Foreign businesses have replaced textiles in Upstate South Carolina. Residents are 'baffled' and worried by tariffs.

BMW employs 11,000 people at its 8 million square-
foot campus in Spartanburg, S.C. (BMW photo)

Upstate South Carolina was once known as the country's textile hub until the 1990s when "automation and cheaper labor overseas took the industry away from the state," reports Eduardo Medina of The New York Times. President Trump's new tariffs aim to revive the industry, but some people who used to work at the old mills don't know why anyone would want to bring that work back because of the low wages and often unpleasant working conditions. Much of the region has new industrial partners that have improved the overall quality of living for many residents.

Adolphus Jones worked at a mill in the small town of Union, S.C. Medina writes, "Jones, now 71 and retired, scoffed at President Trump’s vision of an American manufacturing revival through tariffs. The mill work had paid little, Jones recalled, and upward mobility was nonexistent." Jones told him, “The textile industry is dead. Why would you want to bring it back here? Truthfully, why would the younger generation want to work there?”

The Trump administration's push to bring back an industry few residents miss represents a mismatch between current economic realities and the limits of what tariffs can accomplish. "Today, companies like BMW and Michelin — from Germany and France — are the economic engines of the region," Medina explains. "Now, leaders say that waging a trade war could undermine future recruitment of international investments and risk losing the jobs that are already in the region."

BMW alone "has invested more than $14.8 billion into its South Carolina operations" and has created "most than 11,000 jobs." BMW's suppliers have created thousands of additional jobs in the region. 

So, local residents were baffled "when the White House’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, attacked BMW’s manufacturing process in an interview . . .," Medina reports. "He told CNBC that 'this business model where BMW and Mercedes come into Spartanburg, S.C., and have us assemble German engines and Austrian transmissions — that doesn’t work for America. It’s bad for our economics.'"

Even in Union, a rural area with 8,000 residents, a recovery from textile's downfall has slowly evolved. Medina writes, "Union County has successfully recruited renewable power companies, bioscience and medical employers, and a Dollar General distribution center that employs nearly a thousand people."

Some Union residents think a more modern mill might further improve Union's economy. Leroy Spencer, a retiree in Union, told Medina, "If Trump can bring that back, it would be amazing, and I think the economy would pick up around here and get better." However, building new mills with automation and modern equipment would mean ordering machinery and supplies from overseas, which will likely face higher tariffs and thereby increase construction costs.

Jones sees the "whole tariff back and forth as baffling," Medina writes. "When he worked in a plant decades ago, he made tassels for graduation caps. Now, he says, more of Union’s next generation should be wearing those caps — not making them."

PBS documentary focuses on rural education in South Carolina town with high poverty rate

A PBS documentary premiering March 17 allows viewers to "experience a year in the life of one small Southern town, two schools that work primarily with low-income children and one family’s efforts to break the generational cycle of poverty," says a blog post by one of the documentary's producers, reports Valerie Strauss for The Washington Post.

"180 Days: Hartsville" focuses on Hartsville, S.C., a town with a population just under 8,000, 46 percent of whom are African American. In the late 1800s, Hartsville was home to cotton plantations that relied on slave labor, writes Horace Fraser Rudisill for the Darlington County website.

USDA closes 125 of 131 Farm Service Agency offices as planned

The United States Department of Agriculture announced its decision on consolidation of its Farm Service Agency county offices, moving to combine 125 of the 131 offices with other USDA service centers, as required by the 2008 Farm Bill. Public meetings were held within 30 days of the original announcement in every county affected by the proposal. In the USDA announcement, the department states that FSA will provide farmers and ranchers affected by consolidations an opportunity to choose the most convenient neighboring county office to conduct their future business. In addition, all employees in a closing office will be provided an opportunity to continue their work with FSA. Under the USDA's Blueprint for Stronger Service, the agency will also close or consolidate 259 other domestic and seven foreign offices.

The six proposed county offices that will continue operating are: Lafayette County, Ark.; Boulder County, Colo.; St. Mary Parish, La.; Pamlico County, N.C.; Mayes County, Okla.; and York County, S.C. A complete list of FSA county offices affected by this decision can be obtained by clicking here.

Report says 40 percent of Americans who depend on public transportation live in rural areas

Nearly 40 percent of Americans who depend on public transit, including senior citizens, the disabled and those with low incomes, live in rural areas, which typically lack public transit, according to report from Reconnecting America, a nonprofit group that promotes public transit. The reports says rural transit agencies operate much differently than urban transit providers. As many as 86 percent of providers offer demand-response service, which operate more like taxi services than big-city buses. Despite the challenges, investment in rural transit is improving, the report finds, and says communities that prioritize services are seeing economic results.

Meanwhile, Angie Schmitt writes on DC.Streetsblog.org about an innovative funding program in rural Allendale, S.C., where the University Transportation Center, Sisters of Charity, Allendale County, Allendale Alive (a non-profit rural development organization), the South Carolina Department of Transportation and the Lower Savannah Council of Governments chipped in to provide adequate money and services where needed.

S.C. teen, rural town in spotlight after letter urging stimulus money to salvage her school

Dillon, S.C., population 6,300, and one of its students themselves on the receiving end of the national attention this week, after President Barack Obama read parts of a letter by eighth-grader Ty'Sheoma Bethea in his speech to Congress. Bethea, a 14-year-old at J.V. Martin Junior High School, urged Congress to pass the stimulus bill in order to help out her financially struggling school, writing in the part Obama quoted, "We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters." In his campaign, Obama had pointed to the plight of rural schools in South Carolina.

At the speech Tuesday, Bethea sat next to First Lady Michelle Obama and watched as the president read her words, after which, Fitzgerald writes, "the audience of congressmen, Supreme Court justices and others erupted in a standing ovation" for her. (Associated Press photo)

The story has a journalism angle. Howard Witt, a Southern correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, told Mark Fitzgerald of Editor & Publisher that he went to Dillon a few weeks prior to report on how the stimulus package would affect the school, which he described in an article as "a decrepit facility where the roof leaks and winter classroom temperatures hover in the 50s." When asking students their thoughts on the package, "Ty'Sheoma and one other student were the only ones who seemed to have a clue about the bill," Witt said. Following the conversation, Bethea went to the public library to write the letter, which made its way to the White House. For Witt's Feb. 11 story, click here; for Fitzgerald's, here.

UPDATE, March 1: Frank Rich writes in The New York Times that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke grew up in Dillon. "The school’s auditorium, now condemned, was the site of Bernanke’s high school graduation. Dillon is now so destitute that Bernanke’s middle-class childhood home was just auctioned off in a foreclosure sale. Unemployment is at 14.2 percent." Rich blasts South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who opposes Obama's stimulus package and is refusing its money: "He accused the three Republican senators who voted for it of sabotaging “the future of our civilization.” In his mind the future of civilization has little to do with the future of students like Ty’Sheoma Bethea." (Read more)

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.

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)

Did Obama or Clinton carry rural Nevada? It probably depends on how you define 'rural'

We weren't planning to write about the rural vote in Nevada's presidential caucuses, since the race there was close and the Silver State is the third least rural state, using the most common definition of "rural." But now the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns are saying that each of their candidates carried the rural areas of Nevada, and their argument helps illustrate the difficulty in defining just what is rural.

Clinton won the statewide vote, 51 to 45 percent, but news reports generally gave the rural vote to the Illinois senator. "Obama pointed to his strong showing in rural areas, where Democrats traditionally struggle," wrote Anjeanette Damon in the Reno Gazette-Journal, adopting language from Obama's press release: "We performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled." The New York Times reports, "Obama noted that he had received one more delegate in Nevada than Mrs. Clinton because of a strong performance in precincts outside Las Vegas," seat of Clark County, which cast almost three-fourths of the state's vote. Clinton "handily won Clark County," The Times' Jeff Zeleny and Jennifer Steinhauer write.

The Daily Yonder says Obama carried the rural vote, 47 to 43 percent, based on the vote in counties inside and outside metropolitan areas. (Click here for a county-by-county list, boken down between metropolitan and non-metro counties.) However, Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson said on CBS's "Face the Nation" this morning that Clinton carried the rural vote.

UPDATE, Jan. 21: The Clinton campaign still has not responded to our requests for an explanation, but we now believe Wolfson was referring to the CNN entrance poll, which had Clinton winning 44 to 42 percent (within the error margin) in areas that were defined as rural based on the size of the caucus-goer's community. Thanks to Keating Holland at CNN, who explained to us that a caucus-goer was classified as urban if the precinct was inside the city limits of a major city, suburban if outside those limits but inside a metropolitan area, and rural if outside a metro area.

The entrance poll identified 12 percent of caucus-goers as rural, the same percentage as the actual vote cast in non-metro counties. The poll showed Clinton winning suburbs (46 percent of the total) 49 to 43 percent and urban areas (42 percent of the total) 46 to 41.

CNN's method emphasizes speed over the sort of demographic accuracy we seek here. It is the latest way we have heard of defining "rural," which can also be defined as population outside defined places of 2,500 population or more. The most common, and crudest, way is the metro vs. non-metro definition, under which Nevada is the third least rural state, with only 8.49 percent of its 2000 population in "rural areas." But in the West, including Nevada, huge counties with many rural areas are included in Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas. For example, using the metro-area definition, California is the least rural state. (New Jersey ranks between California and Nevada.)

Assuming that Obama carried rural areas, Al Giordano writes in The Field, "It’s fascinating because many urban and suburban liberals often malign rural Americans as somehow being more prejudiced against African-Americans than they. Well, in three states in a row, the rural voters went for the senator from Chicago."

For the Daily Yonder's report on the rural vote in South Carolina, where John McCain beat Mike Huckabee by slightly more than his statewide margin, click here.

Bill Moyers gives us a much-needed history lesson

A week from today, Democrats in South Carolina, many of them rural and about half of them African American, will vote in a presidential primary that has been marred by controversy stemming from Hillary Clinton's remark that it took Lyndon Johnson to realize Martin Luther King's dream of civil rights. Last night on Bill Moyers' Journal, Moyers effectively and eloquently agreed with Clinton and reminded us of the pivotal role his fellow rural Texan played in passing the public-accommodations law of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the law that ensured change would come, and remain.

Moyers criticized the reaction from the commentariat, in particular The New York Times for saying in an editorial that Clinton made "the distasteful implication that a black man needed the help of a white man to effect change." He aired Clinton's full quote: "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done."

"There was nothing in that quote about race. It was an historical fact, an affirmation of the obvious," Moyers said. He recalled that when he was White House press secretary, he watched as Johnson backed off his plea for King to call off civil-rights demonstrations and "came down on the side of civil disobedience, believing it might quicken America's conscience ... " Ultimately, Johnson adopted the movement's rallying cry in a speech to Congress for the 1965 law.

Moyers concluded, "The movement had come first, watered by the blood of so many, championed bravely now by the preacher turned prophet who would himself soon be martyred. But there is no inevitability to history, someone has to seize and turn it. With these words at the right moment -- "We shall overcome" -- Lyndon Johnson transcended race and color, and history, too -- reminding us that a president matters, and so do we." (Watch the story)

Immigration is a top issue for voters in rural S.C.

Rural farming counties in the South have seen some of the highest Latino immigration rates, and South Carolina is no exception. When the state holds its Republican presidential primary tomorrow, the issue of illegal immigration will be a key one for voters, reports of the Los Angeles Times.

Reporter Richard Fausset offers the perspective of voters in Saluda County (pop. 19,000), about hour west of the state capital of Columbia, which has "the largest ratio of Latinos in the state" and where textile-plant closures cost more than 1,400 jobs, according to the county's former planning and economic development director. Immigrants have brought cheap labor and retail spending, facts that complicate the issue here in Saluda County and elsewhere, Fausset writes. "The undocumented population has become fairly embedded, not just in Saluda, but in an awful lot of communities," Mike Deloache, a downtown real estate broker, told Fausset.

Others in the town want a hard line on the issue, and some have formed an anti-immigration group called Save Our Saluda. Marti Coleman Adams (in a Times photo by Brett Flashnick), a shop owner in Saluda and founder of the group, said illegal immigration is her main concern. “We can stay in Iraq and stay in Afghanistan,” she told Fausset. “But I’d say that if the problem of illegal immigration is not addressed, then we’re not going to have a country anymore.”(Read more)

Drought continues in Southeast, and rural areas' private wells feel the strain

As extreme drought conditions persist in the Southeast, predictions of a dry winter present a grim forecast for parts of Alabama, the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. Little of the reporting about the problem has mentioned private water supplies, but the drought is putting heavy pressure on wells around Charlotte, N.C., which suffered through its driest summer since 1948, reports The Charlotte Observer.

The biggest problem is with old-fashioned, shallow wells. "Commonly known as 2-inch wells, these typically consist of a 2-inch pipe that goes less than 100 feet down -- about one-third the depth of modern wells," Mark Price reports for the Observer. "Most were drilled prior to the '60s, and they are the least productive and most vulnerable to groundwater changes."

Now, homeowners who depend on those wells are hoping for rain but preparing for the worst. When those wells go dry, homeowners must drill new, deeper wells, Price reports. Homeowners whose wells still work are taking precautions to curb water use in hopes of squeezing more time out of those wells. That includes adding "flow restrictors on faucets" and enforcing "strict rules against car washing, lawn watering and lazy showers," Price writes. (Read more)

According to the latest projections from the National Weather Service, the drought conditions likely will continue in Alabama, the Carolinas and Georgia, but should improve elsewhere over the next few months. The NWS has created the Drought Information Center, which has up-to-date conditions and seasonal outlooks. In the last few hours, Chattanooga, Tenn., has received more than 2 inches of rain, while Rome, Ga., has receive 1 inch, The Weather Channel reports. More rain is predicted for Alabama and Georgia, but it is not expected to offer much relief.

S.C. daily paper puts county employee credit-card records online for readers to inspect

In Aiken County, S.C., two emergency medical employees recently were fired after allegations they misused their county funds. As a result, the local newspaper, the Aiken Standard, filed an open record request for the credit-card reports of the 60 employees with county-issued cards.

The paper found no "widespread or gross misuse" in its "cursory study of the files," Haley Hughes wrote. "The County's own internal review of its employee credit card statements is ongoing. The information is public record and as such, the Aiken Standard has posted the documents to its Web site for review by members of the public." (Read more)

So, the paper is letting readers decide for themselves if county employees have misused their credit cards. Not a bad idea, as far as we can tell. The records can be seen here. Thanks to Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute for the heads up on this story.

Rural South Carolina school district to offer cheap, group housing to entice new teachers

Rural areas often struggle to attract and keep teachers, and Marlboro County in South Carolina is trying a new way to do it. Located on the North Caroline state line, the county has 29,000 residents and one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. To lure new teachers, the school system is creating Teach House, a place where new teachers can live together for $100 a month, reports Seanna Adcox of The Associated Press.

Plans call for 12 new teachers to move into the restored, century-old home next school year, AP reports. "The idea is that the so-called Teach House will not only provide teachers a beautiful place to live for next-to-nothing, but also offer instant friendships and peer support," Adcox writes, while noting Marlboro County is still in negotiations to purchase the home and its 14 acres.

The house is just one of many South Carolina projects aimed at finding teachers for rural areas. In Fairfield County, Access House would provide apartments for new teachers and a veteran teacher who would act as a mentor, as well as space for after-school and community activities. The plan, which is in it early stages, would waive rent for teachers who also would be working on free degrees from the University of South Carolina. (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.