Brown tap water and an ongoing boil order highlights water systems under stress in rural towns

Brown water from a Tallulah residential tap.
(Photo by Donald Wood via WWNO)

In Tallulah, Louisiana and Cotton Plant, Arkansas, there's plenty of drinking water, but it runs brown from residential faucets and leaves stains on most things it touches.

Both small towns have sunk into debt paying for repairs to their aging water infrastructure. Despite those efforts, most Tallulah and Cotton Plant residents still face brown water in their taps, report Elise Plunk, Lucas Dufalla and Phillip Powell for New Orleans Public Radio, WWNO.

The water problems in both towns aren't isolated issues. Of the more than 45,000 community water systems that serve 10,000 people or less, "more than a third fell out of compliance with federal water standards sometime in the 12-month period that ended last September," WWNO reports. "For many of the 66 million Americans who live in rural places, [those systems] are the main source of water."

Tallulah used to be a vibrant town, but over time, its population dwindled, shrinking municipal tax revenue needed to repair aging water systems. Tallulah owned its water system and used its income to cover the rest of the town's needs, rather than investing in water system upgrades and repairs.

Some Tallulah residents purchased expensive filtering equipment, but even that hasn't been a full solution because the poor water quality breaks the filters.

Cotton Plant, Arkansas, residents have been dealing with "a boil order since last year, with little hope of securing the funds needed to fix an aging water system that is drowning in debt," Plunk writes. "The town’s water struggles started in 2023 and worsened in 2025, after a break in one of the main water lines sent discolored water rushing through residents’ taps."

Cotton Plant was a bustling agricultural town with 1,800 residents at its peak in 1950. According to WWNO, the town's water system is now too large and too expensive to be maintained by Cotton Plant's ever-shrinking population, which hovers at 530 people. Without tax revenue to address water system needs, the town borrowed money from the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and the USDA. Cotton Plant's water is still undrinkable.

This story was produced by the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri, in partnership with Report for America.

Opinion: Rural communities need younger residents to become leaders, but some changes may have to come first

Calendars and contact information
can be shared multiple ways.

Older Americans often dominate positions in local government and social circles that influence a rural area's civic activism. While it benefits the "Old Guard" to remain active, their resistance to inviting a younger, more "techy" cohort of residents into their ranks has led to a decline in community engagement and volunteerism, writes Donna Kallner in her opinion piece for The Daily Yonder. 

"Rural communities need younger people to step up into leadership roles in local government, volunteer organizations, churches, schools, and families," Kallner explains. "But too often those younger people run up against ways of doing things. . . .The Old Guard in the other group shuts down any idea or strategy that isn’t a legacy from the 20th century. . . . And then people moan about how you can’t get anyone to volunteer, or run for office, or call to engage."

Kallner encourages more senior members of rural communities to develop relationships with younger residents that welcome, respect, and promote their voices and contributions -- even if that means changing the way things "have always been done" and using some technology to lighten everyone's loads. A few of her lightly edited suggestions are shared below.

Respect everyone's time. Show up on time, knowing what needs to be accomplished and get to it. That’s baseline respect for people who, in order to be there, have made child care arrangements, rushed from work with maybe a bun-and-run for supper, and still have to clear snow from their driveways when they get home. 

Be open to using technology. Today’s cell phones put remarkable tools in our pockets. Tools like calendar apps with a handy, customizable feature called Notifications that can give a heads up the evening before and/or day of an event or when a task needs to be done. Trying to be respectful of other people’s time? Set repeating alarms for monthly meetings to sound early enough to get there on time. 

Share contact information, courtesy and grace. A text group can alert a dozen people before they even leave home when a power outage or plumbing issue closes the coffee shop where you expected to meet. . . . Especially if you’re an event organizer, be sure to share and re-post your cell number. Remember to check your messages and voice mail so you can relay information to those unable to attend. 

Rural communities build 'resilience hubs' designed to prepare for emergencies through interdependence

Resilience Hub Collaborative map

Working to address immediate needs following a natural disaster or emergency event, several rural communities are building "resilience hubs as a model for a quick and reliable first line of defense and relief," reports Kim Kobersmith of The Daily Yonder.

"People are awakening to the fact that neighbors are the real first responders, and thinking ahead is vital," Kobersmith writes. "The hubs provide some level of preparation and support for residents in a disruption and beyond."

Every community hub is a little bit different, and "can range from a mobile solar energy source to a central building able to feed community members in a crisis to a community center offering year-round services," Kobersmith adds.

A spirit of community interdependence is at the heart of each hub, where community members commit to preparing for, rather than reacting to, emergencies. The action-focused nonprofit Resilience Hub Collaborative can help communities plan and build their hub.

Ki Baja, an experienced hub organizer with the collaborative, told Kobersmith, "Studies have shown for decades that connectivity, social cohesion, is the number one indicator for successful recovery from disruptions."

A town that stymied winery growth now owes more than $49 million to wine operators

Location of Old Mission Peninsula
in Michigan (Wikipedia map)

Long known for its cherry orchards and scenic bay, Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan, is a winery destination with a contentious history between winery owners and residents. "On one side: wineries seeking alternative revenue streams," reports Jim Barrett of The Wall Street Journal. "On the other: farmers and homeowners who fear rowdy weddings and brides gone wild will shatter their agricultural enclave."

Years of feuding over development restrictions ended in winery operators suing the town, and this summer "a federal judge in Kalamazoo ordered the tiny locale (pop. 6,000) to pay the wineries $49.3 million in lost revenue over zoning ordinances the court found unconstitutional and in violation of Michigan law," Barrett writes. 

While town leaders appealed the massive judgment, Town Supervisor Maura Sanders asked officials to consider selling parts of the town to raise funds. Barrett explains, "She wants to appraise properties like public parks (including two with beaches), a historic 1870 lighthouse and vacant lots for potential sale. She has floated ending maintenance of the local cemetery and closing the township hall."

Joseph Infante, a lawyer for the 11 winery owners, "called the talk of selling off local jewels 'a P.R. stunt to paint the wineries in a bad light,'" Barrett reports. "One frustrated resident summed up his opinion of town leaders on a roadside sign: '$49 MIL. RESIGN.'"

Bowers Harbor Vineyards in located on the Peninsula,
but it does not offer private events. (Bowers Harbor photo)

The ire began with town requirements that curtailed winery development. Residents and town officials worked to prevent winery growth by designing "intricate rules, including tying guest counts to grape purchases and dictating which music genres could grace vineyards," Barrett explains. "Peninsula producers say myriad restrictions kept them from establishing the vibrant tourism they observed in other wine destinations."

Wine owners tired of rules and infighting filed suit in 2020. "As the lawsuit continued, the township repealed certain ordinances, and the wineries now hold more events without seeking government approval each time, though they remain cautious about larger activities," Barrett reports.

Some townspeople don't believe the winery owners will push to collect. "Some local leaders expressed confidence they would win on appeal — or that the wineries won’t actually force the town to pony up," Barrett writes. "The wine operators have said they could be flexible on the payout and are waiting for a sense of what the town’s insurers will pay before proceeding."

Analysis: Consumer utility bills may climb as data centers get special deals

Getty Images Plus image via The Conversation, CC

At a time when U.S. consumers are getting squeezed from all sides, the idea that average Americans may pay higher electric bills so mega-companies such as Google and Meta can get special discounts for their energy-guzzling data centers may sound unfair, but it could be true, write Ari Peskoe and Eliza Martin in their story for The Conversation.

"In our paper Extracting Profits from the Public, we explain how utilities are forcing regular ratepayers to pay for the discounts enjoyed by some of the nation’s largest companies," they write. “And [we] identify ways policymakers can limit the costs to the public."

While most utilities are sanctioned monopolies, their foundation lies in shared costs. "Splitting the utility’s costs among all consumers made perfect sense when population growth and economic development across the economy stimulated the need for new infrastructure," Peskoe and Martin write. "But today, in many utility service territories, most of the projected growth in electricity demand is due to new data centers.

When data centers are the impetus for a utility having to build more supporting infrastructure, the normal way power utilities pay for their expansion no longer works. They explain, "If state regulators allow utilities to follow the standard approach of splitting the costs of new infrastructure among all consumers, the public will end up paying to supply data centers with all that power."

A Meta data center in Louisiana provides a good example. "By our calculations, [the center will use] twice as much energy as the city of New Orleans," Peskoe and Martin add. "Entergy, the regional monopoly utility, is proposing to build more than $3 billion worth of new gas-fired power plants to meet the data center’s energy demand. … Entergy is proposing to include the costs in rates paid by all customers."

Instead of billing Meta $3 billion for its infrastructure needs, Entergy is working on a separate contract with Meta, with rates the general public won't see. Peskoe and Martin write, "Entergy has asked state regulators to keep key terms of the contract secret, and only a redacted version of its application is available online."

The fact that there are many secret deals isn't much of a secret; however, what's in the deals remains protected. "Our research, reviewing nearly 50 public utility commission proceedings about data centers’ power needs across 10 states, uncovered dozens of secretive contracts between utilities and data centers," Peskoe and Martin explain. "Unlike Louisiana, most states require utilities to submit to the public utility commission their one-off deals with data centers, but they allow utilities to conceal the pricing terms from the public."

Is anything being done to address the issue? "Many state legislatures are noticing these problems and working to figure out how to address them," they add. "Several recent bills would set new terms and conditions for future data center deals that could help protect the public from data center energy costs."

Marfa, Texas, may be small, but it has a big newspaper success story

Co-owner Max Kabat keeps the cafe stocked with Big Bend 
Sentinel newspapers. (CBS video clip)

Like many rural newspapers in towns off the beaten path, The Big Bend Sentinel didn't make a lot of money. But that didn't make it any less important. The paper had been serving up local news for tiny Marfa, Texas, in far west Presidio County, for nearly a century. 

When the Sentinel's owners decided to sell the paper, they were lucky and smart. "Maisie Crow and Max Kabat had moved to Marfa from New York City in 2016 in search of community," reports Janet Shamlian of CBS News. "Then, in 2019, the paper's owners approached them about buying it. They said they had never considered it before." Kabat told her, "A newspaper found us. We didn't go and search out to find the newspaper."

Crow had worked with local news outlets as a documentary filmmaker, and both she and Kabat knew how unforgiving the newspaper business could be. Shamlian reports, "The couple knew it would be tough to keep the paper afloat without another source of revenue. That's when they became unlikely restaurateurs."

Location of Presidio County, TX
(Wikipedia map)

The couple opened a cafe to add revenue to support their newspaper's bottom line. Crow openly admits that the coffee shop is the biggest money maker. She told Shamlian, "I don't think it would surprise anyone that the large majority of the revenue comes from the coffee shop, the restaurant, and the home goods that we sell."

When Crow and Kabat took over the Sentinel, it had four employees. It now has nearly 20. Shamlian adds, "It's one of Marfa's biggest employers."

Despite its small size, the town is a tourist location, which helps the business, but it's the local support that keeps the paper going. Presidio County Attorney Blair Park told CBS News, "The other news outlets [are] not really concerned about what's going on in Marfa. So if it wasn't for this newspaper, we wouldn't be seeing our local, community news anywhere."

A vodcast and story about The Big Bend Sentinel appears in Editor & Publisher. Watch it here.

Mass-shooting report aims to help police elsewhere; Uvalde still divided; editor has advice for community journalists

Uvalde County (Wikipedia map)

The Justice Department's Thursday report on the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, is designed to help avoid the mistakes police made, but seems unlikely to heal the divisions that remain in the town of 15,000 and same-named county of 25,000.

“They’re recomending stuff that we already knew,” but “In a lot of smaller towns like Uvalde, police chiefs have to be questioning, ‘What’s in this report?’ . . . Let’s make sure I don’t become that person,” said John Miller, CNN's law-enforcement analyst and former spokesman for the FBI and the New York Police Department.

Miller said a gunman's killing of 19 students and two teachers, and the physical injury of 17 others, was “an incident that was just too big in a place that was just too small.” He said the incdent commander, the school police chief, should have ceded authority to better-equipped agencies. The investigation was requested by then-Mayor Don McLaughlin, a Republican.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, in Uvalde, said “The report concludes that had law-enforcement agencies followed generally accepted practices in an active shooter situation and gone right after the shooter to stop him, lives would have been saved and people would have survived,” rather than letting 77 minutes elapse between their first arrival and their killing of the shooter.

The report was the fullest account yet of the tragedy, but some victims' families said it should have named more names. Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director, said on CNN that the purpose of such a "critical indicdent review is not to hold people accountable, but to make a complete statement of facts and say how law enforcement can learn from mistakes."

Victims' families continued to demand action from local District Attorney Christina Miller Busbee, who has said she would wait for the report before taking any action. But they said many of their neighbors want to move on and not "be known as the place with a mass shooting," said Brett Cross, who was a guardian of a child killed in the shooting. "Maybe these people will start taking us seriously." UPDATE, Jan. 19: Sources tell the Austin American-Statesman that a judge has empaneled a grand jury "to consider possible criminal charges against law-enforcement officers. . . . It is unclear what charges the grand jury seated in Uvalde County state district court might consider against the officers, but they possibly include child endangerment or injury to a child, the Statesman confirmed." As for civil suits, in Texas they must be filed within two years of the injury.

Cross told CNN that the Uvalde community remains “very divided,” noting that several officers remain in their positions, some of them elected. “They don’t want to believe that the people grew up with failed our children.” Adam Martinez, father of an injured survivor, told CNN, “If we don’t put pressure, nothing is going to happen. . . . It’s uncomfortable when you have to say people didn’t do their job. . . . You have to go against the grain, and more people have to do that.”

Pedro "Pete" Arredondo, the school police chief, lost his job. In November, "Lt. Mariano Pargas of Uvalde police, who was the acting police chief on the day of the shooting, resigned days before the City Council was set to discuss his termination. He had been placed on leave in July; he stepped down following a CNN report that showed he was told that “eight to nine” children were alive in the classrooms but he failed to coordinate action," the Texas Tribune reported. He was re-elected to the county commission. The Washington Post reported one year after the May 24, 2022, shooting, "The first state police officer disciplined after the massacre was given the option to resign and now works for a local sheriff’s office."

Jan. 21 front page; for a larger version, click on it, or right-click to download.

UPDATE, Jan. 20: The Uvalde Leader-News reports, "On Friday, Jan. 19, a dozen people were selected to serve on a special grand jury that is expected to spend at least six months studying the May 24, 2022, Robb school shooting investigation. About 300 people were summoned to appear at 9 a.m. in the 38th Judicial District Court, and 67 people appeared. Juror turnout has been an ongoing issue for the court. Judge Camile DuBose said in some cases, a mailed summons may fail to reach the intended juror, but some people simply choose not to show up. She said for those who fail to appear, she can summon them to a hearing, where a $100 fine may be imposed on those who have no valid excuse for their failure to appear. For those who don’t show for the hearing, the sheriff’s office may be asked to locate the person and summon them to court."

Julye Keeble of The Leader-News explores possible outcomes: "Police officers are largely difficult to prosecute for inaction, and the law does not require police to risk their lives to protect the public. Per a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, police officers do not have a constitutional duty to protect others from harm. Few cases against law enforcement for failure to act are presented, and those that are typically fail." Keeble notes the acquittal last year of a school resource officer on charges for failing to protect students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2018.

"An ongoing debate, particularly seen in the wake of the Robb shooting, is whether police have a moral imperative to take action sooner in mass casualty situations, which often see a delay before an attacker is confronted," Keeble writes. "Though medical findings have not been made public, families allege some of those who died after the attack might have lived if bleeding had been staunched and they received medical treatment. Several Uvalde Police officers who were on the scene within minutes charged forward toward the adjoined classrooms where the attacker was, but were repelled after he fired at them. Two officers were wounded by shrapnel, and though one tried again to move forward, no others would follow. Officers told others the attacker had an AR rifle, and the destructive power of the weapon was likely a factor in guiding police decisions."

Leader-News Publisher Craig Garnett asked Garland at the press conference about the quality of the police response, especially in light of the police response to the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in 2016. That comparison “is not entirely true, and the response was a failure,” said Hugh Clements Jr., director of the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, which prepared the report.

Garnett's advice to community journalists

For his work on the tragedy and its aftermath, and his first 22 years at the paper, Garnett won the 2023 Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism from the Institute for Rural Journalism at the University of Kentucky, publisher of The Rural Blog. He will receive the award Feb. 29 at the University of Texas-Austin, at a symposium, "Courage, Tenacity, Integrity and Innovation in Rural Journalism." For the audience at the Institute's Al Smith Awards Dinner in October, he had a video message for community journalists, published this week by The Daily Yonder. He said in part:

Craig Garnett

"One of the things we’ve taken away from May 24 is that we didn’t do enough before. We have a wall full of plaques from the South Texas Press Association, the Texas Press Association, but we didn’t do enough. We didn’t ask enough questions. We didn’t hold people running for elected office to account like we should have. We didn’t question people who wanted to run our institutions closely enough. What motivated them? What experience do they have? What would they do in a crisis?

"And we certainly didn’t hold our law enforcement to a high enough standard, the people who swore to protect us. So, we will work harder in the future to do that, to make sure that we know as much as we can about people who intend to lead our community, especially in the aftermath of a tragedy. We want to know how they’ll react. It’s not entirely possible. There are all kinds of things that pop up that you can’t plan for, but you can get a sense of where people’s souls lie and what their commitment is to your community.

"And that’s what I would advise to my fellow publishers in small towns. Pay attention. Pay attention to everything, to those people who run institutions, to the kid who’s slipping between the cracks, who might one day become the same school shooter we had. Be invested beyond what you are now, if that’s possible. I know most of you work your hearts out. But if there’s one thing we would like to do better, it would’ve been that."

Some Eastern Oregonians look to join Idaho, saying they have little in common with people in their current state

Map by Amanda Hernández, from Stateline research

Amid ongoing tensions and political disagreements, Eastern Oregon residents from 12 counties look to secede from Oregon and join Idaho. "At a meeting late last month, 25 people packed into a stuffy conference room in the Wallowa County Courthouse—35 miles west of the Idaho state line and 260 miles east of Portland—to hear county commissioners debate a single agenda item: leaving Oregon," reports Matt Vasilogambros of Stateline. Known as "The Greater Idaho movement," the idea to leave Oregon for Idaho had "sputtered along for years, gaining little traction. But then, the coronavirus hit in the spring of 2020."

Disagreements over Oregon's Covid management became the tinder that reignited the Greater Idaho movement. "Quarantines and remote learning inflamed residents' anger with the state government for shutting down schools and businesses," Vasilogambros explains. "This tension invigorated the effort to join Idaho, a state whose government reacted wholly differently to Covid than Oregon did. . . . Secession is a long shot that would require approval by Congress; so far, there have been ballot measures, and there has been a lot of talk. But the fact that the movement has gotten even this far illustrates the growing tear in the American fabric."

Greater Idaho has reached succession benchmarks other states, such as California and Illinois, have failed to meet. "If supporters here achieve their goal, it could mean a paradigm shift nationally, proponents say, inspiring more states to split along cultural and political lines," Vasilogambros writes. "County by county, Eastern Oregonians have voted on similar measures over the past three years, securing much of the large rural region for the secessionist movement. In June, Wallowa County became the 12th to pass a ballot initiative in support of joining Idaho."

Wallowa County is 6 hours, 55 minutes from
Oregon's capital in Salem. (Geology.com map)

"Stateline traveled more than 1,000 miles of Eastern Oregon, where supporters of the movement to join Idaho said they feel unheard by the decision-makers in Salem," Vasilogambros reports. "Would-be secessionists freely recognize that their communities represent less than a tenth of the state's population, but they also asked: Don't we matter? Their grievances are many: They dislike rules that restrict tree-cutting, protect coyotes and promote electric vehicles. They oppose transgender rights, classroom discussions of gender and race, and limits on guns. They detest the taxes and regulations they believe have devastated the region's economy. And they hate what became of Portland, a city many of them look back on with nostalgia."

For Eastern Oregonians, there's "a sense of desperation, as if all options have been exhausted and all that remains is joining Idaho," Vasilogambros reports. Mike McCarter, who leads the Greater Idaho movement, told Vasilogambros: "I have people come at me and say, 'Well, what can we do to change it?' It's gone too far over the top to change." Vasilogambros adds, "Whether they can succeed is another story."

With smart planning and community spirit, some rural places succeed in keeping their local grocery stores open

Royal Super Mart allows families stay in town to shop.
(Royal Super Mart courtesy photo via The Post)

Rural grocery stores have been closing because of fewer residents, larger competitors and labor shortages. And that leaves residents with longer drives for staples and another community gathering space shuttered. Some states and rural towns, such as South Dakota and Sheffield, Illinois, have saved their local grocery stores with collaboration, creativity and resourcefulness.

North Dakota’s Commerce Committee and legislature began studying the closing of its rural grocery stores in 2019. Their research revealed that “North Dakota lost 15% of its rural grocery stores in towns with fewer than 2,100 people between 2013 and 2019, reports Laura Simmons of High Plains Reader. The losses were “driven by declining populations, distribution costs. . . online sales and dollar stores, according to North Dakota Grocers Association President John Dyste. 'North Dakota is losing rural grocery stores at an alarming rate, causing consumers to travel greater distances to access healthy food choices such as fresh meat and produce. This especially affects the elderly and low-income members of these communities; they are in many cases left with few choices to purchase healthy foods.'”

Strategies to help alleviate these problems included "collaborative purchasing and a spoke-hub distribution system," Simmons explains. "Rural Access Distribution Cooperative implemented these ideas in Walsh County. Three grocery stores in Park River, Hoople and Edinburg order together through separate accounts from the same supplier. This supplier then drops off all the food at Jim’s Supervalu in Park River. RAD then transports Edinburg's and Hoople’s food to the correct store. This format helps increase volume, which decreases price."

Bata told Simmons, “The community has supported us overwhelmingly. I think that this is showing in the numbers. . . . Hoople Grocery saw a 23% increase in sales and Edinburg’s Market on Main saw a 16% increase in sales."

In Sheffield, Illinois, Royal Super Mart owner John Winger wanted to sell his store and retire, but he couldn't find a buyer, reports Sydney Page of The Washington Post. "Apart from his store, Royal Super Mart, the nearest full-service grocery store is 15 miles away from the tiny town of Sheffield, Ill., a farming village with a population of about 800 people." When Royal Super Mart opened in 1940, it was one of four local groceries in town.

Winger felt like closing the store would be abandoning his neighbors, especially residents without transportation. Page reports, "Then last summer, Elizabeth Pratt, who grew up in a nearby town and has lived in Sheffield for 12 years, approached Winger with an idea. She offered to raise money through her nonprofit, a local wellness center called Cornerstone Community Wellness, to buy the store, with the goal of transforming it into a sustainable social enterprise, which is a business that reinvests its profits into its mission. This would ensure people would not have to leave Sheffield to buy fresh food."

"In a matter of months, the community raised $500,000, which was enough for Cornerstone Community Wellness to purchase the property and overhaul the store. Roughly 125 individuals donated, and contributions ranged from $5 to $50,000. About 15 percent of donations came from grants and corporations," Page writes. "Sheffield residents who donated were aware of the role local grocery stores play in both community and economic development in areas such as Sheffield. They also saw how the loss of independent supermarkets hurt other small towns."

Preventing invasive plant species expense and harm starts with early detection; state governments can help

Japanese knotweed can grow 8 inches
a day. (Photo: Jack Ranney, U of Tenn.)

What can prevent the damage and expense that an invasive plant species can cause? Early detection and action. "By leveraging innovative detection and monitoring tools, state and local land managers can get ahead of the environmental and fiscal consequences of the aggressive spread of non-native plants," reports Kaitlyn Levinson of Route Fifty.

For example, "Japanese knotweed, an invasive plant commonly found in the Northeast . . . can damage highway and water infrastructure, according to a 2021 report from the Transportation Department. It can grow up to 8 inches per day and quickly block lines of sight at intersections and stop signs. When the plant's roots expand, they can weaken the integrity of or even cause fractures in road pavement and concrete on bridges. Stormwater and septic systems are also vulnerable."

Bromus tectorum or cheatgrass
(Wikipedia)

Cheatgrass is an invader spreading in the Great Basin. The grass is "notorious for being flammable, worsening the spread of fires," Levinson writes. "Nevada recently felt the fiery effects of cheatgrass when California's York Fire crossed state lines, burning more than 80,000 acres last week."

Knowledge of where non-native plants are growing or may return to grow is helpful. Bethany Bradley, a professor of biogeography and spatial ecology at the University of Massachusetts, told Levinson, "You can translate that [data] back onto a map of what the future climate conditions are likely to be, and that can give you a sense of [invasive species] risk right now, and what risk looks like 20 years, 50 years [or] 100 years, which, from a management perspective, can help with advanced planning."

Non-native phragmite in Utah
(Photo via Utah State University)

Utah is using plant management strategies to fight "an invasive reed called phragmite that has taken over the Utah Lake shoreline," Levinson explains. "Phragmites create a fire-prone landscape and often impede recreation and rescue efforts. . . .To better identify where treatment is needed and to track treatment progress, the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands uses geographic information systems to map the phragmite landscape. . . . . Last year, phragmite coverage was reduced by 74% with improved monitoring, herbicide treatments, revegetation and other efforts."

Levison reports, "The state is also exploring how drone imagery and artificial intelligence could be used to enhance the identification management of invasive species in wetland areas, FFSL Senior GIS Analyst Gabriel Svobodny said."

Digital rural newsroom helps fill gaps left by shorthanded local papers, allowing them to use its in-depth reporting

The Border Belt Independent covers Bladen, Columbus, Robeson and Scotland 
counties in southern North Carolina. (Illustration by Xandr Brown, The Daily Yonder)

Police took a drunk man to his girlfriend's home, he killed her, and no reporting ensued. Questions?

"Mandy Chardoudi's mother was murdered by her ex-boyfriend on November 17, 2018. Chardoudi was shocked to learn nearly four years later in a Robeson County courtroom that her mother's murderer had not made his own way to her mom's house. He had been delivered to her doorstep by an on-duty Lumberton police officer. . . . Bonnie Wathey had sent the tip to a local paper on behalf of her friend, Mandy Chardoudi, whose first inquiry to the paper had gotten no traction," reports Xandr Brown of The Daily Yonder. "Sometimes news outlets consciously avoid doing stories. But other times, it's a matter of being strapped for reporters and resources. Those gaps in coverage can be harder to fill in rural areas."

Sarah Nagem reported Mandy Chardoudi’s
story. (Courtesy photo via The Daily Yonder)

Wathey did get a response from "an independent newsroom that covers four southeastern counties of North Carolina," Brown reports. "The Border Belt Independent is a nonprofit news organization that publishes a weekly digital paper with in-depth stories. Sarah Nagem, the editor of the publication, reported the story. The article went viral, circulating to news outlets statewide."

The Independent fills gaps that small, rural newspapers often don't have reporters to cover, Brown writes: "Publishing an in-depth story about the performance of local law enforcement shows why newsrooms like the Border Belt Independent are important. Nagem said that lack of local journalism capacity can be a big problem." She told Brown, "I think that, like other rural communities across America, we have elected leaders and county managers and town managers who have gotten away for a really long time with not talking to the media and not being very transparent. . . . That's one of the areas where we can help the most."

Border Belt Independent Publisher Les High

While traditional papers focus on day-to-day events, the Independent's award-winning publisher, Les High, sees it as "a dual service, providing information directly to the community and giving unique local content to the region's newspapers," Brown reports. Its four counties were once centers of the tobacco industry and textile manufacturing. . . . Today, the Border Belt Independent is helping cover the ways residents are redefining the area in positive ways — like reviving the counties' agricultural roots."

The partnership shows a dynamic shift in newspaper management. Penelope Abernathy, visiting jouirnalism professor at Northwestern University, told Brown, "In the old days, journalists on different publications competed with one another. We have lost so many journalists over the last 15 years, almost 60% of journalists. . . . Whether you're working on a digital startup site or on a traditional newspaper, a wise editor understands that the only way you're going to be able to cover what needs to be covered is to collaborate." Brown notes, "The Border Belt Independent allows local papers to republish its stories for free. It can do that because it has found other funding supporting its mission of serving rural communities." That's mainly from foundations.

TV critic says how we cover lies is the biggest media issue; Poynter writer says it's lack of resources to cover local news

Media writer Tom Jones speaks as TV critic Eric Deggans
listens Tuesday. (Poynter Institute photo by Mel Grau)

"How journalists cover lies is the most important issue in news media," the Poynter Institute headlines over a story about an event at its St. Petersburg, Fla., campus Tuesday. "More politicians are taking advantage of people’s willingness to believe based on gut rather than fact. Solutions for journalists are sparse."

The headlines were based on remarks by NPR TV critic Eric Deggans, who said “Donald Trump took that to the extremes and challenged how journalists cover someone. Typically, when someone is lying, journalists report that they’re lying and then they get embarrassed and stop doing it. That stopped happening.”

"Deggans cited the challenges to fact-based truth as the No. 1 problem that journalists face today," Poynter's Ren LaForme reports. "Solutions are sparse. CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins attempted to fact-check Trump live during the network’s infamous town hall in May, only for Trump to steamroll her, leveraging the audience of supporters for momentum. 

“People think it’s a magic act, where you can fact-check someone the minute they say something,” but that’s not true, Deggans said.

LaForme writes, "As the 2024 presidential election cycle ramps up, news media aren’t doing themselves any favors by covering politics in the same broken ways they have in the past, Poynter senior media writer and event co-speaker Tom Jones said. . . . From his point of view, dwindling resources in local news is the most pernicious issue in news media."

“What’s going on at school boards? City councils? There are fewer and fewer reporters to cover them,” Jones said. “We’re trying to do the same things with a lot less. … These are hard-working journalists, but we can’t cover everything. And it affects each and every one of us.”

Weekly editors give Minnesota's Reed Anfinson top award; Oregon's Bagwell has top editorial; 11 other writers honored

Reed Anfinson

Reed Anfinson, a longtime leader in rural journalism and community newspapers, won the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors' top prize, the Eugene Cervi Award, at the group's annual conference in Reno, Nevada, Saturday night.

Steve Bagwell of The News-Register in McMinnville, Oregon, won ISWNE's Golden Quill for editorial writing; he and 11 other weekly editors were in the group's Golden Dozen for editorials. Those are detailed on The Rural Blog tomorrow.

The Cervi Award, named for the crusading editor of the old Rocky Mountain Journal, recognizes an editor who consistently acts with the conviction that “good journalism begets good government,” with consistently aggressive reporting of local government, and has had a career of outstanding public service through community journalism that adhered to the highest standards of the craft, with the deep reverence for the English language that was the hallmark of Cervi’s writing.

Anfinson is co-owner of the Swift County Monitor-News in Benson, Minn., The Stevens County Times in Morris, Minn.; and the Grant County Herald in Elbow Lake, Minn., and partner in a printing plant. After graduation from the University of Minnesota, he worked for the Minnesota House and a congressional campaign, returning to Benson as Monitor-News editor in 1978. In 1996, he bought his brother's half-interest and became sole owner. He and his wife, Shelly, purchased the Grant County Herald in 2014 and the Stevens County Times in 2019. He  served as president of the Minnesota Newspaper Association and the National Newspaper Association, the main lobby for rural newspapers, and is again on the NNA board. He won NNA's 2019 James O. Amos Award for a career of distinguished service and leadership to the community press and the newspaper’s community, the 2003 Al McIntosh Distinguished Service to Journalism Award, MPA's highest honor; and First Amendment awards from the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information and St. Cloud State University. He was vice president of the old Minnesota News Council and is research chair of the Minnesota Center for Rural Policy and Development, which does research on the challenges of rural Minnesota. He has served on local economic-development groups and continues to cover city, county, school and hospital meetings, as well as laying out pages and writing columns.

Anfinson was nominated by MPA Executive Director Lisa Hills, who wrote, "Reed exemplifies the best in journalism and serves as an inspiration to others. . . . He is recognized as a respected expert and spokesman for community journalism, often appearing on public television or being interviewed by reporters for stories regarding community newspapers [but] his main focus has always been, covering and informing readers about their local government bodies and community."

Former NNA president Robert Williams seconded: "Reed’s valor in standing up to the money and power that controls many small towns proves his commitment to the values so many journalists, like Eugene Cervi, stood for. I know of no other editor who better deserves an award representing the worthwhile goals Mr. Cervi sought to achieve. Our nation would be in far better shape if every community could be so fortunate to have an editor with the wisdom, vision and ideals Reed Anfinson demonstrates through his newspaper every week."

Benson Mayor Jack Evenson wrote that Anfinson "upholds journalistic excellence" and "strives to ensure that this area engages in fact-based, researched debate rather than what is popular or learned through hearsay. . . . The effort he puts into every issue is evidenced through the sheer number of stories and their high quality when compared to other small-town papers."

Anfinson clearly has done a good job of helping local officials understand the role of a community paper. He recalls how longtime city manager Rob Wolfington, now retired, concluded a list of introductions at a City Council meeting, looking across four rows of empty chairs at him and saying, "And the newspaper, representing the people of Benson."

News-media roundup: Canada passes tech-news bill; fact-checking levels off; young people forsake news websites . . .

The Parliament of Canada has passed a bill to "require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms," The Associated Press reports. The Senate approved Bill C-18 "amid a standoff between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government and Silicon Valley tech giants," AP reports. "Meta confirmed Thursday that it plans to comply with the bill by ending news availability on Facebook and Instagram for its Canadian users, as it had previously suggested. Meta would not offer details about the timeline for that move, but said it will pull local news from its site before the Online News Act takes effect," six months after it is signed by the governor-general, Canada's head of state.

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"Fact-checking’s growth seems to have leveled off," reports the Duke Reporters' Lab.  Mark Stencel, Erica Ryan and Joel Luther counted 417 fact-checking news outlets around the world, down from a peak of 424 in 2022.

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Young people are abandoning news websites in favor of social media and Tik Tok, reports Nic Newman of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The institute's report has "evidence that users of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat tend to pay more attention to celebrities and social media influencers than they do to journalists or media companies when it comes to news topics," Newman writes.

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The Augusta Press, an online news outlet, has won the 2023 Freedom of Information Award from the Georgia Press Association for pressing its case against the Richmond County sheriff, who won't communicate with it because he dislikes its opinion writer.

Are we paving the right roads? Tenn. weekly shows them

The top two-thirds of Page A8 in last week's Times
To enlarge any image, click on it.
To download an image, right-click on it.

It's the season for road work, and local governments all over the country are repaving roads and streets. Do we take for granted that they're making the best use of our money? The Hickman County Times of Centerville, Tenn., helped readers decide for themselves by publishing pictures of the roads that county officials had decided to repave. Editor-Publisher Brad Martin added in an email, "I thought it was a good space filler, and has helped get my new reporter further acclimated with where things are here." He put a color photo at the bottom of the front page to lead readers to the photos and story inside.

A tale of two towns and dollar stores: One blocked Dollar General, one allowed it on 3-2 vote; local merchants worry

Leelanau County is the pinkie finger
of Michigan's mitt. (Wikipedia map)

What does a dollar store add to a small community, or perhaps take from it? That can be a loaded question.

In Leelanau County, Michigan, in 2019, residents got the zoning board to shut out Dollar General Corp.'s plans to build in the county seat of Empire  because the chain's reputation and look did not "fit" with their quaint, small-town vibe, and it's now the only Michigan county without a dollar store, reports Rose White of MLive, a Michigan newspaper chain. “Chain dollar stores tend to target food deserts like Empire . . . providing a limited selection of food to city neighborhoods or rural areas,” White writes, citing a report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Sperling's Best Places map

The dollar-store drama is playing out differently in Ebony, Virginia,  where some residents did not welcome Dollar General because they worried the store would "open the door to additional development that will spoil the character of their tiny, rural community of about 230 people," reports Michael Corkery of The New York Times. But not all the residents thought the chain would harm their town. "Jerry Jones grew up in Ebony. . . . He went on to manage grocery stores and later owned a gas station in Ebon. . . . Jones owns the land where the Dollar General would be built. He said the store would provide the county’s residents a convenient and affordable place to shop while also generating sorely needed tax revenue." Jones told Corkery: “You still need to have that balance between the people with nicer things and the people who live paycheck to paycheck. To me, Dollar General fits right in with that.”

The two places have some similarities; one big difference is that Empire is a summer tourist town where "quaint feel" has a financial impact. "Ebony sits on the edge of Lake Gaston and is a haven for second homes that serve as an important tax base" in Brunswick County, which has a median household income of $49,600, about the same as Leelanau's, but well under Virginia's statewide figure of $80,600, Cockery reports. "More than half the county’s population is Black." Only one-fourth of 1 percent of Leelanau County's is.

Brunswick County supervisors, by a 3-2 vote, "approved a zoning change that would allow the store to be built," Cockery reports. "The dispute in Ebony, which has been going on for more than three years, is about planning and zoning, but it also touches on a deeper issue simmering in many parts of rural America, whether the disputes are about cellphone towers or snowmobile trails. What does 'country' mean to different people in a small community?" Cockery asks.

But Dollar General is not winning everywhere. "The number of communities that are defeating specific dollar-store proposals or are enacting ordinances that control dollar store development is shooting up rapidly,” Kennedy Smith, a senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, told White. Much of the opposition comes from local business owners like Mohamed Abouemara, who "moved to southern Virginia from New York to operate convenience stores and has run the Ebony General Store for nine years," Corkery reports. "He said his store, where locals can socialize and buy hot food, played an important role in a rural community. A dollar store, he said, would significantly hurt his business."

Alabama produces three Pulitzer Prizes, including two by a news outlet that's now online-only, and a book of history

The winner of the Fiction prize,
Appalachia's first since 1958

Two online-only publications covering Alabama and Mississippi, including the states' rural areas, were among Monday's winners of Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. In prizes for books, one on a rural Alabama county won the prize for History, and the Fiction prize went to Barbara Kingsolver's latest book based in rural Appalachia.

The top Pulitzer, for Public Service, went to The Associated Press for its coverage of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and the finalists were the Austin American Statesman for its coverage of the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and The Washington Post for its investigation of the fentanyl crisis. Perhaps indicating how close the Austin paper came to winning, the Uvalde shooting was mentioned among major news events in the script introducing the announcement of the prizes. 

The prize for Local Reporting was shared by two online-only publications: Mississippi Today, for Anna Wolfe's investigation that revealed how a governor steered millions of  "welfare dollars to benefit his family and friends, including NFL quarterback Brett Favre," and AL.com, for the series by John Archibald, Ashley Remkus, Ramsey Archibald (John's son) and Challen Stephens that revealed "how the police force in the town of Brookside preyed on residents to inflate revenue, coverage that prompted the resignation of the police chief, four new laws and a state audit," the announcement says.

AL.com is owned by the Newhouse family's Advance Publications, which stopped printing its newspapers in Birmigham, Mobile and Huntsville this year. It won another Pulitzer, for Commentary, Kyle Whitmire's  "measured and persuasive columns that document how Alabama's Confederate heritage still colors the present with racism and exclusion, told through tours of its first capital, its mansions and monuments – and through the history that has been omitted."

Barbour County (Wikipedia)

A book about a southeast Alabama county, Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power, by Jefferson Cowie of Vanderbilt University, won the History prize. The announcement said Barbour County, where George C. Wallace was born and raised, was "shaped by settler colonialism and slavery," and the book "illustrates the evolution of white supremacy by drawing powerful connections between anti-government and racist ideologies."

The Fiction prize was shared by Kingsolver for Demon Copperhead, "a masterful recasting of David Copperfield, narrated by an Appalachian boy whose wise, unwavering voice relates his encounters with poverty, addiction, institutional failures and moral collapse–and his efforts to conquer them," and Hernan Diaz for Trust, "a riveting novel set in a bygone America that explores family, wealth and ambition through linked narratives rendered in different literary styles, a complex examination of love and power in a country where capitalism is king." Kingsolver lives in southwest Virginia and grew up in Kentucky; her Fiction prize was the first to go to an Appalachian writer since James Agee of Knoxville won it for A Death in the Family in 1958, reports Lilly Knoepp of Blue Ridge Public Radio.

Race and ethnicity figured in other rural-oriented prizes. The Audio Reporting prize went to the staff of Gimlet Media, "notably Connie Walker, whose investigation into her father’s troubled past revealed a larger story of abuse of hundreds of Indigenous children at an Indian residential school in Canada, including other members of Walker’s extended family, a personal search for answers expertly blended with rigorous investigative reporting."

African American banjo and fiddle player Rhiannon Giddens, a native of North Carolina, and Michael Abels won the Music prize for "Omar," an opera "about enslaved people brought to North America from Muslim countries," the announcement says, adding that the work "respectfully represents African as well as African American traditions, expanding the language of the operatic form while conveying the humanity of those condemned to bondage." For the full list of prizes, click here.

Neighbors, heroes and leaders are helping southeastern Kentucky recover from last summer's record flooding

By Al Cross

Director and Professor, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

HAZARD, Ky. -- How does one of the nation's poorest rural regions recover from the most disastrous flooding some of its communities have ever seen? "Neighbors, heroes and leaders."

That answer was the three-legged theme sounded repeatedly by Peter Hille, chair of the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation, at its annual conference in Hazard Thursday and Friday -- exactly nine months after the flash floods left many in southeastern Kentucky wondering about their region's future.

The 35th annual East Kentucky Leadership Conference made clear that the disaster had created a greater sense of community among neighbors, some of whom responded by becoming heroes and leaders. Several were spotlighted in the annual East Kentucky Leadership Awards:

• Kate Clemons of Hazard, who didn't know anyone in Knott County but organized free-food distribution there immediately after the flood and is still running a food center in Hindman;
• Whitesburg firefighter Charles "Red" Colwell, who can't swim but rescued 14 people from deep, rushing floodwaters and is now chief of the department in the Letcher County seat;
• Nathan Day of Knott County, who rescued nine people and told Hazard's WYMT, “I just feel like if everyone would open their doors and open their hearts, this world would be a better place.” 
• Gwen Johnson of the Hemphill Community Center in Letcher County, a distribution site for supplies and place of refuge and healing space where people could gather to feel a sense of community;
• Donna Campbell and the Lost Creek Fire Department in Perry County, which rescued people and served as a distribution center for supplies, and is organizing rebuilding of homes;
• The Rousseau Volunteer Fire Department in Breathitt County, which rescued 15 people, including 12 in an attic, and has helped more than 4,000 families;
• Scott McReynolds and the Housing Development Alliance, which helped preserve 41 homes, repaired 31 and placed six families in new homes, and has applicaitons for 120 more.
• Gerry Roll and the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, which has raised more than $7.4 million for flood relief and has written more than 8,000 checks.

For each plaque handed out Thursday night, 10 to 20 more people or organizations deserve the same recognition, McReynolds told the crowd at Hazard Community and Technical College.

Roll, CEO of the foundation, said in accepting its award, "We're here for you. We are you, you are us. That's what community is."

This sign welcomed conferemce attendees.

The foundation and other philanthropies made major differences in the recovery, said Lynn Knight, an economic development consultant in Washington and New Orleans who has done much post-disaster work and attended the conference.

Knight also told the Institute for Rural Journalism that the region is fortunate to have several community development finance institutions, such as Hille's Mountain Association and the Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp., which can play a role in financing the recovery. The combination of CDFIs and philanthropy make the region unique, she said.

The disaster has helped some local governments and officials overcome political and geographic rivalries that have often impeded progress in the region

"The biggest success we've had is tearing down the walls" between local governments, said Perry County Judge-Executive Scott Alexander, quoting Hazard Mayor Donald "Happy" Mobelini as saying that "If something's good for the city, it's good for the county, and if something's good for the county, it's good for the city."

Alexander said Friday morning that should also apply to competition between counties for jobs. "There's nothing wrong with somebody living in Perry County and working in Knott County," he said. "So let's look at Appalachia as a whole. Let's tear those barriers down."

Much of the conference was devoted to the experiences, opinions and hopes of high-school students in the region, which will be the topic of future reports from the Institute for Rural Journalism.

The reporting is being done by Ivy Brashear in her role as the Institute's first David Hawpe Fellow in Appalachian Reporting, named for the late Louisville Courier Journal editor who was born in Pike County and was the newspaper's East Kentucky Bureau chief in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The fellowship is for students at the University of Kentucky, Hawpe's alma mater. Brashear, a native of Perry County, is a Ph.D. student in the UK College of Communication and Information. If you have story ideas for her, you may email her here.

Newspaper's publication of surreptitious recording of Okla. officials' racist, threatening remarks brings calls for ousters

Part of the latest front page of the McCurtain Gazette-News (Image from "The Rachel Maddow Show," MSNBC)

Bruce Willingham, publisher of the McCurtain Gazette-News in southeast Oklahoma, said he left a voice-activated recorder inside the county commissioners' meeting room March 6 because he suspected they were "continuing to conduct county business after the meeting had ended, in violation of the state's Open Meeting Act," The Associated Press reports. What the recorder picked up, and the newspaper's reporting of it, has created a firestorm.

"Oklahoma’s governor is seeking the resignation of four county officials after a newspaper’s audio recording apparently captured some of them complaining about two of the paper’s journalists and knowing hit men and where two holes are dug," AP's Sean Murphy reports. "It also appears to capture one of the four making racist comments about Black people."

Protesters called for the officials' resignations at Monday's county
commission meeting. (Photo: Christopher Bryan, Southwest Ledger)

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt called Sunday for the resignations of Sheriff Kevin Clardy, sheriff’s Capt. Alicia Manning, Commissioner Mark Jennings and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix. Idabel Mayor Craig Young and state Rep. Eddy Dempsey, who represents the county, echoed Stitt's call, and "More than 100 people gathered outside the McCurtain County Courthouse in Idabel on Monday, with many of them calling for the sheriff and other county officials to resign," AP reports.

In the newspaper's transcript of the recording, Clardy, Manning and Jennings appear to discuss Bruce Willingham and his son Chris, a reporter for the paper. Jennings tells the other officials, “I know where two deep holes are dug if you ever need them,” and Clardy responds, “I’ve got an excavator.” Jennings adds that knows “two or three hit men” in Louisiana who are “very quiet guys.” At another point, "Jennings also appears to complain about not being able to hang Black people, saying 'They got more rights than we got'," AP reports.

Dempsey told The Oklahoman, “Being from southeast Oklahoma, I don’t honestly think it was serious, but you still can’t take things like this lightly. You live in a glass bubble when you become a politician. I hope this gets resolved quickly. All my life we always say we don’t get enough recognition in southeast Oklahoma, but we don’t need this kind of recognition.”

AP reports, "Bruce Willingham said he believes the local officials were upset about 'stories we’ve run that cast the sheriff’s office in an unfavorable light,' including the death of Bobby Barrick, a Broken Bow, Okla., man who died at a hospital in March 2022 after McCurtain County deputies shot him with a stun gun. The newspaper has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office seeking body camera footage and other records connected to Barrick’s death."

Willingham told AP he has given his recordings to the FBI and the state attorney general, and has talked with federal investigators. Before that, "I talked on two different occasions to our attorneys to make sure I wasn't doing anything illegal," he said. Joey Senat, a journalism professor at Oklahoma State University, "said under Oklahoma law, the recording would be legal if it were obtained in a place where the officials being recorded did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy," AP reports. The Oklahoman reports, "The audio released online matches some of the quoted material in the story, but The Oklahoman has not yet independently verified who the speakers were in the recordings." AP said likewise. The sheriff's office says the recording was illegal. (UPDATE, May 18: Oklahoma Press Association Executive Vice President Mark Thomas said in The Oklahoma Publisher, “These public officials, including two of three county commissioners, were meeting in a public space. There is no expectation of privacy in a public space.  That’s why people are allowed to have video doorbells that show activity on a street, or dash cams in their car, or even pull out a camera and record things they see on the street.”)

Jonathan Edwards of The Washington Post reports that Willingham sued county commissioners, the sheriff’s office, Clardy and Manning in federal court, accuding them of slander. "His suit followed years of reporting on the sheriff’s department for the Gazette-News. In November 2021, the newspaper ran the first article in what would be an eight-part series about misconduct in the sheriff’s office, according to the lawsuit. Over the next five months, the newspaper exposed several instances of alleged misconduct in the sheriff’s office based on interviews with current and former employees, including homicide evidence that had been tainted, questionable hirings of employees with no previous law enforcement experience and an investigation into who in the sheriff’s office was leaking information, the suit says. In an effort to plug the leak, Clardy threatened to fire any of his employees who spoke with Willingham, and Manning told deputies she would get search warrants for their cellphones, it alleges." The suit claims Manning defamed Willingham "by telling someone that the reporter had traded marijuana for child pornography," Edwards reports, and insinuating that he had been convicted of having child pornography and sexually abusing a child.