Obama's education budget bad for rural schools, National Schools Boards Association says

President Obama has proposed big changes to federal education funding and the No Child Left Behind Act with the unveiling of his fiscal 2011 budget. It includes a 6.2 percent increase in funding for the Department of Education, but most of that money will go to competitively awarded programs, Alyson Klein of Education Week reports. Programs that use set formulas to allocate funding such as Title I, based on the number of poor children in a school or district, received little or no increase in budget.

"The focus on competitive grants and the decision to provide no increase to Title I means rural districts and children in the poorest parts of the country will be left behind," said Anne Bryant, the executive director of the National School Boards Association. "Those districts do not have the capacity to compete for grants—unless you want to shift money from teachers to grant writers."

The budget renames the Title I program "College-and-Career Ready Students," but does not provide an increase from the fiscal 2010 budget of $14.5 billion. (Some money was added to the program by the economic stimulus, Klein reports.) "While there is much to applaud in the budget, we are concerned that virtually all of the proposed increase is for competitive grants, while Title I — the lifeblood for our most disadvantaged children — is flat-funded," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement. "Students with the most needs should not have to rely on how well adults compete for dollars." The proposed budget does include a "substantial boost for the Title I School Improvement Grants, a program that helps districts target interventions to schools struggling to meet the goals" of the law, Klein reports. (Read more)

Hunger up across U.S., especially in Appalachia

An unprecedented number of Americans are seeking charity food, says a new study from the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Feeding America reports in a news release "more than 37 million people, one in eight Americans -- including 14 million children and nearly 3 million seniors -- receive emergency food each year through the nation's network of food banks and the agencies they serve." The data represents a 40 percent increase from the organization's last comprehensive study in 2006.

The study, "Hunger in America 2010," includes data collected from February through June 2009 from 61,000 face-to-face, in-depth interviews with people seeking emergency food assistance at the organization's network of pantries and emergency feeding programs across the country. One of the regional groups participating in the study was God's Pantry, which reports it now serves one in seven people in Central and Eastern Kentucky.

God's Pantry's report, "Hunger in Central and Eastern Kentucky," says 73 percent of client households reported food insecurity, defined as fear of being unable to provide food to oneself or family. The organization reports 310,170 people in the 50-county service area (See map below) live in poverty and the group serves 12 of the 25 poorest counties in the nation. Among those served: Owsley and Clay counties, which the U.S. Census Bureau ranks as the third and fourth poorest counties in the country.

Wind farm brings neighborhood feud to Wisconsin

Complaints from residents living near wind farms have become more numerous in recent months as the farms proliferate. Now many of those complaints regarding noise, shadows and bird deaths have surfaced in Wisconsin, Scott Williams of the Green Bay Press-Gazette reports. In the town of Byron, some families have given up fighting the turbines and plan to move, while others have embraced them as needed progress.

"I really like them," Rose Vanderzwan told Williams. "I think they're beautiful. And I think it's a good idea to get some cheaper energy." Larry Wunsch disagreed, saying "This is not for me. It's an invasion." Vanderzwan receives $17,500 a year for permitting thre turbines to be built on the family dairy farm, but some neighbors are so angry they won't speak to her anymore. "Every project will have some opposition, as with anything that is new to a community," Invenergy vice president Bryan Schueler told Williams. "For every opponent, there's usually many, many more supporters." (Read more) (Press-Gazette video)

Growth in wind power has added few 'green' jobs

Last week we reported the wind power industry had record capacity growth of 39 percent in 2009, but new "green jobs" haven't necessarily accompanied the surge. "Even though a record 10,000 megawatts of new generating capacity came on line, few jobs were created overall and wind power manufacturing employment, in particular, fell -- a setback for President Obama's pledge to create millions of green jobs," Jim Tankersley of the Los Angeles Times reports.

Green jobs have been slow to materialize, especially "skilled, good-paying, blue-collar jobs such as assembling wind turbines, retrofitting homes to use less energy and working on solar panels in the desert," Tankersley writes. During the 2008 campaign, Obama promised to create 5 billion green jobs over a decade, but administration officials admit they are nowhere near that pace with an estimated 52,000 green jobs created or saved by the stimulus. (Read more)

In rural Tunica County, Mississippi, locals are still waiting for the hundreds of green jobs from the billion-dollar electric and hybrid automobile plant promised by GreenTech Automotive Inc. CEO Xiaolin "Charles" Wang during an October groundbreaking ceremony. Wang is trying to shore up funding for the project, Richard Fausett of the Times reports, but Tunica needs help now after a recession-driven decrease in gambling hurt the nine local casinos. "They done had a bunch of things that's been supposed to come in," one local unemployed man told Fausett. "You hear about it, then after several months you don't hear anything again." (Read more)

Number of jobs lost since 2007 varies widely across rural America, county by county

During his State of the Union address last week President Obama said "small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard" by the recession, but that may not be the case in all such places. Many rural Great Plains and Midwest farming counties have lost fewer jobs than other rural areas, Bill Bishop and Roberto Gallardo report in the Daily Yonder. Still, only 25 rural counties registered decreases in their unemployment rate between 2007 and 2009. Unemployment in rural areas roughly mirrored urban rates in 2009.

"Fourteen of the 50 rural counties that showed the smallest increases in unemployment were in Kansas," Bishop and Gallardo report. "Another 11 were in Nebraska. And 12 more were in the Dakotas," the reporters write. Alabama, site of 12 of the 50 counties with the largest rise in unemployment rates, and South Carolina, home of nines, were hit especially hard by the recession. (Read more) (Click the map to view a larger version)

Rural weekly writer, larger-media colleagues picked for 9-day health fellowship in Boston area

A reporter for a thrice-weekly newspaper in southeastern Kentucky is among 11 medical journalists chosen for a prestigious fellowship that will take them to the Boston area this spring to study health care and how to cover it.

Tara Kaprowy, right, of The Sentinel-Echo in London was chosen for The Health Coverage Fellowship with the support of her employer and its owner, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., and of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky.

"The fellowship, the first of its kind in the country, is designed to help the media do a better job covering critical health care issues. It does that by bringing in as speakers more than 50 top health officials, policy people, and researchers. It also brings the fellows out to watch first-hand how the system works," says a news release from Babson College. The fellowship is housed at the college's Center for Executive Education in Wellesley and is directed by Larry Tye, former health and environment reporter at The Boston Globe and author of five books.

The eight-year-old program is sponsored by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, with help from the Maine Health Access Foundation, New Hampshire’s Endowment for Health, Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, and the Texas-based Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. The contributions from outlying states helped create slots for reporters from those states.

Joining Kaprowy will be Robert Weisman of the Globe, Cathy Corman of WGBH Radio in Boston, Shawn Cunningham of WAGM-TV in Maine, Jennifer Huberdeau of the North Adams (Mass.) Transcript, Cynthia McCormick of the Cape Cod Times, Karen Nugent of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Denis Paiste of the New Hampshire Union Leader, Jason Roberson of the Dallas Morning News, Kathryn Tolbert of The Washington Post, Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

As states seek to revive horse slaughter, for a floor in the market, a bill in Congress would ban it

We've been following the economic trouble in the horse industry closely, and one common factor cited in the trouble is the closing of the last U.S. horse slaughtering facility, which removed the floor from horse prices. Now some states are considering legislation to reopen slaughter facilities, even as some U.S. lawmakers move to ban the sale of horse meat. In 2006, Congress barred any federal funds from being spent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on inspecting the nation's three remaining horse slaughtering plants, one factor that led to their eventual closure.

Advocates of horse slaughtering say plants represent a better option for desperate horse owners who have taken drastic measures in disposing of their unwanted horses since the last plant closed. "It is more humane to dispose of old and unwanted horses in this manner than to just abandon them, dumping them out randomly, with no food, water or protection from the weather, not to mention the hazards of hitting a 1,000-pound abandoned horse standing in the middle of the road," Phil Mills of Zanesville, Ohio, argues in a letter to the editor in the Times-Record.

In Missouri where the ban has "killed the horse industry," says veterinarian Jim Joyce, right, Republican state Rep. Jim Viebrock is sponsoring legislation "aimed at bypassing a federal ban on meat inspectors working in horse slaughtering plants by getting processors to pay for the inspections," Chad Livengood reports for the Springfield News Leader. Even if the bill makes it through the legislature, USDA may not honor the attempt to circumvent the law, Livengood writes. "That is the big hurdle," Viebrock told him. "We'll find out how powerful the animal rights lobby really is if (USDA allows) it." (Read more) (News-Leader photo by Bob Linder)

In April the Illinois legislature voted down a bill that would have authorized horse slaughtering in that state, but Republican state Rep. Jim Sacia has submitted a new bill. Meanwhile, foreign investors considering Hardin, Mont., for a horse-slaughtering plant recently toured the area looking for potential sites, Tom Lutey of the Billings Gazette reports. The tour was arranged by Republican Rep. Ed Butcher, "author of a 2009 state law promoting construction of a horse slaughter facility."

While several states continue to explore horse slaughtering, national lawmakers have started a push to permanently ban the practice with the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, Lutey reports. The bill, which is endorsed by the Humane Society of the U.S., would "make marketing horse flesh for human consumption punishable by up to three years in prison." The Senate version is sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and the House version is sponsored by Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky. (Read more)

Head of rural community foundation wants laws to encourage localized rural philanthropy

Philanthropy has been instrumental in shoring up causes based in metropolitan areas, but not so much in rural America. "Historically urban-centered, wealthy people have created legacies directed at specific regions or institutions, or coveted areas of individual passion. But there aren't many examples of such magnitude devoted to comprehensive community development," Gerry Roll, above, executive director of the Community Foundation of Hazard and Perry County, Kentucky, wrotes in an op-ed piece for the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

Roll advocates legislation to encourage creation of, and investment in, community foundations. "They are rarely in rural areas, and certainly not in the rural counties of Kentucky," she notes. Rural areas are still the places where many of the state's resources are spent on programs like Medicaid for the poor and disabled, and that's one reason Kentucky ranks near the bottom of most national lists, Roll writes.

"A relatively new national movement in rural development philanthropy is a promising model for helping community foundations and other community-based initiatives engage in convening, fund-raising, endowment-building, grant-making and other community-building opportunities to strengthen and supplement the limited resources provided through state and local general funds for education and other services," she explains, adding that community foundations engage a broad range of institutions and individuals to build stronger and healthier communities. Those include rural expatriates who may want to help their hometowns but don't know of a vehicle that they consider trustworthy.

Roll says 2006 legislation in Iowa to stimulate local endowment building has led to an endowment in every county in the state, "and they are growing exponentially." Roll's foundation started last year, and she writes that it still has a long way to go, but it is "building an endowment, making grants and working with the community to create ways to improve our schools, our environment, our health, our housing and our culture." She calls for the state legislature to encourage donations to local endowments to allow "people to contribute to the communities they love." Roll's article also appeared in the Messenger-Inquirer of Owensboro.

W.Va. wind farm moves ahead after settlement

In October and December we reported about an unusual battle between environmental groups about a proposed wind farm in Greenbrier County, W.Va. The two groups were at odds about the effect the project would have on the endangered Indiana bat, and a federal judge ruled in December the project violated federal wildlife law. Now Chicago-based Invenergy LLC and Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy have forged an agreement that will allow construction to begin immediately, Jessica Y. Lilly of West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports.

The agreement cuts 24 of the 124 proposed turbines that were deemed most harmful to the bat population. The company will start construction at 67 locations now and build 33 more after obtaining an "incidental take" permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (Read more)

Reports of animal thrill killings up across nation

Poaching reports are up across the country, and some of the new cases have a disturbing twist: animals being killed just for the thrill of killing. "Poachers run down deer with cars or snowmobiles, and chase raccoons, then beat them to death with clubs," Jeff DeLong of the Reno Gazette-Journal reports for USA Today. "They also shoot deer, elk and antelope, sometimes removing valuable antlers but often leaving the carcass to rot on the ground."

Scott Talbott, an assistant division chief with Wyoming's Fish and Game Department, describes the trend as "wanton destruction" that goes beyond shooting. "It's thrill killing — people just going out and killing stuff," Talbott told DeLong. "We have seen a significant increase of that in Wyoming. It's disturbing." State wildlife officials in Wisconsin are working with researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and have determined "the thrill killing usually involves youths ages 14 to 23, who gather in groups with the intent of killing as many animals as possible," DeLong writes.

"These are cases where they're just looking for something to do," Chuck Horn of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources told DeLong. "It seems like in some of these cases kids are looking for instant gratification, like a video game." DeLong also details reports of the same trend in Montana, Pennsylvania and Washington. (Read more)

New feature shows the value of a good obituary

Journalists who place a high value on well-written obituaries and tributes should like a new monthly feature in The Courier-Journal of Louisville, "A Life Well Lived." Lifestyles Editor David Daley says it will "go beyond the obituary page to bring out the full color and dimension of a life. There's an extraordinary tale to tell at the end of every life." We agree, and think everyone deserves a good sendoff.

We're also happy that the first "Life Well Lived" is that of Tommy Dyer, left, whom we knew as the keeper of an old-fashioned general store in flood-prone Boston, Ky., for 65 years. "Dyer's store supplied the necessities for life in a rural community, from slop jars and saddles to the stoves and refrigerators he would deliver, Paula Burba writes. Her key source was Tommy's friend Don Skaggs, who said, "He lived and breathed that store. ... He sold a little bit of everything: Horse collars, televisions, refrigerators. ...They had seeds for the farmers to plant. And he had clothes. ... You don't have enough space in your newspaper for me to tell you the qualities of Tommy Dyer. Tommy Dyer was honest. … There was not a crooked streak in his body at all. He always had a smile and good cheer. Money was never the object." (Read more)

Invasive, exotic species gaining ground, or water, and posing major threat to native U.S. wildlife

Those Asian carp we reported on a few weeks ago have finally invaded the Great Lakes, putting themselves at the top of a long list of invasive species posing a wide range of problems. Sam Hamilton, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post that exotic species are "probably the single greatest threat in our country to our native wildlife." Eilperin sums up the problem nicely:

"Which is worse? Closing two locks on a waterway that's used to ship millions of dollars' worth of goods from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi basin? Or allowing a voracious Asian carp to deplete the food supply of native fish sustaining a Midwestern fishing industry that nets $7 billion a year? And how do you put a price tag on the damage caused by the Burmese python and other constrictor snakes that are strangling the precious ecology of the Everglades?"

The U.S. Army Cops of Engineers has failed twice to stop the carp with electric barriers in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, but is hoping a third try will be charmed. "The barriers are not surefire," Eilperin reminds readers, "and experts say it's difficult to say how many Asian carp would have to make it through to establish a viable population." She notes that the carp were imported by Southern fish farmers to eat pond algae and escaped during floods, and "Now the fish so thoroughly dominate the Illinois River that communities have annual fishing tournaments targeting them." (Read more)

Kentucky looking for places to put nuclear plants

A major coal state that is also one of the 11 that effectively ban new nuclear generating plants (those in orange on the map) may drop the ban and is looking for places to put N-plants, with the favored sites in rural areas.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear's energy plan would put nuclear power "roughly on par with coal as an electricity source by 2025," writes Jim Bruggers of The Courier-Journal. "Coal supplies more than 90 percent of the state's electricity," and Kentucky ranks third among the states in coal production. A bill to drop the ban has passed the state Senate but faces uncertain prospects in the House.

A consulting firm "looked at 42 potential sites for a variety of forms of power generation, and identified at least three — all in Western Kentucky — that are worth more consideration for a nuclear power plant," Bruggers writes. Those scored at least 79 percent on a suitability scale; the next four were also in Western Kentucky, followed by two reclaimed strip-mine sites in Eastern Kentucky, each with a 68 percent rating. (C-J map)

The study's Alternative Energy Facilities Site Bank also ranked sites for wind, solar, biomass and coal conversion to gas or liquid fuel. "It concluded wind and solar power at the locations would have little chance of being economically worthwhile with current technology," Bruggers reports.

Government support for newspapers, magazines has dropped by more than half in last 40 years

Amid debate about possible government subsidies to keep newspapers afloat, comes a study noting that governments have long supported newspapers, but less so in recent years. In the last four decades, the postal discount for papers has dropped from 75 percent to 11 percent, and that's just the biggest example, according to Geoffrey Cowan and David Westphal of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.

The researchers found that "government support for newspapers and magazines has fallen from more than $4 billion in 1970, to less than $2 billion," Richard Pérez-Peña of The New York Times writes on the paper's Media Decoder blog. The decline in the postal discount amounts to a difference of about $1.7 billion in today’s dollars, the researchers concluded. And they say another $1 billion will eventually go by the boards when state legislatures allow local governments to post legal notices on their own Web sites and stop paying newspapers for advertising space. “It’s almost inevitable that this will happen,” Westphal said. The Times paraphrases him as saying that legal ads "are especially important to the smallest papers."

Westphal, executive in residence at the school and former Washington editor for McClatchy Newspapers, "noted that the study did not even take into account the notices that the government requires private entities to buy in newspapers and magazines, like bank foreclosure notices and drug-company disclaimers about their new products. The third major category of government support takes the form of special tax treatment for publications, like reduced sales tax rates on paper and ink. The study’s authors cited state and federal tax breaks worth at least $900 million." (Read more)

Missouri, seeing a big jump in meth labs, might require prescription for main feedstock

Missouri lawmakers spent four hours Wednesday hearing arguments for and against a law requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine, the decongestant that is the main feedstock for making methamphetamine. Missouri leads the nation in meth-lab busts, and once its 2009 total is tallied next month, it is expected to pass the 2008 total of 1,470 labs by more than 300, Christine Byers of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The state House Crime Prevention Committee heard from lobbying interests on both sides, including the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents over-the-counter drug manufacturers. It argued that a prescription law would be unfair to the uninsured, "who might have to pay out of pocket to see a doctor when they needed a decongestant," Byers writes. The CHPA has offered to pay nearly $1 million for a computer database, similar to one in Kentucky, that would track when buyers reach the legal limit of about three boxes of pseudoephedrine in a 30-day period. (Read more)

Four small towns and one county in Missouri already require a prescription for cold medications containing pseudoephedrine. Those rural communities and others are some of the most vocal advocates of a state prescription law, Maria Altman of St. Louis Public Radio reports.

Natural-gas-and-helium plant in Wyoming would be world's largest carbon sequestration facility

Federal officials have released their draft environmental study for what could be the largest carbon-sequestration facility in the world. Denver-based Cimarex Energy Co. is "proposing to construct the large-scale carbon sequestration project as part of its Rand Butte Project along the Wyoming Range in southwest Wyoming," Jeff Gearino of the Casper Star-Tribune reports. Officials say the facility could eventually supply 30 percent of the world's helium production.

The Bureau of Land Management's environmental study, which examines the federal components of the project, including drilling of gas wells and construction of pipelines, electric transmission lines and monitoring stations, is available for public review. While carbon-sequestration has often been associated with coal, the Wyoming plant would be used in a natural gas and helium project in the Madison geologic formation.

Development of the reservoir has been hampered "by the presence of high concentrations of CO2 gas and toxic hydrogen sulfide," Gearino writes. "The project aims to test new technologies for capturing and then re-injecting all the byproduct gases — primarily CO2 and H2S — back into their source-producing formation." Wyoming was the first state to pass comprehensive carbon sequestration legislation. (Read more)

Latest climate talk: a bill without cap-and-trade

Wednesday we reported the dimming chances of a 2010 climate bill may hinge on its ability to create jobs. Now after President Obama's call for climate legislation in the State of the Union address, lawmakers are discussing proposals that would reduce carbon emissions, but not include a cap-and-trade system for emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases, Richard Cowan and Timothy Gradner of Reuters report. "It's open to how you price carbon," Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry told the reporters. "People need to relax and look at all the ways you might price carbon. We're not pinned down to one approach."

Kerry is working with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) to include "incentives for nuclear, offshore oil drilling and clean technology jobs," the reporters write. Kerry told them he wants to outline a comprehensive bill that could be considered this spring but doesn't want to be tied down to a firm deadline. Graham added that Obama's opening the door for nuclear power and offshore oil drilling in his speech helped efforts for a "hybrid system" for reducing U. S. carbon emissions. (Read more)

Federal nutrition program participation rates high in rural areas, but many eligibles still not reached

One-third of federal expenditures go to four nutrition programs designed to help feed poor children, but as Congress prepares to renew the programs' funding rural demographics may factor in their decision. "The largest numbers of low-income families eligible for the programs live in urban areas; however, the proportion of families who are income-eligible is higher in rural areas," says a new report from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.
An estimated 29 percent of rural families with children participate in one of the four programs, the National School Lunch Program; the School Breakfast Program; the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program; and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. An estimated 20 percent of rural families with children participate in two or more of the programs, Carsey reports. "When suburban and central city rates are combined into a metro area average, participation in the School Breakfast Program and WIC is almost 50 percent higher in rural than in metro areas," the report says.

Even with the high participation rates in rural America, a large portion of the eligible population doesn't participate. Of of the estimated 2.8 million income-eligible rural households with children, about 43 percent do not participate in any of the four child nutrition programs, Carsey reports. "Nonparticipation ranges from approximately 1.5 million for the National School Lunch Program (55 percent of those eligible) to 2.6 million (92 percent) for the Child and Adult Care Food Program," Carsey writes. The report suggests poor transportation, schools not meeting eligibility requirements and high operating costs for small rural schools are factors in the low participation rates. (Read more)

Only Kentucky county with a lower jobless rate than a year ago is the site of a big new coal mine

Unemployment in 119 of the 120 counties in Kentucky was higher in December than it was in December 2008, says a news release from the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. The only county where unemployment didn't rise was Union County, the site of a new Alliance Coal mine. The release didn't note that, simply saying, "Union County, the only county rate to decrease compared to last year, fell from 10.5 percent in December 2008 to 10.1 percent in December 2009. This is the first time since January 2009 that all 120 counties' rates have not risen over the same month the previous year." (Read more)

In September, the River View Coal underground mine near Waverly officially began operations, Carrie Dillard of the Union County Advocate reported. The mine is expected to bring 600 new jobs by July. Gov. Steve Beshear, other state officials and University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari (right, with a local official) were among those attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Alliance President Joe Craft is a major supporter of the UK basketball program. (Advocate photo by Dillard) (Read more)

UPDATE, Jan. 30: The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that the decline "came primarily because some of the people in the county got discouraged and stopped looking for work. Unemployment statistics don't count people who have not looked for employment in the last four weeks. Office of Employment and Training spokeswoman Kim Saylor Brannock said the county had about 300 fewer people looking for work, skewing its rate." (Read more)

Homeland Security tells cops to ditch radio codes

In response to communications breakdowns during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is asking law enforcement agencies to stop using number codes such as "10-4" for common messages and replace them with "plain talk." What are your police agencies doing? It could be a story.

The agency "cites the January 1982 crash of an Air Florida plane into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River near downtown Washington as one of the first major multijurisdictional events where communications were a problem," Gary Taylor of the Orlando Sentinel reports.

One example of confusing codes: In Seminole County, Fla., a Code 35 signals a shooting, while in Lake County it means a car break-in and in neighboring Orange County it means only a request for public assistance. Homeland Security first started pressing the new policy three years ago, Taylor reports, but change has been slow in Florida where only the Volusia County Sheriff's office has adopted the policy.

Chattanooga police Assistant Chief Mike Williams, whose department was among the first in the country to adopt the plan, told Taylor, "Concerns about prisoners or suspects hearing information are solved by having a dispatcher ask whether the radio is secure before transmitting information, or by use of in-car computers." He adds most codes aren't secret anyway, and many departments even post them on their Web sites. (Read more)

High school paper in rural Nevada publishing story about teacher despite teachers' union grievance

The Churchill County School District in Nevada will not censor the publication of a student newspaper story about an investigation of one teacher at the local high school despite a grievance from the local teachers' union. The story, by Churchill County High School student Lauren MacLean in the school newspaper The Flash, examines "parent advocates demanding the district investigate Honor Choir audition practices after parents discovered evidence that CCHS music teacher Kathy Archey failed to submit an unknown number of student audition" to the Nevada Music Educators Association Honor/All State Choir program, Stephanie Carroll of the Lahontan Valley News reports.

"I don't control speech, and I don't control press," Superintendent Carolyn Ross told Carroll. "I'm not stopping it." NMEA regional head Susan Benefield told the parents that Archey had the right to remove tapes from submission, but was required to inform the students involved. Ross told Carroll the district had taken "appropriate disciplinary actions by contract, but she could not comment on specific details." MacLean explained her motives for the report: "I knew what could come from this. I wrote the article in a way that it wasn't attacking Kathy Archey ... It was really hard. There was so much on the line, people's jobs, people's reputations." (Read more)

The Churchill County Education Association asked that the story not be printed because it could "harm the teacher's employment and could deprive her 'of any professional advantage without just cause', Kristi Jourdan of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. High schools can censor student publications as long as they tie the justification to a "legitimate educational purpose," Jourdan reports. (Read more)

Obama administration follows through on promise of open government, but some data of little value

In December President Obama issued an order requiring each government agency to publish at least three high-value data sets online. Now 40 agencies have followed through on the directive by publishing hundreds of new datasets via the open-government clearinghouse Data.gov, the Society of Environmental Journalists reports. However, SEJ reports that the definition of "high value" is "rather nebulous."

"High-value information is information that can be used to increase agency accountability and responsiveness; improve public knowledge of the agency and its operations; further the core mission of the agency; create economic opportunity; or respond to need and demand as identified through public consultation," SEJ explains. But SEJ member Robert Weinhold characterized the recent data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as "pretty low value — and most, if not all, were already available." The "WatchDog TipSheet" story includes a breakdown of each database released on Jan. 20. (Read more)

EPA moves to require public disclosure of 'inert' pesticide ingredients

A large portion of the ingredients in most pesticides are categorized as "inert," and manufacturers aren't required to make them public. That exemption may be gone soon, as the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Dec. 22 it was proposing a rule requiring public disclosure of all pesticide ingredients, Marla Cone of Environmental Health News reports. An inert ingredient is any that does not kill or control a pest, but it may still be toxic. Environmental groups first petitioned EPA for full disclosure 11 years ago.

Current law requires companies disclose all ingredients to EPA, but now the agency wants to make that disclosure public. "We believe these products already have been regulated to protect public health," Jay Vroom, chief executive officer of CropLife America, which represents pesticide manufacturers, told Cone. "What is confusing is why the agency has been out talking about these products as hazardous inert ingredients. To me, that’s an oxymoron." EPA has said it will seek "a significant amount of input" from stakeholders, the pesticide industry, environmentalists and other experts, as they craft the new rule "because of the magnitude of the change and the difficult issues facing the agency." (Read more) You can also read EPA's background information about the rule.

Post calls mountaintop mining the most bitter environmental fight in U.S.; EPA on the hot seat

David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post has a good situation piece today on the increasingly contentious issue of mountaintop coal mining in Central Appalachia. His focus is the new major player, the Environmental Protection Agency, which he reports has "signed off on only 48" of the 175 permit applications in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. He sums up the issue in a way we haven't seen before: "EPA officials ... say they're just following the law. That, they say, means keeping poisonous things from the inside of a mountain out of streams on the surface."

But those on both sides of the issue say EPA has "appeared contradictory and mysterious, signing off on some mines and blocking others. Environmentalists are unhappy because they fear federal officials are losing their nerve to take on the powerful coal industry. The coal industry is unhappy because it thinks the administration is on the brink of giving in to the green crowd. To each side, it looks like the EPA hasn't made up its mind. Which would make now the time to yell as loudly as possible."

Fahrenthold recounts recent protests and calls for calm, and adds important national perspective: "The EPA finds itself in the middle of the most bitter in-your-face environmental fight in America today, facing an early test of its resolve and political skills. The agency appears certain to bear much of the weight of carrying out Obama's historic environmental agenda." There's much more in the 1,372-word story, including a telling quote from Peter Silva, assistant EPA administrator for water, repsonding to calls for "clarity" from EPA: "The notion of ‘clarity’ invoked by some West Virginia officials and industry representatives has too often meant letting coal companies do as they please, with little or no consideration for the harmful impacts on Americans living in coal country."

"That’s an unusually straight-forward response from a federal agency, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette, writes in this post on his Coal Tattoo blog. Ward still leads the reporting on the issue. Prompted by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's remark to Rolling Stone magazine that redefining "fill material" mainly because of toxins released by Alaskan hard-rock mining could also "curtail" mountaintop mining, Ward got from EPA a statement saying the agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which issues fill permits (subject to EPA veto, threatened but never used) are working not only on the definition but on its interpreptation and implementation. Ward calls that"potentially huge news" but cautions, "We’re a long way from knowing if this is a big deal." (Read more)

Rural agenda in State of the Union: Farm exports, education; what about a spending freeze?

President Obama made a very early reference to rural America in tonight's State of the Union address, saying "Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard" in the recession. That was a nice tee-up, but the ball never reached the green. Rural references afterward were scant. (Associated Press photo: Obama arrives in House chamber)

Obama's main proposal with a rural face was declaration of a new goal of doubling U.S. exports over the next five years, which he said would "support two million jobs." To achieve the goal, he said he is "launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security."

However, some rural interests are probably talking more about Obama's call for a three-year freeze in discretionary spending. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) told Chuck Haga of the Grand Forks Herald that would not include agriculture commodity programs because they are not discretionary but "mandatory spending, driven by a formula, not by appropriation," but he said a freeze would probably affect conservation programs and, Haga writes, "possibly nutrition, rural development and other areas." (Read more)

Obama's other specific rural reference came when he called for education "reform that raises student achievement, inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools that steal the future of too many young Americans, from rural communities to inner cities." For the prepared text, which Obama occasionally tempered, click here. UPDATE, Jan. 28: For a FactCheck.org analysis of the speech and the Republican response, click here.

Minn. researcher finds signs of a rural 'brain gain'

For years the out migration of young people from rural America has been described as the "brain drain." Now a Minnesota researcher has found evidence there may be an equal "brain gain," mainly among middle-aged people in the state. Ben Winchester, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota, found evidence of a population loss among the 20-34 age group, as expected, but found growth in the 10-19 and 35-49 groups. Nearly every county in Minnesota experienced a growth in the 30-44 age cohort between 1990 and 2000, Winchester reports.

To reach his findings Winchester compared the population of an age cohort with the cohort those members would be in 10 years later. He found school enrollment rose among the 10-14 age cohort, suggesting adults coming to the region brought children with them.

"Given this refreshed view of changing demographics, rural America needs to rethink its
description of gains and losses," Winchester writes. "If rural America is losing high-school educated youth (the brain drain) and replacing them with those that at least have a bachelors, isn’t this a Brain Gain?" Winchester offers no educational data about the added population but cites a Nebraska study reflecting a similar trend in that state where 40 percent of newcomers had at least a bachelors and 48 percent had a household income of greater than $50,000. (Read more)

Mike Knuston of ReImagineRural.com has additional breakdown of the report.

Creating jobs may be key to slim chances of passing a climate-change bill in 2010

While President Obama is expected to promote alternative energy as a way to tackle global warming and job loss in tonight's State of the Union address, prospects for a 2010 climate bill are looking slimmer. Many politicians in Congress don't want to vote for a bill that would raise energy prices on the heels of a recession, especially with November elections just on the horizon, Reuters reports, echoing similar reports in recent days.

A new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reveals only 28 percent of those surveyed considered global warming a top priority this year, down from 38 percent in 2009. Forty-nine percent surveyed said dealing with domestic energy problems was a top priority, down from 60 percent last year. With the recent Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts, the Senate Democrats lost the ability to unilaterally pass a climate bill, and could choose to take up studying election results, Reuters notes.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is working with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on a compromise bill that could pass the Senate this year. If such a bill isn't reached, Democrats could shelve cap-and-trade in favor of a bill only requiring more use of alternative energy sources, Reuters reports. (Read more)

Democrats' chances of passing a broad climate bill this year may hinge on their ability to convince moderates in both parties that it could create jobs, Darren Goode and Amy Harder of National Journal report. "The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold another in a series of hearings this week to try to further that argument," the reporters write. "Thursday's hearing stars Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and focuses on jobs that could be created through expanding the use of solar energy." (Read more)

Bee colony collapse reports down, but still high enough to remain worrisome

The number of beekeepers reporting colony collapse symptoms decreased last winter, but colony death rates still remain high enough for worry. "A survey of beekeepers for the January issue of the Journal of Apicultural Research found that the percentage of operations reporting having lost colonies but without dead bees in the hives -- a symptom of colony collapse disorder, or CCD -- decreased to 26 percent last winter, compared to 38 percent the previous season and 36 percent the season before that," The Associated Press reports. (Photo: A bee pollinates an almond tree, performing one of the species' vital functions)

The percentage of total dead colonies that displayed CCD was 36 percent last winter, down from 60 percent the previous winter. Reports of the disorder date back to 2004, AP reports, but scientists are still looking for a cause. ''The story is really complicated. We thought we'd have a simple explanation,'' Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Pennsylvania's acting state apiarist, told AP. ''CCD drew our attention, but there are lot of things'' affecting the bees.

Even with the apparent decline in CCD reports, an estimated 29 percent of all U.S. colonies died last winter, about 11 percentage points higher than what beekeepers consider normal losses, AP writes. ''Losses are shifting. There are fewer operations with CCD, though they still lost a lot of colonies,'' vanEngelsdorp, the lead author on the study, told AP. ''But other factors are killing bees.'' He points to starvation, poor-quality queen bees and weather as leading factors. (Read more)

Coal-state lawmakers form House Coal Caucus

Six U.S. representatives from coal states have joined to form a bipartisan Coal Caucus. Republicans Shelly Moore Capito (W.Va.), Denny Rehberg (Mont.), and John Shimkus (Ill.), are joined by Democrats Jason Altmire (Pa.), Tim Holden (Pa.), and John Salazar (Colo.), in the group, says a news release from Capito's office. Salazar is the brother of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose department regulates surface coal mining. The six members are inviting other members of Congress to join them.

"Coal is a critical component to our nation's energy future," Capito said in the release. "Whether it's on a cap-and-trade bill or on clean coal technology, this caucus will give coal-states a forum to highlight their priorities and present a unified voice. I'm proud to join my colleagues in forming this caucus and I look forward to our work together." Altmire added, "As a Congress, it is vitally important that we continue to support the development of clean coal technologies. I am proud to help launch this caucus, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to help enact policies that will maximize America's coal resources." (Read more)

Feb. 2 Farm Foundation Forum in D.C. on how to feed a world population doubling in 30 years

Much attention has been given to building awareness of the challenges facing agriculture as it works to provide food, feed, fuel and fiber to a global population that is expected to double in the next 30 years. The most recent was a paper by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, "Agricultural Productivity Strategies for the Future: Addressing U.S. and Global Challenges."

How to begin addressing those challenges will be the focus of the Feb. 2 Farm Foundation Forum. Presenters, yet to be named, will make brief comments, after which the floor will be opened for discussion. The frum will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. at the National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW, Washington D.C. Coffee will be available at 8:30 a.m. If you plan to attend, please RSVP by noon Friday, Jan. 29. There is no charge to participate.

Switchgrass converted to pellets for coal plants

A University of Kentucky College of Agriculture research project recently pelletized switchgrass for the first time as part of their attempt to create biofuel from the crop. Previously, ground switchgrass was mixed with coal to produce energy, but officials with East Kentucky Power Cooperative, a partner in the study, suggested UK try a pelleted form of the grass to better integrate the crop into their coal-fired systems, Katie Pratt of UK Ag News reports.

"Putting it in this form allows them to use current operational procedures to incorporate this biomass into their system without any significant changes or major financial output," Tom Keene, UK hay marketing specialist, told Pratt. Jeff Lowe, president of Midwestern Biofuels, which is pelletizing the switchgrass, explained, "Currently, we've tested up to an 8-percent blend with coal, and it's gone to another utility with no problems. It's handled well. It went through their mills and crushed down and went right to the furnace to make power."

Last year was the third-year of the four-year research project which has UK working with northeastern Kentucky farmers and their extension agents to learn more about future prospects for the crop. A dry 2007 and 2008, followed by an unusually wet 2009, have helped the researchers learn more about the crop's ability to stand up to weather variations, Pratt reports. "If we have a drought, that's not the end of the world," Keene said. "We still get production in a dry year so that's very good to know." (Read more)

Horse crisis update: Prices down at select sale

The latest example of trouble in the horse industry may have come at this year's National Western Stock Show in Colorado, where well-pedigreed horses failed to fetch decent prices at the Mile High Select Sale. "The bad economy, the closure of the last U.S. horse slaughterhouse in 2007, overbreeding, an abundance of mid- and low-grade horses, and the high cost of caring for horses have all conspired to cause horse prices to plummet across the country," Ann Schrader of The Denver Post reports.

"There's no bottom to the horse market any more," Scot Dutcher, chief of the Colorado Department of Agriculture's bureau of animal protection, told Schrader. In 2008, quarter horses and paint horses sold for an average $4,800, with the top-seller going for $30,000. This year, the average price was $3,521 and the top-seller brought $12,500, Schrader reports, adding the "prestigious sale is limited to 100 horses screened for pedigree and training."

Dutcher told Schrader reports of neglect and abuse have doubled in the past four years in Colorado, and reports of stray horses also have risen. The number of horses abandoned at stables and dumped on the plains and mountains is also on the rise and rescue facilities are faced with six times the number of horses they can accept, Schrader reports. In November state officials discovered a horse that had been shot in the head and left to die along Interstate 70. The horse survived and is currently recovering. (Read more)

Nebraska program to offer full scholarships to get high-school seniors to study to be rural doctors

A new program from the University of Nebraska at Kearney will award a full-tuition scholarship to five high school seniors who commit to practicing medicine in the rural parts of the state. Participants who complete the pre-medicine requirements at UNK will be admitted to the university's Medical Center College of Medicine, Sara Giboney of the Kearney Hub reports.

"Two campuses today have come together in an effort to educate more physicians for service in rural Nebraska." UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen said at a news conference. "The Kearney Health Opportunities Program is based on the Rural Health Opportunities Program, which was started in 1990 to encourage rural residents to pursue careers in health care and practice in small communities throughout Nebraska," Giboney reports.

Jeff Hill, associate dean of admissions at the College of Medicine, told Giboney the immediate start date for the program was important because a competent and comprehensive primary care physician takes on average 11 years for training, and a third of rural physicians in the state are older than age 55. (Read more)

Wind power grew at a record rate last year

The American wind-power industry added 39 percent more capacity in 2009 and now accounts for almost 2 percent of the nation's electricity. The American Wind Energy Association says in its annual report that the 9,900 megawatts of capacity added last year was the largest year-to-year gain on record and up 18 percent from 2008, Jad Mouawad of The New York Times reports. (Times chart)

The group said some of the boost can be attributed to the heavy investment from the federal economic-stimulus package, but warned growth could slow. Denise Bode, the trade association’s chief executive, told Mouawad, "The second half of the year was extraordinary. But manufacturers didn’t see much growth because they had built up so much inventory."

Bode told Mouawad as much new wind capacity was added as new natural-gas power, and the two energy sources accounted for 80 percent of the total new generating capacity added in 2009. The group also reports about half the components used in wind farms are manufactured in the U.S., compared to 25 percent in 2004. "The wind manufacturing sector has the potential to employ many more Americans in green jobs," the group said in the report, "but without a renewable electricity standard to provide a long-term market, the sector will be slow to grow." (Read more)

Counties in rural southeast Georgia have higher property tax rates than more urbanized counties

Property taxes vary widely from state to state and county to county, but rural counties in Southeast Georgia have higher rates than their more highly populated counterparts. The rates in the region are as much as 50 percent higher than the more populated counties, reports Gordon Jackson of the Florida Times Union in Jacksonville (just off lower right of map).

The reason for the difference in tax rates is "driven by population, commercial development and the value of residences," Jackson reports. McIntosh County Manager Luther Smart, whose county has a rate of 26.5 mills (cents per $1,000 worth of property), told Jackson it's an "injustice" to compare millage rates because smaller counties must provide the same services as larger ones, but have smaller populations and commercial infrastructures. The small populations are further magnified by Georgia's 159 counties, second most in the country behind Texas. (Kentucky is next, with 120.)

"Residents want taxes lower but want more services," Smart told Jackson. "We're at the bottom of the totem pole." Rural residents also carry a heavier burden to support those services, and they "don't get as much for their contribution in taxes," Jackson writes. "They wait longer for emergency services, drive on more unpaved roads, travel farther to shop and drive more miles to work." (Read more)

USDA issues biggest batch of broadband money

The Rural Utilities Service of the Department of Agriculture today issued the largest batch yet of economic-stimulus grants and loans for rural broadband, totaling $310 million. The largest allocation was $88.1 million in a loan and grant "to an Alaskan telecommunications company that will build 'middle mile' networks to connect 65 towns and villages in southwestern Alaska to the Internet," Joelle Tessler of The Associated Press reports. Today's projects are also in Alabama, California, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Oregon, Virginia and Tennessee (a project that will serve a few customers in Kentucky). For the full list and a USDA news release, click here.

So far RUS, the successor to the old Rural Electrification Administration, has issued $363.7 million for 22 broadband projects. It is scheduled to award $2.5 billion in stimulus money for broadband. "The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of the Commerce Department, is handing out the remaining $4.7 billion in stimulus funding for broadband. As of last week, NTIA had awarded roughly $200 million in grants for 15 projects," Tessler notes. "Applications for the next and final round of broadband funding are due by March 15. In the second round, the Agriculture Department will focus on projects that provide 'last-mile' connections that link homes, businesses and other end users to the Internet. The Commerce Department will focus on 'middle-mile' projects that connect anchor institutions such as libraries, colleges and public safety agencies."

Tessler concluded, "Demand for the broadband money has been intense, far outstripping the amount available. The Commerce and Agriculture departments already have received nearly 2,200 applications requesting a total of $28 billion." (Read more)

Rural broadband network in Vermont is ambitious, but some question its financial viability

A $75 million proposal to bring broadband to rural central Vermont is moving forward, but some are questioning its viability. Managers of the proposed East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network, which serves 46,500 people in 22 towns in four counties, say it will pay off its debt with its subscription revenue, but some industry analysts worry "the project is too costly and the market too competitive," John Briggs of the Burlington Free Press reports.

The network is also in the running for a $69 million federal stimulus loan from the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service. Tim Nulty works for Valley Net, the non-profit managing the project, and will serve as ECF project manager. Nulty worked from 2001 until November 2007 with Burlington Telecom, which promised to be profitable by 2008, but failed to expand its subscriber base and is being audited by the state Public Service Department after violating its state license by "surreptitiously used $17 million of city money to sustain its operations," Briggs reports.

"We’re not experts enough to say if a financial model works," a spokesman for Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy told Briggs. "We just don’t know. We can’t endorse ECF, (although) we’re supportive of the goal and supportive of them getting consideration for RUS funding." Terry McGarty, a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Briggs fiber-to-the-home systems must hold start-up costs to $2,500 to $3,000 for each customer to break even, but Nulty anticipates ECF’s total “acquisition” cost for each subscriber to be about $6,000. (Read more)

The Vermont network is an example of a larger question as to whether "community-owned broadband systems work — and pay for themselves — in rural parts of the country," says the Daily Yonder writes. It terms Briggs' story as a "very good dissection of a community-owned project, and the problems these system face in very rural places." (Read more)

Delta doctor using Iranian idea for rural health aid

A Mississippi Delta doctor is looking to an unusual place for a solution to the rural health care crisis: Iran. Dr. Aaron Shirley, right, who has spent his career serving the Delta's rural poor, visited Iran in May to study "a low-cost rural healthcare delivery system that, according to the World Health Organization, has helped cut infant deaths by 70 percent over the last three decades," Bob Drogin reports for the Los Angeles Times. (Times photo by Carolyn Cole)

The Delta has the nation's highest infant mortality rate. While Iran and health care rank as two of the most controversial political topics, Shirley and a colleague are in Washington today to ask for funding to open an Iranian-style "health house" in in 15 Delta communities. Both the U.S. and Iranian government have given quiet support to the little-known initiative, Drogin reports. Mississippi ranks at or near the bottom of most major health care indexes. "The system is broken," Shirley told Drogin. "It's time to try something new."

Iran's 7,000 health houses serve essentially as rural medical outposts staffed by community health workers, Drogin reports. The Mississippi plan calls for "training nurses' aides in each community, and then sending them door to door to help with basic needs," Drogin writes. Health workers would refer patients to clinics or hospitals for more advanced care and follow up with home visits.

The ongoing political struggle between the two countries remains an obstacle. "People will be skeptical at first because of Iran," said Paula Lang, chief nursing officer at Patients' Choice Medical Center of Humphreys County, told Drogin. "But I think they will embrace the concept when they see how it works." Erleen Smith, an 80-year-old retired Delta cotton worker, told Drogin: "I ain't never heard of Iran. But we could sure use somebody's help." (Read more)

New E. Ky. pharmacy school latest in Appalachian trend of health-driven economic development

Midway College, in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region, recently announced it will open a pharmacy school in Paintsville, Ky., in the heart of the state's eastern coalfield. Now local investors are hoping the school gives the community something "other rural Appalachian communities have used as a serious economic driver," Dori Hjalmarson of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Similar professional schools in Grundy, Va.; Johnson City, Tenn.; and Harrogate, Tenn., were founded with the hope of added economic development they would bring to the region.

Sixteen years ago Paintsville officials had the opportunity to start an independent osteopathic medical school, but instead merged with the Pikeville College medical school that opened in 1997. Some Paintsville officials feared that plan would "lose money or that the school's goal of training doctors who would stay in Eastern Kentucky wouldn't pan out," Hjalmarson writes, but "as of last May, about 125 licensed doctors in Kentucky were Pikeville medical school graduates, and about 70 of those were in small Eastern Kentucky towns."

Midway College officials say the school is not just an economic-development strategem. "This school was not started to be an economic driver. It was started to serve a pressing social need," Midway President William Drake told Hjalmarson. Midway expects the school to have a $30 million annual impact on the local economy when it opens in 2011. Paintsville was chosen, in part, for its strong school systems. (Read more) You can read an Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues story about one of the school systems here).

Idaho Power's efficiency effort gets good writeup

Energy efficiency programs are generally associated with coastal states like Massachusetts and California, but now some heartland states with the country's lowest electricity rates are also focusing on using less. Idaho Power, a utility that once paid customers for using more electricity , has become a leader in efficiency programs by giving customers credits for switching power off during peak periods, Kate Galbraith reports for The New York Times.

The utility says that by paying customers to cut power at times of highest demand, it has reduced peak demand by as much as 5.6 percent, Galbraith reports. Idaho Power has a program that pays homeowners to cut their air conditioners briefly during peak periods, and one that promotes attic insulation. "It’s clearly iconic in terms of a utility that’s turned the corner," Tom Eckman, the manager of conservation resources with the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a planning group created by Congress, told Galbraith. "They have gone from pretty much ground zero to a fairly aggressive program level."

The company isn't without its critics. Some have noted that despite heavy wind-energy potential, Idaho lags in development of renewable energy while neighboring states like Oregon, Washington and Wyoming amp up their wind development, Galbraith writes. Farmers, who make up a large segment of the utility's customers, say some of what they make up in electricity cost is lost in crops hurt by powering down. Ray Stark, senior vice president of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, told Galbraith some economic-development opportunities may have been lost because of insufficient energy capacity. (Read more)

New FEMA floodplain maps may be inaccurate

A multi-year government initiative to update and digitize the nation's floodplain maps has left many affected residents complaining that the new maps are inaccurate. The Federal Emergency Management Agency started the program, at a cost of $200 million per year, in 2004 and says some of the new maps have won final approval while others are still in the preliminary stages of development, The Associated Press reports.

FEMA says the program will allow for better zoning and help prevent future catastrophes, but some affected people say "the new maps are riddled with inaccuracies, seem arbitrarily drawn, and will stifle growth and hurt property values," AP reports. Garden City, Kan., has sued to prevent FEMA's new map of the city from taking effect because the area around drainage ditches dug 20 years ago would now be designated as flood-prone even though they've never had a problem.

A FEMA spokesperson told AP that most of the changes are due to advances in mapping technology that allow for better analysis, but the agency is open to changes suggested during the public comment period of the process. AP's story cites examples of map complaints in rural areas in Iowa, Kansas and Vermont. Rural journalists around the country would be well-served to see if their communities have new floodplain maps and check their accuracy. (Read more)
UPDATE, Jan. 26: Here's a local story from Lynda Waddington of the Iowa Independent.

Mississippi papers, AP and FOI center team up again to fight government secrecy in the state

The Associated Press, the Mississippi Press Association and the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information have renewed their joint effort for open government in Mississippi, starting a week-long series of articles "on the pervasiveness of secrecy in our state and local governments," as MPA Executive Director Layne Bruce put it in a message to members.

"Secrecy in Mississippi" began today with an overview by AP writer Emily Wagster Pettus, who writes, "Mississippians pay for all levels of government, but that doesn't mean they can always count on public employees to promptly answer their requests for information, or that they'll get to see elected officials conduct all their business out in the open. Despite open meetings and public records laws that are decades old, this is still a state with a culture of secrecy, from the top down."

Pettus gives examples, from Gov. Haley Barbour's largely secret schedule to the refusal of "lower-level employees of sheriff's departments and police departments" to give out information over the telephone." And then there's the bugaboo of public agencies everywhere, closed sessions of boards that delve into topics that aren't supposed to be discussed in secret. (Read more)

AP, MPA and MCFI did a series in 2007 that resulted in improvements in open-government laws, but this package appears to focus on the difference in law and reality. Today's sidebar is by Tim Kalich, editor and publisher of the Grenwood Commonwealth, about secrecy at Mississippi Valley State University. For the story budget for the rest of the series, click here.

Kentucky's best small paper reads like a big one

The best small newspaper in Kentucky last year was again the Todd County Standard of Elkton, according to the results of the 2009 Excellence in Kentucky Newspapers Contest of the Kentucky Press Association. The winner of the medium-circulation class for weeklies was The Springfield Sun, and the best large weekly was The Oldham Era of LaGrange. The top multi-weekly was the Sentinel-News of Shelbyville, and the best small daily was Hopkinsville's Kentucky New Era. It and the Standard, published in an adjoining county, are independently owned; the other three are part of Landmark Community Newspapers, based in Shelbyville.

None of these were surprises. The Standard, edited and published by Ryan Craig, right, has a circulation of about 2,500 but has stories, editorials, pages and sections that look like those in a daily with circulation 10 times as large, or more. And it won the categories that we watch most closely: enterprise/analysis story (third place too), investigative story and editorial page, and second and third in ongoing/extended coverage. (Craig is shown speaking at the 2009 Society of Professional Journalists convention.) The Trimble Banner, a Landmark paper in the tiny town of Bedford, won second place in the small-weekly class, and the Adair County Community Voice, a relatively new paper started by Sharon Burton, was third.

Runner-up to the Sun, edited by Jeff Moreland, was another Landmark paper, the Spencer Magnet. Third in the medium-circulation weekly class was the McCreary County Voice, a locally owned paper competing against a more established, chain-owned weekly. In the large-weekly class, the runner-up was the Jessamine Journal of Nicholasville, a Schurz Communications paper, followed by The Lebanon Enterprise, a Landmark stalwart.

Landmark's Kentucky Standard, of Bardstown, was runner-up in the class for non-dailies published more than once a week. It was followed by The Sentinel-Echo of London, which for two years in a row has been judged the best weekly of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. These papers regularly wrestle for the title of Kentucky's best weekly.

In the small-daily class, the New Era was followed by The Richmond Register, a CNHI paper, and The Messenger of Madisonville, published by Paxton Media LLC of Paducah. The winner among medium-circulation dailies was the Bowling Green Daily News, the state's only other independently owned daily. It was followed by The Gleaner of Henderson, a Scripps-Howard paper, and The Advocate-Messenger of Danville, Schurz's Kentucky flagship. Paxton's hometown paper, The Paducah Sun, placed second in the large-circulation class, which was won by the much larger Lexington Herald-Leader, a metropolitan paper and the state's second largest. The biggest paper, The Courier-Journal, is a KPA member but doesn't enter the contest.

W.Va. papers, Justice Dept. strike deal to end antitrust lawsuit; cheap subscriptions for Daily Mail

One of the most rural states will continue to have ideologically competitive newspapers based in its central, capital city, under a settlement among the Department of Justice and owners of the two papers based in Charleston, W.Va.

Under the deal, which settles an antitrust lawsuit DOJ filed in 2007, recently bankrupt MediaNews Group will regain significant control of the editorially conservative Charleston Daily Mail and the paper will offer subscription discounts of at least 50 percent for the first six months to build its revenue base and compete with the independently owned and editorially liberal Charleston Gazette.

The papers have had a joint operating agreement since 1958. In 2004, the Gazette's owners bought the controlling interest in the JOA from MediaNews and started paying it a fee to manage its editorial operations. The suit alleged that the Gazette intended to close the Mail, which both papers denied.

The papers have competing staffs and publish a combined edition on Saturdays and Sundays. Circulation is about 73,000 on Sunday and 60,000 on Saturday; the Gazette's daily circulation is 46,000; the Daily Mail's is about 21,000, according to the Editor & Publisher International Yearbook.

"The proposed settlement requires the two companies to restructure the JOA again by giving MediaNews Group independent control over the operations of the Daily Mail as well as economic incentives," Editor & Publisher reports. The Gazette reported the deal in a relatively short story without a byline. Daily Mail Business Editor George Hohmann offers more details and writes that the deal "aims to keep both newspapers publishing with separate newsrooms and editorial opinions for years to come."

UPDATE, Jan. 25: Alan Mutter writes on his Reflections of a Newsosaur blog about how the MediaNews bankruptcy may affect the JOAs in which the company is involved.

A comprehensive look at natural-gas 'fracking'

We've been paying close attention to reports about hydraulic and chemical fracturing for natural gas for about two and a half months; now The Wall Street Journal offers a situation piece saying that increasing environmental concerns about the drilling method "is threatening to slow development of the huge gas fields that some hope will reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and polluting coal."

Ben Casselman and Russell Gold write that fracking "has turned gas deposits in shale formations into an energy bonanza" but has also "triggered increasing debate over whether the drilling process could pollute freshwater supplies. Federal and state authorities are considering action that could regulate hydraulic fracturing, potentially making drilling less profitable and giving companies less reason to tap into this ample supply of natural gas."

That's an investor-oriented angle on old news for us, but the story has a good diagram, reproduced here, and the writers reveal that Exxon Mobil Corp. negotiated the right to back out of its acquisition of gas producer XTO Energy Inc., "a fracturing pioneer, in a deal now valued at $29 billion ... if Congress passes a law to make hydraulic fracturing illegal or 'commercially impracticable'," whatever that means. Maybe what courts say.

The story also offers some useful fundamentals: "The chemicals make up less than 1 percent of the overall solution, but some are hazardous in low concentrations. Today, the industry estimates that 90 percent of all new gas wells are fractured. . . . As the industry has honed its techniques, hydraulic-fracturing operations have become more complex, requiring far more water and chemicals — millions of gallons per well, rather than tens or hundreds of thousands of gallons in the past." And just as that trend was developing, in 2005, Congress exempted fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. Now bills are pending to repeal that exemption, and "several states, including Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York, have either passed or are considering tightening regulations on fracturing and related activities," the Journal notes.

"Most people agree that means that if a fracturing job is done correctly, it would be virtually impossible for water or chemicals to seep upward into drinking water supplies," Casselman and Gold write. "Environmental groups point out that wells aren't always constructed properly. Moreover, they say, storage ponds that hold chemical-laced water after fracturing is complete can overflow, and trucks carrying chemicals can crash." And the reporters note the death of some Louisiana cattle from a spill of drilling fluids. The 1,837-word story is the most comprehensive we have seen on the subject in mainstream media. It's worth reading.