Administration suggests keeping direct payments if recipients are limited to those in need

This week during White House budget meetings, the Obama administration made an important announcement about its position on agricultural subsidies and direct payments, which some farm interests have indicated a willingness to eliminate. "The administration favors basing farm programs on producer need, and intends to push that approach for future program cuts," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters.

Obama suggests limiting direct payments "to folks who need it the most," Vilsack said, denying them only to farmers with off-farm income over a half a million dollars or those with large, diversified operations. He said these organizations can rely on crop insurance. (Read more, from FarmPolicy.com)

Michigan co-op would build first coal-fired power plant permitted under federal climate regulations

The state of Michigan has approved the first permit for a coal-fired power plant under the new federal regulations requiring the best available control technology for new industrial sources of air pollution. Five percent of the plant's fuel will be woody biomass, "which state officials decided would cut the plant's carbon-dioxide emissions," reports Gabriel Nelson of Environment & Energy News. "Fallen trees and other dead plants release the gas anyway if they are left to decompose." The state concluded that carbon-capture and storage technology "was not available or affordable."

The plant would use fluidized-bed technology and be built at Rogers City on Lake Huron by Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative, a group of four rural electric distribution co-ops (co-op map). A Wolverine spokesman said "It will need to take a more thorough look at the permit requirements and the company's finances before it decides whether to build the plan," Nelson writes. "Because the Wolverine permit could set a precedent, it will likely be challenged in court by environmental groups that are trying to block new coal plants from being built." (Read more, subscription required)

Vast majority of school districts cutting expenses

Is your local school board making news by cutting expenses? It's one of many. Cuts were expected in 84 percent of more than 400 school districts surveyed by the Center on Education Policy in Washington, D.C, Christina Samuels of Education Week reports. The trend is the same in urban, rural, and suburban districts.

The survey, conducted between February and May, also found that about 70 percent of responding districts received less money in 2010-11 than the previous year, Samuels reports. Of those, 85 percent made staff cuts, with 68 percent cutting staff in non-core academic areas and 54 percent making reductions in core areas. Furloughs and reduced benefits were mentioned as other ways districts saved money.

For the 2011-12 fiscal year, 57 percent of schools expecting more funding cuts an, anticipate a reduction in teaching jobs, and 50 percent plan to cut administrative jobs, Samuels reports. "School people are just running out of ways to limit spending," Jack Jennings, president and chief executive officer of the Center on Education Policy, told Samuels. "They're just at their wits' end." (Read more) To see the center's full report, click here.

Lead ammunition blamed for deaths of big birds

The U.S. Geological Survey figures that up to 400,000 lead-shot pellets per acre fall annually onto popular hunting fields, and about 80,000 tons of lead falls on the nation's trap, skeet, and target ranges. That causes lead poisioning of "some of our most majestic birds, from eagles to loons to condors," Ted Williams writes for Audubon magazine. (Photonica/Getty Images photo by Henry King)

Those birds are scavengers, and they build up lead in their systems from animals shot but not harvested by hunters. "When lead projectiles hit large mammals they shatter, impregnating swaths of soft tissue as wide as three feet with toxic fragments," Williams writes. "Just one the size of a BB can fatally poison an eagle."

The University of Minnesota's Raptor Center in St. Paul received 117 lead-poisoned bald eagles during the winter of 2009-2010. Of the 46 with visible symptoms, 38 died or were euthanized, Williams reports. There have been 276 documented cases of lead poisoning in condors since 2000.

"So far 130 species have been known to ingest lead ammunition. There is no such thing as a 'safe' or 'normal' blood-lead level," Williams writes. He blames the National Rifle Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation, and Safari Club, for their lobbying against legislation to limit the use of lead ammunition and for failing to promote non-toxic steel ammo. To read the NSSF's view on lead ammo, click here. To read the entire Audubon article, click here.

Poultry firms squeezed by grain prices, exec says

Rising prices for feed grains are forcing chicken and turkey companies to cut production and jobs, a leading poultry executive told the Senate Agriculture Committee this week.

“Companies can no longer withstand the storm,” said Mike Welch, president of Harrison Poultry in Bethlehem, Ga., and former president of the National Chicken Council. “They are trimming their production plans, which means growers will receive fewer chicks to grow to market-ready broilers, and processing plant work shifts are being reduced or even eliminated.”

"Welch noted that one company had to eliminate a second shift, and 300 jobs with it, while another company announced recently that it is cutting over 200 jobs due to the cost of feed," reports Rita Jane Gabbett of MeatingPlace.com. "A third company was forced to file for bankruptcy and sell its assets to another firm, he said." (Read more; subscription may be required)

Strip-coal companies that promised to correct water violations in E. Ky. are polluting again

"Two coal companies, accused by environmental groups of polluting Eastern Kentucky streams, continued to dump pollutants into streams at higher levels than their permits allow after an agreement with the state to correct the problem," Ronnie Ellis reports for Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., which has papers in the region.

Frasure Creek Mining and International Coal Group agreed to correct the problems and pay fines, but the environmental groups said the settlement with the state didn't protect the public interest, and gave notice of intent to file a similar suit against another Kentucky coal company, Nally and Hamilton Enterprises. (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth copyrighted photo by Kevin Pentz: Frasure Creek mine at head of Brushy Fork in Floyd and Magoffin counties)

Frasure Creek and ICG reported their latest violations to the state. Ellis reports the companies' reports show "pollution levels as much as eight to 15 times above allowable, permitted levels of several pollutants," according to affadavits filed by Donna Lisenby, director of water programs for Appalachian Voices, one of the environmental groups, and her assistant, Eric Chance, in Franklin Circuit Court in the state capital of Frankfort.

The environmental groups contend that the companies or their contractors have falsified water-quality monitoring data. Appalachian Voices released a graph analyzing how the reported levels of conductivity in water coming from Frasure Creek mine sites went down when the Environmental Protection Agency issued a guidance using conductivity as a standard, then remained stable until the reporting problem was discovered:

"In the proposed settlement worked out by the cabinet and the coal companies in December, the problems were attributed in part to errors on the DMRs and to inaccurate or faulty testing by outside laboratories, Ellis reports, then quotes Lauren Waterworth, co-counsel for the environmental groups: “These most recent violations are indicative of a true pollution problem and not just an administrative or paper violation. It shows state enforcement has not been effective.” (Read more) For more from Appalachian Voices, click here.

National Rural Assembly convenes in St. Paul

The National Rural Assembly began today in St. Paul, Minn., and will continue until Thursday. The Rural Blog had planned to be there, but an extension of a critical fund-raising deadline prevented our attendance. Next year, we promise! But the Daily Yonder is there, and co-editor Bill Bishop has already posted items about local leadership, technology and transportation.

Yonder writer Alex Bloedel passed along these words from keynoter Dee Davis, right, president of the Center for Rural Strategies: “This is an urgent time. A lot of you know that we’re facing some pretty tough issues, and what happens in the next few months is really going to determine what American life is going to be like in the cities and in the country for probably decades to come.” (Read more)

County starts camp to interest kids in health careers and get them to bring skills back home

Some rural areas are combating shortages of health professionals by interesting local young people in such work and encouraging them to bring their skills back to the community. One is Washakie County, Wyoming, population 8,533, which last year started Camp Healthcare for rising eighth-graders, Jackie Borchardt of the Casper Star-Tribune reports. (Star-Tribune photo by Joshua A. Bickel)

This year, "Campers learned how to dress burns from a Casper College alumna . . . talked with a family practice doctor who grew up in Meeteetse," and visited the rehabilitation center at Banner Health Washakie Medical Center in Worland, Borchardt reports. While at the center, 14-year-old Justin Roussan (facing camera) placed a sling underneath Anthony Eibert, 13, with help from rehabilitation manager Roger Pomeroy. The three-day camp is free. (Read more)

Small community newspaper prepares as national sporting event comes to town

Sparta, Ky., population 230, home of the Kentucky Speedway, will host more than 100,000 race fans as part of the speedway's first NASCAR Sprint Cup race Saturday, July 9, and preliminaries July 7 and 8. The county's only local newspaper, the Gallatin County News, in the county seat of Warsaw, is on the event editorially and financially, but not so much digitally. (Wikipedia map)

The 2,700-circulation weekly is publishing an advertising tabloid and printing 10,000 extra copies for the local Chamber of Commerce to distribute, and sending three people to cover the race, co-owner Clay Warnick told Kentucky Press Association Executive Director David Thompson. "Any plans to make your coverage more timely by using your website?" Thompson asked. "After all, by the time the paper comes out the race results will be days old. Or by Facebook? or Twitter? or other social media? "No," Warnick replied. "We are old-school print mavens."

And old-school accountability journalists, too. Below the paper's main story last week, about major road construction going on hiatus for the races, was a report on the speedway appealing the county property valuation administrator's huge increase in its assessment, from $10.5 million to $58.5 million because it had finally landed a Sprint Cup race and doubled its seating capacity. (Click on page for larger version) To read the entire interview, click here.

N. Calif. project taught town, highway planners how to slow traffic and create a business district

Small towns bisected by major highways might learn from Willow Creek, Calif. State Highway 299 once widened to five lanes as it entered the town, presumably to let thru traffic continue at highway speed while locals made turns. But many drivers saw the stretch as a chance to make time on the Trinity Highway that winds and climbs through the Coast Ranges east of Eureka, and "might pass other vehicles at 70, 75, 80," Laura Tillman writes for the Daily Yonder.

In 2001, Tillman reports, "Those five lanes were reduced to three, with bike lanes added to either side of the road. Two years later, continuous sidewalks were added to allow pedestrians to move between downtown shops. Sycamore trees were planted to show cars this was a neighborhood, not merely the intersection of Highways 299 and 96. Traffic slowed further, which legally allowed the speed limit to be lowered to 35 miles per hour. Pedestrian crosswalks were drawn. A community downtown was created." (Google Earth photo by Bill Cook)

Also, the project was "a professional turning point" for the California Department of Transportation, which "typically looked at road building only in terms of safety and traffic flow," Tillman writes. CalTrans District Manager Rick Knapp wrote a paper about the project that influenced the policies of other states. Is your state one of them? If not, should it be? (Read more)

DuPont subsidiary tabs Iowa land for commercial cellulosic-ethanol plant; pronounce this 'Nevada'

The increasing likelihood that ethanol will lose one or both of its federal tax breaks does not appear to have slowed plans for another plant to make ethanol from cellulose instead of grain. DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol has agreed to buy land in Iowa for "one of the world’s first commercial-scale biorefineries to produce fuel-grade ethanol from cellulose," the company announced today.

The plant will be at Nevada, pronounced "nuh-VAY-dah." The subsidiary of E.I. duPont deNemours and Co. also announced a program with Iowa State University in nearby Ames to collect the feedstock for the plant: dried corn cobs, stalks and leaves left after grain harvesting. The company said it is making cellulosic ethanol "economically" at a pilot plant in Vonore, Tenn. (Read more)

Iowa officials defend rural post offices; governor says class-action lawsuit should be considered

Here's the latest chapter in the story of rural communities fighting back to save their local post offices. Bill Shea of the Messenger News in Fort Dodge, Iowa, reports state officials have agreed to "ask Congress for a moratorium on future post office closures," and are even suggesting court action.

Lohrville Mayor Donny Hobbs, who led Saturday's meeting at Iowa Central Community College, said he will send moratorium requests to the National Governors Association and the Postal Regulatory Commission in addition to Congress, which he will ask "to consider changing the rules governing the Postal Service," Shea reports.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican who supports the moratorium request, suggested the group ask for a "blue ribbon commission" to examine the Postal Service and consider class-action lawsuits against it, Shea reports. Randolph Mayor Vance Trively, said residents of Randolph, Iowa, have already "pledged $10,000 to pay for a federal lawsuit against the Postal Service."

In Iowa, 70 post offices and a mail sorting facility in Fort Dodge could be closed, Shea reports. In Wyoming, at least six post offices are being considered for closure. For a story about one, in Cora, Wyo., click here.

What we knew, or thought we knew: The more rural the place, the less stressful the lifestyle

A study in Germany has discovered what we presumed to be true: Rural lifestyles are less stressful than urban lifestyles.

In a paper in the latest issue of Nature, researchers led by Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg of the University of Heidelberg's Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim reported differences in how the brain reacts to stress caused by other people. They "had volunteers lie in a brain scanner and solve math problems," which they expected to be easy but turned out to be hard, and a researcher "criticized their poor performance, saying it was surprisingly bad and disappointing, and telling the volunteers they might not be skilled enough to participate," Malcolm Ritter of The Associated Press reports.

Participants in cities with populations over 100,000 "showed more activation of the amygdala," part of the brain that reacts to environmental threats, "than participants from towns of more than 10,000 and those in turn showed more activation than people from rural areas," Ritter writes. While the study didn't answer why, researchers speculated that the results could stem from "the stress from dealing with other people," Ritter reports. Elizabeth Phelps, a New York University expert in emotion and the brain, who was not involved in the study, told Ritter, "These results are interesting but preliminary. . . I think it's worth investigating." (Read more)

Amid fracking-fueled boom in natural gas, insider documents reveal many doubts about prospects

The boom in natural-gas production from hydraulic fracturing of deep, dense shales (click on impge for larger version) has generated many items on The Rural Blog, mainly because of its economic and environmental implications -- but also because of the widespread belief that the boom will be big enough to alter the nation's energy menu.

"But the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract . . . as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells," Ian Urbina reports for The New York Times. Urbina's package includes many of those documents, which reflect an old truth about oil and gas: It takes money to produce, and some in the industry make more money above the ground than below it, by flipping leases and selling fractional interests, often on the basis of strong initial production.

Urbina describes how that hunger for investment money extends even to publicly traded companies that may illegally overstate their prospects, and he reports, "The amount of gas produced by many of the successful wells is falling much faster than initially predicted by energy companies, making it more difficult for them to turn a profit over the long run." And that could have environmental implications, with more drilling and fracking to meet production expectations. All in all, a very strong package. (Read more)

UPDATE, June 29: Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon says the Times' article is "inaccurate and misleading," Tulsa World in Tulsa, Okla., and the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas report.

FCC report on state of local journalism suggests some federal advertising be moved to local outlets

The recent Federal Communications Commission report about the state of local journalism included an interesting nugget spotlighted by Megan Garber of Nieman Journalism Lab: a suggestion that the federal government steer more of its advertising to local news outlets. She cites this passage:

"In 2005, the amount spent was $1 billion, according to the General Accounting Office. Currently much of this spending goes to national entertainment media. Some local broadcasters have argued that this could be targeted to local news enterprises without undermining the cost effectiveness of the campaigns, and perhaps even saving taxpayers money. We agree. Targeting existing federal advertising spending to local news media could help local news media models — both commercial and nonprofit, online and off-line — gain traction and help create local jobs, while potentially making taxpayer spending more cost-effective. In the past, it may have been more cost effective to buy national rather than local, but technological improvements have made it possible to easily buy local media placements on TV, in print and online — so that shifting ads to local news media could prove more cost-effective for taxpayers."

Garber's piece includes several links to related articles and reports.

Des Moines paper lays off perhaps the best agricultural-policy reporter in Washington

UPDATE, Aug. 31: Brasher has joined the Washington Bureau of Gannett Co. newspapers, which owns the Des Moines paper. "He’ll specialize in food and agricultural policy as he did in the Register Washington bureau," Agri-Pulse reports.

The important cause of Washington reporting on agriculture and rural issues is taking a major blow with this week's revelation that the 700 layoffs by Gannett Co. Inc. include Philip Brasher, left, the correspondent for The Des Moines Register.

"It has become increasingly rare for a Midwestern paper to keep an agriculture reporter in Washington, and in fact he was one of the last reporters left reporting solely on national food and agriculture policy for a major media outlet," Paula Crossfield notes on Civil Eats, a blog that says it "promotes critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems as part of building economically and socially just communities."

Crossfield writes, "Brasher was one of the only reporters who was not working for agriculture industry-sponsored outlets in the room at Senate and House Agriculture Committee hearings, and played a key role in informing the public about these as well as the inner workings of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. For the most part, the agriculture industry will now have a free reign over coverage of national food policy issues in the Midwest."

Perhaps Crossfield meant "free rein," a common mistake, but in this case she might be accurate, for the lobbying interests do often reign over Washington. There are still several reporters for agricultural trade publications in the capital, but few focus on food or take the independent, incisive tack that we could always expect from Phil Brasher, who has been in the Register bureau since 2002. That's why his name is familiar to readers of The Rural Blog.

Brasher told Crossfield, “This is a critical time for food and agricultural policy because of the deep budget cuts that are coming and the choices that Congress is going to have to make … about what money there is available. It’s vital that the public understands the impact of those policy choices and the tradeoffs they involve.”

We will keep trying to do that, and help rural journalists do that. But it will be more difficult without Phil Brasher.

New website makes it easy for journalists to gain access to research on a broad array of subjects

The Rural Blog often reports on new scientific studies, but journalists usually aren't ready to write a story about the subject of the latest study, and there are often several other studies to consider. Now there is an easy way to search for studies on a topic or issue, and it's designed for journalists.

Journalist’s Resource is designed to "make scholarly research more accessible for journalists, journalism educators and students," writes Alex Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. "Our objective is to encourage journalists to utilize high-quality scholarship in their daily reporting, and we intend for the site to make that as easy as possible." Jones and his brothers publish community newspapers in East Tennessee and he is on the advisory board of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

Researchers delve into an almost infinite array of topics, many relating to everyday matters of broad concern. For example, here's a study on the risks of brain injuries for high-school football players. In addition to a searchable database, the site has articles on research references and journalism skills. To learn more, click here.

Kansas raising speed limit to 75 on some roads

More than 800 miles of Kansas highways will have a speed limit of 75, up from 70, one week from today, following passage of a law by the legislature and selection of the freeway segments by state transportation, turnpike and police officials. "The measure received little, if any, public opposition. But two concerns remain, and it will be the responsibility of individual motorists to address them," the Lawrence Journal World says in an editorial today.

The concerns are safety and cost. "A 75 mph speed limit doesn’t mean you should drive 83 mph," even though it won't count as a moving violation on your driving record, the editorial advises. "Second, driving faster costs more. If you are willing to drive 75 mph, know that each 5 mph over 60 mph is the equivalent of paying an additional 30 cents per gallon of gas, according to the U.S. Department of Energy." Good advice for us all. (Read more)

19 million rural people still lack access to high-speed Internet, FCC and USDA say in new report

"Approximately 28 percent of rural residents still lack access to the kind of broadband that most Americans take for granted," Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said today as the FCC and the Department of Agriculture released a report calling for more federal help for bringing broadband, or better broadband, to rural areas.

The report uses as a standard high-speed Internet service of 3 megabytes per second, and says 26.2 million Americans lack access to such service. Of that number, 73 percent, or 19.1 million people, live in rural areas. Here is a summary of the report; here is the full report.

The National Rural Assembly, set for Tuesday through Thursday in St. Paul, Minn., will address the need for rural broadband. An advocate for it, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, will speak Wednesday, June 29.

"People may not think of high-speed Internet access as a necessity, but if your community doesn't have it, your businesses are not going to be able to compete, you're not going to get access to the same heath care, and your kids are going to be at a disadvantage in school," said Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies and chair of the assembly steering committee. For more information go to http://www.ruralassembly.org/.

GAO says ban on horse slaughterhouses has contributed to increases in neglect and abuse

The effective ban on horse slaughter for human consumption in the United States has contributed to an increase in abuse and neglect of horses, the Government Accountability Office said in a report yesterday. It recommended that Congress either restore funding for inspection of horse abattoirs or ban horse slaughter outright.

The GAO, an independent arm of Congress, found that since Congress enacted the ban in 2007, exports of horses to Mexico and Canada for processing have increased 660 percent and 148 percent, respectively. "Nearly the same number," almost 138,000, went to slaughter in those countries in 2010 as were slaughtered before U.S. slaughter ended, the report said.

However, because of transportation costs and lower prices in Mexico, "the plant closings were also responsible for an 8 to 21 percent decline in market prices for low- and medium- priced horses, or those that are most likely to be brought to slaughter," writes Pat Raia of theHorse.com.

The GAO noted increased reports of neglect and abuse, and said "State, local, tribal, and horse industry officials generally attributed these increases in neglect and abandonments to cessation of domestic slaughter and the economic downturn," Raia reports. For a summary of the report, click here. For a PDF of the full report, go here.

The House Appropriations Committee voted narrowly to continue the ban, and an amendment to repeal it was debated but withdrawn in the full House last week. For the Congressional Record transcript of the debate on the issue, from United Horsemen, click here. 

Cellular buyout reduces service in a rural town; could your community be next?

A recent buyout of cellular telephone contracts left residents of Montello, Nev., population 216, with unreliable cell service, Alex Cabrero of The Deseret News in Salt Lake City reports. Residents say they haven't been able to get reception for about six months as a result of AT&T's purchase of Alltel's contracts.

"When the tower is not working, we have to pack the baby up, pack our computer, get our phones and chargers, and drive," Montello resident Ellen Goldsborough told Cabrero. Her husband, Geoff Goldsborough, added, "It's been a very frustrating situation for us. . . . In a rural environment, cellphones are more than just a convenience for us. They're security. They're safety."

A spokeswoman for AT&T said its tower is ready but "The company is still working on infrastructure to carry the signals from the tower to a switching station," Cabrero reports. When the tower isn't working, Verizon customers are also affected. (Read more)

Searchable farm subsidy database updated

As reports continue of possible changes to farm subsidy programs, the Environmental Working Group has released its latest update to its subsidy database that lists recipients of subsidies by ZIP code and county and allows searches of individual and business names.

The group says the latest data confirm that reforms like the 2008 rule limiting payments to those "actively engaged" in farming have not prevented urban residents from receiving payments and "The largest farm operations still receive the vast majority of payments," EWG said in a release. To see the 2010 collection totals and number of recipients for other 100,000+ cities, click here.

EWG says the data shows from 1995-2010 that the largest and wealthiest operations, equaling about 10 percent of subsidized farms, "collected 76 percent of all commodity payments, with an average total payment over 16 years of $447,873 per recipient. Despite the 'reforms' that supporters of the subsidy system claimed were incorporated into the 2008 farm bill, the top 10 percent of recipients still harvested 63 percent of commodity subsidies in 2010."

House Republicans moving bills to limit EPA power over coal ash, mountaintop mining, wetlands

The U.S. House of Representatives is staying busy this summer, moving all kinds of legislation that reflects the views of its new Republican majority. The Rural Blog has reported relatively little of it because it hasn't come to a floor vote and most of it is probably doomed in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But now things are starting to get more real.

The latest example is the delay of a bill that would restrict the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate the disposal, often rural, of ash from coal-fired power plants. The Energy and Commerce Committee was scheduled to pass it today, but the chairman, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., said he would wait until after the July 4 recess in the hope that it can "get much stronger bipartisan support," reports Manuel Quinones of Greenwire, a service of Environment & Energy News.

Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the panel's Environment and Economy Subcommittee, "appeared skeptical about the prospect of drawing significant Democratic support for the bill, but said it was worth the effort," Quinones writes. The measure would let states "oversee their own coal ash disposal oversight programs as long as they follow minimum federal guidelines. But many Democrats have expressed concerns with the approach." (Read more; subscription required)

Yesterday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee "approved a fast-tracked bill that would shift regulatory powers over water, wetlands and mountaintop-mining regulation from U.S. EPA to the states," Paul Quinlan of Greenwire reports. The vote was 35-19, with only four Democrats voting for it, so its prospects in the Senate are very chancy. EPA said the bill would keep it from protecting water quality and public health. (Read more, via The New York Times, which carries some Greenwire stories)

Top labor officials set call with journalists today to discuss heat dangers to outdoor workers

Meteorologists and journalists who cover the weather are invited to participate in a conference call this afternoon about the U.S. Department of Labor’s campaign aimed at educating outdoor workers and their employers about the dangers of extreme heat. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, will cover the basics, offer tips for protection and encourage news coverage to help spread the word to viewers and listeners everywhere.

Their message is simple: water, rest and shade. "Each year, thousands of outdoor workers experience heat illness, which often manifests as heat exhaustion. If not quickly addressed, heat exhaustion can become heat stroke, which killed more than 30 workers last year," the department said in a news release. The conference call will be held from 1:45 to 2:15 p.m. EDT. the call-in number is 888-324-9652 and the passcode is 8880516.

First Rural Computer-Assisted Reporting workshop Oct. 21-23 in Johnson City, Tenn.; apply by Sept. 1

Daniel Gilbert won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for public service for the Bristol Herald Courier with his reporting on the mismanagement of natural-gas royalties in Southwest Virginia. He was able to crack the case with computer-assisted reporting skills learned at a CAR boot camp of Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. Now journalists in the region will have a chance to gain most of the same skills, at the first Rural CAR Mini-Boot Camp, to be held Oct. 21-23 at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City (one of the Tri-Cities, along with Bristol and Kingsport).

With funding from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, IRE and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues will select 12 applicants for fellowships that will include meals, lodging and travel assistance.

Applications are due no later than Sept. 1. To download a PDF of the application, click here. For more background information, go here. For information on the Fund for Rural Computer-Assisted Reporting, created at the Institute by a gift from Gilbert, click here.

Knight Foundation gives UNC grant to help rural N.C. newspapers publish digital government data

A project to help rural North Carolina newspapers digitize government information was among the winners in the latest round of grants from the Knight News Challenge, announced today by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The University of North Carolina received $275,000 to create OpenBlock Rural, which will "work with local governments and community newspapers in North Carolina to collect, aggregate and publish government data, including crime and real estate reports, restaurant inspections and school ratings," the foundation said in a news release. "Rural news organizations often struggle to move into the digital age because they lack the staff to make public data digestible. In addition, the project aims to improve small local papers’ technical expertise and provide a new way to generate revenue."

Justin Ellis of Nieman Journalism Lab has a detailed report on the project. For more from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill, click here. Here's a short video description of the project from its leader, Ryan Thornburg:

Congress may overturn court decision requiring second permit for pesticide spraying over water

UPDATE, July 8: "Facing what appears to be stiff opposition from Senate Democrats as a deadline closes in, House Republicans are trying a new legislative tactic" to pass the measure, Jacobs reports. "They've tacked it on to an appropriations bill." (Read more, subscription required)

Congress is nearing final passage of a bill that would keep pesticide applicators from having to apply for a second permit when spraying over public waters, Jeremy Jacobs of Environment and Energy Daily reports.

On a voice vote, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee approved a bill to overturn a 2009 federal appeals-court ruling that required a secondary permit for spraying over water. The Senate is moving a House bill instead of one sponsored by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., because the Environmental Protection Agency is "facing an Oct. 31 deadline for establishing the new permits," Jacobs writes.

The committee's approval upset environmentalists. "Congress should be making sure that our water is safe for drinking, swimming and fishing, not giving pesticide users carte blanche to continue poisoning the water we all depend on," Jason Rylander, a senior attorney for Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. (Read more, subscription required)

Study indicates that mountaintop coal mining may be increasing risk of fatal birth defects

"Children born in counties home to mountaintop coal mines had a 26 percent higher risk of suffering" a fatal birth defect "compared to ones born in non-mining regions," says a new study reported by Dan Vergano of USA Today. The study, led by health economist Melissa Ahern of Washington State University in Spokane, will appear in the upcoming Environmental Research Journal. (Map shows counties with coal mines in 1996-2003, darker gray shows mountaintop-mine counties as identified by satellite imagery and acreage criteria specified in study)
Links to air and water pollution from mountaintop mining led Ahern and her colleagues "to look for health effects on infants" in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, Vergano reports. The researchers found birth defects in mountaintop mining areas were elevated above non-mining areas in six of seven categories, including heart, lung and gastrointestinal. Because of an already established connection between poverty and birth defects, the researchers then "controlled for social factors such as smoking, drinking, mother's education, race and other poverty-related factors" and found a 26 percent increased risk of birth defects in mountaintop-mining counties, Vergano reports.

A spokesman for the National Mining Association "suggested adding more demographic factors to the study might remove the elevated birth defects," Vergano writes, then quotes environmental and pediatric-health expert Lynn Goldman of George Washington University as saying "It isn't proof of cause and effect" and paraphrases her: "Because the study is the first of its kind, public health researchers will need to reproduce the study results to feel confident it has uncovered a real link, she cautions. Further studies will be needed to show how exposures in mountaintop mining communities could lead to more birth defects." (Read more)

UPDATE, June 23: John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader has a better story on the study.

Aging wind turbines have some rock climbers turning their hobby into a career

With more than 36,000 wind turbines in the U.S. and 197,000 worldwide, outdoor enthusiasts are finding job opportunities in new and unusual places, Joey Peters of ClimateWire reports. (Rope Partner photo)

Josh Crayton, an avid rafter and rock climber, has been repairing wind turbines for five years with Rope Partner, a Santa Cruz, Calif., company. His duties include repairing, cleaning, and painting wind turbines at a variety of locations across the Midwest and as far south as Texas, Peters reports. But extreme weather like high winds leaves Crayton grounded some days. "It's difficult work," he told Peters. "You receive an itinerary, jump on flight and travel to the spot. Assuming all of your materials and bags make it with you, you'll start work the next day."

Employing rock climbers is only one repair method in use. Some repair contratcors use "machinery like cherry pickers to reach the blades," Peters reports, but using workers like Crayton is becoming more popular because there is no need for expensive equipment. "It's far more cost-effective and generally safer, because you have a main line and a safety line," Christyne Mortensen, office manager at Ropeworks Center of Excellence in Reno, Nev., told Peters. "We have easier access and can go anywhere on the turbines." (Read more)

Nine fish hatcheries in danger of closing

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers are trying to figure out a way to keep the Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery in Southern Kentucky open next year despite cuts in the service's budget, James Bruggers of The Courier-Journal in Louisville reports. (Hatchery photo)

Similar efforts may be under way around the country. "The issue came to light earlier this year, when President Barack Obama's proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 cut $6.5 million from the fisheries budget, potentially dooming as many as nine hatcheries across the nation," Bruggers writes.

The Kentucky hatchery is just below Wolf Creek Dam, a Corps facility that impounds Lake Cumberland. It produces about 1 million rainbow, brook and brown trout annually with a budget of $900,000. Ron Brooks of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife told Bruggers that the Corps offered to cover 80 percent of the cost of fish released below its dams." He added, "That could mean about 85,000 fewer fish might be produced, but it could keep the hatchery open."  (Read more)

The Cumberland River below the dam is a major trout fishery supplied by the hatchery, which also supplies fisheries in Georgia, North Carolina, and Indiana, the hatchery website reports.

Skepticism about climate change builds even as science grows more confident about human cause

Over the last five years, Americans have become "less likely to believe in global warming" but "scientists are more confident than ever that climate change is real and caused largely by human activities," Richard Harris of National Public Radio reports. But in an illustration of how scientific research is never-ending, a new study disputes a long-held belief that reforestation can help mitigate climate change.

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale University Project on Climate Change Communication asked participants "what they thought of climate change," and "to estimate how climate scientists feel about global warming," Harris reports. The results shocked him. Only 13 percent of participants guessed correctly that "about 97 percent of American scientists say that climate change is happening," and another third said they didn't know.

Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, a science review board, told NPR, "The consensus statement is that climate changes are being observed, are certainly real, they seem to be increasing, and that humans are most likely the cause of all or most of these changes." (Read more)

A recent publication by two Canadian researchers refutes the notion that planting trees is an effective measure against climate change, but supports previous findings that climate change is real and increasing. St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia researcher Alvaro Montenegro and Environment Canada researcher Vivek Arora "found that even if 100 percent of the world's cropland were to be reforested or afforested, the Earth's temperature would drop by less than half of 1 degree Celsius by the end of the century," ClimateWire reports.

While the study reveals dark leaves and needles on trees absorb the sun's radiation at a higher rate than cropland, negating the trees consumption of carbon dioxide, ClimateWire reports, "both researchers emphasized that planting trees did have numerous other positive environmental impacts, including increased habitat for wildlife and protection against erosion." (Read more)

Critics question fracking disclosure rules' effectiveness; latest law to pass is in Texas

Five states now have rules requiring energy companies to disclose some chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas production, but critics and some toxicologists say without full disclosure of all chemicals and the amounts of each chemical, "the requirements fall short of what's needed to fully understand the risks to public health and the environment," reports Nicholas Kusnetz of ProPublica, which has focused much attention on fracking.

"It's a shell game," Theo Colborn, a toxicologist with TEDX, an organization that examines the long-term health risks of chemicals used in drilling, said before Congress. "They're not telling you everything that there is to know."

Most regulations allow proprietary chemicals to remain secret from the public and, in some states, from regulators, Kusnetz reports. Some environmentalists and toxicologists believe these state rules allow "too much discretion," Kusnetz reports. Companies can seek trade-secret protection, and many do. In Wyoming, which currently has the toughest reporting rules, "100 such exemptions have been granted," Tom Doll, Wyoming oil and gas supervisor told ProPublica, "though most of the exempt products haven't been used."

Other critics, like the Sierra Club's Cyrus Reed, supporter of a new fracking-disclosure law in Texas, believe regulators are gradually moving forward. "It's just a step in the process," he told ProPublica, referring to the Texas legislation. (Read more) In July 2012, drillers must "disclose the chemicals they use when extracting oil and gas from rock formations," The Associated Press reports.

Lack of cell-phone coverage hampers economic development in some rural towns

Sparse cell phone coverage around Bridegport, Ala., population 2,728, is hurting its prospects for economic development because current prospective employers dissatisfied with the lack of cell service choose other locales, Andy Johns of the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.

"They found out we don't have any service, so they went somewhere else," city council member Leon Dave told Johns. "We feel like we're getting left out."

Steve Berry, CEO of the Washington-based Rural Cellular Association, told Johns, "Bridgeport's frustrations are valid, and the same thing is happening in sparsely populated areas nationwide." He added, "There are coverage gaps nationwide where large cellular companies have decided it's not profitable to build towers. It's tough for small companies to come in and fill those gaps . . . because their phones won't work with the larger networks outside their small areas."

Sharing of towers among cell-phone companies is "not likely to happen anytime soon, because opponents argue that sharing towers would take away companies' incentive to expand and forfeit the money industry leaders have spent to gain commercial advantages," Johns reports. Berry suggests that Bridgeport and other small communities "contact the carriers and offer city cell contracts to any provider that gives reliable service. That would give a cell company some guaranteed customers before it brought its system online." (Read more)

Rural telecoms ask FCC to probe calling problems

Four rural telecommunications associations are asking the Federal Communications Commission for an investigation into declining telephone service to rural customers. This request comes following an increase in reported calling problems from 78 in April 2010 to 1,811 in March 2011, D.R. Stewart of the Tulsa World reports.

"We are running into problems on call-termination issues in rural parts of the state," Bob Stafford, executive vice president of the Oklahoma Telephone Association, which represents more than 40 rural telephone companies, told Stewart. "A person will call from out of state to a rural area in Oklahoma, and the calling party hears the phone ring and ring, but the call is not getting to the local telephone company."

In the letter to the associations share stories of rural customers who learn of the uncompleted calls only after their friends, family, or business associates reached them through e-mail or cell phone and several "small businesses losing tens of thousands of dollars in sales because their customers can't reach them," Stewart reports. The letter says some reported calls never went through or the call rang several times with no answer. Some customers even reported "their caller ID devices display unintelligible information" or they received a false message about the failure of the rural local exchange carrier.

Unsure of where the problem lies, the FCC plans to start its investigation with the originating carriers, Stewart reports. "There are some suspicions that when the calls go from more traditional technologies to VoIP [Voice Internet Protocol] technology, there may be issues there, Bob Gnapp, director of demand assurance and network analysis for the National Exchange Carriers Association, told Stewart. "We certainly know the scope of the problem, where the calls originate, but yet it's difficult to say with any assurance exactly what is happening in the middle of the telephone route."

Joining the association in the request to the FCC were the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies and the Western Telecommunications Alliance. (Read more)

Tenn. opts for tracking system, not prescription law, to fight meth; officials say 'smurfs' will prevail

Tennessee pharmacies have until Jan. 1 to comply with a new law requiring participation in NPLEx, a free regional tracking system for pseudoephedrine purchases, Brian Haas of The Tennessean reports. Legislators declined to make methamphetamine's key ingredient, pseudoephedrine, prescription-only, instead opting "for a system used in Kentucky, as stricter cap on how much pseudoephedrine-based, over-the-counter drugs a person can buy in a day."

While the new law does include "new limits on pseudoephedrine purchases, new fines for manufacturing meth and strengthening child endangerment laws to include meth laboratories," Haas reports, some say it "will do little to curb the meth-manufacturer practice of 'smurfing'– recruiting other people to buy small amounts of pseudoephedrine to contribute to a meth batch."

"We basically have a whole cottage industry out of here of people who do nothing but go around and buy ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, " Tommy Farmer, director of the Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force, told Haas. "They run under the radar by not exceeding those legal limits, those thresholds." (Read more)

Most rural ER patients are low-income adults, and few result in admissions to the hospital

A new report from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shows that low-income adults accounted for 56 percent of the 8 million rural emergency room visits in 2008. In non-rural hospitals, low-income adults accounted for only 30 percent of emergency room visits.

According to the report, 44 percent of adult visits to rural emergency departments were paid for by Medicaid, were uncompensated, or billed to uninsured patients. Only 31 percent were paid for by private health plans. In non-rural hospitals, 37 percent of adult visits were paid for by private health plans, and 42 percent were paid for by Medicaid, uncompensated or billed to uninsured patients.

Emergency business is mainly just that for rural hospitals. Only 8.3 percent of rural emergency department visits resulted in a hospital admission, compared to 16 percent of non-rural emergency department visits.

The report also noted the lack of rural hospitals with trauma-level emergency departments. Nationally, only 2.4 of rural emergency departments held any level of trauma designation. Among non-rural emergency departments, 35.5 percent had a trauma designation. Read more here.

Life expectancy declining in some counties; trend seems common in Appalachia and the Black Belt

Life expectancy is declining in an increasing number of U.S. counties, and some rural areas stand out, according to a study covering the two decades from 1987 to 2007. In the first decade, life expectancy declined in 314 counties; in the most recent decade, it dropped in 860. Most of those counties, 561, are rural, the Daily Yonder reports: "Nearly one out of four rural Americans live in counties where women in the last decade can expect to live shorter lives."

"The region where life expectancy is lowest, and in some places declining, begins in West Virginia, runs through the southern Appalachian Mountains and west through the Deep South into North Texas," writes David Brown of The Washington Post, who apparently doesn't recognize the Black Belt when he sees it (see maps at bottom). "Places of high life expectancy are more scattered." (Click on map for interactive versions with county data)

Declines in life expectancy were more common among women. Counties that also had declining life expectancy for men included Pike in Kentucky, Grundy in Tennessee, Walker in Alabama, Baker in Florida and La Paz in Arizona. "There are several possible reasons for the slowing of longevity in parts of in the United States," Brown writes. "The rising rate of obesity and plateauing of the smoking cessation rate among women are two. Poorly controlled blood pressure and a shortage of primary-care physicians are two others." Here's another version of the interactive map, showing in yellow the counties where women's life expectancy declined from 1987 to 2007:

Brown explains, "Life expectancy is an abstract concept that summarizes the health and threats to longevity that exist at a particular moment in history. It is not an actual measure of how long people are living." For a further explanation of that, and the rest of the story, click here. For the press release about the study, go here; for the full study, which includes larger versions of the maps below, from Population Health Metrics, here. The Yonder story by Bill Bishop, with lists of the rural counties where life expectancy is shortest and longest for men and women, is here.

Is your hospital a hotspot for doubling up on CT scans? NYT interactive map makes it easy to see

The hotter the color on this map, the more likely the local hospital is to be doubling up on computerized tomography (CT) scans, part of a phenomenon costing Medicare an extra $25 million a year and exposing patients to radiation without it being medically necessary, according to an analysis of data by The New York Times. Typically, one scan will use iodine to check blood flow and one will not. "Radiologists say one scan or the other is needed depending on the patient’s condition, but rarely both," Walt Bogdanich and Jo Craven McGinty report.

Nationally, 5.4 percent of outpatients on Medicare got two scans in one day during 2008. At major teaching hospitals the rate was usually less than 1 percent, but at more than 200 hospitals the average was more than 30 percent. Those over 25 percent are marked by red dots on the map, those between 15 and 25 percent with yellow dots, and those below 15 percent with blue. Data for 2009, which are very similar, are to be released next month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Click on map to get interactive version with data for individual hospitals)

"Double scans expose patients to extra radiation while heaping millions of dollars in extra costs on an already overburdened Medicare program," the Times points out. "A single CT scan of the chest is equal to about 350 standard chest X-rays, so two scans are twice that amount. . . . Officials at hospitals with high scan rates said radiologists ordered the extra chest scan figuring that more information is better. In rare instances, the two scans might help a doctor distinguish between tangled blood vessels and a tumor," according to Dr. Michael J. Pentecost, a radiologist who reviews claims for CT scans.

The phenomenon appears more prevalent at rural hospitals. "Dr. Harold Smitson, who helps to oversee radiology at two East Texas Medical Center hospitals with high double-scan rates, told the Times, “These are small and rural hospitals, without a complete range of medical services, which are mandated to evaluate patients quickly and efficiently to determine the need for transfer to a higher level of care. ... “Combining these tests expedites the diagnosis and the care to the patient.” (Read more)

East Texas was one of the rural hotspots; ETMC Fairfield's double-scan rate was 88 percent, one of the highest in the nation. Another rural hotspot was in Tennessee and adjoining areas of Virginia and Kentucky. The highest in the region was Livingston Regional Hospital, at 87 percent.

House votes against tighter limit on farm subsidies, for cuts in nutrition and other programs

There's so much in (and not in) the appropriations bill for agriculture and nutrition programs, which narrowly passed House with no Democratic votes last night, 223-197, that we hardly know where to begin. But let's start with the vote to drop an amendment, approved in committee, that would have prohibited subsidy payments to farmers with adjusted gross income of more than $250,000 a year.

"The 228-186 vote still reflected growing support for this reform, which is strongly opposed by Southern land interests but has had the support of President Barack Obama and many Midwest farm-state lawmakers," writes David Rogers of Politico, who has been covering such measures for a long time.

"The farm lobby concedes that Thursday’s votes are only the opening shot in a bigger fight over a new farm bill next year. Annual direct payments are almost certain to be reduced under the recommendations coming from the House-Senate negotiations being led by Vice President Joe Biden. . . . As food aid programs —at home and abroad — are targeted for major reductions, this has strained old alliances for the farm lobby even as Republicans have felt less committed to agriculture — and traditional farm powerhouses like the ethanol lobby," which was losing a skirmish in the Senate.

"The current [subsidy] limit is $1.25 million per individual with separate maximums for farm and off-farm income," Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register explains. Brasher also writes, "In a rebuff to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the House voted to stop him from spending money on the administration’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative that’s promoting local foods and small-scale agriculture."

The House voted 223-197 to stop paying $147 million a year to the Brazil Cotton Institute in compensation for a World Trade Organization ruling that U.S. cotton subsidies violate trade treaties. That threatened final passage of the bill, so Republican leaders rounded up votes by saying that the issue would be addressed in a House-Senate conference committee.

That also seems likely for other features of the bill, such as elimination of money for the Food and Drug Administration "to implement landmark food safety laws approved by the last Congress" and cuts in nutrition programs that "hunger groups said ... would deny emergency nutrition to about 325,000 mothers and children," Layton writes. Also approved was an amendment by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, to ban the sale of genetically modified salmon, "which would be the first genetically engineered animal sold as food in the United States."

The bill also would prevent the Department of Agriculture from going through with new regulations on livestock and poultry contracts, designed to help small producers.

Senate votes 73-27 to repeal ethanol subsidies; lobby offers to trade tax aid for help with pumps

The U.S. Senate voted 73 to 27 today to repeal the federal subsidies for ethanol, a vote that will have no immediate effect but probably signals the eventual end of a tax break that was politically popular in much of the country and drove corn production to the point that two of every five bushels are now used to make ethyl alcohol for blending with gasoline.

"The prospects for repealing the tax credit in the House are shaky, Michael Cohn of Accounting Today reports. "It is opposed by many farm state lawmakers whose constituents benefit from the tax credits for corn-based fuel additives. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who has led opposition to the measure, said on the Senate floor that the bill was not likely to even be voted on in the House. . . . However, the tax credit repeal may be included as part of a larger deficit reduction deal." (Read more)

UPDATE, June 18: In the wake of the vote, "Ethanol producers are offering to let Congress end the industry's 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit ahead of schedule so some of the savings can be put toward installing pumps and storage tanks needed to increase the amount of ethanol being sold by service stations," reports Bilip Brasher of The Des Moines Register. "With Congress committed to cutting the federal deficit, waiting until the end of the year in hopes of finding another source of money for the industry isn't an option, said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, an industry trade group." (Read more)

National Rural Assembly is next week

June 28-30, more than 250 leaders and supporters of rural America are expected to gather in St. Paul, Minn., for the 2011 National Rural Assembly. The gathering "will focus on health reform, housing, transportation, immigration, broadband access and opportunities for young people," the assembly says in a press release. Speakers for the event include Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Navy Capt. Wayne Porter and Marine Col. Mark Mykleby.

"We can stand pat and just get more of the same in rural America, including the highest rates of child poverty and the hollowing out of our towns," Dee Davis, chairman of the Assembly's steering committee. said in the release. "Or we can start down a different rural path toward sustainable energy, local food production, and Internet connectivity that can help the whole country get back on its feet."

Registration for the event is open to individuals and organizations interested in the future of rural America. Click here to learn more about the event or to register.

Officials in an Eastern Kentucky county at odds with each other over the power of coal

At a recent city council meeting in Lynch, Ky. (Wikipedia map), Mayor Taylor Hall and several city council members accused Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop of "criminal coercion" following a meeting between Hall and Grieshop, Anders Eld of the Harlan Daily Enterprise reports.

"When you say to us, that we will negotiate with the coal companies or not receive any money through the fiscal court, I think that is paramount to criminal coercion," Hall said of Grieshop's actions. He said he plans to talk to the state prosecutor about it. City officials oppose coal companies' plan to strip-mine mountains above the town, population 900.

Hall told Eld that Grieshop's "response on the fiscal court's original pledge to help with the match was that there were certain concessions he wanted. He told me that Lynch would have to go back into negotiations with the coal operators on mountain top removal and make concessions or there will be no funds."


Greishop essentially acknowledged what Hall alleged, thought it is open to interpretation. "Asking the city to sit-down with the coal company across from the table and negotiate on the issues is not criminal coercion," Grieshop told Eld. "I simply said that if you are not going to work with the coal companies and that's the source of money to help you. How do you expect the fiscal court to help you?"
Grieshop added, "I just told them that the coal companies are where the money comes from. If you're not willing to work with them and you're anti-coal, then the fiscal court members are not going to support you. They have already stated that. They don't feel comfortable helping out cities with coal monies, when the city is not trying to work with the coal company." (Read more)

Environmental group starts website with information about the Marcellus Shale

The Pennsylvania Environmental Council unveiled "a new website aimed at organizing the avalanche of information on all things Marcellus Shale," the rock formation that is producing much natural gas with hydraulic fracturing, the council says in a press release.

MarcellusFacts continuously searches the Internet for new information on Marcellus Shale and presents it in an easy-to-read format. The site collects information from gas industry sources, nonprofit environmental organizations, Pennsylvania newspapers, Google News, universities, and the council's website. The goal is to present unedited information from all sides of the debate in a "clear and concise format for computers or smartphones," it says.

"There is so much information about Marcellus Shale in cyberspace that it has become very difficult to manage it all," Council President Paul King says. "Our goal in creating MarcellusFacts is to simplify the challenge of being well-informed on the issues and to make the people of Pennsylvania better participants in the public process."

Community journalism principles still apply in digital age, Institute director says in national journal

The director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and several other well-known journalism scholars join together in the latest issue of Nieman Reports from Harvard University to address the impact of digital tools on people's sense of community. Al Cross, the publisher of The Rural Blog, specifically addresses the impact of the digital age on community journalism.

Chris Evans, editor and publisher,
The Crittenden Press, Marion, Ky.

Cross says the basic principles of community journalism remain unchanged. He writes of Tom and Pat Gish of The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., revealing "mutual respect they had with their readers" as key to their "ability to keep going for more than 50 years in the face of economic boycotts, personal shunning, and even a firebombing by a local policeman" as they "crusaded against the abuses of coal companies and feckless or corrupt officials."

Digital media presents community journalism with new challenges, "some so fundamental that they are altering the meaning of the word 'community'," Cross writes. He suggests community journalists "use social media to maintain and improve contact with community members and weekly newspapers use Facebook to keep readers up to date on breaking news, sports scores, and other topics of daily community interest."

"Our task is to be in a position to provide credible information in whatever form people what it in," Chris Evans, editor and publisher of The Crittenden Press in Western Kentucky, told Cross. "You've got to embrace technology, understand where your audience is at, and get there — and the credibility you have will draw people back to you." (Read more)

Rural library recognized for energy-efficient design

Residents of Naturita, Colo., never imagined they would get a new energy-efficient library almost eight times the size of their old library, let alone have it recognized by The Library Journal, the leading comprehensive publication for public, academic, and special librarians covering technology, management, policy, and other professional concerns, as 2011's Best Small Library. (Read more)