News-media roundup: 2022 opinion and research gems, predictions and advice for journalism; Alaska weeklies die

Nieman Reports has picked its five best opinion pieces of 2022: Gilbert Gaul on the need to cover land-use decisions that worsen disasters, and how arduous rebuilding after a disaster really is; Isaac Bailey's argument that objectivity is less important than transparency, accuracy and fairness; Gary Langer on the need for better vetting of poll data; Anne Garrels on the courage of Ukrainian journalists; and the argument by Mardi Link of the Traverse City Record-Eagle that media coverage of adoption (especially in the context of abortion) lacks voices of adoptees: “Adoption is a parenting decision and abortion is a reproductive decision,” wrote Link, an adoptee herself. “For reporters to equate one as a solution for the other provides nothing of value to readers and perpetuates a false equivalency.” NR also gives its 10 most-read stories of 2022.

NiemanLab collected several predictions and advice for journalism in 2023, including: Sarabeth Berman of the American Journalism Project says nonprofit news can work in smaller markets with a network model; Sue Cross of the Institute for Nonprofit News predicts more collective action among varied interests to "save the news;" Lisa Heyamoto of LION Publishers says the "independent news industry" has a roadmap to sustainability; Pia Frey and Torsten Schlegel of Opinionary say publishers should ask more questions of users as cookies die out; Kerri Hoffman of PRX says podcasting is going local; Ayala Panievsky of the University of Cambridge says "It's time for PR for journalism;" and Julia Beizer of Bloomberg says news and subscription fatigue should make publishers "focus on the value we provide our users. We must learn everything we can about who they are and what they need. And then we provide it through journalism that helps them navigate their world."

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, which does research in the U.K, the U.S. and other countries, says 22 of the findings from its research in 2022 are still relevant for 2023. They include: Many people see misinformation and harassment as big problems for digital platforms; they make snap judgments about trustworthiness of sources; people who know more about the news media use social media differently; young people increasingly use TikTok for news; and newsroom leaders are still betting on more revenue from readers.

Citing losses, Wick Communications has stopped printing the Anchorage Press and two other area weeklies, The Arctic Warrior and the Chugach Times. The anchoragepress.com website will continue, as will the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, a big weekly in an area north of Anchorage.

Quick hits: Rural entrepreneurs well-placed to be climate leaders; Kansas faces dire foster-parent shortage

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Much of rural Kansas has so few foster parents that the loss of just one can leave a huge hole in a county, reports Kansas City's KCUR.

How to prepare for, and react to, storms that knock out your electricity, from The Daily Yonder.

The last line of the paid obituary for a man who was a major paper-company executive in Idaho reads: "The best tribute you can give to Lee [Gill] is to pick up a piece of trash." His funeral is today.

The Guardian digs up a 1977 climate memo to Jimmy Carter "that should have changed the world."

Through simple measures, rural entrepreneurs can become climate leaders, says the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs. Read more here.

Overhaul of foster care, which will limit children's stays in group homes, may strain rural areas short of such homes

A new federal law that overhauls the nation's system of care for foster children tightens rules on group-home placement. The homes say there aren't enough foster parents to care for all the children in need, which have increased in recently, especially in rural areas, because of the opioid epidemic.

The Family First Prevention Services Act was included in an omnibus spending bill signed in February 2018; when it takes effect in October, the federal government won't pay for a child to stay in a group home for more than two weeks, with a few exceptions for children with special needs, Teresa Wiltz reports for Stateline: "The law had overwhelming support from nearly every state and the U.S. Congress. Many child welfare experts say that group homes, even the homiest among them, are far from an ideal place for a child to grow up. Research shows that foster kids in group homes face worse outcomes, from lower educational attainment to increased rates of homelessness and criminal-justice involvement."

The law puts a greater emphasis on trying to prevent children from needing foster care, and allows the federal government to reimburse states for more preventive services to children deemed "foster care candidates," generally those who have been abused or neglected but haven't been removed from home. "Under the new law, states may use matching federal funding to provide at-risk families with up to 12 months of mental health services, substance abuse treatment and in-home parenting training to families. Eligible beneficiaries are the families of children identified as safe staying at home; teen parents in foster care; and other parents who need preventive help so their kids don’t end up in the system. States must also come up with a plan to keep the child safe while remaining with parents," Wiltz reports in a different Stateline story. States can ask for a two-year delay to implement the group home restrictions in the new law, but that means forgoing federal funding for preventative services.

Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina, which operates dozens of group homes in the state, kept the law from passing for years with the help of Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.. The organization's leaders protest that there aren't enough foster homes to care for all the children in need, and that the two-week time limit is too short -- it can take two weeks for a child to have their first family court appearance after being removed from their parents, Wiltz reports.

Karen McLeod, the director of Benchmarks, an alliance of statewide child-welfare agencies, said group homes in North Carolina aren't against the law because they're motivated by profit. Most are run by religious organizations, lose money and raise funds to make up for the shortfall, Wiltz reports.

Group homes are particularly suited to housing sibling groups and teens, both of which often have a harder time being adopted or placed in foster homes. Some teens choose to stay in group homes because they're tired of moving around. While most children have been placed there by courts, a few have been privately placed by parents, usually because the parent is having trouble managing the child or because the parent is incarcerated. The typical stay is six to nine months. Some children are reunited with their families, and some are adopted, Wiltz reports.

Quick hits: Sessions saves a town's fireworks; Appalachian adoption, foster care; good analyses of Farm BIll and trade

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

The small town of Hamlet, N.C., just east of Charlotte, canceled its Independence Day festivities in 2017 because of threats of gang violence. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, infuriated when he heard the news, "sent a team of federal prosecutors to Richmond County to team up with state and local law enforcement along with the courts to combat the area's violent crime, Michael Gordon reports for The Charlotte Observer. After the crackdown, the town felt safe enough to have their usual Independence Day celebration this year. Read more here.

The Ohio University Press Podcast's latest installment is a fascinating discussion with Wendy Welch about her book Fall or Fly: The Strangely Hopeful Story of Foster Care and Adoption in Appalachia. The featured review on Amazon.com reads: "In Fall or Fly, Welch invites people bound by a code of silence to open up and to share their experiences. Less inspiration than a call to caring awareness, this pioneering work of storytelling journalism explores how love, compassion, money, and fear intermingle in what can only be described as a marketplace for our nation’s greatest asset." Listen to the podcast here.

As jobs disappear in rural coal country, a private prison pitches itself as the solution to one rural Kentucky town's financial woes. But some residents are pushing back. Read more here.

Farmdoc Daily has an excellent analysis of the Farm Bill and its prospects. Read more here.

The Agricultural Policy Analysis Center offers a solid breakdown of the politics of international trade. Read more here.

Opiate addiction leading to high rate of children in state care; Vt. sees record for adoptions in 2016

Vermont adoptions (Free Press graphic)

The opiate epidemic has led to a growing number of rural children being taken away from home, April McCullum reports for the Burlington Free Press. Vermont, one of the most rural states, has processed a record number of adoptions in 2016, partly because of an increasingly high number of children in state care, mostly because of opiates and other drugs, and partly because of an initiative to find children permanent homes.

Vermont this year has processed 217 adoptions, as of last week, and 17 more are expected to be finalized by the end of 2016, McCullum writes. "An additional 12 adoptions were completed with a child's relatives through a process known as a conditional custody order." Chief Superior Court Judge Brian Grearson told McCullum. “It’s not a record that anybody wants to beat. I mean, it’s reality. . . . If that’s the best result for a child, it’s important that it be done as soon as possible. I wish we could be talking about something other than a record number of adoptions."

Karen Shea, interim deputy commissioner for the Family Services Division at the state Department for Children and Families, said "Young children remain the largest group in state custody today," McCullum writes. "As of Dec. 1, Vermont had custody of 1,328 children, she said. More than 500 of them were infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children. Just over half the children who enter state custody are eventually returned to a parent's care, Shea said. That statistic, known as the reunification rate, rose from 44 percent in 2015."

The 49th state struggles to place rural Alaska Native children with Native foster families

There are 400,540 foster children in the U.S., according to the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Finding families to adopt these children, or merely giving them a safe home where they feel accepted, can be difficult, especially in rural areas like Alaska, where 14.8 percent of the population is Native American. Of the 2,100 foster Alaskan youth placed in foster homes, 1,276 are Alaska Natives, and only 413, or 32 percent, have been placed with Native families, Carey Restino reports for The Arctic Sounder.  

Despite the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, "which requires states to do everything in their power to keep Native American children with their families, or at the very least with Native American families that the child’s tribe designates," the problem still exists in Alaska, and other states, Lauren Kawana reports for Oakland North. In 2012 in California, 439 Native American children entered foster care, a rate of 1.2 percent. Native American children "account for nearly 1 of every 10 foster children in Nebraska," up from 1 out of every 14 last year, Martha Stoddard reports for the Omaha World-Herald. Similar problems have occurred in every state with high Native American populations, such as Utah, New Mexico, and South Dakota.

What makes Alaska different are its many small, remote settlements, which makes it hard to attract Natives to become involved in being foster parents, Restino writes. Training and "support is often a plane ride away for rural community foster parents, and the system can be daunting to navigate without an advocate nearby to talk to." Plus, small-town life isn't ideal for fostering. "While in a larger community, foster parents — relative or not — may have some anonymity, in a small town, they are likely to bump into the children’s parents in the grocery store or elsewhere around town."

Christy Lawton, director of the state Office of Children’s Services, told Restino of moving a child from a remote town to a larger community: “It’s like going from Alaska to New York City. That’s what it compares to in terms of the shock.” Aileen McInnis, director of the Alaska Center for Resource Families, a nonprofit organization that the state pays to train and support foster families, told Restino: “When kids are taken out of their community, they lose that really valuable cultural connection. It’s very important to keep kids connected with their culture.” 

The state has 1,300 licensed foster homes. But changes could be coming soon. Democratic Rep. Les Gara, who was a foster child, has begun a campaign to educate and promote fostering throughout the state, Restino writes. "Gara has worked with colleagues to spearhead reforms to reduce Alaska’s foster parent shortage, provide mentors for youth coming out of care, and to increase the accessibility of college and job training to help foster youth succeed. As well, a statewide TV advertisement campaign by the Department of Health and Human Services titled 'One Child' recently won an award for its effort to recruit new foster parents." (Read more)

Rural teens need more information and services about pregnancy issues, advocate says

Why are teen pregnancy and birth rates higher in rural America than in urban areas? Rural areas have a serious lack of information and services, something that needs to be changed to ensure the safety of pregnant teens, or those at risk of becoming pregnant, writes Rebecca Hart, of Provide, which works to ensure safe access to abortions, on the Daily Yonder.

Rural teens often lack necessary access to health care, writing Hart. There are too few primary-care physicians and emergency room doctors, treatment options are non-existent, or too far away, and fewer people are covered by Medicaid or may be covered by employer insurance that doesn't provide the care that is needed.

Another hurdle is education, or lack of it, Hart writes, staying that sex education in school is a must, and when teens do get pregnant, they need to be provided with options or support in issues such as adoption, abortion, and parenting. States such as Oklahoma and Mississippi teach abstinence, but Hart writes that without proper education, teen pregnancy rates are unlikely to decrease. Mississippi and North Dakota only have one abortion clinic in the state, making it much more difficult for a teen looking at that option.

Charts by National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

The solution, Hart, says, is to provide teens with more access to whatever needs they require. Teens intent on keeping the baby should be "referred to prenatal care specifically geared to the medical, psychological, and financial needs of pregnant rural teens." Likewise, teens looking to give the baby up for adoption, or have an abortion, should be allowed access to all the information and help they need. (Read more)

Celebrating Mom: North Dakota woman credited with raising 69 children, still at it

Yesterday was Mother's Day, a time of year to celebrate the women who raise children, with many moms often dedicating their lives to rearing two to three kids, the national average in the U.S. But in an amazing story of going above and beyond the spectrum of parenting, one woman in rural North Dakota, Joyce Dumont, is responsible for having cared for 69 children, reports James Hagerty for The Wall Street Journal. (Photo by Hagerty: Dumont and two of her adopted children)

Dumont, 77, a retired nurse and Chippewa tribe member living in a poor rural area in the central part of the state, had six children through childbirth, raised five stepchildren, and adopted 11 kids; the rest were foster children or kids that she took in because they had nowhere else to go, reports Hagerty.

Her strategy for raising children is simple: "All children want is something stable. They want to know that you love them. It doesn't have to be love with big computers and fancy clothes and all of that. Just that you care." She also insisted they make something of themselves. As a result, many of the children have gone on to successful careers in fields such as teaching, nursing, plumbing and business.

Lucille Vivier, who moved into the household when she was 14, and is now an English teacher and poet, said of Dumont, she "saved my life, both physically and spiritually," reports Hagerty. Dumont and her husband Buddy have have at home three adopted children, aged 7 to 10. (Read more)

Ark. voters ban unmarried couples from adoption or foster parenting; evangelical, rural votes key

"Rural counties and evangelical voters fueled by a pulpit campaign pushed Arkansas into adopting one of the nation's strictest bans on unmarried couples serving as foster or adoptive parents," The Associated Press reports. "The result surprised opponents, as Gov. Mike Beebe said he opposed the measure because of a lack of foster homes in the state. Arkansas Families First, a group that has been campaigning against the measure, launched a series of television advertisements urging voters to reject the ban," which was supported by literature from the Arkansas Family Council and sermons from pulpits.

The state exit poll by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International showed the initiative passed because of support from evangelical or born-again Christians. Among those who so identified themselves, 65 percent voted for the ban. Among those who didn't, 48 percent voted for it. The ban got 61 percent of the rural vote, which accounted for 44 percent of the exit-poll respondents. It got 57 percent in suburbs and 51 percent in urban areas.

"Arkansas joins Utah, home to a large, conservative Mormon population, as the only two states with bans on unmarried straight or gay couples fostering or adopting children," AP reports. "Mississippi bans gay couples, but not single gays, from adopting children. Florida is the only state in the nation to ban gay adoption outright." (Read more)