," reports Jared Mitovich of The Wall Street Journal. Some local stores have started hawking wares that poke fun at tourists.

Despite the tourism revenue "leaf-lookers" generate for some areas, the influx of hundreds of additional people in a single season can overwhelm smaller towns. "They’ve complained about TikTokers trespassing onto countryside farms. . .near-fist fights over trailhead parking — not to mention unsafe traffic blockages on narrow roads," Mitovich writes.

The sheer number of fall tourists to Vermont -- a state with less than 650,000 residents -- explains some of the stress. Vermonters welcome roughly 2.5 million visitors "who come for the idyllic autumnal vistas," Mitovich reports. "A growing number of residents say influencer culture is fueling bad behavior."

Some small businesses have turned to humor to cope by "selling collectible figures titled 'Influencer Trespassing on Private Road': a woman with a long braid under a wide-brimmed hat, smartphone in hand, in front of a leafy landscape," Mitovich adds. Another figurine includes a row of tiny vehicles causing a traffic jam.

The tiny town of Pomfret, Vt., opted to close itself off rather than adapt to the onslaught of tourists. "For the third straight fall season. . . signage will turn away drivers trying to get a glimpse." A Pomfret sugarhouse owner, Michael Doten, supports the blockade, even though it means he sells less maple syrup. He told Mitovich, "People were throwing trash and they were trespassing."

Beyond small towns trying to manage carloads of tourists, popular hiking trails such as Franconia Notch State Park in New Hampshire get swamped, too. This fall, Franconia park managers "introduced one-way hiking patterns, doubled the number of port-a-potties and increased staffing," Mitovich reports. 

Two rural newspaper executives among winners of Yankee Quill Awards from Academy of New England Journalists

Marianne Stanton, The Inquirer and Mirror

Two rural newspaper executives are among the six New England journalists who will receive the Yankee Quill Award next month from the Academy of New England Journalists for contributions to the betterment of journalism in the region. They are Marianne Stanton of the weekly Inquirer and Mirror on Nantucket Island, Mass., and Terrence "Terry" Willliams, president and chief executive officer of the Keene (N.H.) Sentinel.

Stanton has spent more than 40 years at her paper, growing up with it when it was owned by her parents before being sold in 1990. She started as a reporter, became editor, and then publisher. "Under her leadership, the paper has won numerous awards and gained a stellar reputation for its integrity and unwavering belief in the right of people to know what their public officials are doing," the academy says. The paper recently returned to local ownership, with Stanton continuing as editor and publisher.

Terrence Williams, The Keene Sentinel

Williams "is the definition of an accomplished newspaper leader, both as an editor and a publisher," the academy says. "He has been one of New England’s leading publishing executives throughout most of his distinguished 40-year career. His news products have won numerous awards for excellence in journalism and bold revenue solutions. He is an outstanding leader and strong communicator and is regarded as one of the most thoughtful and collaborative publishers in New England."

The other Yankee Quill winners are: Paul Bass, founder, publisher, and editor of the New Haven Independent, one of the country’s leading nonprofit digital news organizations; Tom Condon, former columnist, editorial writer and investigative reporter at the Hartford Courant; Melvin B. MIller, founder, publisher and editor of the Bay State Banner, a weekly for Greater Boston’s African American community; and the late William Monroe Trotter, an early and outspoken 20th-century civil-rights activist who founded the Boston Guardian newspaper.

The inductees were selected in 2021, but the induction ceremony was postponed due to the pandemic. The awards will be presented at a luncheon as part of the annual convention of the New England Newspaper and Press Association Friday, April 29, at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.

Spoof of rap video promotes New Hampshire

A YouTube video parodying a popular rap song while promoting interesting facts and attractions of one of the country's more rural states has gone viral. The video "Granite State of Mind," which parodies rapper Jay Z's song "Empire State of Mind" to showcase some New Hampshire pride, was posted by Christian Wisecarver, who works for a video production company in Hampstead, and has received over 840,000 views in one week.

Except for one ill-placed expletive, the video is an "otherwise stellar rundown of all things New Hampshire, including everything from geography and landmarks to hot spots and newsmakers," Carol Robidoux of the New Hampshire Union Leader reports. "You know, the original was sort of begging to be parodied, the music is so catchy. It really started when I was listening to the lyrics of the Jay-Z video -- it just started to come together in my head," Wisecarver told Robidoux. (Read more)



UPDATE, April 10: A more traditional treatment of the charms of the Granite State was written a few years ago by Steve Taylor, a journalist who had become state agricultuire commissioner: "100 Things You Should Do to Know the Real New Hampshire." This week, Taylor was given the top alumni award from the University of New Hampshire. Read about him and the award.

Organic dairy farmers' boom turns to bust

The bad dairy business is worse for organic dairies. Caught between doubled prices for organic feed and a recession-driven drop in demand for their products, many have gone out of business, The New York Times reports. (Times photo by Caleb Kenna: Vermont dairy farmer Craig Russell and a calf)

The situation seems worst in New England, because of costs of transporting feed from the Midwest. "In Vermont, 32 dairy farms have closed since Dec. 1, significantly altering the face of New England’s dairy industry," Katie Zezima writes, quoting state Agriculture Secretary Roger Allbee: “We expect to lose a lot more farms this year.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture "says sales of organic whole milk in February were 2.5 percent lower than in February last year, with sales of organic reduced-fat milk 15 percent lower," Zezima reports. That represents a big reversal; sals of organic milk more than doubled from 2006 to 2008.

Some farmers are trying to stay afloat by selling directly to the public. The Vermont House of Representatives passed a bill this month to increase the amount of raw, unpasteurized milk a farmer can sell to consumers, Zezima notes. (Read more)

Writers suggest heart of Central Appalachia as site of first post-primary joint event for Obama, Clinton

(See update below.) When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton make their first post-primary joint appearance this Friday, at a site that has yet to be disclosed, they might be well advised to come to the heart of Central Appalachia, Charles Mahtesian and Amie Parnes write on Politico.com.
The writers suggest Mingo County, W.Va., (in Encarta map) among five good places to go. The others are Maricopa County, Ariz.; Youngstown, Ohio; Broward County, Fla.; or San Antonio. We're betting that the former foes will meet up in a place less like Mingo than one of the others, but Mahtesian and Parnes make a decent argument for an Appalachian trip:

"Appearing with Clinton in the heart of the anti-Obama belt — the section of Appalachia where Clinton racked up 70, 80 and in more than a few instances, 90 percent of the vote against Obama — would be a bold statement about his intention to address the vulnerabilities the primary season exposed in his candidacy," they write.

"Mingo, like many of its neighboring counties across the border in Kentucky and nearby in Virginia, didn’t simply reject Obama. It had a visceral loathing of his candidacy — delivering just 8 percent of its vote to him, compared to Clinton’s 88 percent. Race clearly played a role in that result, so bringing the Obama-Clinton roadshow to Appalachia would be an important step toward bridging that racial gap, not to mention a sign that he is not writing off Kentucky and West Virginia just yet. The media coverage of such a politically daring and conciliatory stunt would be almost unimaginably fawning, though the out-of-the-way location would likely diminish the size of the media pack."

The writers could have (and probably should have) noted that in April, John McCain visited Martin County, Ky., which borders Mingo County and is the home of Republican National Chairman Mike Duncan. For their arguments for the other locations, click here. For former Appalachian reporter Judy Jones Owens' take in the Daily Yonder on some of the political reporting by outsiders visiting the region, which is that they were, er, taken, click here.

UPDATE, June 23: Obama and Clinton announced today that their first joint post-primary event will be in the battleground state of New Hampshire and the town of Unity, population 1,500, where each of them received 107 votes in the January primary. Very cute. The news has already prompted dozens of comments on John DiStaso's story in The Union Leader.

Photographer from The Concord Monitor, circulation less than 20,000, wins Pulitzer Prize

With a daily circulation of less than 20,000, The Concord (N.H.) Monitor was the smallest papers to win a Pulitzer Prize this year, thanks to Preston Gannaway's win for feature photography. Gannaway, 30, won "for a series of photographs of Carolynne St. Pierre, a nurse who was dying of liver cancer; her husband, Rich; and their three children as they cared for her at home," reports Richard Maschal of The Charlotte Observer. (Gannaway is a Charlotte native.)

One of the photos from the two-year series shows Carolynne St. Pierre surrounded by her family in her final days (above). "It's the only sharp frame of three or four because I was shaking and crying," Gannaway, right, told Maschal. Family members allowed Gannaway to photograph them as long as she made all the photos available to them, so they could remember their loved one. Gannaway said she plans to share the $10,000 award with family as well.

Gannaway now works for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. To see her Pulitzer Prize-winning photos, go to www.prestongannaway.com and click on "Stories & Essays" and then "Remember Me." (Read more)

Kentucky horse owners seek remedies for crisis; N.H. sees rise in concern for animal welfare

We've often mentioned how the end of commercial horse slaughter in the United States, coupled with a continuing hay shortage and rising feed costs, has led to what some call a "horse crisis" — an abundance of unwanted or malnourished horses. At the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington this week, horse-rescue groups came together for a brainstorming session because many "have been swamped with horses that owners can no longer feed," reports Jim Warren of the Lexington Herald-Leader. The session was sponsored by the Kentucky Horse Council.

"One suggestion was for a Web site where rescues could exchange lists of the horses they have available for adoption and help one another find potential new owners for them," Warren writes. "That led to suggestions of holding regular adoption days -- possibly at the Horse Park -- where members of the public could come to adopt rescued horses. Officials noted that each horse adopted makes room for rescuers to take in another animal." The biggest problem, however, is the hay shortage caused by last summer's drought, and there appears to be no easy fix for that. (Read more)

UPDATE, March 27: The Herald-Leader's Greg Kocher reports that about 70 malnourished Tennessee walking horses (two in photo by Kocher) are being removed from a farm near Lexington, and a woman has been charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty. One of her friends "said the atmosphere was tense," Kocher reports. "This is not a thoroughbred farm. We don't have millions of dollars," the friend, Jeff Maness quoted Sharon Clagett as telling animal control officers. Instead of seizing animals and bringing charges, the government should help people by finding and providing hay, Maness said." (Read more)

In writing for her Weekly Market Bulletin, New Hampshire Agriculture Commissioner Lorraine S. Merrill explains how such rescue efforts fit into the evolving debate over animals in our society:

The number of bills in the legislature and the number of complaints coming in to the Department’s Division of Animal Industry about animal neglect, abuse and cruelty reflect the increasing — and conflicting — concerns about the care and use of animals in our society. Fewer people have connections to agriculture, or knowledge of livestock care, health or behavior, or the roles of livestock in our culture and society. Small animals come in for plenty of attention, too. Dr. Stephen Crawford, state veterinarian and director of the Division of Animal Industry, says much of this growing interest has political, social or emotional roots — often all three factors together.

The commissioner's column, headliend "Animal Passions," touches on an increase in legislative proposals in New Hampshire related to animal welfare and the jump in reports of animal neglect (often false or sometimes motivated by factors beyond an animal's well-being, Merrill notes). To read the Weekly Market Bulletin, go here.

Tap a tree: American maple-syrup industry booms

The appeal of maple syrup has long traveled far beyond the woods of New Hampshire and Vermont; now that appeal has reached Europe and Asia. That growth in customers, plus the weak U.S. dollar, has helped the American maple industry outsell its Canadian rivals, former New Hampshire agriculture commissioner Steve Taylor writes for The Valley News in White River Junction, Vt., and Lebanon, N.H.

"Folks long used to buying a gallon of new-crop Vermont or New Hampshire syrup hot from the evaporator for $35 will be in for a surprise this year, for the reality is that there are buyers in Japan or someplace else who are willing to pay far more, although it will probably be packaged in many tiny bottles," Taylor writes. "Though these new economics may make it seem like a bonanza is in the offing for syrup producers, sharp increases in energy costs for evaporating and for the plastic tubing that is now the norm for gathering sap will restrain any exuberance."

Taylor, whose family sells syrup, explains that the increased demand has helped New England producers compete with Quebec, which accounts for 75 percent of the world's maple syrup. The province's Federation — the price-fixing organization a producer must join — has set the baseline for maple syrup for everyone in North America, but its mismanagement of surpluses and the weak U.S. dollar have created demand for American product, Taylor reports. Still, all maple syrup is more valuable now, and the price could continue to climb about 10 percent annually as the supply can't keep up with demand. Keeping up with demand is the concern for those in the risky industry, so producers are upgrading technology in hopes of maximizing output. (Read more)

Obama does well in rural S.C.; Democrats keep winning turnout battle, rural areas included

Barack Obama won rural South Carolina by about the same percentage that he won the whole state in today's presidential primary, according to the networks' exit poll, which gave him 52 percent of the rural vote to 27 percent for Hillary Clinton and 21 percent for John Edwards. The statewide vote was 55-27-18. (Photo: Obama at National Rural Summit candidate forum in Iowa Oct. 27)

The exit poll identified 36 percent of voters as rural, 48 percent as suburban and 15 percent as urban, based on the location of their precinct: outside a metropolitan area, inside a metro area but outside a central city, and inside the city, respectively. When the actual vote is divided between counties inside and outside metro areas, Obama did even better than statewide. "Rural counties gave him his widest margin of victory, 59 percent," reports the Daily Yonder. (Read more)

Perhaps more importantly, the first Southern presidential primary and the first with a significant African American vote continued a trend of higher turnout in Democratic primaries and caucuses than in Republican contests, according to Al Giordano in The Field, the blog of Rural Votes. "It looks like, for the first time in history, more South Carolinians voted in the Democratic presidential primary than on the Republican side. An estimated 23 percent of today’s vote came from Independents," Giordano notes, drawing from the exit poll.

One little-known fact from the Survey USA robo-polling firm, via Mark Nickolas on Political Base: "Voters in SC may only vote once. Not twice. If you voted last week, you may not vote this week. But if you did not vote last week, even if you are a Republican, you may vote this week, in the Democratic primary." Thus, Republicans got first crack at the independents, but Democrats drew more of them.

The phenomenon of stronger Democratic turnout also occurred in rural areas of the first three states that voted, according to Niel Ritchie, executive director of the League of Rural Voters, which defines itself as "progressive." In an article this week, Ritchie wrote, "Lost in the media’s preferred storyline of gender vs. race in the 2008 Democratic primary is the massive increase in the number of rural voters and the steady migration of these voters away from the Republican Party. . . . All three states saw record rural turnout far exceeding that of the Republican Party."

Ritchie said that should be no surprise. "The last decade has seen Wall Street grabbing the lion’s share of the economic 'boom' while rural Americans endlessly waited for the promised benefits of 'free trade' to manifest," Ritchie wrote. "Rural America is now ground zero in the war to consolidate global corporations, with the corrosive spread of big-box retail threatening the fabric of rural communities. And with the disproportionate number of troops in Iraq coming from rural Reserve and National Guard units – many of whom served in critical roles at home as volunteer fire fighters, police officers and paramedics – rural America has paid more than its fair share in blood and treasure." (Read more)

Finally, one last note on rural caucus-goers in Nevada, who went for Clinton in the entrance poll (within the error margin) but for Obama if the vote is divided between metropolitan and non-metro counties. "Obama beat rival Hillary Clinton decisively in nine of 14 rural Republican-dominated counties," notes Alexandra Berzon of the Las Vegas Sun. Nevada Democrats said Obama showed them how to win in rural areas, which usually vote Republican. Cindy Trigg, a rural Democratic organizer, told the Sun, “Now any campaign will know that if you court the rurals you can have a tip in your favor.” Obama organizer Lance Whitney said, “People in rural areas see themselves in Barack Obama. They see him as a true American success story. They see him as representing something new and fresh.” (Read more)

Rural results in New Hampshire's primary were the reverse of statewide: Obama edged out Clinton

Barack Obama lost New Hampshire's presidential primary, but he ran better in its rural areas than he did in Iowa's, where he won last week's caucuses. The Illinois senator carried the nine rural counties in the Granite State, but narrowly lost the state to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who ran more strongly in the two urban counties -- and generally in the state's cities and suburbs, according to news reports.

Analysis of the county-by-county results as published in the New Hampshire Union Leader shows that Obama won 38.2 percent of the vote in the more rural counties, those north and west of Hillsborough and Rockingham counties, where the urban centers of Manchester, Nashua and Portsmouth are located. Statewide, Obama got 36.4 percent of the vote to Clinton's 39 percent. Clinton won 36.3 percent of the rural counties' vote, while former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina won 17.3 percent, 0.4 points more than his statewide share. (Strafford County, along the Maine border north of Portsmouth, is in the Boston metropolitan area, but we count it as rural on the advice of our New Hampshire correspondents. It produced 9.4 percent of the vote and gave Clinton a 6-point margin.)

Put another way, Obama got 52.3 percent of his vote from the rural counties, which produced 50.2 percent of the total vote. Edwards' vote was 51 percent rural and Clinton's was 46.3 percent rural. A more detailed analysis, by town rather than county, might well produce somewhat different results, but this is all we can do at this juncture. We welcome calculations by those who know which towns are rural and which are not. (All New Hampshire residents live in a town, the basic unit of government in New England.)

Pre-election polls showed no statistical difference among the Democrats in rural and urban vote, but dis show that Arizona Sen. John McCain was leading in rural areas, and that proved true yesterday. As calculated by the Daily Yonder (which did not count Strafford County as rural), McCain got 40 percent of the rural vote, and 37 percent statewide.

The Yonder story by Bill Bishop notes, "Most of rural New Hampshire votes more Democratic than the urban counties along the southern border of the state. Only two rural New Hampshire counties — Belknap and Carroll — voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 election." For the Yonder's detailed story, click here.

UPDATE, Jan. 10: Karl Rove says in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that Clinton carried "less-affluent rural areas," and Pew pollster Andrew Kohut notes in a New York Times op-ed that Clinton beat Obama by 12 percentage points in households earning less than $50,000. One lesson here may be that rural New Hampshire is more affluent than rural America.

McCain leads in rural counties in New Hampshire

John McCain doesn't have a clear lead in the New Hampshire Republican primary but is clearly the favorite in the Granite State's rural counties, according to a 7News-Suffolk University poll released yesterday. See updates below. (Photo: Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times)

The Jan. 3-4 poll found Mitt Romney, former governor of adjoining Massachusetts, leading the Arizona senator 30 percent to 26 percent, within the poll's error margin of 4.4 percentage points for each result. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani each had 11 percent. McCain had surged to a clear, 9-point lead a week ago.

In Rockingham and Hillsborough counties -- the urbanized southeast and the Boston media market -- Romney led McCain 39 percent to 20 percent in the latest poll. In the more rural counties to the west and north, McCain led Romney, 30 to 20. "It would seem that the voters in the two counties that border Massachusetts have adopted . . . Romney as their favorite son,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said in a release. Giuliani and Huckabee ran about the same in rural and urban areas.

There were no statistically significant rural-urban differences among candidates in the Democratic primary, in which New York Sen. Hillary Clinton had 36 percent to 29 percent for a surging Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and 13 percent for former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. For details, click here.

UPDATES: McCain leads Romney 33 to 27 percent in the latest University of New Hampshire poll for WMUR-TV and CNN, taken yesterday and today. Three days ago, they were tied. Obama and Clinton are tied at 33 percent, with Edwards at 20 percent. The poll's error margin is plus or minus 5 percent. (Read more) The Concord Monitor reports that its polling yesterday and today shows McCain leading Romney, 35 to 29 percent, and Obama leading Clinton, 34 to 33 percent -- all within the poll's error margin of 5 percentage points for each result. Read blog post from 4:13 p.m.; story is pending as of 7:25 p.m.

McCain rides events and endorsements, including a chain of weeklies in rural New Hampshire

When John McCain passed up the Ames Straw Poll last summer, "It was not difficult to find Iowans who proclaimed the Arizona senator's campaign dead in the water," writes Lynda Waddington of the Iowa Independent. "Recent events, including newspaper endorsements and an assassination on the other side of the globe, have prompted some Iowans to give McCain a second look." (Independent photo)

Mary McEniry of Marion told Waddington, "With the [Benazir Bhutto] assassination today, that just made me think that we need somebody really strong, and he's the one." Waddington reports, "The assassination of Pakistan's former prime minister was at the top of McCain's list when he offered his prepared remarks." (Read more)

Michael Shear of The Washington Post reported yesterday, "McCain still trails in Iowa -- most polls peg his support in the single digits -- in part because of his opposition to ethanol subsidies and his support of immigration reform. But armed with an endorsement from the Des Moines Register and buoyed by his success in New Hampshire, McCain on Wednesday launched a three-day tour of Iowa's rural towns."

Today, McCain returned to New Hampshire, where he has keyed on rural votes. In his comeback since hit campaign hit bottom in early fall, "McCain also worked hard to win endorsements from the state's leading papers, seeing it as a no-cost strategy for building support." Shear reports. "Aides even pursued the Salmon Press chain of small weeklies, inviting its editors to ride on the bus." (Read more) The chain endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. Access to its sites requires a subscription; for a story by James Pindell of The Boston Globe on its endorsement, click here.

Obama's surge in N.H. coming from rural areas

Sen. Barack Obama is closing the gap on Sen. Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire's Jan. 8 primary largely on the strength of rural voters, according to political analyst Al Giordano, writing in The Field, a rural-oriented blog about the early presidential contests, hosted by RuralVotes.com.

The Dec. 10-11 poll by Suffolk University showed Clinton leading Obama 33 percent to 26 percent statewide, but Obama leading in rural western, northern and central New Hampshire. "The two populous regions that favor Clinton are seacoast Rockingham and southern Hillsborough [counties], which have many suburban bedroom communities to Boston and other Massachusetts cities, with Democrats and Independents that typically tune in to Boston TV and media, and represent 52 percent of the survey sample," Giordano writes. "The two regions where Obama leads are more rural and represent 48 percent of the sample."

Giordano suggests Obama's momentum will continue. He notes that Clinton's base includes many readers of The Boston Globe, which endorsed Obama on Sunday, and that the Illinois senator is also backed by U.S. Rep. Carol Shea Porter, whose 1st District includes key urban areas such as Derry, Manchester, Portsmouth and the state's Atlantic coast. The state's other House member Rep. Paul Hodes, has also endorsed Obama, and Giordano says that "may already be working its magic" in the rural areas. (Read more)

Clinton: I'm trying to balance national, state and local news media needs in campaign

Sen. Hillary Clinton's keep-away game with journalists, one topic of a recent Iowa-related post here and on our home page, is a focus of a story in The Washington Post today by media reporter Howard Kurtz. "Reporters can generally get close enough to watch but no further, as if separated from the candidate by an invisible sheet of glass," he reported from Concord, N.H. (Associated Press photo: Cheryl Senter)

Kurtz wrote only about complaints from national and big-city reporters, the only ones he ever seems to care about. "Campaigns often brush off national correspondents in favor of local journalists, who tend to be less critical," he wrote. But when he finally got to ask Clinton a question -- just one question was allowed, he wrote -- she said local and state reporters have "a very big role to play" and "The balancing is really intense."(Read more)

Retiring N.H. agriculture commissioner reflects on evolution of farming in Granite State

New Hampshire Agriculture Commissioner Steve Taylor, retiring after 25 years in the appointive job, writes in his last column for his department's Weekly Market Bulletin that farming in the Granite State "has evolved greatly over those years," with the loss of most dairy farms and many apple orchards but a huge expansion of farmers' markets, horticulture and other products.

"The profit opportunities afforded by a growing population of prosperous nearby consumers have invigorated every sector of New Hampshire agriculture," Taylor writes. "Maple, equine, Christmas trees, meat animals for ethnic markets — you name it, our market prospects are close by and they’re ready to spend." (Subscribe to the Bulletin)

Taylor's replacement, Lorraine Stuart Merrill, was confirmed this week and will be sworn in next week. She and Taylor are both farmer-journalists, as this item noted.

In N.H., one farmer-journalist is expected to follow another as agriculture commissioner

One farmer-journalist is expected to succeed another as New Hampshire agriculture commissioner. Lorraine Stuart Merrill has been nominated for the position by Gov. John Lynch, and will likely be confirmed by the state Executive Council when it meets Nov. 28, retiring Commissioner Steve Taylor reports to The Rural Blog.

"Lorraine and her family run a 240-cow dairy farm in Stratham amidst the subdivisions and sprawl of Seacoast New Hampshire," Taylor writes. "She’s also an accomplished writer, contributing regularly to Hoard’s Dairyman, the leading dairy-farmer trade magazine, and various other ag journals, plus general interest publications ranging from Smithsonian to the Christian Science Monitor. I’m recommending to her that she include the Rural Blog in her daily reading." For a Concord Monitor profile of Merrill, by Shira Schoenberg, click here. For a story by Sara Liebowitz on Merrill's appointment, click here.

The Monitor said in an editorial that Taylor's retirement after 25 years in the job marks the end of an era. "He's an institution, like the feed store, the Hopkinton Fair, the cook at the diner who knows everybody in town and how they like their eggs, a dirt road lined with old maples," the editorial said. "Because he's not just a skilled and knowledgeable commissioner but also a born storyteller and a talented writer, Taylor became the face of agriculture in the Granite State. He has been the bridge between the old and new New Hampshires. He mourned the loss of the old Yankee farmers and a freer age yet was an advocate for today's small boutique farms."

The editorial ended with a salute that most folks would want in a farewell tribute, with a good idea for any state: "A decade or so ago, when asked to create a program for Leadership New Hampshire, Taylor came up with a list of '100 Things You Should Do to Know the Real New Hampshire.' That list appears on the Home & Family page of today's edition. In recognition of Taylor's contributions to the state, we'll make that to-do list 101, with the last being to have a beer with Steve Taylor." (Read more)

In case you're wondering what the Executive Council is, Taylor explains that it's a vestige of the colonial era, intended to be a check on despotic governors. "Maine abolished its in 1960, Massachusetts has one that just votes on judicial appointments," he writes. "It’s composed of five members popularly elected from districts every two years. It approves all executive and judicial appointments, state contracts over $5,000, land takings and pardons. Currently it’s 3-2 Democratic with a Democratic governor; in the past it’s often been Republican with Republican governors but with frequent noisy battling between them. Department heads will often tell you they spend more time keeping Executive Council members happy than they do the governor."

With first caucus less than 60 days away, presidential candidates focus on rural Iowa, N.H.

Rural influences in states key to nominating the next president are apparent today, with news reports on the first Republican candidate to visit Dixville Notch, N.H., the Iowa-heavy schedules of the three leading Democratic candidates this week, and an Iowa appearance by early-state front-runner Mitt Romney (photo from the Iowa Independent).

Several voters in Dixville Notch, which votes at 12:01 a.m. on primary day in New Hampshire, asked former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the national GOP front-runner, "about his position on rural issues and the loss of jobs," reports Michael Shear of The Washington Post. Shear offers few specifics, adding later, "Rick Tillotson, who helps run the hotel, was one of the registered voters who asked Giuliani about rural issues. Later, he said the mayor obviously had 'very little' experience with such matters but added that he appreciated Giuliani's answer that lower taxes and a stronger economy will help farmers and others as much as city dwellers." (Read more)

Yesterday, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton started a four-day swing through Iowa, where she has a slim lead over former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Edwards comes to Iowa today, and "will stop in many of the same towns. And as Clinton leaves Iowa ... Obama will start his own four-day trip through the state Tuesday night," the Post's Perry Bacon Jr. reports. (Read more) Clinton gave "a few hints about a rural policy plan she will unveil Monday in Cedar Rapids," reports Jason Clayworth of the Des Moines Register. (Read more)

Romney, who leads among Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire, appeared ignorant of "the relatively high concentration of Hispanic people in Marshalltown" on Friday when he said "You probably don't have a lot of immigrants legally" in Iowa, Adam Burke reports in the Iowa Independent. Burke notes that Marshalltown has "a meatpacking plant operated by Swift and Co. [that] was at the epicenter of a nationwide string of immigration raids in December 2006. The 2000 census measured the percentage of Hispanics in Marshalltown at 12.5 percent, though that number has likely grown." (Read more, watch video)