Quick hits: No.1 favorite ice cream; ousting rogue drones; big find by NASA's Curiosity Rover; some good news

Farm Journal graphic, from IDFA National Ice Cream & Frozen Novelty Trends Survey

It's dark and rich and back in the top spot. "Chocolate is back at No. 1 among U.S. ice cream flavors, with butter pecan gaining ground and richer options continuing to rise in popularity, according to a new survey," reports Taylor Leach of Farm Journal. "After briefly ceding the No. 1 spot to vanilla in 2024, chocolate has reclaimed the lead in 2026." Michael Dykes, the International Dairy Foods Association president, told Leach, "Americans’ love for ice cream is as strong as ever." 

The Conversation graph, from Energy Information Administration data

After weeks of surging gasoline prices with no end in sight, some Americans might be wondering what all goes into the cost of a gallon of gas. Robert I. Harris, an energy economist, breaks down gas prices for The Conversation. "The price of a retail gallon of gas is the sum of four things: the cost of crude oil, refining, distribution and marketing, and taxes. . . . In nationwide figures from January 2026, crude oil accounted for about 51% of the pump price, refining roughly 20%, distribution and marketing about 11% and taxes about 18%." Harris adds that since crude oil is the biggest component of gasoline, when its price spikes on the global market, gas prices go up. 

Indiana farmers didn't appreciate drones hovering over
their livestock. (Photo by B. Dittrich, Unsplash)

In rural Indiana, some farming families are "leaning on the law" to keep unwanted drones off their lands, reports Greg Weaver of Indiana Capital Chronicle. "Hoosiers in rural Indiana say drones are unlawfully tracking deer for poachers, inexplicably flying around chicken coops, and increasingly making people uneasy." Although many Indiana farmers considered shooting down the snooping drones, they learned that wasn't legal. "So they’ve found other ways to combat the rascals. . . . Farmers fearful that drones might be spreading disease among livestock recently persuaded the Indiana General Assembly to pass a law that prohibits the devices from being used to harm or harass farm animals."

When it comes to serving up energy for hungry grids in rural Virginia, sometimes smaller is better. "The Blue Ridge Power Agency, which serves a string of nonprofit utilities in central and western Virginia, is set to go live this summer with a collection of five batteries of about 5 megawatts each," reports Elizabeth Ouzts of Canary Media. By comparison, larger batteries are typically at least 10 megawatts; however, both sizes aim to store energy when it's less expensive and plentiful. Blue Ridge Power's new batteries will "help two rural electric co-ops and the city of Salem’s utility save money" by releasing battery-stored energy "when high demand on the grid spikes prices." Unlike their larger cousins, smaller batteries are cheaper and faster to build.

NASA's Curiousity Rover spends its time exploring Mars and 
sending information back to Earthlings. (NASA image)

It's hard to be more remote than exploring for signs of life on Mars, which is what the Curiosity Rover spends its time doing. "New research published in Nature Communications details Curiosity’s latest find — never-before-seen organic compounds, including one with a structure similar to DNA precursors," reports Jake Currie for Nautilus. NASA geologist Amy Williams told Nautilus, "The same stuff that rained down on Mars from meteorites is what rained down on Earth, and it probably provided the building blocks for life as we know it on our planet." To send all those compounds back to Earth, Curiosity had to conduct a full orchestra of experiments. The Curiosity also goes by "the little robotic chemist that could."

Suicide deaths among younger Americans dipped by 11% from earlier projections. 
(Graph by Vishal R. Patel, MD,  Michael Liu, MD,  and Anupam B. Jena, MD)

And now, some really good news: "The rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11% below projections, decreasing most sharply in states with a higher volume of answered 988 calls, a new study has found, reports Ellen Barry of The New York Times. The study's results, published in a research letter in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that 4,372 more adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 34, are alive today than previously projected. The study's data suggests that the federal government’s 988 suicide prevention hotline rollout, which launched in 2022, is having a positive impact among younger Americans.

Virginia's coalfields are losing residents at an alarming rate

The population in Virginia’s coalfield's region is dropping at an alarming rate, with Buchanan County down 51% from its peak in 1980, writes Jim Branscome at Cardinal News, which covers Southwest Virginia.

Virginia’s seven Central Appalachian coalfield counties collectively lost 7,208 residents between 2020 and 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Buchanan County had the biggest five-year loss of them all at 9.1%, among the worst in the entire 60-county Central Appalachian area, Branscome adds.

Buchanan County had the largest five-year change in population of the seven Virginia coalfield counties. (Chart via Cardinal News, data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Click to enlarge)

The two main factors working together to create the alarming trajectory for Virginia’s coalfields are people leaving the region and the number of deaths exceeding the birth rates, Branscome writes. 

The median age in Buchanan County has almost doubled since 1980, from 26 to 47, Branscome reports. While the county is projected to lose 48% of its current population by 2050, its current annual rate of decline shows this loss occurring closer to the late 2030s, adds Branscome.

This rural town's main employer closed its doors; laid-off workers consider their few options in southern Virginia.

The purveyor of delux and premium deli-meats
closed its Jarratt, Va. plant.

The indefinite closure of a Boar's Head production facility in Jarratt, Virginia, is an added blow to the rural town's economy where the company was the largest employer. Boar's Head decided to close the plant after it was linked to a severe listeria outbreak, which has killed 10 people and hospitalized 59.
Now, laid-off Boar's Head workers must face a tough job market in manufacturing-depressed southern Virginia, reports Chao Deng of The Wall Street Journal. "For decades, the Boar’s Head deli meat plant has been one of few economic pillars holding up this rural, downbeat part of southern Virginia."

Even though Boar's Head is offering workers severance pay and the possibility of relocation, the sudden closure has left workers shocked and unsure. Deng writes, "Many are scrambling to figure out how to pay their bills and whether they can even stay in a region battered by waves of layoffs and closed businesses."

Many workers believe finding a new job will most likely mean accepting a long commute. Manufacturing work in Virginia has been fading since the 1990s "when the elimination of trade barriers invited global competition," Deng reports. "Textiles and furniture-making went by the wayside." Fletcher Mangum, an economic consultant from Richmond, Virginia, told Deng, "The job opportunities [in southern Virginia] are not good. Manufacturing has had ups and downs but it never quite recovered from the losses of Nafta."

Overall, Virginia's state economy has struggled, with its rural southern and western regions having suffered the steepest declines. Deng writes, "Year-over-year employment in Greensville County, where the Boar’s Head plant is located, has mostly underperformed that of the state since 2017. . . . Manufacturing makes up about 30% of the economy in Greensville, compared with about 7% for the state."

Greensville resident Marvin Tiller has worked in factories that closed "most of his career," Deng reports. "Before getting laid off from Boar’s Head, the 51-year-old worked for two companies that shut down operations in the area more than a decade back — he was a crane operator for a steel company called Emporia Foundry, as well as a delivery man for Fujifilm Pharmaceuticals. . . . [He's] thinking about getting out of factory work altogether."

Blackjewel bankruptcy halts mine work in 4 states; unpaid Ky. miners block train; auction could reopen some mines

The bankruptcy of coal company Blackjewel LLC put more than 1,000 miners out of work in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Wyoming, and sparked a peaceful protest among miners in Eastern Kentucky whose paychecks bounced. But there was hope of some miners getting their jobs back with an auction scheduled today in federal bankruptcy court.

The Associated Press reported: “Bristol, Tennessee-based Contura Energy last week offered $20.6 million as the stalking horse bidder for two mines in Wyoming and one in West Virginia . . . The purchase could put hundreds back to work at the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in Wyoming and Pax Surface Mine in Scarbro, W.Va. They've been closed since Blackjewel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection July 1. According to the bidding process, other qualifying bids made by Wednesday's deadline triggered the auction. The notice didn't disclose the other bids. . . . Blackjewel also operates mines in Kentucky and Virginia, and the fate of those depends on the outcome of the bidding process.”

In Kentucky, where miners blocked railroad tracks to prevent Blackjewel from transporting coal, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the coal company failed to comply with state regulations that would have protected miners from losing pay for work they did.

Chris Kenning of the Courier Journal drove the 225 miles from Louisville to Harlan, which has seen coal booms and busts for a century, and reported that the Blackjewel debacle "roiled Harlan with unusual intensity . . . Difficult talks are playing out over dinner tables across Harlan County: whether to ride out such bankruptcies, sticking with coal as long as possible; leave home for steadier coal jobs in places like Alabama; or bet on a new career as local leaders try to attract new employers. The question on everyone’s mind: whether to quit coal, or wait until coal quits you."

U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Kentucky, issued a statement Thursday, criticizing Blackjewel and calling for federal assistance for miners affected by the coal company’s bankruptcy.

“I fully understand the number of coal companies that continue to struggle in the aftermath of the War on Coal, but undercutting employees who invested their time and talents to mine one of our greatest natural resources, is a shameful way to conduct business. Our coal miners deserve better and I will continue fighting for them," he said.

Rogers said he’s working to expedite assistance. The U.S. Department of Labor sent staff to Kentucky to interview the employees, he said.

He commended SOAR – Shaping Our Appalachian Region – for providing a tour bus to transport local coal miners to the hearing in Charleston on Monday.

The general manager of WYMT-TV, a CBS affiliate in nearby Hazard, weighed in with an editorial. Neil Middleton, who grew up in the region, called Blackjewel’s actions “shameful.” He wrote, “The peaceful protest is gaining support from across the state and country. More than 1,100 miners in Kentucky, Wyoming, West Virginia and Virginia lost their jobs when the bankrupt company shut down. The miners' paychecks bounced, leaving hundreds overdrawn and needing help. And in my opinion, a full investigation is warranted. Blackjewel has filed bankruptcy, but the court has not ordered the company to pay the miners back. State Representative Adam Bowling is crafting legislation to compel the company to pay the miners' back wages. Let's hope he is successful. The miners did the work. They earned their wages. They should be paid.”

Arch Coal to lay off 650 Appalachian miners, mostly in E.Ky.; blame game begins

Blaming market conditions and regulatory obstacles, Arch Coal announced its intent to lay off about 650 miners -- 500 of those in Eastern Kentucky, 125 in West Virginia and 25 in Virgina. “You’ve got people that are going to lose their homes, lose their livelihood,” Perry County Judge-Executive Denny Ray Noble of Hazard, Ky., said of the decision, terming it "a disaster" for the region.

"Some Kentucky officials directly blamed the layoffs on recent actions by the Obama administration and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which have taken a more aggressive stance in recent years to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants and to crack down on water pollution from surface mining," Mike Wynn of The Courier-Journal reports. But Matt Wasson of the environmental group Appalachian Voices challenged those assertions, saying while Kentucky mining operations have laid off more than 900 workers in recent months, coal companies have attributed nearly all of those cuts to market conditions. “It’s really unfortunate that is how some of the local officials are going to play this,” he said. “That is all about politics. . . . The reality is that four years ago coal supplied half of our electricity. Today it supplies a third. That has enormous consequences."

Student's death at hands of hunter is a cautionary, sad tale for deer season

Here's a sad, cautionary tale for deer season: Jason Cloutier, 31, of Ferrum, Va., is "charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless use of a firearm and trespass, charges that together carry a maximum of 12 years in jail and $5,000 in fines," after shooting Ferrum College student Jessica Goode while deer hunting, Brigid Schulte of The Washington Post writes.

"In this tightknit community of 1,400 that consists, literally, of the college and a scatter of farms and solitary houses in the woods, the killing of a beloved student has unleashed a welter of questions: How could he have shot her? Couldn't he see she wasn't a deer? And from another perspective, some neighbors want to know what Goode was doing in the woods in hunting season wearing white? Didn't she know she might look like a deer's throat?" And Schulte reports, "many students disregard regular warnings from the college about wearing bright colors during hunting season." But the investigating officer told her that the responsibility lies with the hunter.

Student Brad Tribble, who hunts, canoes and hikes, was a friend of Goode's. "What makes him angry is that the incident reinforces negative stereotypes about hunting that people outside rural areas might have," Schulte writes.

Freed-up TV channels bring new, promising broadband service to a rural community

Television "white spaces," unused broadcast frequencies made available by the switch to digital TV, are being used for the first time to deliver high-speed Internet access wirelessly. Using an experimental license granted by the Federal Communications Commission, Spectrum Bridge, a Florida-based firm, has designed and deployed a wireless white-spaces network to provide broadband connectivity in Claudville, Va., in the shadow of the Blue Ridge, near the North carolina line.

Some researchers say white spaces hold the key to providing broadband signals to rural America, because they can carry signals across long distances and penetrate walls, trees
and other objects. The network is providing the link between the wired broadband provider and wireless hotspots in Claudville's business and school areas and will also provide broadband access directly to end users, Reuters reports.

"Due to its availability and range, TV white spaces have proved to be a very cost-effective way to distribute high-speed Internet in this heavily forested and hilly rural community," Peter Stanforth, CTO of Spectrum Bridge, told Reuters. "The non-line of sight conditions, coupled with long distances between radios, would have posed significant challenges to existing unlicensed alternatives. TV white spaces could prove to be invaluable to those striving to bring broadband access to underserved and unserved rural communities." (Read more)

Rural background made Va. governor candidate a compromiser by nature, too flexible for some

Does a rural background encourage compromise and flexibility in politics? That's an argument in favor of Creigh ("kree") Deeds, the Democratic nomine for Virginia governor in the Nov. 3 election, who has been criticized for changes in position and "saying yes and no to the same question," as Michael Leahy writes in The Washington Post. The Daily Yonder had this to say about Deeds and Leahy's profile of him:

The thrust of the story is that Deeds is tentative about certain issues — the headline describes him as a fence straddler — and that this uncertainty is a product of his rural upbringing. Deeds describes himself as a "work in progress," according to writer Michael Leahy, "the product of growing up on a farm, on the hard side of a mountain where the unexpected was the norm and where anyone who couldn't compromise was inviting failure." Lehy describes a childhood of farm work and uncertainty and says this upbringing helped create a politician who is uneasy making final "yes" or "no" decisions about issues.
Declining to give specifics about a complicated tax plan, Deeds said, "I could be specifically wrong." It's interesting that uncertainty is considered political immaturity these days, and we think that being absolutely certain is a sign of being a good leader.

We like Leahy's closing lines:

Raised to believe in the power of compromise, he tends to see pledges and specifics as just so many holes in a frayed fence that will require patching anyway. Long ago, he learned the lessons of wily Bath County politicians, and it has shaped his style since, its strengths and vulnerabilities. He doesn't see the point in pontificating from the mountaintop. His career reflects the belief that it works best simply to drive around the mountain and hammer something out with somebody -- that results count more than white papers. But at some point, even people on the mountain want to know where you are taking them, want to see your map. For Deeds, the task is to convince voters during the campaign's final 30 days that he has one.

Deeds' latest TV ad for Southwest Virginia implies that his opponent, Republican Bob McDonnell, "has contempt for rural people, thinking of them in terms of hillbilly stereotypes," Eric Kleefeld of Talking Points Memo reports. The ad says, "McDonnell opposed eliminating the sales tax on groceries because he heard people around here shoot our food." (Read more)

One writer sees end of traditional country music, another says Swift brings young people back to it

"Country music just ain't what it used to be," Steve Tuttle writes for Newsweek Xtra, the magazine's online add-on. Writing before this week's Academy of Country Music Awards, he said, "If past concert appearances are any indication, the nominees for vocalist of the year will be dressed in skintight, revealing tops, some with long, flowing blond hair and deep golden tans. And that's just the men."

The description also fits Carrie Underwood, who was named both vocalist and entertainer of the year. "Women ruled the awards show," writes Shannon Mason Brock of The Anderson News in Lawrenceburg, Ky., noting among others the Crystal Milestone Award to Taylor Swift "for selling CDs and bringing young people back to country music." To read the column by Brock, a recent University of Kentucky graduate, click here.

Tuttle calls the 19-year-old Swift, left, "today's Nashville 'it' girl" and an example of the trend he doesn't like. But he notes that the definition of country music has been debated since the Carter Family made their first recordings in 1927, but in recent years the genre has blurred beyond recognition. He dubs Garth Brooks "the final nail in the honky-tonk coffin. His pop-sounding megahits and his wacky flying over arena stages on a wire in his way-too-tight Wranglers made my skin crawl. Almost two decades later, and by today's Rascal Flatts-ian standards, I consider him almost a modern-day Hank Williams."

But Tuttle says he's learned to accept the world as it is. "Today's producers are just giving people what they want, navigating the market as best they can," he writes. "It's a business, after all. Today's suburban music buyers don't labor in coal mines or cheat on their wives. Well, they don't work in coal mines, anyway. Songwriters and hit makers write about what they know, just as their forefathers did, except now what they know is driving the kids to Target in the minivan, or staying at home because they're unemployed. So maybe country sounds and lyrics veering a little toward spit-polished pop music aren't a sign of the end of the world, but something gritty and real has been lost. They borrow the vernacular of country music, the genuineness and masculinity of that hard-knock life, but they morph it into something that's barely recognizable. The rough edges and authenticity have been sanded off." (Read more)

We also recommend watching the article's slideshow of country stars from the beginning, including Patsy Cline, above, who some argued was too "pop" and was one of Swift's early favorites. We've seen most of the photos before; the better parts are the captions by Sarah Ball. To watch the show, click here.

Rural legislator takes conservatism, 'unpolished style' into race for governor of suburbanizing Va.

Bath County, Virginia, on the Eastern Continental Divide and the West Virginia border, is so small and isolated it doesn't even have its own newspaper. Can it produce a governor in a state where suburban voters have become dominant? The campaign of Democratic state Sen. R. Creigh (pronounced "Kree") Deeds will answer that question. All the other candidates are from heavily suburbanized Northern Virginia.

"The bedrock values and unquestioned traditions of rural Virginia can also clash with those in more urban and cosmopolitan regions," writes Fredrick Kunkle of The Washington Post. "Although Deeds has championed abortion rights and environmental causes, he also opposed the ban on buying more than one handgun a month. And he voted at least five times for a state constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage and civil unions, which he later said he regretted." Kunkle also notes Deeds' "unpolished style" contrasts with those of Democratic primary opponents Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran.

For an independent take on Deeds, Kunkle consulted our friend Anne Adams, publisher of The Recorder in Highland County, which is the local weekly for Bath County. "When you grow up in a small town, you can't afford to make enemies. You volunteer. You go everywhere with a covered dish," she told Kunkel, who wrote: "She said those habits come through in Deeds's earnest style, but so does the sense that Deeds sometimes seems ill at ease on the campaign trail talking about himself and his accomplishments." Adams said, "Here, if you were that kind of cocky, they'd say, 'You're spreading yourself'." (Read more)

Virginia House passes smoking ban

Tobacco is still one of Virginia's major cash crops, and Philip Morris, the cigarette manufacturer, has its headquarters in Richmond. But yesterday, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would ban smoking in most of the state's restaurants and bars, following years of similar bills being shot down in the legislature. The House, long dominated by rural interests but now less so, has been the main obstacle. The House bill may be too weak for the Senate, but the vote "makes it likely that a ban in some form will become law," reports Anita Kumar of The Washington Post. (Read more)

The measure was a compromise plan worked out between Republican House Speaker Bill Howell and Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine. The House added exceptions for venues booked for private functions or times when establishments are not open to minors. The bill also allows restaurants to have a separate room for smokers; an earlier version required a separate ventilation system. The bill's Senate sponsor, Sen. Ralph Northam said he could not support any of the amendments, writes Mason Adams for The Roanoke Times. (Read more)

Students in Virginia mountain county will study their own watershed with the help of a new book

Students in one of the more mountainous counties of southwest Virginia will get to see how conservation directly affects their community through the use of a new supplemental science resource. A new book, The Virginia Headwaters of the Big Sandy River: A Story of Revitalization and Nature’s Resilience, will be used to teach high school students in Dickenson County how to protect their local watershed.

The book, by Lu Ellsworth and Kari Kilgore, "includes a historical perspective that should attract young and old readers alike," writes Paula Tate in The Dickenson Star. "It focuses not only on protecting the remaining natural resources within the watershed, but also on the challenges ahead to restore many damaged and threatened areas." Every current high schooler will receive a copy of the book. As long as funds are available, it will be given to every subsequent freshman class. (Read more; subscription required)

Southwest Virginia county, partly zoned and partly not, considers countywide land-use planning

Only three of Virginia's 92 counties have no zoning, but zoning is countywide in 88 counties, not 89. The outlier is Franklin County, along the east side of the Blue Ridge south of Roanoke, where four of the districts are zoned and the other three are not, under a "gentlemen's agreement" that was "based at least in part on which politicians liked zoning and which ones saw it as governmental intrusion" when the county adopted land-use planning more than 20 years ago, reports Janelle Rucker of The Roanoke Times. Now, as increased development makes the seven county supervisors think about revamping their land-use plan, they are talking again about zoning the three "rural and more topographically challenging districts," Rucker writes.

"Re-examining the zoning ordinances is typical in many communities," Rucker writes after interviewing Neil Holthouser, the director of planning and community development. "It's a way of seeing if the ordinances are still working the way they're supposed to and if there are new needs that require changes, Holthouser said. But anytime the county wades back into a zoning discussion, it's hard to ignore the fact that some Franklin County residents must adhere to zoning regulations and others do not."

Leland Mitchell, whose Snow Creek District (dark green on map; click to enlarge) isn't zoned, told Rucker, "Before we get countywide zoning, we need to get what is zoned under control." The other non-zoned disricts are Blue Ridge and Blackwater, on the west side.

Zoning is one of the most controversial subjects local officials can handle. Rucker's story is a good glimpse of how one county is dealing with it, and with an unusual situation. To read it, click here.

Tobacco-settlement spending for agriculture in Ky. to get more oversight; N.C. expands investments

The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board pledged yesterday to do a better job of overseeing the spending of grants it awards from the state's share of the national tobacco settlement. But board members "also said they cannot micromanage or guarantee the success of every project," and should continue to take some risks, reports Greg Hall of The Courier-Journal.

The comments came in the board's discussion of a University of Kentucky study of $209 million in spending from the 1998 settlement, from 2001 through 2006. In 2000, the state legislature allocated half the state's share of the settlement to improvement of the state's agricultural economy. It placed priority on helping tobacco farmers find other sources of income, anticipating the end of the federal tobacco program of quotas and price supports, which was repealed in 2004.

The study concluded that the money has helped about 50,000 current and former tobacco growers. "It is clear that these investments have led to broad market improvements," the researchers wrote. Markets for 148 products were created or expanded, "primarily through investments in livestock and horticulture projects plus marketing promotion." The most common investment was in beef-cattle farming; Kentucky is the leading Eastern cattle state. But entrepreneurs have created more than 500 new products, from salsa to industrial glue, with the program's help.

The study wasn't all good news. Researchers found that the transition from tobacco to something else was far easier in the large and medium-scale farms in Western and Central Kentucky than in the smaller farms in hilly Eastern Kentucky, one of the nation's poorest areas.

Some major investments, such as a Western Kentucky fish-farming cooperative, failed. But the researchers said the board "should continue to fund ‘risky’ new ventures which stimulate new markets, expand the value chain, and encourage value-added processing." They said some failures "still resulted in advancements in new enterprises, new on-farm technology, production of new crops, and contract marketing." Hall reports, "Board member Sam Lawson said he hoped the report wouldn't result in the panel being so conservative that it never funded an ultimately unsuccessful program." (Read more)

The researchers said the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy, which acts as staff to the board, "appears to lack the staff necessary to fully utilize information" from reports filed by grant recipients or to oversee all projects. "Relatively too much staff time was involved in feasibility analysis versus project monitoring." For a 4.8mb PDF of the study, click here.

The other state to earmark half its tobacco-settlement money for rural-related purposes was North Carolina, the state that produces the most tobacco and had the second largest number of tobacco farmers, after Kentucky. The Tar Heel State created a foundation to invest the money and spend the earnings on grants to help the economies of tobacco-growing counties. The Golden LEAF foundation "has increasingly dangled big bait for corporate prizes," reports Emery Dalesio of The Associated Press. "This year, it opened its vault by committing $100 million to build an aircraft parts plant." The acronym stands for Long-term Economic Advancement Foundation. "We'll continue to do more high-quality manufacturing," foundation President Dan Gerlach told AP. "We're going to do more on health care." (Read more)

The other state that is using tobacco-settlement money to help the economies of tobacco-growing areas is Virginia. The state uses 40 percent of its share for health programs; the remainder "is overseen by a commission that awards grants for education and economic development projects in tobacco-dependent communities. The commission also makes payments to farmers to compensate for a decline in tobacco quotas," reports The Associated Press and Michael Sluss of The Roanoke Times. In 2005, the Commonwealth "sold nearly $450 million in bonds backed by a 25 percent share of the state's overall settlement payments. Proceeds from the bond sale fund an endowment that is used primarily for technology and economic development projects." The major expenditure has been $80 million to bring broadband service to Southwest and Southside Virginia and other rural areas of the state. (Read more)

Va. cockfighters decry laws quashing their sport

New laws in Virginia have essentially outlawed all cockfighting in the state, a move that supporters of the blood sport say ignores tradition and a need for oversight.

"What happens is the people who've been wanting order and setting rules get out, and then they're not there to police it anymore," Tommy Greene, whose family has been breeding chickens for cockfights for five generations, told Mason Adams of The Roanoke Times, which ran the photo. "There's the [Virginia Gamefowl Breeders Association] people and there's some other people. Why punish us? The law was more than adequate."

In the past two years, lawmakers have cracked down on cockfighting. "In 2007, Congress passed a law increasing the penalty for transporting animals across state lines for the purposes of fighting from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a felony," Adams notes. "The General Assembly passed legislation this year that strengthened penalties for animal fighting and effectively closed the loopholes that allowed [legal cockfighting]."

The story shows that the Times continues to chase stories of interest where it finds them, not just in its backyard, as most papers do now. Blackstone is in Southside Virginia, 130 miles and two and a half hours from Roanoke. (Read more)

Coal-plant protesters arrested in southwest Va.

Protesters were arrested yesterday at the construction site of controversial power plant previously covered on The Rural Blog, the Virgina Hybrid Energy Center, a $1.8 billion coal-fired plant in the Appalachian town of St. Paul, Va. Opponents say the plant will harm air quality in the Shenandoah National Forest and want the state to instead focus on renewable clean energies.

Keith Strange of The Coalfield Progress in Norton writes that 11 of the 36 protesters "entered the construction site and chained themselves to steel drums at two gates at the plant, according to the Virginia State Police. Two of those drums featured solar panels that powered a sign reading 'renewable jobs to renew Appalachia.'" They were "charged with unlawful assembly and criminal trespassing, both misdemeanors, ... participating in an unlawful assembly and obstructing justice." Two face additional charges of instigating trespassing.

Construction workers shouted opposition to the protesters, calling them "out-of state treehuggers," and many protesters took umbrage. “It’s not only treehuggers, it’s local people," Jane Branham, a protestor who was not charged, told Strange. "These are the people who live here and we have continually spoken out at Board of Supervisors meetings about the plant." (Read more)

Roanoke media market broadband use ranks last

While Roanoke, Va., was recently designated the top digital city among similar-sized cities, its media market ranks last in the nation when it comes to high-speed Internet access. "The households in 25 Virginia counties that make up the Roanoke/Lynchburg designated market area ended last in a ranking of 79 U.S. markets for broadband use, according to New York-based Scarborough Research," reports Jenny Kincaid Boone of The Roanoke Times. "Only 29 percent of the adults in the market have high-speed Internet connections in their homes, according to the report compiled from August 2006 to September 2007."

The report said that nationally broadband access quadrupled between 2002 and 2007. Officials told the Times that the report is not good news for economic development. "It's very important to have widespread availability and affordability of broadband, especially from the home [for telecommuters]," said Andrew Cohill, president and chief executive officer of Design Nine, a Blacksburg company that provides consulting for broadband and telecommunications planning. He also said the disparity in broadband use is related to factors of access, education and income.

Cost can be a significant hurdle even when broadband is available. In remote Highland County, DSL service has been available for the past three years, but use has jumped since the Highland Telephone Cooperative dropped the monthly price from $42 to $19.95. High-speed Internet can provide new job opportunities in these areas, such as the 160 sales representative jobs retailer HSN aims to fill this year in the Roanoke area. These sales reps will work from home and must have a high-speed connection to apply. (Read more)

Rural residents in W.Va. still critical of power line that would stretch from Pennsylvania to Virginia

Allegheny Energy wants to build a 500-kilovolt power line from its plants in Pennsylvania to the growing cities and towns in northern Virginia. Along the way, the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line, or TrAIL, must cross West Virginia, and rural residents there "still aren't sold on the project, despite new support for it from the state Public Service Commission's staff and consumer advocate," reports Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette. (Above is a Allegheny Energy map of the original route.) A settlement on Tuesday rerouted the line around some communities south of Morgantown, but the project continues to draw "intense opposition from hundreds of West Virginians, who fear it will mar scenic views, lower their property values and continue what they say is an environmentally damaging reliance on coal-fired power."

Power company officials say the line, which would run through six West Virginia counties, is necessary to bring electricity to Eastern cites. Until Tuesday, the PSC remained unconvinced, "saying the company had not shown need for the project, established significant benefits to West Virginians, or selected the less environmentally damaging route," Ward writes. "PSC staff attorneys and experts argued that Allegheny had not fully examined other options, such as building new plants near Eastern population centers or working to cut electricity demand."

The PSC, however, agreed to the TrAIL after Tuesday's settlement redirected the line away from Monongalia and Preston counties, where opposition was well organized. The PSC's consumer advocate had proposed the alternate route. As part of the settlement, Allegheny agreed to move a transmission operations center to West Virginia and save state customers more than $40 million in rate reductions and other incentives. The settlement, however, did not end all opposition to the line. "On Wednesday, the West Virginia chapter of Sierra Club, which intervened to oppose TrAIL, issued a statement that compared the settlement to the sale of Manhattan Island from the Canarsee Indians to the Dutch in 1626," Ward writes. (Read more)

Ward and the Gazette have been following the story for a while, as part of the series "Lines of Power."

Va. Tech shooting survivors honor those lost by working with the Appalachian Service Project

Today is the one-year anniversary of the massacre at Virginia Tech, and campuses everywhere are remembering the 32 people killed that day. Over the past year, one victim's family has encouraged students and others to honor those lost by working with the Appalachian Service Project, a program that repairs homes in poor regions, reports Ian Urbina of The New York Times. (Above, volunteers work to repair a home in Virginia in a photo by Shawn Poynter for the Times.)

After their daughter, Austin, was killed, Bryan and Renee Cloyd began organizing trips to Virginia for students to work with the Project. This year, 150 people from Virginia Tech have been on those trips (in addition, to the $70,000 given in donations in Austin's honor), and the Cloyds' example led the school to start "V.T.-Engage, which asked Virginia Tech students and faculty and staff members to perform at least 10 hours of service each," Urbina writes.

The Project has benefited from the college student volunteers. "Since its founding in 1969, the Appalachia Service Project has helped repair more than 13,000 homes in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia," Urbina writes. "The trips are run year-round, and volunteers pay about $100 for a weekend trip and about $300 for a week. The fees help cover room, board and building materials." (Read more)

For more information the Appalachian Service Project, check out its Web site.

Virginia makes a felony of cockfighting, so West Virginia could see more of the illegal fights

Recently, Virginia joined the 36 other states that make cockfighting a felony. Since cockfighting remains a misdemeanor in West Virginia, officials with the Humane Society of the United States warn that the crime could be on the rise there, reports Tom Searls of The Charleston Gazette.

"The national Humane Society rates West Virginia's laws among the most lax, along with neighboring Ohio and Kentucky," Searls writes. John Goodwin, the national Humane Society's manager of animal fighting issues, told Searls that the majority of cockfighting goes on in rural areas — such as the mountainous region along the Virginia-West Virginia border — where locals know what's going on. Thus, there need to major deterrents, Goodwin said.

Two bills dealing with cockfighting failed to gain traction in the West Virginia Legislature, one of which would have made any participation in cockfighting a felony. Ohio and Tennessee have considered strengthening cockfighting laws, but Kentucky has not. (Read more)

This week, a bill making cockfighting a felony passed the Tennessee House Criminal Practice Subcommittee, reports Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News-Sentinel. "The bill, HB2143, would increase the penalty for active participation in cockfighting from the current Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine, to a Class E, punishable by up to a prison term of between one and six years and a fine of $3,000," Humphrey writes. "A spectator at a cockfight can now be punished for a Class C misdemeanor, which has a maximum penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a $50 fine. The bill would raise the crime of being a spectator to a Class A misdemeanor."

Leighann McCollum, Tennessee state director of the Humane Society, told Humphrey that supporters of cockfighting have been lobbying legislators to oppose the change. "We feel like they are cowering to the loud voices of the minority of people in this state who enjoy cockfighting," she said. (Read more)

The Humane Society ranks the states in order of cockfighting laws, with Arkansas, Kentucky, Idaho, Mississippi and Alabama at the bottom.