More reasons to care about the Freedom of Information Act reform bill stalled in the Senate

The Rural Blog and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues are not advocates -- except for coverage of issues, and laws that help journalists perform their First Amendment functions. That's why we keep reminding you that the House has passed a bill to improve the Freedom of Information Act and the Senate is sitting on it, because of a "hold" by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the 41-year-old FOIA is that costly lawsuits are often the only way to challenge federal agencies' denial of records or get them to even respond to records requests. Most states have an official, such as the attorney general, to provide a quick, inexpensive appeal. The bill in Congress would create a FOIA ombudsman to mediate disputes between agencies and record-seekers. It would also restore meaningful deadlines for agency, create real consequences for agencies that miss deadlines; clarify that FOIA applies to agency records held by outside private contractors and set up a FOIA hotline service. For details on the bill, from sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., click here.

Some requests filed almost 20 years ago are still pending, according to the Knight Open Government Survey released July 2 by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. "In January, the archive filed FOIA requests with 87 federal agencies for copies of their 10 oldest open or pending requests," writes Stephanie Kanowitz, Web editor for Federal Computer Week magazine. "Five agencies — the State Department, Air Force, CIA and the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and FBI — reported FOIA requests that have been pending for at least 15 years, according to the report. Other findings include: Ten agencies misreported their oldest pending FOIA requests to Congress in their fiscal 2006 Annual FOIA Reports, which are required by law; 10 agencies misrepresented their FOIA backlogs to Congress; several agencies contradicted their own responses to the archive’s two previous “10 oldest” audits by reporting requests this year that were significantly older than those they produced in 2003 or 2005.

So, why should rural journalists care about FOIA? Because it opens to door to information in federal agencies that can have a lot to do with things in your area -- crime, education, the environment and federal spending, to name a few. If you think the act needs improving, write about it -- and ask your senator about it the next time he or she comes to visit. For an example, from the Kentucky New Era, see the third item below.

Weekly papers in N.C. win appeals-court ruling preventing abuse of open-records exception

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has reversed part of a trial-court ruling that allowed local ofificals to keep two weekly newspapers from getting a document because it had been placed into a personnel file.

"Whether a document is part of a 'personnel file' ... depends upon the nature of the document and not upon where the document has been filed," the panel wrote in a unanimous decision. The case was brought by The News-Reporter of Whiteville, a twice-weekly paper, and the weekly Tabor-Loris Tribune against Columbus County officials who withheld a letter sought by the papers.

In September 2005, when the county Board of Commissioners was considering whether to renew a contract with its medical director, the emergency-services director sent the board a letter discussing his work with the medical director and recommending that a new one be hired. The county made no change, and denied the newspapers' request for a copy of the letter, arguing it was exempt from the open-records law because it was in a personnel file and dealt with the performance of a county employee, The Associated Press reports.

The appeals court wrote, "While portions of the letter are protected from disclosure, those portions can be redacted, and the remainder — falling within the Public Records Act — provided to plaintiffs." The court said making anything in a personnel file exempt from disclosure "could result in governments transforming a newspaper clipping that addressed a government employee's performance into a confidential record," AP reports. For the full story, via the First Amendment Center, click here.

Romney has commanding organizational lead in Iowa, but stretches the truth

"Six months before the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney has taken a commanding organizational lead in this traditional kick-off state," reports Jonathan Martin of Politico.com. "John McCain's financial difficulties have forced him to dramatically scale back his Iowa campaign, and it's not clear whether former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or ex-Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson will fully engage in the Hawkeye State caucuses. (Associated Press photo)

"That leaves Romney as the sole representative of the GOP top tier to commit to the traditional Ames Straw Poll and offer himself to voters for up close and personal inspections. The former Massachusetts governor has 20 full-time staffers, coordinators in most of the state's 99 counties, and a group of about 50 "super volunteers" that has already swept through the universe of likely caucus-goers with initial phone calls and have begun going door to door in key precincts. His effort got a big boost last week when McCain, down to just $2 million cash on hand, halved his Iowa staff to seven to save money."

Martin blames McCain's support of the failed immigration bill, and notes that Guiliani has made changes in his Iowa staff, but you have to wait until the second page of the story to see the reason we think Romney is ahead in Iowa: He's the only candidate who's run TV and radio ads. And they were good ads. (Read more) They were compelling. However, they stretched the truth, says the Annenberg Political Fact Check at the University of Pennsylvania, which said today that he "exaggerates his record and traffics in ambiguous language." We'd spell it "trafficks," but we put much stock in FactCheck, because it's run by Brooks Jackson, a former investigative and political reporter for The Wall Street Journal and CNN. To read his latest on Romney, go to http://www.factcheck.org/.

Kentucky newspaper holds McConnell's feet to the fire on Freedom of Information Act reform bill

The Kentucky New Era, an 11,000-circulation daily in Hopkinsville, Ky., continues to take a leadership role in trying to get the U.S. Senate to consider a bill that would improve the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The paper published an editorial June 27 asking Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to get Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to release his “hold” on the bill, which the Justice Department opposes. Last week, when McConnell was in town, New Era reporter Joe Parrino buttonholed him on the subject.

“McConnell defended a move by his colleague Sen. Jon Kyl to hold back legislation on the release of public information," Parrino reported. "McConnell said he hadn’t yet discussed the matter directly with Kyl but understood his colleague’s reservation to be about the bill’s national-security implications. McConnell dismissed any notion that Kyl is trying to bury the bill.”

“All Sen. Kyl is saying is that we need to bring it up, debate it and he may need an amendment,” McConnell told Parrino. “It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not going to pass.” Parrino noted, “Kyl placed the hold secretly and owned up to it only when the Society of Professional Journalists queried every single U.S. senator about the matter.” (Read more) For details of the bill, click here.

Freshman Democrats Webb, Tester, McCaskill are the U.S. Senate's ‘redneck caucus’

The Rural Blog has taken note of Virginia's Jim Webb since he started running for the U. S. Senate in 2006, mainly because a major part of his strategy was to bring rural voters back to the Democratic Party -- and he succeeded. He also started making waves very quickly, having a personal dust-up with President Bush at the White House. Now he and Bush are back on speaking terms, and he has "lowered his profile," but his criticism of Bush's Mideast policies, which helped elect Webb, "is unabated," reports The Virginian-Pilot.

Dale Eisman reports from Washington that Webb "and several other first-term Democrats, particularly Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, have formed an informal ' redneck caucus.' It's an allusion to their residence in 'red,' or Republican-leaning, states and their interest in lunch-pail issues, including raising the minimum wage and the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to overseas workers." McCaskill told Eisman, "We were the three that probably were least expected to win" and also "come from the reddest states."

Eisman writes, "Their arrival in the Senate has given comfort to North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan. For years, he's been a lonely crusader for populist causes like increased controls on international trade and the repeal of tax laws that he says encourage companies to export jobs. Dorgan told Eisman, "It's a breath of fresh air to have Sen. Webb and about five others. A lot of senators put on a blue suit . . . and think they're 10 feet tall, but Jim has a great sense of humor." (Read more)

Maine law requires studies for big-box stores, sets criteria for rejection

Maine has become the first state to require developers of large retail stores to pay for studies of their impacts on local services, local businesses and the environment. "The proposed store can't be approved if the studies find it is likely to cause a quantifiable, 'undue adverse impact' on more than one of those fronts and is expected to have a harmful effect on the community overall," reports Kris Hudson of The Wall Street Journal. "Similar measures have been proposed in six other states in the past two years."

The Maine law was signed a week ago by Gov. John Baldacci. Last year, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill applying to stores of more than 100,000 square feet. "A Montana measure mirroring the Maine law died in committee in the state's latest legislative session," Hudson reports. "Another measure is under review in New Jersey. The impact-study bills are the latest twist in efforts to use legislation to curtail the development of Wal-Mart and other chains, like Home Depot Inc. and Target Corp. , that commonly build large, stand-alone stores." (Read more)

Federal judge in Illinois slams door on last horse slaughterhouse in U.S.

A federal judge ruled yesterday that Illinois’ ban on slaughtering horses for meat is constitutional, “after a six-week legal battle between the state and Cavel International, a DeKalb slaughterhouse that was the only facility in the country still processing horse meat for overseas diners,” reports the DeKalb Daily Chronicle.

Kapala had issued a statement June 25 saying he lacked jurisdiction until an appeals court decided whether The Humane Society of the United States could intervene as a defendant. “The appeals court said Tuesday that Kapala did have jurisdiction, and ordered him to make a final judgment before moving ahead on the appeal.” Cavel has indicated it will appeal and request expedited handling of the case. (Read more)

Rural areas still lag behind cities, suburbs in broadband Internet access at home and at work

Less than a third of rural American homes have high-speed Internet service, or broadband, while half those in metropolitan areas do, according to the latest survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Only 31 percent of rural homes have broadband, compared to 52 percent in urban areas and 49 percent in suburbs. Rural households are gaining on their metro counterparts, but slowly. "Between 2006 and 2007, high-speed Internet usage among rural adults grew by 24 percent, versus 18 percent for urban residents and just 7 percent for suburbanites," Pew's report said. "Broadband penetration among rural residents in early 2007 is now roughly equal to broadband penetration among urban/suburban residents in early 2005."

The rural-urban disparity is not quite so great in workplaces, on which some rural residents rely for Internet connections. In rural areas, 38 percent said they have access to a high-speed connection at their place of work. For suburban and urban residents, the workplace-access figure is 55 percent.

One reason for the rural-urban broadband gap is lower Internet usage of any kind among rural residents. "Internet usage in rural areas also trails the national average; 60 percent of rural adults use the Internet from any location, compared with the national average of 71 percent," the report said. (Read the report)

Recent closures stir fears for small newspapers, communities in Arkansas

The closure and merger of several small newspapers in Arkansas, in the space of a few days, signals losses of population, losses of local retailers, and in turn a loss of community.

"Newspapers folding, merging or cutting back production is nothing new, although three in one state in the span of a few days is unusual, and new startups have been a rare sight lately," writes Ben Leubsdorf of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "The decline of local businesses and -- especially in the Delta -- dwindling populations pose serious challenges for community newspapers. As owners see their advertising base shrink, publishing a daily, semiweekly or even a weekly becomes more and more difficult, observers say."

Arkansas is home to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., but the company advertises little in newspapers, and when it and other megastores enter a newspaper's territory, local retailerts "either go out of business or become so stressed financially that they can't really afford to advertise much anymore," newspaper analyst John Morton told Leubsdorf, who noted, "Falling population in many rural areas also hurts the local economy."

Leubsdorf gives the details: "The weekly DeValls Bluff Times folded after 53 years of publication, its content absorbed into The Grand Prairie Herald in Hazen, seven miles down the road. ... Within a few days ... the DeQueen Daily Citizen also folded and two newspapers in Monroe County, the Monroe County Sun in Clarendon and The Brinkley Argus, merged to form The Central Delta Argus-Sun." (The weekly DeQueen Bee, which has one of the cutest names of any newspaper anywhere, lives on, under Lancaster Management Inc. of Gadsden, Ala., which bought both papers from a family.)

Leubsdorf interviewed Arkansas native Liz Hansen, a former reporter in the state who studies rural papers as a journalism professor at Eastern Kentucky University. "She said some rural papers are experimenting with other options, such as a voluntary dues model like that which supports public television, or papers banding together to offer group advertising sales. But, she said, there is no 'one ready solution yet.'" The Democrat-Gazette, known for putting little free content online, will sell you this story for $1.95. To get it, click here.

A story for Independence Day: Maine island creates its own government

"Most of the nation marks 231 years of independence today with parades, picnics and fireworks. But the people of Chebeague Island, Maine, are celebrating just three days of self-government," after being governed from the mainland for 260 years, reports National Public Radio, introducing a story by Howard Berkes.

The move to create a new town, accomplished by passage of a bill in the state legislature, came in response to the possibility that the island's school would be closed. Berkes reports on the first town meeting (shown in photo by David Tyler): "Every folding chair was filled in the island gym and it was standing room only on the fringes. Registered voters held fluorescent green cards, ready to raise them high when it came time to vote. They had 110 items on the agenda, including the school and town budgets, establishing town jobs, and managing waste, traffic, boating, shellfish, elections, animals, cemeteries and more. It took four hours. But half the island’s voters had already spent months on developing this framework of government." Click here to read and listen. (Great sounds!)

Mabel Doughty, 85, told Berkes: "Before that, we felt that those people on the mainland, that somehow they owned the island. We’re going to be our own people. And it’s a little bit feeling what the people who did the Declaration of Independence. They fought so hard to get there. Just as we have. And I think from now on let’s say, the Fourth of July is going to have great meaning for those of us on the island."

Broadband makes upstate New York village less rural, says occasional visitor and media reporter

For many rural places in the Northeast, the July 4 holiday is the beginning of second-home season, when folks from the cities decamp to the woods. In many places the city is following them, in the form of high-speed Internet access that makes the Web fully useful but also may change the character of the locales — at least in the view of The New York Times and one of its media reporters, David Carr. He writes from Corinth, N.Y., a town of 6,000 on the narrow, upper Hudson River in the foothills of the Adirondacks:

“My family owns a cabin up the mountain, the kind of place city dwellers come to get off the grid. But the grid keeps finding me. Apart from the Barn [ice-cream stand], there is a good wireless connection at the public library, and if you don’t mind latching onto someone else’s signal, just everywhere else around town. . . . There’s a lot of talk in the gas stations and beauty parlors — some of it on cellphones while waiting in line — about who is scheduled to get hooked up next" to the digital world of flash video and 24/7 news.

“Places like Corinth have never been short on ‘community,’ so the addition of some pages on MySpace, Facebook, or a goofy video on YouTube is not going to knit the place together in some bold new paradigm. The picnic table outside Stewart’s will still be the best place to pick up local gossip. But a broader popular culture that many have rejected by leaving big cities now rides back toward them on a big fat pipe. If you live in Corinth and are jacked in, you could watch the final episode of ‘The Sopranos’ along with the rest of the country and click onto TMZ’s continuing ballad of Lindsay, Paris and Britney, there for the plucking. Indigenous culture is being supplanted by one where everybody is in on the same joke.”

Carr notes that the cable-TV business “has roots in the sticks . . . a small Pennsylvania town in the late 1940s. Today, the rural hunger for digital service represents a business opportunity for a mature industry that is going to run out of customers at some point.” Time Warner is “headed up the mountain” with its pckage of cable, phone and broadband, “and soon enough, there will be nodes for the likes of me — Mr. Off-the-Grid — to jack in. When that happens, we can take care of business amid the towering pines. But how will that be different from the place we drove three and a half hours to get away from?” (Read more)

International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors charges batteries at annual conference

It’s a small group with an imposing name, an unpronounceable acronym and a nameless newsletter, but the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors showed at its annual conference last week that it’s a resilient and inspirational bunch of journalists who uphold the finest ideals of the craft.

A record 107 people attended the conference in the Black Hills, and as many as a third of them (including this writer) were at their first ISWNE meeting. And unlike most gatherings of editors and publishers, the conference included no sessions on how to sell more papers or more advertising, or even on how to deal with the Internet. The society is about journalism, and mainly about editorial leadership in community journalism.

It was founded in 1955 with the goal of improving editorial pages at weeklies, and the only awards it gives are for editorial writing, with one exception – an award for public service through aggressive reporting and interpretation of local government. But even that award requires reverence for language, for which its namesake, the late Eugene Cervi of the Rocky Mountain Journal, was known.

This year’s winner of the top editorial-writing award, Lori Evans of the Homer News in Alaska, echoed the comments of many other attendees when she said the conference recharged her batteries. “Our papers may be very small, but I believe our spirit may be larger than most of us imagine,” she told the awards-dinner crowd.

At the heart of each annual conference are editorial-critique sessions, originally intended to make up for weekly newspapers’ lack of editorial boards. They have expanded to critiques of the editorial and op-ed pages, and sometimes other parts of a paper.

The give and take is often among editors and publishers who know each other well, but they welcome new blood – essential in a group that has about 200 dues-paying members. “ISWNE is a small organization, more like a family than an organization,” said Dick Lee of South Dakota State University.

But even if that is still the case, it’s a far-flung family. Many of those at the conference were from Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the group often meets outside the U.S. Years ago, ISWNE endowed a bursary, or stipend, in honor of a British editor to bring an editor “across the pond” for the conference and give a speech. This year’s recipient was Moira Sleight, managing editor of the Methodist Recorder, an independent paper that is published for Methodists in the U.K. but has a global readership.

Sleight told the audience about her paper and the current state of independent community journalism in Great Britain, which she said may be threatened by “hyper-local” publications that major newspaper chains have started for “small rural areas and city neighborhoods,” typically with a free circulation of 6,000.

Even the British Broadcasting Corp. has gotten into the act, creating Web sites with similar agendas that threaten local papers’ sites, prompting strong lobbying by the newspaper industry against it. “No local paper has the resources to compete with an organization like the BBC,” Sleight said. “If it goes ahead, it will have a very negative effect on many community newspapers.” For the full text of Sleight's prepared remarks, click here.

The learning experiences at ISWNE conferences are not limited to journalism. Tours and local presenters give attendees a taste of the locale, broadening editors’ perspective. The Black Hills gathering included an obligatory trip to Mount Rushmore, but an even more extensive visit to Crazy Horse (above), where a much larger memorial, this one to the legendary Native American leader, is slowly being blasted out of a mountain.

The group sat in on the most extensive interview ever granted by Ruth Ziolkowski, 81, widow of Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor who started the project in 1948 and died in 1982. The interview was conducted by Jack Marsh, diversity vice president of the Freedom Forum, who also moderated a panel discussion with Native American journalists.

In South Dakota, a state with a large Indian population, Marsh and Larry Atkinson of the Mobridge Tribune have created a journalism diversity program like none in any other state. Their annual conference at Crazy Horse attracts 150 or more Native American students and 35 to 40 mentors, and the American Indian Journalism Institute brings Native American students to University of South Dakota for one of four courses, then places them in internships.

“Native Americans are the most under-represented group in journalism,” Marsh said. Of the 58,000 journalists at U.S. daily newspapers, only 300 are identified as Native Americans, he said, and the number who are actually enrolled as tribe members – which requires at least 25 percent Indian blood in many tribes – is probably about 100.

Back at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, headquarters for the editors’ conference, one agenda item for the group’s business meeting was “Future of ISWNE.” The outgoing president, retired editor Harry Hix of Oklahoma State University, said the group is “making progress” after doubts about its survival a few years ago.

Membership topped 200 this year, thanks in part to trial memberships and other recruitment efforts of Chad Stebbins, director of the Institute for International Studies at Missouri Southern State University, who is the group’s executive director.

Stebbins said the organization has improved its publications – a monthly newsletter and the quarterly Grassroots Editor magazine – and is providing more services, such as a hotline for members to ask each other questions about issues that arise at their newspapers, few of which are chain-owned.

“The people who have sent in their questions have been amazed by the responses they’ve received,” often as many as 50 in a 24-hour period, Stebbins said.

The hotline also helps maintain a sense of community among the widely scattered membership. For rural journalists, often hampered by the isolation that defines rurality, ISWNE can provide valuable networking and inspiration. For more information, go to http://www.iswne.org/.

Freedom Of Information Act reform bill needs editorial support, especially in Kentucky

The federal Freedom of Information Act is 41 years old, and like most folks in their 40s who haven't been well cared for, it is showing its age. Most state open-records laws are better, providing a quick, inexpensive appeal to the attorney general or some other authority if an agency refuses to cough up records or fails to respond in the required time. Under FOIA, many records requests have languished for years, and going to court to dislodge them is too expensive for the citizens or news outlets that want the documents.

A bill in the Senate would restore meaningful deadlines for agency action, and and create a FOIA ombudsman as an alternative to costly litigation. It would also impose real consequences on federal agencies for missing the deadlines; clarify that FOIA applies to agency records held by outside private contractors, and establish a FOIA hotline service for all federal agencies. For details of the bill, click here.

The Department of Justice opposes the bill, and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., is putting a hold on it, preventing the Senate from considering it. Supporters of the bill are asking news outlets to write or air editorials urging their senators to ask Kyl to let the bill be heard. Any editorial would be helpful, but Kentucky media outlets could be especially influential, because Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is the Senate Republican leader and the Kentucky open-records law is one of those that provide a quick, inexpensive appeal.

The Kentucky New Era said in an editorial, "Sen. McConnell, we ask that you let your long-standing reputation for support of open government remain stainless by persuading your colleague to drop the hold and let this bill go forward toward a vote." Citing findings by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government that responses to FOIA requests dropped by 31 percent last year, the editorial said the Bush administration "has allowed lax FOIA enforcement and a near-obsession with secrecy to undercut the public’s right to know,” and asked, "How would you feel if someone else had something you own, and you had to file a written request to get it, and then there were delays upon delays getting it to you?" (Read more)

Second West Virginia county approves casino table games at local racetrack

Voters in a second county in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle have voted to allow the local racetrack to become a full-scale casino by adding table games to its slot machines. The unofficial results yesterday in rural Hancock County, at the state's northern tip, were 5,021 for and 3,506 against, or 59 percent to 41 percent.

The vote sought by Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort follows a similar one in Ohio County, which authorized table games at Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center. Voters in Jefferson County, in the fast-growing Eastern Panhandle, rejected the idea. The fourth and final referendum will be held for Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming in Nitro, in Kanawha County, which includes Charleston.

The West Virginia Legislature authorized table games, subject to local referenda, to help the tracks compete with slot machines recently authorized statewide in Pennsylvania. "Mountaineer plans to install 90 table games, with about half of those to be poker tables. Instructors have been trained by West Virginia Northern Community College, which also is training workers for Wheeling Island," reports Paul Giannamore of the Sunday News-Register of Wheeling. For his story, click here.

Weekly newspaper editors' group gives awards for editorial writing and public service

Twelve editors of weekly newspapers won awards for editorial writing last night from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, and one got the Golden Quill Award for best editorial of 2006. She is Lori Evans, editor and publisher of the Homer News in Alaska, a Morris Communications paper.

Evans' Sept. 14 editorial called for an end to unlimited property-tax exemptions for homeowners 65 and over on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage, where second homes and retirement homes are becoming popular -- so much so among senior citizens that their total property exemptions last year totaled $404 million, almost double the 2001 figure of $210 million. "Given the borough's changing demographics -- more seniors, fewer young families -- the exemption is just not fair," Evans wrote. The Borough Assembly didn't follow Evans' advice, but this fall voters will decide whether to put a $300,000 cap on each exemption.

Other "Golden Dozen" award winners at the ISWNE annual conference in Rapid City, S.D., were Steve Dills of the Sylvan Lake News in Alberta; Gary Sosniecki of The Vandalia Leader in Missouri; Luke Klink of The Star News in Medford, Wis.; Betta Ferrendelli of The Observer in Rio Rancho, N.M.; Dick Crocford of the Big Horn County News in Montana; Bill Schanen of the Ozaukee Press in Port Washington, Wis.; Charles Gay of the Shelton-Mason County Journal in Washington; John Wylie II of the Oologah Lake Leader in Oklahoma; Mike Buffington of the Jackson Herald in Jefferson, Ga.; Tim Waltner of the Freeman Courier in South Dakota; and Mo Mehlsak of The Forecaster in Falmouth, Maine.

The Eugene Cervi Award for public service in community journalism went to Guy and Marcia Wood, publishers of the Sangre de Christo Chronicle in Angelfire, N.M., from 1984 to 2006. "They constantly battled village government to keep meetings and records open," the presentation said. The award recognizes consistently aggressive reporting and interpretation of local government, and reverence for language, for which the award's namesake is known. Cervi, of the Rocky Mountain Journal in Denver, died in 1970.

Ag Committee chair says House likely to put caps on farm subsidy payments

The U.S. House is likely to put a cap on subsidy payments to individual farmers, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee tells the Brownfield agriculture-news service. “I think there is a sense within the Committee that probably something has to be done otherwise we could end up with something on the floor that’s not workable,” said Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn.

“Peterson says the pressure is coming from urban members of Congress who have been hearing questions from constituents about big payments made to a few producers,” reports Brownfield's Bob Meyer. “Peterson says they went through a similar situation in 2002 and some changes were made. . . . If people are realistic, they’re going to realize there’s probably going to have to be some changes made this time as well.”

Members of the Agriculture Committee are discussing ideas for caps with farmers in their states, Meyer reports. “Some have suggested no program payments to anyone with an adjusted gross income exceeding $200,000. ... Peterson says he will mark up the Farm Bill on July 17, with floor action scheduled for July 24.” (Read more)

Farm Bill should invest more in renewable energy, rural folks say in poll

Rural Americans in a national poll said the top priority for the new Farm Bill "should be more investment in renewable energy, which could expand the ethanol boom that has brought jobs and cash to the countryside," Reuters reports on questions posed on behalf of the Center for Rural Strategies.

"Environmentalists, antihunger groups, specialty crop growers, fiscal hawks and small-farm advocates say major changes are needed in the farm program. They want more money for land stewardship and public nutrition programs and stricter limits on subsidies to big farmers," Reuters reports. "More investment in renewable fuels was backed by 37 percent of poll participants, out of seven choices of how "to improve the farm bill. In fourth place, backed by 25 percent, was 'place caps on federal government subsidies to farms worth more than $3 million.' Fifth place went to protecting farms from urban development." (Read more)

N. Y. Times writes about a chronic rural problem: animal control (but needs geography lesson)

"Midnight dumping of unwanted dogs is common here on the southern tail of the Appalachian Mountains, where large numbers of poor people are attached to multiple pets but cannot afford to sterilize or vaccinate them, and where impoverished county governments do not maintain animal shelters, require licensing or enforce requirements for rabies shots," Erik Eckholm writes for The New York Times from Selmer, Tenn.

Eckholm and his editors need a geography lesson -- the Cumberland Plateau that forms the western edge of geological Appalachia is more than 100 miles east of Selmer -- and many of the county governments are not impoverished but irresponsible. But the story is the latest evidence that the paper in America's quintessential metropolis does care about the problems of rural America. Eckholm's point of departure is Phillip Swetman and his family, who keep 13 dogs, some pictured in photo by John Anderson.

Eckholm writes, "The combination of pets and poverty, veterinary experts say, brings similar results to many rural areas: unhealthy conditions for oversized animal populations, desperate efforts by often-overwhelmed individuals to help and a lurking threat to human health. Dr. Bob Sumrall, a veterinarian in nearby Henderson, in Chester County, estimated that more than 75 percent of the thousands of dogs in the county alone have not had rabies shots." (Chester is the northern neighbor to McNairy County, of which Selmer is the county seat.) For Echkolm's story and a slide show, click here.

California police bully legislators into killing bill to open discipline cases

Here's a scary lede from the Los Angeles Times: "The slow death of a worthy bill being discussed in Sacramento offers powerful evidence of what happens to a state when it comes under the control of its police." The Times editorial lamented the likely death of a bill that would allow local governments to open police disciplinary hearings "in the wake of a badly reasoned state Supreme Court decision last year."
The editorial goes on: "Police unions have fought dirty and disingenuously to defeat it, throwing around their political weight in order to protect their members from legitimate scrutiny. . . . The union thuggery continued this week as representatives testified that Romero's bill would embolden criminals and undermine safety. Nonsense. In a final insult, the Assembly's Public Safety Committee, host to that testimony, turned off the TV camera, preventing the public even from watching a debate over public access." (Read more)

Small-town and rural opposition helped kill immigration bill, Post says

Alarm over burgeoning immigration in rural areas and small towns "helped seal defeat" for the immigration-reform bill in the Senate yesterday, The Washington Post reports, using as its object example the state of Georgia and the city of Gainesville, self-proclaimed "Poultry Capital of the World," where chicken-processing plants have come to depend on Latino immigrants for production-line work. Reporter N.C. Aizenman notes that Republican Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia helped write the bill, then voted against it after being overwhelmed by objections from opponents.
"Analysts say the unprecedented passion over immigration is largely the result of the seismic shift in settlement patterns since the mid-1990s," when "the foreign-born population of 25 states doubled" and the Latino population more than tripled "in six other states with almost no prior experience of Latino immigration."
William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, told the Post,"Before, people outside the seven gateway states didn't care much one way or the other about immigration. Now, you suddenly have all these people across Middle America seeing immigrants in their neighborhoods." (Read more)
Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder writes, "The Post’s notion of a 'small town' is typically myopic. Gainesville is a metropolitan area with over 100,000 people. It’s urban all the way. But Gainesville is smaller than many cities, and we here at the Yonder can see the immigration issue driving the presidential debate in truly small-town Iowa. The pages of the Iowa Independent tell us daily that the biggest applause lines come when candidates talk about defending borders — and defeating the Senate bill." (Read more)

Coal-mine safety agency lax on enforcement, Labor Department review says

"Federal mine safety officials overlooked obvious violations, declined to take serious enforcement actions, and wrote regulations that were far too weak at three mines where 19 miners died last year, according to three new internal Labor Department reviews," reports Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette.

The review blamed staff cuts, reorganizations and an emphasis on “compliance assistance” to coal operators, a hallmark of the Bush administration's approach for the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Richard Stickler, the assistant labor secretary for MSHA, called the findings “deeply disturbing” and said the administration would create a new MSHA Office of Accountability to correct the problems. (Read more)

Hillary Clinton likes idea of making USDA the Department of Rural Affairs

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who is leading in polls for the Democratic nomination for president, all but endorsed changing the name and the mission of the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Rural Affairs, in a live, video linkup with the first National Rural Assembly this week.

“That is a great idea. I really like that idea. You are the first people who have ever asked me that. I wish I had thought of that, Clinton said, replying to the first question delivered by Ali Webb of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which was a major sponsor of the event. “I'm excited by the idea of it and I will get to work on thinking about that right away.”

“Clinton seemed genuinely started and intrigued,” the Daily Yonder reported. “The crowd loved it — because the crowd was not made up of corn, cotton, sugar, rice or wheat producers. Changing the name of the Department of Agriculture is meaningless, of course. It’s just a couple of words. But Sen. Clinton was talking in code. She was saying, yes, the emphasis on the support payments for crops (like corn, wheat and rice) needs to be lessened and more time (and money) should be spent on rural development. . . . This is the key fight in Congress, between those who would put a cap on commodity payments and steer more money to rural development and those who would keep payments as they are.” (Read more)
Clinton didn't speak entirely in code. She said of rural development, “For too long it has been the only part that has gotten all the attention and all of the money.” (Photo from the Daily Yonder)

Most presidential candidates decline invitations to speak to first National Rural Assembly

Organizers of the first National Rural Assembly, which concluded yesterday with a visit to a congressional hearing on rural issues, invited all 15 major presidential candidates to address the gathering of almost 300 rural advocates, from state Farm Bureau officials to the Children's Defense Fund's Southern regional office.

None of the candidates appeared live at the gathering in Chantilly, Va., though Democrats John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich sent videotaped messages. The only one with a live, interactive satellite feed was Hillary Clinton. She won applause by saying "I know you’re working hard in Chantilly, developing a much-needed rural strategy. But when I become president you’ll be doing it in the White House. We need to move rural issues right into decision-making in America."

Howard Berkes of National Public Radio reported, "The crowd loved that, but the respondents to the rural poll released two weeks ago rated Clinton as the candidate they liked least. She was as unpopular in the poll as illegal immigrants. It’ll take more than promises of attention to win a significant number of rural votes."

Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies, which commissioned the poll of rural voters, told Berkes that rural voters aren’t well-organized, perhaps because they’re spread far and wide. "They don’t see themselves as a political constituency, so politicians don’t either," Berkes reported. "Polling indicates they don’t hinge their votes on issues that are unique to rural life." To listen to Berkes' report, click here.

Bill Bishop, co-editor of the Daily Yonder, a new, rural news Web site with a political bent, told Berkes, "The votes that count now are signed at the bottom of a check. And there just aren’t many checks coming out of rural areas." Bishop and geographer Tim Murphy recently reported that only 5 percent of contributions to presidential candidates came from rural areas. "So if now is the time of the campaign when candidates are raising money," Berkes said, "in a way it makes sense to not show up at a rural event."

Bloomington, Ind. newspaper columnist mixes it up with Bill O'Reilly

Mike Leonard of the Herald-Times in Bloomington, Ind., circulation 28,000, said he didn't win any awards at the National Society of Newspaper Columnists conference last weekend in Philadelphia, “but I can brag that no one at the annual columnists’ conference received more pats on the back, hearty handshakes and 'Way to go!' congratulations. I got slimed by Fox News program host Bill O’Reilly. It was a little like having a skunk tell you that you smell bad. Many of my colleagues expressed envy.”

At issue was a column Leonard had written about an Indiana University study of “The O’Reilly Factor,” which found that O'Reilly “is a propagandist whose techniques are "heavier" and "less nuanced" than the notorious 1930s radio commentator Father Charles Coughlin,” as Leonard put it. The column was included in the program booklet, and O'Reilly told Leonard from the podium, “Sorry, Mike, but you’re a dishonest guy in this column.” Leonard wrote that he shouted, “Right back at you, Bill.” For the latest column, which debunks assertions O'Reilly made in the speech, click here.

Institute founder one of six Rural Heroes at National Rural Assembly

Al Smith walked down Main Street in Russellville, Ky., one Sunday morning in the late 1950s, past the Logan County Courthouse, where the county singing convention was in full sing. He thought for a moment that he belonged there, but kept walking, down the street to the bootlegger -- and, perhaps, to oblivion.

It was a small piece of a life's journey that he recounted for the first National Rural Assembly last night, as he accepted one of its six Rural Hero awards for his work in journalism -- most recently the establishment of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky.

Smith never joined the singers, but he did kick liquor, with the help of the people in Logan County, and his journalism career began looking up. He began writing articles for big-city papers, and "It was soon evident I could go back to the city," he said. But then he realized: "These people took me in when I didn't have a friend . . . and I decided I'd stay with them."

His decision was confirmed by the woman he soon married. Martha Helen Smith told him that living in a rural town was OK "as long as that city-limit sign doesn't obscure your vision of what lies beyond the border." And after he built a small chain of rural newspapers and sold it, that outlook helped inspire the Institute, which helps rural journalists define the public agenda in their communities -- including reporting and commentary on state, regional and national issues that have a local impact on such things as education, health care, the economy and the environment.

The idea was planted by Smith's friend Rudy Abramson, a former Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, and found support in 2001 from Dr. Lee Todd, who had just become president of UK. "Without Todd's acceptance of our vision, it never would have worked," Smith told the National Rural Assembly. The Institute operated on an ad hoc basis until 2004, when grants enabled UK to hire Al Cross as its director. It recently held a National Summit on Journalism in Rural America and presented programs in Iowa and Tennessee, but its work remains grounded in Kentucky and Central Appalachia. It works with policy experts like those at the Rural Assembly to illuminate issues for rural journalists. Smith saluted the work of the advocates for rural America and said, "I'm just happy to be part of the choir."

Other rural heroes recognized at the Assembly were Bill Bynum of Jackson, Miss., founder of the Enterprise Corp. of the Delta, for leadership in investment and entrepreneurship; Dr. Forrest Calico of Stanford, Ky., former director of the Appalachian Regional Health Corp., for health care; Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Nation in South Dakota, for advocacy; Sharon King of New York City, president of the F.B. Heron Foundation, for philanthropy; and U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., for government.

The National Rural Assembly is designed to " strengthen rural America by giving its leaders a platform to be heard, raising the visibility of rural issues, organizing a national network of rural interests, and developing specific rural policy initiatives," says the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the chief co-convener, with the Ford Foundation. It continues today, then tomorrow with a congressional hearing on rural issues. (Read more)

McCain unaware of disproportionate casualties of rural soldiers in Iraq; Obama up to speed

Iowa journalist Douglas Burns writes in the Iowa Independent, an online news forum, that Arizona Sen. John McCain was unaware that rural America is bearing a disproportionate burden of the fighting and casualties in Iraq. “Most of us in western Iowa, regardless of position on the war or political affiliation, just know this,” Burns, a reporter and columnist for the Daily Times Herald in Carroll, Iowa, wrote June 3. “We see it in our small towns, anecdotally — and The Associated Press and other reliable sources have documented it. . . . Barack Obama gets this. John McCain doesn’t. I asked them both the same question, and was stunned with the response from McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona an GOP candidate for the presidency.”

In an interview, McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, told Burns, “I don’t think the numbers bear out that assertion. I think they’re from all over America. They’re not from the wealthiest Americans. I will admit that. I have no statistic that indicates they’re mostly from rural America.” Burns notes, “The premise of the question was not that rural kids are doing "most" of the fighting but rather a "disproportionate" amount of it. McCain should be angry about this gulf in sacrifice, which has some roots in a socio-economic status.”

In contrast, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama showed familiarity with the subject when Burns asked him about it. “One of the things I’ve been distressed about is the way folks in southern Illinois and rural western Iowa, that those are the folks that are disproportionately affected,” Obama told Burns in an interview in Denison, Iowa, above, in photo from the Daily Yonder. Burns interviewed McCain in LeMars. (Read more) For background on the casualty pattern, click here. For the conservative Heritage Foundation's take on the issue, courtesy of the Daily Yonder, click here.

Rural giving to presidential candidates scarce, but mostly Democratic

Only five percent of contributions presidential candidates got in the first quarter of the year came from people who listed addresses in counties outside metropolitan areas, but "surprisingly, most of those donations have gone to Democrats," reports the Daily Yonder, a new rural news site with a political bent.

In the first quarter, 17 candidates raised $114.3 million. "Of this sum, only $6 million came from people living in rural communities," write geographer Tim Murphy and Daily Yonder co-editor Bill Bishop. "Democratic candidates took in 55 percent of the $6 million raised from rural residents in the first quarter of 2007; 45 percent of the total went to Republicans. The Democrats' lead in rural fundraising is the mirror opposite of the presidential vote outcomes of 2000 and in 2004; in both elections, Republican George W. Bush won nearly 60 percent of the rural vote, support that was crucial to his victory."

The leading rural money-raisers were former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, followed by former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Democrats. "Romney, who headed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, raised just over $214,000 in the first reporting period of 2007 from Summit County, where many of the athletic events took place," the Daily Yonder reports. Romney's total rural cash in the quarter was just under $1.15 million, 5.47 percent of his $20.98 million total.

Edwards' figure was $1.07 million, 7.61 percent of his total. Richardsdon's $895,699 was 14.3 percent of his $6.246 million total. Richardson got "hefty contributions in the southeastern counties of his home state. Members of the oil and gas business have been active in raising money for Richardson in the area around Hobbs, Roswell and Carlsbad, according to New Mexico press reports." Richardson recently resigned from the board of Valero Energy, the nation's leading refiner.

The Daily Yonder says it will report the states and rural counties that gave the most to presidential candidates later this week. Fund-raising reports for the second quarter are due in mid-July, though most campaigns will give their total fund-raising numbers on or soon after July 1. (Read more)

Obama's shift on issue undercuts push for coal-to-liquid subsidies

"After co-sponsoring legislation earlier this year for billions of dollars in subsidies for liquefied coal," which would help his home state of Illinois but could cause trouble for his presidential campaign, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama "began qualifying his support in ways that have left both environmentalists and coal industry officials unsure where he stands," The Washington Post reports. "His shift has helped shape this month's Senate debate over how to reduce both dependence on foreign oil and carbon dioxide emissions; on Tuesday, he voted against one proposal to boost liquefied coal and for a more narrowly worded one. Both failed." (Associated Press photo from 2004, via Post, shows Obama touring a pilot plant in Illinois.)

Post reporters Alec McGillis and Steven Mufson observe: "Obama's contortions on coal point to the limits of the role he likes to assume, that of a unifier who can appeal across traditional lines and employ a "new kind of politics" to solve problems. In reaching out to the coal industry, some observers say, he may have been trying to show that he is a different sort of Democrat, but the gesture had the look of old-style politicking and put him in a corner, where he wound up alienating some on both sides of the issue."

Obama's change of position, first reported June 13 by the Los Angeles Times and mentioned in The Rural Blog on June 15, calls for new coal field to "emit at least 20 percent less life-cycle carbon than conventional fuels," he said in a statement. "The statement dismayed those pushing coal-to-liquid, who noted this would require technological leaps even beyond perfecting carbon storage," Mufson and McGillis report. They trace what they call "Obama's winding path on coal," starting in his days as a state legislator. (Read more)

Black lung not only persists in coal mines, in places it's getting worse, The Courier-Journal reports

"Efforts to end black-lung disease stretch back decades. But in Eastern Kentucky, the disease persists — and is far worse than federal health officials anticipated it would be by now," reports The Courier-Journal, in the latest example of the Louisville newspaper's continuing commitment to covering an issue important to a region that the paper has mostly abandoned. It offers a six-story package by R.G. Dunlop, former chief of the paper's now-closed Hazard bureau, and medical reporter Laura Ungar, who has written about rural health issues in Kentucky and elsewhere.

The black-lung pattern extends into southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia, where Dunlop began the package's main story with the story of Mark McCowan of Pounding Mill, Va. At a relatively young age, McCowan (in C-J photo by Matt Stone) has black lung, though he began mining in 1984, 15 years a federal law imposed limits on the coal dust that causes the disease. "He never should have been exposed to dust levels sufficient to scar his lungs, end his career and perhaps consign him to a premature death," Dunlop writes. "Now 43 and with two grown sons, McCowan is plagued by shortness of breath and fatigue."

Dunlop offers possible reasons that black-lung rates remain high in the region: "A federal advisory committee's key recommendations on how to stamp out the disease still haven't been implemented almost a decade after they were issued — partly because of a change in focus when President Bush took office, some say. Also, some researchers say the operators of small mines common in Eastern Kentucky may not have the resources or the will to bring dust down to levels that won't sicken workers." To read this valuable package, click here.

Farmers, environmentalists testing idea of converting farmlands into wetlands

Peter Slevin and Kari Lydersen of The Washington Post write from Hennepin, Ill.: "As steam rises from flat fingers of water reflecting an iron-gray sky, Donald Hey climbs to the top of an observation tower to watch a flock of American white pelicans huddled among the reeds. These reclaimed wetlands along the Illinois River, a man-made vista of corn and soybeans a few years ago, are now home to marsh grass, rare butterflies and 70,000 waterfowl. But Hey and his green-minded colleagues have a greater hope for their 2,600-acre pilot project. They aim to prove the existence of a market lucrative enough to inspire landowners to surrender their fields for payments from agencies and companies that are required to comply with clean-water rules. The untested theory, endorsed by a coterie of environmental groups and supporters, holds that restoring wetlands in the Midwest would be a cost-effective way to filter harmful nitrogen and phosphorous that damage ecosystems all the way down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. If it works as intended, the system will also expand habitats for animals and waterfowl by returning farmland to its wilder roots, benefiting nature lovers and hunters. The organizers, led by the Chicago-based Wetlands Initiative, call it nutrient farming." (Photo by Gary Sullivan of the Wetlands Initiative, via Post, shows an endangered yellow-headed blackbird at a waterfowl refuge.) (Read more)

Rural vote decisive in last four presidential elections, expert says

The rural vote "has been decisive in the last four presidential elections," according to Seth McKee, a political scientist at the University of South Florida, who "has studied the rural vote in presidential elections more than any other academic," reports the Daily Yonder.

In an article titled "Rural Voters and the Polarization of American Presidential Elections," McKee uses data since 1952 to show that "the split between rural and urban voters has widened even as the older divide between Northern and Southern rural voters has narrowed," reports Bill Bishop, co-editor (with wife Julie Ardery) of the Daily Yonder, a new rural-news site with a political bent. Bishop is a former weekly newspaper reporter, editor and publisher who most recently worked for the Austin American-Statesman.

"Bill Clinton was able to win the presidency in part because he neutralized the rural vote, winning 47 percent and 43 percent, respectively, in these contests," Bishop writes. "By contrast, in the 2000 and 2004 elections, Republican George W. Bush would not have won the presidency if not for the support he received among rural voters—53 percent and 64 percent, respectively, for these contests. Despite the decline in the rural percentage of the American electorate, the rural vote has become more important because it is so decidedly Republican. Never before has the gap in the presidential vote choice of rural and urban voters been so wide."

West Virginia regulators reject controversial wind-energy project; others pending

The Public Service Commission of West Virginia yesterday rejected a controversial proposal for a wind-power plant atop Jack Mountain, a ridge in the southwestwern part of the scenic Eastern Panhandle.

"The panel said the application by Liberty Gap Wind Force LLC to locate turbines on a seven-mile stretch near Franklin failed to provide enough information," reports Joe Morris of The Charleston Gazette. "The application’s map was especially lacking, the commission’s final order says. In violation of PSC siting rules, it neglected to designate existing land uses, recreational areas or historic and archaeological sites, the commission said." It also said the application didn't examine enough angles of the "viewshed," the area where the huge windmill turbines would be visible, and "didn’t resolve concerns about the turbines’ noise and the possibility of their killing bats." The plant would be near Harper in southwest Pendleton County. For the company's initial case filing, which includes a map, click here.

West Virginia has one operating wind-power project, in Tucker County, where the northern part of the Eastern Panhandle joins the rest of the state. Morris reports: "Three other projects are planned in the state, including another by U.S. WindForce" for Grant County, which lies mostly east of Tucker County. "So far, those plans haven’t drawn any legal challenges." Another Grant County project, planned by Dutch-owned Shell Windenergy and London-based NedPower, has been approved by the PSC but faces a lawsuit. The same is true for a plant Chicago-based Invenergy wants to build in Greenbrier County. That's southwest of Pendleton County. "A nearby landowner and an advocacy group, Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy, sued over the PSC approval," the Gazette reports. (Read more)

House subcommittee rejects Farm Bill reform ideas, but much work and debate remain

Prospects for a different kind of Farm Bill got nowhere in the commodity subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee this week. The panel rejected proposals “that gave cotton and rice growers an almost allergic reaction: new restrictions that would have tracked farm program payments to individuals,” reports Agri-Pulse, a farm-policy newsletter. “Also eliminated: reductions in the percentage of base acres used to calculate direct payments and upward adjustments in support prices. Both provisions had been included in a chairman’s discussion draft that was circulated last Thursday but attracted so much opposition that provisions were changed several times before being dropped prior to Tuesday’s session.”

Only one member of the subcommittee voted for a Bush administration plan that “would have emphasized guaranteed payments to farmers, as opposed to those contingent on market prices," wrote Andrew Martin in The New York Times. “By opening such a wide chasm between themselves and the advocates of change, the members of the panel appear to have increased the chances that the Farm Bill will stir a fierce debate.”

Despite the 18-0 vote, the bill does not seem to be on a fast track. “What happened today was a placeholder,” ranking Republican Bob Goodlatte of Virginia said soon after the committee adjourned. “We’re going to have to revisit all of these issues again in full committee.”

Sara Wyant of Agri-Pulse reports, “Reform-minded interest groups were none too pleased with the outcome. For example, Bread for the World said the panel "ignored calls from thousands of constituents and a broad coalition of groups saying that it is time for broad reform." American Farmland Trust President Ralph Grossi said, “The committee shouldn't try to design the future of U.S. agriculture policy by looking in the rearview mirror. Agriculture has changed and it’s time for forward looking policies.”

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin told Wyant likewise in an interview. “We need to get agriculture looking ahead, not looking back,” he said, but Wyant reported, “Many veteran farm policy observers believe that he’ll have a tough time getting any major changes out of his own committee.”

The House committee's Farm Bill web site provides a section-by-section summary of the legislation. For more background and commentary on the bill, see the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Poor counties get a lot more in farm subsidies than development grants

A new study shows that the contrast of heavy farm subsidies and relatively few rural-development grants to poor counties is a national pattern, not just in the Delta of northwest Mississippi, where The Washington Post reported a story this week. The pattern has been established by the Southern Rural Development Initiative, a nonprofit that says it "provides practical tools for rural community leaders, organizations, and related national sectors to create just and economically sustainable communities across the rural South."

In 2001-03, "For every rural development grant dollar sent to the 364 poorest rural counties in America, $15.65 went in agricultural commodity direct payment subsidies – most of it to a small number of very large farm operations," the study report says. "Over this three-year period, these 364 poor rural counties received $5 billion through nutrition programs, primarily to children and their families. This is a per capita allocation of $730, compared to the national nutrition program per capita allocation of $305 and $366 for nonmetro counties. This reflects the extreme poverty conditions found in these counties."

The reports says the Department of Agriculture "perpetuates the legacy of the Deep South’s anachronistic, inequitable economy through its agricultural subsidy programs. The commodity crops grown in this region that account for the bulk of the subsidy payments (rice, cotton, and sugar) are crops that anchored the old plantation system. Sharecropping and Jim Crow are gone, but those communities and states that have not invested in building broad-based community assets through education, civic capacity, and basic economic infrastructure remain dependent on an anachronistic economy via supports from the federal government."

The release of the study and the Post story were more than coincidental. SRDI Policy and Research Director Jason Gray told The Rural Blog that he told one of the Post reporters that the study was in the works.

FCC chairman supports subsidizing rural broadband

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said this week that high-speed Internet service for rural areas needs to be subsidized, as part of the "universal service" that is an established federal policy for telecommunications.

Martin said at a conference in Chicago that broadband policies should be changed so rural consumers could receive urban-level services, "but there's a limited amount of funding to do this." He called for "a policy that is technologically neutral," and said the FCC should move away from "subsidizing multiple voice carriers in rural areas" to subsidizing broadband, Gene J. Koprowski reported for Technology Daily. (Read more)

Montana Journalism Review: The Challenges of Rural Journalism

Much of the latest issue of the Montana Journalism Review is devoted to rural journalism, and we're happy to highlight it here because the state has innovators in the field, three of whom attended our National Summit on Journalism in Rural America this spring -- Keith Graham of the University of Montana, Courtney Lowery of the online news source New West and John Q. Murray of the Clark Fork Chronicle, in photo. They and their ideas are featured.

Graham and Lowery started Rural News Network in 2006 when they saw a need for a rural news connection and got it funded by the New Voices program of J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism. The network began in Lowery's hometown of Dutton, which lost its newspaper years ago. "Lowery and Graham hope the RNN Web site will allow people in Dutton to publish their own news," Eleena Fikhman writes. For her interview with Graham and Lowery, click here.

In Murray's piece, which we recommend you read, he analyzes the challenges facing newspapers in rural areas that have seen "traditional natural resource industries decline and families move away in search of work." He is assembling a Corporation for Public Community Newspapers, "an independent non-profit organization with a dues-paying membership. Members attend regular meetings to: (1) review the progress of the local community newspaper toward its agreed-upon goals; (2) identify special reporting projects that the newspaper should undertake; and (3) vote to provide funding for specific special projects. . . .The supplemental funding provided by the nonprofit means the newspaper can increase its news hole to provide that coverage, regardless of the amount of advertising sold that week. The nonprofit is its own distinct organization, completely separate from the for-profit newspaper, but the two enter into a binding contract that gives the nonprofit full budget authority over the special projects. The members of the nonprofit vote on the special projects and provide the funding. The newspaper is free to turn down the project and the funding. In that case, the nonprofit can seek to contract with freelancers or other citizen journalists to produce the special projects. Conversely, the newspaper can choose to implement all special projects recommended by the non-profit, even if they are not fully funded." (Read more)

Gwen Florio, who came to Montana to cover the West for The Philadelphia Inquirer and is now state-capital reporter for the Great Falls Tribune, writes of her introduction to new territory: "Rural reporting was going to require a whole new set of skills. It would also prove to be the most rewarding work I’ve ever done, before or since." Some of her tips: "Wear good shoes. By which I mean sturdy. Lest you think this is frivolous advice, try walking through gumbo in loafers. Or savor the nice warm feeling of a cowflop squishing into open-toed sandals. And on your way to change your footgear, go fill your gas tank." (Read more)

KCGM (that stands for Kids, Cattle, Grain, Minerals), is "the voice of the prairies, your good-neighbor station" in Scobey, Mont. Mike Stebleton writes that the FM station "can attribute its 35 of continued survival to just one thing: unconditional support from the Daniels County community and surrounding area." In an unusual twist, the effort to establish the station was led by Larry Bowler, editor-publisher of the weekly Daniels County Leader. "We were being considered colonies of neighboring, larger populated areas, and I wanted us to develop a certain amount of political clout so that some of our feelings could get to higher levels," Bowler explained in a 1995 interview. (Read more)

The Review also has a story about rural news coverage in Kyrgyzstan, by Kubanychbek Taabaldiev, who has run the former Soviet Central Asian republic's national news agency since 1998. "He is a 2007 Fulbright Scholar researching rural Montana's press to learn how Kyrgyzstan might transition to independent media from state-controlled news," the Review reports. "Kyrgyzstan is the only country of the five Central Asian states with comparatively free media." Click here to read his report.

Finally, just for fun is "I've Read Every Sheet," a song about rural newspapers by Dennis Swibold, sung to the tune of "I've Been Everywhere," a tune penned by Geoff Mack and made familiar by Lucky Starr, Hank Snow and Johnny Cash. Mack's version is dominated by place names, Swibold's by newspaper names.

Washington Post sees contrast in largess for big farms, little for small towns in Delta

Gilbert Gaul and Dan Morgan of The Washington Post plow a new furrow in a familiar field today, taking their examination of farm subsidies to 10 counties in the Delta region of northwest Mississippi, where the Department of Agriculture spent $1.18 billion on such subsidies from 2001 to 2005, and only $54.8 million on rural development projects.

"Most residents (Post photo) are black, but less than 5 percent of the money went to black farmers. They own relatively little land, and so they generally do not qualify for the payments," the writers report, calling that "one of the contradictions of federal farm policy, which favors big agriculture over small farms and poor rural towns. In the Delta, it has helped to preserve a two-tiered economy and a widening economic chasm between the races, according to local residents, government officials and researchers." For a Post graphic illustrating the gaps, click here.

"The policy choice that Congress has made is so stark," Charles Fluharty, director emeritus of the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri at Columbia, told the Post. "You see the effects in lots of poor rural communities. But the tragedy is exacerbated in the minority communities." (Read more)

Judge questions why drug-firm executives in OxyContin case aren't going to jail

"A federal judge is raising questions about a plea agreement that calls for $634.5 million in fines -- but no jail time -- for the illegal marketing of OxyContin," a painkiller that became a street drug and a scourge in Central Appalachia, reports Laurance Hammack of The Roanoke Times. "Before sentencing three Purdue Pharma executives next month, U.S. District Judge James Jones will consider responses to 16 questions he recently submitted to federal prosecutors and company officials. One of the questions: Why should the executives not be sent to jail?"

Prosecutors replied, "While it certainly is appropriate for the corporate officials to be held accountable for the actions of the company, a sentence of incarceration ... would be unusual." The case itself is unusual, and "It's unusual for a judge to have so many questions about a plea agreement," Hammack notes. If Jones rejects the plea agreements, the three executives could withdraw their pleas.

"The misdemeanor charges to which the executives pleaded guilty carry up to one year in jail; the company pleaded guilty to a felony charge," Hammack reports. "Such charges are rarely used in the misbranding of pharmaceuticals, the government stated, and the negotiated plea agreements will "serve as a strong warning" to other drug companies."

Prosecutors said the fine "accounts for about 90 percent of the company's profits from the time the drug went on the market in 1996 until 2001," Hammack writes. "The fine is the country's third largest to be assessed against a pharmaceutical company." (Read more)

TV station in eastern North Carolina presses open-court case on principle and wins

When the judge in a school-funding lawsuit between the school board and commissioners of Pitt County, N.C., slapped a gag order on the elected officials and refused to hear a TV station's appeal, he probably thought he had given the station the old stiff-arm. But even after the trial, WNCT-TV News Director Melissa Preas, right, pressed the case in an effort to make sure it didn't happen again. Yesterday, the state Court of Appeals said the judge was wrong.

We learned about this from Al's Morning Meeting, the daily online column by Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute. He writes, "Over the last several years, many journalism executives, print and broadcast, have told me how difficult it is these days to get corporate backing to take on a legal fight like this, especially when the decision has more to do with principle and precedent than anything else. I wish journalism organizations would pick more legal fights on behalf of the public." This case set a statewide precedent.

Tompkins interviewed Preas by e-mail. "We really felt this was wrong on every level. particularly when dealing with two public entities fighting over public money," she said. "If we didn't pursue this appeal, then in our opinion that just left the door wide open for it to continue to happen." She said Media General, the station's owner, was very supportive. To read the interview, click here.

Schurz exec creates internships in Bloomington, Ind., to replace those axed by Gannett paper

When the Montgomery Advertiser "was forced to make quick and drastic budget cuts last week," three interns were suddenly left without summer jobs" at the paper in Alabama's capital, reports Richard Prince in his online Journal-isms column. "Similar cuts could be coming at other Gannett properties." The students " were instantly picked up by Schurz Communications, a South Bend, Ind., media company that owns 15 dailies and five weeklies," Prince reports. Charles Pittman, above, Schurz's senior vice president for newspapers, learned of the situation after speaking to the interns at the Freedom Forum's Diversity Institute, and told Prince he couldn't let "these young people have their internship pulled out from under them." They will go to the Herald Times [circulation 28,000] in Bloomington, Ind. "Schurz is taking a total of 13 interns, all [from] a joint multimedia program of Black College Wire and the Diversity Institute."

Advertiser Publisher Scott Brown referred questions about the move to Wanda Lloyd, the paper's editor, who said she might have had to cut a full-time staff member to keep the intern slots. Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell told Prince that the company's publishers have been told to control spending "when there's pressure on revenue," and Prince noted that the company's revenue dropped 6 percent last month. (Read more)

Heartland Publications cuts staff at North Carolina papers it bought; two publishers quit

The publishers of The Mount Airy News and The Tribune of Elkin, N.C., resigned Monday in the wake of job cuts made by the papers' new owner, Heartland Publications LLC of Old Saybrook, Conn. The papers were among 16 Heartland bought this month from family-owned Mid-South Management Co. of Spartanburg, S.C.

“The managing editors of the Elkin and Mount Airy publications were part of about a dozen positions eliminated in a bid to consolidate operations,” reports Andy Matthews, editor of the Yadkin Valley Times News, an online publication in East Bend, N.C. It said “roughly a dozen” jobs at the newspapers were eliminated.

"There were deep cultural differences between the way The Tribune had been operated in my 37 years there and the way that Heartland chooses to operate its newspapers,” Good told Richard Craver of the Winston-Salem Journal (from which the photograph above is taken). Good indicated that he might start his own newspaper. “The situation is very fluid at the moment, and we are keeping all our options open.”

Good had been publisher of the 6,000-circulation weekly for 29 years. He also was publisher of The Yadkin Ripple, a weekly in Yadkinville, and On The Vine, "the only publication dedicated to covering the North Carolina wine industry," Craver reports. Mount Airy Publisher Michael Milligan had held that job at the 9,200-circulation daily for eight years. He also was publisher of The Weekly Independent in Rural Hall, The Stokes News in King, The Pilot in Pilot Mountain and The Carroll News in adjoining Virginia.

Heartland CEO Michael Bush told Craver, “We plan on identifying the best publishers we can and getting them in there as soon as possible.” (Read more) The Times News paraphrased him as saying “the company remains committed to community journalism.” (Read more) Heartland's purchase of the Mid-South papers, noted in The Rural Blog on June 7 , made it the largest chain in North Carolina, with 18 papers, including five dailies.

UPDATE: The Mount Airy News reported Wednesday that nine other employees, from the news, advertising and composing departments, joined Milligan in resigning.

Southern Baptist Convention rejects call for restraint in political matters

Is there a Baptist church in your community? Probably, because Baptists are the largest segment of Protestantism in the United States. Is that church a part of the Southern Baptist Convention? Probably; the SBC is the largest Protestant denomination, and Baptists dominate most counties in states that had a star in the Confederate battle flag (see Glenmary Research Center map below). But the church you're thinking about might be a former member of the SBC, or an alienated one, because quite a few Baptists dislike the denomination's relatively new activism in politics.

So reports Eric Gorski of The Associated Press in a story that provides a starting point for background to inform local stories about local churches. Gorski was in San Antonio for the SBC's annual meeting, at which messengers (delegates) rejected a resolution urging their leaders "to exercise great restraint when speaking on behalf of Southern Baptists so as not to intermingle their personal political persuasions with their chief responsibility to represent Jesus Christ and this convention." The issue was not mentioned in the Baptist Press wrap-up of proceedings, which included a President Bush speech, via video. (Baptist Press photo)

The resolution was pushed by "A small but vocal number of pastors [who] believe the denomination is too cozy with Republicans and too political in general," AP reports. "By flirting with the line separating good citizenship and a grab for power, they say, a denomination already experiencing flat membership risks alienating more people. [See next paragraph.] Others contend such talk might inspire Southern Baptists to retreat from the public square and cede ground on urgent social issues such as abortion. If anything, the debate is likely to become even more magnified in coming months because no one Republican candidate has captured the conservative evangelical imagination — and all of them are trying." (Read more)

For centuries, Baptists led efforts to separate church and state, but the SBC reversed that after court decisions on school prayer and abortion, and has become a leading element of the Religious Right during debates on same-sex marriage and gay rights. Hundreds of churches have left the group and joined the new Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which says, "We believe in freedom of religion, freedom for religion, and freedom from religion. We support the separation of church and state."