Kentucky Senate nominee moderates his pre-primary opposition to agricultural subsidies

Rand Paul, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Kentucky, said before he won the May primary that federal subsidies to agriculture are "not a good idea." Now he has moderated that stance, embracing the largely Democratic idea of not paying subsidies farmers whose incomes exceed a certain amount.

WHAS Radio host Mandy Connell asked Paul, right, this morning about farm subsidies. He said his position was "much more moderate" than it had been portrayed. He said he would start by eliminating payments to dead farmers. That's a shorthand version of the facts; estates of dead farmers are eligible to receive subsidies if the estates continue to operate farms. The General Accounting Office said in a recent report, "USDA has made farm payments to estates more than two years after recipients died, without determining, as its regulations require, whether the estates were kept open to receive these payments."

UPDATE, July 2: Ronnie Ellis, statehouse and political reporter for Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. papers in Kentucky, checked Paul's figures on the number of payments to dead farmers. The Department of Agriculture said they were far from correct.

Paul then suggested denying subsidies to farmers whose incomes are above $2 million a year. He said 2,700 farmers fit that description. The Obama adminstration tried to enact a lower income cap in the latest Farm Bill and in recent legislation, but rural Democrats blocked that.

More specifically, Paul called for repealing the Conservation Reserve and similar programs that pay farmers not to plant on land that is marginal because it is prone to soil erosion. He did not describe it that way, saying instead that $1 billion of $13 billion in farm subsidies is "spent paying people not to grow. . . . I don’t think that's a good idea, to pay people not to farm. . . . Let's grow more and export it."

A spokeswoman for Paul's Democratic opponent, Attorney General Jack Conway, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that “Paul’s willingness to yank these programs away from our farmers is another example of why Kentucky can’t afford Rand Paul.” (Read more)

Defining mid-size farming proves troublesome, but could be important in Farm Bill

Many people may envision the type of farms eligible for help from Farm Aid as small, organic operations or those not much larger than some backyards, but the actual definition for "family farmers" isn't that clear. Alicia Harvie, Farm Aid program manager and author of the recently-released report, "Rebuilding America’s Economy with Family-Farm Centered Food Systems," says that definition defies any type of one-size fits all description, reports Agri-Pulse, a subscription-only service.

"For us, ag in the middle is more about marketing of the middle," Karl Kuper, who helped found Shepard's Grain in Washington and is profiled in the report, told Agri-Pulse. He believes there is probably a better way to define the "middle" than by farm size or sales. "We are all family-owned and family-operated with direct links to consumers." One definition for a mid-size farm comes from the Agriculture of the Middle Project, which defines mid-sized farms as farm operations that "operate in the space between the vertically integrated commodity markets and the direct markets."

"While family ownership is an important part of the 'middle' distinction, it’s just one of several ways that politicians and think tanks are now defining mid-size operations---and trying to figure out how federal resources can help them grow," Agri-Pulse says. How mid-size farms are defined could have major impacts for the 2012 Farm Bill, but for now "Some say that identifying farmers 'in the middle' is a little like defining pornography: you’ll know it when you see it."

The Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service reports the number of mid-sized farms has been decreasing since 1982 while the number of large farms and very small farms has gone up. The number of farms with sales over $250,000 grew from 85,000 to 152,000 from 1982 to 2002, but most of that growth came from farms with sales over $500,000, which doubled, and over $999,999, which tripled, Agri-Pulse reports. (Read more)

TV meteorologist in northern Alabama looks to better inform viewers about climate change

The South might not be the first place you would look for defenders of the science behind global warming, but a television meteorologist in Huntsville, Ala., is making it his mission to better educate his viewers about climate change. Dan Satterfield, right, weatherman at WHNT, "recognizes that many in his audience are 'climatically challenged,' and his profession has the power to help those afflicted by science illiteracy," Lynne Peeples writes in OnEarth, the journal of the National Resources Defense Council. Only about 7 percent of all TV meteorologists work at a station with a designated science reporter, which often turns them into the station expert, Kris Wilson of the University of Texas, told Peeples. (OnEarth photo by Alex Martinez)

"People learn to trust weathercasters and like them, so whatever they say about things like climate change carries tremendous weight," Wilson said. "By choice or by default, weathercasters end up being the science experts." Satterfield said he remained unconvinced regarding global warming until the mid-1990s, but repeated exposure to the "overwhelming evidence" of climate change, made him finally say, "Whoa, I need to start looking into this." After going back to school for a master's degree in earth science, Satterfield began sharing his views on the air. He expected a backlash from his conservative audience, but "aside from a handful of complaints, the show's ratings and viewer questions suggested that people were listening," Peeples writes.

"Satterfield has a backbone," Bud Ward, editor of the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media, told Peeples. "He makes other meteorologists think, 'If he can do it in Huntsville, I can do it in Cleveland.'" Satterfield as produced longer specials about climate change in addition to frequent snippets in his three-minute weather segments, where he says "something short but powerful that dispels a climate myth." (Read more)

Satterfield's efforts are even more impressive as climate change skepticism appear to be on the rise even after global warming appeared to gain more support during the last decade. Part of that rise may be attributed to the news media, which has been "doing a lousy job of putting things in context," Kevin Krajick writes for OnEarth. He concludes "papers need to explain: scientists know the seas are rising; they don't know exactly how much; one study is only one study, and there will be many more to come before we arrive at a reliable number." You can read his exhaustive review of several texts examining climate change skepticism and examples of what he considers good climate reporting here.

Rural voters could cost Democrats control of House; Republicans add districts to target list

Rural voters are a big reason why Democrats might lose control of the House in the November elections, Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro and Ali Weinberg of NBC News wrote this morning on the network's First Read blog.

"There are a few reasons why Democrats are more likely to lose the House than the Senate, but one reason that hasn't received as much attention is the issue of race and geography. As it turns out, much of the competitive House battlefield is in mostly white and mostly rural congressional districts," the correspondents wrote.

President Obama's numbers are not strong in such districts, they report: "According to our most recent NBC/WSJ poll, just 36 percent of whites and 31 percent of rural Americans approved of the president’s job (by the way, those numbers are about where George W. Bush was with whites from 2006 through 2008). On the other hand, Obama may very well be able to help in several Senate races that could determine the control of that chamber -- California, Pennsylvania (Philly), and Washington state, thanks to the fact his numbers are holding up with urban and minority voters." (Read more)

UPDATE: The National Republican Congressional Committee "is unveiling 16 new additions to the top level of its 'Young Guns' list, giving 15 Republican House nominees and one promising primary candidate access to fresh fundraising and strategic support from the party," First Read reports today. "The list includes many of the GOP's top candidates to emerge from competitive nomination fights," including Illinois hopefuls Bob Dold (IL-10), Adam Kinzinger (IL-11) and Randy Hultgren (IL-14), Virginia state Sen. Robert Hurt (VA-05), former state legislators David McKinley (WV-01) and Joe Heck (NV-03) and South Dakota state Rep. Kristi Noem (SD-AL). ... Also making the cut are Todd Young (IN-09), Andy Barr (KY-06), David Harmer (CA-11), Rick Crawford (AR-01), Tom Reed (NY-29), Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08), Mick Mulvaney (SC-05) and Keith Fimian (VA-11)."

The list also includes one new candidate who still faces a primary: Stephen Fincher in Tennessee's 8th Congressional District. First Read describes him as "a farmer and gospel singer locked in a costly primary race for retiring Democrat John Tanner's open seat." As we reported several weeks ago, Fincher is a farmer who gets federal subsidies, making him unacceptable to some Tea Party activists in northwest Tennessee.

Democrats offer to scale back climate bill; might be written to apply only to power plants

"Key Senate Democrats offered ... to scale back their ambitious plans to cap greenhouse gases across multiple sectors of the economy" during a White House meeting today, Politico's Darren Samuelshon writes. The meeting with President Obama included "skeptical Republicans," Politico reports.

Obama still wants to put a price on greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels, but "he could agree to a more limited climate and energy bill than any the senators had previously drafted," according to Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the chief sponsors. "Lieberman said a couple of Republicans in the meeting promised to keep talking about the prospect of a less-ambitious climate program that includes a price on carbon, though he wouldn't name names," Politico reports.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is drafting a bill that would focus on coal by applying only to emissions by power plants. Rural electric cooperatives get 80 percent of their power from burning coal. The idea "is gaining traction in Washington amid fresh concerns about what carrots might be dangled in front of power plants as incentive to sign on," reports Robin Bravender of Environment & Energy News. "Utilities are divided on the approach. Some say a cap on just their sector will offer certainty and is better than none at all; others are reluctant to go it alone."

Evan Lehmann and Saqib Rahim of E&E report on ClimateWire, "Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe expressed support yesterday for making electric utilities pay fees for releasing carbon dioxide, giving Senate Democrats a critical Republican supporter in their stalled pursuit of climate legislation." Snowe "has been discussing the utility option privately with colleagues for months." (Read more, subscription required)

UPDATE, June 30: Snowe's Maine seatmate and fellow Republican moderate, Susan Collins, also backs the idea, Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post reports, but "Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said any measure that imposes mandatory limits on greenhouse gases and makes emitters pay for carbon dioxide output 'will not sell in this country.' And Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who also attended the meeting, said he told the president to focus instead on pouring federal dollars into energy research and development, building nuclear power plants, and electrifying the nation's auto fleet." (Read more)

Study calls for development of perennial grains to combat hunger and help the environment

New research suggests the future of agriculture could lie with perennial grain crops that could be developed within the next 20 years. Perennial grains are considered more environmentally friendly because they would grow with less fertilizer, herbicide, fuel, and erosion than grains planted annually, Seed Daily reports, citing a paper mainly written by John Reganold, Washington State University regents professor of soil science. He said "Perennial grains would be one of the largest innovations in the 10,000-year history of agriculture, and could arrive even sooner with the right breeding programs."

"It really depends on the breakthroughs," Reganold told Seed Daily. "The more people involved in this, the more it cuts down the time." Reganold classified the paper in the journal Science as a call to action because half the world lives on marginal land at risk of being degraded by cultivation of annual grains. "People talk about food security," Reganold explained. "That's only half the issue. We need to talk about both food and ecosystem security."
Perennial grains "have longer growing seasons than annual crops and deeper roots that let the plants take greater advantage of precipitation," Seed Daily notes. "Their larger roots, which can reach 10 to 12 feet down, reduce erosion, build soil and sequester carbon from the atmosphere." Reganold added, "Developing perennial versions of our major grain crops would address many of the environmental limitations of annuals while helping to feed an increasingly hungry planet." (Read more)

Rural areas are short on mental-health help, especially for children

Rural Americans have higher suicide rates and less access to mental-health professionals than those in cities, and mental-health help for rural children can be especially hard to find. Data from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reveals "62 million Americans live in rural areas with federally designated shortages of mental health providers," David Wahlberg of the Wisconsin State Journal reports. "Big cities have 6.9 child psychiatrists per 100,000 youth, while rural areas have 0.3 child psychiatrists per 100,000 youth."

"Social workers, therapists, psychologists and pediatricians try to meet rural children's mental health needs," Wahlberg writes. "But many children end up in emergency rooms, residential facilities, detention centers or state hospitals." One reason for the shortage is child psychiatrists are required to finish one additional year of training but make roughly the same salary as general psychiatrists. "In rural areas, with few colleagues for support, burnout can come quickly," Wahlberg writes, noting at least eight child psychiatrists have left northern Wisconsin in the past dozen years.

Compounding the shortage of child psychiatrists is an increasing demand for services, Dr. Hugh Johnston, a Madison child psychiatrist who heads a state committee addressing the problem, told Wahlberg. "More children are being helped by new medications for conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder, and psychiatrists are needed to manage the drugs," Wahlberg writes. In the wake of the child-psychiatrist shortage, pediatricians and school counselors are often asked to fill in. During the wait for adequate care, the child's "behavior and emotional need become more severe," Lisa Kunelius, a psychologist at the elementary school in Minocqua, told Wahlberg. (Read more)

Wahlberg's report is part of the State Journal's on-going series "Out of reach: The rural health care gap," partially sponsored by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

FDA doesn't like use of antibiotics to spur growth in livestock; could propose rules to limit practice

The Food and Drug Administration doesn't like antibiotics being "used for growth promotion in livestock" but isn't ready to issue regulations limiting the practice, common in confined animal feeding operations, Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports on the paper's Green Fields blog. "The FDA issued a draft guidance document outlining the agency’s thinking ... that veterinarians should oversee all use of antimicrobials on farms." The 19-page guidance document is "in line with the policy the agency announced a year ago at a House of Representatives hearing to the chagrin of the livestock industry," Brasher writes.

"Using medically important antimicrobial drugs for production purposes is not in the interest of promoting and protecting" human health, said Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA’s principal deputy commissioner. FDA will take public comment for 60 days. Dave Warner, a spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council, said the FDA policy "could lead to the elimination or costly review of previously approved" drugs and that there "appears to be no science" behind the agency’s document. (Read more)

Researcher warns carbon capture and storage could just delay global warming, due to leaks

Carbon capture and storage projects have been pointed to as one opportunity to curb global warming, but a new study suggests seepage from CCS projects may just delay global warming instead of stopping it. "Unless the seepage rate of sequestered carbon dioxide can be held to 1 percent every 1,000 years, overall temperature rise could still reach dangerous levels that cause sea level rise and ocean acidification, concludes the research published yesterday in Nature Geoscience," Christa Marshall of Environment & Energy Daily reports. The study was conducted by Gary Shaffer, a professor at the University of Copenhagen and Chile's University of Concepción.

"The delayed warming resulting from escapes of gas would occur gradually for hundreds of years, but could be problematic and expensive for future generations who would have to figure out how to recapture the CO2 from the atmosphere," Marshall writes. Shafer explained, "It may be a useful thing to carry out this carbon sequestration, but there are dangers, and the best thing would be to decrease emissions in other ways that make it unnecessary." Even a leakage rate of 1 percent every decade could be "very serious," Shafer told Marshall. At that rate temperature would spike about 3 degrees Celsius in the next century and a rise close to 4 degrees Celsius over the following 2,000 years. (Read more, subscription required)

Asian carp have come closer, closer to Great Lakes

An Asian carp, right, was netted last Tuesday in Lake Calumet, below, a short distance by water from Lake Michigan (upper right corner of photo). The catch renewed fears that the voracious fish will destroy the $7 billion sportfishing industry of the Great Lakes. The 20-pound male carp "was the first to be found north of an electrical barrier installed to block their path, after a months-long search and two multimillion-dollar mass fish-poisonings turned up nothing but a lot of dead fish and some floating DNA evidence, reports Paul Quinlan of Environment & Energy News (subscription required).

The news "prompted Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) to call a hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources' Water and Power Subcommittee for [2:30 p.m.] Thursday to discuss what the federal government is going to do," Quinlan reports. "Last week's discovery was not enough to persuade the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to close the two navigational locks or alter any immediate plans for containing the fish." The corps essentially said the finding of one fish would not justify the disruption to shipping, reports Shawn Allee, who covers the Chicago area for Michigan Radio. Listen to his story.

At the end, Byrd spoke truth to the power of coal

This morning's death of West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd prompts us to note that he "ended his career by . . . questioning the state's powerful coal industry," as Greg Moore writes in The Charleston Gazette. I posted the following on The Arena on Politico this morning:

As someone who watched Byrd from across a state line in the Central Appalachian coalfield, I will remember him for the statements he made about the coal industry in the last two years of his life. While other West Virginia politicians were giving the usual knee-jerk reactions in support of the industry, which accounts for 7 percent of West Virginia’s gross state product, Byrd said the industry should “never dominate our politics to the detriment of local communities” and “Coal must embrace the future” in response to industry complaints about the Obama administration’s effort to crack down on the mountaintop-removal strip mining of coal.

Yes, he surely knew that he was nearing the end of his life and would never be on another ballot, but I give him credit for saying what people in Central Appalachia needed to hear at a time when their major industry was facing change and other politicians offered little more than Pablum. This was power speaking truth to power. --Al Cross, director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

Local environmental impact of ethanol called into question as industry pushes for more production

Two weeks ago we reported the Environmental Protection Agency had delayed deciding whether to increase the allowable ethanol blend in gasoline to 15 percent, a decision that was widely criticized by the ethanol industry. The industry has launched a public-relations blitz, calling ethanol "America’s clean fuel" and blanketing Washington, D.C., with ads saying "No beaches have been closed due to ethanol spills," but is the fuel as clean as the industry says? "There has been hot debate about whether carbon emissions from ethanol production and use are lower than those from oil and whether the 33 percent of the U.S. corn crop diverted to ethanol drives up the price of food," Erica Gies reports for The New York Times. "Local effects of ethanol production, however, including water pollution and consumption, have received less scrutiny."

The EPA ruling was delayed because the agency said further research was needed into the chances that fuel would corrode conventional car engines at higher percentages. "As ethanol plants have sprouted, mostly in the Midwestern Corn Belt, environmental effects have followed," Gies writes. "An analysis by Perry Beeman, a reporter for the Des Moines Register in Iowa, found 394 violations of environmental regulations by ethanol processing plants in that state between 2001 and 2007." A 2008 study reported that increasing corn production to meet the 2007 renewable fuels target would increase nitrogen pollution in the Gulf of Mexico by 10 to 34 percent.

"There may be a small number of acres coming into production, but they are likely highly environmentally sensitive," Craig Cox, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources for the Environmental Working Group and a former undersecretary for natural resources at the Agriculture Department, told Gies. Investment in corn ethanol "seems like a very expensive detour from an energy policy point of view," said Craig Cox, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources for EWG, told Gies. "This is really agricultural policy masquerading as energy policy." (Read more)

First round of economic-stimulus rural broadband funding could offer insight into future awards

The Rural Utilities Service recently released its detailed report of the first round of rural broadband awards from the economic stimulus package, offering insight for communities planning to apply for the next round of funding, one expert writes. RUS awarded $1.068 billion to 68 recipients in 31 states and one U.S. territory in the first round, and details on many of the projects that received awards can be found at Connecting Rural America. Craig Settles, an Oakland, Calif., Internet consultant, writes for the Daily Yonder, "Before diving into the report, it’s important to remember that this was a process unlike any previous broadband initiative. Though the stimulus program received a lot of criticism, much good came from it that will ripple out to other communities."

RUS reports the projects it funded will bring broadband service to 529,249 households, 92,754 businesses, and 3,332 anchor institutions such as schools, libraries and hospitals across more than 172,000 square miles and will create approximately 5,000 immediate and direct jobs. The first-round awards included a heavy emphasis on wired networks, with 48 projects being fiber networks and 14 Digital Subscriber Lines, while only 23 are wireless. Settles disagrees with that emphasis, writing he believed "RUS could have gotten a bigger bang for its bucks even for last-mile projects by funding more proposals that were heavy on wireless -- such as WiMAX -- while relying on fiber mainly for select institutions."

"The decision to fund 49 non-remote last-mile networks is helpful," Settles writes. "As West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller pointed out, many communities are well within 50 miles of major metropolitan areas (the cutoff point for being considered 'remote'), but due to geographic obstacles they are as lacking in broadband as communities in remote areas are." Settles concludes that after examining the round one awards you can "be reasonably satisfied that quite a few communities should benefit from the stimulus program. It depends on whom you speak with, though, whether you think that the program will achieve as much as it could. We'll all know more late next year, when some of these projects should bear early fruit." (Read more)

Russia lifts embargo on American poultry products

Russia announced last week it was ending its embargo of U.S. poultry, a move the industry says could pay huge dividends domestically. In Minnesota, the country's No. 1 state for turkey and No. 10 for chicken and eggs, the move to end the five-month embargo was seen as a positive because "more of the turkey raised in the state is exported to other countries than consumed in-state," Derek Wallbank of the Minnesota Post reports. "It's a pretty large deal," Steve Olson, the executive director of  the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and the Broiler and Egg Association of Minnesota, told Wallbank. "Russia is the third-largest foreign market for us."

"Russia had been the No. 2 export market for Minnesota turkey, but a rise in Chinese demand coupled with on-and-off embargos dropped it to third," Wallbank writes. "Nationally, it remains the No. 1 foreign destination for U.S. turkey, with $800 million worth of turkey exported there annually." Olson told Wallbank he's "guardedly optimistic," noting that the details of how and when the ban would be lifted have yet to be ironed out. (Read more)

In a statement praising the decision U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, which recently became a big chicken state, said, "This is great news for the thousands of Kentuckians whose livelihoods depend on the poultry industry." Over the last three years, Kentucky exported $150 million in poultry to Russia and has 7,000 poultry industry employees and around 800 growers in 42 of its counties, a McConnell release said.

New leader of Appalachian Regional Commission looks for new strategies amid criticism

When the Appalachian Regional Commission was founded in 1965 one in three Appalachians lived in poverty and 223 of the 420 counties in the region were classified as distressed. Today that number has dropped to 86 but not everyone in the region believes the ARC has been the driving force behind that improvement, Travis Crayton reports for the Daily Yonder. "Too much money was being put into roads and not enough into community development of smaller communities," Helen Lewis, a sociologist and educator who has written extensively about Appalachia and who was among the ARC’s early critics, told Crayton. "I think they could’ve done more to preserve community health centers, [and] they could’ve done more on some of the health problems."

Today ARC co-chair Eric Gohl, in his fourth month on the job, maintains the ARC has a record of accomplishment but is working to develop a new strategic plan to guide funding from 2011 to 2016 and outline the agency’s priorities. Gohl said he sees himself as an "Appalachian advocate, responsible for listening to governors and local communities and monitoring emerging issues in the region," Crayton writes. "From 2000 to 2007, Appalachia lost 424,000 manufacturing jobs and 35,000 jobs in mining, forestry, and natural resources. And that was before the start of the recession," Gohl told Crayton. "We have our work cut out for us in helping to create new, well paying jobs to replace all the ones that have been lost."

"There are still a lot of infrastructure challenges," Gohl added. "There are still places that don’t have clean drinking water or sanitary sewer systems, but I think the real key to turning the region around is education, training, [and] entrepreneurship. I hope the agency will keep a focus on that." Steve Fisher, a longtime educator and activist in the region, said he doesn't see how the agency can be reformed. "It’s a top-down approach," he said. "The problem with that approach is that it doesn’t work. You’ve had an improvement in the statistics in terms of poverty, but that’s a general thing that you see throughout the country. [The ARC] will claim to have taken credit for the economic development of the region, but it has not fundamentally changed the economic situation or the policy situation. It has always stayed away from issues that are at the core of what’s the matter in the region." (Read more)

Abortion pills being dispensed in rural Iowa via telemedicine; Operation Rescue objects

An anti-abortion group has asked for a criminal investigation of Planned Parenthood's unique use of telemedicine to dispense abortion pills in rural Iowa, spotlighting rural health-care considerations. Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group based in Kansas, says Planned Parenthood's system, in which a Des Moines physician interacts via computer with patients seeking abortions in small-town clinics, violates a state law requiring that all abortions be performed by a physician and has asked the state attorney general to investigate, Tony Leys of the Des Moines Register reports.

Under the system, the first of its kind in the country, a doctor meets with the patient via video conference. "Once the doctor is satisfied that the patient meets the criteria, he or she enters a computer command that opens a drawer in front of the patient," Leys writes. "The patient then reaches into the drawer, retrieves the abortion pills and takes the first dose as the doctor watches." The pills are available to women in the first nine weeks of pregnancy, The New York Times reports.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland leaders told the Register that the system is a safe way to provide abortions in towns where the procedure otherwise would not be available. Patients are examined by on-site nurses before the video appointment and receive follow-up appointments to check for complications. Operation Rescue disagrees, writing, "Please fully investigate this risky 'telemed abortion' scheme, and take whatever legal action is appropriate, including injunctive relief and criminal charges, to protect women from an abortion process that is apparently illegal and certainly dangerous," in its letter to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. A spokesman for Miller said he didn't believe the attorney general had received the letter yet, but he thought the matter was better left to the Iowa Board of Medicine, with which the group had previously filed a complaint. (Read more)

Experts warn rural grocery closings could accelerate; Kansas lost 3 of every 8 in last 3 years

Experts say the long-running trend of rural grocery stores closing appears to be picking up steam. The grocery industry and government doesn't keep statistics on rural stores in particular, but a recent Kansas State University study revealed more than 38 percent of the groceries in Kansas towns of fewer than 2,500 people closed between 2006 (when there were 213 such groceries) and 2009, Betsy Blaney of The Associated Press reports. David Proctor, who studies rural communities at KSU, which has a Rural Grocery Initiative, explained that it isn't just a store that goes when groceries close. "Such closures rob towns of their vitality, with the loss of gathering places and sales tax revenue to fund local governments," Blaney writes.

"If you start to lose something key like a grocery store, people aren't likely to move there if they don't have access to food," Kathie Starkweather of the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs told Blaney. Lois Wright Morton, an ISU rural communities researcher, points to some rural residents' preference to drive to larger towns and cities with a Wal-Mart or Target as one factor in rural grocery closures. These bigger supermarkets generally boast lower prices and larger selections but the distance to these stores can be particularly troublesome for the elderly and those who can't travel.

The Obama administration hopes its Healthy Food Financing Initiative will mitigate the problem. The departments of Treasury, Agriculture and Health and Human Services would spend $400 million a year "to bring grocery stores and other healthy food retailers to underserved urban and rural communities," Blaney writes, though it isn't clear yet how the money will be split between urban and rural areas. Nonprofit groups and some motivated local residents have also sprung up in some areas to address the problem. "It's like everything else," Craig Chancellor, who closed his small grocery in the Texas Panhandle in November, told Blaney. "You don't appreciate it until it's not there anymore." (Read more)

Gish family of The Mountain Eagle wins top award from international weekly editors' group

A family that has published a crusading Appalachian weekly for more than 53 years won the top awards at the annual conference of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, which ended last night with an awards banquet at Eastern Kentucky University.

The Gish family of The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., won ISWNE's Eugene Cervi Award for their outstanding public service through community journalism. Ben Gish, right, accepted the award on behalf of his father, Tom, who died in 2008, and his mother, Pat, who has Alzheimer's Disease.

The award is named for Eugene Cervi, who was editor of the Rocky Mountain Journal in Denver. Former ISWNE President Tim Waltner, who presented the award, said he had no doubt that Cervi, like Tom Gish the son of a coal miner, would be pleased with the selection. "For the past five decades the Gish family has continued to make a difference, not only in the community of Whitesburg, but literally across this country . . . Their commitment to craft and to the people in their community reflects the highest ideals of community journalism." (Read more) For a detailed report on the conference, click here.

Editors of sister weeklies in Wisconsin town both win in international editorial-writing contest

Abbottsford, Wis. (Wikipedia map) is not only blessed with two weekly newspapers, but two of the best editorial writers among weeklies in several English-speaking countries, at least according to the results of the 2010 contest of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. Both papers, which are owned by the same company, placed in the Golden Dozen, the 12 editorials judged the best among 96 entries in the contest.

Kevin O'Brien, editor of the Tribune-Phonograph, won for an editorial that pointed out the hyypocrisy of a new mayor who promised more openness in government but joined the city council president in "retreating to the city-hall offices  to discuss the matter privately" when the president objected to the mayor's committee appointments.

Peter Weinschenk, editor of the Record-Review, won for an editorial criticizing the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for a poor process for planning local highway improvements. It began, "First, you get a cart, and next, a horse. Importantly, you put the horse before the cart. These are transportation basics."

The top winner of the contest, and recipient of the Golden Quill award, was Mo Mehlsak of The Forecaster of Falmouth, Maine. The judges said he explained "an intricate series of city and school official maneuverings . . . in such a way that readers unfamiliar with the political figures and events can understand the problem," the school superintendent's undue influence over the appointment of a board member. To read the editorial, click here.

Others in the Golden Dozen were David Giffey, editor of the Home News in Spring Green, Wis.; Dick Crockford, publisher of the Dillon Tribune in Montana; Marcia Martinek, editor of the Herald Democrat in Leadville, Colo.; Mark Brown, executive editor of By The Sea Future of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Fla.; M. Dickey Drysdale, editor-publisher of The Herald of Randolph, Vermont; Paul MacNeill, publisher of the Eastern Graphic in Montague, P.E.I.; John Wylie, publisher of the Oologah Lake Leader in Oklahoma; Bill Knight, columnist for The Zephyr of Galesburg, Ill.; and Tim Waltner, publisher of the Freeman Courier in South Dakota. For a detailed report on the conference, click here.

Hearing shows rural concerns about Saturday mail; has implications for many rural newspapers

Rural areas are among those poised to be hardest hit by a potential end to Saturday mail delivery, said participants in a Postal Regulatory Commission hearing in South Dakota about the proposal. Rural mail carriers at the meeting argued that the 50 percent of South Dakota and North Dakota addresses being served by rural mail routes will be hurt by a five-day delivery schedule, Emilie Rusch of the Rapid City Journal reports. "There are rural routes in South Dakota that are 150 to 170 miles long," Gary Evenson, a rural mail carrier in Rapid City, said "Without Saturday delivery, some customers would have to drive 30, 40 or 50 miles or more roundtrip to go to the post office."

The South Dakota event was the sixth of seven PSC public hearings being conducted nationwide, with previous stops in Las Vegas, Sacramento, Dallas, Memphis and Chicago. Marie Therese Dominguez, vice president of government relations and public policy for the Postal Service, told Evensopn that eliminating Saturday mail delivery would save $3 billion annually. "We've known for a long time that our business model was broken," Dominguez said. "If we do absolutely nothing, if we make no efforts to cut costs, we're going to face a $238 billion deficit by 2020."

"Rural carriers also expressed concern about the job losses that would follow the elimination of Saturday mail delivery," Evenson writes. Brad Duffy, president of the South Dakota Rural Letter Carriers Association, reported that 43,000 rural carriers deliver mail on Saturdays. Clem Felchle, manager of the Dakotas District for the U.S. Postal Service, said if Saturday delivery is ended rural carriers will adjust. "When I lived in rural America, did I expect the same exact services I got living in a big city?" Felchle said. "You make those choices. The more remote you are, the fewer services you have." (Read more)

The end of Saturday mail could disrupt many newspapers; some have recently switched to the mail as their primary delivery service. Christopher Huckle of the Cadillac News in Michigan told the commission at a hearing in Chicago that "Loss of Saturday mail will force his company to face either major revenue loss or the need to create a new private delivery service—a tough assignment for a family-owned newspaper," the National Newspaper Association reports.

Iowa study suggests big farms good for small towns

The Obama administration's focus on small farms and rural development has been questioned by some Republicans and agribusiness interests. A new study from Iowa State University, which suggests that large farms are a net benefit to small towns, may increase those criticisms. The study, conducted by ISU sociologists, looked at the effect of large farms on the social fabric of small towns, Ken Anderson of Brownfield reports. "We wanted to know, is large-scale agriculture—are large-scale hog confinement operations—a negative influence on the quality of life in these communities?" said Steve Sapp, ISU professor of sociology and coordinator of the study. "We found that there are small favorable effects—not a boom—but at least not negative, so far."

The ISU study, which looked at income growth, unemployment rates, crime and several other factors that help define the quality of life in a community, was conducted in small towns in all of Iowa’s 99 counties during the decade from 1994 to 2004. Sapp said while the positive effects found were modest, they were not the negative effect some may have expected. "This is not talking about the immediate neighbors that have to suffer the consequences of living near large hog confinement operations," Sapp told Anderson. "This is looking at the community and the overall quality of life in the community—and the census figures, as well as survey data from the residents shows—at least it’s not a strong negative." (Read more)

Supreme Court reverses lower court's ban on genetically engineered alfalfa

In its first ruling on genetically modified crops, the U.S. Supreme Court this week overturned a lower court ruling that had prohibited the planting of alfalfa seeds to engineered to resist Monsanto's Roundup Ready herbicide. "The decision was a victory for Monsanto and others in the agricultural biotechnology industry, with potential implications for other cases, like one involving genetically engineered sugar beets," Andrew Pollack of The New York Times reports. "But in practice the decision is not likely to measurably speed up the resumption of planting of the genetically engineered alfalfa." The court reversed a lower-court ruling 7-1.

A San Francisco federal district judge ruled in 2007 that the Department of Agriculture had approved the genetically altered alfalfa without properly considering its environmental impact. The judge vacated USDA's approval and implemented a nationwide ban on planting those seeds. The court decided the lower court "national ban prevented the Agriculture Department from considering a partial approval," Pollack writes. "That avenue, the court said, would have allowed some of the alfalfa to be grown under certain conditions; for example, isolating it from conventional alfalfa."

"The district court barred the agency from pursuing any deregulation — no matter how limited the geographic area in which planting of RRA would be allowed," Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in the opinion, referring to Roundup Ready alfalfa. The Supreme Court did not remove the lower court's rejection of approving the alfalfa crop, meaning USDA will have to fully or partially approve it before planting can resume. "Monsanto and farmers in the United States are thrilled with this decision, which is far-reaching in its look at the regulatory framework that should govern biotech crops," David F. Snively, Monsanto’s general counsel, said. George A. Kimbrell of the Center for Food Safety, one of the groups challenging the crop's approval, disagreed, saying "I think the practical impact is nil." (Read more)

Marcellus Shale drilling sites are piling up too fast for West Virginia agency to keep inspected

Most of the focus of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling has been on New York and Pennsylvania, but now the West Virginia Department of Environmental Regulation says the number of gas wells being permitted in the state's portion of the formation is growing faster than the agency's ability to keep pace. DEP records show "the number of permits issued for unconventional drilling operations more than tripled between 2007 and 2009, but the number of inspectors increased by only one," Vicki Smith of The Associated Press reports.

Four more inspectors are on the payroll this year, but DEP Secretary Randy Huffman "acknowledges 18 people are not enough to handle not only more than 1,000 new Marcellus wells, but also tens of thousands of traditional, shallow gas wells," Smith writes. "We simply do not have the number of people necessary to do the job," Huffman told AP. "It's easy to issue a permit. What I think we're doing is issuing permits faster than we have the ability to keep up with them on the ground." The DEP plans a "comprehensive, top-down look" at its Division of Oil and Gas within the next few months to present to Gov. Joe Manchin in November.

"Any rush to judgment would be a mistake," Charlie Burd, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, told AP. "It's not like there's some tremendously critical issue out there that should be driving this. I think everyone concerned will be better off if we take our time and do it right as opposed to reacting quickly." Burd called the DEP's timeline for the agency review "very aggressive." (Read more)

MIT says natural gas will continue to displace coal

A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has good news for the natural-gas industry and dire predictions for coal. The report released today projects "Natural gas will provide an increasing share of America’s energy needs over the next several decades, doubling its share of the energy market to 40 percent, from 20 percent," Matthew L. Wald of The New York Times reports. "The increase, the report concluded, will come largely at the expense of coal and will be driven both by abundant supplies of natural gas — made more available by shale drilling — and by measures to restrict the carbon dioxide emissions that are linked to climate change."

The report does project a dimmer future for natural gas over the long term if President Obama is successful in passing his recommended stricter regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. The authors concluded, "although lower in carbon than coal, natural gas is still too carbon-intensive to be used under such a target absent some method of carbon capture," Wald writes. The report was financed in part by natural-gas industry group the American Clean Skies Foundation.

The report was part of a series on energy resources, including others about nuclear power and coal, and "is the result of a two-year effort by 14 prominent energy experts, led by Ernest J. Moniz, an MIT professor who is a former undersecretary of energy," Wald writes. "T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman, said that the study paid too much attention to the electricity sector and not enough to using natural gas as a substitute for gasoline and diesel in transportation," Wald writes, while Gregory C. Staple, chief executive of the ACSF, concluded "There is no longer any doubt that we have the capacity to repower our electricity sector and move away from dirtier fuels." (Read more)

Weekly editors' group explores Kentucky's Bluegrass and Appalachian coalfield

The annual conference of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors spent the day in Kentucky's Appalachian coalfield today, after starting the annual event yesterday in the Bluegrass Region at a distillery, the state capital of Frankfort and the horse farm of former Gov. Brereton Jones. The first stop today was International Coal Group's Rowdy Mine, a 3,000-acre mountaintop-removal job north of Hazard, where a 150-ton rock truck dwarfed Bruce Chomma of the Zambian Institute of Mass Communication. ICG and Kentucky Coal Association officials answered many questions about mountaintop removal and the coal industry.

The group went to Whitesburg to visit The Mountain Eagle, a nationally honored weekly, and then to Appalshop, the 41-year-old media-and-arts cooperative, where filmmaker Elizabeth Barret discussed "Stranger With a Camera," her popular documentary centered on a local man's killing 43 years ago of Hugh O'Connor, a Canadian who was filming renters in the man's substandard housing. The film explores media representations of Appalachia and local reactions to national media; Barret discussed with the editors the reactions of local people to her film, released in 2000.

The conference continues today with a day of programming from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues on "Weeklies and the Web." Tomorrow are the editorial critiques, the longest-running feature of ISWNE conferences, and the awards banquet. The conference is headquartered at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. For a story by Ivy Brashear of the Hazard Herald on the Eastern Kentucky trip, click here.

N.C. has little regulation of guns in plain sight, but some advocates want even less

Gun-rights advocates are divided about open-carry laws that would allow individuals to openly display weapons, and their division may be most prevalent in North Carolina, where little regulation exists for plain-sight weapons. "A national pro-gun Internet group, opencarry.org, ranks the state among the friendliest to those who wear a weapon for all the world to see," Josh Shaffer of the Charlotte Observer reports. "Unlike concealed weapons, plain-sight guns are almost totally unregulated in North Carolina, where only a misdemeanor 'going armed to the terror of the public' speaks to the issue."

Before 1995 it was legal in North Carolina to openly carry a gun almost anywhere, but the state concealed weapons law restricted carrying guns, concealed or otherwise, in schools and government buildings. Private businesses also have the right to post signs prohibiting guns on their premises. "For some gun rights advocates, carrying an unconcealed gun is an opportunity to vigorously exercise their Second Amendment rights," Shaffer writes, adding "There is nervousness about open carry, even among lifelong gun folks."

Paul Valone, president of nonprofit firearms group Grass Roots North Carolina, even has his own doubts about open-carry laws, Shaffer reports. Valone advocates removing many of the restrictions attached to North Carolina's concealed carry law but notes if somebody were robbing a convenience store in which he were buying a soda, he would rather they not know he was carrying a gun. But still the right to openly carry a weapon is among the most important to some. "The Constitution doesn't say I have the right to keep and bear arms if I keep them concealed," Eric Shuford, an instructor at the Wake County gun range, told Shaffer. "It says I have the right to keep and bear arms." (Read more)

Western Kentucky man finds largest Clovis point ever found in North America

For lifelong artifact hunter Darrel Higgins, finding an arrowhead was nothing new, but the one he found recently in Western Kentucky was special: It is bigger than any other ever found in North America. "The item, described as a Clovis point made of Buffalo River chert, was submerged in a creek bed when Higgins stumbled upon it," Kyser Lough of the Murray Ledger & Times reports. Eastern Kentucky artifact expert Tom Davis dated the point back to the days when prehistoric man roamed the earth and hunted large game, perhaps 15,000 years ago, and reported the 9 3/4 inch by 2 3/4 inch specimen sets a new North American record by measure.

"As soon as I picked it up, I knew what I had," Higgins, who declined to say where exactly he found the arrowhead, told Lough. "It's usually a long walk back to my truck. Not that day, I was walking on air." He added "There are some skeptics because of the size of it. But it's a record. There's one as long found in Washington state but it's not as wide." Higgins lives in Hickman County but "said he has found items in the Lynn Grove area of Calloway County and knows people who have uncovered artifacts in the Clarks River," Lough writes. He hasn't decided whether to sell the arrowhead. (Read more)

Massey Energy sues mine-safety agency in battle over underground ventilation plans

Massey Energy, owner of the West Virginia mine where 29 workers were killed in an April explosion, has filed a lawsuit against the Mine Safety and Health Administration for failing to approve ventilation practices that would have benefited the safety and health of miners. The company, which is under investigation by MSHA for the explosion, said its constitutional rights were violated because it couldn't challenge agency's ventilation-plan rules under federal law, Kris Maher of The Wall Street Journal reports.

In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Massey said MSHA "prevented the company from using dust scrubbers in its mines that would filter out dust that is dangerous for miners to breathe," Maher writes. Shane Harvey, Massey's general counsel, explained "The goal of the lawsuit is pretty simple. It's to retain some control of the ventilation plans our mines operate under."

An MSHA spokeswoman told Maher the agency doesn't comment on pending litigation, but the agency has said previously "It restricted the use of scrubbers at Massey mines because the equipment wasn't cleaning the air adequately," Maher writes. Ventilation issues are at the heart of the civil probe the MSHA is conducting into the April 5 explosion, Maher reports, but Harvey said the lawsuit is unrelated to the explosion. (Read more)

Wendell Berry yanks papers from U.Ky. after coal donation puts mineral into basketball dorm name

In October we reported the University of Kentucky had accepted a donation from a group led by Alliance Coal CEO Joe Craft to fund a new dormitory for the men's basketball team and add "Coal" as a middle name to the current one, Wildcat Lodge. In response to that decision and other university policies, Wendell Berry, left, one of the state's most famous authors, is removing his personal papers from the university's archives. "Berry excoriated his alma matter in a Dec. 20, 2009, letter, saying the decision . . . 'puts an end' to his association with the university," Cheryl Truman of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. The paper obtained the letter through an open records request.

"The university's president and board have solemnized an alliance with the coal industry, in return for a large monetary 'gift,' granting to the benefactors, in effect, a co-sponsorship of the university's basketball team," Berry wrote in the typewritten letter. He also faulted the school's emphasis on becoming a "Top 20" research university and President Lee Todd's "exclusive 'focus' on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics." Berry concluded, "It is now obviously wrong, unjust and unfair, for your space and work to be encumbered by a collection of papers that I no longer can consider donating to the university." They will go to the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort.

Berry, a UK alumnus and former professor there, told the Herald-Leader that the UK trustees' decision to accept the Coal Lodge donation was the "final straw" and said "If they love the coal industry that much, I have to cancel my friendship." UK spokesman Jimmy Stanton said in a statement, "We do regret that our students and researchers who wish to study his life and works will now be unable to access all of his previously donated works in one archive that contains the papers of many of Kentucky's greatest writers." The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues is based in the UK School of Journalism and Telecommunications. (Read more)

Only 2 percent of climate scientists doubt mainstream research, but have much influence

"The vast majority of climate scientists believe that humans are driving global warming, according to a new study," ClimateWire reports, but the study says the small remainder have "received large amounts of media attention and wields significant influence in the societal debate about climate change impacts and policy."

"Between 97 and 98 percent of the world's top climate researchers agree with the major conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- that it is 'very likely' that greenhouse gases produced by human activity have produced 'most' of the 'unequivocal' warming of Earth's average global temperature during the latter half of the 20th Century," Lauren Morello writes for ClimateWire, a service of Environment & Energy News.

The study, published in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted by a team of scientists led by Stanford University climatologist Stephen Schneider. They analyzed the publication records of 1,372 climate scientists, divided them into those who agreed or disagreed with the IPCC's major conclusions, then reduced the field to 908 subjects by removing those who had published fewer than 20 climate-change studies.

The skeptics "account for just 2 percent of the top 50 climate researchers, which the study authors determined by looking at how many scientific papers each researcher had published," Morello writes. "Moreover, the study found that a majority of climate skeptics -- 80 percent -- had each published fewer than 20 papers on climate change. Just 10 percent of scientists who agree with the IPCC's conclusions fell into the 20-papers-or-less category." (Read more, subscription required)

Nebraska town's proposed ordinance displays small-town tensions over immigration

UPDATE: The ordinance passed, 57 percent to 43 percent, the Fremont Tribune reports.

Arizona has garnered most of the recent headlines about illegal immigration, but the issue has come to the heart of the country as Fremont, Neb., votes today on a controversial proposed ordinance. "Residents will decide whether to ban businesses from hiring illegal immigrants and bar landlords from renting to them," Monica Davey of The New York Times reports. "Residents demanded the vote, fighting off challenges by some of their elected leaders all the way to the state Supreme Court." The Fremont law was written with help of one author of the Arizona anti-immigration law.

Locals on both sides of the debate report instances of violence and threats against them for speaking out in favor of or against the proposed law. "The Hispanic population, while growing, still makes up less than 10 percent of Fremont, yet some say they blame illegal immigrants for what they see as a rise in crime here, the loss of good jobs for local residents and a shift in the culture," Davey writes. "After Fremont’s political leaders rejected an ordinance intended to keep illegal immigrants out, residents fought back and insisted, finally getting approval in the Nebraska Supreme Court to take the matter straight to voters." John Wiegert, a local supporter of the initiative, explained, "We have to start somewhere. Hiding under your desk in a city office isn’t going to help."

Fremont, a "1850s-era railroad and farming town, about 30 miles northwest of Omaha, included 165 Hispanic residents in 1990 by some estimates," Davey writes. "The number is closer to 2,000 now. No one really knows how many illegal immigrants live here, but peoples’ claims about statistics vary wildly." Dean Skokan, the city attorney, told Davey he knows of no data compiled here on crimes by ethnicity or national origin. "City officials have said the cost of fighting court challenges — presumably, claims that the law would improperly infringe on federal authority — would probably run into the millions," Davey writes. (Read more)

Cindy Gonzalez of the Omaha World-Herald reports, "At least 40 cities across the country have considered illegal immigration laws similar to the one" proposed in Fremont. "In most cases, the measures died before they got out of City Council chambers or later were repealed. Two high-profile ordinances that did advance — in Hazleton, Pa., and Farmers Branch, Texas — have yet to be enforced because they've been tied up in costly court battles for four years. So without a U.S. town that actually has gone the distance and implemented a local immigration law dealing with housing or employment or both, Fremont essentially is in uncharted territory." (Read more)

The Fremont Tribune notes that the polls close at 8 p.m. CDT and "Results of the election will be posted as soon as possible on the Fremont Tribune's website."

Departing editor spanks local officials in print, says she's been doing it for years

Samantha Swindler is leaving her job as managing editor of the Corbin Times-Tribune in southeastern Kentucky to become general manager of the Tillamook Headlight-Herald on the Oregon coast, west of Portland. She will leave behind a strong four-year record of holding accountable local officials who often view their public offices as private possessions, and she delivered an exclamation point of sorts over the weekend with a column that dressed down the leaders of the town of 8,000.

The column began, "I wasn’t particularly surprised with how Corbin city commissioners voted Monday night because, like all major decisions, it was made long before the public meeting." Having implicitly asserted that the commission routinely violates the state Open Meetings Act, Swindler then pulled up the rope that city officals provided for their own hanging, not on issues of legality but of courtesy and public policy.

"What was surprising is how the commissioners and city manager reacted when a room full of citizens and business owners came to participate in the democratic process," specifically to object to making the city's Main Street program manager part time, "ensuring [she] will be forced to find another job," Swindler wrote. "In a town where so much government goes wrong, her program and minimal budget actually produced results for the community." The city manager dismissed the speakers, eventually saying “I’m through.”

As for the reason cited for the cut, a tight budget, Swindler suggested the commission wasted money by giving $50,000 to the local economic-development agency, "an organization which, for the life of me, I can find no reason for its existence. ... The members of those boards don’t even know what the director is working on because of “confidentiality” of potential businesses. The director’s reports are notoriously vague and don’t even offer the slightest hint of what we might be getting for his $78,000 salary. ... Economic development isn’t just about luring in a 100-person factory every five years. It’s also about improving the community to make it attractive to both potential businesses and tourists," in the town where Col. Harland Sanders founded Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In closing, Swindler noted the prospect of an uncontested election for the city commission this fall. "If you’re not happy with those choices, I suggest someone start a write-in candidate campaign and challenge those who, occasionally, ought to be challenged. Because we really need a new kind of politics here." (Read more)

We asked Swindler if she was less inhibited with the editorial because she is leaving town. She replied, "I was careful not to write anything that I wouldn't be proud to stand behind long-term. I didn't want to do one of those angry, finger-wagging, 'and another thing...' going-away columns that comes across as bitter. I tried to make it a positive piece, at least in the aspect of creating community through Main Street. But that economic development agency? That's a darn joke. I've written stuff about them before ... and I've been writing columns like that for years. That stuff needed to be said, and I hope I said it strongly without coming across as simply spiteful." Tillamook's gain is Corbin's loss.

Corn ethanol has become clearly energy-efficient

Corn growers are raising crops that have more starch and thus produce more ethanol, and they are also getting better yields per acre, giving the fuel a much more positive energy balance than it once had, according to an Agriculture Department report released today.

"Corn ethanol supplies twice the amount of energy that is required to make it," Katherine Ling summarizes for Environment & Energy News. "For every British thermal unit (Btu) of energy required to make corn ethanol, 2.3 Btu is produced, the report says. The ratio is higher, it adds, if companies use biomass energy in ethanol production." (Read more, subscription required)

The report is based on surveys of corn growers in 2005 and ethanol production plants in fall 2008 and winter 2009. "Ethanol has made the transition from an energy sink, to a moderate net energy gain in the 1990s, to a substantial net energy gain in the present, USDA said in a press release. "And there are still prospects for improvement." For a PDF of the report, go here.

Internet helping boost rural entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is up across the country, but with the help of non-profit organizations and the rise of broadband Internet access, rural areas may getting more than their usual share of business startups. "From 2008 to 2009, the number of self-employed Americans increased by 200,000 to 8.9 million, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm," Wade Hilligoss of ABC News reports. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, which helps entrepreneurs, reports U.S. startups reached their highest level in 14 years in 2009, with entrepreneurship in rural areas spiking too.

"Places like Nebraska, Iowa ... there's a lot of growth in that area," E.J. Reedy, a manager in research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation, told ABC. Before the rise of the Internet, one of the biggest barriers to success for rural entrepreneurs was "the sheer distance from buyers and suppliers," Hilligoss writes, "but that is no longer an issue because they can reach customers online anywhere in the world." Katrina Frey, above, who expanded her home-based gourmet jellies and syrups business from the local western Nebraska farmers' market online, explained, "The Internet has expanded my borders. It's made it so I can be in a little town of 300 and still operate a business beyond those borders. It's made it so I'm just not limited to those county lines." (Photo by Frey)

Janell Anderson Ehrke, founder and CEO of Grow Nebraska, a non-profit educational organization that helps startup business owners in the state, cautions, "while the Internet has opened the doors for many rural entrepreneurs, it also has created a very competitive marketplace," Hilligoss writes. Now her group, funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and others, spends most of its time educating businesses about the fine points of online marketing. "Getting involved on the Internet is a little bit of everything. You can't be afraid to take a chance or think outside the box," Frey told ABC. "Whether you are rural or in big cities, you can be a little guy and still look like a big guy." (Read more)

Agriculture Department invests in mobile slaughterhouses to support local-food movement

"The slaughtermobile, a stainless steel industrial facility on wheels, is catching on across the country, filling a desperate need in a burgeoning movement to bring people closer to their food," reports Lyndsey Layton of The Washington Post. "It is also perhaps one of the most visible symbols of a subtle transformation at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, long criticized for promoting big agribusiness." (The News Tribune photo by Dean J. Koepfler)

"There is unbelievable consumer interest in local agriculture that we haven't seen in decades," Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, who is overseeing the USDA's "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program, told Layton. The number of federally inspected slaughterhouses has dropped from 1,627 in 1980 to 1,051 in 2010, Layton reports, and now only four corporations slaughter 80 percent of U.S. cattle. In Wyoming, there isn't a single federal- or state- inspected slaughterhouse. USDA is hoping to promote small meat producers by "funding and approving more mobile slaughter units, staffing each one with a federal inspector, educating farmers and USDA employees about the units, and setting clear guidelines for farmers who want to build one," Layton writes.

"There are farming operations that are really big and do huge volumes of food and that's part of American agriculture and that's good," Merrigan told Layton. "But there are a lot of people who want to do alternative markets, and we want to find a way to help them find a living and stay in rural America and help those towns and villages thrive. This really is a rural development strategy." USDA approved the first mobile slaughterhouse in 2002 and has since certified eight others for large animals. Still mobile slaughterhouses face their own challenges: they are subject to the same costly federal sanitary standards as permanent facilities, they need potable water and a way to dispose of animal waste and farmers must form cooperatives to purchase and operate the units. (Read more)

Website hopes to fill gap it sees in news coverage of 3-state rural region 'filled with smart people'

Two former New York City journalists have launched a website aimed at serving a four-county, three-state rural region they say is underserved by traditional, mainstream media. Rural Intelligence is the brainchild of Marilyn Bethany and Dan Shaw, who have both worked as editors and reporters at The New York Times and New York magazine. They say they hope to provide "reliable information source for people like themselves, who routinely do business and seek recreation and entertainment in four counties: Berkshire in Massachusetts, Columbia and northern Dutchess in New York, and northern Litchfield in Connecticut. (MapQuest image: star on Millerton, N.Y., biggest town near junction of the three states)

Bethany and Shaw "have taken their combined 40 years of experience in print journalism with the technology of the day to create this Rural Intelligence, which treats this uniquely sophisticated region as one big neighborhood," the site says. "Their hope is that sharing information will foster a sense of community that transcends county and state boundaries. Rural Intelligence is the place where full-time residents and weekenders can come together to share their passion for culture and country life." The seven-person staff divides its content into sections about food, arts, style, road trips, community, kids and, perhaps of most interest to the national audience, an AgriCulture blog.

We asked Shaw if the site's name was chosen to confront or refute the notion of many uirbanites that "rural" is a synonym for "unsophisticated." He replied, "It was chosen not as a political statement so much as for the fact that the region we call home is very rural, which is quite amazing considering it is 100 miles from Manhattan. And it is filled with smart people; thus, Rural Intelligence." Visit the site here.

Wal-Mart buying more local food, but shipping much of it due to supply difficulties

Wal-Mart is ramping up its local food selections, in an effort to help support small and midsize farms as well as improve its corporate image, but some are questioning the program's logistics. As part of its "Heritage Agriculture" program, "The company is building up smaller farms to get more local produce into stores for both economic and environmental reasons," Kelly Macneil of National Public Radio reports. "A surprising percentage, on many crops, of the cost of the goods is the freight," Ron McCormick, the head of the program, told Macneil.

"McCormick says most local farmers just aren't prepared to supply the retail giant with the huge quantity and consistent quality of produce it requires," Macneil reports. "[It] seemed to be a win all across the board if we could use our buying power to reinvigorate some of those old agricultural areas that had been abandoned over time," McCormick added. Randy Clanton, a southern Arkansas tomato grower and owner of a farm where Wal-Mart has taken a vested interest, says the retail giant has "helped make his operation more professional, especially in the area of food safety," Macneil writes.

"It gives us a sense of security whenever we go out here and start kicking the dirt out here and cranking up ole John Deeres up to get ready," Clanton said of Wal-Mart's investment. "If you know you've got a market out there — that gives you a reason to get up out of bed every morning." While many welcome the ripple effect of any local food investment by Wal-Mart, some have questioned if the Heritage Agriculture program is actually a local-food initiative. "You can do a Heritage Agriculture program and buy certain products grown in Connecticut for your Connecticut stores," Jim Prevor, who used to work in produce distribution but now writes the blog Perishable Pundit, told Macneil. "But in the end it's not going to be a significant part of that Connecticut store's produce sales because most of the months of the year you can't grow anything in Connecticut." (Read more)

Brandy Ayers, journalist for 50 years, looks back and ahead – and sees a future for newspapers

Anniston Star Publisher H. Brandt Ayers, whom we know as "Brandy," is marking his 50th year in journalism with colums reflecting on the past, present and future of the craft and of his small daily newspaper, which has won far more than its share of awards and set an example for enlightened ownership. His latest piece touts the virtues of family-owned papers and their critical role in smaller towns and cities.

Ayers reminds readers that he is gradually transferring ownership of his Consolidated Publishing Co. to "a foundation that will preserve a community-owned and managed newspaper for as long as Fate and technology allow. The family paper, once the dominant form of ownership, is disappearing. There are fewer than 250 left out of roughly 1,500 dailies. Their disappearance is part of a vast and growing depersonalization of society."

Ayers says the difference between his paper and "a corporate chain paper" is that "a corporate publisher is a manager dangling at the end of a long corporate chain; he or she either doesn’t care or can’t act independently. I care, deeply. I was born here. The Star is a family legacy. . . . If we were gone, there’d be a near-total news blackout. Radio news is dead, Birmingham TV doesn’t cover us. We’re the only game in town. That is profoundly important because our society is becoming more isolated and depersonalized and suffers a deficit in leadership. The presidents of local banks were generals of a civic army; their officers and directors were the officer corps of that army. That army is gone, replaced by massive corporations who do not see or care about the civic health of a city."

Saying "Big-box stores aren’t gathering places that foster community," Ayers says the Star tries to fill the vacuum, "by using the new electronic press to allow mothers to chat with other mothers about their children and their lives, to offer each other encouragement and exchange pictures and tips," and by "reviving an intense form of local reporting" based in neighborhoods. He hopes readers will use the website "as a town square or back porch where people can drop by and pass the time of day about local affairs or cordially argue with each other."

For the community as a whole, the local paper is the only place "where 4-H Club winners can be seen by their parents and friends," and "As long as there are mothers to cry at their daughters’ weddings, as long as there are fathers to swell with pride at their sons’ exploits on the football field, as long as people fear crime, are suspicious of local politicians, cheer for the economic boost of a new industry, want to know what’s for sale at the mall or mourn the death of beloved citizens, as long as people want to share with others, there will be a need for someone to connect them." (Read more)

Blowout puts Salazar on hot seat, in spotlight

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a son of rural Colorado's San Luis Valley, is very much on the hot seat and in the spotlight as he deals with the Gulf of Mexico oil blowout (which is a rural disaster, Dee Davis reminds us in the Daily Yonder) and the Minerals Management Service that probably helped cause it. Today he is the main subject of major stories in two national newspapers, the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.

John Broder and Gardiner Harris note in the NYT that President Obama recently gave Salazar "a powerful new deputy, Michael R. Bromwich, a veteran investigator and former prosecutor, to supervise the remaking of the minerals service" even though "Salazar had appointed two aides to do the same job just a month before, and that Mr. Bromwich’s new assignment essentially reversed not only that move but also perhaps Mr. Salazar’s entire overhaul plan for the minerals service," which was tarred by corruption in the Bush administration.

The story notes that on May 27, Obama "scolded Mr. Salazar for his cowboy rhetoric," about keeping the federal boot on BP's neck, "and acknowledged his impatience with the pace of change at the minerals service." Since then, Salazar "has become noticeably less visible" than other memnbers of the administration's "Green team," Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson and Obama environmental adviser Carol Browner, who headed EPA under Bill Clinton. Salazar's former colleagues in the Senate defended him. (Read more)

Jim Tankersley of the Tribune Co. Washington Bureau writes in the LAT that Salazar and others in the team "must find ways to stop the leak, clean up millions of gallons of crude and take steps to reassure the public it won't happen again. But the means it has chosen, a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling, risks the fiscal health of the offshore oil industry that sustains much of the Gulf Coast economy. It is in some ways typical territory for Salazar. As Colorado's attorney general, a U.S. senator and now Interior secretary, Salazar has sought out the sort of compromises that rarely leave anyone completely happy." (Read more)