Lack of doctors and insurers, hospital closures and more make rural health outlook 'grim,' writer says

"In many rural counties, due to a range of contributing factors — including a shortage of doctors, a sicker-than-anticipated population, lack of competition in the marketplace, the closing of hospitals and a raging opioid crisis — the outlook is grim" for health care under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, John Collins writes for the liberal magazine In These Times.

Collins points to the demise of more than half of the state-based health cooperatives that provide price competition for traditional, for-profit insurers; and UnitedHealth Group's recent decision to pull out of most state Obamacare exchanges next year, coming after "other insurance providers have abandoned their less profitable rural exchanges." He notes the Kaiser Family Foundation estimate that 11 percent of policyholders will be in counties with only one insurer, and 18 percent will be in counties with two — up from 2 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

"By early 2017, The Wall Street Journal reports, it is estimated that in more than 650 counties — 70 percent of which consist of rural populations — only one option for health care coverage will be offered on the ACA exchanges," Collins writes. "According to Inovalon, the health-care information and technology firm . . . cited in the WSJ piece, rural exchanges are having trouble realizing a profit for two reasons—people are requiring more care (they’re sicker) than anticipated and the cost of that care is significantly more than it is in urban areas."

At the end of his story, Collins looks ahead and then puts his tongue in cheek: "The next administration will ultimately decide whether this six-year-old law gets put into therapy, replaced by a single-payer healthcare system for all Americans, or triumphantly repealed and replaced with something so fantastic that you can’t even imagine how good it is going to be."

Congress reaches agreement to overhaul U.S. chemical safety laws for first time in 40 years

UPDATE, May 27: The House passed the bill 403-12 but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has delayed a Senate vote on the bill, calling it "rushed."

"Congress has reached agreement on the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. chemical safety laws in 40 years, a rare bipartisan accord that has won the backing of both industry officials and some of the Hill’s most liberal lawmakers," Juliet Eilperin and Darryl Fears report for The Washington Post. "The compromise, which lawmakers unveiled Thursday, will provide the industry with greater certainty while empowering the Environmental Protection Agency to obtain more information about a chemical before approving its use. And because the laws involved regulate thousands of chemicals in products as diverse as detergents, paint thinners and permanent-press clothing, the result also will have a profound effect on Americans’ everyday lives."

The measure, which has the tacit approval of the Obama administration and the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), "could come up for a vote in both chambers as soon as next week," Eilperin and Fears write. "After passage, the EPA must start reviewing at least 10 toxic chemicals that permeate communities across the country, a list that is likely to include asbestos, formaldehyde and flame retardants. Many are interwoven into people’s experience with everyday products, including the ink on their morning newspaper and the fabric protector on their family’s sofa."

The deal "gives the EPA the power to require companies to provide health and safety data for untested chemicals and to prevent substances from reaching the market if they have not been determined to be safe," Eilperin and Fears write. "Under current law, the agency must prove that a chemical poses a potential risk before it can demand data or require testing, and that substance can automatically enter the marketplace after 90 days. In the past four decades, the EPA has required testing for just 200 of thousands of chemicals, and it has issued regulations to control only five of them. More than 8,000 chemicals are produced in the U.S. at an annual rate of more than 25,000 pounds each, according to the agency. Under the bill, instead of going through a lengthy rulemaking process to trigger product testing, the EPA can order companies to test their new products. The measure also imposes user fees on industry to help expand the testing of chemicals."

"In return, chemical manufacturers will be subject to a single regulatory system, although states will still have the right to seek a federal waiver to impose their rules on a given chemical," Eilperin and Fears write. "Currently, California, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have placed their own restrictions on some chemicals in the face of federal regulatory inaction.The bill’s provisions include prioritizing the review of chemicals stored near drinking water as well as those that are human carcinogens and highly toxic with chronic exposure. House Democrats were still seeking to insert language that would allow some states in the midst of regulating chemicals the chance to finalize those actions before the EPA starts reviewing its first batch of chemicals under the law." (Read more)

Coal bankruptcies leaving many states with IOUs that could make taxpayers fund mine cleanup

The widespread practice of "self-bonding" in the coal industry could end up leaving taxpayers footing the bill for cleaning up an increasing number of abandoned mines, Mead Gruver reports for The Associated Press. Self-bonding allows companies with certain assets "to promise to eventually cover the cost of cleaning up abandoned mines without first setting aside the necessary money. Because of self-bonding, billions of dollars in legally required reclamation funding exist only as IOUs, without dedicated assets or bonds backed by third-party investors. Nationwide, self-bonding in the coal-mining industry tops $3.3 billion. That includes $2.3 billion in IOUs that the three biggest bankrupt coal companies—Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody—owe in five states, according to an Associated Press analysis of bonding obligations in the top 16 coal-mining states." 

"The dilemma for state and federal regulators got even bleaker when the nation's largest coal producer, Peabody, filed for Chapter 11 protection from its creditors in April," Gruver writes. "Peabody alone holds more than $1.1 billion in self-bonding obligations for mines in Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico and Wyoming, where its North Antelope Rochelle mine produces almost 12 percent of the nation's coal. ...Wyoming, which produces almost 40 percent of the nation's coal, has more than $2 billion in self-bonded coal mining, almost two-thirds of the nationwide total."

"The 1977 Surface Mining and Reclamation Act enabled companies to open strip mines on the condition that assets be set aside to contain any pollution and return the mines to something resembling the pre-existing landscape," Gruver writes. "But companies with debts no greater than 2.5 times their net worth were allowed to avoid tying up capital by "self-bonding" instead. Self-bonding has grown to represent more than a third of the industry's cleanup costs. With several companies now in bankruptcy, states have reached agreements to secure pennies on the dollar for reclamation should Chapter 11 reorganization proceed to Chapter 7 liquidation."

Drones will be the future of collecting agricultural data, says Agriculture Dept. technology officer

Drones are the future of advanced agriculture data, said Michael Valivullah, chief technology officer at the National Agricultural Statistics Service, which is housed at the Department of Agriculture, Corinne Lestch reports for FedScoop. Valivullah, who was speaking Wednesday in Washington D.C. at the MarkLogic Data Innovation Summit, said, “Farmers are going to be more dependent on drones. Drones are a lot cheaper and can gather high-resolution, sensitive data. So a farmer or rancher will be able to understand what they have in their operation.”

Of the more than 2.3 billion acres of land across the U.S., about 900 million are farmland, Valivullah said. "USDA keeps track of farmers who produce and sell products that are worth more than $1,000 in a central database. The agency once used traditional paper and pens to collect information, but it started sending out electronic forms—as well as iPads and tablets—a few years ago to researchers in the field." Valivullah said drones will be a better way of collecting data.

Bayer looks to acquire Monsanto; would make agriculture 40% of combined entity’s business

"Bayer AG has approached Monsanto Co. about a takeover that would fuse two of the world’s largest suppliers of crop seeds and pesticides, the companies said," Jacob Bunge and Dana Mattioli report for The Wall Street Journal. "Details of the offer couldn’t be learned and it was unclear whether Monsanto would be receptive to it. Should there be a deal, it could be valued at more than $42 billion, which is Monsanto’s current market capitalization. Should the bid succeed, a combination of the companies could boast $67 billion in annual sales and create the world’s largest seed and crop-chemical company."

Mergers an acquisitions are booming in the industry. Last month Sygenta struck a deal to be acquired by Chem China, a state-owned enterprise. DuPont and Dow have announced they are merging. If all the deals go through, it's estimated that three of these companies will control more than half of global seed sales, Dan Charles reports for NPR.

If Bayer absorbed St. Louis-based Monsanto, the world’s top seed company in terms of sales, it "would push Bayer far more deeply into agriculture, which currently accounts for about 22 percent of the German company’s business," Bunge and Mattioli write. "Monsanto’s $15 billion in seed and herbicide sales could make agriculture about 40 percent of the combined entity’s business, with the rest coming from pharmaceuticals and consumer health products."

"Folding Monsanto’s world-leading seed franchise and its trademark Roundup herbicide business into Bayer would create a company that could market products ranging from Aspirin pain-relief pills to crop genetics that enable plants to withstand bugs and weedkillers," Bunge and Mattioli write. "The combination would sell about 28 percent of the world’s pesticides and about 36 percent of U.S. corn seeds and 28 percent of soybean seeds, according to Morgan Stanley estimates." (Read more)

UPDATED: Newspaper lobbying group says new overtime rule will reduce jobs, news coverage

The main lobbying group for community newspapers is objecting to the Obama administration's new rule making more employees eligible for overtime pay. The rule "will create disruption at small newspapers and likely lead to more job cutbacks" and less news coverage, said National Newspaper Association President Chip Hutcheson, publisher of The Times-Leader in Princeton, Ky.

The new rule, set to take effect Dec. 1, will make employees eligible for overtime if they earn less than $913 a week or $47,476 a year. The current threshold is about $23,660.

An NNA survey suggested that the rule would force a third of community to eliminate staff positions or reduce news coverage. Many papers "are already under financial pressure from weak local economies and they can't afford to pay additional overtime," NNA said in a statement. "For them, the unintended consequences include lost jobs and less news coverage."

UPDATE, May 20: However, those surveyed apparently did not know that the Labor Department had retained an exemption for weekly newspapers with a circulation under 4,000, while limiting it to "employees in rural areas," said Richard Karpel of American Pressworks, NNA's lobbying contractor. "The entire section is a bit perplexing so we will be seeking clarification about why it was included. . . . There is an indication that group-owned newspapers must total all circulations together," meaning that "even if one or two properties fall below the 4,000 threshold, their circulation total would be included in the cumulative total and not subject to the exemption."

Hutcheson had rejected calls by small businesses to introduce a more modified and gradually-rising threshold that sets overtime-eligible employees apart from professional staff. "NNA agreed that it was past time to adjust the salary levels," he said. "The Labor Department failed to do its job for a decade by creating more graduated adjustments that small businesses could live with. Then it decided to try to force the small business economy to leap the whole chasm in a single bound. Its ruling fails to recognize the realities of a slow-growing business climate. It also ignores the big differences between costs of living and earnings potential in small towns and major cities."

NNA said that "newsrooms have difficulty managing a 40-hour week, and that legal barriers for private-sector enterprises to offer meaningful flex time meant that news and sports staff could not take advantage of time off during slow seasons to compensate for extra hours spent on breaking news and sporting events. NNA requested consideration of a regional scale and joined the Newspaper Association of America in suggesting that thresholds should be set at a level of twice the annual earnings of a minimum wage earner. The minimum wage index would have given states and cities the ability to effectively set the overtime-eligibility standard."

NNA is now backing legislation (S. 2707 and H.R. 4773) that would block the rule and require the Labor Department to do more analysis of the impact on small businesses, nonprofits and public employers.

Rural Western residents say local papers need more economic news, rigorous reporting

Only 21 percent of people in a sample of the rural West believe their local news is reliable and consistent, says a study by Solutions Journal Network for the LOR Foundation. The study consisted of a focus group (164 people) and a Google survey (1,540 people) in 10 communities in Colorado, Montana and New Mexico and analysis of a week's worth of stories—900 in all—from local and regional outlets in the targeted area, Leah Todd reports for Solutions Journal Network.

The survey found that 52 percent of respondents said "their local news is, at best, sometimes valuable, and a significant number said their local news is rarely or never relevant," Todd writes. Still, newspapers are the No. 1 source for local news, with 81.7 percent of respondents from the focus group saying they get local news from the newspaper, 63.4 percent from interactions with other people, 44.5 percent from local government and community organizations and 40.8 percent from social media. Newspapers also tied with television for top news source among rural respondents to the Google survey.

Respondents were mostly unhappy with coverage of the local economy, Todd writes. Nearly every focus group said jobs and the local economy were the biggest concerns. "Yet very little — just 8 percent — of the news coverage we analyzed focused primarily on the economy ." There was a discrepancy between coverage and perceived coverage. Respondents said they wanted more education coverage, which analysis showed to be the second most covered topic, after crime.

Many people complained that news coverage is too negative, Todd writes. In some areas, such as Española, N.M. respondents "complained bitterly about what they saw as the local paper’s relentlessly negative slant on news — but nearly all admitted they still read it religiously." Española is home to the Rio Grande Sun, whose owners won last year's Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism, given by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.

"People said they want more rigorous reporting that exposes the context of complex issues, and more stories about how their communities and others are responding to problems, in addition to spotlighting the problems themselves," Todd writes. One Whitefish, Mont. respondent said, “If there’s one thing that’s missing, it’s the in-depth reporting or the enterprise-type reporting that goes beyond…what was stated at last night’s council meeting or what we send out in a press release, and tries to get to the root about the issue and have impact on it." A respondent in Anaconda, Mont. said, “I get to the bottom of an article and I say, ‘Where’s the rest?’”

Oil and gas boom helps most local governments but some very rural areas struggle to keep up

The oil and gas boom has helped most local governments in the U.S., but some in very rural areas "have struggled to keep pace with rapid industry growth," says a news release about research from Duke University.

"The shale revolution has created a variety of opportunities and challenges for local governments," said Richard Newell, a professor of energy and environmental economics. His team traveled to 21 oil- and gas-producing regions in 16 states to interview more than 200 local officials and look at government finances.

While oil and gas activity generated local property taxes, state severance and sales taxes and other revenues, "industry truck traffic can cause substantial damage to local roads, and population growth can strain government services such as police, fire and emergency services," the release says. "In regions experiencing the most rapid growth (such as parts of North Dakota, Texas and Colorado), city governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading water and wastewater infrastructure to serve their growing populations."

The recent downturn in gas and oil prices "can create substantial financial challenges for regions where the oil and gas industry is a central part of the economy. In Alaska and North Dakota, for example, a prolonged slump in oil prices could lead to longer-term fiscal challenges for state and local governments." Newell's associate, Daniel Raimi, said, "Looking forward, local governments that have become heavily dependent on the oil and gas industry may look to diversify their economies."

The study is part of a three-year Shale Public Finance project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The reports were released at a May 18 workshop on the local impacts of oil and gas development. To see a webcast of the workshop go to www.rff.org/live. For more on the project, including previous reports and an interactive map of findings, see http://energy.duke.edu/shalepublicfinance.

Guy Clark, a great songwriter who got much respect but not much money, dies at 74

Guy Clark (Beth Gwinn/Redferns via Getty Images)

Guy Clark, who kept drawing on his West Texas upbringing as he became one of Nashville's most respected songwriters, died Tuesday in the Tennessee city after a long illness. He was 74.

"He never got rich, but earned the admiration of countless songwriters, including Bob Dylan," Ian Crouch writes for The New Yorker. "It’s tough to pin down precisely what made his songs so distinctive. He wasn’t a poet genius like Townes Van Zandt, or a blazing, righteous performer like Steve Earle. He never enjoyed wide popularity like Willie Nelson. Mostly his songs were strong and steady, projecting a deep, indisputable, and ultimately persuasive confidence and sense of self."

Clark, a lawyer's son who preferred to be called a poet, may have been best known for "L.A. Freeway," recorded in 1973 by his friend Jerry Jeff Walker; "Heartbroke," which was a No. 1 hit for Ricky Skaggs in 1982; and "Desperados Waitin' for a Train," from his first album, "Old No. 1," in 1975. That was "perhaps his most vivid song," Tamara Sorvino writes for The Oxford American. Her biography of Clark is due out in October.

"His songwriting evinced a keen eye not just for narrative detail but also an unerring ear for spoken vernacular and a wry, existentialist bent akin to that of Kris Kristofferson or John Prine," Bill Friskics-Warren writes for The New York Times. "A laconic though riveting storyteller, Mr. Clark was adept at getting at the heart of an experience or event."

Visiting consulting clinics reduce rural orthopedic doctor shortages, says Iowa study

Visiting consulting clinics greatly reduce rural orthopedic doctor shortages and drive times for patients, says a survey by the University of Iowa. Only 35 of the state's 99 counties have a full-time orthopedist, reports Tom Snee for Iowa Now. However, when VCCS are factored in, 88 counties are covered by an orthopedist. That's good news, considering orthopedic patients are "more likely to be older, overweight and less physically active," making it harder for them to travel long distances to seek care. Many end up delaying treatment rather than travelling.

"VCCs are outreach sites regularly visited by an orthopedic surgeon, typically a rural hospital located in a community too small to support a full-time specialist," Snee writes. "Patients meet with doctors in person and receive diagnostic services and some outpatient procedures. More complex procedures are usually referred to larger hospitals with the appropriate resources to support them. The researchers used data from 2014 to estimate average trip length for participating orthopedic surgeons and patients in all of Iowa’s census tracts."

Researchers found that VCCs reduced the average distance rural patients drove to see an orthpedist by 50 percent, from 19.2 miles to 8.4 miles, Snee writes. The survey found that 45 percent of all Iowa-based orthopedists visited at least one VCC since 2014. Lead author Thomas Gruca said, "Orthopedic surgeons in Iowa have been invested in rural outreach for more than 25 years. By traveling to 80 different sites every month, these physicians from Iowa and surrounding states reduced patient travel time and improved access to orthopedic care."

Income inequality brings rise in rural child poverty

Income inequality has led to a rise in rural child poverty, says a report by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From 2003 to 2012 rural child poverty increased by 6.6 percent, while incomes among rural families with children declined 6.5 percent, compared to a decline of 3.8 percent among urban families with children. The report says that was "partly due to the fact that average incomes for rural families with children did not rise during the economic expansion of 2003-07, and fell during the recession and the early years of the recovery."

"Roughly two-thirds of the rise in rural child poverty and three-quarters of the rise in urban child poverty between 2003 and 2012 resulted not from declining average incomes but rather from changes in the distribution of income around that average," says the report. "Child poverty rose more than might be expected, given average income changes, because income declines were especially large for families with children that were close to the poverty line." (USDA graphic)

"The poorest one-quarter of American families saw a bigger decrease in their incomes before and during the Great Recession than families in higher income brackets," Tim Marema reports for the Daily Yonder. "And the earnings of these low-income families didn’t bounce back as quickly or as much following the recession. Child poverty in rural America dropped by 3 points from 2012-2014. Though this was a bigger drop than urban children experienced, the overall rural child-poverty rate remained higher during the period (23.7 percent for rural vs. 20.7 for urban)."

GMO foods safe for humans, but could be bad for agriculture, National Academy study finds

A report by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found no evidence that genetically modified foods are harmful to people, animals or the environment, Adam Darby reports for The Kansas City Star. "However, it is unclear whether genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, have increased crop yields, the study says, and the evolution of resistance in insects and weeds is a problem." The study's author said "evolved resistance to current GE characteristics in crops is a major agricultural problem.”

Researchers say "that new techniques, like a way to make small genetic changes in plants using genome-editing, are blurring the distinction between genetic engineering and conventional plant breeding, making the existing regulatory system untenable," Andrew Pollack reports for The New York Times. They call "for a new system that pays more attention to the attributes of the crop, as opposed to the way in which it was created."

Calls for mandatory labeling "has steadily grown louder for mandatory labeling, as consumers and food advocates say they have a right to know what's in their food," Greg Trotter reports for the Chicago Tribune. "Meanwhile, many food companies have maintained such labeling would be misleading because there's nothing harmful about GMO ingredients."

The report was widely criticized before it even came out, Seth Borenstein reports for The Associated Press. "Food & Water Watch criticized the National Academy as taking funding from biotechnology firms and using 'pro-GMO scientists' to write its reports. The report was funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the New Venture Fund, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the academy itself—none of which have direct connections to the agricultural biotechnology industry. It was peer reviewed by outside experts and committee members are vetted for financial conflicts of interests, said academy spokesman William Kearney."

Study says surgeries are safer and cheaper at critical-access hospitals, which are rural

It's safer and cheaper to have surgery at a rural hospital than an urban ones, says a study by University of Michigan researchers published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers found that critical-access hospitals, which by definition are rural, had significantly lower rates of serious complications—6.4 percent to 13.9 percent. Also, "Medicare expenditures adjusted for patient factors and procedure type were lower at critical-access hospitals than non–critical access hospitals," averaging $14.450 at critical access hospitals, compared to $15,845 at larger ones. (UM graphic)

The study examined 1,631,904 Medicare beneficiary admissions to 828 critical-access hospitals and 3,600 larger non–critical access hospitals for four surgical procedures—appendectomy, cholecystectomy, colectomy and hernia—from 2009 to 2013. Researchers "compared risk-adjusted outcomes using a multivariable logistical regression that adjusted for patient factors (age, sex, race, Elixhauser comorbidities), admission type (elective, urgent, emergency), and type of operation.

The risk of dying within 30 days of the operation "was the same across all hospitals," Susan Scutti reports for Medical Daily. But researchers "discovered the risk of suffering a major complication after surgery was lower at critical access hospitals compared to larger facilities. Complications included heart attacks, pneumonia, and kidney damage. Importantly, the researchers discovered patients who had these operations at critical access hospitals checked in healthier to begin with, suggesting that surgeons in these remote hospitals are appropriately selecting patients who will do well in a small rural setting while triaging more complex patients to larger centers."

"The study’s limitations include the possibility that the research team may have overestimated complication rates at larger hospitals due to how administrative reports code data," Scutti writes. "Still, the results indicate these hospitals perform well and safely at least from a surgical standpoint. Lead author Dr. Andrew Ibrahim and his co-researchers believe the implications of their work are significant to Medicare policies."

Health-care consumers get little help resolving complaints, columnist says

Health-care consumers get little help resolving complaints about high-priced bills that customers are asked to foot, writes Trudy Lieberman of Rural Health News Service in her latest "Thinking About Health" column, distributed to several state newspaper associations.

"Who protects patients when things go wrong on healthcare’s financial side?" Lieberman asks. "What happens when you receive a bill you didn’t expect and can’t afford to pay? What happens when insurers send unintelligible explanations of benefits you can’t understand? What about questionable loan arrangements to avoid medical bankruptcy?"

She answers, "Consumers of health care are pretty much on their own. From the 1960s though the 1980s when people complained, they got action from consumer organizations, government and even businesses that set up departments to handle complaints. That consumer movement is now but a flicker."

One problem is Medicare's three-day observation rule, which left John Rutledge of Wheaton, Ill., with $15,000 in hospital bills after his wife was admitted for observation, despite the fact that he refused to sign a document concurring to that statement, Lieberman writes. "Thousands of families have been caught when hospitals decide their loved ones are admitted for 'observation,' a tactic that allows them to avoid repaying Medicare if government auditors find patients should not have been classified as 'in-patients.' Playing the 'observational' game is worth millions to hospitals but costs families tens of thousands of dollars when someone doesn’t qualify for Medicare-covered skilled nursing care."

Another problem is ambulance charges, Lieberman writes. "Kathryn Green, a college history professor who lives in Greenwood, Miss. is fighting an air-ambulance company, which transported her late husband to a Jackson hospital after he suffered a fatal fall in their home. This 'nightmare,' as she calls it, is a bill from the transport company that claims it’s outside her insurance network, and says she owes them $50,950. Green is raising a ruckus and has taken her case to state and national media, members of Congress, the state attorney general, and the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program. The company has told her it will begin collection efforts."

"In both cases there’s a legislative solution," Lieberman writes. "The three-day rule can be fixed by counting all the time a patient spends in the hospital whether they’re classified as an 'in' or as an 'observational' patient. The ambulance problem can be fixed by changing the 1978 airline deregulation law that prevents states from interfering with fares, services, and routes. But money and politics block the federal changes that would help people like Rutledge and Green."

Lieberman invites consumers who have had billing issues to contact her at trudy.lieberman@gmail.com. Her column often appears on Kentucky Health News, published by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.

Texas oil and gas industry 'almost certainly' caused 59% of earthquakes since 1975, says study

Nearly two-thirds of Texas earthquakes over the past 40 years can be linked to the oil and gas industry, says a study by the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University, published today in the journal Seismological Research Letters. The study "concludes that activities associated with petroleum production 'almost certainly' or 'probably' set off 59 percent of earthquakes across the state between 1975 and 2015," Anna Kuchment reports for The Dallas Morning News. "Another 28 percent were 'possibly' triggered by oil and gas activities. Scientists deemed only 13 percent of the quakes to be natural." (Morning News graphic)

The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state's oil and gas industry, was quick to dismiss the study as arbitrary, Kuchment writes. "In November 2014 the commission tightened its rules for disposal wells. Since then, it has received 51 disposal-well applications. Of these, 22 permits were issued with special conditions, such as requirements to reduce daily maximum injection volumes and pressure and to record volumes and pressures daily as opposed to monthly. Nine permits were issued without special conditions. The rest were either withdrawn, returned to the applicant for more information, protested and sent to a hearing, or are still pending."

The study links man-made earthquakes back to the early days of the oil and gas industry, Kuchment writes. "The first man-made quake struck in 1925 in the Goose Creek oil field along the Gulf Coast east of Houston. Humble Oil, a precursor of Exxon, had extracted so much oil that the ground sank and caused houses to shake and dishes to crash to the floor. Over the years, different petroleum production methods have triggered quakes, including oil and gas extraction and enhanced recovery, in which operators pump water or carbon dioxide into reservoirs to boost the flow of oil. Each method can, in rare cases, raise or lower pressure on faults and cause them to rupture."

Employer drug tests increasingly positive; county-level maps show rise in overdose deaths

U.S. employers are finding it increasingly difficult to hire workers who can pass a drug test, Jackie Calmes reports for The New York Times. "That hurdle partly stems from the growing ubiquity of drug testing, at corporations with big human-resources departments, in industries like trucking where testing is mandated by federal law for safety reasons, and increasingly at smaller companies. But data suggest employers’ difficulties also reflect an increase in the use of drugs, especially marijuana—employers’ main gripe—and also heroin and other opioid drugs much in the news."

In 2014, 4.7 percent of Americans tested positive for illicit drug use, up from 4.3 percent in 2013, according to Quest Diagnostics, which has compiled employer-testing data since 1988. "The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported in September that one in 10 Americans ages 12 and older reported in 2014 that they had used illicit drugs within the last month—the largest share since 2001." (NYT graphic: Drug overdose deaths by county from 2003 to 2014)

Drug overdose deaths increased in nearly every county in the U.S. from 2003 to 2014, Haeyoun Park and Matthew Bloch report for NYT. During 2014 a total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths—of about 125 people every day—occurred, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug overdose death rates have increased from nine deaths per every 100,000 people in 2003 to 15 deaths per every 100,000 people in 2014.

"The trend is now similar to that of the human immunodeficiency virus, or H.I.V., epidemic in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said Robert Anderson, the CDC’s chief of mortality statistics," Park and Bloch write. "Some of the largest concentrations of overdose deaths were in Appalachia and the Southwest, according to county-level estimates released by CDC.

Knight Foundation, Columbia launch $60M initiative to help journalists fight for open records

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Columbia University today announced the formation of the $60 million Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia. A Knight press release says one of the main goals is to help financially challenged newspapers fight for freedom of information by providing funds for legal work. The foundation and the university will contribute $5 million each in operating funds and $25 million each in endowment funds, which should generate about $1 million a year.

"A recent Knight Foundation poll of leading newsroom editors revealed that they believe the news industry is less able to pursue legal cases around free speech and freedom of the press issues than it was 10 years ago, with most also agreeing that First Amendment law has not kept pace with new digital-age demands," the release noted.

Jennifer Preston, Knight’s vice president for journalism, said “Digital journalism has created exciting, unprecedented opportunities for how we report and receive the news. Today’s reporters and news outlets have access to innovative platforms, fresh perspectives and a level of immediacy like never before. But it is also creating First Amendment challenges. Without sustained advocacy dedicated to defending uninhibited expression and a free press, we are at risk of experiencing a steady erosion of these bedrock freedoms. This is a precarious moment for the First Amendment, and with this Institute we hope to establish a primary, permanent, influential advocate of free expression.” (Read more)

Commodity groups want to exclude checkoff funds from federal Freedom of Information Act

The House Appropriations Committee's 2017 Agriculture Appropriations bill says that checkoff programs are not agencies of the federal government, meaning they don't fall under Freedom of Information Act requests, Marion Nestle reports for Food Politics. Checkoff programs are research and promotion programs run by boards and overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "Checkoffs mainly do generic marketing. They are not supposed to lobby. The USDA is supposed to manage the boards—but not with federal money. So are checkoffs government programs or not? The checkoffs like to say they are government when convenient, but not government when inconvenient. This is one of those times."

On April 11 a group of 14 trade associations—not the checkoff programs themselves—"sent a letter to Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) chairman of the House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee, and Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) the subcommittee's top Democrat, asking them to urge USDA to recognize that the promotional programs are not subject to public records requests," Candice Choi and Mary Clare Jalonick report for The Associated Press. "The rationale was that the programs are funded by producers. The House Appropriations Committee approved the legislation on April 19, including the report language urging USDA to recognize the programs are not subject to FOIA."

While checkoff programs do not receive federal funds "it's the government's backing that enables them to collect money from producers," opines Urban Lehner, editor emeritus for DTN The Progressive Farmer. "In a 2005 case involving the beef checkoff, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge from ranchers who didn't want to pay the assessment. They said being forced to subsidize promotional messages with which they disagreed (because the messages promoted generic beef, not particular types of beef) violated their First Amendment rights."

"The court replied that citizens have no First Amendment right not to fund "government speech"—and checkoff messages are government speech," Lehner writes. "Writing for the court, the late Justice Antonin Scalia declared, 'The message of the (beef) promotional campaigns is effectively controlled by the Federal Government itself" Checkoff boards liked the decision. They like the governmental aura when it enables mandatory fee collections. They don't like it when it allows embarrassing information about their operations to come to light. That's the real reason 14 commodity organizations (not the checkoff boards themselves, which aren't allowed to lobby) sought the exemption."

States' challenge to CO2 limits gets big appeals panel and is delayed; ruling will come post-election

"A U.S. appeals court on Monday delayed consideration of a challenge by 27 states to President Obama's federal regulations to curb carbon dioxide emissions mainly from coal-fired plants, meaning a decision will not come until after the November presidential election," Lawrence Hurley reports for Reuters. "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will now hear the case on Sept. 27. The court was originally due to hear the case on June 2. The change appeared to be made so that a larger group of nine judges will hear the case instead of the normal three-judge panel."

Chief Judge Merrick Garland—Obama's nominee for Supreme Court—and Judge Cornelia Pillard recused themselves from hearing arguments on the Clean Power Plan, Michael Biesecker reports for The Associated Press. Of the nine remaining judges, five were appointed by Democratic presidents. "The Supreme Court voted 5-4 earlier this year to delay implementation of the plan until the legal challenges are resolved," but that vote was taken before the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, who voted to delay implementation of the plan until legal challenges were resolved. (IBEW Media Center map)

Hawaii biodiesel refinery is first U.S. biofuels plant to be certified as sustainable by industry group

A Hawaii plant that turns 13,000 gallons a day of waste cooking oils, animal fats, fruit and seeds into diesel fuel has been certified the nation's first sustainable biodiesel plant by the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, a non-profit industry group, Diane Cardwell reports for The New York Times. "The certification is intended to help clean fuel producers distinguish themselves to customers seeking green products—a kind of Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for the environmentally conscious." (NYT photo by Kent Nishimura: Refinery in Kea’au)

"For biofuels, the environmental benefits of which have fallen under increasing scrutiny in recent years, that differentiation is ever more important, executives and advocates say," Cardwell writes. Jeff Plowman, chairman of the alliance’s certification committee, told her, “There are lots of different ways of making biodiesel—lots of different feedstocks—and some have been more sustainable than others. Much like the organic labeling or non-G.M.O. labeling, it gives consumers some information to make a choice."

"Climate change specialists say there may simply not be enough agricultural waste to produce significant quantities of biofuel without causing other environmental problems, and it is important to account for what would have happened to the waste material had it not been funneled into fuel," Cardwell writes. John M. DeCicco, a research professor at the University of Michigan Energy Institute, told her, “You can’t just automatically make assumptions that, say, waste-based fuel is O.K. If you have a waste that was otherwise not going to decay, then that carbon is already being kept out of the air with respect to the atmosphere, and at that point you’re as ahead of the game as you’re ever going to be.” (Read more)