Friday webinar will teach you how to use free Google Tools to punch up your business and data reporting and graphics

A hands-on digital workshop on Friday, May 13, aims to teach journalists how to use free Google Tools to strengthen your reporting. The workshop goes from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET and costs $10. It's presented by a partnership of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Google News Initiative and is sponsored by the Mid-America Press Institute. Click here for more information or to register.

From the website: "In this hands-on workshop, SPJ Google News Lab trainer Mike Reilley will show you how to use free Google tools that can help your newsroom build interactive charts, maps, visualizations and more. Tools we’ll cover: Google Flourish, Google Dataset Search, Google Fact Check Explorer, Google Trends, MapChecking.com, Google Earth Studio, Earth Engine Timelapse, Public Data Explorer, advanced search, data scraping with Google Sheets and Google Flourish. Prior to the session, set up a free account at http://flourish.studio. Participants will receive handouts with exercises, links to tools and more."

Using those programs, Reilley will teach participants easier ways to scrape data from websites or PDFs and turn it into graphics (some interactive); how to scrape and track both real-time and historic stock-market data; and how to tell visual stories with satellite data, maps, and more.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Set up a free Google Earth Studio account as soon as possible, since Google must approve applications before granting access.

Thursday Poynter webinar to share covid-19 data and fact-checking resources for reporters, discuss reporting pitfalls

The Poynter Institute will host a free 30-minute webinar at 2 p.m. ET Thursday, April 16, to help journalists cover covid-19 as accurately as possible. Click here to get more information or register.

Senior multimedia reporter Alex Mahadevan will share data sources your newsroom can use immediately for reporting and fact-checking, tools and resources to help you interpret pandemic data, and advice on how to avoid common pitfalls in reporting covid-19 data.

One resource you can use (and which the webinar will likely highlight) is the #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, a Poynter-led group of more than 100 fact-checkers from all over the world that publishes a frequently updated searchable database of covid-19 fact-checks.

Proposals due Feb. 18 for initiative to explore changing face of small-town America through multimedia reporting

American Roundtable illustrates its pitch with this photo from Blairsburg, Iowa, by Mitch Epstein

American communities, including rural ones, are changing because of economic conditions, migration patterns, politics, climate change, racial tension and more. The Architectural League of New York, an organization devoted to architecture and design, is launching an initiative meant to provide readers with a better picture of what's happening in less-populated areas and why.

American Roundtable is meant to "bring together on-the-ground perspectives on the condition of American communities and what they need to thrive going forward," says its website. "The Architectural League will commission up to 10 editorial teams to produce reports featuring diverse voices, expressed through diverse media, creating portraits and agendas for places they know well. . . . Commissioned teams will be awarded $10,000 to support their work, which will be published digitally on archleague.org and in a series of print publications."

The project is open to communities of up to 300,000 population, so The Rural Blog asked it to clarify just how rural the projects are likely to be. The response: "We very much hope to, and intend to, include truly rural regions and small towns. A major intention of the project is to hear from places that often do not reach the national conversation. We are also very conscious of and wish to avoid the situation of people from major metropolitan and coastal regions, reporting 'on' the situation in smaller locales. The hope for the project is to commission people truly from and a part of the communities under discussion. The exact spread of community size will be determined by the proposals we receive, but we fully intend to include a number of rural regions/small towns in the mix." 

Proposals are due by 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday, Feb. 18. Those that demonstrate close ties and in-depth knowledge of their communities will be favored. Click here for more information about the project and the proposal process. American Roundtable is supported partly by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

10-part series explores rural-urban divide in central Missouri

The Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri has launched a 10-part series that aims to explore the division between rural and urban communities in Central Missouri, and the changes those communities have seen over the past few decades.

The Rural Divide project is "the culmination of hundreds of hours of work by more than a dozen staff members in four GateHouse Missouri newsrooms," writes Daily Tribune Managing Editor Charles Westmoreland. "This series is one of the most aggressive projects I’ve been a part of, and it wouldn’t have been possible if not for the tireless work of our journalism teams."

Westmoreland takes readers behind the scenes on the series in his explainer, discussing how the reporting teams gathered information, what metrics and data they mined, and what inspired the series in the first place. "In the coming weeks the topics we will explore include jobs, education, municipal funding, health care, agriculture, crime, infrastructure, poverty and the role of local sports," Westmoreland writes. "The series will conclude June 19 with a look at how everything we’ve reported so far connects to Columbia and Boone County."

The first article in the series, published May 18, provides readers with an overview of the project. The next article will be published May 22.

Bloomberg Businessweek writers publish annual 'Jealousy List' of stories they wish they'd thought up first

Bloomberg Businessweek's contribution to the inevitable year-end listicles is their Jealosy List, i.e., a list of stories the writers wish they'd thought of first. The stories are as diverse as they are excellent, from a Reuters explainer about the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show to The New York Times' investigation into how President Trump's father engaged in shady tax schemes to direct money to his inheritors.

Of special interest to rural readers is the New Yorker piece "When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home," which we referenced in a March item for The Rural Blog.

Resentment of coastal elites, much of it rural, still motivates Trump voters, according to three new reports

By Al Cross

Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

A resentment of coastal elites is a key to the support that President Trump still enjoys in parts of the country that abandoned their usual Democratic allegiances for him in 2016. That's a thread that runs through three recent in-depth reports: one by a Democratic pollster, one by The Washington Post's chief political reporter, and the other by a conservative journalist who was one of the leaders in defining the who and why of Trump voters before the election.

Much of this resentment is in among Americans, as I outlined in a speech to a rural-education conference last week and in a chapter for a book, The Trump Presidency, Journalism and Democracy, published by Routledge in Februrary. The latest reports are by pollster Stan Greenberg, on voters in suburban Macomb County, Michigan; the Post's Dan Balz, who reported from rural counties along and near the upper Mississippi River; and Salena Zito, who with Republican operative Brad Todd wrote The Great Revolt, a new book based on "10 counties they studied across the five states that tipped the election to Trump, as the Post's James Hohman describes it in the paper's "Daily 202."

Here's what Michael Martin of Erie, Pa., told the authors: “Live in a small or medium-sized town, and you would think we were dragging the country down. We aren’t a country just made up of large metropolitan areas. Our politics and our culture up until now has dictated that we are less than in the scale of importance and value.” That is reflected in much of the national news media, based mainly on the East Coast, and resentment of media portrayals is a big part of the attitudes of rural voters, who gave at least 62 percent of their votes to Trump, a record.

Zito and Todd note "a polarization between those who live in dense cosmopolitan communities with higher-than-average education levels and those who live in rural, exurban and industrial locales that, as a rule, have . . . lower-than-average education levels and less transience." Four of the 10 counties where they did interviews are rural; evangelical voters are represented largely by rural Howard County, Iowa, where Obama got 62 and 59 percent of the vote and Trump got 58.

Greenberg has long studied “Reagan Democrats” in Macomb County, "which Trump won by 12 points after Barack Obama carried it twice, including by 16 points in 2008," Hohmann notes. “Trump voters complain that there is no respect for President Trump or for people like them who voted for him,” Greenberg writes in a new memo summarizing his latest findings, with Nancy Zdunkewicz of Democracy Corps. “A healthy diet of Fox News is feeding the white working-class men fending off the challenges of Trump’s opponents, including those within their own families. They … feel vindicated that a businessman like Trump has produced a strong macro-economy and kept his promises on immigration. They continue to appreciate how he speaks his mind, unlike a typical politician.”

Balz's report was illustrated by the map above, which also shows how reliably Republican the overall rural vote has become. "One reason Balz’s piece is great is that it’s longitudinal: It tracks in a nuanced way how specific people’s attitudes about Trump have shifted gradually since he took office," Hohmann reports. "The best illustration is Kurt Glazier, 50, from Sterling, Ill.," population 15,000. Balz visited him four times. "He’s a state worker, a union member and chairman of the Republican Party in Whiteside County. . . . By midsummer of 2017, Glazier had growing concerns about Trump. . . .Near the first anniversary of the president taking office, Glazier worried especially that those who voted for Trump are now viewed by others as therefore being like Trump. . . . Glazier drew a distinction between the staunchest Trump supporters and other Republicans – like him."

Glazier told Balz, “I think the real party faithful, the educated voters, might be beginning to distance themselves from him, and I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a Republican challenger or challengers against Trump. They wanted so much of a change. But he has some changing to do himself before I would be supportive of him again. … A 71-year-old man like he is, I don’t foresee him changing a whole lot.”

Searching public notices nets this reporter big stories

Jim Lockwood

Public notices may seem dry, but they can provide leads to good stories. Jim Lockwood, a reporter at the Scranton Times-Tribune, has won numerous awards for stories he wrote after discovering their genesis in public notices, from estate sales, meeting notices and sheriff's sales of property confiscated in drug seizures. He began searching public notices and clipping out interesting ones as a young reporter in New Jersey, a practice he continues today.

"Reading public notices for story ideas is a skill Lockwood has acquired through years of practice. He can look at most notices and tell, at a glance, if they hold a key to unlocking a good story," Teri Saylor writes for the Public Notice Resource Center. "Lockwood’s sharp eyes and skilled follow-up have earned him several prestigious awards over the years, including PNRC’s Public Notice Journalism Award in 2015, and every public notice award in the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s annual journalism contest since that category was opened in 2014."

And this year he won first place in PNA's contest, and honorable mention in the PNRC competition, for his coverage of municipal issues discovered in the Times-Tribune's public notices. "The notices inspired extensive reporting on a variety of topics including the municipal budget, a delinquent-tax sale affecting 1,900 properties, local government plans to divert federal money allocated for a bridge repair to a variety of street paving projects, and one of his favorites — the sale of the local sewer authority to a water company," Saylor reports.

Some officials complain that public notices are too expensive, and are trying to get state legislatures to cut back on them. Lockwood notes that Scranton taxpayers benefited when the city was forced to publish a list of delinquent tax bills. The city had failed to published them for years, so the notice took up 10 pages. Because people don't like seeing their names in print for delinquent taxes, they're more likely to pay up, Lockwood said. That means fewer people owe delinquent taxes, the city has to spend less on publishing notices, and gets more revenue from back taxes. "It's a great return on their investment," Lockwood told Saylor.

Pulitzer prize winners include Charlottesville protest photo

(Daily Progress photo by Ryan Kelly)

The winners of 2018 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday, and several have rural resonance:

The staffs of the Arizona Republic and USA Today Network won the Explanatory Reporting prize for what the judges called "vivid and timely reporting that masterfully combined text, video, podcasts and virtual reality to examine, from multiple perspectives, the difficulties and unintended consequences of fulfilling President Trump's pledge to construct a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico," which would mostly be located in rural areas. Read more here.

Ryan Kelly of The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va., won in the Breaking News Photography category for a photo he took on his last day in the newsroom: "a chilling image that reflected his reflexes and concentration in capturing the moment a car struck protesters at a racially charged rally," the judges said. It was Kelly's last day at the paper, and he is no longer in journalism; read more here.

John Archibald of the Alabama Media Group (Birmingham, Montgomery and Huntsville newspapers owned by Newhouse) won the Commentary prize for "lyrical and courageous commentary that is rooted in Alabama but has a national resonance in scrutinizing corrupt politicians, championing the rights of women and calling out hypocrisy, the judges said.

Decline in local reporters hurts journalism, democracy and communities, say founders of nonprofit reporting project

The United States has a lot fewer local news reporters these days, and it's hurting not only the news media, but Americans and democracy, Steven Waldman and Charles Sennott write in an opinion piece for The Washington Post. The two co-founded Report for America, a nonprofit project announced last September aimed at putting 1,000 new reporters at local papers in the next five years.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. newspapers employed 183,000 people in 2016, 60 percent fewer than 456,300 recorded in 1990. About 100 newspapers have shuttered, and many more have reduced their coverage areas or forced fewer journalists to try to cover the same area. Some newspapers have attempted to compensate for the thinning coverage with snazzier websites and better tech, write Waldman and Sennott, but "the key solution is not technology. It’s having more reporters — a lot of them — on the scene."

Fewer reporters means citizens don't have the information they need to make decisions as citizens and hold institutions accountable. They have less information about local candidates, and less reporting has been correlated with lower voter turnout. News outlets have less horsepower to challenge elected officials, and increasingly print stories based on press releases — giving politicians more power to spin the narrative, Waldman and Sennott say.

Here's an angle you may not have considered: Fewer local reporters makes people less likely to trust journalists, Waldman and Sennott write: "Residents would be less likely to view 'the media' as arrogant, ideologically driven miscreants if they see real reporters at school board meetings until midnight, covering nitty-gritty stories of importance to them."

National news outlets can be biased and lack the nuance and background of local reporting, they say: "In 2014, almost 1 out of 5 U.S. reporters worked in New York, Washington or Los Angeles, compared with 1 in 8 in 2004," Waldman and Sennott write. "Isn’t it likely that this contributed to the media missing the two biggest stories of the past few years – the rise of the opioid epidemic in middle America and the political strength of Donald Trump?"

Waldman and Sennott argue that a nonprofit model that focuses on public service could help local reporting, but that will require nonprofits and philanthropy will need to play a bigger role in journalism: "Whether it’s Report for America or some other model, a sea change is required: Local donors — and the community as a whole — need to view journalism as essential as local libraries, museums and hospitals. It’s not complicated. We need more reporters — not for the sake of journalism but for the health of America’s democracy."

Publisher explains journalism for readers; all need to

"Over the last year or so the prevalence of 'fake news' has really shed a light on the importance of good journalism," writes Publisher Rob Galloway of the Tahoe Daily Tribune in California, who asks, "What is journalism in today's media and how does it differ from years past?" What follows is an excellent explainer that breaks down the fundamentals of journalism for readers.

Local journalism is a different animal than national journalism, Galloway writes. Some readers have included local journalists in their dislike of larger news media outlets, but local reporters approach their jobs "with the intent to bring attention to the most important stories that affect the local communities we serve and empower our readers with information to help them make informed decisions and stay on top of breaking events — not to provide a single-sided look at a specific issue," he explains.

News writers focus on covering issues thoroughly and fairly. Opinion pieces, often submitted by concerned members of the community, are no less important, but shouldn't be confused with hard news or the opinions of news reporters. "With so much of what's perceived as 'news' nowadays being user-generated submissions, it really boils down to being a responsible consumer," Galloway writes. "That means it's up to the reader to find a purveyor of news and information they can trust and help them make informed decisions. Which is maybe to say: it's your duty of being a good citizen and providing due diligence in being an invested member of your community and society."

Galloway encourages readers to give reporters news tips. That's important, because local journalists will tell the stories you won't usually find in nationwide news media outlets.

Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, publisher of The Rural Blog, praised Galloway's article: "I think every newspaper needs to publish articles like this from time to time, with a condensed version posted online and occasionally on the editorial page, to explain to readers how newspapers and journalism work, the difference in fact and opinion, and the difference in news media, which practice a discipline of verification (through journalism); social media, which have no discipline of verification; and strategic media, which are not as much about information as selling you a good, a service, an idea or a way of thinking."

Forum on news coverage of Appalachia to be held in Whitesburg, Ky., on Saturday from 11:30 to 2:30

Since national and international news media rediscovered Appalachia in the 1960s, residents of the region have complained about depictions of their region, and some have tried to build their own regional narrative. This weekend there will be a public conversation about such things.

Appalshop's WMMT-FM and nonprofit journalism magazine Scalawag are hosting a community discussion about news coverage of Appalachia from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31 at Appalshop in Whitesburg, Ky.

Organizers say participants will "share ideas and examples of ethical, accountable, community-led media projects in the region, discuss some less-ideal national coverage Central Appalachians are well acquainted with, and create a guide for journalists on what to do and what NOT to do when covering our mountain communities."

The forum will be followed by a screening of "Stranger with a Camera," a film by Appalshop's Elizabeth Barrett about a Canadian photographer who was murdered in near Whitesburg in 1967, and a question-and-answer session with author Elizabeth Catte about her new book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia.

Click here to learn more about the event and register for it.

Did nonwhite rural voters in 2016 vote more like rural voters or nonwhite voters? County-level graphs say the latter

Washington Post graphic; click on the image to enlarge it.

In an interview about his new book The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America, which we reported on, author Robert Wuthnow commented that rural America is about 10 percent nonwhite, and that percentage is increasing as more Hispanics and immigrants settled in rural areas.

That led Philip Bump pf The Washington Post to examine whether nonwhite rural residents tended to vote Republican, like most rural people, or Democratic, like most nonwhite people, in the 2016 presidential election. His reasoning, through which he guides us, is a fascinating feat of data wrangling. Click here to read more.

His conclusion? Nonwhite rural voters were far more likely to vote Democratic than Republican, as shown by the chart.

Journalists should become familiar with validity of polls before using them as sources

When relying on polls for stories—especially ones concerning the presidential election—journalists should validate the authenticity of the poll, Leighton Walter Kille reports for Journalist's Resource. "Polls are only as valid as their design, execution and analysis. The best polls are produced by independent, nonpartisan polling organizations, with no vested interest in the outcome of the findings," such as Gallup and the Pew Research Center and media groups such as CBS News/New York Times, ABC News/Washington Post and NBC News/Wall Street Journal. (Keith Bishop illustration)

"Many surveys are conducted by partisan actors—political consulting firms, industry groups and candidates," Kille writes. "In some cases, the findings are biased by factors such as respondent selection and question wording. Partisan-based polls need to be carefully scrutinized and, when possible, reported in comparison with nonpartisan poll results."

"It’s important to remember that polls are a snapshot of opinion at a point in time," Kille writes. "Despite 60 years of experience since Truman defied the polls and defeated Dewey in the 1948 presidential election, pollsters can still miss big: In the 2008 Democratic primary in New Hampshire, Barack Obama was pegged to win, but Hillary Clinton came out on top. A study in Public Opinion Quarterly found that 'polling problems in New Hampshire in 2008 were not the exception, but the rule.' In a fluid political environment, it is risky to assume that polls can predict the distribution of opinion even a short time later." For tips on polling concepts that journalists and students should be familiar with, click here.

Rural Tenn. reporter wins Public Notice Journalism Prize for investigative report on nursing home

Kenneth Little

Kenneth Little, staff writer for the daily Greeneville Sun in East Tennessee, won the 2016 Public Notice Journalism Prize for coverage of a Limsetone nursing home that saw its Medicare/ Medicaid coverage revoked by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Carol Pierce reports for the Public Notice Research Center that the story, published in December, "followed publication of an official newspaper notice by HHS in the Sun noting 'deficiencies' by the hospital. ... The public notice advised readers that Medicare/Medicaid coverage would cease as of Nov. 28, 2015."

Little will be presented the award March 17 by the Public Notice Resource Center at the National Newspaper Association’s Community Newspaper Leadership Summit in Washington.

"Bradley L. Thompson II, president of the Public Notice Resource Center, said judges found Little’s coverage compelling and important to readers," Pierce writes. "The story noted shortcomings of the John M. Reed Health and Rehabilitation Nursing home cited by HHS. Among them were a report from a housekeeper who said she had checked a patient’s vital signs one night because of a shortage of nursing staff, a failure to maintain antibiotics ordered by physicians, and failure to prevent pressure sores." To read the winning story click here.

Journalists should avoid false balance; fact vs. opinion skews Flint water crisis coverage

Tara Haelle

Journalists have a responsibility to report balanced stories, writes Tara Haelle, medical studies core topic leader for the Association of Health Care Journalists. "It is a journalist’s job to objectively and fairly represent the various perspectives on an issue, and it’s a journalist’s responsibility to report facts to represent an issue as accurately as possible."

A recent example of facts versus opinions affecting a story has been the ongoing crisis of high lead levels in water in Flint, Mich., she writes. While Gov. Rick Snyder has declared a state of emergency and Environmental Protection Agency studies have documented high levels of lead in water, Bill Ballenger, a well-known Republican political analyst, former state lawmaker and Flint resident, suggested on his radio show "that the crisis is an overreaction or even a hoax because his own blood levels don’t test high for lead. Subsequently, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said, 'Let’s wait and see what the facts show,' according to the Detroit Free Press."

"Ballenger and Patterson are entitled to think Flint’s water is just fine," Haelle writes. "They’re even entitled to say it, just as anyone can claim the Earth is flat, the moon landing didn’t happen, the sun circles the Earth and cavemen rode dinosaurs. But the facts reveal a real crisis that every other politician inside and outside Michigan is taking seriously. Writing about them with any bit of credibility is a case of classic false balance: using outliers’ voices to state opinions that contradict the facts simply to provide 'balance' to a story. Ballenger and Patterson aren’t the underdogs being ignored by the powers that be. They ARE the powers that be. The underdogs are the thousands of children who will suffer lifelong consequences of lead exposure."

"A balanced story would include an explanation of the lead levels and people affected by them," she writes. "It would include a full version of what facts the rest of the media is getting wrong, as this outstanding Vox piece by Flint resident Connor Coyne explains. Politicians claiming there isn’t a problem would, in a factually balanced story, be appropriately cast as ignoring (or covering up) repeated lead levels tests, as was the case in this excellent three-part series from Michigan Public Radio."

"Unfortunately, this phenomenon happens in health reporting, especially in stories about vaccines," she writes. "We see it mostly in smaller markets or in stories by general assignment reporters who are less familiar with the health or science beat. The way the media’s falsely balanced vaccine reporting damaged public health reporting (and consequently public health) is such a well-worn case study that the Columbia Journalism Review featured outstanding coverage of it in Curtis Brainard’s 'Sticking with the Truth.'”

"Avoiding false balance doesn’t mean journalists take off their skeptical hat in covering these issues—it’s worth exploring whether the Flint crisis is overblown or what a new study might suggest regarding a risk to a vaccine we haven’t seen before," she writes. "But they should only report scientifically outlier positions if solid evidence supports it, not just because someone is shouting it from their own tiny molehill." (Read more)

Free digital reporter's guide launched to assist journalists covering climate adaptation

To provide assistance and resources for journalists covering effects of climate change, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) this week launched the free digital Reporter’s Guide to Climate Adaptation, "featuring an extensive resource database and a series of backgrounders to help improve coverage of society’s preparation for the impacts of climate change," writes Jennifer Nelson for the institute.

RJI executive director Randy Picht told Nelston, “Climate adaptation is an emerging and important story not just for environmental reporters but for those covering business, politics, local news, even sports. We’ve created this guide so journalists can all find the information and sources they need to get up to speed on the topic.”

The guide includes "more than 200 key adaptation resources that reporters can quickly use to identify organizations and sources central to the adaptation story," writes Nelson. "Each resource features an overview of the source and detailed information on how journalists can use it. The resources are categorized by climate risk and policy response and can be sorted by location, timeliness and whether from government, academic, advocacy or media. The backgrounder also features several dozen suggested story angles for beats ranging from health and consumer to religion and military, as well as briefs on exemplary adaptation coverage by other news organizations."

"For journalists who are newer to the climate adaptation issue, the project provides an animated explainer and an extensive backgrounder covering the basics of the issue, such as definitions and infographics illustrating climate impacts," Nelson writes. To find the guide, click here.

For series, reporter travels 300 miles by canoe to get firsthand feel of impact of Ohio River tributary

The Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism has published a series on the challenges of the Licking River, a 303-mile tributary of the Ohio River in Northern and Eastern Kentucky and Central Ohio. For the series, reporter Andy Mead and a guide traveled the waters in an aluminum canoe to experience "the good, the bad, the ugly and the spectacular of a river that runs through nearly every culture, geography, economy, environment and society known to its home state. (Mead photo: The upper Licking River cuts a winding path through rocky, wooded terrains as it spills out of Eastern Kentucky on a 300-mile journey to the Ohio River)

"Along the way Mead talked to dozens of experts—from ecologists, scientists and environmentalists to historians, farmers and fisherman—and met dozens of real Kentuckians whose lives are entwined with the river," he reports.

While Mead saw plenty of wildlife, he writes, "We saw too much trash: motor oil bottles, hair spray cans, milk jugs, glass jars with lids (that made them buoyant), broken coolers, a motorcycle helmet, a soccer goal. The single most-common trashy item was the plastic soft drink bottle. Most of them probably had been tossed out of a car or truck window into a roadside ditch before being washed into a creek and then the river. There was a smaller but significant number of old refrigerators, washing machines and other discarded appliances. And tires, tires, tires. We should have kept a running count of tires."

The Licking River, which supports fishing and other tourist activities in Kentucky and Ohio, got its name "because the salty water left deposits that attracted animals as far back as when wooly mammoths and ground sloths roamed the land more than 10,000 years ago," Mead writes. "Marc Hult, a retired U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist who lives beside the Licking, said that’s because the river is fed by groundwater that was an ocean 450 million years ago."

"In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson sent Gen. William Clark to collect prehistoric animal bones from what now is Big Bone Lick State Park. The mission has been called the first paleontological expedition financed by the young government of the U.S.," Mead writes.

Journalist's Resource offers tips for investigative reporters covering nonprofits and charities

Journalist's Resource offers some tips for investigative reporters on how to tackle corruption in nonprofit organizations and charities. "Nonprofits are some of the nation’s largest, most powerful organizations such as hospitals, foundations, universities and churches. Like any other set of institutions, they are susceptible to corruption, waste and abuse," John Wihbey reports for Journalist's Resource.

"Journalists should know that nonprofit groups are subject to government rules that regulate the activities, finances and operations that justify their ongoing receipt of tax-exempt, '501(c)(3)' status—effectively, a government-endorsed subsidy," Wihbey writes. "Further, many nonprofits depend on donations from the public, giving them a special obligation to allocate these collective resources efficiently and effectively and uphold the public’s trust, especially when money is designated to help vulnerable populations."

"So, what’s a good starting point for such an investigation?" Wihbey asks. "Often accountability stories begin with and rely on shoe-leather reporting and interviews with former employees or whistle blowers. But when collecting background material for a story, a key document to review is a 'Form 990,' which nonprofits must file with the IRS every year. This record, which is publicly available, can provide a strong, factual basis for understanding an organization and its operations."

Wihbey offers some places for reporters to being their research:

• In August 2015, ProPublica updated its Nonprofit Explorer data to include filings through 2013. 
• The Foundation Center has a good database of 990s.
• GuideStar has long been a paid tool for many journalists seeking information on nonprofits.

"These public records provide crucial information about finances, assets, investments and expenditures," Wihbey writes. "The 990 form also will list an agency’s board members and the salaries of top employees. From schools to hospitals to religious institutions, it’s always worth checking out the internal details of organizations."

Community newspaper report gives readers an in-depth guide to understanding local tax rates

Wikipedia map/Hemphill County

The Canadian Record, located in North Texas oil country, has created an in-depth look at how Hemphill County's tax rates for 2015-16 are being created and how they could affect various aspects of the county. It's a great example of local reporting on a subject that might be confusing to many readers but is an important issue to all members of the community.

The Record's report, "It's Your Money," includes the school district's plans "to expand classroom space and its debate whether to proceed with a more ambitious and far-reaching construction project, in light of flagging oil prices and the resulting downturn in the oil and gas industry, which has fueled the Hemphill County economy for so many years," reports the Record.

The report also provides information about each of the five taxing entities fiscal plans, "boiling down the essential numbers that taxpayers need to understand and offering a snapshot of each entity’s budget priorities for the coming year," reports the Record.

Public meetings that begin next week will give residents the opportunity to comment on proposed tax rates, reports the Record. "These hearings are the culmination of a process that began when elected representatives of each taxing unit began reviewing their budgets and considering the expenditures that will need to be made in the next year."

"After receiving notices of certified property values from the Hemphill County Appraisal District office earlier this summer, each entity took the first step toward adopting a tax rate, by calculating and publishing its effective and rollback tax rates and setting dates for public hearings," reports the Record. "The effective tax rate (ETR) is a calculated rate that would provide the taxing unit with about the same amount of revenue it received the year before. When property values rise, the ETR falls, and vice versa."

"Each entity also established its rollback rate—a calculated maximum rate they are allowed by law to set, without voter approval," reports the Record. "The rollback rate provides the taxing unit with approximately the same amount of tax revenue it spent the previous year for day-to-day operations, plus an extra 8 percent increase to maintain those operations and to pay any debt. If an entity adopts a tax rate higher than the rollback rate, voters in the taxing unit can circulate a petition calling for an election to limit the size of the tax increase." (Read more)

Society of Professional Journalists announces winners of Sigma Delta Chi Awards

The winners of the Society of Professional Journalists' 2014 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in journalism have been announced and feature plenty of stories by rural journalists or about ideas important to rural communities.

Newspaper/Wire Service

Winner for Deadline Reporting for non-daily publication went to Ann McCreary and Marcy Stamper of the Methow Valley News for their story about firestorms that raged through the Methow Valley in Northern Washington.

Reuters won for Non-Deadly Reporting for daily circulations of 100,001 or more for its series called "Water's Edge" by Ryan McNeill, Deborah J. Nelson, Duff Wilson, Alister Doyle and Bill Tarrant. The series looked at an increase in flooding on the coastline.

Mary Beth Pfeiffer of the Poughkeepsie Journal won for Non-Deadline Reporting for daily circulation 1-50,000 for "Killers & Pain" about painkiller abuse. Also writing about drug abuse, Jeffrey Gerritt of The Blade won for Editorial Writing for daily circulation of 1-100,000, non-daily, for "Prescription: Addiction."

Winner in Investigative Reporting for non-daily publication was The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa., for "Pensions in Peril" by Terrie Morgan-Besecker.

Sam Venable of the Knoxville News Sentinel won for Feature Reporting for daily circulations of 50,001 to 100,000 for "Fragments of Hate," a story about an integration pioneer who was shot in East Tennessee just days after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.

The Alaska Dispatch News won for Public Service Journalism for daily circulation 50,001 to 100,000 for its series "State of Intoxication: FASD" by Marc Lester, Kyle Hopkins, Patrick Dougherty, Pam Dunlap-Shohl and Anne Raup.

Public Service  Journalism for daily circulation 1-50,000 went to the staff of The Clarion-Ledger for its series "Hard Look at Hard Time," looking at incarceration in Mississippi.

Ashley Powers of The California Sunday Magazine won for Magazine Writing for regional/local circulation for "Their Town," which is about Mormon fundamentalists living on the border of Utah and Arizona.

Consumer Reports won for Public Service in Magazine Journalism for national circulation for “The High Cost of Cheap Chicken” by Christie Aschwanden, Ellen Kunes and Urvashi Rangan.

Radio

Maine Public Broadcasting Network won for Breaking News Reporting in 1-100 market or network syndication for its series “Ebola Healthworker Defies Quarantine,” by Patty Wight, Susan Sharon and Mal Leary.

Breaking News Reporting for 101+ market went to Sandy Hausman, Hawes Spencer and Connie Stevens of WVTF Public Radio at Virginia Tech University for “The Disappearance of Hannah Graham" about the missing University of Virginia student.

Sean Sandefur of KMUW 89.1 in Wichita won for Investigative Reporting in 101+ market for “Dangerous Chemical Invades West Wichita Drinking Water” about private water wells contaminated with chemicals.

Grace Hood, of KUNC-FM in Northern Colorado, won in Feature Reporting in 101+ market for “Finding Soldierstone” about a hidden war memorial in a remote part of the Rio Grande National Forest.

Winner of Documentaries in 101+ market was KBIA 91.3 at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., for “Heartland, Missouri” by Abigail Keel, Ryan Famuliner, Janet Saidi and Casey Morell.

Television

For Breaking News Coverage in small markets KRGV-TV in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, won for “Gun Battle in La Joya, Texas” by staff and Jenny Martinez.

WVUE-TV in  New Orleans for Documentaries, small market for “Holding Officials Accountable” by Lee Zurik, Tom Wright, Jon Turnipseed and Greg Phillips.

Public Service in Television Journalism for small market went to WLTX-TV in Columbia, S.C., for “SCDSS: The System Failed” by Clark Fouraker, Jennifer Bellamy, Darci Strickland and Marybeth Jacoby about the death of a child.

Kate Snow of NBC News won Public Service in Television Journalism for network, syndication or program service for “Hooked: America's Heroin Epidemic.”

Online reporting

Stephen Rynkiewicz, David Craig and Casey Bukro of Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists won for online column writing by an independent source.