Kansas papers ask if subsidies, at issue in farm bill debate, have led to rural economic decline

Have federal farm subsidies hastened the consolidation of farms, and thus the decline of population and small towns, in rural Kansas? Some experts there think so, Harris News Service reports in the first installment of a six-part series examining the effects of agricultural subsidies on rural Kansas. The service is part of Harris Newspapers, seven papers in Kansas and The Hawk Eye in Burlington, Iowa.

"Subsidies are at the heart of the debate as Congress works to write a new farm bill this fall. Among the provisions sought by President Bush and many lawmakers are limits on federal commodity subsidies paid -- especially to the biggest farms," Mike Corn writes. "The massive scale of federal farm payments further perpetuates an ever-increasing growth in the size of farms," in the view of Jon Bailey, director of research and analysis at the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Neb.

Bailey said subsidies allow large farmers to raise rents, bid up land prices and expand. Corn writs, "Subsidies encourage farms to grow because farmers can obtain additional payments by further increasing their acreage, he said. When the size of farms grows larger, there are fewer farms for individuals to work on, leaving fewer opportunities in farming, he said. As a result, there are fewer business opportunities directly linked to farming. Bailey told Corn, "People who don't have the resources then are sort of left out of the equation."

Bailey also also said there is evidence that larger farms "they take their business to larger, regional hubs instead of locally owned shops," Corn writes. Mary Fund, communications director at the Kansas Rural Center, told him there is evidence in the harm of subsidies in a 2005 study done by economist Mark Drabenstott for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. (For the text-only version of the study, click here.) "In many of the counties whose farmers receive the most in subsidy payments growth in employment and new businesses is the weakest. Cornelia Butler Flora, an Iowa State University professor of agriculture and sociology, concurs. She said it is essential that the biggest subsidies be capped because they are contributing to the decline of rural of communities." (Read more)

Harris has posted columns on the farm bill here. For the chain's special-projects page, click here.

Roanoke reporter, who ranged to the coalfield and the far tip of Virginia, calls it a career

Paul Dellinger, at left with photographer and fellow Roanoke Times retiree Gene Dalton, retired Friday after 44 years as one of the hardest and longest working reporters in Appalachia. His career illustrates changes in the region and newspapers over four decades.

Dellinger (pronounced with a hard "g") hired on at the Times' Southwest bureau in 1963. He was 25. "For the next four decades, Dellinger covered Southwest Virginia like a blanket -- in the beginning with reporter Hazel Brown (now deceased), and in later decades alone. One of his rare criticisms of his longtime employer is that it cut back coverage of the far southwest in the 1990s. "The Roanoke Times got all sorts of accolades for its coverage" of coal in the late 1980s, he said. "The next year, they stopped covering anything out there." But Dellinger still lives in Wytheville, site of the now-closed bureau.

When Dellinger was nearing 62, the age at which he could begin collecting limited Social Security benefits, his wife, a former reporter, asked him what he might do after newspapers. "He said, 'What I'm doing,' " she told Times writer Kevin Kittredge, who summed it up this way: "Translation: There was no 'after newspapers.'

"Seven years later, changes in the newspaper world, and recent inducements offered to older workers to retire, have convinced him otherwise. All newspapers face a murky future these days, as they try to balance the print edition with the Internet, and The Roanoke Times is no exception. Ask Dellinger what he thinks about such changes, and his answer is succinct: "I think it's time to retire." And what does a man who has written news stories for 44 years do when he retires? He keeps on writing, of course." Dellinger writes science fiction, and has written radio scripts and a play. (Read more) For a video showing Dellinger at work, and reflecting on his career, click here. For his farewell piece, click here.

Paper mills long gone, town in northern N. H. banks on prison, ATV park for economic revival

In northern New Hampshire. the town of Berlin once relied on paper mills, now long gone. "Plagued by high unemployment, vacant buildings and a recent string of fires, Berlin (pronounced BUR-lin) is trying to reinvent itself, betting that a new 1,280-bed federal prison and New England’s first all-terrain vehicle park will be the economic shot in the arm it desperately needs," Katie Zezima wites in The New York Times today.

State and federal prisons (Berlin's will be the latter) have become an important element in the rural economy, and ATV tourism is becoming more and more popular in mountainous areas. "But there is concern about the direction the city is taking. Berlin already has a state prison, and there is opposition to the federal prison," Zezima writes. "A more controversial but much smaller project is a proposal to build a 50-megawatt power plant that would run on wood chips on a mill site in downtown Berlin."

The ATV park will cover 7,500 acres and "is expected to hold about 136 miles of trail and numerous campgrounds when it is completed in the next five years. About 20 miles are open now," Zezima writes. The state bought the land from a timber company for $2.1 million and projects the park's annual revenue will be almost $700,000. “For the first time in years there’s hope,” said Mark Belanger, manager of the Berlin office of the New Hampshire Department of Employment, told the Times. (Read more)

Coal industry as a whole should share blame for mine-safety shortcomings, Ky. weekly says

Utah mine owner Robert E. Murray's "recklessness" and the Mine Safety and Health Administration's "failure to rein him in" are to blame for the recent tragedy, but others should face congressional inquiry next week: "Murray's co-conspirators in the coal industry," opines The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky.

In the latest in a series of detailed, hard-hitting editorials on the safety issues raised by the disaster, the Eagle declares, "We continue to be haunted by the still largely unexamined story of how the industry fought -- successfully -- to keep MSHA from requiring modern mine communications technology in underground coal mines," the Eagle writes. MSHA's excuse, from the Federal Register: "Since technology is constantly changing, newer systems that may be as, or more, effective than [current technology] may be developed."

"We've never seen a worse excuse for fatal inaction or a better example of what's wrong with the coal industry and mine safety enforcement," the Eagle editorial concludes. (Read more)

The Cullman Times, a small Alabama daily, makes Web video part of the routine

While many smaller newspapers only have just begun to use the Web, The Cullman (Ala.) Times has started posting daily video updates on its site. The 10,000-circulation daily drew praise for its innovation from Editor & Publisher's Pauline Millard, who said the paper showed the new technology could be used on a budget. (At right: An image from one of the recent Web videos available daily on the paper's site.)
In her column, Millard writes that the staff uses "simple equipment, such as cheap work lights from Wal-Mart, a light diffuser made from PVC and clearance-rack fabric, and an ancient Macintosh computer that serves as a TelePrompTer" for a studio, while the images and sound are captured with "a $300 consumer video camera and a $100 shotgun microphone."

Above all, the newscasts are "hyperlocal," Millard says, and thus give readers and viewers want they want. Called "The Update," the video follows the format of a TV news program, complete with an opening tease of the day's top stories followed by a montage of the newspaper's staff in action and a nod to The Update's sponsor. After the top stories, The Update divides the remaining time among feature and sports stories. In all, it is concise 11-minute video that does far more than the "talking head" format of some newspaper Web video.

To view a recent Web video update from The Cullman Times, go here.

Following legal victory, Florida papers post database of FEMA's hurricane aid

Gannett Co. Inc. newspapers and television stations in Florida had sought Federal Emergency Management Agency records on the distribution of hurricane relief money since filing a lawsuit in 2005. The records were made public in June and are now published in a searchable database.

The Web site of The News-Press in Fort Myers has posted the database, which includes information from the four hurricanes that struck Florida in 2004 (Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne). The database is searchable by the addresses of those who registered for aid and includes the date of application and approval, any amount approved and ownership status of the applicant. The database appears alongside a collection of analysis of the FEMA aid and stories of the legal battle over the information.

National poverty rate is down, but not in rural areas, where it has increased among children

The Census Bureau's annual poverty report says 15.2 percent of rural Americans lived in poverty in 2006, a rate "statistically unchanged" from 2005, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, the national poverty rate declined for the first time this decade, down to 12.3 percent from 12.6 percent in 2005, the census report says.

At the same time, the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire reports that "in 37 states, a higher percentage of rural children live in poverty today than in 2000." The South has the highest rate, 27.2 percent, while the national rural child poverty rate is 22.2 percent, the study says. States with the highest rates are Mississippi (34.7 percent), Louisiana (34.4 percent) and New Mexico (30.1 percent). The Southwest trails only the South in terms of rural child poverty. Connecticut (9.1 percent) has the lowest rate.

The stagnant overall rural poverty rate stands in contrast to economic growth, especially in agriculture. "According to the Agriculture Department, net farm income, a gauge of the financial health, was a strong $60 billion in 2006, buoyed by rising grain and soybean prices and the boom in fuel ethanol production," Reuters reports. To explain the disparity between the rural and national rates, the Reuters story cites economists who say "rural residents tend to be older, a lower-earning age group, than the national average."

According to the Carsey Institute, there was a "significant decline" in poverty for people over 65 but no significant decline in poverty for children or adults aged 18 to 64. "Research has shown that good policy and programs can alleviate that poverty – programs that provide early childhood education, making work pay for parents, decent schools, and access to health care," said Cynthia "Mil" Duncan, director of the Carsey Institute. "We shouldn't be going backwards on addressing child poverty in the 21st Century."

Casino measure passes after recount in county that includes Charleston, W.Va.

More than two weeks after a slim majority in Kanawha County, W.Va., voted to allow table games at the Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center, a greyhound track, the special election's results have been certified following a recount today, reports WSAZ-TV in Charleston and Huntington, W.Va. (Continuing coverage available here.)

The Aug. 11 referendum went through a ballot canvas on Aug. 24, and the measure was determined to have passed by a margin of 343 votes (of more than 46,000 cast), reports Rusty Marks of The Charleston Gazette. Gaming opponents, who don't want to see table games added to the slots and dog racing at the track, then began raising funds for a recount, Marks writes. Officials counted ballots in just 44 of the county's 175 precincts today, because "that's all we could afford," gaming opponent Mia Moran Cooper told Marks. Tri-State officials had the option of continuing the recount if they chose. (Read more)

The recount found 14 additional uncounted votes, bringing the margin of the measure's passage to 339 votes, WSAZ-TV reports. An official breakdown of the pre-recount results is available here. The county was the last of four to hold referenda on casinos at racetracks -- which already had slot machines -- under a law passed to compete with Pennsylvania's approval of slots statewide. Two tracks in the Northern Panhandle will get casinos, but voters in a more prosperous Eastern Panhandle county voted not to allow a casino there.

Computer mag looks at rural broadband; contest asks how it changes life

The problem of broadband access in rural America takes center stage at Computerworld.com, as the site devotes a large article and a smaller sidebar to a discussion of this important facet of the digital divide.

In the main story, Robert L. Mitchell highlights two key statistics: only 17 percent of rural households use broadband (source: the Government Accountability Office), and that the U.S. ranks 15th in broadband penetration (source: a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

Mitchell stresses that broadband is key to keeping rural Americans involved in the “New Economy” — without that access, he says, they will be left out. “Rural areas need broadband,” he writes. “But deregulation has freed carriers from any real obligation to offer it. The market will never provide universal broadband access without regulation or subsidies, but the U.S. lacks both a coherent policy and the political will to address the issue.” (Read more)

In an accompanying piece, Mitchell reports that the absence of high-speed connections hampers the operations of larger retailers who have stores in rural areas. He points to Trans World Entertainment, which uses DSL to communicate among its 1,000 Coconuts and f.y.e. music stores. Mitchell quotes a TWE executive as saying access is unavailable in 17 percent of store locations, and even where it was available it was often painfully slow. (Read more)

In an effort to promote the spread of broadband access to rural areas, the Alliance for Public Technology is encouraging people to tell their stories about what high-speed Internet has meant to them. The campaign is called “Broadband Changed My Life,” and the best stories will earn prizes of “up to $1,000.” The deadline for submission is Oct. 1, 2007. To submit a story, go here.

Congress needs to define legal strip mining, New York Times editorial says

Following Friday’s proposal from the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining to create new regulations allowing mountaintop removal for the surface mining of coal , The New York Times called for Congress to step in and have its say.

The Times says this is the latest example of the Bush administration to protect the practice "from legal challenge. But since the net result is likely to be more confusion and more courtroom wrestling, the situation cries out for Congressional intervention to define once and for all what mining companies can and cannot do."

The editorial also points to legislation from Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., and Rep. Christopher Shays, D-Conn., as a possible means to address the issue of mountaintop removal and its wastes. (Read more) The Times says the bill has more than 60 co-sponsors; the advocacy group I Love Mountains lists 93.

Earlier this month, Mary Jo Shafer reported in The Mountain Eagle and other newspapers that foes of mountaintop removal were focusing on Washington after being rebuffed at the local and state levels. Shafer, now an assistant city editor at The Anniston (Ala.) Star, did the story during an internship with the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues as part of earning a master's degree in community journalism from the Knight Community Journalism Fellows program of the University of Alabama.

Demand for water brings search, and then conflict, to rural areas

As San Antonio and its workforce have grown, so have their need for more water, so water company officials have been forced reached farther out into rural Atascosa County, where communities often have opposed any use of "their" water, reports Jerry Needam for the San Antonio Express-News. His story is a good case study of the history of a local problem that is occurring on the rural fringes of many metropolitan areas.

The San Antonio Water System met opposition again recently when it proposed to build a desalination plant in Atascosa County, and Needam says it is not the first time SAWS has battled with rural residents to bring more water into San Antonio. "Water creates conflicts, there's no doubt about that," William Mullican, deputy executive administrator for the Texas Water Development Board, told Needam. "The history of San Antonio is a very good example of that. Anywhere they start to look, local entities will do whatever they can to try to put in place barriers to that exportation occurring."

Needam says rural residents worry that if the water is used elsewhere, it might not be available if their community's demand grows. On the flip side, one SAWS official argues that sprawl and the spike in commuters mean thousands aren't "paying their water bill to SAWS, but they're using a whole lot of SAWS water" at work. Clearly, it is a difficult balancing act, with the needs of a growing regional hub one side and the concerns of a rural community on the other. Or as another SAWS representative put it, "I don't know that there's any source of water that can be tapped without irritating someone." (Read more)

Edwards focuses on rural voters; one adviser says they will be pivotal in Nov. 2008

In an effort to gain ground in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, John Edwards has styled himself as the candidate most in touch with rural America, reports Anne Kornblut of The Washington Post.

She reports that the former North Carolina senator has peppered his speeches with quips such as, "You don't make a hog fatter by weighing it," an attack on the notion that more testing is all that is needed to improve education. The agricultural analogy highlights his campaign's subtext,"that he is the sole Southern Democrat and cultural conservative in the Democratic presidential field, making him the only top-tier candidate in his party who can appeal easily to white men," Kornblut writes.

Kornblut explains the goal of the rural recasting is to contrast Edwards with Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and make the case that Edwards can "attract culturally conservative voters in states such as Virginia, voters who consider gun ownership an important right and aren't thrown by his drawl."

Virginian David "Mudcat" Saunders, an Edwards adviser, told Kornblut that rural voters will help decide the election. "Rural America is pivotal," he said. "Rural America is saying, 'To hell with the Republicans.' But you've got to have the right candidate, one who can get through to the culture." (Read more)

Wealth-transfer studies, environmental concerns among ideas for rural philanthropic development

Continuing to heed the call of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., attendees at a recent Council of Foundations conference in Montana spent time in small groups creating "working drafts" to shape the "philanthropic agenda for rural America," reports Suzanne Perry of The Chronicle of Philanthropy. The ideas included more than "30 items in areas including the arts, economic development, education, the environment, health, housing, technology, and efforts to increase the financial assets of individuals and families."

Perry reports that members recommended that "transfer of wealth" studies be conducted, by state and by county, to show "how much money will be passed on to heirs over the next 50 years." Conference members also said these reports should coupled with guides as to how communities might "tap into that money," she writes. This is of key concern for rural communities, as much of that of wealth is in rural land and assets. If that wealth can be reinvested in those communities, there is great potential for economic development.

According to Perry, the small groups also recommend encouraging "grant making that marries environmental protection to economic development," as well as those grants that take interest in the issues of locally-grown food and the expansion of rural access to technology. By "marrying" large issues, these grants can tap into a deeper pool of resources and gain more attention than narrow examples.

In another suggestion, the conference members emphasized "research on ways foundations can support arts and culture in rural areas and distribute the findings broadly," Perry writes. This recommendation seeks the help of newspapers and other local media, as those would be the natural sources for the public distribution of such findings. Click here to read more; subscription or one-day pass required.

The latest report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy looks to discover ways to bridge that divide in giving between rural and urban nonprofit groups. It suggests that rural nonprofits must combat “grantmakers' perceptions of rural life, geographical isolation and capacity-building needs” to attract more philanthropic investment to rural America.

Pennsylvania's plan to put tolls on mainly rural Interstate 80 could be wave of future

If a current controversy in Pennsylvania is any indication, rural residents may have to start paying tolls to travel interstate highways in order to fund transportation improvements in urban areas.

Gov. Ed Rendell proposed, and legislators agreed, that tolls be imposed on Interstate 80, which runs from east to west through the middle of the state and is used mainly by people from other states, mostly truckers. The congressmen from mainly rural northwestern Pennsylvania are trying to block the apparently unprecedented move, but they are unlikely to be successful because the state's two senators don't agree with them, The New York Times reports today.

Bernard Weinstein, director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas, which has studied the impact of toll roads, told Times reporter Sean Hamill, “I think most states will eventually have to move to the user principle. Tolls are going to be the wave of the future.” (Read more)

"This kind of regional populism seemed to be out of style," researchers Terry Madonna and Michael Young wrote last Sunday. In recent years, "Country-city clashes have been more about values and ideology than about money and economics. . . . The I-80 proposal has violated the tacit modus vivendi between urban and rural Pennsylvania. Rural residents around I-80 don't expect to pay road taxes to subsidize urban Pennsylvania. But that's how they perceive it. As such, it threatens to unsettle the crucial economic questions once thought to be decided -- who gets what, when, and how." Madonna is a professor of public affairs at Franklin and Marshall College and Young runs Michael Young Strategic Research in Harrisburg.

Julie Ardery of The Daily Yonder, beating the Times to the story, wrote that the controversy illustrates the increasing responsibility of state and local governments for infrastructure. She concluded, "We hear a lot about the cultural divisions between rural and urban Americans, but culture doesn't explain Pennsylvania's toll road 'slugfest.' This battle isn't over "values" but money – the money needed to pay for federal highways that the feds can’t or won’t provide." (Read more)

Kentucky passes synfuel incentives for coal industry, amid warning of a reckoning

The Kentucky General Assembly this week passed new incentives for plants to make synthetic fuel from coal, over objections of Appalachian residents who said the bill, among other things, would lead to more strip mining of coal through mountaintop removal. But their pleas did find some receptive ears, writes Ronnie Ellis, the Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. correspondent in the state capital of Frankfort.

"Tom Fitzgerald of the Kentucky Resources Council . . . warns a day of reckoning is coming when mandated reductions in carbon emissions which are warming our planet will dramatically increase the costs of coal-generated electricity. Lawmakers respect Fitzgerald, courteously listen to him, and then vote against his counsel. At least they listen. And this week, it appeared others got through to lawmakers about the devastation of coal mining. Members of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth were eloquent and moving in their condemnation of coal and its effects on their lives and the environment – eloquent enough that several lawmakers asked to go and see for themselves."

Ellis gives the pro-industry arguments from coalfield legislators, and sums up with a song lyric from a friend: "As a flatlander who has never depended on the livelihood provided by coal mining nor lived near its destruction, I don’t possess any answers. There seems a high price for coal but its backers promise a high return. Still, the debate this week reminded me of a lyric in a song Mitch Jayne wrote for The Dillards: 'Promises are words for things they never do. Mountains are promises come true.'" (Read more)

In face of immigration crackdowns, farmers turn to inmates for labor in Southwest

For $2 an hour, low-security inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes harvest watermelons in Arizona, where farmers have been using prison labor for almost 20 years. The demand for the inmate workforce is growing as state and federal governments crack down on the use of undocumented workers, writes Nicole Hill of The Christian Science Monitor (who took the photo).

Hill reports that a similar program has begun in Colorado, another is being considered in Iowa, and the Arizona program has never been more in demand, especially since farmers there face state fines for employing undocumented workers. The program allows cleared prisoners — about 3,300 of the state’s 37,000 prisoners — to work on private land for a minimum of $2 per hour, Hill writes. The requests for labor far outnumber the ability of the Arizona Department of Corrections to fill them, Hill writes, so “the ADC is considering innovative solutions – including satellite prisons.”

The program has detractors, such as the United Farm Workers of America and the Western Growers Association. Hill reports that the UFWA sees a food-safety concern in the use of prison labor, while the WGA says the situation points to an even greater need for a “legal, stable workforce.” (Read more)

Coal operator Murray has a history of conflict with regulators

Robert E. Murray has become a household name since the accident at his Murray Energy Co.’s Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah on Aug. 6, and with that recognition has come increased scrutiny from major newspapers. We hope smaller newspapers and broadcast stations in or near the coalfields do likewise.

In The New York Times, Susan Saulny and Carolyn Marshall explore Murray’s record as a mine owner, and they found a history of “run-ins” with government and others over climate change, labor disputes and safety.

The article points to a 2003 conviction of one of Murray’s companies, Ken American Resources, in Western Kentucky. In addition to the company, the federal court jury “four current or former employees on charges of conspiracy, lying and violating safety laws pertaining to dust levels at a mine in western Kentucky from 1996 to 2000.” Saulny and Marshall write that the employees “faced fines of up to $1.4 million, but the company appealed and paid roughly $300,000.”

The article also disputes Murray’s claim that none of his miners ever died in an accident, by highlighting the case of Thomas M. Ciszewski, who bled to death in the Powhatan No. 6 mine in Alledonia, Ohio. Murray’s Ohio Valley Coal Co. was fined $15,000 since there “was not adequate first aid” to treat Ciszewski after his arm was cut off by a conveyor belt. (Read more)

In the Los Angeles Times, Jon Harmon examines the public relations maneuvers of Murray after the accident. (Read more)

Meanwhile, miners also die at surface mines. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has fined Tri-Star Mining $180,000 for violations that contributed to an accident in Barton, Md., on April 17 that resulted in the death of two employees, according to an MSHA release. The two miners were trapped under about 93,000 tons of rock and material when a highwall collapsed in the pit where they were working, an accident that could have been prevented, the agency said.

New rule aimed at removing legal barriers to mountaintop-removal strip mining for coal

Mountaintop removal — the practice of using explosives to blast away the tops of mountains to expose coal for strip mining — has been used controversially in Central Appalachia "under a cloud of legal and regulatory confusion" for decades, and now has found the support of the White House, reports The New York Times.

The Bush administration will approve a new regulation that will allow mountaintop removal to continue and expand, in an effort to encourage mining companies to increase output to meet increased demand, reports John M. Broder. The new rule, drafted by the Office of Surface Mining in the Interior Department, would require only “that mine operators minimize the debris and cause the least environmental harm, although those terms are not clearly defined and to some extent merely restate existing law,” Broder writes.

That “environmental harm” is at the forefront of the mountaintop-removal debate, since the mining generates tons of waste that must be deposited somewhere, usually in valleys and headwater streams near mines. The new rule limits the protection of these areas from dumping. “Environmental activists say the rule change will lead to accelerated pillage of vast tracts and the obliteration of hundreds of miles of streams in central Appalachia," Broder writes.

Broder's story is a good summary of a complex issue, but he slips on at least one point, saying that the environmental impact statement for the rule says that under it, "another 724 river miles will be buried by 2018." The streams that are buried don't come close to being rivers. (Read more)

Likewise, an otherwise good graphic with the story says, "Coal companies are supposed to reclaim land, but native trees have trouble growing on disturbed topsoil." That implies that only restoration of forest would accomplish reclamation. The law requires only "vegetative cover," and that typically is grass -- although recent research has found that with less soil compaction, trees can be more easily grown on mined land.

Coal industry could have prevented mine deaths with investment in devices, weekly's editorial says

As the rescue effort at the Crandall Canyon Mine of Murray Energy Corp. in Utah remained halted, leaving six miners trapped and probably dead, The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., continued to offer some of the sharpest criticism about the current state of mine safety in the United States.

In this week’s edition, an editorial listed the names of the 63 miners killed nationwide since Jan. 1, 2006, as well as the six miners still missing in Utah. “It's a terrible toll -- 70 miners in all -- and one that should be unacceptable, because fatality-by-fatality reviews show that most of these deaths could have been prevented by a combination of systematic risk assessment, conscientious mine management, diligent regulatory enforcement, and adoption of technologies that are taken for granted elsewhere,” the editorial said.

The editorial suggested key links between recent coal mining deaths: a lack of advanced emergency breathing and communication devices in mines. The Eagle said miners aren’t given adequate training with breathing devices, called Self-Contained Self-Rescuers, and that the models in use in these mines have been rendered “obsolete.” In addition, the editorial said miners lack a system for two-way communication in mines. Legislation passed after the Sago Mine disaster of January 2006 has mandated the installation of such systems, but not until 2009, and the editorial said progress has been slow on that front. (Read more)

Meanwhile, a friend of one of the miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine confronted mine co-owner Bob Murray yesterday at a funeral for one of the three rescue workers killed at the mine, The Associated Press reports. The man "handed Murray a dollar bill" and said, "This is just to help you out so you don't kill him." AP reports, "Murray's head snapped back as if slapped." Here is CNN video.

The episode "revealed more than just the frustration of people in this mining community in central Utah's coal belt, where most still speak in whispers when criticizing the officials whose businesses pay their bills," AP reports. "Critics are now openly calling the mine a disaster waiting to happen and pointing fingers at Murray Energy Corp. and the federal government as the agents of the tragedy." (Read more)

Today, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Murray and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration made a risky change to the mining plan of the previous owner, contrary to statements by Murray. MSHA approved Murray's proposal in only seven business days, Robert Gehrke reports. (Read more)

W.Va. county narrowly approves adding table games to slots at racetrack; foe seeks recount

A dog-racing track near Charleston, W.Va., which already has slot machines, hopes to add casino table games following apparent, narrow approval by voters in a countywide referendum -- the third and last such vote in the Mountain State this year, and part of a regional trend that could encourage casinos in Ohio and Kentucky.

The outcome of the Aug. 11 referendum was in doubt for another week, as a recanvass widened the 33-vote margin to 343. The final tally was "23,192 in favor of allowing poker, craps, roulette and other casino-style games at Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center, and 22,849 against," reported Tara Tuckwiller of The Charleston Gazette. (Read more) Opponents split on a recount; the West Virginia Family Foundation said it wouldn't change the results, but the West Virginia Council of Churches said it would pay for a recount, reports Mike Waterhouse of WSAZ-TV. (Read more)

The state's four tracks, which have had slots for several years, won legislative approval for table games this year, after Pennsylvania authorized slots statewide and Maryland continued to discuss allowing slots at tracks. The only West Virginia county to reject table games was prosperous Jefferson, at the state's eastern tip. The other two approvals came in the Northern Panhandle, close to Pennsylvania.

The expansion of gaming in the two states is expected to increase pressure for it in Ohio, where voters have twice rejected casinos, and Kentucky, where Democratic gubernatorial nominee Steve Beshear is pushing for a statewide referendum and leading in polls against Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher. After Beshear won the primary, the governor dropped his hands-off stance on the issue and said he would fight casinos. This week he launched a television ad campaign built around a recent tour he made to states with casinos.

Television chains rushing to create Web sites for high-school sports, invading local media province

Coverage of high-school sports has long been a staple, and an important audience-builder, for local news media. Now local outlets are getting more competition from national media chains, and they could have an impact in rural areas.

"Within days of each other, three media companies . . . launched Web brands aimed at high school sports," writes Katy Bachman of MediaWeek, reporting on the latest site to be announced, by Hearst-Argyle Television, highschoolplaybook.com. "Emmis Communications, partnering with the Indiana High School Athletic Association launched a statewide brand, IHSAAsports.org. Belo [Corp.] launched hsgametime.com in six of its markets, with plans to roll out the site out to all the company’s markets by the end of this month."

Hearst-Argyle plans to launch the site in all 25 of its markets and "to syndicate the site in markets where it doesn’t own stations, with the goal of reaching 100 markets by August 2009," Bachman reports. "One of the main signatures of Playbook are the specially trained student sideline reporters, at least 10 in each market, who will not only contribute video coverage but serve as the face and voice of the community . . . equipped with Canon HV20 high-definition camcorders, provided by Canon, the first sponsor of the site. The site is also heavy on social networking with MySpace- and Facebook-like community tools including personal profile pages, team pages, school pages, SMS voting and other 'mashable' content." (Read more)

Bush administration crackdown on illegals raises nationwide concern about labor for harvests

The Bush administration, under political pressure to show toughness after failure of its immigration bill, says it is cracking down on employers of illegal immigrants. That has helped spread worries about lack of farm labor to harvest crops this year to all corners of the country, including the apple orchards of the Hudson River valley in New York. "There are new fears in New York and around the nation over whether there will be enough hands to pick the crop," Lisa Foderaro of The New York Times reports from Hamptonburgh, N.Y, where Jonamac apples are being harvested in the photo by the Times' Joyce Dopkeen.

"Nationwide, growers’ associations estimate that about 70 percent of farmworkers are illegal immigrants, many of them using fake Social Security numbers on their applications. Under the new rules, if the Social Security Administration finds that an applicant’s information does not match its database, employers could be required to fire the worker or risk being fined up to $10,000 for knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant," Foderaro writes. "Growers say that only 2 percent of farmworkers nationwide come from the current guest-worker program, which, they say, is plagued by red tape, low capacity and delays." (Read more)

The Department of Homeland Security "first proposed the regulations in June 2006 but then failed to implement them while an immigration-overhaul made its way to the Senate floor," reports June Kronholz of The Wall Street Journal. "That bill collapsed in part because of a public outcry over the administration's lax enforcement of immigration laws already on the books." (Read more)

The American Farm Bureau Federation, after first saying that it welcomed the new regulations, had a conference call for its leaders with administration officials last Thursday, Bob Meyer of Brownfield Network reports. "There have been concerns in agriculture that the latest rules will cause an even greater shortage of farm labor, especially in fruit and vegetable-growing areas," Meyer reports. "Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation president, Bill Bruins says that concern came up in the conference call and while the White House acknowledged the problem, they have every intention to push-ahead with the enforcement." (Read more)

As feds focus on fighting terror, Indians and Seattle P-I say fight against drugs on reservations suffers

"While the FBI turns its attention to preventing another 9/11, drug traffickers are exploiting the vacuum. The result: A drug epidemic and related crime wave are plaguing Indian communities," report Paul Shukovsky and Daniel Lathrop in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "White House cuts to the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration have been disastrous for tribes -- in part because the bureau in Indian Country acts like a local police department, making the felony arrests," the P-I reports. "Tribal police don't have legal authority to arrest non-Indians or charge anyone with felonies. And the maximum term in reservation jails is one year." The big problem drug: methamphetamine.

Justice Department records studied by the P-I show that the FBI has had 27 percent less investigative activity on Indian reservations since Sept. 11, 2001 -- "mirroring the transfer of more than 2,000 agents nationwide to counterterrorism duties, and a related sharp decline of investigations into white-collar crime, police abuse and civil rights violations," Shukovsky and Lathrop report.

"Officially, the FBI maintains that the number of agents assigned to Indian Country has increased by 7 percent, and that the number of indictments handed down has remained steady. But special agents in the field, former FBI administrators and federal prosecutors say the real picture is bleak. They say agents who would normally respond to reservation crimes aren't doing it as much because of a domino effect of the FBI being saddled with homeland security matters. And they say federal investigations on most reservations have failed to keep pace with burgeoning crime." (Read more)

Number of gun dealers down 79% since 1994; laws led many small ones to close in rural areas

"The number of federally licensed firearms dealers has fallen 79 percent nationwide since 1994, when Congress passed " new gun-control measures that still spark fiery debate," reports Michael Doyle of the McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

"In 1994, there were 245,628 U.S. residents holding federal licenses to sell firearms," Doyle reports from Washington. "Now, there are 50,630 of the so-called Type 1 federal firearms licenses nationwide. "The decline in licenses began after Congress approved in 1993 the so-called Brady Bill, named for former White House press secretary James Brady, who was wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. The 1993 law, and a subsequent 1994 anti-crime law, imposed new restrictions."

Firearms licenses now cost $200 for three years, not $10 for one year, and "applicants now must submit photographs and fingerprints and inform local police of their plans. In many cases, those losing licenses were so-called 'kitchen table' dealers, who operated from their homes rather than from formal storefronts."

"Smaller shops simply can't afford some of that," National Rifle Association spokesperson Ashley Varner told Doyle. "People in rural areas have a harder time getting firearms if they aren't near a large store." Still, "Justice Department records indicate total firearm sales have remained roughly even." (Read more)

Rural providers recruit local citizens, get outside help to fill gaps in health-care workforces

"Frontier and rural health care providers looking for innovative ways to solve increasing workforce shortages are sometimes finding that help is as near as their own backyards: by recruiting and training local people to be health care professionals in their communities," reports Candi Helseth in the Summer edition of The Rural Monitor.

The story cites examples from Nevada, Alaska and Maryland. In the photograph, Dr. Christine Alarcon, left, and assistant Lisa Windsor treat a three-year-old patient at the only dental clinic for low-income children in Dorchester County, on Maryland's isolated Eastern Shore. Community groups "negotiated a deal with Alleghany College in western Maryland to reserve two spots for Eastern Shore students in its dental hygiene program. . . . Students were required to commit to practicing at least two years on the Eastern Shore."

The University of Nevada "developed a medical student rotation program to introduce students to rural practice and, at the same time, provide more services to those communities," and directors of a frontier hospital in Alaska "picked up the bill for hospital employees to become registered nurses," Helseth writes. (Read more) The Rural Monitor is published by the federally funded Rural Assistance Center, a collaboration of the University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health, the Rural Policy Research Institute and the Office of Rural Health Policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Rural intersections in Wisconsin deadlier than busy ones in urban areas, newspaper study finds

Intersections in northeastern Wisconsin were deadlier "than more congested urban intersections in recent years," Karen Lincoln Michel and Ben Jones report for Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers after studying state records for a 10-county area and the rest of the state from 1994 through 2005. About 80 percent of the 422 crashes at intersections were on roads the state classifies as rural. "Statewide, 70 percent of all fatal crashes at intersections occurred on rural roads," Lincoln and Jones report.

Two reasons seem to be two kinds of speed: faster driving in rural areas, and fast suburban growth. "The speed at which traditionally rural areas are transitioning to far-flung suburbs, boosting travel pressure on narrow country roads, is outpacing government’s ability to make upgrades," they write. "Although the majority of deadly crashes happen on local roads, they get a minority of the federal funds aimed at preventing deaths."

The story, which points out several problem intersections, can be done by any reporter in any state, using data collected by state transportation agencies and the U.S. Department of Transportation. (Read more)

Kentucky county on edge of Cumberland Plateau rejects idea of allowing ATVs on public roads

An ordinance to allow all-terrain vehicles on public roads, which got national attention when introduced in Wayne County, Kentucky, last month, died at this week's meeting of the county Fiscal Court when even the member who introduced it declined to vote for it on second reading. ATVs are highly popular in the county, where the rugged western edge of the Cumberland Plateau meets the Tennessee border.

"District Two Magistrate Darrell Dishman, who originally brought the petition to the court asking that ATV's be allowed to travel on county roads in order to reach off-road trails, said he was opposed to the ordinance because he did not want to burden riders with purchasing liability insurance," Melodie Jewell Phelps reports in this week's Wayne County Outlook. "District Three Magistrate Dale Vaughn said he was opposed to this ordinance from the first day he learned about it. But he said he wanted to keep and open mind and listen to those who voiced an opinion [at a recent public hearing]. With Kentucky leading the nation in ATV deaths right now, Vaughn said he was afraid the numbers would skyrocket." (Read more)

About those names: As non-Kentuckians may have guessed, a fiscal court is the state's version of a county commission. The name goes back to the days when magistrates (still "justices of the peace" in the state constitution) had both budgetary and judicial powers. But it's more accurate nomenclature than in Louisiana, where the county legislative body is the Police Court. Still, when it comes to such names, we like a little color and thus don't care for a recent change in Tennessee, where the official name is Legislative Body. Ugh. And a persnal note on newspaper nomenclature: I've always liked the name of the Outlook, against which I competed briefly 32 years ago. A newspaper ought to give readers an idea, at least implicit, of the outlook for their community. The name is most popular among papers in Kentucky, site of three of the 13 weekly Outlooks in the United States. Washington and Ohio each have two. Only one U.S. daily bears the name, the Alexander City (La.) Outlook. --Al Cross, director, Institute for Rural Journalism & Community Issues

From the faraway Appalachian coalfield, a weekly newspaper's editorial rebuke for Utah mine owner

As The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., went to press yesterday, the weekly newspaper looked far west to another coalfield, where rescue efforts continued at the Crandall Canyon Mine of Murray Energy Corp. in Utah. "We join with mining communities throughout the coalfields in praying for their rescue, even as time grinds away at the odds of achieving that outcome," the Eagle's editorial said. "Meanwhile, everyone anxious about the fate of the miners has had to endure a week of watching the mine’s owner, Robert Murray, demonstrating why he doesn’t deserve to be trusted with the facts, let alone the lives of thousands of people who depend on him for their livelihoods." (Photo of Murray by Ramin Rahimian of Reuters, via the Daily Yonder)

The editorial accused Murray of several misstatements. "Particularly galling to us were his off-the-wall rants about former federal mine safety officials Davitt McAteer and Tony Oppegard, both of whom we know well," who worked for the Mine Safety and Health Administration in the Clinton era and "have been among the most effective advocates miners have ever had – a distinction Bob Murray would no doubt claim for himself, but one that wouldn’t seem likely to withstand a moment’s scrutiny."

After reports that cast Murray as "bumptious but benevolent . . . his Berlin Wall of bluster began crumbling," the Eagle notes. "The first blows came from seismologists who reported that the 'seismic event' at Crandall Canyon was the violent cave-in itself, not an earthquake triggering it. Then MSHA contradicted him, confirming that Crandall Canyon was indeed doing retreat mining in the area of the cave-in. Then . . . came reports that miners who had been working in the area had been fearful about their safety."

The Eagle explained to its readers the differences in the mines they know and the one in Utah, and questioned MSHA's approval of retreat mining in an environment where high pressure and seismic activity can cause "'bumps' or 'bounces' in which the mine ribs or floor can suddenly give way with explosive force, firing chunks of coal like bullets and reducing solid coal pillars to rubble." It said the investigation of the accident should not be left to MSHA, but also include a group of outside experts. (Read more)

Rural rollout of broadband running out of gas because profits shrink far from cities, expert says

“Are rural Americans doomed to second-rate broadband services?” asks Robert Mitchell, a national correspondent for Computerworld. The magazine says the answer is yes -- because it's too expensive for publicly held communications firms that maximize profit to please Wall Street. Sound familiar, newspapers?

Less than a third of rural American homes have high-speed Internet, while half 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, while 52 percent in urban areas and 49 percent in suburbs do. 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." (Read the report)

Pew focuses on demographics, Mitchell reports, “because accurate estimates of broadband deployment are simply not available from the cable and telecommunications companies -- and because the center's studies are too small to paint a complete picture with regard to availability. . . . Most of the ‘low-hanging fruit’ has already been picked in terms of providing access to the most profitable, easy-to-reach customers. While demographics may play a role in the slowdown in broadband penetration, the situation may be that many people in the country simply can't get broadband, whether they want it or not." (Read more)

In an earlier piece, Mitchell said Verizon's sale of rural lines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to “tiny” FairPoint Communications “is part of a broad strategy to shed less profitable business in rural areas while retaining business in higher density metropolitan areas, where the return per mile of fiber-optic cable is highest. . . . Today, most rural New England customers can't even get basic DSL. But even if FairPoint does offer broadband to more rural customers . . . will it be yesterday's technology, while the rest of the world moves to multi-megabit speeds capable of supporting multimedia video and audio streams?”

Again, Mitchell says yes. “The telephone network is slowly disappearing into the Internet,” he writes. “While universal access for telephone service is still a reality, there is no such entitlement for rural Americans when it comes to broadband. Unless an investment is made, most of them will remain in maintenance mode on the outdated . . . infrastructure.” Governments' role in providing broadband is limited by lack of money, and state laws -- passed after heavy lobbying by telecom firms -- to limit or block publicly provided broadband.

Illinois Press Assn. starts small-donor fund for journalism training, First Amendment advocacy

Most of the charitable programs for journalism training and advocacy are designed to attract donations from foundations and large companies, so the Illinois Press Association's foundation has started one designed to get smaller contributions from individual journalists -- the Fourth Estate Society.

"Newspaper people tend to share a really strong bond with their industry," IPA's PressLines reports. "They don't have newspaper jobs; they are newspaper people. And many of them want to share their successes with future generations of journalists and pass along the passion that they have for newspapers."

The society has five levels of annual memberships, ranging from $50 to $1,000, and a $2,500 lifetime membership. Members get public recognition, reports from the Illinois Press Foundation and invitations to events sponsored by the foundation. The contributions fund efforts to protest the First Amendment, promote literacy efforts and provide journalism scholarships for students and working journalists. (Read more)

Paper gets back computer police took after chief's reporter wife told him of colleague's recording

"A judge ordered authorities to return a newspaper's computer, but only after its hard drive was copied for possible search to determine whether a reporter broke the law by recording sources without their permission," The Associated Press reports, updating the embarrassing saga of the New Castle (Pa.) News.

Local police seized the computer after a reporter who is married to the police chief told her husband that another reporter had recorded interviews with him and a county supervisor. Recording of phone conversations in Pennsylvania requires consent of both parties, and violation of the law is punishable by up to seven years in prison. The newspaper says it is protected by case law, and won a court order preventing police from getting data from the computer. It struck an agreement with the local district attorney agreed that the computer's hard drive could be copied for possible search if courts rule that the case can go forward.

The News reported that the case "has been resolved" by the agreement, and its story does not mention the copying of the hard drive. It says the agreement "required The News to remove from the computer and other recording devices any audio recordings obtained without the consent of the party whose communication was being recorded. The computer and audio recording devices then were to be returned to The News."

Also, reporter John Manna writes, the News must require its reporters "to obtain the consent of a party prior to recording any conversation involving the party." However, the agreed order says that does not apply "to any recordings of public proceedings where consent is implied or other recording permitted by law." In exchange, the district attorney agreed not to prosecute the reporter for wiretapping. (Read more)

Most community journalism about Congress is favorable, often superficial, experts find

Most community newspapers' coverage of their U.S. representative is not critical, and is often superficial, Brian Schaffner of American University said during a panel discussion at the convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, which ended today in Washington, D.C.

Schaffner cited a 1998 Freedom Forum study that found 49 percent of stories about members of Congress originated with a member's office, and another study which found that only 6 percent of stories about members mentioned someone critical of the member. However, "Some community journalists do produce coverage that can be used to hold incumbents accountable," he said. He offered a "counter-hypothesis," that most coverage is favorable because members do a good job of representing their districts, and the threat of negative stories keeps them in line. Our experience with papers and members says that is unlikely.

Newspaper ownership plays a role in how local papers cover local members of Congress, Schaffner said. He said his research has found that chain-owned newspapers have less coverage of congressional activities, but more coverage of campaigns for Congress. "A lot of times the House races are a kind of black hole" in coverage, he said, adding that is probably even more true of state legislative races.

It's important to distinguish between campaign and other coverage, said Bernard Stein of The Riverdale Press, a Pulitzer Prize-winning weekly at the far edge of the Bronx in New York City. "Every news outlet has an obligation to interview all the candidates" who will be on the ballot in its circulation area, he said, but he was less supportive of heavy coverage of congressional activities, because the Internet has made that more available to people who want to read it. He said the Press seldom does a story focused on Riverdale's member, but often mentions him in stories about local issues with a federal aspect.

Garrette Silverman, press secretary for Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, defended her office's production of a weekly column that carries the senator's byline and appears regularly in 69 Ohio papers with a total circulation of 4 million. She said she writes it on the basis of a taped conversation with Voinovich, and he approves the final copy. We observed that is likely not the case with state legislators, most of whom in our experience put their bylines on canned columns produced by the staff of their party caucus. --Al Cross

Utah mines are especially vulnerable to ‘bumps’ caused by pulling pillars; Murray mine had one

As the effort to rescue six miners in Utah goes on, stories published today suggest more strongly than ever that the mining method used at the mine -- pulling the pillars of coal that support the mine roof -- is the most likely explanation for the massive release of rock known as a "bump," which is usually a roof collapse but can come up from the floor. "Federal studies have found that pulling pillars, especially in the bump-prone mines of Utah, is always particularly dangerous," Ken Ward writes in The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette.

"A bump occurs because of pressure pushing down onto the mine roof or wall, as opposed to the roof or wall simply falling down," Ward explains. "Very deep mines in the hard sandstone areas of Utah are especially prone to bumps. The hard rock roof and floor of mines adds to the pressure that can cause bumps. At least 80 percent of bumps have been found to occur while operators are performing retreat mining or pulling pillars, according to another Bureau of Mines study published in 1991." (Read more)

The Salt Lake Tribune obtained a memo, and did the map above, showing that operators of Murray Energy Corp.'s Crandall Canyon Mine were trying to work around 'poor roof conditions' before halting mining of the northern tunnels in early March after a "large bump occurred . . . resulting in heavy damage' in those tunnels. The memo indicates that mine operators knew the tremendous pressures of a mountain bearing down on the mine were creating problems with the roof, and they were searching for a way to safely keep the mine from falling in as they cut away the coal pillars supporting the structure."

Robert Ferriter, director of the safety program at the Colorado School of Mines and a 27-year veteran of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, questioned the role of the agency, which approved "retreat mining," or pillar-pulling, in May. "It's dangerous. Damn dangerous I would say," Ferriter told Robert Gehrke of the Trbune. "What is MSHA doing in all this? They're the ones who are supposed to catch this sort of thing." (Read more)

Indians use federal laws and casino revenue to block developments far from reservations

“Developers are increasingly running up against newly powerful but tradition-minded American Indian leaders” in the West, such as Mike Jackson of the Quechan Indians, right, Nelson Schwartz of The New York Times reports today from the Quechan base of Yuma, Ariz. The tribe blocked creation of a gold mine and a low-level nuclear waste dump, and now is fighting construction of an oil refinery. (For a map of those sites, click here.)

Thanks to federal environmental and historic-preservation laws, Indians have impact far beyond their reservations. “In northern Arizona, Navajos, Hopis and other Indians have effectively stopped plans to expand a ski resort roughly 50 miles from the nearest reservation, after convincing a federal appellate panel in March that using wastewater to make artificial snow would desecrate peaks long held sacred,” Schwartz writes. (Photo by Jeff Topping for the Times)

In Montana, Northern Cheyenne make similar arguments “to block drilling for coal-bed methane near their reservation,” Schwartz reports. "Pumping water out of underground aquifers to extract natural gas will harm the spirits that inhabit the springs and streams where the Northern Cheyenne worship, says Gail Small, a Northern Cheyenne tribe member who heads Native Action, an environmental group she founded after graduating from law school. Adding weight to her argument is the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, ... which acknowledges the link between native American religion and land both on and off the reservation.”

“You’re seeing a real renaissance of tribes becoming aware of their cultural resources and heritage, and reclaiming that heritage even when it’s off the reservation,” University of Arizona law professor Robert Williams Jr. told the Times. He has advised tribes on the legal issues surrounding off-reservation sacred sites. Schwartz reports, “Thanks to the rise of casino gambling on Indian reservations, many tribes now have the money to challenge natural resource companies, real estate interests and other wealthy players who have long held sway in the West.” (Read more)

Wisconsin county rejects limit on confined animal feeding operations, looks at zoning

The Board of Supervisors in Vernon County, Wisconsin, this week rejected a a six-month ban on confined animal feeding operations with between 500 and 1,000 animals. That means "a proposed 2,400-head hog operation . . . will start construction by end of the month," the Vernon County Broadcaster reports.

"The 23-6 vote was greeted by applause," Tim Hundt writes. "The board did vote to tighten some restrictions on farms by passing a 'livestock facility licensing ordinance.' The board also voted to form a comprehensive planning commission that will start to look at land-use planning. The board voted 15-14 in favor of the animal siting ordinance and 24-5 in favor of forming the comprehensive planning commission "

"The state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection had cautioned the moratorium faced legal issues with Wisconsin’s Livestock Facilities Siting Rule," reports Bob Meyer of Brownfield Network. The ordinance passed by the commission gives it limited auithority under state law. County Corporation Counsel Greg Lunde said the county "would not be the best test case to challenge some of the issues mainly because the county has no zoning," Hundt reports. (Read more)

Volunteer, online 'paper' in New Hampshire gets Knight-Batten Award for innovation

An all-volunteer online newspaper in Deerfield, N.H., that "has become the major source of news for three rural communities" won one of this year's Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism, J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism, announced yesterday.

The Forum is two years old, getting a start-up grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's New Voices program, which J-Lab also administers. "In a readership area of 7,000 homes, it has more than 200 bylined contributors and averages 37 original articles per week, excluding obituaries, classifieds, letters to the editor and events listings," J-Lab said in its news release. To read it, click here.

The Forum was the only rural-related winner this year. Each of the six winners will get at least $1,000. A national panel of judges has chosen winners of a $10,000 grand prize and a $2,000 "first-place award." Four other entries among the total of 133 were given honorable mention. The top winners will be announced Sept. 17 at a symposium and luncheon, "Creativity Unleashed," at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Foes of mountaintop-removal coal mining, rebuffed at state and local levels, look to Congress for help

Opponents of mountaintop-removal coal mining like Sam Gilbert, above, "have found some allies in their fight, but most come from outside the Appalachian coalfield -- activists, authors and journalists who write stories for national and regional newspapers and magazines," Mary Jo Shafer writes for The Mountain Eagle and other newspapers. "Much the same has been said in the legislatures of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, where efforts to limit mountaintop removal have failed or never gotten off the ground. So now the debate is moving to the halls of Congress, where opponents think they have a better chance for change."

Shafer's story includes polling done by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, showing that opinion about use and conservation of natural resources is deeply divided in southeastern Kentucky's Harlan and Letcher counties, part of the area where mountaintops are mined. The Eagle is published in Letcher County, where Gilbert lives. (The report does not name the two counties, but their inclusion was confirmed for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues by Mil Duncan of Carsey.)

Shafer, now the assistant city editor at The Anniston (Ala.) Star, did the report for the Institute as part of an internship to earn a master's degree in community journalism from the University of Alabama, through the Knight Community Journalism Fellows program, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Shafer's report also includes stories about a Kentucky legislator who is trying to limit mountaintop removal and also interviewed coalfield residents and an industry official who see mountaintop mining as a source of jobs and land for development or tourism. Another story examines the state of the United Mine Workers of America in Eastern Kentucky -- no working miners, but members in other fields and a strong heritage.

At Montana conference, foundations hear pleas and strategies for giving more to rural areas

Suzanne Perry of the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports from Missoula, Mont.: “Foundations could help alleviate many of the nation’s most pressing problems by focusing more on the challenges and opportunities of rural America, speakers at a conference on rural philanthropy here said. While they receive fewer philanthropic dollars than urban areas, rural regions have been hit hard by some of the issues that are at the top of the country’s policy agenda — access to health care, immigration of low-wage workers, the need for better schools, and the loss of industrial jobs, they said.”

The conference is sponsored by the Council on Foundations and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, challenged foundations last year to do more for rural areas. Council President Steve Gunderson said that shouldn't mean less for urban areas, because rural areas should tap into “the huge transfer of wealth that is expected to take place over the next 50 years as people die and leave their estates to their heirs,” Perry writes. A good deal of that wealth is in rural land and other assets.

A recent National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy report, Rural Philanthropy: Building Dialogue From Within, "suggests that grant makers send their staff members on more site visits to rural areas and pay for events that bring urban foundations and rural nonprofit groups together,” Perry writes. “People fund people they know,” Dorfman said. “Relationships matter.” The conference ends Thursday. (Read more)

A survey of foundation staffs for the Center for Rural Strategies found “A perception that rural nonprofits lack the capacity to handle grants, a belief that rural funding falls outside many foundations’ interests and missions and sense that physical distance and cultural differences between urban-based philanthropies and rural organizations separate the foundation world and rural America,” the center's Tim Marema writes in the Daily Yonder, the center's new rural-news site. (Read more)

Utah mine where six are trapped used ‘most dangerous’ method, mining roof-supporting pillars

The Washington Bureau of the Los Angeles Times, long the domain of our friend and founder Rudy Abramson, gets back into his old coal beat today with the latest national story on "retreat mining," a method the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration authorized in June at the Crandall Canyon Mine of Murray Energy Corp. near Huntington, Utah, where six miners are trapped, their fate unknown.

"It's a delicate endeavor," writes Judy Pasternak of the Times. "Columns of coal are left in place to hold up the roof of the mine while the vein is tapped. Once the reserves have been extracted, the miners harvest the last of the coal on the way out, cutting carefully into the pillars and scrambling out of the way as the roof caves in. The final column to be slashed is known among miners as the 'suicide pillar'."

Tony Oppegard, a mine-safety lawyer and former federal mine-safety official, told the Times, "It's the most dangerous type of mining that there is." Pasternak writes that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health considers "the last phase of room-and-pillar mining is disproportionately dangerous," accounting for 10 percent of U.S. coal production, but 27 percent of mining deaths in a 2003 study. Luke Popovich of the National Mining Association told Pasternak the sample of 100 fatalities was small.

Mine owner Robert Murray has denied that the six miners were doing retreat mining, and contends that the roof collapse was caused by an earthquake, an event never recorded in Utah. Outside experts say the seismic jolt registered at the time seems to have been caused by the collapse itself. Pasternak writes that retreat mining "dislodges such tremendous volume of earth with such force that it causes quake activity." (Read more)

Murray has been the coal industry's "best friend," The Washington Post reports, drawing on a long interview he gave reporter Alec MacGillis this summer. To read MacGillis's story, click here.

Weekly paper's aggressive coverage holds Okla. authorities accountable, helps capture escapee

John Wylie, publisher of Oklahoma's weekly Oologah Lake Leader, was reading the nearby Vinita Daily Journal on June 5, and knew something was wrong when he saw that his neighbor editor was replying to a reader's complaint about a mental patient who had "walked away from a picnic." Wylie was in an excellent position to have heard about such an incident, and had heard nothing.

He did some digging and learned that the patient had walked away from a picnic at Oologah Lake, in the adjoining county, and that the escapee "had a two-state felony record including aggravated assault and battery with a deadly weapon, and had repeatedly threatened to kill law enforcement officers, jailers and friends," Wylie told Stan Schwartz of the National Newspaper Association. Escapee Randy Thweatt "had an escape history and had tried to kill a McCurtain County woman with a rifle."

"The only call the hospital made after discovering Thweatt was missing was to the McCurtain County Sheriff's Office in Idabel so it could warn the woman. In Rogers County, where Thweatt had escaped, authorities were not notified," Schwartz writes in the latest edition of NNA's Publisher's Auxiliary. Wylie broke the news, alerted a TV reporter in nearby Tulsa, and "Thweatt was apprehended by two Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers within 48 hours of the Leader's story," Schwartz writes. (For a PDF of the story's jump, click here.) "Oklahoma Rep. Chuck Hoskin, D-Vinta, issued a statement praising Wylie: 'I believe had it not been for the vigilance of the press -- in this case John Wylie of the Oologah Lake Leader and Lori Fullbright of KOTV-Tulsa -- this dangerous criminal may have remained at large.'"

Wylie reported the capture (story and jump) but the story wasn't over. He learned that "At that same lake just a week later, while Thweatt was still at large, more than 100 Girl Scouts held a campout," Schwartz writes. "It was also the 30th anniversary of the Locust Grove Girl Scout murders. Three young girls had been raped and killed at that site. The community still remembers that time." Click here for Wylie's story. Finally, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health apologized for the incident, and put a six-month suspension on all outings, but when Wylie asked for a copy of the order, he found that it it wasn't in writing.

Wylie wrote an editorial about dealing with the mentally ill, and related his own experience: When he was a big-city reporter, he covered a mentally ill veteran "who held police at bay for a day with volleys from high-powered weapons," then "got past security at The Kansas City Star, and pled his case with a .45-caliber handgun aimed straight and true at our heart through the pocket of his raincoat." (Read more)

Farmland prices rising, especially around ethanol plants in the Midwest

"Skyrocketing farmland prices, particularly in states like Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, giddy with the promise of corn-based ethanol, are stirring new optimism among established farmers," reports Monica Davey of The New York Times. "But for younger farmers, already rare in this graying profession, and for small farmers with dreams of expanding and grabbing a piece of the ethanol craze, the news is oddly grim. The higher prices feel out of reach."

Davey reports from DeKalb, Ill., citing an 80-acre tract "that sold for $10,000 an acre at auction this spring, a price that astonished even the auctioneer," Davey writes. "In central Illinois, prime farmland is selling for about $5,000 an acre on average, up from just over $3,000 an acre five years ago, a study showed. In Nebraska, meanwhile, land values rose 17 percent in the first quarter of this year over the same time last year, the swiftest such gain in more than a quarter century."

Davey also writes, "A federal-government analysis of farm real estate values released Friday showed record average-per-acre values across the country. The analysis said property prices averaged $2,160 an acre at the start of 2007, up 14 percent from a year earlier. . . . In Iowa, which produces more corn and is home to more ethanol plants than any other state, farm rental prices are mimicking purchase prices: they were up about 10 percent this spring over a year ago, according to a study by William Edwards, a professor at Iowa State University, who said it was the largest jump since he started tracking farm rents in 1994."

Some of the highest prices are near the nearly 200 existing or proposed ethanol plants, "where the cost of transporting the corn would be the cheapest," Davey reports. Jason Henderson, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, told the Times that that land close to such facilities, most of which are in the Midwest, had jumped by as much as 30 percent over a year ago. (Read more)

UPDATE: A Times editorial Aug. 10 says the ethanol boom "gives bigger, richer farmers and outside investors the ability to out-compete their smaller neighbors. It cuts young farmers hoping to get a start out of the equation entirely. It reduces diversity in crops and in farm size." (Read more)

Senate passes bill to improve federal Freedom of Information Act; prospects for final passage good

The first Freedom of Information Act reform in 11 years passed the Senate without dissent Friday night after being held up for two months by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. Among other reforms, the bill would create an obmudsman to resolve disputes about records requests, some of which have lingered for years because there is no penalty for failing to meet the law's deadlines for response.

The bill would also create a tracking system and hotline allowing requesters to follow their request through the system, and ensure that those who sue to get records will be get reimbursed for attorney fees when a federal agency hands over records right before a court order that might have included a fee award. It is called the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act, or OPEN Government Act. It is promoted by the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of media groups.

The voice vote by unanimous consent came after a series of negotiations between Kyl’s staff and that of the sponsors, Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and John Cornyn, R-Tex., reports Pete Weitzel of the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. Kyl and the Justice Department "objected to the definition of the media for fee waiver purposes, to a measure restoring the recovery of attorneys fees (changed by a 2001 court ruling), to the penalty provision if an agency fails to meet the 20-day response time, to the creation of an ombudsman, and to a section calling for reporting on Critical Infrastructure Information," Weitzel reports.

"The compromise made changes to the first three in ways we do not believe harmful," Weitzel writes. "The penalty provision was changed to match that in the House bill, which we thought more practical. The ombudsman provision, as negotiated, primarily adds language to the Leahy-Cornyn bill that puts into statute the requirement that each agency have a chief FOIA officer and a public liaison. Those were established by presidential executive order last year. The CII section is not really related to FOIA reform but is something Sen. Leahy felt strongly about. It is not in the House bill and we did not object to its being dropped."

Weitzel says the best scenario for supporters of freedom of information is for the House to accept the Senate version. If not, a House-Senate conference committee will be required. "Either way, we believe we’ll see the bill going to the president soon." For Weitzel's detailed analysis of the changes, click here.