Corn crop forecast down; bad news for economy

An abundance of rain is plaguing American corn farmers, which is increasing concern over lower than predicted corn production. As of Sunday, June 8, 89 percent of the U.S. corn crop had emerged, which is nine percent less than a year ago and six percent less than the five year average, the Department of Agriculture reported. Corn is in 60 percent good to excellent condition, compared to 63 percent a week ago and 77 percent a year ago. (Graph from The New York Times)

"At a moment when the country’s corn should be flourishing, one plant in 10 has not even emerged from the ground, the Agriculture Department said Monday," David Streitfeld and Keith Bradsher write for the Times. "Because corn planted late is more sensitive to heat damage in high summer, every day’s delay practically guarantees a lower yield at harvest. . . American farmers are planing 324 million acres (of corn) this year, up 4 million acres from 2007. Too much of the best land is waterlogged, however. Indiana and Illinois have been the worst hit, although Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota were inundated last weekend."

Jon Perkins writes for Brownfield, "The crop in most of the major U.S. growing states continues to develop at a slower than normal pace due to heavier than average rainfall, flooding and other conditions harmful to development." Katie Allen writes for Brownfield that "potential crop flamage on late-planted corn down to an early or even normal fall freeze is now a concern among farmers, especially in the northern Corn belt. Roger Elmore, extension corn agronomist for Iowa State University, says a normal freeze this fall shouldn't affect the already planted corn, but time is running short for corn that still needs to be planted."

USDA released its monthly World Agriculture Supply and Demand report Tuesday, estimating a harvest of 673 million bushels of corn, down 93 million from last month's forecast and 760 million below the 2007 forecast. If these predictions hold, stocks would plummet to their lowest mark since the 1995-1996 season. Read the full report here. "University of Illinois Extension Economist Darrel Good told Meatingplace.com the latest report seems to support the market consensus that there is no chance of having a big corn crop this year," writes Tom Johnston. "The combination of unplanted or unharvested acres and reduced yield potential indicates a reduction of production expectations, (Good) said."

A lackluster corn crop would affect several facets of the economy. Glen Grimes, agricultural economist emeritus with the University of Missouri at Columbia and a consultant to the National Pork Board, told Peter Shinn of Brownfield, "If U.S. corn production comes in far below expectations this year, less than 10 billion bushels, for example, the resulting corn price spike would shutter most U.S. ethanol plants." Shinn writes, "Grimes pointed out livestock producers must feed their animals regardless of price, while ethanol producers have the option of shutting down when margins are poor. And even if this year's corn production weer to somehow close to last year's record level, Grimes suggested the impact of higher feed costs on food price inflation haven't yet actually worked their way through the food production system to the retail level."

Appalachians more honest about race and votes?

Journalists from around the world continue to write about Barack Obama's "Appalachian problem," based on his single-digit percentages in some Central Appalachian counties and exit polls showing that more than a fifth of white Democratic voters in Kentucky and West Virginia said race was important to their vote and more than four-fifths of those voters supported Clinton.

Paul Harris, writing in "The Observer" column in The Guardian, a major British newspaper, reports from Williamson, W. Va., on the Kentucky border, and nearby Pikeville, Ky. He quotes Johnny Telvor of Williamson as saying Obama would make slaves of white people, and Stanley Little of Pikeville as saying he will vote Republican because "'McCain is one of us. Obama ain't."

Such stories imply that race was the main reason Obama lost the two main states of Central Appalachia. They ignore the fact that he made only one campaign stop in each of them, that Hillary Clinton's lunch-bucket speeches spoke more to local needs than Obama's high-flown rhetoric, and that the Clintons had strong followings in both states while Obama was not well known. As I said in my fortnightly column in The Courier-Journal yesterday, if Obama asked one of the black mayors of overwhelmingly white towns in Kentucky, "They might tell him that when folks know you, they're willing to vote for you. When you're a silhouette or a cartoon, they're not even listening."

Still, Harris and Emory University's Andra Gillespie, whom he calls "an expert on racial politics," make an interesting argument, that Appalachians are just being more honest about race than most other Americans. "The difficult truth is that Appalachia is unusual mostly because many people here are willing to openly talk about what some of their fellow citizens are secretly thinking," Harris writes, citing the exit polls of Edison Mitofsky Research. "West Virginia and Kentucky were just more honest than other parts of the country," Gillespie tells him. "A lot of other people know it's not socially acceptable to mention that sort of thing."

Harris calls Appalachia "Another America," and paints with the usual broad brush: "This is the America where outrageous rumours that Obama is a Muslim are readily believed. It is the America where Telvor is able to voice a sentiment that 'Obama might actually be the Antichrist' without apparent irony or fear of contradiction. It is a slice of America trapped in the dreadful history of race relations and the legacy of slavery and segregation. On the streets of towns such as Pikeville and Williamson, and in the minds of people like Little and Telvor, that past lives on. It is kept in the present by poverty, joblessness and a fear of the different. It is also a powerful force that should not be underestimated. It could even decide who will be the next President." (Read more)

UPDATE, June 20: Judy J. Owens, who spent a lot of time in Appalachia interviewing people for newspapers, thinks Telvor took Harris hunting for snipe, or for wampus cats. What's that? Read her piece in the Daily Yonder.

Rural America is where gasoline prices hit hardest

As a percentage of income, high gasoline prices are having the hardest impact in rural areas of the South, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas, reports Clifford Krauss of The New York Times, reporting on a survey by Oil Price Information Service. "People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel," Krauss writes. "Gasoline theft is rising. And drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money."

Americans spend about 4 percent of their take-home income on motor fuels, but "in some counties in the Mississippi Delta, that figure has surpassed 13 percent," Krauss reports. "The survey showed that of the 13 counties where people spent 13 percent or more of their family income on gasoline, 5 were located in Mississippi, 4 were in Alabama, 3 were in Kentucky and 1 was in West Virginia. (Click on Times map above for county-by-county comparisons of gas prices, median income and their intersection.)

Reporting from Holmes County, Miss., Krauss contrasts the Times' home base with the rest of the country: "With the exception of rural Maine, the Northeast appears least affected by gasoline prices because people there make more money and drive shorter distances, or they take a bus or train to work," Krauss writes. "But across Mississippi and the rural South, little public transit is available and people have no choice but to drive to work. Since jobs are scarce, commutes are frequently 20 miles or more. Many of the vehicles on the roads here are old rundown trucks, some getting 10 or fewer miles to the gallon."

The long-term picture is not good. "Sociologists and economists who study rural poverty say the gasoline crisis in the rural South, if it persists, could accelerate population loss and decrease the tax base in some areas as more people move closer to urban manufacturing jobs," Krauss reports. "They warn that the high cost of driving makes low-wage labor even less attractive to workers, especially those who also have to pay for child care and can live off welfare and food stamps." (Read more)

The data make localizing this story easy. Here's an example from the Lexington Herald-Leader.

In New Hampshire, a death touches and teaches

New Hampshire is a small state, where it's easy to get known -- and admired, if you do good work. It's also a state where the agriculture commissioner is a former journalist who knows how to tell the stories of the people and issues in the state's diverse agricultural community. The latest "From Your Commissioner" column by Lorraine Merrill, left, in her department's Weekly Market Bulletin is titled "A Time to Reap and A Time To Sow." It begins:

Just two weeks ago we wrote of the joy Arthur and Cathy Scruton were experiencing with the birth of healthy triplet heifer calves at Scruton’s Dairy in Farmington. Over Memorial Day weekend Arthur Scruton was killed in a farm equipment accident. He was 58. The response of the state’s agricultural community demonstrated how deeply this quiet man had touched many individuals and whole families. He and his family have operated one of the state’s top dairy farms, known for their fine herd of
Holsteins. Local farmers and ag service providers offered help to the Scruton family at this peak cropping season. An estimated 500-600 people from every corner of New Hampshire, and at least four other states, lined up for hours to pay their respects to the family and exchange stories and remembrances. A similar- sized crowd turned out the next day for services honoring Art’s memory.

Merrill reminds her readers that farming is among the most dangerous occupations, especially once farmers pass the age of 55. That was the average age for an American farmer the last time it was calculated, in 2002, and it's probably higher now. To read the June 4 issue of the Weekly Market Bulletin, click here. It's long had good journalism; Merrill's predecessor was Steve Taylor, another journalist.

Tennessee center will help food entrepreneurs

The name Cumberland Culinary Center "may conjure Iron Chef-esque images," reports The Lebanon Democrat, but the Tennessee center "will be geared more towards farmers and entrepreneurs." (Encarta map)

The center, for which Cumberland University broke ground Thursday, "will house a commercial kitchen and storage facility intended to assist area entrepreneurs in prepping their products for market," CU Public Relations Director Brian Harville told reporter Hilary Trenda. "The culinary center is intended to educate area entrepreneurs on the production, promotion and packaging of products and to provide small businesses with access to commercial kitchen facilities." It will also link farmers with entrepreneurs to promote their products.

The 2,400-square-foot center is to be completed in time for the fall semester. Its $300,000 cost is being covered by the university, a state grant and a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant. It will be available to entrepreneurs from Middle Tennessee, Southern Kentucky and Northern Alabama. It will not handle meat and dairy products because of federal inspection requirements. (Read more; registration required)

Obama sets stake in Va.; outside media mess up

Seeking rural votes in a swing state, Sen. Barack Obama went to Bristol, Va., yesterday and drew a crowd of 2,500. He made no news, other than making clear he will contest a state that has become a lots less rural since 1964, the last time it voted Democratic for president. But some of the out-of-town news organizations covering Obama made some gaffes worth noting.

"While Virginia was among the states that Mr. Obama won in the primary season, he had trouble here in the southwest," Jeff Zeleny and Adam Nagourney write in The New York Times. "Clinton carried the city of Bristol, as well as the surrounding county, by 67 percent to 32 percent. Four years ago, President Bush won 64 percent of the vote. So the visit by Mr. Obama, which he declared his first official campaign stop of the general-election campaign, was intended to be as rich with symbolism as political strategy." (Read more)

In The Roanoke Times, this was the lead quote in Mason Adams' story: ""Southwest Virginia is an example of so much that is good about this country, but so many people have been forgotten," Obama said. "There are good hardworking decent generous people in beautiful towns all throughout this region, but Washington hasn't been listening to you. It hasn't been paying attention to you. I'm here to let you know I'm going to be paying attention and I'm going to be listening."

Lauren Linn concludes in the Daily Yonder, which has a good map of Virginia's primary results: "As I left I pondered if Obama could win over white, rural, blue-collar Americans. He clearly is not the same as these men and women, even if he attempted to look like them: that was evident throughout the Democratic primary. The response yesterday at Virginia High School was strong and positive, and must have been encouraging to the Obama camp. Maybe, just maybe, there were enough college-educated wealthier voters in that gym to make it work out that way." (Read more)

In the Bristol Herald Courier, David McGee followed Obama's focus: health care. "In his first public appearance since securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama promised here Thursday that every American would receive affordable health care by the end of his first term," McGree writes. "Battling self-admitted sleep deprivation since claiming the nomination Tuesday night, Obama spent more than an hour detailing much of his health care plan." (Read more) The paper's coverage was extensive. Nicki Mayo, the content coordinator for TriCities.com, the Herald Courier's Web site, talked with Virginia Tech Professor Robert E. Denton Jr. about Obama’s chances of carrying Virginia and posted this video.

The Herald Courier's editorial board lit into NBC News' Andrea Mitchell for her characterization of the region. As reported by the paper, she said, "This is real [chuckle] redneck ... sort of ... uhm ... bordering on Appalachia ... country." The editorial said, "Bristol doesn’t border 'Appalachia ... country.' It is part of the Appalachian Mountain region. While the region faces challenges, it doesn’t deserve to be the butt of jokes. ... Mocking Appalachia is no different than making racial jokes or ethnic slurs. It isn’t acceptable or professional. Mitchell should be reprimanded by her bosses. A sincere, public apology also is in order." (Read more) UPDATE, June 10: Mitchell apologized for her remarks, Christine Riser of WJHL-TV reports. The Herald Courier's editorial board said the apology "seemed reasonably sincere and gracious. We note that it came relatively quickly, too. However, it’s up to Southwest Virginians to decide whether to accept it or not. We lean toward accepting it, and again extend an invitation to Mitchell to come visit the region. She might be surprised by what she discovers." (Read more) UPDATE, June 23: Foster shares with readers some of the 100-plus comments he received on his "smackdown."

The Washington Post needs a geography and geology lesson on one of the states it covers most. Kristen Mack of the Post reports that Obama "spent the morning courting voters in coal country at a town hall meeting in southwest Virginia," and Tim Craig writes that Obama was "in Bristol in southwestern Virginia's coal country." Wrong. The Appalachian coalfield is north and west of Bristol. It's not far, but they're still not right. Here's a map.

Obama's schedule has him in Raleigh and St. Louis on Monday and one or more unspecified locations in Missouri on Tuesday.

What is rural? The federal government's different definitions serve many different purposes

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues is often asked how we define "rural." The easy answer, and the easy way, is "non-metropolitan." But that is a very blunt instrument, because standard metropolitan statistical areas are defined by commuting patterns. So many rural people commute to cities, many counties that are essentially rural are included in metropolitan areas. In fact, those counties have many rural residents -- so many that about half the rural population of the U.S. is in metro areas. There are many other ways to define "rural," ranging so widely that "The share of the U.S. population considered rural ranges from 17 to 49 percent depending on the definition used," the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture explains in the latest edition of its electronic magazine, Amber Waves.

"The use of multiple definitions reflects the reality that rural and urban are multidimensional concepts, making clear-cut distinctions between the two difficult," John Cromartie and Shawn Bucholtz write. "Is population density the defining concern, or is it geographic isolation? Is it small population size that makes it necessary to distinguish rural from urban? If so, how small is rural? Because the U.S. is a nation in which so many people live in areas that are not clearly rural or urban, seemingly small changes in the way rural areas are defined can have large impacts on who and what are considered rural." (Read more)

R.W. Johnson Foundation commits $300 million to improve heath in 14 areas, many with rural folks

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation committed $300 million this week to help improve the quality of health care in 14 states and regions across the U.S., many of which have large rural populations. The commitment, which RWJF said in a news release is the largest effort of its kind undertaken by a U.S. philanthropy, aims to improve health care in communities that cover 11 percent of the U.S. population. The community-focused program, known as Aligning Forces for Quality, "will list the overall quality of health care, reduce racial and ethnic disparities and provide models for national reform."

The program will work in Maine (the nation's most rural state except Vermont), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Humboldt County, Calif., the Willamette Valley of Oregon, south-central Pennsylvania, western Michigan, western New York state, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., Memphis and Seattle. "They were selected as part of a highly competitive process to find communities that were positioned to make fundamental and cutting-edge changes to rebuild their health care systems," the release explained.

RWJF President Risa Lavizzo-Mourey said, “Despite having the most expensive health care system in the world, patients are subject to too many mistakes, too much miscommunication and too much inequity. As a result, too many Americans aren’t receiving the care they need and deserve. This unprecedented commitment of resources, expertise and training will turn proven practices for improving quality into real results in communities across America.”

RWJF examined Medicare claims to illustrate vast variations in health care quality across the country. Five different measures of care were examined by researchers in the 14 area. According the the RWJF news release, "Most strikingly, researchers found significant differences by race and by region in whether patients lost a leg to amputation, a complication of peripheral vascular disease and diabetes. ... The report also demonstrates significant differences in whether people get basic recommended care, such as women getting regular mammography tests or patients with diabetes getting essential blood tests." You may examine the study here.

Alaska conference on dealing with climate change focuses on rural solutions

Residents in rural Alaska are familiar with virtually all aspects of climate change. The Alaska Municipal League Communities Conference on Climate Change met in Anchorage May 28-30. According to the AML's Web site, the conference allowed participants to "learn more about anticipated challenges and policy options to address climate change" and "obtain tools and resources to help (them) develop a response to climate change that is most effective for (their) community and region."

Scrammon Bay City Manager James Akerelrea "was searching for solutions from among the pack of climate-change experts and fellow officials. In addition, he wanted to share Scammon Bay's efforts to thrive in changing environmental and economic conditions," Mary Lochner writes for The Arctic Sounder.

Energy conservation is being promoted, with advice to pick projects that are most efficient. “A lot of people want to have their renewable energy project that’s visible and exciting, but that’s not always the best thing to do with your money,” said Kathy Prentki, Denali Commission energy project manager. Wind farms, tides, river dams and methane from garbage waste were all discussed as alternative energy sources that could counter threats posed by increasing fuel costs. In addition to cost related issues, each alternative presents a variety of obstacles or disadvantages.

"Margit Hentschel, director of climate protection services for Walsh Environmental in Denver, said investing in climate change preparation makes sense even if current models turn out to be less than spot on in predicting the future," Lochner writes. “It’s really just good planning and business,” Hentschel said. “A lot of the emergency preparedness — and that’s a big element — reinforces the things (local governments) should be doing anyway.”

Data on stream flow, water quality available online

Wondering if last night's rain was a gully-wusher upstream? "The U.S. Geological Survey now offers real-time maps and data on surface water quality across the U.S.," Mark Schaver, computer-assisted reporting director for The Courier-Journal of Louisville writes on his blog, DepthReporting.com.

Schaver cites ResourceShelf, which says, "WaterQualityWatch is a new USGS Web site that provides access to real-time water-quality monitor data collected in surface waters throughout the United States as part of the USGS mission to describe water sources. Measurements include stream flow, water temperature, specific conductance, acidity and alkalinity, dissolves oxygen and turbidity. These measurements are available at more than 1,300 sites in streams with watersheds as small as a few square miles to more than 1 million square miles in the Mississippi River as it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Continuous real-time water-quality data are used for decisions regarding drinking water, water treatment, regulatory programs, recreation, and public safety."

This map shows the array of stream gauges, showing flow; the redder the dot, the lower the flow. To view data from a particular monitoring site, click here.

Food and gas price hikes hit rural, poor hardest

Paralegal Peggy Trump fills up her tank in Charleston, W.Va., before heading home to Beckley, the beginning and end of her five-day-a-week round trip. She says Charleston law firms offer better pay and benefits, but increases in fuel and food prices are squeezing her pocketbook and those of all Americans, especially those who commute from rural areas. The topic is getting more coverage, and it should. (Charleston Gazette photo by Chris Dorst)

"When the economy takes a tumble, the poor are often the first to feel the pain," Karla Ward writes for the Herald-Leader in Lexington, Ky. "Representatives of several local social service agencies said they're seeing more clients seeking help in an environment in which gas and grocery prices are soaring." Problems resulting from increases in food and gas prices are compounded in rural areas. "The rural areas are going to suffer more in the current environment," said James Siliak, director of the University of Kentucky's Center for Poverty Research. "He said people in rural areas have to commute farther to work, which means they have higher fuel costs, and there is some evidence suggesting that groceries cost more in rural areas as well," Ward writes.

West Virginia may be the state where rural commuters burn up the most time, relatively speaking. It ranked 11th in average commuting time in 2006, led entirely by states with large metropolitan areas, and 13th in "the percentage of workers who work outside their county of residence, according to the 2006 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau," Allison Knezevich writes for the Gazette. In "a largely rural state, mass transit isn't available to most people." (Read more)

Increasing fuel costs also affect health care, especially those who are homebound or disabled. "Rural residents are often hit the hardest," writes Clare Ansberry for The Wall Street Journal. "Doctors, dentists and grocery stores may be miles away and there is often little, if any, public transportation. Agencies such as Easter Seals provide rides for those with disabilities, but with high gasoline costs, such serviced are often limited largely to medical appointments." Dozens homebound individuals in rural Minnesota were sent letters informing them their local Meals on Wheels program is closing at the end of the month.

Higher food and fuel costs are effecting food distribution to the nation's less fortunate too. The Mississippi Food Network and similar organizations "are finding it increasingly difficult to provide food to the poor," Becky Gillette reports for The Mississippi Business Journal.

"While food banks across the country are facing a strain of increased demand at a time of inflation for purchasing and distributing food, the need can be particular acute in areas where there is a low per capita income." According to information recently released by the USDA, a family of four paid $197 on average per week for groceries, compared to $211 per week in February 2008. The USDA considers it the worst food inflation in 20 years.

The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma provides food for nearly 64,000 hungry Oklahomans every week and since their beginning in 1980 has distributed over 283 million pounds of food to nearly 500 charitable programs in central and western Oklahoma. Growing needs in rural communities has led to an increase in distributions in additional areas increasing food and transportation costs," Amy Klinge writes for The Oklahoman. The agency recently received a grant from the Communities Foundation of Oklahoma to help offset costs associated with servicing these outlying areas.

Diesel-dependent utility in Alaska seeks state aid

"The largest utility in rural Alaska can’t afford to buy next year’s fuel and is asking the state for millions of dollars in help," reports Alex DeMarban of Alaska Newspapers in the chain's Bristol Bay Times. "Board members with Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, which provides power in 53 Interior and Western Alaska villages, declared a “financial emergency” on May 23 because of runaway diesel fuel prices."

The co-op spent $14 million on fuel last year and is expecting to spend $26 million this year, DeMarban reports. According to its top executive, "The cooperative has some money on hand but needs help to prevent a crippling rate increase for customers who can barely pay current bills." It offered an alternative to the plan proposed by Republican Gov. Sarah Palin for the state's utilities, all of which are cooperatives. (Read more)

Big investors broadening stakes in agribusiness

On the heels of increased speculation in grain markets, "A few big private investors are starting to make bolder and longer-term bets that the world’s need for food will greatly increase — by buying farmland, fertilizer, grain elevators and shipping equipment," The New York Times reports.

Brad Cole, president of Cole Partners Asset Management in Chicago, which manages hedge funds focused on natural resources, told Diana Henriques, “There is considerable interest in what we call ‘owning structure’ — like United States farmland, Argentine farmland, English farmland — wherever the profit picture is improving.”

The new investment could raise food production at a time when many countries need it. "But the long-term implications are less clear," Henriques writes. "Some traditional players in the farm economy, and others who study and shape agriculture policy, say they are concerned these newcomers will focus on profits above all else, and not share the industry’s commitment to farming through good times and bad." (Read more) For more stories in the Times' series on the food system, click here.

Rural tourism shows off agriculture, natural beauty

Summer is nearly upon us, making the air ripe for tourism, but what will drive tourists to your rural community? Tourism has the potential to stimulate rural economies, create additional jobs, and showcase the wonders, diversity and beauty of rural communities. (Tourists walk in a rural landscape in a photo by Turismo Rural)

"One travel trend in tourism these days is outdoor activities and going to rural areas," Keystone Heights, Fla., Mayor Mary Lou Hildreth told the Bradford County Telegraph. "People want to ride in the country and find quaint, out-of-the-way places." Hildreth recently attended the Enterprise Florida conference where she participated in several segments on rural tourism. "Along with a miniature canoe paddle, some plastic alligator beads and mounds of printed materials, the mayor also brought back ideas for making Keystone Heights more attractive to a potential tourist dollar," James Williams writes for the Telegraph. "Areas designated as 'rural areas of critical economic concern' qualify for more funds such as grants and other public investments through the Rural Economic Development Initiative. That would include funds for rural and eco-tourism."

A busload of diverse individuals toured northeast Solano County, Calif., allowing participants to enjoy the sights, smells and tastes of local agriculture. The Solano County Agriculture Advisory Committee sponsored the Savor Solano field trip, which "took riders on a tour of rural Vacaville, Dixon and Winters, and showed off some of the region's most relied-upon ag industrial processing plants," writes Danny Bernardini for The Reporter. "After meandering through the back roads, the tour stopped at two of the area's processing plants. Superior Farms, the sole lamb processing plant on the west coast, and Campbell's Soup Co. both had short presentations for the group."

Solano County is not the only community taking steps toward enhancing rural tourism opportunities. "Chambers County [Texas] has the potential to grow into a nature- and agri-tourism powerhouse if it takes steps to protect its natural resources today, according to a national nonprofit conservation organization," Amy Condon writes for The Progress. "Organized by The Trust for Public Land (TPL), experts - in farmers markets, wildlife and nature tourism, corporate habitat conservation, and conservation funding - spent last week meeting with Chambers residents, businesses, and farmers and ranchers in workshops to explore strategies to address a series of questions raised through TPL's Chambers County Greenprint for Growth process."

Chambers is the first Rural County Demonstration Project in Texas undertaken by TPL. The Chambers County Greenprint goals include: maintaining rural character and creating more public access for nature-based recreation. "Part of the Greenprint process involved last week's Strategy Exchange to answer questions that cannot be addressed through mapping but help achieve the Greenprint's overall goals." The Strategy Exchange generated a series of recommended actions, including "diversifying agricultural and tourism activities for sustainable economic development, constructing an inventory of existing nature-based tourism opportunities" and "providing resources to landowners interests in creating nature-based experiences." A grant from the Coastal Coordination Council primarily funded the Chambers County Greenprint for Growth and Conservation Project. To learn more about it, contact Linda Shead. For more information on promoting tourism in rural America visit the National Agricultural Library Rural Information Center.

Filmmaker lives a miner's life in '30 Days' on FX

Morgan Spurlock, the writer, producer and director of the Academy Award-nominated film "Super Size Me", returns to his native West Virginia to work as an apprentice coal miner to kick off FX's "30 Days," a reality television show that starts tonight at 10 p.m. (Photo of Spurlock by Ray Mickshaw for FX)

In "30 Days," an individual or group is immersed in a lifestyle for that time period while discussing related social issues. The first episode of the show's third season features Spurlock living with Dale Lusk, who has mined coal for 35 years, and his wife in Bolt, W. Va. Lusk, the supervisor of the mine in which Spurlock works, "introduced Morgan to a miner's way of life, gaining an understanding of the financial benefits that draw miners and the dangers they face daily," Dave Lavender writes for The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W. Va.

Spurlock trained for 80 hours to become a "red hat," the term for a rookie apprentice, and enter the mine. "As a new miner, Spurlock was assigned much of the grunt work, including plastering, building wooden roof supports, shoveling coal and hauling heavy equipment,' Lavender writes. "On his days off, Spurlock put a face on the other problems with coal as energy -- from the aftermath of families dealing with mining deaths, as well as witnessing the mountains being permanently destroyed to get at the coal seams through mountaintop removal" in surface mines much different from the underground workplace.

"It makes you realize how many people are affected by coal," Spurlock said. "Coal has one foot in the past and one foot in the future. We can't wait 'till it disappears to do something. We can only chose progress." Read more about "30 Days" here.

Free-roaming dogs bite 5 million people a year, kill 10-15; inflict serious damage to livestock, pets

Dogs are often called "man's best friend," but not all dogs fit this description. Feral and free-roaming canines, or wild dogs, can terrorize wildlife, livestock, humans and their pets. (Feral dogs harass two bighorn sheep in a photo by Jeff Crouse Hinojosa of JJ Restoration Service)

"Wildlife Services, the federal agency responsible for predator control estimates that more than 33 million feral and free-roaming dogs run loose in the United States, biting 5 million people each year and killing about 10 to 15, usually small children," Troy Anderson writes in the High Country News, which focuses on the rural West. "In rural areas, feral and loose pet dogs often form packs that chase down and kill deer, elk, chickens, goats and even cattle." Jeff Villepique, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game, told Anderson most incidents go unreported. "There is no reason for me to think we know the full extent of the problem."

Such attacks are not limited to big game animals. "Many ranchers are quick to blame wolves, coyotes and grizzly bears for harassing or killing their livestock, but wildlife officials say dogs are often the culprits," Anderson writes. In 2004, dogs killed approximately 30,000 sheep nationwide, second only to coyotes who butchered more than 135,000. "Each year Wildlife Services receives hundreds of requests to trap, poison and shoot feral dogs. Still, the agency devotes most of its resources to killing wild predators. In 2006, the agency killed more than 87,000 coyotes but only 512 dogs. Hundreds more were taken to animal shelters."Wild dogs also inflict mayhem on humans and their pets and neighborhoods. A pack is suspected of nearly killing a family dog in Tell City, Ind., Stefanie Silvey reports for WIFE-TV. Residents in Aiken, S.C., notified police after sighting about five wild dogs roaming together who officials believe could carry rabies or other diseases," Joy Howe reports for WJBF-TV. Authorities in Upper Arlington, Ohio are offering a $1000 reward for the return of Curley, a feral dog who escaped while being transported from Utah to New York state, writes Bill Bush of The Columbus Dispatch. "In California’s San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains, officials have removed 350 feral and free-roaming dogs over the past 15 years," Anderson writes. "The dogs are difficult to catch, and trapping has been sporadic at best. Recent U.S. Forest Service budget cuts will further hamper efforts to address the problem."

Wildlife Services is a division of the Animal and Plant Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture, the parent agency of the Forest Service. It should not be confused with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is part of the Interior Department.

Utah mine collapse began where miners were removing pillars, seismologists conclude

The Utah mine collapse that claimed nine lives last summer was larger than first thought and started near where miners had been removing pillars of coal in the weeks before the disaster, University of Utah seismologists say in a report that also debunks the mine operator's notion that the collapse could have been caused by an earthquake.

The researchers "estimated the size of the collapse is about four times larger than was thought shortly after the time of the Aug. 6, 2007, disaster that resulted in the deaths of six miners and, 10 days later, three rescuers," a university press release said. "The seismologists’ 53-page report has been submitted to the journal Seismological Research Letters and to federal Mine Safety and Health Administration investigators." MSHA's report on the Crandall Canyon mine is due out this month. "Scientists usually don’t release studies until they are published in journals," the release said. "But in this case, there have been numerous requests for the information, which is a matter of public interest, so researchers released the report now. They delayed the release a couple of weeks at MSHA’s request to give the agency time to inform disaster victims’ families."

Some experts have blamed the collapse on the mine's practice of "robbing pillars," the vertical columns of coal that support the mine roof, and the report lends more credence to that view. It notes that the MSHA-approved mining plan called for "leaving behind pillars about 110 feet long and 60 feet wide. The next phase of the plan was to mine coal in some of these pillars and allowing the roof around the pillars. "The last known working location of the six miners was just east of where those pillars were removed," the release said. The study shows the hypocenter of the collapse, the underground point at which it began, “was right at the edge of where miners were removing pillars in July and early August,” said seismologist Jim Pechmann, the study's lead author and research associate professor of geology and geophysics.

The report also said the scientists are certain that the 3.9-magnitude earthquake recorded at the time of the collapse was the collapse itself, not the cause of the collapse, as contended by Robert Murray of Murray Energy Corp., owner of the mine.

Ethanol and biodiesel appear to play only a minor role in recent global food-price increases

The Grocery Manufacturers Association and ethanol producers are in a public-relations and lobbying battle over the role of ethanol in rising food prices. The best available evidence -- and we remain open to other evidence -- is that ethanol has had a very minor role.

Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said at a May 19 press conference that the administration estimates that corn based ethanol accounts for only about 3 percent of the recent increases in global food prices. "Schafer, a longtime proponent of biofuels, vehemently disputed efforts by the leaders of the World Bank and the U.N. World Food Program to blame ethanol for rising world food prices," David Sands and Stephen Dinan write in The Washington Times.

Schafer didn't give the source of his 3 percent figure, but USDA told us that it came from the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Jane Ihrig, a Federal Reserve Board economist on leave to the council, told us that it's important to consider the time period covered by statistics. In this case, the 3 percent figure is for the past 12 months. "Most of the quotes out there, when we look at them, we believe are very similar to what estimates we're giving," she said.

In a recent report, USDA did not use the 3 percent figure but explained the other factors at work in increasing food prices. "Some factors reflect trends of slower growth in production and more rapid demand that have contributed to a tightening of world balances of grains and oilseeds over the last decade," the report says. "Recent factors that have further tightened world markets include increased global demand for biofuel feedstocks and adverse weather conditions in 2006 and 2007 in some major grain- and oilseed-producing areas. Other factors ... include the declining value of the U.S. dollar, rising energy prices, increasing agricultural costs of production, growing foreign exchange holdings by major food-importing countries, and policies adopted recently by some exporting and importing countries to mitigate their own food price inflation."

According to the White House, "U.S. food prices have increased far less than global food prices and a similarly small percent of the increase is attributed to biofuels production. Without increased ethanol production, food price inflation in the United States would have been 4.25 percent over the past 12 months rather than 4.5 percent. One of the reasons U.S. food prices have increased less than global food prices is because Americans consume more processed and restaurant foods, while developing countries consume more basic commodities. The spike in commodity prices directly impacts the global food price." But it should be added, we think, that prices for U.S. pork and chicken have been driven up by the increased cost of corn, a major feed for those industries.

Robert Zubrin and Gal Luft write in the Chicago Tribune that "A flood of reports and statements has claimed that the world's biofuel programs — in particular the U.S. corn ethanol effort—is starving poor people around the globe. Even the UN's special rapporteur for the Right to Food decried biofuel production as 'a crime against humanity.' It seems so obvious: With so much corn being turned into fuel, food shortages must inevitably result, and biofuel programs must be the cause. However, that's completely untrue. Here are the facts. In the last five years, despite the nearly threefold growth of the corn ethanol industry (or actually because of it), the U.S. corn crop grew by 35 percent, the production of distillers grain (a high-value animal feed made from the protein saved from the corn used for ethanol) quadrupled and the net corn food and feed product of the U.S. increased 26 percent. "Contrary to claims that farmers have cut other crops to grow more corn, U.S. soybean plantings this year are expected to be up 18 percent and wheat plantings up 6 percent. U.S. farm exports are up 23 percent. America is clearly doing its share in feeding the world." Zubrin is the author of Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil; Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. They are members of the Set America Free Coalition, an energy-independence group that former CIA Director James Woolsey calls "a coalition of tree huggers, do-gooders, sodbusters, cheap hawks and evangelicals."

These are international issues that stem from rural areas and also affect them. Food prices are often higher in some rural areas because they lack large supermarkets. How are these issues affecting your rural communities?

Federal policies, enrollment declines spur more closings and consolidations in rural school districts

Cheerleader Tiffany Keller, right, is only a sophomore at Pocahontas High School but has probably led her last high-school cheer. The school is closing, the latest in an accelerating trend, reports The Roanoke Times: "Since 2000, at least 22 schools have closed in rural Virginia. More closings are expected with dwindling enrollment, aging buildings and a declining economy." In Southwest Virginia, other reasons include "their region's lack of political clout and education policies that benefit more populated districts," David Harrison reports.

The latter point is a sore one for the Rural School and Community Trust, which touts the value of smaller schools. It is hammering away at changes in the federal Title I program for districts with many poor students, which doles out money "not only on the percentage of eligible children, but also on the total number of eligible children, which means that small cities or rural areas get less than other, more populated districts," Harrison writes, citing Marty Strange, the group's policy director, who figures "those inequities will cost the Tazewell County school system $49,079 this year."

The other big federal factor is the No Child Left Behind Act, "which requires failing schools to offer to pay for private tutoring or to bus students to better performing schools," Harrison explains. "Few private tutoring companies set up shop in isolated areas, and few students from struggling schools will volunteer to ride a bus 30 miles to a better one, Strange said. Then there's the requirement that teachers get more training, which has heightened competition among school districts for qualified teachers and driven up teacher salaries."

Larger schools offer more courses. "smaller schools give students more support, smaller classes and inspire a devoted following in their community," Harrison writes. "On the other, those small schools are becoming increasingly expensive to run. ... But school closings are not always successful. A 2004 West Virginia study found that school districts in that state spent more money per student than they did before closing schools. And West Virginia has not seen an improvement in student performance despite having fewer schools and spending more money, the report found."

One additional expense in Tazewell County will be longer bus rides for students who now attend Pocahontas High, in an old coal town hard by the West Virginia border. Tiffany Keller, 16, told Harrison she doesn't think expect to try out for cheerleader at Tazewell High. "It would feel disloyal to cheer for another school." (Read more)

Diesel costs have schools seeking extra money

Diesel fuel prices are so high, raising costs for rural school systems that depend on buses, that West Virginia may need to have a special legislative session to give schools the money they need to pick up and deliver students when school begins in August. "North Carolina education officials have also asked for legislative help," The Associated Press reports. "Texas lawmakers have said they will re-evaluate their state's school funding system."

The state Department of Education asked Gov. Joe Manchin for $5 million this week, and he is considering a special session to appropriate the money. The schools got $63 million this year for transportation systems, $15 million of it for fuel, "but officials project they'll need at least $19.5 million," AP reports. "The $15 million was based on 2006 cost figures, but diesel fuel has increased $1.52 a gallon, to $4.38, just within the past year. Since 2003, school bus fuel costs have nearly tripled." (Read more)

In Appalachia, Obama needs to get uniform dirty, as Jackson did; he'd be like poke, humorist says

Some of the commentary about the presidential primary elections in Kentucky and West Virginia has painted with too broad a brush, leaving the impression that racism is a common trait among Appalachians. A couple of pieces by people who actually know something about the region make clear that plenty of Appalachians are ready to embrace candidates of color.

In the Daily Yonder, Bill Bishop, right, recalls Jesse Jackson's trip to Eastern Kentucky during his 1988 presidential campaign, in which Jackson "drew respect and a following. A reported 4,000 people crammed the high school gym in Hazard to listen to Rev. Jackson speak. Sen. Barack Obama might have been able to pull 4,000 people to the Hazard high school gym in 2008, but he never came to Eastern Kentucky. He held rallies in Louisville, Ky., and Charleston, W.Va,, the two largest cities in the states. But he never ventured into the coalfields." (Kentucky has two coalfields, one shared with West Virginia.)

"In effect, he rejected the people of Kentucky and West Virginia," Tammy Horn, is senior researcher at Eastern Kentucky University's Environmental Research Institute, writes in the Lexington Herald-Leader. "When two states such as West Virginia and Kentucky contribute to half of the energy needs of the nation, a candidate should at least care to create a perception that he acknowledges the people of those states. Not to do so may make some people, dare we say it, bitter." (Read more)

Bishop says Jackson's 1988 trip changed the reverend's life, making him an advocate for poor whites, often in Appalachia. In late 1998, "Jackson brought President Bill Clinton to a gathering of CEOs from Bell Atlantic, Frito Lay, TCI, Citigroup and the New York Stock Exchange to talk about poverty in the mountains. Jackson told the business elite that this was the time to make a commitment to Appalachia. ... He turned to Clinton and reminded him that those who wore 'clean uniforms' never got in the game. 'Those who play have stains on their uniforms,' Jackson said. If you eat an early breakfast in the mountains, there’s a good chance you’ll sit next to some miners fresh off the hoot-owl shift. Their uniforms and their faces will be smudged from their jobs underground. They showed up for work and they expect their politicians to show up, too."

So, Obama still has a clean uniform, and the betting is that he won't get it dirty in West Virginia or Kentucky, where Hillary Clinton beat him badly. But a longtime Eastern Kentucky political and humor columnist (who is also a Republican) writes in the Herald-Leader that Obama would be a tonic to the political system much like pokeweed, above, can be. (Southeastern Outdoors photo)

Pikeville lawyer Larry Webster, left, puts his observations in the mind of Slemp, one of his regular characters: "The country people have always used poke to clean them out in the spring. You have to be fairly close to plumbing to eat poke, but with some fried, salt-cured shoulder and a boiled egg or two, Slemp would be willing to take the risk. ... Slemp thinks Obama will act on the government like poke acts on people, which would be a real good thing. Slemp has nothing against the sons of admirals or the sons of the 41st president or the wife of the 42nd, but he thinks them unlikely to have the desired poke effect. It appears that all of those kinds of people will only further impact the national bowel."

As for the rumor that Obama is a Muslim, stated as fact by the Republican judge-executive of neighboring Leslie County, Webster writes: "He wishes Obama actually was a Muslim, saying it would be a good time to have one for president. Slemp says that if Republican county judges can turn Christians into Muslims, the safest thing would be to lock the county judges up in Guantanamo before somebody hires them to turn all Christians into Muslims. Most of the women Slemp knows could use a good veiling." (Read more)

What goes around comes around: Globalization now helps Danville and parts of Southside Va.

Danville and much of the rest of Southside Virginia declined economically along with the linchpins of the Piedmont: tobacco, textiles and furniture, all hurt by globalization, especially the latter two. Dan River Fabrics (in photo by Misscharo) is down to 50 employees from its former 15,000. But now, "The powerful global economic forces that swept away thousands of jobs over the past two decades are now working in Danville's favor," and for other towns in the region, The Washington Post reports. "New companies are moving in to breathe life into once-tired economies across the industrial corridor in central and southwestern Virginia and in Southside, a strip of generally poor counties in the south-central part of the state."

Ylan Q. Mui reports for the Post, "The weakening dollar has made the United States more attractive to foreign investors. Companies from England, Canada and India have recently opened operations or expanded in Danville." The latest is Swedwood, the manufacturing subsidiary of the IKEA home-products chain, and one reason is rising oil prices. "Shipping Ikea's popular Expedit bookshelves to the United States, for example, costs more than it does to make them, said Joseph Roth, the company's U.S. public affairs manager," Mui writes. To get the plant, which is supposed to eventually employ 700, "The city paved its entry with new facilities, secured permits and state Tobacco Commission grants" -- money from Virginia's share of states' 10-year-old settlement with cigarette manufacturers.

At Swedwood's log-cutting (IKEA's version of a ribbon-cutting) last week, Gov. Tim Kaine said, “Sometimes people hear about globalism and think ‘what are we going to lose next? Globalism is also about winning, and so many of the announcements we’ve done here in Danville are foreign companies wanting to come to the United States. …There isn’t a reason we have to be afraid of globalism.”For the story by Sarah Arkin of the Danville Register & Bee, click here.

Danville still has a long way to go, the newspaper said in a May 1 editorial: "The best long-term solution is raising education levels and worker skills, which helps people get better-paying jobs that offer health insurance, which leads to more preventative care and the faster, more intensive treatment of disease, which typically leads to longer, healthier lives." Noting a recent report that people in the region are living shorter lives, the editorial concluded, "Declining life expectancies are another result of the long slumber that Danville has only recently started to awaken from. If we understand how we wound up with these problems, it’s easier to get started on the solutions." (Read more)

The local hero is retiring City Manager Jerry Gwaltney, who also successfully pushed Danville as a regional shopping hub for several rural counties. A shopping center that will employ 1,300 to 1,600 is under construction. A list of Gwaltney's successes ran in a Register & Bee story on his retirement. Writing in the Daily Yonder, Danville native John Borden asks, "Can Danville as a whole rebuild its economic life and energize its educational and social life after seeing its textile- and tobacco-town identity definitively become part of the historic past? Is there a unique next chapter? If not, does this mean that the city over time becomes just another distribution center of the national consumer culture, helping to deliver what the focus groups say is good to every corner of our country. Will people finally speak 'proper' English and then have nothing to say?' (Read more)

Dream of 'clean coal' seems farther away as feds, utilities take more steps backward than forward

Despite an advertising campaign by the coal industry and lip service from the three main presidential candidates, the idea of "clean coal" is only that. And prospects for making it a reality are "lagging badly," The New York Times reports.

"In the last few months, utility projects in Florida, West Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota and Washington state that would have made it easier to capture carbon dioxide have all been canceled or thrown into regulatory limbo," Matthew Wald writes. "The failure to start building, testing, tweaking and perfecting carbon capture and storage means that developing the technology may come too late to make coal compatible with limiting global warming."

We've reported on the Energy Department's pulling the plug on the proposed FutureGen plant in Illinois, which was supposed to prove the technology. The department, citing cost overruns, wants to divvy up the work into smaller projects, including power plants now on the drawing board, but faces political opposition in Congress. More important, though, are the long-term concerns, which Wald summarizes nicely:

"Scientists need to figure out which kinds of rock and soil formations are best at holding carbon dioxide. They need to be sure the gas will not bubble back to the surface. They need to find optimal designs for new power plants so as to cut costs. And some complex legal questions need to be resolved, such as who would be liable if such a project polluted the groundwater or caused other damage far from the power plant."

Unless those questions are answered soon, electric companies may "build the next generation of coal plants using existing technology," Wald writes. "That would ensure that vast amounts of global warming gases would be pumped into the atmosphere for decades." One alternative is an intermediate step, coal-gasification plants that would be more efficient and emit carbon dioxide per kilowatt. Duke Energy has proposed such a plant in Indiana. (Read more)

LEARN MORE ABOUT IT: The prospects for carbon storage, climate change and the future of mountaintop-removal strip mining of coal will be among the topics at "Covering Climate Change and Our Energy Future in Rural America," an Oct. 15 workshop that will precede the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Roanoke. The conference home page says the workshop is open only to SEJ members, but the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues will offer sponsorships to coalfield and other Appalachian journalists to attend. Check the Institute's home page for details, to be posted soon. For an agenda of the workshop, click here.

North Carolina legislator files bill to ban use of coal mined by mountaintop-removal strip mining

A legislator in North Carolina, the state that supposedly ranks second in the use of coal mined by removing mountaintops, filed a bill this week to ban use of coal mined in that way.

"Mountaintop removal coal mining is an extremely destructive form of strip mining found throughout Appalachia, with some mines as big as the island of Manhattan," The Herald Dispatch of Huntington, W.Va., reported in a story on the bill. "Coalfield residents say that it tears apart communities, poisons water supplies, pollutes the air and destroys our nation's natural heritage – while only making the climate crisis worse."

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Pricey Harrison, said, "Mountaintop removal coal mining presents a clear and present danger to the Appalachian Mountains, which are home to a vibrant and indelible culture, stunning biodiversity and enormous economic potential."

North Carolina, which has no coal mines, would be the first state with such a law. Appalachian Voices, a group opposed to mountaintop-removal mining, says North Carolina is second only to Georgia in its use of mountaintop-removal coal, getting 61 percent of its electricity from coal-fired plants.

Tennessee to get open-records appeal office, but agencies will be able to charge for large requests

Tennessee is about to get its the "first major revision of its open records law in 25 years. The bill has been delivered to Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, who is expected to sign it. “He’s been supportive of the bill throughout,” Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, told Virgie Townsend of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

"The bill creates the Office of Open Records Counsel to deal with open records issues for local government and requires open records requests to be available within seven days," Townsend reports. "The bill also contains a temporary provision that will allow agencies to charge requesters for their actual time spent filling the request if it takes more than five hours," which seems to be a growing trend among states. Iowa officials recently enacted a three-hour rule.

Tennessee's open-records law has been ranked among the nation's worst. "Agencies don’t have a deadline for responding to records requests, custodians don’t have to provide a legal reason for denying records requests and citizens don’t have a place to go to find out how to acquire public records," Townsend writes. "Gibson said that the new bill remedies those problems." (Read more)

Keeping tabs on sex offenders in rural areas may be a more common police task than you think

Here's a story that could be done in many rural communities, maybe more than you might realize. Read on.

Detective Amanda McNamee of the Dickinson, N.D., Police Department is assigned to keep tabs on the small city's 20 registered sex offenders. "In addition to being fingerprinted, photographed and swabbed for a DNA sample, (sex offenders) must register with local law enforcement officials within three days of moving into a community," Dan Barry writes in the The New York Times.

"This includes providing home address, employer’s address, e-mail address and any information regarding motor vehicles, schools and 'social networking.' Every now and then the police department sends a news release to the local newspaper to report that a high-risk offender has moved to town. Its boilerplate text explains that notification is being made 'in the belief that an informed public is a safer public,' but that the information 'is not to be used to threaten, harass, assault, or intimidate the registered offenders.' In the end, one person monitors the registered sex offenders of Dickinson: Detective McNamee, 27, the wife of a night-shift supervisor at the Baker Boy plant and the mother of two children, one 19 months old, the other 4 months old."

McNamee became one of only two women on a force of approximately 25 when she joined in 2003. After several years of riding patrol, she transferred to the investigations unit in 2006 and recognized "an opportunity to improve the way the department kept track of the city’s registered sex offenders. Now she has her 'high-risk guys,' her 'moderate-risk guys' and her 'low-risk guys,' a few of whom reside upstairs from her office, in the Southwest Multi-County Correction Center. She makes a point of meeting each one of these inmates to say, 'When you’re out, I’ll come see you.'" Eleven low-risk offenders are checked on by Detective McNamee every few months, but "she gives much closer scrutiny to her five moderate-risk offenders and her four high-risk offenders... She keeps track of them through telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings that are nothing if not guarded."

Officers of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault "believe a law passed in recent years restricting where registered sex offenders may live have caused many to move to rural areas," writes James Nash in The Courier of Montgomery County. "The new law, barring offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or day care centers, was part of U.S. House Bill 8, also known as Jessica’s Law, which went into effect on Sept. 1 of last year. It also eliminated the statute of limitations in cases of child sexual assault and doubles the statute of limitations for other sexually violent offenses, therefore increasing the number of offenders required to register.

The bill was named for Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old Florida girl whose kidnapping, rape and murder in 2005 by a registered sex offender gained national attention. Additionally, House Bill 8 included a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years to life for aggravated sexual assault of someone under 14 years old, and the option of the death penalty or life without parole for a second aggravated sexual assault against someone under 14. It also requires sexually violent predators who are civilly committed — instead of criminally — to wear a global position system device for the rest of their lives. Texas was the thirty-second state to adopt Jessica's Law."

Most states have passed laws that restrict where sex offenders can live, which may result in many relocating to rural areas. Is this a problem in your community, and if so, is there a Detective McNamee in your community?

Seeking more smartphones for rural areas, group asks FCC to ban exclusive maker-provider deals

Technology has the potential to advance the lives of individuals, the ingenuity of businesses, and the productivity of communities, but only when such devices or services are available. The Rural Cellular Association filed a petition May 20 asking the Federal Communications Commission to ban exclusive agreements between cellular phone makers and service providers, which RCA said would provide rural residents with more opportunities to acquire the most recent cellular technology.

The association of 82 small and rural cellular service providers "contended the exclusivity agreements are 'anticompetetive' and 'unfair' because they stifle consumer choice and often mean premium prices for users," writes Scott Carlson for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.: "The group also contended such exclusive arrangements are creating another 'digital divide' between urban and rural America. Those consumers affected usually live in rural areas where service is not available from some wireless carriers who also control the sale of advanced handsets, the group said in its petition."

The petition mentions several specific devices, including the Apple iPhone, Verizon's Voyager, and the Samsung Ace, that utilize multimedia and Internet technology. Many national cellular phone companies "do not offer adequate coverage in rural areas," writes Chase Higgins on Phonemag.com. "Some customers have no choice but to be with the smaller carriers. The petition claims these subscribers should not be left out in the cold when it comes to new handsets" and the technology that accompanies them.

RCA says many consumers wind up "being channeled to purchase wireless service from a carrier that has monopolistic control over the desired handset and having to pay a premium price for the handset because the market is void of any competition for the particular handset." The group said in its petition, "Americans living in rural areas who cannot get any coverage from the carriers benefiting from these exclusive arrangements are also harmed, since they are denied the technological benefits of many of the most popular handsets available today. The Commission must ... reverse the increasingly common practice of exclusive handset arrangements that deprive rural area residents of the benefits of evolving technology."

The petition, which claims all rural areas are affected by "these exclusive arrangements," cited rural areas from 16 states. "The agreements essentially increase the digital divide between urban and rural areas" RCA counsel David Nace told the Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho,

Rising energy prices spur gas leasing among landowners who don't know how to get best deal

Here's a story that could be done by lots of rural journalists, and probably needs to be done by many, to keep their readers, viewers or listeners from getting taken. The Associated Press reports, "Unsuspecting property owners around the country are getting trampled in an old-fashioned land rush by natural gas companies and speculators trying to lock up long-ignored drilling rights quickly and cheaply. Stories of fast-talking industry representatives using scare tactics to strong-arm people into signing lowball leases are popping up in rural areas and suburbs from New York to West Virginia to parts of Indiana and Texas."

This is an old story in places familiar with oil and gas drilling, but rising energy prices have prompted leasing activity in many areas that are unfamiliar with it, or among landowners who haven't seen it in many years and lack working knowledge of the process -- knowledge that can help them get better deals and avoid unnecessary damage to their property if it is drilled. We first reported this April 8 in an item about gas leasing in Appalachia; the AP story (for which we could not find a reporter's byline or newspaper's credit line) also mentions the Illinois Basin, which extends into Indiana and Kentucky.

The story tells the cautionary tale of Brad Castle, a farmer and convenience-store owner in Rowlesburg, W.Va. Castle thought he had cut a good deal when he leased 800 acres for $5 an acre and the standard royalty of one-eighth of production, until more land agents showed up offering as much as $350 an acre. "There's got to be a law broke[n] somewhere," he told the reporter. We doubt it, though Castle does report a possible fraud, saying the leasing agent told him that drillers could get his gas without paying him anything. That may be true, but it certainly would be illegal.

In most states, landowners can form a pool that companies find more attractive for development and for which they are willing to pay higher prices. The story mentions a group of farmers in New York's Broome and Delaware counties that got $2,411 an acre and a 15 percent royalty for a five-year lease. Typically, such leases are renewable; they also can be renegotiable, if the landowner gets that right up front.

West Virginia lawyer David McMahon and the West Virginia Surface Owners' Rights Organization advise landowners to "take their time and refuse to be rushed into signing leases," AP reports. McMahon "also suggests rejecting standard leases in favor of documents containing protections against roads, potential pollutants such as saltwater injections, and use of depleted wells for gas storage. Herschel McDivitt, director of Indiana's Division of Oil and Gas, offers similar advice. "There just aren't a lot of savvy landowners out there," McDivitt said.

In Pennsylvania, Penn State horticulture specialist Thomas Murphy has organized a program to help landowners get the best deals. One session recently attracted a standing-room-only crowd of 1,200. For a report on his work, from Deborah Benedetti of Penn State Outreach magazine, click here. For Penn State's Web site on the subject, click here.

Raided meatpacker was repeatedly notified that workers were using bogus Social Security numbers

"The politically-connected meatpacking company where almost 400 undocumented workers were arrested earlier this month ignored repeated government warnings about the use of false identification papers amongst its employees," according to an affadavit by a federal agent, Lynda Waddington reports for the online Iowa Independent.

The agent swore that Agriprocessors Inc. "received a dozen letters from the Social Security Administration in 2005 and 2006," Waddington writes. "The letters stated that up to 78 percent of the businesses' workforce provided Social Security information that did not match with government records." Immigration agent David Hoagland said, "Agriprocessors has repeatedly been made aware that large numbers of its employees were using Social Security numbers that have discrepancies for each tax year from 2000 to 2005."

Waddington's story details the many political contributions made by owners of the plant in Postville, Iowa. It remains to be seen whether they will face criminal prosecution, as more than 300 workers at the plant have. At a forum sponsored by La Prensa, a Spanish-language paper in western Iowa, immigration lawyer Jo Ann Barten predicted similar raids, perhaps soon, reports the Independent's Doug Burns. He and LaPrensa Editor Lorena Lopez collaborated on a story for her paper about the raid. To read it, click here.

Appalachian Democrats say Obama could carry their states in fall if he would spend time there

The headline is "Will Obama fight for rural votes?" but the story in today's Lexington Herald-Leader is almost all about Appalachia -- specifically, Kentucky and West Virginia, where Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama like a rented mule in primaries this month. The prevailing view of Democrats quoted by Linda Blackford is that if Obama spent time in Appalachia, he would overcome some of the resistance based on his race and false rumors that he is a Muslim (cited as fact by one top Republican county official to Blackford).

The hopeful Democrats cite the example of John F. Kennedy, who spent half the month before the 1960 West Virginia primary showing voters in the Mountain State that "he wasn't wearing the pope's clothes," said Charles Peters, who was Kennedy's Kanawha County chairman and went on to serve in his administration and found The Washington Monthly. Obama made only one campaign stop this year in West Virginia, and likewise in Kentucky, and lost both by more than 30 percentage points.

We have no doubt that Obama could gain many votes by spending time in Appalachia and finding common ground like that state Rep. Greg Stumbo of Prestonsburg, Ky., mentioned to Blackford: "He could say, 'I'm one of you, I've been looked down upon because of my color and we've got to overcome these stereotypes.' I think that would sell pretty well up here. People want to hear him say things, like 'I'm not a Muslim, I'm not part of this sect that hates America.'"

But time is the most pecious commodity for presidential nominees, the election is now about electoral votes, and Kentucky and West Virginia only have eight and five, respectively. The real battle in Appalachia this fall is likely to be in Pennsylvania and Ohio, particularly the "Pennsyltucky" congressional that runs from Pennsylvania to Kentucky. Princeton University history professor Sean Wilentz noted on Huffington Post the importance of Pennsylvania and Ohio to Democrats.

In Ohio and Pennsylvania, the map looks more favorable to Obama than those below, which ran with Blackford's story. Peters told her that Obama also needs to make an effort in other regions. "They still have to try because these people exist all over the country " he said. "I just think they (the Obama campaign) didn't realize how hard they had to fight back. It's got to be a multi-pronged attack." Text in the graphic below contains an error; Obama did better in Kentucky than in West Virginia, but worse in Eastern Kentucky.