Hurricane and a once-disillusioned journalist combine to create a paper in Pass Christian, Miss.

Hurricane Katrina produced a weekly newspaper for Pass Christian, Miss., which had not had one since 1990, Mississippi State University professor Larry Strout wrote for a paper presented at the Newspapers and Community Building Symposium at the National Newspaper Association convention in St. Paul, Minn., today.

When the residents of Pass Christian returned home, "Communication between the city’s residents and the local, state and federal government and volunteers was poor. So, some four-and-a-half months after Katrina, volunteers created the Gazebo Gazette," wrote Strout, who lived in "The Pass" before and after Katrina. The paper started as a free newsletter (first edition at right; click on image to view enlargement) but grew into a newsprint tabloid that now sells for 50 cents a copy.

"This is a story about a city left for dead . . . about a disillusioned journalist and volunteers teaming up to save a newspaper and the community," Strout said as he presented his paper. "One woman took this on her back and carried it." That was Evelina Shmukler, who came to the area to write freelance stories for The Wall Street Journal. After giving up on journalism and returning twice as a volunteer, she helped start the paper in January 2006, assembling it in Atlanta and shipping it to The Pass. Volunteers considered the project temporary, but by the fifth edition it was selling advertising and by Memorial Day, it had become a newspaper. Shmukler owned it, and she moved to The Pass. By August, she was writing editorials, and in December, she opened an office. Now the paper has been around long enough to cover another big hurricane (Sept. 5 edition is shown; click to enlarge).

"From the very start the Gazette was available online," Strout wrote. "While the evidence suggests that the hard copy version distributed at various locations throughout the city was invaluable for those citizens returning or looking to return to the city, clearly the online Gazette was vital for those who had relocated and either decided not to return or hadn’t made a final decision."

Shmukler wrote on the "Divine Caroline" site of Real Girls Media Network, "Every subscription, every renewal, is an affirmation. And then there are the kind words and nice notes–and the time recently that one of my early subscribers said to me that when they returned to Pass Christian after Katrina and saw the newspaper, they knew that the town would survive. I feel like the luckiest person in the world to know that what I do gives that kind of hope, not to mention a little bit of extra knowledge to make the re-building process easier for my neighbors. . . . I love the ways that my newspaper is journalism and also the ways that it breaks journalism’s 'rules' — for example, by being part of the community, rather than just covering it from a distance." To read the rest of Shmukler's account, click here. For a copy of Strout's paper, e-mail him at larry_strout.att.net.

Presidential debate touches on a few rural issues

A few issues of rural importance, such as ethanol and broadband, were mentioned in tonight's first presidential debate, between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, at the University of Mississippi.

Asked what priorities they would have to give up because of the expected bailout of the financial system, Obama said, "There are range of things that are probably going to have to be delayed," but "Some things have to be done," such as energy independence, "fix our health-care system ... make sure that we're competing in education; we've got to invest in science and technology ... make sure that college is affordable for every young person in America," and improve infrastructure -- not just roads and bridges, "but also broadband lines that reach into rural communities."

That was the only mnetion of "rural" in the 97-minute encounter. McCain continued to press his case for reductions in spending, and cited one of the higher-profile tax breaks in rural America. "First of all, I'd eliminate ethanol subsidies. I oppose ethanol subsidies." He also called for fixed-cost defense contracts and controlling cost overruns, which he said he has experience doing. He said he would "examine every agency of government [and] find out those who aren't doing their job and eliminate them."

Moderator Jim Lehrer, at right in photo taken after the debate, pressed Obama to say what he would drop or delay. "I want to make sure we are investing in energy," Obama said. "There may be individual components of it that we cant do, but John's right, that we've got to make some cuts," such as $15 billion in benefits for insurance companies that sell Medicare policies.

Later in the debate, McCain said he would also make energy a priority, including construction of nuclear power plants, which he said are "also important for climate change, an issue that I have been involved in for many, many years . . . along with Senator [Hillary] Clinton." That was an attempt to pick up supporters of Obama's main foe for the Democratic nomination. (Late in the debate, Obama said McCain voted against alternative energy 23 times. McCain replied, "Nobody in Arizona votes against solar" and said he supports alternative energy.)

Pressed again by Lehrer, McCain suggested a spending freeze on everything but defense, veterans' and entitlement programs." A bit later, he added "several other vital issues," unnamed, to that list. Obama said, "You're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel" to choose among programs such as early-chidlhood education, which he wants to increase, and Iraq spending, which he wants to cut by bringing troops home. That was the first mention of Iraq, 30 minutes into a debate that was supposed to be about foreign policy but was sidetracked by the greatest issue of the moment, the credit crisis.

On the bailout, Obama said the Republican philosophy has been "what's good for Wall Street, not for Main Street." McCain said, "Main Street is paying a penalty for the excesses and greed in Washington, D.C."

Asked the fundamental differences in the approach each of them would take, McCain said congressional earmarks, which Obama only recently foreswore, are "a gateway drug ... to out-of-control spending and corruption. . . . We spent $3 million to study the DNA of bears in Montana," and delivered his usual line wondering if the study involved a criminal issue or a paternity issue. "Scientists say it's key to preserving the species," Scientific American said in a story in February about the study. "The point of the project isn't really to analyze the bears' DNA, it's to use their DNA to take a census," says PolitiFact.com, which truth-checks candidates' statements and ads. A similar site is FactCheck.org. For debate fact-checking from The Washington Post, click here. The study found the bears are doing well.

UPDATE, Sept. 27: Obama, in Greensboro, N.C., today, picked up on the bear study: "He railed against some study of bears in Montana, but he had nothing to say about the fact that more and more Americans can’t afford to pay for college. . . . The truth is, through ninety minutes of debating, John McCain had a lot to say about me, but he had nothing to say about you." For more and a transcript, from Mark Halperin of Time, click here.

Looking for rural issues in the presidential debates

Tonight's presidential debate is supposed to be about foreign policy, and the credit crisis is likely to intrude, so no rural issues may be mentioned. But it's worth thinking about what rural voters should be looking for, and Doug Burns interviewed me and others about that this week for the Iowa Independent, an online news outlet.

Iowa Republican insider David Oman, a former GOP gubernatorial candidate, told Doug, “Sen. McCain’s opposition to ethanol subsidies probably gets buried by the much larger economic issues of the day. Both candidates should keep rural voters in their vocabulary as they speak to these issues; rural voters often feel forgotten.”

To read Doug's report, click here. Here's what I told him:

In the arena of foreign policy, the only issues of specific interest to rural voters that might come up have to do with energy and trade. Here’s a logical question on that front, one that folks in farm country deserve an answer to: How would each candidate resolve the new Farm Bill’s failure to comply with the World Trade Organization? But I don’t expect such a question to come up Friday night because, as a national security and foreign policy issue, it ranks relatively low.

On energy and the need for independence from foreign oil, Obama could point out McCain’s opposition to the ethanol subsidy and the renewable fuels standard that requires a certain total percentage of ethanol to be used in gasoline, and McCain could counter by saying he opposed the Farm Bill as a whole because the subsidies are too large and gas prices are too high. That would be off-topic, and perhaps risk losing some farm-state votes, but in the current credit-crunch climate, where voters are fed up with lobbying interests’ influence in Washington, such an exchange about ethanol could benefit McCain.

In later debates, there is more opportunity for questions on rural interests. I’d like to know if they favor a ‘hard cap’ on total subsidy payments to any one recipient. North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan (D) and Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley (R) proposed a $200,000 cap, which failed to make it into the Farm Bill because it couldn’t get 60 votes in the Senate. Main reason: Opposition from cotton and rice farmers, whose states are not much in play this fall. Also, do they favor a ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock, which is squeezing independent producers as packers consolidate? The ban, pushed by Grassley, was removed from the Farm Bill in the conference committee.

'Unique' is unique; we should try to keep it so

What's wrong with this paragraph?

"The Pinnacle Knob tower is unique in several ways. First, very few fire towers remain in Kentucky, and Pinnacle Knob is one of the most remote. Secondly, it is one of the few built with a 14-foot-by-14-foot cabin which was large enough for the fire watcher to live in."

The tower is certainly unusual, or distinctive, but it is not unique -- because it is not one of a kind, as the paragraph itself makes clear by saying "very few," "one of" and "one of the few." And this paragraph (we'll keep the source to ourselves) doesn't commit the most common error, applying an adverb of degree ("very" or "extremely," as EnglishPlus.com notes).

Such usage has become common, especially in broadcast journalism, which tends to be more reflective of evolution in language. Because languages must evolve to reflect changes in society, some say we shouldn't be concerned about this new definition. I disagree, for at least two reasons.

First, the root word of unique is uni, Latin for "one." A word is understood more deeply if its definition remains true to its roots. Internal conflicts are confusing and should be avoided.

Second, the English language has no other word for "unique." It is, well, unique. "One of a kind" means the same thing, but requires four words. Simplicity and clarity in language are virtues worth preserving.

So, let's keep "unique" unique.

Photographer gets farmers posing, not working

"Farmers are just as important to America now as they were in 1776," northwest Missouri farmer Richard Oswald asserts in the Daily Yonder, reviewing American Farmer: The Heart of our Country, a 264-page book with more than 150 photographs by Paul Mobley from 30 states, and the farmers' own words edited by Katrina Fried.

"I can read between the lines of each picture," Oswald writes. "I can smell the burlap and feel the humid summer heat. I feel the tickle in my nose from hay dust, and I know about the burn one gets from the hot vinyl seat cover in the cab of an ancient pickup truck. I understand the threadbare clothes and labor stained ball caps, shy smiles, sweaty t-shirts, and the bent brim of a straw hat."

But Oswald also faults Mobley for "a sameness about his pictures that doesn’t always show how the farmers do their jobs. The color photos seem too bright, almost pretty, the poses sometimes too rigid. But I’ve been photographed myself a few times, and the toughest thing for a farmer to do is look natural while someone nearby holds a camera. Farmers are a restless people, with hands always at the ready. Seldom do you see those work-hardened hands in a pocket." (Read more)

The Welcome Books Web site for the book says it will be in stock Oct. 7 and has photos from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Series of studies pinpoint the rural effects of climate change in non-coastal states

Amid debate over whether global warming helped make hurricanes worse, a study says climate change will significantly impact non-coastal areas, costing billions of dollars to a number of U.S. states. The effect of global warming on agriculture, manufacturing, and forestry make rural areas especially at risk, says report by the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research.

"While some of the benefits from climate change may accrue to individual farms or businesses, the cost of dealing with adverse climate impacts are typically borne by society as a whole," the report says. "These costs to society will not be uniformly distributed but felt most among small businesses and farms, the elderly and socially marginalized groups."

Researchers studied the impact of global warming in 12 states. So far, they have published the results from eight. They say, for example, that higher temperatures in Appalachian North Carolina reduced livestock yields by about 10 percent. In Tennessee, new migratory patterns for birds would affect the hunting industry, which "contributes more than half a billion dollars each year to the state's economy." In North Dakota, the worst drought in its history, in 2000-06, "strained water supplies, directly affected hydropower production, and contributed to the worst fire season on record. The drought also damaged transportation infrastructure -- for example, cracked streets, driveways and sidewalks."

Researchers say that the study underscores the need for immediate action. "Some of the climate changes have already been set in motion and these will create economic effects," says center director Matthias Ruth, "but inaction or delay will only worsen the situation." (Read more)

Coalfield Progress suggests Biden contradictory

"Contradiction?" That was the first subhead on a story in today's Coalfield Progress of Norton, Va., on Joe Biden's remark to an environmentalist in northwest Ohio that he and Barack Obama "don't support clean coal," contrary to Obama's statements and some Biden made in southwest Virginia days earlier.

"Saturday, he told United Mine Workers members in Castlewood that Democrats will invest in clean-coal systems during an Obama-Biden administration," Publisher Jenay Tate and News Editor Jeff lester write. "Biden used a campaign stop at Saturday’s annual UMW fish fry in Castlewood to establish his credentials as a friend of coal mining. He pointed out that he grew up in Pennsylvania’s anthracite mining region and that his grandfather was a mine engineer." (Photo, of Biden with UMW International President Cecil Roberts at Castlewood, by Whitney Bentley)

"Before Biden spoke, Ninth District U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, told the crowd that Biden is “a friend of coal and of Southwest Virginia.”Biden told union members that Democrats will invest in clean-coal and liquid coal technologies and research. By contrast, he said McCain and his vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin are “oil people.” Within days, critics pointed to a YouTube video of Biden at a campaign stop in Ohio three days earlier." (Read more) For Teresa Mullins' story on the UMW rally, click here. (Subscription may be required)

Bailout stirs fear, uncertainty, skepticism and opposition in some rural areas

As Congress debates the proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, many in smaller communities are left to figure out what the bailout will mean for them.

For many, economic uncertainty weighs heavily. "How much of Main Street will be in the Wall Street bailout? ... We don't know the end game," said Jason Bailey, research and policy director at the non-profit Mountain Association for Community Economic Development in Berea, Ky, told Mary Meehan of the Lexington [Ky.] Herald-Leader. He says that the bailout will result in less money for non-profit groups serve small communities.

Others question why Washington waited so long to intervene. “Why and how did we let it get so bad?” Peggy Vinson of Batesville, Miss. (pop. 7,000) asked Bob Greene of CNN. “Everyone knew it was coming; as a teacher of economics at a high school in Mississippi, I saw it coming. So they knew it was coming, and they let it happen."

Many focus their ire on Wall Street executives. “If there is a bailout, then the compensation of the key executives at those companies should be taken down to zero. The bailout money shouldn’t go to any of them, that’s for sure,” Vinson's husband, Jim told Greene. "I’ll tell you what would happen if the place where I work found itself in the same situation– I’d be out and they’d be looking for a new CFO.” (Read more)

One Kentucky representative says his constituents are letting their opinions be known. Meehan writes, "U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, said he's skeptical about the bailout plan. 'And the citizens I represent are even more skeptical,' he said. He's received more than 400 calls from constituents opposing the bailout. Only six have called in support." (Read more)

Some skeptics have compared the administration's push to invade Iraq. Kevin Hall of McClatchy Newspapers, which in its earlier incarnation as the Knight-Ridder News Service did some of the best reporting that questioned the Iraq run-up, reports that "Many of the nation's brightest economic minds are warning that the Wall Street bailout's a dangerous rush job." (Read more) For help for covering the story, from Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute, click here.

Writer yearns for those rural hymns of old

When's the last time you heard an old-fashioned hymn sung? "These days, many churches have turned to 'praise choruses' -- songs that employ simple, repeated words of praise rather than the more poetic, penitent language of vintage hymns," Randy Speck of Albany, Ky., writes on his Notorious Meddler blog.

"I have watched hymn-singing decline over the past several years. It is a big loss," writes our friend, left. But he puts it a lot better than we could: "The difference between the hymns and the praise songs is the difference between a sonnet and a greeting card. They don't have the depth and the poetic language that a song would have from the old hymnal."

Randy goes on to pay tribute to the great writers of hymns, one great singer of them (whom we both knew) and that old-time religion. Randy's writing is more than "good enough for me." To read his post, click here.

Candidates answer Farm Bureau questionnaire

The race for rural votes is a crucial factor in this year's presidential race, but candidates' positions on a wide number of rural issues are often ignored or covered only sporadically by metropolitan media. This makes Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama's answers to a recent questionnaire from the American Farm Bureau Federation a resource for rural voters.

The survey covers farm and ranch concerns such as the Farm Bill, energy, trade, environmental regulations, and immigration. From the perspective of the AFBF, both candidates display strengths and weaknesses in their positions. “Where Obama seems to come out stronger on issues like the Farm Bill and renewable fuels, McCain might look better on taxes and government regulation of farms and livestock operations,” said Linda Johnson, the federation's director of policy implementation, writes in FB News. “So farmers and ranchers have to weigh it all and see where the candidates stand with them. For many it could be a tough choice this year.” (Read more)

Columnist scolds McCain for saying cancel debate

With John McCain threatening to pull out of Friday night's debate at the University of Mississippi in rural Oxford, an area columnist is chiding the senator on his lack of "Southern manners." McCain says the debate should be canceled to allow both candidates to focus on the financial crisis, but columnist Wendi Thomas of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis notes McCain's family roots in Mississippi and says of his proposal to renege after a year and a half of planning, "That is just not done. And what's more, it isn't necessary."

While Thomas agrees there is a crisis, she says the debate would take relatively little time, a president must multitask, and cancellation would upset many. "It is tacky to renege on such short notice," Thomas writes. "And if McCain is indeed a no-show Friday, I'm sure the hosts at Ole Miss, in a gracious display of Southern hospitality, will nod understandingly and smile. But when the cameras are off, the hosts are going to be peeved." (Read more)

UPDATE, Sept. 26: Harry Smith of CBS asked Republican Gov. Haley Barbour this morning, "If you were a betting man, would you bet that John McCain" will be at the debate? "I am a betting man," the gregarious Barbour replied, adding that he would bet on McCain attending. (Sorry we can't provide full verbatim.) Barbour seems to have not only wishful thinking, but to be putting pressure on his party's nominee. Later in the day, McCain said he would show up.

Study faults limits on subsidized child care in Ky.

According to a study by the National Women's Law Center, parents in Kentucky who get child-care subsidies pay disproportionately higher co-pays than those in other states. That makes it harder for them to get quality health care and harder for health-care providers to remain viable. "Low-income parents in Kentucky who receive child care subsidies are still paying very high co-payment rates, and the state's eligibility level is among the country's lowest," writes Valarie Honeycutt Spears of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"The federal government recommends that states set their child-care provider reimbursement rates at the 75th percentile of current market rates, which allows families to access three-quarters of the child-care providers in their communities," Spears explains. Kentucky's reimbursement rate is around the 68th percentile, meanign just over two-thirds of the providers are available. (Read more)

Second Sunday, Oct. 12, aims to get Ky. moving

A new initiative in Kentucky is aimed at getting the state out of those labeled most unhealthy. "Second Sunday, a statewide event designed to get Kentuckians on their feet and moving, is planned for Oct. 12," writes Carol L. Spence of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. "Organized by specialists and agents in the family and consumer sciences arm of the UK Cooperative Extension Service, the idea is to work with local officials to close a road or roads in each county for a few hours on the second Sunday in October. This will allow people to get out and exercise in a fun, safe, community-friendly environment."

Organizers of Second Sunday hope that the event will push local counties to re-evaluate infrastructure and move toward building communities that encourage people to get out of their homes, schools and workplaces to exercise. Janet Kurzynske, chair of the Nutrition and Food Science Department in the college's School of Human Environmental Sciences, adds: "People in cities get more exercise than people in suburbs and rural areas because they don't get their car out, if they even have a car. It's too much trouble. It's much easier to walk."(Read more)

Timber-county payments back on chopping block

Rural counties that have relied on federal payments to compensate them for restriction of timbering in national forests may have to get along without the money. A Senate amendment to to a huge spending bill would have resumed the payments, but the House rejected the amendment after White House objections.

"The timber law provides hundreds of millions of dollars to Oregon, Idaho and other states, mostly in the West, that once depended on federal timber sales to pay for schools, libraries and other services in rural areas," writes Matthew Daly of The Associated Press. "The law helps pay for schools and services in 700 counties in 39 states. Without the money, teachers and law enforcemeent officers in rural districts throughout the country could lose their jobs."

The measure called for "$2.1 billion reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, commonly known as 'county payments.' The bill also provides $1.7 billion for a separate program that compensates states for lost tax revenue from federally owned land," adds Daly. The bill had bipartisan support mostly from senators from Western states, where the payments are most important, especially in Oregon.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said, "It is outrageous that the president is willing to borrow $465 million for foreign aid, the majority of which is going to the Republic of Georgia, and $700 billion to bail out his Wall Street buddies, but he is turning his back on schools, law enforcement and other vital public services in rural communities."(Read more) For Daly's earlier story, click here.

Presidential hopefuls play hooky on rural schools

The presidential candidates' stands on rural education issues remain largely a mystery, writes Caitlin Howley for the Daily Yonder, a rural news site: "Neither offers much that is substantive on rural education."

John McCain supports performance pay, in which teachers are financially rewarded when student achievement increases. He also encourages private tutoring, school vouchers, and "school choice" options. Obama supports increased educational funding and promises to further develop early childhood education plans and reform the No Child Left Behind law.

Both have discussed incentives for those who choose to teach in struggling schools or rural areas, but Howley says their education platforms lack addressing the unique issues rural communities face -- though there are more than 10 million rural students. "Poverty remains a persistent impediment to equitable education opportunities and student achievement," she writes.

Issues directly affecting the status of rural education include the skweing of Title I grants for "large, urban school districts at the expense of rural districts" and the increasing number of non-English speaking immigrants and decreasing number of English Language Learner teachers. The National Center for Education Statistics found that "more than 40 percent of rural districts report vacancies and/or difficulty recruiting ELL teachers." None of these issues has been addressed by Obama or McCain.

The rural education system faces many challenges in its curriculum and teacher recruitment. Lower pay, geographic and social isolation and being required to teach multiple subjects discourage teachers from going rural. Many of the issues facing large districts, such as non-English speaking students, professional development and a lack of foreign-language teachers, also face rural areas, but without the numbers to qualify for federal aid. Considering that 30 percent of all schools nationwide are rural, it is vital that these problems be publicly addressed by our presidential candidates, says Howley, director of the Rural Education Center at Edvantia: "The educational lives of children should not be shortchanged simply because of where they live." Read the whole story here.

Michelle Phillips of the Anamosa Journal-Eureka in Iowa questioned Obama about education when he was seeking votes in that state's caucuses last fall. He called for better teacher pay, broadband access, and more money for school buildings and early-childhood education. To read Phillips' story, click here.

United States of Mind: a study that supports and undermines stereotypes, some of them rural

There may be evidence to back up some state stereotypes. Psychologists have released a study based on more than 600,000 online surveys collected from 1999 to 2005 that correlate traits in states: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness to new ideas.

Is the Californian really laid back and the New Yorker uptight? Some common stereotypes rang true, with New York ranking high in anxiety and California high in openness. But some outocmes were surprising, such as North Dakota's lead in extraversion and agreeableness. (Remember the movie "Fargo"?)

"A state's dominant personality turns out to be strongly linked to certain outcomes," Stephanie Simon writes for the Wall Street Journal. "Amiable states, like Minnesota, tend to be lower in crime. Dutiful states -- an eclectic bunch that includes New Mexico, North Carolina and Utah -- produce a disproportionate share of mathematicians."

The study identified what could be called a "neurosis belt" that connected the seemingly disparate Northeast with more rural, poorer states like Kentucky, Arkansas and Mississippi. The latter "tend to have higher rates of heart disease and lower life expectancy," Simon says, in an effort to explain the phenomenon.

Experts emphasize the limitations of the study and warn people not to draw overly simplistic conclusions about an area. The questionnaires were based on current residence, not native status, and lead researcher Peter Jason Renfrow, a lecturer at the University of Cambridge in England, admits there is an underrepresentation of rich and poor. Some of the rankings are revealing in their own right, though. Extraversion "is defined in part by stong social networks and tight community bonds, which are characteristic of small towns across the Great Plains," Simon writes.

The usefulness of the study is debatable, but Simon suggests possible benefits. "In the Northeast 'stress belt,' health officials might consider programs to help folks relax," she writes. "In the Midwest, a dutiful state like Kansas might look to woo more innovative personalities, perhaps by nurturing an artists' enclave or encouraging young chefs to start restaurants." The study, despite its naysayers, may be a way for states to identify which traits they do and do not like about themselves and change. "It's also a wake-up call for proud residents of the great state of wherever -- some of whom aren't fond of the findings," adds Simon.

Whatever the study's usefulness, it at least sparked some interesting commentary. In Mississippi, ranked fourth in neuroticism, Ted Ownby, who studies Southern culture at the University of Mississippi, has found a way to be proud of the label. "Here in the home of William Faulkner," he told Simon, "we take intense, almost perverse neuroticism as a sign of emotional depth." Read the whole article here.

Ky. columnist gets attention for financial coverage

On almost every issue, Don McNay disagrees with Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, but the Richmond, Ky.-based columnist doesn't let that stop him from commending the state's junior senator for positions they do agree on. He's getting noticed for it.

Yesterday, Dave Astor of Editor & Publisher highlighted McNay's column, which runs in The Richmond Register. Astor writes, "McNay ... makes some interesting points about how [Bunning] had better instincts about America's economic problems than many other politicians."

McNay, who makes his living counseling people with financial windfalls, says Bunning seems to be "in touch with how people really live and what they are really thinking" about the proposed Wall Street bailout. He also praises Bunning for opposing the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan, and the current chairman, Ben Bernanke, when it was unpopular to do so.

McNay compares the proposal to another Congressional decision that is widely considered disastrous. "The rush to spend $700 billion and reshape the world economic system also reminds of the rush up to the current war in Iraq," he writes. "We are being asked to make a hasty decision by officials whose data we can’t verify and who haven’t done that great of a job. There is a push to 'ignore the fine print' and get on with things." (Read more)

Biden digs Obama a hole full of coal in Ohio

Al Gore would have been president if he hadn't lost West Virginia's five electoral votes over coal issues in 2000. The same thing could happen to Barack Obama in Appalachian Ohio, given running mate Joe Biden's statements to an environmentalist on a rope line in the northwest Ohio college town of Maumee, who asked him why the Democrats were supporting clean-coal technology.

"We're not supporting clean coal," Biden told her, saying China is building "two dirty coal plants" per week. "No coal plants here in America. Build them, if they're gonna build them over there, make them clean, because they're killing you." For the video, click here. (Toledo Blade photo of Biden on the Maumee rope line)

"Obama is actually on record supporting the expansion of such technologies, but Biden's words are prompting Republicans to lick their lips about the potential resonance of the issue in key coal states such as Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Colorado," writres Jonathan Martin of Politico. "The Democrats are responding by essentially reiterating Obama's stance on the issue, implying that this was merely a matter of Biden speaking out of school." (Read more)

Newspapers in what may be the election's pivotal state are giving the story moderate coverage. The Columbus Dispatch headlines its story, "Biden's clean-coal has Democrats scrambling." Jack Torry and Johnathan Riskind write, "His words either were a verbal gaffe or reflect a split with Obama."(Read more) The headline in The Ironton Tribune reads "GOP pounces on Biden coal remarks." Benita Heath focused her piece on a media conference call placed by U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, a former governor who has bipartsan support, and other Republicans. They said Biden's statements were not a simple slip of the tongue, but represented an actual policy statement. (Read more)

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland covered the coal story and another Biden gaffe, in which he told ABC News on ABC news that the Delaware Fighting Hens were going to defeat Ohio State in college football -- a farcical statement, but perhaps not the wisest to make when preparing to campaign in Ohio. (Read more) The coal controversy followed Biden to Virginia yesterday, where he didn't mention coal as he talked about energy, Neil Simon reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. (Read more)

Two women from rural South given genius grants

"A South Carolina basket maker and a family physician who rebuilt an Alabama health clinic after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina" are among 25 winners of $500,000 "genius grants" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, writes Caryn Rousseau of The Associated Press.

Recipients, who may use the money as they please, include Mary Jackson, 63, of Johns Island, S.C., above, who has been making baskets from sweetgrass since age 4 and has pieces in major museums; and Regina Benjamin, 51, of Bayou La Batre, Ala., right, founder and CEO of Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in the Gulf Coast fishing community of 2,500 that was also hit by a hurricane in 1998.

"Despite scarce resources, Benjamin has painstakingly rebuilt her clinic after each disaster and set up networks to maintain contact with patients scattered across multiple evacuation sites," the foundation reports. "Benjamin is skilled, as well, in translating research on preventive health measures into accessible, community-based interventions to decrease the disease burdens of her diverse patient base." (Read more)

Rousseau writes of Jackson, "Weaving the baskets is a West African tradition handed down from the time of slavery in which artisans entwine the slender sweetgrass with such things as palmetto fronds, bulrushes and pine needles." (Read more) The foundation says she pushes the tradition "in stunning new directions." (Read more)

Mississippi starts car tag to promote Blues Trail

The Mississippi Blues Foundation and the state Tax Commission are promoting a new specialty license plate for the Mississippi Blues Trail. Luther Brown, chairman of the foundation, said it needs money to erect historical markers at more than 40 sites. “We currently have funding for 119 markers, but our wish list has grown to more than 160 sites that we think are worthy of being designated as a stop on the Blues Trail,” Brown said. “We also want the visibility of the tags on the highway, so people will have reminders about our blues heritage.”

The commission will produce the license plates once the first 200 tags are sold. The extra fee will be $31, with $24 going directly to the Blues Trail marker program. Approximately 52 markers have been unveiled to date, and the audio/video components for the markers are in the process of being developed, which will add a new level of interest.

The Mississippi Blues Foundation is a support organization made up of a diverse group of business and community leaders. The role of this group is to identify and secure sources of financial and programmatic support for the work of the Mississippi Blues Commission.

For Mississippi residents: The application for the license plate can be found on the Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola’s website. Email questions to info@indianolablues.org (Web site: http://www.indianolablues.org/) or call Dr. Luther Brown at 662-846-4311 at Delta State University’s Delta Center for Culture and Learning.

Technology can boost the rural economy, if government and business cooperate, studies say

Government and business working together to "onshore" information technology services can bolster rural economies, say two studies released today by an IT-focused public policy initiative.
The CGI Coalition for Mission Results says that the increased "offshoring" of high-skill jobs can be countered if governments and corporations partner to promote U.S.-based job creation, activity which could have a significant impact in local communities. "Information technology is our newest national resource," said Donna Morea, president of CGI Group, Inc., in the press release. "High quality jobs with proximity to clients create enhanced productivity and value for all of our stakeholders while supporting our rural communities across the country."

One of the studies highlights the opening of two major IT facilities in Russell County, Va. (pop. 30,000) through a public-private collaboration. Since the opening of CGI's Southwest Virginia Center of Excellence in December 2007, 230 IT jobs have been created. By 2010, CGI anticipates that number will grow to 750, and that the project will add more than $65 million to the local economy. (Read more; for the full studies, click here and here).

NRA ad vs. Obama latest case of truth being stretched to breaking point; both sides flawed

As a presidential election nears, candidates' advertising often stretches or distorts the truth, and it can get really bad when ads come from lobbying interests, which voters find difficult or impossible to hold accountable for their actions.

In a new ad campaign the National Rifle Association falsely accuses Barack Obama of wanting to "ban use of firearms for home defense, ban possession and manufacture of handguns, close 90 percent of gun shops and ban hunting ammunition," reports FactCheck.org, a bipartisan effort to expose false statements made by both campaigns.

Much of the ad "is actually contrary to what he has said throughout his campaign: that he 'respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms' and 'will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns.' . . . we find the NRA has cherry-picked, twisted and misrepresented Obama's record." (Read more)

FactCheck has found fault with several Obama ads about John McCain's plan for Social Security, funding of education, and regulation of health care. It has found shortcomings in the McCain campaign's ads on Obama's tax plan, his stance on sex education and one distorting FactCheck's findings. We encourage newspapers, broadcast stations and bloggers to use FactCheck.

FactCheck has also found fault with an interest group backing Obama, the AFL-CIO, and its advertising accusing McCain of costing politically crucial southwestern Ohio 8,000 jobs. The labor federation and an Obama ad claimed McCain helped pave the way for DHL, a German based delivery company, to take over Airborne Express by voting against an amendment to stop the takeover. Airborne had already laid off 2,000 workers before the merger was announced and McCain claimed he did not vote for the amendment to stop the takeover because it was inserted into an unrelated special project bill, a move endorsed at the time by the Teamsters Union. "it's implausible to suggest that an Arizona senator's vote in 2003 is directly responsible for the business decisions of an independent company five years later," Joe Miller of FactCheck writes. (Read more)

Another Washington bureau is closing, putting more burden on local reporters to cover Congress

After Election Day, add Newhouse News Service to the list of the Washington newspaper bureaus that no longer exist, further reducing coverage of Congress and putting more pressure on reporters back home to do the watchdog journalism that is more important than ever. The demise of the bureau and others like it is lamented in an article in the current American Prospect magazine, by John McQuaid, who was at the bureau until 2006, when he took a buyout.

"It was the home for a dozen individual papers' Washington correspondents, who produced often deep district-by-district coverage of Congress and federal agencies," McQuaid recalls. "A separate staff of national reporters wrote stories exploring the fault lines of the American political discussion, including race, religion, and economics -- an experiment in reinventing Washington coverage, or at least intended to give it a good tweak." He notes the reporting of Jonathan Tilove, now at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, on race and ethnicity, which has been noted here. However, he adds, "The bureau's customers were mostly small and medium-sized newspapers with limited space and appetite for national stories," and they often failed to take full advantage of such reporting.

"Papers in San Francisco, San Diego, Des Moines, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Toledo, Houston, Salt Lake City, Montana, Wyoming, and Maine have all cut back or eliminated Washington coverage in the past two years," McQuaid notes. "Reporters for the Tribune Co. papers are fretting over possible additional cuts to their communal Washington bureau as owner Sam Zell wields the knife" at the company, which also has TV stations. McQuaid notes this comes at a bad juncture. "The federal government is more opaque and arguably more mistrusted than at any recent time. Just from the standpoint of brute journalistic force, multiple layoffs mean fewer knowledgeable eyes on the day-to-day business of Congress and the federal government, so more political and bureaucratic shenanigans will go unnoticed." (Read more)

Prisons offer jobs, but do they boost economies?

Prison construction has been heralded as a way to boost struggling rural economies by providing steady jobs, but many question the overall impact on the local economies.

"Prisons have become a growth industry in rural America, where communities suffering from decades of decline in farming, mining and manufacturing jobs are grateful for solid employment opportunities," writes Robin Acton of the Tribune-Review in Pittsburgh. "Critics contend that prisons strain aging water, sewage and highway systems; burden local police and courts; and fail to stimulate new business and housing ventures."

Most recent prisons in Pennsylvania in recent years are in rural counties such as as Fayette, on the West Virginia border south of Pittsburgh, which is getting its second. County Commission Chairman Vincent Vicites told Acton that prisons create "recession-proof jobs at a good, family-sustaining wage level."

"The Center for Rural Pennsylvania used a 2006 Edinboro University of Pennsylvania study to examine the relationship between four prisons ... and surrounding communities," Acton notes. "Researchers determined that state corrections personnel and government officials should be realistic in their claims regarding the potential benefits of prisons because 'any economic impact emanating from the prison, whether positive or negative, was not obvious to many community residents.' . . . Tracy Hulling, public policy analyst and author of the report, "Building a Prison Economy in Rural America," suggested that hidden costs of prison business, such as added financial responsibilities for local police and court systems, often strain small communities. Hulling wrote that small towns with prisons, but few other amenities, may appear unattractive to businesses and industries." (Read more)

As fuel stays pricey, more schools shorten week

Rising fuel costs have had a surprising consequence in about 100 localities in rural America: a shorter school week. Faced with high gasoline and diesel-fuel prices, running buses one fewer day each week is helping some school districts counteract the new costs.

Heather Sells of the Christian Broadcasting Network reports, "The four-day model has its roots in the energy crisis of the late 1970s. Today, the majority of the 17 states with four-day districts remain west of the Mississippi. Colorado has 57 districts. New Mexico has 21. And most of the districts are rural." The American Bus Council says that schools use than 800 million gallons of diesel fuel each year for 480,000 buses. With fuel costs almost twice what they were a few years ago, shortening the school week could have a significant impact.

Jenkins Independent Schools, on the Virginia border in Eastern Kentucky moved to a shorter week four years ago. Students now attend classes for seven and a half hours a day. The district initially adopted the schedule in order to consolidate teachers' planning time, but parents say the it helps their children as well. Laura Revis, who has children in the schools, says, "They have Mondays to prepare for bigger projects." Ellen Robinson, another Jenkins mother, says, "If they have doctors' appointments you can schedule them on Monday. It cuts down on absenteeism and they get a break." (Read more)

Nation's first fine-arts extension agent helps start community theater in mountains of Eastern Ky.

Eastern Kentucky is known for its rich artistic heritage, and a new theatre in the state's easternmost municipality gives local performing artists a place of their own. (Encarta map)

The Black Box Theatre has its grand opening tomorrow in Elkhorn City, population 1,000 or so. The 5,000-square-foot space seats 120, and the stage can be arranged six different ways to meet a variety of performance needs. "Not only will aspiring and professional actors and artists be able to use the facility to showcase their creativity, but it will generate income for Elkhorn City and Pike County," said Stephanie Richards, the University of Kentucky fine arts extension agent for Pike County and the first fine arts extension agent in the U.S.

The facility will also be used for art education. Katie Pratt writes for the university's College of Agriculture, "In addition to hosting various plays and performances, Richards said the theatre will provide opportunities for local young people to explore various art forms, in which they can develop critical thinking skills and build self-esteem. They are already holding classes for an afterschool theatre program." The facility already has this year's theatre season fully booked. Richards says, "Our goal is to have something going on in the facility every day of the year." (Read more)

Rural battleground poll shows McCain doing better but still needs a boost in that part of GOP base

Presidential candidates often win or lose battleground states and the presidency depending on the rural demographic. President Bush can thank rural voters, especially in states like Ohio, for his two elections. (Chart from Bill Bishop's The Big Sort blog on Slate) A poll released today indicates that John McCain has yet to match Bush's marks among rural voters in 13 battleground states.

The bipartisan survey sponsored by the nonpartisan Center for Rural Strategies says McCain leads Barack Obama 51 percent to 41 percent in rural areas of 13 hotly contested states, but that number is not even half of what Bush got from rural voters in defeating John Kerry in 2004. However, Bill Greener, the Republican pollster who worked on the survey, told Howard Berkes of National Public Radio, "We are not where we need to be on election day but we’re moving in that direction." (Click here to listen)

McCain's lead is virtually unchanged from the 9-point advantage he scored in the center's poll in May. "But other measurements in the poll indicate that McCain's popularity is rising with rural voters," says the center's press release announcing the poll numbers. (Chart from the Daily Yonder) McCain's selection of Sarah Palin helped him firm up support in rural areas, with half of those surveyed saying they are more likely to vote for McCain as a result; 31 percent said the choice makes them less likely to vote for him. The margin of error for each poll number is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. For the full results, click here.

Obama's race is a factor. Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder writes, "Fifty-three percent of those polled said their neighbors and their communities were 'ready for a black president.' Twenty-four percent said their neighbors and the people of their communities were not ready for a black president. A quite large number, 23 percent, answered this question by saying they didn't know, refusing to answer or responding that neither option was appropriate." (Read more)

The Democratic pollster on the survey, Anna Greenberg, said the financial crisis is complicating the rural vote. She said, "Rural voters seem to be trying to decide which candidate can best address their economic concerns, and that means the rural battleground could be more competitive than we saw in 2004." Just over half of those polled said the issue they care most about is economy and jobs. "Other top issues were energy and gas prices (25 percent), the war in Iraq (21 percent), health care (18 percent) and terrorism and national security (12 percent)," the center said. "Moral values and illegal immigration ranked last on the list of voters' concerns, with 9 percent each."

"The question is whether the campaigns will translate [the importance of rural voters] into a conversation about rural issues and the future of rural communities," said Tim Marema, the center's vice president. The poll was taken Sept. 16-18 in rural parts of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. (Read more)

Bible Park USA to be built in Tennessee town

Lebanon, Tenn., just east of Nashville on Interstate 40, will be the site of Bible Park USA, a $175 million theme park, local officials and Entertainment Design Group of North Hollywood, Calif., announced Thursday. The park "is expected to employ 250 full-time workers and 1,000 seasonal workers," writes J.R. Lind of The Lebanon Democrat.

If the city council and the Wilson County Commission agree, "The park will be financed using tax-incremental financing (TIF) and by implementing a tourism development zone (TDZ)," Lind reports. "Under a TIF plan, the increase in property taxes that come as the result of new construction and improvements help pay for the cost of construction. TDZ designation allows a 5 percent privilege tax to be implemented within the bounds of the park, with those tax dollars paying bonds, as well."

The developers say the park will be a non-denominational, Bible-based themed attraction depicting well loved Bible stories and providing an authentic historical representation of life in ancient times in the Holy Land. It was originally slated for Rutherford County, just to the south on Interstate 24, but "The Rutherford County Commission rejected zoning changes to allow the park to be built in the Blackman community," Lind writes. "The land in Lebanon has already been rezoned." Lebanon has about 25,000 people, Wilson County about 100,000. The announcement generated many comments on Lind's story; one reader said "Praise the Lord" but another said "This is complete blashphemy and a waste of good land!" (Read more)

Biden says rumors still hurt Obama in rural areas; we say it's time for rural media to deliver the facts

Persistent false rumors about Barack Obama, especially in small towns and rural areas, are hamstringing his efforts to win over undecided voters in key states, his running mate said yesterday.

U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, a native of Scranton, Pa., told Perry Bacon Jr. of The Washington Post about one Pennsylvania woman who said she wanted to vote for the Democratic ticket but couldn't because she had received an e-mail on her cell phone saying that Obama, a Christian, is a Muslim. "She said, 'Everybody tells me that.' And I said, 'I promise you that's not true,' and she said, 'What do I do?' And I said, 'Well, vote for me.' And she looked at me and said, 'Does that mean I have to vote for him, too?' "

"More campaigning by both Obama and his supporters, particularly in small towns in Ohio and Pennsylvania, would be crucial to turning that around, Biden suggested, because 'It's about people getting comfortable. He's new to them, they're just getting introduced to him.' Biden said 'forms of validation' would also be important for Obama -- for example, the vouching for him by former president Bill Clinton." (Read more)

UPDATES, Sept. 22: John Harwood of The New York Times and CNBC asked Obama in an interview if race is a big barrier between him and swing voters. Obama replied, "Are there some who might vote for me because of my race? You bet. I think ultimately, though, the question's going to be decided by a guy or a woman who is working hard every day trying to save enough to send their kid to college, trying to pay the bills. And the real question they're going to have is, you know, can this guy help me in my life?" For more of his reply, click here. For video of the interview, click here. Asked by Meredith Viera on NBC's "Today" why Obama has such a narrow lead in a state Democrats have carried the last four times, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell did not repeat his primary-season comment about Obama's race, but blamed Republicans: "They have a lot of Pennsylvanians convinced that Sen. Obama's gonna raise their taxes." Asked about his primary-season comment that Obama "talks down" to voters and the candidate's comment about bitter Pennsylvania voters who cling to guns and religion, Rendell said, "When he lets people see who he is, not the big great speeches ... to 35,000 people ... but when he gets in a group of 500 people and answers questions, they get him." On The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, Rush Limbaugh says Obama "employs the tactics of the old segregationists" by stirring ethnic hatred with a Spanish-language TV commercial that mischaracterizes Limbaugh's comments about Mexicans. FactCheck.org says the ad is misleading. Chuck Raasch of Gannett News Service quotes Eric Rademacher, co-director of the University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll, as saying that McCain's age, 72, may be a larger factor in Ohio than Obama's race. (Read more)

UPDATES, Sept. 21: The Obama camp thinks the time to talk about race is after their candidate is elected, "But the national conversation appears to have arrived," Ben Smith and Avi Zenilman write in the morning's top story on Politico. "Racial considerations that have long been palpable in southern Ohio and other crucial regions are again in the foreground. A new poll that accompanied a much buzzed-about Associated Press article [by Ron Fournier] on Saturday appears to starkly quantify the cost of racism to Obama: 6 percentage points in the polls. . . . Many Democrats see the explicit discussion of race and politics as almost unambiguously negative for Obama." Some even think economic troubles will harden racial resentment. David Paul Kuhn of Politico analyzes polls on race and the race.

"Almost one-third of voters 'know' that Barack Obama is a Muslim or believe that he could be," writes New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, noting a recent Pew Research Center poll. "When I’ve traveled around the country, particularly to my childhood home in rural Oregon, I’ve been struck by the number of people who ask something like: That Obama — is he really a Christian? Isn’t he a Muslim or something? Didn’t he take his oath of office on the Koran? In conservative Christian circles and on Christian radio stations, there are even widespread theories that Mr. Obama just may be the Antichrist. Seriously. John Green, of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, says that about 10 percent of Americans believe we may be in the Book of Revelation’s “end times” and are on the lookout for the Antichrist." There's even a T-shirt that calls Obama such.

We've heard the same rumors, and given their virulence and persistence, think it's time for rural news media that don't normally deal with presidential campaigns to run columns like Kristof's, or write columns of their own, based on easily available facts -- from sites like FactCheck and PolitiFact, which separate truth from falsehood and misleading information in candidate statements and advertising -- and decline to print letters to the editor that report false rumors as fact, whether they are about Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin or Joe Biden.

For now, Obama is the chief victim of misinformation, partly because, as Kristof writes, "Religious prejudice is becoming a proxy for racial prejudice. In public at least, it’s not acceptable to express reservations about a candidate’s skin color, so discomfort about race is sublimated into concerns about whether Mr. Obama is sufficiently Christian." He concludes, "Journalists need to do more than call the play-by-play this election cycle. We also need to blow the whistle on such egregious fouls calculated to undermine the political process and magnify the ugliest prejudices that our nation has done so much to overcome." (Read more)

States block or limit access to concealed-weapons permit records after newspapers put them online

"A growing number of state governments are tightening the reins on databases involving concealed weapon permits, making it nearly impossible for reporters to uncover information potentially vital to the public’s interest," Breanne Coates reports for Quill magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists.

"Experts say the media is partially to blame for the closing of these records," Coates writes. "While some journalists have used the information in the records to produce investigative work, others have chosen to publish complete databases online, which can include what many consider to be private information of law-abiding citizens. The public’s outrage at having this information revealed for no apparent reason has resulted in public support for many states’ legislation aimed at closing these records." She cites the example of The Roanoke Times and Virginia, reported here previously.

Aimee Edmondson, a doctoral student in journalism at the University of Missouri, studied the issue in all 50 states in 2007. At the time, "28 states explicitly stated that concealed carry permit databases were closed, and only five explicitly stated that they were open," Coates reports. "Edmondson said she found that the courts 'were all over the place' on this topic, but the legislatures have been the driving force behind these changes."

In Florida, the St. Petersburg Times used the state database to reveal problems with administration of the cocealed-weapon law, including issuance of permits to criminals, but didn't post the database on its Web site. John Maines, the paper's computer-assisted reporting editor and co-author of the series, told Coates, “The latest craze is just posting databases online. If there is no journalistic element to it, you have to wonder if you are doing your job.” (Read more)

Pat Stith, legend of N.C. journalism, is retiring

Pat Stith, a legendary reporter in North Carolina for decades and a Pulitzer Prize winner for his reporting on the state's hog industry in 1996, will take a voluntary buyout and retire next month from the News & Observer in Raleigh.

"Stith's work sprang a man from prison and put five others behind bars. His revelations prompted rewrites of the state's workers' compensation laws, pointed out the environmental dangers caused by the pork industry and, most recently, revealed more than $400 million wasted by the state's mental health reforms," Mandy Locke writes for the N&O.

Locke's story is so full of great nuggets about Stith, 66, we don't have room for them all, but here are a few: He saves gum for another chew; he eats apple cores; says he hasn't made a material error in a story since he was 18; has "a fact-checking regimen that involves crossing through every word that's been checked against a source," including the spelling of his own name; places follow-up calls to the subjects his stories damage most, and "His even-handedness has turned the rebuked into his most trusted sources," Locke writes.

In retirement, Stith plans to learn how to fish and bake a cake, and to hike the Appalachian Trail. "There are so many things I haven't done because I'm a newspaperman," he told Locke. "It's time. I am completely at peace with this decision." (Read more)

Wal-Marts hurt certain local businesses but not the overall small-business sector, researchers say

The coming of a Wal-Mart or one of the company's Supercenters may spell doom for some local businesses, but the company has had no overall impact on the small-business sector of the U.S. economy, researchers at West Virginia University have concluded after what they say is the first study of its kind.

“Contrary to popular belief, our results suggest that the process of creative destruction unleashed by Wal-Mart has had no statistically significant long-run impact on the overall size and profitability of the small-business sector in the United States,” write economists Russell S. Sobel and Andrea M. Dean. “There is no question that certain specific small businesses fail because of the entry of a Wal-Mart store, and that Wal-Mart has negative impacts on other major retailers like Kmart.”

Sobel and Dean say previous studies, based on county-by-county comparisons of retail businesses, failed to capture the full breadth of the small-business sector. “If a new Wal-Mart store opens, for example, and it causes a local hardware store to fail, and subsequently a new art gallery opens in its place, only the failure of the hardware store is counted by previous studies,” they write. “One business was substituted for another, but this effect would not be reflected in the data because expansions in sectors that do not directly compete with Wal-Mart are, by definition, excluded.”

Committee votes to lift new Farm Bill rule barring subsidies to farm plots smaller than 10 acres

The House Agriculture Committee has voted to suspend, for the 2008 and 2009 crop years, the new Farm Bill rule that keeps farms of less than 10 acres from receiving most forms of commodity payments. At issue is the Department of Agriculture's ruling that farmers cannot aggregate such farms to meet the 10-acre threshold. "Chairman Collin Peterson said the Ag Department’s interpretation of the minimum acreage requirement ... was not the intent of Congress," reports Bob Meyer of Brownfield Network. "No one knows for sure just where the bill goes from here but something would have to happen quickly as the Senate plans to adjourn for the year on Friday, Sept. 26."

The 10-acre rule, or its suspension, would have a major impact in some Appalachian and Midwestern states, according to Farm Service Agency data reported by Agri-Pulse. In Kentucky and Virginia, 44 percent of farms have a direct commodity payment base of 10 acres or less; the figure in North Carolina and Pennsylvania is 38 percent. Wisconsin has the largest number of such farms, 37,329 (32 percent of its total number of farms), followed by North Carolina with 30,571 farms, Ohio with 30,276 (24 percent), Kentucky with 28,657, Illinois with 26,738 (14 percent) and Michigan with 25,344 (30 percent).

Small-town America looks different from a bicycle

University of Kentucky law professor Bill Fortune, left, gained "a new appreciation for small-town America and its people" by riding a bicycle 4,100 miles with a small group from coast to coast this summer, Tom Eblen reports in the Lexington Herald-Leader. (Photo of Fortune at the Atlantic Ocean near Portland, Maine, by Bill Rund)

"What impressed Fortune most were the places he never would have stopped to see, and the people he never would have met, had he been driving through in a car," Eblen writes. "There was the couple in Waterville, Wash., who bought and renovated the abandoned Lutheran church where they had been married years before. Now it’s beautiful again, and the couple rents it as a wedding chapel. . . . Fortune now knows that Buffalo, Wyo., claims to have the world’s largest swimming pool, and Huron, S.D., the world’s largest statue of a pheasant." Fortune says, "You see the country in a different way when you’re on a bicycle. If you made the trip in a car, you couldn’t see it as slowly and intensely as we saw it."

"Fortune marveled at the vast openness of the West as he passed abandoned houses and towns depopulated by a changing economy," Eblen writes. "Many people had lived in their small towns all their lives, but their children had left in search of jobs and a more exciting lifestyle. He saw human despair on Indian reservations, and noted there was at least one bar in every Western town, no matter how small, and gambling machines in every bar and gas station."

Explorers often like to draw boundaries, and we tend to agree with our friend Bill on this one: "The cyclists agreed that the West ended and the Midwest began when they crossed the Missouri River in eastern South Dakota near the Minnesota line," Eblen writes. "Gradually, the empty country gave way to tidy farms and farmhouses and well-kept small towns." (Read more) For the blog version of Eblen's story, with a very nice, three-minute audio slide show from Fortune, click here.

Rural development specialist praises Ky. initiative

One expert on economic development in rural areas is praising a Kentucky initiative he says models a structure that will spread "as regionalism continues to make more sense to more people." Jack Schultz, author and CEO of Agracel Inc., a firm specializing in rural industrial development, writes on his BoomtownUSA blog that Northwest KY Forward is doing a great deal toward promoting industrial growth in the Kentucky counties around the city of Henderson, Ky. (Encarta map)

Schultz writes, "What most impressed me with this organization was their simple structure and also their straightforward strategy. The organization is lean with only four employees but the focus is on three areas: 1. Recruitment; 2. Retention and 3. Entrepreneurism." The company focuses on five areas of industry: aluminum, logistics, auto manufacturing parts, prepared foods and energy. Each area is selected carefully. For example, the area within a 60-mile radius of Henderson produces one-third of the aluminum in the U.S., employing over 8,000 workers.

The foundations of the organization were laid in the mid-1990s, when some of the counties jointly developed an industrial park. Since its official inception in July 2005, Northwest KY Forward has "landed new companies, helped start some new businesses, expanded employment and has a number of future projects on the drawing boards." Kevin Sheilley, president of the organization, tells Schultz: "We've got four companies looking at doing new projects here that have over 500 acres optioned." (Read more)

Coal mining and cemeteries don't mix, writer says

Arguments about coal mining typically draw lines along environmental or economic grounds, but a West Virginia woman wants to publicize an unexpected consequence: the restriction of access to cemeteries. In an open letter to Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, published by the Daily Yonder, Betty Dotson-Lewis entreats "Mr. Future President" to take into consideration the way that coal mining is affecting Appalachian traditions, including the way mountaineers honor their dead.

Massey Energy owns the only access road to the Underwood family cemetery in Nicholas County, W.Va., and has strict policies that create numerous obstacles for those who want to visit the cemetery, and visitors must be accompanied by Massey guards, who are not always available, Dotson-Lewis reports. Even when they are, the sititation sometimes doesn't sit well, she writes, telling the story of a graveside service for a coal-mining family. "After crossing the hurdles, the sister was laid to rest but grieving family members were uncomfortable being watched over by guards during the burial ceremony," she writes. A cousin of the deceased told her that when her father died, "Everyone had to stay until the undertakers were finished burying her father so the guards would only have to make one trip out of the cemetery, escorting the entire burial party. The family felt this was an unusually harsh sight for the small children along."

Dotson-Lewis ends her open letter: "At least two Purple Heart recipients lie there. Soldiers who fought and gave their lives in World War II were both on the verge of being rooted out of the ground by machinery or blown to bits by mining explosives some 70 years after falling on a distant battlefield and enduring the long ride home to rest in the family cemetery in Jones Branch Hollow on top of Lone Star Mountain. ... Mr. Future President, do you know what coal miners and their families are encountering? Strip-mining coal in Appalachia is destroying our way of life and our way of death." (Read more)

MinnPost.com reports rural opposition to ethanol

While farming communities have long been the biggest supporters of ethanol production, recent concerns about the fuel's effects on the environment and global food supply stir resistance even in rural areas. A recent article on MinnPost.com, a non-profit journalistic venture focusing on Minnesota, highlights examples local opposition to proposed ethanol plants.

Ron Way writes, "For the first time since corn ethanol's dazzling growth sprinkled billions of dollars and jobs – and fattened farmers' bank accounts – across rural Minnesota, a proposed facility near Eyota, Minn., has drawn opposition from local elected officials rather than the open-arms welcome that's greeted nearly all of the state's 18 plants." Increased legislative analysis of the environmental impact of plants, and the cancellation of two ethanol-plant projects in Minnesota are other signs of ethanol's waning appeal.

Opposition to ethanol comes from many sectors. Many global organizations say the production of biofuels is a primary cause of the global food shortage. Ethanol production uses much water, and can prompt farmers to take marginal land out of the Conservation Reserve Program to grow more corn. Others say that the the plants are just not worth it. High corn prices are "causing some [ethanol] producers to see less return on their investment, especially for facilities still paying down debt," and those who live near proposed plants worry about "air emissions, odor, noise, nighttime lights and water-consumption issues," Way writes. (Read more)

Rural impact of the credit crisis: Time for a look

The credit crisis has dominated the headlines over the past week, but very little of the focus in national media has been on what it means for rural America. However, many regional and specialized news sources are trying to address this worrisome question. We offer a few examples as encouragement for other rural journalists to probe the question.

Douglas Burns of the Iowa Independent asked Tom Gronstal, the state's banking superintendent, how the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the sale of Merrill Lynch and the federal bailout of AIG will affect Iowans. Gronstal said the rural environment will alleviate some of the housing pressures: "Most of the community banks develop a relatively long-term relationship with their customers." For that reason, Burns writes, banks "aren’t looking to finance homes people can’t afford." But Gronstal does admit that "it will make it harder to borrow money for business and agriculture," and that if we are not already in a recession, one is inevitable. (Read more)

One Vermont newspaper focused on the effects that local businesspeople and economists anticipated would experience in their community. "Life is like a food chain and we're all affected," James McNeil, the town's state representative, told Cristina Kumka of the Rutland Herald. Don Keelan, a local accountant and investor, said "The average man will get affected through taxes," and the crisis would result in a continued weakening of the dollar and a loss of capital for start-up companies. (Read more)

Mike McGinnis and Jeff Caldwell of Agriculture Online examined the effects on farmers. "AIG especially is a large player in the ag sector," says Jason Ward of Northstar Commodity Investment Co., and "banks are tightening credit with everyone, which directly tightens credit at ag banks." At the same time, an overall weakened market will affect market prices for agricultural commodities, although Matt Pierce ... floor trader for Futures International LLC, says, "When the financial collapse is over, all agricultural commodites will rally significantly."

The article also addresses reactions to the crisis from farmers, many of whom expressed frustration at government intervention. "I'm still confused -- or maybe upset is the better word for it -- that it appears the government will bail out all of these investment banks that made their bed and are now begging for someone else to sleep in it," writes one member on the website's Marketing Talk forum, identified as GoredHusker. "All we've really learned from all of this is in order to survive get as big as you can. Get so big that the government can't allow you to fail." (Read more)

BusinessWeek looks at rural broadband issues

It has been widely assumed that extending high-speed Internet access to rural communities would improve their economic opportunities. Shane Greenstein, an economist who specializes in telecommunications at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, supports such efforts but says broadband advocates are overselling the possible economic impact. "Broadband wouldn't have the same proportional effect in a rural area as in a suburb or city," Greenstein told Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek. "This is what an economist would call an upwardly biased estimate."

Some observers criticize Connected Nation, a leading advocate for rural broadand, for using tax dollars money to spread broadband and make money for Internet providers. "Public Knowledge, a Washington-based consumer rights group specializing in technology, alleges that Connected Nation's eCommunity teams are little more than sales forces for broadband providers," writes Hesseldahl. Bryan Mefford, the 35-year-old Kentucky native who runs Connected Nation, said all grants it gets are competitively sought, Public Knowledge generated its own data, and its estimates are below others who claim greater potential economic gains from broadband. "We're not just pulling this data out of the air," Mefford told Busienss Week. "We've done surveys of people in these states with large sample sizes of more than 10,000 people. Our assumptions are informed by these detailed surveys."

Connected Nation emerged from Connect Kentucky, which successfully expanded broadband service to 95 percent of the state by 2007 from 60 percent in 2004. As mentioned in a previous post, Connect Kentucky's role was to demonstrate demand for high-speed Internet in rural communities to providers of that service. Connected Nation is looking to accomplish the same feat on a national scale.

"The lack of fast Web access is helping create a country of broadband haves and have-nots," Hesseldahl writes. That "not only makes it harder for businesses to get work done, but also impedes workers' efforts to find jobs, puts students at a disadvantage, and generally leaves a wide swath of the country less connected to the growing storehouse of information on the Web — from health sites to news magazines to up-to-date information on presidential candidates." (Read more)

Timber industry struggles as lumber demand drops

The timber industry is facing problems on three fronts: rising fuel prices, a struggling housing market and the decreasing value of lumber. Companies have been forced to lay off crews and put others on quotas. Wayne Sheets of The Inter-Mountain in Elkins, W.V., writes "Most officials in the business seemed to agree that the industry might 'bottom-out' and begin a slow recovery in late 2009 and 2010." (Sheets photo shows tree cutter David Mace at work for Gibson Logging)

The timber industry is facing a downturn because there is less demand for its products, and those products are costing more to transport. "The fuel situation is really hurting us," Donnie Nottingham, a mill manager at Inter-State Hardwoods, told Sheets. "The cost of getting logs to the mill has more than doubled at a time when demand is down and the price of lumber has gone down because of a lack of demand. Our shipping costs have also nearly doubled over the past six months."

There are other consequences to the downturn. Many in the industry are also having problems making loan payments on the equipment required for operation. "While I don't know the exact numbers, I suspect at today's costs, one can easily tie up over a half million dollars or more in equipment for a small logging operation," an official at Frank E. Wilson Lumber Co., who wished to remain anonymous, told Sheets. "Most people don't have that kind of money so they go out and borrow money from the banks. Then the economy hits a slump like we're in now and the first thing you know he can't make the payments on his equipment and, even though banks are notorious for working with people to help them save their business, eventually they have to foreclose and there goes the logger."

Some in the industry are remaining afloat by using their equipment in other industries. By using their logging trucks in other capacities and diversifying other aspects of their operations they hope to remain afloat through this difficult period. (Read more)