Postal plant closures to resume, further slowing mail; rural newspapers worry about impact

Mail delivery is likely to get even slower soon as the U.S. Postal Service goes through with its plans to close dozens of regional mail-sorting centers, and that worried publishers of rural weekly newspapers that rely on the USPS not just for delivering papers, but also bills to subscribers and advertisers.

"The Postal Service plans to close 82 mail processing centers nationwide next year, starting on Jan. 10," Josh Hicks reports for The Washington Post. "USPS officials have said the consolidation plan will help the financially struggling agency save money and adjust to dwindling demand for first-class mail, one of its core services. But critics say the program will slow down delivery times and harm the agency’s brand. In October, the USPS inspector general released a report saying the Postal Service was leaving communities in the dark about the impacts of the changes. Auditors found incomplete impact studies for all of the 95 mail-processing facilities that are due to absorb operations from other centers. The Postal Service said it could not complete the statutorily required analyses because it had not yet finalized its new processing guidelines."

USPS has consolidated 350 processing plants since 2006 and has closed 143 in the last three years, Hicks reports, citing the service's annual report to Congress. "The next phase of consolidation will increase delivery times and eliminate overnight delivery for 'a large portion of First-Class Mail and periodicals,' according to the inspector general’s report."

Newspaper interests reached strongly to the news. The postmaster general "is mailing everyone in rural America a lump of coal this holiday season," wrote Dave Bordewyk, executive director of the South Dakota Newspaper Association., said in an email to members of the National Newspaper Association's Postal Committee.

"It appears we will be on our own in rural America in figuring out how to provide timely delivery of our newspapers – but then we have been dealing with that problem for some time. It will now get even worse," wrote Reed Anfinson, publisher of Minnesota's Swift County Monitor News and recent past president of the NNA.

In NNA's monthly newspaper, PubAux, a story headlined "Rural service declines as USPS builds urban strategy," Postal Committee Chairman Max Heath writes, "A second major problem is the “brain drain” within the U.S. Postal Service, as veterans with knowledge of mail acceptance and rules, especially Periodicals, a complex class, retire and people move up with much less knowledge and experience. Thirdly, there is a decline in customer service as postmasters and clerks with whom mailers, especially newspapers, have had a long-standing relationship, retire or move on. All too often, people are afraid to make a customer-friendly decision that they lack the experience to make, and their supervisors higher up are often equally untrained." Heath's column offers examples.

Reliable trend data on police shootings doesn't exist, but rural areas are part of the phenomenon

A recent rash of reports about shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers, including some in rural areas, "feels like a national tidal wave," Allen Breed reports for The Associated Press. "And yet, no firm statistics can say whether this spate of officer-involved deaths is a growing trend or simply a series of coincidences generating a deafening buzz in news reports and social media."

The FBI keeps data on police homicides, but relies on reporting by local law-enforcement agencies, and doesn't require information about race, age and circumstances, Breed notes in a story that focuses on the 2011 shooting by the only police officer in Eutawville, S.C., population 300 (Wikipedia map). Richard Combs had been charged with official misconduct for shooting Bernard Bailey, "who had come to the town hall to argue about a ticket his daughter had received," Breed reports.

Combs’ attorney, John O'Leary said prosecutor David Pascoe was taking advantage of national concerns to escalate the case, but the indictment was handed up the same day that a New York City grand jury declined to indict white officers in the videotaped choking death of African American Eric Garner, and "A letter dated Nov. 26, 2013, indicates O’Leary was informed of the prosecution’s intent to seek an indictment for murder," reported Richard Walker of the Orangeburg Times and Democrat.

Two other white police officers in South Carolina have been indicted in the last four months for killing unarmed black men, AP's Jeffrey Collins and Bruce Smith report.

Jenny Jarvie of the Los Angeles Times took a close look at the Eutawville case in a story published this week. "Nearly everyone knew Bailey, a 54-year-old father of five. He was the deacon of a Baptist church, his wife the elementary school librarian," she wrote in her second paragraph. "Throughout Eutawville, which is 36 percent black, there was shared relief at the former police chief's indictment. Yet . . . locals differed on whether race or bad policing was to blame."

The day after the indictment, Martha Rose Brown of the Orangeburg newspaper went to Eutawville and found likewise, but also wrote about a feeling that officials had said too little about the case. In an editorial, the paper said, "Based on the long history of the case and the questions surrounding just what happened that day, the state may have quite the task in convicting Combs of murder. Nonetheless, we do not believe that the solicitor is going forward with prosecution for political reasons any more than we believe Combs will have difficulty getting justice in a county with a majority-African-American population. . . . We believe the system will produce justice."

Agriculture, forestry and fishing is the industrial sector with the highest rate of workplace fatalities

The highest rate of fatal injuries in any U.S. industry sector is in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting. More than 100 children die on farms each year, but only about one in five of them are working. Those are some of the statistics on a fact sheet issued by the Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America. ASHCA says the annual cost of occupational injuries in agriculture is $8.3 billion in medical costs and lost productivity. Tractors are the leading cause of death and the typical cost of one overturned tractor is $1 million.

This is one part of the fact sheet. For a larger version, click on it. For the entire document, click here.

Effective safety programs can save $4 to $6 for every $1 invested, according to ASHCA, which says it is "a not-for-profit coalition of agribusinesses, producer organizations and safety professionals." Other facts on the sheet include: Although 87 percent of farms are operated by individuals or families, hired workers perform 60 percent of the work on U.S. farms, and 80 percent of those employees are foreign-born; and the world will need 70 percent more food by 2050 for the predicted 9.5 billion people. "Productive, efficient agriculture includes the preservation and well-being of agricultural workers at every level," ASHCA says.

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

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

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

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

Do you like The Rural Blog? Now is a good time to support its publisher with a donation

By Al Cross
Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

As you choose the tax-deductible contributions to make before the year ends, we urge you to consider The Rural Blog and its publisher, the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

For more than 10 years, The Rural Blog has been a daily digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, designed for rural journalists but also serving everyone in rural America. This is a unique service, made possible by the endowment of the institute at the University of Kentucky.

At last report our endowment was still under water, meaning that its market value was less than its contributed value. That's because most of the endowment's money was raised at a time the stock market was high. We are trying to get it above water to avoid possible reductions in earnings that support the work of the institute, which you can read about at www.RuralJournalism.org.

We don't expect to get big donations from a blog post, but we are certainly interested in discussing our work with people who might be interested in supporting it. Our offices are closed for the holidays, but you can reach me at 502-682-2848. Our office number is 859-257-3744.

If your gift is small but you want it to make an immediate impact, you can give to our operating fund, from which we pay some current expenses. Donate to that fund or to the endowment by clicking here. Go to the gift-designation box and select "Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues Endowed Fund for Excellence" to give to the endowment; for the operating account, choose "Other" and type in "IRJCI operating."

Thanks for your support, and happy new year!

Montana, West Virginia among states considering laws to fight methamphetamine production

State lawmakers in Montana will consider a bill to create a database for purchases of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine—ingredients used to make methamphetamine—while a task force in West Virginia is recommending for the second time that state lawmakers require a doctor's prescription to purchase cold medicines used to make meth.

Montana has already enacted rules limiting purchases of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine to nine grams over a 30-day period, but without a database, officials say it's impossible to stop smurfing—when people frequent multiple pharmacies to purchase large quantities, Scott Zoltan reports for KECI in Missoula. Senate Bill 48, which has the support of the Montana Department of Justice, would connect the state to NPLEx, a system already used in 25 states to track purchases of cold medicine.

Meth has been a rampant problem in West Virginia, with officials seizing 290 labs this year, the third highest total in state history, Eric Eyre reports for The Charleston Gazette. Despite the number of busts being down from a record 531 last year, the Kanawha County Commission Substance Abuse Task Force said meth remains a problem in the state and the agency recommended that lawmakers require a doctor's prescription to purchase cold medicine with meth-making ingredients.

The task force criticized using NPLEx as a solution, saying drug manufacturers can get around the system by hiring large numbers of people to purchase their monthly limits, Eyre writes. Instead, the task force said the only way to rid the problem is by requiring a doctor's prescription. (Read more)

With help from Walmart, new devices and stagnant wages, U.S. sock makers ramp up production

The American sock industry, once all but dead, has been revived by "changes in technology, attitudes and costs," James R. Hagerty reports for The Wall Street Journal from rural Hildebran, N.C., just west of Hickory, where a Canadian designer-marketer who had given up manufacturing has reactivated an old plant to make socks for Walmart.

The new technology is in Italian machines that knit and seam socks in the same process, requiring about half the number of workers. The attitude change is at Walmart, "which is trying to reduce its heavy reliance on imports" and is giving more shelf space to U.S.-made products, Hagerty writes. Costs? American manufacturing has become more competitive with China because "average manufacturing wages in the U.S. have risen less than 2 percent annually over the past five years, while those in China have about doubled since 2008."

"For similar reasons, other sock makers are investing in the U.S.," Hagerty reports, but adds, "Some producers are still heading overseas. . . . Employment in U.S. hosiery and sock mills totals about 8,600, one quarter of the tally for 2001. The U.S. sock-making industry has shrunk so drastically that its trade group, the Hosiery Association, disbanded in 2013." (Read more)

English researcher says putting digital collars on livestock could increase rural broadband access

Sheep could help bring broadband to rural areas. English researchers are studying how digital sheep collars, sensors on riverbanks and rainfall monitors could advance technology in rural areas, while providing high-speed Internet service to residents, Victoria Woolaston reports for the Daily Mail. (Sony photo: Cameras on sheep covering the Tour de France)

Gordon Blair, a computer scientist at Lancaster University, is using a grant to conduct research in Wales on outfitting sheep with digital collars that can be used to allow farmers to better monitor livestock, while also doubling up as wireless Internet hotspots, Woolaston writes. "Earlier this year, sheep in Yorkshire were fitted with cameras to give a unique view of the Tour De France" bicycle race.

Officials at Lancaster University have proposed fitting sensors to riverbanks to monitor river levels and warn of floods, Woolaston writes. "This system uses sensors on the bank, and throughout neighboring towns to track rising water levels and weather conditions. Some sensor locations are designated as ‘government office nodes' and have an office with a laptop computer where data is collected and stored. An algorithm is then used to predict flood risks before alert notifications are displayed." (Read more)

New editor in a shrinking town reports the bad news and challenges it to shape up

A big part of a newspaper's job is to hold up a mirror to its community, to make it confront its problems. Too many newspapers aren't willing to do that often enough, but since Steve Wilson became editor of The Paducah Sun last February, he has been doing it. One of his latest examples was a column in which he followed up on a Sun story reporting that the city of 25,000 (MapQuest image), unlike other major towns in Western Kentucky, is losing population.

"In the weeks since that story was published, I've asked many people in the community how they would account for it and heard a variety of explanations. Most people believe several factors play a role," Wilson wrote. The list included "'a small-town mentality'" that seldom thinks very big and resists looking honestly at the city's weaknesses and addressing them; lack of take-charge civic leadership in both local government and the local business community; [and] inadequate cooperation between city and county government and too few public-private partnerships."

The local chamber of commerce is planning a "visioning program" to guide the community's future, but Wilson said a similar program was "short on follow-through and did not have major impact." He concluded, "The city needs a sharper sense of where it's headed and how to get there. It also needs some smart, savvy people to step up and lead. Otherwise, there's not much reason to think the city's population won't continue to slide along with its economic vitality and quality of life."

The Paxton Media Group, the Paducah-based, family owned chain that owns the Sun, is lucky to have Wilson as the paper's executive editor. He was a columnist and deputy managing editor at The Arizona Republic and managing editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where he directed a project that won the paper's first Pulitzer Prize. His column is behind the Sun's paywall, but he has allowed us to post it, here.

UPDATE, May 28: Sun Editor Jim Paxton writes in an editorial that when "Wilson first started raising the issue in columns last year, we were surprised by the intensity of the reactions from local officials past and present. Some accused Wilson of being a carpetbagger who was just seeking to accentuate the negative. But it is the role of community newspapers to provoke discussion, sometimes on topics that are not to everyone's liking but important nonetheless." (Read more)

Mild December cuts natural-gas price 29 percent

A mostly mild winter might be good news for many people who hate cold and snow, but so far it has spelled bad news for the natural-gas industry. The benchmark price for gas on Tuesday, Dec. 23, was $3.17 per 1,000 cubic feet, a 29 percent drop from $4.50 in late November, Jonathan Fahey reports for The Associated Press. "Natural gas is used by half of the nation's households for heating and to generate 26 percent of the nation's electricity."

"The lower prices are expected to linger and could reduce electricity prices and heating bills in the coming months," Fahey writes. "Bob Brackett, an analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a recent note to investors that he expects natural gas to average 'in the low 3 [dollar]s" per MCF into the spring, and a warm winter could push the price below $3.'" That's a far cry from last year when prices hit as high as $6.15 in February during last year's brutal winter. (Seeking Alpha graphic)

"Conditions look good for low prices throughout the spring. After that, though, prices could head back up," Fahey writes. "One-fifth of the nation's natural-gas production is from gas found when drilling for oil . . . A a drop in the price of oil is forcing drillers to cut back, and that may slow the growth in [gas] production. Also, in April of next year an Environmental Protection Agency rule governing emissions of mercury and other toxic chemicals goes into effect. That will force electric utilities to reduce their use of coal, the chief source of those emissions, and turn instead to natural gas." (Read more) For the coal industry, part of the bad news is already here, because lower gas prices make coal less competitive with gas among utilities that can easily switch fuels.

Study puts least healthy states in a contiguous swath, much of it rural, from Okla. to W.Va.

Hawaii is the nation's healthiest state, while several states with large rural populations—including most of the South—are the country's least healthiest states, according to the annual state health rankings by the United Health Foundation. The rankings are based on data gathered in 2012, 2013 and early 2014.

UHF map; for an interactive version with details, click here.

The analysis is based on behaviors (everyday activities that affect personal health), community and environment (whether or not it was a healthy and safe community, based on clean water and air, affordable and secure housing, sustainable and economically vital neighborhoods and support structures such as violence-free places to be physically active), policy (availability of resources to encourage and maintain health) and clinical care (access, quality, appropriateness, and cost of care we receive at doctors’ offices, clinics, and hospitals).

Hawaii was named healthiest state for the third straight year. Vermont was ranked second, followed by Massachusetts (3), Connecticut (4), Utah (5), Minnesota (6), New Hampshire (7), Colorado (8), North Dakota (9) and Nebraska (10).

Mississippi was ranked last. Arkansas was 49th, followed by Louisiana (48), Kentucky (47), Oklahoma (46), Tennessee (45), West Virginia (44), Alabama (43), South Carolina (42), Indiana (41) and Ohio (40). (Read more)

U.S. drinks the most alcohol during the winter; Iowa has highest average blood-alcohol content

Americans drink the most alcohol during the winter, says the BACtrack Consumption Report, a report created by a company that manufactures breathalyzers. Of the 15 biggest drinking days of the year, 14 are from Dec. 1 through March 31, when the average blood alcohol content level is 0.06 nearly 75 percent of days, while during the rest of the year it is 0.06 about 50 percent of days. (BACtrack graphic)

The study, which was conducted using 130,000 subjects from 35 countries and all 50 states over a 13-month period, found that the biggest drinking days are New Year's Eve and St. Patrick's Day weekend, when levels reach 0.094 percent. Other big drinking days are Dec. 6-7, Jan. 18-19, Jan. 25, Feb.1-2, Feb. 15, March 7-8, Super Bowl Sunday. The other big drinking day, and the only one that averages above 0.08 percent, is May 3.

Iowa had the highest average blood alcohol content at 0.122 percent, the study said. That was followed by Arkansas (0.113 percent), Alabama (0.112 percent), Maine (0.107 percent) and Tennessee (0.106 percent). The lowest average blood alcohol content was in New Hampshire, 0.012 percent. That was followed by Delaware (0.026 percent), Utah (0.031 percent), Arkansas (0.037 percent) and Wyoming (0.051 percent).

The cities with the highest average counts are Waltham, Mass. (0.133 percent); Jersey City, N.J. (0.132 percent); Champlin, Minn. (0.124 percent); New Orleans (0.123 percent) and Greenville, S.C. (0.111 percent). Cities with the lowest counts are Brighton, Colo. (0.006 percent); Walnut Creek, Calif. (0.013 percent); Huntington Beach, Calif. (0.013 percent); Columbus, Ohio (0.014 percent) and Redwood City, California (0.015 percent). (BACtrack map: To view an interactive version click here)

Rural areas, women have been under-represented in debates about net neutrality, study finds

Most Americans favor Internet neutrality, and the news media have played the issue as a technical and political story and largely ignored its potential impact on rural communities, says a report by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The report says the debate has over-represented male and urban voices—especially through social media—while telecom and cable companies have put most their money and efforts into lobbying and have strayed away from most social media.

The report was conducted by analyzing more than 35,000 news sources and 300,000 blogs from January to July 2014; Twitter analysis of 120,000 tweets with #NetNeutrality from July to August 2014 and from #InternetSlowdownDay; of about 1 million public comments to the Federal Communications Commission; lobbying analysis of approximately 2,500 filings from 2009 to the second quarter of 2014 from the U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act Database and grant funding analysis of data for media access and telecommunications companies. (Knight Foundation graphic; click it to enlarge)

Researchers found that the majority of commenters to the FCC felt "that there is strong legal ground for reclassification of Internet Service Providers as Title II common carriers, the FCC should reject the proposed fast and slow lanes on the Internet" and "Internet Service Providers already have monopolistic power."

The report echoes a survey released last month by the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication that found that most Americans favor net neutrality, as does President Obama. The FCC is debating what to do.

FAA fears Santa will be delivering drone aircraft to inexperienced and/or irresponsible users

AP photo by John Locher

The Federal Aviation Administration is playing Scrooge this Christmas, as agency officials fear that one of the hot new presents under trees will be drones, aggravating already complicated issue of safety in the skies, Craig Whitlock reports for The Washington Post.

In anticipation of a large number of of drones being given as presents this year, the FAA and the drone industry on Monday "kicked off a public awareness campaign to urge novice drone operators to pay attention to safety and not do dumb things such as flying too close to passenger planes, buzzing crowds of bystanders on the ground or flying that new ­remote-control helicopter while drunk," Whitlock writes.

"The campaign is dubbed 'Know Before You Fly' and includes videos instructing people how to 'stay off the naughty list' when playing with their new gifts," Whitlock writes. "Among the basics: Don’t fly drones above 400 feet, within five miles of an airport or near a stadium." FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told reporters, “This is an issue of growing concern. This newer and more powerful technology is affordable to more people, yet many are not familiar with the rules of flying.”

The National Transportation Safety Board ruled last month that drones are aircraft and are subject to existing aviation laws. Until FAA rules are put in place, most commercial use of drones remains illegal.  Officials fear unregulated drones use could  lead to "a modern version of the Wild West." In June the National Park Service banned drones in all parks and areas it manages. In August a tourist crashed a drone into Yellowstone National Park. Also in August drones were banned over the Appalachian Trail and in parks in Utah and Colorado, and a drone was reported flying over an NFL game. The FAA has a Sept. 30, 2015 deadline to set rules for commercial use.

Rural Minnesota school says 4-day week cuts costs; state says it negatively impacts students

Star Tribune photo: Maynard-Clara City schools

A west-central Minnesota school district that joined many others around the country in switching to a four-day week during the Great Recession is fighting the Minnesota Education Department's order to return to a five-day week.

The Maynard-Clara City-Raymond district says the four-day schedule has cut school costs by thousands of dollars and helped area businesses that have been able to employ students on their days off, reports The Associated Press. But "state education officials say there has been a lack of adequate academic progress in the district."

While high school test scores are a little below average, elementary school scores are at or slightly above the statewide average, AP reports. "State officials say they are concerned that the district has not made strong enough gains among low-income students." Education Department spokesman Josh Collins told AP that "it does beg the question, should the financial need continue to outweigh what appears to be a negative impact on student achievement?"

A school board committee "is exploring ways to retain the shorter school week, including drafting a bill to allow for local control on the matter," AP reports. State Sen. Lyle Koenen (DFL-Clara City) and Rep.-elect Tim Miller, a Republican who represents the area, said they plan to support legislation should the district choose that route." (Read more)

States step up incentives to attract young lawyers to rural areas, where they are often scarce

It's hard to find a lawyer when you need one in many rural areas. That lack of rural lawyers is forcing some states to think outside the box to draw young professional to their towns, reports Regina Garcia Cano for The Associated Press.

In South Dakota, four urban areas have 65 percent of the state's lawyers, while in Nebraska, 12 of the state's 93 counties don't have a practicing attorney, Cano writes. "Only about 30 percent of Georgia's attorneys can be found outside the Atlanta area. And even in New York with nearly 170,000 attorneys, more than 60 percent concentrate in New York City." (Rapid City Journal map from 2013)

South Dakota has started a program believed to the first of its kind that compensates lawyers much the way that similar programs do for doctors that relocate to rural areas, Cano writes. The program, funded by the state's judicial system, the South Dakota Bar Association and the counties, "offers an annual subsidy of $12,000 or 90 percent of the cost of a year at the University of South Dakota Law School to live and practice in rural communities."

Other states are following suit with programs to help draw lawyers to rural areas, Cano writes. "Nebraska next year will begin repaying loans for law school graduates who commit to serving at least three years in underserved communities in the state. The state bar also is teaming with two law schools to offer summer clerkships at rural firms. And Legal Aid of Arkansas recently received a $15,000 grant from the American Bar Association to fund fellowships for newly admitted lawyers who serve in rural areas for one year." (Read more)

Former journalist has saved hundreds of horses through retirement facility in Kentucky

Michael Blowen and Sandy Hatfield with new arrival, 1997
Kentucky Derby winner Silver Charm (Old Friends photo)

How did a former Boston Globe movie critic end up in Central Kentucky leading the cause to provide a safe comfortable environment for retired racing horses—including some of the biggest names in the industry—while also saving hundreds of at-risk horses from slaughterhouses?

Michael Blowen has played his own version of Old St. Nick, giving the gift of a second chance to hundreds of horses, while boosting local tourism by giving people an opportunity to see race horses—such as Kentucky Derby winner Silver Charm—up close and personal at Old Friends equine retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky.

Blowen began his interest in horse racing the way many people do—by betting on the sport, racing writer Jennie Rees reports for The Courier-Journal in Louisville. "While still working for the Globe, he went to work as a groom at Boston's blue-collar Suffolk Downs, saying, "as soon as I fell in love with them, the dye was cast."

He "apprenticed himself out to trainer Carlos Figueroa," where he was educated in horses at what he calls "Figueroa University," Rees writes. But while working for Figueroa "he said he became concerned that a bottom-level claimer could 'meet a dubious end.' He got the horse retired to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and subsequently wrote a story about the foundation's program that teaches inmates to care for horses at Lexington's Blackburn Correctional Complex."

"After he and his wife, columnist Diane White, took buyouts from the Globe in 2001, Blowen wound up as the foundation's operations director in Kentucky," Rees writes. "A year later, he got serious about starting a facility where people could feed carrots to retired thoroughbreds. . . . The sense of urgency to get Old Friends operational escalated when news broke in 2002 that 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand had perished in a slaughter house after his usefulness as a stallion in Japan ended."

"Blowen said he talked to former Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones, who owns Airdrie Stud, about his plan," Rees writes. Blowen told her, "He goes, 'Let me get this straight: You're going to get these horses, right?' Yeah. 'You're not going to breed them?' No. 'You're not going to sell them?' No. 'You're not going to race them?' No. He says, 'What are you going to do with them?' I said, 'Put them in my yard and hope people come visit them.' He looked at me like I was from outer space, and now he's one of our biggest supporters."

Jones was skeptical, but he said "their mutual love of horses sparked him to help Blowen, first with his checkbook and then by sending him retired stallions such as Patton, You and I and Afternoon Deelites," Rees writes. Jones told her,  "It's expensive to take care of a horse—even one. Somebody starting a group of horses that will never have the ability to win another race or to put money into the pockets of the people feeding them, it was a different approach. ... But most really important happenings in the world come about because some people are determined to make them come about."

Old Friends earns its money on donations, tours of the farm and money earned at the gift shop, Rees writes. It operates on a $1 million per year budget, "and that's after the many discounted and donated services and products afforded Old Friends, including veterinary work, medication, feed supplements, shoeing and shipping. Supporters sponsoring paddocks, run-in sheds, barns, barn stalls, fencing or horses have their names sprinkled throughout on plaques."

"Last year it was part of the first group of racehorse retirement and retraining programs to be accredited by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, an industry collaboration that also raises money to help fund the facilities it certifies." On Friday Old Friends was named recipient of the industry's 2014 Special Eclipse Award for outstanding contributions to racing. (Read more)

Six million self-described whites have African American ancestry; numbers are highest in South

About 6 million Americans who describe themselves as white actually have African American ancestry within the past seven generations, says a study published in Science Direct, Christopher Ingraham reports for The Washington Post. Overall, 3.5 percent of Americans who describe themselves as white have African ancestry, with the numbers highest in the South, where 12 percent of self-described whites in Louisiana and South Carolina have African ancestry; the number is about 10 percent in some other Southern states.

The study was conducted by using the genetic records of 148,739 European Americans who submitted a cheek swab for testing, says the study. Testing was also done on 5,269 self-described African Americans and 8,663 Latinos.

The study found "that people who were 15 percent African or less generally didn't describe themselves as African American, while those who were 50 percent African or greater almost universally did," Ingraham writes. "But in between there was a considerable amount of variation. Those who were about one quarter African were just as likely as not to call themselves African-American." (Read more) (Post map)

Coal-mine deaths are on pace to set a record-low year, but health issues remain a major concern

While health concerns remain about dust that leads to black-lung disease, U.S. coal mines are on pace to have a record year in terms of fatalities, reports The Associated Press. There have been 15 coal-related deaths in the U.S. this year. The record-low was 19 in 2009, the lowest among records that date back to 1900. The number of deaths in each of the past two years was 20.

Only last week did the No. 3 coal state, Kentucky, have its first underground-mine death of the year. One surface miner has also died. Industry officials say the lower number of deaths are a result of an increased awareness about safety, while others cite closing of mines in Appalachia. Still, of this year's 15 deaths, have been are in Appalachia.  (Centers for Disease Control graphic; click it to enlarge)

"Federal mine safety officials credit changes they’ve made since the Upper Big Branch disaster in April 2010," Dylan Lovan writes for AP. "They point to their more aggressive use of team inspections at problem sites and other measures, which they say have fostered more responsible behavior below ground." Assistant Labor Secretary Joseph Main, who heads the Mine Safety and Health Administration, told Lovan, “I do think we’re seeing a cultural change in the mining industry that’s for the better."

There are fewer mines operating in Appalachia, a region that historically has had some of the worst mine violators, Lovan notes: 1,701 last year, down from 1,944 in 2010; underground mines in Eastern Kentucky shrank to 82 from 161 in 2010, and in West Virginia to 107 from 133 in 2010.

Retiring Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a longtime mine-safety advocate on the House Education and Labor Committee, "said MSHA needs even stronger tools to investigate and punish mine operators," Lovan reports. "Miller has sponsored a bill to give the agency subpoena power during an investigation or inspection, increase criminal penalties for safety violations, and punish operators who don’t pay fines. The bill is stuck in a House committee."

While fewer coal workers are suffering fatal accidents, more are reporting health issues. Experts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported that by 2012, the rate of severe coal workers' pneumoconosis (black lung) had reached 3.2 percent of miners in the Central Appalachian coalfield of southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, Ken Ward reports for the Charleston Gazette: "That’s a nearly tenfold increase over the disease prevalence 15 years earlier—a shocking statistic." Another NIOSH study said that the most severe form of black lung disease is on the rise.

More than 1,100 miners were wrongly denied black lung claims after the doctor at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore who interprets X-rays in black-lung claims failed to find a single case of severe black lung in more than 1,500 cases decided since 2000 in which he offered an opinion.

EPA rules on coal ash don't treat it as a hazardous material, rely on citizens to report violations

The Environmental Protection Agency's long-awaited rules on coal-ash disposal, written in response to a huge ash spill in Tennessee in 2008 (photo), fell short of advocate' hopes.

EPA "declined to designate coal ash a hazardous material, but said power plants would have to meet certain minimum structural standards for landfills and disposal ponds, and monitor them for leaks," Emmarie Huetteman reports for The New York Times. "If a breach is discovered, it will be the utility company’s responsibility to reinforce or close the pond. New ponds and landfills will have to be lined to provide a barrier against leaks. Controls must be used to prevent people from breathing in coal ash dust."

"Power plants will also have to report the results of their inspections on a public website," Huetteman writes. "The rule provides little oversight, leaving it to citizens and the states to sue if power plants are suspected of not adhering to the EPA’s guidelines."

James Bruggers, environmental writer for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, writes that the rules "put a lot of new requirements on utilities to monitor ash ponds and landfills and make sure they are engineered and maintained properly. But there are no requirements that either state or federal regulators actually enforce them. Instead, the only guaranteed enforcement mechanism is through lawsuits filed by citizens, state and EPA officials acknowledged."

Electric-utility companies and the coal industry celebrated the decision. Thomas H. Adams, executive director of the American Coal Ash Association, told Huetteman, “This stuff is just as safe as we thought it was before the rule-making started, and it’s time to keep that growth going."

Advocates for stronger rules were disappointed. Frank Holleman, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement: “As we’ve seen over the past six years, irresponsible storage of coal ash by big utilities has caused unprecedented disasters and threatened the health and safety of Americans around the country. While there are some new tools for addressing our nation’s coal ash problem in these new federal protections, there are glaring flaws in the EPA’s approach.” (Read more)