Research paper offers suggestions for turning around Appalachian economy

The economic problems of Central Appalachia reflect the problems of other rural communities with economies based on extracting natural resources across the world. To address those issues, the region must undergo a fundamental change to focus on sustainable economy activities, writes one Appalachian researcher. "A reliance on exporting a few things to generate income to import many things has created enormous problems around the globe, particularly in rural, resource-dependent regions like central Appalachia," Anthony Flaccavento, founder of Appalachian Sustainable Development, writes for the journal Solutions. In his paper Flaccavento examines examples of the shift toward a sustainable economy in Appalachia before offering suggestions for his economic model for the region. (Solutions photo of mountaintop removal mine by Paul Corbit Brown)

The emerging sustainable economy enterprises in the region "vary in scale and stage of development, but, in general, they are more ecologically sustainable because of the way they are produced and the greatly reduced transport distances to market," Flaccavento writes. "They use asset-based strategies, building and adding value to the ecological, cultural, and human strengths of the region. They cultivate self-reliance for producers and the broader community. And they build cooperative networks that help overcome isolation, estrangement, and problems of scale." He points to three areas (food and farming, forestry and green building) as fields where sustainable economic endeavors are catching on in Appalachia.

"By 2009, there were more than 20 local healthy-food initiatives in the region, encompassing a range of crops, products, and business models," Flaccavento writes. For instance, the Appalachian Community Economic Network’s commercial kitchen initiative, launched in 1994, has helped launch or expand 250 food businesses that have generated over $6.5 million in annual sales. Flaccavento points to the Forest Opportunities Initiative, launched in 2008 by the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, as an example of sustainable economic development in the forestry industry. You can read previous Rural Blog coverage of that program here. Green building initiatives, which arose in the region out of affordable housing efforts, emphasize "energy conservation and efficiency, along with the use of regional, sustainably produced wood and other materials and renewable energy sources such as geothermal, solar, and wind," Flaccavento writes.

As central Appalachian economies work through a time of transition, Flaccavento offers six principles of sustainable economies they should follow. Sustainable economies are locally rooted, fit within the ecosystem, are more self reliant and resilient, are more just, have infrastructure that increases the value and marketability of their products and are engaging and empowering, Flaccavento writes. He suggests economic strategies should be examined through the lens of two questions: To what degree does our strategy, policy, technology, or enterprise sustain or restore the ecosystem’s capacity to sequester carbon? and How effectively do our strategies and policies accelerate the development of diverse, resilient, wealth-building local economies?.

Achieving these goals will "require greater investment in the emerging sustainable economy that supports this new way of thinking about prosperity and economic health," Flaccavento writes. "Such investment will need to be flexible and patient, what Tom Miller of MACED has called 'nurture capital,' and it will need to come from both within and outside the region, from foundations and investors. The transformation of regions like central Appalachia, which have historically fueled growth and affluence in other places, will be essential to achieving this new prosperity." (Read more)

Rural areas have fallen farther behind urban areas in one measurement of prosperity

The United States has long had trouble living up to the promise in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal," but today's inequalities have more to do with prosperity than race, gender or religion, a leading rural health advocate writes. "Our health seems to depend not only on how much we have, but also on how much those around us have," Wayne Myers, founder of the University of Kentucky Center for Excellence in Rural Health, writes for the Rural Monitor Newsletter. "No one knows how economic inequality shortens life, but it does. Clearly it is more dangerous to be poor in a rich country than to be poor in a poor country."

Myers points to the "Gini Coefficient," a formula developed in the 1800s to measure "the inequality of distribution of most anything within a population." Myers argues the change in the coefficient between 1979 and 1999 in urban versus rural areas shows "the rich urbanites got really rich while the poor urban and city people stayed poor." He explains, "The reason for this growth in disparity is that almost all of the growth in America’s economy in recent years has been in the high-income sectors, and these are generally in urban populations."

Rural America has long had wide variances in income levels within regions, but to fix rural economies the gap between rich urbanites and their poor rural neighbors must be fixed, Meyers argues. "It has been stated that Americans seek to level opportunity whereas Europeans are more inclined to level income," Myers writes. "To the extent higher education relates to opportunity, though, we are even pricing opportunity out of reach. Poor people of average ability can no longer go to college. I believe it is bad economic policy to let the gap between our rich and our poor become as wide as those of Mexico and China. I know it is bad health policy." (Read more)

$1.8 billion in broadband awards announced today

Ninety-four companies, groups, universities and other entities in 37 states won broadband investment money today from the federal economic stimulus package. The awards announced today total $1.8 billion, perhaps the largest single group announced at one time, and went mostly to rural areas.

The money comes through the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) – to expand broadband access and adoption across the country." Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a press release, "The broadband projects announced today will give rural Americans access to the tools they need to attract new businesses, jobs, health care and educational opportunities." (Read more)

The largest award went to "establish or upgrade broadband connections at nearly 500 health care and education sites" in Arkansas, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. Many of which are matched in part by private or state funds; a North Carolina grant will be matched by $25 million in earnings from the state's share of the national tobacco settlement, Jeff Drew of the Triangle Business Journal reports. North Carolina got four other grants. The 10 largest state-specific awards:

1. University of Arkansas, $102,131,393
2. California Broadband Cooperative Inc., $81,148,788
3. MCNC (nonprofit), North Carolina, $75,757,289
4. State of Oklahoma, $73,998,268
5. State of Mississippi, $70,055,000
6. Merit Network Inc. (Michigan's Upper Peninsula and adjoining Minnesota and Wisconsin), $69,639,291; see AnnArbor.com
7. Horizon Telecom Inc., Ohio, $66,474,247
8. Central Management Services, Illinois, $61,895,282
9. Trillion Communications Corp., Alabama, $59,258,545
10. Virgin Islands Public Financing Authority, $58,888,469

The next largest award went to Hughes Network Systems, $58,777,306 for a national project. In Kentucky, two awards were given to Windstream Corp., totaling $58,762,826, which would make it the 12th largest award. Altogether, Windstream (formerly Alltel) was awarded over $64 million. Windstream "has won funding for 12 out of 30 projects for which it requested funding," Joan Engebretson of Connected Planet reports.

"An application for $348 million made by Qwest for projects throughout its serving area is still pending — and according to comments made by RUS administrator Jonathan Adelstein, the company will either win all of the funding it requested or nothing," Engebretson writes. "Some companies, such as TDS Telecom and Windstream, made separate applications on a state-by-state basis, but Qwest put its funding request into one single application. 'We only award an entire service area applied for,' Adelstein said." (List of winners PDF and Excel)

Rural areas turn back to midwives to help address shortages of obstetrician-gynecologists

An old tradition may be turning into a more common solution for the rural shortage of  obstetrical services: midwifery. Data from the American College of Nurse-Midwives shows "The number of family medicine physicians and ob/gyns delivering babies in rural areas continues to decline, but nationwide, from 1996 to 2006 when the most recent data was collected, the number of births attended by certified midwives increased by 33 percent, reaching a record high of 317,168 in 2006," Candi Helseth reports for the Rural Monitor Newsletter.

The original midwifery model focused on rural outreach when Frontier Nursing Service founder Mary Breckinridge opened the first American midwifery school in Eastern Kentucky's Leslie County in 1925. Today, the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing, an outgrowth of the original FNS, still has a rural focus, "with its operation of a college that offers graduate level nursing-related degrees and a rural health service that includes five clinics, home health, and a 25-bed critical access hospital where CNMs deliver babies," Helseth writes. While midwifery is most commonly associated with birthing, the midwife model of care focuses heavily on prevention and education, Helseth reports.

"We guide women, educate them, counsel them and empower them. We provide evidence-based care. And we consider pregnancy and birth a normal process," Juliana Fehr, who heads the Nurse Midwife Initiative at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., told Helseth. "We want them to have their babies the way they choose." One challenge facing midwifes is regulations that vary widely from state to state. "The medical system needs to include midwives with nurse practitioners, physicians and other medical providers as part of a health care network that works in collaboration as a team providing a safe place for the woman and baby," Fehr told Helseth. "The major gap in those teams right now in many states is the midwife. Too often, she’s still not there." (Read more)

Radio show harkens back to days of country columnists by visiting 7 counties in rural Georgia

Before large newspapers cut much of their rural coverage and circulation, columns like Charles Salter's "Georgia Rambler" in the 1970s Atlanta Journal were more common. Salter visited a different rural Georgia town for each column and asked locals, "Who is the most interesting person you know?" For a late July episode of the wonderful radio show "This American Life" from Chicago Public Media, producers set out to duplicate Salter's idea, sending seven reporters to eight Georgia counties to ask the same question.  Ira Glass, the host of the show, said they got too many stories to tell on the one-hour program, so they selected the seven best.

Among the highlights was a local debate in Meriwether County as to whether President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a fan of the local moonshine near his Warm Springs home during Prohibition and the "Soundoff" column in the Summerville News of Chatooga County, which suggests locals are supremely concerned with Krystal hamburgers. For the show's final segment, Salter's son Chuck, now a senior writer at Fast Company magazine, revisits the subject of one of his father's more memorable columns 33 years later to examine what effect the construction of a lake he was fighting ended up having on his farm.

You can stream the entire "Georgia Rambler" episode on This American Life's website here or access the show's complete radio archives for its weekly themed podcasts detailing stories from around the country.

Is this diversity? Rural students are among the most excluded from highly selective universities

An essay on the website Minding the Campus, by Russell K. Nieli, explores the question of diversity among students at highly selective universities. Nieli posits that elite schools consider diversity only when it includes racial diversity, which unfairly excludes "numbers of born-again Christians from the Bible belt, students from Appalachia and other rural and small-town areas, people who have served in the U.S. military, those who have grown up on farms or ranches, Mormons, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, lower-middle-class Catholics, working class 'white ethnics,' social and political conservatives, wheelchair users, married students, married students with children, or older students first starting out in college after raising children or spending several years in the workforce."

Nieli primarily bases his commentary on a book by Thomas J. Espenshade and Alexandria Walton Radford, No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life.  They found that participation in high school ROTC, 4-H clubs, or the Future Farmers of America (now simply the FFA, and not limited to future farmers) was "found to reduce very substantially a student's chances of gaining admission to the competitive private colleges," Nieli writes. "The admissions disadvantage was greatest for those in leadership positions in these activities or those winning honors and awards."  Espenshade and Radford say excelling in these activities is associated with 60 or 65 percent lower chance of admission. Their conclusion: It not only does not help kids, it hurts them, to be leaders in the groups often found in rural high schools.

"Farm boys from Idaho would do well to stay out of their local 4-H clubs or FFA organizations — or if they do join, they had better not list their membership on their college application forms," Nieli writes. "This is especially true if they were officers in any of these organizations. Future farmers of America don't seem to count in the diversity-enhancement game played out at some of our more competitive private colleges, and are not only not recruited, but seem to be actually shunned. It is hard to explain this development other than as a case of ideological and cultural bias." Nieli received his Ph.D. in political philosophy from Princeton University and currently works for Princeton's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. (Read more)

New York Times columnist Russ Douthat also weighed in recently on the discussion of the Ebenshade and Radford book. He suggested that "the gatekeepers of elite education seem to incline against candidates who seem too stereotypically rural or right-wing or 'Red America.'" And because the highly educated and liberal lack contact with rural, working-class America, it "generates all sorts of wild anxieties about what's being plotted in the heartland." Douthat concedes that universities are not going to narrow the cultural divide, but advises, "If such universities are trying to create an elite as diverse as the nation it inhabits, they should remember that there's more to diversity than skin color — and that both their school and their country might be better off if they admitted a few more R.O.T.C. cadets, and a few more aspiring farmers." (Read more)

Bureau of Land Management has no plans to postpone desert races after weekend tragedy

A desert off-road race from Las Vegas to Reno, Calif., is still scheduled for Friday even as federal officials reviews their safety policies for such races after eight spectators were killed a similar event in Southern California Saturday. "Officials with the Bureau of Land Management, which permits more than 100 off-road races a year on desert land it oversees, said they are confident that adequate safeguards are in place for the Nevada race," Phil Wilson of the Los Angeles Times reports. "But critics of the agency called the decision reckless, saying the bureau lacks the manpower and desire to ensure the events are safe."

"Eight people were killed and 10 others seriously injured in Saturday's California 200 off-road race in Lucerne Valley after a truck lost control after a jump and plowed into the crowd gathered within feet of the racecourse," Wilson writes. The promoter of the California 200, Mojave Desert Racing, is scheduled to host another race in September in the same area on BLM land, and federal officials say there are no plans to postpone that event. In the aftermath of the accident Mojave Racing has been criticized for allowing spectators too close to the cars. (CBS News screen shot of accident aftermath)

Casey Folks of the Best in the Desert Racing Assn., which is promoting the Nevada race, said his firm doesn't allow spectators as close to the race as they were at the California 200. "We don't really have the spectator problems that they have in Southern California," Folks told Wilson. "Our racecourse is pretty much closed." The Nevada BLM office said Folks' firm has an excellent safety record. "Motorized recreation is an accepted use of public lands. And I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but we're here as a multiuse agency to provide recreation opportunities when appropriate," Leo Drumm, coordinator for the Nevada office's off-highway vehicle program, told Wilson. "It's part of our mission. It's what we do. Some people would like us to stop it all together, but that is not what we intend to do." (Read more)

To keep parks open, states seek corporate sponsors

Amid increasing budget pressures from the recession, Georgia is among a handful of states looking to corporate sponsorship to help fund state parks. "According to preliminary survey results from the National Association of State Park Directors, a growing number of states are trying out or considering corporate sponsorship or exclusive distribution deals as a way to help close budget gaps," Melissa Maynard of Stateline.org reports. "State parks have traditionally resisted any type of commercialization, says Phillip McKnelly, the association’s executive director, and the interest in pursuing corporate partnerships is a relatively new phenomenon driven by the severity of funding crises in state park systems."

In Georgia Verizon Wireless will sponsor the annual Boy Scouts volunteering in state parks by providing "funding for tools and supplies as the scouts perform service projects around the state," Maynard writes. In exchange, the park service will recognize Verizon in publicity materials and on the Georgia Department of Natural Resources website. "Every interstate has these huge brown signs that tell you ‘Red Top Mountain State Park,’" department Commissioner Chris Clark told Maynard. "And at the bottom, we'd love to have 'Chick Fil-A,' or whatever else, as a simple way of marketing."

Clark told Maynard he hopes the sponsorships may eventually allow the department to improve services like wireless Internet service and expand its programming. Many park advocates say the turn to corporate sponsorship is welcomed if it keeps parks opens and as long as it's done tastefully. "There is general agreement that people don't want to see a NASCAR approach to branding the parks," Andy Fleming, executive director of Friends of Georgia State Parks, told Maynard. "Everybody understands that there's a line that we don't want to cross, in terms of compromising the naturalness of the experience. But the reality is that there's a big gap between the amount of funding and the needs of the system." (Read more)

Help your readers, listeners and viewers understand the different forms of Islam

The controversy over building a huge Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, exacerbated by President Obama's remarks on the subject, has exposed a serious lack of knowledge among many Americans about Islam. Contrary to suggestions that the main imam behind the project might have links to Islamic radicals, he is a leader of the Sufi sect, "which in terms of goals and outlook couldn’t be farther from the violent Wahhabism of the jihadists," author William Dalrymple writes for The New York Times from New Delhi.

Dalrymple sees in the U.S. "a dangerously inadequate understanding of the many divisions, complexities and nuances within the Islamic world — a failure that hugely hampers Western efforts to fight violent Islamic extremism and to reconcile Americans with peaceful adherents of the world’s second-largest religion. Most of us are perfectly capable of making distinctions within the Christian world. The fact that someone is a Boston Roman Catholic doesn’t mean he’s in league with Irish Republican Army bomb makers, just as not all Orthodox Christians have ties to Serbian war criminals or Southern Baptists to the murderers of abortion doctors."

That is putting in terms that most Americans can understand, so we encourage newspapers to reprint the article and broadcasters to look for ways to enlighten their audiences. The stakes are high, as Dalrymple notes: "Many of our leaders have a tendency to see the Islamic world as a single, terrifying monolith. Had the George W. Bush administration been more aware of the irreconcilable differences between the Salafist jihadists of Al Qaeda and the secular Baathists of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the United States might never have blundered into a disastrous war, and instead kept its focus on rebuilding post-Taliban Afghanistan while the hearts and minds of the Afghans were still open to persuasion." (Read more)

Vilsack defends meat-market rules, says 'vast majority' of farms to be exempt from estate tax

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack "defended proposals to reinstate the estate tax, despite concerns raised at an Iowa State Fair roundtable about the need for more rural capital and incentives for young farmers," Kathie Obradovich reports for The Des Moines Register:

Vilsack, the former Iowa governor, said he thinks the estate tax will be restored. The key is having appropriate exemptions for people who want to pass their farm down to a family member or someone else, he said. He expects to see a large enough exemption to cover the “vast majority” of farms and ranches in the country, he said. At the same time, however, he said there’s a need for the 2012 farm bill to focus on improving opportunities for young farmers.

Iowa State University economist Mark Edelman "warned about a lack of rural capital, which he attributed in part to uncertainty over the economy," Obradovich reports, noting arguments "that plans to roll back the Bush tax cuts have contributed to investor angst. Edelman said more rural capital will be needed, particularly invested in biofuels projects, to spur major job creation in rural America." Obradovoch noted that argument is also made by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has been visiting Iowa as a prospective candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Iowa's caucuses are the nation's first presidential voting and the state is a swing state in the general elections. (Read more)

UPDATE, Aug. 18: Ken Anderson of Brownfield reports that Vilsack defended proposed new rules to govern relationships between meatpackers and livestock and poultry producers, saying he wants to “make it so that small producers that can produce the same quality are not penalized—that they’re able to play the game and play in the game. This is not designed to take away premiums. We still think that those will happen—and they should happen for high quality. But we just want to make sure that if folks are capable of producing high quality, that they get treated fairly.” Anderson's post has audio from Vilsack and Iowa cattle feeder Bill Couser, who opposes the regulations. Read and listen here (subscription or registration may be required). (Brownfield photo)

Ranchers say 2c per pound of beef at retail could save independents, boost cattle country towns

Many have wondered what it will take to reverse the decline of small, independent livestock producers, but according to some advocates the answer to that question is just two cents more per pound for meat at retail. "Adding two cents on every pound in the meat counter would keep ranchers from losing money and turn slaughterhouse jobs from work into a living," Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder reports. "Two cents a pound at the grocery would fundamentally change the economies of thousands of rural communities."

Bill Bullard of R-CALF, a ranchers' organization, explained during last week’s meeting of the Organization for Competitive Markets in Omaha the share of each food dollar that goes to ranchers has dropped from 63 cents in 1980 to 43 cents in 2009. As cattle raising has become less profitable, more and more ranchers have left the business, Bishop reports. Bullard said the U.S. has been losing 1,000 ranchers a month since 1980. The answer to turning around the industry according to advocates would be just one cent per pound of meat at retail, Bishop writes, adding "One cent would change a money-losing business into one that breaks even." (R-CALF chart; click for larger image)

The second penny in the formula would go to workers at meatpacking plants. Despite rising food prices, Lauritsen told Bishop, meatpacking plants are under pressure to cut hourly wages. If one cent per pound of retail beef went directly to workers' wages, Lauritsen said average wages could go from $13 per hour to $16. "I will tell you, brothers and sisters, that that would make a dramatic change in a person's lifestyle," he told the convention. "It would change the main street Cherokee, Iowa. It's life changing money and it's only a penny."

Mark Lauritsen, international vice president for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents 36 percent of U.S. meatpacking workers, told Bishop that as more ranches fail, less meat is sent to slaughterhouses. "We’re joined at the hip," Lauritsen toled the OCM crowd, which was largely older ranchers and farmers. Since 1960 the meatpacking industry has become more concentrated, with the largest 12.1 percent of feedlots finishing more than 16,000 cattle and marketed nearly three-quarters of beef cattle in 2008, Bishop writes. (Read more)

Study shows big differences among crops in levels of federal subsidy

The fact that different crops receive different amounts of federal support in the form of crop subsidies isn't a secret, but a new report hoping to quantify those differences shines new light on the regional influences affecting farm policy. The report, from the Congressional Research Service, shows "cotton and rice, two crops grown primarily in the South and in California, have the most generous support levels, while barley and soybean growers have the least. Wheat, corn, sorghum and oats fall in the middle," Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports on the Green Fields blog.

"The study calculated the amount that loan rates – a basic price guarantee level – would have to be changed to equalize the commodities and found that the rate for soybeans would have to be raised by 7 percent, while the rate for rice would have to be cut by 33 percent. The corn would need to be increased by just 3 percent," Brasher writes. The study reports subsidies account for more than 30 percent of the total production cost of rice and cotton compared to 12 percent of corn and 3.6 percent of soybeans. The study reports rice farmers received $217 per acre, compared to the $40 per acre average for all crops. Soybean farmers received $9 per acre while corn farmers received $50 per acre.

The study didn't take into account other forms of government support, such as federal ethanol mandates that boost corn, Brasher notes. Regional politics have long influenced farm policy; "Southern farmers tend to be more resistant to limits on the amount of subsidies that an individual farmer can collect in any one year," Brasher writes. (Read more)

Railroads are not required to disclose to localities the hazardous chemicals they transport

While railroad companies may transport hazardous materials through thousands U.S. communities every day, those communities are not entitled to know what materials may be on the train. Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatau said only the railroads are required to know what is in the cars they are shipping, which means local emergency workers, "who would respond to a leak, spill or fire, have no knowledge of what's being transported on those cars until an accident happens," Julia Hunter of Gannett News Service reports. Railroad authorities say keeping the contents of trains secret is a matter of national security.

"Advocates for the public argue the rail cars are clearly marked, and if terrorists wanted to find a car full of hazardous material, they easily could," Hunter writes. Fred Millar, a Washington-based consultant on hazardous-material transportation issues and national security, said, "They think that having the public know about the shipments of these cargoes is somehow a security breach. That is absolutely ridiculous. ... These are gigantic tank cars with placards on the side going to and from the same places. The only people being kept in the dark are the American public."

FRA said local officials could be provided a list of top chemicals transported on nearby railroads on an annual basis, but the agency doesn't release specific information. Binghamton, N. Y., Asst. Fire Chief Richard Allen Jr. said, "Because the response to each chemical is different, and the wrong response can exacerbate the situation ... teams could benefit from newly developed equipment that helps haz-mat teams distinguish what they're dealing with," Hunter writes. However, such equipment costs roughly $40,000, out of the price range of many local emergency departments. (Read more)

Vilsack gets a boost from political pundit Broder, tells him about economic-development approach

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is back home in Iowa today, visiting the state fair as part of the Obama administration's dispatch of cabinet-level officials to fairs across the country. He got a great sendoff Sunday, in a column by political bigfoot David Broder of The Washington Post.

"Over the years, reporters learn that here are a relative handful of the public officials with whom we deal who can be counted on to expand our understanding of events. These are the men and women who have probed deeply into the forces shaping the country -- or their part of it -- and often anticipate the challenges still to come, Broder wrote, saying Vilsack "planted useful thoughts every time I interviewed him. So I was surprised when Vilsack was cast as the fall guy in the ugly incident last month involving the forced resignation of an African American government employee who was accused by a blogger of reverse discrimination against a white farmer."

So Broder chatted with Vilsack to find out what else he had been doing as secretary, and learned that "his chief concern ... is the condition of rural America," which has bad trends that started long before the recession: "an aging, less educated and declining population with an average annual income $11,000 below that of their urban neighbors -- are not because farmers are hurting. Indeed, farm income is up 9 percent over last year, and farm exports are at nearly record levels. But most of those living in rural America are not farmers. And so the formula for boosting those counties includes an emphasis on exploiting their energy resources, creating local food markets for local products, expanding broadband and promoting outdoor recreation."

We've heard and reported all that, but our friend David also told us something about USDA's Rural Development program that we had not heard: "One feature Vilsack brought from Iowa is his plan to set aside a small portion of the economic development funds to be channeled into eight or 10 counties that have done their own bottom-up planning and to come up with a blueprint embracing all elements of the community." Vilsack told Broder, "I know it works." (Read more)

Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson also noted the Broder column in reporting Vilsack's visit, and posted some audio in which Vilsack recalled his first encounter with Broder, at a National Governors Association meeting where Vilsack read a letter from the widow of a hog farmer who had committed suicide. Broder, an Illinois native, wrote about it, and one of his Washington readers sent Vilsack a $10,000 check for the family. Vilsack said, "David Broder and I have always been good friends." (Listen to the audio)

Here is Vilsack's White House Blog post on his visit. Other upcoming state-fair visits announced so far: Small Business Administration Deputy Administrator Marie Johns in Indiana Aug. 18, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in Illinois Aug. 20.

Unemployment in rural America down from June 2009, but so is number of jobs

The unemployment rate for rural America in June was lower than in June of 2009, making it the first month so far in 2010 with a lower rate than the previous year. The June 2010 unemployment rate for the country's 2,038 rural counties was 9.5 percent, down from 9.9 percent in June 2009. However, only 772 rural counties,. 38 percent of the total, actually added jobs in the last year, Bill Bishop and Roberto Gallardo report in the Daily Yonder.

"In total, there are 367,000 fewer jobs in rural America this June than in June of last year," the Yonder writes. "There are fewer jobs, but there are also fewer rural residents looking for jobs — 147,000 fewer this June than in 2009. As a result, the unemployment rate is going down." Bishop and Gallardo say they don't know why fewer rural Americans are looking for jobs, but speculate that some may have moved to urban areas while others have given up the search altogether. The rural counties that did gain jobs are concentrated in the Midwest, with 10 of the top 50 counties in job gains being located in Indiana. (Read more) (Yonder map)

Many coal-fired power plants still being built, despite concerns about greenhouse gases

An Associated Press review of Department of Energy records found that 30 traditional coal-fired power plants have been built since 2008 or are currently under construction. The dozens of new old-style coal plants "will cement the industry's standing as the largest industrial source of climate-changing gases for years to come," Matthew Brown reports for AP. "The construction wave stretches from Arizona to Illinois and South Carolina to Washington, and comes despite growing public wariness over the high environmental and social costs of fossil fuels."

The expansion marks the industry's larges in two decades and "represents an acknowledgment that highly touted "clean coal" technology is still a long ways from becoming a reality," Brown writes. Severin Borenstein, director of the Energy Institute at the University of California-Berkeley, explained, "Building a coal-fired power plant today is betting that we are not going to put a serious financial cost on emitting carbon dioxide. That may be true, but unless most of the scientists are way off the mark, that's pretty bad public policy."

"Utilities say they are clinging to coal because its abundance makes it cheaper than natural gas or nuclear power and more reliable than intermittent power sources such as wind and solar," Brown writes. "Still, the price of coal plants is rising and consumers in some areas served by the new facilities will see their electricity bill rise by up to 30 percent." Combined, the 16 plants that have gone online since 2008 and 16 more under construction will produce an estimated 17,900 megawatts of electricity, sufficient to power up to 15.6 million homes, Brown reports. The plants are projected to produce 125 million tons of greenhouse gases annually. DOE spokesman John Grasser acknowledged the new plants represent a missed chance to rein in carbon emissions, but told Brown of reducing coal's role in the energy market, "This is not something that's going to happen tomorrow. You have to do the required research and development and take steps along the way." (Read more)

Rural America needs more farmers to regain social cohesion, farmer-columnist says

"Every opportunity in rural America is predicated upon smaller farms, more people on the land farming," farmer and New York Times editorial board member Verlyn Klinkenborg told Brian Mann of upstate's North Country Public Radio over the weekend.

Klinkenborg, who grew up in rural Iowa, said much of rural America needs "more people to form a society; there is no society in so much of rural America." He said farming in 600- to 1,000-acre tracts is useful for commodity farming and raising corn for ethanol, "but it doesn't make sense for actual food and it's not the best practice for the soil."

Klinkenborg writes an occasional, short column called "The Rural Life," usually drawn from his five-acre farm in New York's Columbia County, but he told Mann that he's "clearly not a farmer in any real sense. ... The real point is to be engaged in the life and death cycle of a farm, to be engaged in growing your own." He said the most important part of his rural life is living with animals. "Most Americans have given up that experience," he said. "It's a shame, because living with animals teaches you a huge amount about the boundaries of being human."

Klinkenborg said a main function of his column is to speak to the many people in New York City who dream of having a farm. "I'm there as a kind of proxy in life for a lot of people," he said. As an editorial writer, he said, his main rural mission is to write about "the choices we've made about how we grow food," many of which he said are not really choices, but "programmatic decisions" made by corporations and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Click to read and listen)

Satellite companies vow to bring better broadband to more rural customers with improved technology

Two Internet companies are hoping to launch new satellites in the next year that will increase broadband speeds for underserved rural areas at a cheaper cost than wired alternatives. Satellite Internet providers "serve a little more than one million customers, most in rural areas that have no other options. Their services can be painfully slow and cost twice as much as high-speed broadband," Susanna G. Kim reports for The New York Times. Now WildBlue and HughesNet hope to change satellite Internet's reputation with state-of-the art services.

WildBlue’s new satellite "alone will have 10 times the capacity of its three current satellites combined," Kim writes. The companies say the new satellites "will enable them, at prices similar to what they now charge, to provide Internet service at speeds many times faster than they now offer — as fast, in some cases, as fiber connections," Kim writes. Arunas Slekys, vice president for HughesNet, told her, "One advantage satellite has is ubiquity. The cost of reaching you with a satellite dish is independent of where you are. Fiber or cable is labor-intensive and dependent on distance."

"There’s an unserved market" in rural areas, Slekys said. "And it’s not as though they have terrestrial or satellite. They only have satellite as a choice." Even with the improved equipment, users will face slight delays, about a half-second, as signals are transmitted the 22,000 miles from satellite to their personal computer, Kim reports. Customers who aren't able to point their dishes toward the satellite's locations in the southern skies won't be able to access the improved speeds, and dishes must be cleared of all snow during winter.

"Of its $2.5 billion share of the stimulus funds, the Agriculture Department is allocating just $100 million in grants to satellite companies," Kim writes. While the satellite companies say other stimulus money could have been used to reach many more customers if it had been allocated to satellite service, some question the reliability of satellite connections. "To compare what we do with what satellite does as a service is an apples-to-oranges comparison," Joseph Freddoso, president of nonprofit MCNC, which received $28 million to extend fiber to 420 North Carolina schools and libraries, told Kim. (Read more)

EPA starts civil enforcement against Iowa beef feedlots as part of crackdown on water pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency has taken a series of civil enforcement actions against eight beef feedlots in Northwest Iowa for violations of the Clean Water Act. The moves are "part of the agency’s continuing initiative that hopes to end harmful discharges of pollutants from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) into the area’s waterways," Lynda Waddington of The Iowa Independent reports. Karl Brooks, regional EPA administrator, said the agency has two goals, enforcing the Clean Water Act and educating about the benefits of cleaner water, and "Responsible livestock producers understand and work with the agency to advance both goals." (Read more)

The Iowa violations come after EPA announced in May it increase monitoring of CAFO pollution as part of a settlement with National Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and Waterkeeper Alliance, Tom Johnston of Meatingplace reported. "Under today's settlement, EPA will initiate a new national effort to track down factory farms operating without permits and determine for itself if they must be regulated," EPA said in a news release. "The specific information that EPA will ultimately require from individual facilities will be determined after a period of public comment. But the results of that investigation will enable the agency and the public to create stronger polluting controls in the future and make sure facilities are complying with current rules." (Read more)

W.Va. moves to circumvent EPA's new water rules designed to curb mountaintop removal

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection issued new water-quality guidelines late last week that the agency hoped would circumvent tougher rules that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed to would curb mountaintop-removal coal mining. "Under the new policy, the DEP would require more detailed toxicity testing downstream from mining operations and for the first time force mine operators to show that proposed mines would not have a 'reasonable potential' to cause 'significant adverse impacts' on aquatic ecosystems," Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports. "The state's policy, though, would largely base such decisions on methods that EPA scientists believe are not the most sophisticated available and without using a firm limit on electrical conductivity as a measure of stream health."

"DEP Secretary Randy Huffman urged EPA officials to defer to the new West Virginia guidance over more detailed federal agency reviews of Clean Water Act permit applications for valley fills and mining pollution discharges," Ward writes. Huffman added that he was not "trying to pick a fight" with the EPA, but told Ward if federal officials don't find his new policy acceptable, "I guess we'll have to see what happens." Environmental groups were quick to criticize the guidance. "It's essentially [the] DEP acting as a friend of the coal industry, instead of a regulator," Margaret Janes, senior policy analyst for the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, told Ward. "This is a continuation of business as usual." (Read more)

On Friday EPA responded to West Virginia's announcement in a statement to Ward, posted on his blog Coal Tattoo, saying EPA's previous guidance was "supported by extensive science and consistent with the law." The statement continued, "We look forward to reviewing West Virginia’s new water quality guidance. In the meantime, EPA’s guidance stands and we will continue to use it to ensure that mining permits issued in West Virginia and other Appalachian states provide the protection required under federal law." (Read more)

EPA sets seven public hearings on coal ash

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced seven public hearings across the country for discussion of the proposals to regulate waste from coal-fired power plants. The first meeting is scheduled for Aug. 30 in Arlington, Va., and the last of the meetings is scheduled for Sept. 28 in Louisville, Ky. You can see the full list below and addresses for each of the hotels here:

• Aug. 30 -- Hyatt Regency Crystal City -- Arlington, Va.
• Sept. 2 -- Grand Hyatt -- Denver, Colo.
• Sept. 8 -- Hyatt Regency Dallas -- Dallas, Texas
• Sept. 14 -- Holiday Inn Charlotte (Airport) -- Charlotte, N.C.
• Sept. 16 -- Hilton Chicago -- Chicago, Ill.
• Sept. 21 -- Omni Hotel -- Pittsburgh, Penn.
• Sept. 28 -- Seelbach Hilton -- Louisville, Ky.

The Louisville date was added after the other six hearings were initially announced, which Tom FitzGerald of the Kentucky Resources Council said made sense "given the region’s many coal-fired power plants and the big issues that are at stake for the public and industry alike," James Bruggers of the Courier-Journal reports. The Army Corps of Engineers reports some 29 coal-fired plants are along the banks of the Ohio river. Bruggers notes that Kentucky is first and Indiana third in the production of coal ash. (Read more)

N.Y. Times starts energy series with a look at mountaintop-removal mining, and an alternative

The New York Times begins a series called "Beyond Fossil Fuels" today with a story about mountaintop-removal coal mining that focuses on Coal River Mountain near Whitesville, W.Va., the plan to mine the mountain and environmentalists' counter-proposal: a 164-turbine wind farm that they say would create more long-term benefit. The report also includes a four-minute video. (Associated Press photo of nearby Kayford Mountain with Coal River Mountain in background)

Reporter Tom Zeller Jr. writes that the wind-farm idea is unlikely to prevail over Massey Energy's premits to mine the mountain, but "For many renewable-energy advocates outside the region, the struggle at Coal River Mountain has become emblematic of an effort across the country to find alternatives to fossil fuels." And he notes, "Proponents say that changes in state and federal mining regulations could tilt things in their favor." (Read more) We first reported on the idea in late 2008.

Court ruling may keep sugar-beet growers from planting genetically modified crops next year

A federal judge struck down the Department of Agriculture's approval of genetically modified sugar beets yesterday, posing potential problems for growers. The decision by District Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco "appears to effectively ban the planting of the genetically modified sugar beets, which make up about 95 percent of the crop, until the Agriculture Department prepares an environmental impact statement and approves the crop again, a process that might take a couple of years," Andrew Pollack reports for The New York Times.
"In the past the sugar industry has warned there might not be enough non-engineered seeds available. However, the judge ruled that crops currently in the ground can be harvested and made into sugar, so the effects will not be felt until next spring’s planting season. Beets supply about half the nation’s sugar," Pollack notes. The ruling came in a lawsuit by the Center for Food Safety, which opposed genetically engineered crops. (Read more)

Former senator's death in crash focuses national attention on role, risks of air service in rural Alaska

The death of former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens in a single-engine airplane crash has illustrated how dependent the roadless areas of Alaska are on air service, both public and private, and raised new questions for Alaskans about the risks. "The people who know it best, the pilots who daily crisscross the wilderness here and the safety experts back in the state's largest city, say travel by air is getting safer," Craig Medred and Joshua Saul write for Alaska Dispatch from Dillingham, where Stevens' plane was headed. (National Transportation Safety Board photo of the plane)

Stevens, famed for funneling federal money to his state, had something to do with improving its air safety; his funding included better airports, safety programs and "and a greater emphasis on safe operation, something advocated by Stevens," a World War II army pilot who lost his first wife in a 1978 plane crash that he survived.

"An Alaska-ignorant national press attracted to the 49th state by Stevens' death has been focused on the flight safety issue in the wake of the crash," Medred and Saul write. "To the average American reporter, the single-engine airplane is an exotic machine, something right out of the movie 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' even if the airplane is to many in rural Alaska the local taxi. People die in plane accidents in Alaska the way they die in automobile accidents in the rest of the country." The story examines why Stevens' plane may have crahsed. (Read more)

A 1972 plane crash killed the state's sole congressman, Nick Begich, and House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, "seared the political establishment in Washington, and caused a 40-year shift in Alaska's balance of power," Jason Horowitz recalls for The Washington Post.

Carbon dioxide could be used to make 'green cement,' reducing need for underground storage

Conventional wisdom about the future of coal says that in a carbon-regulated political environment, power plants will need to be able to capture and store their carbon emissions. Now more companies and investors are questioning that idea. "They are supporting technologies that will separate and then trap carbon emissions in a series of 'beneficial products' that can be shipped to markets and sold at a profit," John J. Fialka of Environment & Energy Daily reports. "That, they assert, will avoid the need for much of the carbon capture and storage infrastructure now on energy planners' drawing boards."

Brent Constantz, who is among the most outspoken advocates of this approach, "believes that what he calls 'green cement,' which starts as a milky precipitate made from injecting carbon dioxide from power plant emissions into seawater, can be made and sold at a profit," Fialka writes. Constantz' scenario has a second benefit for reducing carbon emissions; he says green cement would then take part of the market share for concrete production from traditional cement makers, which are the nation's third largest source of CO2 emissions.

"Constantz's company, Calera Corp. of Los Gatos, Calif., recently appeared on a list of six winners of $106 million in federal stimulus grants awarded by the Department of Energy to demonstrate the 'beneficial use' of CO2," Fialka writes. Elaine Everitt, a project manager for the National Energy Technology Laboratory, which selected the winners, told Fialka the department still thinks CCS is the future of coal-fired electricity, but Fialka notes agency officials worry that not all areas have the right geology to store CO2.

Constantz told Fialka DOE's current preoccupation with CCS projects is a "big scam" created by lobbyists from the oil industry. "For every dollar set aside for CCS, you will need to set aside $2 to take care of liability issues," Constantz said. He also has criticized the concrete industry, saying it has the "Phillip Morris problem" addressing its carbon emissions, similar to tobacco companies' struggle with acknowledging cigarettes cause cancer. Calera has received "$7 million from Australian authorities to build a pilot plant to make building materials out of emissions from a power plant that uses some of the world's dirtiest coal," Fialka writes. (Read more, subscription required)

Industry watches as noted California weekly newspaper adopts 'low profit' status

In May we reported that the Point Reyes Light in rural western Marin County, California, was sold to a group of journalists, educators and community leaders who hoped to operate it as a "low-profit limited liability company," known as an LLLC, or L3C. Now the eyes of many in the newspaper industry are pointed at the Light to see if the L3C model, which allows the paper to operate as a for-profit but accept tax-deductible donations and foundation money, could help newspapers elsewhere, Mark Fitzgerald reports for Editor & Publisher. (Census Bureau map)

The Light, circulation about 3,000, has attracted a disproportionate amount of attention for a newspaper its size after winning the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, Fitzgerald writes. The new ownership group said the L3C model was their only choice after a competing weekly entered the market. "We were networking with different appraisers who told us, you’re market isn’t even big enough for one for-profit paper," biologist Corey Goodman, one of the new owners, told Fitzgerald.

"With an L3C, a high net worth individual could donate to a newspaper and get a 50 percent tax break," Fitzgerald writes. "And the newspaper is allowed to turn a profit, so long as its primary purpose is to advance some public benefit." The problem is the Internal Revenue Service has been reluctant to "recognize reporting on the news as the kind of social or educational benefit necessary to qualify for tax-deductible donations," Fitzgerald writes. Still, Kim Butler, the Vermont attorney who set up the Light's L3C, believes this structure will work for newspapers across the country.

While the Light is the first newspaper to use L3C status, it hopes to model its structure after the Poynter Institute in Florida. "Frankly, we were taking a cue from how the Poynter Institute operates the St. Petersburg Times in terms of its social and educational purposes," Butler told Fitzgerald. Goodman explained, "Kim told us if the only thing we were doing is operating that newspaper, it’s not going to fly. Like the Poynter Institute, you have to have publications and other educational things. Well, that’s exactly what Mark and I want to do." (Read more)

Environmentalists shift focus from coal burners to curbing Western coal production

The collapse of the climate bill and increased export of coal to Asia has led some environmentalists to shift their focus from coal-fired electricity to curbing production of the fuel in the Western U.S. "Groups including the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians, a New Mexico-based environmental group, are challenging the legality of a series of new leases the Bureau of Land Management has begun issuing" for Powder River Basin coal in Wyoming and Montana, Mark Peters reports for Dow Jones Newswires. "They say the leases could open up as much as 5.8 billion tons of coal reserves for mining, ensuring the basin's dominance for years to come. The environmentalists claim the BLM isn't properly taking into account the impact of burning the coal on the climate."

"We are interested in getting to the heart of the problem," Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director of WildEarth Guardians, told Peters. "What goes on in the Power River Basin is of national interest." In what marked a rare Powder River Basin challenge, a coalition of environmental groups sued in federal court last month to stop the first of what's expected to be a series of BLM lease decisions, Peters writes. WildEarth has also sued Interior Secretary Ken Salazar "over the lease process as a whole, alleging it neither fosters competition among coal producers nor requires a comprehensive assessment of the environmental impacts," Peters writes.

"Coal producers warn a slowdown in replacing their reserves could eventually hamper U.S. electricity supplies," Peters writes. "Last week, Alpha Natural Resources Chief Executive Kevin Crutchfield described the opposition effort as in its infancy, not seeing any impact on mining in the near term." Environmental groups say increasing exports to Asia are of particular concern because they undercut domestic effort to reduce emissions. "That is a very serious line in the sand," Bruce Nilles, director of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, told Peters of increased exports. (Read more)

Interior Department document details plans for possible new national monuments

The Interior Department has released additional pages of a leaked document, which identified potential sites for new public monuments. The list released this spring led to complaints from Republicans and several local officials that the Obama administration was trying to lock up public lands by creating new monuments, Patrick Reis of Environment & Energy Daily reports. House Republicans received pages 15 through 21 of the internal memo that identified 14 Western U.S. sites eligible for monument designation in February, and had called on the department to release the rest of the document with a disclosure resolution in the House Natural Resources Committee.

"The newly released pages detail the Bureau of Land Management's goals for expanding its National Landscape Conservation System and endorse expanding NLCS holdings through legislative efforts," Reis writes. All sites listed at in the West, butne passage early in the document, which you can read here, says unspecified sites in the East should be considered for monument designation, which can be done solely by the president.

The document calls for such action if legislative efforts for new conservation designations fail, but says "BLM recognizes that public support and acceptance of preservation status is best achieved when the public has an opportunity to participate in a land-use planning or legislative process." Still, Utah Republican Rep. Bob Bishop was not satisfied with the qualifier. "Thousands of Westerners whose livelihoods depend upon access to our public lands stand to be affected by these decisions, and yet this document blatantly goes out of its way to exclude their input or participation," Bishop said. "If there was any question about whether or not this administration has declared a war on the West, these new documents are evidence enough." (Read more, subscription required)

Paul downplays E. Ky. drug problem, draws fire

After being taken to task recently for comments on farm subsidies and mine safety, Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul has again taken a stand that may prove controversial for Kentucky voters. Paul told The Associated Press that the drug problem in Eastern Kentucky was not "a real pressing issue." The comment in late July "expands on his previously stated position in favor of cutting federal funding for undercover drug investigations and drug treatment programs," the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. "Many officials say both are badly needed in Appalachia, a hotbed for marijuana growers and drug dealers selling prescription pills and methamphetamines."

Democratic nominee Jack Conway favors using federal money to tackle the region's drug problem, as Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers has done. Paul told AP that Eastern Kentucky voters are more concerned about fiscal and social issues. "They're socially conservative out there, so am I. Jack's not. They're fiscally conservative. I am. Jack's not. ... I think we'll swamp him." In 21 Eastern and Southern Kentucky counties, local officials reported 114 overdose deaths during the first two months of this year, Karen Engle, head of the Operation UNITE anti-drug task force, said recently.

Operation UNITE was started  in 2003 by Rogers, who has endorsed Paul. It is funded by $2 million from the state and $4.3 million from the federal government, largely through Rogers' earmarks. "Paul has pledged not to request earmarks, and he said he isn't worried that voters would be upset about losing Operation UNITE," the Herald-Leader reports. Paul said of UNITE, "I don't think most people in Kentucky have heard of it." Jackson County Judge-Executive Tommy Slone, a Republican, said while many local voters are worried about socially and fiscally conservative issues, Paul's comments discredit their concerns about drugs. "Apparently [Paul] just doesn't know, or he wouldn't make that statement" about drugs not being a pressing issue, Slone said. "It'll hurt him if he says that because there's a lot of people up here that's been affected by these drugs." (Read more)

UPDATE, Aug. 14: Paul's campaign tells the Herald-Leader's Bill Estep that he does consider drugs a serious problem. Here is the story.

Wells Fargo becomes latest bank to restrict financing of firms removing mountaintops for coal

Last month Wells Fargo became the sixth major bank to restrict financing for mining companies that practice mountaintop removal. Since May, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have enacted policies to restrict mountaintop-removal financing as the Environmental Protection Agency moves to increase regulation of the controversial mining practice, Cameron Scott of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on The Thin Green Line blog. Also the "need to get better, rather than worse, PR since the financial industry ran the global economy into dust," appears to have factored in the decisions, Scott writes.

"We are seeing a sector-wide shift away from an increasingly controversial practice that is devastating Appalachian communities and the mountains and streams they depend on," Rebecca Tarbotton, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, which has campaigned against mountaintop-removal financing, said. She added: "Bottom-line, as access to capital becomes more constrained it will be harder for mining companies to finance the blowing up of America's mountains." (Read more)

Appellate court decides park service requirement violates free speech

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled last week the National Park Service requirement that groups obtain permits for public gatherings, demonstrations or "expressions of views" at parks was unconstitutional. The case Boardley v. Department of Interior arose when Michael Boardley sued the park service in 2007 after being told he would need a permit to distribute "gospel tracts" at the presidential monument in western South Dakota’s Black Hills, The Associated Press reports. The three-judge panel ruled the government can’t require permits for "expressive activities within designated 'free speech areas,'" or other public forums at the 391 national parks.

"Within 'free speech areas,' the government has exceedingly little basis for hushing 'lone pamphleteer[s]' ... in the name of peace and tranquility," the court wrote in its decision. The park service did not return calls for comment about the decision. "The First Amendment is the only permit a Christian or any American needs to engage in free speech on public property. ... Certainly, it made no sense to enforce unconstitutional regulations that deny free speech at the foot of Mount Rushmore — a place where four men who championed America’s freedoms are immortalized in stone," Nate Kellum of the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented Boardley, told AP. (Read more)

The decision was somewhat ironic considering the park service's "role in tracking the nation's history and its efforts to preserve civility in national parks," Kurt Repanshek writes for National Parks Traveler. "How significant the ruling proves to be remains to be seen," Repanshek writes. "According to a survey by a reporter for the McClatchy Newspapers, there are relatively few permits issued annually across the National Park System. While about two dozen are issued in Sequoia National Park every year and upward of 100 in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the bulk of those are to church groups that want to hold services in the parks." (Read more)

South Carolina town moves to ban illegal immigrants from living in city limits

A small South Carolina town thousands a miles from the Mexican border has become the latest community to pass a controversial illegal immigration law. The city council of Summerville, S.C., population just over 37,000, gave initial approval Wednesday to ban illegal immigrants from living within the town limits, Bruce Smith of The Associated Press reports. "The problem is not just in the border states, it's right here," Councilman Walter Bailey told Smith just before the council voted 4-2 to give first approval to the ban, which would also, in most cases, keep illegal immigrants from working in the town

The ordinance is up for final approval next month. About 100 people attended the meeting, and of the 20 who addressed the council and equal number spoke for and against the ordinance, Smith writes. Victoria Middleton, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union in South Carolina, "warned the council that there are questions about the constitutionality of the ordinance, adding immigration is not a local issue," Smith writes. Baily didn't back down following the ACLU warning, saying, "I'm offended by the intimidation of the ACLU. If they want to challenge us to a lawsuit, I accept that challenge." (Read more)

The local newspaper, the Summerville Journal Scene, publishes on Wednesday and Friday and as of this posting hadn't updated its website since the council approved the ordinance. In July, when the ordinance was tabled for a month for further review by the town's attorney, Jenny Peterson of the Journal Scene reported at least one opponent of the ordinance said Summerville should enforce existing county laws prohibiting businesses from hiring illegal immigrants rather than trying to pass its own ordinance. (Read more)

S.C. community newspaper group files first criminal charges for violation of state's open meeting law

The first charges under criminal provisions of South Carolina's open-government law have been filed following a complaint from a community newspaper group regarding a secret meeting in Holly Springs. "Judge William H. Womble Jr. found probable cause for violations of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act at a secret meeting June 16 during which Holly Springs fire commissioners voted behind closed doors to terminate Fire Chief Lee Jeffcoat," Jay King reports for Hometown News, which publishes nine weekly newspapers in upstate South Carolina. King was the only reporter present at the June 14 meeting but was ejected from the proceedings despite explaining the open-meetings law to officials there.

In his affidavit describing the event, King asserts "that the commissioners 'willfully' committed a crime against King as a media representative and the citizens of Spartanburg County by violating several provisions of the FOIA, specifically that the commission took a secret vote, that the meeting was not open to the public, that the commission failed to give proper notice, and that the commission failed to take proper minutes of the meeting," King writes. Bill Rogers, the executive director of the South Carolina Press Association, said the signing of the summons for the four public officials at the secret meeting to appear in court was "a historic occasion and will send a strong message across South Carolina." Violating the FOIA is a misdemeanor and is punishable by a $100 fine or up to 30 days in jail for the first offense. (Read more)

The fact that the first criminal charges under the state law came from reporting by a community newspaper wasn't lost on King. "I really don’t want to appear to be tooting my own horn, but it should be remembered that only a community newspaperman found out about the illegal Holly Springs Fire Commission meeting of June 16 and was the only media representative present during that meeting," King wrote in a separate editorial. "Naturally because the issue has created such an uproar, other local print and broadcast media have reported on the situation in Holly Springs to a greater or lesser extent, but the truth of the matter is they will forget about this community once this situation resolves itself. Thereafter, only the community journalist will bother to continue covering commission meetings." (Read more)

Does Ohio Farm Bureau-Humane Society agreement signal deals in other states?

In July we reported the controversial agreement between Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and the Humane Society of the United States to alter some farming practices. Now those concessions may be signaling a major change in modern agriculture as so-called "factory farming" becomes less popular. The agreement "is a rare compromise in the bitter and growing debate over large-scale, intensive methods of producing eggs and meat, and may well push farmers in other states to give ground," Erik Eckholm of The New York Times reports. "The rising consumer preference for more 'natural' and local products and concerns about pollution and antibiotic use in giant livestock operations are also driving change."

"Farmers in Ohio have accepted the agreement with chagrin, saying they sense that they must bend with the political and cultural winds," Eckholm writes. While groups like the Humane Society say keeping chickens in cages, one of the issues at the heart of the agreement, is cruel, farmers maintain their caged chickens are content and less prone to disease than barnyard flocks. "If our chickens aren’t healthy and happy, they won’t be as productive," Ohio egg farmer Tim Weaver told Eckholm. For now the United Egg Producers, a national trade group, maintains that egg prices would rise by 25 percent if all eggs were produced by uncaged hens.

"Formally, the new Ohio agreement only makes recommendations to a state livestock standards board, and getting opponents to recognize the authority of that board was an important achievement," say Farm Bureau officials. "We all know change is coming," Keith Stimpert, a senior vice president of the Ohio Farm Bureau, told Eckholm. "But is this how we’re going to deal with these issues, on a state-by-state basis?" he asked. For its part, the Humane Society is already picking its next targets and will likely push permit referendums in Washington and Oregon. (Read more)

Ohio coal-fired power plant to be converted to wood-burning despite concerns

One might expect environmental groups to applaud an energy company's decision to shelve a coal-fired power plant, but that is not the case in Ohio where FirstEnergy Corp. has gained approval to convert one into a biomass wood-burning facility. In a comment-free vote Wednesday, the "Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved a 12-page order sweeping aside arguments from environmentalists and a wind industry trade group that burning trees to make power is not sustainable," John Funk of The Plain Dealer reports. The decision certifies the R. E. Burger power plant in Shadyside will be considered a renewable energy facility.

"If it is not sustainable, they are not going burn it," PUCO Chairman Alan Schriber told Funk. "Wood is renewable. That is what the law says." A coalition of environmental groups, the Ohio Consumers' Counsel and the America Wind Energy Association have protested the proposal for 18 months, saying it would lead to widespread deforestation and is not really sustainable. FirstEnergy spokeswoman Ellen Raines said the plant will be able to burn a mixture of green wood chips, wood pellets and briquettes and something very similar to charcoal after a $200 million renovation. (Read more)

Jennifer Miller, the conservation program manager for the Ohio chapter of the Sierra Club, told Funk that while FirstEnergy is the first to announce a preference for biomass, it is not the only company to do so. "American Electric Power, Dayton Power and Light and Duke Energy Ohio have similar though smaller projects pending or already approved. Plus, an unregulated company has won approval to build a plant burning only biomass in southern Ohio," Funk wrote in a story previewing the vote. "We think PUCO has a responsibility to look at sustainability issues," Miller said. "Trees are 'carbon sinks.' If we burn down too many trees to make electricity, we have not helped the environment. And we have concerns that the Burger plant encourages FirstEnergy to do little in terms of solar or wind." (Read more)

Proposal would create a new level of the Internet where net neutrality would not apply

Friday we reported conflicting stories about a possible Google and Verizon "policy agreement" that would deliver a significant blow to advocated of net neutrality, the principle that all users have the same access. Now it appears both stories are partially correct. Google and Verizon announced this week a proposal that would keep existing public landlines free and open but would also create a second level of the Internet where telecommunication companies could charge higher rates for services that required more bandwidth to be carried over their lines, Michael Scherer of Time reports.

While Google said the shared policy would ensure the continued operation of a free and open Internet, net neutrality advocates were quick to lambast the proposal. "Unlike the future Googles, the present Google can afford prioritization service that will block out competitors," Andrew Schwartzman, the policy director of the Media Access Project. "It locks in the incumbent's advantage." In addition to the new prioritized wired network, the Google-Verizon proposal also included no limits on companies imposing tiered service on wireless networks.

"We welcome all efforts to promote openness on the wireline Internet," The Open Internet Coalition said in a statement, "but believe that any satisfactory agreement must also include protection for wireless Internet users to access websites and applications of their choice." In a conference call with reporters, Google president Eric Schmidt "minimized the import of the prioritization that would be allowed under the proposal, saying Google would continue to distribute all of its content over the existing Internet, not any premium subscription service," Scherer writes. The proposal will now circulate on Capitol Hill where no Congressional action is expected until 2011 at the earliest. (Read more)

ProPublica.org also reports on net neutrality. Reporter Marian Wang points out that Google and Verizon have no business arrangement or agreement about this proposal.  The CEO for Google, Eric Schmidt, has complained that the media has called this a deal, when according to Schmidt, it's a policy that both companies have agreed to follow. (Read more)

Wheat-eating insects are Montana farmer-senator's opponent during recess back home

While many legislators will spend their summers campaigning or fund raising, one plans to do what his family has always done: farm, which is a refreshing change from the usual Washington, D.C., lifestyle, The New York Times opines. Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, left, "is the third generation of his family to operate an 1,800-acre farm near Big Sandy, Mont., where the Testers grow organic spring and winter wheat," the Times reports. "He is spending the first week of his vacation in his combine, trying to gather the wheat before the sawflies get to it."

"It brings me back to reality," Tester told local station KFBB-TV this week. "The combine doesn’t care if you’re a senator or not. It breaks down whenever it wants to break down." Tester and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley are the only farmer senators left from what was once a Congress dominated by farmers. "If more members had a life outside of campaigning and lawmaking, it might help put petty political disputes in a little perspective," the Times writes. "Sit high up in the cab of a combine, stare out at an endless vista of swaying grain, worry about wheat futures and drought — your opponent a leaf-eating insect — and, suddenly, it should seem a little ridiculous to block an important piece of legislation back in Washington just because it would give the other party a victory." (Read more)

Financial overhaul could hurt farmers who use derivatives to cushion swings in markets

While the financial reform bill may have been aimed at risk-taking bankers, it may have unintended effects on family farmers, one writes in an op-ed piece for the New York Times. She is Betsy Jensen, a Minnesota wheat and soybean farmer, a farm business management instructor at Northland Community and Technical College, and the managing editor of Prairie Grains magazine. Jensen explains that she uses derivatives to protect herself against wide fluctuations in crop prices. "On the purchasing side, I also use derivatives to protect myself from swings in the cost of fertilizer, fuel and other staples," Jensen writes. "While reading through the Dodd-Frank act these past few weeks, I’ve been wondering: Will the regulations on swaps make it more difficult for me to hedge against market swings in prices for crops and supplies?"

The financial reform act states "sometime later this year it will become unlawful to enter into swaps 'in excess of such amount as shall be fixed from time to time' by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission," Jensen writes, but asks "what will that amount be, and when will we find out? What is meant by 'from time to time'?" She accepts that the intent of the reform is not to intentionally restrict family farmers like her from trading futures and even notes that the trading commission may develop special protections for them, but she still questions what unintended effects the law will have on agriculture.

She points out the effect on speculators, who buy and sell wheat or corn without taking physical control of the crops, as one area of concern. "Farmers love speculators when they are buyers, helping push prices higher, and we despise them when they are sellers, driving prices down," Jensen writes. "Regardless of their position in the market, I am well aware that the system would not function without them — there wouldn’t be enough liquidity, or money, in the market." Jensen concludes that she hopes the trading commission takes such concerns into consideration when clarifying the reform, because, "I may not be able to manage Mother Nature, but I can manage my risk with derivatives." (Read more)

Scientists say reclamation does not eliminate the impacts of mountaintop-removal coal mining

A group of scientists presenting research at last week's Ecological Society of America conference said mountaintop-removal coal mining has done irreversible damage to Appalachian ecosystems no matter what steps companies and the government take to restore mined lands. "The scientists, visiting from several universities, spoke about myriad effects of mountaintop mining on ecosystems, from changes in the flow of streams to reductions in bird populations," Vivian Nereim of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. By compacting soil and clearing forests, mountaintop removal increases flooding risks and the process reduces water quality in streams and wells, the scientists said.

Coal industry officials were quick to discredit the findings. "We have a number of studies ... that have indicated post-mining impacts are minimized," Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, told Nereim. "They're clearly different in many cases, but certainly they're not terminal, nor are they negative. You've got to give this some time." Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association, said the research ignored the economic benefits. "The law does not seek to ban mountaintop mining because Congress understood the importance to the economy," he told Nereim.

Dr. Margaret Palmer, director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the University of Maryland, told Nereim reclamation efforts don't address some of the most serious effects of mountaintop removal, pointing to "stream creation," an allowable mitigation practice. "They shape drainage ditches into the shape of streams," Palmer told Nereim. "There is no such thing as stream creation in any sort of science." (Read more)

Environmentalists say damaged lands are good places to generate solar power

Many environmentalists have been vocal in their opposition of renewable energy projects that might have adverse effects on the environment. A Southern California solar project is paving the way for building on polluted or abused land. "Thousands of acres of farmland here in the San Joaquin Valley have been removed from agricultural production, largely because the once fertile land is contaminated by salt buildup from years of irrigation," Todd Woody reports for The New York Times. "But large swaths of those dry fields could have a valuable new use in their future — making electricity."

The proposed Westlands Solar Park would generate as much electricity as several big nuclear power plants during peak production periods, and, unlike many solar facilities, has the support of environmentalists. "It’s about as perfect a place as you’re going to find in the state of California for a solar project like this," Carl Zichella, who until late July was the Sierra Club’s Western renewable programs director. "There’s virtually zero wildlife impact here because the land has been farmed continuously for such a long time and you have proximity to transmission, infrastructure and markets."

"Recycling contaminated or otherwise disturbed land into green energy projects could help avoid disputes when developers seek to build sprawling arrays of solar collectors and wind turbines in pristine areas, where they can affect wildlife and water supplies," Woody writes. The Environmental Protection Agency and National Renewable Energy Laboratory are examining a dozen landfills and toxic waste sites for wind farms for solar power plants. The Bureau of Land Management has begun an Arizona program to repurpose landfills and abandoned mines for renewable energy.

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in December to protect nearly a million acres of the Mojave Desert from renewable energy development, but included language that would provide tax incentives to companies who build renewable energy projects on disturbed lands. Still the projects face hurdles. "Right now, Westlands is a concept we strongly support," Brian McDonald, director of renewable resource development for Pacific Gas & Electric, told Woody. However, he added that with such reuse projects, "the proof is in the pudding — on the surface, they tend to look simple but they realistically have a lot of hurdles to overcome to build them out." (Read more)

To fight chronically short supply of teachers, rural schools recruit local students for future slots

In the face of state and federal mandates to turn around struggling rural schools, districts are turning to programs designed to hand-pick candidates for rural teaching slots that will soon open and train them to thrive in a geographically isolated environment. "Rural schools have long struggled to recruit talent, researchers say, especially small, remote schools and low-performing schools in high-poverty communities," Mary Schulken of Education Week reports. "Amid high stakes for rural districts as part of a national push to turn around low-performing schools, initiatives aimed at high-quality homegrown talent have emerged across the country."

Examples of such programs include one in the Ozarks where "a teacher corps under the auspices of a regional nonprofit offers scholarships to rural Missouri college students who will return to their hometowns as teachers and school leaders," Schulken writes. The University of South Dakota has redesigned its teacher-preparation program to include a rural-teaching track, and North Carolina State University has created a leadership academy, which "targets veteran teachers in a corridor of low-performing school districts and prepares them to serve as principals who can turn around that record," Schulken writes.

Chris Berger, the superintendent of a 1,000-student, three-school district in the Missouri Ozarks, estimates his district loses five to 10 of its 80 teachers each year. He told Schulken the best strategy for fighting low retention rates is to "find local talent" and build on it. That's the goal of the Ozarks Teacher Corps, which has recruited 18 rural Missouri college students to go back to their hometowns or nearby to fill teaching jobs. "The students, juniors and seniors, get $4,000-a-year scholarships and membership in the Rural School and Community Trust’s Schools Innovation Network, which provides support and resources for rural teachers," Schulken writes. "The students in turn must agree to teach in a rural school at least three years."

John White, the deputy secretary for rural outreach for the U.S. Department of Education, said the department is watching the Ozarks program as a possible model to fill nationwide rural teacher shortages. "What these young people are being exposed to is not just how to teach," Gary Funk, president of the Corps, told Schulken. "They will be exposed to economic, political, and cultural issues in the community where they live and will be teaching." (Read more)