Microgrant deadline extended for reporting on opioid settlement funds

Reporting on Addiction, a collaborative movement staffed by media professionals working to address addiction, is extending its deadline to apply for 2025 microgrants for journalists reporting on opioid settlement funds in Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey or New York.

June 20 is the new deadline. Apply here.

As billions in opioid settlement funds enter the U.S. economy, how that money will be spent is unclear. Especially for individuals, families and communities touched by the opioid and fentanyl crisis, having journalists who use their investigative skills to follow who spends the money and on what is of vital importance. Watchdog reporters are needed as a primary, trustworthy source for people who want to hold public officials accountable for how these funds are used to address the addiction crisis.

To support this vital journalistic effort, Open Society Foundations is partnering with Reporting on Addiction to offer four microgrants ($500–$1,000 each) for journalists reporting in Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey and New York to investigate how opioid settlement funds are being allocated and spent.

Grants will support long-term reporting that help your audience understand the opioid settlements and show them where and how funds are being spent. Priority will be given to submissions focused on:

• Spending (or a lack of spending) related to evidence-based prevention, addiction, harm reduction, treatment and/or recovery.
• Issues with waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement of opioid settlement funds.
• Incorporating the perspectives of impacted community members.
• Helping communities understand the spending decision-making process (or lack of process).

Story pitch requirements: Pitches can be for any platform, print, digital, radio, television, podcast, etc. Freelancer submissions are welcome, but must have a letter of support from a publisher.

Grant awardees will receive free training: Awardees must agree to attend two virtual Reporting on Addiction trainings, share their final story, and have a commitment from a newsroom editor to publish their reporting by Feb. 1, 2026. Freelancers should secure a publication commitment before applying and supply supporting documentation.

With FEMA grants canceled, local governments search for new funds -- and rural communities have few options

Graph by Connie Hanzhang Jin, from FEMA data compiled by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Sewage back-ups, wildfire threats or repeated flooding in residential areas are just a few of the complicated problems rural towns planned to fix with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, but that was before the Trump administration withdrew the support.

"Rural communities were awarded FEMA grants to fix long-standing infrastructure problems, and they expected funding to be delivered this year," report Lauren Sommer and Rebecca Hersher of NPR. "But last month, the Trump administration canceled their grants and hundreds of others, including ones that had already been promised but not yet paid out.

FEMA began the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC program, in 2020, during President Trump's first term. Since then, it has expanded to award about "$4.6 billion to communities across the U.S.," Sommer and Hersher explain. "The goal was to help local, state and tribal governments protect residents from future disasters. . . . Research shows that improving buildings and infrastructure before disasters happen can reduce the overall damage and cost when they hit."

The Trump administration said it cut BRIC to address wasteful, fraudulent spending, but rural towns that were relying on FEMA dollars don't see their grant money as unwise spending. Daniel Hoffert, village president for DePue, Illinois, which lost a grant to stop chronic flooding problems, told NPR, "I don't think they know what waste is. I don't think they know what fraud is. None of this, to me, is waste and fraud."

For many rural places, federal money is the "only source large enough to update the aging infrastructure that's vulnerable to increasingly intense disasters," Sommer and Hersher write. 

"In Kamiah, Idaho, deputy city clerk Mike Tornatore says he'd already told residents that the grant was on its way. With Kamiah having seen destructive wildfires in the past, its BRIC grant focused on fire protection," NPR reports. "He's also hoping to get a meeting with Trump about the impact of what the administration has canceled." 

Federal plan to provide internet access to more rural areas might include satellite service, which has fans and critics

A new bill would allow satellite internet in rural
areas. (Adobe Stock photo)

Despite bipartisan congressional support for all Americans to have access to speedy internet, discussions on how to get the job done have fallen along party lines, with many Republicans bemoaning the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program as too slow and overly attached to using fiber technology. "New legislation looks to address those complaints," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. "The legislation would amend the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and loosen several requirements."

Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican, "introduced the Streamlining Program Efficiency and Expanding Deployment for BEAD Act, known as the SPEED for BEAD Act," Teale explains. The bill "would clarify that any technology, including satellite internet, can be used to help close the digital divide, and would eliminate what Hudson called 'burdensome' regulations."

While several trade groups "expressed their support for the bill. . . . not [everyone is] convinced that changing BEAD at this stage is the right course of action," Teale reports. "With every state and territory having had their deployment plans approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and several states ready to distribute grant funding and deploy infrastructure, some warned that a change now could delay the program further."

Others insist that spending federal dollars on satellite internet will enrich satellite owners while providing only sub-standard internet access. When Evan Feinman, who had directed BEAD for the past three years, quit, he sent "a blistering email to his former colleagues on his way out the door warning that the Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich Elon Musk’s satellite internet company with money for rural broadband," reports John Hendel of Politico.

Feinman’s "lengthy email, totaling more than 1,100 words is a sign of deep discomfort about the changes underway that will likely transform BEAD," Hendel writes. Feinman warned, "'Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington.'"

Two years after passage of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, billions of dollars remain available for projects

Brookings Institution graph

Roughly two years ago, the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was signed into law. The bill included $550 billion in new spending through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This month, the IIJA is about 40% complete, and the time is ripe to take "stock" of what the bill has achieved so far, reports Adie Tomer for the Brookings Institution. "Based on our analysis of published White House data, IIJA implementation is now hitting its stride. Formula and direct federal spending continue to move at a steady pace, already pumping $306 billion into state coffers and direct investment projects."

Grantmaking is a large chunk of the act, which is "steadily increasing, with 80% of all competitive funding still left to be awarded," Tomer explains. "Overall, state and local stakeholders should feel motivated to keep pursuing federally funded projects. . . . Eligible entities of all sizes can find programs that fit their needs and capacities. Yet, with high inflation and interest rates, infrastructure builders must be careful to prioritize projects that can deliver the most value in the long run. There's more money than usual, but it's far from infinite."

The need for construction and skilled labor is expected to increase as grant money materializes into projects. "Construction of IIJA-funded projects will last well beyond 2026, when the legislation expires, and Inflation Reduction Act tax credits will support energy-related projects for another nine years. America needs to get serious about growing and diversifying the infrastructure talent pipeline because time is running out," Tomer reports.

Over the next two years, federal awards will continue, and "federal agency staff will continue to accelerate their administration of competitively awarded programs," Tomer adds. "And there will be plenty of more awards to build passenger rail corridors, make streets safer, address sewer overflow, manage orphaned oil wells, and grow digital equity. The sheer volume of opportunities will test applicants' capacities to win federal awards."

Efforts to help rural communities obtain grants for climate change didn't help much; awards skewed urban and coastal

Despite the Biden administration's focus on grant access for rural communities, many areas still struggled to apply for or win government funding, according to a new analysis, reports Claire Carlson of The Daily Yonder. "Most of the funding in a recent round of climate-change grantmaking went to high-capacity communities located in coastal states, according to a report by the nonprofit Headwaters Economics. Less than a fifth of the grants went to 'low-capacity' communities, which tend to be rural, according to Kristin Smith, author of the study."

Smaller community governments often have staff members doing multiple roles, and funding additional people to apply for grants isn't financially doable, so their capacity to find, research and apply for federal money can be severely hampered. Looking at the most recent round of grants made through FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, "Smith said low-capacity communities that did not fare well in the competition lack the staff and expertise necessary to create competitive proposals for federal grant programs," Carlson writes. "Match requirements, which is money awardees must contribute themselves to a grant-funded project, can also be a barrier for rural communities with small budgets or less access to philanthropic funding, according to Smith."

A  rural-urban disparity "played out in this year's BRIC funding, which is paid through an apportionment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund: Only 3% of the counties that received grants are low-capacity, as defined by Headwaters Economics' Rural Capacity Index," Carlson reports. "High-capacity counties – which have the staff, resources, and expertise to apply for and win federal grants – were chosen 83% of the time. . . . FEMA is aware of these findings. A FEMA spokesperson said that the agency is 'currently in the process of reviewing the findings in the Headwaters Economics article and is open to engaging.'"

BRIC funding differs from many other federal programs, which could be particularly important for rural areas. Carlson adds, "There is no expiration date for the BRIC program. It's funded through an earmarked 6% of estimated disaster expenses every year through FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, so even for the communities rejected funds, there is time to reapply. . . . Whether rural communities are prioritized in future funding awards remains to be seen." Smith told Carlson: "I do think FEMA is taking the issue seriously, and I also think there's a lot of work to do."

EPA spending $177 million to help communities advance environmental justice through help with grants, organizing

Environmental Protection Agency map shows regions
for EPA's new environmenal justice program.

The Environmental Protection Agency is spending $177 million to advance local environmental justice through a new program, the Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center. The money is being distributed through 17 regional centers that will get at least $10 million each.

"These centers will provide training and other assistance to build capacity for navigating federal grant application systems, writing strong grant proposals, and effectively managing grant funding," EPA says. "In addition, these centers will provide guidance on community engagement, meeting facilitation, and translation and interpretation services for limited English-speaking participants, thus removing barriers and improving accessibility for communities with environmental justice concerns."

The initative aims to "enhance leadership and organizational capabilities among individuals and communities, foster community decision-making and cooperative ventures, facilitate connections, and furnish research and information that strengthens community and economic development," says the University of Kentucky, one of eight universities that are part of the Southeast center, run by the nonprofit research institute Research Triangle International.

“Many communities in need tend to be places where there's a higher ratio of minority populations as well as higher levels of poverty,” said UK agricultural economics professor Alison Davis, executive director of the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, which will lead Kentucky’s involvement in the program.

Revitalizing rural Main Street means cultivating from within, seeking outside planning resources and 'shared vision'

Image from Main Street America

Picture a small-town Main Street with bustling local businesses. Shoppers line up at The Ugly Mug, a locally run coffee shop with attitude. . . . This scene could be the beginning of a town's revitalization dream. "A new program seeks to change the economic development narrative in rural and small-town Main Streets," Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder reports. "Main Street America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, recently announced the 10 organizations that were selected for the Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Rural Main Streets Program. Nine states and Puerto Rico were selected." Main Street America offers a self-guided training for communities that are looking at developing their plan.

While many smaller towns seek to bring in new businesses from the outside, "Matt Wagner, chief program officer for Main Street America, noted that research from a survey of nearly 2,500 small business owners in August 2020, showed that 70% of the small businesses were started by people that already lived in those communities," Eaton reports. Wagner told her, "They weren't recruited or asked to move a business there. . . . And this wasn't just for retail, restaurants and service businesses – 92% of small scale producers and 57% of businesses with more than 20 employees were started by locals. We need to cultivate the talent that already lives in our rural communities."

 

Wagner told Eaton, "Post this workshop, we will be working with each of our Main Street state coordinators to then select three rural Main Street communities that will be part of a more in-depth cohort group, each receiving in-community and virtual services, professional development opportunities and peer-to-peer learning exchanges." Eaton reports the group is "working with the Kauffman Foundation on the program, which will include a one-day workshop in each of the 10 participant areas. Those workshops will be open to any rural community to attend, Wagner said."

 

Breanne Durham, the Washington state Main Street director and one of the programs selected, told Eaton that sees a wide range of experiences in rural Main Street communities. She said, "Some communities that have been 'successfully revitalizing' their districts for years or decades now face challenges related to housing, affordability and over-tourism. . . Others struggle to find enough volunteers and funding to even start a Main Street initiative. . . . Some communities have populations that are growing rapidly while others are dwindling. . . . .The keys to success regardless of the challenges faced are having strong partnerships in place and a shared vision for the future of their unique community."

Citizens' Institute on Rural Design is seeking rural and tribal communities to apply for four local design workshops

A vacant building with a large parking lot was transformed into a community center for the arts
when the area partnered with CIRD. The space is shared with the local high school.

The Citizen’s Institute on Rural Design applications are now open until April 21, 2023! CIRD is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the Housing Assistance Council and design partner, To Be Done Studio. It will offer at least four Local Design Workshops that address the selected community’s specific rural design challenge, and a Design Learning Cohort program that will invite at least 15 rural communities to engage in peer learning and expert-led sessions online.

All rural and tribal communities of 50,000 people or less are eligible to apply for the CIRD opportunities. It encourages applications from nonprofits, tribal or municipal governments, regional planning and arts organizations, and other community partners. It says it hopes to hear from a variety of rural communities from a wide range of backgrounds, geographies, and capacities. Visit ruralhome.org for a full press release.

The Request for Applications contains further details about the program goals, eligibility, benefits, expectations, and a preview of all the application questions.

To learn more about the CIRD program and its application process, check out the recent CIRD Informational Webinar recording. Next month, CIRD staff will be hosting virtual office hours on April 11 from 12 to 5 p.m. ET (Zoom link here) to assist potential applicants.

To enlarge any image, click on it. 

Center for Community News gives $1,000 each to faculty, $6,000 to four schools working on local-news partnerships

The Center for Community News at the University of Vermont is funding "faculty champions" at 33 universities and colleges in 21 states who are starting and growing local-news partnerships.

Fifteen of the faculty members work at "minority-serving institutions where student populations are majority non-white," the center said in a news release. Thirty faculty are getting $1,000 each, and four schools are getting $6,000 each; Claflin University, Lane College, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University and North Carolina Agricultural & Technical University. Total funding is $54,000. The list of champions and programs is here.

“At the core of these local-news partnerships are innovative and creative faculty,” said Richard Watts, director of the center. “This program seeks to recognize them and support their work in connecting and creating more such partnerships.” Watts, who is a senior lecturer in the university's College of Arts and Sciences and the founder of its Community News Service, also said, “This is a time to engage our students and colleges in doing local reporting. Universities have a responsibility to lead and students want to do real things.”

The center is funded by a $200,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and matching funds from the university. Watts said the grants are funded by private donors.

Helping rural communities find federal money in the confusing mix of federal programs, newly expanded

Brookings Institution table identifies place-based industrial policy legislation
from the last Congress; eight of the 19 have a rural angle and are at the bottom
of the table, with the exception of the Regional Clean Energy Innovation program.

The 117th Congress put billions of dollars into grant and loan programs that can help rural communities, in what the Brookings Institution calls "Biden's big bet on place-based industrial policy." But many rural communities struggle to navigate the volume and details of the process, reports Ximena Bustillo of NPR: "There are more than 400 federal programs designed for rural communities. And there's a new influx of funding passed in the last Congress from the trillion-dollar infrastructure law and the climate incentives of the Inflation Reduction Act. The problem is: it's hard to know exactly where to start to go about getting the funding."

Mayor Laura Thomas of Jackson, Kentucky, is one example. "Thomas knows there are a lot of federal programs that could help her small town of recover from a series of recent disasters: two historic floods, a destructive ice storm and the pandemic. But like many small-town mayors, Thomas doesn't have grant writers or experienced staff to help sift through the programs." Kentucky has regional offices to help with that, but Thomas told Bustillo, "We just get a different kind of answer each time you ask. And then my fear is that I won't make the right decision."

To address these gaps, the federal government "created a pilot program called the Rural Partners Network, naming point people to serve as guides to federal funding in select portions of 10 states and Puerto Rico," Bustillo explains. Rachel Chambers, one of the community liaisons in Kentucky, told Bustillo, "I like to say that we're matchmakers when it comes to rural communities and our federal agencies that are at the table. We can help move projects forward, whether it's capacity building or technical assistance and different grant programs, or even if it's just making an introduction for a community."

"Having the additional staff on the ground makes a huge difference," Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Rural Development Xochitl Torres Small told Bustillo. "They can take the time to do the convening and the planning that's so crucial for pursuing a grant or a loan and having those plans that really make it a feasible project in the first place." Bustillo adds, "But the pilot program covers just a small fraction of rural areas in the country. . . . There are entire states that have no help at all."

Rural areas need consistent and ongoing attention. "Jim King, president of FAHE, a nonprofit organization working to develop rural Appalachia recalled Clinton-era empowerment zones and the Obama-era promise zones that sought to accomplish some of the same goals at the Rural Partners Network. . . . But none of the programs have had staying power, King said, noting the problems in rural America need a long-term view when most politicians are looking for 'shovel-ready' short-term fixes." King told Bustillo, "They have a short attention spans."

'Boot camp' for cities under 150,000 is aimed at helping them win infrastructure grants; second round starts in April

(Photo by Brandon Bell, Getty Images)

Smaller cities may doubt their chances of winning a fair portion of the $1.2 trillion authorized by the new infrastructure law, but there's a new program to help them compete. "The National League of Cities, with support of philanthropic backers, is trying to change that dynamic and give smaller cities a better shot at winning federal dollars," reports Bill Lucia of Route Fifty. "The group is running a series grant application 'boot camps' for 30 different infrastructure law programs. The new initiative, open to cities with fewer than 150,000 residents, kicked off late last year, with a second round about to get underway later this month."

Robert Blaine, director of the league's Institute for Youth, Education and Families, told Lucia, “There are the usual suspects, the larger cities that have these federal grant-writing teams, that have historically been able to pull down these federal dollars. When you look at small to midsize cities, they just haven't been able to compete.”

Lucia explains: "Each boot camp is tied to a specific grant program in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. NLC chose the 30 it is focused on by considering factors like: Can cities apply for the money directly, rather than going through states or other entities? How much money is available? And does the program fund the types of projects that would produce significant results or improvements for communities?"

The boot camp training aids towns applying with a good 'fit' in mind. "A key component in the NLC program is a tool that the group has built to provide census tract level data for cities, providing insights into various issues, including disparities among residents and which neighborhoods are most underserved," Lucia writes. "Cities can use this information to help design their grant applications so that they are a good fit with the goals of the federal funding programs."

The census-tract data is combined with reaching out for expert help. "Blaine said that the No. 1 piece of feedback he’s heard from cities participating in the program is that having this data has been especially helpful. Having access to the finance curriculum that is part of the boot camps has also been valuable for participants," Lucia reports. "Blaine noted that cities can schedule 'office hours' with people who are experts in how local budgets need to be aligned with different agencies’ guidelines for grant proposals." 

Localities are urged to sign up. "The boot camps are free to cities, with Bloomberg Philanthropies and a number of other foundations and philanthropic organizations providing financial support for the initiative," Lucia notes. "The next round of boot camps will start in May and NLC expects recruiting for it to get underway around April. Cities interested in participating in the initiative can find more information here."

Dept. of Transportation issues 12 rural grants as Biden-Harris administration reaches for more rural voters

Traffic builds on West Reserve Drive in Kalispell, Mt.
(Photo by Casey Kreider, Daily Inter Lake)

In mid-December, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a dozen grants for rural communities, and "strategists within the Democratic Party say it’s one way the Biden-Harris administration is getting out a message to rural voters," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. "The grants were announced in a press release that touted how the 12 projects would improve and expand transportation infrastructure in rural communities across the United States."

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a news release, "Infrastructure investments haven’t always reached rural America, leaving far too many roads, bridges, and other parts of the transportation system across our country in disrepair. Today’s announcement is one of many ways this administration is delivering the investments that rural communities have gone without for far too long, modernizing transportation, creating economic opportunity, and making life better for millions of people.'"

One project is a Bureau of Indian Affairs improvement of South Dakota Route 7, Eaton reports: "In Todd County — which is completely within the borders of the Rosebud Indian Reservation – USDOT is investing $26.2 million in the reconstruction of approximately 24 miles of roadway stretching from US Route 18 to US Route 83."

In Kalispell, Montana, USDOT is "investing $25 million in pedestrian and road safety and economic mobility," Eaton notes. Bob Lombardi, who has worked for Democratic Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, told Eaton, “In Montana, they drive for a long distance for basketball games, football games between the Bobcats and Grizzlies. So people know how important it is, especially in rural areas. And just when we had a … cold snap, it was hugely important to make sure those roads were open not only for Montanans to shop but also for utility workers.”

Teresa Purcell, who was senior rural-engagement adviser for the Democratic Party during the recent midterm elections, told Eaton that "it’s important for the Biden-Harris administration to showcase the 'transformational investments in rural America' taking place." Purcell told Eaton that it's not as simple as announcing grants: “It’s also, how are we making sure that, frankly, the county commissioners and elected officials who are choosing not to apply for those grants are held accountable to turning away money that will actually help their communities thrive."

Some rural areas reject federal money, citing overreach of federal agency and government mistrust

Elko County (Wikipedia)

Elko County, Nevada, has not had a public health department for more than 15 years, but county commissioners rejected a $500,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "citing concerns about government overreach. Commissioners and members who opposed the grant said Elko didn’t need more public health resources or a health district or department. They said they were concerned about giving up local autonomy and growing bureaucracy. They also expressed mistrust of the CDC," reports Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez of Kaiser Health News.

Elko County wasn’t the only one who refused to pursue federal aid. "Experts say they were surprised and concerned to see the rare local or state leader, swayed by political partisanship, dismiss funding opportunities for historically limited public health systems," Rodriguez writes. "Officials in Idaho, Iowa, and New Hampshire rejected Covid relief money, their decisions often accompanied by political pronouncements about federal government overreach. . . . A survey of local governments in 15 states conducted by the National League of Cities found more than 200 small governments declined pandemic relief funds."

The Elko County commissioners received letters from health officials and pleas from residents at public meetings asking them to accept the federal money. "Other local leaders saw the need for increased public health resources amid the pandemic. The Elko City Council wrote a letter of support for the CDC grant the day before the commission rejected it," Rodriguez reports.

“Partisan politics has poisoned the well to a point that we’re willing to sacrifice the health of our citizens,” said Brian Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, a national nonprofit that advocates for public health policy. “Is the political grandstanding worth it?”

Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told Rodriguez, "Communities across the country have generally clamored for increased funding during the pandemic, which strained already underfunded and understaffed public health infrastructure. In recent months, I’d say, we’ve heard of a handful of health departments that either would not apply for or couldn’t accept … specific grants."

Polarization remains an obstacle, Castrucci told Rodriguez: "This has become a holy war, this has become a war of right and wrong. I don’t know how to get through that to a place where we are prioritizing the health of our nation.”

Rural Development gets $121 million for climate work; see what's going on in your state and how to apply for funds

The recently signed climate-and-tax bill has $121 million for the Agriculture Department to fight climate change; its Rural Development arm will use that to fund 289 projects in socially vulnerable rural communities in almost every state through grants and loans, according to a recent press release. 

The funds will be distributed through three programs designed to help rural people and businesses: Community Facilities Disaster Grants, Rural Energy for America Program — Renewable Energy Systems & Energy Efficiency Improvement Guaranteed Loans & Grants, and Rural Energy for America Program Energy Audits and Renewable Energy Development Grants. Click on each to see eligibility requirements and information on how to apply for funding.

The money will fund projects of all sizes. Arthur, for example, a community of 206 in Iowa, will get a $2,100 grant to install an early-warning storm siren. The University of Alabama will get $100,000 to help farmers, ranchers, and rural businesses improve operations with renewable energy. In Kentucky, Appharvest will get a $25 million loan to buy energy-efficient equipment for one of its hydroponic greenhouses.

USDA Rural Development has a spreadsheet listing every project that received grants, including the amount of the grant, the recipient, and what the money will be used for. See the list here.

Video of webinar on grants for newspapers is available free

Community newspaper consultant Kevin Slimp is offering, free of charge, a video of the webinar he conducted Thursday to a capacity crowd with Vicki Whiting, titled "Finding Government, Corporate, and Foundation Grants for Your Newspaper."

Slimp writes, "I found I was spending all my time this morning responding to requests and questions from yesterday's attendees, along with others who wished they could have attended the webinar. So I've decided to offer the recording of the session to anyone who requests it. . . . From the response we've received already, this information is going to help a lot of newspapers. Slimp said a Michigan publisher told him, "You given me renewed hope for my newspaper!" 

Get the free video by going to https://msb.press/grantvideo, and completing the short form. "We'll get the video link out to them shortly after hearing from them," Slimp says.`

Rural news outlets need help from colleges and universities and local funders, Center for Community News director says

"Leveraging resources from colleges and universities" is one way that rural communities can sustain local journalism that supports local democracy, says the director of a new center that is trying to track down all available examples of such partnerships and help them be succesful.

Richard Watts

Richard Watts of the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont has been helping local newspapers for three years by training citizens to report for them. “More importantly, they're getting more young people involved in newspapers, and that value is inestimable,” Tim Calabro, editor and publisher of The White River Valley Herald, a weekly in Randolph, Vt., told Buck Ryan, a University of Kentucky journalism professor.

Ryan's report for The Rural Blog includes a Q-and-A with Watts, beginning with the question about sustainability of rural journalism, which was the focus of the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America held by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes TRB.

In addition to help from academics and their students, Watts said rural news outlets also need to "diversify their revenue streams, train citizen reporters and encourage local ownership." Citing Watts's success at getting a $200,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Ryan asked him what he could share about building "profitable partnerships."

First, "Go where the money is in local foundations. and look for companies that have an interest in seeing local news continue," Watts said. He said an electric utility and the Vermont Humanities Council gave his Community News Service $10,000 each to cover energy and the arts, respectively. "They don’t tell us what to write, just to write more" on those topics, he said.

"An organization focused on Lake Champlain gave us funding to seed more stories about the lake region," Watts added. "Our biggest success, however, has come from individual donors who care about local news, democracy and involving young people. Together we have raised more than $200,000 in the last few years to support community news from individuals." For Ryan's full report, with details about from Watts about working with student and citizen journalists, go here.

Quick hits: Honeybees have feelings, too; $50 million in venture capital raised to bring more doctors to rural America

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 U.S. must embrace climate-smart agriculture, but some provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act meant to encourage such practices are off the mark, write an environmental studies professor and a Harvard Law School policy fellow. Read more here.

A company has raised $70 million in venture capital to bring more doctors to rural America. Read more here.

Aging farmers and ranchers are much more likely to die by suicide than their younger counterparts, a new study shows. A big part of that may be because they're less likely to talk about mental-health struggles. Read more here.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department have announced a new pilot program to help 11 underserved rural communities get proper wastewater sanitation. EPA and USDA will partner with state and tribal governments to help communities identify and pursue federal funding opportunities. The communities are in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, West Virginia, and on tribal lands. Read more here.

The Department of Health and Human Services will distribute more than $15 million in grants to help rural communities combat drug abuse and overdose deaths related to psychostimulants such as methamphetamines and cocaine. The rate of overdose deaths associated with psychostimulants is generally higher in rural areas. Read more here.

Scientific experiments indicate that bees are surprisingly intelligent and appear to have basic emotions, according to a new book. Read more here.

Speaking of: the critter commonly known as the Asian giant hornet or murder hornet (which eats honeybees) is getting a gentler name: the Northern giant hornet. The name change proposal to the Entomological Society of America cited the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic, and posited that "connecting a scary insect, already associated with murder and attempted eradication, to Asia, might stoke more anti-Asian sentiment," Oliver Whang reports for The New York Times.

EPA says PFAS, 'forever chemicals,' riskier than first thought and it will offer $1 billion to help address the problem

The Environmental Protection Agency warned Wednesday that widely used "forever chemicals" in drinking water are more dangerous than previously thought, and advised local governments to install water filters or at least warn residents of contamination, Dino Grandoni reports for The Washington Post. The advisories are non-binding, since the federal government doesn't currently regulate polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. However, EPA plans to propose mandatory standards for the two most common types of PFAS this fall. 

"Once finalized, water utilities will face penalties if they neglect to meet them. The advisories will remain in place until the rule comes out," Grandoni reports. "EPA also said Wednesday that it is offering $1 billion in grants to states and tribes through the bipartisan infrastructure law to address drinking-water contamination."

PFAs were invented in the 1940s and are used for nonstick cookware, flame-retardant equipment, water-repellent fabrics, fast-food wrappers and more. The chemicals have been linked to health risks for some time, but recent studies about the most common PFAS show that "lifetime exposure at staggeringly low levels of 0.004 and 0.02 parts per trillion, respectively, can compromise the immune and cardiovascular systems and are linked to decreased birth weights," Grandoni reports.

Donations and grants are playing a major role in sustaining local journalism in New Hampshire, its newspapers report

Lauren McKown, vice president of development for The GroundTruth
Project, home of Report for America, keynoted the event. (YouTube)

Philanthropy is playing a leading role in sustaining journalism in the Granite State, it was made clear this month at the New Hampshire News Philanthropy Summit at Saint Anselm College.

"Many news organizations are forging partnerships with community donors in order to sustain local journalism into the future and underwrite in-depth coverage of important issues facing our communities and the state," reports Roberta Baker of the Concord Monitor, which pays two its five reporters through donations. Her publisher, Steve Leone, vice president of Newspapers of New England, said at the summit, “I believe developing new ways to fund journalism will be key to ensuring its sustainability.”

Funding from grants and donors has enabled the Granite State News Collaborative, a collection of freelancers about 20 news outlets, to produce about 650 in-depth, investigative, solutions-focused stories since March 2020, said its director, Melanie Plenda. “Media outlets across the state that used to compete with each other for ads and eyeballs are now actually co-reporting and sharing articles with each other for distribution, all so that our communities have more of what they need.”

News outlets are getting grants with the help of The Loeb School, a Manchester-based non-profit dedicated to preserving freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Examples include the Monadnock Region Health Reporting Lab at the Keene Sentinel and “The Sunshine Project” and “Voices” at the Laconia Daily Sun. “A lot of us have built (grant funding) into our business model,” said Mike Cote, managing editor for news and business at the Manchester Union Leader, which has six reporters. “The hardest part is keeping the momentum going. A lot of people don’t realize how small our newsrooms have become.”

Terrence Williams

Sentinel CEO Terrence Williams said it’s important to have reporting address community needs and find funders with “unity of purpose.” Sentinel listening sessions identified problems with health-care access, costs and depth of care, sparking creation of the Health Lab and defining its coverage, he said. "The Sentinel recently hired a statehouse reporter through crowd funding," Baker reports. "Two more philanthropy-supported reporters are starting at the end of May." Williams will be among the speakers at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, to be telecast on You Tube June 3 and 4.

Journalists and funders said the pandemic and the divisive political climate boosted demand for trustworthy coverage, Baker reports from the May 12 event, which can be viewed here on YouTube.

USDA to invest $770 million to help rural businesses in 36 states with job training, technical assistance and more

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the USDA "is investing $770 million to help create new and better market opportunities for rural businesses and people in 36 states and Puerto Rico. The investments include $640 million for 122 projects to help people living in socially vulnerable communities," Successful Farming reports. "The funding will help a diverse rural America keep resources and wealth right at home through job training, business expansion and technical assistance. It will help companies hire more workers and reach new customers. It will open the door to new economic opportunities for communities and people who historically have lacked access to critical resources and financing. It will also help entrepreneurs and business cooperatives create jobs, grow businesses, and find new and better markets for the items they produce."

The funding will be routed through three programs: the Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program, the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Programs, and the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program. Here's the complete list. Projects receiving the funding are in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming and Puerto Rico.