Mine-safety agency puts two mines on notice they may be shut for patterns of violations

On Tuesday the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration announced for the first time it has successfully placed two coal mines on notice that bthey could be closed for a pattern of violations. "Bledsoe Coal Corp.'s Abner Branch Rider Mine in Leslie County, Kentucky, and The New West Virginia Mining Co.'s Apache Mine in McDowell County, West Virginia, are the first in the history of the 1977 Mine Act to be subject to a pattern of violations enforcement action, which targets mines with chronic and persistent health and safety violations," Dori Hjalmarson of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

"We're trying to send a message to the mining industry that you don't want to go down this path" of a pattern of violations, MSHA chief Joe Main said during a conference call Tuesday. "There are some in the industry that don't get it, and we have two here that have exposed themselves." Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Bissett said the Bledsoe mine owner had appealed the majority of the citations, which included roof control problems, coal dust accumulation, mine ventilation and electrical wiring issues, that led to the pattern-of-violations sanction.

MSHA, part of the Department of Labor, issued the Bledsoe mine and 12 others potential pattern-of-violations notices in November. Massey Energy voluntarily closed one of those mines, Freedom No. 1 in Pike County, Kentucky, after MSHA sought a court-ordered shutdown. From January to March, MSHA inspected the remaining 10 mines that were still operating and found eight had met the safety plans put in place in November. The Bledsoe and New West Virginia mines had not; in fact, their rates of serious violations had increased. "The great disappointment is this, that they didn't take measures that they should have to fix the problems . . .  to avoid this enforcement action," Main said. (Read more)

Communities fade away as residents choose money over living with mountaintop coal mines

Some Appalachians living near mountaintop removal mines have been vocal in their opposition of the practice, but some other communities near such operations have quietly faded away, partly because coal companies have bought residents out. Almost all that remains of Lindytown, W.Va., is the home, above, of 85-year-old Quinne Richmond. (NYT photo by Nicole Bengiveno)

"A couple of years ago, a subsidiary of Massey Energy, which owns a sprawling mine operation behind and above the Richmond home, bought up Lindytown," columnist Dan Barry of The New York Times writes. "Many of its residents signed Massey-proffered documents in which they also agreed not to sue, testify against, seek inspection of or ''make adverse comment' about coal-mining operations in the vicinity."

Quinne's husband Lawrence, who died recently, said he chose to stay because he feared moving would upset his wife, who has Alzheimer's. Instead, Lawrence and his son Roger signed easements granting Massey certain rights over their properties for $25,000 each and a promise they would not make adverse comments against the company. Roger now describes that deal as "hush money." Massey says Lindytown residents contacted the company about buying their property and "the entire mine plan could have been legally mined without the purchase of these homes."

James Smith, a former Lindytown resident, says many residents only wanted to move because of the mountaintop mining operation above them.  "You might as well take the money and get rid of your torment," he told Barry, adding that he received more than $300,000 for his property. "After they destroyed our place, they done us a favor and bought it." Roger Richmond noted "Some of them were tired of fighting it. Of having to put up with all the dust. Plus, you couldn’t get out into the hills the way you used to." (Read more)

Increased crop production, changing weather and relaxed regulations erode Midwest landscape

Last year's rush to cash in on soaring corn and soybean prices has left many hillsides and pastureland throughout the Midwest bare and at risk for erosion during the heavy spring rains. "Long in decline, erosion is once again rearing as a threat because of an aggressive push to plant on more land, changing weather patterns and inadequate enforcement of protections, scientists and environmentalists say," William Neuman of The New York Times reports. Research from Iowa State University scientists shows erosion is taking its toll in parts of Iowa and erosion has been exacerbated by severe storms.

"The thing that’s really smacking us now are the high-intensity, high-volume rainstorms that we’re getting," said Richard M. Cruse, agronomy professor at Iowa State and director of the Iowa Daily Erosion Project. "In a variety of locations, we’re losing topsoil considerably faster — 10 to as much as 50 times faster — than it’s forming." Erosion can damage water quality by dumping fertilizers and pesticides into water supplies. It can also hurt crop yields by washing away rich topsoil.

Erosion was curtailed during the 1980s and 1990s when the federal government began requiring farmers who receive subsidies follow individually tailored soil conservation plans, Neuman writes. Environmentalists say stricter enforcement of those plans is needed "because high crop prices provide a strong incentive for farmers to plant as much ground as possible and to take fewer protective measures like grass buffer strips," Neuman writes. Craig Cox, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, which released a report on soil erosion this week, said "You've got all these market forces and public policies and biofuel mandates and more severe storms. It's all coming together, and we're asleep at the switch." (Read more)

Budget deal cuts USDA 15%, Forest Service 11%

Details keep trickling out about the budget compromise that will come up for a vote in Congress on Thursday. For a list of the cuts, click here.

The cuts include 11 percent for the Forest Service, down to $4.7 billion, and 15 percent for its parent agency, the Department of Agriculture, down to $20 billion. The bill "reduces agricultural credit programs by $433 million, Agricultural Research Service by $64 million, and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture by $125.9 million below the fiscal year 2010 levels," says the House Appropriations Committee's summary of the bill, available here.

"Rural development initiatives . . . would experience significant reductions," Philip Rucker of The Washington Post reports. "But some of the worst-sounding trims are not quite what they seem, and officials said they would not necessarily result in lost jobs or service cutbacks. In several cases, what look like large reductions are actually accounting gimmicks."

The bill would halt "one of the Obama administration's cornerstone policies to protect unspoiled lands in the West," an inventory of roadless federal lands with an eye to greater protection for them. It "mirrors language from the continuing resolution that the House passed in February but was excluded from the Senate's proposed short-term funding bill," Phil Taylor reports for Greenwire.

Taylor also notes "The Land and Water Conservation Fund -- the main vehicle for acquiring new federal lands, protecting species and promoting urban recreation -- would be funded at $301 million, a $149 million cut below current levels. . . . The proposal weakens the Obama administration's odds of receiving its requested $900 million -- the maximum authorized -- in fiscal 2012 and threatens a central goal of the president's Great Outdoors initiative." (Read more, subscription required)

EPA's No. 2 official says drillers who fractured wells with diesel fuel violated federal law

The Environmental Protection Agency's No. 2 official told a congressional hearing today that drillers who used diesel fuel to hydraulically fracture oil and gas wells without a permit violated federal law. "The assertion by Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe means some companies that have acknowledged injecting diesel could be subject to sanctions under the Safe Drinking Water Act," Mike Soraghan reports for Greenwire. "It is a technical but politically charged question in the ongoing debate about regulation of the fracturing process."

Drillers have acknowledged injecting at least 32 million gallons of diesel fuel during fracturing, though an EPA official told congressional investigators that the agency "had assumed that the use of diesel had stopped seven years ago," Soraghan writes. "Of the total figure, 10 million gallons was 'straight diesel fuel,' the investigation found, while another 22 million gallons was products containing at least 30 percent diesel." After the Environmental Working Group "found confusion among state officials about the diesel exemption" and issued a report last year, charging that many wells were diesel-fractured without the necessary permits, "EPA posted rules about fracturing with diesel on its website without notice." The Independent Petroleum Association of America is challenging the rules in federal court. "Industry representatives said EPA never clarified to them whether they could be penalized for that past use," Soraghan writes. (Subscription required)

Indians stand at forefront of water-rights battles

Water is expected to become more important over the next 50 years, and Native American tribes may be positioned at the forefront of the battle over water rights. "By midcentury, water is expected to loom as large as oil in the economic and political life of the country, as parties race to lock up supplies," Felicity Barringer of The New York Times reports. "As droughts exacerbated by climate change and by population growth expand in the Great Plains and the Southwest, Indian water rights loom as a largely unsettled — and unsettling — factor that could affect the price and availability of water to millions of homes and businesses."

In Oklahoma (NYT map), the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes have joined the fight for water rights to Sardis Lake, which could supply water to Oklahoma City, Tulsa and their surrounding suburbs. A 103-year-old Supreme Court decision, known as the Winters doctrine, "effectively puts tribes in Western states at the head of the line in times of water shortage," Barringer writes. The Choctaw and Chickasaw want Oklahoma to recognize them as joint owners of the water rights, but despite the Winters doctrine, establishing water rights can take decades.

The Interior Department has tried to make sure there are no big losers when a tribe's water rights are recognized, Barringer writes. The Choctaws' and Chicasaws' claims are further complicated because they no longer have reservations, raising questions about whether the water rights are tied to a specific land grant. Tribes may lose in the push for water rights if the federal courts trim earlier rulings establishing Indian rights, Daniel McCool, director of the environmental studies program at the University of Utah, told Barringer. "It's case law," he said, "and case law can be changed." (Read more)

Community-college funding takes a hit as states deal with budget shortfalls

Texas lawmakers have abandoned a plan to cut all funding to four of the state's community colleges, but those schools and other community colleges across the country still face dramatic cuts in funding, David Harrison of Stateline.org reports. Frank Phillips College, a 1,300-student school in Borger, Tex., population 13,000, was originally scheduled to lose all funding but now faces a 20 percent cut. "This takes us, I think, to the lowest funding level in history, if you look on a per-student basis," Rey Garcia, the president of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, told Harrison.

"In 2009, the latest year for which figures are available, the state share of community college funding fell by one percentage point to 26.8 percent, the lowest level in at least five years," Harrison writes. Still, enrollment at community colleges rose 20 percent between 2004 and 2008, according to federal data. In addition to Texas, the community college funding crisis appears most severe in California and Arizona. "All are making deep budget cuts that seem destined to fundamentally change the nature of what community colleges do, how many students they serve and what they charge for tuition," Harrison writes.

Frank Phillips College officials wonder how long their school can exist in the current economic climate. "We have 58,000 people in our nine-county service area and we have no other institution of higher education anywhere in there," President Jud Hicks said. "I'll call it a moral obligation to educate citizens in our service area." Deborah Summers, an anthropology professor at the school, notes "Whether those people in Austin believe it needs to go or not doesn't matter. We know we're important, and we know we're going to be here. There are very strong numbers of older ranch women like myself here that don't like being told what to do." (Read more)

Stateline's map showing state specific changes in enrollment and funding at community colleges, which are especially important in rural areas, is here.

Kansas governor and legislature offer tax breaks for moving to one of 50 rural counties

How do rural areas halt or slow population declines, being freshly reported in new census data? Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has an idea: He recently signed a bill that aims to attract new residents to some of the state's most rural counties. "His administration created a plan that targets 50 rural counties — pegged as rural opportunity zones, or ROZ — with a two-pronged approach for a five-year stretch," Rick Plumlee reports for The Wichita Eagle. (Eagle photo by Jaime Green)

The first part of the incentive plan "waives state income taxes for tax years 2012-16 for those who relocate to one of the ROZ counties after having lived outside of the state for at least five years or having had a Kansas-source income of less than $10,000 for at least five years prior to moving," Plumlee writes. The second part, designed to bring younger people to designated rural areas, pays $3,000 a year — max $15,000 — towards student loans to college graduates moving to the targeted communities. The state and county would split loan payment costs, Plumlee reports.

"Graduates are sometimes reluctant to move to a rural area because jobs there don't usually pay as high as in urban areas," Brownback said in a ceremony at Wichita State University. "But combine this with student loan paydown and they may be able to make it work." (Read more)

Iowa senator: Direct farm payments will end

Direct federal payments to farmers and landowners are likely to be eliminated in the 2012 Farm Bill, says Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, a farmer by trade. He says at least some of the $5 billion in direct payments is "likely to be shifted into crop insurance and to traditional price-support programs in which subsidies are tied to drops in commodity prices," Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports.

"I think direct payments are going to be done away with," Grassley told Brasher. "The question is whether the $5 billion will be saved or go into other programs." Brasher notes, "A House Republican budget plan called for slashing the payments as a way of cutting farm spending by 20 percent over the coming decade." The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation has called for direct payment funding to be shifted to other programs, but southern farmers, who depend more on the payments, have resisted that plan. (Read more)

Unusual public radio station in Appalachia worries about federal funding, a third of its total

On Monday we reported proposed cuts to funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting had been omitted from the deal on this year's federal budget, but the future of CPB funding and rural radio in future years remains unclear. The uncertainty worries WMMT, the radio station for Appalshop in Whitesburg, Ky., and listeners in Eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia. "If that station were to be shut down for lack of funding, it would really, really hurt this town," Whitesburg Mayor James Wiley Craft told Kit Seelye of The New York Times.

WMMT, an unusual public station in that it is not affiliated with NPR or a university, received $86,000, one-third of its budget, from the CPB last year. As we've noted more than once, rural radio stations that depend on federal funding to operate may be in danger of going off the air if their funding is cut. More than 20 rural stations, some of which are one Indian reservations, rely on CPB for over half of their revenue, Seelye writes. "This is the worst threat we've ever had because the economic climate is so bad for everything else," said Jim Webb, left, who hosts WMMT's "Appalachian Attitude." (NYT photo by Scott McIntyre)

While WMMT doesn't broadcast NPR programming and thus is not forced to defend NPR against claims of liberal bias, Craft said the station has at times been portrayed as anti-coal. "Some of the people who are there are associated with other groups" that oppose mountaintop removal, he said, "but those people at the state are intelligent enough to know which side of the bread is buttered. This area depends on coal 100 percent." (Read more)

UPDATE, April 16: Times columnist Tim Egan writes about a rural public station in eastern Idaho that does run NPR programming and is managed by a conservative who finds it largely balanced. For the piece on Pocatello's KISU-FM, click here.

Rural population loss continued in last decade, especially in rural areas farthest from metros

Rural population growth continued to lag behind the rest of the country, and almost half the nation's rural counties lost population between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, according to an analysis by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the institute, also found that nearly 60 percent of counties not adjacent to a metropolitan area lost population, Conor Daugherty reports for The Wall Street Journal.

The census found that metro areas' population grew 10.8 percent, while non-metro or rural areas grew only 4.5 percent. "Such findings come as no surprise to Robert Knudson, city manager of Belleville, Kan.," Daugherty writes. "Over the decade, the county surrounding Belleville lost 855 people—15 percent of its population—and has been tearing down empty homes in recent years." Like many in Belleville, Knudson watched his children move away, to Wichita. "We were producing children for the jobs we couldn't support," Knudson told Daugherty. (Read more)

Gray wolf delisting included in budget bill, but anti-EPA measures are not; public radio spared

Proposed bipartisan legislation to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act was among the few environmental policy riders to survive last week's intense congressional budget negotiations. U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, proposed the rider to "bring relief to hunters, ranchers and wildlife officials in their states who have warned that wolves are preying on livestock and causing serious declines in big-game herds," Phil Taylor of Greenwire writes for The New York Times. (First People photo)

The budget bill, House Resolution 1, which is still being put into legislative language, has angered some environmentalists because it interferes with a proposed settlement between 10 environmental groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The settlement "would have delisted wolves in Montana and Idaho but retained protection in Wyoming until an acceptable management decision is reached," Taylor writes. "The settlement is definitely far superior to the Simpson language that was in HR 1, which would simply delist wolves throughout the northern Rockies," Bill Snape, a lead attorney for Center for Biological Diversity, one of the 10 settling parties, told Taylor. "If Tester really cares about wolves and about settling this problem once and for all, he will embrace and lead the administrative conservation measures identified over the past several months rather than inflaming the situation further with a bogus political delisting." (Read more)

Riders aimed at limiting the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to limit greenhouse gases and the impact of montaintop-removal coal mining died, apparently along with other anti-EPA riders.

On other topics, National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting were spared, good news for public radio stations in rural areas, which rely more heavily on CPB to buy NPR programming. But a rural broadband loan program was eliminated, as we reported was in the works Friday.

Researchers say hydraulically fractured shale releases more greenhouse gases than coal

One researcher's conclusion that "natural gas pried from shale formations is dirtier than coal in the short term" and "comparable" in the long term will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, giving it more credence, Mike Soraghan reports for Greenwire.

"That finding, fiercely disputed by the gas industry, undermines the widely stated belief that gas is twice as 'clean' as coal in terms of greenhouse gas emissions," Soraghan writes. "The gas industry has promoted that concept as a way for electric utilities to prepare for climate change regulations by switching from coal-fired plants to gas. But if both gas and coal are considered plentiful and cheap, utilities would have little incentive to switch."

The lead author of the study, Robert Howarth, announced the finding more than a year ago, but has now had it accepted for publication by the journal Climate Science. His co-authors are Renee Santoro and Anthony Ingraffea, like him professors at Cornell University. They focus on the greenhouse gas methane, the main constituent of natural gas. They say 3.6 percent to 7.9 percent of the methane in a hydraulically fractured well escapes to the atmosphere during fracturing, at least one-third and perhaps as much as one-half more than in conventional gas drilling. To read the study, which was obtained by The Hill newspaper, click here.

UPDATE, April 12: David Hawkins, director of climate programs for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Tom Zeller Jr. of The New York Times that regulators could make drillers capture more methane, "but that it is often more economical for industry to simply let it escape. Hawkins also said that too little was known about just how much methane was being lost and vented, and that studies like Mr. Howarth’s, while needed, relied on too slim a data set to be considered the final word." (Read more)

Minn. news site follows rural youth in college

A news website has launched a project that follows several rural youth such as Kelly Schoenfelder, right, on their path to higher education and explores the impact their choices have on the future of Minnesota. "Every conversation I've had with a young person in rural Minnesota eventually gets around to the question of staying or leaving – for college or forever," Jeff Severns Guntzel of the Minnesota Post reports as part of the "Rural Minnesota: A Generation at the Crossroads" project.

Tasha Cary, 19 of Hibbing, is attending Hibbing Community College and plans to transfer to North Dakota State University in Fargo. She says she is not sure if she will return to Hibbing, but she "knows she feels more comfortable in a small community," Guntzel writes. She notes "I like small town life. I just like that you don't have to really be going all the time." Matthew Sullivan, 19, and plans to move to Minneapolis instead of remaining in Hibbing. "I'm definitely not coming back. I like things going on. I like culture; I like theater; I like technology," he told Guntzel. (Read more)

You can follow the Rural Minnesota project here or on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. The project is funded by a grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation.

Nebraska town loses half its population between censuses, and now has just one resident

There are varying degrees of rurality, but one Nebraska town may be the most rural: it has only one resident. "Elsie Eiler is the most admired person in Monowi, Neb. She is also the smartest, wealthiest, best-looking and youngest," Kevin Murphy of Reuters reports. Monowi lost its other resident in 2004 when Elsie's husband, Rudy, died. "We probably have the record by going down in population 50 percent," Eiler told Murphy. "I chose to stay here after my husband died. It's home." (CBS News image)

Wikipedia map: Nebraska, Boyd County and Monowi

The Census Bureau has not confirmed the data yet, but Reuters reports "Monowi appeared to stand alone as a one-person incorporated village, town or city." Eiler owns the town's only business, the Monowi Tavern, and operates the library, a "tiny building jammed with 5,000 books that is dedicated to Rudy, a devoted reader," Murphy writes. "Eiler has done the required paperwork to keep Monowi a village," and she serves as the village clerk, treasurer, mayor and council, Murphy reports. "I'm the whole thing," Eiler said. There's no need for any elections, she said, "because I'd be the only one to vote." (Read more)

Study shows black-lung rates are increasing – not decreasing, as Sen. Rand Paul claimed

A new study refutes U.S. Sen. Rand Paul's recent statement that the coal industry has done well in reducing black-lung rates. The study from West Virginia University researchers, to be published in the peer-reviewed journal Chest, concludes "Contemporary occupational dust exposures have resulted over the last decade in rapidly progressive pneumoconiosis and massive fibrosis in relatively young West Virginia coal miners, leading to important lung dysfunction and premature death," Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports on his blog Coal Tattoo.

Contrary to the Kentucky Republican's statement, the research means "Coal miners who are working in dust levels that are currently legal in this country are contracting and dying from serious lung diseases caused by their exposure to those legal levels of coal dust," Ward writes. Edward Petsonk, one of the study's authors, said at Wheeling Jesuit University's annual International Mining Health and Safety Symposium, "It’s still happening. There is a problem with miners’ health, and it is a current problem. This is no longer something that we can just sit on our hands about." (Read more)
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health chart of black-lung incidence rates:

Feds to offer rural gas stations aid for E85 pumps

The Obama administration is offering grants and loan guarantees to rural gas stations for installing pumps for E85 pumps, the fuel that is 85 percent ethanol. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will offer grants and loan guarantees to cover up to 75 percent of the cost of installing equipment needed to dispense E85, Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports. The hope is to place ethanol pumps in 10,000 stations within five years.

"About 2,300 stations nationwide are now equipped to sell E85," Brasher writes. "About 8 million cars and trucks on the road are equipped to use E85." Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release,  "Many folks who own these vehicles may have a difficult time accessing the necessary fuel." Retrofitting a station to supply E85 costs around $120,000, and many stations will see that as too much even with the federal aid, John Eichberger, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Convenience Stores, told Brasher.

"The government is offering you a $25,000 grant. Most stations only made $30,000 to $40,000 in pre-tax profit last year," Eichberger told Brasher. "You're looking at a pretty hefty investment." He says a better solution would be for Congress to certify existing equipment as able to supply E85 and other blends of ethanol and gasoline. USDA has restricted the aid to stations in communities with fewer than 50,000 people, one definition of rural. (Read more)

Future of land-grant university system to be topic of Farm Foundation Forum in D.C. Tuesday

The future of the land-grant university system, a key sponsor of public service for rural America, will be the topic of the next Farm Foundation Forum on Tuesday morning, April 12, at the National Press Club in Washington.

The panel of presenters will include Daniel Dooley, vice president of the University of California; George Norton of Virginia Tech, co-author of "Investing in a Better Future through Public Agricultural Research," and Nicole Ballenger, associate vice president of academic affairs at the University of Wyoming and study director for the National Research Council's Board on Agriculture report, "Future of the Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture." The discussion will be moderated by former U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm of Texas.

The forum will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Coffee will be available at 8:30 a.m. The press club is at 529 14th St. NW. There is no charge to participate, but advance registration is requested. Click here to register.

Budget bill would shut broadband loan program USDA wants to restart; expert cites rural need

The continuing resolution to keep the federal government from shutting down at midnight tonight "will wipe out the Broadband Loan Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the present federal fiscal year," Stimulating Broadband reports. The program, started in 2002, had been suspended while the administration used a much larger pool of economic-stimulus money, but USDA officials had planned to restart it with money left over from the 2008 Farm Bill.

Defending federal investment in broadband for rural areas, Sharon Strover of the University of Texas writes for the Daily Yonder, "Rural communities will be economically crippled without broadband access." About 68 percent of U.S. households have broadband, but in rural areas the figure is only 58 percent. Some of the difference stems from fewer people buying available service, but many places still lack high-speed service. (USDA photo via Yonder: Pine Telephone Co. in Oklahoma brings broadband to the Choctaw Nation with federal funds)

Strover, a national expert on rural broadband, says "Broadband will not bring immediate economic transformation to rural America. But regions that lack broadband will be crippled. Having broadband may not necessarily mean a sharp increase in jobs; however, not having broadband will probably mean fewer jobs . . . because Internet connectivity increasingly is necessary for many political, economic and social transactions."

Strover, who researches the impact of broadband on rural areas, acknowledges that its impact can be difficult to measure and will not be as great as that of rural electrification, but advises, "This technology does offer the prospect for profound changes in the future, changes we cannot begin to foresee." (Read more)

Study: Rural transport means more than roads

Rural areas need more flexibility in choosing options for investment in transportation infrastructure, in order to maintain strong economies and quality of life, says a new study from the Rural Policy Research Institute. "The report shows that a variety of transportation investments, including transit, vanpools, walking and biking paths and roads and highways, are critical to the economic development and well-being of our nation's smaller communities and rural areas," RUPRI says in a news release.

The report includes several recommendations for Congress to consider before reauthorizing the federal surface transportation bill: support local engagement in planning and decision making, encourage innovation and integration, shift resources to address most pressing rural needs, create integrated regional transportation planning and implementation and support greater attention to rural "place making," through quality-of-life investments.

"Transportation investments are critical to the future of America's small towns and cities, and the rural regions surrounding them," RUPRI President and CEO Charles W. Fluharty said in the release. "With public resources growing ever scarcer, federal policy must now give these regions the same latitude to set their own priorities, and build collaborative and innovative approaches to achieve them, that our nation's metropolitan regions have long benefited from." (Read more)

Senator fears ethanol industry's efforts to help itself are blocking way for next-generation fuels

At least one senator has voiced concerns that the ethanol industry's drive to increase its market is blocking the way for development of the next generation of transportation fuels. Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, "chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, worries that building an infrastructure for ethanol could discourage the development of synthetic versions of gasoline, diesel and other conventional fuels," Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports.

Those fuels could be distributed through existing pipelines and service stations, while infrastructure improvements are needed to handle higher blends of ethanol. Such "drop-in" fuels are the "best fit for the country" in the medium to long term, Bingaman said at a hearing Thursday on a proposal by Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa that "would require automakers to equip new cars and trucks to run on both ethanol and gasoline and require service stations to install pumps that can dispense varying blends of the biofuel," Brasher writes. Bingaman noted, "We should not go so far in locking our infrastructure into ethanol that we prevent different, and perhaps even better, renewable fuels from coming to market in the future."


While both ethanol and drop-in fuels can be made from non-food feedstocks, Iowa State University research "partly funded by oil refiner ConocoPhillips suggests the drop-in fuels could be made less expensively than cellulosic ethanol through a process known as pyrolysis," Brasher writes. The ethanol industry argues drop-in fuel availability for consumers is still years away. Without policy changes, like the Environmental Protection Agency increasing the allotted ethanol blend in gasoline, the ethanol industry "is fast running out of a market for its product even as federal biofuel mandates are continuing to increase under a 2007 law," Brasher writes. (Read more)

Farmer-writer has site for online cattle sales

A couple in Buffalo, Ky., created http://www.midsouthcattle.com/, a virtual stockyard, as an economical way to connect cattle buyers and sellers in the South, Linda Ireland reports for the LaRue County Herald News.

Limousin cattle farmer Lanny Vincent, co-founder of the website and a sports correspondent for the weekly newspaper, told Ireland there is a similar website for cattle farmers in the West. Sellers on Vincent's site can list cattle for sale at no charge or pay $25 to include a photo. Buyers can browse the listings for free. Vincent collects fees from the seller only if the cattle are sold through the website, Ireland writes.

N.D. wind farm canceled due to bird concerns

Bird-advocacy groups scored a victory in their ongoing battle with wind power companies when Xcel Energy Inc. announced that it had canceled a $400 million North Dakota wind farm. "The 100-turbine project was expected to generate as much as 150 megawatts of electricity -- enough to power about 60,000 homes," Scott Streater of Environment & Energy Daily reports. The project stalled after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raised concerns about its effect on federally protected whooping cranes and piping plovers.

"Though the wind farm was to be sited on private land and required no federal land-use permits, it remained subject to laws like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act," Streater writes. FWS recommended project planners create a habitat conservation plan for the migratory birds, but "apparently they didn't feel that was something they needed to do," said Jeff Towner, field supervisor for the agency's North Dakota field office in Bismarck. In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Xcel said FWS's concerns led to "uncertainty in the cost and timing in mitigating this impact," which in turn prompted the decision to cancel the project. (Read more, subscription required)

Kentucky governor visits communities of strip-mining foes who occupied his office in Feb.

Responding to an invitation from strip-mining opponents who staged a sit-in at his office in February, Gov. Steve Beshear, right, visited residents of Floyd and Harlan counties in Eastern Kentucky this week. "Members of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth showed him streams and homes damaged by surface mining and asked him to take a stand against mine permits proposed for areas of Black Mountain around Lynch," Dori Hjalmarson of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. The state Energy and Environment Cabinet has declared "frivolous" a petition to declare the "lands unsuitable for mining." (KFTC photo: Beshear examines contaminated municipal water)

Lynch City Councilman Taylor Hall said, "This town, if it dies, it can't be replaced, it can't be simulated, it can't be restored. ... If they are allowed to take these mountains, this town is gone, people's lives are gone, history is gone." KFTC member Doug Doerrfeld told Hjalmarson the meeting was a "positive first step," but he would have liked the Democratic governor to take a stronger stand for Lynch. ""I don't think he really gave clear answers," Doerrfeld said. Beshear said he would meet with locals again as the permits and petitions progressed. (Read more) For KFTC's detailed report on the governor's visits, click here.

Reid: Budget deal blocked by GOP policy agenda, including items that would help coal industry

UPDATE, April 8: "Democratic senators confirmed that the dozen-plus EPA limits that House Republicans attached to their 2011 spending plan would be replaced with mandates to study the economic impact of agency rules," Environment & Energy News reports. Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told reporters, "There is no rider on mountaintop mining removal. There is a study to look at the economic impacts of EPA regulation."

If the federal government shuts down tomorrow night for lack of spending authority, one cause may be disagreement over Republican efforts to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to regulate mountaintop-removal coal mines, greenhouse gases and toxic air pollutants.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today that the Republican policy agenda is preventing passage of House Resolution 1, the spending bill, Elana Schor of Greenwire reports. "More than a dozen provisions . . . would block forward movement on Obama administration environmental priorities, including EPA regulations on greenhouse gases, air toxics and water pollution from coal-mining operations."

"House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) has said he is still defending all the H.R. 1 limitations on funding in his negotiations over keeping the federal government running through the end of fiscal 2011, and some Republicans have said they would not support a bill that did not place a moratorium on the EPA rules," Jean Chemnick reports for Environment & Energy News. Rogers represents almost all of the East Kentucky Coal Field.

House Republicans are "preparing to pass a bill later today that would keep the government open for one week while funding the Pentagon until fiscal 2012. Republicans consider that move a good-faith attempt to avoid a shutdown, but Democrats and the White House have ruled it out and called on Boehner's party to drop its focus on the policy riders in its continuing resolution." A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner defended the policy push, saying "Americans are concerned not just about how much we're spending, but how we're spending it." (Read more, subscription required)

Small town targeting Amish horse manure

A type of vehicle waste that is not normally regulated is causing problems in one Western Kentucky town. When local Amish come to Auburn, Ky., population about 1,000, around 20 miles west of Bowling Green, "their horses leave droppings in the streets" and some residents are complaining about the mess and smell, Pam Cassady of The Daily News in Bowling Green reports. "City leaders are hoping an animal excrement ordinance will help clear the air," Cassady writes. (Daily News photo by Alex Slitz)

Mayor Dewey Roche told Cassady that when the Amish moved to the area they agreed to clean up after their horses when in town, but that hasn't happened. "They say they want to be part of the community," Roche said. "And we want to get along." The city's animal-excrement ordinance only covers dogs, but at a City Council meeting in March members voted to start amending it to cover all animals.

Roche says some Amish residents, unhappy with the vote, told him they would take their business to nearby Franklin, in another county. Glen Sears, owner of a local hardware store, said he would hate to lose the business of the Amish and said if the city is going to force them to clean up after the horses, it needs to also enforce the dog provision. The council is scheduled to have first reading of the new ordinance Monday, April 11. (Read more)

Tea Party seeing success in school elections

Federal and state elections are not the only political races influenced by the loosely organized Tea Party. "Though difficult to quantify, the same forces that swept conservative candidates into office on the congressional and state levels appear to be working their way down to some local races," Christina A. Samuels of Education Week reports. In Wake County, North Carolina, voters elected four conservative-leaning members to its nine-member school board in 2009. While the board election is nonpartisan, the new members "garnered much of their support from voters displeased with a school assignment policy based on socioeconomic diversity, including some conservative community organizations that viewed the policy as social engineering," Samuels writes.

In March 2010 the new members voted to do away with the assignment policy, drawing "criticism from the district’s accrediting agency for high schools, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and federal Secretary of Education Arne Duncan," Samuels writes. In North Carolina's Gaston County, newly elected board member Mark A. Stephens was listed "by the Tea Party of Greater Gaston County as a candidate who aligns with the group’s priorities of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets," Samuels writes. "Because of the political climate, people were a lot more interested in everything," the candidate said.

In Baraboo, Wis., local Tea Party organizer John Meegan received the most votes in a six-person race for three school-board spots. Frederick Hess, the director of education policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, says the nature of conservatism may be changing on school boards. "Given how much of the conservative criticism has been the need to reassert local governance and preserve community values, it would make sense” to see local Tea Party organizations focusing on school races, he told Samuels. (Read more)

Texas accelerates toward 85 m.p.h. speed limit

UPDATE, April 16: Texas highway officials could raise the speed limit to 75 miles per hour on divided, non-interstate highways in rural areas, under a bill passed by the state House, Terrence Stutz reports for the Dallas Morning News.

The Texas House has approved a bill that would increase the speed limit to 85 miles per hour on some stretches of road. The measure was part of a larger transportation bill that passed Wednesday on a voice vote. "It would authorize the Texas Department of Transportation to raise the speed limit on designated lanes or entire stretches of roadway after doing engineering and traffic studies," The Associated Press reports. Texas and several other states with long, rural stretches of interstate highways have 80 m.p.h. limits, but none post 85.

The bill is opposed by some auto insurers, who cite safety concerns. But Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, who introduced the bill, said, "They have high-speed roadways in Europe, and there could be some merit in having some of those highways in Texas." (Read more) Kolkhorst is from Brenham, population just over 12,000, about midway between Austin and Houston on US 290. Her trip to the capital takes one hour and 38 minutes, according to Mapquest (click on map for larger version):

National parks making food suppliers buy local

The National Park Service announced yesterday that it will require its food suppliers to meet health and sustainability standards, including buying local products. "The policy will affect concessions in all 394 park units as each concession operator's contract comes up for renewal," Debra Kahn of Environment & Energy Daily reports. "There are more than 100 food vendors operating in the parks."

NPS Director Jon Jarvis, speaking at the "Healthy Parks, Healthy People" conference in California, said "Our strategy nationally for all of our concessioners will become a standard that they will serve the choices of healthy food, locally grown and good for you, as part of the national park experience." The policy is based on the Muir Woods Cafe in Muir Woods National Monument north of San Francisco, "which revamped its contract process to prioritize organic ingredients, local sourcing and healthy menu options," Kahn writes. (Read more, subscription required)

West Virginia enacts first statute for reporter's privilege; Arkansas expands its law to TV, online

A pair of states have strengthened the privilege afforded to journalists for protecting confidential sources. This week West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed the state's shield bill into law, making West Virginia the 40th state to provide statutory protection for subpoenaed reporters. Nine other states have protection in case law, as West Virginia already did. Only Wyoming lacks the protection.

"The measure provides journalists with a nearly absolute reporter’s privilege to refuse to disclose the identity of confidential sources, and documents or other information that could identify confidential sources, in civil, criminal, administrative and grand jury proceedings," Kristen Rasmussen of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press writes. Disclosure of that information can be compelled only if it is "necessary to prevent imminent death, serious bodily injury or unjust incarceration." West Virginia's law defines a reporter as "someone who gathers and disseminates news to the public for a portion of the person’s livelihood, suggesting that freelance journalists would be protected, while unpaid bloggers would not." Presumably, though, bloggers who makle money from advertising would be covered. The law specifically covers unpaid student journalists. (Read more)

Arkansas first passed its shield law in 1937, when television was still pretty much in the laboratory. Last month, state lawmakers amended the law to protect TV and online reporters. The bill was approved unanimously in the House and the Senate, and the law will go into effect 90 days after the legislature officially adjourns. Michael Tilley, co-owner and editor of The City Wire, an online publication, contacted a state senator to consider amending the law. He told Kacey Dreamer of the Reporters Committee that after consulting with lawyers and legislators they decided "It never hurts to take the gray area out of the law." (Read more)

Education and agriculture secretaries address 300 4-H Club members at national conference

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, left, addressed 300 4-H Club members from 47 states or territories and Canada as a part of the National 4-H Conference in Bethesda, Md., this week. A child from your area may have attended.

The focus of the unusual joint appearance was "community service, valuing education and embracing positive health and nutrition habits," Allison Ekhardt, writer for USDA's National Institute for Food and Agriculture, reports on the USDA Blog.

Vilsack, right, encouraged the 4-Hers to host roundtables to address issues that are important to them and their communities and make a commitment to healthier living through programs like the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award Challenge, which "recognizes those who log their recommended physical activity for six consecutive weeks, five days a week (60 minutes for kids, 30 for adults)," Eckhardt writs. (Read more)

Duncan said 4-H could partner with schools to improve their performance and reduce drop out rates. He said the organization and the Cooperative Extension Service, which oversees it, "can work with schools to create programs that are specific to the school community's needs, including financial literacy, parenting, healthy living, food and nutrition, science literacy, robotics, and civic engagement to bridge formal and non-formal learning experiences," the Ed.gov Blog reports. (Read more)

Two environmental groups grade banks on mountaintop-removal lending policies

Several banks in the U.S. and Europe have developed lending policies restricting financing of mountaintop-removal coal mines, but the effectiveness of the policies is squestioned by those opposed to MTR. In the second annual review of the policies, the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club grade 10 banks "based on the strength of the performance threshold, scope of due diligence and public transparency," the network reports.

"The 'best practice' as recommended in the grading scale is a clear exclusion policy on commercial lending and investment banking services for all coal companies who practice mountaintop removal coal extraction," the network says. Only Credit Suisse met that criterion, receiving an A-minus, the highest grade given. Wells Fargo got a B-plus.

Deutsche Bank and GE Capital Corp. were the only banks to receive Fs. Citi and UBS both got D's on the report card, while Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and PNC each received a C, plus or minus. (Read more)

Local band's music to be part of 'Justified' tonight

FX's hit show "Justified," set partially in Harlan County, Kentucky, will have a little local flavor in tonight's episode, with five songs from the county's Cumberland River Band. An instrumental version of one song was in the opening scene of the March 2 episode, but tonight's will include original versions of songs "Friend I'm Fine," "Let the Moonshine Flow," "Wild Berries," "My Dad" and "Ridge Runner," Nola Sizemore of the Harlan Daily Enterprise reports.

"Privileged and humbled are a couple of ways we feel right now," upright bass player Joseph Jones told Sizemore. "Everybody in the band hopes we’re making Harlan County proud. It’s a great honor to get the chance to represent this great place that we call home." The band also includes James Dean on banjo and vocals, Dustin Middleton on mandolin and vocals, Jamie Stewart on dobro and Andy Buckner on guitar and vocals. The band recently signed a record deal with Rural Rhythm Records and plans an album later this year. (Read more)

Industry study: Water systems knew of likely carcinogen in groundwater sources but kept mum

U.S. water systems failed to inform the public of the presence of a likely carcinogen in their groundwater supplies despite knowing it was there for seven years, says the Environmental Working Group in conjunction with its release of research on hexavalent chromium. The American Water Works Association Research Foundation study was based on data from 341 water sample tests from 189 water utilities in 41 states and "focused on hexavalent chromium in groundwater sources nationwide," Jeremy P. Jacobs of Greenwire reports for The New York Times.

While most of the hexavalent chromium results were found to be under federal limits, the study "concluded that conventional filtering systems used by water utilities in 2004 were typically ineffective in addressing hexavalent chromium," also known as chromium-6.

Hexavalent chromium was the subject of activist Erin Brockovich's campaign against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in Hinkley, Calif., that resulted in a $333 million settlement in 1996 and was later adapted into a feature film staring Julia Roberts. "I'd like to say I'm surprised at the utilities' silence, but I'm not," Brockovich said in a statement. "Instead of treating their customers like adults and sharing the test results with them, they shelved the findings, letting folks continue to drink water for years that could contain chromium-6."

The Environmental Protection Agency last September "issued a draft review that said hexavalent chromium in tap water was 'likely carcinogenic to humans'," Jacobs writes. EPA says it hopes to complete the final review of the chemical, which could result in a change in drinking-water standards, by the end of the year. California already lowered its drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium from 0.06 parts per billion to 0.02 ppb in January. (Read more)

Six added to Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame

Bill Bartleman, left, was The Paducah Sun's main government-and-politics reporter for 35 years, but the stories he enjoyed doing most for the 25,000-circulation newspaper were "stories about average people in the community," he said today as he joined the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame. He said L.J. Hortin, a journalism professor at Murray State University, reminded students that everything they wrote was important to someone, so "It doesn't matter what you write about," Bartleman said. "It's probably going into somebody's scrapbook."

Bartleman was one of six inductees this year. Others from rural journalism were Robert Carter, right, former publisher of the Kentucky New Era in Hopkinsville, who was instrumental in passing a state open-records law as president of the Kentucky Press Association; and the late Al Dix, who was publisher of The State Journal in the capital of Frankfort, population 25,000. Dix, below, "kept news columns fair, held officials and institutions accountable, and gave free rein to editors and editorial writers," his plaque biography says. "Confidant of state officials and community leaders, but also a reporter’s publisher."

Other inductees were Jackie Hays Bickel, a Paris, Tenn., native and longtime Louisville TV anchor who got her start at Murray State and Paducah; Ed Shadburne of Louisville, former broadcast executive in that city, Nashville and several small towns; and Tom Loftus, longtime Frankfort bureau chief for The Courier-Journal of Louisville. The Hall of Fame is sponsored by the alumni association of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. To download a PDF of the biographies on the inductees' plaques, click here.

Wind power is sucking wind, so to speak

After years of growth, the U.S. wind industry has hit a series of major roadblocks. The industry is "reeling from lackluster electricity demand in many mature economies, rock-bottom prices for competing natural gas in the U.S. and uncertainty throughout much of the world about government subsidies," Jeffrey Ball of The Wall Street Journal reports. But analysts say wind power is the biggest and cheapest of the renewable-energy sources now attracting major investment, and it should be boosted by the uncertain outlook for nuclear energy, Ball writes. (WSJ chart)

Wind power generated about 2 percent of electricity in 2009, the most recent year for which U.S. Energy Information Administration statistics are available. "Some day, government studies say, wind could produce 20 percent of electricity in the U.S.," Ball writes. To reach that goal the industry would need massive transmission lines to move the power from windy areas, but those lines remain in limbo. "Short of building huge new high-voltage lines, one way to increase wind power would be to devise an economic way to store wind power so it is usable even after the breezes die down," Ball writes, noting "entrepreneurs are working on a host of options, including batteries, but prices remain high." (Read more)

In North Dakota, which has been labeled the "Saudi Arabia of wind," plans for a 345-kilowatt, 270-mile-long transmission line have met resistance from some landowners. Among their issues is the loss of wind rights. Landowners fear the transmission line would take up too much space to allow them to lease their property to wind developers in the future, Joey Peters of Environment & Energy Daily reports. "Generally, one wind turbine to another turbine is a 2,000-foot distance," said Chad Weckerly, who sits on the board of the North Dakota Farm Bureau. "So if you're the lucky landowner that gets the transmission line on your property, it's not possible to get wind turbines on your land."

The Minnesota-based Minnkota Power Cooperative, which is behind the project, has offered some landowners a one-time $37,000 payment for every mile of line, but landowners say they should receive annual payments. While voicing their concerns, Weckerly and the North Dakota Farm Bureau caution they are not against the project. "We're not going to stand in the way of projects like this," Jeff Missling, the organization's state executive director, told Peters. "The biggest thing is making sure our landowners receive just compensations." (Read more, subscription required)  Map of proposed line:

Conservative group drafts resolutions for state lawmakers fighting EPA greenhouse-gas power

In November we reported the American Legislative Exchange Council was connecting private industry with state legislators to write legislation affecting immigration and the private-prison industry. Now ALEC has turned its attention to climate change by helping lawmakers craft legislation aimed at curbing the Environmental Protection Agency's power, Amanda Peterka of ClimateWire reports for The New York Times. "The Washington, D.C.-based group claims credit for advancing legislation that it says has undermined climate science and environmental regulation in several states since the late 1990s," Peterka writes.

ALEC has a private-enterprise board that includes representatives of Koch Industries, Exxon Mobil Corp., Peabody Energy Corp., the Salt River Project and Energy Future Holdings Corp. "At least eight state legislative bodies have adopted resolutions this year urging Congress to limit EPA's power to regulate greenhouse gases -- all of which came directly from ALEC model legislation," Peterka writes. "Legislators in more than 10 other states have introduced similar resolutions." Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Montana and Iowa have legislation on the table calling for their withdrawal from regional climate initiatives.

In February Virginia Republican Delegate Will Morefield "admitted that his resolution declaring U.S. EPA's effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions a 'regulatory train wreck' was written by the coal industry," Peterka writes. ALEC spokeswoman Raegan Weber told Peterka the corporate representatives and their companies are among a few of more than 300 private-sector members. "They are not running our organization," she said. The group was founded in 1973 by conservative activists and legislators who said they saw a liberal tilt in the National Conference of State Legislatures. (Read more)

A year later, lessons from 29-fatality explosion at Massey mine in W.Va. are still emerging

One year after the explosion at a Massey Energy coal mine in Montcoal, W.Va., killed 29 miners, mine-safety regulators are working to use lessons from the disaster to prevent similar events from happening in the future. Joe Main, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration and an assistant labor secretary, says "many lessons in safety practices were learned at the expense of the victims, and his agency has methodically implemented them," Mannix Porterfield of the The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va., reports. While noting MSHA was only looking to report the evidence from its investigation not blame, Main told Porterfield "There’s one thing that is a matter of fact here. Massey Energy was running that mine, was responsible for making sure that health and safety measures were in place to protect those miners. It’s their mine we’re finding these conditions at." (Read more) (Register-Herald photo of memorial in Whitesville, W.Va.)

Former MSHA head Davitt McAteer, whom then-West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin appointed to conduct an independent investigation of the disaster, plans to release a report detailing failures of company safety systems and regulatory oversight leading up to the explosion within the next few weeks, Kris Maher of The Wall Street Journal reports. "It is without question that the prevention systems failed, and that includes company inspections and government inspections," McAteer, who ran MSHA during the Clinton administration, told Maher. Massey Chairman Bobby Inman told Maher he believed the explosion was a "natural disaster." (Read more)
 
Nearly 20 hours of recorded emergency radio traffic and phone calls, as well as printed 911 logs and transcripts, and notes from the command center at the mine documenting the disaster response following the explosion, show "a slow and tepid initial response to the dire emergency," Howard Berkes of National Public Radio reports. McAteer says the documentsshow two failures. "One is timely reporting of an extremely serious situation," he told Berkes. "And second is the accuracy of that initial report, which underplayed the circumstances of what was going on." (Read more)
 
The documents include handwritten lists of miners, indicating that officials at Massey had trouble determining who was underground at the time of the explosion. "One list suggests miners who died in the explosion were working with miners who weren't even there," Berkes writes. The confusion should never have happened, McAteer told Berkes. "You mean to tell me that in today's age, where computers can tell you within seconds the level of production off a longwall and where that coal is moving along the conveyor belt, we can't keep track of people? That's unacceptable." (Read more)

The disaster promptd MSHA to start unannounced "impact inspections," 39 of which have been conducted in Kentucky and 32 in West Virginia, Dori Hjalmarson of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. "There are more outlaw operators in Eastern Kentucky than anywhere in the country," Lexington mine-safety lawyer Tony Oppegard told Hjalmarson. (Read more)
 
Massey is idling production at its 60 underground mines today to honor the victims of the disaster, and will hold a company-wide moment of silence at 3:02 p.m. EDT. Nick Brockman of The Register-Herald reports on the various memorials planned throughout the region, and Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette has ongoing coverage of the anniversary at his blog "Coal Tattoo." You can read The Register-Herald's coverage of the anniversary here.

Volunteer firefighters' ranks drop 12% in 5 years

The decline in the number of volunteer firefighters, who provide most of the fire protection in rural areas, is continuing. Nationally, their ranks declined 12 percent from 2005 to 2010, Scott Mullen, president of the Oregon Volunteer Firefighters Association, told Chuck Anderson of The Oregoinian in Portland, who writes, "Because rural residents depend on volunteers, fire officials throughout Oregon are struggling as the ranks age and spots go unfilled with younger recruits."

"Old-timers still volunteer," Mullen told Anderson. "The time demands and requirements for training weren't as great when they started. Young people are having a tougher time finding the time that needs to be put in." Anderson explains, "The era has long passed when all a recruit needed was to know how to find the nozzle end of a fire hose and aim it at the flames. Today the state's training requirements are no easier for volunteers than for career firefighters." (Oregonian photo by Bemjamin Brink: Ron Maruska, a volunteer firefighter for three years, at a recent training session.)

Other reasons: fewer people willing and able to do the physical labor involved in firefighting; more two-income households with children in school; and, as we reported in 2009, more rural residents driving longer distances to and from work, making them less available. (Read more)

As states debate strict immigration bills, farmers oppose them and call for federal reform instead

Agricultural interests are leading the opposition to Arizona-like immigration bills in several states, The Wall Street Journal reports. "Farmers in states from Florida to Indiana are pressuring—and in some cases persuading—state politicians to rethink proposed legislation that would authorize crackdowns on illegal immigration," Cameron McWhirter and Jennifer Levitz write. "They argue that the legislation will drive Mexican workers out of their states, and that there aren't enough American workers willing to pick crops."

The farmers are calling for federal-level immigration reform, "which wouldn't favor one state over another," McWhirter and Levitz report. The National Conference of State Legislatures says at least 25 states are considering crackdowns on illegal immigration. "Nobody wants illegal immigrants, but when you get down to the reality of the situation, farmers have to have workers to do the job," Roberta, Ga., peach and pecan farmer Al Pearson told the reporters, who write that his view is "The current federal system, involving approvals from multiple agencies, is slow and can't process enough legal workers for the state's large agricultural industry."

"There is no farm in this county that could continue without Mexican labor," Robert Ray, a Crawford County farmer and former head of the Georgia House Agriculture Committee. Still, some lawmakers aren't buying the farmers' argument. "I think the dirty little secret in agriculture is that farmers intentionally hire illegal immigrants, and they hide behind the Washington, D.C., gridlock as an excuse to justify their lawbreaking," Indiana Republican State Sen. Mike Delph told the Journal. (Read more)

'Rural sourcing' brings online jobs to small towns

Some businesses, leery of hiring full-time employees, move jobs to rural communities in the United States instead of other countries. "Rural sourcing" first gained media attention several years ago. Now, as economic conditions improve, the trend is growing again, Rieva Lesonsky, president and founder of small-business consulting firm GrowBiz Media, reports for Small Business Trends.

New research from oDesk, an online global employment platform, reveals "Small towns are outperforming their big-city counterparts in both online work activity and the number of hours worked per contractor," Lesonsky writes. The report notes small towns with populations under 15,000 are "keeping pace with large cities in terms of the number of online workers per capita" and "have proportionally higher 'actively working' online populations in terms of hours worked per online contractor," Lesonsky writes. (Read more)

State budget squeezes push some state lawmakers off tough-on-crime bandwagon

National incarceration costs have soared from "$12 billion in 1988 to more than $50 billion by 2008," The Associated Press reports, forcing many conservatives to reconsider their "tough-on-crime era that lead to stiffer sentences, overcrowded prisons and bloated corrections budgets."

"Conseratives have led the charge for more prisons and tougher sentencing, but now they realize they need to be just as tough on criminal justice spending," Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States, told AP.

With Pew's help, some states have passed sentencing reform proposals and at least 22 are currently considering them, AP reports: "The proposals vary by state, but the hallmarks include ways to reduce sentences for lower-level offenders, direct some offenders to alternative sentencing programs, give judges more sentencing discretion and smooth the transition for released prisoners."

The proposed sentencing laws have law-and-order politicians and activists against tougher sentencing in tense agreement. "Everyone is looking at the bottom line — where can we cut?" Angelyn Frazer, state legislative affairs director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told AP. "And if they can cut to make sure that some people can come home earlier and they don't have to serve these long, draconian sentences, that's great."

Others, like Jim Reams, a prosecutor in New Hampshire's Rockingham County, tend to disagree with the reform plans. "The budget crises are being converted into a public-safety crisis," Reams told AP. "Crime rates have fallen in nearly every state ... and we're probably going to see crime rates go back up again." (Read more)

In some states, such as Kentucky, local officials are concerned that reforms will reduce their jails' lucrative business of housing felons for the state and increase their local burden of housing misdemenants, Ronnie Ellis of CNHI News Service reports for The Morehead News.

Last week's most-read stories on The Rural Blog

The most-accessed stories on The Rural Blog last week, based on clicks to individual stories and not including clicks to the blog as a whole, which account for most of its readership:
List of 407 closed post offices is released
‘Coal’ TV show being previewed in Appalachia
Interactive 2010 U.S. Census map available
'Coal' show fails to give broader view of industry