Quick hits: AI gets an 'F' in language; more on eggs; barndominium battles; gift economies; dam removal benefits

AI earns an "F" in language. "AI flunks language tests that take grammar out of the equation," writes Rutvik Desai for The Conversation. "I’m a researcher who studies language and meaning. My research group developed a novel benchmark that can help people understand the limitations of large language models [that are used by AI] in understanding meaning." Word pairings are oddly challenging for AI to grasp. Read why here.

The incredible edible egg also busts budgets. (Adobe Stock photo)

Eggs are a cooking and baking staple, but at their current prices, using eggless recipes is a way American shoppers can save some cash. From chicken meatballs to shrimp in purgatory to peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, these recipes don't have eggs. Don't feel like learning a new recipe to avoid eggs? Here's a list of egg substitutes.

There's a lot to learn about raising
chickens. (Unsplash photo)

Some Americans love eggs so much, they aren't ready to avoid them or try to replace them. Instead, they've decided to take a crack at raising their own chickens. "After living through a pandemic and struggling with ongoing high grocery prices (particularly rising costs for poultry and eggs), many people are ready to make a change for themselves," reports Patrick Kuklinski for Modern Farmer. "Starting a journey in keeping poultry can be overwhelming – there’s a lot to learn, and some breeds have easier requirements than others." To find out what you need to know to raise your own flock, click here.

The barndominium battle being waged in this small lakeside town is becoming more common in rural places. "In Victoria, Minn., dozens of neighbors "signed a petition to reverse city approval for a plan for a five-bedroom house with a 6,000-square-foot garage — big enough to hold at least 20 cars and maybe a pickleball court," reports Joe Barrett of The Wall Street Journal. "But sometimes one homeowner’s dream garage is another’s backyard nightmare, sparking lawsuits, zoning battles and moratoria on mammoth man caves."

The book opens with the author, Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, "picking ripe serviceberries from laden bushes, surrounded by songbirds who also are filling up on the fruit. . . .The plant supports many species wherever it grows," writes Jennifer Weeks in her review of Kimmerer's newest book The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World. . . . "From this abundance, Kimmerer launches into her central point: Gift economies, centered on giving and re-giving, are all around us, and are a powerful counterpoint to market economies."

Small dam removal can make a big difference for freshwater plants and wildlife that once thrived along the East Coast. "More than 30,000 small dams currently block river tributaries from Maine to Maryland," reports Lela Nargi for Yale Environment360. "New initiatives to remove them are aimed at restoring natural flows, improving habitat for aquatic life, and reopening thousands of river miles to migratory fish, from shad to American eels."

Campaigning with rural policy messages could 'move the needle' in swing states, a new poll suggests

First page of poll results via The Daily Yonder

For campaigns looking to attract swing voters, rural Americans offer a surprising opportunity to "move the needle" in battleground states, a new poll by the Center for Rural Strategies and Lake Research Partners suggests. "The findings provide a potential new and more effective roadmap for candidates vying for seats in state legislatures, Congress, and the White House ahead of the 2024 elections," reports Will Wright of The Daily Yonder. "The survey suggests as many as 37% of rural voters are swing, blue-collar voters who could be swayed by the right policy proposals and messaging."

Pollsters for The Center for Rural Strategies and Lake Research Partners, a Democratic research firm, "interviewed a weighted sample of 500 likely voters in rural zip codes in 12 states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arizona, and Georgia," Wright explains. "They asked rural Americans how they feel about their place in the economy and how their feelings intersect with modern politics. . . . While partisanship remains strong among the rural electorate, voters were aligned on many of their chief concerns: affordable housing, the high cost of food, and corporate greed."

Overall, the poll indicated three primary points of concern: "Lowering prices; bringing good-paying jobs to local communities; and a populist message focused on corporate greed — received such broad support that they rivaled voters’ agreement on core values like family and freedom," Wright reports. 

Among those polled, "(Joe) Biden was viewed unfavorably by 66% of respondents, while (Donald) Trump was viewed unfavorably by 48%. And while the rising cost of living was the top issue for people aligned with both parties and for independents, Republicans were also more likely to put that as their top issue." Wright reports. "Pollster Celinda Lake said the poll revealed the potential for Democrats to perform much better in rural areas than they might otherwise believe. . . . Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies, said the effectiveness of policy messages shows a path forward. . . . While many candidates focus heavily on suburban areas where voters are viewed as more persuadable, the polling suggests rural areas may be well worth the time and money."

Read complete poll results here.

'Social investment platform' for Central Appalachia says it has rounded up $19 million and is already funding projects

Invest Appalachia Fund's logo

Central Appalachia has a shortage of many things, but one that doesn't get talked about much is the lack of capital for investment in businesses than can rebuild the local economy now that coal is such a smaller part of it. Now a venture-capital firm that calls itself "a regional social investment platform" says it "has secured $19 million of new investment" and is already investing in projects.

Invest Appalachia CEO Andrew Crosson told The Rural Blog that his fund has invested in real estate for downtown revitalization, "support for consumer and business lending for flood-impacted communities" in Eastern Kentucky, "solar and energy efficient equipment for a rural grocery store, and expansion of rural eye care clinics." He said in an email that he couldn't give specifics because "these deals aren't public yet" but said his priorities are "downtown revitalization/community-focused real estate, solar and energy efficiency for rural businesses and institutions, and community health facilities and social enterprises."

Crosson's press release said Invest Appalachia has involved "six years of in-depth stakeholder planning" and "is connecting local communities to national investors through a cutting-edge impact investment model . . . in an underinvested region with a history of economic exploitation." It defines its region as the Appalachian counties of Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Ohio.

The release says 90% of the $19 million in the Invest Appalacha Fund is "new capital from outside the region, and the IA Fund has a target of $40M total by November 2023. The lead investors for the IA Fund are UnitedHealth Group, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Appalachian Regional Commission," a federal agency. "Other first close investors include Sugarbush Valley Impact Investments, Laughing Gull Foundation, and Cassiopeia Foundation."

“We need an economy where everyone can see a place for themselves, and Invest Appalachia will help move the region in that direction,” Crosson said in the release. “IA is rooted in place and designed to meet the needs of Appalachia’s underserved communities. This deeply collaborative model puts impact and community interests first, while also providing a large-scale opportunity for national impact investors.”

The release added, “Central Appalachia is home to hardworking, creative, and resilient communities whose people and natural resources have fueled the economic growth of America for generations. Now, despite chronic underinvestment, persistent poverty, and other entrenched barriers to opportunity, the region has created its own momentum toward economic transformation and community revitalization. To achieve its full potential, the region requires innovative, scalable, and justice-centered investment approaches that create equitable economic opportunity for generations to come. IA is part of a movement to tell a new story about Appalachia that is led by communities and shows what is possible for the region’s future.”

Thur. webinar to discuss economic justice in Indian Country

L-R: Heather Fleming, Vanessa Roanhorse, Lakota Vogel, and Steve Dubb (Nonprofit Quarterly photo montage)

A Nonprofit Quarterly webinar on Thursday, Oct. 14, will feature three Native American non-profit executives discussing their work in economic justice in Indian Country as well as the challenges they face. The webinar is the first in NPQ's 2021-2022 Remaking the Economy series; it's presented in partnership with the First Nations Development Institute, which aims to improve economic conditions for Native Americans through direct financial grants, technical assistance and training, and advocacy and policy. Click here for more information about the webinar or to register.

NPQ senior editor and economic justice program director Steve Dubb will moderate the webinar. Here are the panelists:

• Heather Fleming (Navajo), executive director of Change Labs, the only business incubator and accelerator on Navajo land. Fleming works with Hopi and Navajo (Diné) citizens to create a supportive business ecosystem for Native entrepreneurs.
• Vanessa Roanhorse (Navajo), CEO of Roanhorse Consulting, a firm co-designing a character-based lending program, with a vision of redesigning underwriting to meet Native community needs. She is also a cofounder of Native Women Lead.
• Lakota Vogel (Cheyenne River Sioux), CEO of Four Bands Community Loan Fund, a community development financial institution (CDFI) in South Dakota. The CDFI she leads is redesigning lending to enable Native residents to build homes on trust lands.

Focus on W. Va., driven by Manchin's pivotal role, could also help the rest of Appalachia and other distressed rural areas

Manchin and then-VP Biden in 2017
(Photo by Tom Williams, Roll Call)

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin's pivotal position in the federal government – "He can shoot down filibuster reform, shape the economic recovery or moderate liberal hopes for the minimum wage" – makes Democrats "laugh uneasily" and say "So just give the man what he wants," writes Emily Badger of The New York Times. "But there is a deeper possibility in this unusual alignment of one senator, one struggling state and one suddenly attentive capital." And it could make a difference in more than West Virginia.

“West Virginia and Appalachia deserve an outsized piece of any federal recovery policy,” Kelly Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, told Badger, who writes, "That’s because the region’s decades-long role in powering the nation through coal, she said, came at enormous cost to the health of local residents, their environment and their economy. A serious federal response to that history could both bolster the state and be a model for other parts of the country that have been left behind."

Appalachian liberals like Allen "dream of broadband, vast brownfield cleanup efforts, greater aid to community lenders who operate where traditional banks won’t, more resources for high-quality housing and health clinics — investment on a scale that would return to the region all the wealth that was taken out of it by resource extraction," Badger writes. That happened mainly in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, which is represented by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a conservative but relatively spending-friendly Republican, Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers of Somerset, member and former chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

Appalachia has lessons for the rest of the nation. It was one of the first rural regions that have fallen further behind "as other places grow more prosperous," as "globalization and knowledge work began to reorder the economy, with tremendously unequal consequences depending on where you live," Badger writes. "Today, however, no one in Washington is responsible for confronting that pattern, said John Lettieri, the president of the Economic Innovation Group, a Washington think tank that has proposed a new cabinet-level office to do that." Members of Congress and others have made similar proposals, and the Biden administration appears to be listening.

Badger offers examples of why high-level coordination is needed: "Some health programs devote extra resources to rural communities, but misclassify which ones are “rural.” The federal government incentivizes banks to invest in struggling neighborhoods. But those incentives don’t work well in rural communities with no local bank branches. The government also has an array of tax credit programs to support development. But they work best with large-scale urban projects, not small rural ones."

This map from the Appalachian Regional Commission, adapted by The Rural Blog, shows Eastern Kentucky is the heart of economic distress in Appalachia. To enlarge, click on it.

Black progressive who nearly won Senate nod in Ky. says liberals must listen to rural conservatives, find commonality

Charles Booker in Pikeville, Ky. (Lexington Herald-Leader photo)

First-term state Rep. Charles Booker of Louisville, an African American who nearly won the nomination to face Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, told The New York Times that progressives need to "show up and listen" to rural conservatives who like President Trump if they want to build a winning coalition in the Democratic Party.

"What I tell folks is that, honestly, we should take some notes from a Donald Trump — being careful when you do," Booker said in a transcribed interview. "He called out that the system is broken, and he spoke to people that, for a long time, felt like nobody even knew they existed. Now, he was stoking hatred and racism and weaponizing it, but one of the truths there is that the system is broken. And if we go to those places that are deep red, and we show up and listen, but lean into our values, you can build relationships that way."

He prefaced that by saying, "Regardless of what your political ideology is, especially in a place like Kentucky, everybody’s broke and everybody’s struggling and everybody’s trying to figure out how to keep food on the table, keep the lights, take care of their family and protect their livelihood."

Kentucky is only 8.4 percent Black, and has many rural areas with hardly any African Americans, but Booker said he had no problem "building support in rural parts of Kentucky. I spent the majority of my campaign explaining how a Black person can win in rural parts of Kentucky and how the issue of rationing insulin is not partisan. And so when I tell my story of nearly dying from diabetic ketoacidosis, and explaining that’s why I fully support Medicare for all — because nobody should die because they don’t have money in their pocket — people get it."

Booker got 42.6% of the vote in a 10-way primary won by Amy McGrath, who got 45.4% after raising more than $41 million, the most of any Senate candidate this year. "The real determinant in our race was money," he told the Times. Many political observers said Booker would have won if most the votes had been cast on primary-election day; most were absentee due to the pandemic, which also caused the election to be delayed for five weeks. During that period, Booker's campaign caught fire due to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and resulting protests, which in Kentucky focused on a police killing during execution of a no-knock warrant in Louisville.

Jan. 30 is deadline to seek Hillman Prizes, which recognize journalism that advances social and economic justice

Jan. 30 is the deadline for nominations for the 2018 Hillman Prizes, which honor investigative journalism and commentary that advance social and economic justice. "Winners exemplify reportorial excellence, storytelling skill, and public service impact," says the Sidney Hillman Foundation, named for a pioneer of the labor movement.

The categories for work published or premiered in 2017 are newspaper reporting, magazine reporting, nonfiction book, web journalism (material that appeared online but not in print), broadcast journalism, (at least 20 minutes in total package length) and opinion and analysis journalism in any medium. Each carries a $5,000 prize.

There is no fee to enter. A cover letter and the nominated material are the only requirements. View the entry form and instructions. See previous winners here. Winners will be announced in April 2018. Each honoree is awarded travel to New York City for the awards ceremony on May 8.

J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy to be made into a film directed by Ron Howard

J.D. Vance

Whether or not you liked J.D. Vance's 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, it is coming to a theater near you. Ron Howard, who won two Academy Awards for "A Beautiful Mind," will direct and co-produce the movie, Mike Fleming Jr. reports for Deadline Hollywood. "The memoir, which told Vance’s struggle-filled coming-of-age story, became a symbol for the disenfranchised Rust Belt contingent that rallied behind Donald Trump in the presidential election." Vance's family migrated from Eastern Kentucky, which he often visited, and the regional culture plays a significant role in the book.

Erica Huggins, who will co-produce the film for Imagine Entertainment, told Deadline, “Hillbilly Elegy is a powerful, true coming-of-age memoir by J.D. Vance. Through the lens of a colorful, chaotic family and with remarkable compassion and self-awareness, J.D. has been able to look back on his own upbringing as a ‘hillbilly’ to illuminate the plight of America’s white working class, speaking directly to the turmoil of our current political climate.”

"The book made Vance a go-to commentator on the white working class during the 2016 presidential election," Rich Copley writes for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The Middletown, Ohio, native, whose family hailed from Breathitt County, went on to earn a degree from Yale Law School."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/copious-notes/article143910834.html#storylink=cpy

Several slices of rural America are largely ignored

Last year's election sparked newfound fascination in America's rural citizens, the sort of attention that was long overdue. But the spotlight on rural America is only focusing on a slice of non-city folks — those who are white, Mara Tieken writes for The Washington Post. Almost one-fifth of rural residents, nearly 10.3 million people, are people of color.

"Some stories are clear about their scope: Their authors have intentionally chosen a particular geographic and racial population to explore and explain," Teiken writes. "Others are less obvious in their focus, though details — region of the country or photographs — soon make explicit what is merely implied or assumed. Either way, though, a particular racial narrative is being told."

A woman and her young son in Porterville, Calif. (Washington Post photo)

Of the 10 million people of color who live in rural America, "about 40 percent are African American, 35 percent are nonwhite Hispanic, and the remaining 25 percent are Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander or multiracial," Tieken writes. "And this rural America is expected to grow in the coming decades, as rural areas see a rapid increase in Latino immigration."

Rural Americans of color are found from coast to coast, but "they tend to live in different places from rural whites: across the Mississippi Delta and the Deep South; throughout the Rio Grande Valley; on reservations and native lands in the Southwest, Great Plains and Northwest," Tieken writes.

They also have a different history from rural white America: "a history of forced migration, enslavement and conquest. This rural America receives even lower pay and fewer protections for its labor than does rural white America. And, as my own research shows, this rural America attends very different schools than rural white America, schools that receive far less funding and other resources." Tieken writes. "It also appears that these rural Americans vote for different candidates than rural whites. A look at county-level voting and demographic data suggests that this rural America voted for Hillary Clinton."

Tieken warns that defining rural white America as rural America perpetuates an "incomplete and simplistic story" about the many people who live in these areas and what they want and need. She notes, "Ironically, this story — so often told by liberals trying to explain the recent rise in undisguised nativism and xenophobia — serves to re-privilege whiteness. Whiteness is assumed; other races are shoved even further to the margins."

"Interest in rural America is welcome," Tieken writes. "But we need to make sure it is complete and inclusive — and genuine."

Hillbilly Elegy's Vance says he will return to his native Ohio to start nonprofit for upward mobility

J.D. Vance (Photo by Greg
Lynch, the Journal-News)

J.D. Vance, whose 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy explored the problems of the Appalachian-rooted working class of the Rust Belt, is returning to his native Ohio "to try to do something to make things better," reports Dan Sewell of The Associated Press.

His book "drew extra attention because of Vance's insights into" a key part of Donald Trump's base and made Vance "a popular TV discussion show guest," Sewell notes. "The Yale-educated Silicon Valley investor now wants to do more than talk about the issues." Vance told him, "I just think those of us who think we have something to offer have a responsibility to try to help."

Vance "is forming a nonprofit called Our Ohio Renewal and will relocate with his wife from San Francisco to either Cincinnati or Columbus, where he earned his undergraduate degree at Ohio State University," Sewell reports. "He has spoken at Ohio State and Miami University, near Middletown, in recent weeks and has other speaking engagements lined up that he said will help him learn more." He spoke at the Kentucky Book Fair in November and has received other invitations from that state.

Sewell writes, "Among the issues he wants to target are the needs for more upward mobility opportunities for families in the lower end of the economy, what he calls rebuilding 'the broken pipeline to the middle class,' and the opioid epidemic that has hit his home state particularly hard," as well as Kentucky.

Book about extended Appalachian family helps explain trials of the lesser-educated working class

J.D. Vance is a Yale Law School graduate who was raised mainly by his grandparents because one of his parents was an addict. His family was part of the great migration north from Central Appalachia -- Jackson and Breathitt County, Kentucky, where life expectancy is only 70 years, to Middletown, Ohio, where there are so many Kentucky transplants they call it "Middletucky." But the culture follows, and economic problems do, too. "People have struggled to get out of Jackson for decades," Vance writes, "Now they struggle to get out of Middletown."

Vance's new HarperCollins book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, is about his extended family and its times. "Nearly every person you will read about is deeply flawed," Vance writes in his introduction. "But I love these people, even those to whom I avoid speaking for my own sanity. . . . There are no villains in this story. There's just a ragtag band of hillbillies trying to find their way -- both for their sake and, by the grace of God, for mine."

Vance, 31, says he wrote the book because, among other things, "I want people to know how it feels to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it. I want people to understand what happens in the lives of the poor and the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children."

Sales of Vance's book are likely to surge because it is the takeoff point for the latest political column by David Brooks of The New York Times. Brooks says the book is "essential reading for this moment in history," a time when the lesser-educated working class is losing "the social institutions and cultural values that made it possible to have self-respect amid hardship."

Brooks writes, "This honor code has been decimated lately. Conservatives argue that it has been decimated by cosmopolitan cultural elites who look down on rural rubes. There’s some truth to this, as the reactions of smug elites to the Brexit vote demonstrate. But the honor code has also been decimated by the culture of the modern meritocracy, which awards status to the individual who works with his mind, and devalues the class of people who work with their hands. Most of all, it has been undermined by rampant consumerism, by celebrity culture, by reality-TV fantasies that tell people success comes in a quick flash of publicity, not through steady work."

Progressives, liberals largely ignore rural interests, but shouldn't, 2012 candidate writes

Anthony Flaccavento

Rural voters have become more Republican in the last decade, and the reasons you usually hear for that shift obscure one reason that deserves more attention, rural food entrepreneur and recent congressional candidate Anthony Flaccavento of Abingdon, Va., writes in the liberal magazine The Nation.

Flaccavento acknowledges "the relentless propaganda of Fox News and conservative talk radio, to the right’s timely and well-funded co-opting of public anger over the economic crash and bank bailouts of 2008–09," as documented by several writers. "Dark Money, Jane Mayer’s recent book, provides further detail, a chronology of how such a comprehensive, patient plan to change the narrative was developed and funded. And multiple commentators have taken advantage of the presidential campaign season to highlight how the Democratic Party has steadily moved towards Wall Street and away from working people, at least since Bill Clinton."

But Flaccavento also blames "the near-complete absence of the 'rural' among the priorities, policies, and leaders on the other side, i.e., in the progressive movement. By rural, I mean the people, their communities, the predominant livelihoods, and the culture and language of these places. The plain fact of the matter is that, excepting recent transplants from the cities, most rural people see progressives as elitist, dismissive of their concerns, largely ignorant of both their problems and their contributions to the nation. And too often, living 'in their head' rather than getting their hands dirty."

As one example, Flaccavento says this year's "Good Jobs for All" report by several progressive groups doesn't mention "the words 'farm,' 'farmer,' and 'agriculture' ... and 'rural' is alluded to only once or twice, in the context of USDA programs. Mind you, there are plenty of 'struggling Americans' living in the countryside."

Flaccavento says he understands that "liberals and progressives default to the triage approach: that is, we focus our priorities and resources on the places we can win or at least win over. I experienced that when I ran for Congress in 2012 on a very progressive agenda. We met with folks at the Democratic National Committee, and they seemed genuinely impressed with both our platform and our campaign. But because I live in a very rural, red area, the DNC decided it was hopeless, and not a dime was offered to the campaign. In spite of that, we fared best—approaching 45 percent of the vote—in the coal counties, where rural jobs and livelihoods were most in decline. If it turns out that if your words and actions make sense to people and honor their experiences, they’ll get behind you. Even in the country." (Read more)

Daily Yonder asks what the candidates should be saying to get rural votes, and gets many answers

Hillary Clinton is slipping in the polls, but she is the only presidential candidate who has issued a rural platform, Dee Davis and Isaac Boone Davis point out for the Daily Yonder: "With all the speeches, ads, meet-and-greets, publicity stunts and general folderol, why is so little being said about rural issues? The Daily Yonder asked folks what they think the next president should be talking about to get the rural vote." The responses dealt with agriculture, education, housing, health, forestry, culture, labor, transportation and investment, from a wide range of experts, activists and people in the front lines. Read it here. For a Yonder story about the National Rural Assembly later this week, go here.

Feds establish initiative to award up to $38 million to help revive struggling Ky. coal communities

In an attempt to stimulate the economy of coal-depressed Kentucky counties, state and federal officials Frday announced the formation of the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) initiative, "which will award up to $38 million in grants to coal communities to support economic and workforce development," says a release from the state.

The release said the initiative is designed to use federal economic and workforce development resources to diversify economies; create jobs in new or existing industries; attract new sources of job-creating investments; and provide a range of workforce services and skills training that offer industry-recognized credentials for high-quality, in-demand jobs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also announced approval of a $1.8 million loan for a new innovative business in Eastern Kentucky, the region hit the hardest by the loss of coal jobs. (Read more)

Central Appalachian economic woes are a warning to energy-boom regions, rural expert says

There is no quick fix to reviving a rural economy hit hard by the loss of its primary source of income, such as the Central Appalachian coalfield, Chuck Fluharty, founder, president and CEO of the Rural Policy Research Institute, told Manuel Quiñones of EnergyWire.

Beshear, Fluharty, Rogers

Fluharty, who specializes in revitalizing busted rural economies, is working with Shaping our Appalachian Region—created by Kentucky Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers—to help find solve the economic struggles in Eastern Kentucky.

Fluharty's "hope is that SOAR will score a win or two and spread to other Appalachian areas afflicted by coal's downturn," Quiñones writes. "It might, he added, even serve as a cautionary tale to rural areas that are now feasting on the hydraulic fracturing boom."

Fluharty rold Quiñones that the success of a business such as coal mining, or oil and gas development from horizontal hydraulic fracturing, leads to high-paying jobs, sometimes for several generations, but crowds out other sectors, leaving the area depleted when resources dry up: "No community that depends on resource extraction . . . can escape its curse. It builds a culture of stability and entitlement because of that extraction industry, which always fails because the resource goes away."

In Central Appalachia the problem is exacerbated by the region's "lack of population centers and a Scots-Irish heritage that tends to make people resistant to change," Quiñones writes. "He knows it from experience, having been raised in the Appalachian foothills on a fifth-generation family farm in southeastern Ohio."

SOAR is already having an impact on other areas, Quiñones writes. West Virginia Sen. Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall) formed a similar group called called Southern Coalfields Organizing and Revitalizing the Economy (SCORE), and officials in Minnesota who attended SOAR's first summit in 2013, said they see similarities between struggles in Central Appalachia and the Iron Range. A SOAR "strategy summit" is scheduled for May 11 in Pikeville, Ky. (Read more)

Walmart to raise minimum wages to at least $10 per hour by 2016

Walmart, one of the biggest businesses in rural America, announced last week that it will voluntarily raise minimum wages to at least $10 per hour by 2016, Byron Tau reports for The Wall Street Journal. "Walmart said the changes aim to reward employees with better pay as well as offer employees closer relationships with supervisors, better management of departments and improved scheduling of hours. It pegged the cost of the moves at $1 billion this fiscal year."

Some are not applauding the mega-corporation, which has been accused in the past of underpaying workers, Tau writes. Josh Orton, a spokesman with the liberal advocacy group Progressives United, told Tau, "What does it say that Walmart workers getting a raise is huge news? I think everyone would probably agree that Walmart is likely not doing this out of the goodness of their heart. There’s been a long prolonged campaign from low-wage workers nationally to push them in this direction.” Others cheered the news but called on the chain to raise wages to $15 per hour.

One opinion as to why Walmart is making the move is to avoid workers' organizing unions, Max Ehrenfreund reports for The Washington Post. "One unexpected winner from Walmart's decision: taxpayers, who chip in thousands of dollars a year in benefits for minimum-wage workers, according to a report from Democratic staff in the House of Representatives. For all the employees at a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter in Wisconsin, these costs likely total more than $900,000 annually."

Retired miner says effort to reshape Appalachian Kentucky's economy is all talk and no action

Stanley Sturgil

A bipartisan effort to reshape Appalachian Kentucky's economy in coal-depressed areas has been all talk and no action, retired miner Stanley Sturgill writes in an op-ed piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader. Sturgill, from Harlan County, writes that Shaping Our Appalachian Region, launched in 2013 by Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican, "in my opinion (and the opinion of many fellow citizens) has not done anything for us in our county."

SOAR was introduced in Occtober 2013, held a summit in December 2013, formed an executive committee in March 2014, announced in April 2014 it was planning work groups and is holding another summit on Monday. But Strugill writes that the summit, and the $10 registration fee—$15 at the door—is pointless.

"We don't need this kind of fanfare or great speakers with more promises to let us know the SOAR ship has not yet lifted off," Sturgill writes. "We already know this firsthand. What we need is action and fast action. We need all our coal severance to come to our counties; we don't need promises from ancient politicians still trying to make a name for themselves. They dropped the ball for our area many years ago." (Read more)

Getting by on nothing in America, in the words of some who wrote about it on Reddit

Many of America's poor are fighting a losing battle to improve their station, mainly because it costs more to be poor, Max Ehrenfreund reports for The Washington Post, drawing from a discussion thread on Reddit: "an extraordinary thread full of devastating stories about what it's like to get by with nothing in the United States of 2015."

Being denied a checking account means paying a fee to cash a check. Not having disposable money means buying items in smaller quantities or on credit—which costs more in the long run—or having to purchase something at the marked price, without having the ability to wait for a sale.

"It's easy to feel that "when you are poor, the 'system' is set up to keep you that way," in the words of one Reddit user," Ehrenfreund writes, quoting others:

"When you are broke, you can't plan ahead or shop sales or buy in bulk. Poor people wait to buy something until they absolutely need it, so they have to pay whatever the going price is at that moment. If ten-packs of paper towels are on sale for half price, that's great, but you can only afford one roll anyway. In this way, poor people actually pay more than others for common staple goods."

"I buy 'fish' antibiotics online because I can't afford health care. . . . Amoxicillin and such. Mostly for husband who has Lyme's disease. We can't afford our monthly health care rates. We are 30-somethings in the US. Really feel like a 'bottom feeder'."

"I'm making $150-$200 a week, and I need new shoes. So I can buy $60 shoes that will last, or $15 Walmart shoes. So I buy the Walmart shoes and some groceries instead of just the $60 shoes and no groceries. Three months later I'll need new shoes again. But I'll also have to pay rent, and my light bill is due. So I'll pay the light bill and buy some 'shoe glue' for $4 to fix my shoes for another few weeks until I can buy the $15 ones again."

One writer who admitted to regularly raiding dumpsters wrote, "I grew up in a fairly rural area. When that happened? I know that in winter, grey squirrel tastes [expletive] gross. Sure, people from the South can claim that their brown and red squirrels are delicious, but I would rather eat [expletive] out of a pig's ass than eat another bite of goddamn squirrel meat. Or jackrabbit. Or goddamned dandelion greens." (Read more)

Wages declined in 1/3 of counties in last decade; what happened in your county? This map shows

Even before the Great Recession, there was concern about wage stagnation, which has left millions of households with effectively less income than they had a decade ago. "One-third of all U.S. counties have seen their pay decline, when the figures are adjusted for inflation," Brian McGill and Dante Chinni report for The Wall Street Journal, with a handy map, emendated example below. (Click here for the interactive version.)

Overall, "Wages haven't budged in a decade," the reporters write. "The biggest winners for wage increases are the counties running down the center of the country, many of which have economies based on energy and agriculture." Other patterns are harder to discern; the phenomenon cuts across rural and urban, blue and red. State policies may have made a difference, judging from the clear differences between Illinois and Indiana, and between Alabama and Georgia.

"And even with all that in mind, the numbers on wage stagnation don’t tell the whole story," the reporters note. "Average annual pay still tends to be higher on the coasts and in the big cities than they are in rural Middle America." The data are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.

West Virginia follows Kentucky's lead, forms group to reshape Appalachian economy

West Virginia Sen. Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall) announced last week that he has formed a group called called Southern Coalfields Organizing and Revitalizing the Economy (SCORE) to look into ways to diversify and revitalize the struggling economy in Southern West Virginia, Ken Ward reports for the Charleston Gazette.

Last year Kentucky Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, a Republican from Eastern Kentucky, joined forces to launch Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR), an effort to stimulate the economy of Eastern Kentucky, which includes some of the nation's poorest counties. The group has since held meetings in search of ways to improve and diversify the economy of Appalachian Kentucky.

The West Virginia effort will be similar to the one in Kentucky, Ward writes. SCORE will focus on looking into ways to "increase funding for tourism advertising and development; education and workforce development and retraining initiatives; dedicating monies for viable redevelopment projects; agribusiness and rural development opportunities; increase Broadband access; expanding and supporting intermodal transportation; explore development of coalbed methane reserves; and support clean coal research and development."

Kessler told Ward, “Southern West Virginia has become a region stricken with a lack of opportunity and hope. It’s time to change our way of thinking so that it can once again become a region that offers our children and grandchildren opportunities for a better future. It is not impossible to envision a renewed Southern West Virginia.” (Read more)