Could climbing icy road cuts be new ecotourism?

A combination of winter weather and roadbuilding may have launched a new niche in tourism for mountainous areas. Brian Sohn and Josh Justice of Pike County, Kentucky, are "leading the way in taking advantage of the environment that has been created, namely the massive rock cuts created by the construction of roads like the new U.S. 119," to promote ice climbing in Eastern Kentucky, Russ Cassady of the thrice-weekly Appalachian News-Express in Pikeville reports. (Cassady photo: Justice climbs a man-made cliff between Williamson, W.Va., and Pikeville)

"To me, it represents the potential we have in this area for ecotourism," Justice told Cassady. "It's our greatest natural resource. Coal's not a renewable resource. I think that ecotourism could be a part of our comprehensive economy here." The sport hasn't gained wide appeal in the region yet, but the climber did report they recently discovered evidence at one site indicating other climbers had been there recently.

In cold weather the high rock faces of the mountains cut to make room for the road become covered with ice, as water drains down and freezes. Some of the safety concerns of ice climbing, a dangerous sport, are alleviated by the geology and engineering of the road cuts. "With the safety issue kind of dealt with, I was willing to try it out," Sohn told Cassady. (Read more) And others may, too, now that AP has run the story. Does your locality have road-cut climbers?

'Clean coal' project wants legislature to make electric utilities buy its more expensive power

Coal-state lawmakers have been quick to champion "clean coal" technologies, but now one of the top coal states is trying to decide if the added cost of electricity from one technology is worth the investment. That has created an unusual schism between coal interests and one of their major lobbying allies, rural electric cooperatives, in Kentucky.

Supporters of a $2 billion coal-gasification project want the Kentucky legislature to force utilities to purchase the higher-priced electricity it would generate," Roger Alford of The Associated Press reports. "Reluctant lawmakers said they fear the proposal would lead to electric rate increases for Kentucky residents and businesses."

Kentucky has some of the lowest electricity prices in the country, but has been criticized for wasting that advantage through inefficient use. Officials from the Cash Creek project in Western Kentucky, which would convert coal into synthetic natural gas that would then be burned to generate electricity or sold through a gas pipeline, warned lawmakers that if they didn't force utilities to pay the higher rates Kentucky would not see any coal gasification. A Pike County representative told Alford the higher rates in the proposal gave him heartburn.

"The Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives and utility companies have already begun lobbying to defeat the legislation, even though it hasn't yet been filed," Alford reports. Dennis Cannon, spokesman for the state's rural electric co-ops, told Alford, "The issue we look at is what's best for our customers. It appears that from what we have heard, electricity would be more costly than from other sources available to us." (Read more)

Calif. efforts to make electricity from manure slip as the waste becomes a growing pollution source

The concentration of livestock production has made manure a greater threat to water supplies, and in the biggest agricultural state, efforts to turn the waste into energy aren't working out as growers hoped. More regulation may be in the offing.

Looking back at four decades of water-cleanup efforts, David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post reports,"The country simply has more dung than it can handle: Crowded together at a new breed of megafarms, livestock produce three times as much waste as people, more than can be recycled as fertilizer for nearby fields. That excess manure gives off air pollutants, and it is the country's fastest-growing large source of methane, a greenhouse gas." (Read more) Brownfield Network reports that the EPA may require confined animal feeding operations to report releases of hydrogen sulfide, perhaps the most odiferous gas from manure. (Read more)

Dairy farmers in California thought they could turn the manure concentration into an advantage by using the waste to generate electricity, but "Efforts to convert cow pies into power have sparked controversy," P.J. Huffstutter of the Los Angeles Times reports. "State air quality control regulators say these 'dairy digester' systems can generate pollution themselves and, unless the devices are overhauled, are refusing to issue permits for them." The generators used to convert the methane into electricity produce key ingredients in smog: oxides of nitrogen, called NOx for their chemical notation.

"The board has been clear that when we're faced with these sorts of trade-offs between reducing greenhouse gases and reducing NOx, we're going to choose NOx," Dave Warner, director of permit services the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, told Huffstutter. He added that the farmers, who began installing the systems only to be refused a permit, "should have checked in with us first, before buying their equipment."

One dairyman, Ron Koetsier, abandoned his system after being told he'd need to spend hundreds of thousands more dollars to bring it in line with smog regulations. "They have a point. I want clean air," he told Huffstutter. "But it doesn't make financial sense for me keep doing this. I don't see how they can turn methane gas into electricity in California, given these rules." (Read more)

Sunshine Week, March 14-20, to highlight local heroes in advocating open government

Sunshine Week, the annual event to promote open government and freedom of information, will be March 14-20 this year. The event's Web site describes participants as "print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know."

The 2010 Sunshine Week will highlight "Local Heroes" who have played significant roles in fighting for open government in the United States, especially unsung heroes. This week the American Society of Newspaper Editors will announce the "Local Heroes" on the site, which also includes useful information for news-media participants, such as highlights from programs of previous years. Sunshine Week is funded primarily by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation but also has received major organizational support from the National Freedom of Information Coalition, the Society of Professional Journalists and others. (Read more)

Defenders of program for disadvantaged schools object to feds' push for career-oriented standards

Some education advocacy groups are criticizing the Obama administration's proposal to tie Title I funding for disadvantaged students to states’ adoption of reading and math standards that prepare students for college or a career. States would be required to "either join with their counterparts in developing rigorous, college- and career-ready standards, or work with institutions of higher education to set standards that would ensure high school graduates are ready to enter postsecondary study or the workforce," Alyson Klein of Education Week reports. The proposal is part of the administration's overhaul of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The National School Boards Association said in a statement the proposal "amounts to an unnecessary overreach by the federal government to coerce states to adopt a particular approach or be shut out of future funding for key programs." The senior education committee director for the National Conference of State Legislatures told Klein there is no evidence that college- and career-readiness standards will lead to better student outcomes, and the proposal was an example of "federal overreaching." States must already agree to establish accountability systems in order to tap Title I funding under the current law. (Read more)

Title I funding is of particular interest to rural schools, which are hurt by the formula that gives additional weight to poor urban schools, writes The Rural School and Community Trust. The advocacy group has provided an Excel chart of 2009 Title I funding for every school district and their calculation on how the funding equation affected that district's grant. The group also advocates for the simpler funding equation outlined by the Center for American Progress in its recent report. What states have particular interest in rural education funding? RSCT reports North Carolina (677,00), Texas (560,380), Georgia (525,000), Ohio (449,700) and Virginia (376,900) lead the country in rural enrollment.

Graham-Kerry-Lieberman bill would cap power-plant emissions, boost carbon capture and drilling

UPDATE, March 2: "Several moderate senators today welcomed moves to pare back comprehensive energy and climate change legislation by dealing with different sectors of the economy in different ways," reports Darren Samuelsohn of Environment and Energy News (subscription only). March 3: Samuelson reports, "Key senators are weighing a request from Big Oil to levy a carbon fee on the industry rather than wrap it into a sweeping cap-and-trade system that covers most of the U.S. economy. If accepted, the approach -- supported by ConocoPhillips, BP America and Exxon Mobil Corp. -- could rearrange the politics of the Senate climate debate and potentially open up votes that may not be there otherwise."

"Three key senators are engaged in a radical behind-the-scenes overhaul of climate legislation, preparing to jettison the broad 'cap-and-trade' approach that has defined the legislative debate for close to a decade," Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson report for The Washington Post. "The sharp change of direction demonstrates the extent to which the cap-and-trade strategy -- allowing facilities to buy and sell pollution credits in order to meet a national limit on greenhouse gas emissions -- has become political poison."

The senators are Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Democrat John Kerry of Massachsetts and Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a former Democrat who caucuses with that party. "They plan to introduce legislation next month that would apply different carbon controls to individual sectors of the economy instead of setting a national target," the Post reports. The plan could face strong opposition, but environmentalists "said the shift in strategy represents the best shot at getting something done this year."

According to the reporters' "sources familiar with the process," power plants would have an overall limit on air emissions, which would gradually become more stringent; "motor fuel may be subject to a carbon tax whose proceeds could help electrify the U.S. transportation sector; and industrial facilities would be exempted from a cap on emissions for several years before it is phased in. The legislation would also expand domestic oil and gas drilling offshore and would provide federal assistance for constructing nuclear power plants and carbon sequestration and storage projects at coal-fired utilities." (Read more)

Does your locality have a state-capital lobbyist? Here's an example of how to cover the story

Some rural towns, counties and economic-development groups are hiring lobbyists to advance their interests in state capitals and perhaps even Washington. One of the latest localities is Marion County, Kentucky, population about 18,000, and its county seat of Lebanon, which pooled $20,000 for an annual fee to a native who has become one of the leading contract lobbyists in Frankfort.

The coverage by Stephen Lega of The Lebanon Enterprise is an example of how to cover a story like this. In this week's follow-up to the story about the hiring, Lega gets local legislators' opinion (they support the move) and finds that very few small communities in Kentucky have hired lobbyists. He got the information online from the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission. Most other states have similar agencies. Here is his story.

New survey offers picture of U.S. organic farming

New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has offered a better glimpse at where and how organic farming is conducted in the country. USDA released the 2008 Organic Production Survey earlier this month, revealing California as the top state for organic farming. "This was USDA’s first wide-scale survey of organic producers, and it was undertaken in direct response to the growing interest in organics among consumers, farmers, businesses, policymakers and others," Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said in a release. "The information being released today will be an important building block for future program and policy development."

The survey includes a number of tables including one breaking down the amount of organic farming in each state. California leads the country with 2,714 certified or exempt organic farms; the only other state with more than 1,000 is Wisconsin, with 1,222. Wyoming leads in land area, with 677,147 acres of organic farm land. Thirteen other states had more than 100,000 acres of organic farm land: California (470,903), Texas (314,279), Wisconsin (195,603), New York (168,428), Montana (167,800), Colorado (153,981), North Dakota (152,728), Idaho (148,425), Nebraska (146,188), South Dakota (132,047), New Mexico (117,676), Minnesota (106,066) and Oregon (105,605).

Biodiesel struggles to gain truckers' approval

The continued reluctance of truckers to use biodiesel continues to pose a significant threat to the renewable fuel, and one trucking company is lashing out against an Iowa biodiesiel group's misinterpretation of its report on a test of the fuel. In a letter read Thursday at the state Capitol, Decker Trucking of Fort Dodge reported its 2-million-mile study "proves that biodiesel is not a cost effective solution at this time," Dan Piller of the Des Moines Register reports. Iowa lawmakers are considering a bill that would mandate biodiesel use.

Decker launched the study in 2007 to examine "the impact of regular use of the fuel, particularly in winter where biodiesel has been prone to gel in colder temperatures," Piller writes. That remains a significant problem for the fuel, the study concluded. The company also criticized several industry groups for misrepresenting the study's findings. "Iowa Biodiesel Board, Iowa Soybean Association and REG [Renewable Energy Group] are promoting the Two Million Mile Haul as a success. But, if the report is read, the true results are buried in a mountain of data," Steve Lursen, a special projects manager who managed the study, told Piller. (Read more)

Columnist: Universal rural broadband years away

The economic stimulus package will help bring more broadband Internet access to rural areas, but the idea of universal rural broadband is at least years away, writes one telecommunications columnist. "Out here in the stunningly beautiful but sparsely populated ridges and valleys of southwestern Wisconsin, as for much of the rural United States, the dream of ubiquitous broadband is likely to remain just that -- a dream -- for years to come," David Haskin writes for Computer World.

Haskin terms rural America as "the land that telecommunications forgot," and explains a combination of geography, market forces, the limitations of broadband technologies and sheer bad luck will lead to the continued lack of broadband in many areas. Areas of low population simply don't present enough economic promise for telecom companies looking to expand broadband, Haskin writes."While universal broadband coverage is an admirable goal, it is not a feasible one for the near-term future," Joseph P. Fuhr Jr., a professor of economics at Widener University, told Haskin.

Fuhr cited an Federal Communications Commission study that "calculated that truly universal high-speed access in the U.S. could cost as much as $350 billion, a number that dwarfs the $7.2 billion in the stimulus package," Haskin reports. Rural broadband becomes especially difficult in areas still hoping for any type of reliable Internet. "In our markets, the higher priority is availability, not necessarily speed," Brian Peterson, vice president of engineering at rural telephone provider Frontier Communications, told Haskin. "Our rural market customers are looking for high-speed Internet at 1Mbit/sec. as a necessity and are excited when we can offer 3Mbit/sec." Reads like an interview conducted via e-mail. (Read more)

Fracking boosts domestic oil to an annual gain

Fracturing deep rocks with water and chemicals, the drilling technique known as "fracking," has been in the news because of its use to get natural gas, but it is also boosting the U.S. oil industry. Drillers "drill down thousands of feet and then turn and go horizontally through the gas-bearing rock—allowing a single well to reach more gas," Ben Casselman of The Wall Street Journal writes from Killdeer, N.D. (WSJ map) While oil molecules are larger than gas molecules, and don't flow as easily through the cracks, several companies thought the same process could work on oil-bearing formations, and they were right.

Companies including EOG Resources Inc. are fracking the Bakken Shale in western North Dakota. "The first three or four wells, it was not clear that there would be a viable economic solution," EOG Chairman and CEO Mark Papa told Casselman. "But we just felt like, well, it's worth investing $20 to $40 million in this because if it works there's a huge upside." By 2006, EOG was turning a profit on its Bakken wells and in the past two years companies have "honed drilling techniques, leading to bigger wells, faster drilling and lower costs," Casselman writes.

The new Bakken oil production, along with big discoveries in California and the Gulf of Mexico helped the U.S. post its first yearly oil production rise in 2009, for the first time since 1991. The boom is having a measurable impact on rural communities near the wells. Several ranchers have turned millionaires after leasing their land, Casselman reports. "Oil-field workers have flooded the western city of Williston, leaving it with a chronic shortage of hotel rooms and making housing scarce," Casselman writes. "In Dickinson, three hours to the south, a labor shortage has the local McDonald's offering $300 signing bonuses." (Read more)

Ky. environmentalists: Legislature 'unacceptable'

Prominent Kentucky environmentalists declared Thursday they've had enough of the state General Assembly. "We have petitioned, marched, sung, written, lobbied, testified and pleaded — all to no avail," said Kentucky author and farmer Wendell Berry, left. "But today we declare that business as usual in Frankfort — long intolerable — has now become unacceptable." Berry and other members of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth took turns reading a Declaration of Independence-type statement Thursday in a room adjacent to a research presentation on the health effects of coal, Andy Mead of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

The declaration listed desires including a request for "the state's political leaders to break their close ties with coal, remove legislators with ties to coal companies from leadership positions, and call for an end to 'extreme and sometimes violent speech' directed at people who speak out against coal in the coalfields," Mead writes. The KFTC members said coal demand was ebbing, but Kentucky was not taking appropriate steps toward alternative energy sources and jobs. "Environmentalists characterized the declaration as a major step," Mead writes, "but its effectiveness is doubtful." (Read more)

Vilsack: Plan for farm payment cuts better than last year's 'ill thought out and inappropriate' idea

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said yesterday that the Obama adminmistration's latest proposal to cut direct payments for some farmers is very different from the one it offered last year, a plan he called “ill thought out and not appropriate.” Vilasck told the House agriculture appropriations subcommittee, “We calculate of the 1.4 million farmers who currently qualify for direct payments and things of that nature, only about 30 thousand across the country are going to be impacted.”

The proposal seems unlikely to pass, but Vilsack said the issue needs action in light of the federal budget. “Somebody could make, in theory, about $600 [thousand] to $700,000 and still get a check from the government,” he said. “You know, if we’re going to be serious about deficits we’ve got to look someplace and this was one place to look.”

Julie Harker of Brownfield Network reports, “Vilsack says the 2011 budget has a strong safety net when you look at the 'whole package' which includes research money, export promotion money, and efforts for commodity purchases as well.” (Read more)

Rural community colleges air troubles to feds; some mount lobbying campaigns at state level

Community colleges are having trouble as state governments cut education funding, but leaders of rural community colleges say their schools are facing even more challenges. They met with Department of Education and congressional staff members as part of "Rural Community College Day," a meeting convened by the department and the Rural Community College Alliance. The meeting was the first time the department had met specifically with rural-college leaders, Libby Nelson of The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching reports rural community colleges make up 64 percent of the nation's 820 community-college districts, Libby writes, and "are often in areas in which few adults have college degrees." John White, deputy assistant secretary for rural outreach, told Lilly that Education Department officials hoped the meeting would signify the importance of rural colleges in President Obama's education plan after some of the presidents "expressed concern at the meeting that they were often left out in policy discussions related to community colleges," Lilly reports. "Our funding streams are very, very limited," Blair Montgomery, president of Pierpont Community and Technical College, in Fairmont, W.Va., said during the meeting. "We are invisible. But we get the job done." (Read more)

UPDATE, Feb. 26: Community-college systems in at least four states -- Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Washington -- have launched lobbying campaigns, reports Nancy Rodriguez of The Courier-Journal in Louisville. In Kentucky, "The campaign — which includes billboards and advertising — is being paid for with $1.3 million originally designated for student recruitment. With a 13 percent increase in enrollment — to 100,348 students this past fall — system officials say the money is better spent on advocating for more state recognition, and higher education funding." (Read more)

Environmental groups say they have found 31 more coal-ash contamination sites

Pollution of nearby groundwater, wetlands and streams has been found at 31 more coal-ash impoundment sites in addition to the 70 previously identified by the Environmental Protection Agency, says a new report from two environmental groups. Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project say they found 31 contaminated sites in 14 states. Pennsylvania and North Carolina led the list with six each. Florida and South Carolina each had three. Tennessee, West Virginia and Indiana had two each, and Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico each had one.

"The data are overwhelming, and these 31 sites sound a clear warning that the EPA must heed before much more damage is done," Jeff Stant, director of EIP's coal combustion waste initiative, told Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette. A spokesperson for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection told Ward it would be "premature" to say whether the report's information about West Virginia was correct.

EPA has delayed a formal ruling on disposal and handling of toxic waste from coal-fired power plants, indicating it may come in April. Contamination has already migrated off power-plant property at 15 of the 31 sites identified, Ward reports. "The remaining 16 show evidence of severe on-site pollution," he writes. "Off-site monitoring data for 14 of these 16 was not even available." Contamination was also found at 11 "dry landfills" and at two sites where the coal-ash is said to be put to "beneficial reuse," for structural fills for highways and building construction.

"This kind of damage could easily have been prevented with sensible safeguards such as phasing out leak-prone ash ponds and requiring the use of synthetic liners and leachate collection systems," the report said. "Yet, incredibly, ash and other coal combustion wastes are not subject to any federal regulations." (Read more)

Census having trouble finding workers in some rural areas, especially Central Appalachia

As the U.S. Census Bureau prepares for another decennial census this spring, it is again struggling to find enough applicants for census-taking jobs in some rural areas. Applicant shortages have been reported from remote northern Michigan to Central Appalachia. The shortages could add to the potential problem of undercounting rural population.

“There are some localized areas like in Eastern Kentucky where we aren’t having the number of applicants we would like,” B. J. Wellborn, a media-relations team member for the bureau’s Charlotte region, told the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. Census officials blame the shortages on factors such as poor winter weather, confusion about a census job's effect on unemployment benefits and the temporary duration of most jobs.

One factor they say isn't discouraging Kentucky applicants, at least not now, is the highly publicized death of rural census worker Bill Sparkman in Clay County, Ky., last fall. Sparkman staged his death to look like a victim of anti-government sympathy, but it wasn't ruled a suicide for two months, long after news stories had painted him as a possible victim of marijuana growers, methamphetamine makers, or haters of President Obama.

Althea Francis, head of the census office in Somerset, Ky., said it had trouble recruiting after Sparkman’s death, but most of those problems had been erased by the suicide ruling. Nevertheless, every county in her 24-county region of southeastern Kentucky remains short of applicants. (Read more)

Florida tomato growers drop opposition to funding wage increases with money from tomato buyers

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has dropped its opposition to passing along higher wages from grocery stores and restaurants to migrant workers, starting a program to increase wages for tomato pickers. The exchange had challenged agreements between the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and companies such as Burger King, Subway, McDonald's and Whole Foods that would pass along an extra penny per pound from such companies as wage increases, Elaine Walker of The Miami Herald reports. Those agreements had never been implemented because the growers refused to participate. (See our most recent item from September.)

"This is an opportunity to partner with our customers and meet their social accountability needs,'' Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the FTGE, which represents growers of about 75 percent of the tomatoes grown in Florida, told Walker. Under the new program "each restaurant or retail chain will decide on a weekly 'supplemental wage' payment to be made to the grower based on the amount of Florida tomatoes it purchased," Walker writes. "The payment will also include an additional 15 percent for administrative, insurance and payroll tax expenses."

Growers will then divide the total money among the migrant workers on the payroll for that week. "Two years ago, the (growers) testified before the U.S. Senate that the penny-per-pound raise was not just impossible, but illegal," Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the workers' group, said in a statement. "Today they are embracing the program and calling it their own. But while a wage increase is important, it can't be a license for continued labor abuse." Benitez was not convinced the new program was a cure-all: "The growers' code leaves the foxes squarely in charge of the henhouse, and sadly, Florida tomato growers have never demonstrated the ability to police themselves.'' (Read more)

As states loosen gun laws, control advocates worry about inaction of Obama administration

In September we reported that a widespread bullet shortage across the country had resulted, in part, from unfounded fears of impending Obama administration gun regulation, and last month we posted our most recent update about a Tennessee guns-in-bars law. Those two stories appear to be related and part of a spreading trend of states pushing for expanded gun rights before the administration makes any move on the issues. Virginia, Arizona, Wyoming, Tennessee, Montana and at least three other states have all expanded gun rights or are considering such legislation, Ian Urbina of The New York Times reports.

Virginia recently passed its own law allowing concealed weapons to be carried in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. Arizona and Wyoming are considering at least a dozen gun laws, Urbina reports, including one that would allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit. Tennessee and Montana passed laws last year supposedly exempting "their states from federal regulation of firearms and ammunition that are made, sold and used in state," Urbina writes, and three states are considering similar measures. Meanwhile, gun-control advocates have been critical of the lack of action from Obama.

"We expected a very different picture at this stage," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which last month issued a report card failing the administration in all seven of the group’s major indicators. Still gun rights groups aren't backing down. "The watchword for gun owners is stay ready," Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the National Rifle Association, told Urbina. "We have had some successes, but we know that the first chance Obama gets, he will pounce on us." (Read more)

Texas agriculture race is at intersection of farming, energy, the environment and politics

Environmental concerns long prevalent in national campaigns recently have come to the Texas agriculture commissioner race. Buzzwords like green energy, biofuels and sustainable development "are fast becoming the jargon of agriculture workers and the politicians who support them," Jessica Meyers of The Dallas Morning News reports, and the strengthening link between environmental awareness and agricultural development has been reflected in the early political campaigns.

"The farmer and environmentalist have often been trying to do the same thing but approaching it from different angles," Tom Smith, the director of Public Citizen's Texas office, which focuses largely on environmental and energy concerns, told Meyers. "And the farmers and ranchers are the people who have really watched the changes appearing in the climate and are beginning to sound the alarm."

Two Democratic candidates for ag commish have included promises to increase water conservation efforts and promote bioenergy production in their platforms, Meyers reports, while the Republican incumbent is endorsed by the Texas Wildlife Association for his role in "promoting the state's 'Go Texan' labeling, pushing ecotourism and pulling conservation groups into public discussions."

David Griggs, chairman of the Sierra Club's Texas political committee, told Meyer the group has declined to make an endorsement in the Democratic primary because both candidates are so strongly advocating green positions. Griggs credited the Obama administration for increased environmental focus because the president has made "global warming a household phrase and climate-change talks an international discussion." (Read more)

CBS joins other nets in charging stations for highly rated shows, likely leaving less money for news

CBS has joined other networks in asking local affiliates to pay for its highly rated evening programs, TVNewsCheck reports. in an interview with Editor Harry A. Jessell, CBS Affiliates Relations President Diana Wilkin said most, if not all affilates have accepted the new reality and "acknowledges that affiliates are being asked to pay a bit more to tap into the CBS Newspath news services."

Jessell notes that Wilkin once ran CBS affiliates in West Palm Beach and Jacksonville, Fla., but she surely knows that taking money from affiliates will probably leave them less money for their news departments.

Appeals of coal-mine safety citations jam system

Appeals of coal-mine safety citations are dramatically up in several states, swamping the appeals process. "Some members of Congress contend that the vast backlog of cases under review — more than 15,000 — is the result of potentially unsafe mines gaming the system to stay in business," James R. Carroll of The Courier-Journal in Louisville reports. In Kentucky, 80 percent of the 536 fines for "significant and substantial" violations, the most severe category, are being contested, and 86 percent of the 288 such fines in Indiana are being contested.

"This growing backlog indicates that certain mine operators are abusing their right to challenge a violation," California Democratic Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, which is holding a hearing today on the issue, told Carroll. "These appeals are clogging the system and putting miners in danger." The Mine Safety and Health Administration defines "significant and substantial" violations as those "likely to result in serious injury or illness."

Violations are required to be fixed when cited, Carroll reports, but "safety advocates say the delay in imposing financial penalties undercuts the deterrent effect that those penalties are intended to have." Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association, told Carroll in an e-mail that "mine safety is not in any way jeopardized by the increasing decisions to appeal citations," and much of the appeal increase can be attributed to escalating penalty cost and number of citations issued. (Read more)

UPDATE 2/24: MSHA boss Joe Main pledged Tuesday to revamp the enforcement process that has resulted in 16,000 backlogged citation appeals. "We need a better system here," Main said during a hearing about the backlog. MSHA plains to simplify the citations, Carroll reports, and is "studying the possibility of additional financial incentives beyond the current 10 percent reduction in civil penalties for operators who fix violations." Only after citations are finalized can MSHA issue a "pattern of violations" finding that could close a mine. The agency says 48 mines could currently face such a ruling if not for the appeal backlog. (Read more)

UPDATE 2/25: The New York Times says in an editorial, "The jam means that the worst offenders can delay or avoid the reform law’s toughest penalties, including being shut down once a pattern of repeated violations has been proved. . . . The companies respond that there would be no problem if the former process of informal “conference” with regulators were still used to clear violations without litigation. That, of course, was one of the ways King Coal reigned supreme as an industry coddled by political appointees drawn from its own management ranks." (Read more) The Times editorial may skirt a few of the key issues, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports on his Coal Tattoo blog. The Times refers to a proposed 27 percent increase in financing for MSHA, but Ward explains that increase is actually proposed in the budget for the Mine Safety Review Commission, to help it deal with the backlog in cases, and Obama has only proposed a slight increase to MSHA's budget. Ward concludes spending on mine safety will actually drop by about $2 million under the proposal and notes some of MSHA's budget will be devoted to its new "Rules to Live By" public relations campaign. (Read more)

EPA promises to gradually phase in carbon limits

Responding to pressure from both political parties, the Environmental Protection Agency promised yesterday to gradually phase in climate regulations for industrial sources. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said stationary sources of greenhouse gases will not be subject to permitting regulations until 2011, and small sources would not face regulation any earlier than 2016 (perhaps presuming President Obama will get a second term). Stationary sources include power plants, factories, oil refineries and other heavy emitters. Jackson added that EPA's final tailoring rule, which would exempt more facilities from requirements that they minimize their greenhouse gas emissions, will include a "substantially higher" threshold than the previous proposal.

Jackson's comments came in response to a letter expressing concerns about the effects of EPA action on state economies and energy security, written by eight Democratic senators from Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Montana. West Virginia's Jay Rockefeller, one of the letter signers, told Robin Bravender and Darren Samuelsohn of ClimateWire, reporting for The New York Times, that the move "helps," but he still plans to introduce legislation to circumvent EPA action. Rockefeller would block EPA regulation for two to five years.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski welcomed Jackson's announcement, but maintained that her proposed legislation, which would use the Congressional Review Act to block EPA, remains a better option than Rockefeller's proposal. "A temporary timeout isn't sufficient," Murkowski spokesman Robert Dillon told the reporters. "Bad regulations today are bad regulations tomorrow." (Read more) Energy and Environment News (subscription only) reports that Jackson's announcement gives more negotiating room for senators trying to fashion an energy-and-climate bill.

Survey ranks states on children's dental health; time to ask your local dentists some questions

One in five U.S. children each year go without dental care, and states vary widely in their use of Medicaid and other programs for pediatric oral health, according to an analysis by the Pew Center on the States. "A 50-state report card shows that just six states earned an A and that 36 states received a C or lower," the center reports. Much of the problem is in rural areas.

"Rural and low-income urban locales have little chance of attracting enough new dentists to meet their needs," the report says. "Just 14 percent of dentists nationwide practice in rural areas, according to a report by the National Rural Health Association. . . . Only 3 percent of all dentists are pediatric practitioners who are skilled at caring for young children and trained to handle the highest-need cases." Also, "Not enough dentists are willing to treat Medicaid-enrolled patients. Dentists point to low reimbursement rates, administrative hassles and frequent no-shows by patients as deterrents to serving them."

There may be other reasons. Which dentists in your locality are in Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor and disabled? Do some take it only for children? What reasons do they give for accepting or not accepting it? Do they fear that their more well-to-do customers don't like sitting in a waiting room with poor people and their children? If they say that's not a factor, why do some dentists schedule Medicaid patients for certain days of the week? What do they think is the state of pediatric oral health in your community, and what do they think could be done to improve it? What other questions should you ask?

The analysis found four successful strategies that states are using: "Preventive strategies such as school sealant programs and water fluoridation;" expansion of Medicaid; "workforce innovations that can expand the pool of providers; and tracking and analysis of data to measure and drive progress." The report is titled "The Cost of Delay," pointing to the long-term health-care cost of ignoring oral health in youth. It was produced with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the DentaQuest Foundation. Here is a PDF.

Meatpackers, vets, some states not happy with proposed system for tracking livestock

At the beginning of the month we reported the Department of Agriculture had abandoned plans for a national animal identification system to track livestock from "birth to the butcher shop." Now some meat-industry officials and state governments are rallying against the new system, Scott Kilman of The Wall Street Journal reports. "Meatpackers worry that a narrower program proposed by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack could exacerbate worries abroad about U.S. meat exports," Kilman writes. "State officials are concerned the federal government is creating a new regulatory burden for which states have scant resources."

Federal officials maintain the six-year-old voluntary animal ID program never "attracted enough participation from farmers and ranchers to be effective," Kilman reports, adding that they are "hoping to placate small farmers leery of federal oversight." The National Animal Identification System was launched after a U.S. mad cow disease scare in 2003, when animal-health experts said a national ID system was essential for rapidly containing livestock diseases.

The new program would require states to track livestock moving across state borders, but would exempt those "slaughtered in the states where they are raised, even if the meat will go into interstate commerce," Kilman reports. The switch "fails to meet the need of meatpackers and their customers to swiftly and accurately trace livestock to the farm of origin," Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for meat giant Tyson Foods Inc., told Kilman. Ron DeHaven, who was USDA's chief veterinarian during the mad-cow scare and is now executive vice president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, added, "We are disappointed by the decision. The ability to trace is only becoming more important to our trading partners." (Read more)

Advocates mixed on new mine-safety program

Reviews from mine-safety advocates are mixed about the Mine Safety and Health Administration's new fatality prevention program, which calls for inspectors to look for the most common citations that lead to fatalities. "We could have had two guys sit down in a room for 15 minutes and come up with the types of issues that are raised in this campaign," Kentucky lawyer and longtime mine safety advocate Tony Oppegard told Jessica Lilly of West Virginia Public Radio. "We don't need more slogans and compliance assistance. I understand that education is always a part of mine safety and that's ok but ... it's really nothing different than anything we saw in the last 25 or 30 years."

West Virginia's chief mine safety officer, Ron Wooten, commended MSHA for recognizing specific standards that, if not met, can lead to fatalities. "Any time any agency, federal or state, raises the specter of increased initiatives towards prevention of fatalities that's a positive," he told Lilly. "Even if it's not followed up that's a positive." Wooten promised West Virginia would commission a similar review of its standards to find possible improvement in fatality rates.

Oppegard said MSHA should have looked to Kentucky for guidance on new regulations. He told Lilly, "In 2007 we passed a mine safety law that had a dozen provisions in it that exceed the federal law, and there's no reasons why those can't be made in the federal law; they're all common sense." He advocated "a revamped special investigation program, more subpoena power in fatality cases, and 48-hour notification before starting the most dangerous type of mining: retreat or pillar mining," Lilly reports. (Read more)

Environmentalists not happy with Obama's record on adding species to endangered list

While President Obama has received praise from environmentalists for many of his initiatives, some have taken issue with his record on endangered species. The administration added just two new species to the federal endangered list in 2009, fewest of any president in his first year since Ronald Reagan in 1981. "We're coming off eight years of the Bush administration where they actively worked to cripple endangered-species programs," biologist Noah Greenwald, endangered-species program director for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, told Paul Rogers of The Mercury News in San Jose. "We would have liked to have seen a strong effort by the Obama administration. But we just haven't seen it." (Read more)

States may need to adopt new school standards to boost federal funds for the disadvantaged

The Obama administration announced a new proposal Sunday as part of its recommendations for an overhaul to the No Child Left Behind Act that would require states to adopt "college- and career-ready standards" in reading and mathematics to be eligible for Title 1 funding, which goes to schools with students from disadvantaged families. The current law requires states only adopt "challenging academic standards" and lets each state define what those standards, Sam Dillon of The New York Times reports. The result was a highly varied set of state educational standards.

"Because economic progress and educational achievement go hand in hand, educating every American student to graduate prepared for college and success in a new work force is a national imperative,” the White House said in a statement. “Meeting this challenge requires that state standards reflect a level of teaching and learning needed for students to graduate ready for success in college and careers." Since last year, "48 states have been collaborating to write common standards in math and reading," Dillon reports, with Texas and Alaska chosing not to participate.

So far only Kentucky has formally pledge to replace its state standards with common national standards. Adopting the new rules may be the easiest route to Title 1 funding. The White House statement explained the rewrite of No Child Left Behind would "require all states to adopt and certify that they have college- and career-ready standards which may include common standards developed by a state-led consortium, as a condition of qualifying for Title I funding." (Read more)

Almost half of rural households lack broadband, but many of them say they don't need it

New data released by the U.S. Commerce Department shows only 54 percent of rural Americans subscribed to home broadband Internet in October, compared to 66 percent of urban households. The information comes as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, part of the Commerce Department, and the Rural Utilities Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which are in the middle of handing out $7.2 billion in stimulus funding for broadband, Joelle Tessler of The Associated Press reports.

"We're at a point where high-speed access to the Internet is critical to the ability of people to be successful in today's economy and society at large," Larry Strickling, head of the NTIA, told Tessler. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday he "wants 100 million U.S. households to have access to ultra high-speed Internet connections, with speeds of 100 megabits per second, by 2020. That would be several times faster than the download speeds many U.S. homes with broadband get now — 3 megabits to 20 megabits per second," Tessler reports.

The data from a Census Bureau October survey of 54,000 households also revealed that among households without broadband access, 38 percent said they don't need it or are not interested, and 26 percent said it is too expensive. "Only 3.6 percent said they do not subscribe because it is not available where they live," Tessler reports. Twenty-nine percent of Americans with a household income less than 15,000 had a broadband subscription in October. (Read more)

The survey data also includes state-rankings of total Internet access, rural Internet access, total broadband access, rural broadband access and several other factors.

Non-binding Ky. measure would encourage coal companies to help bees with blooming trees

Some Kentucky lawmakers have sent a message to coal companies regarding strip mining: Account for its effects on bees, unless you don't want to. "Coal companies usually plant grasses on mined land -- not the native sourwoods, tulip poplars, goldenrods, asters and other blooming trees and plants that bees need," Roger Alford of The Associated Press reports. Thursday at a meeting of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment, Tammy Horn, a bee researcher at Eastern Kentucky University, urged lawmakers to pass legislation encouraging coal companies to plant a variety of nectar- and pollen-producers on mined land.

The committee's response was a non-binding measure "asking coal companies to plant pollen-producing vegetation when they finish digging," Alford writes. Democratic Rep. Fitz Steele, sponsor of the measure, assured fellow lawmakers that it would not require coal companies to comply: "It's totally at their option if they want to do it," he said. Still, Horn saw the measure as a step toward helping to stabilize decreasing bee populations because it "puts state regulatory agencies on notice that reclamation plans aimed at helping bees should be approved," Alford writes. (Read more)

Alabama electronic bingo facilities spark debate about what kind of jobs rural areas need

An attempt by Alabama Gov. Bob Riley to rid the state of electronic bingo has put rural county officials on the defensive for one of the few industries they say has created jobs in their jurisdictions. "This fight might have its roots in the legality of electronic bingo, but the tussle also has taken on an economic development angle in areas that see gaming establishments ... in the same light as the state's Mercedes-Benz and Honda factories," Michael Tomberlin of The Birmingham News reports.

"It comes down to the fact that desperate people do desperate things," Larry Lee, a former economic developer in Covington County and other parts of the state, told Tomberlin. "Whatever it is we have called 'rural development' for years in Alabama has failed miserably. We've just not taken a meaningful approach to it, and those chickens are coming home to roost." Neal Wade, the executive director of the Alabama Development Office, disagrees telling Tomberlin the "state's economic development efforts must be attached to safer bets."

Proponents of the facilities say they account for nearly 5,000 jobs, while the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations reports the figure is fewer than 2,200. Local officials tell Tomberlin "by either measure, those are jobs those counties can't afford to lose." But one of the governor's spokespersons told Tomberlin the casinos have been no economic cure for those counties. Federal data shows the unemployment rate in December was 15.6 percent in Lowndes County, 15 percent in Greene County and 12 percent in Macon County. Houston County's 9 percent rate made it the only county with a large bingo facility and an unemployment rate less than the state's 11 percent average. (Read more)

Sign up tonight for News Entrepreneur Boot Camp

Midnight tonight is the deadline to apply for the News Entrepreneur Boot Camp to be held May 16-21 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. This intense, expenses-paid boot camp is designed for 20 competitively selected digital entrepreneurs with great ideas for community news and information initiatives in the public interest. It is sponsored by The Knight Digital Media Center in partnership with the USC Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, the Center for Communication Leadership and Public Policy, and the Online Journalism Review.

Topics to be covered include:
* Identifying the best business model for sustained success.
* Developing a feasibility plan.
* Audience development and customer acquisition.
* Developing and implementing revenue and advertising strategies.
* Successful social networking models.
* Understanding and using analytics.

Traditional news organizations are floundering as business models collapse and audiences are increasingly turning to alternative news and information sources. This special boot camp is designed for digital journalists and others who are passionate about new ideas for serving the information and news needs of their communities but who lack the grounding in business and startup skills. Expert faculty from both academia and the private sector will provide intense instruction, coaching and mentoring on developing marketable business plans for providing news and information in the public interest. Successful applicants will provide a concise and clear proposal for a digital initiative that services specific community news and information needs and will meet the following expertise criteria:
* Digital fluency. Must be able to independently create and manage digital content in an online environment. Most important, must understand technology as tool and online as a community.
* Business/math aptitude. Must be comfortable and competent in math and business environment. * Topic Expertise. Must demonstrate experience/expertise in targeted topic/service area.
* Collaborative. Must demonstrate previous experience in working productively with others on projects requiring innovation.
* Value-driven. Must be committed to values of accuracy, balance, fairness, credibility, inclusion, transparency and public service.
* Committed to Community Leadership. Must be able to identify and understand the dynamics of community information needs and be committed to servicing those needs.

Fellowships include lodging and meals during the boot camp and cost of instruction. A partial travel subsidy will be provided. Applications must be submitted online by midnight tonight, Friday, Feb. 19, by clicking here. For more information contact Vikki Porter, director, Knight Digital Media Center, at vporter@usc.edu or 213-821-0071.

Stories raise questions about just how important the coal industry really is to Southwest Virginia

Monday we excerpted a Politico story about Republicans using fears about jobs in coal country against incumbent Democrats in the region. Now a Washington Post story focusing on Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher of Southwest Virginia has raised some new issues. "Voters in Virginia's 9th Congressional District are mad that the government has spent hundreds of billions to fix an economy that seems only to deteriorate around them," Amy Gardner writes for the Post. "They're fearful of a federal takeover of health care. They're petrified that proposed emissions limits would destroy the coal industry that provides most of the region's jobs."

Whoa, say Bill Bishop and Tim Marema of the Daily Yonder, who point out Bureau of Economic Analysis data showing that coal mining employs many in Wise County, focal point of the Post story, but the industry hires fewer people than retail trade (14. 1 percent) or government (21.7 percent). "Instead of the complex reality, however, we get the rural stereotype," Bishop and Marema write. "Appalachians are coal miners, right? After all, aren’t most Kansans farmers? (No.) Aren’t most folks in Maine lobstermen (No again). Most Texans cowboys? (See previous parenthetical statements.)" (Read more)

Then there is this story from Debra McCown of The Bristol Herald-Courier asserting that a six-county region in southwest Virginia is doing better economically than the surrounding region and nation as a whole, thanks mainly to coal. McCown's source is the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority, which credits "the relative prosperity to a combination of coal and natural gas, with a growing high-technology industry and the construction of a coal-fired power plant." Even VCEDA's profile of Wise County, part of the coalition, reports natural resources and mining employ 1,858 while trade transportation and utilities employ 2,748 and education and health service employ 4,097 in the county. VCEDA reported the region's relative economic prosperity was because the "coal industry has been strong, professional business services are growing and construction is showing growth as well," in a news release McCown provided to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. (Read more)

White House approves additional money for black farmers in long-simmering discrimination lawsuit

The Obama administration Thursday announced a $1.25 billion settlement with African American farmers alleging that the Department of Agriculture discriminated against them for decades. "The government paid $1 billion to settle a related case with 16,000 black farmers in 1999, but notification and communication errors led to some farmers being omitted from that settlement," Carrie Johnson of The Washington Post reports.

Congress must still approve the deal. "I'm going to focus all my time and resources on making that happen," Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said. "The president is prepared to indicate that it's a priority not just for his administration but for the country." The new agreement would "provide cash payments and debt relief to farmers who applied too late to participate in the earlier settlement," Johnson reports. The settlement also stipulates farmers can walk away from the agreement if Congress does not act by March 31.

"Since black farmers first filed the lawsuit, known as the Pigford case, in 1997, Hispanic farmers, women and Native Americans have also sued the government, based on alleged widespread discrimination in awarding agriculture loans and subsidies," Johnson writes. Advocates of those groups are expected to lobby Congress to be included in the new settlement. Administration officials said outlines of the settlement had met with bipartisan support, Johnson reports, but House appropriators said they "needed more time to review the settlement before offering solid predictions as to its fate." (Read more)

House committee looking at natural-gas 'fracking'

The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday it is investigating the impacts of hydraulic fracturing in gas drilling, due to concerns about potential contamination pf drinking water with brine and chemicals. The committee will examine both potential impacts on the environment and human health, Ayesha Rascoe and Tom Doggett of Reuters report. "As we use this technology in more parts of the country on a much larger scale, we must ensure that we are not creating new environmental and public health problems," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the committee chairman, told the reporters. "This investigation will help us better understand the potential risks this technology poses to drinking water supplies and the environment, and whether Congress needs to act to minimize those risks."

Some members of Congress are pushing for legislation that would give the Environmental Protection Agency authority to regulate fracking, a drilling process that injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into rock formations at high pressure to force out oil and natural gas, Rascoe and Doggett report. The committee asked for information from eight companies: Halliburton, BJ Services, Schlumberger, Frac Tech Services, Superior Well Services, Universal Well Services, Sanjel Corporation and Calfrac Well Services, that use the technique. (Read more)

The committee is particularly interested in the use of diesel fuel after documents from BJ Services and Halliburton showed they continued to use diesel even after reaching a voluntary agreement with the EPA to stop using it, Ben Casselman of The Wall Street Journal reports. BJ Chief Financial Officer Jeff Smith told Casselman the company had "inadvertently used diesel on a couple of jobs" but had since fixed the error. "You wonder what the real purpose is here when the track record on natural-gas operations has been stellar," Erik Milito, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, told Casselman. (Read more)

Postal Service drops plan to raise thin papers' rate

Earlier this month we reported that weekly newspapers were rallying against a proposed U. S. Postal Service rule that would have increased their mailing costs 54 to 78 percent. Now the USPS has decided thin newspapers, or so-called "flimsy flats," will retain the basic carrier-route prices even if they fail the new "droop test," Max Heath, postal chair of the National Newspaper Association, reported in an e-mail. NNA was the only organization "publicly cited during a presentation on the final rule at the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee in Washington Feb. 17 for the reasonableness and quality of arguments." The rule was proposed to ensure new automated USPS sorting equipment could better handle thin papers. For a story from the NNA, click here.

Guns allowed in some national parks starting Mon.

Beginning Monday visitors to some U.S. national parks will be able to carry loaded weapons for the first time in 94 years. In June we reported Congress had passed the new law requiring parks to abide by their state's gun laws. "The law will not give park visitors blanket permission to possess firearms, it will allow visitors to carry guns into any park, provided they follow all federal, state and local laws," Erich Hiner of the Scripps Howard News Service reports.

Hunting will still be banned in the parks, and firearms will still not be permitted in federally owned buildings such as ranger stations and visitor centers. "We will take the 'firearms prohibited' signs off at the front gate," parks spokesman David Barna told Hiner. "A lot of the burden is on the public to know the laws of your state." Regulations will also vary within some parks like Yellowstone which covers land in three states, and the Appalachian Trail, which runs through nine states. (Read more)

"The move concerns current and former employees of the National Park Service who are convinced that the move will damage the spirit of the nation's park system," reports Ed O'Keefe of The Washington Post. "Congress lifted the gun ban last spring, after years of efforts by a bipartisan coalition that said differences in state and federal firearms laws made it difficult for gun owners to travel between state and federal laws." (Read more)

Vilsack: Biodiesel credit essential for rural growth

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called Tuesday for an extension of the expired biodiesel tax-credit, which he termed vital for rural economic growth. "The plea was part of a larger platform of rural development initiatives that Vilsack unveiled today at the Agriculture Department's annual outlook conference," Allison Winter of Environment & Energy Daily reports.

"I want to express concern about the future of 2.2 million farmers and ranchers and the 50 million-plus people who live in rural America," Vilsack said. "We need to understand the value of rural America and begin paying more attention to it than we have in the past." The secretary called for the federal government to "get serious" about rural America by improving support for farmers, local food systems, conservation and renewable energy. Vilsack told Winter extending the tax credit was essential to promote the biofuels industry still in its infancy that could be spurred by renewable energy development. (Read more)

Last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., stripped the tax credit from a jobs bill that had been proposed by the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, Phillip Brasher of The Des Moines Register reports. Vilsack didn't insist that the credit be re-added to the jobs bill. "The key is getting it (the biodiesel credit) into a bill that’s a must-do," Vilsack told reporters. "I doesn’t necessarily have to be the jobs bill, but it has to be a must-do bill." (Read more)

Group organizes to get broadband for rural area

Broadband development has been one of the most talked-about rural issues, even before passage of the economic stimulus package and its $7.2 billion broadband budget. One grassroots organization has made bringing broadband to the mountains of southeastern Kentucky its goal. Pine Mountain Residents for Broadband was created after residents realized high-speed Internet wasn't available in their area despite the multitude of advertisements and mailings from phone company Windstream advertising DSL access, Rend Smith writes for the Daily Yonder.

Windstream offers high-speed access to much of the rural area surrounding Pine Mountain and advertises heavily there. One resident, Samantha Sparkman, says she's gotten as far as having a Windstream representative schedule an appointment for her house to be outfit for a connection only to see the technician never show up, Smith writes. They don't feel like they need to bring the Internet to us because there aren't enough houses," Sparkman said at a recent PMRB meeting.

Windstream spokesperson David Avery told Smith the company "has devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy broadband service to roughly 89 percent of our voice customers. We constantly explore ways to make broadband available to the remaining areas of our network, but the costs are often prohibitive to earn back the investment at affordable rates for customers." To help accomplish its goal PMRB has teamed up with other community organizations through the Web site DialupRocks.org. The group's Web site includes an online pledge to bring equal Internet access to all, and this music video for "The Dial-Up Blues" from Randy and Gabe Wilson.

Deadly bat disease reaches Tennessee, raising prospect of more insects, disease and pesticides

UPDATE, Feb. 22: Reporter Morgan Simmons and photographer Adam Brimer of the Knoxville News-Sentinel took a trip with Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency field biologist Sterling Daniels, left, and Nature Conservancy cave specialist Cory Holliday to a cave near the Kentucky border to look for white noses. They didn't find any, but came back with a story, photos and video. The crew had to decontaminate all their clothing and equipment to avoid bringing into the cave whatever causes the disease. That's a cautionary note that should be included in stories on the subject, because stories about caves can encourage amateurs to go spelunking without taking proper precautions.

In November we reported the mysterious white-nose syndrome affecting bats in the Northeast might be moving south. Now those fears have been confirmed. Two bats that died during hibernation in Worley's Cave in Sullivan County in northeast Tennessee have tested positive for the highly contagious disease, Anne Paine of The Tennessean reports. The cave is near Virginia, the southernmost state where the disease had been recorded.

Tennessee officials fear bat losses in their state from the disease could match the entire losses in the Northeast because the state has more than 9,600 caves, some of which host colonies of up to 100,000 bats during the winter, Paine reports. "If we lose these guys, we're going to end up with a lot more insects flying around destroying agricultural crops and forest trees and defoliating them," Thomas Kunz, professor of biology and director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University, told Paine. The 1 million bats killed by the disease in the northeast since 2006 "would have eaten an estimated 694 tons of insects over the warm months," Paine writes.

Increased pesticide use is one option for combating the increased insect population. "That has adverse consequences on human health and other things," Kunz told Paine. "Keystone species keep things in balance — the balance of nature. They hold up the arch that is the ecosystem. When you remove a keystone species, the ecosystem collapses." Many think the disease is spread by human cavers on their equipment. State-owned caves in Tennessee have been closed to try and combat the spread, but the white-nose cases occurred in a privately owned cave. Most caves are privately owned. (Read more)

Reclaimed strip mines still have environmental impact, report for Congress says

Reclaimed surface mines in Central Appalachia have continuing environmental impact after their reclamation bonds are released but are not commonly monitored by state and federal regulators, says a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The non-partisan investigative arm of Congress cited poor reforestation efforts, contaminated streams that harm aquatic organisms, water-flow issues and failure to restore approximate original contour to sites that may be called “mountaintop removal” but are actually permitted as area mines.

State officials, who enforce strip-mine laws with oversight by federal officials, called the report overbroad, but its sponsor endorsed it. The report, coupled with one in December on mountaintop removal, could help inform the debate about surface mining in Central Appalachia, a debate that has intensified from both sides but one that is often dominated by opinion rather than fact. Download the report here. For our story on it, go here.

How does your county rank in health? Here it is

How healthy is your community? A new service from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the country's largest health care philanthropy, has health snapshots of each county in the country, ranked against the other counties in their state.

Rural counties rank particularly low. Some of the poor rural scores can be attributed to higher disease and death rates in those areas, the authors said during the live Twittercast to release the data. In our home state of Kentucky, rural Wolfe County in Eastern Kentucky ranked last among the 120 counties while Boone County in the greater Cincinnati area ranked first. More important than rankings, which can reflect very small differences, are changes in a county's health status over time. In Kentucky, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky maintains a Web site, KentuckyHealthFacts.org, that updates information as it becomes available.

Health rankings include a number of factors, including life expectancy, smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty. "These rankings demonstrate that health happens where we live, learn, work and play. And much of what influences how healthy we are and how long we live happens outside the doctor’s office," Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the RWJF, said in a news release. "People, no matter where they live, should have the best possible opportunity to be healthy." (See the rankings)

Count inmates where they're from or where they are housed? Debate pits rural GOP areas v. urban

Last week reported the new choice for states to have the Census Bureau stop counting inmates in jurisdictions where prisons are located. In New York state, that debate is one of prisoner rights versus local risk. The nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative has launched a campaign to count the prisoners, whom they call "phantom constituents," in their home communities, which would benefit from the added population, David Sommerstein of National Public Radio reports. But officials in the localities with the prisons say the added population should be part of their consideration for the security risk.

The division mostly follows party lines, with rural Republican districts benefiting from the added population. Prison advocates say the added rural legislative representation usually votes directly against the inner-city interests of the inmates. Prisoners can't vote in the rural communities, and are "more interested in drug, crime and housing laws than, say, farms," Sommerstein writes. "The system of one person, one vote entirely breaks down when we take people from one community of interest — and then credit them to a completely different community for districting purposes," Peter Wagner of PPI told Sommerstein.

"The truth of the matter is New York City and the metropolitan areas didn't want them [prisons]," Chuck Kelly, publisher of The Ogdensburg Journal in upstate New York, told Sommerstein. "We needed the jobs, so we went after those jobs." State Sen. Darrel Aubertine, who represents a district with five prisons, including the two in Ogdensburg, says the prisons use water and sewer and other infrastructure and those services are paid for in part by the inmates being counted as part of the population. (Read more)

N.D. town's effort to attract residents flounders from small-town cliquishness, extreme isolation

We've often followed the attempts of rural communities to attract young families and cancel out the so-called rural brain drain, but not all families have enjoyed "going rural." One family, transplanted from Miami to small-town Hazelton, N.D., hoped to gain a much-needed rest from big-city stress but instead found a tight-knit community wary of outsiders, James MacPherson of The Associated Press reports. "It's been quite an experience, 50-50 at best," Michael Tristani, whose family is now looking to leave Hazelton, told MacPherson. "It hasn't been easy. No one really wants new people here."

"Rural communities across the Great Plains, fighting a decades-long population decline, are trying a variety of ways to attract outsiders," MacPherson writes. "But the Tristanis show how the efforts can fail even at a time when many people are desperate." The Hazelton Development Corp. began its campaign in 2005 by offering families up to two free lots and $20,000 toward home purchases and businesses free lots and up to $50,000 for coming to town. "Besides cash and free land, Hazelton had little else to offer except elbow room," MacPherson writes.

The community received inquiries from around the country, but only the Tristanis made the move. Their experience was complicated by threats of vandalism from owners of a competing local coffee shop. The loss of the Tirstanis' two children would hurt the local high school, which currently has 72 students, but the superintendent expects that number to fall to 31 in four years. Hazelton's extreme remoteness may be one factor in the failure of the program. A spokeswoman for the rural advocacy group Center for Rural Affairs told MacPherson rural land-incentives usually only work in communities within 30 minutes of a larger town. (Read more)

USDA to repay student loan debt of veterinarians who set up practices in areas short of vets

Last week we updated you on the shortage of veterinarians in rural America. Now the U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a new program to combat that trend. Friday, Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the department would begin repaying student loan debt for qualified veterinarians that offer their services is an area suffering from a vet shortage.

"USDA can help ensure there is a first line of defense against animal diseases across the United States by placing qualified veterinarians in areas where there is a critical need," Vilsack said in a news release. "This program will help reduce veterinary shortages, especially in the area of food animal medicine, which will reduce stress on producers and improve the health of the livestock industry." The Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program will be administered by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The program began in January when NIFA began compiling a register of shortage areas.

The program expects to begin accepting applications from interested vets by the end of April, and will repay up to $25,000 in student-loan debt in exchange for three years of service in a shortage area. NIFA has set a tentative application due date for June 30 and expects to issue offers by September 30. (Read more)

Some big media firms push investigations and legal action, but smaller outlets are demurring

Some large media companies have ratcheted up their investigative reporting and open records request despite plummeting newspaper revenue, Tim Arango of The New York Times reports. But while companies like Hearst Newspapers and The Associated Press continue to file dozens of open-records requests and appeal denials, smaller newspapers may be abandoning some investigative reporting as their budgets shrink.

"Many regional newspapers are choosing not to spend money on lawyers or are asking them to work pro bono," Arango writes. "The efforts of Hearst and the AP contrast with the state of affairs at a smaller level, where regional and local papers have largely shied away from aggressive litigation — and, in many cases, aggressive investigative reporting."

The University of Missouri's Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, added, "I’ve got to say, there’s a heck of a gap between the Hearsts of the world and all these community newspapers scattered across the country." Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told Arango a group of media lawyers at a recent meeting in Florida told her access litigation was really struggling as newspapers more frequently ask for pro-bono work: "Newspapers say, when push comes to shove, we’ll get lawyers to do it for free." (Read more)

Dodge City reporter found in contempt agrees to testify after her source reveals himself

A Kansas reporter has agreed to appear in court after her confidential source revealed himself following a judge's contempt ruling against the reporter. Dodge City Daily Globe reporter Clair O'Brien was subpoenaed by Ford County Attorney Terry Malone to reveal a confidential source, but O'Brien refused to appear in court Friday, leading District Judge Daniel Love to issue a contempt ruling and her newspaper to forsake her. After her source revealed himself to Malone this weekend, O'Brien showed up for court Monday and apologized for her decision to ignore the subpoena. (See previous report on the subpoena)

"He was moved by his own moral convictions — the only thing that could have evoked those was me demonstrating my moral convictions to that extent ... when he saw I was willing to pay the whole price," O'Brien told The Associated Press. "Hopefully it will show the Legislature how hopelessly tangled this situation can become without a clear statute showing the way." Doug Anstaett, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, told AP some state legislators have approached his group for help making Kansas the 36th state with a shield law. (Read more)

The Ezzell family of The Canadian Record, in Canadian, Texas, win the 2007 Tom and Pat Gish Award

The Ezzell family of The Canadian Record, a weekly newspaper in Canadian, Texas, are this year’s winners of the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism.

Laurie Brown Ezzell, and her mother, Nancy Ezzell

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues established the award to honor the couple who this winter celebrated their 50th anniversary of publishing the Eagle. The Gishes were the first recipients of the award. Their son, Eagle Editor Ben Gish, was among the judges who unanimously voted to give the award to the Ezzell family.

“The Ezzells clearly demonstrate the tenacity, courage and integrity I've been privileged to witness in growing up around and working with my parents,” Gish said. Other judges agreed.

Author and former Los Angeles Times Washington correspondent Rudy Abramson, chairman of the Institute’s advisory board and a longtime friend of the Gishes, said “One cannot but notice a number of similarities between the Ezzell family and the Gish family, not the least of which is the continuity their newspaper represents in their community.”

Tom and Pat Gish, owners of The
Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky.

Retired publisher Al Smith, an Institute founder and its steering-committee chair, said: “The story of this gutsy Texas family is as comparable to the Gishes of Kentucky as anyone could imagine.” The Canadian Record has held local, state and national politicians accountable, fought political extremism, opposed unwise military adventures and helped protect the environment, often against organized and violent opposition. All are “great examples of courage, tenacity and integrity,” Smith said.

Nan Ezzell and Laurie Ezzell Brown received the award Friday, April 20, at a dinner for which the guest speaker will be John Seigenthaler Sr., founder of the First Amendment Center. The dinner was part of the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America. Carl West, editor of The State Journal in Frankfort, Ky., attended and wrote a column about the Gishes and the Ezzells. Here's an excerpt::

"The Gishes are practically legends in Eastern Kentucky where their Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg took on the powers that be on hot-button issues such as strip mining, government secrecy and corrupt politicians in the face of death threats and arson, to mention a couple. No one’s surprised there’s a national award in light of they’ve done with the Mountain Eagle ("It Screams") and survived doing it.

"The Canadian Record stands tall in the Gishes’ shadow. . . . Ben, a co-publisher with his wife, died in 1993. He made his mark for fearlessness and character early. A mayoral candidate, upset with an Ezzell editorial, beat him up. Ezzell was hospitalized with a concussion, among other injuries. The publisher took it all with humor, though, contending at the time the aspiring but hot-headed politician was trying to express "a legitimate editorial opinion the best way he knew how" with his fists.

"The test of integrity stemmed from news The Canadian was fixing to run of a dispute between the school board and a banker to whom Ezzell was indebted and who tried to kill the story. Ezzell faced a crossroad: "Either I would run the paper or the bank would," Ezzell wrote long after the incident. "… I owed money to the bank ... but not my soul." Ezzell published the story. The banker later joined him in an effort to salvage the town’s economy after a major employer left."

Texas editor: ‘Courage comes in many flavors’

In her remarks at the Gish Award Dinner, Laurie Ezzell Brown spoke of her father's courage and that of other people in Canadian and Hemphill County, Texas, including an Air Force reservist and friend who was called back to active duty in Iraq last month.

"We communicate via e-mail on occasion," she said. "A former Canadian school trustee, David expressed great relief in a recent e-mail that he was no longer on the board — as he has frequently, since retiring from that office last year. At issue this week is a $3 million indoor athletic facility, part of a $5 million capital improvement project using voter-approved bonds. Trouble is, the voters didn’t know, nor were they told, that well over half of that would go toward an athletic facility.

"Following a detailed report of the project in last week’s Record, and an editorial critical of it, board members were inundated with calls opposing such extravagance. Many of those callers attended Tuesday’s board meeting to speak and to stand witness. Their protests were effective. The facility was voted down by a somewhat reluctant 6-1 majority. But the irony of my friend David’s relief at being in the volatile Iraq war zone working as a flight navigator, rather than sitting through another heated school board debate, was not lost on me. Courage comes in all flavors.

"Many of the citizens who called their board members, and who also called me, had much to fear. Their children are their greatest point of vulnerability, and where are children more defenseless than in our public schools, where angry administrators or teachers, or worse—coaches—can exact their retribution. In doing so, they demonstrated courage — and gave their children a priceless lesson."